______SesshouMaru crouched gracefully on the limb of an ancient oak tree a little
ways north of the village where his brother, InuYasha, had been spending a great deal of
time. At least that was what he had heard, but there seemed to be no recent signs of
his brother's presence. All scents of his brother's passing were at least three days old,
and his brother had yet to appear and give him proper greeting. This was very unlike
InuYasha, to have not appeared after him yet. SesshouMaru had rather purposely made
his presence in the area easily detectable to anyone with the slightest bit of common
sense. He had sent Jaken into the village to learn of his brother's where-abouts. He had
no intention of coming this far without getting a decent battle.
______He leaned forward on the branch, squinting his wolf eyes in the direction of the
village, hoping to catch a glimpse of something interesting. It was, unfortunately, of no
avail. He repositioned himself more comfortably on the tree branch, actually taking a
comfortable sitting position. His white hair in contrast to the dark wood of the tree seemed to
glow, and one of his legs dangled off the branch while he held the other bent near to him,
both arms resting upon it. He let his eyelids fall just to where his long lashes brushed
against his cheeks. "Where are you InuYasha," he wondered in his head. "And who is
that human girl? She dresses rather strangely. Have you lowered yourself to not just
hanging around with humans, but barbarian, foreign ones?" SesshouMaru laughed
aloud at the thought, deciding he must suggest the idea to his dear brother when he
finally found him. "Oh, you will regret not finishing me off before," he thought already
picturing ways to pay his brother back for embarrassing him.
______"M - m - m'lord," Jaken stuttered nervously, suddenly next to SesshouMaru.
______SesshouMaru turned abruptly on the toad-demon, immediately on his feet. His wolf
eyes flashing in anger at having his thought process disturbed by the minor demon. He let
a short, low growl rumble in his throat, informing Jaken it was in his best interests to be brief.
______"M'lord," Jaken said quickly, already eager to shrink away. "Your brother and his
human companion have not been seen in days; they had left into the forest..."
______SesshouMaru nodded and waved the toad-demon away. "Don't come back without
useful information."
______"Y - y - yes M'lord SesshouMaru," Jaken said as he disappeared swiftly and silently
into the trees.
______"Hmm," SesshouMaru mused as he looked in the direction of the village. "Where
have you disappeared to, you damned little half-Youkai." He pondered the possibilities of
his brother's whereabouts, and soon found himself thinking on the strangely clad human girl
he was hanging around now. What was her link to Inu-Yasha's recent disappearing acts? His
thoughts were abruptly interrupted someone nearby, who must have been very silent up to
now. His ears perked, and he turned his head towards the source of the sound. He tried to
pick out the source of the sound and blinked, then squinted his eyes and looked again, he
couldn't see anyone among the foliage.
______His muscles tensed as he caught only the slightest sounds of movement from the
direction of the original sound. Whatever it was, it was moving very quietly. His hand went
around his katana's hilt and loosened it slightly from its sheath. He finally caught the scent --
a human female - no that wasn't it. The smell was human, but there was something else to
it, it wasn't quite human... Besides, whoever this was she was far too quiet to be human,
well perhaps a ninja, but still the scent was wrong. He didn't recognize the other scent, and
he found that very disturbing.
______He leaned forward slightly and caught the slightest movement at the base of a nearby
tree, perhaps twenty feet away. He leaped, swiftly and soundlessly, to the tree above where
he had seen the movement. He tightened his grip on the katana's hilt and leaned forward,
half-expecting a fight to come. He looked down to see this girl-who-was-not-human.
______It was hard to tell from above, but she appeared to be about a head shorter than him.
She wore brown pants and a knee-length fitted dark green shirt with a scooped neck and no
sleeves. "Odd raiment," SesshouMaru thought as she lifted one pale hand up to brush a
few strands of shoulder-length silver hair out of her face. "She looks human. Perhaps she's
wearing one of those strange oils human women used to cover their actual scent."
______"Hmph," SesshouMaru snorted decidedly as he stood upright on his new perch,
releasing his grip on the sword. "Just some silly human."
