Disclaimer: I don't own Inu Yasha. All of the characters that are from Inu Yasha aren't mine – they are the property of the incomparable Rumiko Takahashi. All the original characters in here are mine. If you ever want to play with one, talk with me and we'll arrange a play-date.
Rating: This fic is rated 'R' for language and violence. If there is any future citrus (no guarantees, guys) it won't be crucial to the storyline, and it won't be hosted here at It will be hosted at my personal website, and I will make the URL for that available if and when it becomes appropriate.
A/N: The prologue was actually a glimpse into the future. The story begins a few days before the prologue occurs – sorry for any confusion! Also, a note on Japanese words – when I don't feel that a proper English translation is available, I use the Japanese words. These would include the words "youkai" and "hanyou" (translated respectively into English as "demon" and "half-demon"), and the words "jyaki" ("wicked energy", a demon's natural aura), "youki" ("magical energy", or the power a youkai uses to make attacks),"shouki" ("miasma", refers to the poisonous fumes/gases a youkai such as Naraku can produce), as well as many of the attack names utilized in the Inu-verse.
(Most of these definitions are paraphrases of those found at the Inuyasha Glossary section of www . ear – tweak . com – if you want to read a fan scanlation of the manga following the anime series ending, I highly suggest copying that address, taking out the spaces, and getting your Inuyasha-loving butt over there. The fan art is top-notch, as well.)
Other than that, the only languages that I speak fluently are English and Bad English, and I'll try not to pretend otherwise.
A quick note on formatting:
'Words like this are thoughts.'
"Words between quotation marks like this" are being spoken in Japanese.
"Words italicized between quotation marks like this" are being spoken in English.
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Welcome to the Fairy Tale
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A child skipped merrily along the lake shore, picking the flowers that struggled to grow in the sandy ground.
"Look at this one, Master Jakken!" she cried, shoving a particularly strong-shaded bloom into the little imp's face.
"Ack! Stupid girl! We came here because you said you were hungry! Why are you picking flowers and not finding something to eat!"
The girl sighed, her hand drooping as she began looking for something edible. The imp impatiently tapped a foot. "If you don't find something soon, we are going back, girl. Lord Sesshoumaru won't be pleased if we are gone too long!"
The child sighed. She hated when Jakken got into these moods. She couldn't help it that she was hungry more often than her youkai companions, could she?
She slowly dragged a toe in the sand, looking out into the water. Maybe there were fish…she edged out into the lake, ignoring the imp's shrieking as she intently studied the settling water around her feet. 'Not even minnows.' she thought with a sigh. 'I guess it'll be mushrooms for supper again…'
The child turned to come back to shore, stopping when she saw Jakken's petrified form. As a shadow loomed over her, she slowly looked behind her…only to scream in fright as a huge tentacle wrapped around her middle and dragged her into the water.
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From a high cliff overlooking the lake, a sitting figure's head jerked up. "Damn, was that a kid?" she wondered aloud. Fast as thought, she looked out onto the lake, squinting to pick up the form of the child…heart sinking as she saw the form of the monster. She hesitated, wincing as the young wolf beside her whined, his ears flattening as his begging tone pierced the air.
Without further consideration, the young woman quickly stripped down to her tunic, and strapped her knife onto her thigh. She stepped lightly back, then leaped into a dead run that sent her sailing away from the cliff. She flipped in midair, executing a perfect swan dive as she cut into the sparkling blue water.
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Sesshoumaru lifted his face to the sky and delicately sniffed the wind. 'How strange… a wolf and a human? Together? And in my lands, no less?'
A sense of unease had dogged the great lord's steps for weeks now. Something wasn't right in his domain, and whatever was the cause would not escape him for long. He had awoken before the sun, his instincts screaming that the source of his irritation was close at hand.
And so today he had sent Jakken away with Rin on the pretense of finding food for the human.
In reality, Sesshoumaru wanted to find the intruders of his domain without the excitable imp or his frail human in attendance.
Sesshoumaru looked up at the looming mountainside. There was no doubt that the mysterious combination of scents grew stronger the closer he came to Kouga's territory. The wolf scent made sense here, but the human's did not.
