*
Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha.
Strange Interlude
Chapter the 5th
Seven days came and went. Kenji secretly hid Jennifer in his home while he pretended to go about his daily life. The villagers often talked of the increased demon spotting since the release of InuYasha and the supposed burning of the demon girl, but Kenji never once questioned if saving her was really the right thing to do. He never once wondered if because he saved her he allowed more demons to come about. Not once. Well, maybe once, but the thought was quickly pushed from his mind. There was no way she could be a demon. She was definitely human. He had almost confirmed it.
The villagers also had mixed feelings about the burning. Some said it protected them the demon attacks while others thought they were wrong to do it. Some wished she was still alive and among them while others thought her very strange and was glad to be rid of her.
Kenji had succeeded in keeping Jennifer's survival a secret. The villagers had no idea that she was still alive and in fact would be among them very soon, leaving the village.
"I'm sending you to my cousin's house, in a village not--" Kenji thought about it for a moment, "...incredibly far from here. He will take care of you until I can move to the village in spring."
Jennifer had little say in the discussion of where she was going. What could she say? The only people she "knew" in this time other than Kenji were Kagome and InuYasha and she had no idea where they were now that the jewel was broken. She had no choice but to agree to go to Kenji's cousin's house.
After the midday meal she left out the back door and headed in the direction Kenji told her: west.
She was wearing a long hood that she held over her face to disguise herself from recognition. She managed to exit the village without any interference.
She walked for a while, unsure of what she really wanted to do. Should she go to Kenji's cousin's village? She could spend the rest of her life there and learn to love the man who rescued her--twice now. Or should she--could she--travel to the well and leave this nightmare?
She approached the first fork Kenji had talked about in his directions. She was supposed to take the road to the right.
She stopped walking. There was a man standing there with his back to her.
Jennifer panicked and ran off road and behind a tree. What if this man was from the village? He would recognize her. But then what? He couldn't hurt her, so why was she running? She did not know.
She peeked out between the trees. The man, dressed in purple, threw down a golden staff. He looked down the right-hand path and seemed to be considering going that way.
{Oh no! He's going the same way I'm going!}
Just then she heard two men walking behind her. She ducked back into the trees. The men passed her, obviously too engrossed in their conversation to notice her.
She looked out again. She saw the two men who had just passed her walking on the path to the left. The strange man in purple still stood there and finally bent over to pick up his stick. He also chose to go left, following behind the two in front.
{Well that was strange...} she thought.
Jennifer took another look around and got back on the road. She peered down the left road and looked hard at the strange staff-wielding man. He looked familiar somehow...
She could hear someone else approaching from behind her so she quickly ran down the right side of the road and continued her journey to Kenji's cousin's village.
The path began to take a sharp incline and the trees were becoming less dense. She reached the top of the hill and was amazed at what she saw. The forest stretched on for miles and miles and she could see several small villages hidden between the trees. She followed the road she was on with her eyes and found the village to where she was headed.
It looked awfully similar to Kenji's village. Then again all the villages looked like Kenji's village. She turned around and looked for Kenji's village.
"Have I come this far already?" She back around and looked at the road in front of her, "I still have long way to go."
She was about to continue on the path when something caught her eye: a huge, looming tree and a small clearing.
"Is that the 1000-year old Sacred Tree?"
If it was, then that meant the Bone-Eater's Well was close. And if the well was nearby that meant she could go home!
Jennifer immediately picked up her things and ran down the road. There was no direct path leading to the well, so she just estimated where she needed to turn. She ran quickly through the trees, the leaves crushing noisily beneath her feet. Right now she didn't care who or what heard her.
And predictably or not, someone did. A wolf demon carrying several small kitsune carcasses caught her scent.
"Ooh...a worthless human I can pick on." He sniffed the air, "And she a jewel shard, Koga will be most pleased with me."
He dropped the carcasses and ran after the scent.
The wolf was not the only demon in the forest. Someone else Jennifer had already met, someone much closer, had also caught the scent.
That particular demon knew she was there, but wanted to avoid her at all costs. He ignored her presence.
***
In a few minutes she was in the clearing. The well was there. She cautiously walked to the well. She was beginning to have second thoughts.
{Do I really want to go back? What are you talking about? Of course you do! But I may never be able to come back! But this isn't where you belong! But I could belong here...with Kenji. Well I want to get back to civilization! But---- Ok I have an idea. How about we try going through the well. So... So if we can't go back we can stay here. Oh...}
Jennifer approached the well and climbed on top of it. She stood up and looked down to the bone-layered bottom.
