Scroll three:

Cerberus the three headed dog; a decidedly un-Japanese myth

As I floated along the corridors behind him I allowed myself to wonder what he intended to do with the information I had given him. Before I got far with this train of thought, I was distracted by the energetic figure skipping along beneath me. Rin had waited next to us on the steps with what seemed an enormous amount of patience for a child, but she would be ignored no longer.

Reminding me of a kittens' behavior, she jumped up and down trying to catch hold of my kimono. I watched with amusement as she bounced, skipped, twirled, and generally seemed to defy the laws of physics, (such that they were) trying to catch hold of my black silk robes. All In all it proved a most entertaining display of acrobatics.

Sesshomaru turned and looked at us; he beckoned me forward with a small motion of his hand as he turned back. And almost as an after thought, he said

"Rin, go find Jaken." I looked at Rin and saw that she paused for just a moment, with a sullen look on her face, before turning and running off into a side corridor. I had no doubt that she would harass the little midget to within an inch of his life.

I returned my attention to Sesshomaru. Walking forward with the same deliberate pace as before, he did not even look at me as he spoke;

"Why do you really want me to go through the well?" I nearly fell out of the air in shock; was I that easy to read? I recovered my composure enough to reply

"What makes you think I have any other reason besides helping you?" I asked in what I hoped was my most innocent voice. If anything the voice I used only seemed to cue him onto the fact that I had something to hide. He gave me a cold glare that seemed as if it could and would freeze me in my tracks.

"Nirakumi, I have learned that deities do nothing unless there is personal gain for them, and the same could be said of any earthly creature."

"What about those that give for giving's sake?" I countered.

"Those who give get something out of it as well, the feeling of ...." He thought for a minute, searching for the correct term. "Well being." He concluded. "They also, in most cases, receive gratitude."

He had me there, putting it like that; even the nicest deeds seemed self serving. I turned over in the air to look at him so that I was floating ahead of him on my back.

"Well then I guess I must be in it for the feeling of well being, because from what you just told me I won't expecting any gratitude." He nodded his head and was about to say something, but instead frowned at something behind me. His arm snaked out and grabbed my ankle to stop me as I turned my head to see what he had noticed, and found a six foot pike a centimeter away from my nose. He pulled me slowly away from the pike until I was half a meter away from it. The thing was part of a display case of samurai armor.

Shaken, I put my feet back on the ground, then realized what he had been about to say. A grin spread across my face.

"You were about to say something about gratitude?" I queried.

"Yes." he replied "your assumption is correct. Only a fool would expect gratitude." I threw up my hands in disgust.

"Why, if not out of gratitude, did you just stop me from skewering myself?"

"Expediency. I do not want to wait wile you resurrect yourself." I looked at him with open astonishment.

I stalked away from him, muttering under my breath.

"Excuses."

"Did you wish to say something?" He called after me. I ignored him and went on muttering to myself.

I floated among the braches of the tree just above where Sesshomaru was sitting; his eyes closed and nose to the wind.

We had stopped in the forest a few miles away from the well, waiting to be sure Kegomei was gone from this time. The tree whose branches I now occupied was on a precipice overlooking most of the forest. Looking out I could see a particularly tall tree close to the far edge, surrounded by an almost even carpet of green and orange as the sun settled below the horizon. The two headed beast that I knew Rin silently called Ah-Run was tethered a distance away, eyeing the cliff drop-off warily.

I personally, was doing a bit of eaves dropping. When I mind read, I only really catch snippets of thought, bit's and pieces of whatever is foremost on the subjects mind. Thus, I was listening to whatever he was thinking, and occasionally stating my opinion out loud. To him this was me at my most annoying, though he would kill me again before admitting it.

Finally I heard something interesting.

I will set the trap... there was a pause in my disjointed telepathic reception. keep him alive only to open his eye another pause I will kill Inuyasha

I decided to add my own comment to that last one.

"You know, it is possible to get along with him." He stared up at me with a look that should have sent small animals running. And said very clearly

"No, it is not."

