1Chapter four: Bandits
Yasha awoke to the sound of grunting and muffled swearing, her head felt like she had dipped it in cement and she couldn't focus on anything in particular.
She was shivering and when she felt around her she could feel the cold water of the river lapping against her, she was already drenched but somehow it managed to soak her to the bone.
Memories fluttered like butterflies across her mind and it was then she

remembered that someone had saved her from seriously being injured.
No wait...she was seriously injured, just thank the gods she wasn't dead.
That would have been bad . . .Not that she would've really cared.

She thought of the few people she'd loved most; her father Kijen, Koga was like her second father, and her friends. She'd only met him once, but Miroku was so kind. And Sango had helped her so much. And her best friends, it was hard for her to remember who they were, but she remembered that they were always there when she needed them. And the wolf-demon boys, Kaneko and Shoujo. Also her

beloved pets whom have yet to leave her side.

And they had managed to tear her clothes off and thinking back on it now, most likely raped her.

Yasha swallowed hard and blinked her eyes furiously, she couldn't see.
She stared down at her right ring finger and looked at the delicate silver ring with her family's coat of arms upon it, and the bracelets that her father had given her when she

was three.
They had a sense of power in them, and when she closed her eyes and thought about Papa, it was as if they had given her renewed strength.
She had the power, and will, and skill of her father. Nothing could stop her.

She stared idly around her and an image of a man, no a boy, no a boy maturing into a young man fighting nearly seven large and burly men.
Yasha swallowed, her master.
She got up and managed to stumble over to a body lying on the forest floor, she recognized the man as the unlucky one to try and rape her first.
She scowled at him as she put her foot on his chest and pulled the dagger out with a

small sound of sucking air.

Wiping the dark red blood on the torn bodice of her dress she turned to face the other men. She screwed up her face, look who looked like a princess now?She stumbled over to the fight and grimaced as she plunged the dagger into some

random guys neck.
The whole brawl stopped suddenly and seven shocked faces looked at her.
"What the . . .?" some random man mumbled in surprise at the panting girl.
Yasha blinked away the forming tears; she had killed two men today; she was taught never to kill. She felt horrible, but she wasn't going to sacrifice herself for them to live.

She had suffered enough.
Inuyasha just stared at her, totally still; she wasn't your normal slave girl.
He grinned, "Hey, look who your opponents are mister" he said rather loudly as he brought his sword out of nowhere and jabbed it through the mans chest.
He fell to the ground with a thud.
The battle began once more, men went to Inuyasha and others went to Yasha.
Yasha had two men, that wasn't too bad, but this would prove to be a little harder, now that she had her own injuries.

She had a massive headache and as she stumbled backwards, walking into the cool threads of the river one of the men spoke, "You stupid li'l whore" he muttered whilst he ran forward to attack.
Yasha looked around her, nothing was near for her to use as a weapon.
She frowned when he came close enough for her and she raised her fist and brought it crashing into the mans face.

He faltered for a moment before he fell backwards into the water, letting water droplets fly around the two.

Yasha wiped the water from her face, and fell back with surprise as the other man had launched himself at her and rammed her right in the stomach, sending her careening backwards, falling with a splash into more deeper water.
She scrambled herself up and gasped as she sucked in breaths of air.
She wasn't expecting that.The man came striding towards her, cracking his knuckles, "I'm gonna enjoy this" she heard him mutter, as he grabbed her throat between his two rough calloused hands and

began to shut off her wind pipe.

She gasped with the sudden lack of air, and dug her fingernails into his calloused hands, clenching her teeth together, as she dug as far as she could.

Seeing that this was to no avail she let her arms go limp and let them search around the

riverbed for a sharp rock. Nothing.
Her eyes were going blotchy and she could already see little dots start to dance in her vision and her face start to heat up with the sudden wall in her blood movement.
She threw her fist at the side of his head as hard as she could.
He fell to the side and she managed to clamber up and started to walk out of the river in search of her new master.

