YAY MORE AMBER! I love Amber by the way even with her potty mouth, just
because she's so much smarter and so much LESS clueless than stupid Kagome.
I also just realized that her personality seems a big melting pot of all
my friends put together. YAY AMBER! A REAL NON-SWEET NON-SMART NON-MARY
SUE!
* Hem, Hem * Anyway I continue on now with the story of Inuyasha and Amber! Wee, writing is fun!
~`~`~`~
"You heard me you filthy human! Hand over the jewel and I promise I won't hurt you." Inuyasha glared at the groggy looking girl that lay sprawled on the ground before him, the precious Shikon No Tama clutched in her hand. She looked so much like Kikyo, SMELLED so much like Kikyo but everything about her stance, her voice and the even the glare she shot back at him was the dead priestesses opposite.
"FUCK OFF!" This human was totally unafraid! It just wasn't right! He was stronger, and she obviously had no power what so ever or she would have been able to dispatch that pathetic centipede youkai. But instead of cowering like she should she bellowed a string of colorful obscenities into his face and made a rude gesture at him.
"That's right Amber! Do not give Inuyasha the jewel! He will wreak more havoc on us then Lady Centipede could ever dream of!" Kaede helped the bloody girl to her feet and fixed a one eyed glare on Inuyasha's snarling face.
Amber clutched the jewel to her chest and Inuyasha got the message. The stupid human was not going to surrender Shikon No Tama without a fight. Well he'd give her a fight if she wanted one so badly, after he ripped her arm off and took the jewel from her severed hand perhaps she'd think twice before she picked another fight with a hanyou like him.
"I'm growing tired of waiting, and tired of your stink. Either hand it over or face the consequences." The threat only seemed to make this human angry. Her scratched face creased with a frown and she pushed Kaede away.
"Why don't you come over here and get it biscuit-breath?" She snarled at him waving the sacred jewel at him like a trainer baits a hungry dog. The jest made very little sense to him but he caught the idea that it was slur about his dog-demon blood.
"I will then!" Inuyasha felt the power build in his legs as he leapt, his stiff muscles functioning well for having been suspended and motionless for fifty years. The girl glared at him as he began his decent. She was good as dead.
~IY~
Amber dodged Inuyasha in the nick of time, realizing how stupid it was to bait him. She'd just seen the man destroy a giant centipede demon for Christ Sakes! Why on gods green earth had she started picking a fight with him? Her temper was out to kill her.
The whistle of arrows and spears flying through the air distracted Inuyasha enough to let his quarry scramble away from him, she stumbled and scrapped the skin off her cheek against the sharp gravelly earth. The day was not making a good impression on her. She seemed to be bleeding quite a bit.
Amber stood up sharply looking for what she hoped would be a silver haired boy bristling with arrows and falling down. Instead she saw Inuyasha leap above the spears and smash the arrows with one swipe of his sharp claws. The arrogant bastard laughed and with another slash of his claws he toppled two of the large trees down on the assembled archers.
"You idiots think you can destroy me like I did the centipede? Not a chance in hell!" He laughed and jumped up onto the stumps of the trees where he stood like he was mounted on the Olympic Podium.
"Priestess Kaede! I think we were better off with the centipede!" Tanjiro had pulled the aging woman away from Inuyasha's falling trees and his words carried across the clearing to where Amber clutched the Shikon Jewel.
"SHUT UP TAN-JERKO!" Amber bellowed she brandished the fist that clutched the jewel at him before she realized how insanely stupid that insult was. "I MEAN . . . OH JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU PREHISTORIC IMBECILE!"
Kaede shook her head as Inuyasha turned back to the angry teenager. The girl was nothing like what the Guardian of the Shikon Jewel should be like. She was hot headed, obnoxious and disrespectful. But at least she could stand up to Inuyasha like she needed to. As the aging priestess drew the beads of containment out of her robes she sighed. "I had a feeling I would need these." She muttered.
Amber had opted for a dignified retreat. Which meant, in layman's terms, she'd turned and began to run like all hell was following her through the trees. She wove in and out of the trees, trying to confuse him and succeeding in confusing herself.
"Better prepare yourself you filthy human." The voice that rang through the trees was dark and threatening. Amber leapt over one of the large tree roots barring her path, her toes scraping its top and throwing her off balance.
"For what? Are you going to hump my leg or something?" She spat at him as she stumbled to a stop. She could see a wooden bridge through the trees before her and made her way towards it as Inuyasha laughed somewhere in the trees.
"No way. As much as you'd love that I think I'll just tear your throat out instead." She didn't dare glance behind her but she felt Inuyasha's claws pierce her flesh as he leapt on her back. Their momentum's combined violently and sent them both tumbling across the ground, Inuyasha tore another strip down her back and Amber delivered a well aimed kick to his groin before she managed to gouge her thumb into one of his golden eyes and roll away from his lethal attacks.
"Oh my god where is the JEWEL?" Amber thought as she scanned the clearing. She caught sight of it barely a foot away from the ferociously swearing Inuyasha and darted forward, violently stomping on his hand to keep him from snatching it away.
Kaede appeared at the lip of the clearing, her hand on a stitch forming in her side. She spoke the spell and the containment beads surged with power before they shifted their position, from her hands to Inuyasha's neck.
"Amber! Speak the word of subjugation!" She yelled as Inuyasha dragged himself to his feet, his eyes flashing with rage.
"I AM NOT A FUCKING DICTIONARY KAEDE! SPEAK ENGLISH!" Amber dodged Inuyasha's attack and the enraged demon crashed into the tree behind her.
"A word that will bind him! A word of SUBJUGATION AMBER! THINK!" Kaede watched dismayed as Amber dodged Inuyasha again. Kaede gasped as the purple jewel flew out of her hand, the fading sunlight sparkling off its unmarked surface.
With a cry of triumph Inuyasha leapt, whooping with laughter. He landed on the wooden bridge and watched as the Shikon jewel completed it's arc and bounced towards him.
Amber looked around desperately. Subjugation. She remembered that word from somewhere. She watched Inuyasha kneel to scoop up Shikon No Tama. Suddenly it clicked! Of course! That stupid word she'd had to spell out and define in English class last week!
As Inuyasha shoot her a broad grin the perfect word popped into Amber Lote's head and stuck there like the sweetest butterscotch. Inuyasha's condemning ears pricked forward as she shouted the words.
"SIT BOY!" Inuyasha slammed into the bridge. The ropes groaned and the wood splintered as Amber limped over and easily picked up the jewel.
"WHAT THE HELL? YOU CAN'T . . ." Inuyasha roared as she walked away with his treasure in her bloody palm.
"SIT!" She commanded again. Again his face smashed against the bridge, almost breaking the wood. Amber grinned evilly as Inuyasha pulled at the beads of containment.
"NO! WHY WON'T THEY COME OFF?" He shouted desperately.
"They are magic beads Inuyasha." Kaede informed him. "Now ye are bound to Amber by that word. No matter how far away she is when she says it ye will always be contained by the word 'sit.'"
"You crazy old bag! I would go over there and kill you if you didn't look half dead already!" Inuyasha shouted at the old priestess, still half- heartedly tugging at the beads.
"Now, now dog boy. It simply isn't polite to speak to Kaede like that." Amber grinned wickedly. "I think you should SIT down and apologize."
The third sit was too much for the old bridge. As Inuyasha smashed down against the planks they gave way and he plummeted into the river beyond.
"Damned if I didn't just chuckle." Kaede thought to herself as she helped Amber find her way through the trees. The battle and blood loss seemed to finally be taking an effect on the girl and as a sopping Inuyasha pulled himself out of the river behind them Kaede grinned even wider. "Perhaps this wildling isn't as bad as I thought."
"SIT!" Amber commanded again and Inuyasha slammed back into the water.
"Well," Kaede amended, "she needs a little work."
~IY~
"Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow." Amber winced as Kaede rubbed a salve over her wounds. She'd come out of her first day in feudal Japan a little worse for wear. Her legs were scrapped raw, her elbows and arms scratched and scabbing over, not mentioning the slashes Inuyasha's claws had left, even excluding the chunk Lady Centipede had taken out of her side Amber was more beaten up then she'd ever been in her life.
"Ye have been repeating that for the past four hours and it has not lessened the pain. Ye might as well be silent and let me finish your stitches." Kaede scolded as she carefully wove the needle to patch up Inuyasha's violent handy work.
