"You're about to collapse. If you just slept when you needed to, then you would have no issues. Going until you crash all the time will have serious negative effects on you. Not to mention you haven't eaten anything in three days now." I argued with him as he used a tree to steady himself.

He was so tired he could hardly even glare at me, too focused on just staying awake and on his feet. Feet that I knew for a fact were sore and tired. I could just hear those puppies barking from here. Carefully, I approached him and placed a hand on his arm. He flinched away from my touch and mustered the clarity to glare at me.

"Are you seriously going to learn this the hard way too? Think.I know it's hard to do right now, but just think. Which is better, sleeping regularly on your own terms or passing out randomly?" I explained. His brows scrunched together as he thought it over the best he could in that state. He must've not slept for a long time even before being stripped of his powers because I wasn't this bad yet.

He finally relented, sitting down and leaning back against the tree. Quickly, I circled him casting spells to cloak him in shadows and obscure his presence from the senses of others. The second I was sure we would be safe, I plopped down inside the circle and tried my best to get comfortable. It was surprisingly easy, thanks to how tired I was.

Both of us were so tired that despite going to sleep in the later hours of the day, we stayed asleep until dawn. Yawning, I stretched out my sore muscles and smiled at how good I felt having rested. Sure, it was on the hard, cold ground, but it was better than nothing. I looked over at my companion, catching him covering his own yawn. The disturbed and dare I say annoyed look on his face made me laugh.

"Good morning, sleepy head. Feel better now?" I beamed.

"Hn...water." He grunted. Shaking my head, I rolled the flask over to him and watched as he drank his fill. When he rolled the flask back, I drank the rest. As I did, I heard a rumbling noise. I didn't need to look up to know that it was coming from him. I popped up from the ground and arched my back as far back as I dared without losing my balance.

"We need food. I'm going to take a shot in the dark and guess that you aren't going to so much as try any of the fruit I gathered two days ago. So, are you any good at hunting?" I asked.

"This one is a skilled hunter." He informed, lifting his chin slightly. He got up and without a word began stocking around in the woods. I followed behind him, watching as he looked around for tracks and listened to the forest around us. I even caught him sniffing about. It must've been a habit from when he wasn't human because I couldn't smell anything.

"Not to be a downer but...all you have is two swords and human speed and reflexes. How did you intend to kill any potential prey you find?"

"This one will prove successful never the less."

"Are you good with a bow?" I asked. He stopped and leveled me with a look that implied that I should've known the answer already. He then made a show of looking me top to bottom. "Here..." I huffed, opening the pocket of my apron. Reaching into it, I thought of the wooden bow and set of arrows a village boy gifted me. I had found him almost dead in the woods, having been mauled by some predator while hunting. I wanted to refuse the gift as I had no skills with a bow, but he insisted he could get another, and it was all he had to give.

"What ends does your magic have witch?" He asked warily, looking at my apron as if it was something dangerous.

"That is a very long explanation to give. Perhaps I'll explain myself a bit more if you are willing to exchange tit for tat." I shrugged, offering the bow and three arrows. It was a small bow, having obviously been made for the younger boy to be able to manage.

"Hn..." He accepted my offer and continued to creep through the woods. I backed off quite a bit, so I didn't cramp his style. Besides, if he failed miserably, I didn't want him to say it was my fault. I had flown up into a particularly old tree and watched his progress. It was boring to watch, but it wasn't like there was anything else for me to do. Besides take a nap, which I was contemplating doing whenever I noticed him draw back on the bow string from the corner of my eye. My attention snapped to him and to where he was aiming only to find a rabbit hopping about nibbling on the vegetation.

I watched him line up the shot and take a deep breath before letting it and the arrow out. It zipped through the air soundless pludging into the chest of the rabbit. It was dead, and it hadn't even known it was coming.

