Disclaimer: I do not own the characters from the Yu Yu Hakusho series. I only own the storyline and the few original characters within the story. Alright... I am going to jump ahead in time here. We left off and Calliegh was only three... well now she is thirteen and Youko and Hiei are finding her at their place more and more. Kiara isn't too happy about it and Youko knows why. Calliegh is a young woman, and her mother wants her to get more involved with the tribe... but Calliegh has other plans. Without farther delay... I give you Chapter Fourteen: New Day.
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"Calliegh... you need to grow up," Kiara snapped as she looked at her daughter. Since she turned thirteen she had become Kiara's biggest pain in the neck and Calliegh was enjoying EVERY moment of it. "You are thirteen years old, I expect you to start acting like it.
Calliegh laid back against her bed and crossed her arms. "I am not going to live my life the way you want me to, mother. All you want me to do is work for the tribe. That's all I have ever done."
Kiara sighed heavily. "I want you to be well known by the tribe so that they know that they can trust you to run things should anything happen to me. And that is not all you have ever done. You are being a brat."
Calliegh stood up and squared off with Kiara. "I am not being a brat. All I want to do is hang out with my friends every now and then without you busting in and scaring them all off!"
Kiara crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. "You know how I feel about those kids that you call friends. All of them are a bad influence on you. You must see that."
Calliegh growled and shook her head. "I can see them acting out, yes, but it is only because they are misunderstood. Not even their parents see what I can see in them..."
"Their parents have written them off for a reason, Calliegh," Kiara snapped. "All I am trying to say... is simply this... I want you to make better choices in your life. I don't want to see you get hurt by your so called friends!"
Calliegh growled at her and pushed her, knocking Kiara to the ground. Calliegh turned and walked out of the room and then was out of the tunnels before Kiara could exit the room. Kiara called out after her and sighed heavily. She seen several of the women shaking her head in the direction of the tunnels. She was definitely being a brat. She turned back into her room and shook her head. This is getting ridiculous. She walked to the top of the room, which opened up to a giant tree branch of the tree. She walked out into the open of the forest and could see Calliegh heading off in the direction of her father and Hiei's place. Perhaps they can help her out a bit. She touched the tree beside her and silently sent her father a warning that a hurricane was heading his way.
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Youko looked up as he heard the trees rustling beside them. He frowned as he heard a silent message from Kiara, shaking his head. He looked over his shoulder to the snoozing Hiei, smiling to see him so comfortable there. He knew that Calliegh was on the way, and that she was upset after a fight with her mother. Again. He sighed lightly and sat up, a hand gently rocking Hiei's hip. Hiei groaned and rolled over onto his side. Youko smirked and leaned over him.
"We have ninety pounds of raging fox demoness heading this way... do you really want to be asleep for that?" he asked lightly.
Hiei looked at him and sighed heavily. "They are fighting again? What is it with your granddaughter? Seems that is all they do is fight nowadays."
Youko smirked. "Yeah... well, I know how hard it can be for a thirteen year old to grow up as the leader's daughter. Kiara had to do it, and look where she is now."
Hiei sighed heavily and sat up, stretching lightly. "Yea... well this shit is starting to get old. She needs to learn how to deal with it on her own, instead of running to you whenever she and her mother argue."
Youko frowned as he watched Hiei stand up and stretch some more. "Someone woke up on the wrong side of the leaf patch."
Hiei looked down at him and frowned back. "Not my fault. I was quite content to just laze about today."
Youko smirked. "That's all you do anyways."
Hiei frowned at him, but looked up when he heard footsteps approaching behind him. He turned just in time to see the upset thirteen year old walking through the bushes nearby. She had tears running down her face and Hiei sighed lightly. She looked at him and then to her grandpa. She chose Hiei, and ran up to him, wrapping her arms around him as her tears turned to audible sobs. Hiei looked over her shoulder at the fox who was snickering from the ground. Hiei frowned at him and wrapped his arms around her for a moment, but when her sobs quit coming, he pulled her away and looked at her.
"What happened this time?" he asked.
"Mom is being a bitch," she replied as she sank to her knees next to him.
Youko frowned as the profanity left her lips. "Calliegh... you know better."
She sighed heavily as she pulled at the leaves on the ground. "I know... but it is the truth. All she wants to do is control me, grandpa... it's not fair."
Hiei shook his head as he sat down next to the foxes. He didn't know how he got pulled into all of this... but being her grandfather's mate kinda made him part of these conversations, whether he liked it or not.
"Calliegh... you have to understand where she is coming from," Youko said to her. "She just wants what is best for you. To protect you and give you the tools that you need to build yourself a better future."
Hiei smirked. That about sums up parenting 101. Calliegh looked up at him and sighed heavily. "It's not fair that she pushes me to do things that I don't want to do. I'm only thirteen!"
