Chapter 1:

Kaoru

Despite the weather—generally cheerful, sunny, and bright—she lived in hell. Awoken from silence every morning to the thundering cry of "Kaoru," she'd scurry out of bed and into whatever candy-coated scenario her master had for her. The morning before her escape went as such:

"Kaoru," Kitsune the fox witch cried from out in the parlor, "Come here, sweetheart, it's time for your brushing."

In her nearly hundred years of capture, Kaoru had grown to sleep in with fierce regularity. Rarely was she up before the sun—only on days when Kitsune demanded a morning walk. Sleeping was the only delight Kaoru had in the world where she lived, for it was only when she slept that she could reunite with her own realm and attempt escape. During her ninety-nine years of capture, she'd tried to escape so many times she'd lost track of her different tactics and would catch and cuss herself for repeating previously failed attempts. Today, however, she had a plan.

Her plan—the first inspired idea she'd had in nearly a decade—was motivated by two pressing points. Firstly, she was under a spell. Almost a hundred years before, on the eve of her wedding, she was cursed by Kitsune, the fox witch, and doomed to sleep away her real world and to live with her in her enchanted home for all eternity. But there was a catch to Kitsune's forever: if Kaoru—and only Kaoru—could out smart her and break the spell on her own in the first hundred years after her bewitching, then she would be free and there was nothing for Kitsune to do about it but find a new lap dog. Of course, this was motivation enough; however Kaoru was strikingly aware of the fact that her hundred year window was closing. In fact, she had only a fortnight before she would be trapped forever with the wretched Kitsune in the hatch-roofed hell she lived in.

Secondly, it had been nearly five years since her beloved, the demon she was forced away from with the curse, had come to see her as she slept. When she slept, she was conscious of what happened around her in the real world. She could feel the servants employed to change and wash her busy themselves with her innate kimonos of silk. She heard the crickets and June bugs sing in the summers and the trees whip themselves in the winters. Most crucially, she observed like a passing witness the one-sided interviews with her love, with the man she was supposed to marry, with Sesshomaru, Lord of the West.

Sesshomaru was a powerful Inu Daiyokai—fiercely strong and independent. Ruler of a vast dominion—the largest in Japan—he was more than respectable. He was to be feared. That he agreed to have her for his wife and to love her was a humbling thought that settled her daily. However, it had been so long since he'd last visited her in the little shrine he'd established for her on the furthest corner of his expansive manor. She feared he'd forgotten her, or worse, that he'd been killed. This was her most desperate reason for escaping. She had to find him and see she if he still wanted her—or if the worst had happened and it was only for her to die.

"Kaoru," Kitsune screamed again from the garden, "Where are you, my pet? It's time for a brushing! Come get a treat and then we'll have breakfast!"

Kaoru rose from her bed and crept toward the light sneaking in from the crack underneath the door. She gritted her teeth and pressed the door open with her foot, letting it swing wide before her while she stayed in the shadow of her room. Bracing herself, she placed one foot out into the light passed the frame and then the other until she was standing tall in the light. As she did every morning she started taking large steps, challenging Kitsune's most demeaning curse to a footrace. But, even sooner than usual with only three steps away, the spell wrapped itself around Kaoru, twisting her bones and remolding her body until she stood just a foot off the ground, a little dog to serve her master dutifully by warming her lap and barking at butterflies. She growled as she did every morning. She was a dog demon from the second most powerful clan in all of Japan. She was supposed to be able to run the whole of the island country in an afternoon. She was supposed to be able to rip thousand year trees up with a twist of her head. Now, she spent her days barely able to get the rope toys in her mouth when she was forced to fetch. It was ridiculous and offensive. She winced at the thought of Sesshomaru seeing her like she was—a little yellow dandelion with a button nose.

At Kitsune's third call, this one victorious and pressing, Kaoru bounded into the room, trying her best not to prance. There in the corner, fat and warty, sat Kitsune, working on a needlepoint like a sweet grannie. Kaoru approached quietly, decided whether or not she would bite Kitsune on the ankle like she'd done a hundred times before. She didn't. Kitsune looked down at her and smiled her yellow-toothed grin and motioned Kaoru closer.

