Spider, Part Fifteen
"Funeral"
by Vega
It was a dream, again, and this time no sandalwood scent tickled my nose. Which meant that the memories the dreams were built on were entirely my own. I was dreaming of my great-grandmother again - my father's grandmother.
In the dream, I was very very young.
I don't remember where we were... somewhere strange and solemn. I thought about it long and hard and realized that we were sitting on a sofa with the older lady in a long cherry-panelled hallway. I was wearing a new dress, and it was all black. There were many people milling around us, also wearing black. Some of them looked like normal Caucasians, and some like regular Asians, but there were others...
Others with bright amber eyes. Others with long silver hair. Others with strange tattoos and long fingernails. Others that were so tall they had to duck to go through doors. Others so short that I towered over them.
My mother was in the room behind me, and I could hear her crying. I wondered where my father was - I couldn't see him. I hadn't seen him in days, not since Mom and my's last visit to see him in the hospital. And Mom hadn't stopped crying since.
I was sitting on great-grandmother's lap, on this sofa in the hallway. It was a coral coloured sofa, I remember that, because I had been staring at the cushions for a long time before great-grandmother found me there and hoisted me onto her lap.
She was very strong and limber for an old lady. And her hair was so very red. It sat curled in two buns at the top of her head.
"Aslin, honey," she said, and her eyes drifted to the new patent leather shoes on my feet. "Ah, those were the right size for you. I'm glad you like them."
I didn't like them, of course, but Mom told me it was impolite to tell someone that you hate the gift they've given you.
Great-grandmother patted the shiny black shoes once, then her leather-like hand reached lower, into the black crocheted bag that was under the sofa. She pulled it up and with my help we freed a wooden case the size of her lap from the bag.
"Now, are you paying attention, dear?" I nodded and watched carefully as she spun a code on the lock on the side of the case - I don't remember what the numbers were, of course, but I knew that a secret code was needed to gain access. Then she pulled the case open and let the lid rest against her knee. "Your father was supposed to show you this, when you were old enough, sweetheart, but now..." her eyes flickered briefly to the room behind us, then back to my face. She forced a smile. "I don't know how long your Mother will remain in contact with us, so I have to do this now. This, Aslin Volpe, is your family."
She gestured to everyone around us, and a few of the strange looking ones waved or winked at us as they were indicated. I waved back tentatively. Then great-grandmother gestured at the case in her lap. "And this is your family too. This is your history, Aslin. This is where your power comes from."
My dream child-self didn't understand, but my now-self waited eagerly for great-grandmother to continue. I didn't remember this day from my childhood, but I knew this information was that which I was seeking. This would explain my youkai blood.
Great-grandmother picked up a photograph that sat on the top of the pile. "This is your mother and father, as you know, Aslin. Your father, Okami, was my daughter Yuki's son. Yuki is in the other room with your mother right now. This," she pulled an old black and white photograph of a pretty lady in an elaborate kimono and wide, crisp obi, from under the picture of Dad and Mom. She had a very white face and an elaborate hairstyle. Two loops of hair resembled ears. "Is Yuki, your grandmother. She was a geisha in the Kyoto district. She met a lovely Italian business man there and they were married and had Okami."
Great-grandmother set aside those photographs and picked up a delicate looking scroll of rice paper. This she unrolled and an ink painting of a young Japanese woman in an simplistic yet beautiful kimono unfolded before my awe-struck eyes.
"This is me," great-grandmother said, "This is Suneki when she was just a young woman. We didn't have cameras then. Oh, it was a long time ago. The people of our line don't live as long as we used to, but us older ones can still span centuries. I ended up falling in love with a short-lived ningen, of course..."
She set that aside in favour of another, similar yet older scroll. By this time several of the strange people around us had drawn close to look over our shoulders. There were shouts of, "Oh, lookit what Yuki used to look like!" or "That's my aunty!", and other similar things, but I blocked them out.
I needed to know who was next.
This scroll also held an ink painting of a young woman, but her kimono was slightly more elaborate, the brush strokes more delicate and light. Art from a different era.