______"Well then," the girl below said loudly in a smooth, calm voice. "Will you be leaving
now or would you like a bit to eat? I have enough to share."
______SesshouMaru looked down, startled, squinting his wolf-eyes at the girl who sat at the
foot of the tree staring up at him with expectant storm cloud colored eyes. "H - how d-did
you?" he found himself stuttering still in shock at having been detected.
______"Well?" she said in that soft yet strong voice that seemed to fit her, considering the
strange little contradiction she was turning out to be.
______SesshouMaru growled slightly, feeling somehow demeaned by this human, but at
the same time, he was rather curious about her. "Feh, do you even know to whom you
speak?" he asked in a challenging tone.
______The girl didn't look up, but instead proceeded to take a few wrapped packages from
the backpack beside her as she answered in a tone as used for casual conversation, "A rather
powerful demon it would seem."
______So, she wasn't a complete fool after all, or was she? Being so nonchalant to he,
SesshouMaru, realizing who he was...
______"Who doesn't recognize what is before him," the girl added coolly, hinting at
SesshouMaru's real concern.
______"Then what are you girl?" SessouMaru said in his most commanding tone, while
looking down his nose at her. "Before I decide to kill you for being a bore."
______She looked up with a wry smile, "Why don't you come down here to talk? Its rather
silly to have to speak in such a manner."
______He eyed the girl again, she seemed weak enough, but then again she had already
surprised him twice so far. "I've no time for games," SesshouMaru said importantly, trying to
hide his curiosity and wariness of the girl. He did not trust this girl.
______"Have it your way," the girl said shrugging it off lightly.
______This only served to infuriate SesshouMaru; he was not one to be taken so lightly! He
jumped gracefully to the ground, landing noiselessly before her. His topaz wolf eyes gleamed
and narrowed at this insubordinate girl.
______She looked up at him, her face straight and serious -- and unafraid. "You plan to kill
me then?" her voice was calm and did not waver as she spoke.
______"Be wary," SesshouMaru warned. "You tread upon thin ice with the Great Demon of the Western Lands."
______"Ah," the girl said, a smile crossing her face. "So I finally know who you are, Lord SesshouMaru. I am honored to meet you."
______"Who are you," SesshouMaru demanded. "Or what."
______"I am Storm of the Sano Monte Clan," she answered him.
______She looked down at the ground and pushed her hair behind her ear on one side, in what SesshouMaru thought at first was some sort of sign of shyness from the girl. He was
quick to notice the girl's true intent as she revealed a pointed ear twice as long as his own.
______"You are Youkai then?" he asked. "You smell human."
______The girl looked up, her pale face slightly flushed, and spoke slowly as she found her
words as she went along, "No, I am not Youkai. My tribe is an Elven one. I do not believe
that Elves live in your lands. The humans where I come from often call elves forest demons.
We are like humans in appearance, but our ears, agility, and strength are much like that of
Youkai. We also have skills in nature-related magic. In a way, you and I are cousins."
______"You are right," SesshouMaru said, suddenly finding himself face to face with a new
race. A race, he thought, that might become a good alliance in the future, if what she said
was true. "There has never been Elves here before. I did not quite recognize your scent. I
apologize for insulting you."
______Storm looked aside slightly, but her voice did not waver as she spoke, "Don't
apologize. I am actually a half-ling. An unfortunate result of a raid by humans on my
clan."
______SesshouMaru nodded slowly and sat down across from this girl, this half-ling. His
father had chosen to mate with a human girl, and she had been willing when InuYasha
was born. It had never crossed his mind that a human would force himself upon one of...
a half-blood be sired in that manner. It was a shock to his mind. This girl then, did she
not receive the kind of hatred InuYasha had, because of the manner of it? Had she not
said her people were as strong as his?
______Before he knew it, he was asking, "How was that possible?"
______Storm handed him some dried meat, and looked down at the ground as she spoke,
"My mother was a healer; she had no training in how to fight. During a raid one of the
humans well... he... The clan leader killed him, but a few weeks later my mother showed
signs of having child. When I was born, the clan leader raised me as his daughter. I was not
told of my actual father for many years. I've no love for humans, nor they for me."