She looked around as her feet still stood in the water but she couldn't see him or the other men anywhere. Apart from a couple of dead or unconscious ones lying around the place.
Then she noticed the ink dripping from her hair, leaving her standing in a black puddle. She screamed in sudden fright as hands clamped around her waist and brought her back into the water.

Yasha looked behind her as the man she had hit earlier, was baring a really ugly grin as he grabbed her hands and held them together over the top of her head. Looking on in

satisfaction she saw the dark ugly print that was on his right temple.
She screamed again in surprise and disgust as he dipped his head down and kissed her

on the neck.
She squirmed and kicked, trying to get out of his grip but the kiss only got more violent

as he began to bite her. Swinging her legs around she tried to detangle herself, but this man was huge, he managed to hold her above ground level, holding her arms straight above her with one hand while he groped her with the other."Let me go you big ugly filthy brute!" she yelled as she continued to scream, kick, swear and do all unlady-like things in attempt to get herself free.
With her eyes screwed shut she didn't notice the mans action had stopped but she felt

the sudden whoosh of air she was falling forward, with the man.

Thinking this man was trying something new, she took a chance at trying to get free and with a full swing and twist she managed to escape his hold and fall into the water, landing sharply onto the sharp rocks that covered the bed.
She sat up and looked for the guy come towards her but found that he wasn't moving.
She watched him for seconds, but no movement.

Was he bluffing?Or did he have a heart attack with the thought that he had finally managed to get a girl?

She picked up a rock and chucked it at him.

It hit the guy square in the face with a resounded 'thump' as the pebble rebounded off and landed with a 'plop' back into the waters.

Yasha sat there staring, staring at nothing in particular before she heard a familiar voice.

"Hey, are you ok?" Inuyasha gruffly asked as he extended his hand to help her up.

Yasha put her hand up slowly, her mind absent in her actions.

Inuyasha hauled her out of the water and stared at her, bruises, scratches, cuts, and more bruises and black something-or-other dripping off of her. What a piece of beautiful artwork.

"Are you ok?" he repeated again. Shaking her shoulders slightly to try and get some sort of response out of her.

It was only then that her mind returned to her and she blinked. And stared.
And blinked.

Memories ran past her and she remembered what had happened. She felt cold, and when

she looked down she saw her bodice torn and covered with blood.

She shrieked, pulled the material together and sent her hand sailing through the air to land with a slap against Inuyasha's cheek.

They stood there for a moment totally in silence and staring at each other.

Yasha gasped and slowly bent to her knees, so she was once more in the water, kneeling at his feet, "I'm sorry m. . .ma. . .master" she said, barely in a whisper.
Hitting her master was a death sentence, she vaguely remembered a girl she once new,

she was taken away by an extremely rich man. She heard two of her boarding masters talking about the mishap where the girl had thought the man was an intruder late one night, and thought she should defend the home. She ended up being decapitated because she swung an iron rod into her master's face thinking him to be a thief.

Yasha shuddered; she didn't want that to happen, so she bent lower, so that her long

white hair was waving around in the river's current. And her forehead touched the water ever so slightly, giving her goose bumps and making her shake.
Inuyasha stared down at her, what on Earth was she doing?
He nudged her with his foot, "Oi, what are you doing?" he asked in confusion.
Yasha didn't reply. Inuyasha bent down and lifted her chin with his hand.

Yasha kept her eyes to the ground.
"Answer me, what are you doing?" he asked again.
Yasha kept her eyes on the ground, "Hitting your master is a death sentence" she whispered.

Inuyasha rose an eyebrow, "Uh, continue"
Yasha swallowed, "And I forgot my place, they were only reflex actions sir, I didn't mean to, I'm sorry" tears were forming in her eyes, she wasn't going to cry, she wasn't going to cry.
Inuyasha got up and Yasha fell back into the water."Get up, I'm not going to kill you, you're not mine, and besides I wouldn't do that just because you slapped me" he smirked.
Yasha sat up, and clenched her dress together and stared at his retreating form.
"Well are you coming? Or are you going to stay here and get raped and tortured by some other bandits?" he yelled over his shoulder as he walked towards his horse.

