Chapter five: The race

Yasha sat on her horse, looking around at the surroundings around her.

She closed her eyes and felt the cool breeze caress her face and neck.

Her master's coat was still wrapped snugly around her protecting her from the world, keeping her warm and hiding the pathetic ripped and tattered gown that had been almost

whole the previous day.
The pair had got up before the sun had began to rise and now as they were riding towards the east they were witnessing the sun rise bit by bit.

Yasha watched, hiding her saddened expression as the gold and orange light mingled together on the horizon and created an almost unreal window upon the side of the world.
She kept her ears open, trained on the familiar sounds of the forest and the steady hoof beats of the horses, and to her master's almost silent humming.

She grinned, her confidence was coming back, but she still was not fully restored to her former self.

It was hard to bite back her cold or smart remarks but years of training had taught her to hold her tongue, or to suffer the penalty.Like when she was young, the man that had owned her, what was his name?
Oh yes, that was it Ko. . .

Her trail of thoughts was broken however when Inuyasha, the new young master of hers spoke.

"Are you hungry?" he asked, not bothering to turn around, but chose to keep riding, one hand on hip, swaying slightly with the horses lethargic steps.

Yasha looked at his back, "I can't."

Inuyasha's head whipped around, and he fought to keep control of his sudden surprise,

"What did you say?"
Yasha looked away, "I said . . ." she begun slowly, "I can't."

Inuyasha was confused, "Why the hell not!"
"Because I'm only supposed to eat once every three days." she said as tears began to

form in her eyes. Inuyasha slowed down his hose and looked her dead in the eye, "Whoever did this to you, can't hurt you anymore."

"I know."

"What the hell is that thing?" he pointed out the thin black leather strap around her neck.

"It's still there!" she stopped her horse and tore wildly at the thing.

"Hey, hey. Settle down. If you hold still I'll get it off of you." As soon as Inuyasha touched it, it burned his fingers.

"Did you get it?" Her body was trembling with fear.

"No. The second I touched it, I got burned." Inuyasha sounded really sorry about his failure.

"Don't worry about it then. The same thing happened to a friend of mine when she tried to help me get it off the first time." Yasha looked like she was about to cry. And now, he really felt sorry for her.

Inuyasha couldn't help but think he'd met her before. The feeling had been nagging at him from the first time he had seen her eyes. But just who was she anyway?

Her dogs pranced ahead of her. Yasha wiped away the tears.

"Master?"

"What?" he looked at the smile on her face, it was edged with a challenging smirk.

"Care to race?" she looked very confident in her ability, or her horse. He couldn't tell.

Inuyasha grabbed his reins and grinned at her, "Your on"
Yasha's eyes sparkled with excitement, "To the next village then!"
Inuyasha nodded "Winner can strike a prize!" he yelled and with that he kicked his horse and was off, dust trailing behind him.
Yasha stopped her horse abruptly and listened.

The mass of forest around her hid the village that was nearby, they had just passed the village of Nishiwaki located near the east of Kyoto and were heading towards the next

village Tatsuno, known for its fish delicacies.
Yasha grinned which meant that it was located in the south east region, which meant...

that all she had to do was cut through the small forest space located on her right.

She grabbed her reins and turned her horse sharply to her right and pushed it forward

into the undergrowth of the forest.

Inuyasha stopped and looked around, where on Earth was the girl?

Worry swept through him, what if she had fallen of a cliff and had fallen into a ditch and broke her neck?
What if another bunch of highway robbers had grabbed her as a treasure?
What if she found some gentleman that was really polite and looked at her when he spoke to her?
He stopped for a moment, she had probably just realized there was no way she could win and decided to walk.

He looked at the sky, the sun had almost risen to it fullest and light was spreading over the land of Japan.
He decided as he began to canter to the village that if she wasn't there by mid-day,

which was how long it would have taken if they had walked he would go look for her.

He nodded, to reassure himself.
That was definitely the plan.