"Great shot. I guess you're aren't all talk after all!" I cheered, watching as he approached the rabbit. He yanked the arrow out and wiped the blood-stained tip on the grass before grabbing his kill by the ears. He turned back towards me, looking rather pleased with himself even if he wasn't smiling. I flew down from the tree and began making a campfire. As I did so, I watched him use the tip of an arrow to punch a hole, then his bare hands to literally rip the fur off the rabbits body. What I didn't expect him to do was carve it open and remove its organs, save for the heart and liver.

"Wow...I didn't expect you to know how to prepare a kill to eat according to human standards." I exclaimed. He gave me a noncommittal grunt not so much as offering me a look this time. I narrowed my eyes at him, trying to peice together the mysteries this man presents. After all, I still did the even know his name.

The rabbit was split as evenly down the middle and set to roast over the fire with two sticks. We both sat watching the fire from opposite ends. It was quiet, too quiet. Since being trapped in the past by my own reckless curiosity, I had been mostly alone. So the silence shouldn't have felt so consuming, yet it did. I looked up at my companion and decided that I just couldn't handle the silence anymore.

"Encantations, wards, curses and spells. These are the four corners of magic. Encantations are any magic applied to an inanimate object. Like the metal wings clipped to my broom. They have been enchanted with flight or the gift of aviation. The broom itself was just enchanted with unbreakable and beast of burden. They do gradually loose their potency unless recharged by a witch. It's a built in safety feature for in case such items fall into...non-witch hands.

Wards are any sort of shield or altering in the defense of oneself or another. Like the deflecting shield I summoned. I have also been cloaking us in shadows and obscuring our scents and any sound we make. Although if something or someone were to accidently walk into us, they would feel it. Unfortunately, you can not conceal yourself to all four senses at once."

"There is more than four senses." He interrupted.

"Yes, but no one has ever found a witch by taste alone. As for any senses beyond the mortal ones...well, it just depends on how strong of a witch you are. I find that I can hide from most demons I have encountered here. Anyways, we find it's dangerous to try to conceal ourselves to more than three senses at a time. Doing so removes us from the natural world. Many witches back in the day never returned from doing so, those that had warned heavily against it.

Let's see...curses are just what you think they are. Offensive spells that are much like contracts for what is already there with closing clauses. For example, the monk that sent that sealing spell towards me. He was attacking me just because I wasn't human, so in a sense he was blind. I cursed him, manifesting his blindness of judgment into true blindness. When he finally sees everyone around him without the coloring of his prejudice, he will have satisfied the closing clause. Thus, the curse will be lifted.

Spells, they too are self explainitory. They are pretty much anything lying outself of the other three types of magic. The only restriction they have is the casters stamina and basic physics. Like the fire I conjured to boil our water, that flame can burn for as long as I have the energy to make it burn. Unless of course I let it start burning on things typically flammable. The flame will become dependant on the resources around it. I will not have to sustain it but I will also lose my control over it.

There's a lot more that goes into being a witch and using magic. Ultimately, you can do everything right and still turn out unsuccessful in any magic you attempt to cast. It because magic itself is a very fickle thing. It will do what it wants when it wants.

Warlocks like to tease by saying magic must be a female presenting energy. You know, because females are emotional and temperamental. They have a harder time casting magic than witches and we don't know why for sure. So no one takes offense when they say such things, we're rather empathetic towards their plight." I found myself rambling.

"The females are the stronger sex amoung your kind." He rose both his eyebrows in surprise.

"Hey! The was very sexist of you!" I barked placing both hands on my hips. "Although I sense it doesn't come from a toxic belief that men are supposed to be better. Hmm...not whole heartedly at least. *sigh* Oh but you are right to be surprised. When it comes to anything of higher consciousness and bipedal it is a common trend for the men to be genetically built to be stronger or more powerful than their female counter parts. Anyways, as I said, we don't know for sure why men have more issues casting magic."

"Hn." He seemed to accept my answer for what it was. Turning his head to look out into the forest around us.

"So...what kind of demon where you?" I asked slowly.

