KB: And, after an extended absence, here we be again!

RK: It's been months, Megami-chan. What's been keeping you?

KB: I have college, you know that.

RK: Aaaaand….? You have to have a better excuse than that.

KB: … T.T It's not my fault, I've been really busy….

Kira: Busy? Too busy for friends?

ZB: Too busy for fun?

KB: Yes. Too busy for friends and fun. And for a fanfic. And for anything other than homework and my job.

RK: You don't seem so happy, M-chan.

KB: -.-' Oh whatever. I don't own Inuyasha. Read.

All but KB: O.O

RK: Are you alright? -Feels her forehead-

KB -blushing- eh…

RK: You don't have a fever…

KB: J-just get on with the ficcy!

((Due to the fact that I don't have the patience to sit and type out the whole training session, this installment of A Feudal Fairytale takes place around 3 weeks after the last one. They're on the road again... like a band of gypsies we go down the highway... NO! NOT THE SONG! Anyway. ))

'Flare!'

A tree to the right was engulfed in intense flames, and within seconds, it was reduced to nothing but dust.

'Better, but ignition is still too slow.' Kaida chimed in from Dia's left. She grumbled distemperedly.

'Maybe if I got a decent break for food I'd do better.'

It had been three weeks since they'd left the Tower. Kaida had been training Dia, and she'd gotten very good, very fast. She was only allowed to study the first level spells, but since rules were made to be broken, she's been secretly studying the higher level ones. It was about sunset, and the Inuyasha-tachi (Dia included) had set up camp in a small meadow.

In these past three weeks, there hadn't been even one single demon attack. This had put the rest of the group on edge, since it was such a rare occurrence. The group came to the conclusion that Naraku must be planning something, and so everyone was on guard. The last of the light from the sun faded away, and the stars shone their soft glow down on the little camp. The full moon lit everything up like it was midday. All around them, there is silence. Even the crickets weren't chirping.

It was that lack of noise that first alerted Inuyasha to the fact that something wasn't right. It seemed Inuyasha wasn't the only one who had noticed the unnatural silence. Miroku gripped his staff tightly, while maintaining his meditative pose, and Sango had Hraikotsu sitting across her lap, ready for use. Kirara sat close to her mistress, ears perked and alert. Shippou had chosen Kagome's shoulder as a safe refuge, while Kagome had her bow and arrows close at hand. A casual observer wouldn't notice anything odd, just a group of people around a campfire preparing for bed, but the tension in the camp was incredibly thick.

A rumbling sounded in the distance, getting closer by the second. It sounded vaguely like thunder, but it was coming not from the sky, but from the ground. The rumbling was now like a roar, and the ground was pushing up as if something massive were moving underneath it. Moving at a very high speed. Right towards the camp. Inuyasha drew Tetsusaiga and stood ready, while the rest of the group got into a defensive stance. The ground broke with a mighty crashing sound, and what appeared to be a stone whale of gargantuan proportions burst forth.

To everyone's surprise ((come on, how many times in your life have you been faced with a giant stone whale-demon? I mean, honestly.)) it kept going up. Now it was flying. As if things weren't strange enough. Without hesitation, Inuyasha leapt up and smashed his sword onto the things head causing it to... keep right on going like nothing happened. Oh boy.

Inuyasha landed back on the ground lightly with a few choice curse words. At this time, Sango felt it prudent to try Hraikotsu. From her vantage point on Kirara's back, she chucked her giant boomerang with great force. It had much the same effect as the Tetsusaiga.

'What's with this thing?' Inuyasha growled angrily.

Miroku decided to enlighten the violent hanyou.

'It appears that physical attacks have no effect.'

Dia rolled her eyes.

(Thank you, Captain Obvious) she thought to herself.

'It is far to big to fit into my Kazaana as well.' He continued.

(Dia, try a spell!) came a familiar voice in Dia's head.

Kaida was talking to her in her mind. Nice timing to reveal that talent. She blinked. Making a swift decision, she decided on an ice spell.

' Freeze Crystal!'

Dia let loose a barrage of sharp ice missiles. They penetrated into the side of the demon-whale, just under the front fin, causing it to bellow and turn sharply to face her. (Uh-oh.) she thought.