'Are Kouga's wolves preying on humans once more?' Sesshoumaru wondered. If so, the last thing he needed right now was Rin facing the creatures of her nightmares, or Jakken panicking and recklessly waving about his Staff of Heads.
No, much better to investigate this oddity alone.
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The woman slowly dragged the child out of the lake. 'God, I hate diving into cold water!' she thought as she fought to keep from violently shivering.
The woman flipped the non-breathing child over and quickly performed the Heimlich, watching in satisfaction as the girl coughed all of the water out of her lungs.
She'd been afraid, when she'd first gotten a hold of her, that the child was already lost. But the girl's heart beat steady and strong, even when she wasn't drawing breath. 'It's almost like she refuses to die, or something.' the young woman mused.
She patted the coughing child's back reassuringly and gazed worriedly out at the lake. 'The monster that grabbed her is still in there somewhere…just waiting.'
The young woman looked ruefully down at the stinging burn that decorated her left calf. 'It's probably pissed as hell, too.' She'd had to hack its tentacle off to make good their escape.
The girl's breathing was labored, but it sounded like her coughing had finally stopped. The woman kept her hand on the child's back, rubbing in slow circles, and her eyes on the lake.
"What's your name, kid?" From the corner of her eye, the woman caught the child looking warily up at her.
"Rin." the child said haltingly. "My name is Rin."
The woman nodded and slowly stood up, holding her arms out to Rin. The child gave her an uncertain look. "C'mon, Rin. We should get out of here...and don't look at me like that." The woman flashed Rin a quick grin, careful to hide her teeth. "I didn't save you from that thing just to eat you myself."
The child...'Rin,' the woman sternly reminded herself, hesitated, then held out her arms to be picked up. The woman obliged, and moved her so that Rin was resting on her back. The woman wasn't exactly her normal chipper self after her dip in Lake Iceberg. Carrying Rin piggy-back, she reasoned, was a lot easier than it would have been to carry her bridal-style.
The woman kept her gaze on the lake, and didn't turn even when she heard her companion rustling in the brush. She didn't see any movement out in the water, but then, she hadn't seen any before she'd heard the kid scream. She slowly backed up into the tree line, and waited a few minutes before turning and trotting away.
The wolf quickly joined her, loping effortlessly at her side. The child on her back stiffened, whimpering in fright. The young woman wrinkled her nose. She couldn't have missed the smell of the child's fear and discomfort even if someone had shoved rotting meat under her nose.
"It's alright, Rin." she said soothingly. "Derek's with me, and the only thing he's likely to want to do to you right now is to play with you."
The young wolf had been lagging behind, nose to the ground, but at his companion's words he suddenly darted forward and licked the sole of Rin's foot. The little girl squealed, and pulled her feet higher up on the young woman's back.
The woman sighed, and gave the wolf a scathing glance. "Knock it off, Derek!" she barked, reproaching him in English. "Do you want to keep scaring her?"
The wolf whined, and lowered his head apologetically towards the ground.
"That's what I thought." she said, once more in Japanese. "Why don't you scout ahead, and give the kid a chance to relax and get used to you, huh?" The wolf gave a short bark, and dutifully began to trot ahead of the two females.
"Do you know anyone around here, Rin?" The woman twisted her head to look at the girl, who was shaking her own.
"I was looking for something to eat, Lady. Master Jakken was with me until the water-youkai grabbed me. I think he went to find our Lord Sesshoumaru."
'Well,' the woman reasoned to herself, 'if this 'Master Jakken' is a little guy, maybe he was the green blur I saw as I was diving. In which case...'
"Rin." The girl looked at the woman questioningly. "Which way are your Master Jakken and Lord Sesshoumaru?" The child pointed due west.
'Damn!' The woman looked longingly to the east. All of her outer clothes - and medical supplies - were still on the cliff top she and her companion had been on until they saw the kid get nabbed. 'Damnit, I do not want to meet any strange males while in my T-shirt and undies. My sopping wet T-shirt and undies!' she griped to herself. 'For one thing, ew! For another, guys in this era are weird. There's no telling what kind of first impression that would make!' she thought in disgust.
