InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Traveler ❯ Traveler ( Chapter 1 )

A/N: Before we get to the actual story (or you could just skip this bit)…I borrowed Q from Star Trek: The Next Generation as a vehicle for getting my character into the story and to add a little fun. This is not really a cross over, though, since I'm just using the one character and he's not going to show up too much…I think, though he is arrogant enough to try to. I'll say no more here to avoid giving much away.

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The Traveler:

*THUMP* "Oh, bloo-dy hell! Was that really necessary?"

The strange noises attracted the attention of the tall figure on the hill. He looked to the source of the noise and heard laughter and "Look out below" followed by another thump and more of the first voice, this time sounding like it were muffled and cursing. There were trees obscuring his view of the speakers. Mildly curious, he walked over to where he could see more clearly. As he approached, there was a sound like thunder and the laughter stopped. In the clearing, he saw what looked to be a human face down on the ground and a large sack on its back. This was the source of the muffled curses he'd heard, but as he glanced around, he could not locate the source of the laughter. The figure on the ground grunted and managed to roll over enough to dislodge the bag from its back, in doing so, revealing that the person was a female, and bleeding profusely from her nose. She continued to mutter as she sat up and pinched her nose. She looked up to the sky and yelled, "Bloody no good coward! When will you learn that people aren't supposed to drop from the friggen sky? When are you going to learn that the human body is breakable, you rotten toad!" She lowered her voice and began to take in her surroundings. "Speaking of when, when the hell am I? And where, for that matter?" She spied the figure at the edge of the clearing and called to him, "Hello, could you perhaps answer a few questions for me?"

The figure looked at her coolly, with his head cocked slightly to one side, "If you will return the courtesy, I may," he said in a tone that might have cut steel or frozen water, but since he was the only person she could see, she went ahead.

"Could you tell me where I am? And when, too?" she asked, mildly embarrassed at how odd the questions would sound.

"And how is it that you are here and don't know where or when you are?" he replied, contempt coloring his voice, thinking that maybe her fall had damaged her brain.

"Ah, yes, well….that is difficult to explain….and even more difficult to believe." She took a deep breath and began, "If you've been there long enough, I'm sure you heard laughter." A slight nod encouraged her to continue, "He is a….ummm….." she looked at his clothing, trying to select a word that would work to describe the creature that had so much control of her life and decided on, "…a demon, for lack of a better word at present, who makes sport of landing me in different places and times for no better reason than for his entertainment. He does at least do me the courtesy of giving me knowledge of the language of where I end up, but that is about the extent of his kindness." She knew this explanation was poor, but, even after all this time, she didn't have a better one.

"You are in Japan, during what the humans call the `Warring States' era," he replied.

"'What the humans call'? You are not human?" she asked, surprised. Though she could see him, she could not make out the details of him because he was in the shadows cast by the trees.

"Of course not!" came the affronted reply. He stepped into the light and she could see that his hair was silver and that he had a crescent moon on his forehead and two stripes on each cheek. Trying to recover both her composure and her source of information, she bowed as well as she could from where she was seated.

"I am terribly sorry; I could not see you well," having no other course of action, she fell back on what social graces she could remember. "I do apologize, again, for I have not introduced myself. My name is Bekka." She got to her feet, grunting every so often from the residual pain of her landing. When she reached her feet, she bowed formally to him. "It seems that my landing briefly dislodged the part of my brain that deals in manners. Please, I do beg your forgiveness for offending you." When she looked up, maybe it was her imagination, but he seemed a little mollified. She chanced a tiny smile at him.

"You're bleeding again," was his reply. She pinched her nose again, looking embarrassed and turning red in the cheeks. What did he care if she bled? Why had he not left already? He had not made a decision about her yet. It would not do to be hasty in this matter. "I am Sesshoumaru, demon Lord of the Western lands," he said at last. He was amused by her discomfiture when he said the word demon. Before she could say anything, he continued, "You have landed in my lands, and are therefore under my jurisdiction." Now there was a touch of fear in her manner, for she knew that she had offended him. "You will come with me and explain more about yourself." Her relief at that statement was also evident. She bowed, grabbed her bag and walked over to him, waiting for him to take the lead. He began walking; setting an easy pace for her movements showed that she had not fully recovered from her landing. "Now that you have had time to think, what would be a better word to describe the one who dropped you here?" he asked wryly.

