The last thing Timmain saw as she was picked up from the ground was Gulden, laughing in her face. As her vision blurred she felt the saliva from Gulden upon her face wondering if that was the reason for her blurred vision. Just as everything began to fade away and the pain that she had tried to ignore during her battle began to fade as well, she was able to feel the distinct feeling of her body flying. It would have been a wonderful sensation had the pain she thought was fading away had not returned. Though, this time it was more intense. It felt like her whole body had just shattered. But the pain was quickly cut short as her vision faded to black and she finally lost all feeling throughout her body. Before losing consciousness completely she uttered, what she thought were her final words, "I have failed..."
There was a sudden and overwhelming sense to open her eyes. When it seemed it was too much for Timmain to ignore, it seemed her eyes just snapped opened on their own. She looked wildly about and found a young man staring down at her. She heard a voice asking "Is she alright..." but it did not come from the young man. Timmain's natural instinct took control of her body and she rolled away from the young man. Crouching and breathing hard she looked back at the young man who was now just a few feet away from her. As she crouched there taking in her surroundings, keeping an eye on the young man at the same time, she felt the power coming from this young man and realized he was a demon. Upon this realization she noticed that her body no longer felt any pain. She quickly glanced down at her arms and torso and saw that her wounds had healed. She looked back at the demon still standing there staring at her. A little girl peaked around from behind the demon and smiled nervously at Timmain. Timmain looked down towards the little girl and back up at the demon in confusion. Timmain knew this little girl was not a demon and it made her wonder what this demon was doing with this little girl. She also wondered what this demon had done to her. Had he been the one to heal me, she wondered wildly, but tossed away the notion knowing no demon would ever help a mortal. Other questions swirled through Timmain's mind, but there was only one important question that she wanted answered right away.
"Who are you?" she asked through clenched teeth putting as much threat in her voice as she could.
"What gives you the right to question me?" The demon said maintaining a calm look on his face but annoyance clearly heard in his question. Timmain took in everything she could as quickly as possible about this demon. He stood tall with a very superior and cold demeanor. Timmain took in what armor he wore and especially the two swords he was armed with. It was something Timmain always did when faced with a new enemy as a demon slayer. To size up her one she wanted to destroy in order to find a weakness that could be used against her enemy. But this demon was different than any Timmain had ever faced. She could feel the aura of this demon emanating more powerfully than any demon she had faced before. Though the power of this demon intimidated Timmain, she would never allow it to show.
"I don't normally lower myself to converse with demons but if you were the one who healed me I will offer my thanks and be on my way," Timmain said with a mocking smile. Timmain decided she didn't care anymore who this demon was when she remembered Gulden. She had to find Gulden and destroy him. And now that she was fully capable of doing so she wanted to search Gulden out immediately. She didn't have time to trifle with this demon. She secretly slipped her hand upon the handle of her sword but was shocked when she realized it was not in the scabbard Timmain usually had strapped to her waist. Timmain hoped the demon did not notice her hand move towards her scabbard or that her face didn't give away her shock and sudden fear of not being armed.
"Not until you tell me why you were battling that demon in my territory," the demon said sternly, not giving any indication that he had noticed any change in Timmain.
"This may be your territory, demon," Timmain spat out, as if the word "demon" were something disgusting in her mouth, "but that is my business, not yours!"
The demon began to approach Timmain. The little girl that had been standing behind the demon started pulling on his sleeve but the demon ignored her. As the demon got closer to Timmain he drew his sword. But the demon had done so too quickly for Timmain to react and she found herself staring at the point of the sword. Timmain realizing she was no match for this demon unarmed stayed where she was, frozen to the spot, staring at the demon with hate filled eyes. She forced herself not to betray the fear she was feeling, or the embarrassment for not seeing the demon pull his sword on her.
"I know you are not from these lands, demon slayer," the demon began causing Timmain's eyes to widen slightly in wonder at how he knew she was a demon slayer, "so you do not know what I am capable of." The demon stressed his point by thrusting his sword closer to Timmain's throat. Timmain found it humiliating that she could be so easily subdued by a demon and wanted to kill this one just as much as she wanted to kill Gulden. The little girl behind the demon began to impatiently tug upon the demon's sleeve even more than she had been.
"Lord Sesshomaru," the little girl whispered looking up at the demon. Yet the demon continued to ignore her.
"You're a demon, so I know perfectly well what you are capable of," Timmain said with as much hate as she could muster as her fear began to mount. Her mind began to race with a course of action she should take in order to kill or to just get away from this demon.
"I can easily reverse what I have done to you, so tell me now!" The demon said, clearly angry at this point at not getting the information he wanted from Timmain so easily. Not only did his tone betray it, but his face too, was starting to show his anger and contempt for Timmain.
"Lord Sesshomaru," the little girl said again, this time louder to get the demon to focus his attention towards her. But the demon still did not respond but continued his threatening stance towards Timmain.
"No!" Timmain shouted. "I would never disgrace myself by discussing my affairs with a disgusting demon..."
Timmain knew that would get the demon to react. The demon clearly despised mortals as much as Timmain despised demons. Timmain wanted the demon to react because she was anticipating it. She had finally forced down her fear and had decided on a course of action. She needed the demon to strike, because just as this demon was capable of moving quickly, so was Timmain when she needed to. Timmain was rewarded with satisfaction as she saw the demon give a small indication that he was about to attack her but just as the demon was going to attack and Timmain was going to move according to her plan, the little girl jumped in between them shouting.
"Lord Sesshomaru! Please stop!" The little girl pleaded with tears in her eyes.
Timmain and the demon looked down at the little girl in shock. Timmain wondered if the little girl even realized she could have been killed getting between the two of them ready to attack each other. Timmain was even more surprised that the demon had even bothered to stop his attack for this little girl.
"Lord Sesshomaru, you can't hurt her after you just saved her," the little girl said sniffling. "Please, don't hurt her."