Shameless plug time! I've got a new story that I started working on a few days ago in case any of you haven't seen it. It's called Crossed Swords and Crossed Lovers. Summary sucks, but I promise the story is good. Still in the early stages (only got 3 chapters so far, but I'm well into working on the 4th), but I tried my best to make it start out in a more interesting way than this one did. It offers a modern day take on the Inuyasha story. Plus there's a bunch of other crazy stuff going on in it. Please check it out!
OK! Shameless plug over! On to the story!
Chapter 38
"Dammit!" Kaze cursed as they moved at a frightening speed toward the growing scent of blood, "This just had to be today! Of all days, it had to be the night of the full moon!"
"Kaze, it's going to be alright." Akage assured him, "My guess is that we'll be done before night comes. This probably has nothing to do with Konton anyway since you don't smell demons or a human army."
"Konton has hidden his scent and the scent of other demons before." Kaze growled out.
"He's right. Remember the cave where we first met him, when he hid all of those demons?" Umi reminded him.
"How could I forget? We all nearly got killed." Akage said, the memory coming back to him.
"If it weren't for you, Akage, we probably all would have died." Nami pointed out.
"All I'm trying to say guys is that we shouldn't worry. If Kaze turns human before this is over, so be it. He's been human for most of our journey any way and he's been fine." Akage pointed out.
"True." Sai agreed, "Plus the full moon is when I'm at my peak."
"I still don't like it." Kaze grumbled. This made Sai laugh.
"I can see that." She joked. Kaze growled making everyone laugh.
"Alright you two, cut it out." Umi said, "How far away is the scent?" Sai sniffed the air again.
"We'll be there in about a half hour. Scent is getting bigger too. Whatever is going on, there's a lot of blood being spilled." She said seriously.
"Well, at least there are no demons." Nami muttered to herself.
As if on cue, at that very moment Sai caught the scent of two different types of demons. She recognized both of them and groaned loudly at the prospect of what was to come.
"Nami, you can go ahead and take back what you just said." Sai said.
"Are those the scents I think they are?" Kaze asked.
"Yup. Panther and wolf demons. By the smell of it, the Panthers are the Devas and the wolves are Koga and Ayame." She told them.
"You've gotta be kidding me!" Umi yelled, exasperated, " They pick now to go to war?" Sai shook her head.
"They're traveling together. I think that they're working as allies. Plus, there are only those six. No armies, so no war." She explained
"No way." Akage said flatly, "I may not know the leaders you guys are talking about, but the panthers and the wolves have always hated each other. The only worse relationship is between the panthers and the dogs. No offense guys."
"Desperate times call for desperate measures Akage." Kaze said, "We know both of the leaders. They both hate each other, but have resolved their differences before. Now that their tribes are in danger, and since there is nothing that either of them love more than their tribe, it doesn't surprise me that they'd work together. They probably hate it, but they're willing to do it."
"I see." Akage said, processing the information, "You think this has anything to do with what we're after?"
"Don't know." Sai told him, "But my guess is that we're going to find out soon. Koga's got my scent and he and Ayame are speeding this way right now. They're also probably pretty curious about you Kaze."
"Just like everybody else." He complained.
It was only a few minutes before Koga and Ayame's whirlwinds appeared in front of them. They had obviously left the Devas in the dust in order to meet up with them. Sai yelled for them to run alongside them, so they did.
"Hey there guys." Sai greeted them cheerily.
"Hey Sai. You're looking beautiful as ever." Koga said before Ayame punched him in the back of the head, "Ayame! I was just trying to be nice!"
"Well then do it in a different way!" Ayame yelled back. This made Sai chuckle. Koga had always had a thing for her mom, but she was taken. Now, since Sai looked so much like her mother, Koga would always comment about her looks. She would have to tell him that she was taken now too.
"Sorry about that." Ayame apologized, "How are you guys? We weren't expecting to see you out here."
"We're as good as we can be, I guess. We weren't expecting to see you either." Sai admitted, "Actually, right now, we're chasing that scent of blood up ahead."
"So are we." Koga said, still rubbing his head, "We caught it and figured we'd check it out." Ayame nodded her head agreement.
"That brings up another question. Are you guys working with the panthers now or what?" Sai asked. Koga simply growled, but Ayame answered.
"Yeah we are." She said, "We don't like them and they don't like us, but we're doing it out of necessity. Konton's armies have really been pushing us hard recently. We don't know if our borders can hold on our own strength and the panthers had the same concern, so we've needed to work together to avoid destruction." Sai nodded her head in understanding.
"I see." She said simply before changing the subject, "So how have you and Koga been?"
"Good actually. When he's not being an idiot, that is." Ayame joked. Koga smiled sheepishly. "We've actually got two pups at home right now. They're being guarded by the rest of the tribe."
"That's wonderful!" Sai said excitedly. Ayame blushed a bit.
"How about you Sai? I can smell a mating mark on you. It's fairly new, I can tell." She said, changing the subject. Sai beamed at the female wolf demon.
"Me and Kaze! We got married! Not too long ago actually." Sai told her.
"Sai that's amazing! I never expected to hear that! Where is Kaze anyway? And how did a human give you a mark?" Ayame asked. Sai motioned to the half-demon running beside her. Both Ayame and Koga's jaws dropped.