"Yeah whatever." Amber growled as fresh pain shot through the wounds. "You were telling me about the Shikon Jewel."
"Best be wary child. Demons and petty villains will be drawn to it's magic. Keep it close and do not stray too far from protection or they may kidnap ye." She finished Amber's back and began tying a mass of fresh bandages around her. "Ye will heal well with my salves to help ye. There shall not even be scars to mark ye."
"Demons and petty people will try and steal it from me . . . hmm. Could that be why you're still here?" She asked Inuyasha as she emerged from the covering of the hanging sheet that had shielded her, up to her neck in thick bandages. He lay on the floor, his hands behind his head and his eyes closed lazily.
"I'm just waiting for that jewel." He replied looking over at her. "Nice look. Very sexy."
"Eat shit and die moron." Amber snarled back.
Kaede shook her head as Inuyasha opened his mouth to start another fight. Villagers had been complaining about the two of them and their fighting that was keeping babies on the other side of the village awake. "Here Amber, I'll help ye with your shirt." She managed to cut off the fight in time and Inuyasha went back to his laziness.
She had given Amber a man's tunic since she insisted robes and women's gown were completely worthless. Amber extended her arms and Kaede helped her slip the rough fabric over her body and do up the belt.
"Do not worry yourself about Inuyasha." She said quietly. "He is bitter because he is robbed of his power around ye."
"I AM NOT ROBBED OF MY POWERS!" Inuyasha stood up suddenly and glared at the two of them. Bad move.
"SIT!" Amber commanded her voice dripping with glee. The scene had been repeated many times over the last few hours. Amber seemed to find it immensely amusing.
"Amazing it's just like magic isn't it?" She asked Kaede sarcastically. "Sit! Sit, sit, sittiy sit!"
"Amber, control thy self. It will not pay to have Inuyasha angry with thee." Kaede cautioned as Inuyasha picked himself out of the large crater his repeated sitting had created.
"And beside that ye are ruining the floor. It is getting late. Best we discuss your next course of action in the morning. You may sleep in the temple with me. Inuyasha I trust you still need no sleep?" Kaede turned away from the hanyou.
"Of course I don't I'm a half demon." Inuyasha replied angrily. As the two of them left the primitive building that served as a hospital Kaede shook her head.
"He never has had any manners." She thought to herself as she led the still limping Amber towards the temple at the end of the village road.
~IY~
Inuyasha crept into the temple, his eyes trained on the sleeping form of Amber Lote. He would steal the jewel if he could, but he'd seen her hide it down the front of her bandages when she'd gone to sleep and he wasn't about to risk probing around in there.
He watched her silhouette and scowled as she rolled onto her stomach and sighed. He didn't like her at all but he had to admit. She was beautiful, just like Kikyo had been.
Inuyasha shook his head as he heard the shuffling of feathers. He instantly went on alert as the scent of carrion bird drifted in with that of other crows. He circled around the temple until he found them, clustered in a large tree, their beady eyes trained on the body of the girl he'd just been watching.
"Go on get!" Inuyasha whispered harshly leaping silently up among the branches, scattering the murder of crows. "You're only here because you sense that jewel. You're vultures, all of you."
He turned back to gaze through the window at the gentle curve of Amber's form under the blanket. "But then, why am I hanging around anyway?" He asked himself as he settled himself in the branches of the tree.
~IY~
Amber had woken early and found the village still asleep, even the roosters weren't yet crowing atop the small hen houses so Amber took the time to fish a cigarette out of her tattered bag. She had the decency to go outside before she lit her smoke and she sighed as she looked out across the silent village. It was so quiet she could barely stand it. She forced her swollen feet into her boots and finished her cigarette before stealing off towards the forest where the well was built. Kaede's warning of demons and thieves a million miles away.
The wood was waking by the time she reached its protective embrace. She could hear the stirring of the dawn birds and a few brave young creatures had begun their trilling up in the higher branches where the dawns' sparse rays had begun to warm the leaves. You didn't get mornings like this is the middle of Seattle. The noise never ended and night seemed to drag on until lunch on the better days and supper on the bad ones. But then, where she came from almost every one was either high or drunk so that added to the over all gutter trash aura of her earlier life.
Amber reached the Bone Eaters well and knelt beside it, thinking about what to do. The well would probably carry her back to her own time if she crawled back in but what did she have to look forward to on the other side? If she went back she'd be shipped right on back to Seattle at the end of December and spend her time avoiding her mother and smoking dope with some friends whose names she barely even knew. Here she was the guardian of a hunk of glass that would attract people like Inuyasha. There didn't seem to be a winning side to this argument.
Inuyasha. If there was one person in the world she couldn't figure out it was he. She prided herself on being able to see what anyone wanted from her when they started talking. Her mom wanted to be left alone, as did her step dad, Kaede wanted her to protect this jewel and the villagers wanted her to leave and stop bringing demons to their streets. She could tell if a guy wanted sex, or was on a dare or was really interested when they talked to her, could tell if someone was lying or stealing, but Inuyasha . . . well she just didn't GET him. And it bothered her more then she'd admit.
She wasn't sure how long she knelt beside that well before she heard the sounds of men approaching her from the trees. Village men she reasoned. Kaede probably sent them. But as their mottled dirt caked forms broke away from the bushes Amber realized that they were definitely NOT from Kaede's village.
They were thick bodied and brutish, their cork-knuckled hands gripped large clumsy weapons and they lumbered towards her like flat-footed cattle, their beady stupid eyes lolling around idiotically.
"Is this the one Seiji?" The biggest of the five intruders asked the one who led them.
"Looks like her." Seiji replied with a nod.
Amber got quickly to her feet. They laughed as she took a fighter's stance. She didn't fancy her chances against one of these brutes but she wasn't about to let them steal her away to become the concubine of some bandit lord like in a raunchy old B-movie.
"Now, now honey." Seiji said calmly. "Do you want to do this the hard way or the easy way?"
Amber opened her mouth to comment on his lame threats and cuss his bandit ass into the ground but was stopped by the crack of a katana hilt against her skull. Someone had sneaked up on her! As the darkness boiled around her Amber heard Seiji's mocking voice as he answered his own question.
"The easy way." He said as he laughed at her.
Then it all went dark.
~IY~
When Amber awoke it was to the blurry faces of Seiji and his large friends. There was a smaller bandit, this one a female, sitting in the corner and twirling a katana easily, no doubt the lethal weapon that had rendered her unconscious. Amber opened her mouth and swore as sharp pain shot through her skull, making her eyes water. She seemed cursed, in the feudal age, to suffer severe bodily harm every time she went outside.
"She's . . . duh . . . awake!" The biggest one yelled hoarsely. He leapt up and pulled her off the floor by grabbing a handful of her hair and yanking.
"OW! LET ME DOWN YOU DUMB FUCK!" Amber screamed at him trying to claw at his dull, beady eyes.
"Duh . . . okay!" He replied and promptly dumped her back on her ass.
Seiji laughed and slapped his small, wiry friend on the back. "If you didn't give her a headache Torii, Hiroshi surely did." He crowed as Torii lost her grip on the sword and shot a harsh glare at Seiji.
"Remove that hand before you lose it." He demanded in a low and dangerous voice. Seiji seemed to be used to such threats and well aware that she was not bluffing, he did remove his hand, so quickly he almost struck himself in the face.
Seiji was quiet and Amber took the opportunity to pick herself up and glare at the woman bandit. "So your name's Torii then? And you're the one that hit me on the head?"
Torii glared at Seiji. "I TOLD you not to mention my name." She snarled at him.
"Oh come off your high horse Torii." The offending man grumbled, rubbing a long scar that ran down his cheek. "It's not like she's going to be able to tell anyone what your name is."
Torii smacked him hard in the back of the head with the flat edge of her newly retrieved sword. As Seiji yelled and almost fell off his chair she smacked him again, under the chin before she traced her blade along the scar he'd been rubbing. "I have my reasons." She informed him. "And I don't want them questioned by the likes of you."
Seiji was silent and he shot Torii a dark look when she turned away to pull a tight mask over the lower half of her face.
"I ASKED YOU A QUESTION DIP SHIT!" Amber exploded. The stress of the last two days seemed to be slowly consuming her mind, even she would normally have enough sense to keep her tongue in her mouth.
