Dying to Live
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.
Warning: Although the worst of it has been starred out (***), there's some crude language in this chapter and a possibly disturbing physical scene.
:::
"Rin, stop. Don't come any closer," said Sesshomaru from the ground.
Then, Rin saw it: a tar-dipped rope stretched directly across the path on which they had been taking their horses across the creek bed. It was apparently pulled taut about a foot and a half above the ground between two, distant, unseen pegs, perfect for tripping horses already distracted with minding the rocks underfoot. The dark color of the tar coating camouflaged it better still.
Rin had hardly a moment to spare it another thought, before a pair of rough hands clamped gruffly around her waist, snatching her sideways off her mount and down to the ground. With a surprised shriek, she found herself pushed to her knees on the sharp rocks with her arms painfully twisted behind her back, as two other men appeared as stealthily as if they had just popped out of the ground. From their clothes, it was obvious that was exactly what they aimed to do: both wore loose fitting shirts and pants made of coarse cotton, artlessly although effectively dyed a splotchy shade of grey, the same color as the rocks covering the ground. Rin could only assume that the third man holding her from behind wore a similar outfit. As the smell of his hot, rancid breath hit Rin's nose, she thought she was going to be sick.
At the same time, one of the shabbily dressed compatriots of the man behind her, who was tall, thin, and rather baby-faced, calmly approached Sesshomaru's horse. His hands out and open in a gesture of peace to the still distressed animal, and he began to coo and whisper softly to it. Meanwhile, the second man Rin saw was quite thick in the arms, legs, and neck, and looked more like a blacksmith than a thug except for the very dull, empty look about him. Lumbering, he made his way over to Sesshomaru, and automatically, she disliked the way the thick man loomed over her felled lord. She then sensed immediately that things were about to get much worse. The brute holding her instantly confirmed her fear, as he snickered loudly and breathed into her ear, "Lucky for us that the proud man was riding first in front of his lady." With that, the thick man swung one beefy leg back and unleashed a sharp kick.
"NO!" Rin raged, the word escaping her lips, wild and strangled, as her throat had already begun to stick thickly with hot snot and tears. "Noo! Noo! Please, he's injured! His chest is wounded! You'll kill him, please stop! Stop right now!" she screamed again.
Practically giggling, the piggish man only groped her closer to himself, crooning greasily. "Aw! Pleading for your big man's life, are we? I like it when a woman grovels before me." With that, he made to draw her into an even tighter, meaty-armed hug that practically choked her from behind, forcing a yelp from her, as he squashed one of her small breasts in his dirty hand.
Meanwhile, the thick man with the empty-headed look in his eyes didn't stop. The pointed toe of his leather boot dug straight into Sesshomaru's middle again and again. Rin imagined her own intestines rearranging at the sight of it, and her guts burned. Every fiber of her being torn between total fear for both her own physical safety and Sesshomaru's life, she felt she would go mad as the blood rushed to her head, hammering at the backs of eyes and the insides of her temples. Adrenaline and sheer anger rising, she clenched her teeth so hard, she would later wonder that they didn't all crack.
And then she heard it: Lord Sesshomaru's rasping moan followed by a tortured series of sharp inhalations caught somewhere painfully between choking and breathing. In the middle of all the tumult, her soul whispered but one word. Sesshomaru. The pound of her own blood vessels and his failing breaths were the only sounds Rin could hear. Everything else was instantly smothered out, even the boar behind her, as he pressed his grubby fingers to her cheek. With his wet breath in her ear, he said, "Pretty bitch like you could fetch a much better price than a flea-bitten nag—"
The piercing, metallic flavor of the man's blood soaking her front teeth suddenly felt very real in her mouth. Without warning, the world returned to full volume: "LITTLE C*NT!" the boar roared into her eardrum, as his bitten hand dropped its grip. Thrusting her full weight forward, Rin dove instinctively for the ground. The hilt of the dagger—the same she pulled from the wall of the mansion the night she found Sesshomaru dying— was solid in her hand as she tore it from the sheath she'd lashed to her lower leg beneath the wide pant leg of her trousers. She drove it unflinchingly into the man's foot.
