Hmmm, yeah, it was a bit of a wait. Not that anyone was actually waiting, of course, but it's nice to think so. I don't like writing big chapters like this, I had enough room to have about 3 writers blocks in the span of 1000 words, pretty ridiculous I think. Anyways, I hope whoevers reading this likes it to some extent.
"Wait….you're a half-breed too?" she asked rhetorically, looking into his eyes for the first time as she spoke, then she quickly glanced down again. She sniffed the air a little, only just catching a whiff of the human smell on Inuyasha. It was so much harder for her now. The strength of her senses had been greatly reduced to near-human levels because of her physical condition. It was obvious she wouldn't last much longer living like this.
"You're lucky…" Tahnee muttered. Lucky – that is, not to be in the same situation as herself.
Inuyasha understood what she meant. He sympathised…he empathised for her. He too had been in a similar situation, not accepted by demons or humans, just stuck in the middle as an outcast. He knew it would be hard for her to accept help – having none her entire life, her soul was bitter from being a lone scavenger for what seemed to him – most of her life. But he would try to save her.
"I'm not going to hurt you," Inuyasha said truthfully as he put his Tetsusaiga in its sheath.
Tahnee looked back up at him, without looking away. She smiled slightly, perhaps a little less afraid – she could sense the honesty in his voice.
"Let me help you." Inuyasha offered as he held out a hand to lift her to her feet.
"Why should I?" she asked, the tone in her voice had changed, the was no longer a sense of pleading. She seemed defensive now. Inuyasha knew this was just another form of fear, altered only by his change in stance.
"Because you need a home and everyone deserves a life," he didn't move his hand, "I'll help you up,"
"I'm only half-human you know – it's not like I'm too weak to stand on my own two feet…" she rejected Inuyasha's hand and then struggled to stand up, wiping the dirt off of herself with her spider like hands.
Inuyasha growled slightly, frustrated, he was trying his hardest to be 'nice' and 'patient' he didn't know how much of Tahnee's crap he could take. He wanted to curse at her for being so stubborn…
But that would make him a hypocrite, wouldn't it?
"Look, I think I know some people that will let you live with them at their home for a while," he saw her turn away as though not interested, although he did notice her ears change positions slightly. Obviously she wanted a home, but was too 'honourable' to survive with the help of others. "Just climb on my back and I'll take you there,"
"If I wanted to go anywhere I'd be able to walk there just fine," she snorted.
"No, stupid! You're freaking nearly dead, you're hardly able to stand let alone walk a few kilometres…just…let me take you there, there will be food there, you'll be able to eat as much as you like,"
There was a long moment in which Tahnee appeared to be weighing up the consequences of each decision, the promise of all-you-can-eat food was almost too hard for her to handle.
"Whatever," she grumbled as she attempted to scramble onto Inuyasha's back, he assisted her up and then walked over to find Shippou, who had been peering around an old building the entire time spying on them.
"Am I allowed to move yet?" the young demon asked innocently as he stared up at Inuyasha.
"Come on…" Inuyasha said, not even bothering to answer the question properly. Shippou jumped onto Inuyasha's shoulder as Inuyasha took off, racing towards the home he had talked about. Tahnee simply stared at Shippou without saying a word, being sure to clamp onto the red fire rat kimono tightly.
"So you must be Tahnee," said Shippou with a childish grin upon his face, "This is Inuyasha and I'm Shippou," he introduced in a friendly tone. Tahnee nodded in recognition and looked away, remaining quite. Shippou 'humph'ed due to her lack of talkativeness.
About 15 minutes later they were nearly there. The people Inuyasha had mentioned lived in the home no the next hill. Tahnee's body was twitching feverishly and Shippou was busy picking the dirt from the end of his tail. When they arrived the two jumped off of Inuyasha (Tahnee with some difficulty) as Inuyasha approached the front door.
An elderly lady opened the door and welcomed the three of them inside. A few months back a cow demon had been attacking her home. Inuyasha had quickly disposed of the pest. Inuyasha had remembered from before how she was very kind and that she had plenty of resources.
"Would you mind if my friend here stayed at your house for a while?" Inuyasha asked, pointing to Tahnee, glad that it wasn't himself that needed the help – he hated asking for help.
"No, not at all, come here dearie," the lady grabbed Tahnee's hand and pulled her towards the kitchen, "you need to eat – you look famished,"
The lady's husband appeared in the doorway with a scowl on his face, he had obviously been listening to the conversation from the other room.
"We can't just let it stay here for free," he grumbled, "it'll have to work for our food,"
There was a few seconds of silence, Tahnee seemed quite irritated that the stupid old man had referred to her as an "it"…just because she was a half demon…but something else had caught her attention, the scent of food in the kitchen was quite strong, she had the urge to grab everything and leave…old habits die hard…
"Well what did you have in mind?" asked the wife.
"Perhaps she could build us a wooden hut, we need one for our nephew to stay in when he comes to visit in a month."
Tahnee ran her tongue across her canine teeth as she stared at the food, and then spoke, "So you want me to chop down a few trees, carve them into a nice shape and make a house out of them," she then turned to face the elderly couple, "fair enough,"
They decided to let her stay for a month, just to get used to being with humans and being treated like an equal. The work would probably get her used to being a bit more responsible.
"Ok, I guess I'll see you in a month then," said Inuyasha as he walked out the door, "come on Shippou," The two then left for the woods, leaving Tahnee to empty the house of all of its food and then start on her work.
Hmmmm, was it ok? Tell me it was ok, ok? It was ok, wasn't it?
XD Stupid mixed up Yu-gi-oh quote...bleah, I promise it will start to get interesting in a few chapters, so be patient and review while you're at it!