Chapter 1: The Poisoned Shard

Dawn was close and, with the first sunbeams sneaking through the leaves of the different trees, the forest was turning into an orange paradise, the birds began to wake from their dreams, flapped their wings and tweeted to welcome the new day, the water down the stream not too far away sloshed joyfully among the rocks, filling the atmosphere with a peaceful music. The panorama began to clear up little by little until the bright sunlight matched the glowing gold in the eyes of the youkai* leaning against a tree while staring at his surroundings. His cold look was lost in the distance. That night he had not returned to where his subordinate and the girl he protected were sleeping, but he had gone to that place, to the outskirts of that village. There, far away, he could sight the well through which she had disappeared not long ago, now that she was gone, peace returned. He squinted when he began to think about that again, in that moment in which he had seen the figure of that woman who had rescued him from the grip of the death, from a death that was dragging him slowly to the afterlife.

He looked down at his right hand with hatred and stuck out his claws. How could he had been so reckless? If only he had not left himself be drawn by his ambitions, he would not have been on the edge of death and that woman would not have needed to save his life. No, that was not the first time it happened, he had found himself in the same situation before, and had met Rin, but this time… this time was different. That woman was not a little innocent girl oblivious of her doings and who did not know him and therefore ignored what he could do to her. That woman had helped him by her own will even knowing he had tried to kill her in the past. She had saved his life knowing she could get him in such a compromising situation as that he was into now.

On that day, he had decided to chase Naraku who had used him in such a despicable way to fulfill his own evil plans, he had also tried to hurt Rin. But he was never going to forgive that, so he had ordered Jaken to take care of her during his absence. However, he was not expecting to find his new enemy so soon, and he was not expecting Naraku to be so powerful for him either. The dog-demon managed to win that battle, he defeated his enemy which only resulted in being a mere puppet, and he, however, ended up being badly hurt from such encounter. It was certain that Naraku was becoming very powerful.

He could not recall having ended up like that since he had lost his arm, but this time, and by his own carelessness, not only Naraku beat the hell out of him, but also managed to poison him.

With every second, Sesshomaru felt his strength being drained away, every sense was reducing considerably, even his sight was blurry now, so he decided to rest in one of the nearest forests he could find, under the shelter of the trees. He lay down there, breathing heavily and hoping for his body to fight the poison back. Unfortunately, as hours passed by, he felt each time worse. It was as if his demonic blood was failing and his healing powers had vanished. He raised his right hand and tried to look at it: as he imagined, his sight had worsened to the point he could only see a shadow. He sighed deeply and rose his head to the dark sky, it was night already. In that moment, he was more exposed to any threat than during daylight, he was exposed to other demons living in the forest who could smell his state: that smell of wounded animal about to die would attract them and they would surround him waiting for the moment to attack.

Regardless of his state, he could barely sense another presence there. He could not feel its smell, nor see it clearly. He clenched his teeth showing his fangs, if that someone came nearer, it would regret it. He was not in a position to defend himself, however, he would put up all possible resistance when it tried to devour him. The shadow remained still in front of him. He stared at it with dilated pupils, his sclera had reddened in consequence of the agony, his face had deformed to such extent that now he did look like a real beast.

But he could not move, his body had entered a state of paralysis. He half-closed his eyes with hatred to the slowly approaching shadow. It had said something, but he was too dizzy to understand those words that were drumming inside him like an echo. Could it talk, then? So it was not a normal creature, but a demon, or a human. He was not certain which one would be worse to find in such conditions.

The figure came closer, with unsteady movements, but it was still approaching. Sesshomaru started to growl. The figure took a step back and spoke again. Now that it was closer he could understand what it said.

It called him by his name.

It knew him.

He slowly stopped to growl and to show his fangs at it, he started to relax. If it knew him… who could it be? His senses worked so badly that he could not even smell it. The presence took the demon's relaxation as a good signal and kept walking towards him. He tilted his head to look at that blur now really close to him. It spoke again:

"Let me help you."

It was a woman's voice, it rang a bell, but he could not remember exactly to whom it seemed to belong. He squinted feeling delirious, he barely had the strength to remain awake. He was giving up, so easily, he was showing his most vulnerable side to that woman who raised a hand towards his chest, but he could no longer see it. His eyes closed and his head dropped to one of the sides, he could not keep on fighting the poison. However, he could distinguish a bright light through his shut eyes followed by a deep feeling of relief. After some everlasting seconds, he opened his eyes and blinked a few times; his sight was slowly clearing up to the point he could start recognizing the features of that woman he had so close: her big brown eyes, her long black hair, that dismayed but angelical expression…

It was her, the human woman who always accompanied his brother.

So if she was there, that meant Inuyasha was around too. It meant he would appear there soon to give him the coup de grace to put an end to his life. He turned pale, his eyes widened and his heart began to pound out of control into his chest. Kagome seemed to notice that since Sesshomaru began to run his small eyes around the place making a huge effort to find something.

"Don't worry, Inuyasha isn't here."

Sesshomaru looked at her again, this time thoroughly: she was half-smiling at him with a deep sorrow in her face. He then lowered his gaze to the woman's hands; she held them together cocoonlike on her chest. Again, she seemed to read his mind.

"It's a shard of the Shikon jewel" she explained looking down and revealing what her hands were hiding: a small shard shining with a dark aura slowly clearing up on that priestess's hands. "It was corrupted by a powerful poison… and then embed in your chest."

