The Most Important Job [Hiroshi]

[Aiko]

The sun had just set, and the sky was purpling, like a giant bruise that stretched from horizon to horizon. In the dusky light that was left behind, beneath the early stars that poked their shiny faces through the violet screen, ran a solitary wolf demon. His hair rippled out behind him in a black stream. His hard muscles flexed in his pumping arms, in his strong and swift legs. His mouth was flattened in a grim line, and his eyebrows hung low and somber over his pale, distracted eyes. He took no pleasure in this twilit run, but raced with somber purpose through woodland, over dusty plains, and over gorge. Koga’s breathing was easy and unlabored, and his stride was supple and smooth, but his eyes contained a world of hurt.

The wolf demon blasted through a forest, knocking the smallest trees out of his way with his bare hands and deftly ducking around those that were too big for him to handle. Leaping over tree roots, he grunted softly as his feet landed on soft ground and kept running. Moments later, he was through the woods, and an imposing cliff wall reared directly in front of him. Its face was pockmarked with shadow-riddled caves and cracks. Without losing a beat, Koga pivoted on one foot and veered to run perpendicular to the cliff. He ran for not even ten more seconds when his pallid eyes lighted on a cave, no more spectacular than the rest. Immediately, the wolf demon corrected his course just barely, and was at the entrance. He came to a graceful halt, barely slowing before he stopped completely. The sky had not darkened perceptibly more than when he had set out from his own home, though perhaps a star or two more had blinked into existence.

Breathing quietly, Koga peered into the darkness of the black-bellied cave. It yawned before him, its breath reeking of blood. Blood was Hiroshi’s trademark scent, it would seem. The wolf demon’s nostrils flared slightly at the salty tang, the smell of a successful hunting trip. Was Hiroshi himself in the lightless depths of the cave, resting? Or would he be out on the hunt? The wolf demon breathed deep, filtering out the vampire’s scent from the metallic odor of blood.

[Naraku]

The bandages covered in blood moves out of the cave within the wind. The vampire slowly begins moving within the cave towards his new guest. His claws lightly strikes against the stone as he caught himself. His red eyes glowed piercing through the dark cave. Hiroshi just returned from feeding and was now fully healed, but has yet been unable to replace his shirt, from the ripped and tattered.

His outlines emerge from the cave, with wings slightly expanded stretching as much as they could be within the cave. “Have you came in search of me?” At the time he seem more darker and different the normal.

[Aiko]

A fresh wave of Hiroshi’s identifying tang swept out through the cave as a couple bloodied bandages were ripped out of the shadows by a sweeping breeze. Nostrils flaring again, Koga took an involuntary step back, for he heard the scrape-CLACK of some sharp blade grating and clicking against the stone. Two point of bright light, scarlet in color, flared against the abyss of shadow that was the cave as the shape of the vampire materialized against the darkness. The wolf demon sucked in a breath, though there was no other outward sign of anxiety. He stepped back once more, presumably to give Hiroshi room, and straightened with his roguish dignity.

Swallowing back a tense lump that had formed in his throat, Koga said, [brown]“Yeah, I’m looking for you.”[/brown] One of his fingers twitched involuntarily. Something seemed different, more sinister, about Hiroshi this twilight. The wolf demon couldn’t pinpoint the source of a trickle of dread that slipped down his back. He stared directly at the vampire, assessing by matching the gleaming red stare with his own icy blue one. From the very beginning, Koga had felt he distrusted a creature that smelled so pungently of blood. He’d come here seeking help in a last-minute rush of desperation.

For that matter, Koga still had to hurry. There was no time to decide on another course of action. If something went wrong, his wolf demons would protect Merodi and Tempa. He would have to have faith in his pack, and in the fact that Hiroshi had unknowingly rushed to help before, when a foe had threatened.

[brown]“I’ve got a job for you,”[/brown] Koga told the vampire in a rush of words. Now his anxiety, which stemmed from a totally different source, twitched in his fingers again, and he balled his hands into fists. [brown] “Are you up to it?”[/brown]

[Naraku]

Hiroshi’s eyes lightly tone down as his claws twitch out of anticipation.
“What is it that you ask of me?” The rage and blood thrist off the demons surronding the area and begin effect Hiroshi. He could smell blood filling the air and it increasing. Yet but not only demons, but even humans are joining. And the miles of blood spill was effective to him.

He steps out of the cave with the wings spread out fully casting their dark shadow . He awaits her answer as he still had full control. He had no intention of loosing his train of control either, but his serioussiness was fully shown now.

