Spider, Part Thirteen
"Wolfden"
by Vega
When I opened my eyes, the grass and dirt were gone from beneath me, replaced by a hard muscled shoulder jamming into my abdomen, covered with a tuft of... fur? I moaned at the bouncing motion and pryed my eyelids apart. One was still swollen shut, blackened by Naraku's fist, but through the other eye I could see the ground moving below me – and at a pace far faster than any person could possibly run.
My mind immediately screamed, 'Demon!'
"Don't move," I heard a voice hiss as I tried to crane my aching neck to look around. "You're very badly hurt."
"Really?" I managed to whisper. "Hadn't noticed."
I was really starting to get sick of all this half-dead crap.
The voice - a young and strong sounding male - chuckled. "Quite the spirit you have there, hanyou."
I blinked, translating 'hanyou' in my head - 'half demon'. Half demon? Me? Well... I supposed I had demon blood in me but...
...and then I noticed it.
I had UNDERSTOOD this man.
I craned my neck in the opposite direction to focus my not-swollen-shut-eye on his face. He was smirking. His long black hair was bound in a high ponytail, his bangs pulled off his face by a brown bandana of what looked like fur. His skin was the same caramel of the other Japanese around me, but his ears were long and pointed. And his eyes...
I gasped in shock.
His eyes were the same vibrant blue of mine!
"Just relax, sister," the man said again, "I'll get you to my den, and then you can tell me what happened."
I nodded numbly then allowed myself to go limp, making it easier for my body to accept the shocks of his feet hit the ground - which was once only every few minutes, it seemed. He was running so fast I could feel the hear the wind tearing around us, and the dust storm billowing up behind.
I peeked down, between his bare arm and armour-clad chest and saw more than the tornado that was being kicked up - I could see his thick brown tail.
So that's why he had called me 'sister'! He was a hanyou too!
~~~
The den ended up being less the hole in the ground that I had imagined it would be, and more a very elaborate set of cave systems bordering a lush water-fall-fed oasis in the craggy grey landscape of the mountain range.
We had been travelling for most of the day, the plains of grass that had bordered Naraku's lands slowly giving way to a rocky mountainside, and when this young man finally put me down on a rough pallet of dry grasses and furs I was in heaven. I ached everywhere. Not just from my wounds, or my destroyed right arm, but from the constant jostling of the ride as well.
But hell, I could still wiggle my right ringers, and that made me happy.
He set me down gently, and I eased back into the wall behind me, trying to ignore the whistling and cat calls of the other creatures around us. Some were like this man - human looking, with pointed ears and vibrant eyes, clad in metal torso sheathes and fur kilts with tails. Some were so completely in the forms of wolves that I shied away from their inquisitive wet noses when they ventured near.
"Back off," the man who had been my rescuer snapped and shoved one of the wolves away when he tries to get his head under my hand, like a domesticated dog that wanted to be patted. But the light in his eyes was kind, and his touch was more playful than harsh. The wolf whined a little and ducked it's head. "No, I mean it. No eating her."
Then it backed off to watch us from a distance of a few feet. The young man shook his head and it took me a moment to understand that he was chuckling.
I swallowed hard at the "no eating". It was then that I noticed the sporadic piles of gnawed-upon bones strewn over the rough cave floor, their dried out white colour a sharp contrast to the dark damp stone. A few fires were lit as well, and I could see that this was more than just a wolf den - it was large enough to be the great hall of a palace, and just as spacious. Where chairs and tables would have been were convenient rocky outcroppings, that seemed to act as shelf beds when furs were laid down on them, and chairs when there were not. Where the throne would have been was a chipped out semi-circular stage, with a ridiculously large pile of furs - the den-leader's bed?
The other thing I noticed as my gaze slid from face to hungry wolfish face was that there were no other females here. A fact that was accented when one of the human-shaped demons slid up to the young man who had carried me here and said, "Kouga... a female? Is she for us? Where did you find her? She reeks of... blech... rot."