"You figure it out genius. You were hit by a sword I have a sword, you were attacked by six people, I'm the only one you didn't see, you were snuck up on, Seiji and Hiroshi couldn't sneak up on a deaf old man in the middle of a thunder storm. Connect the dots." Torii had gone back to toying with her katana and she regarded Amber with her dark, almost navy blue eyes. She wasn't Japanese, her skin wasn't the right color and her hair was a rich coppery shade, like freshly minted pennies. Amber couldn't place her but she was definitely dangerous and as Amber glared at her she could see a deep aggression in those blue eyes. She chose not to continue the argument with Torii.
"Why did you kidnap me?" She asked Hiroshi. Stupid people were the easiest way to access information.
"We only do what boss tells us to do." He replied scratching his head. "Don't make no sense though. Usually he tell us to go kill people and burn things." He smacked her on the shoulder, the action enough to drive Amber to her knees. "You must be special or somethin'."
Amber was about to shoot out a smart remark but was silenced by Torii's sudden movement. She'd slid off the table she'd been sitting on and looked around, her eyes wide before whispering 'the boss is coming' and disappearing out the door. Seiji sent a harsh curse after his colleagues retreating back and turned, as Amber became aware of the sounds of heavy footfalls in the hall beyond where she was being contained with the three bandits.
The man who entered the room reminded her of the troll in those movies about the teenaged wizard. In Larry Plodder or whatever they were called, she could remember the scene where they'd fought a huge lumpy troll and if there was a creature on earth or heaven that the bandit leader resembled it was the Larry Plodder troll.
He was massive! He was positively enormous! Amber could feel herself shrink into her shoes as he squeezed himself through the doorway. For one of the first times in her life Amber's voice died in her throat and no smart-ass remarks floated into her dazed mind. She stood and stared at this bulk of human flesh until Seiji pushed her forward.
"Here she is boss." He said, a note of fear resonating through his voice. "Just like you wanted."
~IY~
"AMBER!" Kaede's call was lost in the depths of the wood. The old woman sighed and looked around, desperately. That stupid, irresponsible girl! Didn't she ever listen?
"Of course she doesn't." Kaede sighed as she reached the well. "Life would just be to easy if she did."
"Why are you looking for that pain in the ass anyway?" The casual voice of Inuyasha floated across the clearing from where he was lazily leaning against the well. Kaede glared at him suspiciously and approached.
"Not all of us are as heartless as you Inuyasha. Amber may have her rough spots but she is a good person and deserves some appreciation. She survived a battle with you and Lady Centipede after all." Kaede surveyed the clearing before looking back to the well.
"So where's the jewel? I know you didn't let her wander off with it." Inuyasha closed his eyes and leaned back, an arrogant smile on his face. He was so sure that Kaede had taken the jewel from Amber before she'd gone off and been kidnapped was he?
"With Amber." Kaede replied simply.
"WHAT?" His reaction gave the withered old priestess some satisfaction.
"YOU LET THAT LITTLE... THAT LITTLE HUMAN JUST WANDER AWAY WITH SHIKON NO TAMA?" He was on his feet now his clawed hands balled into tight fists. "WHY I OUTTA..."
"Go and rescue her." Kaede finished for him.
"WHAT? WHY WOULD I DO THAT? THERE'S NOTHING IN IT FOR ME!" He glared at her before he grinned thinking she would give up.
"Ye will not risk letting Shikon No Tama fall into another youkai's hands. Ye are too greedy for that. Go now Inuyasha and we'll never speak a word of how ye ran off to Amber's rescue like her noble protector." Kaede hid a smile as Inuyasha opened his mouth in anger, paused and then closed it again. He glared at her again before sighing in defeat.
"Fine you old bag. But if you ever even mention this again to anyone..." He let the end of his sentence drift off ominously and Kaede just smiled to herself as he glared at her.
Taking her silence as his promise the red cloaked half-demon turned sharply on his heel and stomped away through the thick trees, his long hair billowing out like an angry silver cloud as he walked.
Such fire! The both of them had such raw unbridled fire in their souls that it almost burned Kaede's eye to behold it. She often wondered if she should have taken the jewel from Amber. She was sure the girl would have given it freely and happily returned back to the world she came from. Kaede sighed and started back towards the village, for better or worse Amber was Shikon No Tama's protector now, and Inuyasha her own personal... guard dog.
Kaede replayed the last thought in her mind. The laughter finally burst out of her age cracked lips and giggling like a giddy young child she made her way back to the village.
~IY~
"Oh dear god." The stench of the bandit leader wafted through the closed space and made Amber's nose wrinkle with distaste. The troll like bandit looked at her blankly, his dull beetle black eyes bearing down on her.
"Give me the jewel." He demanded woodenly holding out his huge, cork- knuckled hand to her. He watched her expectantly as though he thought she was going to wiggle her magic fingers and produce Shikon No Tama from thin air.
"NO!" She declared loudly. His size was intimidating but as result of the blank and slightly apish look he gave her Amber failed to be frightened by his OBVIOUSLY very prominent brain.
The leader opened his mouth, closed it again and screwed up his beady little eyes as if thinking hard. "Please?" He inquired piteously holding out his hand again.
Amber looked at him blankly before she shook her head and put one hand over the chain that held the Shikon No Tama around her neck under the thick pack of bandages. The bandit leader scowled and reached for his sword, a monstrously huge block of dull steel that looked better suited for bludgeoning people to death then cutting them up.
The enormous man grunted a few words of insult before he swung his huge weapon at the small girl. Amber easily dodged his clumsy attack, rolling across the floor and coming to a stop at Hiroshi's feet. The angry bandit lord howled with rage and swung his sword again, missing Amber and striking Hiroshi instead.
As the leader swerved around looking for his quarry Amber scrambled around him, pulling the jewel out of the front of her bandages. A quick tug of her hand plucked the thin chain from around her neck and she spun away from another wild swing, feeling the tight stitches on her back begin to tear. There was way too much pain involved with guarding this piece of colored glass.
The leader was livid was anger and his next attempt at butchering the small girl hit one of the many support pillars that held up the roof. As a section of ceiling burst free, spraying Amber with dust and wood chips. She swore viciously as her monstrously ugly attacker turned on her.
He laughed and bent down. "Puny creature." He chortled through his yellow teeth. Amber responded by throwing a fistful of sawdust into his little piggy black eyes. He howled with pain and stumbled backwards, his fat fingers clawing at the clinging dust. Amber threw the jewel out of the window quickly, hoping that would insure its relative safety and turned to the speechless bandits, grouped around the lifeless mound of flesh that had been Hiroshi.
"RUN YOU IDIOTS!" She screamed at them, heading for the door herself. They blinked at her like scared deer before turning and surging towards the doors, their thick bodies clogging the only route of escape, save the door that led only deeper into the bandit headquarters.
"HELP ME!" The pathetic scream of Seiji, the bandit that had kidnapped her in the first place pierced Amber's musings on who would find her mangled body. The ugly man was trapped beneath the fallen ceiling; his arms pinned to his sides, leaving nothing but his desperate face poking through the rubble.
"God damn my conscience." Amber thought as she hurried to his side keeping her eye on the still howling bandit lord, the sawdust seemed to have become a barrier that he could not overcome.
Amber pushed a thick board away from Seiji and helped him struggle out of the dusty wreckage of the collapsed ceiling, swearing at him to hurry up. As he lurched to his feet the terrifying giant bandit whirled around and snatched Amber off the floor, ripping the bandages that circled her chest and opening the wound Lady Centipede had left in her side.
"GIVE IT TO ME!" He roared. He lifted his sword and Amber thought for one delirious second about the chocolate cake Souta's mother had promised her when she got back from school yesterday, before she'd been dragged down the well. Man was chocolate cake ever preferable to this situation.
"PUT HER DOWN!" The rough yell came from behind Amber's back and as she twisted to see who it was she felt herself being tossed aside by the bandit leader. She landed roughly, though not painfully and sprang to her feet.
Inuyasha stood, framed in the doorway for a minute before darting forward, his amber eyes glowing with terrifying fire. He easily plucked the giant sword from the lumpy mans thick hand and tossed it aside grinning.
"Nice choice." He congratulated the leader insanely. "But not good enough." And with those words the white haired half demon tore his attacker in two.
In a furry of feathers Amber watched what appeared to be a three-eyed raven claw its way out of the huge mans remains. The creature cawed harshly at the offending Inuyasha before taking off through the window, leaving the stinking heap of flesh festering away in the center of the room.