The whale-demon opened its mouth and blasted a beam of green light at her. Luckily, at the same time it decided to fire, Kagome fired one of her arrows at it and threw the beam out of line. The shot went wide. It missed Dia, but took out an entire grove of trees, the hill they were growing on, and the surrounding area for about 200 yards.

(Yikes ...that would have hurt) Dia thought.

'Kagome, are there any shards?' Inuyasha yelled.

Good question.

'..No, none!' Kagome called back to Inuyasha.

'This isn't working' Miroku said.

(Well obviously) Dia thought to herself.

Inuyasha grumbled and got ready to use the Kaze no Kizu. While he was getting ready to unleash his attack, the behemoth plunged earthward, right towards where the group had clustered. Everyone scattered.

'Oof!' Dia tripped. (Goddammned shoelaces…) she thought.

She couldn't get out of the way in time, and as the thing went underground again, she was flung high into the air by the tremendous force. Before she could even think of stopping her unexpected flight and subsequent descent, the whale burst from the ground again and luckily (or unluckily) Dia got caught in one of the rocky ridges of stone protruding from the beast. She got the wind knocked out of her, and she felt like someone had just dropped a bus on her head.

She was too stunned to even move. Unfortunately for her, Inuyasha couldn't stop his attack, and it hit the whale demon, dealing it a mortal blow. In its ensuing death throes while still in the air, Dia got chucked off with quite some force.

As if someone decided it was 'pick on Dia day,' her second flight was not seen by the Inuyasha-tachi, who thought she was still on the whale-demon, and were now chasing after it in the opposite direction of where she was falling.

(Wow, I am SO not having a good day.) She thought.

Someone up there must like her. Instead of falling to a horrible death, dashed to pieces by rocks, Dia landed in a large, and luckily deep, pool of water. It took her a few minutes, but she managed to haul her sorry ass up out of the water and onto dry land.

After a few moments, she realized there was someone else here. Peering at her with a mixture of curiosity and wariness from behind a rock, Dia could make out the image of a little girl in an orange and yellow-checkered kimono.

'Hello' Dia said gently.

The girl jumped a little and looked like she might run off. Dia blinked and looked down at herself. She was soaking wet, bruised in several places, and had quite a few cuts and scratches.

(I must look like some weird psycho-hermit girl...) she thought to herself. She giggled a little, which hurt, indicating bruised ribs.

(Good thing Kaida was so adamant about learning those healing spells...) she thought.

She quickly went about the task of fixing herself up. Within a few minutes, she was good as new.

Through this process, the little girl stared at her, openly fascinated. She moved a little closer to her, and Dia offered one of her friendliest smiles.

'Hi there, darling. What's your name?' She asked encouragingly.

The little girl just stared up at her with her big brown eyes. Dia continued.

'My names Dahlia Illusen-Azure Takigawa, but everybody calls me Dia.'

Dia smiled at her again.

'...Rin.' She says softly.

(Ah, now we're getting somewhere.) Dia thought.

'Your name's Rin? That's a wonderful name.'

From the corner of her eye she saw a movement from the trees to one side of the pool. It was a snake, of ridiculously large proportions. Correction, a demon snake, of ridiculously large proportions. And it was going towards the both of them. Fast. Not giving herself time to think, Dia jumped up in front of Rin and blasted the damnable thing with a well-placed fireball

Sesshomarus POV

(It really is hard to find good help these days. Jaken is really proving useless when it comes to taking care of Rin. I told him to stay with her until I came back, and what do I find when I do? He's drunk on human sake, Ah-Un has wandered off into another part of the clearing, and Rin is missing. He used to be such a reliable servant)

Sesshomaru stopped, catching another human scent in Rin's direction. This human also had the smell of Inuyasha. He'd already gone closer to his detestable half-brother than he'd wanted to, and now there was a stranger messing with Rin. Marvelous.

((Just for you, Fuzzy v)) Off to the side, a chibi with curly dark hair and brown eyes danced around waving a sign that said 'Sesshomaru is my Lord and Master!' Then the authoress appeared and bopped him on the head, dragging him back to the real world. End gratuitous chibi moment.

Still Sesshomarus POV

As he neared where Rin and the unknown human were, he also picked up the scent of a demon. Not a particularly strong one, he normally wouldn't have taken any note of it, save the fact that It was VERY near Rin. He got to them just as the snake demon launched itself at Dia.

