What it Means to Be a Guardian
By: MGN
Chapter One
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Enjoy! <3


Jaken sighed heavily as Rin chased Neko around the heavily pine scented forest, uncaring of the dangers that could be lurking in any part of the vast wood.   Sesshomaru, as the alpha of the strange pack, was at the front, leading the followers to unknown destinations.   Neko gasped as Rin grabbed her red Miko garments causing her to accelerate foreword as she pin-wheeled her arms wildly in an attempt to somehow stop.  Her efforts were in vain as she fell face first into a prickly bush, Rin falling behind her.  

Rin’s ebony head popped up followed by Neko who looked at her with a look that said, ‘cheater.’  Rin made some sort of noise that sounded like a laugh and a choke at the same time as she pushed her index finger against Neko’s flushed cheek, “Rin caught you, so you’re it Neko!”

Neko stared at her dumbfounded, and slowly, a toothy grin spread across her face, “Okay!”  She pushed Rin out of the bush and jumped out landing on all fours.  She bared her small thin fangs at Rin and did a sad imitation of a Youkai’s growl.  She began to stalk foreword, her tail moving back and forth in an excited manner as she advanced.  “You had better run human! This Sesshomaru-(kun), is gonna rip your bowels out!”

Rin faked a scream of terror and began to run in the opposite direction.  Neko waited for her to get her head start, and then began to run after her, still on all fours.  Rin had managed to run past Ah-Un, and was now advancing up on Sesshomaru, who paid no mind to the babbling human girls.  She did a U-turn around him and disappeared on the other side of the dragon.  Neko had been hot on her heels, but when she made that unexpected U-turn at Sesshomaru, she yelped and tried to ram her foot into the rocky earth.  The ragged ground caught onto her sandal, the friction causing her to lose her balance as she skidded past Sesshomaru and was soon tumbling ungraciously in front of the Tai-Yokai.  

When she finally came to a stop, her face was planted in the ground, one of her pony tails had come lose of their bindings and was now splaying half on her arched back, and half on the ground around her.  Her rear was pointed up as she lay there in her undignified heap.  Neko sighed into the dirt, sending some up her nose and then heard Jaken’s cry of anger behind her.  

“Neko! You dare present your self in such a manner to my lord?”  He squealed almost jumping up and down, waving his two headed rod in the air.  Neko furrowed her eyebrows with the thought of him smacking her butt with it as if punishing a child.  She didn’t want to take a chance of it happening and quickly pushed her palms into the rocks and inclined to sit back on her heels.  A loud thud was heard when he smacked the nintoujou against the back of her skull.  “Next time you will think of such actions before committing them.”

“Nya, I didn’t mean to Jaken!”  Neko said rubbing her throbbing head, “It was an accident!”

“Ha, as if I’d believe that from you, you ungrateful nigen!”  He said, crossing his nimble arms over his brown clothed chest.  “Now apologize to Sesshomaru-Sama!”  

“Aw, but!”  She whined, not liking the idea of apologizing for something she didn’t mean to happen.

Rin’s voice came from atop Ah-un, “Come on Jaken-Sama, don’t be so cold.”

“No buts.”  He gave Neko a look that said ‘I mean it.’

Neko sighed and found Sesshomaru staring at them, clearly unhappy with the nonsense that was stopping him from his destination.  Giving the most innocent smile she could muster, Neko gathered all her courage to speak, but her stomach was still coiling with nervousness.  She hated how she sounded as pitiful as she did, “Sorry Sesshomaru-Kun for the interruption.  It won’t happen again.”  

“Hn,” Was his only reply from his small use of vocabulary.  Neko had barely even heard him say a sentence since she had been with him.  She wasn’t sure if that was good, or bad.  To show he was ready to move on from this ridiculous intermission, he began walking again.  Giving Jaken a look of dislike, Neko pushed him away from her and stood up shakily from her previous fall and dusted the dirt from her dull red Miko pants.  She sighed, they had been so nice before, now they were spotted and faded.  

Rin jumped down from Ah-Un as they began following Sesshomaru’s lead again.  She stood next to Neko and grabbed her hand with her smaller one.  Neko declined her head to look at Rin who was staring at her with regretful eyes.  

“I’m sorry, Mim.  You got in trouble because Rin had suggested playing Youkai Tag with you.”  She said in a whisper so that Jaken didn’t hear.

“It’s okay, it was fun while it lasted.”  Neko said cheerfully, already in a playful mood again.  They continued their tag game, but stayed clear from Sesshomaru’s presence.   They were so caught up in their game that they almost missed how Sesshomaru stopped abruptly.  He slowly turned to look at them with his glowing amber eyes.  Neko and Rin ‘Eeep-ed’ and quickly stood as strait as they could, arms rigid and parallel at their sides under his gaze.  Rin couldn’t stop her small smiled when she noticed his attention was on her.  Sesshomaru never scared her, but she loved her lord so much.  All she really wanted to do was please him in a way nobody else could.

Sesshomaru spoke. “Jaken.”  

The toad scrambled to the front of his lord where he bowed all the way to his nose in respect, “Aye, me lord?”

“Rin’s cloths are soiled.  Take her to a human village and find new ones.”  He said simply, waiting for the toad to take immediate action.  

Jaken hated the fact that he had become a babysitter to the human brat, but didn’t want Sesshomaru to punish him.  He quickly bowed, “As you wish my lord! Right away!”  With that, the toad hobbled over to a very excited Rin and ushered her to the left of the path.  