[Aiko]

Koga breathed deep through his nostrils and exhaled. The stinging smell of blood clung to Hiroshi like a second skin. It was this vampire, who reeked so strongly of death, that he was going to have to trust with the most important task that the wolf demon could imagine. If there was another choice, Koga would have taken it. But there was no other choice.

[brown]“I need you to keep an eye on Merodi and Tempa. Especially Tempa.”[/brown] Koga wouldn’t put it past his boisterous daughter to take the smallest excuse to charge off… wouldn’t put it past her because she’d done it before. The echo of a smile flitted across the wolf demon’s face before disappearing. [brown]“I don’t mean just watch. I mean guard. I mean protect them from any possible danger.”[/brown] The words kept tumbling out of Koga’s mouth. [brown]“Keep them safe. Don’t leave them. Alright?”[/brown]

The wolf demon blinked. This was so important to him! He couldn’t let any harm befall either his mate or his daughter, but he wouldn’t be there to protect them himself. Hiroshi was the strongest being that Koga knew who might be able to guard them in his absence. This was the most important job that Koga could possibly have given the vampire. He was placing enormous trust in Hiroshi.

[Naraku]

He moves forward as he listens to him. “Nothing shall happen to them.” His attention turns off through the distance as he could tell where they was from there. “You need to watch yourself more then concern with them. Something is happening, something deadly forcing people to kill one another more. It is growing by the second.”

Hiroshi pulls up his claws looking at them. “Mindless demons, and a lot of the humans had fallen prey, you may find yourself in the middle of it. I can already feel it within myself.”

Hiroshi had begin walking towards the camp where they was. But within his hand he was carrying a new toy for Tempa to chew on he got within the night.

[Aiko]

Koga’s entire body snapped to alert attention at the vampire’s words. Distracted for the moment, the wolf demon’s focus drifted away from Hiroshi. Closing his eyes, he let his other senses flow out into the landscape around him, his awareness flooding the territory as if he could detect this thing that the vampire spoke of. But no matter how hard he strained the limits of his hearing, no matter how deep he sucked in air, he could not hear or smell this unknown threat that Hiroshi was going on about. The wolf demon’s eyes flipped open, his lips parted and a question on his tongue, but he saw that the vampire was walking away.

[brown]“Wait!”[/brown] Koga commanded, whipping around and taking a step after Hiroshi, his eyebrows knitted together in seriousness. [brown]“What are you talking about? What’s going on? We’ve been guarding our territory well lately, and there haven’t been any threats like this that I’ve heard of!”[/brown] But then, was the vampire even talking about threats on this territory? Koga’s mind instantly jumped to another looming, threatening figure, one he’d tried to push from his consciousness. Was this the threat that Hiroshi spoke of? Koga had been so focused on his own lands of late, he barely knew what went on beyond his borders. Was it something beyond the territory that the vampire was warning of? If so, Koga needed to know more!

[Naraku]

“Because the source is not been revealed yet, nor is it here or I would of detected it sooner, but I can smell blood all around me and sense the bloodlust of those who gather power and even from you….. Or more so I can smell it within your legs.” He turns back towards him, but did not gaze for too long before moving away.

He turns looking back towards the camp. “I can control my own urges since I was born, with the urge for blood, but those who are getting them now, are killing all those close to them, so you may find yourself having to fight the same urges yourself, let alone fighting those who have already succumb to the urge.”

“Now go do what you must, nothing shall harm either of them. Of course, if something happens I would come closer to leaving this land to fall, taking them with me and stay and fight if it was something unable to win.”
He lightly chuckles before he begins to walk again towards the camp.

[Aiko]

Hiroshi’s report was confusing. [brown]Bloodlust from my legs?[/brown] Koga wondered, frowning darkly. [brown]What idiocy is this?[/brown] He snorted to himself as the vampire turned away and started heading for the waterfall. Let Hiroshi have his inane babbling about doom and death. Koga had a mission, and it was going to be hard enough for him without wondering about elusive warnings from a creature that smelled like blood and corpses anyway. If there really was some kind of trouble out there, Koga would deal with it as it came. [brown]Stupid vampire, wasting my time…[/brown]

Not bothering to wait until Hiroshi disappeared from view, Koga spun away and took off at a sprint. His legs pumped beneath him, made strong by the jewel shards that enhanced his muscle. Rocky, dusty terrain slipped past underneath his feet, though each step landed as assuredly and precisely as the last. The wolf demon pounded along, parallel to the cliff, which blurred into a dark mass in his peripheral vision, indistinguishable from the dark mass of forest on his other side, so great was the speed he was gaining. Wind whistled past his pointed ears, but his breaths came easily, his lungs accustomed to pulling in the air even as it tried to whisk past.

Under cover of growing darkness, the wolf demon left his territory.

[ooc: End.]