Yasha stumbled out of the roadside forest and pulled a couple of stray leaves out of her white, slightly ink-stained hair.

She grinned as she scanned the village, no Inuyasha, yes! She had won!

Yasha walked over to the entrance and sat under a tree to wait for him.
She jumped off of Ryuku, holding the coat tightly around her and tied him to the tree and sat down, stretching her legs out in front of her.

The sunlight was warming her legs and she felt happy and contented, she watched as two little boys ran past with a rice sack, throwing it between each other, laughing and giggling as it went hit them in the chest.

The village was awakening and the men left the huts to leave for the fields whilst the woman started doing the laundry and fetching vegetables for the midday lunch.
She didn't have to wait long before she heard horse steps and she leant forward to look

around the exhausted stallion to see Inuyasha entering the village looking very smug indeed, and she nearly jumped out of her skin when her dogs came up behind her and nuzzled their beloved master with their cold, wet noses.
She watched and scanned the village, smiling as the two boys ran past him and greeting

the woman who came to greet him.

He looked at the sun and then she must have caught his attention in his peripheral vision as she stood up and began to walk over to him.
He stopped dead in his tracks and stared at her.

She smiled at him, "Good Day Master" she greeted sweetly."H . . . How did . . .did you get here so fast?" he managed to ask, smiling in utter disbelief.

Yasha's smile grew larger and she tapped the side of her nose, "My little secret" she said quietly winking at him.

Inuyasha smiled at her, "Well then"

Yasha looked around, "What do we do now?" she asked, turning her gaze back to him.

Inuyasha looked at her, "What do you want?"

She looked at him and raised her eyebrows, "Pardon me?"
"You're prize, what would you like?" he asked again, jumping off his horse so as not to intimidate her.
She looked at him and smiled, "It is not my place master, that was only for fun"

Inuyasha grinned, "Fun! If you call losing fun"She laughed at his comment, "It will make you a better man!"
Inuyasha snorted and puffed out his chest, "I'm already the best"
Yasha sniffed and rolled her eyes, "Yeah, I'm sure" and poked him in the chest.

Inuyasha stared at her, the girl he had seen at the market had returned.
She pranced off down the road, "Well Master Inuyasha, are you coming?" she asked, sarcastically, emphasizing his title and name.

Inuyasha strode after her and passed her and called over his shoulder, "I should be saying that . . .slave"
Yasha crossed her arms and stuck her foot out, "I'm going to ignore that comment"

"You do that"

"I will"

"Fine then"

Silence overwhelmed them as they strode down the market, before they burst out laughing.Inuyasha glanced over at her, she was wearing a disgusting torn and ragged gown and his overcoat, which was three sizes to big.
She looked like an orphan, or a homeless person . . .but after a thought he realized they

were basically the same thing.

Yasha caught his gaze, "What?"

Inuyasha turned away, ashamed to be caught looking at her, "Nothing"

Yasha wanted to know, "What?"

Inuyasha looked at her in the corner of his eyes, really, she was a rather amazingly good-looking female."You're looking at me again" Yasha muttered, keeping her eyes on some fat chickens ahead.

Inuyasha decided to turn the tables, he smirked, "Yeah, you're right, I was looking at you"

Yasha stopped, "Tell me why?" she frowned slightly.
Inuyasha realised where they had stopped and his smirk grew larger, he stepped forward so they were nose to nose . . .well actually Yasha's nose was probably level with the hollow of his neck, he shook his head.
Yasha stared up at him, blushing slightly and hands trembling ever so much more, "H .

. .Huh?" was her intelligent answer.

The plaything was just some idea wasn't it? Nothing real? She really didn't fancy sleeping with this arrogant, cocky, egotistical, nice, handsome . . .STOP!

She shook her head.

And stepped backwards.
Inuyasha leant forward and stared intently into her eyes.
She stared back, eyes wide and shining, mouth slightly agape.
Inuyasha grinned, he had got her, "Here's your prize!" and with that he lightly pushed her on the shoulder, which sent her sprawling backwards into a small hut.