I know I've just started a Bankotsu fic that I'm super excited to continue, but I've been hit with this wave of inspiration and story ideas and I'm going to run with them while I have the motivation.

Koga is a fun character, and I just love how cocky he is. It was inevitable that I eventually wrote a Koga fic while I was getting back into InuYasha. I have a couple more fic ideas that I'm debating writing out. I have one for Naraku that's sticking out pretty strongly from the others. Let me know if you'd be interested in reading that.

But, for now, enjoy the wolves

In the Jaws of the Wolf

Chapter One

"Keep the hut clean, Den. Cook my dinner, Den. Wash my clothes, Den. Like I have nothing else to do. Damn him." I tossed the sopping wet hadajuban I was scrubbing along my dingy old washboard into the basket at my knee.

My husband and I had plenty of quibbles between us. Neither of us were perfect, and we both knew how to annoy the other well enough. It was a skill you learned quickly during a marriage. After some eight years we had been married, we had learned a lot of ways to get at each other. Using me like a personal servant was Ando's favourite way to get to me. I was not a simple housewife for him to order around. Like him, I had my own jobs to do. As the sole tailor in our village, there was always someone wanting new clothing, or to have their damaged clothing repaired. I know as soon as I had finished cleaning the pile of clothes I had with me, I'd have to return to more piles of clothes to fix.

A deep sigh heaved from my chest.

I was tired.

Life would never be easy. That much I knew. There was always some struggle to face. Ando and I weren't scraping by half as well as we could be. Our marriage was rocky, and eight years in, I was often blamed or cursed for not having any children yet. We'd discussed leaving this small village, taking up somewhere else, a big city somewhere, where life could be more prosperous for us. Trying to scrape enough money together to support the potential move was proving more than difficult for the both of us.

I wished life was little easier than it was now. That's all I wanted. Something easier. No arguments with Ando, no hunger eating at my belly, a child to call my own. I could take anything the world threw at me, if I had those three things.

Still, what I wouldn't give to be free. To go wherever the wind took me and bask in life without issues. Live truly free, like the birds, the fish, the wolves.

I was torn from my emotional wishing when the sky lit up with streaks of pink light, the likes of which I had never seen before. It was a mesmerising beauty, though a part of my brain hissed that something about it wasn't right. Looking at it sent chills down my spine. The hair on my arms was sticking up on end.

What was that?

A sharp breath escaped me when that same pink light I was so hypnotised by streaked by me, and something landed in the dirt further up the stream, kicking up a cloud of dust in its wake. Whatever it was, it left that unwelcome feeling of something not quite right in my gut, much stronger than the light alone had. What was it?

It only took a few moments of debating with myself before I rose to my feet to investigate.

"What...are you?" How could something so small cause so much unrest within me? Between my now dusty fingers, was a tiny fragment of a shattered jewel. It was pink, and sparked beautifully when I twisted it in the light. It almost looked like it was glowing. How unusual. It still felt wrong, though. I debated leaving it in the dust, but something about that idea unsettled me more than just keeping it with me. Whatever it was, I didn't like it, but I didn't like the idea that if it was something as dangerous as my instincts clearly thought it was, that someone else would find it and use it.

Coming to a decision, and not liking that decision much, I tucked it away into the small pouch I kept tied to my obi and returned to my washing. The sooner I got it done, the sooner I could work on fixing the pile of clothes I had sat beside the hearth at home. If I was lucky, I'd get a handful of things fixed tonight and free up some time to work on something a little more exciting.

The dying embers of the hearth barely lit my work as I sat with needle in hand late one night about a month later. Still, the intricate embroidered work bought me peace, and I worked contentedly, working on a small cluster of delicate fish near the bottom hem of the kimono. I'd been working on this beauty since the moment I had learned to embroider. It was a labour of love, and a story of my life, laid out in thread on a beautiful kimono I'd never had the chance to, and likely would never have the chance to, wear. Still, it was something I had worked on since I was a girl, and it would truly be my greatest work, if I ever finished it.

Ando grunted when a howl split the air. We both looked up to the woven reed that hung in the archway of our hut.

