The Forgotten Child
Chapter 8
written by Kat Aubuchon
patiently edited by Windlily
Kitsuryuu's fire friend had been shedding
massive amounts of youki into the fire. Merely
cooling her friend had not been enough and she
had been forced to stand facing the fire so that
she would be in a better position to block the
heat. Finally, with the biggest burst of youki
she had ever felt, he passed out. She was barely
able to hold back the heat as that final wave of
youki made the fire constrict into a tight ball
that burned white hot. For the next few minutes
Kitsuryuu thought that she was going to choke to
death as the collar pressed harder and tighter
into her throat. Black spots appeared in front of
her vision and she was on the verge of losing
consciousness when everything suddenly stopped.
She dropped to her knees gasping for air and
fought the need to just lay down and sleep. She
shifted forms from ice to fire as she crawled over
to the unconscious man and was frantic when she
couldn't wake him. She relaxed when she realized
that he was only in a deep and exhausted sleep.
Kitsuryuu made him as comfortable as she could in
the bed of grass and sat down beside him. She
gave a big yawn and tried to decide if she should
follow his example and sleep when out of the
corner of her eye she caught a movement on the
floor where the fire had been.
She cautiously approached the blackened pit,
thinking that some kind of animal had wandered
uninvited into her cave. Kitsuryuu was surprised
by the naked little thing that was waving it's
tiny arms and legs in the air. With a curiosity
that had gotten her into trouble more times than
not, she reached down for the creature that looked
just like the little dolls Koori was constantly
playing with.
Her palm touched it's warm little belly and
there was a spark of connection between the two of
them. She knew instantly that this tiny thing had
come from the wonderful fire the sleeping man
behind her had made. It was a baby, so small and
helpless she didn't think it would be able to last
the warm summer night on it's own. He began to
wiggle under her hand so she rubbed tiny circles
over his belly to quiet him. This created the
opposite effect and the infant began to squirm
restlessly. Kitsuryuu was wondering if she should
try and pick the baby up when he opened his eyes
for the first time. Beautiful green eyes, eyes
the same color as the green flames, looked at her
from his round little face.
There was no more question about picking him
up once she had seen those eyes. They were her
favorite color and held a quite plea in their
cool, green depths. She was very careful to hold
the baby's head like Koori had shown her with the
dolls they played with until she had him settled
in the crook of her arm. Kitsuryuu then rocked
back and forth on her heels with the baby in her
arms and watched him intently as he gave a big
yawn and curled tighter against her.
Kitsuryuu bent her face to the baby and
nuzzled his soft face and neck with her nose,
extracting an infinitely light vibration from the
center of his chest. She closed her eyes and
opened her senses to their fullest as she placed
her cheek against his slightly rounded belly to
feel the tiny noise that he made. She memorized
the feel of his skin and his scent and wondered if
her fire friend knew what a pretty baby he had
made.
Somewhere in the back of her mind Kitsuryuu
remembered that Koori said babies needed to be
wrapped up so they didn't get cold. She thought
the baby felt warm enough, but Koori knew more
about 'people' things than she did so she wrapped
him tightly in her favorite shirt. Kitsuryuu was
a little disappointed that the baby wasn't hers to
keep as she bundled him up, but she hadn't been
the one that had gone through all the work to make
the pretty fire.
She took the baby to her fire friend and
shook him until the sleeping man opened his eyes.
When he did, he blinked up at her in much the same
manner as the baby had and it made her smile. She
tried to offer the wrapped bundle to him but he
reached past it to pick up a lock of her red-black
hair and rubbed it between his fingers.
He looked up at her with confusion in his red
eyes as he held on to her hair. It was the first
time Kitsuryuu had a chance to really look at the
color of his eyes. It had been a while since she
had seen her own reflection, but she thought that
his eyes were the same color as her own, just a
shade darker than either Koori's or Fuyu's.
Kitsuryuu gently pulled her hair from his
hand and offered the baby to him again. He didn't
even look at the bundle in her hands and tried to
talk to her instead. She placed a quieting finger
to his lips and shook her head. She tried to
communicate to him that she wasn't able to hear
but he just scowled back at her. She didn't
understand why he was acting the way he was.
she
thought.
Kitsuryuu huffed, her version of a sigh, then
placed the baby forcefully against the man's chest
and wrapped his arms around the child for him. He
narrowed his eyes and glared at her and she smiled
sweetly, then grabbed a fistful of his spiky black
hair and made him look down at what was in his
arms.
At first he just stared, then seemed to
slowly become aware of what is was he held. There
was an expression she couldn't read in his face as
he touched the baby's cheek, then he pressed it
tight against his chest. He turned on his side
and curled himself around the tiny form and she
rubbed his back with the same small circles she
had used on the baby. He began the deep
vibrations Kitsuryuu had felt before and she
leaned her face to rest against his side so that
she could feel them better. It definitely felt
like rolling thunder instead of the gentle beating
of a heart.