"Those weren't there before...Oh right...Bone-Eater's Well."
She took a deep breath.
"Well here goes nothing."
She closed her eyes and jumped feet first into the well. A flash of flesh and fur ran to the well. A clawed hand grasped onto Jennifer's arm stopping her before she reached the bottom.
"Gotcha!" he called.
Jennifer opened her eyes and screamed. She began to flail wildly to get free from him but the youkai's grip was too strong.
He reached in his other hand and yanked her out of the well. He threw her over his shoulder and held onto her legs. She was making it very difficult for him, kicking, screaming, and banging her fists against his back.
"Damn it girl, be still!" He began to run.
Only a few seconds has passed when they had stopped again. A hand from nowhere grabbed the wolf youkai's throat. The sudden stop caused Jennifer to crash her head against the wolf's back.
Jennifer could hear gasping and choking but knew not why. She tried to look around the demon's shoulder to see what was going on. She saw someone with long silver hair and a white furry -thing- on his right shoulder.
"Sesshomaru!" she whispered.
The wolf demon tried to speak, "Sessho-ma-raugh!"
Sesshomaru tightened his grip, "You will unhand this human."
"Sure Sesshomaru-sama, whatever you say."
With Sesshomaru still tightly grasping the wolf's neck, they knelt down and the demon dumped the girl onto the ground. She was dumped rather gruffly and landed uncomfortably on her knees. She gazed up at the powerful inu youkai practically squeezing the life out of the other. He was cold and unemotional, like she remembered.
"Ok!" the wolf demon started, "I put her down, can you let me go?"
Sesshomaru pretended to think on it for a moment and then smiled sardonically, "I think not."
He gave one last squeeze and green poison gas came from his hand. The poison began to eat away at his neck, melting the flesh until only the bone remained. Sesshomaru released his grip and the corpse fell to the ground.
The stench of melted flesh reached Jennifer's nose. She gagged on the smell and quickly turned away from the gruesome, mangled body.
Sesshomaru did not look at her.
"Members of the wolf demon tribe will be here soon. Do you want to stick around when they do?"
"Uh, I guess not." She replied.
Sesshomaru turned and started to slowly walk away.
Jennifer got up, "Hey, wait!"
Sesshomaru stopped and turned to face her. His hair blew serenely in the wind. A single green leaf floated past him. His yellow eyes were intense and strangely caring.
"Jaken," he spoke.
Jaken appeared from the forest on the back of a scaly two-headed horse- like demon.
"Yes Lord Sesshomaru?"
The two-headed beast let out a snort followed by a horrible screech when it saw the human. Jaken finally took notice of the human girl sitting on her knees.
"Ucck! What is that doing here?" he pointed.
"Jaken," Sesshomaru spoke, "take her to the mountain."
"But master," pleaded Jaken, "who is she but a mere human?"
"Jaken..." he said in a slightly warning tone.
Jaken panicked, "Yes, Lord Sesshomaru, what ever you say! Please don't hurt me."
Sesshomaru said not a word after that. He simply turned and walked back into the forest.
When Jaken was sure his master was gone he turned to look at the girl.
"I see not why he favors you, but you had better get on before I'm blamed for abandoning you."
"Uh...ok." Jennifer timidly approached the now kneeling demon.
"Quick Human!" snapped Jaken.
Jennifer warily climbed onto the bridled, two-headed beast, and before she could get comfortably situated, the demon leapt into the air.
Jennifer shrieked and tightly grasped the decorative cloth on the creature's back. One of its heads turned to look back at her and sneered. It obviously did not enjoy the fact that a human was riding it.
Jaken snapped his whip at the dissenting head, "Ignore her..."
It grunted and continued through the air.
"Besides," Jaken continued, "Sesshomaru-sama can't get mad at us if the human accidentally fell off. We did try to save her..."
The two heads both uttered a guttural laugh. Jennifer raised her head. She was confused at what Jaken meant. She hasn't fallen...
Just then the beast purposely bumped its hindquarters in attempt to knock Jennifer off. She closed her eyes shut and yelped again. She tenaciously held on to the blanket.
{Please don't let me fall,} she silently prayed.
Jaken and the demon laughed. There were no other attempts on her life but the ride was long and tiring.
