Smoke.
That was all he could smell at the moment as he awoke late in the night. In a daze and drowsy, he rubbed his eyes of sleep and rolled out of bed. Being the innocent and naive child that he was, he had no idea the severity of what was going on outside the walls of his bedroom as he searched his small room for his slippers. The screams of the village women went unnoticed by him as he yawned and walked over to his door. Before he could so much as grasp the handle, however, it came bursting open with so much force, he thought it would fly off the hinges.
There, in the doorway, stood his mother. Tears streaked her face as she hurriedly ran to him, picking him up in her arms and hugging him close. "Oh, thank goodness, my son! You're still alive!" she cried into his brilliant silver hair. He looked upon her with hazy amber eyes, a question evident in the cognac pools.
"Mama? What's going on? Why are you crying?" He reached a small hand up and wiped the tears from his mother's eyes, then patted her cheek. "Mama, tell me what's wrong."
His mother shook her head, placing a hand over her mouth to muffle her sob. "I cannot, my dear boy. All I must tell you is that you must leave here immediately. Myouga and Kaede will be here any moment to take you to safety..." she trailed off, looking expectantly at the doorway, which burned a fierce orange from whatever was going on outside.
The boy suddenly turned urgent, a trait he picked up from his father, and pulled on his mother's dress. "But, Mama—" He was quite suddenly cut off as the windows on the far wall of his bedroom shattered, and his mother's scream drowned out the loud beating of his own heart as two tall men stood before them, each with a sword in one hand and a scythe in the other.
"Hand over the boy!" the one on the right said. His voice was gruff and unpleasant, much like the way he looked. The man standing beside him nodded, spitting on the floor.
He didn't like this one bit, but before he could blatantly state his distaste toward the two men, he felt his mother shift from behind him. In a flash, she threw herself in front of him, on her hands and knees and shaking. "Please, do not take him! Take me in his place!"
Both men laughed, and the one on the left grabbed his mother's hair and yanked it so she was face-to-face with him. "Oh, we plan to 'take you', all right. In more ways than one." They both laughed, and the boy shivered at the sound. "But first, we gotta get rid of the runt."
The smell of smoke was more prominent now, and he scrunched his nose at the terrible stench. "Get offa my mama!" he shouted, running toward the men with his fists clenched. Managing to head-butt one of them in the stomach, he whirled at the other whom was holding his mother captive. Before he could so much as make contact, though, his mother pushed him back, whipping out a small dagger she had stored in her garter and stabbing the man through the hand with it. He yowled in pain, letting go of her and allowing the two enough time to escape with their lives.
They flew down the corridors of the large house, the boy in his mother's arms, and as they passed by windows, he saw fire. A lot of fire.
"M-Mama!" he cried as they bounded out of the house and into the night. Flames danced across his mother's pale skin as she ran faster still, and tears slipped down her face. "Mama, what's going on?"
"Hush, my love," she whispered in his ear, pulling him tighter to her. He felt her slow down, and looked up to see Mr. Myouga and Mrs. Kaede standing at the edge of all the mayhem, sacs in each of their hands and frowns on their faces. "Thank goodness I found you! Take him!" his mother shouted, all but throwing the boy in Mrs. Kaede's arms.
He flailed, wanting to be back with his mother. "No, Mama!" he screamed, but she silenced him with a kiss to his forehead.
"We will meet again soon enough, my beloved. I promise." She kissed him once more, this time on the lips, and turned and ran as fast as she could before he could yank her back.
A strangled sob escaped his mouth as his mother ran back into the fire and chaos. He clutched onto Mrs. Kaede's dress as she carried him away from the castle grounds.
"My Lord, please do not weep. Ye are safe now," she kept whispering, petting his head as if he were a dog. He shook his head dramatically, wiping his nose on her sleeve.
"B-but...Mama..."
"...will be fine," Mr. Myouga cut in, but he did not sound convincing.
All he could hear as he drifted off into a much-needed sleep was the sound of a woman's scream from a long distance away.
000
InuYasha jolted, eyes snapping open and body springing from the bed as he awoke. Wide, amber eyes scanned his room, as if he had never seen it before, and a shaky hand rose to comb through sweaty, silver bangs. Sighing with relief when realizing it was just a dream, he slumped back down in his bed, shaking his head and dabbing the perspiration that had accumulated around his forehead.
