InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ To Slay a Kingdom ❯ Chapter 4: The Journey ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter Four: The Journey

Kagome had been forced to get over the fear of flying in the arms of someone who she was completely convinced would be able to drop her without remorse. The logical part of her brain had pointed out that he needed her for something and therefore he was hardly likely to kill her before he got that something. Of course Sesshoumaru didn't help her calm down much, he seemed to be flying as fast as was demonically possible and Ah-Un was having a hard time keeping up.

There was a reason he was travelling quite so fast and that was simple, he liked the terror she was expressing, because it meant she was clinging onto him more. He had no idea why he liked this quite so much and then he realised it was probably because he hardly ever had any contact with other beings that wasn't violent. He decided not to go further into his emotions; he was not one to dwell on such fickle things. He believed emotions weakened him, and as such they were shunned from his life. This was as his mother taught him and her lessons served him well.

The thought did not want to be quietened though. So he decided he merely liked the scent of her fear, after all he was a predator Yokai and though he had stopped eating ningen a long time ago (and in his father's case started bedding them) he still enjoyed the scent of their fear. It was a sweet intoxication.

Kagome was comforted from her fears by the fury thing he wore over his shoulder and after a few hours of flying she was falling asleep with her face pressed against said furry thing and her hands fisted in it, gripping it tightly. In return it seemed to be hugging her, offering her some warmth from the bitter harsh winds of flying.

She was rudely jolted awake however when they made an abrupt touch down on the ground and Sesshoumaru promptly dropped her onto her bottom. She blinked blearily and looked around the clearing she had been deposited in. It was obviously not the lagoon of the red moon.

“We will camp here for tonight” Sesshoumaru decided magnanimously tossing his hair over a broad shoulder and settling himself under a tree gracefully but with finality.

“I thought you said we could get to the lagoon of the red moon in a day” Kagome accused as she tried to serrupticiously rub her abused bottom

“This Sesshoumaru could” he glared at her “but the added weight of a ningen onna slowed this Sesshoumaru down”

As he spoke Ah-Un landed and deposited Rin and Inuyasha.

“The great and fearsome Sesshoumaru-sama is admitting to being slowed down by little old me?” Kagome taunted whilst rolling her eyes

“Do not try this Sesshoumaru's patience” he warned in a growl

She ignored him “Is there a hot spring nearby?” she turned to Inuyasha who rolled his eyes and sniffed the air, all the while muttering something about him not being a dog. He looked like one to her. Ring giggled as Kagome accidentally voiced her opinion out loud, thankfully too quietly for the young Hanyou prince but loud enough to make Sesshoumaru bite back a smirk that nobody saw.

“That way wench” he gruffly pointed her in the direction of some bushes and grinned from ear to ear she grabbed her bow and her supplies from Ah-Un and raced off to the enticing call of hot water dragging Rin with her.

“What's got your Moko-Moko in a bunch?” Inuyasha asked his older brother as he deftly chopped a dead tree into fire wood and let Ah-Un light it with his fire. Sesshoumaru allowed himself a brief moment to scowl at the Hanyou before his stoic mask returned and with casual disinterest he swatted his brother with the back of his hand affectively throwing him forwards head first to kiss the earth.

“See what I mean?” Inuyasha mumbled around the dirt he was currently trying not to ingest. “since when do you get so riled up over a ningen onna, a Miko no less?”

“This Sesshoumaru is not `riled up' as you put it” Sesshoumaru was disdainful towards his brothers as Inuyasha sat back on his haunches

“I've never seen you almost lose your beast that many times in casual conversation, face it aniki she's under your skin.” Inuyasha may not have seemed it at time but he could be perceptive

Sesshoumaru realised that no verbal reply would redeem his person and so with an air of arrogance he settled into the lotus position and attempted to meditate his anger away.

“Maybe she'll drive him crazy” Inuyasha said hopefully, earning an eye roll from Ah-Un and a low growl from Sesshoumaru.

***

You have arrived Kanna

The being that had been given the name Kanna looked above her at the huge icy mountain that dwarfed her tiny frame. Nothing registered in her eyes, not even a flicker of trepidation.

Release him Kanna

The child, for she did not appear to be her three thousand years, looked the mountain up and then down before closing her eyes. The flurry of snow became wilder and faster as if some unforeseen force was whisking it into a frenzy. And then the flurry eased out into a discernable pattern, a funnel around the girl that became an orb of swirling snow that lifted the girl and floated her from the floor.

The snow orb containing one Yokai started its assent.

