AN: Sorry every body for the REALLY long delay, very, very sorry, but than for waiting!
CHAPTER 3
THE PROTECTOR IN THE SHADOWS...
Young Li grew quickly, but that speed was almost doubled for Inuyasha.
There was one thing about him though, that would remain forever childish, his face. Like his father, he had gained the puppy dog ears on his head, and a seemingly boyish face. Great when you're two, not so great when you're 20. But Li was only two now, running about the den, and out of it. The pack protected him as if he was their own. Partially due to an incident that had occurred last winter...
Being the half demon that he was Li developed a bit faster than most little ones, and so he could walk by one, really, really well. Well enough in fact, to be able to get away from the wolf that was taking care of him at that time. Kagome herself was in a town visiting Sango and Miroku.
When the little Li managed to lose his guardian he had immediately run into a forest that was near by. A forest that was full to brimming with things bigger than him.
Inuyasha had been watching from near by and had run out to save his young son before he was killed. He came just in time, a demon was just about to rip into Li, god knows why.
Inuyasha slid side ways into the clearing slashing through the demon with his claws. He sighed with relief when his nose and ears told him Li was just fine. But he also knew that Li couldn't be allowed to see his face. Smiling softly to him self he sighed,
Is this how it's going to be for me now?
And then with demon speed he spun and picked Li up from behind.
"You, young man, are far from your den, that isn't safe." He said with a soft reprimanding tone, Li's ears twitched,
"I am?" he asked innocently, Inuyasha smiled, as innocent as he sounded, it was really just mischievousness that Inuyasha heard.
He's way too much like me!
Instead of answering he took Li back to near the den. He put him down on the ground at the foot of the den, then turned his back to Li,
"Now Li, I am going to trust you to go right back inside, and wait for your mother there ok?"
"Aww, but it's no fun in there! And I miss my mom and dad." Inuyasha flinched, Li meant Kouga when he said dad. That hurt, but like so many other times before this, he hid his emotions.
"Where's your dad?" he asked, despite himself,
"Mom said he left before I was born." Inuyasha almost choked,
"Then why do you still miss him?" he asked,
"Cause, I really just do that's all. I bet he was great, he would have had to be, for mom to choose him instead of Kouga." Inuyasha smiled at that,
"Well I bet...he, he misses you too, now I'm gonna trust you to go inside that den ok? I know what it is to be pent up inside for a long time, but be patient and one day you can do whatever you want ok? Don't disappoint me Li." He said, and then he was gone.
He had watched as Li had gone right back into the den, he smiled to himself,
"My son." He whispered to himself, and then he had gone to find the idiot wolf that had lapsed in his attention to Li.
By the time Kouga found that particular wolf, he was laying at the side of a stream, bloody, beat up, and half dead. In the sand beside him, words were written.
'I told you what I would do if he was hurt- this is a warning, I am still here.'
Kouga knew what it meant, but just to keep Kagome from worrying, he said nothing of it. And he told the wolf never to speak of the encounter to anyone. Ever.
Ever since that day, Kagome hardly ever left the den, actually, never again. Li was kept with her, and any wolf that did baby sit him was extra careful.
And so the years passed, Inuyasha kept up his silent and unnoticed watch of the little family. How much time he spent watching Li was debatable. Even to him.
He didn't spend every day there, and yet any time he was needed, he was there. Not that Li ever knew, nor did anyone else for that matter. No, he kept all of what he did a very secure secret, and no one but himself truly knew what happened in those days.
And from his position in the shadows, he didn't miss much. He saw Li take those first steps, speak those first words. Growl for the first time, at Kouga no less. (secretly Inuyasha had really enjoyed that).
But when Li was nine, Inuyasha had to spend less and less time there. The reason? well to put it plainly, the kid was good. And all too often he found Inuyasha sent among trees and the like.
Luckily he was young and so he could be distracted long enough for Inuyasha to get away. But still, he couldn't spend as much time there after that. And time continued to pass.
Fate was still for those years...
Li yawned as he woke up from his very deep sleep. He opened his eyes to see the sun hadn't yet risen; he smiled to himself and stretched widely. He was careful however not to wake anyone around him.
