Chapter 4: Death to Jaken?

Sesshomaru watches as Avalon draws her blade and stalks towards his retainer. He considers that it would be a cruel outcome for him if she succeeds but knows she would never be able to. He keeps his gaze fixed on her and readies himself to move if necessary. Jaken notices Avalon approaching from behind and turns around with a start realizing her blade is drawn and shouts, reaching for his staff

"Back wench! Before I roast you alive!"

Avalon stops her stride in a moment of shock. Then can't help but start laughing. She finds herself doubling over and clutching her side as tears start to slip from the sides of her eyes.

Sesshomaru watches with intrigue, 'has she lost her mind?'

"What is so funny!" Jaken demands.

Avalon holds her side trying to ease the slight ache that laughing so hard causes and moves her hand to wipe the tears from her eyes and tries to speak. "I…. Ah… I" then breaks into another fit of laughter. Taking a few short breaths she tries again. "Jaken, I was only going to slice the bird to see if it was done."

"What?"

"ningen need the meat to be fully cooked or else we can get sick and one way to check that is to slice the bird and see if the fluid runs clear." Avalon continues towards the fire with her blade tilted down. She reaches for the bird and grabs the skewer it was resting on, slicing the bird along the breast and watches as the fluid runs clear, 'finally, I can eat, I'm starving.' She places the bird to rest away from the fire to let it cool. She swipes her blade away from everyone with as much force as she can to relieve blade of the birds juices. She picks up the damp kimono and wipes the blade and finally wipes it dry on her kimono and places it back it the sheath. Sesshomaru has followed her actions and realizes she knows how to care for the blade making him wonder what else she will do to surprise him.

"ningen, you will address me as Master Jaken."

"TOAD, you keep saying that."

"You disrespectful wench."

Avalon decides it isn't worth the headache or argument right now and simply ignores him. She turns around and sits not too far from Sesshomaru.

"ningen wench address me as Master Jaken…..Are you listening to me, I am the great and powerful Master Jaken most loyal vassal of the most powerful Lord Sesshomaru. You will respect me."

Avalon still refuses to acknowledge him and turns her gaze to the stars and realizes it has become quite late. She estimates it is most likely to be after 11. Jaken continues his tirade and screams. "WENCH!"

Even Sesshomaru was tiring of Jaken's foolishness and tosses a stone at his head to silence him. Avalon hearing the light thud turns her head and watches as Jaken falls to the ground unconscious. "Thank you Lord Sesshomaru, I am most grateful."

Sesshomaru nods his head and turns his head to gaze up at the stars. Avalon looks over at the bird, she gets up from where she is sitting to see if the duck is cool enough to handle. Poking it with her finger and finding her finger isn't scorched she reaches for a wing and rips it away and bites down. The wonderful taste of the duck along with her hunger makes her release a soft moan. Sesshomaru's head moves sharply to look as her. She sees the movement from the side of her eye, once she was done chewing. "Would you like some? I thought you didn't eat ningen food."

"No."

"Suit yourself. Hey you think Jaken would like some when he wakes?"

"Perhaps."

"Okay." She continues to eat her fill but leaves enough for the morning and some for Jaken. 'Well this is a good as time as any. Hope he doesn't kill me for asking these questions.'

"Lord Sesshomaru, I have a question about you, if you were to lose a finger, how long before it would no longer be able to be attached?"

Sesshomaru internally scoffs at the idea. "This Sesshomaru would never lose a finger."

Avalon wants to roll her eyes but she knows it wasn't a good idea. "Please humor me, theoretically, if it was only severed and no other damage, how long would it still be viable."

"Several moons."

"Wow that is amazing." Avalon theorizes that a limb could be viable an extended amount of time because she had remembered a later episode explaining that powerful demons could survive without their heads for several days. However, to imagine that it would apply to a limb for several months was astounding. "Lord Sesshomaru, I know you are an Inu Dai-youkai does that have any bearing on why your limb would be viable for so long?"

A quick look of astonishment passes over Sesshomaru's face before his normal stoic one replaces it rather quickly. He gasps the idea that she knew what he was and wondered what more she knew. "Yes."

"Do you have anything you would like to ask me?"

Sesshomaru simply raises his eyebrow at her.

'Ah father's tomb.' Avalon quickly corrects herself. "Other than where your father's tomb is, my Lord?"

"No."

"Very well, I will guide us when I wake in the morning if that is alright with you my Lord?"

"Yes, now rest ningen."

"Yes my Lord."

Avalon curls up between the fire and Sesshomaru. She can feel her body relaxing and feels herself drifting closer to the drop off point of consciousness. 'I feel oddly safe right next to the most dangerous demon alive. Go figure' with those last thoughts she is out cold drifting off into a deep sleep from the exhausting day she had.