He was surprised, to say the least, when the other human girl with Rin obliterated the petty demon with a magic attack. As much as he appreciated the fact that this strange magic-using human had managed to protect Rin, she was still a strange magic-using human, and he didn't like her so near to his small charge.

'Rin, come here.' He said.

She looked up and beamed when she saw him.

'Sesshomaru-sama!' she said, running over to him.

Back to normal POV

'Rin, come here.'

A voice from behind her, silky smooth and masculine, caught Dia's attention.

'Sesshomaru-sama!' Rin ran over to him.

(Uh-oh.) She thought.

Inuyasha had told Dia about his older brother. She was less than happy about running into him. She turned around and blinked a few times. THAT was Sesshomaru? He was… not quite what Dia had imagined. The way Inuyasha had described him, she'd been expecting a 10ft tall demon with blood dripping from his fangs and claws. This guy was… well, ethereal in his beauty.

'Human, what was that magic you used?' he asked.

Dia shook her head and, figuring it was better not to piss this guy off, she told him about her magic and the Tower. He said nothing, and she was starting to get a little edgy when…

'Do you travel with the half-breed Inuyasha?'

Dia started.

'Yeah... I heard you two were related.'

His eyes narrowed slightly at that, a small difference, but it somehow made him seem much scarier. Dia continued quickly, figuring that if she'd gone this far, why not just finish the thought.

'I also heard you've tried to kill him a few times.'

He nodded, lightly.

'Do you wish to make an issue of that?' he asked.

Dia shook her head.

'Nah, chalk it up to sibling rivalry. I understand, I have a few little siblings myself. They can be annoying as hell sometimes, but they're not ALL bad... usually.'

Dia could have sworn the corners of his mouth flexed up a little at that, but she couldn't be sure.

'Human, you have a lot of nerve to speak to me in such a familiar manner.' He said.

'I have killed men for less. Why should I not do the same to you?'

Dia thought for a moment, trying to come up with a good answer. (No pressure, he'll just kill me if you I don't have a good enough answer.) she thought.

'How about this; you let me live, and point me in the direction of Inuyasha, and I'll heal your arm.' Dia said.

Technically, the spell to re-grow and re-attach severed limbs is about two levels above what she was supposed to know. But again, rules were made to be broken, and she'd learned that spell on her own in secret.

His face didn't change, but Dia got the feeling he was a bit surprised.

Finally he said; 'I accept your offer human. First, tell me your name.'

'Dia.' She said simply, not really wanting to recite her whole long name again.

Taking a deep breath, Dia cleared her mind and focused on the magic inside herself. A light blue glow surrounded her hands and Sesshomaru's shoulder. The spell was relatively simple, the only complicated part was the piece of the spell that made the nerve endings grow.

She managed to pull it off without a hitch, and when the glow faded, Sesshomaru was up one arm.

'That'll be a little sore for a few hours, and you may get a tingling sensation every now and then for the first few days. Its totally normal.' She said, acting like she'd done this before.

Sesshomaru said nothing. He turned and started walking away.

'The half-breed is to the north, about a mile.' He said over his shoulder.

After a few seconds, Rin followed him, turning around to wave goodbye to Dia. She blinked and sighed wearily once they were out of sight. That spell was two levels above her for a reason. She wasn't used to using that much magic at once, and she felt tired and drained.

With another little sigh, she started walking towards where Sesshomaru had said the rest of the group was. After about 20 minutes of grumbling and walking, she saw a firelight, which proved to be...

'Hey guys.' Dia said casually as she walked into camp and plopped down. Everyone did a double take at her, and before anyone could say anything she continued.

'I ran into your big brother, Inuyasha. Man has he got one hell of a poker face.'

KB: And I'm done.

RK: WHAT? AGAIN?

KB: Whatdya mean again? I'll update again in a few days. I already have a new chappy half-written.

RK: Is that so…

KB: Yes. It is so.

Kira: I want to write a chapter….

ZB: ME TOO! I WRITE CHAPTER!

RK: What about me? I want a chance to write one…

KB: Then get off your lazy butts and start writing.

RK: … are you sure you're alright?

KB: -.- well if SOMEONE would have remembered my birthday….

RK: … oh. Um… Happy Belated Birthday?

KB: ' well, better late than never, I suppose. Forgiven and forgotten. Until next update. :walks away:

RK: … She not really better yet…

ZB: Nope…

Kira: Not at all….

KB: I'M FINE! -sound of door slamming-