As I said those words I heard her giggle above me, her scent abruptly changed. I had enough time to notice that her normally red hair was now white before she jumped down to land next to me.

"I think you two need a sister." She stated in a sardonic tone.

I stood up suddenly. What I saw next was enough to prove to me that this insufferable deity would go to any lengths to drive me insane.

She had, quite literally, become my sister.

As I had glimpsed briefly before, her hair was now pure white, and though her facial structure remained unchanged; several dog clan markings had appeared on her countenance. She had only on set of stripes, one on either side of her face, and the crescent lay sideways on her brow, the points aiming up.

The markings quite clearly stated that she was the second child and first daughter of my late father.

For the first time in my life I was at a loss as to how to react. This was simply too outrageous to be within my realm of experience, though my face betrayed nothing of what I was feeling. There may have been a time, long ago, when I would have stood gaping in surprise at the spectacle before me, maybe.

She grinned widely, revealing a set of fangs, before suddenly she was herself again. I felt like killing her for this insult to my heredity, but could not unless she broke our agreement of non-interference. I probably wouldn't have killed her even if the agreement had never been made but an insult must be dealt with. I considered my options and came to a calculated decision.

As she doubled over laughing I broke her arm.

Her laughter died abruptly and turned to choking shock as her arm snapped between my fingers; I could feel her forearm as it tensed and went limp. It now hung at an odd angle to the rest of her of her arm, fractured as it was between her wrist and elbow. I did not let go of her broken limb, instead I gripped the break in my hand and squeezed, her eyes widened and she gasped in pain.

To her credit she had not yet screamed. But she was visibly trembling in pain.

"Do not presume to be my sister, even in jest." I strengthened my grip just a fraction to get my point across. "You know fully well that you are not prepared for what being my kin would entail." I made sure to enunciate every word.

She smiled weakly, her teeth gritting through the pain.

"It would appear that it entails you trying to kill them, among other things."

"Among other things." I agreed.

I loosened my grip on her arm, and slid my hand down to her wrist and jerked her arm suddenly, this time she did scream, a high piercing sound as her bone snapped back into place with an audible pop. High above us a flock of birds started into the air at the earsplitting sound of her shriek.

I released her arm and she stumbled back, gripping her wounded arm, there was a flare of power from her unwounded arm as she began to heal the break. She put her entire concentration into it. As she healed herself I studied her closely. She was even more pale than usual, and her face was drenched in a cold sweat. She was hunched over her arm and I could smell her pain, but there was no fear, and I did not expect any. What I did expect was anger, but there wasn't any of that either. All that I could smell was pain; there was no emotion at all.

She looked up slowly; her eyes were blank as the stars. She looked at me with a level gaze.

"Pain is an emotion." She said dully "just as much of an emotion as fear or anger." She took a shuddering breath and continued "you can be trained so that pain does not affect you just as with any other emotion. Yet you will still feel it. You can laugh in its face. I thought I could, but when it comes down to it I guess I have no clue."

She gave a weak, self deprecating laugh; as if inviting me to join in. I remained impassive, looking at her mutely. I could smell as the adrenaline drained from her system, she was coming out of shock.

"I really don't have any idea about corporeal beings; I thought I was all knowing, that I understood what it is to live." She rolled her eyes toward the sky her face tilting upward. And spoke as if to some higher power. "This is part of it, isn't it Amaterasu? I thought I was just going to try to perform the experiment and be done with it. But the experiment is on me too. You want me to understand what it is to live before I can truly comprehend that which I rule." She hung her head again and when she spoke it was barely a whisper "And I rule Death don't I?

But her pain was already disappearing; I could feel her resolve strengthen again, resolve for what I was still not sure of. She straitened her back, her hand still on her healing arm and spoke to me once again "However this changes nothing, I am still coming with you."

I allowed nothing to show on my face, I merely turned away and gazed out over the forest, which was now drenched in a blood colored glow from the setting sun.

