Consequences

He could smell her.  It was the faintest scent, and it was not her blood he scented.

It was her fear.

He followed it.  It was not very far from where he left her. 

Along the way he killed.  He killed anything that crossed his path.  It was late, and his victims were animals.  And demons.

They fled, knowing that an angry youkai was tearing through their forest. 

If anything happened to her…

He felt his claws tear into the soft flesh of a weak water demon. The feeling of tearing through flesh gratifying.

When he found her, he would educate her.  She needed to be taught obedience, and where her place was in this world.

She made the choice to follow him.  She would now suffer the consequences.

But first he needed to find her.

After tossing the dead creature aside he turned north, and it wasn’t long before he found the cave.

Outside was a human, and he could smell Rin on him.

It was rage that led him to sever his head from his body.  He stood over the human’s body, taking immense pleasure in his death.  Were of a clearer mind he would have spent hours torturing him, teasing out screams of pain…

Screams of pain…

Rin.

He could hear the girl.  She was close, he could taste it.

He fled through the cavern, following the stench of rotting flesh.  Deeper into the darkness he went until he found her.

She was trapped, in a heap of rotting corpse skins.  She couldn’t see him. 

She was sobbing.

He tore through the mass, until he had her in his arms.

‘Gvvssshhhhh Messssshhhh ….errrrr’

Frowning, he glanced down and saw what appeared to be a lump of flesh.  It was clearly seeking to take on a new form.  Did it desire to absorb these humans?

Unlike Naraku, the monster significantly lacked the power to accomplish what it desired.  The process it seemed had taken many, many months and still it had only progressed this far.

He did not dignify the creature with a response.  He killed it, easily, and turned back to Rin.

She was shaking uncontrollably.  Her body was shaken with spasms.

When he looked down, he could see why.

Her legs…almost to her knees….were covered in blood.

It looked as if the creature had been trying to dissolve her.

Worried for her safety, he turned and ran back the way he had come.  Once outside he lay her on the grass in order to better assess the damage.

She was clinging to him, her eyes wide.

She was crying.

‘L-Lo-rrddd---‘

He touched her leg lightly, and she gasped in pain.

‘…ssss—ssorrryyyy,’ She sobbed.’

‘Silence,’ he softly said.

He could not heal her of this.  She required the work of someone else. 

He turned.  There was a village near….