"Well he looks... different..." Koga commented. Kaze smirked at him.
"Just a little bit." He said sarcastically, "Nothing too crazy. Just got a little demon blood flowing through my veins now."
"I guess that explains the mating mark." Ayame said, "Well congratulations you two! I'll need to hear the story about all this later, especially the part about Kaze becoming a half-demon. For now, though, we have other things to worry about." Everyone nodded at that and began to focus on the matter at hand.
"So you guys have any idea what this is?" Nami asked. Both Ayame and Koga shook their heads at this.
"No." Koga said, "Smells like human blood, though, and a lot of it. Whenever that happens, it's never good."
"Yeah, no kidding." Akage agreed. This made Koga look over and notice the other half-demon.
"Who's the phoenix?" Koga asked.
"An ally we picked up." Kaze answered, "Great fighter and a good friend."
"Not to mention Nami's boyfriend!" Umi piped up causing the two in question to turn bright red. Koga ignored this and simply kept running. Sai knew that Koga didn't care whether Akage was half-demon or not. If he could hold his own in a fight, then he had Koga's respect. It was one of his good qualities.
"We're not far from the scent." Sai said, changing the subject. She was right. In less than a minute, they were at the base of a small hill. The source of the scent of blood was definitely on the other side.
Once they reached the top of it, it was immediately clear where the smell of blood was coming from. Human bodies, or rather, pieces of human bodies were strewn everywhere. The grass that covered the land that extended from the base of the hill was soaked in blood. Sai began to growl menacingly.
"What is it Sai?" Kaze asked, concerned for his wife.
"There's a reason we can't smell demon in the area." She said, anger straining her voice, "It's because there weren't any demons involved. This is the work of magic. By the scent of it, a sorceress."
"Magic?" Koga asked, incredulously. Magic was obviously not something he was used to. Sai nodded.
"Yeah. It's extremely rare for humans. The most common manifestation of it is in priestesses and you know how rare we are. There are other examples of human magic users, but they are even rarer. However, even priestesses are limited in their magic usage. Our magic must be pure or neutral. It cannot be tainted. That kind of magic is extremely rare, especially for humans, and will only manifest itself in two people per generation. One male and one female. They normally die off fairly quickly too because they can't handle their powers, but it seems the female has survived to adolescence." Sai explained.
"Is she working with Konton?" Kaze asked, "I know you said that there was some kind of magic he used to escape." Sai shook her head.
"No that was neutral magic and it didn't give off the same energy. It's very possible that Konton has magic abilities of his own. It's not unheard of for demons. Kagura controlled the wind through demon magic. My guess is that this human sorceress is working alone." Sai told them.
"Then why kill all these people?" Ayame asked.
"No idea." Sai admitted, "From what I know, these kinds of sorceresses that actually survive childhood can easily become demented or insane. She might be doing this for her own sick pleasure."
"We have to take her out then." Nami said, "We can't let this go on."
"Hold up." Kaze commanded, "Shouldn't we be focusing on our main objective? If we stop to fight this sorceress, that just gives Konton time to get stronger and earns us a new enemy."
"Are we supposed to just let this woman go around slaughtering innocent people like this then?" Umi demanded.
"I never said that." Kaze said, holding up his hand, "We could leave it for the wolves and panthers to sort out. This is their territory after all."
"I'm okay with that." Koga told them, "You guys continue on with your mission. We'll take care of this damn sorceress." Koga was supremely confident, but Sai began to shake her head.
"No." She said, flatly, "You'll just get slaughtered like these humans. This sorceress is powerful. Throwing an army of humans or demons at her would just give her a warm up." Koga began to growl at this, but Ayame put her hand on his shoulder to calm him down.
"So what should we do?" Ayame asked.
"We'll take care of the sorceress. You two gather up the Devas and go back to your tribes. Even though she may not be working with Konton, I wouldn't put it past him to use the chaos she's making to his advantage and try to wipe your tribes off the map. You need to be there to lead them." Sai told them. Koga and Ayame nodded and said their goodbyes before running off to do as Sai said. The rest of the group turned to face Sai.
"So what now?" Akage asked, "Where is this sorceress? Only you can feel her energy since you're the priestess here." Sai nodded and turned to face the carnage below. She closed her eyes and tried her best to sort through all of the energies that were flowing through the air. The residual magic was making it hard. She slowly stripped away her other senses so that they wouldn't distract her. Then suddenly, the energy spiked. The type of spike that could only come from an attack.
"Get down!" Sai screamed. She called it out just in time and everyone managed to hit the ground before the red wave of magic sliced through the air that they had just occupied. They all looked up from the dirt to search the direction which the attack had come from. It didn't take long. There, standing on a pile of limbs and other pieces of bodies, stood a girl. She looked to be barely fifteen. That was the same age as Sai, but this girl looked much more immature. However, the sadistic smirk on her face, the blood soaking her clothes and skin, and the evil red magic emanating from her hands served to say that she had seen and done more than any person ever should. The girl called out to them.
"Welcome to the party! Now come! Join my other guests." That's when the ground started to shake.
Review please! It would make me very happy. Plus it will make the story better, I promise!