The pups whined and protested for a little bit, but it suddenly stopped as they stared wide eyed in terror. The two younger siblings ran for cover behind Keiji, and shook with fear. From the way the pups were shaking, Emiko knew that this was no game.
She slowly turned, only to come face to face with a large snake demon. The snake demon was at least twice her height, with a large scaly green body. His blood red eyes looked hungrily at the human and three pups, as his long tongue flicked about in front of him.
"I am truly lucky to find a helpless human and pups out in the woods, practically begging to be eaten," the snake demon hissed with a slight slur. Emiko immediately put herself between the demon and the pups, glaring at the demon all the while. The three dog demon pups clung onto her skirt, as she addressed the demon, "You will not be eating anyone here I sorry to say. You will have to go through me to get to these pups."
"Ha, worthless human, do not make me laugh. You could not even save yourself, let alone three pups from any demon. If you wish to die so soon, than let me help you achieve that desire."
Emiko was in way over her head, and she knew that. She also knew deep down in her heart, that there was no way she could defeat a full grown demon, but defeat and death were not an option for her right now. Katsu had done so much for her and she still had to repay him, not to mention if she died, then the pups would probably follow soon after.
"When I say 'now', I want you three to run away from here as fast as you can," Emiko whispered to the pups. She knew demons had exceptional hearing, but this demon seemed to not have heard.
"Miss Emiko, there is no way you could possibly defeat such a big demon all by yourself. We could never forgive ourselves if we just left you here to die," the eldest pup, Keiji whispered back.
"Don't worry young ones; I will not let anything happen to you until you are safely back in your mother's arms. If you do exactly as I say, then my plan will most likely work," Emiko said enthusiastically. A small sigh escaped her lips when the pups silently agreed. Truth be told, Emiko had no plan what so ever and simply planned on taking whatever fate threw her way.
Kneeling down ever so slowly, she quickly picked up a thick stick about the length of her arm, while she kept glaring at the demon. Standing tall with her pathetic excuse of a weapon pointed at the demon, she stood bravely. If all else failed, she would at least be able to buy the pups some time to find help or get back home.
When she whispered the signal the pups made a dash for the thick clumping of trees behind them. The three pups had an advantaged with their small size for once. Any adult or full grown demon would have a nearly impossible time making their way through the thick areas of trees.
I can't let him get the pups no matter what, Emiko thought repeatedly. As she thought her little chant over and over again in her head the snake demon began its charge. He decided to kill the human female in one strike and then get the fleeing pups.
To Emiko, the snake demon's attack seemed to come in slow motion. The world around her disappeared and melted away, as her opponent came at her like a snail, inching forward ever so slowly. Shaking hands squeezed her branch in front of her even tighter.
As she waited for death to come something unexpected happened and this event went totally unnoticed by the young female. While concentrating on the demon, an eerie blue light began to radiate off of her hands first, followed by the branch and soon all of her body. Her normally emotion filled eyes suddenly glazed over and turned the same blue color. The demon saw this change in the human, but before he had a chance to react it was all over. The snake demon had come too close to the human female, and in punishment his body was sliced in half by the tree branch.
When the demon was a mere foot of two away, Emiko shut her eyes closed tight so she would not have to see her death. She knew that attacking would do nothing, but as she raised the now glowing stick above her head and brought it down of the demon's body, a voice inside of her told her that everything would work out.
A high pitched screech reached the human's ears and slowly faded away. When she realized that the scream had not come from her, she slowly prided her eye lids open. Emiko uttered a small gasp as her wide eyes took in the sight before her. The snake demon's now dead body lay before her in two pieces, smoking and smoldering. Something had chopped the demon right down the center of his body.
"Lady Emiko!" a small girly voice shouted. Emiko mindlessly dropped the tree branch and turned in the direction of the voice to see the three pups galloping at her full force. Knocking the breath out of her, the pups flung their bodies at her. Somehow her shaking body managed to hug and kiss each of the energetic bundles of joy.
"Did you see who killed the demon?" her trembling voice quivered.
"Why you did of course Miss Emiko."
"How did you manage to do that?"
"Could we learn to do that?" The questions seemed endless, but Emiko answered most of them to the best of her ability. After much time Emiko finally had to say, "Now little ones, lets head back before we get attacked by another demon."