"This is my Mother, Kitsu. She was the daughter of a Powerful Lord. He lost some of his power later, and now there is no record that our family even held the position at all. I marvelled that she had the same vibrant red hair of my great-grandmother's. "She married a Ningen. My Mother, passed away during the first world war. It was all just too shocking for her. Ah, this," she set aside the scrolls for a wood carving, again, of a lovely young woman, except this time she was dressed in wide pants with a haori shirt and held a bow and quiver. I could see the flaking paint on the block, and saw that the pants used to be red, the haori cream coloured. Her hair, strangely, seemed to have been painted a light grey.
My child-dream-self didn't know it, of course, but my now-self recognized her - she reminded me of the Miko girl.
"This," great-grandmother continued, "is the Miko Kaede. She was named after an old family legend. She was a great priestess, very kind and very powerful."
Around us a few of the strange people murmured their consent. "She married a wolf youkai by the name of Ginta. Both were slain in the Meji wars, along with Ginta's best friend Hakkaku. Ah," she laughed slightly as she found a small rock painted to look like a face. "Kitsu painted this of her father's friend Kouga. Kouga's still around here somewhere, I suppose. He had been desperately in love with a Miko, who had chosen to marry a hanyou over him. There was another woman he had loved as well, a hanyou girl whose name no one can remember, but she vanished before he could ask her to be his mate, while he was still seeking out the Miko. There was a youkai girl too, Ayame, but she ended up marrying a prince in a political alliance with the southern Wolf Tribe."
The long list of names was starting to make my child-self head's spin, but my now-self recognized the people she spoke of. Good god! I was descended from the Skunk-haired Wolf Youkai Ginta!? The same one that Kouga said he would GIVE me to!?
Creepy!
It was obvious that I would have to get away from the wolves, and soon, if I didn't want to throw a proverbial wrench in history.
And who was this other woman that Kouga wanted? Obviously the Miko he pinned for was the Kagome I knew now, and the hanyou she married had to be that Inu Yasha. Did I know this other hanyou woman? Had I met her already without knowing it? Perhaps while I was held prisoner by Naraku?
And the thought that Kouga may still be skulking around in the modern world sort of made my skin crawl. I could have run into him before when I was younger and not have even known it.
Great-grandmother set aside the rock and shifted through piles of other photos and scrolls of similar looking people - Aunts, Uncles and cousins, I expected - and finally retrieved an ink painting of two people.
One was a lovely young lady with silver hair and bright green eyes. She carried a long glaive, and her hair was drawn up in a high ponytail. Her clothing was tight and black and I could tell instantly that it was of the same design as Sango's uniform. "This is Kakera," my great-grandmother pointed to the woman with gnarled fingers, "a great youkai taijiya." Then she pointed to the young man beside her in the most embellished outfit I had ever seen. It resembled Kagewaki's, but by the detail in the patterns, I could tell it was far more expensive. "This is her husband, a Kitsune Youkai named Shippou. He was a Kitsune Taiyoukai in the Feudal Wars era. He gained the position after the Taiyoukai before him adopted him as his son for his bravery. Shippou, you see, was a member of the Naraku o ou Mono: those who pursed Naraku."
I shuddered in my now-body and I felt Kabau snuggle closer to my physical body on the pelts, probably thinking I was shivering with the cold.
Shippou. THAT's where I knew the name from. Shippou was my great-great-great-great-grandfather! I looked at the painting before me again and yes, his hair was the same bright red, and I could just make out his tail poking out of the back of his haori, and the pointed ears.
And the 'Naraku o ou Mono'... .Those Who Pursued Naraku'... they had to be the people I saw at Naraku's castle, attacking... the monk, the miko, the child, the warrior, the cat, and the hanyou... these people would pass into legend, and I had watched them fight.
I wanted to stop the dream, to change it from a memory into a reality where I could ask questions, ask what had happened them, ask where I fit in with history...
But this was the re-living of a distant and forgotten memory, and nothing more.