***

Kagome sighed deeply as she settled into the amazing warm water and she pulled her pendant from her neck and dropped it onto her folded obi before doing a small semblance of a breast stroke across the spring with Rin splashing her cheerfully the whole time. She dunked her own head and Rin's head under the water and emerged again flipping her hair back over her shoulder in time to see a pair of eyes watching them and thus nearly die of shock.

There was a small seemingly harmless monkey Yokai sat atop the boulder next to her clothes and pendant watching her with huge brown eyes.

“Look Kagome-neechan, a monkey!” Rin clapped her hands in a cute manner splashing water accidentally at the Miko.

“Umm” she was unsure of how to handle the situation and cocked her head to one side, giggling with Rin as the monkey copied her. At their giggles the monkey let out its own imitation giggle and she grinned at him. He grinned evilly back at her and jumped from his perch on the rock and landed atop her bundle of clothes.

“What are you...” her voice trailed off as the mischievous malicious monkey grabbed her pendant and propelled itself into the canopy of the tree's near her. She sat there in denial for a moment, after all she had been protecting the locket from demons with tremendous power for years and it got stolen by a baby monkey Yokai with a naughty streak. She shook her head and snapped back to her senses and heaved herself from the water, taking off in hot pursuit of the monkey Yokai after grabbing a thin white yukata to cover her modesty.

“Rin stay here!” she yelled

Cursing all the while in an utmost unladylike fashion she threaded through the underbrush and ducked the low hanging bows as she gave chase to the deranged monkey.

She paid little heed to either the branches cutting the flesh of her legs, nor the direction in which she was chasing the monkey and the reality was suddenly brought to her attention when the monkey led her into the camp that her companions had set up.

The two brothers looked at the panting bedraggled, sodden and bleeding Miko and both reacted oppositely.

“Kagome!” Inuyasha yelled standing up and looking around for any sign of danger “What happened? Are you okay?”

“Fooled by a monkey Miko?” Sesshoumaru was having a hard time deciding whether to smirk or to ogle her relatively uncovered flesh and so decided to keep his mask up and taunt her instead. After all a demon such as he should not allow himself to be enraptured by a soggy ningen.

“Not right now Sesshoumaru -sama” she commented as she jumped upon the small monkey Yokai and wrestled the pendant from its grasp. Once it was safely around her throat she stuck her tongue out at the monkey Yokai and released it.

Sesshoumaru was reeling, overcome with the urge to reprimand her for her dismissal of him and the wet robe sticking to her wet body was not helping matters.

Scenting his brother's confusion and arousal Inuyasha started to laugh himself stupid; that was until he flew over Kagome's head in a flash of red and silver and collided with a tree, crushing it. He left a large Hanyou shaped hole in the foliage which for a brief moment caught Sesshoumaru's interest, it really was perfectly shaped.

“Inuyasha-sama?” Kagome asked looking over to her friend before turning around in terror as she felt warm, foul smelling breath caress her neck. She was confronted with the baby monkey Yokai, but this time he had brought a friend. A decidedly huge friend.

“Holy—” she started before he brought down his giant fist and she was whisked out of the way.

She opened her clenched shut eyes to spy Sesshoumaru holding her protectively to his chest and glaring at the Yokai.

She sort of stared at him in a daze for a moment before snapping back to her right mind and cursing herself for becoming a cowering female. He put her down on the ground next to Ah-Un.

“Stay here” and then he unsheathed Toukijin and went to battle.

He was mesmerising and for a moment she forgot what was happening. The monkey was all brute strength and no finesse. Sesshoumaru was a intricately balanced force of both unstoppable destructive power and undeniable grace and discipline. He literally shone. The look on his face though was enough to snap her out of her momentary awed stupor. His eyes golden like his brothers did not glow with the same light, they were flat. Dead. He was bored, uncaring and completely confident in his own ability. It was as she had feared the first time she had met him and it abruptly made her angry. Livid.

She seethed where she sat on the ground and swiftly decided there was no way on earth she was letting him be her `knight in shining armour'. She had no bow, no sword, nothing but she did still have her powers. She stood and held her arm out, imagining a bow and then pulled back an imaginary arrow and let it fly at the huge monkey Yokai. That was promptly reduced to dust by a combination of her reiyouku and his dragon strike. That was enough to annoy her, she hadn't wanted his help. But she swallowed it down; it would do her no good to get on the bad side of this prince.

“It is an extraordinary ability you posses” Sesshoumaru said sheathing his sword and walking back over to her, but before she could smile at the compliment he continued “you managed to find the only threatening Yokai within this entire area and make it angry enough that it was a challenge”

She glared at him, but refused to do anything more. “I am sorry Sesshoumaru-sama” she said “I will try better in the future” she spat the words out as if they were deadly poison and he raised a brow at her.

