First off I want to say thank you to my friends for inspiring me to actually write up stories. This one took me over a year to finish and so I'll be posting a chapter every other day or two days, depending if I can get to a computer quickly. Please no flames, I'm really hoping you all love this story and give me good reviews.

I don't own any of the Inuyasha characters created by the original owner, Rumiko Takahashi. I only own the characters that were never mentioned in the manga, movies, or anime series, especially my cougar demoness. If there is anything wrong with the story, please do tell. I'm all for the comments, but no harsh flames.

Enjoy!

Clouds of despair shrouded the small village of Gen. Many humans gathered around three graves, each with a newly buried villager in them. Children cried, men who fought side by side now grieve, women mourned pitifully as they prayed for their fallen comrades a safe journey to peace and tranquility.

Four ferocious snake demons, two days prior, had attacked the town so unexpectedly that they had killed the three guards, severely injured many, and minor injured few villagers. This was the sixth time that they have ambushed Gen Village.

As the survivors recuperated from the fallen, the rain droplets fell from the gray, sullen sky, almost as if it too felt guilty of the lost of brave warriors. The village was a wreck, many of the homes broken after just being rebuilt, with even more destroyed. Crops were ruined for the year, herbs for curing the sick, now dead themselves.

Now that rain and the chill came in, children grew very ill, as did the females and a few males. The priestess and monk living there had too, grown ill. It was almost hopeless for any chance of survival of the village…

o / o / o / o

The demon cried out in pain as his body was cut into simple scraps. Blood coated the once pretty green grass along with body parts. The demon and his group had been foolish to take her on. They had expected it to be quick, take her as their sex slave and be on their way.

The Heavens and Hells knew so much more than just that.

The group went to attack her again, but they didn't so much take two steps when slashes ripped through the rainy air. More blood and parts spooled around on the grass. The only noise that filled the air was her quiet breathing and the rain pelting trees and puddles.

The female sighed, clearly annoyed, as she watched the ogres, one by one, hissed into ashes at her feet. However, she knew she wouldn't be leaving this fight unscathed. One glance at her hip proved it. Thankfully, her inflicted wound was neither too deep nor big to be fretting about. Her body would heal it completely in about two days.

She turned back to see the blood soaking down into the already soggy ground. Raindrops fell into the puddles of blood, melting into it. her tessen fan, now almost clean thanks to the rain, clicked softly as she flicked it close with a quick move of her wrists. She placed it so that the tips of iron spikes faced out below her obi.

She gazed up into the gray sky. Night was coming soon, however the rain did not let up. But it wasn't as if she didn't like the rain or night; in fact she loved and admired how it washed everything bad away. Sadly, sometimes it could wash away good things too.

The demoness allowed the rain to wash away the blood on her cheeks and soak up in her plain gray kimono, making it heavier. 'Spring has past. Now summer awakens.' she thought calmly.

With a lightly clouded sigh, she continued forth. She would tracked forward until arrival at the next village so that she could rest a bit. She never had been completely tired for a while, and yet she missed the feeling. She missed everything that she had obtained and loved all those years ago. Now, she was an outcast to her family. She even considered herself an outcast from her previous pack, despite deliberately leaving them behind.

'Five years…to think that I've been away from my friends for so long…it's most puzzling.' The demoness thought rather sadly. She quickly shrugged it off. 'Nothing I can do about it until I settle things right again from many years previous to meeting them. Until I stop feeling this weak, this naked…and vulnerable.'

While she pondered her memories, the female demon slowly reached her destination; a medium size village she had heard is Gen Village. 'Spring Village…doesn't really fit considering it is the wakening of summer now' she smirked slightly. Her feet, though hard padded over years of walking, were beginning to have sores on them from three days of nonstop walking. A village meant food, water, herbs, and a place to spend the night. 'Only if the villagers will accept.' She curtly reminded herself.

When she entered the village, she was met with a horrifying scene, though she kept her face emotionless. The village was a complete disaster, and it didn't look even close to recovering from the major damage that had been dealt to it.

"Halt!"

Before she could comprehend what was happening, she was surrounded by several guards, each one either equipped with bows and arrows or swords. Despite that, she noticed how sloppy and exhausted their postures were, as well as the way they held their weapons.

The leader of the guards stepped up, aiming his sword at her small bosom. "Who are you and why do you dare enter our village?" He snarled venomously.