Great-grandmother plowed on, pointing to yet another woodcutting, but I had trouble paying attention. That child I had seen, the one Kouga had tried to get the wolves to kill, he was one of my ancestors!?
"This is Souta," the old woman said, and pointed to the male on the woodcutting. I gasped because he looked almost exactly like that Inu Yasha hanyou! "He is the son of a hanyou named Inu Yasha and the Miko Kagome. They were part of the 'Naraku o ou Mono' as well. Souta married this woman, Yumirin," he pointed to a black-haired human lovely, "the daughter of a youkai taijya named Sango, and the Houshin Miroku. Also members of 'Naraku o ou Mono,' the last of whom was Kouga. Miroku had been cursed by Naraku with a kazana and their daughter was born before he was slain - to prevent the curse from continuing Kagome gave Sango a shard of the legendary Shikon no Tama, and placed it within her womb. That shard has been reborn inside each generation's female - and has been passed onto you, sweetheart."
Great-grandmother rubbed my tummy and my child-self didn't understand at all why she was doing it. My now self was paralysed with horror and understanding.
"Legend says that one of her ancestors travelled back and time to return the shard to the Miko Kagome so she could repair the Shikon no Tama, and use it to destroy the evil Naraku, but no one has done that in this family yet. The traveller may be many generations off, yet, Aslin."
"Don't stop there," a deep voice rumbled and great-grandmother and I both looked up into the handsome face of a young man with silver hair and strange moon and slash-shaped markings on his face. They looked like too permanent a kind of mark to have been tattoos. "What of Inu Yasha's father, the Great Inu Taiyoukai?"
"I have not forgotten, Sesshoumaru-sama," great-grandmother smiled at the young man. She pulled out another woodcutting, this time of a large white dog. "This is Inu Yasha and Sesshoumaru's father, the Great Inu Taiyoukai. Sesshoumaru-sama here, Aslin, is the Lord of the Western Lands. He is also your great-great-great-great-great-great-Uncle."
Sesshoumaru put a finger under my chin and turned my chubby face to his, his golden eyes narrowing so he could study me. "She has the eyes of the Wolves. But she looks like my half-brother... her nose is the same, turned up. Is she Okami's daughter?"
My Great-grandmother nodded.
"Ah, then my deepest sympathies, for the loss of your grandson, Suneki," the man rumbled. He bowed formally to my great-grandmother, which I thought strange, and she bowed back, but hers was far more deep. He then excused himself, and everyone else around us bowed deeply too.
"Wait!" I said as he walked away, and everyone assembled gasped at my audacity. I didn't realize that I had committed an offence of decorum as I scrambled off my great-grandmother's lap to run after him and tug on his blazer tail. I was too young and far too Western to know how one was supposed to address a taiyoukai. "What happened to Inu Yasha? Is he still alive?"
Sesshoumaru's eyes flashed briefly, and then he knelt to meet my eyes. I could hear the murmurs of disbelief around me. "You are quite the audacious one," he smiled gently. "You remind me of my Rin. To answer your question, child... Inu Yasha and his Miko Kagome are now figures of youkai legend. They used the Shikon no Tama to fight the evil youkai of the world for countless years, purifying many, including myself... After Kagome, who was human, passed away, Inu Yasha consumed the Shikon no Tama and made himself human as well - he followed his beloved Miko soon after."
He then stood, patted my head, and wandered into the other room, where I had heard my mother crying earlier. I turned back to my great-grandmother, to see that she had packed up all of the pictures and scrolls already. I walked back over to her, and she made as if to hand me the wooden case.
"This is for you, Aslin, to remember the stories with and to pass them onto your children."
I nodded and reached up and out for the case, but before I could touch it, hands snatched it out of my great-grandmother's and threw it down onto the sofa.
My mother stood there, seething at the old woman. "Don't you give that foul thing to her! Okami wanted to show her and I never let him! My daughter is not like you freaks!"
