A note from the author!

Heya, Zana here. Surprised about all this? Me too. I really wasn't planning to write a sequel. In fact, here's a little story before the story:

There are two main reasons as to why I am continuing from where To Tame An Animal abrutly left on.

1) The FF bot still e-mails me notifications sometimes that people have favorited the story, which just shocks the hell outta me. As well as remind that TTAA even exists. (I have absolutley no attention span, okay?) I reccently went back and re-read my story because of this and, while I still have failed to find why it's favorite material, I realized something: the ending of the story completely contridicted what I said in the beginning of the story, about how I hate not finishing things. That's not too surprising, since I openly admit that I'm stinking hypocrite, but it did make me feel bad. I hate it when authors end a good story that way, so open and cliffyhanger-y, yet here I did the same. That, plus the encouragement/disappointment in the reviews, lead me to consider writing a sequel and finishing things up properly. Also...

2) I got a bad case of writer's block with current original fic. ; At least I'm being honest, right?

So I figured, "Hell, it's summer vacation. I got the time. Why not?" And here we are. Of course, I can't promise you anything. This story may not be updated as frequently as its predecessor, and it will probably make a lot less sense...due to me not having the entire storyline plotted out just yet. Also, it's more fiction-science than science-fiction this time around. xD I'm too lazy to be super scientifically-correct about things. (I mean, it is summer vacation after all. Don't expect me to think too much now!) Oh, and there's going to be a lot more similarites between this and the actual series than before, but it's going to be so twisted up I'm not even sure if that's the right way to put it...

Well, so much for a confident start! I hope someonewill be happy about this, or at least the idea of me trying this. xD I shall try my best!

Just winging it,

Zana

Prolouge

"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust...eh, it ain't good enough."

The scientist shook her head, but it looked more like it was bobbling on her twig of neck and would possibly fall off if she moved it too much. She looked very much like a hag, and that was putting it nicely. Her eyes were too big for her face–that's probably what threw her head off balance–and under the lab coat, it was all skin and bones, with the skin seemingly sliding its way off the skeleton it was draped over. Making a tsk-ing noise, the old woman put down her equipment on the steel table and turned around.

"Is this all you could get?" she crackled, eyeing the man in the doorway who had been overseeing her work. The cold look she received in reply sent a shiver down her badly hunched spine. Remembering who she was dealing with, she hastily added, "Sir."

"Yes," the man finally said, lazily brushing aside a lock of black hair from his face. His expression was hard to read, but there was an obvious hint of annoyance in his voice that made the scientist even more uneasy. "We've already been through this, doctor. That is all there was to retrieve of the remains."

"Unfortunate, very unfortunate," the hag clucked, regaining her composure only after she broke away from her employer's gaze. "I can use it, yes, but the results will be poor. You know how the process works, sir. If it is to be efficient, I'm going to require another sample."

"Another sample cannot be found," growled the man irritably. "That's it. She had no children. Her sister died long before, and she didn't carry the gene anyway. There are no other known relatives to be found. Where do you expect me to procure another sample, you stupid old woman?"

"I never said it had to be an exact match, fool!" she fired back at him before she could stop herself. Luckily, it appeared he was going to let her outburst pass this time. If she had been anyone else...

"Just...similar, sir," she continued, her tone subversive again. "Close enough. One that does carry the gene should work well enough. I know, sir," she quickly added, "That the gene is quite rare, but surely someone of your position could–"

"If it were that easy, I wouldn't need this DNA sample at all," he said flatly, leaving the doorway to inspect the room and the work being done a little more closely. The man rummaged through her things without so much a warning. This was almost becoming more trouble than it was worth. He could use the DNA of anyone who had the gene, but so many few did. Not only that, but the bio-file would most likely be rejected if the sample wasn't at least slightly the same as the original. This alone wouldn't render the plan useless, but it would certainly hinder it. All that information, wasted...

"What's this?" the man suddenly asked, staring at one of the files he had been carelessly shuffling through. "Is this her?"

"Yes, of course!" The scientist looked slightly amused. "You mean to tell me that after all the research you've done, not once did you look at a picture of the thing?"

"It seemed like such a frivolous thing at the time," he said absently, still staring at the image on the file.

"At the time?" echoed the scientist questionably, but the man didn't seem to hear to her. He was too intent on the picture. At first he looked shocked, and almost angry, but it was brief and soon replaced with a glint in his eye and slow smile creeping up his face. The hag looked on with confusion; she couldn't even begin to guess what was going on in his mind, what had changed his attitude so suddenly...only that it had something to do with what he saw.

"Sir?" she hazarded, wringing her wrinkly hands with anxiety. One never knew what was going to happen when her boss smiled, but it was often something unpleasant. "Is something wrong, sir?"

Naraku returned the files to the table and straightened back up, letting out a low chuckle.

"No. Not at all. In fact, it's interesting. Very interesting, and maybe even perfect."

.t.b.c. (cue dramatic music!)