The Voice {Rin, Aiko}

[Lord Sesshomaru]

Merodi bit on the inside of her cheek. She wanted to yell at something. What could he have done? "You wouldn't listen to me..." she muttered, her head lowered and her voice barely audible. Her blessing was gone. She couldn't sing any longer. And now the threat of her family being taken away, ripped apart. Because he wouldn't listen! She didn't know why that was so surprising. No one had ever listened to her unless she was singing. The female was supposed to stay quiet anyway.

Merodi took in a breath and changed her mood. She smiled at Koga, realizing moping about it was something that wasn't needed. What's done is done. "You can go back and rest Koga, I'll occupy Tempa, you know she won't want to sleep." she had been sleeping this whole time. Merodi reached out and took the girl from her mate, bringing her onto the ground where she ran off, tackling the sleeping form of Hiroshi and declaring "Bushey!" in the same moment.

[Naraku]

"Hiroshi suddenly awoke to the girl pouncing and knocking him over. "AGH!" His arms wraps around her out of impulse of her pounce before he looks up towards her. "Well hello little one, what you doing out in my cave so la...." He trails off before looking around. "Uh....... where am I, and why am I here?" He leans up seeing Koga and Meordi, as he held Tempa into his arms. "What kind of joke is it to drag a sleeping guy out into the forest like so, and how did you manage to do so without waking me?"

[Aiko]

Koga continued to stare at his mate, now perplexed as well as tired. What on earth was Merodi talking about? Not listening to her? When did Koga not listen to her? He wanted to ask, but suddenly she was smiling at him, all prim and pretty. The wolf demon just stared some more. What was all this about? The not-knowing crashed around in his head like an aching pain. As Tempa was taken from him, the demon leader’s head drooped. He was so confused by everything that was going on! He wished he could have just fought Soothsayer and gotten it over with. All of these words and threats and roiling emotions were too much for an honest, hands-on kind of man to take.

Somebody yelped! Koga whipped around, nearly falling over as his head and surroundings spun wildly around him, and barely managed to keep his feet as he saw Hiroshi gripping his daughter. [brown]“Wha--!”[/brown] Koga had just opened his mouth to accuse the vampire when Hiroshi greeted Tempa in a surprisingly cheerful way. [brown]Argh![/brown] Koga yelled in his head, letting his skull drop heavily again. All these crazy, shifting emotions! They exhausted him like nothing else could.

When Hiroshi made his accusations, Koga’s head jerked up again. [brown]“What the hell are you talking about?”[/brown] the wolf demon snapped, his voice more angry than he had intended. He nearly slapped himself on the forehead for the outburst. Instead, Koga walked over to the place where a large boulder jutted out of the ground, dropped himself next to it, and rested his head back on the dusty stone, willing the headache he’d had ever since Soothsayer had blown his damn horn to go away. Maybe if his head stopped aching, he wouldn’t feel so dizzy and faint.

[Lord Sesshomaru]

"Bushey came to the rescue!" Tempa declared, squirming in his hold just to be difficult. She ended up sideways, her arms outstretched in random directions as she chose. She looked at her father, and in her squirmed ended up facing the sky, moving her head back and staring at her father who was upside down.

Merodi went to Koga's side, placing a hand on his arm. "Just go back and rest, you don't have to stay." She just wanted to get the day over with. Hopefully she would get the only thing that made her unique back. What helped her daughter sleep at night. What kept her dreams so soothing.

[Naraku]

Hiroshi looks towards Koga confused from his outburst, but his attention moves back towards tempa when she spoke to him. He could only laugh at himself. "I did, did I? Cause I have no idea what's going on here. Last I remember was you and your mother coming to the cave looking for me."

[Aiko]

Koga’s heavy-lidded eyes turned up to look at Merodi as she approached. [brown]“I’m resting here,”[/brown] he mumbled, his tongue feeling thick and heavy inside his mouth. He didn’t want to leave his mate just now, not with the scare he’d just gotten from a threat that felt like it still hung in the air like a thunder-laden storm. Maybe his mate didn’t understand, but he wanted to be wherever she was, and if here was where she was, here was where he stayed. Feeling that he’d settled the matter, he allowed his eyelids to droop shut over his pale blue eyes and willed his mind to shut down for a little while. If he could just snatch a few solid minutes of thoughtlessness, he was sure he’d be good to go.

