Lessons Learned
Author Shortey 83
Chapter 6- Old Memories, New Friend
Disclaimer: I do NOT own InuYasha or Skyrim! I only borrow ideas because trying to drill them out of my head with power tools doesn't work! ^.^
Story Start:
The weeks since the attack seemed to fly by, and Takara was beginning to believe that there was no way for her to return to her own time. It may not have been such a bad thing, but then again it may have. It seemed the local men in the village now considered her a permanent resident which in their eyes meant that she was no fair game. There was no telling how many different times she had been given little gifts by the local men. Kagome and Sango had even begun taking a tally of how many times each villager had presented her with something.
"This is getting to be ridiculous" Takara complained as Kagome and Sango sat across from her in the shade of a large tree adding up the tallies. "Now don't forget the flowers that Shiro gave her this morning." Kagome giggled "These are adding up Takara. Even a few travelers have given you a couple of gifts."
With a sigh, Takara placed her head on her knees and watched as Rin came up the hill in a hurry. Sesshomaru had arrived not long ago and Takara guessed the little girl wanted to show them what he had brought her. "Sesshomaru spoils Rin." She commented as the girls turned also to the little girl. "You're one to talk Miss Get-A-Gift-From-Every-Single-Man-In-The-Village." Sango said as she tossed an acorn at her.
Takara noticed that Sesshomaru was following the little girl as was InuYasha. The two of them were in conversation. Takara had to look up and make sure the sky wasn't falling on that note. The two of them never had a conversation that didn't turn into a fight within a few moments.
"Look what Lord Sesshomaru brought me!" Rin exclaimed as she held her hands out. It seemed to be a small decorated hair stick. "Will you put it in for me, Takara?" It was a question, but she had already put the small stick in her hands and presented Takara with her back. Rising to her knees, Takara began to pull the little girl's hair up only to find it too tangled. "Rin you need to bring me a comb first. Run and get me on real quick, ok?" With an eager nod, Rin took off back down the hill to the village.
"Final tally is 36 for this week" Sango laughed as she stood up. "I better get back before the kids drive Miroku insane. I'm surprised that he hasn't come to find me yet." With a wave to Kagome and Takara, the other woman headed back towards the village as well. InuYasha and Sesshomaru stopped in the shade of the tree.
"36 of what this week?" InuYasha asked, and Takara couldn't stop her sigh. She rested her forehead on her knees, wrapping her arms around her legs. "Nothing, InuYasha…"
"Takara's gifts from the men in the village" Kagome ignored her silent plea to drop the subject. "They're all vying for her attention more and more lately. Hachiro is in the lead. He's a persistent one."
Takara groaned. "It's like we're speaking a different language. No matter how many times I tell them I'm not interested, they keeping bringing me things." She looked up at the sky and sighed "It's like they can't take a hint." Kagome's laughter wasn't improving her mood either. A change of subject was needed.
"However, my day has just been drastically improved" Jumping up, she moved past InuYasha to Sesshomaru. "I missed you so much!" She said before wrapping her arms around him, feeling him stiffen at her touch as she snuggled into the mass of fluffy down at his shoulder. "You missed Sesshomaru?" InuYasha sounded as if he was about to faint.
Takara finally released the shocked demon, and sat back down. "Not Sesshomaru, just his fur. Sesshomaru and I aren't quite best friends yet, but we're getting there." Sesshomaru raised a brow at that but said nothing. "It must be true! He didn't shoot down my hopes and dreams." She elbowed InuYasha who sat beside her.
"This Sesshomaru doesn't have…friends" He commented coldly, and Takara looked to him, before she looked at the ground. "And if I may direct your attention to the ground," She began, speaking to no one in general "Here lies the shattered fragments of my hopes and dreams, the pieces shattered so small that they are no longer visible" She shook her head at Sesshomaru "That is why I excited just to see the fur… it doesn't kill my visions like you do."
"Foolish mortal!" a squeaky voice called from around Sesshomaru's legs, and Takara gasped as a small demon stepped out from behind his leg. "Lord Sesshomaru cares not for your hopes or your dreams. You'll do well to keep your hands off of him." Takara just starred at the little…thing.
"Are you some sort of frog?" her voice filled with awe as she stood and moved closer to the little thing and squatted down to its level before she poked it in the head with a stick that she had picked up. It was then InuYasha fell over laughing as Takara continued to poke at the little creature who was clearly getting irritated with her. "What do you think you are doing?" it grumbled at her.
"You're kind of strange looking." She told it as the funny looking thing tried to push the stick away. "So I have to poke you with a stick, like some plants, frogs, and half eaten, maggot infested squirrels… The list goes on. It's principle. If it looks strange, I am inclined to poke it with a stick- No exceptions. "
"My name is Jaken, girl." It told her as she finally put the stick down. "I'm am Lord Sesshomaru's vassal and where he goes, so do I." Takara nodded and thought for a moment. "Then where were you last time he was here?"
