Ashley

Mistakenly, I had wound up appearing the middle of a war lords' meeting. And each of these war lords happened to be an enemy of mine. Damn it.

"Well well, if it isn't Princess Ashley of the Fire Dog Demon Lands," one of the war lords said, standing up and looking straight across at me and into my eyes. I looked back and refused to back down.

"Good evening, gentlemen. I hope I didn't interrupt anything," I said, smirking and trying to act like I meant to do it.

"Oh no. Not a thing, Princess," the same war lord said.

"Very good. And by the way, I am no longer just the Princess of the Fire Dog Demon Lands. I am also called the Queen of the Western Dog Demon Lands as well," I said. Several of the war lords were beginning to chuckle and smirk.

"Not for long, Princess. Soon, both your title of Queen and Princess will be taken away from you," he said. I raised an eyebrow and crossed my arms, going into a more relaxed position. I did this because I knew it bugged them that I never took them seriously. Plus, they always threatened me that they would take over my land so this topic was nothing new.

"Oh? And how so this time?" I asked, a hint of mockery in my voice. The war lord that had been talking started to growl, clearly I had begun to piss him off.

"This time, we will..." he started. Then he stopped himself and turned on a nervous smirk. "I know what you're doing. You're trying to get me so mad that I just blurt out our plans like I did the last time!"

"And the time before that, and the time before, and even the time before that," I added, counting on my fingers how many times I had fooled him. His smirk disappeared and he glared and growled at me.

"There is no way I will let you get the information out of me this time!" he yelled. I chuckled.

"Oh, believe me, you'll eventually tell me and I'll stop you just like I did all the times before," I said. Somehow, the more angry he got, the more at ease I felt. But I didn't let my guard drop. If I learned anything from the incident with Naraku and his ancestor, it was to never let my guard drop. Even if I was with Sesshomaru.

"That's it! I've had enough of your talking! Gentlemen, let's show this brat now to mess with us!" he yelled. They enclosed me in a circle and tried to attack me all at once. My smirk grew bigger. The fools. My eyes flashed red and I crossed my arms like an X.

"And I'll teach you gentlemen not to mess with a princess of fire! FLASHING HEAT!" I yelled. I uncrossed my arms quickly and let loose a circle of fire that scorched them on the outside. They flew into the ice walls which cracked under the weight and eventually fell. They all moaned and complained about the burning pain. "Oh come on you babies. That was only the first wave!" I smirked at them.

"I wonder if the second one is more powerful than the first?" a female voice behind me asked. I turned around to see the very person I was looking for. The one person on this Earth that I didn't mind killing. Yuki.

"You," I muttered. She smirked.

"Hello Ashley, Princess from Hell," Yuki said. I scoffed.

"Hello, Yuki. I would say Princess from Heaven but Hell would have to freeze over before you would be allowed to even go to Heaven, now wouldn't it?" I smirked at her. She glared.

"Man stealer."

"Ice bitch."

"Tramp."

"Whore."

"What? How dare you call me, the pure Ice Queen, a whore? I have only slept with one man and that would be my beloved Lord Sesshomaru!" Yuki retorted, obviously quite insulted. My smirk grew.

"That's a lie and you know it. Sesshomaru himself told me that he has only seriously had sex with me. So even if you did have sex with him, he was thinking of me while you two were going at it," I said. A look of shock came upon her face.

"What? Wait, why weren't you upset at the fact that Sesshomaru and I, your enemy, slept together?" she asked. I looked into her eyes to see that she was generally confused.

"Because, it doesn't matter who Sesshomaru slept with while he and I weren't dating. All that matters is that he only sleeps with me while we are together. I couldn't care less about any women he's had sex with outside of the time of our relationships," I stated. She narrowed her eyes in confusion.

"I don't understand," she said.

"I guess you wouldn't. You probably only want Sesshomaru because he is handsome and powerful, right?" I guessed.

"So? So what if I want him for that? That's why you want him, right?" she began to raise her voice. I kept mine level and calm.

"Wrong. I want to be with him because I love him. Not because I love his power and looks. His looks are just a bonus. And I have my own power so I don't necessarily need his. It is nice to have someone of equal or higher power to fight alongside me though," I explained. She looked away from me as if trying to get her thoughts together and try to make sense of what I was saying.

"I guess I can kind of understand what you're saying," Yuki mumbled, still looking away.

"See? Now, won't you call off this war? It's pointless, you know. Thousands of soldiers are losing their lives over something so trivial," I said. She looked up quickly and glared at me. I inwardly flinched. There was no way I was going to let someone like my enemy see me weakend.

"I said I could understand what you were saying. I never said that I agreed with it! There is no way that I will let you steal my Sesshomaru away from me!" she yelled. Her eyes flashed white and I prepared for an attack.

"You idiot! Sesshomaru is not an object! Even if you do kill me, he'll only want revenge on you! Don't you get it? No matter what you do, Sesshomaru will never want you nor want anything to do with you? Why can't you get that through that thick skull of yours?" I yelled. I could feel a blizzard start to form in the room.

"You're the idiot! You came here by yourself with no backup! So if I just freeze you here, no one will know to come get you and I can tell them that you are dead! That way, I'll comfort Sesshomaru in his time of grief and we'll raise a family together! Then we'll overthrow your lands with the power of his and my lands!" Yuki yelled. She started to laugh like a lady who had taken a step into crazy world and was not coming back. Ever.

"You're mad!" I yelled.