"Shut up, Ginta," my rescuer, the one addressed as 'Kouga', replied. "She's not for you. I found her. She's been hurt by something nasty. And check your nose again. She's not a youkai - she's hanyou."
A murmur swept the crowd and the reactions were varied - some looked disgusted, some intrigued, and some down right happy. I think I was more afraid of the happy faces.
"K-kouga?" I managed to croak out and he turned to look at me, eyes wide, "I'm sorry - can I address you this way?" He nodded and I continued. "Where am I?"
"You're in my den," he said, pride touching his tone. "I am the Prince of this Tribe, the Wolf Youkai of the Western Lands." I noticed the katana sword at his side, in a lacquered black sheath and realized that this must be some sort of symbol of power - he was the only one carrying a weapon. "I found you on the borders of my land and brought you here. Now," he knelt before me, his body blocking from my view the rest of the cave, "can you tell me how you came to be so... damaged?"
He reached up and gently touched the bruised swell under my eye, and I flinched.
"I was..." Now, how on EARTH was going to explain my way out of this one? If I said the wrong thing, he just might tear me to pieces, and that was not what I wanted. What I DID want was to find a way to either use the little piece of Shikon Shard I had left inside me to wish myself back home, or to find this Inu Yasha and his Miko and get that girls help to get back to the future. I took a deep breath and started again. "I was attacked by a demon ... his name was Naraku."
I paused and waited for a reaction. When I got none, I continued: "He stole... some gems that were precious to me," I pointed at my ruined earlobe, where Naraku had torn the earring out, and saw Kouga's eyes narrow with disgust. That was a good sign - meant that he was feeling sympathy for me and might even help me. "Then he left me for dead. Said he was going to leave me for the wolves."
Kouga made e frustrated grunting sound and sat before me with his legs crossed, one hand rubbing his chin in a gesture of thought. "Did he know you're a canine hanyou, sister?"
"I am?" I blinked, and he looked mildly surprised. There were a few exclamations behind him but he waved them into silence. "I mean, I know I'm at least part taiyoukai, that's what someone told me once, but I didn't know... I mean, I didn't know my father..." I trailed off and looked down at my feet, humiliated. One was still bleeding rather badly from where Naraku had sliced at me with his nails when I had tried to kick him.
Kouga followed my gaze, then suddenly jumped to his feet. "Ginta!" he shouted, making both me and the skunk-haired youkai in question jump, "Clean water and bandages. Ointment too." As if waiting for the perfect opportunity, my stomach growled. Kouga looked back at me and smiled. "And you, Hakkaku, bring food and drink."
Both men nodded with a quick, "Hai!" and dashed away. A few others tried to raise a protest:
"But Kouga!"
"She's a HANYOU."
"Just kill her, she's not worth it!"
Kouga turned to glare at those protesting and they tucked their tails between their legs and skulked off. I could see why this Kouga was the Prince - everyone was terrified of disobeying him. One of the wolves came up and snuffled at my foot and Kouga plopped down beside me and grabbed the creature by it's ruff, pulling it's muzzle away and sinking his face into the furry collar. "Didn't I tell you to leave her alone?" he asked it, then nudged it away. The wolf didn't go far - just a few steps. Then it lay down, put it's head on it's paws, and looked up at me with wide yellow eyes.
I turned mine back to Kouga and found him studying me, his expression closed and unreadable. "What's your name, sister?"
"Aslin."
He nodded and I knew from experience that it would be a hard word for his Japanese-tongue to wrap around.
"You're a hanyou, ne?" he muttered, "and you don't know your father?"
I shook my head. "He left when I was little. Mother doesn't speak of him." For a moment I was choked with emotion, but I forced myself to continue. "I suspect that he was a hanyou himself, and I'm less."
Kouga leaned towards me all of a sudden, looking as if he was about to kiss me, and I jerked back so fast I banged my head on the cave wall. I'd had quite enough of being kissed by demons!
He chuckled when I hissed in pain and said, "I only want a better smell of your blood, if that's okay."