Hiroshi’s voice seemed to come from far away, funneled down some invisible tunnel. That didn’t mean Koga couldn’t hear and process what the vampire was saying. Unhappily, the wolf demon forced his eyes to open up, and he stared at his deer demon mate. [brown]“When did you go looking for Hiroshi?”[/brown] he asked her, sounding much crabbier than he felt about it. That’s what he got when he spent those moments feeling so tense.

[Lord Sesshomaru]

Tempa continued to struggle, making random noises and Merodi accepted Koga's idea of resting where he was. She didn't like it. She wished he'd find a more comfortable place to rest. Everything had affected him pretty badly. She rubbed his arm, watching Tempa and Hiroshi. She only looked back toward her mate when the question was asked. "We were passing by, and he had been injured, I just checked to see if he was alright. How is that wound of yours anyway?" she said, once again looking toward Hiroshi. She tried her best to be with her mate and her daughter at the same time when it came to her gaze. Merodi sighed, finding herself becoming tired as she adjusted herself to sit beside Koga.

[Naraku]

"Oh this, I'll be fine. More importantly I find some blood later tonight to make up what I lost." he lightly smiles back towards Tempa. "And while i am out I will search for a new toy." He smirks as he lightly pets her. "That reminds me Koga...... Since I search and yet to find a better suited place, I would like to work off my stay at the cave you showed me, I figured I could help your pack, maybe either defensive or other means. I am skilled in combat and spells, along with that of enchanting weapons, I am sure I could be of some use. Oh I am not doing grunt work." He then turns his attention back to tempa who was still onto his lap. "So little one, what kind of present should i keep my eye open for?"

[Aiko]

Fair enough. Hiroshi had made it sound like Merodi and Tempa went deliberately for a visit, which, in Koga’s distrust of the vampire, would have made him suspicious. Sighing, the wolf demon closed his eyes again, letting his head rest against the hard rock. Hard rock, though, was just as good as soft hide at that moment, mentally tired as the wolf demon was. Moments later, he sensed a presence beside him, felt the warmth of another’s skin close to his. The scent told him it was Merodi. Koga’s hand stretched over to rest on his mate’s, and he laced his fingers with hers. This was better.

Of course, Koga wasn’t going to be allowed to get any rest. He heard Hiroshi saying his name, and with a none-too-quiet groan, the wolf demon sat up and opened his eyes. What did the vampire want? To defend the territory? And not do, as he called it, “grunt work”? With a snort, the leader of the wolf demon tribe laid back again. [brown]“If you’re gonna work for me, you’re gonna do the work I tell you to,”[/brown] he growled, shutting his eyes. He didn’t care for the snobby attitude the vampire had, like Hiroshi was somehow too good to do the honest work that everybody else in the tribe had to do. And if Hiroshi was going to learn that the hard way, namely by having Koga force him to do what he was told, well, that would work, too.

As Koga rested and attempted to recover from the emotional strain of the day, he leaned his head slightly towards Merodi. His face was tensed, his brows furrowed even as he tried to relax and his mouth pulled down in a frown. It probably had something to do with how his brain was still whirring from all the activity, but he willed it to shut down. Why was it that the rest of his body reacted to his commands so much better than his unruly mind?

[Lord Sesshomaru]

Merodi tried to help Koga relax. The best she could. She watched Tempa who would never think to stop moving around. She kicked and flailed her arms. She growled, and grumbled and said 'toy' over and over again. Merodi smiled, almost forgetting what had happened. It didn't take long to remember. She couldn't sing anymore...

((Short...))

[Naraku]

Hiroshi lightly chuckles to himself as he looks back down towards Tempa who was beginning to bounce onto him almost chanting the words. He smiles beging to move his knee giving her a slightly bounce, but did watch her in case she lost, balance that he be able to catch her. Hiroshi breaths in the cold night air, as his large wings spreads out wildly.

[Aiko]

[ooc: End?]