A/N: ok, this is a rewrite! The last time I tried to write this story, I felt that it was all wrong, so here we go again… This WILL be a different story than the one I started last time. If you absolutely loved the last one and are devastated that I deleted it and replaced it, then email me and I'll see what I can do. (I doubt there's anyone out there though…)
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, or anything that belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, because they're not mine, they're hers. So there. Yeah. Not mine. OK. Moving on!
A Feudal Fairy Tale, What really happened?
Part 1: Inutaisho
Chapter 1: Kit
CRASH! A thunderclap followed by a flash of lightening echoed down the stone hall and lit it up as if it were day on this dark and howling night. The lightening made the polished stone shine with every leap it made across to cloud covered sky. Another thunderclap… lightening flashed, revealing the Lord of the West to the night as he strode down the hall.
CRASH! FLASH! "Aaaarrrrgggggggghhh!!!!!!" A scream ripped through night, shattering the rhythm of the storm. The Lord of the West smirked in the dark, but by the time the lightening flashed again, his face was back to being the perfection of a carved marble statue, emotionless and cold.
Finally he came to the end of the hall where a double door stood in his way. With not but a single shove, the doors burst open and hit their respective walls with a bang that was drowned out by the thunder. The lightening lit up the room just as a small, warm bundle was placed in the Lord's arms by a midwife.
Pushing back the folds of the blankets, Lord Taimaru revealed to the world the heir to the Western throne, and one day, the greatest Lord the West has ever seen.
"Inutaisho…" CRASH!!
(Cue title sequence) ^-^
Her heart pounded and racked against the inside of her ribs. Her breath was short and labored and her legs burned with the strain of running. Thunder crashed followed by a flash of lightening. Suddenly, the wind picked up and swept her red hair into her face as she looked over her shoulder. The tips of her hair were black and blended into the storm-ridden night.
Thunder crashed again just as she tripped on a huge root that jutted out of the forest floor. A wall of mud splashed all around her, splattering everything. Panting, she scrambled to get to her feet, mud dripping from the front of her ruined black yukata. She continued to run for her life, this time making sure to pay attention to where she was going; she couldn't afford to be found. She continued to run, even as mud rolled down her legs and in between her skin and the bandages wrapped around her calves and started to chafe.
Tears flowed from her emerald eyes, and streamed down her face, mixing with the rain. Another crash was sounded, but this time it didn't come from the sky. She turned around just in time to see a great tree fall. Panic flashed through her eyes as she continued to run. Another crash from the forest behind her caused her to look over her shoulder once more. The thunder crashed, lightening flashed, and rain pelted her as she ran.
She could hear them now, shouting, exclaiming the excitement at their finding her trail. They were gaining on her and her legs were screaming to be released from their torture. There was no other hope for her, but to hide. At the rate she was going, they would be on her in mere minutes. She choked back a desperate sob as she frantically searched for a place to hide.
Panting, slipping in the mud, and nearly void of all energy, she made it up a hill. Once she cleared the rise she could see the Palace of the West's giant pearly gates. Risking a glance behind her, she saw that her pursuers were not far from the base of the rise, but with all the water in the air, they were having a hard time seeing her tracks and smelling her sent. The crash of the thunder made her jump and return to her flight. She ran to the gates and pounded on them.
"Open up! Please!! Let me in!" she continued, screaming to be heard over the storm, until a guard finally heard her pleas. Leaning over the rail of the watch towers on either side of the gates he said, "Who goes there?"
"My name is Kit, please, I'm being pursued!"
"If you are being pursued why should we let you in? The West needs no trouble." The guard smirked.
Panic filled Kit's eyes and her voice as she cried out, "In the name of the Great Ones, and by the Order of the Yokumu, give me sanctuary!!"
The guard's eyes widened in shock, The Order of the Yokumu!? What else could he do but let her in? He swiftly turned to the center of the tower on which he stood and pulled the lever sitting in the middle of the floor, opening the gates. He then jumped down to meet this Kit who hailed from the sacred Order of the Yokumu who was being pursued.
If the guard remembered correctly, the sacred Order was a clan of powerful spell-caster demons, mainly foxes, who specialized in the power and magic of dreams. Thus the name, yokumu literately means 'powerful dream.' But they were thought to have all been wiped out, no one has heard or seen them in nearly 600 years! So why is this demon here now? And who in their right mind would chase a member of the sacred Order?
Kit stood in the rain, colder now that she had stopped running, shivering as the guard opened the gates. With one last look over her shoulder, she could see her pursuers would not get here in time to see her go in the palace, and the rain would wash away all trace of her long before they came this way to look. She smirked at the thought of her self disappearing from right under their noses. Hmph. That's what happens when you chase a fox of the Order. With that she walked through the gates, and as far as her hunters were concerned, she vanished with out a trace.
The Lord f the West gave the crying child back to the midwife and asked the condition of his mate.
"She be fine milord, all she needs is rest and she be fine by the morn." The midwife, who was a rabbit demon, replied. The Lord nodded his head in approval and turned to leave. Once he opened the door however, he wished he had decided to stay longer.
"Milord!? Milooooord???? Milord, where ARE you!!?!?!?!" cried an unsightly toad demon named Jiro. A look of disgust flashed across the Lord's face, but was gone before the storm lit up the hall once again. "Lord Taimaru, where are you!!!!???!?!?!?" The ugly little demon had been about to die by the hands of a lizard demon when Lord Taimaru happened to be walking by on patrol of his territory. When the lizard had disrespected him by refusing to move aside, Lord Taimaru had killed him. He had lived to regret it, for Jiro never let him alone.