Youko chuckled. "You have it easy, baby girl. When your mother was thirteen and I was the leader of the pack, I had her out there hunting with the grown ups. I had her doing everything that the adults were doing, so you had better consider yourself lucky."
Calliegh shook her head. "But she wants me to become like her, the future leader of the tribe, and grampa... it's not what I want."
Hiei shook his head. "You are the daughter of the chief... kinda comes as a birthright."
Youko nodded. "Hiei is right. When you were born, you were guaranteed the next in line to the throne of our tribe. Just as she was. But she had to fight for her position. She doesn't want you to have to do that. That is what she is trying to show you, baby. She wants the tribe to go to you smoothly. And it will only do that if you show them now that you are willing to take the responsibilities of the tribe leader. It won't be an easy road for you, honey... but it is a road that many kids have to take. Your mother just wants to make sure ahead of time that you will be able to handle things when all is said and done."
Calliegh shook her head. "But grandpa... I don't want to be leader. I want to be part of the tribe... not leading it."
Youko sighed heavily and then looked at Hiei, who wasn't helping the conversation in the least. Hiei shrugged his shoulders with a dumbfounded look on his face. "Balls in your court on this one, fox. I wasn't born to be a leader... you and your girls were."
Youko frowned at him and looked back to his granddaughter. "Has your mother told you what will happen if a leader's child does not take the place of their parent?"
Calliegh looked up and shook her head. Youko nodded lightly and scooted up to fold his legs underneath him. "If the son or daughter of the leader does not take the place of their parent, mother or father, then the tribe will fall apart. I have seen it happen many times before with many different kinds of demons, Calliegh. When the leader dies, and the descendents refuse the throne... then they begin to turn on one another. And the first one that they turn on is the leader's descendants. Kiara doesn't want that for you because nine times out of ten they do not survive. It is brutality that demons will turn to. It is chaos, and I have seen it happen before. I don't want that to happen to Kiara or to you."
"When you died, though..." Calliegh sighed. "It didn't happen to mama."
Youko shook his head. "No, my death was a tragic accident where no one knew for a few weeks. They all figured that I had just run off again and thought nothing of it. When it was discovered that I had died, and so had your mother, they had no one to go after except for each other. They turned on one another and scattered to the four winds. That is why my death was different. And what did your mother have to do?"
Calliegh sighed and looked down. "Reunite the tribe. Fighting with every fiber of her being to bring them back together."
Youko nodded and lifted her chin with a strong finger. "She wants you to have everything easy. All she asks is that you focus on that more than the little delinquents that you are hanging out with."
Calliegh frowned at him and wrinkled her brows. "They aren't delinquents. They are just misunderstood."
Hiei rolled his eyes and held out a hand counting off each of her friends on his fingers. "One is a pyromaniac, one is a kleptomaniac, and the other two are drug addicts. Name one of those that are not a delinquent. You have to see where they are both coming from."
Calliegh frowned up at him and shook her head. "That fire was an accident. Juno can't help it that he sat there and watched."
Hiei frowned back at her and scoffed. "That fire wiped out half the forest, Calliegh. You of all people should know what that truly means for people that live in the forest."
Calliegh sighed. "Alright... I will give you that one... but the other three... they are just..."
"Misunderstood," Hiei and Youko said in unison before she could say it again. "Yes, Calliegh, we heard you the first four times we have had this conversation. But you have to see the reason why your mother and us do not want you to spend ALL of your time with them. None of us want to see you get hurt."
Calliegh shook her head. "They won't hurt me. They are my friends."
Hiei stopped Youko before he could round on her again. "Fine... There are some things in life that she will need to learn the hard way. Perhaps she is right, perhaps it is us and her mother that are right... but only time will tell which one of us is. But until then... let us focus on you spending just a little more time focusing on what your mother is trying to teach you. Alright?"
Calliegh looked down and knew that they were right. She nodded and looked up at them. "Fine... I will try."
"That is all that we have all been asking," Youko said as she gave him a hug. "Is for you to just listen to her a little more. She loves you, baby, and she just wants what is best for you. She doesn't do anything to hurt you, just protect you. From your friends, and yourself."
"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked as the three of them stood up.
"He means the decisions that might hurt you," Hiei said as she hugged him. "Protection by helping you through the bad choices in life. We all make them, and you are bound to make a few along the way. We are all on your side, you just have to open your eyes and see that."
She nodded and turned to leave.
"And Calliegh..." Youko called.
"Yes?" she asked as she turned back to them.
"You owe your mother an apology," he said to her as he crossed his arms. "I would have made her ass sore for a month if she had ever put her hands on me like you did."
Calliegh's ears went back and she covered her bottom. She frowned and nodded, knowing that he was more than serious. She waved goodbye to them and turned away. Hiei looked at Youko and frowned. "You never laid a hand on your daughter. And you never would have either."
