InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Leiko ❯ Keiyo's Courage ( Chapter 19 )

Chapter Nineteen

Keiyo's Courage

 

Satourou flapped his mighty wings and hovered above the group. Sasuke and Kari drew their swords, but when they moved to attack him the falcon youkai would evade them. Satsuke plucked a few prayer beads from around her wrist and chunk them at him. The red ones exploded and the black ones formed voids in the air. Satourou dodged everyone of them. Yamainu, still holding Leiko, glared up at the falcon youkai. Garou and Shadow growled, knowing that if their companions failed then there was no way that they could catch him.

Keiyo looked up at Satourou and then a Leiko. There was no way she'd be able to chant in her condition. Her eyes were barly open. Satourou contiued to hover over them. Keiyo clenched her teeth and launched herself at him. He dodge her and grabbed hold of her tail. Leiko's eyes shot open when the little cougar demon screamed.

"Keiyo!" she shouted.

Satourou swung Keiyo in circles by her tail. "You want her?" he asked. "Then find me where the water roars over the mountain."

With a mighty flap of his wings, Satourou was gone. Leiko squirmed out of Yamainu's arms. Her weakened body slammed into the ground. She lifted her head off of the blackened ground and tried to rise on all four. When she was half way up, her arms gave way beneath her and she fell back to the ground.

"Keiyo!!" Leiko cried.

"Leeiikkooo!" Keiyo cried, her voice fading into the distance.

Keiyo watched as her friends faded as Satourou gained altitude. She squirmed in his arms, bit him, and clawed him to no avail. Trees zoomed past them as Satourou shot towards the mountains in the east. As they neared the craggy face of the mountain, Keiyo saw a waterfall sliding down to meet a lake below the ledge that formed a porch for the yawning mouth of a cave. Satourou flew inside of it. When his feet touched down on the earth floor, he dropped Keiyo.

"Hey, you ass!" Keiyo said, stroking her sore tail.

"Tsk, tsk." Satourou said, wagging a finger at her. "That's no way for a child your age to talk."

Keiyo snorted. "I'm 334 years old, moron." she growled.

"Oh?"

"Ten years ago a priestess cast a spell on me, trapping me inside this puny form." Keiyo said.

"Why'd she do that?" Satourou asked as he lit a fire.

Keiyo eyed him. "I destroyed thirty villages in the north." she said.

Satourou snorted in disgust. "You demons always destroyed our homes that we worked so hard to make." he said.

"'You demon?' Hey, pal, you're a youkai too!"

Satourou threw a log violently into the now roaring flames. "I wasn't always this way!" he shouted.

Keiyo shrank away from him.

"I was a human once..." he began. "Nearly a month ago a host of wolf youkais came into our village and burned, rapped, and pillaged. I was nearly killed, but my friend made a deal with the leader of the pack. The leader was near death as well. If he told his pack to back off, my friend would allow the leader's soul to enter his body and have it as its new home. The leader acceptted.

"My friend was possessed by the soul of the blood-thirst wolf. Lucky for me that my friend still had some of his right mind left. Before the soul took complete control, he fled our village. That night I,too, offered my body up to a falcon youkai. As time went on I hunted my friend, hoping to find some way to free him from the demon soul that possessed him."

Satourou paused to fix himself and Keiyo something to drink. When he handed it to her, Keiyo looked at it cautiously.

"I'm not going to poison you." he said. "Your friends will come for you and you'll be no good to me dead."

Keiyo took the bowl and plopped down in front of the fire. "So is that all?" she asked, taking a sip.

"No." Satourou replied, seating himself on the opposite side of the fire. "I didn't know at the time that the soul that possessed me was a Soul from the Shikon no Tama."

"How'd you find out?"

"A lovely woman came to me in a dream and told me about it."

"What did she look like?"

Satourou sipped his water. "Like Lady Leiko. Only her hair was black and she was human." he replied.

Keiyo nodded. "I see..." she said.

"I know that if I can free my friend from the clutches of the wolf youkai's soul that my own soul, the Soul of the Jewel, will return its rightful place without question." Satourou said.

Keiyo looked out at the sky. The sun was setting. Her friends wouldn't reach her now. She would have to wait. Satourou rose to his feet and rummaged around in a corner. When he turned back to Keiyo, he tossed her a piece of dried fish. Keiyo ate it quietly. When she was finished, she curled up for sleep.

As she drifted off to sleep, she could hear Leiko calling for her.