There were a few stifled shouts of protests, but my Mother had already grabbed my hand and dragged me into the room where the long wooden box was. I could see Sesshoumaru standing beside it, looking at what was inside. He had laid his hand next to something inside of it, but I was too short to be able to see over the rim to discover what. When my mother marched up to stand beside him, and cleared her throat rudely, he glared at her with a fire that I found myself afraid of.
Then he looked down at me and the fire faded away. He patted my head once more and walked away, his long white hair flowing out behind him.
"Whatever that woman said to you, Aslin," my mother spat, and I was surprised to hear such hatred in her voice. I'd never heard her sound so... mean... before. And she was still glaring at Sesshoumaru's retreating back. "Forget it. Forget every word of it."
"But Daddy's family--" I had begun, but Mom had cut me off:
"Forget it!"
And so I did.
~~~
I awoke with a startled gasp, my heart pattering fit to burst, a thin sheen of sweat on my forehead. I sat ramrod straight, my mouth hanging open.
Kabau whined and I reached out and patted him absently.
Oh my god.
...I knew who I was...
~~~
Author's note:
So there you have it!
Please, also re-read the previous chapter, as I had to do a little bit of fandangling to get the final chapter to coinside with that one. So we're at about 15 of 19, I think. We'll see if any more adds itself as I go.
Once again, thanks to everyone who's reviewed and given me feedback. This is my most popular story so far, in regards to reviews.
Also, does anyone know of Inu Yasha fanfic contests that I might be able to enter?
Again, thanks, and have a great week of holidays, all!
Reviews:
InuyashazFukaiMori: I hope this clears everything up for you. ^_^ And fan art will be LOVED.
Rainy Dimaond12: Way to go! What a close guess!
Pallas Athena1: Updated as per your request. I know this chapter solves a lot of mysteries, but don't forget that there are three left!
Sailor-Armitage: What a great name! I know Kouga is engaged to Ayame - read my authors notes for the previous chapters. I'm glad that you hate Naraku - that means I did a good job.
anime-luvver: I hope that this chapter helps bring all the hints together. Taiyoukai, fox, hanyou, dog, wolf... heh heh heh ...
Skitzoflame: So very close! I think there were even enough "great"s!
"Funeral"
by Vega
It was a dream, again, and this time no sandalwood scent tickled my nose. Which meant that the memories the dreams were built on were entirely my own. I was dreaming of my great-grandmother again - my father's grandmother.
In the dream, I was very very young.
I don't remember where we were... somewhere strange and solemn. I thought about it long and hard and realized that we were sitting on a sofa with the older lady in a long cherry-panelled hallway. I was wearing a new dress, and it was all black. There were many people milling around us, also wearing black. Some of them looked like normal Caucasians, and some like regular Asians, but there were others...
Others with bright amber eyes. Others with long silver hair. Others with strange tattoos and long fingernails. Others that were so tall they had to duck to go through doors. Others so short that I towered over them.
My mother was in the room behind me, and I could hear her crying. I wondered where my father was - I couldn't see him. I hadn't seen him in days, not since Mom and my's last visit to see him in the hospital. And Mom hadn't stopped crying since.
I was sitting on great-grandmother's lap, on this sofa in the hallway. It was a coral coloured sofa, I remember that, because I had been staring at the cushions for a long time before great-grandmother found me there and hoisted me onto her lap.
She was very strong and limber for an old lady. And her hair was so very red. It sat curled in two buns at the top of her head.
"Aslin, honey," she said, and her eyes drifted to the new patent leather shoes on my feet. "Ah, those were the right size for you. I'm glad you like them."
I didn't like them, of course, but Mom told me it was impolite to tell someone that you hate the gift they've given you.
Great-grandmother patted the shiny black shoes once, then her leather-like hand reached lower, into the black crocheted bag that was under the sofa. She pulled it up and with my help we freed a wooden case the size of her lap from the bag.
"Now, are you paying attention, dear?" I nodded and watched carefully as she spun a code on the lock on the side of the case - I don't remember what the numbers were, of course, but I knew that a secret code was needed to gain access. Then she pulled the case open and let the lid rest against her knee. "Your father was supposed to show you this, when you were old enough, sweetheart, but now..." her eyes flickered briefly to the room behind us, then back to my face. She forced a smile. "I don't know how long your Mother will remain in contact with us, so I have to do this now. This, Aslin Volpe, is your family."
