Part 9 – Survival

Sesshomaru caught Ai's scent a long time ago, but he didn't expect her to get so near. He shot a glare at the bushes where Ai was watching him. Ai gasped and ducked so she couldn't be seen, but unfortunately for her no one was stupid enough to not think she was there after she gasped like that. Ai could feel her heart beating faster; how would she get out of this situation?

Rin and Jaken had stopped talking now; they were both looking at the bush. Ai knew that eyes were on her, and that something was going to happen, there was no way they were just going to sit and stare. Then she heard that really irritating voice again, "Lord Sesshomaru, would you like me to take care of the girl?" Then the she heard the girl's voice.

"No Master Jaken, I don't think she meant any harm."

"You stupid girl! She was spying on Lord Sesshomaru!"

"But she didn't do anything!"

Ai heard them continue to talk, they had obviously gotten into some sort of argument, maybe this could be her chance to escape. Sesshomaru rose from where he was sitting and pulled out his sword without a word. He walked behind the bush and pointed his sword at Ai's neck.

"Why are you here?" Ai felt terrified, she thought that she might as well answer, she thought to herself, 'Is he threatening to kill me?'

"I-I just, umm… Saw the glow from your fire, and-" Sesshomaru interrupted her.

"Leave or I will have to kill you." Ai didn't disobey, she quickly scooted away from him, picked up her basket, got onto her feet and ran as fast as she could, she had never felt so scared before in her life.

Sesshomaru sheathed his blade and walked back over to the tree he was leaning against. Jaken began to say something, "Lord Sesshomaru, how come you didn't just kill the girl right when you had the chance?" Sesshomaru didn't reply; he seemed to be thinking to himself.

Ai stopped running, she was exhausted. She hoped that she was far, far away from him, he was scary, he could have killed her! Ai sat down, breathing hard. She hoped that she would never run into him again. After a short time she calmed down, she was still hungry, and now she wasn't able to get any fish from the river because they just had to be there.

It didn't really matter though; she wouldn't have been able to cook it anyway, she didn't know how to start a fire.

Ai decided to get over it and find something else to eat; she got up and started walking off. She doubted she was going to be able to come across anything in this part of the forest. The part she ran away from was where all of the good stuff was, at least from what she experienced while being there.

Ai noticed that the sun had finally finished coming up, it was early day now. At least she could see better, it would help her find something to eat. Ai thought to herself, 'I hope I can find something, I haven't eaten anything since those berries…'

It had been about 20 minutes of Ai searching for something edible, but she couldn't come across anything. All she saw was trees and grass, but she couldn't eat those.

But that's when she saw an acorn tree, she didn't know what acorn's tasted like, but squirrels could eat them, right? Ai climbed the tree and sat on one of its branches. It took her a little struggling to climb while holding her basket, but she managed.

Ai picked an acorn and cracked it open to get the nut inside. After she got it she placed it in her basket. She did this for a while, and eventually got a decent amount, she didn't fill it to the top like she did when she was picking berries. But it wasn't as easy to get acorns as it was just to pick berries.

Ai climbed down from the tree, she looked down at the acorns in her basket. She hoped that it wouldn't taste too bad. She sat on the floor and put one in her mouth, it defiantly wasn't what she wanted it to taste like. But it was enough for her to survive eating it.

It took her longer than it did to eat the berries, probably because the berries tasted better, Ai thought to herself, 'How do squirrels survive eating this stuff all the time?' She managed to finish the nuts, even though they didn't taste very good, she wasn't hungry anymore.