Don't own anything you might recognize.
Special thanks to Freya's Valhalla (tee hee nice username), icegirljenni, IlyanaBliss, and Taraah36 for reviewing! You guys really motivate me to write more :D
Note: Those with queasy stomachs may want to stay away! (Attempted murder/rape, blood, possible OOC of Sesshoumaru)
Akuryo-o: "demon king"; he is the ruler of all of the demons, even ruling over the four Lords of the lands; in a sense, he is the ruler of the world at this time. Definitely not one to cross or mess with, right Sesshoumaru?
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The Lord Sesshoumaru had taken care of all of the meetings with various lords who had proposed allegiances in hopes of gaining land or wealth. The day proceeded as usual, but with every movement, every intake of breath, he felt the death-sentence paper shift against his chest.
Jakken came into the Lord's room, "milord, the Lady would like to speak to you about," the toad-demon coughed, "some prospective lady-demons she has found for you."
"The Lord of the Western Lands has no time for such things at the moment." The Lord flicked a dismissive hand. "Did you do what I ordered you to do earlier?"
"Ah...Ah?" Jakken stammered.
"The meeting with the prison guards."
"Ah, yes, that!" Jakken fidgeted his hands around the handle of his staff. "Eh...The guards told me, very rudely, I must add," Jakken shook his head indignantly, "that you must speak to the Akuryo-o to gain permission to enter the prison grounds."
The Lord narrowed his eyes.
The Akuryo-o?
"And... the Akuryo-o does not often accept visitors, even as elegant and powerful as you, milord, for such small requests."
"I see." Lord Sesshoumaru took the red paper from his haori and unfolded it roughly on his desk. "Thank you, Jakken."
The toad-demon nearly stumbled over himself, tripping over his master's praise. "Oh, my Lord is too kind to his lowly servant!" Jakken blubbered.
"A-also, miLord, the Lady has scheduled another blind date for you tonight..." The kappa made sure to back away a few steps as he spoke.
"The girl's name is Kanna. She is the daughter of the Lord of the Southern Lands, Lord Naraku."
Jakken gulped when he saw the expression on his Lord's face.
"Get out."
As soon as the toad had left, the Lord crumpled up the sheet of paper and threw it into his magnificent fireplace.
She is only a human anyways.
The fire blazed a little higher.
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Life in the prison grounds is even more miserable than life back in the village. The guards are rough bear-demons, and the food that they bring to me is hardly edible. I am the only prisoner, the only one stupid enough to trespass on the demon land, according to the blundering guards. They are amazed at my impudence and often take every opportunity to remind me that they can kill me with a single swipe of their hands.
Beasts.
Today, breakfast consisted of a canteen of water and a practically-raw fish. I want to remind the guards that I am not a demon and cannot stomach raw meats, let alone disgusting raw fish, but any complaints will probably bring on another round of beating and yelling by my stupid brute captors.
Disgusting.
My execution is settled for two days from this sunrise. I am allowed no "trial" or visitors until the day of my scheduled execution. And the chances that I will be pardoned from my death sentence, or at least given time to prepare, are less than the chances of me ever falling in love with a disgusting demon. My captors know this, and make sure that I know this very clearly as well.
Bastards.
I cannot help praying that Kohaku will come save me, as he always he will come and rip off the heads of those idiots. Stupid, he has Michiko to take care of now. Still, I can't help but hope...
Shouta, maybe?
I scoff, the rancidity of tears already beginning to tingle on my tongue.
I still cannot believe that I am to die by the hands of the demons. The Fates have a horrible sense of humor.
The day passes as it usually does: I am let out between meals to 'relieve' myself, and after dinner, I am allowed to wander outside under the watch of the two guards. My room is stuffy, and I am the only one in the prison grounds, so there is no way to entertain myself except by planning my revenge on my stupid captors. Nor is any of my planning looking to be very hopeful. There is a small window in my room, and often I will be joined by a lonely bird that floats in to sing. This bird is not one that I recognize: it has an ornate feather pattern consisting of blues and greens, and a blunt beak. I have a sinking feeling that my strange friend has some demon blood.
This bird comes to the window to chirp at the same time every morning. Its song is very beautiful, reminding me painfully of Sango's song that she used to sing to Shouta, Kohaku, and I back then. Michiko sometimes came to listen as well, but her parents did not usually let her come play with our "rowdy lot".