Youko smiled and looked down at his mate. "But she doesn't have to know that."
Hiei smirked. "Sneaky fox."
"Always," Youko said as the two walked into the house.
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Kiara put the lid on top of the pot that she was stirring. She heard a creak on the floor behind her and glanced over her shoulders. She smirked. "Home already, huh? I figured you would have been out for a few more DAYS."
Calliegh flinched, her mother was still upset. "Um... no. Momma... I talked to Grandpa and Hiei and I wanted to say... that I am sorry. I didn't mean to push you like that."
Kiara still had her back to her daughter but she had a smile on her face. "Go on, what else did you learn from them, that I have most likely already taught you?"
Calliegh sighed lightly as she sat on the edge of her bed. "I was told that... you do everything that you do for my own good... that everything is done for a reason. That you just want me to be settled in my role as leader should something happened to you, so that the tribe won't turn on me."
Kiara turned to her daughter and walked over to her. "As I have said before, I have taught you all of this before. I have told you time and again that everything is for your future."
Calliegh looked up at her mother and swallowed lightly. "I'm sorry mother. I'm sorry for acting so childish... I promise... I will try to be better."
Kiara smiled lightly at her and pulled her daughter into her arms. Calliegh buried her head in her mother's shoulder, and sobbed lightly as Kiara pat her gently. Wow... her father was good. She hadn't expected this... perhaps tomorrow would be a better day than she had thought. Tomorrow, she was going to have Calliegh sit down on a hunt with them, well... with her. She smiled as she looked over her shoulder to see several of the foxes that had commented that Calliegh was being a brat standing there in the doorway. She shooed them away with the wave of her hand, and the doorway was cleared almost instantly. Kiara took a moment and smiled as a thought popped into her head.
"I have an idea," Kiara said. "How about tomorrow... I teach you the way my dad taught me. Show you why the leader is the most needed person in the tribe."
Calliegh looked up at her and nodded lightly. "But... the tunnels are pretty cramped, how do you expect me to learn what I already know about our kind?"
Kiara smiled lightly and shook her head. "It's not our kind that you will learn about. There are four different demon tribes that surround us. There are alpha females and alpha males that lead their tribes. I will show you how much alike our tribes are, and what being a leader truly means."
Calliegh smiled and nodded. "Okay. I can't wait."
This was sounding fun. Everything that her mother had taught her so far was about their own kind, about what they did everyday, and what it took to be a leader. But not once had their lessons gone outside the tunnels. She was really looking forward to it. Calliegh smiled as she watched her mother walk back over to the stove.
Kiara smiled lightly and pulled the lid off her pot of stew there. She sighed in content as she looked at the stew there. She only had one concern about tomorrow... the alpha males and females. She could only hope that they could find a vantage point that was close enough to survey and observe, but far enough away that the other alphas didn't see it as a threat.
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Calliegh looked up at the knock on the door of their den and smiled as she seen Ramon, Youko and Hiei standing there. She sat her school books to the side and sat up on the bed as Kiara turned from the sink near the stove. Kiara smiled at the trio, odd that Ramon was the one to escort them in. However, Ramon ushered them into the den, shut the door with a smile and walked away. Youko sighed heavily and shook his head.
"Hey grandpa," Calliegh said from the bed near the back of the den.
Kiara turned to her and frowned. "You have homework."
Calliegh sighed as she took her books and sat them on her lap, but made no move to open them again. Kiara shook her head as she turned back to the two visitors. "What can I do for you boys?"
Youko sat his hands on his hips and shook his head. "I wanted to see how things had gone between you two. Seems that all is well in paradise again."
"For how long, no one knows," Hiei said sarcastically under his breath.
Youko frowned and elbowed him in the side. Hiei gasped at the jab to his ribs and shook his head, looking up at the fox. Kiara chuckled lightly as she sat her drying towel over a bar near the fire. "I guess you can say that. But I have decided to take a new approach to things around here. And I was actually going to come and see you guys tonight. Dad, I have a few questions to ask you about some things that I don't want Calliegh to hear."
Calliegh growled lightly from the bed. "That's not fair. Why can't I hear?"
Kiara turned to her and crossed her arms. "Because you have homework to do. I do not want to have to deal with your teachers again."
Calliegh wrinkled her nose at her mother as she flipped open one page in her book, hoping to listen into the conversation. Kiara shook her head as she escorted the two of them out. She whistled lightly and Ramon came running back to her door. He bowed lightly, as he always did when she called him to her. "Make sure she does not follow us, and please convince her to do her homework. For some strange reason, she will listen to you when you ask her to do it."
Ramon smiled and nodded. "Will do." He smiled at the others and excused himself as he turned and walked into the den. Kiara guided them to an unfinished hall of the tunnels and sat them down on the tuffs of dirt. She sighed heavily and shook her head.
