The Path of Conquest by Pendragon

"Was ever woman in this humour woo'd?"

"Sit, boy!" Kagome yelled, thrusting balled-up fists down at her side. "Sit! Sit! Sit! Sit! Sit!" She screamed, every time shaking her fists, and every time hearing the pleasant sound of Inuyasha smacking down harder and deeper into the earth. "Stupid, ungrateful jerk!" Turning on her heel, she grabbed her quiver and bow and stomped off down the hillside, away from her friends gathered there. "Kirara!" She yelled over her shoulder, calling for the twin-tailed cat to come join her at her side.

            "Why does she always do that to me?" Inuyasha groaned into the dirt his body had been spiritually induced to smash in.

            "Honestly, Inuyasha," Miroku said, looking all the part of the righteous monk. "do you not think you deserved it?"

            "What?" Inuyasha yelled back, jumping up from the ground. "Of course I didn't! I didn't do anything wrong!" He denied, shaking his fist in the air.

            "Calm down," Sango said sternly, setting down her empty bowl.

            "Hey," Shippo called attention after gulping down another 'faceless octopus'. "Have you guys noticed that every time Kagome makes us a meal Inuyasha ends up getting yelled at? OW!" Shippo yelped, tearing up and rubbing at the spot on his head where Inuyasha had just, non-to-gently, pounded him.

            "He has got a point," Miroku murmured absently. Inuyasha merely huffed in response, standing with his arms crossed and looking off into the distance, and the exact opposite direction Kagome had just left.

            "You're right. And this meal was actually decent," Sango agreed. "I have to say, Kagome's cooking skills are improving."

            Inuyasha mumbled under his breath. "Didn't taste any different to me," The white dog ears on top of his head twitched twice.

            Shippo, still upset, let his tongue slip. "You're a dog! You eat table scraps! What would you know about good food?"

            "I know plenty, you little-" Inuyasha started yelling back as Miroku and Sango stated there own conversation.

            "So what do you think Kagome wanted with Kirara?" Sango asked, leaning over to Miroku as she bit into a rice ball.

            "Who knows? She can't possibly be planning to go back home through the well, could she?" He inquired, leaning in just a much as she did.

            "No way! She just got back today. She wouldn't go back again this soon, and especially not without telling us first."

            "Well she was pretty mad," Miroku let the thought float in the air before continuing. "She could do anything."

            At that the two looked back over at the still bickering Shippo and Inuyasha.

            "Do not!" Shippo denied, waving a small fist in the air, his demon-fox tail bristled and angry behind him. "I bet you lap out of Kirara's food bowl when nobody's looking!"

            "Why you!" Inuyasha yelled, raising a clawed fist in the air.

            "Enough, you two!" Miroku said. "Kagome's already mad enough for all of us; let's stop with the fruitless violence."

            As he and Sango rose up from the ground she asked him a question. "Miroku, Kagome left with Kirara, they could be anywhere by now. How are we going to find her? Inuyasha can't track them if they fly."

            "Don't worry Sango," Miroku soothed. "All will be fine. Kagome will come back once she's calmed down. We just have to be patient."

            "You're right," Sango said, looking up into his blue eyes. "We'll just-" Sango felt every ounce of her blood drain away as Miroku's cursed right hand found purchase on her tender flesh.

            The slap across his face resounded throughout half of feudal Japan.

            "Lord Sesshomaru!" The young mortal girl called ahead after her stomach had, rather violently, informed her of her state of hunger.

            The man walking ahead of his small entourage halted without response.

            "Lord Sesshomaru! May I please go find something to eat? I heard a stream not to long ago. I could go fish and be back before sundown," The bubbly young girl asked, leaning forward on the back of the two-headed yokai she rode upon.

            His answer was long coming. "Do as you please, Rin. It is of no concern to me," His still body never turned toward her by any degree, not even his head turned to project back his voice. The perfectly calm and polite yet commanding tone of it didn't echo, but dominated the forest around them. Every singing bird, every twig-snapping animal, every crawling insect seemed to instinctively pause at the sound of his voice. Even the wind itself seemed to bow for a moment to the young dog lord.

            Without another word he began walking forward again. Rin climbed down from the back of Ah-Un  and rushed off into the woods toward the unheard mountain stream.