I sigh, annoyance rising when I see one of the guards turn around to see if I am "trying anything stupid again". Perhaps this is another nightmare, I laugh bitterly to myself, maybe if I just go to sleep, I'll wake up at the forest clearing again, fully healed and under Sango's care.
This train of thought soon leads me to remember the demon in my last nightmare.
This demon was the second demon that I had ever exchanged words with. The first was the tiger demon. But, for some reason, talking to this demon was much more... terrifying.
Perhaps 'terrifying' was not the word I was looking for. I was not actually terrified by the demon himself, only by the fact that I was betraying everything I lived for by being in its presence. I still must kill the demon, even now. After all, he was the one who started it.
He was the one who found me.
I still cannot get out of my mind his penetrating eyes.
And the blood, warm on my face before everything in my nightmare disappeared.
Whose blood was it?
Visions repeat themselves. The blood from Mother's feet, forming a small puddle beneath her dangling body... the blood spouting from the little girl's neck ... the blood... blood...
I slap my hand to my forehead, suddenly feeling my body seize. My head pounds so hard that my eardrums seem to burst, and my vision fades from normal to a bloody crimson. I am reduced to a whimpering, blubbering fool.
Stop, stop...
When the guards come in to check on me, they find me curled into a ball, rocking on my knees and cradling my head in my hands. They scoff, mention something about a possibly-visiting Lord and how I should regain my sanity before any people see me, and step outside again.
I must escape.
Tonight.
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After dinner, when the guards take me outside to relieve myself, I ask if I can go bathe. After much persuading and begging, they reluctantly follow me to the nearest spring, which is not far from the prison grounds, and turn away as soon as I shoot them a searing look. I toss a few rocks into the spring, making it sound as though I had jumped in, and quickly run back to the prison grounds.
There is a warehouse, not far from where I had been kept. The door is locked, but the windows are not closed, and, after climbing up the nearby tree, I can just barely squeeze into the high windows.
I hit the dirt ground of the warehouse with a thud, pain shooting up my left leg. Shake it off, shake it off. I know I only have a matter of minutes, before the guards, perverse or not, go check on me and my supposed bathing. They are fast and strong, and an encounter with them would probably result in my being knocked unconscious until the day of my execution. I must act quickly if I want to survive. And, needless to say, I must survive.
There are a wide array of rusty, unused weapons that are kept in the warehouse. A bow and a row of quivers are that which catch my mind first. I grab the strongest looking bow and three quivers, knowing full well that I will not be able to gather any shot arrows if I do encounter anybody. There is also a beautiful sword propped up on the wall just below the light from the windows, too high for any human to reach. The silver hilt is ornately crafted and the blade, though probably not polished for years, remains a wickedly sharp edge. I pile up a few of the crates and scavenge the sword as well. Up close, I notice that there is a small moon carved into the sword's hilt, matching up almost exactly with the scar on my hand. Almost as if the sword was crafted for me, I smile happily.
My heart lurches when I hear the loud shouts not far away. The guards, I panic, dammit. I need to escape through the window, but I will have to move all of the crates closer to the wall so I can push myself through the window.
I desperately scrabble together the crates, pushing them over to the opposite wall. The guards have, apparently, already checked my living quarters and are in need of weapons. Fuck. They have reached the warehouse door and are fumbling at the lock.
I run over to the wooden door, grabbing a rusty gun off of the wall near my head, and just as the first guard manages to step in, I bring the barrel of the gun down on his head as hard as I possibly can. The first guard grunts and sinks to the ground, unconscious, just in front of my feet.
Before I can even react or scream, the second guard has grabbed me in his paws, claws at my neck. My skin is punctured by his claws, and the other hand slaps my right cheek. All I can see are stars for the next couple of seconds. "Impudent WRENCH!" The beast spits in my face.
I gladly repay him the favor.
He roars, reaching up to wipe the spit that reached his eyes, and I take this opportunity to kick him near his pelvis with my metal-capped boots. He howls, completely letting me go, and I push him as hard as I can possibly push a two-hundred pound bear-demon, running out of the warehouse, with all of the weapons I managed to grab.