With a contented smile she lifted her head
and watched the two of them, her Little People,
lay together. The shirt she wrapped the baby in
had fallen onto her fire friend's face so she
pulled it back and tucked it tighter under the
baby's head. Just before she pulled her hand away
she felt something smooth and hot roll across her
palm. She instinctively closed her hand to
capture it.
When she opened her palm she found a perfect
little black gem. She just stared at it in
confusion. She had seen Koori cry tiny, ice blue
gems the first time they met when the little one
had hurt her arm, but she hadn't known that other
people could cry them too.
Kitsuryuu felt a rhythmic pounding on the
outside wall of her den and slipped the still warm
gem into her pocket. The cadence of the pounding
indicated that Mechiko was the one banging on the
hill face. The strength of each hit told her that
there was something of importance happening. She
looked back into the sleeping face of the baby and
her fire friend and felt a nearly overwhelming
need to protect them and to send Mechiko away.
The pounding increased and the rhythm changed
to Maryoku's emergency signal. She became
slightly alarmed that Maryoku was the one now
pounding against the hill. She decided that if
she was going to protect these two very important
people then she needed to see what had gotten
Mechiko *and* Maryoku upset.
With an awkward gesture, Kitsuryuu leaned
down and kissed the baby's smooth cheek. She
debated whether or not to kiss her fire friend's
cheek also and decided against it. Kitsuryuu was
not very comfortable with showing affection in her
'people' forms. She would much rather give a lick
of her kitsune tongue than press her lips against
someone. The latter always left her more open and
was something she never did except to Koori.
The pounding increased to the point that dirt
was falling from the inside of the den wall.
Kitsuryuu quickly scrambled to her feet and was
about to change into a kitsune, then thought
better of it. Maryoku would be expecting her to
come out the back entrance of her cave. With a
mischievous gleam in her red eyes Kitsuryuu went
to the little used front entrance and worked her
way through the tangle of vines. She delighted in
confounding Maryoku. He was always so smug with
his precise predictions and accurate assessments
and it made her feel useful to deflate his ego
once and a while.
Mechiko and Maryoku were still pounding at
the hill side and watching the back entrance when
she poked her head out from the brambles. She
brought her hands sharply together to get their
attention and they both jumped, startled by the
noise.
Kitsuryuu started to sign frantically,
telling them all about the beautiful fire, her new
friend and the baby. She didn't notice that
neither one of them could understand until Maryoku
reached out and grabbed her hands. She had
expected Maryoku to be annoyed that she had fooled
him again, but there was fear in his eyes instead
of the chiding look and frown he normally gave her
when he was angry.
She calmed down and concentrated on watching
his hands. This new way of signing Maryoku was
teaching her was harder but she could express so
much more with it than the gestures she and Koori
had made up. All the kids had learned the signing
with her and Maryoku had told them to speak while
they were signing so that maybe someday she could
read their lips. Her eyes grew to almost eclipse
her face when she realized what he was telling
her.
/What do you mean, leave them?/ she signed
angrily back.
"You have to leave them here, Kitsuryuu.
Parents are coming and they are looking for them.
You can't let them see you!"
/Will they hurt them?/ she asked, alarmed.
"No, but they are coming to take them home.
To watch them."
/Tell 'Parents' to go away. I am staying
here with the Little People to watch them./
Maryoku's face turned a violent shade of red
and he threw his hands up in exasperation.
Apparently she was confusing him again, but right
now it wasn't amusing. He wanted her to leave,
and even though she knew that there were humans
among the 'parents', Kitsuryuu did not want to
leave her new friend and his beautiful baby.
Kitsuryuu and Maryoku continued to 'yell' at
each other, their signing becoming almost
incoherent to the other as their tempers clashed.
Finally Kitsuryuu had enough and told him that she
didn't care if there was an entire 'city' of
humans coming, she wasn't going to leave them.
She went to turn away and the world when
black.
#############
Kitsuryuu woke to a throbbing in her head and
a nerveless body. She tried to move but none of
her limbs wished to respond just yet, so she
decided to open her eyes instead. To her surprise
only the right one would open and even that small
movement caused pain to lance through her already
pounding skull. After several attempts to open
her left eye she forcibly moved her arm and placed
her fingers on the unresponsive eyelid. She could
feel that there was something hard and crusty over
her eye, holding it shut. She scraped some of it
off with her short nails and moved her hand so
that the eye that worked could see it.
She had hunted and killed enough animals to
immediately recognize the blackish red substance
as dried blood. Her next concern was who's blood
was it.
She made another attempt to roll to her hands
and knees but a wave of dizziness made her fall
back down. She caught herself before her head hit
the ground and the motion of falling caused the
throbbing pain to increase behind her closed eyes.
She decided that it would be better if she made a
complete assessment of her condition before she
tried to get up again.
Moving each of her limbs in turn she found
that while she was stiff from sleeping in this
form instead of her kitsune shape, nothing was
broken. She moved her hands over her skin looking
for anything amiss. When her hands got to her
head she found her problem.