"WHAT WAS THAT?" Amber asked running over to Inuyasha and staring out to where the bird was pecking away at the soil.
"Nothing but a carrion bird. No big deal unless their really big." Inuyasha replied coolly, wiping his bloody claws off on the big mans tunic. "Lucky I was here to save you, or you would have been troll food." God was he ever pleased with himself.
Amber watched the bird wondering vaguely what it had in its mouth. As it hopped away she tuned into Inuyasha's smug ramblings long enough to calm her pounding heart.
"So where is the jewel anyway?" Inuyasha asked casually.
Amber reached instinctively for the bulge under her bandages. She'd forgotten. The bandages were in tatters around her waist and the jewel... Amber felt a sick feeling growing in her stomach. "No bid deal unless their really big..." The words rang in her ears as the Shikon Jewel caught the sunlight from where it was clamped in the carrion birds beak.
"THE BIRD HAS IT!" She screamed.
"WHAT?" Inuyasha roared, he ran to the window beside her as the bird took flight. "YOU STUPID LITTLE... OH JUST FORGET IT AND COME ON!"
He motioned for her to climb onto his back. Amber looked at him like he was insane for a minute and he sighed angrily.
"We don't have time to argue. Just get on and keep a good grip. If you fall off I'm not going to stop for you." Amber sighed and again thought about the warm kitchen in her own time where she would have been eating breakfast if not for that damn centipede, and scooped up a bow and quiver from where the panicking bandits had dropped it. She couldn't use it but she might as well have some sort of weapon.
~IY~
"Can you see it?" Amber squinted ahead, one hand shielding her eyes and the other gripping her steeds' long silver-white mane.
"Yes!" She shouted as she caught sight of the black smear of the thieving carrion bird against the sky. "I think it swallowed the jewel."
Indeed the bird was almost ten times as big as it had been before it had stolen the precious jewel and its stink of rotten flesh had amplified along with it, the smell making Amber gag as it blew into her face. Inuyasha cursed as his jump began its decent and they broke back through the canopy of forest leaves and into the shadowy realm beneath.
"You'll have to shoot it." He yelled as he ran along the grassy path.
"What?" Amber screamed clutching the bow. "I've never touched one of these in my life."
Inuyasha jumped over a protruding root in the path before him. "Listen, I don't know how much Kaede told you about this but I've figured most of it out for myself. How much do you know about the woman named Kikyo?"
"Kaede told me that she was her sister and she was the priestess that sealed you to the tree." Amber yelled back. "But she died so what does SHE have to do with any of this?"
"Did she tell you how much you look like her?" Inuyasha asked leaping above the treetops and scanning the sky for their quarry. They were gaining, the black smudge of feathers beginning to take form against the harsh blue bowl of the sky.
"Yeah, so what?" Amber asked angrily.
"You're her reincarnation stupid. Why else would you have had Shikon No Tama in your side?" He shifted her up on his back until she was sitting on his shoulders and gripped her knees tightly. "Kikyo was a master archer. Now don't argue or ask questions just shoot!"
He leapt again and Amber strung the bow, firing clumsily. How could she be the reincarnation of some dead priestess? It didn't make any sense.
"Come on you worthless little human! Hit the damn bird!" Inuyasha snarled as Amber's second shot whizzed off into the trees.
"I CAN'T!" She shouted as they began sinking back into the trees. She could see the village, perhaps half a kilometer away in the trees, and felt the cold wave of dread wash through her as the carrion bird cawed. Inuyasha glowered at her as they landed and dumped her roughly off his back.
"You're useless." He growled before taking off alone through the trees. Amber struggled to her feet and tore off her shirt. The mess of bandages that hung around her waist inched and chafed her as she tore them off, using them to roughly wipe the thick blood that had dried along her side. She hastily pulled her shirt back on and abandoned the useless wrappings before taking off after Inuyasha. For once in her life Amber Lote just wanted to go home.
She broke through the trees and scrambled down the steep path that led to the village. The villagers were milling around in panic as the dark shadow of the carrion bird swooped overhead. Amber searched the crowds, calling Kaede's name but instead was met by the sight of the huge bird scooping up one of the little boys and flying out over the rivers.
"Carrion birds feast on the flesh of humans." She remembered Inuyasha explaining as they'd ran through the trees. The bird was flying off the shrieking child clutched in its talons.
Amber could feel the hopelessness bite into her as effectively as the flesh and blood fangs of Lady Centipede. It seemed that there was no stopping the enormous black menace. It was going to kill that boy, and then destroy the rest of the village.
"Inuyasha!" She screamed. He needed to save that little boy! And as if on cue, the red flash of his clothing lit the sky and met the horrible bird. Claws flashed as the two fought, Inuyasha's lethal claws shrieking as they wove through the air. He easily cut his adversary to pieces, ignoring the boy as he plummeted into the river, still gripped by the carrion birds' claw.
Amber thanked god that she knew how to swim as she dived into the fast running river. She wasn't very good at it, her front stroke was wonky at best but she managed to flounder towards the boy and grab hold of him. He was crying and hitting the severed birds' foot weakly as though that would cause it to release him.
"Amber you idiot! Look for the jewel, not for the boy!" Inuyasha was standing on the bank, watching the water for any sign of the round purple gem.
Amber ignored him and pulled the sobbing boy to the shore, her feet sinking deeply into the muddy shore. She growled as the boys' mother ran forward and easily tore the foot off his clothing. The foot was still twitching unpleasantly and Amber turned to Inuyasha to bellow a comment at him for being an insensitive fuck when she saw what was happening above the water.
Amber swore as the scattered pieces of the carrion bird began to reassemble themselves, their jagged creases melting back together, as easily as someone would glue together a broken statue. She kept a firm grip on the foot that was trying to break free of her hand and scrambled up the steep slope to where she'd dropped her newly acquired bow and arrows. There was one last thing she could try. So what if she'd seen it in a movie once?
Amber tore a strip off her shirt and used it to tightly bind the writhing foot to one of her arrows. If the carrion bird was gathering the pieces of its body together it made sense that the foot would bring the arrow right to the bird along with it. Amber strung the bow easily and took aim. The bird was turning, spiraling around, searching for another victim. Amber let fly the arrow and watched it as it flew through the air towards the approaching bird.
"You'll never hit it!" Inuyasha yelled, just as the arrow met the bird, head on in the air and flew through its third eye.
There was a vicious hissing sound, like when water is thrown upon red hot metal and the carrion bird exploded. There was nothing subtle about the creatures' death. It veered to the left, screeching like a thing possessed before it burst, in a brilliant flash of white light and spiraling purple sparks. Amber smiled smugly at the dumbfounded Inuyasha.
"Well come on then dog breath, let's find the freaking jewel." She said before running off to search the forest where the bird had met its end.
~IY~
"Well you've successfully lost the jewel." Inuyasha snarled as he cut away a fern bush to look within. "We've been searching all day and haven't found anything."
Amber ignored the rude comment and looked around. It was somewhere around here. She could feel it's presence, an odd sensation but unmistakable by all standards. She looked up through the trees to the swiftly darkening skies and sighed. Where was the damn gem?
"Maybe we should keep looking in the morning." She said turning to the angry half demon.
"No way am I letting you just abandon the jewel." He snarled back. "Make yourself useful and look why don't you?"
Amber sighed and bent down, rummaging through the ferny undergrowth for any glimmer of purple. She could feel its presence growing. It seemed to be coming from somewhere above her. Amber looked up and squinted, searching the dark branches. Two beady eyes and one ruined socket stared back at her.
"INUYASHA!" She screamed stumbling back as the head of the carrion bird flew towards her, it's jagged beak snapping horribly.
The half demon dispatched it easily, almost negligently with a quick slash of his claws. Amber sighed, then froze as a bright sliver of purple glass fell from the birds lifeless shreds. She bent and picked it up, wiping it on her shirt. "Oh no." She whispered staring at the shard.
"What is that?" Inuyasha demanded as she closed her hand over the jewel shard.
"It's a shard of Shikon No Tama." Amber replied turning to face him.
He looked as if he didn't believe her, but when the look on her face did not change his disbelieving smile melted away. She saw the rage build up in his face and prepared herself to sit him if need be. But he didn't attack her instead he threw his head back and screamed.