I am shivering with exhilaration, but I do not stop running until I reach a small stream, not too far from the spring. Shoveling hands of water into my mouth, I drink my fill, knowing full well that I will not be able to find water for a while.
I do not even know where I am.
God dammit.
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Sometimes-though not often-curiosity gets the better of the Lord Sesshoumaru.
Today, curiosity was manifesting itself as a trip to the prison, against all rules, but regardless, he was the Lord of the Western Lands, and the Akuryo-o would most definitely have to yield to his wishes to gain the alliance of the strongest of the four Lords. Not to mention, what harm was there in visiting a pathetic, grovelling human which could not even read the decree that the Akuryo-o had so recently issued to all of the human camps?
Upon reaching the prison grounds, the Lord's sensitive ears picked up on some shrill noises-too coarse to be the chirp of a bird. Curiosity again getting the better of him-he reminded himself that it was not curiosity but rather duty to the security of his lands-he quickly sought out the source of all the unwanted commotion.
I continue to trudge down the unwalked forest path, making sure I have no followers by shuffling leaves behind my feet and scuffing the dirt to cover up any tracks. I know that I am not far from the prison grounds; after all, the guards could be on my trail again, for all I know. A few kicks and blows to the head are probably just scratches to the average demon.
On the other hand, the scratches down the side of my neck were far from shallow. My blood scent would have probably already attracted many demons, had I not been wondering in some random place in the middle of nowhere.
There is a small shuffle in the leaves behind me, and I quickly snap around. Have I been followed? It is only when I feel a blade point pressed against the nape of my neck and a large thud just tail lengths behind me that I realize the guards were right on my trail the whole time.
Shit.
"Feisty one, aren't you?" The first one, the one I had knocked unconscious with the gun, growled into my ear. He pressed the edge a little deeper into my flesh. Any more pressure and blood would be drawn. "What is your name?"
I am so silent I can hear my skin crawl.
The second demon tells him to forget it, instead, turning to address me. "A little rule," it cackles, "I'm not sure you have heard before..."
"Too late!" The first joins in the brutish laughter. "Fool!"
His paw makes its way into the collar of my haori.
"We can do with her however we want know!"
I scream, struggle, kick, bite, scratch, blindly against my captors, and, without hesitation, the blade is brought down on my shoulder.
Excruciating pain...
Doubling over in pain, I drop to my knees, begging for mercy. Blood soaks my haori and spatters the face of my captor. "Please," I gasp, "please..."
The pain hurts so badly; I can feel the blood seeping down to my abdomen: warm, sticky. My ear pounds with pain, and my shoulder burns...
"Please..." My voice is so hoarse, I can feel the word scratching its way out of my throat.
And then I realize what I have done:
I begged at the hands of a
vile, disgusting, filthy,
merciless
demon.
Shrieking, I throw myself at one of the quivers desperately-anything-pulling out an arrow. The pain in my shoulder has completely dissipated; only the warmth from my fresh blood remains. The blood courses through my ears; there is so much pressure in my head right now that I can feel it pounding to just be released... Grasping the arrow with my left hand, I point it towards my heart.
"D-don't come any closer." My voice wavers but my hand does not.
I cannot die by a demon's hands...
The bear-demon wrenches my arrow from my hand, and the other pulls down the sleeve of my uninjured arm, revealing my skin to the cold wind. I can smell the putrid breath of the demon as his hand moves towards the string of my undershirt, the protector of my decency...and I shut my eyes.
Mother, Father, Shouta, Kohaku...Somebody...
Come save me... ANYONE!
Please...
Something warm douses my face. Too afraid to open my eyes, I bring my hand up to my cheek, wiping it away.
When I do, finally, open my eyes, all I see is the crimson of fresh blood.
Who?
"K-Kohaku?"
The mysterious figure tosses aside the corpse of the second demon, giving his wicked sword a shake to clear it of the filthy demon blood. The blood spatters to the leafy ground.
Regal robes, white hair.
A nightmare come true...
Golden eyes.
I scream, the pain in my shoulder finally absorbing my vision and my senses.
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The girl has woken, thankfully; finally Lord Sesshoumaru could finally put her down. He did not mind carrying her, nor was she heavy at all-rather light, and petite actually, very warm-he just did not want to run the risk of any of his royal subjects seeing their Lord touching a pathetic human.