I heard a rustling sound behind me as of cloth moving around a body. I turned my head to see her standing with one arm pressed against the bark of the tree and flexing the fingers of her previously broken arm. She lowered her arm,

"I'm ready to go." She said

And without another word we turned and continued on our way, descending the cliff and weaving our way through the blood red foliage of the forest

It came suddenly, but not without warning. I heard it coming just as Sesshomaru did, though he probably smelled it more than heard it. He stopped moving and looked around. I tied the dragons' reins up a short distance away; we had been approaching on foot rather than coming in through the air because the forest provided more cover than a flying approach would. So I had been guiding Ah-Run.

Sesshomaru turned to one side of the path, the direction the sound was coming from.

"I would like to see what presumes to attack me, for I do not recognize this scent. It has a most intriguing feel too it."

"Whatever happened to captain expediency?" I muttered. My little ordeal back on the cliff had not diminished my sarcasm in the least. Though I am far from forgetting what happened. Quite the opposite in fact, I will probably never forget what happened.

It bothered me somewhat that having my arm broken upset me more than dieing did. The further thought occurred that dieing didn't hurt nearly as much as having my arm broken. I began trying to puzzle that out.

But soon recalled that whatever it was, was nearly on top of us, and I would need my wits about me if I wanted to have enough time later to figure it out. Resurrecting takes a lot of time, and I had not yet told Sesshomaru, but tenseiga would not work on me, so it takes a bit of time to come back to life, such as it were.

The strange presence was coming ever closer, and perhaps most troubling of all; it almost felt familiar. I scrunched my eyebrows together, trying to puzzle it out. I had not even begun this existence more than a week ago, what in this world could possibly feel familiar?

The trees at the side of the footpath shuddered violently and the thing burst into the clearing just as I figured it out.

I watched in silent horror as a piece of hell incarnate burst onto the path. A dread emotion began to fill me, and I realized with no small amount of trepidation that it was panic, something that; in all my millennia of experience, I had not yet felt until now. This creature had six eyes, great and red in coloration. A fell black fire swarmed around it, so that the very ground it walked upon was raw and black. Its maniacally grinning faces were on level with Sesshomaru. It had three mouths, each turned up in some gruesome and frightening parody of a Cheshire cat grin, though one might be hard pressed to imagine a cattish grin on any thing so canine as a Cerberus.

For all of its frightening aura, this creature did not scare me so much as the thought of how it had come here. It was but a pup, but it was a grave thing indeed that it had crossed through the gates. Such creatures as hells watchdogs should not exist on this plane of reality.

Its hackles were raised, and though Sesshomaru appeared outwardly calm, I could see the tension singing through his body. When the Cerberus crashed onto the path, it stopped dead in front of Sesshomaru. I was dimly aware of ah-run rearing back franticly from the tree were I had tied him up.

It was coming to a point were I could not only see the tension, but I could actually feel the crackling contest of wills as Sesshomaru stared at the thing. When the pup bared its teeth and growled, Sesshomaru's face changed to a grim mask of dominance. The pup quailed a bit and looked a little forlorn but did not give ground.

It was then that I realized two things; this pup was the smallest of Cerberus' litter, vanargandr; and secondly, he was looking for me. Poor Cerberus must be going crazy looking for him, and here he's gotten him self lost on the physical plane.

I smiled to myself, and started laughing, both Sesshomaru and Vanargandr looked at me, Sesshomaru arrogantly and vanargandr with a puzzled expression. As I tried to calm down I realized that I was on the edge of hysterics, just before I lost control I managed to subdue my laughter. But believe me when I say you haven't seen anything till you've seen a seven foot tall Cerberus with a lost puppy look on all three faces.

Sesshomaru glared at me; "Since you seem to find this so amusing, perhaps you would care to tell me what it is before I kill it." He stretched and brandishing his claws to punctuate his words.