I nodded carefully and he pressed his nose against the sensitive skin under my ear, right beside a nasty scratch. I had to suppress a shudder as his hot breath wafted over the sensitized torn tissue.
He pulled back slowly, resuming his cross-legged position beside me and turned to look at the wolf - "You smell it too, eh?" The wolf closed and opened it's eyes, very deliberately, which gave me the impression he was nodding. Kouga bobbed his head in agreement, his long ponytail swaying, and said, "We both think so - there's more youkai in you than human, and that youkai is mixed."
"Mixed?" I blinked, confused. Naraku had said nothing about that.
"Hai. The shape of your face suggests a taiyoukai, the delicate cheekbones," he reached out and briefly ran sharp but gentle fingernails across one of the cheeks in question and I held deathly still. He dropped his hand back into his lap and continued, "but your eyes are the colour of us wolves when we're in our human shapes. I can also smell fox in you - that would explain your red hair, and something else..." his face twisted in disgust momentarily. "Dog. And then... something... I don't know... black... tainted. Cursed blood."
I didn't like the sound of that. "C-cursed...?"
Kouga began to rub his chin in concentration again. "One of your forebearers had a generational curse placed on them, is my guess. A powerful one."
I closed my eyes, fighting back the sudden wave of nausea. My god, I was some sort of mutt! A cursed mutt!
There was a long pause in the conversation as I thought this over, and when Ginta returned with the requested ointments, bandages and water, I suffered the treatment of my bruises and scrapes in silence. Kouga watched me carefully, sitting just off to the side with the wolf, taking it all in with guarded eyes. I accepted the willow-bark tea from Hakkaku after learning what it was - I knew from highschool chemistry that willow-bark tea was actually a liquid form of aspirin, and god, was I in the mood for a painkiller.
Finally, when I had fed, pacified, and bandaged, the others withdrew, leaving just Kouga and I on this side of the cave, with the ever-silent wolf.
"Why are you helping me?" I finally asked of him, and he looked up from where he had been watching his own hands running through the laying wolf's ruddy fur.
"You're a canine youkai, sister," he shrugged, "Maybe part wolf. I owe you my help as blood kin."
"Blood kin..." I repeated, unsure. I mean, was it even POSSIBLE that youkai still existed in my time? Could my father have been a demon of sorts? Or, rather, a mix of demons? Did my father have a tail?
Did I used to have a tail?
I resolved to check for scarring in the mirror next time I got the chance.
And then I had a sudden flash of my great-grandmother and her ever-present twin-hairbuns. Ears! Great-grandmother had been hiding EARS. Ears on the top of her head, just as that Inu Yasha had! That HAD to be the answer.
This revelation left me slightly numb, and when I asked my next question of Kouga, it was in a more distant voice: "Why did the others say it was ... pointless to try to help a Hanyou...?"
Again, Kouga studied me before answering. "I guess you really don't know, do you? You must have lead a very sheltered life, sister. Most humans hate hanyou because they are part-youkai. Most youkai hate hanyou because they are part human. Do you understand? They have no real place to fit in. But you," he reached out and placed to gentle fingers under my chin, forcing my eyes to meet his own. "You're more than just hanyou, and part wolf I'd say at that. There are few female wolf youkai in the tribes these days, and almost none in the Western Lands. I decided to help you, sister, because you may prove valuable to us."
I felt my lips and fingertips go cold. Was he really proposing that I... I stay here and... and...!
"Now, wait a minute!" I said, shaking my head and willing my chin to stop trembling. "You're not suggesting that I--"
"I'm not suggesting anything," he cut in. "Wolf Youkai women do what they want. But you wanted to know why I saved you. If I hadn't, you know," he added, lowering his head and looking up at me through his hanging bangs, "you'd probably be dead by now."
"I know," I said quickly, "and thank you."
