Strange New Feelings

Golgiroth lay slumped weakly on his side, groaning in pain. His illness was giving him problems once again. Someone approached his platform and he raised his head slightly. " Who goes?" he grumbled.

" It is I, Crin. I have come to give some rather disturbing news on the sleeping demon."

" What is it?" Golgiroth mumbled, attempting to get to his feet. " Tell me!"

" I'm afraid that he has moved. He has no awoken, but when we went in to check on him, his position was slightly different."

" He's waking up?" Golgiroth exclaimed, and immediately regretted it as a paroxysm of pain swept through his body and he slumped to the floor.

" No, his spirit is restless and wants to be active once more." Crin said. Then he added, " Shall I place a stronger jewel on him?"

Golgiroth considered this a moment. " Yes. This time, give him a sapphire. It should keep him still awhile longer. I'm surprised."

As Crin hurried off to fetch the jewel, Golgiroth's eyes narrowed and moved toward the demon's cave.

That jewel should have kept working for months. It's only been three days. This is no ordinary demon.

After they'd cleansed most of the venom from his body, Storm resituated Naraku on his back, still unconscious. Miroku sighed. " Boy, that was some job. He sure took in a lot of venom." He said, glancing at Storm. The dragon nodded.

" Yes. I suspect he's a half-demon to have survived such an encounter."

" He is." Miroku said. " Or at least he was. His power was stripped from him about nine or ten years ago. I suppose he's changed, but I still really don't trust him."

" Well, we still have to take him back. That young girl he was with won't be happy if he dies." Storm said, starting back toward the group.

Saaya sat on top of a small rock, staring downward distantly. It had been almost an hour since they took him and the knot in her stomach grew more tangled with every passing minute.

When someone touched her shoulder, she shrieked and whirled around, preparing to slice the intruder to bits. But it was only Miroku. She lowered her hands and retook her seat. " Is he okay?"

" He's still alive. But we still aren't sure if he'll make it." Miroku said quietly. She was mature enough to know the whole facts, not some. She lowered her eyes to the ground. " May I see him?" she murmured.

" Yes. Come." Miroku said, turning and leading her to where they'd left him. Storm had placed him amongst a circle of rocks outside the clearing. Storm motioned with his head forward.

" Oh." Saaya gasped. He was lying in the center of the little circle, not moving.

" We did what we could." Miroku said grimly. " I can only hope it was enough."

Saaya bowed her head and glanced at him. Miroku took the hint and dragged Storm away.

For some reason, Storm had doubts about letting her visit him by herself, but since he couldn't explain his distrust, he didn't dwell on it.

Saaya approached carefully. She knelt down beside him and sighed. His hair was still wet and limp and he was missing the upper half of his kimono, his chest wrapped tightly in a bandage. She tentatively reached out and brushed his hair from his eyes.

To her surprise, they opened slightly. She noticed that Miroku had placed the folded kimono beneath his head against the rocky ground.

" Naraku?" she murmured. His eyes moved at his name and the sound of her voice.

" Saaya?" he whispered. She lifted his hand from the ground and held it.

" Are you doing better?"

" I feel like I'm going to be sick." He grumbled. " What happened?" he tried to sit up, but winced in pain and laid his head back down.

" I'll tell you what happened. You were almost killed. You saved all of us." She murmured. " Buy cutting the basilisk's eyes, you were able to make it so that we could destroy it. You did it."

" I couldn't let you get hurt." He said quietly. Saaya smiled. " I'm happy that you're alive. I don't think I could have gone on without you."

" I'm not about to leave you. We still have to convince your father to let me be with you."

Saaya sighed, set his hand back beside him and lay down on her stomach, arms folded beneath her head. " I know. It's gonna be hard. Dad's not exactly the understanding type. He almost killed mom a couple of weeks ago. I think that's what made him leave, the bloodlust taking over his senses. He must have been horrified."

Naraku didn't say anything. As before, he'd long forgotten his parents and couldn't fully understand what she was going through. She sighed again and tilted her head to look at him.

" What if he says no? What if he forces you to leave?" she asked.

" What would you want to do?" he replied. She looked to the side. " I don't really know. My ties to my current life are quite strong. I don't know if I could leave. I suppose if I had to, I would. But I wouldn't prefer it. You know?"

" I know. You love your family." He said. Then, with a wistful look to the sky, he added, " I sure envy you."

She blinked in surprise. " Why?" she asked, her head rising up a little.