{What am I doing? Why did Sesshomaru save me like that? Last time I saw him he tried to kill me...}
***Flashback***
"Don't...Please...Stop!"
The energy from the whip stopped only inches from her face. It was so close that she could feel the heat given off by the weapon. Sesshomaru turned his head and painstakingly evaporated the energy whip.
***Flashback***
{He couldn't kill me before. Is that why he saved me? What was he doing by the well? Uggh! I'm always asking myself questions that I don't know answers to. I can't do anything about it right now. I can only wait until we land.}
After a while of gazing at the passing scenery Jennifer saw a looming mountain range. The two-headed demon descended onto a dusty plateau. The demon landed not so delicately on the stone. Jennifer was jostled pretty badly but maintained her grip. She hit her head on the creature's scaly hide, and when the beast had stopped moving, slid off. She rubbed her head and flexed her fingers.
"Stay here girl," Jaken spat.
He then struck the scaly demon with his whip. The creature rose into the air and they rode off into the sky.
Jennifer stood and peered after Jaken until she could no longer see him. She finally looked around at her surroundings. She stood on a high plateau jutting from the face of an incredibly tall mountain.
With nothing better to do she walked the perimeter of the small area of flatness. Half of it was a cliff that dropped many feet below to the mountain's craggy base and half of the plateau was hard stone that jutted upward.
She turned to face the horizon. She let out her breath in a deep sigh. The sunset was beautiful, so much unlike the day she had had. She turned away from the setting sun towards a cave in the face of the mountain. She had purposely not gone into the cave wanting to first make sure there was not a way down. Having not found an alternate option, Jennifer approached the mouth of the cave and entered its depths. Hopefully she would survive this night.
~!@#$%^&*()_+~!@#$%^&*()_+!@#$%^&*()_+~!@#$%^&*()_+~!@##$%^&*(
So how was that? What will happen to Jennifer inside the cave? Why did Sesshomaru tell Jaken to drop her off there? Will we EVER get to see/meet InuYasha? Hold on! I promise he'll be there...3 more chapters until we meet up with InuYasha and company (again) so until then please review the chapters with what you liked, what you didn't like, Whatever...
^ ^
\__/
What does that look like to you? A smiley face? Well, I tried.
Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha.
Strange Interlude
Chapter the 5th
Seven days came and went. Kenji secretly hid Jennifer in his home while he pretended to go about his daily life. The villagers often talked of the increased demon spotting since the release of InuYasha and the supposed burning of the demon girl, but Kenji never once questioned if saving her was really the right thing to do. He never once wondered if because he saved her he allowed more demons to come about. Not once. Well, maybe once, but the thought was quickly pushed from his mind. There was no way she could be a demon. She was definitely human. He had almost confirmed it.
The villagers also had mixed feelings about the burning. Some said it protected them the demon attacks while others thought they were wrong to do it. Some wished she was still alive and among them while others thought her very strange and was glad to be rid of her.
Kenji had succeeded in keeping Jennifer's survival a secret. The villagers had no idea that she was still alive and in fact would be among them very soon, leaving the village.
"I'm sending you to my cousin's house, in a village not--" Kenji thought about it for a moment, "...incredibly far from here. He will take care of you until I can move to the village in spring."
Jennifer had little say in the discussion of where she was going. What could she say? The only people she "knew" in this time other than Kenji were Kagome and InuYasha and she had no idea where they were now that the jewel was broken. She had no choice but to agree to go to Kenji's cousin's house.
After the midday meal she left out the back door and headed in the direction Kenji told her: west.
She was wearing a long hood that she held over her face to disguise herself from recognition. She managed to exit the village without any interference.
She walked for a while, unsure of what she really wanted to do. Should she go to Kenji's cousin's village? She could spend the rest of her life there and learn to love the man who rescued her--twice now. Or should she--could she--travel to the well and leave this nightmare?
She approached the first fork Kenji had talked about in his directions. She was supposed to take the road to the right.
She stopped walking. There was a man standing there with his back to her.
Jennifer panicked and ran off road and behind a tree. What if this man was from the village? He would recognize her. But then what? He couldn't hurt her, so why was she running? She did not know.
She peeked out between the trees. The man, dressed in purple, threw down a golden staff. He looked down the right-hand path and seemed to be considering going that way.
{Oh no! He's going the same way I'm going!}
Just then she heard two men walking behind her. She ducked back into the trees. The men passed her, obviously too engrossed in their conversation to notice her.