On the left side of her face there was good
sized knot just forward of the jaw joint that
protested loudly when she touched it. Her fingers
traveled farther up and discovered a wide bandage
wrapped tightly around her head. The wound that it
covered must have not stopped bleeding for quite
some time after it was applied. An abundance of
dried blood was now holding her eye shut and had
glued the bandage to her skin and hair.
Kitsuryuu moved very slowly and managed to
get up this time. She sat with her hands in her
lap and tried to remember what had brought her to
this condition. She thought back and remembered
being in her den with the fire friend who made the
beautiful fire. She smiled when she remembered
what had been inside the bright flames that had
turned the back wall into shiny glass.
Kitsuryuu reached into her pocket and pulled
out the hard black stone and looked at it. She
had slipped the gem into her pocket and felt very
guilty about taking it. Koori had told her that
stealing was wrong but she had wanted something to
keep, to remember them by when they left.
Still, none of these things explained why she
had a huge headache and a bandage on her head.
Kitsuryuu's head snapped up when she remember why
her face was such a mess. Maryoku had *hit* her!
She could have seen the punch coming from Mechiko,
Arashi, or even Fuyu, but *Maryoku*?! Kitsuryuu
quickly came to her feet driven by a temper that
burned hotter than any fire she could ever create.
She ignored her pains and stomped out of the cave.
She was furious to think that Maryoku,
completely untrained in fighting, had not only
gotten through her defenses but had knock her out
with *one* blow. She was growling deep in her
chest as she reached up and brutally ripped the
bandage from her head, completely unaware of the
small animals that cringed out of her way. She
was so lost in her anger that she didn't register
the many hairs that tore from her scalp or that
she had reopened the large cut above her eye.
She wasn't mad that he had hit her so much as
she was pissed that because of his interference
she was forced to leave her Little People
unprotected from the humans. Maryoku had said
that he would watch over them but she would have
felt a lot better if she had of been the one to
protect them.
Once she arrived at the stream she plunged
her entire head under the water and let the sting
of the open wound and the chill of the water calm
her temper. She lifted her head and watched the
rust colored water cascade down from her blood
encrusted hair with her right eye.
She cursed herself for being an idiot and
letting down her guard as she worked at getting
the dried blood out of her hair and eye. She
coolly thought about all the wonderful, nasty
things she could do to Maryoku as she washed her
hair until the water ran clear.
After her temper was spent, Kitsuryuu
regretted pulling the bandage off the way she had.
She should have soaked it off so that the wound
would have stayed closed. A thin trickle of blood
still flowed from the cut and collected in the
ridge of her left eyebrow before flowing down the
side of her face.
She searched the ground and found where she
had thrown the bandage. When she picked it up she
realized that it was made from the shirt Maryoku
had been wearing. Last night she had been
completely unconcerned that the 'parents' might
find out about her, but now as she stood in the
bright, early afternoon sunlight she was worried.
She had been told many times that if the 'parents'
found out about her that they all where going to
be in really *big* trouble. She wondered if the
'parents' would be able to tell that Maryoku had
messed up his shirt for her.
Kitsuryuu knew the consequences of the
'parents' finding out about her. Maryoku had told
her that if, for any reason, they found out about
her she would have to go away. He told her that
they would make her go to a place that was worse
than the 'city' full of humans. Kitsuryuu could
never understand why her friends wanted to stay
with these 'parents' that seemed to be so mean.
She bit her lower lip between her sharp fangs
while she went over the plan Maryoku had given her
in the event that something like this ever
happened. She knew that if Maryoku was the one
that brought her to the secondary cave something
*really* bad must have happened. The first part
of the plan was for her to hide out in the woods
and wait for one of her friends to come and talk
to her. If, in seven days, no one came she was
suppose to leave the mountain and go as far as she
could and to never come back.
The thought of leaving her friends terrified
her as nothing else could. This mountain was the
only place she was safe and they were the only
friends she had ever had. Maryoku had told her
that the 'parents' would send her away because
they would think she would hurt the humans. An
ice cold sweat broke out across her skin as she
remembered the humans that had caught her when she
had left this mountain when she was young. She
couldn't see how being sent to the place called
'the Makai' could ever be worse than being
captured by humans and having them hurt her for no
reason. To have them lock her away in a space so
small she couldn't even turn around. To have them
take away the sounds that used to be all around
her. To have them cut off her tail to hang as an
ornament on their wall.
Kitsuryuu unconsciously bit hard into her lip
and swallowed the thick coppery liquid that flowed
into her mouth. It wasn't as sweet as human
blood, nor held the rush of power that drinking
human blood brought. The first and only time she
had tasted human blood was when she had escaped
Them, when she had ripped out the throat of the
human that had placed the collar around her neck.
He had been dressed differently than the
rest. He had worn long robes instead of simple
hunters clothing. When she could still hear he
used to chant words that sent bolts of pain though
her body. He was always the boldest when it came
to beating her. Once, the beating had been so bad
that she had changed from her kitsune form to her
youko for the first time to keep him from killing
her. He had put the collar and the bands that had
been around her wrists and ankles right after
that.