The first thing the girl did when she woke was push away the demon Lord. She struggled, just as she had in the forest that day, beating against his chest and spitting in his face.
"Vile... filthy... disgusting... demon," her face contorted in pain. Lord Sesshoumaru could smell fresh blood again-her wound had opened up in her struggle. "Don't touch me!"
He let go of her.
"Y-you...how dare you..." The girl quickly scrambled to her feet.
Lord Sesshoumaru was too busy damming the old blacksmith Totosai for taking so long with the repairs for Tenseiga. He needed to get the girl to a place to treat her wounds quickly...
"Take me back to my home." Her voice was brisk, almost as sharp as the Lord's Bakusaiga, and stung his flesh just as similarly.
She pointed a wavering finger at the Lord.
"Were you the one who ordered those...captors...to..."
Now, in his long life of nearly two millennia, the Lord Sesshoumaru had never dealt with such impudent behavior: being spat on, being pointed at like a deformed creature... He was strangely intrigued.
But this human girl must know her place.
The Lord Sesshoumaru quickly knocked aside her hand, staring into her eyes and calmly stating, "do you have any idea who you are addressing right now, ignorant human?"
The girl glared, trying to hide her wince at the pain in her newly opened wound.
"I am Lord Sesshoumaru, Protector of the Western Lands."
He paused, savoring the moment. "Never have I ever been so rudely addressed."
Lord Sesshoumaru stepped closer to the girl, so close that he could almost smell her scent, mixed with the musky smell of blood and sweat. There was a faint underlying scent of fear, to which the Lord scoffed.
He could hear her heavy breathing, feel her heart racing in her rib cage, mere inches from his heart, and he reached out, picking her up carefully.
"You need treatment for your shoulder." He said calmly. "Do not worry, I have no need for human blood on my lands. I will not hurt you."
The Lord tried to ignore the strange twist in his chest when he felt a slap against his face. It was a pathetic slap, hardly doing any damage to his unmarred skin, but truly dented his pride. And the Lord had seen the bloody hand coming towards his face for a while, and could have easily dodged it if he had wanted to, but...
He pinned her hands against her chest to prevent any future struggle-it would only reopen her wound-and headed off to General Akihito. His wife, Lady Airi, was well-known around his lands for her benevolence and her healing abilities. The Lord Sesshoumaru knew that, with an offering of his protection and his alliance, the greedy Akihito would gladly accept the job of caring for a human-even if it meant risking his gluttonous, wasteful life if the Akuryo-o found out.
The Lord Sesshoumaru could feel the girl's warm blood seeping through his thick haori. Her quick, shallow breathing signalled to him that she had floated into unconsciousness again. The Lord felt something he had not felt in a ridiculously long time: panic. His heart pulsed irregularly and his legs shook, something he had not experienced since his father passed away.
You fool, he cursed, why waste your worry on such a weak human...
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He left the girl in the General's house.
She looked so peaceful when the lady came to move her up to her room, her hair fanning out underneath her shoulders and her red lips, slightly open as she breathed heavily. Her name, the General had asked for it, and Sesshoumaru had not given the answer. "Call her Rina." And that was that.
Sesshoumaru never truly trusted the General since his last betrayal and alliance with Naraku, Lord of the Southern Lands and Sesshoumaru's largest rival. But his wife, Lady Airi, beautiful as everyone always claimed, was never one to turn down an injured being-demon or not.
At first, the General had adamantly refused to harbor a human, knowing full well that his life span could be shortened by centuries worth if word got out about this deceit. It took hours of negotiation with the Lord Sesshoumaru to come to an agreement: Lord Sesshoumaru would no longer be able to see this human girl and must offer full-time protection, with some of his finest guards, to the Akihito palace in case an attack or raid should be made and the discovery of a human in the palace was leaked. And with one quick handshake, the deal was settled.
Sesshoumaru was moved to a guest room, since negotiations had taken up until deep into the night and travel during nighttime would be unsightly for such a noble Lord. The human girl was taken to her own room, her brown eyes still closed and her breaths still coming in rasping gasps. Sesshoumaru knew that he needed to say just one more thing to her.
He would do so after the Lady and her attendants finished treating the girl.
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Sitting on his futon, Lord Sesshoumaru asked himself a question he had been avoiding since his first encounter with this human girl. Why?
