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Chapter 26: Retreat

A few weeks had come and gone with winter finally making an entrance at the western palace. Snow had begun to fall lightly and many trees were now barren of leaves as they stood out against the white landscape. The flowers were in hibernation except for the few little ones like snow flowers and jasmine that seem to take up the garden maze. The forest was just a dense white with touches of brown and grey given off by the shivering trees.

All was quiet in the western palace these days with the departure of Sakura. She had returned home but Dante was always sure to find missions and reasons to be out within her lands at times when he could. The Lord was gone much for some reason during this time leaving Lord Sesshoumaru in charge of the affairs at the Western Palace. Lord Inutaishio had explained one time that he was preparing the young lord for Lordship of the Western Lands officially now that he had reached of age. To Sesshoumaru's displeasure it meant less free time and more time listening to the advisors and their petty talks.

Sesshoumaru had spent much of the day in court and in his father's study going over scrolls of issues within his lands, requests from other lords around the world, trade analysis, and updates on the Northern Lands which seemed to have grown drastically in violence that it seemed to spill in the other lands. However, they had taken great measures to make sure nothing like this would happen in his lands.

He now was outside the palace taking a leisure break roaming around the countryside in the west. His silver hair seemed to blend in with the background and the light snow landing on his form provided a nice cooling sensation to his stressed nerves. His feet crunched over the light snow leaving a trail of footprints behind him as he headed nowhere in particular. Suddenly his nose picked up on the copper smell of blood and he took off toward the source. The closer he got he realized he was going toward the Northern Lands near the border and the smell grew thick and fresh as he approached. When he made it to the site he hid himself stealthy within the shapes of the great big barren trees and the snow camouflaging beautifully within natures winter embrace as snow covered him. What he found was quite an attractive sight and grotesque at the same time.

He watched as Simone took her dragon fan blades and rammed them through a demons chest splitting him open as another one came to attack her from behind. She turned around and swung the fan slicing him completely in half and then she took the other fan and sliced his head off his neck. He looked around and took note of the dismembered demon body parts laying around her and the blood that marinated the once white snow. She stood in the middle of it all with a few speckles of it on her skin but she looked utterly serene as she cut into another opponent slicing his stomach and ripping out his intestines. It all seemed like a dance as she moved gracefully in and out of their reach slicing them the moment they got close. Her white fur uniform made her look like a snow pixie.

Simone finally dealt a death blow to the last demon slicing him vertically in half and kicking both sides down. He watched her look around seemingly the access her work and flick the blood from her fans before putting them away. She opened her palms toward the earth and a hole ripped open underneath the corpses. She watched the earth swallow it all before she closed her palm and the earth sealed itself back up. She looked around making sure there was no sign of blood. Suddenly she had the odd feeling of not being alone, when she felt his presence. She smiled and took her fan out flicking it open. In a fast motion she threw it at Sesshoumaru's direction watching him simply stand there un-phased as it merely spun past his face landing perfectly in the tree behind him.

"Can I help you, my Lord?" She asked as she walked over to him and took her fan out of the bark.

They were back to being Lord and Captain these days with no visitations from anyone questioning his status. His eyes watched her playfully as he leaned up against the tree that she just cut looking at her work as it lay close to his head. "Explain." He said as he pointed toward the spot that now lay free of snow.

Her eyes looked at the area and turned to look back at him. "A few demons were running rampant in this area apparently heading toward Midoriko."

He looked around and thought about the last couple of weeks. "I see."

Simone nodded as she pulled out a new letter she had gotten from Midoriko. "He's pulling them from more places than the East. A new letter came this morning. Here." She said as she handed it to him.

Dear Lady Simone,

As the weeks go by, more and more demons are coming this way. Not only are they attacking me but they seem to be attacking everything in this region. Other demons are fighting the demon herds as they come but without the help of the Northern Lords it's proving to be a difficult task. The whole region seems to be at civil war with demons fighting humans, humans fighting humans, and demons fighting demons. The Lords are nowhere in sight. I have sent a letter to their castle asking for a peaceful meeting but it seems my efforts are a hopeful loss.