Yasha ran through the water, ignoring the rocks and pebbles that stuck to her rough feet, which were very sore at the moment.
She grabbed the reins of her horse and followed after him, amazed that the horse hadn't run off during the whole violent encounter. She got up on her horse and rode with one hand, the other holding her dress in place.
Inuyasha looked up at the sky, the sun was just disappearing and the birds were starting to find their roosts to settle for the night. Shrugging out of his long coat, he threw it at the girl behind him, "Here, cover yourself with this" he mumbled, keeping his head looking straight ahead. Yasha grabbed the coat before it slid off the horse, and stared at it, "Thank you" she mumbled before she shrugged it on.

They moved through the large canopy of trees in silence before Inuyasha and Yasha couldn't take it anymore.

Yasha's mood was coming back to it's normal self, "So, where did you. . ." but was cut

of when Inuyasha started at the exact same time."Where did you. . ."

Yasha closed her mouth and looked at him, "Sorry, you first"

Inuyasha shook his head, "No, you go first"
"I insist" she said, looking away.
Inuyasha looked confused, "No I insist!"
Yasha sighed, and kicked her horse gently so that she rode directly next to him, "You go

first" she said quietly.
Inuyasha looked at her an nodded, "Where did you learn to fight like that?"
Yasha blinked at him, since when did masters ask that sort of question?"Um. . .that's not exactly fighting" she mumbled, pulling the coat tighter as the breeze swept through the material.
Inuyasha nodded, "In my eyes it is, you killed two full grown men, and seriously hurt another"
Yasha found interest in a piece of loose thread, "Well you see, I kind of learnt how to fight when I was taken away from my family"
Inuyasha looked at her, "You were taken away?"
Yasha nodded, "Well, sort-of."
Inuyasha nodded, "What happened?"
She gripped the reins, she had never talked about this to anybody, "I'd rather not."
Inuyasha frowned,
"Why not?" he asked.
Yasha swallowed, "Not now...please," she trailed off.
Inuyasha waited.
"But-"

"I said no." she replied sternly and kept her eyes straight ahead.

"As your master I order you to-"

"I said no damn it!" she glared at Inuyasha with a deep fire in her eyes that made fear bolt through him.
Inuyasha stared at her, she didn't speak like a commoner, hell she didn't even swear like one.

She was dignified.

Inuyasha pulled his reins, to pull the horse to a halt, "Yasha" he said sharply.

Yasha stopped her horse and looked back at him, "Yes, sir?"
"We'll stay here for the night, you'll need to get some rest for the trip tomorrow, we

won't stop tomorrow night" he answered.

Yasha nodded and slid of her horse, secretly thankful to his decision, she was exhausted.

They unpacked in silence and set out the basic campsite.
After some food and refreshments and the fire was still burning they laid down in their blankets, listening to the night's creatures.

Inuyasha watched her as he sat up against a tree eating a piece of dried beef.
"You didn't tell me where you learnt to fight"

Yasha stared up at the night sky, "I learnt by myself in a matter of survival"Inuyasha blinked, "Huh?" escaped his mouth, how intellectual.

She turned over to him and grinned, "I was taught to fight by my first master, he was very kind to me."Inuyasha stared at her and his eyes softened slightly. That was interesting, she was just telling him this without a second thought. She probably hadn't had someone to talk to in a long time, it probably felt good to just let it all out, be it good or bad. He shook it off and decided to pursue the matter tomorrow when they had both rested.

"I'll let you sleep" he said gruffly.

She stared at him, "Aren't you sleeping?" she asked.He shook his head, "I'll keep watch"

Yasha shook her head, "No, you sleep, you deserve to. You've been...so..." she trailed off into sleep.

"So...what?" he asked anxiously, he was interested in everything she had to say. "Oh well, guess I'll never know."

Inuyasha watched her form, and in the slight firelight he saw the ring on her finger.

Silver and glittering in the faint light, he would ask about that as well.