He glanced over to where his mother slept, she was there, by herself, only little Anè beside her, curled up like the little 5 year old that she was, tail wrapped up to her nose. He smiled softly at them, and then scowled to see that Kouga was not with them.
Can't he just stay there one morning? Li thought.
It had occurred to him that he ran off every morning as well, but his mother didn't mind if he was back soon enough. Kouga however she liked to wake up next to. Or at least she always said that. Li on the other hand, at sixteen Kagome trusted him to take care of himself, and she was right to. Before he could continue to think all of this through however, one of the wolves moved in his sleep. Sighing Li headed out the mouth of the den.
Better get out of here before one of them wakes up! He thought to himself, god knows if they find me now they'll never leave me alone.
Li walked out into the early morning, smiling and taking a deep breath of the cool crisp air. Dew still collected on the grass at the bottom of the water fall that protected his home from view. Silently he jumped from his perch at the top of the falls and down to the ground. He landed walking. As soon as he entered the forests on the other side of the pool in front of him, a wolf as tall as his waist joined him.
"Good morning Li, you are up early, again." The wolf said telepathically. Li grinned,
"Sooner I get up, the sooner I get out." He replied, "Besides Kyto, you're up just as early as I am."
"Only to keep you out of trouble Little One, you know that." Li rolled his eyes.
Ever since he could remember, Kyto had been with him. He was bonded to this wolf demon who was different than Kouga, he was always in a Wolven form, and was called a Wolven rather than a Wolf Demon. The story his mother told him was that one day when he had wandered off by himself he had run into a demon that for what ever reason had decided to kill him. Eat him, whatever. And when the demon was about to tackle him, Kyto had rescued him, and the two had been bonded ever since.
Secretly Li thought he might know why the demon had wanted him dead. His father.
He knew very little about this demon, half demon he was told. A dog half demon that his mother had fallen in love with, and who had abandoned him before Li was born.
This story was all he knew of his biological father; his mother never said another word about him.
I think it's too painful for her, I bet she really still loves him...
Li was thinking this over as he headed off into a special region of Kouga's lands. One that not even Kouga really went into very often. It was just plains, as far as the eye could see, no person would be stupid enough to ever attack from such a place so Kouga kept it practically unguarded.
Even as time passed he had found that when wolves noticed that he was spending more time there than they cared to, they gave him total watch. In normal wolf society, that shouldn't have been done, but at the time Li and Kouga had gotten along well enough.
Presently however, that wasn't the case.
Right now he and Kouga got along just about as well as a cat and a mouse. Most of it was blamed just on the fact that Li was a dominate person by nature, what wolves called 'Alpha in training' so they said it was to be expected that the two didn't always get along or agree.
However, after every argument that he and Kouga had in the vicinity of the pack -and considering how loud their shouts could get that meant basically every argument they got into- Li had noticed that sometimes he could hear the words, 'just like he and Inuyasha' or, 'just like his father' sometimes he even got odd looks from some of the pack.
From these odd occurrences, he had only gained that his father's name was Inuyasha. A detail about the man that his mother had never confided.
Li jumped up onto a rocky island like formation on the great plains. He smiled to himself, only he knew of the place where he now lay. He had decided to call it Abrain Irises which meant auburn eyes. After his mothers brown eyes. It was the least he could do after the fact that he had scared her so many times by running away to here.
He chuckled to himself,
"I wonder what time I'll be home tonight?" he mused, he never knew anymore.
Never. Nor was he consistent with the time. Sometimes he didn't leave the den at all, other times he left and didn't come back until long after dark. However, his mother hardly ever got really angry with him.
Sighing to himself, Li closed his eyes and began to dwell on the real problem at hand. His dream. For as long he could remember he'd been having it. Not every night of course, but when he did dream it was the only one.
The dream basically went like this...
A smaller version of himself stood in front of the den, looking up on a figure that was almost too blurred to be seen.
"Don't disappoint me Li, ok?" and that was all that happened, after that moment, he would wake.