Sesshomaru peers down at the young woman sleeping at his feet and wonders how she could simply fall asleep so quickly. He knew his aura would make most living things squirm until they were used to it. He thinks to himself, how this woman could seem so comfortable around him and knows more than he would have suspected. He remembers back to when he had glimpsed her eyes the first time they met. They are an interesting color for a ningen, green in the center around her black pupils with light blue ringing the green. They were open and inviting much more than any he had seen previously. He stares at her face looking at the straight but small nose, high and prominent cheekbones. However she did not look undernourished. His gaze wanders to her lips and sees they are small but plump and have a rosy pink hue. Her skin is pale nearly as pale as his. He reaches for her hand and finds she is limp to his touch as he turns her palm up and sees that there are slight callouses but they do not look to be from working but form swordplay. There are small scars but nothing that would suggest she had worked in a field or home. He lays her hand back down and tries to place her face. He cannot, even though he knows she is distinct enough that he would recognize her anywhere. 'I suppose if she shows me the tomb and she stays with me as she wishes I will learn why she knows what she knows.' A dark smirk crosses his face as he thinks of the other option. 'If she has been lying to this Sesshomaru, I will torture her and hopefully she will spill her guts, before I spill them. Part of me truly hopes it does not come to that not only because I do not particularly like killing women and children but also part of me feels a connection to her. How odd, why would I feel a connection to this ningen? More questions with no answers, a puzzle for me to figure out.' Sesshomaru continues to ponder his thoughts but finds he is only going around in circles and frustrating himself. He turns his gaze to the stars and tries to clear his mind.

As he is gazing at the sky he hears a slight rustling sound in front of him. He looks down and sees her shivering. He assumes she is cold had uses his fur pelt to cover her shaking form. Her shaking stills after a little while and he goes back to watching as the moon crosses the night sky. As the sun is finally rising Sesshomaru notices that Avalon is waking.

She can see the sunlight filtering through her eyelids. He quickly pulls his fur pelt from her body. She notices the sudden loss of warmth and wonders briefly what was keeping her warm when she then comes to the conclusion it had to be his fur pelt. She feels touched and honored he would use it to warm her while she slept. She slowly sits up and looks around. Her eyes sweep around the campsite and sees Jaken asleep but the smoldering fire. She moves her eyes back around to where she knew Sesshomaru was last night when her eyes land on him she looks into his eyes and finds herself transfixed by the golden orbs that stare back at her. They did not compare to what the anime portrayed and the sinking sun and moonlight would never highlight the true beauty and depth of them. After a few moments, she tries to look away but she cannot bring herself to. Sesshomaru notices that Avalon's eyes seem to be held by his gaze and takes the opportunity to observe the color of her eyes more thoroughly. He sees the green seems to be that of a deep emerald and the light blue reminds him of a summer day. There are silver slivers that shoot through the green into the blue once he is satisfied with his observations he slowly closes his eyes and Avalon takes that opportunity to look away. By this point she has a slight pink dusting her cheeks and worries he might have taken offense and in an attempt to dissuade the awkwardness she asks. "Should we wake him?"

Sesshomaru fixes her with a stern look and she finds herself pulling into herself. She gets up and shakes her head and walks away towards the small stream they made camp by. She leans over and splashes the cool water in her face and contemplates why he seems so upset then it hit her. 'I said we' with her new found realization she walks back and asks, "would my Lord like me to wake Jaken?"

Sesshomaru nods his head and leans it over in Jaken's direction. Avalon walks over to Jaken and nudges him with her foot. Jaken jumps up and starts spluttering. "Wha, wha?" He looks over towards where he was nudged and locks eyes with Avalon and starts screaming at her. "You wench how dare you kick me. I should roast you alive."

She rolls her eyes at him.

"You disrespectful whore."

Avalon feels her anger spike to an altogether new high. She reacts with very little thought and leaps over and grabs his staff. 'Without this he is nothing but a sniveling worm.' "Come you nasty toad show me how you are better than me. You are a sniveling idiot. You rely on your Lord's name for protection, however without it you are nothing but a worthless imp. Prove your worth defend yourself!" She stood to her full height with her back straight and the staff held horizontally in front of her.

"Give me my staff wench!"

"Oh this?"

She turns the staff slightly to the side to where Jaken could just about reach it and then returns it back to the original horizontal position. "No. Try and take it."

Jaken jumps at it as Avalon easily moves it beyond his reach. He attempts several times while Sesshomaru watches with an amused look in his eyes. He had been waiting for this to happen. Avalon continues the childish behavior for several more minutes but finds that her anger has died away and she is simply getting bored and starts to feel bad for the little imp.