"Here Jiro." The Lord said in a hope to shut the servant up.
"Oh!" The little demon jumped two feet in the air and spun around to see his Lord waiting for an explanation. "Milord, a fox demon awaits you in your study; she claims to be a member of the Sacred Order of Yokumu!" The demon lord's eyes widen slightly, and by the time Jiro blinked, his lord had vanished to his study. -sigh- milord has such speed; I can never keep up with him. Jiro thought with some affection as he turned and started to make his way slowly to his Lord's study.
The Lord of the West kept his study neat and to the point. There were neither pictures nor tapestries hanging on the walls, nor was there really any color in the room at all. When he made it to his study, he watched the fox from the outside in a hope to try and determine who she was. He watched as she surveyed the room and looked over the papers on his desk. There was nothing there but a bunch of territorial disputes with lesser demons, invitations to balls, and contracts to servants that were getting too old to work.
But the one personal item in the entire room, the fox managed to find. It was a small brown sphere with green vines seeming to grow out of it. The metal contraption was the only thing the Lord held dear to him, and as soon as the fox picked it up he smirked and burst into the room, hoping to scare the poor girl out of her wits. It worked. She nearly dropped the thing, but it was worth it to hear her gasp and fumble with the object before putting it back on the desk and stepping away from said desk with her hands clutched behind he back.
Lord Taimaru walked around the desk until he was standing above his chair. With every step he took, the fox took one step in the opposite direction until they were on opposite sides of the desk, standing in front of opposite chairs. With one last smirk the Lord sat down, and watched as the fox slowly followed suit.
"My servants tell me that you have claimed to be a member of the Sacred Order." He began, "Tell me," he looked the fox in the eyes, and surprisingly, she didn't avert her gaze. Her eyes remained fixed on his as she waiting for him to finished his sentence. "If you truly are of the Order, why were you being pursued and claim sanctuary at my estate?"
The fox smiled sweetly and began to tell her tale. "My lord, what do you know of the sacred Order of Yokumu?" The lord's eyes twinkled with amusement as he answered.
"I know that the Order has been thought to have vanished and the last of them wiped out. It's been 600 years since a member has ever been seen. Besides that I know that they were once the most powerful force in the four lands and any Lord would have given his right arm and left leg to have one member under their control. They were above the law of the four lords, and belonged to no one land."
"All of this is true my Lord, I must admit, I'm impressed. My people went underground centuries ago. We are in hiding, but we still prosper. There is no way for us to be found, our security has been fine tuned for the past 600 years." The fox's eyes and voice darkened as she spun the next bit of her tale. "Even so, there were still problems on the inside of the Order, not to mention the ones seeking to destroy us. One demon took power over the Order from the inside. He has gathered followers in great numbers, and any one who does not pledge their loyalty to him disappears."
"I take it you did not pledge yourself to this demon?" The lord asked.
"No, my lord, I did not. Thus I was ambushed in my own home, and forced to flee. I disappeared before they could make me." She sounded proud of her self for a slight moment, and then she got down to business. "My lord, I wish to enter your services. I will do what ever work you please, but I must pledge loyalty to a house not of the Order so that I might be spared that vile creature's handiwork."
"I see," Lord Taimaru thought for a moment. She knows that if it were proven that the Order still existed, any demon would give any thing to have a member in their counsel. He smirked, Including myself. I can smell any lie she throws at me, and so far she has been truthful. So… "…You will enter my staff and pledge loyalty to my house. You would do any work I give you with out complaint in exchange for nothing but sanctuary. You, who is a member of the sacred Order of the Yokumu, I find this all a little too hard to believe."
The fox smirked, "As do I my lord." Lord Taimaru smiled slightly, for the first time in a long time, he actually smiled. Even if it was in the smallest of measures, he couldn't deny that he had smiled.
"Very well. My son, the heir to the Western throne has been born this very night. You will be charged with looking after him, and teaching him the things he should know before he has come to the age of needing a proper tutor. You will be raising my son to my specifications, and you will come to me when ever summoned. You will be given authority in this household, only my word and that of my mate will be greater, so fits a member of the Order. But be warned, if I am in need of any of your talents, you will be required to perform them. Is that clear?"
"Crystal, my lord." With that Lord Taimaru handed her the contract he had just drawn up in a matter of seconds. (It actually took him longer to explain the contract than write it.) Both he and Kit signed the paper before Kit had to verbally pledge her loyalty.
"I, Kit of the sacred Order of the Yokumu, pledge my loyalty to the royal house of the Western lands, and to my Lord Taimaru. Forever, until my lord releases me, I am bound to this house and will continue to serve until my dieing breath. This pact I seal in my blood." At the conclusion of her pledge Kit scratched a cross above her heart so that it drew blood. Then the cross glowed a blue color to rival the lightening outside before vanishing and a blue crescent moon formed where the cross had been, as proof of her service to the house of the West. (The Crescent moon is the seal of the Western palace.)
CRASH!
Not a bad start, shall we review? Yes, you will review won't you? Ok, Hypnosis didn't work, let's try… begging: PLEEEEEAAAASSSSSSEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!! PUL-EEEZZEEEE!!!!!!!! I NEED THE REIEWS, I need them or I will EXPLODE! That happens to me sometimes…
^-^
