Hi, everyone! I am so happy, and I suppose you all are too, because I updated again in a week! YAY! Anyway, before I start, I just wanted to say thank you to all the reviews and advice. It means a lot.
Chapter 11
"Soledad?" Soledad snapped back into reality, looking around for the voice that called her. She turned to her left to see the elderly woman she had met the first day she had arrived. Soledad smiled slightly when she saw the woman approach her. She was finally feeling somewhat comfortable in the village. Though most people were somewhat nervous around her, no one had yet to disrespect her because she was a demon or for her color, and she was secretly grateful for it.
"Oh, hello Aneko." Soledad said brightly. Soledad got up to greet her. To Soledad, Aneko was like a new mother, or a mentor she could at least trust. "I'm sorry, Aneko, I know you asked me to bring some water, but I guess I dozed off a bit." she said, feeling blood rush up to her cheeks. She lightly chuckled as she looked at the wooden bucket she brought with her. She was next to the river, yet there wasn't a drop in the bucket.
"Oh, it's fine, child. I was just worried about you. You were gone for over a half an hour." Aneko told Soledad. Aneko furrowed her eyes in worry, placing her hand gently on Soledad's shoulder. "What is troubling you, if I may know?"
Soledad felt a heaviness in her chest. Even though she had been in the village for over a month, running around to keep herself busy, all she could think about was Sesshomaru. She thought of all kinds of things relating to him. What was he doing at that moment, was he thinking about her? What did Sol think about her? Was Kagura happy she was gone, and was Kagura's and Sesshomaru's relationship healing somewhat since she left? She knew their relationship wasn't very healthy before she entered the picture, yet she hoped they were even the tiniest bit happy together now.
"Is it about the man you left?" Aneko whispered softly. Soledad's tears blurred her eyes, yet she manged to keep them from spilling down her cheeks.
"Oh, no, no Aneko. I'm fine, I've gotten over him." she said quickly, hoping it sounded convincing. Aneko shook her head and smiled softly.
"Dear, if there is something I have noticed over the past month that you have been here, it's that you wear your feelings on you face." Aneko told her. "I came here for another reason as well." Aneko said to Soledad. "There's someone here to see you."
---0---0---0---
Kawari was thrown across the dark, dank room. As she collided with the stone wall, she heard a rib crack, and hissed in pain, not daring to get up from where she lay. She sobbed softly as she heard Naraku's steps approach her. He knelt down to meet her eyes, and when Kawari turned her head away, Naraku dug his nails into her jaw and roughly turned her head to meet his eyes. She whimpered softly as she saw his eyes blaze in fury.
Ever since she had been 'found out', Kawari had been chained to a wall in the dark dungeon for two weeks, with no water or food. She thought he was simply going to let her die here, and at this moment she was wishing he was that merciful. She coughed as she found it hard to breath with the broken rib. Naraku's jaw clenched in frustration, his crimson eyes meeting her green ones.
"Now, you've decided to return to your true form, hm?" he hissed harshly. When she didn't dare to answer him, he struck her face, Kawari whimpering in pain. "How dare you try to deceive me?! I should have known from the beginning. Soledad would have never been willing to give herself to me, no matter how much she loathed Sesshomaru." he growled. He grabbed her rib cage, clawing at the area Kawari's broken rib was. Kawari howled in pain.
"Please, I'm sorry, I don't know anything."
"Don't give me that bull!" he yelled, standing up, hovering over her. "Where is she?" he barked.
"I...don't..I don't know!" she cried out. He kicked her on the other side of her body, causing Kawari to curl up into a ball as a new wave of pain surged through her.
"Where is she?!" he yelled again. She didn't bother to answer, and she kicked her roughly again.
"Please, stop, I don't know." she coughed, tasting blood in her mouth. "I am not associated with Lord Sesshomaru or anyone else. I....came here to kill you myself." she told him. She tensed up, closing her eyes in order to brace herself for the next blow.
"Stupid wench. Thinking you could kill me." he told her, crouching down. He gently moved her hair and put his mouth close to her ear. "Then you will find the real Soledad for me." he whispered. Kawari began coughing violently again, thanking Kami that she heard his footsteps move away from her before losing consciousness.
---0---0---0---
"S-Shinto?!" Soledad said in surprise as she saw the demon general on the outskirts of the village. When Aneko had said someone was there for her, she thought foolishly that Sesshomaru was there, yet she was very surprised to see Shinto there at the same time. She smiled as she ran over to greet him, barely noticing the other villagers cowering in fear. Shinto was wearing his normal attire with dark gray pieces of armor. There were about twenty demon soldiers behind him, all standing up with a sense of pride, all of them dressed in their gold and red uniforms. When she reached Shinto, she first turned to the demons behind him and bowed slightly to greet them.