He sighed and unfolded himself, pulling himself up onto his feet. "I see I've upset you. I have some hungry wolves to feed, so I must be off. Excuse me. Kabau will watch over you until I get back." He gestured to indicate that 'Kabau' was the yellow-eyed wolf lying near to us for the entirety of our conversation.
The wolf in question made a deep growling sound at me and crawled forward until his muzzle was resting on my thigh. At first I balked, thinking myself threatened, but he wriggled his head under my bandaged hand and I realized that the sound he was giving off was not a growl but a deep-doggy style purr, and that he wanted the fur between his ears scratched.
I complied and Kouga smiled, then turned on his heel and marched into the centre of the cave, pony tail and wolf tail whipping around to follow. "Alright! Third hunting party follow me down to the village! The human population's getting to thick again - it's dinner time! The rest of you - the hanyou girl is HANDS OFF."
He and a pack of the wolf-shaped youkai ran out of the cave, baying and howling, panting like excited puppies, and I felt that oh-so-familiar twist in my gut that told me my mind was rebelling to a disgusting revelation.
The human population? Thinning out? Dinner time!?
I closed my eyes and forced away these thoughts, focussing instead on the rhythmic, sanity-retaining repetitive motion of petting the wolf in my lap.
What had I gotten myself into NOW?
~~~
Author's Notes:
Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays of all sorts! And, for those following along with thier anime, (hint hint), we're just before episode 36 now...
Also, I'm am GRATEFULLY accepting any and all fanart. I'm also tentitively searching for someone to illustrate this as a fancomic. I'd be willing to re-format it to comic-book script format. I just need an artist! Whaa!
Reviews:
(If I've missed anyone, I'm sorry - it's hard to keep track of who I've addressed and who I haven't. Suffice it to say, I appreciate EVERYTHING EVERYONE says to me ... even flames! Because Negative feedback is better than none - at least you KNOW you suck then!)
Anime-luvver: "Leet" is that lazy typing, where you avoid full words and sentences and replace numbers for letters. Good for text messaging. Annoying online. I find it so annoying because, *gasp* I really AM an author. ^____^ You've mentioned twice that you think I sound like a prof. writer - guess what! I'm at a small Canadian university for Dramatic Literature (focus on Playwriting), and a Classical Studies (focus on Greacian and Roman Mythology). ^_^ Ta da! So now you know the truth! Good eye, to spot me like that.
Sashlea: Alright, the next lemony bit may be more lemony than the last. You also have to remember, it's a traumatic experience for the narrator - she may not WANT to go into detail. I liked that she laughed at Naraku too - makes her more human, doesn't it? It's something I'd do - break down into helpless fits of hysterical laugher in a desperate situation. Okay, so maybe I'm wierd...
NeoGenesis1: Well, THANK YOU. I hate getting trapped on a story when the author won't update (BTW - if XANTHOS is reading this.. *whine* "The Red Hunger"... please?!.. I love plausible otherpairing fics...) Anyway, I try to stay on top of things when I update, mostly because I don't want the story to fade in my head. The worse I've ever been is with "A Deal With Dracula" - I update only once every two years or so. I'm bad.
Kairinu: I actually have no idea if Sandalwood is used in manipulating dreams. I chose it because it was a heavy, heady, cloying (if you get too much) an above all RECOGNIZABLE scent. People who have smelled sandalwood will think, "oh, yes! I know that scent!" when they read those parts. Hopefully some of them will get wigged when they smell it elsewhere after reading... that's a sign of a good author!
InuyashazFukaiMori: *laughs* Yay for youthful exuberance! I'm updating already, kk? On Christmas Day and all!
Raylee: Goodness, don't get grounded on my account. And be good, okay? No more getting into trouble, 'cause that sucks for everyone involved, not just you. Okay, sweetie?
Sandalwood: *snicker* Same thing happens to me when I read "Vega" somewhere else. I love my handle and I've had it for... oh... going on 12 years now. My friends call me that instead of my real name, and even when I was a camp councillor it was my nick. I love it. Read "Across Time" to understand why it suits me so much. ^_^ Why YES, that WAS a shameless plug...