Far away in the village the people preparing for bed heard the angry scream of a half demon warrior as his only hope splintered before his eyes but he didn't have much to say.
"I HATE YOU AMBER!"
~`~`~`~`
* Hem, Hem * Anyway I continue on now with the story of Inuyasha and Amber! Wee, writing is fun!
~`~`~`~
"You heard me you filthy human! Hand over the jewel and I promise I won't hurt you." Inuyasha glared at the groggy looking girl that lay sprawled on the ground before him, the precious Shikon No Tama clutched in her hand. She looked so much like Kikyo, SMELLED so much like Kikyo but everything about her stance, her voice and the even the glare she shot back at him was the dead priestesses opposite.
"FUCK OFF!" This human was totally unafraid! It just wasn't right! He was stronger, and she obviously had no power what so ever or she would have been able to dispatch that pathetic centipede youkai. But instead of cowering like she should she bellowed a string of colorful obscenities into his face and made a rude gesture at him.
"That's right Amber! Do not give Inuyasha the jewel! He will wreak more havoc on us then Lady Centipede could ever dream of!" Kaede helped the bloody girl to her feet and fixed a one eyed glare on Inuyasha's snarling face.
Amber clutched the jewel to her chest and Inuyasha got the message. The stupid human was not going to surrender Shikon No Tama without a fight. Well he'd give her a fight if she wanted one so badly, after he ripped her arm off and took the jewel from her severed hand perhaps she'd think twice before she picked another fight with a hanyou like him.
"I'm growing tired of waiting, and tired of your stink. Either hand it over or face the consequences." The threat only seemed to make this human angry. Her scratched face creased with a frown and she pushed Kaede away.
"Why don't you come over here and get it biscuit-breath?" She snarled at him waving the sacred jewel at him like a trainer baits a hungry dog. The jest made very little sense to him but he caught the idea that it was slur about his dog-demon blood.
"I will then!" Inuyasha felt the power build in his legs as he leapt, his stiff muscles functioning well for having been suspended and motionless for fifty years. The girl glared at him as he began his decent. She was good as dead.
~IY~
Amber dodged Inuyasha in the nick of time, realizing how stupid it was to bait him. She'd just seen the man destroy a giant centipede demon for Christ Sakes! Why on gods green earth had she started picking a fight with him? Her temper was out to kill her.
The whistle of arrows and spears flying through the air distracted Inuyasha enough to let his quarry scramble away from him, she stumbled and scrapped the skin off her cheek against the sharp gravelly earth. The day was not making a good impression on her. She seemed to be bleeding quite a bit.
Amber stood up sharply looking for what she hoped would be a silver haired boy bristling with arrows and falling down. Instead she saw Inuyasha leap above the spears and smash the arrows with one swipe of his sharp claws. The arrogant bastard laughed and with another slash of his claws he toppled two of the large trees down on the assembled archers.
"You idiots think you can destroy me like I did the centipede? Not a chance in hell!" He laughed and jumped up onto the stumps of the trees where he stood like he was mounted on the Olympic Podium.
"Priestess Kaede! I think we were better off with the centipede!" Tanjiro had pulled the aging woman away from Inuyasha's falling trees and his words carried across the clearing to where Amber clutched the Shikon Jewel.
"SHUT UP TAN-JERKO!" Amber bellowed she brandished the fist that clutched the jewel at him before she realized how insanely stupid that insult was. "I MEAN . . . OH JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU PREHISTORIC IMBECILE!"
Kaede shook her head as Inuyasha turned back to the angry teenager. The girl was nothing like what the Guardian of the Shikon Jewel should be like. She was hot headed, obnoxious and disrespectful. But at least she could stand up to Inuyasha like she needed to. As the aging priestess drew the beads of containment out of her robes she sighed. "I had a feeling I would need these." She muttered.
Amber had opted for a dignified retreat. Which meant, in layman's terms, she'd turned and began to run like all hell was following her through the trees. She wove in and out of the trees, trying to confuse him and succeeding in confusing herself.
"Better prepare yourself you filthy human." The voice that rang through the trees was dark and threatening. Amber leapt over one of the large tree roots barring her path, her toes scraping its top and throwing her off balance.
"For what? Are you going to hump my leg or something?" She spat at him as she stumbled to a stop. She could see a wooden bridge through the trees before her and made her way towards it as Inuyasha laughed somewhere in the trees.
"No way. As much as you'd love that I think I'll just tear your throat out instead." She didn't dare glance behind her but she felt Inuyasha's claws pierce her flesh as he leapt on her back. Their momentum's combined violently and sent them both tumbling across the ground, Inuyasha tore another strip down her back and Amber delivered a well aimed kick to his groin before she managed to gouge her thumb into one of his golden eyes and roll away from his lethal attacks.
"Oh my god where is the JEWEL?" Amber thought as she scanned the clearing. She caught sight of it barely a foot away from the ferociously swearing Inuyasha and darted forward, violently stomping on his hand to keep him from snatching it away.
Kaede appeared at the lip of the clearing, her hand on a stitch forming in her side. She spoke the spell and the containment beads surged with power before they shifted their position, from her hands to Inuyasha's neck.
"Amber! Speak the word of subjugation!" She yelled as Inuyasha dragged himself to his feet, his eyes flashing with rage.
"I AM NOT A FUCKING DICTIONARY KAEDE! SPEAK ENGLISH!" Amber dodged Inuyasha's attack and the enraged demon crashed into the tree behind her.
"A word that will bind him! A word of SUBJUGATION AMBER! THINK!" Kaede watched dismayed as Amber dodged Inuyasha again. Kaede gasped as the purple jewel flew out of her hand, the fading sunlight sparkling off its unmarked surface.
With a cry of triumph Inuyasha leapt, whooping with laughter. He landed on the wooden bridge and watched as the Shikon jewel completed it's arc and bounced towards him.
Amber looked around desperately. Subjugation. She remembered that word from somewhere. She watched Inuyasha kneel to scoop up Shikon No Tama. Suddenly it clicked! Of course! That stupid word she'd had to spell out and define in English class last week!
As Inuyasha shoot her a broad grin the perfect word popped into Amber Lote's head and stuck there like the sweetest butterscotch. Inuyasha's condemning ears pricked forward as she shouted the words.
"SIT BOY!" Inuyasha slammed into the bridge. The ropes groaned and the wood splintered as Amber limped over and easily picked up the jewel.
"WHAT THE HELL? YOU CAN'T . . ." Inuyasha roared as she walked away with his treasure in her bloody palm.
"SIT!" She commanded again. Again his face smashed against the bridge, almost breaking the wood. Amber grinned evilly as Inuyasha pulled at the beads of containment.
"NO! WHY WON'T THEY COME OFF?" He shouted desperately.
"They are magic beads Inuyasha." Kaede informed him. "Now ye are bound to Amber by that word. No matter how far away she is when she says it ye will always be contained by the word 'sit.'"
"You crazy old bag! I would go over there and kill you if you didn't look half dead already!" Inuyasha shouted at the old priestess, still half- heartedly tugging at the beads.
"Now, now dog boy. It simply isn't polite to speak to Kaede like that." Amber grinned wickedly. "I think you should SIT down and apologize."
The third sit was too much for the old bridge. As Inuyasha smashed down against the planks they gave way and he plummeted into the river beyond.
"Damned if I didn't just chuckle." Kaede thought to herself as she helped Amber find her way through the trees. The battle and blood loss seemed to finally be taking an effect on the girl and as a sopping Inuyasha pulled himself out of the river behind them Kaede grinned even wider. "Perhaps this wildling isn't as bad as I thought."
"SIT!" Amber commanded again and Inuyasha slammed back into the water.
"Well," Kaede amended, "she needs a little work."
~IY~
"Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow." Amber winced as Kaede rubbed a salve over her wounds. She'd come out of her first day in feudal Japan a little worse for wear. Her legs were scrapped raw, her elbows and arms scratched and scabbing over, not mentioning the slashes Inuyasha's claws had left, even excluding the chunk Lady Centipede had taken out of her side Amber was more beaten up then she'd ever been in her life.
"Ye have been repeating that for the past four hours and it has not lessened the pain. Ye might as well be silent and let me finish your stitches." Kaede scolded as she carefully wove the needle to patch up Inuyasha's violent handy work.
"Yeah whatever." Amber growled as fresh pain shot through the wounds. "You were telling me about the Shikon Jewel."
