Chapter 8

The Boar and the Tiger

Kyo continued to follow the girl, unaware that he was being led deeper and deeper into the forest. Where on earth is she going? Kyo thought with a frown on his forehead. He brushed off the branches that got on his way and continued chasing the brown haired girl. Kyo was getting tired; it was when he realized that the girl could run fast. To his relief the girl came to an abrupt stop.

"Why are you following me?" The girl asked in a soft and feminine tone, her back facing him.

"Y-you reminded me of someone I know" Kyo replied, gasping for breath.

"Do I?" The girl asked.

"Yes, you reminded me of a very dear friend from long ago" Kyo answered, taking a step closer to the girl.

"She must be a very special friend" The girl slowly turned around and Kyo's eyes widened in horror and took a step back. Both her eyes were bleeding and her pupils were cat-like slits. Her cheeks were pale and sunken and he could see something moving inside her skin.

"Are you afraid?" The girl asked in a teasing tone, taking a step closer to Kyo. His hands instantly grabbed the hilt of his sword. The girl laughed and slowly her features started changing. Her neck elongated and turned into a dark shade of coffee. Her lustrous brown hair merged with her wrinkled back and turned into spikes and her hands and fingers grew longer along with her legs, which forced her to go down on all fours. Kyo wrinkled his nose in disgust; the girl was the stench of death.

"What the hell?" Kyo gasped. Before him stood an ugly, deformed creature that was too hideous for words.

With an inhuman scream the monster leapt at Kyo, swinging its huge claws at him. Luckily Kyo parried in time, which saved him his life. Kyo smirked as he saw the creature's hand slowly began to freeze. This was the special power of his sword, anything that came in contact with it would become frozen and only one with a powerful fighting spirit or a highly magical artifact could neutralize its effects.

Kyo's eyes widened with horror and surprise as he watched the creature's freezing arm thaw. With a devil like grin the creature lunged at Kyo and attempted to attack him again with its claws. This time Kyo moved a second to slow and he could feel its sharp pointed claws lightly graze against his skin.

"You bastard" Kyo muttered before wildly spring at the monster and attacking her like a frenzied madman. The creature dodged Kyo's continuous attacks with ease, a small smile formed on its lips. The creature continued dodging the dangerous blades, patiently waiting for its wielder to run out of strength.

Crap! How long can this thing keep on dodging my attacks? Kyo thought angrily. He was running out of strength and pretty soon he'd be too tired to even stand. Panting hard he summoned all of his energy and both the sword began glow, each emitting a strange aura but before Kyo could finish summoning up the swords magic the stench in the air increased and Kyo fell down the hard forest floor and fainted. Terror gripped his heart as he slowly felt his senses being robbed away. No…I can't die now…not yet…not here… Kyo thought as he desperately tried to remain conscious and failed as he heavily fell down the ground with a hard thump.

x

The creature watched the orange haired boy fall down to the ground with glee. I shall feast tonight. The creature thought with joy as it slowly approached Kyo poking his tender flesh with its claws. It has been long since I have dined on human flesh. The creature grabbed hold of one of Kyo's limbs, it was about to pull one of Kyo's limbs out when the earth began to shake and water started to randomly pour out of nowhere.

Out of the ground emerged a young woman with ebony coloured tresses and huge chocolate brown eyes. In her hands she held a scythe and following closely behind her was a boar with tusks sharper than the fangs of a wolf. The creature hissed as soon as it saw the woman.

"Get your filthy hands off that boy!" The woman yelled angrily before charging at the boar with a crazed look in her eyes. With a fearful look the creature ran away only to find a young child with orange coloured hair and ginger coloured eyes blocking its way. The girl held no weapons, making her seem vulnerable but behind her stood a tiger and a tigress.

"You're not going anywhere!" The brown haired woman yelled at the creature, a hint of sarcasm and amusement could be found in her voice, the young girl quietly nodded in agreement.

The creature hissed it was trapped with no where else to go. The only chance was to defeat either one of the girls. The creature glanced back and forth at the two girls, trying to decide the weaker opponent. The brown haired woman looked strong and the creature doubted if it would be possible to pass her while the orange haired youngster looked frail and weak. The creature quickly made up its mind and ran towards the young girl; it was a stupid mistake as the two tigers hiding behind the girl leapt at the advancing creature to protect their master.

The girl slowly held out her hand and a jet stream of water began to flow out of her fingertips. The tigers jumped away from the creature just in time as the powerful flow of water viciously attacked the beaten monster. The older girl ran towards the monster and drew a circle around it with her scythe.

"Mother Earth please hear my plea,

Return this creature where it should be" The older girl quickly chanted.

