DISCLAIMER: As always, I don't own the original story of the Inuyasha series nor do I own the characters and I don't own the Chinese fairytale that I'm basing this story on. But as far as I'm concerned I do own the idea of mixing these two things together :).
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Nothing much to say really...euhm have fun reading? The message is still the same, I'll try to update within 10 days :).
'...Italic...': thoughts
-- --: locations
"...": spoken words
-.-.-.-.-: time gap
=capslocked words=: noises
-by Kittymui-
Fateful meeting
An unsatisfied look could be seen on Sesshoumaru's face as he looked at the orange-colored sky, which was signaling the departure of the sun.
It has been several days already since he had seen the winged girl by the pond and he had almost succeeded in digesting what he saw that night as the result of a tiresome day.
Although it was quite ridiculous, since a full-blooded youkai seldom got tired. But it was at least more acceptable than witnessing a creature from a fairytale.
Well, that was until he witnessed several stripes of light again this morning. And all of them headed towards the same spot where the seven stripes of light had landed a couple of days ago. One of them departed this afternoon, only to bring several more intruders with it, much to his anger.
'This has gone on long enough...' he decided inwardly as he followed the light with his eyes until it disappeared towards the location mentioned earlier. "Jaken," he called for his servant.
And immediately came the green wrinkled frog-youkai. "Hai? Sesshoumaru-sama?" he asked with a deep bow.
"Guard the castle," was his short command before he jumped off the balcony into the forest.
-- Deep in the forest --
Sesshoumaru raised a brow as he walked closer to the spot where he believed the lights had landed. He had only expected several of them, yet there were in fact about 13 of them.
Six women and seven men. They were all standing in a small open area of the forest. All of them had a serious expression on their faces.
The women were all wearing the same kind of rich Greek outfit. It reminded Sesshoumaru of the one he saw at the pond back then so he concluded that the seven of them were somehow related. Which leaded to another conclusion, namely that the six of them probably had wings as well.
'The men don't have that ability huh?' he concluded as he recalled only to have seen several stripes of light descending from the sky. 'They're probably guard of wherever they came from...' he thought as he scanned them from head to toe.
Three of the men were wearing light blue, steel armor that shielded their chests, backs and their lower bodies above their knees. They had shoulder, lower-arm and leg protectors of the same material and carried sword-like weapons around their waists.
The other four wore similar kind of armor. Only these ones were made of a far stronger material that emitted the color of silver and gold.
Sesshoumaru turned his attention to one of the women who suddenly started to speak. She was dressed in a white version of the Greek outfit.
"I'm glad you could come as soon as possible," she said with a haughty and firm voice. "I take that my sister had already informed you about the situation?"
"Hai!" the four silver-gold guards acknowledged with a bow and one of them spoke back. "Kururi-sama has told us about the missing princess and we got here as soon as we could with the help of the four princesses. We await your orders, Kikyou-sama."
The woman who was called Kikyou smiled. "I hadn't expected anything else from the Royal Guards."
"Any sign of the young princess yet?" the guard asked.
She shook her head. "I couldn't sense her presence, that's why I'm worried that something might've happened to her. I summoned you because it wouldn't be wise for me or my sisters to search around these lands."
"A wise choice as always," the guard smiled. "Don't worry, we won't rest until we've found our young princess."
Sesshoumaru scowled. 'This isn't good...' And he decided to step in before he had to find them one by one after they spread out to comb out his lands.
His first step into the open area immediately alerted them.
"Who's there?!" one of the blue guards asked.
Within seconds, the guards stood in between Sesshoumaru and the six princesses; with the four Royal Guards standing closest to the one named Kikyou.
Sesshoumaru slowly stepped into the light of the setting sun and stopped when his whole figure had left the shadows of the trees.
"Who the hell are you?!" the same blue guard demanded threateningly, and almost instantly receiving a deathglare from the silver-haired demonlord.
By his appearance, Kikyou knew he wasn't just a regular demon that dropped by out of curiosity and so she took a step forward. "You must be the lord of this area, am I right?"
Sesshoumaru didn't reply her question and shifted his gaze to her and back to the guard that had addressed him so disrespectfully.
'I take that as a yes...' Kikyou thought. "We're very sorry to have intruded this place without permission but if you could be kind enough to listen"
"Hmpf," the demonlord cut her off nonchalantly and turned to leave.
"How dare you act that rude towards Kikyou-sama!!" the bigmouthed guard said angrily and immediately unsheathed his sword. "Prepare to be punished!!" he cried and lunged forward to Sesshoumaru.
But before he was even within arm reach of the demonlord, he was abruptly stopped as he felt a strong, clawed hand grabbing his throat.
"Impudent fool..." growled Sesshoumaru as he began to tighten his grip.
"Stop! We didn't come here to cause any trouble!" Kikyou halted them. "Please listen to me. We've only come here to find a royal family member. We believe she is still on this planet and around here somewhere."
Without a word, Sesshoumaru released the guard's throat and turned his back to them. "Leave..." was his only response before walking away.
"We will leave once we've found our young princess!" the blue guard coughed. "So" he wanted to continue but was shushed by Kikyou as she held up her hand and stepped forward.
"I'm very sorry for my guard's behavior; but I do hope that you understand that it's only because he's concerned about my sister's safety, just like the rest of us," she explained. "I sincerely hope you could help us with finding my lost sister, since you know this area so well."
The demonlord pretended not to have listened and continued to walk away.
Kikyou frowned. 'My...isn't he rude...' she thought and decided to push her luck. "I'm afraid that my father would never stop sending people to your lands if his dear daughter is still missing. So the sooner we find her, the sooner we'll stop intruding your lands," she reasoned. "We will leave for now, but we will come back when the moon shares the same shape as tonight (a month) again. I hope you would be able to bring us good news by then."
