"The bastards are becoming more and more daring," he muttered and reached around to rub a weary hand along the back of his neck. Almost a year of this, chasing the elusive tails of the murderers massacring his humans, destroying the human settlements dotted along his borders. Sighing, he leaned over the war table and stared down at the map. Each village crossed out in red was a vivid reminder of his failures.
"We're chasing our collective tails right now," Guo said quietly, and mopped up the sweat dripping down his forehead with the sleeve of his haori. "Every time we arrive too late to do anything but burn and bury the dead. This can't just be one person—there have to be several people pulling the strings. So far, we've found scents of wolves, tigers, kitsune, and cranes. They've done a good job of leading us around by the nose." Disgust lined every word as he glared at the map, too.
"I'm aware of the facts," growled Tōga and had to restrain himself from knocking the table and its contents aside. He studied each burned out village. His hands still bore the burns of the pyres he'd lit only hours ago—a persistent reminder of the loss his lands had suffered for his negligence.
"They're only humans, anyway," said a quiet voice near the tent flap.
Toga spared his spy master a glance. "Humans they may be, Ichoiya, but they are my humans. Their lands are my lands. They swore allegiance to me in return for my protection. Are you suggesting I throw away the honor I take from those duties simply because they are not youkai?" And though there was no anger in the words, no judgement, the ever-present swell of his power bore down on the other dog. "Would you suggest such a thing to your Lord?"
The black haired, tan skinned inu merely lifted a shoulder. He'd known Toga too long to fear the pressure of such power crushing him. "I only suggest we consider why they are only attacking the human villages, my Lord, not that they are not worth your honorable protection."
And maybe there was some truth in that. He'd been so focused on his shame and guilt, he'd barely given much thought to the why of everything. He could still see the agonized faces of every victim he'd burned and buried.
Gou stiffened and looked at the map again. "Only the humans," he murmured, and picking up a quill, drew a line to connect each of the villages that had been attacked. "Tōga, how many forces did you send to each village for protection?"
"One or two hundred to the villages closer inland, three hundred at those along the border. Not many. Most of the remainder of the guard was sent to patrol the northern and southern borders, since that's where the majority of the villages were attacked." The Inu stared at the map, at the wooden pieces marking each platoon of soldiers he'd sent to a village for protection.
The tent flap moved and a kitsune vixen joined them. The grim set of her shoulders was the only warning any of the men in the tent were given before she began her report. "One third of the patrol on the northern and Southern borders have been destroyed. Mayu says another third have disappeared from the human villages located more central to the West. Requests for backup were rushed to the Citadel and roughly ten thousand of our men have been dispatched to replace the missing and dead in the north and south," and she paused for a moment, then dropped her eyes to the ground and continued. "Lady Fuiasu is also missing, and Sesshoumaru-sama has been gone for three days as well. With the absence of both, the Captain of the Guard approved the orders to send the troops. But, when Mayu confronted the Captains stationed at the Northern and Southern borders, neither had requested aid."
Silence had never felt so unbearable to Tōga before. He had never felt its weight as delicately as he did now. His control, always a chain that could break at any moment, was spread thin. He snarled, his claws biting into the heavy, dark wood of the table. "Kagome and Izayoi?" he demanded, the words a guttural question ripped from him as red began to bleed into the corners of his eyes.
"Unknown, My Lord," she answered.
Guo grunted and snarled, but it was nothing to the rage pouring off Tōga. He snarled and threw the table, his claws ripping massive chunks out of the wood. "A diversion," he sneered, and kicked the brazier meant to keep them warm despite the rain pouring down outside. "All of this has been a diversion to pull me further and further away from my pack!" He roared and his power exploded out of him in a gust of wind. "I will rend these bastards limb from limb and they will bleed every last drop of blood before I let them die! The West will not fall to these cowards who hide behind murdered humans!"
Snarling, he shifted into a ball of light and flew out of the room, leaving behind Guo to take care of the rest.
o.O.o
Word Count - 876