You can call it love

Chapter One

Once upon a time when the world was new, before the great kings and emperors, the world was full of darkness and evil. Demons and monsters roamed the earth and caused chaos in the human realm. Not all demons were evil though, many of them fought and killed for the good of mankind. One of these was the legendary half-demon Inuyasha. He and several others destroyed a great demon and brought temporary peace to the land of Japan.

Traveling with Inuyasha was a young kitsune named Shippo. Although at the time he was a child, he proved himself to be a formidable fighter, and he trained under the ruthless demon exterminator Sango. He grew up to become a handsome warrior who traveled the countryside helping those in need. One thing troubled Shippo though, even though he had searched everywhere he could not find the right woman to be his mate.

At least that's how my Grandma told the story. I never thought that one day I would meet this legendary character. I always thought Grandma was a nut.

I was "taking care" of a demon fly that had somehow managed to flutter up to my cloud. I really didn't want to snuff him out, but he was annoying my cloud friend.

I lazily sat up and peered over the edge of my fluffy perch at the insect that was zooming in and out of the cloud like a possessed missile.

"HHHHEEEEELLLPPP MEEE MIILAADY," the cloud squealed turning a deep shade of grey, "IT TICKLES"

"Oh stop your fussing Cume, it's just a stupid fly" I said equally annoyed.

I extended my forefinger like a foreteller of doom at the fly. White-hot lightning shot from my skin and vaporized the fly. Cume sighed deeply and shook himself. Tiny driblets of water loosed themselves from him and fell to the earth to make any passerby look up at the clear sky in confusion.

"Thank you milady! That is so much better!" Cume said.

I shrugged my bare shoulders and settled back down on my fluffy seat. I was bored. There was nothing to do. I was too lazy to make a thunderstorm to terrorize the local village, and I was too nice to give them a snowstorm before winter arrived.

Cume floated farther down to the ground as the sun climbed higher in the sky.

There was no other cloud in the "big blue" so there was nothing to give me relief from the burning rays. The closest wind was several miles away, and blowing in the wrong direction.

I was about to ask Cume to take me to a nearby lake when I felt him shudder beneath me. That was his signal that he had seen something.

"What is it Cume?"

"There is a demon down there milady, and he's looking up at us"

I turned on my stomach, this could be something interesting.

"Oh really, where?" I asked.

Cume directed my vision to a hillside a few miles away. I gazed down and saw a kitsune standing with his arms held up to his eyes, to block out the glaring light of the sun. He must have seen me looking down at him, because he smiled. It was quite a few miles up, so I could barely see him. How could he see me?

The kitsune waved at me beckoning me to come down.

"What are your wishes milady?" Cume asked

"He doesn't look dangerous, perhaps he's just lost. Cume go down and I will have a chat with him. I have nothing else to do"

Cume drifted down to where the fox demon was standing. I saw that he was young, quite young for demon standards. He wore a sky blue kimono with a pattern of leaves on it. His ginger hair was pulled back into a tail by a blue ribbon that matched his shirt. Speaking of tails, a long bushy one swished every now and then behind him. As I alighted next to him he brought his hand down from his face and gave me another disarming smile.

"How far is it to the next village?" he asked. He sounded young and he had a cute face. I wondered how old he was.

"Well you probably won't reach it until late afternoon on foot" I told him. His face fell slightly.

"That far?" he whimpered with a gloomy tone, "I've been traveling all day."

"Well, I could give you a ride on my cloud." I said in a friendly voice "By the way, my name is Aki." I extended a hand which he shook heartily.

"My name's Shippo" he replied "thank you for the offer." I stared at him in dumb silence.

"Did you just say that your name's Shippo, as in the legendary demon buster Shippo." He grinned.

"Well maybe I'm not that famous but yes I am Shippo from the legends."

"This is great! I never believed that my Grandmother's stories were actually true, and now here is someone from her tales living, breathing, and standing right in front of me, talking to me! Cume do you see this?"

"I see a kitsune milady" Cume replied not impressed with the cute fox.

"You're blind" I said

I turned back to Shippo who was watching me in utter amusement.

"How far do you want to go?"

"Just to the next village" he replied

"Ok then, you better get a little bigger Cume we're going to have another passenger" I said

"I don't trust him milady, he's a demon," Cume said in a whisper.