I stepped up between them; first I turned to vanargandr. In reality I snapped my fingers and a honey drenched oat cake appeared in my hand, but metaphysically speaking; I reached into the fabric of reality and created it. I gave it to vanargandr, and all three off his heads promptly began to fight over it. The Cerberus pup thus occupied, I turned to Sesshomaru and gestured to the pup.

"This is vanargandr."

"Do you believe me a fool Nirakumi?" he asked coldly "vanargandr is the name of the world destroying wolf of Norse mythology, otherwise known as Fenris. I suppose you expect me to play Tyr and give up my right hand as well so you can chain him with gleipnir?" he delivered this veritable speech with the same cool arrogance I've come to expect from him, the sarcasm was a bit of a surprise though. I didn't bother wondering were he'd learned so much about Norse mythology with Japan being such an isolated continent. For all I knew he was remembering family history. For all my omnipotence and psychic abilities, I realized I knew very little about him.

But he wasn't finished, for Sesshomaru this was highly unusual. When he wanted to say something he usually said it in as few words as possible, at least I knew that much about him.

"You have been insisting I listen to you, following me and being killed repeatedly. You cannot pretend you are merely interested in my life. In reality there is something I can do that is important enough for you to have been maneuvering me in a direction I am unsure I want to travel. It is time for you to tell me why. I have waited long enough, I want answers;" I stood rigidly as a deer caught in headlights. I was aware of the Cerberus pup behind me but I was unable to move my eyes from anything but Sesshomarus' eyes; I was thinking furiously and not bothering to hide it, there was no excuse I could give him now. The time of truth had come.

I finally wrenched my eyes away from Sesshomarus' and glanced back at Vanargandr. "All hell may be breaking lose," I muttered; and I meant it literally "but may the gods help hell if it gets in the way of Sesshomarus' plans." And I certainly would need the gods' help, all I could get in fact. I looked at him crossly "you know you're conceited, right Sesshomaru?" he didn't bother to deny or confirm that statement; he just looked at me. And strangest of all, that look actually worried me.

It occurred to me that I had been here to long; already I was reacting subconsciously to body language. That made me angry for a moment; I am a goddess I reminded myself, I am capable of erasing his very existence.

But you're not very sure of that, are you? A little nagging voice asked. And even if you were sure you could, you wouldn't do it, because you're still running that experiment of yours. So you have to be nice to him; he has no such restriction, he can hurt you all he wants, and it wouldn't break your precious agreement as long as he doesn't kill you.

I brushed aside those thoughts, but a bit of the anger stayed, and it helped to focus me. I gave another honey cake to vanargandr, and settled into the air with a sigh. As I folded my hands over my stomach I told him

"You're not gonna like this."

"undoubtedly." I said. And I listened as the truth unveiled itself through the unlikely medium of Nirakumis' impertinent words, keeping half an eye on the Cerberus, vanargandr all the while.

"Your entire family and history was shrouded from non corporeal eyes, so for quite a while we would find the entire political structure would shift apparently randomly, but in fact due to something one of the dog clan had done, and no deity could see what had happened." I felt a touch of astonishment at the unlikely beginning of what was sure to be a strange tale. She continued speaking, apparently oblivious to my thoughts for once.

"I took a special interest when the lady Kia arrived in my domain -the first of your family to ever arrive in the realm of the dead. What she told me when I found her was rather interesting. Apparently your clan has its own little afterlife reality; something that I had formerly believed impossible." Now there was an interesting bit of information. I felt mixed emotions over the thought of seeing my sire again. He had been a great lord and still I respect him, but he was never much of a father. I wondered idly if Inuyasha would go there when he died and shuddered inwardly, I could think of no worse punishment than to spend the rest of eternity trapped with him. Nirakumi went on.

"Your mother was originally of a different clan, she wanted to rejoin them in death instead of going to your clans' afterlife. So she was the first who knew your clan secrets to come to my realm."

I felt an immediate surge of anger at the implication of those words. Why would my mother betray my clan in such a way, even in death? I said nothing, though I wanted to. I would let Nirakumi finish this strange story of her before I exacted punishment.