She looked out again. She saw the two men who had just passed her walking on the path to the left. The strange man in purple still stood there and finally bent over to pick up his stick. He also chose to go left, following behind the two in front.
{Well that was strange...} she thought.
Jennifer took another look around and got back on the road. She peered down the left road and looked hard at the strange staff-wielding man. He looked familiar somehow...
She could hear someone else approaching from behind her so she quickly ran down the right side of the road and continued her journey to Kenji's cousin's village.
The path began to take a sharp incline and the trees were becoming less dense. She reached the top of the hill and was amazed at what she saw. The forest stretched on for miles and miles and she could see several small villages hidden between the trees. She followed the road she was on with her eyes and found the village to where she was headed.
It looked awfully similar to Kenji's village. Then again all the villages looked like Kenji's village. She turned around and looked for Kenji's village.
"Have I come this far already?" She back around and looked at the road in front of her, "I still have long way to go."
She was about to continue on the path when something caught her eye: a huge, looming tree and a small clearing.
"Is that the 1000-year old Sacred Tree?"
If it was, then that meant the Bone-Eater's Well was close. And if the well was nearby that meant she could go home!
Jennifer immediately picked up her things and ran down the road. There was no direct path leading to the well, so she just estimated where she needed to turn. She ran quickly through the trees, the leaves crushing noisily beneath her feet. Right now she didn't care who or what heard her.
And predictably or not, someone did. A wolf demon carrying several small kitsune carcasses caught her scent.
"Ooh...a worthless human I can pick on." He sniffed the air, "And she a jewel shard, Koga will be most pleased with me."
He dropped the carcasses and ran after the scent.
The wolf was not the only demon in the forest. Someone else Jennifer had already met, someone much closer, had also caught the scent.
That particular demon knew she was there, but wanted to avoid her at all costs. He ignored her presence.
***
In a few minutes she was in the clearing. The well was there. She cautiously walked to the well. She was beginning to have second thoughts.
{Do I really want to go back? What are you talking about? Of course you do! But I may never be able to come back! But this isn't where you belong! But I could belong here...with Kenji. Well I want to get back to civilization! But---- Ok I have an idea. How about we try going through the well. So... So if we can't go back we can stay here. Oh...}
Jennifer approached the well and climbed on top of it. She stood up and looked down to the bone-layered bottom.
"Those weren't there before...Oh right...Bone-Eater's Well."
She took a deep breath.
"Well here goes nothing."
She closed her eyes and jumped feet first into the well. A flash of flesh and fur ran to the well. A clawed hand grasped onto Jennifer's arm stopping her before she reached the bottom.
"Gotcha!" he called.
Jennifer opened her eyes and screamed. She began to flail wildly to get free from him but the youkai's grip was too strong.
He reached in his other hand and yanked her out of the well. He threw her over his shoulder and held onto her legs. She was making it very difficult for him, kicking, screaming, and banging her fists against his back.
"Damn it girl, be still!" He began to run.
Only a few seconds has passed when they had stopped again. A hand from nowhere grabbed the wolf youkai's throat. The sudden stop caused Jennifer to crash her head against the wolf's back.
Jennifer could hear gasping and choking but knew not why. She tried to look around the demon's shoulder to see what was going on. She saw someone with long silver hair and a white furry -thing- on his right shoulder.
"Sesshomaru!" she whispered.
The wolf demon tried to speak, "Sessho-ma-raugh!"
Sesshomaru tightened his grip, "You will unhand this human."
"Sure Sesshomaru-sama, whatever you say."
With Sesshomaru still tightly grasping the wolf's neck, they knelt down and the demon dumped the girl onto the ground. She was dumped rather gruffly and landed uncomfortably on her knees. She gazed up at the powerful inu youkai practically squeezing the life out of the other. He was cold and unemotional, like she remembered.
"Ok!" the wolf demon started, "I put her down, can you let me go?"
Sesshomaru pretended to think on it for a moment and then smiled sardonically, "I think not."
He gave one last squeeze and green poison gas came from his hand. The poison began to eat away at his neck, melting the flesh until only the bone remained. Sesshomaru released his grip and the corpse fell to the ground.
The stench of melted flesh reached Jennifer's nose. She gagged on the smell and quickly turned away from the gruesome, mangled body.
Sesshomaru did not look at her.
"Members of the wolf demon tribe will be here soon. Do you want to stick around when they do?"
