I live! I live!
I know, it's been a while. I disappeared because of two reasons: 1) I got a new laptop, so I've been adjusting to Vista, and 2) I've been busy graduating, finding financial aid, and enrolling in college. Yeah. I've been busy. However, I do have a fab new chapter for you all. You mostly get a bit of history here. All the action is next chapter, which I'll start tinkering with soon.
Disclaimer: I love Sesshou, but I don't own him. Just Sam and the rest of the ranch.
Flicking his ears backwards and forwards as he woke up, Sesshoumaru took in the noises around him, trying to find what woke him. Beside him, he heard the gentle breaths of the sleeping teenage girl. They had moved slightly in their sleep, to where Sam was lying right beside him, her arm wrapped his body and her hands tangling in his fur, his head resting on her other arm. This close to her, he couldn't escape the natural, sweet yet spicy scent that clung to her. Outside, he only caught the sound of the wind blasting through the grass and the occasional bird chirp; nothing was stirring yet.
The floor boards behind him creaked again.
Whipping his head up, Sesshoumaru tensed as he caught sight of familiar snakeskin patterned boots. He looked up to meet Clem's cold, yet still furious gaze. The old man made a motion with his hand, an obvious message to go over there. Sesshoumaru stood up, crouching carefully, and let out a low growl of warning. He didn't obey humans, and the girl was his to protect, at least till he gave that stupid river goddess a piece of his mind. The old man scowled, then hissed furiously, "Come here, mutt."
Sesshoumaru growled even louder. Call me a "mutt" again, and I will come over there, though you will not like the consequences—I will come over and rip out your throat, and I will do so with great pleasure.
Their little argument had an unexpected consequence. A soft mumble came from the young girl's throat, and both males froze. Her eyes fluttered open, and she sat up slowly, her hair falling in a curly tumble in her face. She pushed it back while rubbing one of her eyes as she woke. Muddled jade eyes met her grandfather's wide awake ones and she froze. "Gramp," she started.
"Take him out, Sam," he said firmly, "Then you and I are having one long talk."
"You mean again?" the young girl said sarcastically, leaning her arms on her knees as she glared at him.
The old man glared right back. "None of that, Sam. Now!"
Shrugging, she stood up and approached her grandfather. The two glowered at each other, with Sesshoumaru watching from the sidelines. Alpha male, meet the alpha female, he couldn't help but think in amusement as he sat down to wait. He had a feeling this wasn't their first confrontation, and most likely not their last. He also had a feeling that she won most of them.
However, not this one.
She suddenly deflated and said sullenly, "Are you going to get out of my way or not?" The old man stood aside, and Sam patted her upper leg. "Come on, Maru," she said softly. "Time to go out."
Standing up, he nudged her hand to show that she was still an alpha in his eyes, just one that was outgunned by the alpha male. She smiled and rubbed his ears again; this time, he tolerated it. A sad smile appeared on Sam's face, as if she knew what he was saying silently, and began to walk, him right behind her. Sesshoumaru watched her as she opened the screen door of the mudroom for him, tilting his head to the side. "The other dogs will be behind or in front of the stable, depending on which way the wind is blowing," she told him soothingly. Snorting at her attempt to comfort him, he trotted out. It didn't take long for him to hear raised voices inside.
True to Sam's word, the pack of dogs was behind the stable, the tall structure blocking the prairie winds and the chill they brought with them. It was a tumbled up pile of brown speckled and black speckled fur, all tails, ears, and paws. It wasn't too hard though to make out the "twins," Claire, and Commo in the middle, with Shep slightly separated from them, Tip bridging him with the group by laying right on top of Shep's back, her front paws under her head, even as her tail came dangerously close to tickling either Lef's or Gef's nose. Looking to the sky, he saw that the sun's light was barely cresting the strange horizon. Sesshoumaru sighed, but sat down once more to patiently wait.
It wasn't a long wait. "It's too early for this, Maru," Shep said, his voice a sleepy growl.
"Sam and her grandfather are fighting," Sesshoumaru told him, expecting a strong reaction. He wasn't disappointed. The alpha dog raised his head, saw the serious look on the white dog's face, and sighed before standing up, sending the little female on his back tumbling. She woke with a yelp, trying to catch herself, but only succeeding in tumbling onto her back.
As both stoic males looked on in their own kind of amusement, Tip tilted her head to the side and whined loudly, "Shep! It's too early! The sun isn't even awake yet!" The other dogs woke to her whining with grumbling and growls of annoyance. Sesshoumaru knew that her whining would result in many punishments for waking everyone against their will, unless Shep stepped in.
"Sam and Clem are awake, though. Who do we obey first?" the older dog reprimanded his little sister gently. "As for the rest of you, don't be too cross with her, I would have woken you soon anyway."
"What are they going at each other about this time anyway?" Claire grumbled, standing up and stretching and sending the twins tumbling off of her, making them yelp like Tip had. The entire pack enjoyed a few yips of laughter, before they looked to Shep for answers. However, their alpha was forced to look to Sesshoumaru. He just stared back at them silently.