Now he understood, Naraku had done it to put an end to his life once and for all. That explained the reason why his powers were drained away, it was that thing sucking his strength all the time. He frowned at the shard and then looked back at her when he noticed she was going to continue speaking.

"I felt its presence from not too far away and I came as soon as I could. However… you'll have some problems to fully overcome its ill effects. You'd need hel-"

"I do not need it." spoke the demon finally with an icy voice and looked away from her "Leave."

She gaped at him.

"But you need something to help you recover your lost strength!"

"I said leave."

He growled at her again this time. Kagome half-closed her eyes showing offense and confronting him at the same time. She then took a big yellow bag off her back and rummaged inside. The youkai gazed at her meanwhile, what was that woman doing there alone? What called his attention the most was the absence of his half-brother who was always wandering around her like a guard dog. Where was he now? How clumsy of him to leave her alone, especially in the presence of a potential threat as he himself was for her. He had been a menace for her life in the past.

"Here." She said while taking off a few objects from the big bag and then handing him a little jar with a liquid inside "I prepared this powerful mix of herbs some time ago to fight the effects of the most powerful poison, so I have no doubts this will help you to feel better."

She placed it next to him and smiled at the icy glare she got back. That woman was truly stubborn, she was not intimidated by him not even in the least, even knowing he was the closest thing to an enemy that she had for miles around. She did not seem to fear him. Why wasnt't she afraid of him? He just looked away from her once more to show her he was not interested in that mix, now that that thing had been taken away from his body, he felt his powers slowly returning to him, it would not take him long to heal his wounds and eliminate the remaining of the poison inside.

"I don't want it."

"I'll leave it here in case you change your mind." She answered back and grinned, then she began to put all the objects she had taken away back into the bag. Finally, she stood up without taking her eyes off him. "I've got to go now, the rest must be looking for me… but I'll return tomorrow to make sure you're fine" she added this last, which made the demon frown at her "just… in case."

Having said this, she began to walk towards the opposite direction from the youkai who followed her with his eyes to where his recovering gaze allowed him. So she had saved his life, she had saved him from dying under the effects of that lethally poisoned shard which he had not noticed he had inside. He clenched his hand feeling his pride hurt. Had a human saved his life, then? He could not believe how low he had fallen as to allow a pathetic human to save him, particularly the human under Inuyasha's protection.

He glared at the herb mix she had left beside him and discovered that, a bit further away, she had forgotten to put an object back in that huge bag of her: it was what seemed a green book. He stretched out his arm hardly to be able to pick it up and spun it in his hand, it was small and seemed to have been used regularly. He opened it and his eyes landed on one of the so many pages. He squinted since the moonlight and his dizziness—which had not improved much—barely helped him see anything, the words seemed to intertwine in front of his eyes, so he scarcely managed to read a few lines:

I know I cannot do absolutely anything to avoid it, the pain consumes me from the inside when I see him going and leaving me behind as if I did not exist. Sometimes I wonder if the pain would fade or if I should live with it forever.

He was in pain from straining his eyes so he shut the book and tossed it aside. He did not know well what it was about and he could not care less about knowing it either. He was only certain that, as soon as she noticed the absence of the object, she would come back for it. What a pester.

A wolf howled in the distance. Luckily, he was starting to feel better now, nevertheless, he was not fully healed yet, maybe that poison had not gone completely since he still felt that general weakness. With eyes closed again trying to relax, he tried to give himself enough time to rest.

As the night passed by and he stared at the sun coming up through the trees, he began to grow anxious to have his powers back. His eyes darted towards the drink still lying there covered by little drops of dew. No, he was not going to drink such thing, he was not going to debase himself letting her help him again. He had already suffered enough dishonour allowing her to save his life, he did not want to feel in debt with a human being. But he could not help it, he craved to recover his strength again once and for all. He stretched out his arm to the potion and picked it up to have a closer view. He opened the jar and smelled the liquid inside: it smelt of fresh herbs, and somehow, his instinct assured him that that was all he needed then.

He sighed heavily trying not to think about what he was going to do and drank it.

He unstuck his eyes from the well and looked back at the sky slowly clearing up. He felt displeased to himself, he could not make up all that had taken place. He could not believe he owed his life to that pathetic human, now his reputation was stained. Demons did not own anything to such an inferior race as humans… and now he owned his life to that fool, he would have an eternal debt with her. Somehow, he felt his life and destiny starting to create a bond with that priestess by means of an invisible thread springing up from the well and creeping through the ground like a snake until it reached him and tangled its end to one of Sesshomaru's fingers.

It was then, for the first time in his whole existence, that he knew his life was bound to a human's.

TO BE CONTINUED

*Youkai: a term used to refer to Japanese folk creatures and ghosts, or to supernatural beings in general.

Hi, everyone! I have some things to say about this new project of mine:

The story is originally in Spanish, and I'll be translating it consequently as I write the chapters in its original language.

Yes, I am not a native-English speaker so please forgive me if you find any mistakes (or passages that are hard to understand), I'd be thankful if you could point them out for me to correct and then this translated fic would be understandable for everyone 😊 of course that would help me to improve the translations. As I wrote in my profile, I am studying translation and I already feel kind of prepared for doing something as important and serious as a translation of a fic (I will not lie, it's difficult, but I hope I will end up improving a lot).

I have a page in Deviantart where I upload some art if you're interested to know about me. The cover of this fic was done by me and it's on my page. You can find me as Starebelle.

Thanks for having read this and if you liked it so far, let me know in the reviews! Thank you for your support! Every critic -either good or bad- is more than welcome!