"Wolfden"
by Vega
When I opened my eyes, the grass and dirt were gone from beneath me, replaced by a hard muscled shoulder jamming into my abdomen, covered with a tuft of... fur? I moaned at the bouncing motion and pryed my eyelids apart. One was still swollen shut, blackened by Naraku's fist, but through the other eye I could see the ground moving below me – and at a pace far faster than any person could possibly run.
My mind immediately screamed, 'Demon!'
"Don't move," I heard a voice hiss as I tried to crane my aching neck to look around. "You're very badly hurt."
"Really?" I managed to whisper. "Hadn't noticed."
I was really starting to get sick of all this half-dead crap.
The voice - a young and strong sounding male - chuckled. "Quite the spirit you have there, hanyou."
I blinked, translating 'hanyou' in my head - 'half demon'. Half demon? Me? Well... I supposed I had demon blood in me but...
...and then I noticed it.
I had UNDERSTOOD this man.
I craned my neck in the opposite direction to focus my not-swollen-shut-eye on his face. He was smirking. His long black hair was bound in a high ponytail, his bangs pulled off his face by a brown bandana of what looked like fur. His skin was the same caramel of the other Japanese around me, but his ears were long and pointed. And his eyes...
I gasped in shock.
His eyes were the same vibrant blue of mine!
"Just relax, sister," the man said again, "I'll get you to my den, and then you can tell me what happened."
I nodded numbly then allowed myself to go limp, making it easier for my body to accept the shocks of his feet hit the ground - which was once only every few minutes, it seemed. He was running so fast I could feel the hear the wind tearing around us, and the dust storm billowing up behind.
I peeked down, between his bare arm and armour-clad chest and saw more than the tornado that was being kicked up - I could see his thick brown tail.
So that's why he had called me 'sister'! He was a hanyou too!
~~~
The den ended up being less the hole in the ground that I had imagined it would be, and more a very elaborate set of cave systems bordering a lush water-fall-fed oasis in the craggy grey landscape of the mountain range.
We had been travelling for most of the day, the plains of grass that had bordered Naraku's lands slowly giving way to a rocky mountainside, and when this young man finally put me down on a rough pallet of dry grasses and furs I was in heaven. I ached everywhere. Not just from my wounds, or my destroyed right arm, but from the constant jostling of the ride as well.
But hell, I could still wiggle my right ringers, and that made me happy.
He set me down gently, and I eased back into the wall behind me, trying to ignore the whistling and cat calls of the other creatures around us. Some were like this man - human looking, with pointed ears and vibrant eyes, clad in metal torso sheathes and fur kilts with tails. Some were so completely in the forms of wolves that I shied away from their inquisitive wet noses when they ventured near.
"Back off," the man who had been my rescuer snapped and shoved one of the wolves away when he tries to get his head under my hand, like a domesticated dog that wanted to be patted. But the light in his eyes was kind, and his touch was more playful than harsh. The wolf whined a little and ducked it's head. "No, I mean it. No eating her."
Then it backed off to watch us from a distance of a few feet. The young man shook his head and it took me a moment to understand that he was chuckling.
I swallowed hard at the "no eating". It was then that I noticed the sporadic piles of gnawed-upon bones strewn over the rough cave floor, their dried out white colour a sharp contrast to the dark damp stone. A few fires were lit as well, and I could see that this was more than just a wolf den - it was large enough to be the great hall of a palace, and just as spacious. Where chairs and tables would have been were convenient rocky outcroppings, that seemed to act as shelf beds when furs were laid down on them, and chairs when there were not. Where the throne would have been was a chipped out semi-circular stage, with a ridiculously large pile of furs - the den-leader's bed?
The other thing I noticed as my gaze slid from face to hungry wolfish face was that there were no other females here. A fact that was accented when one of the human-shaped demons slid up to the young man who had carried me here and said, "Kouga... a female? Is she for us? Where did you find her? She reeks of... blech... rot."
