Disclaimer: like I said, I don't own Inuyasha. Rrg. BUT!!! I do now own eps 1-150 on DVD! YESSS!! does a wild dance Could happiness be any more complete?!? (sigh of loooove) OMG OMG! Can't believe it, I own it! Yeaya!tears of joy

That disclaimer was written right after I got my beautiful DVDs. They are my babies.

On to chapter 4. No changes here----

The first night alone was the worst...and so was the second night...and the third...

Sesshomaru didn't come back. Inuyasha was almost sorry for it.

The woods didn't frighten him after that first night, spent in shock. No, the trees were his mother's arms now, his replacement place of safety. They knew him. They welcomed him...

Unlike anyone else he encountered.

Humans, traveling the forest paths they at first exclaimed and coaxed him forward with words of sorrow, crying out, "who would abandon such an innocent child in these dangerous trails!" Until, that is, they noticed the ears and claws as he came forward, tempted by the human presences. "Demon!" they shrieked, and curious children fled instantly, and women grabbed their low-grade demon spells to throw at him, and men brandished weapons, fearing for their family's safety. Inuyasha, again and again denied the promise of companionship, would stumble away into the darkness of the trees, and the humans would hurry onward, throwing nervous glances back at him until they disappeared from view.

Demons, crawling through the underbrush they mocked him. He was small, and only twelve years old; a measly sliver of an age, they thought, and attempted to eat him to enhance their own powers.But they couldn't resist a little round of "half-demon baiting" first. They would see him, stop in their tracks, and laugh at him, calling him worthless and hardly worth the effort to digest. They slapped the names "hanyou" and "halfbreed" and "dirty-blood cross" on him whenever they could. The names stung even more than their claws or teeth, when these managed to find his skin. But he could outrun most of them.

Otoshiana was the demon Inuyasha first slew.

Inuyasha was chasing rabbits for the second time that day. Earlier, he'd caught one, held it squirming for a moment, indecisive, then ripped its head off– a quick death. Or it would have been, except that he was so hesitating to do the deed that he had broken its neck first. Horrified, he still had eaten the creature's still-warm flesh raw. That had been eight hours ago, and now his stomach growled. His claws snatched at whatever moved, hoping to find furry flesh.

However, this particular time, claws met spines.

He leapt back, hand burning and stinging. A demon rose up from the bush and crushed the spot he had been a moment before, dust flying up and sending birds fleeing, so quickly that it was as though a demon had appeared from nowhere.

It was long and flat, made for hiding under bushes and ambushing what came along. Four fangs jutted from its eight-eyed head, and spines clustered on its neck. It was hideous. Worse, a netting of woven sticky-web fell upon the prone boy, shaken from its position above by the emerging demon.

"The trap always works," it cried in a grating voice. Then it hesitated. "Not a human? What's this?" It stuck it's head out to sniff him. Oversized nostrils whiffed at him. "Half demon blood!"

Inuyasha was trembling. His hands were completely bound to his sides by the sticky-web.

"Well, I've heard those cause indigestion," pondered the monster, seeming to think about this. "Hmm." It extended a long, spindly forefinger and poked the skin of the hanyou's neck. A drop of blood welled up.

"Gah," Inuyasha cried as the skin began to sting and redden.

The creature's long, thin tongue lapped up the droplet. "Hmm. Hmm." It weighed the matter seriously before pronouncing crossly, "I'd have to set the web up again. Peh. We'll see if perhaps some demon will be willing to take him in exchange for some real food–"greenish saliva dripped from the jaws of Otoshiana ('Trap'). "Mmm. Perhaps a tender half-inu-pup will tempt their stomachs– well, you're not so different from an inu-youkai, come to think of it. Others might be willing to have you, if they've no standards."

Inuyasha struggled against the bonds, breaking from his trembling spell and thrashing wildly.

"Peh. Struggle as much as you like, stinker. That web was made by me, Otoshiana, and not one has escaped from it yet!"

All at once there was a commotion above, and in dropped a large bird youkai. "Otoshiana, what have you got there?"

Otoshiana bristled at the rude tone in the newcomer's voice. However, the new youkai was a large, fang-beaked bird, with talons on the tips of its wings and eight orange-tinged eyes. Clearly it was of higher rank than the low forest crawling-demon. Claws the size of Inuyasha's head dug into the ground as the bird stared at the trapped half-demon.

"A halfie, eh? Now, why would you want something so worthless on your claws?" it said in a very smooth, persuading voice. "Give him to me, Otoshiana, and you won't regret it."

"What–"

"I love the interesting taste of hanyou, Otoshiana. But they're so rare these days...demons hate to muss their claws with weak mortal women...unless it's that time of decade for the tai-youkai, you know.

"Tell you what. You remove all that...web...and I will be back at sunset. Then you can see what I have for you in exchange for this treat."

"No deal," grated the lizardlike Otoshiana, still clearly nervous. "You tell me what–"

A bird claw was around the youkai's throat before Inuyasha could have said rabbit. Inuyasha watched with horrified fascination. The bird was almost glowing with his own confidence and self-importance.