"Best be wary child. Demons and petty villains will be drawn to it's magic. Keep it close and do not stray too far from protection or they may kidnap ye." She finished Amber's back and began tying a mass of fresh bandages around her. "Ye will heal well with my salves to help ye. There shall not even be scars to mark ye."
"Demons and petty people will try and steal it from me . . . hmm. Could that be why you're still here?" She asked Inuyasha as she emerged from the covering of the hanging sheet that had shielded her, up to her neck in thick bandages. He lay on the floor, his hands behind his head and his eyes closed lazily.
"I'm just waiting for that jewel." He replied looking over at her. "Nice look. Very sexy."
"Eat shit and die moron." Amber snarled back.
Kaede shook her head as Inuyasha opened his mouth to start another fight. Villagers had been complaining about the two of them and their fighting that was keeping babies on the other side of the village awake. "Here Amber, I'll help ye with your shirt." She managed to cut off the fight in time and Inuyasha went back to his laziness.
She had given Amber a man's tunic since she insisted robes and women's gown were completely worthless. Amber extended her arms and Kaede helped her slip the rough fabric over her body and do up the belt.
"Do not worry yourself about Inuyasha." She said quietly. "He is bitter because he is robbed of his power around ye."
"I AM NOT ROBBED OF MY POWERS!" Inuyasha stood up suddenly and glared at the two of them. Bad move.
"SIT!" Amber commanded her voice dripping with glee. The scene had been repeated many times over the last few hours. Amber seemed to find it immensely amusing.
"Amazing it's just like magic isn't it?" She asked Kaede sarcastically. "Sit! Sit, sit, sittiy sit!"
"Amber, control thy self. It will not pay to have Inuyasha angry with thee." Kaede cautioned as Inuyasha picked himself out of the large crater his repeated sitting had created.
"And beside that ye are ruining the floor. It is getting late. Best we discuss your next course of action in the morning. You may sleep in the temple with me. Inuyasha I trust you still need no sleep?" Kaede turned away from the hanyou.
"Of course I don't I'm a half demon." Inuyasha replied angrily. As the two of them left the primitive building that served as a hospital Kaede shook her head.
"He never has had any manners." She thought to herself as she led the still limping Amber towards the temple at the end of the village road.
~IY~
Inuyasha crept into the temple, his eyes trained on the sleeping form of Amber Lote. He would steal the jewel if he could, but he'd seen her hide it down the front of her bandages when she'd gone to sleep and he wasn't about to risk probing around in there.
He watched her silhouette and scowled as she rolled onto her stomach and sighed. He didn't like her at all but he had to admit. She was beautiful, just like Kikyo had been.
Inuyasha shook his head as he heard the shuffling of feathers. He instantly went on alert as the scent of carrion bird drifted in with that of other crows. He circled around the temple until he found them, clustered in a large tree, their beady eyes trained on the body of the girl he'd just been watching.
"Go on get!" Inuyasha whispered harshly leaping silently up among the branches, scattering the murder of crows. "You're only here because you sense that jewel. You're vultures, all of you."
He turned back to gaze through the window at the gentle curve of Amber's form under the blanket. "But then, why am I hanging around anyway?" He asked himself as he settled himself in the branches of the tree.
~IY~
Amber had woken early and found the village still asleep, even the roosters weren't yet crowing atop the small hen houses so Amber took the time to fish a cigarette out of her tattered bag. She had the decency to go outside before she lit her smoke and she sighed as she looked out across the silent village. It was so quiet she could barely stand it. She forced her swollen feet into her boots and finished her cigarette before stealing off towards the forest where the well was built. Kaede's warning of demons and thieves a million miles away.
The wood was waking by the time she reached its protective embrace. She could hear the stirring of the dawn birds and a few brave young creatures had begun their trilling up in the higher branches where the dawns' sparse rays had begun to warm the leaves. You didn't get mornings like this is the middle of Seattle. The noise never ended and night seemed to drag on until lunch on the better days and supper on the bad ones. But then, where she came from almost every one was either high or drunk so that added to the over all gutter trash aura of her earlier life.
Amber reached the Bone Eaters well and knelt beside it, thinking about what to do. The well would probably carry her back to her own time if she crawled back in but what did she have to look forward to on the other side? If she went back she'd be shipped right on back to Seattle at the end of December and spend her time avoiding her mother and smoking dope with some friends whose names she barely even knew. Here she was the guardian of a hunk of glass that would attract people like Inuyasha. There didn't seem to be a winning side to this argument.
Inuyasha. If there was one person in the world she couldn't figure out it was he. She prided herself on being able to see what anyone wanted from her when they started talking. Her mom wanted to be left alone, as did her step dad, Kaede wanted her to protect this jewel and the villagers wanted her to leave and stop bringing demons to their streets. She could tell if a guy wanted sex, or was on a dare or was really interested when they talked to her, could tell if someone was lying or stealing, but Inuyasha . . . well she just didn't GET him. And it bothered her more then she'd admit.
She wasn't sure how long she knelt beside that well before she heard the sounds of men approaching her from the trees. Village men she reasoned. Kaede probably sent them. But as their mottled dirt caked forms broke away from the bushes Amber realized that they were definitely NOT from Kaede's village.
They were thick bodied and brutish, their cork-knuckled hands gripped large clumsy weapons and they lumbered towards her like flat-footed cattle, their beady stupid eyes lolling around idiotically.
"Is this the one Seiji?" The biggest of the five intruders asked the one who led them.
"Looks like her." Seiji replied with a nod.
Amber got quickly to her feet. They laughed as she took a fighter's stance. She didn't fancy her chances against one of these brutes but she wasn't about to let them steal her away to become the concubine of some bandit lord like in a raunchy old B-movie.
"Now, now honey." Seiji said calmly. "Do you want to do this the hard way or the easy way?"
Amber opened her mouth to comment on his lame threats and cuss his bandit ass into the ground but was stopped by the crack of a katana hilt against her skull. Someone had sneaked up on her! As the darkness boiled around her Amber heard Seiji's mocking voice as he answered his own question.
"The easy way." He said as he laughed at her.
Then it all went dark.
~IY~
When Amber awoke it was to the blurry faces of Seiji and his large friends. There was a smaller bandit, this one a female, sitting in the corner and twirling a katana easily, no doubt the lethal weapon that had rendered her unconscious. Amber opened her mouth and swore as sharp pain shot through her skull, making her eyes water. She seemed cursed, in the feudal age, to suffer severe bodily harm every time she went outside.
"She's . . . duh . . . awake!" The biggest one yelled hoarsely. He leapt up and pulled her off the floor by grabbing a handful of her hair and yanking.
"OW! LET ME DOWN YOU DUMB FUCK!" Amber screamed at him trying to claw at his dull, beady eyes.
"Duh . . . okay!" He replied and promptly dumped her back on her ass.
Seiji laughed and slapped his small, wiry friend on the back. "If you didn't give her a headache Torii, Hiroshi surely did." He crowed as Torii lost her grip on the sword and shot a harsh glare at Seiji.
"Remove that hand before you lose it." He demanded in a low and dangerous voice. Seiji seemed to be used to such threats and well aware that she was not bluffing, he did remove his hand, so quickly he almost struck himself in the face.
Seiji was quiet and Amber took the opportunity to pick herself up and glare at the woman bandit. "So your name's Torii then? And you're the one that hit me on the head?"
Torii glared at Seiji. "I TOLD you not to mention my name." She snarled at him.
"Oh come off your high horse Torii." The offending man grumbled, rubbing a long scar that ran down his cheek. "It's not like she's going to be able to tell anyone what your name is."
Torii smacked him hard in the back of the head with the flat edge of her newly retrieved sword. As Seiji yelled and almost fell off his chair she smacked him again, under the chin before she traced her blade along the scar he'd been rubbing. "I have my reasons." She informed him. "And I don't want them questioned by the likes of you."
Seiji was silent and he shot Torii a dark look when she turned away to pull a tight mask over the lower half of her face.
"I ASKED YOU A QUESTION DIP SHIT!" Amber exploded. The stress of the last two days seemed to be slowly consuming her mind, even she would normally have enough sense to keep her tongue in her mouth.