"Shinto, what are you doing here?" she asked him, giving him a hug. She was happy to see him, since she had last seen him two months ago, yet she frowned slightly when he didn't return the embrace. "What kind of greeting was that? I haven't seen in you so long! Are you coming back from your military trip?" she asked him.
"I have been searching for you for weeks, Soledad. What are you doing here?" Shinto questioned her. She sighed.
"I decided to leave the castle a bit early. I know, I am really sorry, I felt terrible for never saying goodbye to you--" she said quickly.
"As soon as I had gotten home, Sesshomaru demanded that my best soldiers and I find you and return you to the castle. He said you ran away." Shinto explained. Soledad's mouth fell open and she squinted slightly in anger.
"So you're here, with your group," she said, pointing towards the soldiers behind him, "because he 'claimed' I ran away from the castle?!" she placed her hand into her hair and sighed angrily. "Of course he would do this." she said to herself softly.
"Well, I was ordered to bring you back, thus, we must head back to the castle." Shinto said simply, grabbing her arm. She roughly tore her arm away.
"I'm not going back. I left for a reason. Tell him that you couldn't find me." she told him.
"Soledad, you must realize that excuse won't work. I have been looking for you for two weeks, and I couldn't find you. He will smell your scent on me and he will have my head if I return empty handed." he said, his arm reaching for her again. She dodged it quickly.
"I told you, I left for a reason. Tell him you found me, but I'm not going back. I don't want to see him again." Soledad said defiantly, knowing the latter part of the sentence wasn't true.
"You must come with me Soledad. There's no choice."
"I'm making mine now." she said, turning away from Shinto to head back into the village.
"Well then, Soledad, explain to me why I was told to look for you, because I don't think Sesshomaru would be this crazy about bringing an old sparring buddy back into the castle." Shinto told her, stopping Soledad in her tracks.
---0---0---0---
"Why didn't you knock?" Sesshomaru growled in annoyance as he heard the door to his study open. He didn't bother looking up to see who it was, he was too engrossed in the treaty in front of him. Sol entered the room and quickly shut the door behind her as she looked at her father.
"Father, I must speak to you." Sol said simply, mimicking the almost unemotional tone of her father. She sat down as he didn't respond to her. After a few moments, he sat up at looked at his daughter.
"What?" Sol rolled her eyes, already becoming annoyed with him.
"I want to know the truth of what had happened between you and Soledad a few weeks ago." she said simply. He looked into his daughter's eyes, not breaking eye contact for a second.
"That was simply a moment of weakness, one that you will never find from me again." he said simply. He had a look of slight annoyance. "Is that all?"
"No, because I know there's more. You didn't hire those tutors in order to raise an idiot for a daughter." she said sharply. Sesshomaru arched an eyebrow. She had the spunk that Kagura once had years before. "Who is she to you, father?"
"She was someone I sparred with in the past." he lied.
"Don't give me the same crap you've told everyone in the castle. She may be very skilled, but I don't think it's common to care for a sparring partner enough to kiss them like that." she said. "Was she a former mistress that you had on the side a few years ago?"
"This Sesshomaru doesn't care to have any more than one woman to deal with." he said simply.
"Then who the hell is she?!" she almost yelled. He frowned slightly in anger.
"Do you want to know why I married your mother?" Sesshomaru growled, his claws digging into the wooden chair. Sol broke the eye contact and twiddled her fingers before answering.
"Because at some point you cared for her?" she said, lacking confidence as she said it slowly.
"No." he said coldly. "It's because Soledad was my mate and before she died, she asked me to marry Kagura, because she had cared for me. I never cared for your mother." he said harshly. Sol's eyes widened in confusion before she slightly slumped at the news she just heard.
"Oh." she said softly. "I didn't know...."
"Of course you didn't know." he said, regaining his composure slowly. "No one knows unless they have served me for over one hundred and fifty years." Sol brushed some loose hair off her face back and tucked it behind her ear.
"Well," she said, he voice slightly cracking, "I guess it's my fault for wanting to know, and now I'm upset." she said softly. When Sesshomaru didn't answer, she sighed before continuing. "I primarily came in here, to tell you why the wedding was off." she looked up at her father, his eyes still stoic and plain. "I cancelled the wedding, because...I felt I wouldn't be able to truly celebrate a union with my parent's own union crumbling because of Soledad." she said softly.
"That's a foolish reason. Why did you feel you had to cancel your wedding because of my own relationship? You must have realized that your mother and I haven't been happy for years." Sesshomaru asked her.
"Because, the inevitable scandal that was going to occur wouldn't be covered by a union between two lands. I knew that everyone would be talking about you and Soledad having an affair only days after seeing how you two seemed to click, even when you weren't speaking to eachother. I knew something was up, I just didn't want to say anything." Sesshomaru sighed.
"I want you to be happy, Sol. If you truly love that man, I believe you should still marry him." he told her. He walked over to her, and placed his hand as lovingly as he could on her shoulder. "You, out of all of us, should be happy."
