And we're back. As I said in the last chapter, I'm just loving Dan and her interactions with Koga and I'm just feeling the need to write more more more.

Dan and Koga are such fun characters to write together. Both hotheaded, so they either get along like a house on fire, or are at each others throats. I love that sort of dynamic, and it's only going to get more apparent as the story goes on. I'm also hoping as the story goes on, I'll get more comfortable with writing longer scenes between them. I know when the other wolves get involved (boy do I have a good little subplot planned for some of them) that it'll be easier to write longer scenes. I'll just have to be patient. Or write faster.

Koga gets a bit of made-up backstory in this chapter. I feel like the one thing InuYasha doesnt do well for its characters is give them good solid backstories. We rarely get to know anything about most characters pasts, yet that's something I thoroughly enjoy writing and hinting at in my stories, so if I want to indulge, I'm going to have to supplement. I hope I can do these characters justice.

Either way, I'll stop rambling and let you read this chapter!

In The Jaws Of The Wolf

Chapter Four

"What's so interesting down by that stream?" Ando asked as the two of us dressed for the morning. "You're there almost every night."

"Peace, for one." It was getting harder to play nice with Ando. The more time I spent with the wolves and Koga, who I was really beginning to consider a friend, the less I wanted to come home and pretend to be okay living with a man I could barely stand.

He snorted. "What, you don't get peace here?"

"You're kidding? Between cook this, clean this, mend this, sit on my cock whenever you damn well feel like it, I barely get any time to myself."

"You're my wife."

"But not your property!" Wifly duties were not a good enough reason for him to treat me like a maid and broodmare whenever he had some free time to entertain himself. I was a damned person and wanted some damned time to myself, too. Going down to the stream afforded me that. Quiet when the wolves weren't around, and friendly company when they were. I didn't have to do anything for the wolves. They just enjoyed being around me, as I did them. There was no stress or obligation there.

Here it was all stress and obligation.

Ando and I couldn't even joke together.

"I will never be a doll for you to play with. I am my own fucking person with my own fucking mind and you will never be able to change that."

He just wasn't hearing what I was saying. That was made clear enough by the dismissive roll of his eyes as he dropped down into the doma. "You better be in a better mood when I get back."

I contemplated flinging the cooking pot I was ladling yesterdays okayu out of at him.

By the time I decided that that was a brilliant idea, and would probably solve half of my problems right now, he was gone.

After choking down the bland porridge, I left myself, large basket in hand, ready to spend the entire day down by the stream. It seemed to be my only escape nowadays, and I would take it whenever I could, even if that meant annoying my oh so wonderful husband.

Though, I could tell my mood was not what it usually was as I stalked down to the stream. Every noise grated on me. The children playing as I walked through the village, the cicada cries, even the babbling of the water when I did reach the stream struck my nerves. What I had desperately hoped this morning would be a good enough day was clearly not going to be.

By the time midday rolled around, my mood was black. I'd fucked up and had to unpick and start again, not once but twice, and pricked myself so much that my fingers were tinged pink with my own wiped away blood.

The last prick was the last straw for me. Frustrated, I balled up the hakama I was working on, not caring that I was staining them with my own blood and thew the ball of cloth towards the bushes, screaming after the damned thing.

Just to solidify that my luck was completely shitty, someone was just emerging from the bushes as I let the cloth ball fly, and ended up with a face full of hakama. He cried out in shock and fell backwards into the bushes. All I could see of him was his fur-covered legs. Woops. "Shit, sorry Koga. It's been a bad day."

The face that popped up from the bushes was not Koga. Clearly he was a wolf demon. He had the same style of clothing: fun adornments, armour, the same pointed ears. That was all the similarities, though. This man had much shorter hair, a two-toned grey shade, and his stomach wasn't covered by his armour like Koga's was.

"Oh." I'd gotten so used to the feeling of demons around with Koga, that I'd paid no notice to the way my hairs stuck up and shivers chased up my spine. I'd attributed that feeling to Koga's presence now. I hadn't even thought about other demons coming this close.

"Koga said you'd be here." His voice was softer than Koga's, and he had a much more friendly expression. Koga's face looked like it was perpetually angry, even when he was relaxed, with his thick, arched brows. This man's face was much softer and friendlier.

"Koga sent you?" I wasn't sure I liked the idea that Koga was sending demons in my direction.

The demon drew himself up and held out a bundle of fur towards me. "He said you could fix this."

What, now I was the wolf demon's seamstress? Exhaling softly, I reached out to take the pile of fur and shook it out. It was a pelt of the same sort of coarse, slightly greasy fur that wolf had. The demons wore their own dead friend's fur? That was a little bit creepy. There was a huge tear in the shawl, rending it open. "What happened?"

The demon rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "There was a bit of a run-in with a little bird of paradise."