"Shut up, Ginta," my rescuer, the one addressed as 'Kouga', replied. "She's not for you. I found her. She's been hurt by something nasty. And check your nose again. She's not a youkai - she's hanyou."
A murmur swept the crowd and the reactions were varied - some looked disgusted, some intrigued, and some down right happy. I think I was more afraid of the happy faces.
"K-kouga?" I managed to croak out and he turned to look at me, eyes wide, "I'm sorry - can I address you this way?" He nodded and I continued. "Where am I?"
"You're in my den," he said, pride touching his tone. "I am the Prince of this Tribe, the Wolf Youkai of the Western Lands." I noticed the katana sword at his side, in a lacquered black sheath and realized that this must be some sort of symbol of power - he was the only one carrying a weapon. "I found you on the borders of my land and brought you here. Now," he knelt before me, his body blocking from my view the rest of the cave, "can you tell me how you came to be so... damaged?"
He reached up and gently touched the bruised swell under my eye, and I flinched.
"I was..." Now, how on EARTH was going to explain my way out of this one? If I said the wrong thing, he just might tear me to pieces, and that was not what I wanted. What I DID want was to find a way to either use the little piece of Shikon Shard I had left inside me to wish myself back home, or to find this Inu Yasha and his Miko and get that girls help to get back to the future. I took a deep breath and started again. "I was attacked by a demon ... his name was Naraku."
I paused and waited for a reaction. When I got none, I continued: "He stole... some gems that were precious to me," I pointed at my ruined earlobe, where Naraku had torn the earring out, and saw Kouga's eyes narrow with disgust. That was a good sign - meant that he was feeling sympathy for me and might even help me. "Then he left me for dead. Said he was going to leave me for the wolves."
Kouga made e frustrated grunting sound and sat before me with his legs crossed, one hand rubbing his chin in a gesture of thought. "Did he know you're a canine hanyou, sister?"
"I am?" I blinked, and he looked mildly surprised. There were a few exclamations behind him but he waved them into silence. "I mean, I know I'm at least part taiyoukai, that's what someone told me once, but I didn't know... I mean, I didn't know my father..." I trailed off and looked down at my feet, humiliated. One was still bleeding rather badly from where Naraku had sliced at me with his nails when I had tried to kick him.
Kouga followed my gaze, then suddenly jumped to his feet. "Ginta!" he shouted, making both me and the skunk-haired youkai in question jump, "Clean water and bandages. Ointment too." As if waiting for the perfect opportunity, my stomach growled. Kouga looked back at me and smiled. "And you, Hakkaku, bring food and drink."
Both men nodded with a quick, "Hai!" and dashed away. A few others tried to raise a protest:
"But Kouga!"
"She's a HANYOU."
"Just kill her, she's not worth it!"
Kouga turned to glare at those protesting and they tucked their tails between their legs and skulked off. I could see why this Kouga was the Prince - everyone was terrified of disobeying him. One of the wolves came up and snuffled at my foot and Kouga plopped down beside me and grabbed the creature by it's ruff, pulling it's muzzle away and sinking his face into the furry collar. "Didn't I tell you to leave her alone?" he asked it, then nudged it away. The wolf didn't go far - just a few steps. Then it lay down, put it's head on it's paws, and looked up at me with wide yellow eyes.
I turned mine back to Kouga and found him studying me, his expression closed and unreadable. "What's your name, sister?"
"Aslin."
He nodded and I knew from experience that it would be a hard word for his Japanese-tongue to wrap around.
"You're a hanyou, ne?" he muttered, "and you don't know your father?"
I shook my head. "He left when I was little. Mother doesn't speak of him." For a moment I was choked with emotion, but I forced myself to continue. "I suspect that he was a hanyou himself, and I'm less."
Kouga leaned towards me all of a sudden, looking as if he was about to kiss me, and I jerked back so fast I banged my head on the cave wall. I'd had quite enough of being kissed by demons!
He chuckled when I hissed in pain and said, "I only want a better smell of your blood, if that's okay."
