I still don't own Inuyasha

Chapter 3, Jaken.

Melissa groaned as she slowly regained conciousness. Her body ached all over. Her head was pounding and her throat was raw. The light through her closed eye lids was moving in a strange manner, flickering like fire. Fire!

She sat up quickly, eyes snapping open and her head swam. She closed her eyes tightly, willing the world to stay still. Slowly she opened them again and her eyes came to rest on the camp fire. She was camping?

The images came flooding back, the alter falling, the void, the man trying to rape her, blood... A man had been trying to rape her and she'd lost conciousness! NO! The blood! The rapist had been cut in two. She'd been covered in blood. She was covered in blood.

She shook her head. There had been a white haired man. He'd saved her. She hadn't seen him move, and he was several feet away when the man fell, but who else could it have been? Men didn't just fall in two pieces like that. He'd had the most stunning gold eyes, he looked as though he could see straight into her soul.

She looked down at her body. She was covered in dried blood and pieces of... She didn't want to think what those were pieces of. She hadn't been washed or wiped clean, the blood hadn't even been smeared. Noone had touched her while she'd been unconcious. The rapist had been killed and the white hair man hadn't taken advantage of her. Raven was still in her hand. She was fine.

No, she wasn't. She was covered in a stranger's blood. It had been in her mouth. H.I.V, A.I.D.S., Hepetitis! She felt bile rise in her mouth and coughed up stomach acid. That's right, she'd tossed her cookies earlier.

She needed to get to a hospital, to get checked out! But she was alone in the middle of the woods. No, the white haired man, where was he? He'd saved her, so he'd help her get help, right? Some one had to start that fire, but she didn't see him.

He was probably just out of sight, marking his territory as men so loved to call it. He'd looked so masculine, she was sure he was one to take great delight in pissing on trees. It was just such a manly thing to do. Men... Such simple creatures, you had to love them.

She waited for him. And waited. Where was he? "Hello, is anyone there?" She called nervously.

There was a sound of surprise, as though she'd startled some one out of a light sleep. followed by irritated mumbling. She crossed her arms over her bare chest and drew her knees up to further conceal herself. She didn't understand the words, but that wasn't, couldn't be the white haired man. He'd been young and beautiful. This voice sounded like a little, grumpy, old man. But she didn't see anyone.

She heard the voice speak again. Was it coming from the fire? Then she saw faces rise above the fire, two of them. But then she realized they were just carvings on a staff that had risen, seemingly on it's own. It began to move and soon the owner of the staff came into view.

She bit back her scream so it came out simply as a petrified squeak. What was that!? She had'nt seen him because he was so short he was hidden behind the glare of the fire. He had huge yellow eyes, green reptilian skin, and a beak. He was smaller than most children, he might have come has high as her knees.

She scooted away and stared wide eyed at the thing. It stared right back. It spoke and sat back down, watching her. After a while she realized this... thing... didn't seem interested in hurting her. Just watching her. He seemed irritated, but not menacing. Was he guarding her?

She sighed, then looked down and shuddered at the dried blood and bits on her skin. She looked at the river, well, she'd been prepared for a cold shower before all this happened. Now it was a cold bath instead. She put Raven in it's sheath and set it down.

"I am going to go wash." She told the little thing, knowing full well it couldn't understand her but feeling she shouldn't just walk away. She pointed to the river as she stood. He said nothing.

The water was colder than she'd expected, it was like ice water. And the moment she'd stepped in it he'd been on his feet screaming at her and pointing at the fire. Teeth chattering she told him she'd come warm up in a minute but she was just to gross. She couldn't stand it anymore.

The water at the deepest point came only up to her hips. She lowered herself to her neck and even in the dark she could see the water turn murky as it disolved the gore from her skin. She was shivering so hard she didn't even know if she'd shuddered. Mean while the little green thing alternated between yelling at her and muttering to himself. She steeled herself and submerged her head, rubbing numb fingers over her face and through her hair, determined to get as clean as she could in the icy water.

Finally she felt she was clean enough and waded back to the shore. She fell several times in the process as her feet were to numb to feel the river bottom. As soon as she reached the shore the green thing was behind her, shoving on a calf, tring to push her toward the fire. He needn't have pushed, she was anxious to get to the warmth and he toppled forward onto his face has the leg he'd pushed moved forward.

"Dude, You're so high strung! Are you taking anything for that? I'd give you a brownie but I left them at home." She told the creature rolling her eyes. She picked up her blade and sat down infront of the fire.

She held her hands toward the fire, she didn't even try to cover herself anymore, he'd already seen her naked. He didn't seem to want to look anyway. She figured she was as weird looking to him as he was to her. He wore clothing, but her nudity was no more interesting to him than any other woodland creature.

"Anyway, I know you don't understand me, but thanks for watching out for me. That's what you've been doing right? I guess the guy who saved me put you up to it? Or did you just stumble across me after he left and decide to make sure I'm ok? I wonder what your name is. I assume you have one if you have a language and clothing." What was he anyway?

"Hey, I'm Melissa." She turned towards him and touchd her chest. "Melissa." She repeated slowly, makeing sure each sylable was clear.

He looked at her for a moment, then he slowly repeated "Merissa?"

"Melissa."

"Merissa." He repeated.

She was familiar enough with Stereo types and Engrish jokes to know that many asians struggled with the letter 'L'. His clothing did look asian. She supposed she was just going to have to be 'Merissa' for the time being. "Close enough."

The little green thing then pointed to his face "Jaken." He told her happily. So the thing did have a name, the thing was Jaken.

"Jaken." She repeated, making sure she had it. He nodded and settled down at the fire beside her.