Hiei stared down at his mate brushing the hair out of her face and tilted his head at a complete loss. The children milled around the area strangely unperturbed with what had happened. When he asked his daughter about it, she just shrugged her little shoulders and informed him that it has happened before and the Naiyo will come around in a couple minutes. As far as Hiei was concerned, the fact that this has happened often enough that the cubs were unwary of it was disconcerting. It was never a good thing when the abnormal became normal and if he had any say in this, something was going to be done about it. Naiyo twitched in his arms, a spastic jerk that alarmed him. He placed his calloused hand on her warm cheek and shook her a little. "Naiyo? Naiyo wake up."

She frowned a bit but didn't open her eyes. She twisted a bit in his hold, wiggling her arm out of its uncomfortable position, shifting her shoulder up sharply and Hiei heard the joint pop loudly back into place. Her eyes fluttered open and regarded him as if just waking from a peaceful sleep. Hiei raised an eyebrow at her, his face heavily displeased, as if awaiting some sort of explanation. Naiyo had the decency to blush and force an embarrassed smile.

"It's not as bad as it seems." She stated attempting to sit up. Hiei held her fast pulling her back against her chest.

"It seems pretty damned bad to me! What the hell?! You completely flip out on me and expect me to think nothing of it?! Are you fucking cra…?! NO, no use in me asking that because I'm POSITIVE that you are fucking crazy!" Hiei ranted in near hysterics. Naiyo closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose taking calming breaths and ignoring her worried mate.

"Ok, first of all… the ground is wet, my pants are sticking to my ass, and I want to get up. So let me go."

Hiei was interrupted mid complaint, his mouth still opened as he considered her request.

"You just flung yourself full force into a tree. Something may be broken and I don't want you to move just yet. Now hold still." He grabbed her arm and began prodding at it before doing the same to every body part that may have sustained any injury. Naiyo endured it patiently, amusing herself by watching her children play off to the side. It seemed they were playing rock paper scissor to see who would go against who in an intense game of red hands.

"I don't think anything is broken… I don't see how… but your ok, PHYSICALLY at least." Hiei said grudgingly.

"Gee, thanks mom." Naiyo sassed pulling herself into an upright position. Hiei frowned at that and grabbed her by the arm preventing her from standing. Something about her was a bit off. Her whole aura seemed different. Even her accent seemed to lessen a bit. No one else may have noticed but he did. It was strange and sudden, but the scariest thing was that he just couldn't put his finger on exactly what it was. She glared at him and jerked her arm from his grasp. "Jeez, I'm just standing up! Calm down." She stood up and brushed herself off working a crink out of her neck. Even the way she moved was different. There was something….

Something….

The children had grown bored of redhands and was tossing a stone between themselves to see who could throw the hardest. Hina had the stone in hand, but she had turned away from her brothers and was staring curiously at her mother. Hiei watched a moment as the child looked thoughtfully at the small stone in her hand.

"Hina come on! Throw it already!" Higan whined in agitation. Hina turned and glared at him briefly before turning back to her mother who stared back with her head tilted to the side in mirror curiousity. Hina twisted the stone between her small finger when a sudden urge hit her so intense that she could not deny it if she wanted to. It was a compulsion that caused something like an involuntary spasm. It was meant to happen but she just didn't understand why. Her arm raised on its own and the rock was thrown full force at Naiyo at blinding speed. Naiyo instinctively raised her hand and caught the rock with the ease of reflexes honed though experience. It was a predictable reaction that no one should have been surprised at. Yet that small thing triggered a full body reaction from Hiei. His muscles tensed from his jaw to the tips of his toes and he had a small understanding of why he was suddenly so suspicious of his mate. Over the short span of their relationship, Hiei had become an expert in Naiyo physically. He knew how to touch her, how to please her. He knew that she would scratch behind her right ear when she was reading a difficult scroll. He knew that she was ambidextrous, but preferred to write in the wolven language with her right hand, and every other language with her left. However, even though she had this strange manual dexterity that he himself lacked, he knew his mate. He knew her well. And of all the things on the list about her that he was absolutely certain of…

Naiyo never caught with her left hand.

I know that this is a very short chapter, but I am building up to the next one.