Her eyes narrowed. Very faintly, she could hear the young wolf ahead of her trying to hide a snicker. "Don't start with me, you. You could have brought my stuff down with you!" The wolf lagged back once more, and apologetically licked her leg. She winced as his tongue scraped too close to her wound. "I could really use the salve in that med-kit right now…ah, don't worry about it." She said consolingly as his ears drooped dejectedly.
She longed to reach down and touch the knife that was safely tied to her thigh. 'You knock it off, too..'she ordered herself. 'Just because you're feeling insecure doesn't mean you need to worry the kid.'
She took a deep breath and slowly breathed back out. "Rin, do you think your friends would be terribly upset if we took a short side trip before we took you back?"
The women repressed a sigh as the apprehension in Rin's scent spiked. "It wouldn't take very long..." the woman said coaxingly. "It's just that my clothes are on top of that cliff over there," she nodded towards it with her head, "and I'd hate to meet your friends in my current...state of undress."
The child's face grew baffled at the woman's words. 'Ah well,' the woman thought grumpily, 'from the looks of things she couldn't be older than ten – still too young to understand the social ramifications of not-enough-cloth.' She sighed.
Ah, well, at least it was a long t-shirt.
The woman looked up, resolution in her eyes. "Which way to your friends again?"
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Sesshoumaru stopped on the edges of the obvious campsite. 'The scents are so strong here…but why would they have left all of their things without leaving a sentry?' he mused. He moved cautiously into the open.
Silence met his move. Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes as he moved further into the site. A leather backpack was lying carelessly off to one side, open with some of its contents spilling out. Closer to the cliff, Sesshoumaru discovered what appeared to be some discarded armor and clothing. He kneeled down, carefully picking up the cloth between two fingers. 'Pants?' he thought in disbelief, his nostrils flaring. 'And smelling of a human female, as well, though the scent of the wolf is strong.' A third nuance wrinkled his nose, causing him to snort delicately. 'A youkai wolf, hmm? But who of the wolves would be so foolish as to enter my territory without my permission?'
He was gazing reflectively out towards the lake as a rustle in the underbrush caused him to drop the cloth and grasp Tokijin. He was coming out of his crouch as a hysterical green and brown ball threw itself down at his feet.
"Lord Sesshoumaru! This Jakken has been searching frantically for you, Lord Sesshoumaru!" the imp panted. Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow, allowing his nose to tell him that the human child was not with the imp.
"Jakken." he said calmly, allowing his head to tilt to one side. "Where is Rin?" The imp shook in fear, and Sesshoumaru repressed a sigh. One…two…three…
"It was awful, Lord Sesshoumaru!"
'Umm-hmm, I bet it was. It always is.' Sesshoumaru thought sarcastically.
"That horrible human refused to look for food and instead picked flowers! And when this Jakken scolded her, she ran away from me and into the lake! And then, a youkai reached out of the water and grabbed Rin! This Jakken…ack, erg, glah…"
Sesshoumaru had lost his patience as soon as the imp told him about the youkai's abduction of Rin, and was now holding the imp by the throat.
"Why did you not protect her!" The imp gasped for air as Sesshoumaru dropped him unceremoniously to the ground, fixing him in place with a glare. The imp scrambled to kneel properly, prostrating himself before his lord. "This Jakken tried, my lord! But as soon as Rin screamed, a human fell from the sky! The human dove into the water after Rin, my lord, and as I could do nothing, I came to find you!"
Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes. 'Fell from the sky, hmm?' Sesshoumaru carefully traced the footprints in the ground, then calculated the distance from the cliff to the water below. 'Ridiculous. A mere human would never survive the fall. Unless…' Sesshoumaru's eyes widened as comprehension dawned. 'Of course, why did I not see it before?'
He turned on his heel, marching out of the clearing. "Jakken." he stated, his composure regained.
"Yes, my lord?" the imp said waveringly, fear trembling his still-prostrate form.
"Gather this armor and clothing and place it in that bag. Then, take the bag with you and find me."
The imp raised his face from the ground as his lord walked further away from him. "Where are you going my lord?" Sesshoumaru turned his head to fix Jakken with an over-the-shoulder glare. The imp sank further into the dust. "Not that it is my place to ask…" the imp murmured. Sesshoumaru faced forward again, and graced his retainer with one last sentence before disappearing into the trees.
"I am going to find that 'human'…and Rin."
