Swamp Tale by MomoDesu

Enter The Creature

A/N: This was written for the prompt concentration.

----------

Sesshoumaru discovered that he loved the quiet of the swamp that surrounded his modest home. He always left the windows open, and allowed himself to leave the front door wide open in favor of an old fashioned wooden screen door. He didn't even bother to have the place wired to the grid. There was no phone nor electricity. It suited him and Princess just fine. He read at night by the light of a kerosine lamp and cooked his meals on an iron wood burning stove. For the first time in five hundred years, he was content.

To simplify his life even more, Sesshoumaru lived off of the land like had had done during his days in Japan. He didn't eat anything he couldn't get from the land. Anytime he had a bountiful harvest, something he had frequently, he would either sell or trade with the few neighbors he had so he could afford a few luxuries, like nice clothes and gas for his car.

In short, Sesshoumaru loved his life. It was everything he had desired as he aged into a middle aged demon. Life was entirely uncomplicated and, dare he say, perfect.

His reading choice for that evening was Dante's Inferno, a classic that he found on the bargain book shelf of a local retailer. Next to his chair, Princess sat staring out of the screen door with a high degree of concentration. There were no new noises in the area, so gods only knew what the curr was so intent on.

Crickets, the occasional animal skirting through the underbrush, and the gentle sounds of water. It was all normal and played a beautiful symphony in his mind.

Princess' infatuation with the commotion that only she heard grew more intense, and she raised her head. She puffed air out of her cheeks, one of her favorite “warnings”.

Sesshoumaru reached down and patted her head. “Quiet. Nothing is out there.”

Princess puffed a few more times and laid her head back down.

The danger must have passed.

No sooner had Sesshoumaru returned to his book than Princess skittered out the door. Unable to keep traction on the wooden floor, she slammed into the doorframe before she found her footing and took off in a dash.

Sesshoumaru dropped his book and called for the dog.

“What has gotten into you?” he called after her. “Come back!”

He grabbed the flashlight and the leash off of the rack next to the door and took off after the spooked canine. “Princess!”

As soon as he left the front porch he knew something was not right. The hair on the back of his neck stood up. “Princess! Get back here, now!”

Princess barked, giving Sesshoumaru a general idea of her direction. He sprinted to where she was hollering.

“Princess!”

Closer, closer, he could feel her aura, upset.

He just kept running through the dark woods. “Princ-”

He was cut off as he ran into something. Something large. With an offensive odor.

Old instincts came to the surface, he felt his hands heat with the temperature of acid, and Sesshoumaru swiped his claws out at whatever it was he ran into.

His aim was true, and the creature bellowed in a most inhuman manner.

Sesshoumaru struck again and the creature went down.

Princess was suddenly at his side. He fished around on the ground for the neglected flashlight and pointed it at the creature he had been fighting.

“What have I done?”