It had been an awkward situation when Nakiama had first given birth to the child. Not only was it a male, it was in the form of a dog. A council was immediately formed to decide the fate of the child; that's what the Red Ladies were, to prevent one person from making a very foolish mistake.

"I think she should be ordered to commit seppuku. Imagine the dishonor she must feel, first a man, and now a son," one had said.

"No," Honorable Sister interjected. "This is the first son of Inu no Taisho. We are indeed formidable, but we can't go against a Taiyoukai."

So now, years later, Nakiama sat in a carriage, going to some or other part of Japan to see a great dog demon, the father of a son whom she should never have given birth to. By custom, the father was to name his child. Nakiama wondered if it was normal to wait this long, though.

The boy was still small, after seventy years. At first the growth was quick—he had a human form within a matter of weeks, and speaking words within a year—but now he aged even slower than ever. Nakiama was sure that eventually, he would stop aging altogether.

Still, he was perhaps the most beautiful child she had ever seen. His hair was long and soft and silver, and he had eyes that glowed gold, framed by dark lashes. A moon was beginning to show on his forehead, and deep magenta stripes across his cheeks, features no doubt from his father's side. Still, he had many of his mother looks in smaller ways: a round face, small nose, and delicately shaped lips all made him look as if he were a porcelain doll.

He slept in his mother's lap, surrounded by the deep red of her robes. She gently stoked his hair, watching his slow breathing. It was cold, and were he human she might not let him out of her grasp, for fear he would fall asleep and not wake.

The carriage came to a stop, and the boy stirred and rubbed his eyes. Nakiama looked out the window to see nothing but forest and mountain. An imp came running up to the side.

"My apologies, My Lady. There is a tree fallen in the path, but it will be gone soon enough."

"When will we arrive?" she asked, looking around as if to see something that wasn't there.

"Nightfall, if all goes well."

They had been traveling for nearly three days. Although Nakiama was sure that it would have been much faster the normal way—which was, really, moving at any normal youkai's pace—it wouldn't be heard of, by either the Red Ladies, nor InuTaisho's messangers.

"Mama!"

She turned to see her son looking out the other window. Snow had begun to fall lightly. The boy, who had never seen anything like it where they were from, reached a hand out and watched as the flakes landed on his hand, before quickly melting.

"Well will you look at that…" she murmured.

"Ohh…" the smaller demon moaned, wringing his hands—if they were to be called hands. "It's a good thing we left when we did. Soon this pass will be blocked and nobody will be able to get through…"

Not much longer, and the carriage was moving again at a steady pace. The child shivered again, and moved back to her, allowing her to pull him back in her lap. She pulled her robes closer around herself and the boy, and closed her eyes in an attempt to sleep, despite the bumping of the carriage.

It was dark, and the carriage still hadn't arrived from the South. Servants were nervous and worried, some cleaning unnecessarily, some waiting and jumped whenever they thought they saw something. However, nothing could be seen through the raging snow that had developed an hour before nightfall.

Not that their lord noticed. He had decided to have a small, celebratory drink. Always one more.

"How much saki can he have consumed, to get like this?"

A shake of the head.

"We just got a messanger, they'll be here soon!"

"How long?"

"One stick, maybe two."

"That's it, she's not seeing him. Not like this."

Notes: Yeah, a bit of a cliff-hanger.

A few small notes: Back then (a thousand years? Let's consider how old Fluffy-sama is), children were named by fathers. Also, they often weren't named until they were around seven, due to the fact that so few children survived that long.

Time in Japan was measured two ways: first, there were twelve hours, with names of the Chinese zodiac, each lasting about two of our hours. A "stick" was the approximate time it took to burn a carefully measured incense stick.