Maiden of the Peach

Chapter nineteen: Gentle Poison, Part two!

      'Alright, we'll be fine till they get back...' sweat beads down my brow only to feel something similar to a paper-cut ran across my left cheek. 'W-what was that?' glancing down while bringing my fingers up towards the cut across my cheek; I can feel my blood running down my cheek as my knees buckle from underneath me.

      The barrier that I manage to create myself in the heat of the moment starts to crack and then splinters from a pin-sized hole. My mind goes completely blank as a small smirk plays on the stranger's lips. Staring as my only form of protection shatters as if it were made of glass, glistening like crystals before fading into nothing with Ah-Un struggling to get onto their paws. I can feel them trying to push themselves between me and the evident danger. Their claws scraping across the ground, all the while growling and hissing in frustration of their lameness. I try to think of anything that I could do at that moment as I can feel the gentle poison spreading faster and faster through my veins, knowing that eventually, I won't be able to move. The sound of crushing foliage like heavy footsteps upon dead leaves erupt from the dead silence that had settled around us. A dark figure walks out from behind one of the large trees.

      Its eyes flashed a deep crimson, but it didn't move into the moon's light. I can tell it was way taller than a normal man as the top of its head brushed against the low branches. The way it had to knelt forward slightly made me even more uneasy, along with the glimmer of silver that rests in its clenched fists. Then like a flash of lighting, an idea struck me as Ah-Un slowly manage to lift themselves unsteadily onto their paws.

      'The muzzle! I need to remove their muzzle!' narrowing my eyes as I threw caution to the wind, throwing myself on his broad shoulders and painfully forcing my numb biting arms to move and tug on the strains of one of the ironclad muzzles.

      Hissing as I finally pull the blasted thing down far enough for one of Ah-Un's maws to become visible, followed by rapidly approaching footsteps running towards us. Closing my eyes tightly once a ball of white energy formed within Ah-Un's powerful jaw before shooting out like a blast of lighting before they quickly took to the air with me hanging onto their neck.

      'Amazing!' my thoughts race to see where the figure went while sweating beads across my brow, hoping to spot Sesshomaru, Rin, even that annoyance Jaken was somewhere nearby and that they were safe.

      Warmth flooded through me from the cursed bracelet on my wrist, but it gave me a sense of comfort since somewhere Shino was still with Rin. Because of that, I knew deep down that I'd be meeting with them soon; all I had to do was stay positive and keep moving. Adjusting myself to lay on the fancy saddle a bit more comfortably as I feel my heart beating a mile a minute along with the constrictions of my breathing, it became a slow pattering.

      'I-It's spreading... what am I going to do when I can't move? What is that thing going to do to me?' I shake the thoughts away as Ah-Un's massive scaly form races through the air over the leafy canopy. 'Don't think like that, I'm still breathing and moving, aren't I? Then I can still keep going.' catching a flicker of movement from the corner of my eye of something small.

     "Rin?" I call out to feel the two-head dragon twists it's massive form, probably recognizing the blur better than I could. "Shino, is that you?" yelling a little louder as I see a familiar brown hair child in a yellow and orange checkered kosode with a small white and red dog running beside her, not to mention a little green imp waving his arms frantically behind them.

      "Lady (____________)?" Rin's voice finally answered as Ah-Un landed in front of them. They let out a slight grunt of pain that I can only guess it came from the poison still lingering in their system. "Ah-Un! Oh no, what happened?" Her doe brown eyes are full of worry as she hurries to hold their nose in the palms of her tiny hands, looking over the pin-sized holes and small streams of crimson leaving them.