______SesshouMaru nodded, feeling sorry for this girl. If her people treated her as a true
Elve, so would he. He expected she had earned that much of him for her bravery towards
him today. "Where is your clan from?"
______Storm looked up and smiled slightly, "And how can I be sure that I can trust you not
to attempt to harm my people?"
______SesshouMaru gave her a cold smile, "You can not. But, you are in my lands now. It
might not be wise to disrespect me."
______Storm nodded and replied in that strangely cool voice that she had, "My people are
not weak Lord SesshouMaru, nor am I."
______"You are brave Storm," he said, a note of respect touching his voice. "If not a bit
foolish." He carefully took a bite of the dried meat she had offered, and made a face as he
found it to be heavily salted. He thrust it away from himself, holding it disdainfully at arm's
length.
______Storm covered the smile that crossed her face with one hand, but did not laugh at the
look on SesshouMaru's face at tasting the salted meat. Her storm cloud-colored eyes sparkled
with amusement at his face. And when he regained his composure, he looked up into her
eyes. He found that her eyes reminded him of lighting in a thunderstorm when they sparkled
like that. She certainly had a fitting name to go with those eyes.
______"What is this?" SesshouMaru asked, trying to act as if he'd never reacted poorly to the
lump of meat he held in one hand at arm's length from himself.
______Storm kept her hand over her mouth to hide her mocking smile and answered him with
her usual voice, "It's salted and dried deer meat. We do that so it lasts a long time when you
have to travel or can't find game to hunt. I suppose people don't use a lot of salt here do
they?"
______SesshouMaru raised one delicate eyebrow, as he regarded the meat, "No No, we don't.
I've never tasted such meat. What is a deer?"
______Storm dropped her hand, and her face was straight and composed again as she tried
to think of any thing close to deer that SesshouMaru would know about. "Ah," she murmured
searching for the right words. "It's sort of like a horse only like a fey version of one. It's thin
and graceful, with strong antlers and soft brown fur. I'm not sure how to..." She stopped
unsure of how to convey the idea. She had lost him at the word fey, and she supposed it
didn't transfer over into Japanese that well. She snapped her fingers suddenly and turned to
dig into her pack. A moment later she pulled out a leather-bound book. She turned to
SesshouMaru and opened the book, thumbing through the pages for a while before stopping
on a page with a sketch of a deer and some notes about their habits, tracks, and hunting them.
"This," Storm said handing the book over to SesshouMaru. "Is a deer."
______SesshouMaru turned the book and looked closely at the sketch and the notes below it.
"So," he inquired as he thumbed through the pages, examining the animals and plants
sketched there. "What is this book?"
______"It's my journal," Storm said somewhat proudly. "I record information on plants and
animals I come across in my journeys."
______He flipped a few more pages, looking at each one in earnest, "This, is fascinating.
The language is Elven I assume?"
______She nodded smiling somewhat, only a slight upturning of one edge of her mouth.
She looked up at the sun's position in the sky and sighed deeply. She then stood silently
and shouldered her pack, "I must keep moving Lord SesshouMaru. It has been an honor
to have of met you." With that, she turned and started walking eastward through the forest,
as quietly as any Youkai.
______"Wait," he said, surprised with himself even as he said it. "Your journal," he managed
it out as more of an excuse for her to stay a few seconds longer if nothing else.
______Storm stopped and turned mid-stride to look back at him. "You may keep it," she said
softly. "Perhaps you will teach yourself to read it someday."
______He stood, a strange silence on him, for once, he didn't know what to say. He only held
the book numbly in his hands, unsure of what to do. He was not sure why, but he didn't want
her to leave. All he could think was that he couldn't bear to never see her again. "You could
teach me your language," he managed out. It seemed a poor excuse to him for her to stay,
but it was one.
______Storm tilted her head slightly as she looked back at him, a deep sigh released itself
from somewhere within her. The forest light made him shine like some sort of apparition.
Too beautiful to truly be there, much less to trust in. His moonlight-silver hair reflected the
sunlight ever so slightly and his deep topaz eyes were the kind you could lose yourself in if
you weren't cautious. 'You are fey,' she thought. 'If I could show you how you look just right
now perhaps you could understand the word.' "I have to return home," Storm said solemnly
as she remembered her duties. "I have a long way to go, and little time to waste."