"Well, demon isn't exactly right because his powers span space and time, but god isn't right because he is limited in his knowledge, wizard might work, but it carries the wrong connotations, and he's not mortal, as far as I can tell," there was something akin to a growl behind those words that Sesshoumaru found amusing. "He calls himself Q, which could be interpreted as being the source, which fits with his arrogance," again, her irritation surfaced, "and he is a source of constant troubles and tribulations." She sighed and fell into silent reflection.

"Why does this Q bother himself with you?"

"I'm amusing, I suppose," dryly. "I did ask him once…well, several times, but he only answered me once…and he said that I `provided relief from the monotony of continued existence on the continuum,'" she quoted with her eyes rolled back in her head. "Beyond that, I really don't know, and I don't have much to say in the matter. I've tried to make him stop. I've tried doing nothing at all. I've tried fighting him, and while I've gotten stronger, I'm nowhere near a match for him," she sighed and shrugged. "I guess I'll keep trying, though, because I am getting weary of traveling all over creation and back again. I'd like to just stop and stay somewhere long enough to live out my life and die of old age." A chuckle, "Sounds morbid, doesn't it? Most people wish for a long long life, but they really don't know what it means, do they? Out living everyone you know…having to say good-bye over and over again…." She paused, "Oh, I'm sorry, I've been rambling on." He made no reply so they walked in silence for a while.

He watched her out of the corner of his eye. She was short…he could have rested his elbow on her head quite comfortably…with red hair and grey eyes, unusual in a country where most humans had dark hair and eyes, and he could see that she was in pain, though she made no complaints. Breaking the silence, he asked, "How long have you been `traveling all over creation and back again'?"

"Hmmm…well, about 300 years or so. Every time I land somewhere, I find that I am 20 again and I age from there. Some places, I've stayed for 30 or 40 years, some places only a few months, but it's always difficult to leave. I was at the place before here for 15 years, which was 3 years longer than Q wanted me there," the last bit was delivered in a smug voice and she looked proud of herself.

"How do you fight this Q?"

"Well, it's a little hard to explain. I can feel him start pulling me away from where I am and I get stubborn and dig in my heels, so to speak. I always end up with a raging headache afterwards and after a while, the pulling gets to be almost constant and I just can't keep fighting him." She shrugged, a movement that made her wince. Her pain was reaching the unbearable level and she needed to stop soon and dose herself with something for the pain. "How much further?" she ventured to ask.

"Just over the next hill," he replied. He looked back to see her falling. He caught her before she reached the ground and carried her the rest of the way to his home. She had passed out and did not wake as he reached the bath house and took her in. He called a servant to take care of her while he supervised. Her clothing was filthy from her landing and, as that was removed, he was surprised by the amount of livid bruising on her front. Her entire torso was bright shades of red and purple from her landing. The servant reported that she suspected that some of her ribs were broken and there was no real way to rule out internal injuries and that a healer or priestess would be needed because the injuries were beyond her ability to cope with. Without a word, he left the bath house.

Just after he left, Bekka regained conciseness enough to look around her. She noticed that she was inside, her clothing was missing, and she could not see Sesshoumaru. The female that was with her was surprised to hear Bekka asking for her bag. "I beg your pardon, Lady."

"Could you please hand me my bag. I have medicine for pain in there. By the bye, where is Sesshoumaru?"

"Lord Sesshoumaru has gone to the village for a healer or priestess to see to you. Your injuries may be more than I can handle, milady," the servant replied, bringing Bekka's bag to her. From her bag, Bekka brought out small pouch that held a brown powder.

"This is willow bark. It helps relieve pain. Could I have some warm water to put it in?" As she was mixing the powder and the water, Sesshoumaru returned with the village priestess.

"What is that?" the priestess asked, pointing to the bowl of light brown liquid.

"Willow bark powder in water….it relieves pain."

"Why did you not take it earlier?" Sesshoumaru asked.

"No water." Bekka brought the bowl to her lips and swallowed the liquid, pulling a face at its bitter taste. She sighed and leaned back with her eyes closed. The priestess came forward and began to examine Bekka, and to her surprise, healing her. Bekka's eyes flew open and looked at the priestess, noticing a faint pink glowing around her. "Amazing," she breathed as the light faded from the priestess and her pain receded much faster than could be accounted for by the willow bark. The priestess smiled at her and left after bowing to Sesshoumaru. "Thank you, but is there a possibility of my clothes being returned," Bekka asked, drawing her bag up over her chest, turning pink all over her exposed body.

Sesshoumaru was amused and turned to the servant, "Clean her up and dress her appropriately for dinner." He then left the bath house, puzzled by this strange woman.

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