Truth in Blood

Voting is in, thanks all for participating! Results lets see, Mom is dead (Sorry Princess Sin & River , but the rest of the mean readers dont want Inu's one wish to come ture.. sniff, sniff!!!) His dad is alive ... BUT **whistles!... AND NO rape..(Thank you sweet readers) . As to the last please read below. - oh and when did I ever say the rival was a demon????

As always read, review and enjoy.

Chapter 14 : Opposing forces

Steely blue eyes, watched the Demon Lord and his 5 demon entourage make their way through a canyon, a day’s travel from the fort. The Demon Lord was obviously heading to the Forest of Emerald Gold. Blue eyes narrowed, high in the cliff face, he waited for the small group to walk just below his hiding place. As he expected the Demon Lord was walking ahead of his entourage, he was almost unconcerned with their presence, more of a matter of them choosing to follow him, rather then he requiring their services.

As soon as the Demon Lord was below him, brown old wings snapped out. Silently; Sword drawn he plunged down with deadly accuracy, aiming to remove the Demon Lord’s head. He was so fast he was a blur to even the demons on watch in the entourage. The blade sliced air on its path to the strong neck.

The clang, of steel on steel filled the air. In one move the Demon Lord unsheathed his blades and met the attack with the sword on his right hand. His left came up from the side razor claws a foot long prepared to rake into his attackers back. The Demon Lord’s claws sliced air, as the attacker jumped back. The High Seraph and Demon Lord engaged in a series of super fast blows. The speed of their attacks so fast, that to the onlookers, the sound of steel meeting steel was one long clang, rather the a series of lightning fast moves. So skilled were the opponents that the air blurred around them. They seemed equal in strength and skill.

When the mistake occurred it was so slight, so minuscule, that only the two involved in the fight could possibly track it. The High Seraph, swung with a smidge too much force, his hand over extended by less then a half centimeter. Immediately the wrist was caught in an unbreakable grip, utilizing that extra force, the Demon Lord spun and sent the High Seraph flying over his shoulder to crash into the rock face. The force of the Seraph’s body hitting the rock, caused the canyon walls to shudder and quake. Above their heads boulders loosed, unbalanced by the impact, 3 boulders the size of horses, slid down the canyon wall towards the slightly dazed High Seraph.

The boulders crashed onto the canyon fall. The sound they created muffled the sound of the High Seraph hitting a boulder, some ten metres away from the Rock fall.

“Ouch! You didn’t have to be so rough!” the Seraph complained rubbing his back.

“You didn’t have to be an idiot; ... wait that is inevitable. You are too slow to catch me by surprise Kouga.” Sesshoumaru said looking at the irritating High Seraph emotionlessly. “Your presence here is unnecessary interference, go home.”

“I’d love to, but you declared a boarder inspection, what did you expect the Seraph Council to do? We had to have an inspection as well, Council’s orders, bloody waste of time. What’s the deal? You miss me so much you needed to see me Sesh? You could have just invited me to dinner, you know” Kouga said with a feral grin, straightening up, he snapped his wings to clear the dust and drew them back into his body.

“Hhm, Sorry I lost my taste for grainy Seraph blood a long time ago. I have business in the forest that has naught to do with you.” Sesshoumaru said coldly.

“Oh, nothing to do with us? Let me guess you are investigating a strange monster that saves more then kills? A strange creature with many faces, that has become the main source of gossip for all that pass near and live in the forests.” Kouga taunted.

“You interfere with my prey, Seraph, and it be your last meddling on this earth!” Sesshoumaru snarled.

“Your prey? The Council suspects its a run-away Seraph. You dare lay claim on this being?” Kouga asked suddenly serious.

“Why would your council make such a claim?” Sesshoumaru asked.

“Because we suspect that the being came from our North East boarders. Its my father’s idea actually, he once sensed a being of strange power near a boarder town, but he was in the middle of a parade at the time. By the time it was over, and he went in search of the being, it was gone. He thinks it was moving West, I have orders to return with it to the council. You beat us to declaring a boarder inspection by a day or so.” Kouga explained.

Sesshoumaru’s smile was smug, “Even in this the Seraph are too slow. I lay claim because I do so, is there another reason that the Seraph require?” Sesshoumaru asked coldly.