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The three trudged through the trees for a good hour before Rin admitted she was lost. They'd stumbled upon what could have been the remains of a campsite, but if it was it had been abandoned long before they had gotten there.
The woman counted slowly to ten, then turned around and started heading back east, her companion trotting merrily ahead of her. 'Okay. So the kid's disoriented. I'd've been, too, if I'd nearly been eaten by something that looked like Nessie on a bad tentacle day.' the woman reasoned with herself.
The wound on her leg had gone from a dull throb to a burn. Annoying as hell, but not life-threatening. Yet.
'Damnit.' she thought. 'The last thing I need right now is an infection. At least my clothes are dry now,' she soothed herself, 'and, from the feel of things, my body heat has dried Rin's, too.'
The woman was just glad that it was warm enough that Rin hadn't commented on the woman's higher-than-normal body temp. She didn't really feel like explaining that to the girl...just like she didn't want to explain her odd teeth.
The kid had already been scared enough for one day.
The woman coughed, and shifted the kid around a little to ease her sore back muscles. The child's breathing was steady and even, but the woman didn't think she was asleep yet. "So what were you and your friends doing out here, Rin?"
The child yawned, and settled back in place. "We were patrolling, Lady."
The woman quirked an eyebrow and glanced back at her. The kid smiled sleepily. "This is Lord Sesshoumaru's territory. He patrols to make sure there are no rogue youkai here."
"So is your Lord Sesshoumaru a youkai hunter?" the woman inquired politely.
The girl tensed, and then burst out into giggles.
'Wow,' the woman thought, 'at this rate my eyebrow is never going to lay flat again...' and she gave Rin another questioning look.
"Lord Sesshoumaru isn't a youkai hunter." the child giggled. "He's a youkai lord."
The woman almost stopped walking. "A youkai lord, huh? But I thought the wolf Kouga was the lord of these lands?" The woman felt the kid shake her head. "Nope, Lord Kouga's tribe only rules on that mountain, and the land just east of that mountain. Even then, his claim matters only to the other wolf tribes – many other types of youkai share the wolves' territory. Sesshoumaru-sama, on the other hand, rules all of the lands west of this mountain – and no other youkai is strong enough to challenge Lord Sesshoumaru."
The woman mentally cursed. 'Gee, real nice of that Kouga to give me permission to wander these lands…considering that, apparently, they aren't even his!'
'Ah well.' she soothed herself. 'That's just one more reason to get my stuff back and get this kid back home.'
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Outwardly Sesshoumaru appeared calm. Inwardly he was a roiling mess of emotions.
'Where could they have gone?' he voicelessly raged. Sunset was fast approaching, and they had yet to find hide or hair of Rin and the 'human'. 'They didn't just slip into thin air. Where are they!'
Jakken followed closely on his lord's heels, dutifully carrying the leather bag that reeked of human contact. 'Why did Lord Sesshoumaru insist on bringing this bag of human junk? Does he think it will help us find Rin in some way?'
Jakken suddenly jerked out of his thoughts as he ran into a warm, clothed leg. Sesshoumaru stared down at the imp, curling his upper lip in a silent snarl. The imp dropped to his knees. "My apologies, my lord, this stupid Jakken did not watch where he was going…"
He babbled for a few more minutes before realizing that if he still had his head now, he probably wasn't going to lose it quite yet. He hesitantly looked up at his lord, who was now sniffing the air intently. 'Ack! I interrupted his train of thought!' the imp thought, mortified. 'But is my lord trying to scent Rin, or the human who has now abducted her?'
The imp found himself shook out of his thoughts as Sesshoumaru leapt into a run. He tried desperately to keep up, but the weight of both the bag and his Staff of Heads slowed him down considerably.
"Wait! My lord! Where are you going WITHOUT ME!" he yelled, breaking down into tears.
"My lord…" he said dejectedly as the white, shining figure of Sesshoumaru disappeared into the sunset. Firming his resolve, Jakken straightened his shoulders. "No matter! If Lord Sesshoumaru feels the need to hurry to the point that he must leave his faithful retainer behind, then it must be important! I will catch up! Lord Sesshoumaru can count on me!"