Shaking his head, but not willing to pick a fight with the larger male, Shep said, "Doesn't really matter. Sam will want to leave for town early today. That means morning feed will be early for all of us. Commo, Claire, go wake the horses, let them know. You know how grouchy Old Sara and Citrine get when they sleep through a chance to get treats when they first wake up. The rest of us will head over to the bowls; we'll meet up again there." The two brown speckled dogs nodded and squirmed between the two hay bales behind them. Curious, Sesshoumaru tucked his head in after them and saw that the pack had pushed the two bales apart yet still balancing the top bale, hiding a well dug hole into the barn.
"We go in there when it rains," Tip told him brightly. "We make sure none of the humans know we have it, so that we can keep the constant access. Now come on, Sam will be out soon to feed everybody, including us!" Sesshoumaru followed the small female as she practically tripped over her own feet as she ran to the front porch. There, Sesshoumaru finally noticed a set of metal bowls set up in one of the corners, three to be exact. A rubber bowl slightly larger than them held water. However, it wasn't those that captured his attention, but the dog lying beside them.
The old female was easily as large as Shep, the largest of the pack. Her fur was longer than any of the others, with more bulk to it as well. Her head was broader shaped, like Shep's, Gef's, and Lef's, but her ears were rounder and floppier than any of the others. Overall, her color was black, though her chest and muzzle were white with a border of copper toned fur. She was seemingly asleep, her head on her paws. Her tail was a bobbed off bit of fluff, different from all of the others.
Tip eagerly ran up the other female, nudging her head with her snout. "Mama! Mama, we have a visitor!"
Sesshoumaru stiffened and his ears flicked back as this new body betrayed his surprise. This was the pack's shared mother? But the similarities weren't… His mind tried to find the traits this old female had passed to Tip, but came up short. Were the different sires really that overriding in the case of these dogs? It boggled his mind. He reluctantly stepped forward, taking in her scent, frowning at the strange, cloying scent that clung to her. When she raised her head and opened her eyes, though, he saw why; she was completely blind, and obviously ill.
"Well, you must be the dog Clem has been yelling about all morning," the old female said. Her warm and mellow nature was the exact opposite of her daughters, snarky, bitter Claire and curious, over excited Tip, and her son, controlling but cold Shep; he couldn't judge on the twins and Commo yet. "You've caused a lot of trouble for our friend, Sam. I am Dera, the alpha female here…" She trailed off, then nudged her youngest pup. "Or at least, I am until this one is old enough."
"What?" Tip yelped, whirling her head to stare at her mother, as the other dogs, which had been standing or playing around froze.
Shep stepped forward and said questioningly, "Dera…? Are you sure?" Sesshoumaru stayed silent in this conversation. It was obviously a revelation concerning this pack that had been a long time coming, and he didn't need to voice his opinion. However, the old female ignored her other pups to give Tip a reassuring nuzzle.
"She is my last. I will have no more pups, not with my illness taking a turn for the worst. I heard the doctor discussing me with Clem yesterday, and none of them think I will make it past the winter," Dera said calmly. "Of all my pups, Sam only convinced Clem to keep two females, and Claire has already been treated so that she will have no more pups. As much as the cattle pay the bills and put food in front of everybody, we all know that selling my pups from the two males I have allowed to mate with me is what Sam is counting on to get away from here."
Sesshoumaru growled at this thought of selling one's young for a human. These dogs were sinking to low levels with him. Shep, however, interpreted his growls and said warningly, "Do not think less of us, Maru. Dera has never born less than five pups per litter, and only the twins are from the same litter." The former youkai realized that meant there were at least twenty-one other dogs this pack was related to by blood. "I was the first kept, simply because no one else wanted me. I was runty when I was a pup," Shep ignored Sesshoumaru's snort of disbelief, "and Sam convinced her grandfather that I would be a help to Dera, who at the time was the only dog, serving as a guard dog rather than a cattle dog.
"It wasn't long before they noticed that I would watch the cattle and react just like the horses. Sam pointed out that my sire, the blue heeler named Mazi who lives on a ranch in the next state over, was a well-known cattle dog. At the time, our little pack leader was ten or so at the time, and had only been living with her grandfather for a year; she wasn't settling here well. Her grandfather was just teaching her to ride Old Sara, who was heavy with Citrine Heart, while he tried to break in a yearling Amberfire. The old man knew he wasn't giving the girl the attention she needed. Hell, Cricket was doing a better job of being her guardian. I was a bit of a guilt gift. He said if she could teach me to race after the cattle like a real herd dog, she was welcome to pick a pup each year and train them. A year later, I won a prize at the local ranch rodeo for being the best cattle dog in my age division."
"Now, each year more and more ranchers compete for the pups I have with Mazi and our neighbor's prized ranch dog, a red heeler named Cly," Dera interrupted. Her eyes, though blind, showed more fondness for Tip, Claire, and Commo's father than the other. "Just as pups, they are worth three hundred and fifty dollars. Some chose to pay extra and have them run with our pack, training with Sam, for the first few months or for a year, and that can go as high as six hundred even."