"She had been the first hint into this mysterious catalytic force the gods had been looking for; a mysterious lady and demoness, and apparently of a well established clan that we knew nothing about." She paused to give the Cerberus another foul smelling cake, apparently to keep it distracted. This time was no different than the last two, she would pull the thing out of thin air and give it to the three headed beast, and it would promptly start fighting with itself over which head got the cake. Such a backward creature truly did belong only in hell and the imaginations of the very young. She went on with her story.

"To say that this raised eyebrows would be an understatement. I realized that we had to control this changing force or it would cause irreparable damage to the consistency of reality." she paused looked at me sharply, as if assessing the effect of that bit of news had on me. She went on.

"So, I went to Amaterasu and petitioned for her to allow me to come here and see what I might..." she paused, and then went on tentatively.

"And change what I could." She concluded. With that final statement she fell silent and waited for my reaction. I could tell by the look in her eyes that she was expecting anger, she had told me as much before she even started. However I felt no anger any more, I was past that now, all I felt was the sheer cold logic of it.

My mother had no reason to be loyal to the dog clan in life, yet she was, though her only tie had been my birth; she had not loved my father, and nobody expected her too. Their marriage had been purely political. I doubt my sire could have ever married for love even had he tried; he was a great lord, and consequentially was not very nice, to put it in human terms. And besides that, what use have we demons for love. Even now it seems such a distant concept.

So why should anyone, even myself, expect her to remain loyal to the clan after final judgment and the shedding of reality?

I could find no answer to that, nor did I expect to.

"My, that's certainly open minded of you, Sesshomaru." Nirakumi interrupted my thoughts. I glared at her, but she would not be deterred.

"So, have you decided whether or not we are going into the future?"

"We? You still intend to come with me even though I know what you're doing?"

"Yes."

"Very well, but keep in mind I am going only to capture Inuyashas' wench, not to fulfill your hidden agenda."

"I would hardly call my agenda hidden anymore, not after I just told you everything." I turned my head and looked up the path.

"Do not pretend that you have told me everything, Nirakumi. I dislike being lied to." She paled ever so slightly, a reaction that told me that my fishing had struck home. So, there was more. Never the less, it could wait.

"You may tell me later." I told her "we have business to attend to."

"Oh, yes." She regained her composure.

"Onward! Back to the future!" she struck a dramatic pose, pointing forward on the path and grinned at some strange inside joke. I didn't understand and was quite sure that if I did, I would think it just as foolish as the rest of her inane jokes.

"Now." I reminded her "you can either deal with this creature or I can kill it, whichever you prefer." I gestured towards the Cerberus, the middle head perked up at my motion as if it were expecting me to give some treat. I glanced at it imperiously, hoping it would leave.

Nirakumi stood stock still, her entire stance changing to one of fearful apprehension.

Vanargandr, sensing the change in the air, gave me a sad, pathetic look but did not leave. Instead, it pawed the ground a bit and looked again to Nirakumi, who glanced at me tensely and snapped her fingers yet again. There was a slight tremor in her other hand as she stood rigidly performing another spell. This time however, she did not produce another cake. This time, vanargandr himself changed; he became a sweet faced human child, with dark, curly hair, cream colored skin, and dark brown eyes.

"Now," she said "can you kill something as angelic as this?" there was a slight quaver in her voice. I realized that she was not afraid of me, she was fearful of what actions I would take.

I looked at the boy for a long moment, he did look rather angelic in the European sense of the word, but I'd never really cared for Europe, or its monotheist religions. The last thing we needed was to be toting around another helpless child, it would be so much simpler to eviscerate him and be done with it.

I raised my claws, preparing to strike...

Dun-dun-dun... I will be evil and leave you hanging there. Now you will be eaten up by the question: will Sesshomaru kill vanargandr or wont he? And will Nirakumi actually make herself useful, or will she just keep getting herself killed? And when the hell is Rin going to start talking?

Tune in next time for another boring chapter of Golden Eyes.