A New Promise

Chapter 3: Pride

A/N: Heheh... I realized the last chapter wasn't very good... and I apologize. I've been stressed lately, and simply wanted to get the thing out ASAP. At this moment, I'm at school, and bored so I'm updating... Yeah, don't you feel the love?

Neways, thank you to my precious reveiwers... and yeah... I think I'm Sango not Kagome is kinda dead, nobody is reveiwing, and this is somewhat depressing but hey, gotta live and finish the damn thing.

I think I've been stalling long enough don't you? Well, on to my... "Catch Phrase"

ON WITH DA FIC!!!

A woman was running through the forest, clutching a small girl. To an untrained eye, it would simply be a worried mother carrying her child to safety. But to an eye trained, it was a female demon carrying a human girl to some unknown destination. The demoness was Ayame, and the small child was Rin, directing where to go from her carried postion. The little girl was clutching to Ayame, crying silent tears as her carrier ran. Sesshomaru had gotten very gravely injured, and Rin was very worried for her lord. She had expressed her worries and fears to the Ayame.

Ayame herself raced through the mid spring trees, leaping over lumpy roots. The air was slightly chilly, but running kept her warm. She was more worried about Rin, who was wearing her pelt. The air whipped at her face, and Rin hid under the pelt. Ayame herself was worried. She hadn't smelled any blood, and she had been running top speed for well over ten minutes.

Suddenly, the smell of blood hit her like a ton of bricks. There was a very large amount, and it alarmed her. She toyed with the idea of leaving Rin here, so she wouldn't see the blood, but thought better of it. It was very unsafe in the spring, with lots of demonic mating going on, making it very dangerous. It would be better to simply bring her and tell her to shut her eyes and not open them.

The scent of blood grew, and Ayame knew they were getting closer. Now closer to the battle site, she realized there was other blood in the mix. Some lower demons, mostly Sesshomaru, and some Inuyasha. She figured they had been having some sort of brothers quarrel, and neither had actually won. She snorted. Men really were stupid sometimes.

She stopped running, and Rin looked up at her, recognition of this area in her eyes. The usual brown trees were splattered with a deep dark red, and the birds that were always almost around were gone. The clearing that lay ahead held one of the wounded men, Ayame was sure of it. She looked around, to see if there was a suitable place to hide the girl in her arms, when something walked up behind them. Ayame whirled around to see a two-headed dragon and a little green toad thing. Rin was ecstatic.

"Jaken! You're alive!" She reached out her short arms and stroked the dragons scaly skin while smiling a toothy smile at Jaken. The little imp narrowed his eyes at her, but Ayame was sure she saw a faint touch of blush on his cheeks. She looked between the two demons, and decided she could leave Rin here. She set her down on the dragons head, and made a move to walk away, before Rin grabbed her arm.

"Please help Sesshomaru Sama!!" The little girl cried. Ayame looked at the trees blocking her view of the clearing and sighed. She couldn't leave Rin to this, and she doubted the abilities of the toad. She looked to Rin and nodded, before walking into the clearing.

Walking into the clearing, Ayame barely believed what she saw. The magnificent and arrogant demon she had seen just the day before, was lying unconscious on the ground covered in his own blood. His cloths and armor were in shreds, and his clean and almost perfect hair had mats and blood clots in it. He was nothing as she remembered from yesterday.

She stood there in shock, staring at the beaten male in front of her. He was wounded very badly, she could still she blood seeping from his wounds. She stood as if in a trance, awed that so powerful a demon could end up like this. Pained coughing ripped her from her daze, and she realized it was him doing the hacking. Forgetting how he threw her to the ground the day before, she rushed to side in worry. He was still out, and his breathing was very shallow. But he was alive.

She sniffed the air, and noticed something very odd about it's scent. It smelled distinctly like Inuyasha, but something was very off about his scent. It lacked humanity. The scent made shivers run down her spine. There was more bloodlust, more hate in his scent then she had ever experienced. It was so much more demonic. Honestly, it kind of scared her. Another hacking cough, followed by blood, brought her from her sniffing. She remembered she was here to help Sesshomaru, not to ponder about Inuyasha.

She shifted her lithe body and put her arms under Sesshomaru. She lifted him up with some difficulty. She was more of a punch and kick girl, not one of those types that pick up heavy objects. She began to walk towards the stream, with him bleeding all over her cloths and arms. The man she was carrying coughed in her arms, and more blood began to drip out. She shuddered. Even if she was a demoness, she really wasn't fond of the sight of blood.