"This one is a great dog demon. A superiors being to those you have run into before myself." He stated arrogantly. I had to bite my lip against pointing out that he should've worded that statement as past tensed. Surely doing so would only piss him off. Besides it has only been a few days since becoming human. It must be hard accepting such a dramatic change in one's identity. '

That would be me right now, if I hadn't deflected that ofuda.' I couldn't help the guilt and slight amounts of shame I felt. Was defense of oneself a justifiable reason to cause a innocent bystander so much pain? Not really.

"Oh...that explains it!" I exclaimed the second the though popped into my head. I was meet with expectant eyes. "You were sniffing while hunting. I had thought it was a habit from...before. I was right I just didn't expect you to be a dog demon."

"What sort of demon had you imagine this one to be?" He asked scowling. I couldn't help but to beam at him. It was just so nice that he was opening up to me, however little. My smile must have made him nervous or something because he looked away again. "You don't have to answer, this one is merely curious to what ridiculous theory you had concocted." He brushed off.

"I really didn't know for sure what you were. I just figured whatever you were must have been a predator for sure. Not like a fox or something that hunts and has to hide from larger predators. I almost pegged you as a bear demon but it just...felt wrong." I explained. He snorted at my answer and checked the rabbit. Wordlessly he picked up the stick he had scerward his half with and took it away from the fire. Even in the warmth of the summers morning I could see the smoke billowing off of the meat. My stomach growled in protest, demanding to be fed and soon. He checked his meat then took a bite, signaling that it was done.

I quickly took mine off the fire and carefully nibbled on the still hot meat. I was so hungry that the warm meat of the rabbit was like drops of heaven on my tongue. Silence filled our little campsite again but this time it wasn't as all encompassing as before. I was satisfied with the meal and what I had gleamed from our little conversation, even if my guilt was persistently weighing over my heart. I wish my teacher was here, she'd be able to console me through this predicament. Hell she might have been able to point me in the right direction in removing the seal. It would've been so bad if I could sense where the seal was on him both physically and metaphysically.

We finished our meal and tossed the bones and other remains into the bushes for a scavenger to find. With a few kicks I smothered the fire with dirt. The former dog demon was already leaving me behind. At this point I wasn't sure if it was indifference or an surety that I would just follow. Either way it was kind of annoying me.

Oh well, I guess he was allowed to be rude for now. At least while he was processing and adjusting to his predicament. That is, if he hadn't already been rude to begin with. Odds are was that he had been but I liked to hope he had been more civil as a demon. Hopefully, I'd be able to find out for sure. 'Don't think that way...you'll fix this!' I scolded myself. I had to have a can do attitude for both me and him.

The morning dragged on with us going...somewhere. I didn't push him to talk anymore. I didn't want him to get annoyed with me and close back up. Though I knew I would have to be the one who initiated the conversation. I just had to have perfect timing when doing so. I was happy to see him drinking more water throughout the day but I knew he wasn't drinking enough still. Then again I wasn't able to get enough water either so the issue of his progress was moot.

The day had started out without a cloud in the sky but by the time the sun reached the highest point in the sky clouds had begun their invasion. The wind picked up, whipping both of our hair in our faces. The leaves on the trees slapped against themselves in a familiar symphony that was usually the intro music of a storm. Sure enough I could smell that sent of ozone and energy right before a powerful bolt of lightning flashed across the sky.

I quickly got off my broom out of habbit, since it was never a good idea to fly during a lightning storm without a thunder budy. Literally...if the amount of raw energy coursing through you didn't kill you then the plumit to earth would. So the system of thunder buddies was invented so that if one got struck the other could catch the falling witch and resuscitate them.

"We should find somewhere to take shelter at." I spoke out feeling want would be the first of many fat droplets of rain splatter across my cheek. I quickly flipped the hood of my cloak over my head and waited for a reply. He stopped and seemed to look around us for cover. Wordlessly he walked in a new direction leaving me to trust that he knew where he was going. Which wasn't that hard I supposed, seeing as I had been doing just that the entire time I had been following him.