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The forest around them was quiet - too damn quiet. Outside the woods daylight still lingered, but here deep amongst the trees it might as well have been midnight. Fireflies danced around the trio while Rin slumbered on the woman's back.
The woman didn't like the silence. There should have been a cacophony of noises - mosquitoes buzzing, cicadas chirping, night birds crying - and yet, there was nothing. Even the fireflies wove their trails of light in silence.
She stopped and listened. "Do you hear that, Derek?" she said quietly. The young wolf's ears strained forward, a growl rumbling in his throat. 'There.' It was to her right - a rustle in the underbrush. 'Damn thing's not bothering to watch where it puts its feet.' she thought in disgust.
"Rin." the woman said quietly, gently waking the girl. "Hmm...what?" she said sleepily, stifling a yawn. "Can you climb trees, Rin?" The woman felt the child shake her head. 'Damn.'
"Hold tight around my neck then, Rin."
The girl had barely secured her hold when the woman leapt from the ground to the lowest branch of the nearest pine. It was only five feet in the air, even a normal human could have jumped and grabbed the branch. The woman pulled herself up, and quickly climbed a little higher. She gently deposited Rin on a branch about ten feet in the air, satisfied that whatever happened below, a predator wouldn't see her.
"Stay here, Rin...no matter what you hear, stay here, okay?" Rin nodded mutely, and the woman began her climb back down to the ground.
The woman's scent clung to the branches, but it couldn't be helped. 'At least,' she thought, 'my scent masks the child's.' She quietly slipped her dagger from its sheath, and listened intently. Whatever it was she heard, it was now trying to be quiet and sneak up behind her. 'Damn.' she cursed. 'It is stalking us, then.'
She willed herself still, holding her energy until she needed it. "Chill, Derek." She murmured to the bristling canine. "Whatever it is, we can handle it."
The wolf whined and nudged her injured leg. The woman fought to hide a wince, and jokingly exclaimed "What, you expect that to slow me down? Keh! As if!" She returned her attention to the forest around them, easily picking up on the footsteps that had now circled behind them.
'Just a little closer...' she thought. 'That's right, buddy, just a few more steps...'
She scented him behind her, the smell of decay choking her nose as she forced herself not to move. 'Wait for it…now!'
The woman whirled, her free hand punching out to slam her pursuer's nose into his face. The man jerked back from the force of the blow, but made no other moves. 'What the hell?' Her knife-hand slammed hilt first into his diaphragm, forcing all the air in his body to be expelled, as her free hand grabbed his topknot and forced him to spin and drop hard onto his knees.
She pulled back on his hair, forcing him into a deliberately uncomfortable position as her blade found its way to his throat. "Why were you stalking me?" she growled.
The man remained unnervingly still, the smell of decay making the woman fight not to gag. 'This guy smells…Oh my God! He's dead!' the woman realized in shock.
"Whoever said we were stalking you?"
The hairs on the back of the woman's neck stiffened, and she fought down a snarl. Along with the feminine voice came the unmistakable scent of jyaki, slowly leaking into the clearing.
Her body suddenly exploded with pain, and she fought not to release the dead man she had in her grip. The animated corpse had grabbed her leg by the burn wound, and was digging his fingers into her now-gaping flesh. She howled, jerking her knife savagely back, severing the corpse's neck. She dully noted the spray of old blood that now covered herself and the forest floor as she threw away the head and let the twitching corpse drop from her grasp.
The woman crouched on the forest floor, favoring her injured leg as she held her knife in a defensive pose. She dully noted that the wolf was savaging the dead man's body, dragging it out of the clearing.
"Knock it off, Derek. The kid doesn't need to see that." she growled. The wolf gave one more savage shake of his head before releasing the corpse. He trotted over to the woman, sniffing her trembling frame, licking her now-bleeding wound.
She winced, and placed her arm around his shoulders. "I'll be alright, Derek. We have to stay on our guard…you can smell them, can't you?" The jyaki in the clearing was steadily increasing, cloying to the air like bad incense on steroids.
The woman and wolf looked upwards as the wind began to howl. 'How could all these youkai have sneaked up on us like this?' the woman thought, aghast. The sky was filled with a horde of youkai, and the woman prayed to any deity that would listen that Rin was still safely out of sight.