Just one simple word could throw his regal world into black chaos.
Why? Why what? Why did he keep trying to follow her? Why did he want to know more about this human girl when there were thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of other human girls just like her? Why did she spark such an immediate need within the Lord, a feeling that he needed to hear her story?
And most of all, why was he thinking about a human?
Lord Sesshoumaru was never one to purposely break rules. He knew his bounds, he knew his elders and he knew to respect them. So why, why was he making an exception, a gamble with his life, to ensure that this human girl was safe, unharmed?
She intrigued him.
Her scent, her tears, her frenzied refusal of acknowledging his presence.
He had never met anyone like her before.
The Lord rubbed his temples. It was getting late. He heard the lady walk past his bedroom door, and he knew that he had to go.
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It was deep into the night when I woke. The pain in my shoulder was still ringing; my entire body was stiff with pain, my head pounded steadily with my heart.
My blood had already seeped through the bandages on my shoulder, and the room stank with the pungent smell of blood. Shifting my weight, I try to stand, my legs too weak to support myself. I need to go. I need to go home.
I crawl around on the cold wooden floor, feeling around on the ground for my things. I can hardly see a thing, all of the shapes in my eyes blurred with the crust of sleep and the medicines I must have been treated with. Desperately, I search for the sword that I had stolen from the warehouse... The sword, I panic.
I find my bow and quiver on the floor, propped up near the sword. It takes a long time to strap the quiver over my uninjured shoulder-it feels so awkward, but it has to do-and tuck the sword into my bloodied sash because my fingers are stiff with sleep. I quietly slide open the door, stepping out into the cold night air, the wind knocked out of my lungs as I feel the strong wind strike my face.
I barely make it three steps before my vision fails again. Damn the drugs they gave me. The figures swarm around in front of me; I cannot see where I am anymore, so I grasp onto the wall, trying to steady myself until this dose of drowsiness ebbs away.
"Where are you going." It is not a question.
The soft voice sounded so familiar... It was so pleasantly rich and commanding.
"Kohaku?" I whisper, heart pounding.
Kohaku?
The name of that human boy?
Lord Sesshoumaru's heart sank. Did they give her too many painkillers? Perhaps she could not see clearly in the night? The Lord reached out, trying to steady the girl, and then he, Lord Sesshoumaru, was taken completely by surprise.
The girl hugged him.
She clung unto his haori like he was the last thing in her world, crying into his chest and burying her face into his clothes. Her head barely reached the middle of his chest; she was like a pathetic, delicate child, crying with no abandon.
And this was when everything became clear to Lord Sesshoumaru. This girl, this pathetic, grovelling, sniffling human girl, had managed to grab his heart from beneath his steely armor and wrench it from its hinges... Her vulnerability, but her steadfastness, her salty tears and her soft scent, the Lord knew it all.
He knew it all, but he could not have it...
"I am not..." Lord Sesshoumaru whispered, his heart slowly breaking into a million irreparable shards.
The girl broke away from him, looking directly into his amber eyes. The Lord was too afraid to look back into her large brown ones. He prayed that she was looking at him like she knew exactly who he was. Not that foul human boy, but the demon whom she was risking her life to be with...
Of course not.
Shock registered in her large brown eyes, and she immediately backed away, fear and anger radiating from her small body. She turned away to flee, panic heavy on her scent.
And then the Lord did something that he had never known he was capable of doing. He grabbed her uninjured arm, turned her around quickly and stated stoically, mere inches from her face, "I am Lord Sesshoumaru, Protector of the Western Lands."
She had mistaken him for that rude human boy. Lord Sesshoumaru did not know how to feel about the confusion.
"Never have I ever been so rudely addressed."
And then he pressed her against his chest, not allowing her any time for a livid reaction, and hugged her like he had never hugged anyone before. She was warm and tiny, a perfect fit against the Lord's large frame. He could feel her heart racing against his chest, and her struggle was much weaker because of her injuries. Soon she gave up the struggle all together.
It was only when the palace gong rang again to signal midnight that Lord Sesshoumaru remembered his place and let her go.
And in her soft, honey voice, the human girl said shakingly, "y-you are going to get us killed." She turned her head away, taking in a deep breath.
