Caged Beasts Chapter One:

Lost Innocence

Even though everyone knows boys can't fly, when the human pup ran, anyone would swear his feet never touched the ground. Inuyasha flew across the beach, sniffing at the salty air, running so fast the sea foam was a blur. His calloused feet slowed and, panting, he stopped, sat on a rock, and looked at the moon. It was half of a circle that night, perfect for a hunt, as there was enough light to see one's way through the forest, but not enough to give your prey enough time to escape. Once Inuyasha had caught his breath, he got up and continued running, his feet tasting the frothy ends of the waves.

He was not running for pleasure on this night, and though he was hunting, there was to be no bloody haunch draped over his shoulders when he returned to the pack. Hopefully not, anyways. He was looking for Shippo, the red pelted pup who had a bushier tail than the many adult members of the pack. His parents had disappeared a few weeks ago and the rambunctious thing had run off in search. An honorable thing at any other time, but in these dangerous days, it was a step away from treason.

Inuyasha remembered with a pang how, once upon a time, he had not been allowed to run free on the beaches. The older members had thought that, looking upon the pup that look so unlike them, he would work strange magics on their tribe and offend the moon goddess, but, once he had proved himself to them, after a long ceremony involving him being torn apart by their teeth and still remaining loyal, they had begun to trust the child and value how his strange long paws could pull thorns from the bottoms of their feet and how his clever traps could kill faster and with less danger to the pack than the hunt could. They trusted him now, and looked to him for leadership, second only to his adopted brother, Sesshoumaru.

The human had been found twenty-six seasons ago, a wet and cold little toddler clinging tightly to a piece of wreckage. Many had wanted to eat him, but Izayoi, his adopted mother, had suckled him and protected him until he was old enough to watch out for himself.

But bad luck had, however, befallen the pack. Twelve seasons ago, other humans had infested the wolf's island. They chewed up half the forest with axes and fire, building strange caves with wood and planting shrubs and different grasses in long orderly rows that were savage and strange to the wild creatures of the island. He made sure to avoid their camps as he ran, sidestepping into the forest, following the secret trails made by his people and their prey generations ago. He zigzagged through the trees until he reached the claw-on-bark markers on the trees that signaled it was safe to go back to the beach.

He snarled as he looked back at the human encampment. It wouldn't surprise him if Shippo's parents were dead and skinned, for the humans were savages and it was not unknown for a wolf to go missing around the humans and never be seen again if not glimpsed lining the coats of their females. They would kill any wolf they found, whether harmless pup, a swift hunter in the prime of his youth, or old one with many seasons of wisdom between his blackened teeth.

Inuyasha continued his search. Sometimes some members of his pack, when they were angry, would accuse him of being like them, and, though he knew it was true, he would scuffle with the offending members, until, covered with scratches from his stone weapons, they would put their tails between their legs and apologize. Inuyasha was always glad when they took back their words. He liked to assure himself that, though he had their build, he was different from them in a hundred ways. No, he assured himself, he would never be like them.

With relief, he spotted Shippo, looking lost as he padded across the beach. Inuyasha, with the stealth of a hundred shadows, crept up behind him and picked him up by the pocket of fat where his head joined his head.

"What do you think you are doing?" he snarled.

Shippo laid his ears back in aggression, "I search for my mother and father. Let me go."

"I will not let you go," the human retorted in the yips and barks of his language, "You endanger the pack. What would the humans do to you if they caught you? They would either kill you, or send you back to the pack; with their traitors they call dogs at your heels, bringing our people to their downfall."

Shippo whimpered at these harsh words. Inuyasha felt himself soften. He was only a pup, after all, and still did not know the complex rules that governed the wolf pack.

"Come," he told the pup, restoring him to the floor, "I know of a she-wolf who has lost a pup. Maybe she will look after you until your parents come back." He did not tell the young one his suspicion that Shippo's parents were now keeping the humans warm as coats, instead he led the little wolf over to the trail that led into the forest and back to the den. He let Shippo walk in front, keeping a better eye on him lest he run off.

The Den was a large place, a clearing near the centre of the forest now littered with the sleeping bodies of the pack. Typically, in some other wolf pack perhaps, there would only be one litter of pups, the children of the alpha female and male, but this one, made up of every wolf on the three mile across island, had five litters of babies. This night was warm with the scent of them, fuzzy little balls of fur that squeaked and nuzzled to their mothers' sides for the milk that kept them alive. Surrounding the mothers was the rest of the pack, as if a barricade protecting the wolves' finest treasure.

Inuyasha had gotten down to all fours by this time, as it was more polite to be at eye level, and his height was threatening to some. He was comfortable at both levels, having spent most of his childhood crawling about with other pups in the caves where they played during the day.

He walked over to the first of the sleeping mothers and nudged her with the heel of his hand. She opened her yellow eyes, a snarl on her lips in the instinctual defense of her children which quickly disappeared when she saw Inuyasha for who he was.

"Inuyasha, why are you here," she asked.

"This is Shippo, the pup who ran away. He's brave, about the age of your children, his parents—"

"I remember," she said, kindness in her eyes towards the little one. Kikyo was always kind, which was why Inuyasha had trusted her with the pup. She had been kind throughout Inuyasha's life and was even kind when Inuyasha admitted he loved her after her belly had swelled with the waiting babies. "Come here, little one, and sleep."

Shippo haltingly walked over to the litter of other puppies, looking back at Inuyasha, who urged him on. Slowly, very slowly, he curled into a ball and lay beside Kikyo, falling asleep almost instantly.

Inuyasha awkwardly thanked her, and then fell back among the shadows, eventually running back to the forest, glad for the freedom that his mission had leant him. He ran back to the beach, where he sat on the dunes, breathing in the strong scent of the sea and tracing paths in the sand. Suddenly a surge of joy gripped him, and yapping he ran again.

He zoomed across the beach again and back through the forest, this time taking a path that led him to a grove of orange and yellow mangoes. Though his pack could not stomach them, he had discovered long ago that they tasted sweet and tangy, a complete change from raw meat, his primary diet.

He picked one of the heavy fruits off a branch and let his teeth sink into its sweet flesh. A stream of juice ran down his jaw and he grinned, utterly joyous.

To any civilized person, he would seem brutal, savage and strange, but one thing they would be able to tell was that Inuyasha, the human pup of uncertain origin, was utterly content in the comparative innocence that reined his life.

But, eventually, even the most sheltered child loses their innocence. Which is what was about to happen, because as Inuyasha left his mango grove, he fell inside a pit obscured by a carpet of leaves on hidden sticks. The human tribe had built it as a way to capture the wild pigs that live on the island, who serve as food to both the wolves and now the savages. Inuyasha fell in, twisted his ankle, and fell into the captivity of those whom he hated most in the world.

And once innocence is gone, no matter how hard you try, you can never get it back.