Those dreams had been occurring more and more frequently lately, and they were always the same; flashbacks of the night he had last seen his mother were a common occurrence to him now.
"Lord InuYasha?" a low, gruff voice asked from behind his closed door. Groaning, he rolled out of his bed and scrambled to find a shirt.
"You may enter, Lady Kaede," he stated softly, opening his curtains to shed some light into the dark room. The old woman opened the door without hesitation, not noticing nor caring that the man standing before her was half naked.
"Honestly, InuYasha, ye must try to wake up earlier, or ye will be sleeping your life away," she scolded, not even bothering with using his formal title as she folded a pair of pants that had lain strewn across his floor from the day before.
Bowing his head, he bit his tongue to refrain from using a snide comeback. This woman had been good to him, so he should be grateful for every reprimanding statement she threw his way. "I apologize, Lady Kaede." Sighing, he sat back down on his bed, giving up in his attempts to find a shirt to throw on.
Kaede's brow rose, surprised that the young Lord had caved so easily. "Is something the matter, my Lord?" InuYasha did not answer her, opting instead for resting his elbows on his knees and burying his head in his hands. She sighed, knowing very well the problem now. "May haps it be that ye had another nightmare about your mother?" A simple nod told her all she needed to know. "Ah...and this one was worse than the others, was it not?" Another nod. Kaede sighed, walking over and patting the young man on the back. "Ye must learn to forget, my Lord, for if not, the memories will soon be the death of ye." She grasped under his chin, raising his face so he could look her in the eyes. "Your mother would not want ye to dwell on the past. Nor would your father." Amber clashed with brown for a long moment before he averted his gaze.
"Thank you, Lady Kaede. I appreciate the pep talk." Smiling to show her he was all right, he stood and set to getting himself ready for the day. "My men spoke word of a town not too far from here that is known for harboring criminals and thieves," he said as he washed his face and body with the fresh water Kaede had placed in his bathroom. "We might be able to apprehend the men who stool a good fortune from us just last week." He was referring to the thievery that had taken place in his village not but a few days earlier, where the men had stolen a few cows, some chickens, and plenty of gold from the few farmhouses the resided on the outskirts of town. The people had pleaded with him to get their belongings back, and he was one to never disappoint his loyal followers.
Mrs. Kaede shook her head, helping him into his tunic. "Aye, my Lord, if ye are not careful, ye will drive yourself to an early grave."
Rolling his eyes at her, he combed through his waist-length, silver hair and laughed. "If that is your way of telling me to be careful, then I assure you, I will." She shook her head once more, waving his remark off like a pesky mosquito.
"As always, my Lord, I expect ye to be safe. Take it easy on the pillage today; who knows, ye might even find a young lady to bring home with ye on the way back." InuYasha groaned at her comment.
"Why must you always bring that up? It is always that same thing: 'Be careful! Oh! And bring back a wife, as well!' Honestly, it's so irritating," he grumbled, walking past her on his way out the door.
Kaede, however, was not going to let him leave until he heard her rebuttal. "It is no laughing matter, Lord InuYasha. Ye are flirting with the age of twenty-five, which puts ye at the proper marrying age! Your mother, may she rest in peace, would want ye to settle down and marry rather than risking your life on dangerous missions all of the time!" Another groan was heard from the hallway as he ran away from her. She laughed, shaking her head. "He hasn't changed a bit since way back then..." Sadness overcame her, and she sat on his bed, folding, then refolding his pants. "Oh, Lady Izayoi...if only ye were here to watch him grow into the perfect young man we always knew he would be..." Tears streaked down her face in remembrance of her master's mother. "Ye would be so proud..." More tears formed, but she brushed them away with the back of her hand. She would not be held down by the passing of her Lady or the passing of her Lord. She mustn't give InuYasha any more of a reason to feel upset.
Sighing, she set to cleaning his disheveled room. "What a fine young gentleman he is..." she mused aloud. He was her rock, the one who kept her—and everyone else—sane in these trying times. Although he didn't know it yet, he was the one person that anyone, anyone could count on. There was not a doubt in her mind about that.