A woman slowly appeared from the trees, walking towards the wolf and crouching woman, a fan held half-way in front of her face. She flicked her fan downward, an expression of disgust twisting what would have otherwise been handsome features. 'Aw, looks like someone doesn't like us. Peachy.' the injured woman thought sarcastically.
"Disposing of my toy so quickly? What a shame." A flick of the fan, and the injured woman was horrified to see the decapitated corpse dancing like a marionette. "It doesn't really matter, you know. Just one more puppet on my string...as you will be, if you don't answer my questions. Where is the child, hanyou?" That got the injured woman's attention. 'Wow, she's good.' Most people didn't immediately pick her out as having youkai blood - though calling her a half-breed was pushing the truth by a few generations. 'Guess that means I don't have that much to hide right now, hmm?'
The injured woman delicately lifted her lip in a snarl, showing off a less-than-delicate fang. "And what child would that be?" she demanded.
The fan-bearer made a sound of annoyance. "Sesshoumaru's human, hanyou. Where is the girl?" The injured woman's lip curled up further in disgust. "And what makes you think that I know where this 'Sesshoumaru's' child would be?"
The youkai – for that is what the injured woman's nose confirmed the newcomer to be – flicked her fan down. "I do not have time for these games, worthless half-breed! Where is the girl?" The woman's lip curled up completely, her fangs bared as she snarled. "Couldn't tell you."
'Rin, please, please, PLEASE don't make a sound!' she prayed fervently as her hand tightened its grip on her weapon.
The youkai wheeled back, her fan coming up. "If you won't tell me, worthless hanyou, then I suppose you should DIE! Dance of Blades!"
The fan came down, spilling dancing blades of wind straight at the growling wolf and the injured woman…and at Rin's tree. The pair leapt apart, dodging what they could. The wolf was able to dive mostly out of harm's way, but the injured woman was not so lucky. A blade cut across her arm, numbing it and causing her nerveless fingers to drop her dagger.
The injured woman heard the remaining blades cut into the tree behind her, and her sensitive ears caught a slight whimper. She grabbed her dagger with her off-hand and jumped at the wind youkai before the whimper could pull her attention.
Something reached the female youkai before the injured woman could. A blast of purple energy slammed into the ground at the wind user's feet, forcing her to jump back and the injured woman to stop her rush. A tall figure in white landed between the two, facing the wind youkai, holding a sword defensively in front of him. The injured woman didn't know whether to be relieved or apprehensive.
The female youkai stepped back, her fan held protectively in front of her. "Sesshoumaru," she said haltingly, "what a pleasant surprise."
"Kagura. You know better than to try to take what is mine." He tilted his head, a single golden eye coolly regarding the injured woman and the snarling wolf at her side. "If you do know where Rin is," he stated in a quiet but commanding tone, "you should get her out of here." He turned to coolly face Kagura, who paled and stepped back. "This Sesshoumaru will handle this."
The woman nodded, stepping back quickly as Sesshoumaru returned his icy gaze to Kagura. In the ensuing battle, the woman quickly leapt up Rin's tree, collecting the shaking child and throwing her onto her back. "Hold on tight, Rin." the woman murmured, her breath quickly choked off by the child's arms. "Eh…maybe not that tight, kid." She smiled faintly as Rin's arms loosened enough for her face to stop turning blue.
The woman made good use of the treetops, leaping from one tree to another, in leaving the battle far behind. When the lights were distant, and the sounds of battle no longer shook the air, the woman slowly climbed down from the trees. Her wolf companion emerged from the brush, shaking himself before trotting up to her. The woman smiled wanly, crouching down to embrace him as the little girl slid from her back. Nose and ears twitching, she cautiously examined the area for signs of pursuit. "Nobody followed you, right Derek?" The wolf snorted and shook his great head. The woman laughed tiredly. "Didn't think so."
She sank down to the ground, pulling the wolf close with her injured arm. Leaning wearily against the trunk of an enormous magnolia tree, she eyed the now wary human child.
"He won't bite, Rin. I promise." She held her uninjured arm out in a silent command for the human to join them. The child slowly inched towards them, warily watching the wolf, before sinking into the woman's embrace. The woman allowed the tired child to snuggle into her shoulder, and shifted her injured arm to lessen the discomfort.
