**Aaak, I HAAAD to put this up!!!! HAAAD to!!!!! PLEASE REVIEW!!!***
The Horrid Cries of the Nothing Woman
Chapter 15
Ayame stepped out from the shadows of the dark forest into the small clearing where she had spied the creature. The mouth of the cave loomed ahead of her like some demonic creature ready to swallow her whole . . . an eerie twilight glow from within betrayed the spirits casual presence and an icy wind blew about her disturbing the sheen in her hair.
The hanyou-pup's ears twitched anxiously as fear swelled within her young heart.
Perhaps she was overzealous. Perhaps she should have waited for the prospect of day, the promise of her brothers powers at her side . . .
But those were foolish thoughts lingering in the human side of her hanyou thoughts, she knew the night would linger at the will of the Beast.
A wave of laughter echoed about the clearing, frightening . . . deadly . . .
"YOU HAVE COME TO FACE ME, FOOLISH CREATURE. YOU HAVE COME TO FACE YOUR NEW RULER . . . YOUR NEW . . . GOD!"
Ayame bristled angrily. "You are far from my ruler, beast! Where is the human girl?"
There was a long pause.
Carefully the hanyou-child stepped into the clearing, her ears perked, her muscles ready to leap at the slightest hint of movement . . . but all she received was that same icy cold silence . . .
She cringed. "Where is the human girl, beast?"
A strange wind ripped through the canopy of the trees, sending clouds of leaves spiraling into the air and a vicious howl that ripped through the night . . . rising upward in a fury . . . visible only in opal streaks against the black of the sky . . .
Ayame fixed her eyes on the swirling mass as it began to take shape . . . she stepped further into the clearing, exposing herself to whatever it was that would attack and peeking into the cave . . .
Kagome was suspended in a cloudy hand of shimmering pearl . . . her face was white as if she were dead . . .
She couldn't be!
The leaves and winds undulated through the night like a sky serpent, fangs began to sprout from its jaws in ivory flecks of bone and the leaves laying upon each other to scale the body the magic formed, longer than the highest tree and bulkier than Kaede's hut if it had been all coiled up. Bloody crimson exploded from the darkness that was it, piercing the night with its evil brightness and filling the emptiness with its horrible cry . . .
Ayame had no time to sniff for any scent from Kagome before the serpent lunged for her, its cruel fangs driving themselves deep into the soil of the clearing, melting the earth with its poison. With a fluttering thought of the corrosive power of her half-brothers poisons, she dodged another attack as the tapered whip tail lined and ended with curved meat hooks of shining horn . . . they missed her face and head by a mere hairs breath . . .
"XENJA IS ONE OF MY . . . NEWLY AQUIRED SERVENTS DUE TO MY RISING STATUS IN THIS WORLD, AND MY OWN." The voice sneered as he watched in glee as Ayame struggled to remain ahead of the beast. "YOU WONT LAST VERY LONG AGAINST HIM."
Fangs flashed just before the hanyou's face as she skidded to a stop inches away from becoming a meal and leaped over its head, sliding down his neck, avoiding the tail as it came up to lash at her. The beasts own horns struck its flesh as Ayame reached out with her claws and caught onto a thick trucked tree before she hit the ground, there was no time to rest for the tree quickly became splinters just after her feet touched the highest branch . . .
"YOU CANNOT OUTRUN THIS SNAKE CONCOCTED FROM THE EVIL OF THE SEVENTH HEEEEEELL!"
The bitter joy from the Athema's voice as it laughed . . . as it watched . . .
Kagome faded from the earth . . . the girls scent finally drifted to the exhausted hanyou's nose as she dodged the next attack, landing square in front of the mouth of the cave . . . she leaped again as the ground melted from the poisonous fangs just under where her feet had been . . .
There was no rest . . .
No breaks . . .
No time to think . . .
The bulk of the serpents tail struck her, sending the young girl bodily into a young tree, snapping it in half with a sickening crack . . .
The Athema laughed . . .
The serpent hovered over her, its angry red eyes fixated upon the hanyou-child as she lifted her head up painfully to see them . . . her head swum, her vision was blurred by the impact and yet those frightfully red eyes . . .
Terrifying . . .
Paralyzing . . .
"YEEEEEEEEES," the Beast hissed. "LOOK INTO THOSE EYES . . . JOIN THOSE EYES . . . COME TO THOSE EEEEEYES . . ."
Ayame could not move . . .
She felt her body go rigid, her joints froze and her eyes were locked on those swirling red eyes . . . the heavy, foul breath of the monster covered her, languished her shaking body of its courage . . . of its life . . .
The spirit within the hanyou began to falter . . .
Her soul began to howl in despair . . . the soul of her father began to weaken . . . she could feel it . . . the soul that gave her life began to die . . .
But she couldn't move . . .
She couldn't stop it . . .
The hanyou-child trembled . . .
A rock slammed into the side of the serpents head from somewhere outside the clearing . . . the trance was broken for a flicker of a moment, long enough for Ayame to regain her senses. Moving to the edge of the clearing her eyes fell upon Inu-Yasha standing at the opposite end, another rock in hand and a spear no doubt stolen from the village. He stood there in the dark, his inky black hair sheening against the unearthly twilight, his eyes narrowed and dangerous as he carefully avoided the serpents eyes.
He clenched his fist around the spear. "So, you're the Athema, huh? Where's Kagome?"