"Gai, master of these skies, does not owe you answers. Give me it without that dirty wrapping of yours...and I might let you live." With a screech, it flapped its wings and pulled into the sky, soon disappearing over the treetops.

Small snickers were heard from the trees. Furious, Otoshiana turned on them; but they were hiding out of sight, small and insignificant and not worth his time. He was mostly all talk anyway... And the small low demons who inhabited the area near him, to wait for the leftovers, knew it. They were all gloating at his humiliation...they would gossip to the other demons...Inuyasha saw the furious and mortified look on the ugly face.

It slithered over to Inuyasha, and began muttering as it began to pick at the sticky-web with its teeth, careful not to touch the hanyou.

"Peh! Baka bird. Gai-sama thinks he's so great..." Yet even in his anger, the trapper did not dare leave the honorific off the bird's name.

Inuyasha was long over his trembling. He could fight this monster. He could win, he was sure of it!

"What's that look on your face?" snarled Otoshiana. "You dare to look with that contempt at me?"

Inuyasha outright laughed, determined to shame Otoshiana into the ground even more. "I'm not afraid of you!" he shouted, quelling the tremors deep inside by yelling.

The laughs from the demons in the bushes seemed to quiver over the scaly skin. Inuyasha watched this, making sure to have a cold, amused look in his eye– suddenly his air was cut off.

"Hanyou basssstard!" hissed the youkai. "If it weren't for Gai-sama..." The narrow fingers were wrapped around his throat.

The lesser demons sprang out, nipping at Otoshiana, sensing his weakness. Inuyasha observed this with intensity, looking nonchalant. Otoshiana released him, and he fell. The snakey demon beat the others off, sending bodies to litter the ground, and the laughing voices retreated. By now the red hot fury and embarrassment was almost coloring the demon's reptilian face.

"You!" he snarled at Inuyasha was so much vehemence in his voice that it sent him stumbling back. "I can tell who you are! Your mother was human! You worthless stinking piece of hide...your mother was a bitch, and your father...your father, an inu-taisho–wasn't he?–, took her in his heat! He cared nothing for her, cast her and you aside like old prey's bones! You scum, you worthless...you halfblood...your flesh with be mine!" he screamed, and struck, hissing, with fangs bared.

Inuyasha tried to dodge in his confines; luckily the web stretched enough for the fangs to miss him completely. Mother only a bitch...father cared nothing for her...cast me aside...All the things he sometimes sadly wondered about were thrown back at him; Otoshiana was more than a food-trapper. He trapped his victims into believing his words...Inuyasha felt a great hatred rising...what if it IS true?I'll KILL HIM! Am I talking about this piece of slime...or my father...?

"Kuso!" swore the demon. It seemed to be recalling Gai and the hunger with which he'd looked at Inuyasha. Inuyasha himself recalled it too. For a moment, he almost gave in to fear again...no! Think of it like this. You will kill this demon, escape; and Gai, that bird-bag, can come and starve!

"You bastard," it hissed again. It couldn't attack him, not physically. It had to settle with...

"Your father took your mother! He cast her down and ravaged her!" it screamed, inventing details. "You misbegotten scum, conceived by accident. Your mother hated you. It was your fault that he killed her! She's dead, isn't she? It's your fault, bastard! Oh, doesn't it hurt! Yes! Yes! And your father was a savage bastard with face as ugly as hell! And you are a puny, weak, dirty-blooded hanyou! NOT FIT TO DIGEST! NOT FIT TO LIVE! NOT MEANT TO LI– augh!"

Inuyasha's bonds had suddenly burst. His scream reverbrated into the air. "DIE, YOUKAI BASTARD!" His claws sent a spurt of blood into the air. It fell like pattering feet on the foresty floor.

He stood there, blood soaking onto the haori­– the second-to-last remnant he had of his mother, besides memories– growling with savage abandon. "You will die for what you've said. YOU'RE THE WEAKLING!" His hand went stiff, claws extended, and the cry burst from his throat:

"SANKON TESSOU!"

Golden light in jagged streaks followed his hand as he sprang forward, arching high into the air and landing to rend, to rip and tear, and kill...

Otoshiana keened, a high and piercing sound, as half his face was ripped away in the unexpected attack. He recoiled, then snarled, darting forward to sink a fang into the hanyou's arm. Inuyasha spat, then sank his free arm's claw deep into the head of Otoshiana. The monster writhed, screaming fierce insults and half crushing him with its great body.

Then all was still.

Inuyasha lay, breathing hard, as blood slowly seeped from himself to the leaves of the ground.

He clenched the bloody limb with the other hand. "Ugh..."

He staggered as far from the demon's body as he could. He had lost too much blood...though strangely enough, the wound felt as though it were healing...

He climbed painfully up a tree, crying out as he reached with his wounded arm. At last he found a tree branch, and fell deeply asleep.