Li let out his breath slowly,
It makes no sense, who the heck is that guy, what did he mean, 'don't disappoint me?' it really makes no sense at all! I don't understand it, and that is frustrating as is!
Li frowned and laid back, putting his hands behind his head,
Enough of this! I am not going to understand it by torturing myself with it! Anyway, I have better things to think about, one of which is what I am going to do with myself.
This was another thing Li was beginning to worry about. The worse he and Kouga got along, the harder it was to obey all of the guidelines and rules he was supposed to follow. Not to mention the fact that if he had the chance -and if it wouldn't bother his mother as much as he knew it would- he would have over thrown Kouga ages ago. He had the strength to; he had for a long time.
The more we fight the more bossy he gets, and I know I get shorter tempered with all of it. I snapped at my mother only a few days ago!
The only reason that Li had stayed with the pack as long as he had was because of his mother and Anè. His younger half sister. Anè was only about five and she had been born around when Li was 11, and was the one person in the world he trusted above all others. Not to mention no matter what happened she never picked sides in an argument, not his, not her fathers.
"Speaking of Little Anè, Li you were supposed to meet up with her a while ago weren't you?" Came Kyto's voice in his mind, he blinked, and then jumped up, his eyes wide,
"Oh crap! She's gonna kill me!" then he jumped up and ran towards the bathing pools. Surly that's where she would be.
He had planned to play hooky with Anè; he would spend some quality time with her today, and get her out of a bath.
It only took him a moment to reach the baths. He walked into the hidden place that was shrouded by a line of trees. He could already hear his half sisters cries of anger and god knows what else.
He walked up to the baths to see three women struggling with his younger sister. He sighed, rolling his eyes and headed over to where Ane's clothes lay. He picked them up, along with a towel, and then headed over to the little demon herself.
Quick as lightning he scooped her up from where she was held between the women, and then wrapped her up in the towel.
"Come on wretch, get dried off will ya?" he asked flicking her nose playfully. The five year old squealed with glee and wrapped her arms around his neck.
"YAY!" she yelled, the other woman in the pool scowled. For some reason they saw her behavior as unruly and indecent. He found their behavior disgusting and wrong. Still he gave his sister a warm smile then looked to them,
"My mother wants to see her." He said, giving a simple explanation, one woman glared at him,
"Oh Li, you know that's not true, and so do we!" she snapped, Li raised an eye brow,
"Oh do you?" he asked cocking his head, a small smile on his lips,
"Yes! And we also know that you are just trying to save you little sister from a bath that she desperately needs, and those if I recall correctly were your mothers true instructions!" she said with an heir of snobby know-it-all like tone.
"Oh, is that right?" He asked, obviously rather amused,
"Yes, that is right! You know it as much as I do, you only do this to anger Kouga, like the little immature puppy that you have become, you have NO respect for what he does for you, nor what we've all done for you! In fact, you don't have respect for anyone! Least of all Kouga and he's your father!" Li's smile disappeared.
"Is that what you think?" he said softly. Everyone heard the change in Li's tone, and all eyes went wide. Anè stopped drying herself off to listen more closely.
Li stood up, his eyes emotionless, but cold.
"Well, that's all very interesting but when it all comes down to it you've got it backwards. I do NOT do this to anger Kouga, I'm more creative that that, I do this because I love my little sister. And if you ask me, you seem to be the one who has no respect cause the last time I looked I am a bit higher up the latter than you are. And lastly, Kouga is not my father; he never was and never will be! My father's name was INUYASHA got that? Not Kouga, it never was Kouga, and I'll tell you that you make that mistake again, there WILL be consequences." He snarled the last part, making everyone wince.
And then with one swift movement, he picked up his sister and walked away...
-------------
"Li, are you alright?" Anè asked him, the two sat beside a stream, Li inhaled deeply, then smiled to her.
"Yeah, I'm fine, sorry; I didn't mean to lose control like that." Anè shrugged,
"S' ok, I don't mind, those ladies called my daddy your daddy, they should know better. They know you hate that you know? They were talking about it once, they said, 'he hates Kouga being called his father, can you believe that' and 'ungrateful to Kouga that's all he is'." She said, and then looked to Li, he smiled,
"Yeah, that sounds about right, what else do people say?" he asked, sounding more resigned than angry.