“I’m getting new clothes!”  Rin said to Neko.  “Rin is so happy, I’m going to find a kimono that Sesshomaru-Sama will love!”  Neko smiled and watched as Jaken grumbled under his breath and Rin skipped after him.  Sighing, Neko looked down at her own clothes.  Why hadn’t Sesshomaru asked that she go too?  Her clothes were almost as bad as Rin’s!  When she glanced in Sesshomaru’s direction, she noticed that he was yards away.  

“Ah! Wait for me Sesshomaru-kun!” Neko said scurrying after him.


Soon, hours had passed as the three made their way to unknown territory.  Neko was curled up in Ah-un’s Saddle, her face hidden behind her arms and her tail curling around her body.  If one listened carefully, they could hear her soft snoring and mindless murmurs from her slumber.  Sesshomaru turned his head and watched as the sun became a deep crimson as it slowly sank into the earth.  Hearing a distant roar that no human ear could detect, Sesshomaru could tell that a storm was approaching, even though no clouds were visible in the sky.  

“Sesshomaru-Kun?” A groggy voice spoke so gently that it felt like cool silk running through his ears.  He turned back to look at Neko who was resting on her forearms, rubbing the crust from her eyes.  “Why did you stop? Is something wrong?”

“There is a storm that approaches.”  He said before turning and walking again.  Ah-Un’s loud footsteps were hear as he followed after Sesshomaru.  Neko was about to sit up fully, but Sesshomaru spoke again, “It is safe, go back to sleep.”  

Giving him a regarded look through her half blurry eyes that had not fully accepted the light, Neko slowly lay down on her side and curled back into her safe little ball. After a while, she sighed a long breath of air as sleep threatened her once again, “Okay.”

The sun was almost completely set and the purple sky began to radiate with sparkling stars; the moon hung over the sky, as if chasing away the sun.  Neko groaned in her sleep as the wind picked up, and the clouds began to hover over them.  She snuggled closer to her warm inviting tail as an attempt to keep the cold breeze away.

Deciding that it was a good time for shelter, Sesshomaru sniffed the salty air and used his Youkai to search the area of any unwanted demons.  When none were detected, Sesshomaru lead Ah-un to a near by creek to get a couple of drinks before seeking shelter.  The dragon gratefully gulped up as much water as the two heads could swallow.  Sesshomaru walked to the side of the scaled beast and looked at the sleeping female  on the black saddle.  

“Neko.”  He said, trying to get her attention.  She did not move, instead, she only curled further into her ball and groaned.  A clawed hand reached for her, his index finger finding the base of her neck and just as he gave a small amount of pressure, he spoke, “Wake up.”

Neko’s eyes flew open as she screamed jumping up and sliding off the dragon’s saddle.  Sesshomaru dodged her fall as she landed on the ground in front of him, her face in the dirt and rear once again in the air.  Sesshomaru watched her spit out dirt and rub her eyes to get the sand out .  She sat back and looked at him with teary eyes that attempted to wash away the specks, “Ow.” She moaned, but noticed Ah-un drinking out of the creek and made her way to the flowing water.  She cupped her hands together and dipped  them into the cold water.  She splashed it against her face, and cleaned her eyes and mouth out.   

“We will camp here tonight.  Please keep in mind that there is a storm on the way.”  He said keeping his eyes trained to the dark sky.  She noticed how a fleeting look of surprise flashed in his face, but it was quickly gone.   She rose her eyebrows in wonder.  Just what was it that caused him to be surprised?  

“You will stay here with Ah-un.”  He said hauntingly causing a shiver to run down Neko’s spine.  He began to walk off, his youki surrounding his body, dangerously flaring around causing Neko’s angelic aura to shoot out as a defense mechanism, but she held them back.

“Sesshomaru-Kun?  What’s the matter?”  She asked a little frightened, but he disappeared, without an answer.  Neko watched the place he had vanished and then sat down on her rear, folding her legs until her chin was resting between her tightly closed knees.  Her ears fell solemnly at his absence and she barely noticed Ah-Un coming to lay on it’s side next to her.  She absentmindedly reached over and scratched her small claws delicately behind one of the ears.   It growled with pleasure and rested one head on her lap, the other resting on her shoulder, blowing a cool stream of air on her neck.  Sighing heavily, Neko tilted her head to lean against the dragon’s.   

“Ah-Un, where did Sesshomaru go?”  Neko asked.

The dragon made a small grunt that told her it didn’t know either and her eye lids fell slightly.  “Oh.”  Suddenly there was a crash of lightening in the sky causing Ah-Un to raise their heads.  Neko quickly stood up and grabbed Ah-Un’s reins and lead him under a rather large pine tree and settled down.  The top of the tree was like a green canopy, a perfect tree to keep most of the rain from falling on them.  Grabbing a bag that was hanging off of Ah-un’s side, Neko pulled out a large blanket and threw it over the ground.  She pulled Ah-un on it.  Ah-un rested on his side against the tree like a cat who was about to feed kittens, it reached over and nudged Neko’s shoulder.  Getting the hint, Neko settled down and leaned against Ah-un’s stomach.  Despite him being covered in hard scales, his stomach was actually quite comfortable.  

The dragon growled softly in her ear before resting it’s heads on the blankets and closing it’s eyes.  Neko watched the sky, hoping Sesshomaru would return soon.  As she lay there, her eyes grew heavy and she fought to stay awake, but her attempts were in vain.  Sleep won the battle as Neko curled onto her side and allowed the darkness to swallow her mind.