It had not been enough for him to be able to
control her every movement with the collar and the
bands. He had to humiliate her by cutting off her
ears, taking her hearing with them. It was then
that the hunters had gotten bolder and cut off her
tail.
On the day she escaped, they had taken her
out of the tiny cell and were making her do tricks
for their amusement. She had not eaten for days
and did not perform to their standards so they
started to beat her. The human in the robes had
gotten very close to her face and with a desperate
lunge she had captured his throat in her kitsune
fangs. He had had human power running thick in
his veins, power that had flowed out with his
blood when she took his life.
Her form had changed from kitsune to youko
without her command and the hunters had stared at
her in a combination of fear and wonder. The
blood had run down her throat and she hungrily
drank every drop that came. It had opened up an
entirely different world for her. When she hadn't
attacked them they attacked her. The blood had
made her wild with power and crazed with a fever
to kill again and again until all of the hunters
around her were dead.
Kitsuryuu's entire body had been on
automatic. Her power had flared out around her in
a corona of ice blue that froze the closest human
into a block of ice. He shattered into many
pieces when he had tumbled over onto the floor.
The rest of them had tried to run, but the fire in
her cold blood would not be satisfied by just the
one hunter's death. Vines of ice had snaked out
from her and wrapped themselves round the fleeing
humans. The sharp ice thorns on the vines had
pierced their skin, making their blood run out
from between the tight coils. The smell of their
blood had excited her more and the thorns grew
longer until they went completely through each of
their bodies.
As the rush of power started to dissipate,
Kitsuryuu had become aware of the collar and
restraints struggling to contain her power. She
regretted not being able to kill the humans again,
but she contented herself with just crushing each
of their skulls in an envelope of tiny ice thorns.
She had watched each one pop through the clear ice
before she let the collar and restraints take
over.
After that she had returned to the mountain
and the den that had been the place of her birth.
Kitsuryuu had remained alone for many years and in
all that time she never once let herself use the
hidden powers she had found. She had lived as a
kitsune and was safe, if not a little lonely,
until she met Koori.
The little girl had tripped on a log and hurt
her arm in the fall. Kitsuryuu had found her
crying on her way home from a hunt. At first
Kitsuryuu had been alarmed by the little girl's
appearance, thinking that she was a human. Then
she realized she didn't smell human or 'feel'
human. Her curiosity got the better of her and
the ice blue of the girl's hair, that was so much
like her own, intrigued her. She had slowly
approached until she was standing in front of her.
The little person had looked up and tiny blue
stones were falling from her face out of eyes that
were almost the same color as her own.
Koori had stopped crying and looked back at
Kitsuryuu with the same amount of curiosity as the
kitsune was looking at her. They had stayed like
that for a while until Kitsuryuu felt the presence
of someone new. She quickly ran off, but stayed
just out of sight to see what would happen. A
lavender haired boy came into view and took Koori
away with him.
It was several days before Kitsuryuu saw the
little girl again, but after she realized the
little person wouldn't hurt her they spent almost
every afternoon together. It hadn't been long
after the first day Koori tried to talk to her
that Kitsuryuu allowed the little girl to see her
youko form.
Kitsuryuu still had the wards on her wrists
and ankles and the collar, so the transformation
was much more painful than it was now. Koori had
held her head while she recovered and somewhere
inside herself Kitsuryuu had found another plateau
of power. It wasn't as strong as her youko form
but it was much more powerful than being a
kitsune. With a small mental nudge she had found
the fire form that allowed her to be in a 'people'
shape without all the pain of the restraints. For
a year they had met and played together before
they were 'caught'.
Koori had accidentally stayed too long and
the two of them had fallen asleep together. When
her brothers, sister, and the other two had come
looking for Koori they had found them together and
panicked. They had thought Kitsuryuu was hurting
Koori and Kitsuryuu had thought that they were
going to hurt Koori. It didn't help that
Kitsuryuu had gone crazy when she had smelled
Arashi coming.
His true self was so buried under his human
body that she had attacked him first and nearly
ripped his throat out as she had done to the other
human. Mechiko was the one that pulled her off of
him and delivered a round house kick that had
taken some of the blood fever off her.
After a lot of 'talking', and a lot of
pleading on Koori's part, they had slowly worked
out an agreement. If she learned to behave and to
*not* attack humans, then they could all be
friends. Kitsuryuu didn't want to lose their
friendship, but she didn't know what would happen
the next time she saw another human.
Kitsuryuu put her face to the wind and
smelled the storm that was coming. The years of
living in the elements had taught her how to
predict the weather. She knew that this storm was
going to hold itself over the earth for a many
days before it finally let loose of it's rain.
Strong summer rains always held secrets and
Kitsuryuu wondered what these had in store for
her.
=========
End chapter 8
Here's another chapter for you!