“Where is Rin?” he asked suddenly glaring at her his golden eyes fierce and less dead than they had been prior. They were lit by a parents worry; it was a chilling fire.

“I told her to stay at the hot spring whilst I chased the baby monkey Yokai my lord” she confessed as they both glanced in the direction of the hot spring in time to hear the heart breaking scream of a terrified young girl.

Rin.

Sesshoumaru had vanished in an instant and Kagome soon followed, leaving the unconscious Inuyasha to fend for himself.

She burst into the clearing where she had left Rin to find an empty hot springs, Sesshoumaru with his back to her and her bathing supplies scattered and broken.

“Rin-chan?” Kagome called out hopelessly and the red eyed Daiyokai turned on her and growled, low and feral and she backed away; fast.

She was not afraid, Lady Kaede had long ago taught her that fear was only necessary in those who did not know how to fight, rather she was hurt.

The look he had given her had been angry, yes, but it was also accusing. In his eyes it was her fault that Rin was gone. She thought so too and the guilt was a literal stabbing sensation in her side. She could remember when Yokai had stolen children from her old village, no matter who went to try and find them the children never returned and sometimes the people that went searching were lost forever too. Her panic died down and she knew they had to do something. Now.

Sesshoumaru inhaled a deep breath searching for Rin's scent he was momentarily incensed when he smelt no fear from the ningen next to him, she should fear his beast. That much was definite. He eventually caught scent of his ward on the wind, not her blood though, thank the kami. But her scent was marred by monkey Yokai stench. He began to wonder if maybe stealing the Miko's necklace had been a simple distraction for the rest of the troop to steal the child. Ningen child was a delicacy amongst the lesser Yokai and one such as Rin who was clean and healthy would be something to covet.

He growled his dissatisfaction to the world and took off in the direction of her scent, laced with an acrid fear that burnt his nose and almost made him whimper.

“Wait, Sesshoumaru-sama!” she yelled trying to follow him.

“You will stay here” he grit out between his clenched fangs, “enough damage has been caused by you onna”

“But—” she started

And then he turned back to look at her from the ledge of boulders he had climbed effortlessly, she was scrambling up them agilely and appeared to resemble a mountain goat. He growled and her and his eyes flashed an even more evil red, uncertain she took a step back.

Her foot encountered no resistance from any ground and she fell backwards off the outcrop of rocks with a short indignant shriek. She hit the ground and he wrinkled his nose as he heard the sound of her skull impacting with the unforgiving earth.

“Ah-Un” he said and the two headed dragon crashed through the foliage “Watch the Miko, insure no harm comes to her while she sleeps” and with that he vanished.

Ah-Un glanced down at the Miko and snorted, if she was merely `sleeping' it was a horse. Pulling the blanket it had been carrying from its saddle bag the dragon laid it over the unconscious Miko. Lowering itself to its belly it curled around her and prepared to wait.

***

Rin was scared. Very scared. She couldn't remember the last time she had feared for her life so, or rather she could but she chose to suppress the memory lest it terrify her even more. After all the last time she had been quite this terrified she had died. And this time she had no idea where Sesshoumaru-sama was.

They had dragged her across the floor for a while, until the backs of her legs were burning and she started to cry. At which point she was hauled of the ground and thrown over a shoulder to stop the crying.

“This human girl smells tasty” one Monkey Yokai commented to his brother as they walked towards the rest of their troop with the small girl slung over a shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

The troop nodded their agreement of his assessment as the two approached them and the two monkey Yokai calmly walked forward and presented the rarest of meats to their alpha.

The silver monkey Yokai looked down at the young girl and sniffed her slightly, she smelled like she had been bathing, but there was another latent scent that was less easy to identify. He frowned as he deciphered it. Inu.

“Who did you take this girl from?” the alpha asked in trepidation as Rin shuddered and attempted to make herself as small as possible.

“Give me the child” a gruff barely restrained voice ordered and the troop of monkey Yokai turned to look at their doom with baleful eyes.

Their doom had a name; it was Sesshoumaru...

A/N: So how'd everyone like it? Review and let me know! I have thanks to give to the lovely people who reviewed on fanfiction dot net; Serenity digo19, iheartanime43, Moonflower77 (and a big hug back) and Shadowblayze. Also kudos to autumngold and their never ending stream of questions, here are some answers; yes the necklace is important, very important, as for the Inuyasha and Rin angle I'm going to have to tell you to wait and see, yes Kagome and Sesshoumaru are beginning to start some kind of relationship but that's as much as I can say without giving anything away. So there you go I updated!