Ch. 4. Sesshomaru to the Rescue

Sesshomaru turned over, half asleep. Wait a minute. Something was amiss.

He opened his eyes. Julie was gone.

Jaken received a painful bop on the head.

"Damn, you let her get away!" came Sesshomaru's cold and angry voice.

Jaken quickly stood up. "Um, the girl got away?"

"Yes, you fool," said Sesshomaru.

"B-but-you were practically right on top of her!" stammered Jaken. "I saw. It looked like you were about to-"

"Is that really the point?" asked Sesshomaru. "I merely did that so she wouldn't run off. I'm not about to mate with some human, you dumb pervert."

"Y-y-yes Lord Sesshomaru," said Jaken humbly.

"We must find her," said Sesshomaru. "It is nearly dawn."

But unfortunately for Sesshomaru, it rained and he was having a hard time finding her scent.

"Lord Sesshomaru," said Jaken quietly as his master attempted to pick up Julie's scent. "Might it not be easier to just get another human girl? There are four others with Inuyasha."

"You fool," said Sesshomaru. "If I cannot find Julie's scent, how do you expect me to find the scent of Inuyasha and the others? They may be even farther away than Julie. We are going after Julie and her alone at the moment."

"Yes, M'lord," said Jaken.

It was late into the night. Sesshomaru found Julie's scent near some bushes.

"I believe she may have lain here to sleep earlier," said Sesshomaru. "But her scent seems to vanish. And I smell fox demons."

"Do you think she was killed, M'lord?" asked Jaken.

"I do not smell blood," said Sesshomaru. "They must have taken her somewhere."

Sesshomaru began following the fox demon's scent.

The scent got stronger. Sesshomaru knew they were getting near.

Suddenly a scream pierced the night air.

Back in the cave, the demon with the jagged knife and attempted to stab Julie. Julie somehow broke loose of the foxes on her left and she rolled to the right. She screamed as the knife narrowly missed her. She kicked the demon in the stomach and grabbed the knife and slashed at the foxes around her.

"WENCH!" screamed the boss lunging for her and wrestling the knife out of her hand. He pinned her down and held the knife poised in the air.

"DIE!" shouted the fox.

Suddenly the demon yelled. Something had zoomed into the cave and cut him in half. Blood spattered Julie's clothes. She screamed.

Sesshomaru was standing there holding a sword. Julie had seen his two sword sheaths, but she had never seen him take out his sword.

Sesshomaru proceed to kill the other demons. Julie started to run out of the cave. But something tackled her.

It was the female demon that had been holding the sick fox child.

"You're not going anywhere!" shouted the fox. "My baby is sick and he needs human flesh to get better. Die!"

She was trying to strangle Julie with her sash. Julie managed to push her off. She yanked the sash off her neck.

Still holding the sash, she ran. A fox demon chased after her with a knife. She ran. The demon threw it. It didn't hit her arm full on, but as it went by, it sliced her skin open. She screamed as another knife stuck in her leg.

She was at the edge of a sheer drop down. When the foxes had taken her, she had been too busy kicking and screaming to notice that the cave was up a mountain.

"No where to go," said the demon and Julie looked down. She wouldn't be able to climb down.

Suddenly the rock around her feet crumbled. She heard the fox scream as if in pain. She reached for something to grab onto. She was starting to fall. She wouldn't make it...she...

Something grabbed her right arm. She looked up. Sesshomaru had grabbed her and saved her!

He pulled her up. She saw the demon that had thrown the two knives had been sliced in half.

Sesshomaru made her sit on the ground away from the edge. He wiped the blood on his sword on the fox demon's clothes.

Julie pulled the knife out of her leg and let it drop. Her arm and leg was bleeding and her clothes were spattered with blood from when Sesshomaru had killed the fox demon boss.

Sesshomaru sheathed his sword and glared at her. There was cold anger in his eyes. Julie looked away and suddenly seemed to find it easier to examine the boring rocks than look at Sesshomaru.

Jaken hovered in the background.

Sesshomaru strode over to her and lifted her to her feet. She winced at the pain in her leg.

"Were going now," said Sesshomaru. He practically dragged Julie down the mountain. She wanted to tell him that her leg hurt, but she had a feeling he wouldn't care.

When they were a few away from the mountain, Julie couldn't go any farther, she was exhausted and her leg hurt to badly.

She fell to her knees. Sesshomaru stopped and glared down at her.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"My leg hurts too much," mumbled Julie.

Sesshomaru bent down and placed his right arm behind her back. He put his left arm under her legs and he lifted her up. Julie squeaked in surprise. He began carrying her away. Jaken followed behind, not saying anything.

Julie didn't really want to thank the person that had kidnapped her and then nearly strangled her to death and sank his claws into her. But he had saved her life from those fox demons.

"Thanks," she said quietly, looking at Sesshomaru's face.

He said nothing. He continued to walk as if she hadn't said anything.

Julie was still holding the sash, she nervously fiddled with it while the silence stretched out and spread over them like a contagious disease. The only noise was their footsteps and the swishing of grass.

Julie was exhausted and she laid her head against Sesshomaru's chest. She could hear his heartbeat and his breathing. Even though he had saved her life, she couldn't help remembering yesterday when he scared the hell out of her. She thought he was going to kill her. She had been so scared. So scared...

Suddenly Sesshomaru said two words: "You're welcome."

She looked up at him in surprise. The look on his face suggested that it had taken a lot of effort to get out those two words.

Julie wasn't sure what to say now, so she said nothing.

"You're awful quiet," said Sesshomaru coldly.

"I was just thinking," said Julie.

"Of what?" asked Sesshomaru. "Another way to escape?"

"No," said Julie. "Just yesterday, when-when you tried to kill me."

"I did not try to kill you," said Sesshomaru. "I was furious at you. That was a lesson to teach you to not run off."

"But-you were strangling me and-" began Julie.

"That was to scare you," said Sesshomaru. "Believe me, if I really wanted to kill you, you would have been dead a long time ago. I was angry and I wanted to punish you. But I see you haven't learned you're lesson. I want to know exactly how you escaped with out waking me last night. I positioned myself so that if you moved to get away from me, I would feel it and wake up."

"You rolled over onto your back in your sleep and I just carefully got up and snuck off," said Julie.

"We'll talk later," said Sesshomaru coldly.

It was still dark out. The sun wouldn't come up for awhile. Julie was tired and she fell asleep...

Sesshomaru felt Julie go limp in his arms. She had fallen asleep, no doubt exhausted. Sesshomaru found a lake. He laid her down in some grass to rest.