Kat
Chapter 8
written by Kat Aubuchon
patiently edited by Windlily
Kitsuryuu's fire friend had been shedding
massive amounts of youki into the fire. Merely
cooling her friend had not been enough and she
had been forced to stand facing the fire so that
she would be in a better position to block the
heat. Finally, with the biggest burst of youki
she had ever felt, he passed out. She was barely
able to hold back the heat as that final wave of
youki made the fire constrict into a tight ball
that burned white hot. For the next few minutes
Kitsuryuu thought that she was going to choke to
death as the collar pressed harder and tighter
into her throat. Black spots appeared in front of
her vision and she was on the verge of losing
consciousness when everything suddenly stopped.
She dropped to her knees gasping for air and
fought the need to just lay down and sleep. She
shifted forms from ice to fire as she crawled over
to the unconscious man and was frantic when she
couldn't wake him. She relaxed when she realized
that he was only in a deep and exhausted sleep.
Kitsuryuu made him as comfortable as she could in
the bed of grass and sat down beside him. She
gave a big yawn and tried to decide if she should
follow his example and sleep when out of the
corner of her eye she caught a movement on the
floor where the fire had been.
She cautiously approached the blackened pit,
thinking that some kind of animal had wandered
uninvited into her cave. Kitsuryuu was surprised
by the naked little thing that was waving it's
tiny arms and legs in the air. With a curiosity
that had gotten her into trouble more times than
not, she reached down for the creature that looked
just like the little dolls Koori was constantly
playing with.
Her palm touched it's warm little belly and
there was a spark of connection between the two of
them. She knew instantly that this tiny thing had
come from the wonderful fire the sleeping man
behind her had made. It was a baby, so small and
helpless she didn't think it would be able to last
the warm summer night on it's own. He began to
wiggle under her hand so she rubbed tiny circles
over his belly to quiet him. This created the
opposite effect and the infant began to squirm
restlessly. Kitsuryuu was wondering if she should
try and pick the baby up when he opened his eyes
for the first time. Beautiful green eyes, eyes
the same color as the green flames, looked at her
from his round little face.
There was no more question about picking him
up once she had seen those eyes. They were her
favorite color and held a quite plea in their
cool, green depths. She was very careful to hold
the baby's head like Koori had shown her with the
dolls they played with until she had him settled
in the crook of her arm. Kitsuryuu then rocked
back and forth on her heels with the baby in her
arms and watched him intently as he gave a big
yawn and curled tighter against her.
Kitsuryuu bent her face to the baby and
nuzzled his soft face and neck with her nose,
extracting an infinitely light vibration from the
center of his chest. She closed her eyes and
opened her senses to their fullest as she placed
her cheek against his slightly rounded belly to
feel the tiny noise that he made. She memorized
the feel of his skin and his scent and wondered if
her fire friend knew what a pretty baby he had
made.
Somewhere in the back of her mind Kitsuryuu
remembered that Koori said babies needed to be
wrapped up so they didn't get cold. She thought
the baby felt warm enough, but Koori knew more
about 'people' things than she did so she wrapped
him tightly in her favorite shirt. Kitsuryuu was
a little disappointed that the baby wasn't hers to
keep as she bundled him up, but she hadn't been
the one that had gone through all the work to make
the pretty fire.
She took the baby to her fire friend and
shook him until the sleeping man opened his eyes.
When he did, he blinked up at her in much the same
manner as the baby had and it made her smile. She
tried to offer the wrapped bundle to him but he
reached past it to pick up a lock of her red-black
hair and rubbed it between his fingers.
He looked up at her with confusion in his red
eyes as he held on to her hair. It was the first
time Kitsuryuu had a chance to really look at the
color of his eyes. It had been a while since she
had seen her own reflection, but she thought that
his eyes were the same color as her own, just a
shade darker than either Koori's or Fuyu's.
Kitsuryuu gently pulled her hair from his
hand and offered the baby to him again. He didn't
even look at the bundle in her hands and tried to
talk to her instead. She placed a quieting finger
to his lips and shook her head. She tried to
communicate to him that she wasn't able to hear
but he just scowled back at her. She didn't
understand why he was acting the way he was.
she
thought.
Kitsuryuu huffed, her version of a sigh, then
placed the baby forcefully against the man's chest
and wrapped his arms around the child for him. He
narrowed his eyes and glared at her and she smiled
sweetly, then grabbed a fistful of his spiky black
hair and made him look down at what was in his
arms.
At first he just stared, then seemed to
slowly become aware of what is was he held. There
was an expression she couldn't read in his face as
he touched the baby's cheek, then he pressed it
tight against his chest. He turned on his side
and curled himself around the tiny form and she
rubbed his back with the same small circles she
had used on the baby. He began the deep
vibrations Kitsuryuu had felt before and she
leaned her face to rest against his side so that
she could feel them better. It definitely felt
like rolling thunder instead of the gentle beating
of a heart.