The youngest of the pups held out her tiny little clawed hands to show she wanted to be carried. Emiko let out a sigh as she kneeled down onto the ground to let the young pup climb onto her back. Sachi flung her hands enthusiastically around the young woman's neck when Emiko rose off of the ground.
Feeling a tug at her skirt she looked down to see the younger of the boys held up a hand bashfully. Shifting Sachi's weight on her back, she used one hand to hold onto the little girl's legs and the other hand held onto Jiro's hand. The eldest of the pups marched out into the forest, proudly leading the group back home.
The trip back to camp, through the now growing dark forest, was peacefully for the most part. There were absolutely no signs of the demons, but Keiji would occasionally jump out of the trees, hoping to scare the young female. To make the young pup feel better, Emiko would let out a pretty convincing scream and say something like "Wow, you scared me pretty good that time."
Keeping up with all the pup's games threatened to give Emiko a headache as they continued to walk back. As to how they could remember all the rules and names left Emiko perplexed. Weren't adults supposed to be smarter and have larger brains? Surely she could remember a few children's games.
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"Mommy!" The pups cried happily when they arrived back in camp later that evening. Sachi had long ago fallen asleep on Emiko back, and somehow managed to keep on snoozing through all the shouting and crying. The two young boys ran to their crying mother when they finally found her standing with Kurai, Katsu, Yukio, and the man that appeared to be their father.
"Thank the gods that you are both alright! What happened? Where is your sister?" the mother inquired while trying to stop her tears. Getting out of their mother's iron like grip the pups instantly ran to Emiko's side.
"We were playing in the forest, when Miss Emiko here found us. A big snake demon tried to eat us, but Miss Emiko blew it up!" Keiji said while acting it all out.
"The demon was at least 5 times Miss Emiko's height, but she still took it on. She chopped it in half with this weird glowing stick," Jiro quietly added in.
"Sachi fell asleep while Miss Emiko was carrying her back. Just like a little girl to fall asleep after something as exciting as that," Keiji declared seriously. The pup's mother along with everyone else looked at Emiko wide eyed, as they tried to figure out if the pups were telling the truth. Keiji was known to pull pranks on them and exaggerate the truth sometimes, but Jiro hardly ever lied.
"My guess is that you would like to see your little girl, so if you wouldn't mind could you please help get your daughter off my back," Emiko said finally. The looks that everyone was giving her was making her feel incredible uncomfortable. With a silent nod of her head, the mother instantly ran over and took her sleeping daughter off of Emiko back. Seeing the pup's mother kiss her sleeping daughter's head over and over again, filled Emiko's heart with much joy.
"Miss Jin, you have beautiful pups. I can imagine that other mothers are extremely jealous of you," Emiko uttered as pleasantly as she could considering the fact that she now had a bad case of yawns.
Her legs suddenly felt as though they were made of jelly or clay. She wobbled slightly to the left and then the right, before she felt her tired and aching legs give out from underneath her. Too tired to respond, Emiko waited to make bitter sweet impact with the ground.
"I think you have had enough fun for one day," Katsu whispered into her ear. It took Emiko a moment to realize that Katsu was holding her bridal style in his strong and protective arms. Snuggling up into his warm chest Emiko silently agreed.
As sleep clouded Emiko's mind, she heard mumbles around her. The strong arms that held her tightly carefully carried the exhausted woman back to the tiny tent she was currently calling home. Being gently laid down on the blankets and tucked into the bed Emiko pried her tired eye lids open. Katsu sat close by, watching intently like usual.
"Katsu?" her weak voice called.
"Don't worry Emiko, I'm right here and I'm not leaving you any time soon. Demons are a lot harder to get rid of then most people think," he said quietly, "I won't ask you to tell me what happened right now, seeing how warn out you are. The minute you are done resting, I'll be all over you like a bad cold."
Katsu flashed an honest and true smile as he said this. It wasn't the kind of smile you use when you were nervous or wanted everyone to think you were nice, but a smile that came from the heart. Emiko entered her own special world of dreams with a small smile played on her lips.
You really are something different Emiko, Katsu thought.
Author's Note: So ends another long awaited chapter of this story. I would like to thank all of the kind people who have reviewed so far, because without you I wouldn't have had to inspiration to continue on with the story. Until the next update!