"That's not t . . ." but her sentence was never finished before the slicing tail with its weapons knocked into her, throwing her to the ground in a splash of her own blood.
"Ayame!" Inu-Yasha shouted desperately, taking a few bold steps forward, throwing himself quickly to the side to avoid the fangs of the beast.
But he was too slow to avoid the monster for long.
Too slow . . .
Ayame clutched her wounds with her hands and trembled . . . he wouldn't make it as a human! Blood oozed out from between her fingers and she could feel the open wounds across her abdomen and shoulder . . . but she pushed herself to her feet . . .
"Inu-Yasha!" she shouted. "Kagome's in the cave!"
The human hesitated for barely half a moment, his eyes passing from the dragon to the cave entrance in one single foolish moment and the fangs slashed down for another attack . . .
Ayame threw herself against her human brother with all her might, the pallid fang of the serpent caught onto her cloak, sliding down her back against her soft kimono, pulling her to the ground . . . she gasped in shock as she realized she was trapped . . .
Inu-Yasha paused, reaching down to help her out of her cloak, but she pushed him away with her feet. "NO! Get Kagome . . . she . . . wont . . . last . . . long!"
The cloak tore away as the poison began to melt the earth and the fabric at the same time, she could feel the heat against her skin as the cloth of her violet kimono began to decay with a sickening hiss . . . she leaped to her feet and back to the opposite side of the clearing from the cave . . . vying for the beasts attention.
"Oh come on, you overgrown worm!" she sputtered, blood dripped from the corner of her mouth and her nose. "Come on and get me!"
The snake whirled towards her with a rumbling hiss, lunging at her again with precise deadliness, barely missing the child by an inch as she vaulted out the way . . .
But the life began to drain from her as her blood stained the ground where she leapt . . . her reaction time ebbed and slowed as she tried her best to keep the creatures attention from her brother and his love . . .
Hopefully they were not too late . . .
Inu-Yasha rushed into the darkness of the cave with his spear raised, his fists clenched, forcing his pathetic human eyes to adjust to the dim light . . .
But he knew he was not alone. He could feel the presence there . . . the Athema . . . and Kagome . . . though barely.
"Kagome?" he called out. "Kagome? Beast, what have you done with Kagome?"
"THIS MIKO'S PRECIOUS POWERS ARE MIIIIIINE!"
The strange light began to brighten as Inu-Yasha watched Kagome's frail body hovering in the air before him, lifeless and limp . . .
His heart sank.
"SO, YOU DO HAVE FEELINGS FOR THIS CREATURE?"
"Let her go!" Inu-Yasha snarled. "Show yourself and FIGHT me!"
"OH, PLEASE. YOU ARE NOTHING COMPARED TO ME IN BATTLE. YOU WOULD NOT STAND A CHANCE . . . LIKE YOUR LITTLE SISTER OUT THERE. I BELIEVE THAT SHE'S ALREADY HALF DEAD ON YOUR ACCOUNT. HOW DOES THAT MAKE YOU FEEL, INU-YASHA?"
Quickly, Inu-Yasha stole a glance to the outside . . . Ayame violet kimono was now stained a dark burgundy with blood . . . she was slow . . . the snake only toyed with her with half hearted strikes . . .
"What do you want with Kagome?" pretending to ignore what he had just seen, he roared in a loud voice that echoed harshly against the walls of the caves, scaring even himself just a little . . . yet he did not flinch.
"SHE IS A POWERFUL MIKO WITH A SOUL BROUGHT BACK FROM THE DEAD . . . IT IS VEEEERY GOOD. USEFUL TO SAY THE LEAST. WITH IT, I CAN BRING FORTH THE EIGTH HELL TO THIS EARTH AND RULE IT AND ALL OF YOU." If the Athema had a face, Inu-Yasha thought coldly to himself, it would no doubt be smiling.
"Let her go!"
There was a short burst of laughter. "AS YOU WISSSSSSSSSH!"
The young woman in the clutches of the beastly cloud lurched and convulsed . . . her skin drastically turned from white to a lifeless gray before she was unceremoniously dropped to the stony ground . . .
Inu-Yasha gave a pained yelp as he rushed to reach her side but only barely managed to touch her cold, dry, lifeless skin with the tips of his fingers before being knocked backwards by the unseen force . . .
"YOU SHOULD REALLY WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING!" the creature chuckled.
"W . . ." Inu-Yasha tried to speak, but the wind had been knocked from his body . . . that had never happened to him before . . . he hated being human . . . "Why . . . do you . . . want . . . Kagome? Why . . . are you even . . . here?"
"WHY AM I HERE? I WAS RELEASED ONTO THIS EARTH TO REALIZE MY DREAM."
"Released?" Inu-Yasha gasped, struggling to Kagome's side. "W . . . who released you?"
"THEY WILL ARRIVE SHORTLY. YOU CAN JUST WAIT THEN." A heavy blow landed upon Inu-Yasha's head as he fell over Kagome's lifeless body . . .
The Athema sighed. "HOW LUUUUCKY I AMMMM, THREE DEEEEEEELICOUS PRISONERS . . ."
**Okay- I couldn't wait to put this next chapter up!! I wonder who released the Athema?? Oh my! Is Kagome dead or not? What happened to Ayame? So many questions . . . so many questions . . . please review! Please! Please! Please!! It keeps the creativity flowing! **
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