With a contented smile she lifted her head
and watched the two of them, her Little People,
lay together. The shirt she wrapped the baby in
had fallen onto her fire friend's face so she
pulled it back and tucked it tighter under the
baby's head. Just before she pulled her hand away
she felt something smooth and hot roll across her
palm. She instinctively closed her hand to
capture it.
When she opened her palm she found a perfect
little black gem. She just stared at it in
confusion. She had seen Koori cry tiny, ice blue
gems the first time they met when the little one
had hurt her arm, but she hadn't known that other
people could cry them too.
Kitsuryuu felt a rhythmic pounding on the
outside wall of her den and slipped the still warm
gem into her pocket. The cadence of the pounding
indicated that Mechiko was the one banging on the
hill face. The strength of each hit told her that
there was something of importance happening. She
looked back into the sleeping face of the baby and
her fire friend and felt a nearly overwhelming
need to protect them and to send Mechiko away.
The pounding increased and the rhythm changed
to Maryoku's emergency signal. She became
slightly alarmed that Maryoku was the one now
pounding against the hill. She decided that if
she was going to protect these two very important
people then she needed to see what had gotten
Mechiko *and* Maryoku upset.
With an awkward gesture, Kitsuryuu leaned
down and kissed the baby's smooth cheek. She
debated whether or not to kiss her fire friend's
cheek also and decided against it. Kitsuryuu was
not very comfortable with showing affection in her
'people' forms. She would much rather give a lick
of her kitsune tongue than press her lips against
someone. The latter always left her more open and
was something she never did except to Koori.
The pounding increased to the point that dirt
was falling from the inside of the den wall.
Kitsuryuu quickly scrambled to her feet and was
about to change into a kitsune, then thought
better of it. Maryoku would be expecting her to
come out the back entrance of her cave. With a
mischievous gleam in her red eyes Kitsuryuu went
to the little used front entrance and worked her
way through the tangle of vines. She delighted in
confounding Maryoku. He was always so smug with
his precise predictions and accurate assessments
and it made her feel useful to deflate his ego
once and a while.
Mechiko and Maryoku were still pounding at
the hill side and watching the back entrance when
she poked her head out from the brambles. She
brought her hands sharply together to get their
attention and they both jumped, startled by the
noise.
Kitsuryuu started to sign frantically,
telling them all about the beautiful fire, her new
friend and the baby. She didn't notice that
neither one of them could understand until Maryoku
reached out and grabbed her hands. She had
expected Maryoku to be annoyed that she had fooled
him again, but there was fear in his eyes instead
of the chiding look and frown he normally gave her
when he was angry.
She calmed down and concentrated on watching
his hands. This new way of signing Maryoku was
teaching her was harder but she could express so
much more with it than the gestures she and Koori
had made up. All the kids had learned the signing
with her and Maryoku had told them to speak while
they were signing so that maybe someday she could
read their lips. Her eyes grew to almost eclipse
her face when she realized what he was telling
her.
/What do you mean, leave them?/ she signed
angrily back.
"You have to leave them here, Kitsuryuu.
Parents are coming and they are looking for them.
You can't let them see you!"
/Will they hurt them?/ she asked, alarmed.
"No, but they are coming to take them home.
To watch them."
/Tell 'Parents' to go away. I am staying
here with the Little People to watch them./
Maryoku's face turned a violent shade of red
and he threw his hands up in exasperation.
Apparently she was confusing him again, but right
now it wasn't amusing. He wanted her to leave,
and even though she knew that there were humans
among the 'parents', Kitsuryuu did not want to
leave her new friend and his beautiful baby.
Kitsuryuu and Maryoku continued to 'yell' at
each other, their signing becoming almost
incoherent to the other as their tempers clashed.
Finally Kitsuryuu had enough and told him that she
didn't care if there was an entire 'city' of
humans coming, she wasn't going to leave them.
She went to turn away and the world when
black.
#############
Kitsuryuu woke to a throbbing in her head and
a nerveless body. She tried to move but none of
her limbs wished to respond just yet, so she
decided to open her eyes instead. To her surprise
only the right one would open and even that small
movement caused pain to lance through her already
pounding skull. After several attempts to open
her left eye she forcibly moved her arm and placed
her fingers on the unresponsive eyelid. She could
feel that there was something hard and crusty over
her eye, holding it shut. She scraped some of it
off with her short nails and moved her hand so
that the eye that worked could see it.
She had hunted and killed enough animals to
immediately recognize the blackish red substance
as dried blood. Her next concern was who's blood
was it.
She made another attempt to roll to her hands
and knees but a wave of dizziness made her fall
back down. She caught herself before her head hit
the ground and the motion of falling caused the
throbbing pain to increase behind her closed eyes.
She decided that it would be better if she made a
complete assessment of her condition before she
tried to get up again.
Moving each of her limbs in turn she found
that while she was stiff from sleeping in this
form instead of her kitsune shape, nothing was
broken. She moved her hands over her skin looking
for anything amiss. When her hands got to her
head she found her problem.