            The small green demon in Sesshomaru's following turned his head as Rin dashed off. That wretched girl, running off again like that! Doesn't she see the stress it puts on our lord?! The imp's forehead creased as he glared after her. Once she had disappeared in the undergrowth a new thought appeared to him.  Then again, if any misfortune falls upon Rin... A thick bead of sweat ran down across his temple. He imagined Sesshomaru; eyes red as fresh human blood, jaws disfigured in canine ferocity, poison dripping from tooth and nail... A big gulp caught in his now-swollen throat.

            "Lord Sesshomaru?" Jaken's high-pitched voice piped up to his master's ears.

            "Yes?" Sesshomaru replied, not slowing down in the least as his zealot of a follower stumbled along behind him, carrying the gnarled staff that dwarfed him. "What is it, Jaken?"

            "My Lord, surely you don't, I mean, do you possibly intend to," The imp-yokai stumbled over the words, trying desperately not to sign his own death warrant with the wrong word phrasing. Sesshomaru stopped again without a word. Jaken cringed behind his staff; the carved face of the beautiful woman pointing up in Sesshomaru's direction.

            Sesshomaru turned slightly to the left, the pelt he wore over his right shoulder not making a sound as he shifted. Half-turned, his severed left limb was noticeable next to the two swords he kept at his hip. The swords clinked together once, giving off the odd sound of cursed steel on a demon-wood sheath.

            He said not a word, not even looking down at the ardent little imp. The visible half of his face was unmoving as a statue, marble-like in its stillness. Two thin magenta streaks ran from ear to mid-cheek, cutting through flawless skin. Ivory white hair spilled down over his shoulder. Thin stands of it twisted over his eye, fragmenting the liquid topaz. Those eyes focused off into the far distance of the forest. Adding to the effect of his eyes was the thin crescent moon situated exactly in the middle of his forehead.  An ominous aura seemed to pulse around him, contacting like a frantic heartbeat.

            "Jaken, you waste my time," His voice was crystal clear, but soft a precious silk.

            "My lord, I only meant to say, to ask" The beads of sweat on Jaken's face now came down in streams. "do you intend on letting young Rin go off alone, again, my lord?" Sesshomaru's only reacting was so turn another mere tenth of a degree toward Jaken, who jumped a little, knocking himself as well as his staff off-balance, sending them both to the ground.

            Pushing up from the ground with tiny arms Jaken babbled again, "Lord Sesshomaru, I only mean to notify you, no, I mean to," - Jaken was now crawling slowly backwards - "I simply am offering," - The imp's head slowing bobbed up and down as he thought of a track of words that would less likely get him killed - "offering my protection to young Rin. After all, last time she went off alone she was nearly devoured by demons." His head continued to bob slightly up and down as he waited for his master to respond.

            Sesshomaru turned back ahead and continued walking. "Do as you wish, Jaken. I could not care less."

            Scrambling to his feet, Jaken picked up his staff and began to quickly walk backwards, bowing as he did so. "Thank you, my lord, thank you." Sesshomaru didn't respond. Jaken stumbled over a tree root and then took off running into the forest after Rin, pulling Ah and Un along after him.

            "Unthoughtful, inconsiderate jerk. I spend all day making that stupid food, adding in his favorites just to please him, and what does he do? Criticize it!" Kagome stomped through the forest, Kirara skirting at her heels, looking up at her with what looked like cat-like concern. "'This meat is too chewy, Kagome. This chicken is too spicy, Kagome, what ya trying to do, kill my tongue?'" Kagome mimicked as she broke into a clearing, sticking out he tongue just as he had done and talking through it. She stomped once on the ground and turned back in the direction she had come. "Well then, why don't you get Kikyo to make your meals from now on?!"

            She looked down at the miniscule little twin-tail at her feet. "Come on, Kirara. We don't need them. Let's go back to the village," The little cat mewed at her ankles. "Inuyasha's such a jerk," She said, shoving the strap of her quiver higher up on her shoulder. A dull knock sounded when her bow clicked against the quiver. "He's not going to get off easy this time. That was completely uncall-"

            "You're in my way," A male, aristocratic voice called from across the clearing.