Wolf-Woman
Chapter 1
Life and Threats
Kagome's P.O.V.
We chose each other, the wolves and I, though our first meeting is so far back in my life that it is lost in the shades of memory, and I have only the story the chieftain told, who took me from the wolves and let me live for a time with his people. I treasured his words about my strange beginnings, for wolves have walked through all my dreams, and always their moon-drowned howls have haunted me.
Sesshomaru is our chieftain's name. I call him my chieftain too, though he and all his clan have hair as gold as harvest-wheat, while I alone have hair of black. I come from a race enemy to his, and it is only by Sesshomaru's word that I am permitted to live with his clan. Even his word is tested at times, and my life hangs in a fearful balance between his people's suspicion and his care for me.
I cannot say he loves me, for he loves no one but his FIRST wife, Rin. He had a daughter once, whom he adored. But his daughter drowned in a river during a storm, and his wife hurt her back when she swam against raging torrents to try to save her child. Since that time Rin has lain in her bed, unable to move her legs. The wife of any other man would have been put to death as kindness, and to spare the clan useless work. But Sesshomaru forbade her death, and looked after her himself, and mourned for his daughter.
Then late one day he came home with me, a child who has lived but three summers, and he swore that the gods had givin me to him.
I remember well the story he told, for he told it many times. I remember a night in my second winter in his house. It was a special night for story-telling, for we had as honoured guest, the bard whose name is Totosai. He sometimes came to visit us, on his journeys through our lands. Totosai tells stories and sings songs at all the villages. He is a respected poet and entertainer, and the bringer of news from far places.
On that wintry night of his visit, all the men and women of the clan were gathered on the earthen floor about Sesshomaru's fire, laughing and drinking. I remember the stifling heat, and the rich smell of roasted pork, and the odour of leather boots and fur. The men wore brightly coloured tunics, and their flaxen hair was long and shining on their dark fur cloaks. The scabbards of their swords and their jewelled brooches and buckles glinted in the firelight.
I was standing on a stool by the window-hole, listening to the wolves howling in the snow. One of the women became angry with me, because she had told me to do something and I did not hear. She pulled me off the stool, and said I was a useless slave with no right to share the chieftain's house. I cried, because I was old enough then to understand.
Sesshomaru reproached her, saying I was not a slave, and gave me to Rin to be soothed. When he went back to the fire Camelin asked him how a dark-haired child came to be living in his house.
"It is a story of loss and pain" said Sesshomaru, "but I will tell it."
The clan fell silent when Sesshomaru began; and I still can fell the warmth of Rin's furs, and the comfort of her hand resting on my hair.
Sesshomaru's P.O.V.
"My heart is sore, in those days," said Sesshomaru. "I thought that I angered the gods by loving my daughter more than I loved them; and I believed they had taken her from me, in punishment. And so I resented the gods, wanted to shake my fist at them. In my rageI took my warriors into battle again and again, defying the gods to strike me down, to end my sorrow and my despair. But always we won, and I was never hurt. And before the last battle, that last of the bitter winter time, I swore that if I was victorious I would make my peace with the gods and with myself, and grieve no more.
"Again the fight was ours. A quick victory it was, for the enemy men were just back from a hunt, and the youths were cleaning the skin of a bear they had killed. The wemon were roasting the bear's meat, and the children were playing. They were dark-heads and spoke strange words such as madmen speak, and they weak and undeserving of their land. We fell upon them like thunder, and slew them mightily.
"And on the way back we saw wolves on our forest path, and we lifted our bows and would have shot them for sport, for the blood lust was in us still; but we saw that with them was a human child. A girl-child. Her arm was around a she-wolf's neck, and she was calm and young, with a fearless look and sea-green eyes(i know kags real eye color is chocolate brown but bear with me please) like my daughter's eyes. Like an omen she was, a sign from the gods that they still favoured me.
"I told my men to kill the wolves, but to save her. The wolves were fierce in their defense of her, and would have torn us into pieces had we not been armed. When they all were dead we took the child from among them and brought her to our place. And she has become Kagome, adopted daughter to Rin. When she is grown she will look after her new mother, and be a comfort to her. And Kagome is not a slave, but a child of the wolves, and a member of my house."
Kagome's P.O.V.
There was a long silence when Sesshomaru finished his story. I remember watching the embers in the fire, and recalling, for a brief and joyful moment, the blazing of wolves' eyes in a dark den.
Then the bard left his place by Sesshomaru and came and sat by me. He took my hand in both of his, and I noticed how smooth his palms were, for he never worked in a field or held a weapon.
"I have a story for you, Kagome of the wolves," he said. His voice was deep and hushed, as if he told the tale for me alone, though all the clan was listening.
"It is a story of your dark-haired race. A story of their shamans, who are noble and wise. I know it is true, for I have talked with a dark-haired seer, at her fireside. She told me there are shamans who leave chosen babies outside the dens of wolves, so the children grow up understanding the ways and language of animals. The babies are left for only a few days, then gathered back to their clan. They grow up to be shamans themselves, far-sighted, and in harmony with the earth. It may be, Kagome, that you were one of the favoured ones."
"Not too favoured," said an elderly woman, "since her clan forgot to gather her back."
They all laughed, except Sesshomaru and the bard.
"There are many reasons why the clan may have been prevented," Totosai said. "They might have died of sickness, or by warriors. Maybe the wolves moved to another territory, and took the child with them. But no matter how Kagome came to be with them, this we know: that the wolves looked after her well, and guarded and protected her."
"Until they met Sesshomaru's sword," said someone else.
There was laughter again, and the men began talking about dark-heads and the cunning evil beasts. I did not understand everything they said, but I felt their hatred and contempt. Forgotten kinships had been wakened (reawakened) by Sesshomaru's story, and I was stricken by grief and longing for what was gone.
Totosai did not return to the hearth, or join the men in their scornful talk. He stayed by Rin and me. For that, and for what he told me, I have always loved him.
I never lost my yearning for the wolves. Though I had no clear memory of them, impressions came to me sometimes in that elusive place between reality and dreams. I saw fleeting images of a forest at night, a stretch of trampled earth, the deep hole of a wolf's den. There was warm fur and a great calm strength. I recalled the sound of breathing, and homely growls. The smell of milk enveloped me. There were images of rolling in snow with a huge black wolf, and the mingled feeling of comfort and cold. I remembered the scent of trees and summer earth, and the power of walking with the wolves.
What do ya think hope you like it this is very long no wonder why people write short chapters it took me 3 nights to write this, hope you like it please R&R Wolf-Teen