For the sake of my village I will leave and seek refuge someplace else. It seems the other monks think my presence is a hindrance and will lead them to ruin. I will be fine and I believe I have found a place that is safe for now. I know you wish for me to come to you but I refuse to run coward. Thanks for your help the last time you came to visit and I'm sorry for the maltreatment of my people. I hope all is well and will report anything that happens. Stay warm and healthy.

Midoriko.

Sesshoumaru folded the paper up and handed it back to her. "I see you were heading back to her today." He stated as he stepped in that direction.

She took it and slid it in her boot. "I was going to find her and see if I can help her. I wish she wouldn't do this on her own." She said as she looked out at a distance. "Last time I came some human bandit was stalking her worse than before. She has so many problems already and the guy was nuts saying that he would be back and she would be his forever. Psycho" she muttered as she looked back at Sesshoumaru.

He thought about everything before he spoke. "Have you looked up any spells to stop the demons or possibly reverse the possession of their minds?"

"I have but only ones that will work on a few of them at a time. Not a large group like what we're seeing. Besides, human hating rage is driving them so any magic I would do, would just slow them down but not get rid of the rage that is there. Plus the demon hating humans are just as bad and no magic is on them. They are just feeding off the attacks and developing their own rage. We could be looking at a large scale civil war if it gets out of hand."

He nodded at this information when he noticed a speckle of blood was on her face. Her face seemed paler than its normal tan glow complete with pink cheeks and a pink nose. He took his thumb and rubbed the spec of blood away from marring her exotic features. She looked at his thumb and noticed that she had tiny drops of leftovers on her person. She smirked and went to work wiping the blood from where she could feel and see it. "I see me covered in blood does it for you." She playfully said realizing that some of the blood had stained her white uniform.

"Would you like to test that?" He asked as he playfully took his clawed finger and ran it down her nose toward the side of her neck to the base of her collarbone where the faded courting mark sat. He was suddenly nostalgic looking at the pale mark against her skin. Over the course of the last few weeks the connection they shared had begun to fade along with the mark. She did one night to seem to have a nightmare and he could feel various emotions burst from her like a volcano and he couldn't deny the feeling that she was hiding something. He tried to talk to her one day about her nightmare but she wouldn't discuss it further and simply put it off as just a silly dream. Yet he felt the connection and that dream lingered. He was slightly saddened that he could no longer feel her emotions when she woke up in the morning or her soothing calmness when she rubbed the area. He couldn't stop the urge he had to redo his work or to find a way to make it more permanent.

Simone looked up at him and just relaxed as she felt him explore her neck again. She shivered feeling his deadly claws scrape her skin lightly trailing lower towards her collarbone. "Sesshoumaru it's not nice for you to play around like this." She said as she back away from him only to have him pull her back.

"Who's playing?" He muttered next to her ear as he rubbed his nose in the crook of it. Her eyes widened at his statement as she tried to look at him. He released her allowing her to look up at him with confusion.

Simone looked up at him with wide eyes as she backed away from him. She watched his eyes cut at her obviously upset that she pulled away. He then looked off to the side obviously sensing something. She put space between them steadily keeping eye contact with him. "Wha-"

"My Lord, Captain!" An officer said as he ran up to them. He bowed waiting to be acknowledged.

Annoyed from the interruption, Sesshoumaru cut to the chase. "Speak."

The officer stood up. "More demons are moving North bound and there are bandits suddenly within our lands."

"How many?" Simone demanded as she took out her katana's.

"Just a few." He stated.

She thanked him and dismissed him with a nod. Sesshoumaru watched as the woman in front of him began to change into the warrior that she was as her face hardened with the knowledge at what she would do next. The snow continued to fall lightly landing in her black curly hair like winter ornaments.

She looked at him with a confidence holding her head up high. She had been thinking about him more than she should and she knew for the sake of their pride, she had to put an end to this by denying him. "I'm going now. I'll report to you later." She said quietly as she turned and marched away toward the east leaving behind a very confused Sesshoumaru.

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