______"I will walk with you for a ways," SesshouMaru said quickly. "It is only proper seeing as
how you are an ambassador in my lands."
______She kept a slight laugh to herself and stood perfectly still as she watched him walk
forward to be beside her. "Hardly an ambassador Lord," she said lightly. "Little more than
another traveler."
______They began walking together through the forest; they were side by side, their steps in
perfect time with one another. They made no sound as they walked, and SesshouMaru
would've sworn that at some points Storm's presence was little more than a shadow.
______"You said you were raised as the daughter of the clan's leader," SesshouMaru
ventured after a while. "Does that not give you some station in your clan?"
______Storm smiled weakly, "You are quite right. Since he had no children until after I was
born and he took me as his own, I am the heir to his position as clan leader."
______SesshouMaru raised an eyebrow, "Then why are you out wandering, instead of being
with your clan?"
______Storm looked at the ground as she walked along, "My clan is over several others in our
lands. It is not exactly well taken by everyone in our lands that the heir is a half-ling. I will
probably have to join with whoever is the leader of the strongest of the minor clans... no
matter what I feel... I am traveling so that I may see the world and get a broader education
than most of my people. And... I do not look forward to leading my people under the
circumstances."
______SesshouMaru looked at her downcast face... She seemed so sad... he was a demon,
that should not bother him... to see anyone so upset... but this girl, this elve. He did not want
her to be sad... was it possible that he... No that couldn't be it. He simply wanted to be on the
good side of one who could be a powerful ally. She certainly would have the proper
influence, and if elves were as powerful as she claimed...
______Storm suddenly flung her arm up in front of him and took a quick step backwards. Her
arm caught him in the stomach, and as she moved back, she took him along with more force
than he would have expected. SesshouMaru started to growl and ask her what in the seven
hells she thought she was doing when two arrows flew in front of them, and embedded
themselves in a nearby tree.
______"Damn..." SesshouMaru cursed himself for getting distracted as he tried to grab Storm
and leap up into a tree, hopefully taking them out of the line of fire. Much to his shock, she
slipped from his grasp and was jumping up into the trees herself. He was quick to follow and
jumped to a tree branch nearby hers.
______"Two of them," she whispered nodding in the direction that the arrows had come
from. "Only one archer, the other has a sword."
______SesshouMaru sniffed in that direction. The girl was right; it was InuYasha and his human
companion, Kagome. "My brother and his human wench," he growled in disgust.
______Storm reached forward with both hands cupping them as if she held a sheathed sword
horizontally before her. She then made the movements of pulling the blade out. A short
sword with a pale blue glow to it appeared in her right hand. "I'll handle it," she said
calmly.
______"H-how," he said, still shocked by the strange sword.
______Storm quickly leaped from branch to branch headed for InuYasha and Kagome, the
sword held at a guard position in front of her.
______SesshouMaru looked after her for a moment, then, began to follow her path. He would
see how well an elve could fight. He just hoped she could handle Tetsugia. He reached the
clearing where InuYasha and Kagome stood looking around trying to identify where their
attack would come from. He watched Storm's every movement carefully as she jumped
down to directly in front of Kagome.
______Kagome gasped as a pale girl with silver hair and a glowing blue sword
jumped down to just in front of her, with a cold smile etched across her face. The girl
brought the sword down on, no, through her wrists. She screamed in pain as the girl took her
arrows and bow and jumped suddenly back into the trees.
______SesshouMaru nodded, he was impressed, Storm had moved with demonic speed. He
smiled at her where she was crouched on a branch with a cold smile on her face, across the
clearing from him. She held Kagome's bow and quiver in one hand, and her own sword in
the other. He could not see Kagome's hands because of the way InuYasha cradled the scream
ing girl, but Storm had brought her sword down on her wrists. Kagome would surely die. Oh
his dear brother would be very vulnerable after this.