" Because, ever since I changed, I've started to notice emotions and feelings I locked away when I became a bandit so long ago, emotions I had when I was still a scholar, with so much promise. I threw my life away simply for the sake of adventure and all that. And look where it got me. Living dead from a fire, impossibly in love with a priestess, giving my living body to demons and becoming a vile, evil creature that everyone despised so much. Because of all that I've described, I don't remember anything of my life except that I was a scholar. I don't remember anything else, including whatever family I might have had."

Saaya felt her throat tighten in sadness. " You don't remember your mom, or dad?" she said. He shook his head, still gazing at the sky as best he could from his current position. " No. Nothing. I think I may have had a sister at one point. But if so, she's dead as are everyone else. I'm completely alone."

She propped herself on her elbow and took his hand in hers once again. She smiled at him warmly. " You're wrong." She said. He raised an eyebrow.

" I'm wrong?"

" As much as InuYasha and Miroku hate to admit it, we're your family now. The same people who hated you, are now your own family."

She lay back down. " And you know what?"

" What?" he said, turning his head toward her.

" I'm glad that you aren't as powerful as you probably once were. I think it was all meant to be. All that happened to you, you kidnapping me, the two of us becoming friends, and everything else that's occurred. It was all meant to be. I mean, if you hadn't been, 'defeated' nine years ago, we never would have met, at least like this. I probably would have come along at some point, but then we would have been enemies and I'd be trying to kill you."

She sighed and continued. " And it's like I said, now that you're so much different, you've become accepted with us. So you aren't alone, Naraku. You have a family now."

A shocked look came to his face and he looked away. " Saaya," he said, meaning to say something else, but changed his mind. Instead, he looked into her eyes, and smiled weakly. " I never thought of it that way." He said. Saaya shook her head. " You'll get it one day." She muttered. She shuffled closer to him and snuggled up beside him, closing her eyes wearily.

" I'm so glad you're okay." She whispered. He laid his head back down and wrapped his arms around her, closing his own eyes as well.

" I'll always be there for you, Saaya." He murmured as sleep began to claim both of them for its own.

Storm and Miroku made their way back to the group. Storm was pondering his strange reactions to these people. Why did he act the way he did to certain members of the group? Gentle toward Saeka, hateful toward Naraku, and other things. He couldn't help but snarl at the memory.

" We're back." Miroku announced. Storm looked up from his thoughts and froze in his tracks at what he saw.

There was another dragon in the group, a blue maned female with emerald eyes. She greeted Miroku happily and watched and listened as he told them of Naraku's present condition. But Storm had tuned all of that out as he stared at the dragon. Against hundreds of other dragons within the mountain colony, she had to have been the most beautiful dragon he'd ever laid eyes on. At first, he wasn't sure who this dragon could be, since she hadn't been there before, but when she looked up at him suddenly, he knew. It was Saeka, in her true form.

" Good evening, Storm." She said pleasantly. Storm remained silent, trying to tear his eyes away. He knew he should look away, that it was improper for him to stare at her. She was already mated, with a family and everything, but he somehow couldn't look away from her.

Saeka tilted her head curiously. " What?" she asked. Storm finally blinked and shook his head to clear it. " N-Nothing. It's, it's nothing, Saeka." He said. He made his way to the group and lay down on his stomach, a little closer to the dragon than he had previously been. She didn't seem to notice. He was glad that she didn't, for he couldn't seem to help his sudden infatuation with her.

But while she didn't notice, someone did.

Miroku cocked an eyebrow, but said nothing.

Storm glanced at Saeka carefully. She was watching Kagome and Sakura and didn't notice. He couldn't figure it out. Something about her was drawing him nearer to her. Something about her was so appealing to him that he was on the verge of going insane from the effort of trying to figure out what it was.

He sighed and shook his head.

" Storm?" Saeka said. He felt his body freeze up in shock. She had spoken to him and was probably looking at him. This wasn't good. For some reason, she'd quickly become the center of his thoughts and he didn't know why. If he even so much as looked into her eyes now, he might completely lose control of himself. But, to be polite, he forced himself to meet her gaze.

It was like a bolt of lightning passed through him. What was happening to him? Why was this ordinary dragon so extraordinary in his eyes? Why did he have an uncontrollable urge to be with her?

Unknowing of the battle raging within him, Saeka continued. " Storm, when do you believe we'll be able to enter the mountain?"