"Oh, just what they have always said, 'just like his dad, a trouble maker' and things like, 'never will be fit to take Kouga's place'." She said, and then added, "I disagree, you are a great leader, and they know it, they just don't like your dad."
The two were silent for a moment, the things she had said hanging between them, and then her head shot up,
"OH! And there was a new one yesterday! A few women had a conversation that I eavesdropped on, it went like this, and mind you I have no idea who was saying all this,
"At least he's not a hanyou too, that would have been terrible."
"Are you sure? At least he would be weak then!"
"Are you kidding? Do you even know who his father is? It's Inuyasha, you know, the legendary Inuyasha. The half demon that killed Naraku, yeah THAT guy. No matter how much of him is demon, with a father like that, he would have been strong no matter what."
Anè stopped there,
"And that was all I heard before they caught my sent and stopped talking." She finished, looking right at Li who was looking away, then he turned and grinned at her,
"Well, that explains a lot! Come on kid, you said that you had something to show me?" he asked, Anè brightened and nodded,
"Yeah, follow me!" she said, Li nodded and stood following his sister into the woods.
And just like so many times before, he masked his true emotions and did what was needed.
So many times before. He thought to himself, Too many...
------------
Anè led Li to a hidden part of the woods, a clearing hidden by a thick line of trees. Protecting it from the outside world. Inside the clearing, there lay a little mini pack of pups.
Anè rushed over to the pups that crowded around her, their blind eyes smelling her. She smiled up to Li,
"I found them here a few days ago, I fed them but now I'm out of ideas, and I can't keep them here Li, I don't know what to do." Li bent down and picked up one of the pups and sniffed it delicately.
"Their mothers been gone for days, a week even," He shook his head, "they were defiantly abandoned." He said Anè nodded,
"So what do I do?" she asked, Li frowned, then an idea hit him.
"Pick one of the pups, ok?" she looked up to him, and then shrugged and crawled among the pups, looking for the one she liked best.
After a few moments, she touched noses with a pure white wolf pup, a girl. Ane's eyes widened,
"This is the one LI, I'm positive." She said softly, Li smiled and nodded,
"Right, well take that one and what you are going to do is take that one to mother and she's gonna convince Kouga to take it in ok?" he said,
"What about the others?" Anè asked, Li shrugged,
"I'll put them on one of Kouga's hunting paths and when he takes it he'll come upon them and probably never be the wiser alright?" Anè nodded,
"Sounds like a plan to me, now what though?" Li smiled,
"Now we are going to get that little wolf washed off, that way she doesn't smell like other pups ok?" Anè grinned and the two headed off to a near by river.
So by the end of the day, Anè still got her bath, and so did the little pup that Anè called Alva, meaning 'pure white one'. The day was a happy one, none of the three finding anything to complain about.
It was about nine at night when Li finally got Anè home. The two were tired but nothing else was wrong with them.
After hugging Anè, Kouga turned to Li, who was just about to leave the cave, trying in vain to avoid the confrontation that seemed to be coming.
"A little late aren't we Li?" he asked sharply, Li sighed visibly,
"Maybe, but what-"
"You know Li, I really have learned to expect you to be late, and truly I don't really care, as long as you come home. Though sometimes that doesn't even happen, but I try to just let it go. What I can't let go is you keeping Anè out all night!"
"It wasn't all night, just a couple hours after dark, and even if I did keep her out all night, I would protect her, or do you not trust me?" Li snapped back, Kouga growled,
"No frankly I don't trust you with my daughter." At this Li snarled,
"Just because you hated my dad doesn't mean you can hate me Kouga, or distrust me!"
"I can do whatever I want Li, I'm leader, now shut up and do as your told!" Kouga yelled,
"Kouga, you are the leader of a wolf pack, and I have never been and never will be a wolf, so as far as I'm concerned, you can keep your stupid pack! I want no part of it!" he yelled, and with that he spun around pushed past Kagome and left the den. Kouga glared at his back.