"Wolves are out again," he rasped needlessly.

The wolves didn't often come down this far, but when they did, there was always a feeling of anxiousness that hung in the air that night. The whole village was nervous. We had lost plenty of villagers to them over the years. Now, when wolves came sniffing around, mothers held their children tight, and prayed that the wolves wouldn't come into the village.

The hair on my arms was sticking up again. That could only mean one thing. "Not just the wolves."

Wolves alone didn't scare us much. Alone, they weren't much of a threat, but these wolves, in particular, were led by demons. That made them far more dangerous. Led by their demon counterparts, the wolves were confident enough to come into the village and prey on the huts at the very edge. Those nights were the scariest for us all.

In the morning, I feared, there'd be a list of the dead to greet us, if Ando and I were lucky enough to see the morning ourselves.

I lowered my kimono into my lap, feeling at a loss for motivation. How could I work when my hands were beginning to shake?

"I hope she'll be okay."

Ando snorted. "What do you care for the girl?"

The girl in question, an orphan that lived at the edge of the village, wasn't someone I often spared a thought for. I couldn't tell you why I thought of her now. Maybe knowing she was all alone out there now, with the wolves about. She hopped from one family to the next during the day, hoping for some scrap of kindness or food, since her parents had been killed a year ago. I didn't often give in to her, but she'd gotten a few riceballs from me before, and when I had been caught in a real charitable mood, I had sewn for her the yukata that she wore now. She was at the age where she grew out of clothes far quicker than she should, and the one she had been wearing until I'd sewn the new one for her, had been almost immodest.

"I care enough that I don't want her dead." That was a fair enough wish, and not something Ando could fault me for. I wasn't about to take her under my wing and treat her like the daughter I'd yet to conceive, but that didn't mean I wanted her dead.

I got no answer to that. For once he wasn't up for starting another needless argument.

Good. He could go to Hell if he thought I'd let him guilt me for what little compassion I had left.

The wolves got more restless in the comings weeks. What used to be a once a month occurrence became an almost nightly threat to us villagers. Most nights the wolves were alone, but there were some nights that I couldn't settle for the chill down my spine and the fear clogging my throat. Whatever was going on with the wolves, they were getting cocky, and it scared me.

In the past few days there'd even been whispers of some villagers seeing them out during the day, sniffing around.

No one had seen a demon sniffing around during the day yet, thankfully.

The moment that happened, we were really in trouble.

Women had taken to going to the stream together with their children to bathe and wash clothing. There was safety in numbers, after all. It was a lot less dangerous for us to go out together.

Still, I carried my basket and washboard to the stream alone in the mid-afternoon.

While I had been sat in the grass beside the reserve sewing that morning, I'd been greeted by most of the village women as they passed by to head to the stream, their children in tow. Morning was a popular time to clean up, and this morning had been particularly lovely. The clouds had since settled in for a grey afternoon and all appeal for splashing around in the stream had died down. Still, I had clothes to wash and I wasn't going to let grey clouds and a lack of company stop me.

In all honestly, I'd rather face the demons than Ando with the same repetitive argument about my laziness for not washing clothes.

I was half way through the frankly ridiculous pile of clothing when something moved in the corner of my eye. I looked up and froze.

On the other side of the stream, a wolf was lowering its head for a drink.

Shit.

I didn't even realise my breath had caught in my throat until the wolf looked up directly at me. All at once, my breath escaped me in a quivering sigh. I could see its nose twitch as it sniffed the air. Was it scenting me?

It didn't sound like there were any other wolves around. If nothing else, I couldn't hear anything else snuffling around in the bush. And even more relieving, my hair was laid flat against my skin as it should be. It was just a stray. Alone, they really weren't so scary. Dangerous, yes, if you were caught on the wrong side of one, but pretty easy to chase away.

Which I did, standing to full height and stretching my arms out wide. The slightly billowing sleeves of my kimono helped to make me look bigger still. I waved my arms and wooped at the wolf.

It wasn't long before he turned tail and fled.

Good.

I settled back into cleaning clothes when I was sure it was gone.

It wasn't until I was making my way back to the village, though, that my hands stopped shaking.