Title: Searching his soul, Finding his heart
Authoress: Ladya C. Maxine
Rating: PG-13
Summary: see chapter one.
Warning(s): see chapter one
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of its characters. All unrecognizable characters belong solely to me and are not to be touched. I am not making any money off of this and I write with the sole intention to entertain.

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'Rin!'

He looked around him in hopes that she had probably just moved in her sleep, something she did a lot due to her nightmares. Shifting his tail should she have crawled beneath its furry mass, he growled when his search of the immediate area came up empty handed.

Rising to his feet in a fluent motion, he sniffed at the air. Nothing.

It was too early for her to have woken up and even then she knew she was not allowed to wander off during the nights, especially not alone. No, she hadn't strayed. Something had come to them. But what could have possibly evaded his high youkai senses without him knowing? Not even Naraku with his many appearances could pull off such a stunt.

He rounded the fire, coming to stand over Jaken who didn't stir, snoring softly as he lay curled up around the two-headed staff of his.

"Jaken, wake up," he growled, still looking around to catch a glimpse of his missing pup. When no response came from his servant he looked down, irritated.

"Jaken!"

Still, the toad kept on sleeping.

Removing his sword, he landed a solid blow on the bald, green head of the toad with the blunt edge. To his surprise, Jaken simply rolled over, falling into an even deeper sleep.

'What is wrong with the fool?' he questioned himself, looking over to where his steed too was still fast asleep. The trusty beast was always up the moment his master was. Yet now, like Jaken, it slumbered on, both heads lying on the soft grass a few feet from the burning fire.

Golden eyes narrowed when he took note of something unusual; the fire. It was still burning. They'd always let it burn down during the night but now its flames were as bright as the day past. Now that he noticed it, the same faint scent from yesterday hung in the air, barely detectable for even his own youkai senses. And it was coming from the flames.

Walking over, he looked down into the orange light at the core. Indeed, new logs had been added, along with something else. A branch from a tree he knew could not be native in these parts. Spearing it with the tip of his sword, he lifted it out of the fire and studied the slender limb.

Not a charred spot on it, its leaves were still their original colour; a vibrant purple with green edges. Pulling it off Toukijin, he wasn't surprised to find it only slightly warm to the touch. Pulling off a purple leaf, he brought it to his nose and immediately turned his head when its scent made itself known.

"Silver plum." How could he have not recognized it yesterday? This explained everything.

The infamous trees, found only in the highest ranges of mountain terrain, were fabled to have brought many unfortunate mortals to their demise. When inhaled, its fumes slowly ate away at one's mind and body, first bringing on agonizing hours of fever and pain and then a slow death. Many mortals have tried to destroy the deadly trees but were overcome by its fumes before they could even strike it with their axes. Fire, as proven, had no effect on it either.

While mortals died from it, it had a much lesser effect on youkai's. The gravest thing that could happen was an unnaturally deep sleep that lasted for weeks. This seemed to be the case with Jaken and his steed. Both had been sleeping rather close to the fire and had inhaled more of it. Having sat farther away from the flames, and being a much more powerful youkai, Sesshoumaru had merely gone into a deeper sleep than usual.

'Yet it was enough for them to take my Rin.'

With a feral growl, he crushed the thick branch into mere powder before tossing it away in agitation.

No one took anything from the Lord of the Western lands. Especially not something he prized as much as his pup.

Up until that moment, his main goal had been to kill his foolish half-breed brother and claim Tesseiga as his own once and for all. Though his want for the all-powerful sword was great, his want for his pup was even greater.

While he didn't care much what would happen to Jaken, he assured himself that his steed would be safe here. He didn't know how long it would take for the sleep to wear off but judging by the situation he knew it would possibly take up to five weeks. Still, despite the distance, his loyal beast always knew where to find him. Jaken, being the little coward that he was, would tag along.

Rin's abductors were most likely from the mountains since they obviously knew how to use the silver plum to their advantage. The closest mountain ranges were several days walk from his location and there was no telling if that was where his Rin had been taken, but he had to risk it.

Something rustled on the pre-dawn breeze and he looked up in time to see a thin, white object fluttering past him. He caught it with flawless reflexes and looked upon it.

His pup's painting. The one she had drawn just last night. He could still smell her scent on it. He could still hear her voice explaining it to him.

Mindful not to tear, or burn, the fragile parchment with his claws, he folded and tucked it into his kimono, needing something that was hers with him until he got her back. Which he would, no matter what. Along with her drawing, he placed kept the leaf too, it being the only clue he had as to where he might find her.

Swords fastened and mind set, he gave the two slumbering demons one last glance before turning and sprinting of at unbelievable speed through the trees, eyes almost glowing as he began his quest to find his Rin.

It was cold. Too cold.

In fact, it felt like the time she had accidentally fallen into the icy river when they had been crossing a footbridge a couple of weeks ago. She had had no choice but to remove her wet clothes and had sat shivering miserably in a thin blanket close to the fire in hopes of finding some warmth, with little success. Until Sesshoumaru-sama had, unexpectedly, sat down next to her and wrapped her in his fluffy tail, the thick fur warming her small body rapidly as he held her close to him, long hair falling forward to tickle her face.