Above her, Pig Face reared and screamed savagely. Fleetingly she noticed that the skinny horse whisperer, sensing that the plan had gone awry, had leapt onto Sesshomaru's horse and bolted in alarm for the forest. The thick, muscled man had finally stopped kicking and had turned his dumb gaze from his suffocating victim to his raging companion. In the midst of the entire riot, with his arms hanging limp, he spoke only the word "Ani" in the direction of the wounded boar-like man, his tone dazed and questioning. Nudging with his boot, he now turned Sesshomaru over so that Rin could finally see her beloved's face. She made to struggle toward him at the sight of his blue lips and white skin pulled painfully tight over his cheekbones with the effort of breathing. For a moment, she could see into his sad, muddy-grey eyes, and desperate for him not to give in to unconsciousness again, she sobbed, "SESSHOMARU! PLEASE!"
Unfortunately, her plea was punctuated with a terrified scream, as the piggish man fell upon her like an incensed beast. "YOU LITTLE BITCH! I'll make you bleed from the inside out for this!" he screamed, dragging her by her hips face down and backward across the rocks. Somewhere off to her side, Rin heard the frantic whinny and stamp of her mare. Despite the horrible thing she already knew was about to happen to her, in some corner of her mind, she thought, At least the horse is still here.
Then, in front of her, the thick-bodied giant took a few steps forward, also closing in on her. Completely unnoticed by his older brother, he opened his wide, uneven mouth again.
"Ani? Big brother? What should I do?" the thick man asked towering over Pig Face, who was now tearing viciously at the back of Rin's clothes.
"DAMMIT TO HELL, YOU F**KING HEADCASE!" Pig Face seethed, not to be distracted from his vicious task. "TAROU, GET THE HORSE WHILE I FINISH UP WITH THIS FILTHY—" he began to order nastily but never finished his sentence.
The rider approached so quickly that neither Rin nor the two men standing over her even heard the pound of the horse's hooves until he was practically upon them. A loud SHUNK, like the sound of a sharp ax falling cleanly through a dry log, marked the end of the thick man named Tarou's life. The arrow had buried itself, true and straight, into the side of his neck. His massive body had barely even begun its timber-like descent toward the ground, when another arrow sunk itself deep in the chest of Pig Face; only the first half of his brother's name, "Ta-" passed his lips, the remaining "rou" having instantly died on his tongue. His fingers were still knotted up in the silk of Rin's clothes, when his corpse fell heavily upon her.
The scrabble of shoes on the rocks and the sudden relief of her would-be rapist's heavy body being lifted off her signaled the arrival of another.
"Miss! Miss! Are you harmed?" asked the voice. Strong hands were carefully turning her over, and her eyes took in the unfamiliar, but deeply concerned, male face, as his arms cradled her momentarily. Suddenly, she felt herself gasp, almost involuntarily, like one who had just been saved from drowning. Coming to life again, shakily she began to push up on the firm arms and body now surrounding her.
"Where is he?" Rin asked, her own voice sounding too small to match the urgency she still felt.
"Who?" the man replied, looking surprised. "Him? He's dead."
Fighting an initial wave of panic, she realized that the stranger had indicated the fallen body of her attacker. "No, not him. Him," she twisted, finally capturing Sesshomaru's form in her vision. "Him, help him," she urged with a still quavering jab of her finger. Looking finally in the correct direction, the stranger steadied her and skidded quickly to the Lord of the West's side.
:::
Note: Sorry for the short chapter guys (and not a very happy one at that), but I did it because I didn't want to leave you really long without an update. Much like everything that goes up must come down, I'm afraid that my time for lazing about and writing at my leisure is coming to an end with the end of summer, so I'm afraid that updates are going to be much fewer and far between for a while. But don't fear! I've got the plan for this story, and we're going to see it through, even if it takes some time! Thank you so much to all of my loyal readers and reviewers. You guys are definitely a HUGE part of my inspiration to keep going :D 'Til later – Origamikungfu.