"You figure it out genius. You were hit by a sword I have a sword, you were attacked by six people, I'm the only one you didn't see, you were snuck up on, Seiji and Hiroshi couldn't sneak up on a deaf old man in the middle of a thunder storm. Connect the dots." Torii had gone back to toying with her katana and she regarded Amber with her dark, almost navy blue eyes. She wasn't Japanese, her skin wasn't the right color and her hair was a rich coppery shade, like freshly minted pennies. Amber couldn't place her but she was definitely dangerous and as Amber glared at her she could see a deep aggression in those blue eyes. She chose not to continue the argument with Torii.
"Why did you kidnap me?" She asked Hiroshi. Stupid people were the easiest way to access information.
"We only do what boss tells us to do." He replied scratching his head. "Don't make no sense though. Usually he tell us to go kill people and burn things." He smacked her on the shoulder, the action enough to drive Amber to her knees. "You must be special or somethin'."
Amber was about to shoot out a smart remark but was silenced by Torii's sudden movement. She'd slid off the table she'd been sitting on and looked around, her eyes wide before whispering 'the boss is coming' and disappearing out the door. Seiji sent a harsh curse after his colleagues retreating back and turned, as Amber became aware of the sounds of heavy footfalls in the hall beyond where she was being contained with the three bandits.
The man who entered the room reminded her of the troll in those movies about the teenaged wizard. In Larry Plodder or whatever they were called, she could remember the scene where they'd fought a huge lumpy troll and if there was a creature on earth or heaven that the bandit leader resembled it was the Larry Plodder troll.
He was massive! He was positively enormous! Amber could feel herself shrink into her shoes as he squeezed himself through the doorway. For one of the first times in her life Amber's voice died in her throat and no smart-ass remarks floated into her dazed mind. She stood and stared at this bulk of human flesh until Seiji pushed her forward.
"Here she is boss." He said, a note of fear resonating through his voice. "Just like you wanted."
~IY~
"AMBER!" Kaede's call was lost in the depths of the wood. The old woman sighed and looked around, desperately. That stupid, irresponsible girl! Didn't she ever listen?
"Of course she doesn't." Kaede sighed as she reached the well. "Life would just be to easy if she did."
"Why are you looking for that pain in the ass anyway?" The casual voice of Inuyasha floated across the clearing from where he was lazily leaning against the well. Kaede glared at him suspiciously and approached.
"Not all of us are as heartless as you Inuyasha. Amber may have her rough spots but she is a good person and deserves some appreciation. She survived a battle with you and Lady Centipede after all." Kaede surveyed the clearing before looking back to the well.
"So where's the jewel? I know you didn't let her wander off with it." Inuyasha closed his eyes and leaned back, an arrogant smile on his face. He was so sure that Kaede had taken the jewel from Amber before she'd gone off and been kidnapped was he?
"With Amber." Kaede replied simply.
"WHAT?" His reaction gave the withered old priestess some satisfaction.
"YOU LET THAT LITTLE... THAT LITTLE HUMAN JUST WANDER AWAY WITH SHIKON NO TAMA?" He was on his feet now his clawed hands balled into tight fists. "WHY I OUTTA..."
"Go and rescue her." Kaede finished for him.
"WHAT? WHY WOULD I DO THAT? THERE'S NOTHING IN IT FOR ME!" He glared at her before he grinned thinking she would give up.
"Ye will not risk letting Shikon No Tama fall into another youkai's hands. Ye are too greedy for that. Go now Inuyasha and we'll never speak a word of how ye ran off to Amber's rescue like her noble protector." Kaede hid a smile as Inuyasha opened his mouth in anger, paused and then closed it again. He glared at her again before sighing in defeat.
"Fine you old bag. But if you ever even mention this again to anyone..." He let the end of his sentence drift off ominously and Kaede just smiled to herself as he glared at her.
Taking her silence as his promise the red cloaked half-demon turned sharply on his heel and stomped away through the thick trees, his long hair billowing out like an angry silver cloud as he walked.
Such fire! The both of them had such raw unbridled fire in their souls that it almost burned Kaede's eye to behold it. She often wondered if she should have taken the jewel from Amber. She was sure the girl would have given it freely and happily returned back to the world she came from. Kaede sighed and started back towards the village, for better or worse Amber was Shikon No Tama's protector now, and Inuyasha her own personal... guard dog.
Kaede replayed the last thought in her mind. The laughter finally burst out of her age cracked lips and giggling like a giddy young child she made her way back to the village.
~IY~
"Oh dear god." The stench of the bandit leader wafted through the closed space and made Amber's nose wrinkle with distaste. The troll like bandit looked at her blankly, his dull beetle black eyes bearing down on her.
"Give me the jewel." He demanded woodenly holding out his huge, cork- knuckled hand to her. He watched her expectantly as though he thought she was going to wiggle her magic fingers and produce Shikon No Tama from thin air.
"NO!" She declared loudly. His size was intimidating but as result of the blank and slightly apish look he gave her Amber failed to be frightened by his OBVIOUSLY very prominent brain.
The leader opened his mouth, closed it again and screwed up his beady little eyes as if thinking hard. "Please?" He inquired piteously holding out his hand again.
Amber looked at him blankly before she shook her head and put one hand over the chain that held the Shikon No Tama around her neck under the thick pack of bandages. The bandit leader scowled and reached for his sword, a monstrously huge block of dull steel that looked better suited for bludgeoning people to death then cutting them up.
The enormous man grunted a few words of insult before he swung his huge weapon at the small girl. Amber easily dodged his clumsy attack, rolling across the floor and coming to a stop at Hiroshi's feet. The angry bandit lord howled with rage and swung his sword again, missing Amber and striking Hiroshi instead.
As the leader swerved around looking for his quarry Amber scrambled around him, pulling the jewel out of the front of her bandages. A quick tug of her hand plucked the thin chain from around her neck and she spun away from another wild swing, feeling the tight stitches on her back begin to tear. There was way too much pain involved with guarding this piece of colored glass.
The leader was livid was anger and his next attempt at butchering the small girl hit one of the many support pillars that held up the roof. As a section of ceiling burst free, spraying Amber with dust and wood chips. She swore viciously as her monstrously ugly attacker turned on her.
He laughed and bent down. "Puny creature." He chortled through his yellow teeth. Amber responded by throwing a fistful of sawdust into his little piggy black eyes. He howled with pain and stumbled backwards, his fat fingers clawing at the clinging dust. Amber threw the jewel out of the window quickly, hoping that would insure its relative safety and turned to the speechless bandits, grouped around the lifeless mound of flesh that had been Hiroshi.
"RUN YOU IDIOTS!" She screamed at them, heading for the door herself. They blinked at her like scared deer before turning and surging towards the doors, their thick bodies clogging the only route of escape, save the door that led only deeper into the bandit headquarters.
"HELP ME!" The pathetic scream of Seiji, the bandit that had kidnapped her in the first place pierced Amber's musings on who would find her mangled body. The ugly man was trapped beneath the fallen ceiling; his arms pinned to his sides, leaving nothing but his desperate face poking through the rubble.
"God damn my conscience." Amber thought as she hurried to his side keeping her eye on the still howling bandit lord, the sawdust seemed to have become a barrier that he could not overcome.
Amber pushed a thick board away from Seiji and helped him struggle out of the dusty wreckage of the collapsed ceiling, swearing at him to hurry up. As he lurched to his feet the terrifying giant bandit whirled around and snatched Amber off the floor, ripping the bandages that circled her chest and opening the wound Lady Centipede had left in her side.
"GIVE IT TO ME!" He roared. He lifted his sword and Amber thought for one delirious second about the chocolate cake Souta's mother had promised her when she got back from school yesterday, before she'd been dragged down the well. Man was chocolate cake ever preferable to this situation.
"PUT HER DOWN!" The rough yell came from behind Amber's back and as she twisted to see who it was she felt herself being tossed aside by the bandit leader. She landed roughly, though not painfully and sprang to her feet.
Inuyasha stood, framed in the doorway for a minute before darting forward, his amber eyes glowing with terrifying fire. He easily plucked the giant sword from the lumpy mans thick hand and tossed it aside grinning.
"Nice choice." He congratulated the leader insanely. "But not good enough." And with those words the white haired half demon tore his attacker in two.
In a furry of feathers Amber watched what appeared to be a three-eyed raven claw its way out of the huge mans remains. The creature cawed harshly at the offending Inuyasha before taking off through the window, leaving the stinking heap of flesh festering away in the center of the room.
"WHAT WAS THAT?" Amber asked running over to Inuyasha and staring out to where the bird was pecking away at the soil.