"Uh, I guess not." She replied.
Sesshomaru turned and started to slowly walk away.
Jennifer got up, "Hey, wait!"
Sesshomaru stopped and turned to face her. His hair blew serenely in the wind. A single green leaf floated past him. His yellow eyes were intense and strangely caring.
"Jaken," he spoke.
Jaken appeared from the forest on the back of a scaly two-headed horse- like demon.
"Yes Lord Sesshomaru?"
The two-headed beast let out a snort followed by a horrible screech when it saw the human. Jaken finally took notice of the human girl sitting on her knees.
"Ucck! What is that doing here?" he pointed.
"Jaken," Sesshomaru spoke, "take her to the mountain."
"But master," pleaded Jaken, "who is she but a mere human?"
"Jaken..." he said in a slightly warning tone.
Jaken panicked, "Yes, Lord Sesshomaru, what ever you say! Please don't hurt me."
Sesshomaru said not a word after that. He simply turned and walked back into the forest.
When Jaken was sure his master was gone he turned to look at the girl.
"I see not why he favors you, but you had better get on before I'm blamed for abandoning you."
"Uh...ok." Jennifer timidly approached the now kneeling demon.
"Quick Human!" snapped Jaken.
Jennifer warily climbed onto the bridled, two-headed beast, and before she could get comfortably situated, the demon leapt into the air.
Jennifer shrieked and tightly grasped the decorative cloth on the creature's back. One of its heads turned to look back at her and sneered. It obviously did not enjoy the fact that a human was riding it.
Jaken snapped his whip at the dissenting head, "Ignore her..."
It grunted and continued through the air.
"Besides," Jaken continued, "Sesshomaru-sama can't get mad at us if the human accidentally fell off. We did try to save her..."
The two heads both uttered a guttural laugh. Jennifer raised her head. She was confused at what Jaken meant. She hasn't fallen...
Just then the beast purposely bumped its hindquarters in attempt to knock Jennifer off. She closed her eyes shut and yelped again. She tenaciously held on to the blanket.
{Please don't let me fall,} she silently prayed.
Jaken and the demon laughed. There were no other attempts on her life but the ride was long and tiring.
{What am I doing? Why did Sesshomaru save me like that? Last time I saw him he tried to kill me...}
***Flashback***
"Don't...Please...Stop!"
The energy from the whip stopped only inches from her face. It was so close that she could feel the heat given off by the weapon. Sesshomaru turned his head and painstakingly evaporated the energy whip.
***Flashback***
{He couldn't kill me before. Is that why he saved me? What was he doing by the well? Uggh! I'm always asking myself questions that I don't know answers to. I can't do anything about it right now. I can only wait until we land.}
After a while of gazing at the passing scenery Jennifer saw a looming mountain range. The two-headed demon descended onto a dusty plateau. The demon landed not so delicately on the stone. Jennifer was jostled pretty badly but maintained her grip. She hit her head on the creature's scaly hide, and when the beast had stopped moving, slid off. She rubbed her head and flexed her fingers.
"Stay here girl," Jaken spat.
He then struck the scaly demon with his whip. The creature rose into the air and they rode off into the sky.
Jennifer stood and peered after Jaken until she could no longer see him. She finally looked around at her surroundings. She stood on a high plateau jutting from the face of an incredibly tall mountain.
With nothing better to do she walked the perimeter of the small area of flatness. Half of it was a cliff that dropped many feet below to the mountain's craggy base and half of the plateau was hard stone that jutted upward.
She turned to face the horizon. She let out her breath in a deep sigh. The sunset was beautiful, so much unlike the day she had had. She turned away from the setting sun towards a cave in the face of the mountain. She had purposely not gone into the cave wanting to first make sure there was not a way down. Having not found an alternate option, Jennifer approached the mouth of the cave and entered its depths. Hopefully she would survive this night.
~!@#$%^&*()_+~!@#$%^&*()_+!@#$%^&*()_+~!@#$%^&*()_+~!@##$%^&*(
So how was that? What will happen to Jennifer inside the cave? Why did Sesshomaru tell Jaken to drop her off there? Will we EVER get to see/meet InuYasha? Hold on! I promise he'll be there...3 more chapters until we meet up with InuYasha and company (again) so until then please review the chapters with what you liked, what you didn't like, Whatever...
^ ^
\__/
What does that look like to you? A smiley face? Well, I tried.