The Dance of Death {Open} "Will I live?"

[Kat]

Chime... Chime... Chime... The faint ring of bells echoed around the clearing not far from the Wolf Youkai's lair. Sayuri could smell the overwhelming stench of wolf, and avoided it as much as she could. She didn't have a problem with the Wolf Clan, but she didn't want to strike one up either. She didn't know the new leader, and didn't want to get on bad terms with him for being in his territory. She turned away from the waterfall, and headed towards the mountains. The smell of bird was almost overpowering now, and she frowned as she looked around, but didn't see any. Though the sense of danger was strong, she had no idea where it was coming from.

Sayuri let out a cry as something dove at her from the sky. She dodged, and spotted it. A huge Bird of Paradise flying back down towards her. She felt blood welling up on her arm, and winced at the sudden pain. She could heal, barely, but it would take too long and she didn't have time right then. "Fox Fire!" She cried, shooting a huge ball of blue flame at the bird.

She dove into a crevasse next to her, and hid from bird. She was far too tired to fight, she had been travelling for days with no sleep, and now she was hurt. The cut was deep, and bleeding profusely. As she wrapped it with a cloth bandage, she heard the bird scream with pain, but she couldn't see why. Had one of the wolf pack come out and found the bird on their territory and killed it? She didn't want to try to find out, and slid back farther in the crevasse as she heard footsteps approaching where she hid. Damn it... I'm so dead...

[Revlis]

The inu hanyou rolled his eyes at this stupid bird. It was a waste of his time, to simple to kill. As they had always been. To be honest, he didn't understand why the wolves didn't go ahead and kill all of them off anyway. If they banded together, maybe they could have done it. Then they wouldn't have to worry about the silly creatures anymore. Weren't their cubs always under threat or something? He wasn't to sure but the ideas seemed like it would match something. Maybe he should have asked Finn a second ago.

It was more or less the attack 'Fox Fire' being yelled that had drawn him over to the area. He had just been on his way out from talking to a wolf youkai friend. A while back his friend, Airesu had disappeared... again and she was a fox demon too. So you never knew when someone could help. Well, that was besides the obvious stench of blood that now littered the air. A human wouldn't have been able to smell it but his canine sense of smell picked up many things. That was one of the nice things about being a hanyou.

Revlis soon found himself before the crevasse where the fox youkai was hidden. His red violet gaze scanned the area, trying to figure out where the blood smell was coming from until he set his gaze upon Sayuri. His black based ears with the white tips then pricked forward as he tried to register her appearance into his mind, putting a face to the scent. His tail flickered slightly behind him and a kind look of interest was in his eyes. It was odd how this woman looked just like a human but smelled like a demon. Almost amusing to him.

"Revlis Revirra," he said introducing himself to the youkai. He was sure that she could smell the human in him. Not knowing if she was one of those demons that attacked humans, he was sure to still keep his guard up. Many times demons would take the form or a human, and go take over village for their own use. It made him sick to think about it. Not to mention that many hated him just because he was a mutt. "Why are you out here," he then asked her. It would have been useless to ask her if she was okay.

[Kat]

Sayuri wrapped her fingers tighter around the wound on her left arm, praying without any real hope the blood would stop and whoever was outside would leave. When they stopped, looked inside and he introduced himself to her, she still didn't relax. She had no idea if this Revlis Revirra would kill her or not, and she was so tired. She could go for weeks without sleep, but she had used up so much energy over the few days she had been wandering that she just didn't have any left anymore. She stared at Revlis, trying to gauge who he was, and whether or not he would try to kill her. Her light lavender eyes gleamed in the dark, catching the light from behind the inu hanyou. "You are a hanyou," She finally said, her voice soft and lilting. She shifted so she could see him better, and so she could grab one of her swords quicker should she need to. "I am Sayuri..." She said finally.

Sayuri looked past him, towards the opening. "The bird, it is dead?" She looked back at him as she cradled her injured arm to her chest as blood seeped through her fingers. "I was wandering through. I did not want to upset the Wolf Youkai I smelled by the waterfall, and came this way instead. I could not smell the birds over the Wolf scent until it was too late." She lifted her arm. "As you can surely see for yourself. I was not quick enough to get away." She tsked herself in annoyance, angry at herself, and annoyed with herself for not stopping to rest before she had come into the mountains.

[Revlis]

Of course of all things, that would be the first thing the girl would say to him. 'You're a hanyou.' Hmph. That seemed to be all he ever got these days. Hanyou, mutt, half-breed, and any other insult that someone could think about throwing at him. He fought back the urge to say something smart back to her because he was trying to change, not be so violent anymore. Then she had introduced herself. He'd never heard of her either so now it came to be a fair meeting. Some people he met had known who his shinobi clan were and that was it.

He listened to her more closely when she started to talking again after that. Yet, he decided to stay quite until she was done. It was obvious that she was hurt. There was no doubt about that. Though there was also no way that he could help her there. He wasn't a trained medical ninja like two of them back in the village. Usually since he went places with someone else, he'd never thought about carrying around healing supplies either. Sighing softly, he listened just to make sure that there were no more birds before he smiled at the girl.