"And there is nothing more in the world that I hate more than ruthless, filthy, vile demons."
Lord Sesshoumaru's heart lurched as she pried herself away from him and ran into the gaping jaws of the dark hallway.
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That night after his return from the Akihito palace, blood still stained on his white haori, Lord Sesshoumaru drank sake like he would never be able to drink again. His senses were dulled, his head hurt, but he knew he could not, like the puny humans, ever become "drunk". He would only experience discomfort, and the Lord was desiring exactly that discomfort tonight to take his mind off of less pleasant things.
He forced his servants to drink with him; what was the fun in drinking sake alone? And it was only when the smallest servant, perhaps not more than five decades, first to lose his senses altogether, suggested the most stupefying thing that the Lord had heard in nearly a century.
"Our Lord Sesshoooumaru," his words were slurred, "can get alllllmost every woman in the country." He laughed, banging his fist on the table. "Can he not?"
The others shifted nervously in their seats.
The impudent servant stood up quickly, knocking his chair over.
"The only thing I would like to seeeeeee is," he swallowed, a wicked grin on his wolfish face, "whether or not he can have a human girl fall in love with him."
The other servants gaped, some nodded in approval, and others, horrified, quickly backed up. At this, the Lord smashed the sake bottle on the ground and delivered a quick fist to the small demon's ear, scattering the rest of the servants.
"I'll make you wish you never spoke those words, you dirty fool," he whispered into the unconscious demon's ears.
He tossed a lock of sleek, black hair on the ground, sure to step on it as he exited the room.
Filthy human girl.
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Lord Akihito is a large, balding man, old enough to be my father. The Lady is nice, though it is apparent every time she sees me that she does not want me here. She was the one who suggested I live in the previously-fired maid's compartment, which had not been inhabited in a decade. (Of course, a decade passes as no time for a demon, but it definitely was enough time for the wood around the windows to rot from the growing fold and for cobwebs to tangle themselves in every square inch of the room.)
I had nothing to move in anyways: no clothes, no bags, only the few weapons that the Lord Sesshoumaru had picked up when he brought me here. The bow and quiver, along with the beautiful sword, which I will teach myself to use once my shoulder has healed a little bit more.
I'm surrounded by demons.
I bite my lip every time this thought comes to mind, reminding myself that I must put up with this until I can somehow find a perfect time to escape back to the human borders. I must first orient myself with my location within the demon lands and wait for my body to heal. The scars on my neck do not appear as if they will be disappearing anytime soon.
The first day in this house, I cut my hair. It was getting too long for my taste, and even beginning to appear uneven, especially on the left side, where one of the demons probably had lopped off my hair in the scuffle. Now it hung loosely from my head, just above my chin, and I no longer put it up with a ribbon anymore.
The other maids often drop my near my compartment, calling me only by the name "human girl", gossipping about the Lord Sesshoumaru, who apparently visits every week. I suppose these visits must do with the negotiations about my hiding place, and he has not come to see me, thankfully. The maids never talk directly to me, fearing for their lives themselves, and I do not blame them. I would rather avoid encounters with them as well.
Furthermore, I avoid the main palace as much as possible, taking my baths in the old river near the water-well, only going when I am summoned to clean or help setup the main hall for any distinguished guests.
The General often summons me to his room at night, when nobody is near, to do minor errands such as making tea or setting out his clothes to dry. It is often very uncomfortable, and he only calls for me whenever the Lady Airi is not around in their chambers. This leads to much bickering from the maids, whom all fight for the Lord's attention, only serving to further ostracize me from them. It has gotten worse since Lady Airi was summoned by the Lord of the Eastern Lands to help train a young maid in the royal palace in her ways of healing. She will not be back for nearly two months, and I must avoid the main hall at all costs.
It can never hurt to always be ready.
My presence is covered up by the other maids, who spray me with a strange perfume that the Lady has procured. It is only to cover up my human scent and disguise me with a filthier demon scent. The perfume smells like raw ginger and makes my nose burn and itch.
Sometimes, even tears randomly come to my eyes.