“Darn, the feathers on my back quivered at that look.” Kouga chuckled. “If the being is not a Seraph or a demon, then our claims are equal.”

“Kouga because you are an idiot, I ask for the last time, do you interfere with my prey?” Sesshoumaru’s voice was even, but there was a definite air of threat about it.

“Ah Sesh, we both know the real reason you ask,” Kouga said suddenly standing nose to nose with the demon Lord, un-winged the Seraph was a inch shorter. Kouga leaned up, with a flirt look, and jumped back – way back- just in time to avoid the claws dripping poison and aimed for his jugular. “What a stiff. Okay, okay fine!” Kouga said in a placatory manner, as Sesshoumaru growled in irritation, then he grew serious, “No, you beat us to it, so as long as it is not a Seraph, the prey is yours. But if it is a Seraph..”

“This Sesshoumaru, has no further interest if it is a Seraph.” The Demon Lord said flatly, without another word, he turned and walked off continuing on his way. Kouga fell into step beside him, as the two headed to the forest.

In the last war between the Seraph and Demons some 170 years ago, the two had come close to killing each other. In real battle, the two had been evenly matched, and luck, rather then skill would have determined the final victor. In testing each other, respect had grown, and finally both had pulled their final blows.

The battle between the two had thus ended with both hurting –but not killing the other. That battle became known as the last blow in a 1000 year war, the Graceful Blow.
The fathers of the two warriors had witnessed the battle, and the two Ancients, had called a truce. Negotiations had commenced, and the 1000 year war between the two sides had ended, with a rather heavy peace treaty. Concessions had been made on both sides, and though the humans were generally unaware of it, the land was in fact in a state of peace. Rouge Seraph and Demons did cause problems, but the major houses were not out for each other’s blood.

Kouga and Sesshoumaru, were naturally chosen to represent their people in different encounters. As such, over the years a friendly rivalry had developed between the two. They either fought against or beside each other depending on the issue at hand. Neither actually LIKED the other, in many ways they were too similar to really like each other, but they did enjoy pushing each others buttons, and testing their skills against each other. More importantly they respected each other,

The two, plus 5 followers made the village by noon. Sesshoumaru did not bother stopping, Kilala and Sango had gotten all the information that he needed from them. He in fact avoided the village himself, so as to keep his presence unknown. One of his entourage had gone ahead and gotten directions to the hunters camp. Sesshoumaru intended to find the two fox brother’s in the forest and get the information out of them. The High Seraph and Demon Lord masked their auras before entering the forest, just in case.

The hunters looked suspiciously at the 7 travellers walking into the village. They were canny enough to see that the two leading the group were best given a wide breath and those hunters with issues in the homelands, quickly disappeared into the trees. The 2 leaders stood at the edge of the village, while the 5 members of the entourage rushed in to ask questions and investigate. They got exactly no where.

The only reason that their questioning had been allowed to carry on for almost two hours, was that Sesshoumaru and Kouga had gotten into a silently declared “Who will loose their patience first” contest. They sat at the edge of the village, each daring the other to move first. Consequenty neither had even scrathched itchy noses in over two hours.

After two hours of listening to his Demons fail, Sesshoumaru conceded defeat, and stood gracefully, pretending to ignore the smirking irritant behind him.
He stalked up to the village elder, so annoyed by the Seraph he allowed some of his power to leak out. His gaze was cold and his voice colder, “Where are the fox brothers?” he asked in the tone of one who would not be denied.
The villager elder saw his death in the cold demons’ eyes, and quelled under the power of the gaze, “They do not live here, my Lord, we have never seen their home, but it is said to be in the middle of the Forest, near a small lake.” The elder answered honestly. Sesshoumaru sensed the truth in the answer, nodded and turned in the direction without a word.

The group left the village, the hunters gathered around the elder. “What do we do now?” one of them asked.

“Nothing, Inuyasha has given us our instructions, we stay out of it. If things go bad he will do what he has to do.” The elder said.

“But.. those two.. those two..” a female hunter stammered out.

“Those two are more powerful then a normal demon or Seraph, much more powerful. Still if we overreact, we could make things much worst. Post the watch, we keep our eyes out for the signal. If the signal is given, regardless of who they are, the hunters will keep our word.” The elder said decisively and the proud humans, demons and Seraph of the hunt village nodded.