I nodded carefully and he pressed his nose against the sensitive skin under my ear, right beside a nasty scratch. I had to suppress a shudder as his hot breath wafted over the sensitized torn tissue.
He pulled back slowly, resuming his cross-legged position beside me and turned to look at the wolf - "You smell it too, eh?" The wolf closed and opened it's eyes, very deliberately, which gave me the impression he was nodding. Kouga bobbed his head in agreement, his long ponytail swaying, and said, "We both think so - there's more youkai in you than human, and that youkai is mixed."
"Mixed?" I blinked, confused. Naraku had said nothing about that.
"Hai. The shape of your face suggests a taiyoukai, the delicate cheekbones," he reached out and briefly ran sharp but gentle fingernails across one of the cheeks in question and I held deathly still. He dropped his hand back into his lap and continued, "but your eyes are the colour of us wolves when we're in our human shapes. I can also smell fox in you - that would explain your red hair, and something else..." his face twisted in disgust momentarily. "Dog. And then... something... I don't know... black... tainted. Cursed blood."
I didn't like the sound of that. "C-cursed...?"
Kouga began to rub his chin in concentration again. "One of your forebearers had a generational curse placed on them, is my guess. A powerful one."
I closed my eyes, fighting back the sudden wave of nausea. My god, I was some sort of mutt! A cursed mutt!
There was a long pause in the conversation as I thought this over, and when Ginta returned with the requested ointments, bandages and water, I suffered the treatment of my bruises and scrapes in silence. Kouga watched me carefully, sitting just off to the side with the wolf, taking it all in with guarded eyes. I accepted the willow-bark tea from Hakkaku after learning what it was - I knew from highschool chemistry that willow-bark tea was actually a liquid form of aspirin, and god, was I in the mood for a painkiller.
Finally, when I had fed, pacified, and bandaged, the others withdrew, leaving just Kouga and I on this side of the cave, with the ever-silent wolf.
"Why are you helping me?" I finally asked of him, and he looked up from where he had been watching his own hands running through the laying wolf's ruddy fur.
"You're a canine youkai, sister," he shrugged, "Maybe part wolf. I owe you my help as blood kin."
"Blood kin..." I repeated, unsure. I mean, was it even POSSIBLE that youkai still existed in my time? Could my father have been a demon of sorts? Or, rather, a mix of demons? Did my father have a tail?
Did I used to have a tail?
I resolved to check for scarring in the mirror next time I got the chance.
And then I had a sudden flash of my great-grandmother and her ever-present twin-hairbuns. Ears! Great-grandmother had been hiding EARS. Ears on the top of her head, just as that Inu Yasha had! That HAD to be the answer.
This revelation left me slightly numb, and when I asked my next question of Kouga, it was in a more distant voice: "Why did the others say it was ... pointless to try to help a Hanyou...?"
Again, Kouga studied me before answering. "I guess you really don't know, do you? You must have lead a very sheltered life, sister. Most humans hate hanyou because they are part-youkai. Most youkai hate hanyou because they are part human. Do you understand? They have no real place to fit in. But you," he reached out and placed to gentle fingers under my chin, forcing my eyes to meet his own. "You're more than just hanyou, and part wolf I'd say at that. There are few female wolf youkai in the tribes these days, and almost none in the Western Lands. I decided to help you, sister, because you may prove valuable to us."
I felt my lips and fingertips go cold. Was he really proposing that I... I stay here and... and...!
"Now, wait a minute!" I said, shaking my head and willing my chin to stop trembling. "You're not suggesting that I--"
"I'm not suggesting anything," he cut in. "Wolf Youkai women do what they want. But you wanted to know why I saved you. If I hadn't, you know," he added, lowering his head and looking up at me through his hanging bangs, "you'd probably be dead by now."
"I know," I said quickly, "and thank you."
He sighed and unfolded himself, pulling himself up onto his feet. "I see I've upset you. I have some hungry wolves to feed, so I must be off. Excuse me. Kabau will watch over you until I get back." He gestured to indicate that 'Kabau' was the yellow-eyed wolf lying near to us for the entirety of our conversation.