Now, whimpering softly, she sleepily groped around with a hand for the downy texture of her lord's tail, but her hand fell upon nothing but cold, hard stone. She shifted in her sleep, trying to find the familiar scent of her Sesshoumaru-sama's robes but that too was gone.

"Sesshoumaru-sama...," she uttered softly. He would always stroke her hair at this, reassuring her that he was still there, like a silent guardian angel she had heard the village folk talk about.

Nothing happened at first and she started to squirm but then froze when, instead of her lord's smooth fingertips or tender claws, something coarse brushed against her cheek. Opening a sleepy eye, she groggily turned over. And released a loud yelp.

Looking down at her was a long-faced man with a shabby beard and beady black eyes. Long ears, bearing many rings, hung down behind massive horns, one of which had a jagged tip as if it had broken off, that were each thicker than both her arms put together. He was really tall and really muscular, his arms and legs bulging beneath his worn clothes. He was a demon. That much was obvious from the combined features of 'human' and beast, in his case a mountain goat.

Squealing in fright, she scooted away until her back was against the wall, breathing heavily. Fully awake, she realized she was in a large and dank cave, the only light being a small hole high above her head where the sunlight poured through.

The demon remained where he was though snorted in disgust as he wiped his hand, which he had touched her with, off on his somewhat tattered clothes which looked to have been made out of several pieces of garment sewn together. Badly beaten armour clung to his chest and over his shoulders. Twin plates of metal also embraced his abnormally muscled calves.

"Oi, Krisga, the runt is up!" he called back to someone.

There came a clopping sound and another demon came into view, this one a foot shorter than his companion and lanky instead of burly. He looked less shabby than the first, garbed in clothes of a better state, though he looked much more lethal. Claws much longer than Sesshoumaru-sama's clutched a long-handled double-edged axe and twin horns grew from the back of his head, curving up and forward to frame his narrow face, which resembled more a goat than his companion's, with gleaming tips. A single tuff of hair sprouted from his pointed chin which he stroked with his other clawed hand as he studied the small girl before him.

"I told you that you used too much sleeping powder. Had she died from overdosing it would have been our heads that would have been brought to the chieftain on a platter." His voice was somewhat hoarse and had an occasional CLICK as his many needle-like teeth gnashed wetly.

"But she isn't dead, so quit your mecking," Maviku growled, clenching his fist and teeth.

Ignoring the bigger male, Krisga walked over and Rin could see that it were his feet that made the clopping sound, being bare and hoofed like that of a mountain goat. Her eyes travelled back up to his long face when he came to stand over her, studying her.

"Are you sure that this is her? After all, you follow orders like a mortal follows its nose."

"Shut your mouth. She was with him," Maviku grumbled.

Scowling at the bigger male, he then reached out a clawed hand and grabbed a handful of her hair, turning her head this way and that, not caring that his wicked claws left long red lines on her face and neck.

"Yes, this is her. At least you can follow simple orders."

"There's nothing simple about taking something from a youkai lord who could have easily torn me to shreds had I not used to proper amount of sliver plum."

Releasing her face roughly, leaving a deeper slash on her neck in the process and throwing her back, Krisga stood, narrow face twisted in disgust as he wiped his hands off like Maviku had.

"Tie her. It's a long way back and the last thing we need is for her to escape and get lost in the labyrinths. Chieftain wants her as soon as possible."

Rin had no time to react when her arms were painfully pulled behind her back and tied together by the wrists with coarse rope which immediately scratched at her skin, feeling very uncomfortable and itchy. Her ankles received similar treatment. An equally unpleasant strip of cloth was stuffed in her mouth and tied behind her head. She was then roughly slung over a broad shoulder, the demon's armour poking her torso irritatingly. It turned painful when he started walking, causing her to bounce slightly on his shoulder.

Twisting in his grip, she looked over her shoulder to see that they were heading into a tunnel she hadn't seen before. Once reached, it turned out to be an extremely steep stairwel; the steps roughly hacked out of the black stone and too narrow for normal feet to stand on. But the demon's hoofed feet easily balanced as they started down, their footsteps clopping loudly in the stale air.

"How do we know that youkai lord will come here?" Maviku asked his lanky partner. "If he doesn't come after her, can we eat her?"

Smirking at the little girl's fearful squeak, Krisga shrugged.

"Oh, he'll come. As for what happens afterwards, that depends on Chieftain. We only need her to bring Sesshoumaru to us. Once we have him she will be of no more use to us."

"I hope so," Maviku grinned dangerously as they made their way deeper into the mountain. "Mortal flesh is so tender and sweet and we hardly get any so high in these mountains."

Blinking away fearful tears, Rin craned her neck upwards to see the only light from the cavern above slowly fading. She tried struggling, to wriggle free of the demon's hold, but was rewarded with cruel pinch on her outer thigh as a warning. She reluctantly fell silent, watching as the light finally disappeared, leaving them in complete darkness as they made their way deeper into the mountain's interior.

'Sesshoumaru-sama, where are you...?'

tbc.........

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