With that said, she turned to her group. "Let's leave."
A gush of wind blew pass the demonlord and he stopped to turn around. Much to his surprise, the entire party had vanished, leaving an empty clearing behind.
He scowled. 'Aid a group of intruders?' he thought to himself as he cracked his knuckles. 'Nobody can blackmail this Sesshoumaru into doing something. When they place their first step on my property again, I'll be sure to rip each and every single of them apart.'
Content with this decision, Sesshoumaru turned and left the area.
-.-.-.-.-
On his way back, however, Sesshoumaru noticed something unusual.
A swarm of vulture-youkai circled in the sky above a certain area of the forest.
'A corpse huh?' he thought inwardly. But there was something else that caught his attention.
Besides the scent of blood, there was another one lingering in the air that was somehow familiar to him. In a flash, the image of the strange winged girl appeared in the demonlord's mind.
'Hmpf...so what if she is dead? She'll be a nice dinner for those despicable carrion eaters.' he retorted inwardly.
After he'd decided that there was no need for him to take a detour, he continued to walk into the direction of where he saw the flying creatures, as it was also the direction of his castle.
-.-
The scent of blood became stronger with every minute, and after a while, Sesshoumaru finally arrived at the area.
His expression became one filled with disgust as he saw the group of red-headed carrion vultures gathered at one spot and fighting each other for the best part of rotten meat.
As he continued his way through the area, the vultures almost immediately turned their attention to him. But when they found no interest coming from the demonlord, they quickly turned their backs to him again.
Just when Sesshoumaru was about to reach the shadows of the trees again, a weak and hoarse plead managed to reach his sensitive, pointed ears.
"H-help...me-e...s-some...body..."
Sesshoumaru abruptly stopped his steps and slowly turned to the vultures again.
Without much thinking, he formed a long whip with his index- and middle-finger and slashed it horizontally through the bunch of carrion eaters.
=SWIISHHHHH=
Some of the birds felt the incoming assault and managed to fly away just in time, others weren't so lucky and were slashed in two by the green, poisonous whip.
The surviving birds flew up to the sky and circled restlessly together with the others as they kept their red eyes locked on their prey.
But the demonlord didn't spare them even a glance and started to walk closer to the body on the grass.
It was a horrible scene; one you could never erase from someone's mind. The victim, who seemed to be a girl, was lying on her stomach with her arms and legs stretched out. Her face, which was lying to its side facing the demonlord, was covered by the girl's raven-colored hair. Her whole body was covered with blood...her own blood. There were blue and brown bruises visible around her wrists and ankles that resembled chain marks. And there were clear sign of struggle left behind throughout her entire body.
But much to Sesshoumaru's surprise, there seemed to be no clue indicating that the girl had been raped.
The scent coming from the body on the grass indeed resembled that of the girl he saw several days ago. But in order to be sure, the demonlord knelt down beside the girl and removed the hair that shielded her facial identity.
Although his expression remained stoic, he was in fact a bit surprised and shocked to find out that the girl in front of him, who's on the verge of dying, was indeed the cheerful and lively one he saw at the pond.
He slowly traced the main origin of the bleeding to the girl's back and stopped when he saw two thick parallel gashes.
Suddenly he remembered when he first saw her and the human who had seen her as well.
'They torn off her wings...?' he mused inwardly. 'Disgusting creatures...'
He silently watched how the girl breathed in and out heavily through her dry mouth, as if she was still fighting for her own existence.
Slowly and carefully, and without giving it much thought, the demonlord placed his right hand around her right shoulder and gently turned her over, placing her onto his left arm.
After he'd made sure that his arm wasn't touching the critical injury on her back, he slipped his right arm underneath her knees and slowly lifted her up from the grass as he stood up again.
Ignoring the loud screeching of the vultures above, Sesshoumaru turned to leave. Taking the girl, who had become unconscious, with him in his arms.
Yeah! They finally meet, but under what circumstances...shivers. Please look forward to the next chapter!!
Lots of greets,
Kittymui
Next chapter: Cruel reality
-.-.-.-.-
Just when she was about to pull her hands to her chest again, a firm voice stopped her.
"It's no use, so stop trying."
"Who"
"Rest, you'll need it."
-.-.-.-.-
Vocabulary:
hai: yes
-.-.-.-
REPLIES ON REVIEWS:
Shadow-Demon14: Thanks!! Well, haven't really thought about it. I don't think Kagome can talk to every single animal she sees, but I think she kind of understands the meaning of its nonverbal behavior. Hmm am I becoming delusional? It makes sense...does it not?
Defafaeth Mechqua: Hahaha you didn't say much, but I take it that you enjoyed reading the previous chapter. Thanks for reviewing!
GothicBlacre: Thank you very much!!
d2k3001: Thanks! I'll try! (is this fast enough?)
Guardian-of-the-night: Thanks! If you want to hear about the original myth, I'll be happy to explain it :).
burntbanana: Hey there! Thanks for reviewing again! Do you know the fairytale that I'm basing this story on? It's so funny that you do :). Indeed the ending is very sad, but I'm still thinking about it hehehe. I guess you understand now why I've given this story the title "Torn wings" :). And about the king, don't worry, he and the entire party on the moon will be mentioned from time to time.
osuwariIYK: I'm so happy to hear that!!
bad-girl4: Thanks! I'll try to update within every 10 days!
Fire Kitsune Goddess: Thanks! I hope you're not too disappointed with how things happened to our main character.
Inukamisashi: Thanks!!
Guest: Thanks for your review! I hope you liked this chapter also.
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Posted: 13 June 2004
Last Edited: 13 June 2004
Spelling check: YES