Bird of paradise. The bird demons that sometimes came down from the mountains and swept up our villagers.

"You should be more careful." If those bird demons had done this to a pelt, it was scary to think what they'd do to flesh. "Pass me the hakama? My needle's in there."

He passed over the pile of cloth that had been used as a weapon against him.

I fished through it to find the needle. After loosening the needle from the hakama's thread, I restrung it with a thicker thread from my basket, and found out my leather thimble. "So you're from Koga's pack?" The demon had settled down next to me quite comfortably, so I assumed he was staying until I finished up fixing the pelt. Might as well attempt to make conversation.

"Yep. My name's Ginta. Koga and I have been friends since we were cubs. We came up from Hokosetsu together."

Ginta was a chatty man. While I worked, he told me about his life with Koga, how the two had both been fairly small and weak demons in their youth, but had worked hard to get stronger. Koga had succeeded in that much easier than Ginta had, and when Koga had found a shard of some sort of sacred magical jewel, his power had amplified greatly. Wanting to leave behind the tribe that had treated them so poorly, Koga had struck out to find another pack to take over, with Ginta following behind him loyally. They'd found the tribe in the East, the tribe that lived in these mountains, and Koga had taken over, claiming control and crowning himself the new leader of the Eastern tribe.

After a little prompting to keep him talking - the more he talked, the less I had to - he started telling me about the other demons he had met when they'd settled into the Eastern tribe. Hakkaku had quickly become his closest friend, apparently. The Eastern demons were rougher than the ones he was used to in the West, apparently, but while Hakkaku was a bit more rough-and-tumble than Ginta was himself, they'd become fast friends, and both enjoyed each other's company. Though Hakkaku apparently had an aversion to bathing that Ginta just couldn't agree with.

"My nose is sensitive," he'd complained, wrinkling it in emphasis.

Then he went on to talk about a few more demons he'd met and got along with.

Akari was another friendly face. He was even more rough-and-tumble than Hakkaku was, but he was always willing to share what he had with his Western brother, from food when hunting was scarce, to weaponry when Ginta's broke. He spoke pretty highly of Akari, but said that the solid bond of deep ever-lasting friendship that he felt with Hakkaku just wasn't there with Akari.

Then there was Joji.

"He's a real piece of work," Ginta insisted with a scowl.

As the son of the demon that Koga had defeated to take the title of alpha, Joji was particularly cantankerous, and was always ready to do oppose Koga when he wanted to. Ginta didn't even want to try getting to know Joji any better than he did, knowing that it wouldn't bear fruit. Joji would likely never get along with either he or Koga. But as long as Koga had the shards and was as strong as he was, there was nothing Joji could do, so Ginta didn't care.

By the time I cut the thread, I felt like I knew more than my fair share of pack politics and gossip. I could probably pick a good portion of the tribe out on first meeting after that lesson.

"Wow! This looks good as new. You can't tell it's been fixed!" He shrugged the pelt on and struck a pose. I laughed as he struck a couple more poses. "Thanks, sis. You're great. I'll be back next time!"

"Be more careful!" I called after him as he bound back the same way as he'd appeared. I could sew up all the clothes he wanted, but I wasn't sure I could sew up flesh if one of the birds got to him rather than his clothes.

When he was gone, I sat back, looking at the mid-afternoon sky. Learning about Koga and the other wolf demons had been interesting. They sounded like an eclectic bunch. There were a few of them that I would like to meet myself. Hakkaku was someone I really wanted to meet. From what Ginta had said, he sounded like a great person.

Time would tell whether I would actually get to meet him or not.

There was something that was bothering me about Ginta's ramblings, though.

The jewel shards he'd spoken about. The ones that gave Koga extra power. That sounded familiar. Eerily so. A shard of some sort of gem that gave the demon user power.

I reached for the little pouch tied to my sash, and flicked through it until I found the gem I'd found pretty much in this very spot weeks ago. I held between my thumb and finger, holding it up to the light so it sparkled. It still had that weird glow that it had when I first found it. Could this be the same sort of jewel that Koga had used?

The chilling feeling I still had looking at it told me that it probably was.

Interesting...

Review corner!

I just got my first review for this story!

Buzzk97 - Thank you! I've got a lot of plans for the fic, and we're starting to get into a bit more of a wolf-centred part of it now, so things will start to pick up. I'm excited to see where it goes, as well!

That's it for this chapter. I'm enjoying writing, of course, and I couldn't help introducing Ginta. He's such a sweetheart. If my love didn't lie with the more rough and dangerous characters if InuYasha (cough Bankotsu cough Sesshomaru cough Naraku) then I think he would definitely become one of my favourite characters. I think I'd count Ginta as one of my favourite minor InuYasha characters. Who's your favourite minor InuYasha character?