Kagome sat up suddenly, waking Inuyasha and me. I don't know what made Inuyasha wake, maybe it was because of how close the two of them were but what woke me was her hand coming painfully down on my back. It seemed that while I had been sleeping I had moved further from the fire and so closer to her. I bit back a shriek of pain as her head whipped towards Inuyasha. "Jewel shards are coming."
Inuyasha stood and sniffed, "Kouga…" He growled out. Miroku and Sango jumped to their feet just as a whirlwind broke the forest line. A tall man with a high pony tail of medium brown hair and true blue eyes smiled at Kagome. He wore wolf skin and had a tail. He was headed for her when she dropped to her knees and plucked at my shirt.
"Oh god Dawn, your back, it's bleeding again." She said. She tried to pull my shirt off the bandages but they had stuck together.
I rolled my eyes at her panting. "You slammed your hand onto it when you woke up."
"I'm sorry!" She turned and grabbed her first aid and when she turned back everyone was kneeling around Dawn, even Kouga and Inuyasha, though they sat far apart. Kouga grabbed the hem of my shirt and peeled it off of my back. "Kouga?" Kagome said questioningly.
"How was she injured?" He asked calmly and helped Kagome cut the bandages away from my back.
"I was injured fighting bandits. Who are you and why the hell are you touching me?" I snarled, I was so lost in a haze of pain right then that I was unable to control my temper. Inuyasha snickered under his breath at my snappish tone with the man and Miroku and Sango looked surprised.
"I am Kouga, the leader of the Wolf Demon Tribe." He said. He stood and turned his back on me as I pushed away from the ground. Sango grabbed Miroku by the ear and turned him around as well.
For a moment Kagome and I didn't move but then we both turned to look at Inuyasha. He raised his eyebrows then scowled in understanding, a faint blush ran over his cheeks and he spun away. Kagome swiftly changed my bandages and I swapped shirts…again. I went over to the river as the others began talking and soaked my shirt to try and get out the blood. I heard fighting behind me and sat watching Kagome, Inuyasha, and Kouga argue.
Shippo ran from the others and climbed in my lap rubbing his ears. "Kouga always shows up when we don't want him, trying to get Kagome to follow him around." Shippo explained. "Inuyasha always gets angry because Kouga is his rival in love."
I grinned, "'Rival in love' huh? Shippo you are one smart kid."
Shippo grinned back at me. "I know!"
"Shove off you mangy wolf, Kagome isn't going anywhere with you." Inuyasha snarled punching towards Kouga.
Kouga ducked the punch and grabbed Kagome's hands. "Why stay with this mutt face Kagome? After all he let your friend get hurt. He can't protect her, how could he protect you?"
I stood, "Okay that's where I step in." I said quietly to Shippo and walked into the group. No one noticed my approach, or at least they didn't till I pushed Kouga away from Kagome. "I don't need anyone to protect me. I can protect myself, Kouga."
He gazed at me for a moment than nodded. "I believe you could. But he is still not able to protect Kagome!"
"I bet Kagome can protect herself if she had to. And I know for a fact Inuyasha can protect Kagome because I saw him do it." I said then made shooing motions at him. "Now Kouga, I think you're a cool guy and all but you need to leave now." Kouga glared at me but in the end he did leave.
Kagome lay her head on my shoulder and sighed deeply, "Yet another reason I'm glad you are here."
I looked at her and smiled, "I know…we Americans are just so rude."
"Dawn! That's not what I meant at all!" She smiled happily and hit my arm playfully. "Let's go guys." She grabbed her bags and Shippo jumped onto her shoulder. As she passed Inuyasha she glanced at him and smiled to herself.
We all picked up our odds and ends and headed off in the direction we had been going the day before. It seemed that we had passed some unknown barrier because where our journey had been uneventful before, we seemed to face a different challenge everyday. Demons fought us at least once a day and a few times Miroku really did have to exorcise a few houses with new demons haunting them. But nothing was as hard as our first challenge. Often only one of us had to fight to kill the demons that attacked us. My weapons, at first, were useless against the demons, but Kagome and Miroku blessed them much as her bow and his staff were blessed and so my weapons held some spiritual power of both the monk and priestess and were able to strike the demons truly. We had been traveling for two whole weeks when we stumbled upon a burning village. I passed my things into Kagome's hands and ran towards the nearest hut. I could hear screaming coming from inside. I pushed my way into the building and gagged. A man, torn almost in half, lay dead and on the ground at his side, weeping and screaming, was a girl who appeared to be close to Kagome's age. Her long, long hair was a soft pink color and she wore a pale green kimono. As I stumbled towards her she looked up at me in fear and I saw her eyes, they were big and the color of milk.
"Whose there?" She called and turned her face this way and that.
She's blind. "I am here to help you. I have to get you out of this fire!" I said and touched her shoulder.
"But father…" She whimpered and her hands reached out to his body. She shuddered at the touch of the bloody body then stood.