"I am simply walking through, though there doesn't seem to be much to walk through." She spoke calmly. "May I ask what happened to your village?"

The guards faltered for a moment, looking at each other to confirm whether or not they should kill her or even give her an answer. She raised a hand. "I do not mean any harm, gentlemen. If you simply attack me, then I will leave. But all I want to know is what happened here."

Many long seconds ticked by, till he spoke up. "We were ambushed." the leader explained. "Three of my men were killed, making it a complete total of thirty men and women killed. Three children are dead because of those fucking demons!" His voice got hard and clogged up. The female suppressed the urge to flinch

"What demons were they?" Amaya asked.

"Snake demons. Four of them total, but I think there has been more than just that." He sighed. Amaya then really saw how exhausted he looked and sounded. 'He must be taking the hardest toll then all the others…' She thought.

"Allow me to help." She insisted softly.

"We don't need your help, demon!" One of the soldiers exclaimed.

She turned to face him. "That wasn't really a request, human." She stated bluntly. She turned back to the leader. "Let me defeat these demons for you and your village, it is the least I can do."

He looked deep into her mahogany purple eyes, many emotions flickering through his own, and finally nodded in defeat. "Okay. They usually ambush us during sundown or sunrise. That will be soon by now…" He looked off into the cloudy distance.

Amaya nodded understandingly. "Very well. Take your men into the front. Snake demons like the element of surprise. Send no one to the back; I will stand there alone. Take the women, children, and elderly into the largest hut you have standing up right now. Any man who can fight or use a weapon should step up, or guard the hut holding the others. Tell your healer, priestess, or priest to cast an electrical spell around the village if they can. If not, then just a barrier that will hold long enough for me to kill the snakes. Do you all understand?" She said to them.

"Yes ma'am."

o / o / o / o

When sundown came, everything was in place. The priestess and monk living in the village only knew one barrier spell. But it would work. The largest hut was cramped in with the weaker humans, all fearing for the lives of the soldiers.

Amaya stood motionless at the back of the village. She could sense the snake demons coming from a far away distance at great speed. 'Finally, maybe this will be a challenge' she thought. She looked behind her when she heard a baby cry in fear, apparently sensing a disturbance. The scent of combined fear and anticipation flowed through the air, something snake demons mainly love. Submission of the weak. 'They will not receive that from me nor the villagers after tonight.' She growled at the thought.

A soft rumble shook the ground beneath her sandals. It was far too small for an earthquake, but it was growing louder and rougher. She firmly planted her feet into the soil, centering her balance in a better position. The demoness quickly checked her thigh, satisfied when she felt the strap secured on her upper thigh.

The shaking grew almost unsustainable, but she wouldn't show any faltering so early in a battle. 'Wait for it, girl…' She held her breath and counted off the seconds, each one passing like minutes. The ground finally caved in, creating a huge quick-sand like hole. The demoness jumped back just in time, while throwing three purified shuriken at it.

Perfect timing.

A snake demon lurched up from the hole, but was impaled by the shuriken before it had time to attack. Each one dug deep into the demon's thick scales, causing them to sizzle and burn like lava. Fortunately, they were lodged too deep to pull out without purifying a limb. The snake demon screeched loudly, thrashing wildly as his arms became whip-like and lashed at the demoness.

'Shit!' She twirled out of the way of one whip arm, pulling her tessen fans to block the other one. Her previous wound from the fight of the ogres burned in protest, but she swallowed back down, focusing on the matter at hand. Pushing away, the demoness had enough space to hear out the sound of screaming of not the snake demon; but civilians. 'Damnit! They're inside!' Her mind shouted.

Not taking a second glance at the first monster, she leaped into the barrier, noting that it was only shielding the outside and surface soil zone; not underground. 'They obviously burrowed their way through the barrier and into the village. Smart but clumsy. Typical.'

She sighted three snake demons hovering over many guards, who attempted practically uselessly at injuring them. With a soft grunt, the female soared through the air, her muscular form flexing as she attacked the enemies.

It appeared, though, that they had sensed her first. A tail slammed into her side, forcing her to crash into the ground. Pain shot through her ribs, making the demoness falter in breathing. Growling, she pushed up and off the tail, slashing through it deeply with her spiked tessen fan. It was deep enough to spew gallons of blood onto the soggy soil, but she wasn't strong enough yet to slash through them like her mother could.