On the left side of her face there was good
sized knot just forward of the jaw joint that
protested loudly when she touched it. Her fingers
traveled farther up and discovered a wide bandage
wrapped tightly around her head. The wound that it
covered must have not stopped bleeding for quite
some time after it was applied. An abundance of
dried blood was now holding her eye shut and had
glued the bandage to her skin and hair.
Kitsuryuu moved very slowly and managed to
get up this time. She sat with her hands in her
lap and tried to remember what had brought her to
this condition. She thought back and remembered
being in her den with the fire friend who made the
beautiful fire. She smiled when she remembered
what had been inside the bright flames that had
turned the back wall into shiny glass.
Kitsuryuu reached into her pocket and pulled
out the hard black stone and looked at it. She
had slipped the gem into her pocket and felt very
guilty about taking it. Koori had told her that
stealing was wrong but she had wanted something to
keep, to remember them by when they left.
Still, none of these things explained why she
had a huge headache and a bandage on her head.
Kitsuryuu's head snapped up when she remember why
her face was such a mess. Maryoku had *hit* her!
She could have seen the punch coming from Mechiko,
Arashi, or even Fuyu, but *Maryoku*?! Kitsuryuu
quickly came to her feet driven by a temper that
burned hotter than any fire she could ever create.
She ignored her pains and stomped out of the cave.
She was furious to think that Maryoku,
completely untrained in fighting, had not only
gotten through her defenses but had knock her out
with *one* blow. She was growling deep in her
chest as she reached up and brutally ripped the
bandage from her head, completely unaware of the
small animals that cringed out of her way. She
was so lost in her anger that she didn't register
the many hairs that tore from her scalp or that
she had reopened the large cut above her eye.
She wasn't mad that he had hit her so much as
she was pissed that because of his interference
she was forced to leave her Little People
unprotected from the humans. Maryoku had said
that he would watch over them but she would have
felt a lot better if she had of been the one to
protect them.
Once she arrived at the stream she plunged
her entire head under the water and let the sting
of the open wound and the chill of the water calm
her temper. She lifted her head and watched the
rust colored water cascade down from her blood
encrusted hair with her right eye.
She cursed herself for being an idiot and
letting down her guard as she worked at getting
the dried blood out of her hair and eye. She
coolly thought about all the wonderful, nasty
things she could do to Maryoku as she washed her
hair until the water ran clear.
After her temper was spent, Kitsuryuu
regretted pulling the bandage off the way she had.
She should have soaked it off so that the wound
would have stayed closed. A thin trickle of blood
still flowed from the cut and collected in the
ridge of her left eyebrow before flowing down the
side of her face.
She searched the ground and found where she
had thrown the bandage. When she picked it up she
realized that it was made from the shirt Maryoku
had been wearing. Last night she had been
completely unconcerned that the 'parents' might
find out about her, but now as she stood in the
bright, early afternoon sunlight she was worried.
She had been told many times that if the 'parents'
found out about her that they all where going to
be in really *big* trouble. She wondered if the
'parents' would be able to tell that Maryoku had
messed up his shirt for her.
Kitsuryuu knew the consequences of the
'parents' finding out about her. Maryoku had told
her that if, for any reason, they found out about
her she would have to go away. He told her that
they would make her go to a place that was worse
than the 'city' full of humans. Kitsuryuu could
never understand why her friends wanted to stay
with these 'parents' that seemed to be so mean.
She bit her lower lip between her sharp fangs
while she went over the plan Maryoku had given her
in the event that something like this ever
happened. She knew that if Maryoku was the one
that brought her to the secondary cave something
*really* bad must have happened. The first part
of the plan was for her to hide out in the woods
and wait for one of her friends to come and talk
to her. If, in seven days, no one came she was
suppose to leave the mountain and go as far as she
could and to never come back.
The thought of leaving her friends terrified
her as nothing else could. This mountain was the
only place she was safe and they were the only
friends she had ever had. Maryoku had told her
that the 'parents' would send her away because
they would think she would hurt the humans. An
ice cold sweat broke out across her skin as she
remembered the humans that had caught her when she
had left this mountain when she was young. She
couldn't see how being sent to the place called
'the Makai' could ever be worse than being
captured by humans and having them hurt her for no
reason. To have them lock her away in a space so
small she couldn't even turn around. To have them
take away the sounds that used to be all around
her. To have them cut off her tail to hang as an
ornament on their wall.
Kitsuryuu unconsciously bit hard into her lip
and swallowed the thick coppery liquid that flowed
into her mouth. It wasn't as sweet as human
blood, nor held the rush of power that drinking
human blood brought. The first and only time she
had tasted human blood was when she had escaped
Them, when she had ripped out the throat of the
human that had placed the collar around her neck.
He had been dressed differently than the
rest. He had worn long robes instead of simple
hunters clothing. When she could still hear he
used to chant words that sent bolts of pain though
her body. He was always the boldest when it came
to beating her. Once, the beating had been so bad
that she had changed from her kitsune form to her
youko for the first time to keep him from killing
her. He had put the collar and the bands that had
been around her wrists and ankles right after
that.
