Chapter Twenty-One: Further Explanation

"I'm back!" the leader of the wolf tribe announced as he entered the den hidden behind the waterfall.

"Koga!" one of the others called, "Finally! We feared that something might have happened!"

Waving a hand and dismissing that comment, Koga rolled his eyes. "Please," he said, "You all should know by now that no demon can out match me! Especially some half demon like Naraku!"

'Geeze… this guy is really full of himself,' Yuki thought to herself as she sat at the back of the cave, aloof from everyone with only the dogs to keep her company, 'Wait… Naraku is a half demon? I didn't know that…'

Just then, Koga turned his attention over towards Yuki and began to make his way over to her. "You okay?" he called from ten feet away as he grabbed a fur cape right off of one of his comrade's shoulders and began to make his way over to her, "That was a really close call earlier. You're lucky that we showed up in time."

Upon reaching her, the wolf demon then held out the cape to Yuki, offering it to her so that she might cover her near naked form. At first, Yuki just stared at the pelt. It wasn't exactly clothes… but it was close enough. At this point, she would take anything to hide herself better from these men. A towel just did not serve well enough. So, she silently accepted the fur and wrapped it tightly around her bare shoulders, taking comfort in its warmth compared to the damp cold of the stone walls.

Koga took a seat across from Yuki and just seemed to stare at her for a moment, scrutinizing her features as she became nervous from the attention. "You're a Miyamota… right?" he suddenly said after a few moments of silence had passed between them.

This accurate accusation grabbed Yuki's attention instantly. How could he have known that? "Yes," she replied shyly, "I am… A Miyamota, that is."

With this new information, an interested smile formed on Koga's lips, signaling Yuki that nothing good was to come of this. "Interesting… very interesting…" he stated, rubbing his chin with thought.

Because of this fascinated reaction, Yuki was hesitant and almost even scared to question about it, "Um… what is so 'interesting'?"

"You know fully well about your family legacy, right?" Koga asked. But without waiting for an answer, he went on, "Well, of course the Miyamotas have become famous for it. The moment a son is born, wealthy nobles begin bidding for him to serve as a soldier under them. And the daughters… well they have been prized by powerful demons for the extra abilities that Miyamota women gift their offspring and also the weakness that they possess so that their spouses can easily manipulate them."

At this, Yuki's eyebrows shot up with surprise. Was that all a Miyamota woman was good for? Were all members of her family auctioned off like this? "So that's probably one reason why Naraku wants you…" Koga continued, scratching underneath his chin with a forward sweeping of his hand, "Even though I can't rule out any other reasons that I've discovered."

"Other reasons?" Yuki questioned, "Like what?"

"Well, for one thing, you're a knock out," he replied as he began to scan her up and down, furthering her discomfort, "And another… he might just want to tick off Sesshomaru."

But Yuki only tried to ignore both comments since she didn't exactly like a strange man telling her that he was attracted to her and she especially didn't want to even so much as think about Sesshomaru then. "How is it that everyone knows about me and Sesshomaru?" Yuki questioned, accidentally voicing her thoughts and disregarding her want of avoiding the subject.

"Oh, well I heard from Inu Yasha that Sesshomaru sorta had a thing for a Miyamota girl," Koga explained, "But I didn't think a human would actually take to him."

"Could we maybe just drop the subject of Sesshomaru?" Yuki requested, her eyes narrowing at the very thought of him.

"Fine… fine," the wolf replied, throwing his hands up in defense, "It's not really any of my business and the only thing I should be asking you is where you want to be dropped off."

"Dropped off?" Yuki asked.

"Well you don't want to stay here forever, do you?" he interrogated, "I mean, I planned on a rescue mission, not a capture. But if you want to stay that's fine by me too."

"No… thank you," Yuki told him, "If you could take me back to Sesshomaru's castle, I would really appreciate that though."

The first initial reaction for Koga was to raise an eyebrow in confusion. "That's weird because just a second ago, I thought you said that you didn't want to talk about him. And yet… here you are, asking me to bring you right back to him."