Just like his father. He thought.
Kagome looked over to Kouga, her eyes narrowing,
"Kouga, feel free to sleep outside tonight!" she said coldly, he blinked, and then looked away,
"Peh." He muttered, but left.
"Oh gods," Kagome whispered to herself, "What has begun here?"
Li had run all the way to Auburn Irises, just to escape. Kyto now lay beside him,
Now, I can't go back Kyto, never, and I really don't want to.
Then don't, Little One, you have long since had the power to leave this place, and you have.
And I gained an enemy on the fist day. Besides, what about Anè, and mom?
They only wish for your happiness. What do you expect?
I don't know what I expect, that my friend is not clear...
Li straitened,
"There is just so much out there, what exactly am I supposed to accomplish here?"
"Well, nothing that I can think of." Came a voice behind him, he spun, it was a bird demon, with a human looking body, "Don't worry, I won't hurt you, you could waste me anyway, I just over heard you Li and I-"
"How do you know my name?" She smiled,
"I know your father, how else?"
"You do?"
"Yes, he's pretty famous you know, or do you?"
"Not really, sorry to disappoint you............ What is he like?" The demon smiled,
"That young Li, you must go out and find for yourself, your past his here, but your future lies beyond." She whispered and then she was gone...
She is right I think.
Yes, I agree with you, she is...
It's decided, then you and I set out tomorrow...
Yes Little One, tomorrow....
That morning, LI got up really early,
Kyto, go get the pups in that clearing I described to you, set them on a hunting path, then take Kouga on that path. After you get him far enough along, come join me.
What are you going to do?
Talk to my mother about something. See you soon...
Li walked up the den, his mother sat there inside, then entire pack was gone,
"Good morning Li, Kyto came and said something about a 'great hunt', they are gone now." Li nodded,
"I know." He said simply, Kagome frowned,
"How?"
"It was my idea." He replied, Kagome suddenly recognized his expression, just like his fathers, he was going to ask her something she didn't want to answer.
"Mom, listen, I am going to leave ok? And can't promise I'll return soon, but before I go I really want to know something more about my dad." she closed her eyes, but nodded.
"I always knew you would do this some day, you are just like him you know, and not just in looks, you have his pride." She whispered, and then went over to were her bed was, and pulled out a box.
She opened it and pulled two things out, a cloth of some kind and a piece of paper.
"Li, this was your fathers, take it, it will keep you safe." She handed him a red Haori. He nodded; the second thing was a picture.
In it, there was a woman with long brown hair pulled back, she had a smile and was leaning into the arms of another man, he wore robes and held a staff. Beside them a large cat like thing had a small fox child on its back, in front of them an old woman, and then there were two others.
The girl, he could only imagine, was his mother, though she looked much younger. She was being held bridle style in the arms of another man.
His father.
People had always said he was just like him in looks, but this was just plain scary. Almost identical. He was just staring at it for a moment, almost mesmerized.
This is him, my father, Inuyasha. Gods, we look just like each other, except he has a sword and he looks a bit older than me.
"Li, if you go please be careful, please, you are always going to be my baby, don't leave me Li ok?" he nodded, and then grinned at her.
"Don't worry, I won't." he said, and then hugged her hard. "I'm not him mom, I am going to come back, just, I just need to find out who I am, and when I know I will come back ok?"
Kagome nodded to what he was saying, and pulled back from the hug, looking her son up and down,
"You grew so fast, and so well, Li, never forget about us here ok? Always remember how you were raised, and follow your heart. It at least will never lead you a stray promise?"
Li nodded,
"Yeah, I promise." Kagome looked at him for a moment longer,
"You are strong Li, just like your father. Just like Inuyasha." he smiled,
"That is a compliment right?" he asked playfully. She smiled and nodded, wiping a tear away from her eye.
"Be safe my son." She whispered he grinned, and then tried to give her the picture back; she just shook her head, "Keep it."
He looked at her for a moment, and then put it into his pocket, put on the haori, and with that he left the place he'd always called home.
For good.
Mother, be safe too...