Shippo was in a clearing some miles from their home, cooking up a batch of sticky cream. The scent of the cooking was so strong, that it disrupted Inuyasha's sense of smell, so the kit had to cook his favorite sweet sticky stuff away from their home. Inuyasha could not stand the smell, so he was far off fishing for their night meal. Shippo was allowed to be alone because the area he was in was safe, all creatures that could harm Shippo either knew better or had been killed by the Hanyou a long time ago. The fawns Inuyasha had saved, now sturdy yearlings were at the edge of the clearing keeping the kit company. Shippo was his normal hyper self, one minute checking the cream, the next chasing rabbits, the next trying to read the books Inuyasha forced him to study and still in the next minute playing with the yearling deer.

Shippo was having a fine time, he loved the forest, both he and Inuyasha really had made a home for themselves here.

Something shifted in the air. Shippo was not sure what but he suddenly turned, and standing at the edge of the clearing were 6 adult demons and a Seraph, that Shippo did not recognize. Shippo was a people demon, but something about them had him worried, they were not the village and country folk he was now used to. Something about them smelled city and put Shippo on the edge. Shippo very carefully, tried to look as young as he could and began backing away.

As they walked nearer the demon with long white hair, like his Nii-chan's only different, he was beautiful and cold. He uncurled an energy whip, and Shippo tried to back away further, but the other 5 demons were suddenly at the perimeters of the clearing blocking his escape. The two yearlings, startled by the intruders bolted off. The demon and the Seraph whispered a bit, then the two with blank scary faces advanced on the now trembling kit.

Sesshoumaru when he saw the fox demon, playing by him self, was suddenly irritated. Why the hell was he a Demon Lord wasting his time on this nonsense. The fox demon was nothing special and he suddenly knew he was going to be disappointed. Still he had come this far, he wanted this settled as fast as possible, to that end he uncurled his energy whip.

Kouga seeing the whip that he had seen Sesshoumaru kill Seraph with one flick, caught the Demon Lords arm and spoke in a low tone. “I will not allow you to use that on a kid.” He stated.

“Fool, this Sesshoumaru will not hurt the child. But I tire of games, I want to know fast. I will only touch the air near the child, the wind made by the whip may sting a little but the whip will not touch him. The fear will make him talk. But he is in no real danger.” Sesshoumaru said, he shook off Kouga's arm and walked on.
Huge green eyes stared fearfully at the 2 Lords.

“Little fox, you will tell this Sesshoumaru all that you know of the Being that hides in this forest, or you will suffer the consequences.” Sesshoumaru's voice sent chills down Shippo's back. Fear suddenly choked him, they were here about Inu Nii-chan, he tried to breathe evenly, as his mind scrambled for the story they always told. “We have never met any being here, its just me and my Nii-chan.” He managed to stutter out. “Its just the story that people like, many demons, humans and Seraph do stuff.” Shippo said.

“Kit, I can smell a lie. Your stink of it. You will tell Sesshoumaru the truth now, or you can suffer and then tell the truth, that is the choice you have.” The whip crackled, Sesshoumaru flicked it and a deep gorge appeared on the ground beside the kit. The wind caused by the whips movement knocked Shippo off his feet, on to his butt. It stung his whole body. Tears welled up.

“No leave us alone. We didn't do nothing bad. Go away!” Shippo cried out. “I don't have anything to tell you!” The whip hit the ground on Shippo's left and tore at the earth, small stones and the wind hit the little fox.

“You will answer now, my patience is at an end.” Sesshoumaru said again, his voice merciless and cold.

Shippo just shook his head, he wasn't going to say anything! No way! They could kill him but he would never, never betray his Nii-chan. Tail between his legs, he pushed himself backwards on his butt, trying to get further away. Shippo was crying and backing away only saying no, no!

Sesshoumaru aimed the next strike to land between the kit's legs. He was impressed by
the fox's bravery, but he would not be denied. His senses told him, as brave as he kid was, the child would break on the next hit.

He raised the whip to strike the ground. He brought it down hard..

... blood splashed all across his shocked face!


---tbc --


Yes Im evil!!! Please review and tell me how much u hate, me... muahaahahah!!!