"It's dead. I promise," he said, trying to display the honesty in his voice. "I have my own version of fox fire to take care of it." He held out a hand and a small ball of fire appeared in his hand. It was harmless. He glanced back at the flame for a second, the warmth of it felt so nice though as it heated his skin. "Maybe next time you should try and get to know the natives. Not all of the wolves here are that bad. Trust me, if they were I would have been killed by now."

[Kat]

Sayuri tilted her head slightly when she mentioned that he was a hanyou, and realized it was a sore spot for him. She hadn't meant to offend him, she had just been stating a fact that she had seen in him. "I do not mean to offend you, Revlis," She told him after a moment. She let her eyes fall down to the small ball of fire in his hand, feeling its warmth from where she sat as she relaxed a bit when he assured her of the bird's death. "Good," She said as she released her arm, which had stopped bleeding finally, and looked down at it. It would scar, she could see that, but what little healing ability she had learned over the years was so weak it was pretty much non-existent. She would need to get it bandaged better, and wouldn't be able to use it for awhile.

Sayuri lifted her gaze back to Revlis when he spoke again, and shrugged faintly. "I was not sure if they were kind or not," She said. "I am but a fox wandering in their territory. It is understandable that I was hesitant to wander to where they live to introduce myself. I have not met any of the wolf youkai since I was a child." Before everyone I loved was destroyed by that bastard Naraku... She thought with a mental sigh. Oh my dear Sashi... "I am relieved that they will not find me a threat, though."

[Revlis]

To be honest, he was surprised when she had apologized to him as if t were nothing. Not many had the guts to take back what they said about him being a hanyou. He wasn't about to lash out at her either way though. That just wasn't his nature anymore. Not to mention that it would have been a waste of his ow power, and the waste of a life if he had managed to kill her. "Forget about it," he sari, trying to let the fox youkai know that her words were fine with him. He had no need for pity.

A fanged smile was painted across his features like a perfect paining on a canvas for an artist whens he had said 'good.' His pearl white fangs glistened before the flame that was still in his hand. He liked being praise, being told that he had done good on something. That may have just been the dog blood in him though. Dogs were normally out to help anyone, well at least he was. Sometimes he hated that part of him though because he normally couldn't say no to something. Which let him traveling with odd people like Oriel and Maikeru.

"Well you never know unless you try, eh?" That was a statement that many had used over and over. He had no problem throwing his own two cents onto it too. "As long as you don't attack them or destroy their own land, they're usually pretty fine with it," he added on. He hadn't know the wolves that long anyway. He then though about something for a moment and the flame in his hand went out. "How come someone like you couldn't take care of one of those birds, foxy?" He had a thing for giving nicknames sometimes.

[Kat]

Sayuri shrugged when he told her to forget about it. She turned looked down at her arm again when it pulsed with pain, and realized she had tried to move it without thinking about it. She winced slightly. She looked back up at Revlis when he smiled, and she found herself smiling back, just a slight twitch of her lips before she let the smile fade. It felt so strange, she thought, to smile even that little bit. She hadn't fully smiled in years. "I suppose I wouldn't know since I didn't try," She agreed with a sigh. "But I wasn't thinking clearly." She shifted again so she was fully facing Revlis. She didn't think he would attack her, why would he if they were just sitting here talking? She was still on guard, but then again, Sayuri couldn't remember a time she wasn't on her guard.

Sayuri tilted her head at the nickname 'foxy'. Another twitch of her lips showed another sad smile, but this time it stayed on her lips as she spoke. "I have not slept in awhile," She said. "And have used up too much energy in the few days I've been wandering. I was all but dead on my feet, and was looking for a place to sleep when I was attacked by the bird."

[Revlis]

He could never understand why someone wouldn't smile. It was something to express yourself, to remind yourself that you were alive, to show that you weren't an empty shell of nothing. He always smiled when he didn't have to fake it. The only time he'd fake a smile was when he truly didn't agree with something but had to act like he did. Sakura. She was the one that had truly taught him what it was like to smile again. She taught him how to tear down those shinobi walls and be a normal person.

Shifting his gaze back to the wound again, he looked on at it as the fox youkai spoke to him, telling him her little story. No place in this era was safe to sleep. You'd have to be in the modern world or something to be able to sleep peacefully. Well at least as a hanyou or a youkai or someone with demon blood you could sleep well there. The only real thing someone could try and do to you was send a bullet flying into your chest. He'd stopped them countless times and sent humans running the other direction.

"There's a village not to far away from here where you could get that fixed up," he said the the fox quietly. "It's more human friendly than demon. So you should be able to stay there without any trouble if you keep this form." The village had never liked him that much but sometimes people were nice enough to give him supplies and help him when he needed it. In return, he'd fight off a few demons or so for a couple of days. That always made the villagers happy, and gave them some trust in the hanyou.