A few minutes later, she stumbled into the stream. She lay Sesshomaru on the shore before taking off his shirt. It was then she realized she had no bandages, and sighed. She didn't want to leave him to scavengers, and she was sure he would have at least a few enemies, who would love to kill him while he was weak. She looked to his shirt. It was tattered, but would make enough bandages until she could put him in a safer spot. She rinsed some of the blood out, and lay it to dry slighty on a rock as she cleaned his wounds. They wouldn't be completely dry, but they would just have to suffice.

She brought Sesshomaru to the center of the stream, which came just a few inches above her waist. She promptly began to clean his wounds in the cool water. His strength seemed to return in here, and he slowly began to naturally heal the smaller and less lethal wounds. She sighed as she cleansed his wounds of the dirt from the forest ground. She guessed Inuyasha had had a part in this, but that didn't really matter at the moment.

Deciding that this was the best she could do without any herbs or soup or other random healing things, she brought the demon lord back to the shore and began to wrap his worst wound, a deep gash from his left shoulder to his stomach, in the makeshift bandages derived from his shirt. While wrapping him up, her ears noted a small sound just in front of her. Her head jerked up and found it was only Rin and the dragon and that imp. Rin ran next to them.

"Is he going to be alright Miss Ayame?" Rin asked worridly.

"He should be. But I need to find somewhere to put him while I go find proper bandages and other stuff."

"Oh, I know the perfect place! There's a cliff near here, and Ah Un and Jaken can guard him!" Rin exclaimed. Ayame smiled at her and nodded.

"It sounds perfect Rin. Lead me to it." She picked Sesshomaru up again and heaved him onto Ah Un. Rin climbed on and held Sesshomaru to the dragon, as did Jaken. Ayame noted there wouldn't be room for her, and simply told Rin she would follow.

Hours later, Sesshomaru opened hs eyes to a very unfamiliar place. He had know idea how he got here, to this cave like place, and he was confused. He tried to sit up, but when a sharp pain erupted from his torso, he quickly sat back down. His mind was racing with questions. What had happened? Why was he here? Who brought him here? Where was here? He forced his mind to calm down, and he began to think of what happend.

He had been fighting Inuyasha, and beating him very easily. Then... something had happened. Inuyasha turned into a full demon, and their fight had intensified greatly. Then Inuyasha had attacked him with a very odd force, and he had gone flying... He remembered believing he had died, before hitting the ground and surrending to his unconsciousness. But how had he gotten here?

A soft rustle to his left made him turn his head. A girl with bright orange hair was next to him holding what looked like bandages. She seemed very familiar, and it took a few second for Sesshomaru to remember. It was the girl that had said she smelled like Inuyasha. Why was she here? She glanced at his face and saw he was awake, and then sighed a sigh of relief.

"Good to finally see you up. Rin's been worried sick. You've been out for little under a week. I keep having to change your bandages..." She trailed off, undoing the ones on his chest and rubbing something cool onto the aching wound."....Rins asleep right now, but it's almost daybreak and you can talk to her."

"What are you doing here?" Sesshomaru asked, louder then he intended.

"Shh! You'll wake Rin. She was up late last night anyway, don't wake her up now." Sesshomaru realized she was whispering, and blamed his lack of hearing well on the blood loss. "And I'm here to help you, you idiot. Rin came running to me awhile ago crying her eyes out about you being hurt, so I helped. I ain't leaving a little girl to fend for herself and a wounded demon, so here I am. Though I really don't know why I'm helping you after you threw me to the ground." She said the last part with her words dripping with contempt as she finished rebandaging him.

"You can thank me later. Do you want something to eat? I made soup." She nodded her head to the direction of said food. Sesshomaru smelled it and realized, he was quite hungry, but the dish wasn't one of his 'choice' favorites.

"I don't eat human food." He stated simply. Ayame scoffed at him.

"Bull, you'll eat whats given to you. Your lucky I'm even offering it to you." She walked over and put some in a crudely made bowl. "Sides, I'm the one that's gotta feed it to you. And your not starving to death after I spent so much time cleaning you stupid wounds." She put the bowl up to his lips, and he reluctantly drank. He knew he was in no position to refuse, and he really was hungry. After he finished she smiled.

"There there, that wasn't so hard now was it? The food'll help you regain your strength, then you can leave. Try getting back to sleep. Rin'll probably be awakewhen you come back to the land of the living." He shut his eyes, following the orange haired female's advice. She herself walked across the room to her sleeping area, and sat down.

"Just so ya know, when your better, I'm leaving." With that, they both slowly drifted to sleep, on opposite sides of the cave.

A/N: There, I think that was a bit better, don't you? I've realized I type a helluva lot better when it's nightime. And since I'm becoming slightly ncturnal... yeah. Well, I hope you've enjoyed it. Please review, I believe I'm becoming somewhat of a review whore... Though thats not really something you go around boasting now is it?

Smoochies and review!

OnH