"Enough Jaken, this is ridiculous. You cannot take the staff from me and I no longer wish to withhold it from you so let's come to an agreement. I will call you Jaken if you call me Avalon. Agreed?"

"I am Master Jaken."

"Jaken how do you feel master applies to you, when you cannot even remove this staff from my person?"

"I am Master Jaken"

"Then I am Lady Avalon"

"What?!"

"Well if you are Master of nothing, I can be Lady of nothing."

"Fine, hand over my staff."

"Ask me for it," she could tell that making him ask was killing his ego.

"Can I have my staff?"

"Sure." With a smug look on her face she places the staff within his reach. Jaken quickly plucks the staff from her grasp and holds it to his chest cradling it as if it is the most precious thing in his life. 'Guess it might be since it's probably the only thing he's ever received from Sesshomaru.' Avalon looks over at Sesshomaru and sees him watching with a neutral expression on his face.

"Master Jaken can you show me what fruits are edible?"

Jaken looks at her with a surprised look on his face, nods and leads her into the woods. Sesshomaru has watched the entire exchange and has become bored as it continues. He was about to step in when Avalon ended the whole affair by coming to an agreement with Jaken. He idly wonders how long the agreement will last as he watches as Jaken leads her into the forest.

Jaken leads her through the undergrowth till they came to a patch of berries. She grabs one and rubs it on her wrist.

"What are you doing?"

"Testing it Master Jaken, I might be allergic to it."

"What is allergic?"

"Hmmm, well my body might react badly to it, so I'm testing it before I eat them." Avalon gathers as many as she can carry and heads back to camp with Jaken following behind. She emerges from the trees and grabs her shirt that was left on the ground by the fire and places the berries in it.

"There." She smiles to herself, then grabs the leftover duck and takes a chunk off and starts eating it. "Here Master Jaken have some."

Jaken looks at the portion of meat she is offering and looks with big open eyes

"For me?"

"Yeah why not? I'm sure your hungry too."

Jaken gingerly grasps the offered meat and starts to chow down. Avalon notices that the fire was put out while they had been out searching. She figured Sesshomaru is wanting to start moving out. She rises from her seated position and starts to walk to Sesshomaru knowing she will have to ask some dangerous questions and starting to feel some intense feelings of trepidation. She steels herself and keeps on walking to him.

"Lord Sesshomaru I would like to speak with you in private."

Sesshomaru raises his eyebrow at the odd request but can tell she is rather nervous so decides to humor her.

"Jaken make yourself scarce."

Jaken looks over at Sesshomaru with a puzzled look but answer

"Hai Milord."

He gets up and scampers off. Sesshomaru returns his gaze to Avalon awaiting for her to continue.

"Lord Sesshomaru, I believe it's about time we start making our way to you father's tomb but I must ask something you will not like. Please understand most everything I will ask of you has purpose even if you may not understand why. Also please understand I cannot always tell you why. And please do not kill me for asking this. So here goes, where is your half-brother Inuyasha?"

Sesshomaru goes from being mildly curious to being extremely angry and narrows his eyes and sends her a death glare. She audibly gulps without meaning to. She wonders if this is her end. However Sesshomaru makes no move to harm her but states with a tight tone, "he is dead for all intents and purposes."

"So he is sealed to the tree by the Miko's arrow?"

A glimpse of surprise replaces the angry glare. 'How could she know of such things?' He answers with a bored tone, "Yes."

"I should like to see, it will help me figure out what we need to do next."

He raises his eyebrow and tries to figure out why she would want to see it but figures if it would get him closer to his father's tomb perhaps it was worth the frustration.

Avalon amends her statement and adds, "I do not make my requests for no reason. They do have a purpose."

"We will leave as soon as Jaken returns."

"Hai my Lord."

Avalon moves about the camp, collecting her various clothing items. She lays out the old kimono on the ground and rolls her shirt around the berries she had picked. She puts that bundle on the kimono. She removes the skewer from the duck and sticks it next to her shirt. She grabs her shorts and walks away to slip them on under her kimono and returns moments later to see Jaken has returned. She rolls the kimono around her food items and wraps the little bundle around her waist with the food on her right hip while her katana is on her left hip and the knot is on her side. She makes sure she can easily access her blade if need be and steps beside Sesshomaru.

"I'm ready to go now."

He nods and starts to lead the way.

UP NEXT CHAPTER 5: ON THE MOVE

A/N I honestly don't think I would have had the courage to do this without the help of my wonderful beta Elohiniar. Read her work its great. Please review it will make me write more. Alas I do not own Inuyasha. I own my OC alone.