[Kat]

Sayuri noticed Revlis's gaze turn to her arm, and she let out a breath when he told her about the human village not far from where they were. "Really?" She said and sighed with relief. "I hope I can get there. How far is it, exactly?" Sayuri had always gotten along well with humans, one of the benefits of being a Lord's daughter of a human village. Her father protected the human village from demons, and in turn they were kind towards him and his family. Sayuri had always loved humans, proven when she married and had a child with one, though they had so little time together.

Sayuri stood, as well as she could in the tiny space she had managed to get into when she was being attacked, and looked at Revlis. "Thank you," She told him. "For helping me when that bird almost killed me, and for telling me about the village."

[Revlis]

It seemed like theses days that everyone was way to polite for their own good. That was what got people in trouble. You didn't make friends that way anymore. At least, that was how he had seen it. Even though it was false. He stopped himself from rolling his eyes at Sayuri's nice comments. He didn't want to hear it although he loved it. Revlis had a reputation to keep up. He couldn't let everyone know that he was nice all the time. That would just be a sin and go against everything that he stood for!

"It's less than a mile away," he said to the fox youkai. "I'm heading back that way anyway. So I suppose you could come with me if you need to." His tone tried to show that he didn't care about this girl even if he really did. It was his way of hiding that kindness for his reputation. He really had no need to go to the village. It was just an excuse maybe. He wasn't sure what sort of thoughts went through his mind anymore. It was always so scattered and the details were never clear.

[Kat]

Sayuri nodded at his offer. "That would be kind of you," She told him, unaware of his thoughts about holding up an image. She stepped around him, and out of the small crevasse and into the afternoon sun. It was warm, and felt good on her skin, but did little to keep her awake. She couldn't remember the last time she had felt so tired. She turned in the direction of the human village and blinked her tired lavender eyes. "I might sleep for a week, should they let me," She said as she looked down at her arm. She was relieved to see it hadn't started to bleed again, though the cut looked nasty. She wrapped her fingers around it again, hiding the gash and hoping it wouldn't get infected before she could get it treated.

"Even if they find out I am a Youkai, I can show them I do not mean any harm." She shrugged. "I lived with humans for a very long time. I am used to their ways, and I can convince them that I am not a threat."

[Revlis]

His red violet gaze had kept a close eyes on the foxy youkai when she had passed by him to venture back into the world and face the wrath of the sun. He turned his own gaze slightly, slowly allowing the suns rays to com in contact with his eyes but not to the point where it would have been able to blind him. He hated the sudden change from darkness to light when it came to something so quickly. The odd thing about that was that he used a source of light, his fire, all of the time now.

He took a note of her odd comment about living with humans, not to sure what to really think of it. Sure, he dealt with them in the modern world sometimes but it was usually just so he could spend time with Sakura. Sakura was only there to go to college and to be there for her mother. "Why would you want to live with humans," he suddenly asked her. He'd never known the true love that a human could provide because his mother had froze to death when he was just an infant. Then the shinobi took him in, them all of youkai blood of some sort.

[Kat]

Sayuri's light lavender eyes moved to get a better look at Revlis's face now that she could fully see it. She shook her head and sighed slightly at his question about living with humans. She had figured he wouldn't understand, being different in both human and yokai worlds. "Not all humans wish to kill or harm us, and they do not all fear us," She said as she started walking slowly. "Some humans are kind, while others are not. It is just like Youkai or Hanyou. Everyone is the same, in that respect." She felt the same sadness weigh over her heart whenever she thought about her old home with the humans.

"I am guessing you do not spend much time with humans, if you do not know that," Sayuri said. Glancing up at the sky, more out of annoyance at herself for not having done so earlier than nerves that the birds would come back, she scanned the sky and saw it empty if anything besides clouds high up.

[Revlis]

Revlis listened closely to the girl's speech about humans. Although, he didn't think that he really got the answer that she was looking for. what made a human so better than a hanyou or youkai that you would want to live with one? Maybe it was all of those modern humans that had rubbed him the wrong way to make him not like them at much. He couldn't really say for sure. One thing he did know though was that humans were normally just weak creatures that couldn't fend themselves no matter how hard they tried.

He followed the fox youkai as the thoughts ran though his head, still trying to make something of the whole thing. "What makes them so great though," he asked her in a curious tone. Maybe he her clarified himself some, it would give him a better chance at the response he wanted. "There's only a few strong humans anyway. That's not good for those with youkai blood either. They're a threat to our very existence." He didn't mentioned that he could travel through time into the future. If only some of these youkai could see what the world would look like.

[Kat]

"They are alive," Sayuri said, almost cryptically. She turned her eyes towards the human village that was just now coming into sight. "Just like you or me. Life is suppose to be protected." She shook her head. "I am talking like my father again. He believed that all life should be protected from those that wished to take it, even human life. It is how I grew up, and is how I think."

She turned and looked at him. "I am going to guess you never knew your human parent if you are so against humans," She said finally. "I will not pry though, I know many Hanyou are hesitant to speak of their human parent."