Dodging several more attacks, she purposely maneuvered backwards, away from innocent souls. When her ankles touched the broad wooding of a hut, she cursed, glaring up at the ugly beasts that stood well over ten feet tall.

"Sloppy morons…" She scoffed stubbornly. With her keen sense of sight, the demoness saw each snake demon stiffening up, tensing their muscles for attack all at once.

'Please let this work…' She prayed to the gods mentally. As an athletic creature, she could easily and physically outmatch these demons. But power wasn't everything in any solution; and this was one. Snake demons were weak against spells and purification powers, but not really by strength. Something she was still training herself on.

Holding both fans at her face, she inhaled deeply, feeling her whole body coil like a spring, and she let go. A snarl left her mouth when she threw her tessen from her body. They spun swiftly, moving in a figure-eight formation, cutting against the hard scales of each demon and into their skin, and breaking it and causing more bloodshed onto the ground. Their howls deafened her for many seconds, her head ringing as she watched them thrash about.

Grabbing both fans in mid-air, the demoness flicked them shut and placed them in her obi. One of the snake demons tried to kill her, stabbing her in the shoulder with its tail. Yelping, she stumbled back, hissing as the venom coursed through her blood stream, trying to paralyze her from the inside out. 'I've had enough of this.'

Clutching her arm, the female took a deep breath and began transforming. Her clothing disappeared, being replaced with elongated fur. Her body may have been shrinking a little, but she still held a beautiful body, even in her true demon form. Brown sleek fur ran over her body, ears now erect on her head, and powerful feline fore and hind legs flexing upon use. 'Now let's see who will really win this fight.' She thought with a smirk, showing off her 4 inch fangs.

Like lightning, the cougar charged, clearly not being affected by the venom at all, and bit into the scaly neck of one of the snake demons. Those fangs of hers shredded through the scales with immense strength, even managing to dig into the actual skin. The monster threw its head about, shaking her off after many tries. She flew off, only to latch onto the next demon like a fly on skin.

Only after she bit them all countless times did she land back on the ground, panting heavily from her attacks. She could see the fury blazing through their eyes, glaring at her like the vermin she was to them. They reared back before whipping at her.

The cougar couldn't help but smile a little at their stupidity.

They got within a few inches of her face but suddenly, bluish white light glowed off of the beautiful wave-like swirls on her back. Blinded, the three snake demons pushed back, feeling pain rip from their insides. Light pierced through their skin and scales, sending random rays out of them. Soon, though, their entire bodies were nothing but white forms.

Then, as quick as it happened, all of the snake demons exploded into ashes, their snowflake-like remains blowing away into nothing by the wind.

The cougar sagged to the ground, peering over at her shoulder wound and seeing that the venom was secreting out of the hole, but clogging around it and turning an ugly shade of green for the first signs of infection. 'Damn. So much for being careful.'

"My lady!" Two voices grabbed her attention. She perked her head up, her ears twitching curiously as she watched the priest and priestess of the village rush over to her. The female spoke first, gasping at the sight of the cougar's wound. "We saw everything happen! But you are wounded. Let us help you heal."

Slightly baffled, she only nodded, watching the priestess Hina bring out a salve to wipe away the venom from the wound before securing it with a cloth. Jiro knelt down a little, though not by much since she was almost four feet standing in her cougar form. "The snake demon on the opposite side of the barrier was destroyed by the it after it tried getting in several times. Your plan worked out just great. Thank you, my lady."

"Is there anything, anything at all, that we can do for you, my lady?" Hina asked politely.

The demoness glanced around at the almost completely destroyed Gen Village. She looked back at the two. "May I ask to stay here for a while? I want to help build Gen Village back up again. It only seems acceptable enough. My friend once said it was called 'common courtesy' from what I recall." She said, smiling kindly.

Jiro and Hina looked at one another before nodding. "It is okay with us. And the villagers will be most happy by your offering of help. Thank you so much, my lady."

"You're welcome. And please, drop the honorific. I was disowned from royalty long ago. I am no longer a lady, only an outcast. Call me Amaya."

Jiro and Hina looked skeptical, but smiled in the end. "Very well, Amaya."

Well, here's the first chapter! This is the updated one from the previous first chapter (that one sucked). Yes, Amaya is a cougar demoness and I'm proud in making her. But no demon is perfect in every way, so injuring (that may sound a little wrong) seems reasonable in making her appear just as alive as possible (if you get what I mean). Second chapter will be up soon!