______InuYasha held Kagome close to him, unsure of what to do. He couldn't see any cuts,
but Kagome screamed and cried so much, she must've been cut. That girl, she had moved
like a demon, but she smelled more like a human than anything else. He could smell
SesshouMaru nearby; perhaps he had something to do with it. "Shh," he whispered to
Kagome. "It'll be alright."
______Storm took a deep breath and stood on her tree branch looking down at the howling
girl. She knew SesshouMaru was watching her, evaluating her, and her race. She left the
quiver of arrows leaning against the trunk and held the bow in her left hand. She flung the
bow against the tree trunk, breaking it in two pieces, held together by a string.
______InuYasha looked up at her in anger and jumped to his feet leaving Kagome on the
ground, weeping and cradling her arms, not looking at them. The girl only smiled more and
threw the broken bow to the ground at his feet.
______"Whoever you are," InuYasha growled. "You'll pay."
______Storm ignored him and pointed one arrow at Kagome. "You fool," she sneered. "Stop
making such a fuss."
______Kagome went silent and looked up at Storm though tear-filled eyes.
______"Now," Storm practically growled. "Look at your hands."
______SesshouMaru raised an eyebrow. 'What is she up to?' he wondered, but he watched
silently and waited.
______InuYasha drew Tetsugia, but stood still. He glanced from Kagome to this other girl, not
sure which was more urgent.
______Kagome sniffled and brought her wrists into view. Shock spread over her face as she
realized there was no evidence of them being cut.
______"It doesn't really hurt now does it, fool?" Storm said mockingly.
______Kagome shook her head slowly no. "B-b-but," she whispered.
______"B-b-but," Storm sneered mockingly. "But what? But I sliced them? You're a priestess
of some sort, figure it out." With that, Storm threw the arrows down towards Kagome as fast
as though a bow had launched them.
______InuYasha pulled Kagome out of the way as the arrows hit where she had been sitting.
"You," he growled up at Storm. "You... you bitch." Storm looked uninterestedly at him.
______Kagome looked up at InuYasha, her eyes glazed over. "Th-they're still there but I can't
feel them. I can't move them. It's like my hands are gone," her voice was shaky.
______"Stay here," InuYasha said softly, laying her on the grass. He turned and raised
Tetsugia over his head, and jumped towards the girl with an enraged battle cry.
______Storm jumped to another branch and fled, jumping from branch to branch. Tetsugia
stuck in the tree where Storm had stood only a moment before. InuYasha let out another cry
and went after her through the treetops. The sudden change in tactics disturbed SesshouMaru,
and he followed the chase. InuYasha leaped through the trees for a while before realizing
he had lost sight of her at his third leap. He stopped and sniffed the air tentatively. Sesshou
Maru stopped a safe distance from his brother, and looked around, trying to find Storm as well.
Suddenly, she dropped from the higher branches, just above InuYasha. She landed in a low
crouch next to him and brought her sword through his legs at the knees. SesshouMaru was
shocked at how easily the blade passed through flesh, but it still left no visible cut. InuYasha
roared and started to turn to bring Tetsugia down on Storm's head, but instead found himself
falling towards the ground. His roar turned from anger to terror as he fell hard against the
ground. Storm stood on the branch and closed her eyes returning the sword to its sheath of
air.
______SesshouMaru leaped to stand beside her on the branch. "You're a good fighter," he
said impressed. "You must tell me about that sword."
______Storm nodded weakly and said, "Let us move on." She jumped from tree to tree
eager to get away from the area.
______SesshouMaru followed easily, noting she was tired and slower than before. He kept
close to her as they moved through the forest. After a short time she released a deep breath
and lost her balance, falling towards the ground. He swiftly caught her and landed on a
lower tree branch.
______"Are you alright?" he asked looking her over for possible injuries as he laid her on the
branch, against the tree trunk.
______"Thank you," she said weakly. "I'm sorry.... I used the sword too long... I... I drained too
much energy." She took a few slow, deep breaths. "I... I won't be able to remain conscious
much longer."
______"Don't worry," SesshouMaru said softly and held her in his arm. "You will be my guest
until you've regained your strength." She was already unconscious and he began to carry her
through the forest to his lair.
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