"If you could, I would be very thankful."

With that, Koga rolled his eyes and threw his hands up in a shrug. "Women… they're just too complicated for any man to hope to understand," he commented to himself as Yuki stood up to go, "But yeah, I could take you there… of course, it might take a while longer to get you there than it took getting you here, seeing as how I don't know the way to his castle."

"Well… do you know where the Bone Eater's Well is?" Yuki questioned, trying to find some common ground so that she might possibly be able to finish the voyage herself.

Unfortunately, that wouldn't happen. "The what?" Koga asked, but Yuki just shook her head. "Let's go then," she responded.

Koga gave a single nod before escorting Yuki to the mouth of the cave and then bending his knees a bit. "Hop on," he instructed, telling Yuki to get on his back so that he could carry her.

So slowly Yuki let the cape around her shoulders drop, revealing that towel once again. After all, she didn't want to keep the pelt with her because A) It didn't belong to her and B) She would be able to hold onto Koga with both hands if she didn't have the extra cover to occupy one hand.

Then Yuki obediently jumped onto the demon's back, his hands touching the bare flesh of her legs as he held her. "Okay," he told her, "Hold on."

But Yuki barely had any time to wrap her arms around Koga's neck before he took off and exited the den, heading into the rest of the mountains. It seemed like a while before they finally escaped the unlevel terrain though, because once they finally hit forest area, the sun was setting. Even worse, as it became dark out the two were forced to stop for the night because there was no moon or stars to give Koga light to see by.

However, stopping for the night wasn't such a bad thing. It was only a delay to Yuki; a minor setback from returning to the castle and the harsh punishment of having to face Sesshomaru again. But as the two travelers settled around the campfire, Koga couldn't help but asking about the matter, "So what did Sesshomaru do to make you so angry?"

A slight blush appeared on Yuki's cheeks at the sound of the inquiry. "Well, if you must know…" she told him, hardly believing that she was actually going to share the tale, "… he…pounced on me."

"Ooh…" Koga teased, "I thought that would be a young woman's dream."

Now, the slight blush of pink darkened to a full on red. "Don't assume such things!" Yuki snapped back at him, even though she had to admit to herself that she had been enjoying it at first, "But it wasn't the fact that he pounced that upsets me."

"Then what is?"

"He… changed after a few moments," Yuki explained, "Someone told me that it was caused by his demonic instincts taking over his actions."

With that, Yuki could hear small chuckles coming from the other side of the campfire. These small titters then evolved into laughter, and then downright side-splitting hilarity. "What?" Yuki questioned, feeling a little offended that Koga was laughing at the situation.

"Oh… it's not you…" Koga explained between each gasp of breath as his eyes began to tear, "It's him!"

But somehow he was not able to get another word in until he was finally able to calm down.

"You see…" he began, but he wasn't able to finish because he then suddenly erupted into another yet another fit of amusement.

This strange behavior was actually beginning to scare Yuki a bit. Whatever it was that concerned that occurrence couldn't be that funny… could it?

"What? What is it?" Yuki asked, her curiosity and interest piqued by Koga's reaction.

Finally, the man calmed down and sat back up from the position he had assumed on the ground as he had fallen over laughing. Then, as he wiped away a tear from his eye, getting a few last chuckles out of his system, he finally explained, "I'm sorry. I just find this really ironic since Sesshomaru is supposedly the 'most wanted' bachelor of the forest. You see… these 'demonic instincts' that we males were cursed with are just some of the tools we were given to encourage young demons to eventually spawn offspring. These 'instincts' give us the drive to… uh… well… you know… mate at the first sign of extreme temptation. You see… what I found so funny was that only virgin males possess this behavior."

And with that, he was off again, laughing his tail off and leaving poor Yuki with her jaw dropped. Sesshomaru… a virgin? Somehow, that really surprised Yuki, not that she had considered that he had been with other women before or anything. But anyways… she just knew that this new and shocking information would keep her wide awake and thinking all night… and if that didn't, Koga the Hyena probably would.