She gestured to everyone around us, and a few of the strange looking ones waved or winked at us as they were indicated. I waved back tentatively. Then great-grandmother gestured at the case in her lap. "And this is your family too. This is your history, Aslin. This is where your power comes from."
My dream child-self didn't understand, but my now-self waited eagerly for great-grandmother to continue. I didn't remember this day from my childhood, but I knew this information was that which I was seeking. This would explain my youkai blood.
Great-grandmother picked up a photograph that sat on the top of the pile. "This is your mother and father, as you know, Aslin. Your father, Okami, was my daughter Yuki's son. Yuki is in the other room with your mother right now. This," she pulled an old black and white photograph of a pretty lady in an elaborate kimono and wide, crisp obi, from under the picture of Dad and Mom. She had a very white face and an elaborate hairstyle. Two loops of hair resembled ears. "Is Yuki, your grandmother. She was a geisha in the Kyoto district. She met a lovely Italian business man there and they were married and had Okami."
Great-grandmother set aside those photographs and picked up a delicate looking scroll of rice paper. This she unrolled and an ink painting of a young Japanese woman in an simplistic yet beautiful kimono unfolded before my awe-struck eyes.
"This is me," great-grandmother said, "This is Suneki when she was just a young woman. We didn't have cameras then. Oh, it was a long time ago. The people of our line don't live as long as we used to, but us older ones can still span centuries. I ended up falling in love with a short-lived ningen, of course..."
She set that aside in favour of another, similar yet older scroll. By this time several of the strange people around us had drawn close to look over our shoulders. There were shouts of, "Oh, lookit what Yuki used to look like!" or "That's my aunty!", and other similar things, but I blocked them out.
I needed to know who was next.
This scroll also held an ink painting of a young woman, but her kimono was slightly more elaborate, the brush strokes more delicate and light. Art from a different era.
"This is my Mother, Kitsu. She was the daughter of a Powerful Lord. He lost some of his power later, and now there is no record that our family even held the position at all. I marvelled that she had the same vibrant red hair of my great-grandmother's. "She married a Ningen. My Mother, passed away during the first world war. It was all just too shocking for her. Ah, this," she set aside the scrolls for a wood carving, again, of a lovely young woman, except this time she was dressed in wide pants with a haori shirt and held a bow and quiver. I could see the flaking paint on the block, and saw that the pants used to be red, the haori cream coloured. Her hair, strangely, seemed to have been painted a light grey.
My child-dream-self didn't know it, of course, but my now-self recognized her - she reminded me of the Miko girl.
"This," great-grandmother continued, "is the Miko Kaede. She was named after an old family legend. She was a great priestess, very kind and very powerful."
Around us a few of the strange people murmured their consent. "She married a wolf youkai by the name of Ginta. Both were slain in the Meji wars, along with Ginta's best friend Hakkaku. Ah," she laughed slightly as she found a small rock painted to look like a face. "Kitsu painted this of her father's friend Kouga. Kouga's still around here somewhere, I suppose. He had been desperately in love with a Miko, who had chosen to marry a hanyou over him. There was another woman he had loved as well, a hanyou girl whose name no one can remember, but she vanished before he could ask her to be his mate, while he was still seeking out the Miko. There was a youkai girl too, Ayame, but she ended up marrying a prince in a political alliance with the southern Wolf Tribe."
The long list of names was starting to make my child-self head's spin, but my now-self recognized the people she spoke of. Good god! I was descended from the Skunk-haired Wolf Youkai Ginta!? The same one that Kouga said he would GIVE me to!?
Creepy!
It was obvious that I would have to get away from the wolves, and soon, if I didn't want to throw a proverbial wrench in history.
And who was this other woman that Kouga wanted? Obviously the Miko he pinned for was the Kagome I knew now, and the hanyou she married had to be that Inu Yasha. Did I know this other hanyou woman? Had I met her already without knowing it? Perhaps while I was held prisoner by Naraku?
