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Part 4
Jaken's Life and Death, and Life Again.
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"That damn brat! " Jaken raged to himself. "Stupid human..." Muffled curses and grunts followed as he pushed his way through the underbrush looking for the child. "Ahhh! Sesshoumaru-Sama will never forgive me for disobeying his orders. But I, Jaken have been a good and loyal servant...why should I babysit that dumb-" He was suddenly cut off from finishing that complaint when he the ground below his feet wrenched and opened under him. "EEEeeeeeppppp!"
"ouch"
The ground under his face was solid rock and the dust and debris that had fallen with him made it very difficult for Jaken to discover anything else about his surroundings. He sat up and tenderly explored the rising bump over his left eye. "I hate her." a picture of Rin's smiling face hovered just in front of the headache he could feel forming in his brain. With a sigh he picked himself off the floor and looked up. "This is all her fault. Insisting she has to eat every few days...pitiful...." he kept rambling on to himself while he waited for the dust to clear the air. He held the Staff of Heads loosely in the crook of one arm and rubbed his eyes.
"ohhh...." Jaken could see the opening that he had fallen through but it was very far up. Unfortunately he was not the kind of youkai that had the strength to fly and climbing the muddy walls seemed impossible. He blinked his big bulbous eyes in the dim light. Then he fell to his knees and wailed.
"Sesshoumaru-sama! Why did we have to take that stupid human with us? Everything was fine until she joined us!" He sniffed. "Idiot! Idiot! Stupid girl..."
Well, most things were fine, he conceeded. Sesshoumaru-sama was always so strong and perfect and predictable before...I remember the first time I saw his face...ahh he was so perfect. I will serve him until the day I die, Jaken vowed. Even if it means that I have to watch over the human. I won't fail him now after all these years.
He jumped a few feet into the air and fell miserably short of the lip of the hole. He leapt up again and again and each time he was a few inches shorter then the last jump until he was panting and slumped against one rock wall. "Sesshoumaru-sama.." he croaked.
He looked up and glared at the opening in anger. "I won't fail you again!" He tried taking a running start at the edge of one wall and climbing up the other but slid down in the mudd. When the dim light disappeared from above him and total darkness swallowed the toad Youkai, he gulped and stood with his staff ready. I really shouln't have shouted. A strange chain clinked as it was lowered into the hole by the thing that was blocking the light above. He glanced at the chain suspiciously before demanding to know who was waiting at the lip of the hole. There was no answer.
He glared at the dark silouette above him. There is no help for it. I have to get out of here. He grabbed the cold metal and began to climb. With one dirty grey-green hand he hoisted himself over the last ridge of rock and stared at his savior. His yellow eyes were wide naturally but they now bulged in terror at the face that greeted him. He didn't even have time to yell when he felt the burning sensation and the trickle of his own blood as his throat was slashed. I should have just stayed in the hole..."
Everything is black. I'm dead. Again. Jaken seemed resigned to his fate and was calm about the fact that he was now dead. Something tickled his nose and he sneezed. Nani? I'm not dead? he opened one eye cautiously and found himself alone and above ground. The marks, scars and scents around him told him that he had not imagined things. Naraku had been here along with the human boy exterminator. The Staff of Heads was still at his side and it was the wind blowing the dead hair into his face that had finally woke him. It was early morning so he knew he had lost the whole of the past day and the night had come and gone. He looked around, and then, ducked for cover. What had happened?
He wasn't sure if he truely wanted to know.