It took him a minute to answer. " Uh, b-by tomorrow, for s-sure." He stammered. Saeka nodded. Then, she cocked her head. " Do you feel alright? You seem tense."

Storm resisted the urge to snarl in frustration. " I'm fine, Saeka." He grumbled. He got up and started to back away. As he passed Miroku, he pulled the young man up with one long white tendril.

" Hey, what?" Miroku exclaimed.

" I must speak with you." Storm hissed. He dragged him out of sight on the other side of the rock wall. Miroku straightened up and folded his arms. " Okay, what's wrong with you?" he asked. Storm sighed.

" You have to help me. Something horribly wrong is happening." Storm groaned, shaking his head.

" What?"

" I feel irresistibly drawn to Saeka. It's impossible to be around her." Storm said in a desperate voice.

" Drawn to her? You mean as though you love her?" Miroku said. Storm nodded. " Yes. Until now, she was an ordinary half-demon. But now, seeing her like that, it's unbearable."

" Could it be that she's just a particularly beautiful dragon?" Miroku asked. Storm shook his head. " No, I was kind of drawn to her from the beginning. But never like this. I fear of what I might do if I go near her again while she's like that." He snarled. " A dragon's nature, when it sees a possible mate, is to fight, and hard. Usually, it's a positive result. But she is already mated and soon to have a youngling of her own. It is not proper for me to show such interest in her. But I don't understand why I act this way."

Miroku tapped his chin thoughtfully. " I don't understand either. If you don't know why you act this way, even though you know you shouldn't, then what's causing it and how do you stop it?"

Storm grumbled again. " I don't know. But I must avoid her until she turns back. Even then, I do not know how I will react to her. If I lost control and tried to take her or something, I could end up killing her. I'm horrified."

Miroku felt a terrible sympathy for the dragon. He could see that something was different about him, even though he had no idea of what it could possibly be.

" Storm, there are two ways this can be done and what's bad is that both have to be done, one possibly later than the other. First, you can stay here until tomorrow, where she will be out of sight, if not out of mind. The second is to tell her what's going on. She may know what's happening to you."

" What do you mean?"

" She's been through what ordinary mortals only have nightmares about. She's ten fold wiser than she was the day we met her. She's sure to have some clue as to what's happening with you."

Storm didn't say anything. He simple hissed and looked at the ground.

" No!" Saaya cried. She screamed and jumped out of the way. Whatever was attacking her countered her move, slicing through her side with a sharp blade and throwing her away where she landed like a limp rag doll on the hard earth. She was alone, and she had to do this herself. She growled and charged at the being again, claws bared, fangs elongated, ready to slash open its throat. Again, her attack was parried and she found herself face-down on the ground. The thing approached and she looked up. It was in the light now and she gasped sharply.

" Father!" she cried. But immediately, she realized it wasn't him. It was similar, but it wasn't him. He was standing with his back to her and she now realized that whoever this was wasn't attacking her, but defending her instead.. He glanced back at her with hard, amber eyes.

" The time is now. Use your true form!" he commanded. Saaya got to her feet. " I-I can't!" she cried. The thing attacked the demon standing in front of her and he blocked it with a long sword held tightly in his hands. He turned to her again, without missing a beat. " The time is now. Use your true form!" he repeated.

Saaya stared at the ground.

True form. True form.

" NO!" Saaya screamed, bolting up, panting and shivering. Naraku sat up too, afraid that she was in trouble. He looked at her eyes. They were wide and empty. He grasped both of her shoulders and pulled her around to face him.

" Saaya! Saaya! What is it? What's happened?" he demanded. She made a sound that seemed to be a sob and with a cry, buried her face in his chest, crying in abandon from whatever her dream had been.

" Saaya, what was it?" he probed. " Please tell me."

" True form." She said.

" What?"

He told me-told me to use my true form!"

" Who told you?"

Saaya wracked her brain. " Um, he had long silver hair, and golden eyes. But that's all I remember. His hair was tied back, but that's it."

Naraku gasped and pulled her closer again. " Saaya, I think you just dreamed about your grandfather, The Great Dog Demon." He said.

A/N: I'm nearing the climax. But I have another story to start up, so I won't be insane from lack of writing. I'm a little concerned, though. All this writing of fanfics has been cutting into the time I could be using to contribute to my novels. I haven't written in them for months and I'm getting worried. I'll try to work something out. In the meantime, I hope FF.N is going to get back up soon. It's getting tedious checking the new chapters for my favorite stories every few hours on the appropriate days.