Tip suddenly sniffed. Sesshoumaru looked to her, and she said sadly, "My brother, Rusty, was one of those. His owner had him stay here with us for six months to get the hang of things. Sam made sure to keep telling us that, every day, so we wouldn't get too attached to each other. But it still was sad when the man in the SUV came and loaded him up. That was only two month ago."
Sesshoumaru's mind tried to wrap around those figures, even as each of the dogs spoke up about their own respective litters, being around a stranger making the memories seem fresh, Claire and Commo coming to join them and adding their own two cents. Shep's litter hadn't been worth much, just about fifty dollars each, and there were only four who sold. However, the others were worth much more. The next born, Commo, had seven in his litter, counting him. Two had stayed to train with Sam, one for six months and one for a full year. The twins had the largest litter next, with nine puppies, and three of them stayed for a full year. Next came Claire's litter, with six, one staying on for six months while two others stayed for a year. Tip's litter, the most recent and the last, had only five pups, with Rusty being the only one to stay behind, and that was for six months. The total was a staggering ten thousand, one hundred twenty-five of this currency, all kept in a savings account for future use.
The girl he had been asked to guard by the river goddess had big dreams. There was a fancy school, what the dogs called "college," that taught young people about how to care for animals medically, something that in this country you had to have a license to practice. It was far away, so far away that she couldn't even physically visit the place. And it cost fifty thousand of this country's currency to attend. Thankfully, the girl worked hard at her current school work, and tested well. Her "job" on the ranch, which in reality paid nothing, was a good service activity and showed her leadership and animal handling abilities. These in turn led to her receiving help from this elite college; they were willing to pay her tuition, and help with her room and board. That left the rest of her living expenses, and even getting to the college, on her own shoulders.
"She actually applied early," Tip admitted to Sesshoumaru. "She technically shouldn't know until this year. Only now can she ask for more help; she's trying to avoid taking out a loan to pay for her learning. Her grandfather is already being nasty about her going so far away."
Before Sesshoumaru could comment, the screen door banged open, revealing Sam. She had stuffed her hair back under her standard hat, and hidden her body in a baggy, green flannel shirt and blue jeans. The black boots on her feet were the same as yesterday, though rather than the heavy thermal jacket she wore when Sesshoumaru first saw her, she had on an odd jacket. The sleeves were black leather, the sleeves, bottom, and collar hemmed with a thick cotton ban with a white strip between two red; the bulk of the jacket was black wool, lined with black satin, with multiple black, white, and red patches sewn on the back, all of them listing different championships and runner-ups, and one, white bordered in red and shaped like the English character W with three bars on the left side, on the front. White embroidery on the pockets were the English characters for Amberfire and Citrine Heart's names; when Sam turned her back to them, Sesshoumaru noticed her name was on the back, just below the collar. In her hands, which the former Japanese lord noted with distaste were gloveless despite the nippy morning air, was another bowl, filled with some kind of mush.
"Hey, everyone," she greeted the dogs cheerfully. She set the bowl down in front of Dera, saying soothingly, "Here you go, old lady. Doc Warner said that you needed a more nutrient packed meal, and it needed to be soft rather than hard. I mixed some of this morning's gravy in, along with your medicine. It should help it be more edible, though I make no promises." Dera licked the girl's hand in response, even as the teenager scratched the girl behind the Australian Shepherd behind the ears comfortingly. The other dogs crowded around as she reached inside the screen door and dragged out a container made out of a common material Sesshoumaru had noticed all over the place. Sam popped off the lid, then pulled out a metal can, the characters on it reading "Folgers," that she had filled with some strange, round bits.
Tails began to wag as she picked up the first metal bowl. "Don't mob me," she warned them. "There's three of these, don't forget." Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes at her talking to a bunch of animals, as if they would really not head straight for the food. He was amazed, after she dumped the first can and dug out more to fill the can and added it before setting it down, that all the dogs stayed still. A few, namely Tip and the twins, fidgeted, but the rest waited till she had completed the other bowls. Once all had the same amounts in them and Sam stepped back, all six dogs leaped forward, Sesshoumaru hesitantly following. He took one sniff of the round, brown dry food and wrinkled his nose, backing away with a snort of disgust. No way was he eating this.
Instead, he padded over to the container, raising up on his hind legs and balancing his front legs on the edge. Inside were several aluminum cans, what he suspected Dera's food came from, as well as a large bag, labeled "Old Roy," that he could smell held what the other dogs were eating. He growled in disgust; there was nothing here fit for him to eat.
"Picky eater?" he heard the girl say in an amused tone. Sesshoumaru turned to glower at her, but she seemed unphased. "I should have guessed, you being some special breed. Well, if you won't eat that, you'll have to wait till we go see Doc. Oh, crap!" The girl's sudden exclamation startled all the dogs and she darted in the house. "Gramp!" they heard her call, "Where's Doc Warner's number? And Alicia's? I'm going to see if she'll babysit Maru while I'm at school!"
Grumbling under his breath, Sesshoumaru stretched out on the porch, away from the other dogs. This Sesshoumaru does not need a babysitter… he thought in disgust.