Standing still, Kaoru said in a smaller voice than her own, "You called, Kitsune?"

Kitsune frowned. "Oh! Don't call me that, dear one! Call me Sune! You know that!"

"You called, Sune," she tried again.

Kitsune sighed and brushed off her skirt. "Come, then. It's time to brush out your fur."

"My fur doesn't need to be brushed," Kaoru replied, "I brushed my hair before I came out this morning."

"Yes, dear," Kitsune said with stress behind her voice, "and you look lovely, but please, be a good puppy dog and let me brush you. I know it feels good! And then we can go out into the garden and have a stroll and then back here for breakfast."

She leaned down and picked Kaoru up with a heave and a grunt. "Oh, you are so heavy for such a little thing!"

Kaoru did her best to smile triumphantly. If only a dog could smile.

In Kitsune's lap she sat through a throughout brushing that she pretended to hate and stared out the window to the garden. Soon she would have her chance to escape.

After the brushing she and Kitsune scrambled out into the garden. Kaoru ran out ahead of her and turned back. "Sune," she called up.

"What is it dear," she replied.

"I saw so of those little red flowers you like so much when I was running last week. They weren't ready to bloom yet, but I think they are now."

"Where?" Kitsune's eyes sparkled.

"Over in the thicket."

Kitsune gazed over into the dark of the small wood. "I can't get back in there."

"I can," Kaoru offered.

Kitsune paused, then replied, "Yes, but how do I know you won't run off again?"

Kaoru lowered her ears so it looked like the comment hurt her. "I just feel badly about how I've been acting… I know that I'll be here with you for the rest of our lives and, well, I know it's hard for me, but I want to be a good dog."

Kitsune lightened considerably at this. "Well, I supposed I would like some of those red flowers. But be quick now, alright?"

Kaoru barked in acceptance and charged off into the grass. This was her plan and it was going off beautifully. True, there were red flowers newly bloom, but just a bit further in the thicket, there was her key out. In her last escape attempt the week earlier, she charged through the forest, hoping to find her way out, but she'd been trapped by a barrier Kitsune had put up when she'd been gone too long. Today, however, she wasn't going to run. No, she'd get what she'd come for and some red flowers and head back, for it was night when she'd make her move. She ran for a while going faster than she could, passed the red flower patch, until she reached the dead old tree just at the edge of the forest. She jumped up the fallen limbs, stopping on the edge of a pothole in the wood. Inside, she peered and saw a valley of little red fairy eggs. She laughed a merry yip and scooped three outlying eggs into her paw, nestling them in the lining of her collar. Then she turned and ran long and fast, seizing up some flowers, and dashing back to Kitsune.

Kitsune was waiting for her in a sun chair, shading her eyes and peering off in her direction when she popped up out of the grass. She looked relieved to see Kaoru back and smiled greatly. Taking the flowers from her, she made a horrid face, "Oh, Kaoru, you smell awful!"

Kaoru lowered her head and rehearsed her line. One of those black birds chased me and I had to run very fast. I got stinky."

Kitsune braced her chest with her hand. "Poor dear! Let's get you inside and into the bath!"

Prepared, Kaoru nodded and allowed herself to be cared inside where her collar and the eggs it harbored were removed and safely set aside while she was bathed. At least she'd smell nicely for Sesshomaru when she next saw him, she thought.

The day whizzed by with little incident and soon Kaoru was off to bed for the night. When in her room, she nestled the three little fairies in her hand and crawled into bed. She knew she was kept in a glass enclosure on Sesshomaru's manor and the little fairies—eager to escape once they hatched, would have to use their magic to wake her up so she could free them. As she laid her head down she opened her palm an inch and peered inside to see the little fairies wiggling in the shells, mere hours from hatching. She smiled, closed her palm and then her eyes.