Chapter 10-2/13/12

A/N: Uh, I read in a story on this site that Ah-Un is a lizard demon, so until I receive confirmation or denial of this...

Also, in this story, although it is almost undoubtedly incorrect, I use priestess and healer interchangeably. So, now priestess=healer.

End A/N.

Jaken climbed onto the back of his lord's two-headed dragon, Ah-Un, radiating self-satisfaction...No, not because of that!

Proudly holding his head high, Jaken lightly flicked the reins, and mentally patted himself on the back for a job well done. Who da man? he briefly contemplated yelling to the skies, but decided not to be that obnoxious.

He had secured Lady Mother's ceremonial robes in record time, and would retreive Suran in a matter of minutes. Ooo, Lord Sesshoumaru may even reward me! Grinning for the rest of the flight to the human village he had left the lion youkai at, Jaken momentarily could not understand what he saw when he reached the area.

Suran was sitting on his tush(*See below A/N) on the outskirts of the village. Not looking very mission-completed proud. Which Jaken took not to be a good sign.

Bracing himself for the bad-no, the so-horrible-you-have-to-move-to-another-country-and-change-your-name-news, Jaken jerked Ah-Un's reins to land near the lion demon. Jumping off the dragon/lizard, Jaken speedily raced to where Suran was slumped against a tree and peered into the larger youkai's golden-brown eyes, different from Lord Sesshoumaru's in that these commonly expressed emotion, normally what appeared to be devotion when around Sesshoumaru-sama. Striving to sound calm, the toad asked, "So, uh, Suran, did you get everything Lady Mother requested?"

Turning his face, Suran answered dejectedly but truthfully, "No, Master Jaken, I did not."

Sighing, Jaken was slightly disappointed, but mostly irritated, when Suran did not offer any kind of an excuse. "Why? Did you just decide 'What the rice, how about I completely ignore and disregard Lady Mother's instructions?'"

Widening his eyes for a brief moment, Suran barely caught himself from commenting on Jaken's strange phrase. Instead, he responded with, "Of course not, Master Jaken. It is just-"

"Well, go on!" the toad youkai encouraged.

Taking a deep breath, Suran rushed through his explanation. "-?"

Holding up a hand quickly, Jaken interrupted. "Slow down! I can't understand a thing you're saying."

"I apologize, Master Jaken. Okay, here we go:

Suran turned to look at the receding figure of Ah-Un, who had a small body on riding on its back. Smirking at Jaken's small size, the lion turned and began walking towards the human village. They had been forced to land a few hundred meters from the village, so as to not alert the villagers and allow them time to prepare for any oncoming demons.

As he reached the outer rim of the village, Suran found it curious the number of herbs surrounding the area.(**) He quickly jumped over the village's entrance steps and set about his task's first step: finding the priestess and/or her herbs.

He sniffed each hut individually, searching for the scent of herbs. But apparently the entire village used large amounts of the surrounding the herbs. After several minutes of diligent tracking, and scaring a dozen or more of village children and adults, Suran discovered the home roughly in the center of the village to be the healer's hut. 'Duh, Suran, that would make sense, no?' he questioned himself as he pushed aside the bamboo curtain-like door and entered the wooden home.

Inside he found two human women in the back of the hut, talking occassionally about herbal recipes. One was short and elderly with long, dirty silver hair tied back, and appeared to stoop greatly. The younger woman, practically a cub in youkai years, had waist-length raven black hair, and stood proud and erect.

When the ningen (***) heard his entrance, the young human turned towards him with a smile and started to say, "Hey, Inu-" before realizing it was not her mate and protector. Immediately, she sprang for the bow and arrows in the far left corner, near Suran. But the lion youkai was prepared for some form of action, and he was quick to step in the way. Glancing up at him, the young ningen jumped back, heading for the flickering fire in the center of the hut to keep between her and the youkai.