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The Lord Sesshoumaru had been "courting", or at least that was what all of the others in his castle called it, the fine Lady Kagura for nearly a month now. She was a wind demoness, and quite skilled at fighting in fact, and her feisty attitude immediately caught the Lord's attention. In a strange way, he mused, she reminded him of that human...the little girl whom he was now going, with Lady Kagura, to check on. Of course, Kagura did not yet know about this human girl, nor would she ever know if the Lord had his way, and they were visiting the General Akihito under the pretext of a new offering of land in return for his services for border patrol.
Upon his arrival at the General's palace, the Lord caught wind of the same delicate scent, slightly masked with a more distasteful one and this time without fear, wafting on the wind. The scent reminded him of the water lily, and immediately, his body stiffened. Lady Kagura did not catch onto anything, and the Lord quickly relaxed, remembering that only he, a dog demon, would be able to detect such a scent through the strange smells of the palace. The scent was coming from his left, on the same side that Kagura was standing on, and he forced himself to keep his head straight until the General came to greet them.
"Ah! The distinguished Lord Sesshoumaru! And beautiful Lady Kagura!" The fat demon waved his arms. "Please sit."
General Akihito put an arm around the Lord, and directed them to the large hall with a beautiful dining table. The proximity made the Lord uncomfortable, but another thing made his blood boil.
The fat demon's scent... It was strong with the sweet scent of the human girl...
Had something happened when he was gone?
The thought of the old general touching his human girl made his head spin.
Lord Sesshoumaru briskly pushed away the General, turning to Lady Kagura. "Our hostess, Lady Airi, will show you to our room. I will go there after I finish discussing," he turned to give the General a steely stare, "very important things with our kind host."
Lady Kagura placed a small kiss on the Lord's cheek, making a big deal before the maids who had previously been giggling since the arrival of the handsome Lord, before letting the attendants lead her to their room. As soon as she left, Lord Sesshoumaru turned to his left, scanning the row of remaining maids for the human girl.
There she was, standing behind the others, her small, heart-shaped face, turned away from him. Had she seen Lady Kagura? Was this why she was avoiding his gaze? The Lord found himself immediately tensing, staring directly into her face, delighting at the response she gave when she turned and saw him gazing right at her. The blush that flew to her cheeks and the bitter expression in her large brown eyes... she was beautiful.
She was his drug.
And it was then when, realizing that those nights of downing sake with the servants and taking other women with him to his chambers had only made him more desperate to see her, he began walking to her, something he had promised to himself he would never do, even if his life depended on it.
How could the Lord of the Western Lands approach a convict human girl?
This question did not float to his mind this time as it had the others times he had visited. He had forced himself to remain away from the girl's room during his previous visits after the first, though he only wanted a glimpse at her and how she was doing; it tore at him from the insides every time, and now he knew how he was going to be healed.
Her sleek hair was not fastened in a tie behind the nape of her neck as he had remembered; it instead fanned against her cheeks, cut with a straight edge. She wore the red uniform of the other maids, but for some reason hers seemed to be much more radiant than the rest, and though she wore no makeup, her face seemed the most delicate of them all. The girl's eyes kept avoiding his, and his heart raced against his steel armor...
The Lord stopped in his tracks.
Her eyes were red, now that he had gotten close enough to see her face more clearly. And, almost hidden beneath the collar of her haori, he saw finger-shaped bruises, just around her collarbone. The girl kept her head turned to try to hide her puffy, bloodshot eyes.
Was she crying?
Who dared attempt to hurt her? Those bruises around her neck, Lord Sesshoumaru vowed that he would kill whichever demon had dared touch her.
He pushed aside the maids standing in front of the girl, finally coming before again. It had been so long since he had been this close to her, and her scent-her scent, not the disgusting perfume they had put on her-was overwhelming.
He reached out to brush her soft hair out of her eyes, and as soon as she lifted her eyes up off of the ground, giving a blisteringly hatred-filled stare, she turned and stalked out of the hall, leaving the Lord of the Western Lands standing alone, again, bewildered and completely lost.
This was something that not even the most powerful demons had ever managed to do.
Well that was a long chapter! Sorry if things seemed a little rushed or Sesshoumaru seemed super OOC. I'm not sure how I can bring the major plot points together, and sometimes I just end up rushing through important parts :\ Please read, critique, review, etc. (I'm really considering redoing this chapter sometime in the near vicinity)
Also, I apologize for the long update time. These past few weeks have been ridiculous, but who likes to hear excuses. :D
Thanks
Lily