We were suddenly going up and hill and just as the rain started in earnest he lead us to an intention in a hills cliff face. A large rock created a sort of natural onning for us. It was dry and was just carved deep enough to almost completely shield us from the winds. However, it was so small that we had to stand sideways and practically pressed to the dirt walls to avoid being pressed together.

"This was a long time coming..." I mused mostly to myself. However his agreeing grunt was nice. "I bet a lot of farmers are relieved. Unless they just plowed and seeded the land. I really don't know anything about this places agricultural cycles. Either way, the earth and vegetation was getting rather dry."

I went quite again, listening to the rustling of leaves and pattering of rain slapping the earth. It didn't take long for puddles to begin to form in each little valley around us. Some time passed and the rain never let up a bit. I began to notice the former dog demon...dare I say...fidgeting. It started slowly but soon it became unignorable within our pocket shelter.

Abruptly, he stepped out of our hiding place and walked with purpose off to the right. I frowned as he left my view for a few moments before returning soaking wet as if nothing happened. I mentally scratched my head wondering what the purpose of going out there and getting wet was. It didn't take me long to connect the dots. 'Ha...I wonder how long he has had to piss for...probably longer than I've had to.'

I extended my hand out letting it burst into flames that stretched up towards the dirt ceiling. For me the warmth was a little much but I wasn't doing it for me, I was doing it to dry off him. I provided us with heat until my arm grew too tired to keep in that position. when my arm felt better I found myself digging through the things in my apron.

'Book...note pad...journal...butterscotch...Oooo I forgot my umbrella was in here.' Then my hand brushed against my fine toothed comb. I quickly grabbed it out and began the arduous task of detailing my hair. I found myself wished I had thrown a bottle of shampoo in my apron. My hair was unseasonably greasy, seeing as I had not been able to take a proper bath since coming to the past. I just needed to get my hands on some rice water and vinegar. Which means I needed to find a way to earn money.

Looking towards my companion I pondered if he would be willing to start hunting for both food and furs to sell to villages around us. I know he wouldn't have an issue with hunting for food, now. It was the trips to the villages to sell off those furs I felt he would disapprove of. Honeyed brown eyes suddenly stared back down at me before briefly flicking to the comb still running through my hair. 'He has such long hair...and it's a mess..'

"Here..." I offered pulling the strands of hair that had collected in the teeth of my comb. "You look like you need it." He hesitated but slowly he took the comb from me and began the long task of combing through his tangled locks. I watched him and felt bad that just one little portion of his head had taken him so long to finally be able to run the comb through without snagging. "Did you need help?"

"No...this one groomed regularly." He huffed.

"But you don't have a comb?"

"This one's claws sufficed." I silently made an O with my mouth at the information. I guess that made sense. It probably was a comforting actions for him, I know I liked running my fingers through my hair sometimes. To do so all the time and with claws must've felt nice.

"You can keep that comb if you like...I have a brush in my apron. So I don't really need it. I mostly used the comb to help put my hair in pigtails. Speaking of which...I have hair ties too. If you put your hair in a low ponytail it'll help cut down on the tangles. Or you could do one long braid. That'll really help." I found myself blabbering again.

"This one refuses to use hair bindings." He said firmly.

"Oh, well if you change your mind...just tell me." I said a little disappointed by his refusal. I just wanted to help. I didn't let it get to me too much, though. When he was finished with his hair, he slid the comb into one of his sleeves. It made me feel better that he took the comb at least.

The rain finally let up enough that he decided to continue onward. I didn't argue with him, I just followed his lead and brought out my umbrella. Maybe we were close to wherever it was he was taking us to. I hoped wherever it was, it was warm and dry.

A/N

HELLO READERS! I HOPE THIS STORY IS DOING A GOOD JOB OF SHOWING A BIT OF WHAT IT WOULD BE LIKE TO BE HUMAN FOR SESSHOMARU. IF YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS YOU THINK I SHOULD TRY, DONT BE ARRAID TO LET ME KNOW ABOUT THEM.