And the thought that Kouga may still be skulking around in the modern world sort of made my skin crawl. I could have run into him before when I was younger and not have even known it.
Great-grandmother set aside the rock and shifted through piles of other photos and scrolls of similar looking people - Aunts, Uncles and cousins, I expected - and finally retrieved an ink painting of two people.
One was a lovely young lady with silver hair and bright green eyes. She carried a long glaive, and her hair was drawn up in a high ponytail. Her clothing was tight and black and I could tell instantly that it was of the same design as Sango's uniform. "This is Kakera," my great-grandmother pointed to the woman with gnarled fingers, "a great youkai taijiya." Then she pointed to the young man beside her in the most embellished outfit I had ever seen. It resembled Kagewaki's, but by the detail in the patterns, I could tell it was far more expensive. "This is her husband, a Kitsune Youkai named Shippou. He was a Kitsune Taiyoukai in the Feudal Wars era. He gained the position after the Taiyoukai before him adopted him as his son for his bravery. Shippou, you see, was a member of the Naraku o ou Mono: those who pursed Naraku."
I shuddered in my now-body and I felt Kabau snuggle closer to my physical body on the pelts, probably thinking I was shivering with the cold.
Shippou. THAT's where I knew the name from. Shippou was my great-great-great-great-grandfather! I looked at the painting before me again and yes, his hair was the same bright red, and I could just make out his tail poking out of the back of his haori, and the pointed ears.
And the 'Naraku o ou Mono'... .Those Who Pursued Naraku'... they had to be the people I saw at Naraku's castle, attacking... the monk, the miko, the child, the warrior, the cat, and the hanyou... these people would pass into legend, and I had watched them fight.
I wanted to stop the dream, to change it from a memory into a reality where I could ask questions, ask what had happened them, ask where I fit in with history...
But this was the re-living of a distant and forgotten memory, and nothing more.
Great-grandmother plowed on, pointing to yet another woodcutting, but I had trouble paying attention. That child I had seen, the one Kouga had tried to get the wolves to kill, he was one of my ancestors!?
"This is Souta," the old woman said, and pointed to the male on the woodcutting. I gasped because he looked almost exactly like that Inu Yasha hanyou! "He is the son of a hanyou named Inu Yasha and the Miko Kagome. They were part of the 'Naraku o ou Mono' as well. Souta married this woman, Yumirin," he pointed to a black-haired human lovely, "the daughter of a youkai taijya named Sango, and the Houshin Miroku. Also members of 'Naraku o ou Mono,' the last of whom was Kouga. Miroku had been cursed by Naraku with a kazana and their daughter was born before he was slain - to prevent the curse from continuing Kagome gave Sango a shard of the legendary Shikon no Tama, and placed it within her womb. That shard has been reborn inside each generation's female - and has been passed onto you, sweetheart."
Great-grandmother rubbed my tummy and my child-self didn't understand at all why she was doing it. My now self was paralysed with horror and understanding.
"Legend says that one of her ancestors travelled back and time to return the shard to the Miko Kagome so she could repair the Shikon no Tama, and use it to destroy the evil Naraku, but no one has done that in this family yet. The traveller may be many generations off, yet, Aslin."
"Don't stop there," a deep voice rumbled and great-grandmother and I both looked up into the handsome face of a young man with silver hair and strange moon and slash-shaped markings on his face. They looked like too permanent a kind of mark to have been tattoos. "What of Inu Yasha's father, the Great Inu Taiyoukai?"
"I have not forgotten, Sesshoumaru-sama," great-grandmother smiled at the young man. She pulled out another woodcutting, this time of a large white dog. "This is Inu Yasha and Sesshoumaru's father, the Great Inu Taiyoukai. Sesshoumaru-sama here, Aslin, is the Lord of the Western Lands. He is also your great-great-great-great-great-great-Uncle."