"Nothing but a carrion bird. No big deal unless their really big." Inuyasha replied coolly, wiping his bloody claws off on the big mans tunic. "Lucky I was here to save you, or you would have been troll food." God was he ever pleased with himself.
Amber watched the bird wondering vaguely what it had in its mouth. As it hopped away she tuned into Inuyasha's smug ramblings long enough to calm her pounding heart.
"So where is the jewel anyway?" Inuyasha asked casually.
Amber reached instinctively for the bulge under her bandages. She'd forgotten. The bandages were in tatters around her waist and the jewel... Amber felt a sick feeling growing in her stomach. "No bid deal unless their really big..." The words rang in her ears as the Shikon Jewel caught the sunlight from where it was clamped in the carrion birds beak.
"THE BIRD HAS IT!" She screamed.
"WHAT?" Inuyasha roared, he ran to the window beside her as the bird took flight. "YOU STUPID LITTLE... OH JUST FORGET IT AND COME ON!"
He motioned for her to climb onto his back. Amber looked at him like he was insane for a minute and he sighed angrily.
"We don't have time to argue. Just get on and keep a good grip. If you fall off I'm not going to stop for you." Amber sighed and again thought about the warm kitchen in her own time where she would have been eating breakfast if not for that damn centipede, and scooped up a bow and quiver from where the panicking bandits had dropped it. She couldn't use it but she might as well have some sort of weapon.
~IY~
"Can you see it?" Amber squinted ahead, one hand shielding her eyes and the other gripping her steeds' long silver-white mane.
"Yes!" She shouted as she caught sight of the black smear of the thieving carrion bird against the sky. "I think it swallowed the jewel."
Indeed the bird was almost ten times as big as it had been before it had stolen the precious jewel and its stink of rotten flesh had amplified along with it, the smell making Amber gag as it blew into her face. Inuyasha cursed as his jump began its decent and they broke back through the canopy of forest leaves and into the shadowy realm beneath.
"You'll have to shoot it." He yelled as he ran along the grassy path.
"What?" Amber screamed clutching the bow. "I've never touched one of these in my life."
Inuyasha jumped over a protruding root in the path before him. "Listen, I don't know how much Kaede told you about this but I've figured most of it out for myself. How much do you know about the woman named Kikyo?"
"Kaede told me that she was her sister and she was the priestess that sealed you to the tree." Amber yelled back. "But she died so what does SHE have to do with any of this?"
"Did she tell you how much you look like her?" Inuyasha asked leaping above the treetops and scanning the sky for their quarry. They were gaining, the black smudge of feathers beginning to take form against the harsh blue bowl of the sky.
"Yeah, so what?" Amber asked angrily.
"You're her reincarnation stupid. Why else would you have had Shikon No Tama in your side?" He shifted her up on his back until she was sitting on his shoulders and gripped her knees tightly. "Kikyo was a master archer. Now don't argue or ask questions just shoot!"
He leapt again and Amber strung the bow, firing clumsily. How could she be the reincarnation of some dead priestess? It didn't make any sense.
"Come on you worthless little human! Hit the damn bird!" Inuyasha snarled as Amber's second shot whizzed off into the trees.
"I CAN'T!" She shouted as they began sinking back into the trees. She could see the village, perhaps half a kilometer away in the trees, and felt the cold wave of dread wash through her as the carrion bird cawed. Inuyasha glowered at her as they landed and dumped her roughly off his back.
"You're useless." He growled before taking off alone through the trees. Amber struggled to her feet and tore off her shirt. The mess of bandages that hung around her waist inched and chafed her as she tore them off, using them to roughly wipe the thick blood that had dried along her side. She hastily pulled her shirt back on and abandoned the useless wrappings before taking off after Inuyasha. For once in her life Amber Lote just wanted to go home.
She broke through the trees and scrambled down the steep path that led to the village. The villagers were milling around in panic as the dark shadow of the carrion bird swooped overhead. Amber searched the crowds, calling Kaede's name but instead was met by the sight of the huge bird scooping up one of the little boys and flying out over the rivers.
"Carrion birds feast on the flesh of humans." She remembered Inuyasha explaining as they'd ran through the trees. The bird was flying off the shrieking child clutched in its talons.
Amber could feel the hopelessness bite into her as effectively as the flesh and blood fangs of Lady Centipede. It seemed that there was no stopping the enormous black menace. It was going to kill that boy, and then destroy the rest of the village.
"Inuyasha!" She screamed. He needed to save that little boy! And as if on cue, the red flash of his clothing lit the sky and met the horrible bird. Claws flashed as the two fought, Inuyasha's lethal claws shrieking as they wove through the air. He easily cut his adversary to pieces, ignoring the boy as he plummeted into the river, still gripped by the carrion birds' claw.
Amber thanked god that she knew how to swim as she dived into the fast running river. She wasn't very good at it, her front stroke was wonky at best but she managed to flounder towards the boy and grab hold of him. He was crying and hitting the severed birds' foot weakly as though that would cause it to release him.
"Amber you idiot! Look for the jewel, not for the boy!" Inuyasha was standing on the bank, watching the water for any sign of the round purple gem.
Amber ignored him and pulled the sobbing boy to the shore, her feet sinking deeply into the muddy shore. She growled as the boys' mother ran forward and easily tore the foot off his clothing. The foot was still twitching unpleasantly and Amber turned to Inuyasha to bellow a comment at him for being an insensitive fuck when she saw what was happening above the water.
Amber swore as the scattered pieces of the carrion bird began to reassemble themselves, their jagged creases melting back together, as easily as someone would glue together a broken statue. She kept a firm grip on the foot that was trying to break free of her hand and scrambled up the steep slope to where she'd dropped her newly acquired bow and arrows. There was one last thing she could try. So what if she'd seen it in a movie once?
Amber tore a strip off her shirt and used it to tightly bind the writhing foot to one of her arrows. If the carrion bird was gathering the pieces of its body together it made sense that the foot would bring the arrow right to the bird along with it. Amber strung the bow easily and took aim. The bird was turning, spiraling around, searching for another victim. Amber let fly the arrow and watched it as it flew through the air towards the approaching bird.
"You'll never hit it!" Inuyasha yelled, just as the arrow met the bird, head on in the air and flew through its third eye.
There was a vicious hissing sound, like when water is thrown upon red hot metal and the carrion bird exploded. There was nothing subtle about the creatures' death. It veered to the left, screeching like a thing possessed before it burst, in a brilliant flash of white light and spiraling purple sparks. Amber smiled smugly at the dumbfounded Inuyasha.
"Well come on then dog breath, let's find the freaking jewel." She said before running off to search the forest where the bird had met its end.
~IY~
"Well you've successfully lost the jewel." Inuyasha snarled as he cut away a fern bush to look within. "We've been searching all day and haven't found anything."
Amber ignored the rude comment and looked around. It was somewhere around here. She could feel it's presence, an odd sensation but unmistakable by all standards. She looked up through the trees to the swiftly darkening skies and sighed. Where was the damn gem?
"Maybe we should keep looking in the morning." She said turning to the angry half demon.
"No way am I letting you just abandon the jewel." He snarled back. "Make yourself useful and look why don't you?"
Amber sighed and bent down, rummaging through the ferny undergrowth for any glimmer of purple. She could feel its presence growing. It seemed to be coming from somewhere above her. Amber looked up and squinted, searching the dark branches. Two beady eyes and one ruined socket stared back at her.
"INUYASHA!" She screamed stumbling back as the head of the carrion bird flew towards her, it's jagged beak snapping horribly.
The half demon dispatched it easily, almost negligently with a quick slash of his claws. Amber sighed, then froze as a bright sliver of purple glass fell from the birds lifeless shreds. She bent and picked it up, wiping it on her shirt. "Oh no." She whispered staring at the shard.
"What is that?" Inuyasha demanded as she closed her hand over the jewel shard.
"It's a shard of Shikon No Tama." Amber replied turning to face him.
He looked as if he didn't believe her, but when the look on her face did not change his disbelieving smile melted away. She saw the rage build up in his face and prepared herself to sit him if need be. But he didn't attack her instead he threw his head back and screamed.
Far away in the village the people preparing for bed heard the angry scream of a half demon warrior as his only hope splintered before his eyes but he didn't have much to say.
"I HATE YOU AMBER!"
~`~`~`~`