'Peachy.' she thought, irritated. 'Just peachy.' Now her leg and her arm ached, and she knew that even with her healing abilities she would not be able to run again for at least an hour. 'Might as well let the kid get some sleep.' she mused
"Lady?" Rin asked politely, breaking into the woman's ruminations. The injured woman smiled, and shifted her tired gaze to the child. "You have not told me your name." The woman smiled slightly, though the happy expression seemed to be tinged with sadness.
"My name is Amaya, Rin, but my friends call me Amy." Her head tilted to regard the wolf that was now pushing his nose across her lap and towards the little girl's hand. "I think my companion would like you to know that his name is Derek." she commented wryly, pleased to see that the girl's apprehension in the presence of this particular wolf was fading fast.
The little girl yawned, sleepily stroked the young wolf's head, and snuggled back into Amy's warm shoulder.
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Jakken screeched to a halt as he entered the youkai-littered clearing. "Ew…" he muttered as he sidestepped the bits and pieces of once proud youkai warriors. He halted as he beheld his master, who stood with Tokijin settled a bare centimeter from the hollow of Kagura's throat.
"What did you want with her, Kagura?" Sesshoumaru stated in a calm voice.
The wind witch laughed, pulling a feather from her hair and quickly throwing it to the ground in a gust of wind. Sesshoumaru stepped back before looking nonchalantly up at the floating youkai.
"Why do I ever 'want' anything, Sesshoumaru?" she called down. "Naraku ordered it, of course. Why…why, I don't know."
With that, the wind youkai disappeared, taking her few remaining warriors with her. Sesshoumaru stared into the distance, seemingly lost in thought.
"Jakken." Or not. "Yes, my Lord?" Sesshoumaru tilted his head towards his retainer, but kept his eyes on the sky. "Follow the trail of the hanyou who has Rin. There is human medicine in that bag…the hanyou will need it."
Jakken determinedly re-shouldered the bag. "You can count on me, my lord!" He turned towards the trees, then hesitated. "Pardon me, my lord, but how will I know which trail is theirs?" Sesshoumaru silently sighed. "Theirs is the only trail of blood that leads more than five feet away from this clearing, Jakken."
The imp cleared his throat and took a step backwards. "Ah, thank you, my Lord. I shall not hesitate to find them, my lord, I…" and Jakken broke for the woods, leaving Sesshoumaru alone with his thoughts.
'That woman…' he mused, closing his eyes. The image of her, defending his Rin, was burned into his memory. She had been crouched, blood flowing down her pale right arm and her even paler left leg. She had been clothed only in a long, sleeveless white tunic that emphasized her curves as much as it hid them. Her long hair, brown with the merest hint of red, had been gathered in a messy braid that trailed down her back only to pool on the ground as she crouched. And her eyes…Sesshoumaru would never be able to forget those eyes, even if their color had been Earthly. In her rage and pain they had bled pure red, though her scent had shown no signs of changing to that of a full youkai.
'Interesting. Either she is much weaker than she appears to be or her control is immense, for a hanyou.' he mused.
A breeze fluttered the youkai lord's bangs, drawing him away from thoughts of mysterious bleeding hanyous. He had his Rin to find…and where this mysterious hanyou was, his Rin would be.
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The woman gazed out into the night. She could no longer hear the sounds of fighting, but that did not mean that the battle was over - just that they were a decent distance from it. She looked fondly down at Rin, and made an impulsive decision. "Would you like to hear a story, Rin?"
Rin yawned. "I'm not very fond of long stories, Lady Amy."
The woman tilted her head, eyes shining in mild amusement. "It is a good one, Rin…but I won't be offended if you fall asleep, I promise."
The girl nodded sleepily, and the woman settled herself back into the tree, slightly shifting the wolf who now covered her lap.
"Once, a very long time ago, there was a wolf hanyou who had sworn never to have anything to do with his human mother's people. It was an oath he was destined not to keep. For you see, one day, he fell in love with a human healer…"
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Well, for a first chapter, how was it? And for anyone who wants to know where I'm going with this, I guess you'll just have to read the next few chapters and find out. 8o)
A/N: Before anyone asks, there is a reason that Ah-Un hasn't shown up yet. ;) Have a little faith.