"Am I? Am I really, Ashley? HAHAHA! Now say goodbye to your fire!" she yelled. She commanded the blizzard around me to enclose me in a very thick sheet of ice. Every single inch of me was thickly covered in ice. What was most deadly and Yuki knew this, was that my hands were covered with the most ice. That meant that no matter how much will power I had, there was no way I could get out of this icicle by myself. I would need to somehow get someone with fire powers to come here to Yuki's castle in her home territory and unfreeze my hands at the least.

Damn you, Yuki. You predicted I wouldn't dare let Sesshomaru come here with me and planned to do this to me.

Yuki approached me in my frozen form. I saw her chuckling.

"Well now, Miss Fire Princess. Can't hit me with any fire bolts now, can you?" she smirked and I tried to glare at her but my face was frozen. She turned around, her hair barely grazing the ice I was caputured in.

"Come, gentlemen. Let us take our time and head over to the Western Dog Demon Lands. Sesshomaru is busy fighting and his castle is unguarded. We need not rush," Yuki said.

"Yes, Queen Yuki. We will follow you anywhere," the war lords said as they stood up. From where I was, I could see their burns were starting to heal thanks to their abilities as Ice creatures. They headed out the door and I was left alone. In a block of ice. For a very long time.

Damn it this sucks!

Haley

Two months later

Screams came from Ashley and Sesshomaru's bedroom, right now otherwise known as Allie's bedroom. Two months had passed and Allie was due for the baby.

"Auntie?" Amarante asked, poking Haley's cheek.

"What is it, Amarante?" Haley asked, looking at the sweet little girl who was patiently waiting for her mom and dad to come home.

"Where are Momma and Daddy?" she asked. By now, she was learning to speak more words. However, she spoke them a little slurred and a bit slow.

"I don't know. But I can tell you that they are trying their hardest to come home soon," Haley said. That was what she thought and hoped at least. Everyday, she grew more and more worried towards how her best friend was doing on the battlefront and if she had met with Yuki yet. And if Ashley had, who had come out as the winner or if that fight still went on. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked to see Inuyasha looking at her with worry clear in his eyes.

"That's right, Amar. Your mom and dad are doing everything they can to come home to you," Inuyasha said. Amarante looked down in sadness. She had developed this look about a week after her parents had left for war. When they asked her about it, she said she had a bad feeling in her chest whenever she thought of her mom and dad.

Suddenly, they heard a roar coming from the left. They all looked to see that it was Hanaki.

"Oh! Look Amar! It's Hanaki! Don't you want to play with her?" Inuyasha suggested, pointing at Haley's pet dragon. Amarante perked up a little and nodded. She stood up and ran over to Hanaki to play. After a few seconds of watching them play, Haley turned to Inuyasha.

"What's with calling her Amar?" Haley asked.

"What? Does it sound bad or something?" Inuyasha asked.

"No, not really. It's just that Amar doesn't sound like a Japanese name," Haley stated. Inuyasha blushed a little.

"Well, her real name is too difficult to pronounce so I decided to shorten it to Amar and she doesn't seem to have a problem with it," Inuyasha explained.

"Oh, I see," Haley said. She looked back at Amarante and Hinaki to see that Amarante was conjuring little flames of fire and Hinaki was making them go out by squirting little bursts of water, causing the flame go out in smoke and making Amarante laugh.

"Yeah. By the way, what was with that hopeless expression you were almost showing to Amar?" Inuyasha asked. Haley looked back at him with wide eyes. How did he know?

"I-I don't know what you're talking about," she tried to play innocent. That didn't seem to go well with Inuyasha since he just glared at her.

"Haley," he said. She sighed.

"Okay, okay. It's just, it's already been two months and we've had no word from Ashley. And when Sesshomaru gave us a report, he had stated that Ashley went to go look for Yuki's castle to try to end this war as soon as possible and that she hadn't returned yet. I was just thinking of 'what if' situiations," Haley explained. Inuyasha sighed and pulled her into a tight hug.

"Well stop thinking of those kind of things. Ashley's tough. She wouldn't let some crazy Ice Cat kill her. Or, at least, that's what you've always told me," Inuyasha said, pushing Haley's own words back at her. Haley sighed.

"I guess you're right," she mumbled. Hugging him back. However, for a reason only known to Inuyasha and Haley, the hug wasn't as tight as it was a month or two ago. Haley hugged him as tight as she could. "I just hope that we're right in thinking that she's alright."

HELLO!

HERE IS CHAPTER 34!

THE THANKS!

THANKS FOR REVIEWING:

HALEY

KEIKO

THANK YOU FOR REVIEWING!

NOW FOR THE Q AND A!

KEIKO: NOW THAT I THINK ABOUT IT, AMARANTE'S NAME IS KIND OF A MOUTHFUL. WHICH WAS WHY I AM HAVING SOME OF THE CHARACTERS START CALLING HER BY NICKNAMES. AS FOR WHY IT IS SO LONG, I JUST LIKED THE MEANING OF HER NAME.

AND YES I AM THE ONLY 'WRITER' OUT OF THE THREE OF US. BUT ALLIE AND HALEY DO HELP ME COME UP WITH SOME OF THE DETAILS OF THE STORY WHEN I AM IN A STUMP.

AND TO BE HONEST, I KNOW HOW I WANT THIS STORY TO END BUT I DON'T EXACTLY KNOW HOW MANY CHAPTERS IT WILL TAKE TO END THE STORY.

I HOPE I ANSWERED YOUR QUESTIONS KEIKO.

AND PLEASE, IF YOU HAVE ANY MORE QUESTIONS, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ASK. I WILL BE HAPPY TO ANSWER :)

AND PLEASE REVIEW

EVEN IF IT'S JUST A 'GOOD JOB' I LIKE TO HEAR FROM MY READERS.

THANKS!