The elderly woman still stood on the far end of the hut, and regarded Suran with calm eyes before speaking,"What is it ye want, demon?" She thought it slightly strange the lion had not entered roaring and attempting to kill them all. In fact, he seemed almost peaceful, and upon further consideration, she reasoned he meant no harm if he had not killed/attacked the villagers. She certainly would have heard such commotion.

Hesistating, Suran thought over Lady Mother's instructions to be intimidating, not friendly or peaceful. To act a frightful demon.

Deciding this must be the best course, since the powerful female inu youkai had recommended it, Suran growled, "Human, you will address your betters with respect. I came for ALL of your herbs."

The old one replied, "I am sorry, but I cannot do that because-"

"WHAT?" Suran roared. "You dare to defy me? I am on a mission for Lady Inukimi. Now, give me your herbs. I will not ask again." Stepping closer, he flicked the lengthened claws on his left hand, only partially conscious he was imitating Sesshoumaru-sama's movement.

As Suran walked around the fire, the young human circled the large flame, keeping the fire between the two. He did not care if she scampered out the door, as seemed her intent.

The elder woman arched her left eyebrow over her only working eye, and drawled, "Well, I still am unable to do that, and if ye would let me explain-"

The old priestess barely kept herself from rolling her eye when the youkai interruped her once again. "I do not need to hear any of your excuses, ningen. Now, I have to punish you for your insolence." The old woman felt a flicker of worry when Suran stepped even closer to her, so that he stood only a hairsbreadth away, and she was forced to lean into the wall behind her and look up at the lion youkai's livid features, which included even twitching whiskers.

Suddenly, Suran heard a bowstring being pulled, and a voice from behind demand, "Get away from her! Yeah, I'm talking to you, youkai!"

Swirling, Suran found an arrow from a distance of a few feet pointing straight at his heart. The young human was standing poised at the entrance of the hut, and had a large bow in her hands, ready to shoot the arrow and slay Suran.

Suran darted his eyes to the left side of the hut and saw the corner was now empty of the bow and arrows he had noticed when he first walked in. 'Dammit, I should have watched her closer! Instead, I gave her the chance to get her weapon.'

Walking slowly around the fire, getting closer to Suran, the young woman jerked her head towards the entrance and commanded him, "Get out. I don't appreciate you attempting to attack my friend and me. Now leave."

Lowering his ears in deep thought, Suran contemplated executing an attack on the ningen, but decided against it. Surely, judging from the ease with which the young human held the bow, she would kill him before he moved more than a few centimeters in her direction offensively.

"Fine, but I warn you, do not attempt to slay me from behind. My master, Lord Sesshoumaru, would exact revenge against you and your village if you do," Suran stated surely. Truthfully, he highly doubted Sesshoumaru-sama would do much more than blink, if that, upon learning of his death. But why not blow some smoke around a couple of humans?

He caught the slight widening of her eyes, but Suran wasn't sure what it had been that surprised her, so he mentally marked it as irrelevant. Striding through the hut, with his right eye trained on the armed human, Suran masked his sulkiness fairly well. 'Master Jaken is not going to be pleased' passed through his mind as pushed aside the curtain-like door.

A/N: This particular memory is to be continued in the following chapter. I did not have time Monday night to fully write the chapter, but I figured something was better than nothing, no? My excuse for not updating also Rin's... is because Please Stay is my personal favorite of my stories (which shows), and I wanted to write for it more.

*It means butt/behind/rear end.

**In the anime (I have never read any of the manga), I personally have never noted any/many herbs on the very beginning of Kaede's village, only in InuYasha Forest, which is a short ways off, but for the purpose of this chapter, and possibly any future stories, there are now. I figured some one would point out/say something about this fact.

***For those of you who don't know, 'ningen' means human(s).

Hehe, I'm going to have kind of an Anti-Valentine one-shot out tomorrow for Valentine's Day, Too Little Too Late (name is of course subject to change). So, look for it! It's from Hojo's POV and a song-fic.

The next chapter should be released this upcoming weekend. And there will be something for Rin's Past, Present, & Future about the same time.

Tell me what you thought of the chapter!

End A/N.