It had not been enough for him to be able to
control her every movement with the collar and the
bands. He had to humiliate her by cutting off her
ears, taking her hearing with them. It was then
that the hunters had gotten bolder and cut off her
tail.
On the day she escaped, they had taken her
out of the tiny cell and were making her do tricks
for their amusement. She had not eaten for days
and did not perform to their standards so they
started to beat her. The human in the robes had
gotten very close to her face and with a desperate
lunge she had captured his throat in her kitsune
fangs. He had had human power running thick in
his veins, power that had flowed out with his
blood when she took his life.
Her form had changed from kitsune to youko
without her command and the hunters had stared at
her in a combination of fear and wonder. The
blood had run down her throat and she hungrily
drank every drop that came. It had opened up an
entirely different world for her. When she hadn't
attacked them they attacked her. The blood had
made her wild with power and crazed with a fever
to kill again and again until all of the hunters
around her were dead.
Kitsuryuu's entire body had been on
automatic. Her power had flared out around her in
a corona of ice blue that froze the closest human
into a block of ice. He shattered into many
pieces when he had tumbled over onto the floor.
The rest of them had tried to run, but the fire in
her cold blood would not be satisfied by just the
one hunter's death. Vines of ice had snaked out
from her and wrapped themselves round the fleeing
humans. The sharp ice thorns on the vines had
pierced their skin, making their blood run out
from between the tight coils. The smell of their
blood had excited her more and the thorns grew
longer until they went completely through each of
their bodies.
As the rush of power started to dissipate,
Kitsuryuu had become aware of the collar and
restraints struggling to contain her power. She
regretted not being able to kill the humans again,
but she contented herself with just crushing each
of their skulls in an envelope of tiny ice thorns.
She had watched each one pop through the clear ice
before she let the collar and restraints take
over.
After that she had returned to the mountain
and the den that had been the place of her birth.
Kitsuryuu had remained alone for many years and in
all that time she never once let herself use the
hidden powers she had found. She had lived as a
kitsune and was safe, if not a little lonely,
until she met Koori.
The little girl had tripped on a log and hurt
her arm in the fall. Kitsuryuu had found her
crying on her way home from a hunt. At first
Kitsuryuu had been alarmed by the little girl's
appearance, thinking that she was a human. Then
she realized she didn't smell human or 'feel'
human. Her curiosity got the better of her and
the ice blue of the girl's hair, that was so much
like her own, intrigued her. She had slowly
approached until she was standing in front of her.
The little person had looked up and tiny blue
stones were falling from her face out of eyes that
were almost the same color as her own.
Koori had stopped crying and looked back at
Kitsuryuu with the same amount of curiosity as the
kitsune was looking at her. They had stayed like
that for a while until Kitsuryuu felt the presence
of someone new. She quickly ran off, but stayed
just out of sight to see what would happen. A
lavender haired boy came into view and took Koori
away with him.
It was several days before Kitsuryuu saw the
little girl again, but after she realized the
little person wouldn't hurt her they spent almost
every afternoon together. It hadn't been long
after the first day Koori tried to talk to her
that Kitsuryuu allowed the little girl to see her
youko form.
Kitsuryuu still had the wards on her wrists
and ankles and the collar, so the transformation
was much more painful than it was now. Koori had
held her head while she recovered and somewhere
inside herself Kitsuryuu had found another plateau
of power. It wasn't as strong as her youko form
but it was much more powerful than being a
kitsune. With a small mental nudge she had found
the fire form that allowed her to be in a 'people'
shape without all the pain of the restraints. For
a year they had met and played together before
they were 'caught'.
Koori had accidentally stayed too long and
the two of them had fallen asleep together. When
her brothers, sister, and the other two had come
looking for Koori they had found them together and
panicked. They had thought Kitsuryuu was hurting
Koori and Kitsuryuu had thought that they were
going to hurt Koori. It didn't help that
Kitsuryuu had gone crazy when she had smelled
Arashi coming.
His true self was so buried under his human
body that she had attacked him first and nearly
ripped his throat out as she had done to the other
human. Mechiko was the one that pulled her off of
him and delivered a round house kick that had
taken some of the blood fever off her.
After a lot of 'talking', and a lot of
pleading on Koori's part, they had slowly worked
out an agreement. If she learned to behave and to
*not* attack humans, then they could all be
friends. Kitsuryuu didn't want to lose their
friendship, but she didn't know what would happen
the next time she saw another human.
Kitsuryuu put her face to the wind and
smelled the storm that was coming. The years of
living in the elements had taught her how to
predict the weather. She knew that this storm was
going to hold itself over the earth for a many
days before it finally let loose of it's rain.
Strong summer rains always held secrets and
Kitsuryuu wondered what these had in store for
her.
=========
End chapter 8
Here's another chapter for you!
Kat