The circle began to glow and the ground within the circle vanished into thin air and the creature was swallowed into the ground. The two girls watched the creature desperately cling for dear life with emotionless eyes, watching it struggle and frantically escape the fatal spell that would seal it for eternity.

"Goodbye" The older girl whispered as she watched the circle fully consume the creature. Wiping the sweat off her forehead she turned to the younger girl and smiled. "We finally sealed the last of them haven't we Kisa?"

The younger girl looked at her older sister and smiled. Her ginger eyes filled with happiness.

"To think we had to track that thing down for two whole days. I'm glad it's finally over" The older girl said with a smile. "We can finally have a good night sleep without Isuzu breathing down our necks telling us to hurry up seal the monster, right Kisa?" The older sister asked. Kisa nodded in reply; finally they were going to have a peaceful night without Isuzu-nee constantly waking them up to chase down monsters. I wonder why she won't do it herself. Kisa thought with a frown. It's always me and Kagura-neechan that has to chase and seal monsters in the middle of the night.

Kisa yawned, she was feeling sleepy. They had chased down the monster for two whole nights and for those two whole nights not once did she manage to sleep. Motioning one of her tigers to come Kisa wearily got on its back and instantly fell asleep. Kagura looked at her younger sister sympathetically and gave the tigress a nod. With a powerful leap the tigress ran deeper to the forest protectively carrying Kisa on its back, closely followed behind by the male tiger.

Kagura carefully approached the orange haired boy and knelt down beside him, her chocolate coloured eyes filled with concern and awe. It was the first time she actually met a human brave enough to fight one of the cursed creatures of the forest and survived. Was it because of bravery or stupidity? Kagura thought as she continued watching the boy. He had orange coloured hair that shine under the moonlight and sun kissed skin for training under the sun. He had the complexion of a warrior, an attractive young warrior. He is very handsome… Kagura observed her cheeks turning into a slight shade of crimson.

Kagura let out a smile as she continued watching the warrior. Should I leave him here to die or should I help him? She thought. I should help him. Kagura decided. The forest is a dangerous place for humans and I wouldn't want anything to happen to him.

"Evert come here" She motioned her boar to come closer and immediately the boar obeyed. "I want you to carry this boy" She commanded.

"Why do you wish to help a human?" The boar asked with a grunt, it wasn't willing to carry a heavy male after two sleepless nights.

"Because I wish to. Now come here" Kagura ordered. With a grunt the boar grudgingly obeyed his master and knelt down beside her. Kagura grabbed the boy's arms and gently draped his lithe body across the boar's hairy back.

"This human is heavy" The boar grunted.

"I don't want to hear any complaints. Evert, I want you to carry him as gently as you possibly can while we head back home okay?"

"What if I don't?" The boar asked arrogantly, his pride touched for having to carry a worthless human on its back.

"Then you'll wish that you've never had me as your master" Kagura whispered threateningly at the boar with a crazed look in her eyes. "Understand?"

With a gulp the boar nodded and grudgingly began its journey back home. Kagura may be kind but there were times when she was nothing more than a crazy psychopath master that would easily get carried away over such trivial things. Sometimes I wish that Kisa was my master. The boar grumbled. Too bad I'm stuck with her.

"I heard that!" Kagura yelled from behind. The boar in reply haughtily stuck its nose up in the air and continued walking with what could only be describe as an arrogant strut.

"I swear not only do I have to handle a hot tempered sister and a mute sister I also have to handle an arrogant and stubborn boar!" Kagura angrily whispered to herself. "Rin sure is lucky that she doesn't have an animal to look after…then again it's because of the fact that her animal has already merged with her" Kagura bit her lip with worry. Even though she was older than Rin her powers were greater than hers. The proof of it was the fact that she had already learned to merge with her animal, making her far stronger than Kagura. Of course once Kagura learned to merge with Evert she was sure that her powers would exceed Rin's but she wasn't too sure if she wanted to share her body with a grumpy stubborn boar that had no regard to hygiene.

Kagura's mind drifted back to the orange haired boy. He was gorgeous and she was sure that he was roughly around the same age as her. Not only was he attractive he was also a fine warrior. Thinking of his qualities a thought struck Kagura's mind. He was handsome, he was single and he was also a powerful warrior. In other words he was perfect husband material.

I'm going to make sure that he stays here in this forest with me no matter what. Kagura thought with a determined smile on her face. Watching his lithe form resting on Evert's back a blush graced her cheeks. I'm going to have you, my sweet orange-kun…

x

Whew, chapter 8 is finally over. I think this is the longest chapter I've written so far in this story (Dunno I might be mistaken). Anyways I would like to thank cocoke5, SnowAngel101, namelessshadow, faeryespell, Fan999123, viviana tully, littleduck, snowboarder67 and DarkKyo. Thank you all for reviewing it makes me feel so happy! Bye!