Sesshoumaru put a finger under my chin and turned my chubby face to his, his golden eyes narrowing so he could study me. "She has the eyes of the Wolves. But she looks like my half-brother... her nose is the same, turned up. Is she Okami's daughter?"
My Great-grandmother nodded.
"Ah, then my deepest sympathies, for the loss of your grandson, Suneki," the man rumbled. He bowed formally to my great-grandmother, which I thought strange, and she bowed back, but hers was far more deep. He then excused himself, and everyone else around us bowed deeply too.
"Wait!" I said as he walked away, and everyone assembled gasped at my audacity. I didn't realize that I had committed an offence of decorum as I scrambled off my great-grandmother's lap to run after him and tug on his blazer tail. I was too young and far too Western to know how one was supposed to address a taiyoukai. "What happened to Inu Yasha? Is he still alive?"
Sesshoumaru's eyes flashed briefly, and then he knelt to meet my eyes. I could hear the murmurs of disbelief around me. "You are quite the audacious one," he smiled gently. "You remind me of my Rin. To answer your question, child... Inu Yasha and his Miko Kagome are now figures of youkai legend. They used the Shikon no Tama to fight the evil youkai of the world for countless years, purifying many, including myself... After Kagome, who was human, passed away, Inu Yasha consumed the Shikon no Tama and made himself human as well - he followed his beloved Miko soon after."
He then stood, patted my head, and wandered into the other room, where I had heard my mother crying earlier. I turned back to my great-grandmother, to see that she had packed up all of the pictures and scrolls already. I walked back over to her, and she made as if to hand me the wooden case.
"This is for you, Aslin, to remember the stories with and to pass them onto your children."
I nodded and reached up and out for the case, but before I could touch it, hands snatched it out of my great-grandmother's and threw it down onto the sofa.
My mother stood there, seething at the old woman. "Don't you give that foul thing to her! Okami wanted to show her and I never let him! My daughter is not like you freaks!"
There were a few stifled shouts of protests, but my Mother had already grabbed my hand and dragged me into the room where the long wooden box was. I could see Sesshoumaru standing beside it, looking at what was inside. He had laid his hand next to something inside of it, but I was too short to be able to see over the rim to discover what. When my mother marched up to stand beside him, and cleared her throat rudely, he glared at her with a fire that I found myself afraid of.
Then he looked down at me and the fire faded away. He patted my head once more and walked away, his long white hair flowing out behind him.
"Whatever that woman said to you, Aslin," my mother spat, and I was surprised to hear such hatred in her voice. I'd never heard her sound so... mean... before. And she was still glaring at Sesshoumaru's retreating back. "Forget it. Forget every word of it."
"But Daddy's family--" I had begun, but Mom had cut me off:
"Forget it!"
And so I did.
~~~
I awoke with a startled gasp, my heart pattering fit to burst, a thin sheen of sweat on my forehead. I sat ramrod straight, my mouth hanging open.
Kabau whined and I reached out and patted him absently.
Oh my god.
...I knew who I was...
~~~
Author's note:
So there you have it!
Please, also re-read the previous chapter, as I had to do a little bit of fandangling to get the final chapter to coinside with that one. So we're at about 15 of 19, I think. We'll see if any more adds itself as I go.
Once again, thanks to everyone who's reviewed and given me feedback. This is my most popular story so far, in regards to reviews.
Also, does anyone know of Inu Yasha fanfic contests that I might be able to enter?
Again, thanks, and have a great week of holidays, all!
Reviews:
InuyashazFukaiMori: I hope this clears everything up for you. ^_^ And fan art will be LOVED.
Rainy Dimaond12: Way to go! What a close guess!
Pallas Athena1: Updated as per your request. I know this chapter solves a lot of mysteries, but don't forget that there are three left!
Sailor-Armitage: What a great name! I know Kouga is engaged to Ayame - read my authors notes for the previous chapters. I'm glad that you hate Naraku - that means I did a good job.
anime-luvver: I hope that this chapter helps bring all the hints together. Taiyoukai, fox, hanyou, dog, wolf... heh heh heh ...
Skitzoflame: So very close! I think there were even enough "great"s!