"I am glad that you two are getting along a bit better," Youko said to her. "I didn't even sense the slightest bit of tension between you two."
"Yeah, well... I need to thank you both for talking to her," Kiara said as she rubbed her open palms on her knees.
Youko knew this was a habit that she did when she was trying to think of how to word a question that was burning inside of her. He also knew that asking her wasn't going to help her out at all. "Um... Dad... I want to take your approach to teaching Calliegh about the tribe. How you taught me about the meaning of the leader and what that person truly means to the tribe."
Youko frowned lightly. "By taking Calliegh to see the wolves and the tigers. Kiara do you really think that is a good idea?"
Kiara shrugged her shoulders and held out her arms. "I have tried everything else that I can possibly think of. She has no interests in anything else... and when I mentioned it to her earlier... she lit up and was more excited than on her birthdays. I kinda have no choice but to take her now. But I want her to learn the same lessons that I did."
Youko shook his head. "The wolves didn't like the fact that I had used them as a teaching instrument. Nor did the tigers. You remember that part, don't you? I had scratches for weeks from the alphas of each demon kind."
Kiara sighed and shook her head. "We were intruding on their territory, and that is not what I plan to do. I know of a few lower peaks that Calliegh and I can use to see them from a distance. As long as their hunters are not out and about then we should have no troubles."
"And if you do?" Youko asked. "You know that our kind doesn't trust the other kinds around us. What are you going to do if they do decided that you are intruding?"
Kiara sighed lightly. "I have been known for finding a diplomatic way around fights in the past, father. And all I have to tell them is that I am merely trying to show my daughter that things are the same for each leader, no matter the race. It is how you escaped with your life the last time. And that is all I have to say to begin with."
Youko shook his head as he stood up and paced back and forth. "I trust that you will be able to take care of yourself if it did come to a fight with either tribe... but could you protect Calliegh at the same time?"
Kiara sighed lightly. "Yes, father, I can. I have in the past. A pack of black wolves had attacked us when we were hunting a few months ago, and we both walked away without a single scratch. I can do this, father, I just need to know one thing."
Hiei looked up at Youko and could feel the tension rising in him. He sighed lightly and shook his head. This wasn't gonna be good. Youko turned to her and crossed his arms. "What is it, Kiara?"
"If I were to call for backup, would you come?" she asked lightly.
He looked at her and blinked. "Of course I would. What makes you think that I wouldn't?"
Kiara shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know... I just wanted to be sure. I mean just in case you know."
He sighed lightly and sat on the tuff of dirt next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "I would come to your aid, no matter what. I love you and Calliegh so much, that nothing could keep me, or Hiei from coming to help you two out."
She smiled lightly and leaned her head on his shoulder. "Thanks, dad. And to you too Hiei. You have completed our family in ways that you cannot imagine."
Hiei shook his head and smirked. "Don't you go getting all soft on me too, now. I already have one mushy fox by my side... please don't make it two."
She smiled lightly at him and nodded. "Deal."
Hiei nodded and sighed. "Should you call... we will both be there."
She smiled again as the three of them headed out of the tunnels and back to the den. Kiara gave them some of the leftover food that was there, and they took it, not hungry for they had already eaten. But Kiara hadn't taken no for an answer. Kiara talked to them about a few more of the details about the next day, and got some advice about the two tribes on the outsides of their borders. It was all facinating to Calliegh, for she had closed her books again and was leaning on her elbows on her bed listening intently to the conversation. After a few hours of conversing, Youko and Hiei said their goodbyes and Kiara walked them out. Thanking them again for the advice and the aid that could be asked of them. They headed home and Kiara walked back to the den. She sighed as Calliegh had just finished her homework and closed her books for the night.
"Now get some sleep," Kiara said as Calliegh got under the covers. Kiara walked around the den, snuffing out the torches around, sending shadows all over the den. "Tomorrow is a big day, and we both are gonna need our energies."
Calliegh fell asleep almost instantly. Kiara smiled as she laid back in her own bed and crossed her hands behind her head. She sighed lightly as she closed her eyes and allowed sleep to claim her. The den grew quiet, and so did the rest of the foxes outside their den. Peace fell upon the forest as the moon rose over the trees. The night was short, for tomorrow was going to be the longest day of the year. And not even the Fates had a say in what was to come, and all Kiara could do was hope that things went smoothly the next day... the last thing she needed to do was accidently start a war with a neighboring demon tribe.
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The End of Chapter Fourteen: New Day. I hope that you are enjoying so far. I have a doozy for the next few chapters, and I highly doubt anyone is gonna see them coming. Ha. I love how my mind works. So please leave me you comments, reviews and your requests and I will get back to them soon. So I leave you all now with a ta ta for now, and good night.