I wrapped my arms around her and ran from the building just as it collapsed. Inuyasha and Sango were doing what I was. Getting people from the buildings and moving them to Kagome and Miroku who were bandaging the new arrivals. I set the girl down and touched her cheek gently. "My name is Dawn. I'll be right back. I have to help save others." The girl nodded and I took off back down the road. Inuyasha dragged a woman from her house and I ran into the building once I understood what she was screaming. 'MY BABIES!' I ran into the side room and picked up the small bundle. The roof over me groaned and I turned to go out but the doorway collapsed. I gazed around the room and noticed a small alcove. Inside the alcove was a barrel of water. I looked down at the screaming bundle in my hands and made a quick decision. I jetted for the barrel pushed the baby under the water up to his chin so his blanket was wet then held him close to me. I started from the alcove but saw another child curled on the floor. Man…I know people had a lot of kids in this age but don't they know how to watch out for them? I thought as I picked up the older boy and slung him over my shoulder. The wall on my left collapsed and I darted through the brief opening before the roof followed the wall and dropped to my knees.
Sango saw me and ran over. "Oh thank Kami! We didn't know which house you were in. All the people who weren't slain by the attackers are safe."
She took the baby from my arms and I lifted the nine year old boy into my arms bridal style and followed her as she led me back to Kagome. The woman whose children these were ran forward, tears streaming down her face as she looked at her boys. "The children are alive madam. They will be fine." I said before setting the boy on one of the blankets stretched out along the hill above the village. I walked over to Inuyasha. He gazed down at the fire and seemed almost angry. "Did we get everyone?" He nodded curtly. "What happened here Inuyasha?"
"A demon. He attacked the men in the village if he could and then set the place on fire to hear the women scream." He said his voice tight with fury.
"How do you know?" I asked.
"I told him." I heard behind me. The blind girl was walking towards us. I dropped to my knees and grabbed the hands she held out to me. "I heard the demon talking before he slew my father. He said his name was Yukio."
"Yukio…I have heard of that demon." Came a small voice.
Inuyasha looked at his shoulder. "Hello Myoga. What do you know of Yukio?" He seemed to be trying to calm down and when Kagome joined us and lay her head on his arm tiredly, he succeeded.
"Yukio, is a crow demon, and he recently joined with a bandit named Sayo. The same hour he left this village behind he met up with the small band of thieves. They headed towards the river to rest for a bit." Myoga said jumping up and down.
"Myoga go find them and stay with them. We are going to hunt them down but until we help these people we can't go. When they settle down for a long stay come back and get us." Kagome said looking at the flea. The flea agreed and hopped away quick as a flash.
I grabbed the girls hands, snagged my stuff from the ground and headed off to a clearing around the fire away from everyone to sit down. I just couldn't stay over there with all the pain and exhaustion, not just yet. "So my brave girl, what is your name?"
She smiled and turned her face to mine. "It's Nozomi."
"Hope huh? I like it." I made Nozomi sit on the ground in front of me and got out a brush to brush her long hair. She closed her eyes and everything was calm until suddenly one of the women walked over towards us and threw a stone at Nozomi. Kirara was suddenly in front of us and caught the stone in her mouth. I stood swiftly and in seconds Kagome, Inuyasha, Shippo, Sango and Miroku were by my side. "Explain yourself."
"She is the reason the demon attacked us! She's a half demon. She brought this evil to us." A bunch of women stood behind her nodding in agreement. But surprisingly a number of women came to stand with me and the rest of us. One of them was the woman who Inuyasha had saved as I rescued her children.
The nine year old boy came to the front of the group and wrapped one hand in mine and the other grabbed Nozomi's hand. He glared at the woman who had cast the stone. "Half demons are not evil, Sister. One saved all of us in case you forgot." His mother said placing one hand on my shoulder. Inuyasha's face was shocked. Kagome was smiling at the woman. Sango and Miroku just held their fighting stances watching the hostile women. "You are still angry that Nozomi's father took a demon to his bed rather than you." Suddenly the tension hopped up a whole bunch of notches. Oh shit… I thought.
The woman's sister spit towards us, "And the demon who attacked today came because he desired that…things mother." She turned her back on all of us and she and her followers headed back into the smoldering village. She shouted over her shoulder. "None of you are welcome here anymore. Go find another place to be."
I sat down in the clearing Inuyasha had moved us all too. For once he showed some brains, he got us out of a bad situation without acting like an idiot. Nozomi sat next to me and started to explain. "My mother…was named Mai. She was a demon who was able to predict the future. When she met my father close to twenty years ago, she knew that she loved him. She knew she would end up dying by staying with him but she loved him enough to risk it. After a few years together they had me. Not long ago, two years or more now, she was traveling home after visiting her family and was attacked by Yukio. He wanted Mother to be his mate but she refused. He killed her. But he never learned where the man she loved lived and so he hunted Father and I. It seems like he finally found us."
"Why are you blind?" Kagome asked gently. She was fixing food for all the people who were with us. There were six women and nine children who had stuck to our side; we were leading them to the last village we had come through.
"It seems that because my mother was able to see into the future, any children she would have would be robbed of sight." Nozomi said. She turned towards Kagome. "Except there is something odd now."
"What is odd Nozomi?" Miroku asked. Miroku, surprisingly had not asked any of these women to bear his children or tried to touch them. He seemed to truly understand that the recently widowed women would find it a horrible thing to do.
She turned to him. "I can see all of you."
I own Sayo, Yukio, and Nozomi, all original characters. Please review and tell me what you think.
Dedicated to angel61991 and darkandevil