"Nonsense," I whispered back. "He looks to me like he can be trusted. And the Shippo from Grandma's stories helped people, not rob them."

Cume rolled his eyes which were the equivalent of shrugging shoulders. He collected from the air more moisture and grew to about three times his original size. I stepped on and held my hand out to the kitsune. As we were lifted into the sky, I noticed the queer look on his face and the disbelieving was that he felt the cloud beneath him.

"What's wrong Shippo" I asked

"Nothing, it's just that I've never ridden a cloud before. I've ridden on a giant cat, but never a cloud. It's the strangest sensation ever…like I'm floating on air." He replied.

"You'll get used to it" I said with a grin "Cume please take us to the nearest village."

I couldn't help but giggle at the look on the fox's face when Cume zoomed back into the sky. He looked like a child riding a horse for the first time.

"Hey Shippo, can I ask you something?" I asked

"Of course"

"Well, not to be rude or anything but I was just wondering, how old are you?"

"I'm seventeen," he replied "may I ask the same of you?"

"Of course," I said with a smile "I am sixteen"

I lay down on my back and stared up at the thick mass of clouds that had begun to form above us. They had a threatening grey look to them. The wind was picking up and the air carried a slight chill. Rainfall had been scarce for the past month so the ground was dry and in need of a good shower, but I wanted Shippo to at least get to the village before that happened. I stood up and raised my hands to the heavens, after a series of hand motions I managed to relieve the sky of the looming dark clouds. The sun was shining merrily and a slight breeze rustled the trees below us. I lie back down and saw Shippo staring at me in amazement.

"Are you a sorceress?" he asked curiously. I looked at him and gave him my best 'mysterious wouldn't you like to know' smile.

"I suppose you could call me that, a witch, or sorceress, whatever. I heard a local villager once call me a weather witch. I like that title." I said

"How could you change the weather like that? One second it looked as if it would rain. Then you got up, waved your hands around, and now the sky is as clear as it could be. How did you do it?"

"I guess I was born with it. I have been able to manipulate weather ever since I can remember. My mother used to tell me that when I was a baby the weather used to change with my mood."

"What do you mean" he asked

"Like, it would rain when I cried, and the sun would shine when I was happy stuff like that. I love the rain. Sometimes I summon a storm just for the sake of sitting while the wind and water rush over me in a driving torment." I said

"So you could make a snowstorm in the middle of summer if you wanted to?"

"Not necessarily, only if I am in danger, like during a battle or something. It's not wise to mess around with the changing of the seasons, it throws off the cycle."

We were silent for a while as Cume sped along. I glanced down and watched as we passed field after field. The world looked so pretty from up in the heavens.

"Why do you travel alone" he questioned.

"I have no one else to travel with" I replied simply.

"Well, where are your parents?"

I felt a slight twinge in my chest at the mention of my parents. It had been nine years since that terrible day when… I shook the thought out of my head.

"My parents are dead, they died when I was seven," I replied, trying to hide the sadness in my voice.

"Oh…I'm sorry, if you don't want to talk about it you don't have to. I know how much it hurts, I too lost my parents when I was young." He smiled ever so slightly to show that he knew what I was talking about.

Shippo's voice was a comfort to me. At least he understood how much I missed them. I looked up at him and knew that I had found a friend in this charming fox. I've never had a friend that has stuck with me, and most of my days were spent in loneliness despite the constant presence of Cume. So I was rather sad when Cume announced that we had reached the village.

I sat up as Cume descended to the ground. When we got close enough to the ground Shippo hopped off and helped me down.

"Thank you so much for the ride Lady Aki, is there anything I can do for you in return?" Shippo asked me.

"Well, I guess there is. You could call me Aki and forget the 'Lady.'" Shippo laughed.

"I suppose I could do a simple thing for your kindness. If you ever need my assistance, just send a messenger. Well, until we meet again then."

"Well, until we meet again then" he said as he reached for my hand and kissed it. I blushed and climbed quickly back onto Cume.

"Goodbye Shippo" I shouted as Cume rose higher.

Shippo waved and began to walk into the village. As Cume began to float off I looked back at Shippo. He had reached the village square where people started to gather around him.

I lay down with a sigh and looked up at the sky, which was once again dark with clouds. I raised my hand to the sky, and as if I was pulling the raindrops out of the clouds, it began to rain.

"Well, that was something interesting." I said to myself as the rain fell about me.