The wolf in question made a deep growling sound at me and crawled forward until his muzzle was resting on my thigh. At first I balked, thinking myself threatened, but he wriggled his head under my bandaged hand and I realized that the sound he was giving off was not a growl but a deep-doggy style purr, and that he wanted the fur between his ears scratched.
I complied and Kouga smiled, then turned on his heel and marched into the centre of the cave, pony tail and wolf tail whipping around to follow. "Alright! Third hunting party follow me down to the village! The human population's getting to thick again - it's dinner time! The rest of you - the hanyou girl is HANDS OFF."
He and a pack of the wolf-shaped youkai ran out of the cave, baying and howling, panting like excited puppies, and I felt that oh-so-familiar twist in my gut that told me my mind was rebelling to a disgusting revelation.
The human population? Thinning out? Dinner time!?
I closed my eyes and forced away these thoughts, focussing instead on the rhythmic, sanity-retaining repetitive motion of petting the wolf in my lap.
What had I gotten myself into NOW?
~~~
Author's Notes:
Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays of all sorts! And, for those following along with thier anime, (hint hint), we're just before episode 36 now...
Also, I'm am GRATEFULLY accepting any and all fanart. I'm also tentitively searching for someone to illustrate this as a fancomic. I'd be willing to re-format it to comic-book script format. I just need an artist! Whaa!
Reviews:
(If I've missed anyone, I'm sorry - it's hard to keep track of who I've addressed and who I haven't. Suffice it to say, I appreciate EVERYTHING EVERYONE says to me ... even flames! Because Negative feedback is better than none - at least you KNOW you suck then!)
Anime-luvver: "Leet" is that lazy typing, where you avoid full words and sentences and replace numbers for letters. Good for text messaging. Annoying online. I find it so annoying because, *gasp* I really AM an author. ^____^ You've mentioned twice that you think I sound like a prof. writer - guess what! I'm at a small Canadian university for Dramatic Literature (focus on Playwriting), and a Classical Studies (focus on Greacian and Roman Mythology). ^_^ Ta da! So now you know the truth! Good eye, to spot me like that.
Sashlea: Alright, the next lemony bit may be more lemony than the last. You also have to remember, it's a traumatic experience for the narrator - she may not WANT to go into detail. I liked that she laughed at Naraku too - makes her more human, doesn't it? It's something I'd do - break down into helpless fits of hysterical laugher in a desperate situation. Okay, so maybe I'm wierd...
NeoGenesis1: Well, THANK YOU. I hate getting trapped on a story when the author won't update (BTW - if XANTHOS is reading this.. *whine* "The Red Hunger"... please?!.. I love plausible otherpairing fics...) Anyway, I try to stay on top of things when I update, mostly because I don't want the story to fade in my head. The worse I've ever been is with "A Deal With Dracula" - I update only once every two years or so. I'm bad.
Kairinu: I actually have no idea if Sandalwood is used in manipulating dreams. I chose it because it was a heavy, heady, cloying (if you get too much) an above all RECOGNIZABLE scent. People who have smelled sandalwood will think, "oh, yes! I know that scent!" when they read those parts. Hopefully some of them will get wigged when they smell it elsewhere after reading... that's a sign of a good author!
InuyashazFukaiMori: *laughs* Yay for youthful exuberance! I'm updating already, kk? On Christmas Day and all!
Raylee: Goodness, don't get grounded on my account. And be good, okay? No more getting into trouble, 'cause that sucks for everyone involved, not just you. Okay, sweetie?
Sandalwood: *snicker* Same thing happens to me when I read "Vega" somewhere else. I love my handle and I've had it for... oh... going on 12 years now. My friends call me that instead of my real name, and even when I was a camp councillor it was my nick. I love it. Read "Across Time" to understand why it suits me so much. ^_^ Why YES, that WAS a shameless plug...