Before Jaken even got a chance to answer, Rin came running back up the hill with a comb in hand. "Here you go Takara" she said handing over the comb. Takara moved to where she had been sitting earlier and sat on her knees, patting her lap for Rin to sit down. Once she stopped squirming, Takara began to comb her hair, but realized she was going to have to start at the bottom of Rin's hair and slowly work her way up and through the tangles. It took a good fifteen minutes at least to work through the knots, but eventually Rin's dark tresses were tangle free. "Now then, let's give this another try." Working the little girl's hair into a loose bun, Takara secured it with the pretty hair stick. "All done, Rin"
"That looks really good, Rin. Now you just need to keep your hair brushed so I can teach you how to put it up yourself." Rin didn't listen to her though as she ran down the hill to show the other children in the village. "Oh well"
"Hey, Takara" Kagome gently asked "Have you been able to do what you did…that day?" Takara understood what she was talking about. It was a tender subject for her, but she shook her head. "I don't even know what I did."
"What were you thinking when they were heading towards you?" InuYasha asked moving to sit in front of her. "Why?" She didn't see why it was so important. "We just need to see if you can do it again." InuYasha informed her "Now think, try and remember what you were thinking about as they were getting closer. What did you want to do?"
Takara thought hard and tried her best to remember that day which she tried to repress as much as possible. InuYasha knew it was a touchy subject or else he wouldn't have bothered her. Taking a deep breath she closed her eyes and thought back to that day. The flash of their blades and the angry glint in their eyes made her tremble at the memory, but she hadn't wanted to kill them. "I just wanted to knock them back and away from me." She tried her best to think of the words that had flown out of her mouth, but nothing came to her.
"It was like what Totosai said would happen, I felt that dragon's soul being absorbed into mine and it was like I acquired a part of the knowledge it possessed, but I don't know what information I used." Takara shook her head, "If I could figure out what knowledge from the dragon I used then I feel like I could do it again."
That's it! She thought, holding up a finger to InuYasha who began to talk. She was onto something. Closing her eyes, she focused her mind on the tiny bits of information she had acquired from the dragon, hidden in a distant corner of her mind. The words she had used were foreign to her, but she realized then that what she had done was spoken three words of the dragon's language, but which ones? She continued to put the pieces of the puzzle together. The words she had called out had all dealt with a push or force. She stood up and walked away from the group and InuYasha followed her.
"Alright, InuYasha, you get to be the dummy." She said as she pushed the half demon away from her before running back a small distance. "It shouldn't be too much of a change for you. I didn't want to throw you for a loop or anything."
"Very funny" he grumbled as he put his hands to his side and waited. Taking a deep breath, Takara braced herself and thought long and hard on the words she wanted to use and what they meant. "FUS RO DAH!" To her utter disbelief, the half demon went flying backwards only to land hard on the ground. She slapped a hand over her face as she ran over to him. "InuYasha are you alright?" she wrapped and arm under his shoulders, lifting his head up. His eyes were attempting to focus and his body was limp for a moment before he was finally able to come to his senses. "Whoa… That packs a punch…" he breathed, trying to sit up, swaying a bit as he did so.
"I guess I figured it out" she told him with a smile, glad that she hadn't caused any major damage. He nodded as he tried to stand, still not quite up to par "From now on, I'm not letting you test anything else out on me." Then Kagome was beside him, her face covered in relief that he was alright. "So what did you do?" Even dazed, the half demon was still curious, but before she could answer, a roar echoed over the tree tops.
"Retrieve your bow" Sesshomaru instructed her as he stepped in front of her and drew his sword- the one Rin had called Bakusaiga. Something must have been coming their way so Takara quickly moved to pick up her quiver and sling it over her back and grabbed her bow up before heading back over to the group. In seconds, a dark figure was spotted in the sky and heading right towards the group.
Takara placed an arrow on her bow string as InuYasha also drew his sword. Taking aim, Takara locked onto her target, but as she went to draw the bowstring back, it wouldn't budge. Remembering what Totosai had said, she lowered her weapon. "Don't attack it" she told the others. "Why the hell not?!" InuYasha demanded, throwing her an irritated look. "Because I want you to fry, InuYasha." She answered sarcastically. "I couldn't draw my bow, that's why." Understanding, he nodded and sheathed his sword. Sesshomaru didn't follow suit, but he didn't move to attack either as the large creature set down onto all fours on the opposite side of the clearing.
It looked similar to the dragon from last time as far as the shape of its body went, but this one's scales were a dark shade of blue with a few other colors mixed in with it. Takara thought she saw a few hints of purple and even a bit of silver. The spines along its neck however, were a pure white as were its antler like horns on its head. The eyes this one possessed were also a light shade of silver.
"I have heard the voice of another Dov…" It spoke, its voice a deep growl. "Who among you can speak the words of my kin?" Slowly, Takara stepped away from the rest of the group towards the behemoth. The creature eyed her for a moment before taking a few hesitant steps closer, lowering its massive head to get a better look at her. "You have a strong Voice for one so small. Tell me girl, why did you use your Voice?" She swallowed, up close, that thing's teeth were a lot bigger than they appeared.
"To see if I could. I wasn't sure if I would be able to do it again." She answered honestly. Bright silver eyes pondered her answer. "It was you then that killed my Earth Kin?" She nodded. "He was attacking the village with a group of humans."
The creature hissed at that, startling the group. "A dragon who requires humans for a siege is not worthy of being my Kin. You did well, little one with pretty eyes." He purred roughly as he settled his large body down. "It is impressive that you were able to kill an Earth Kin, their hides are especially thick." He wound his tail around her, giving the backs of her knees a nudge making her sit on his tail. "This is the weapon you used then?" He inclined his head towards the bow. She nodded and wondered when she would get to ask a few questions- she only had about a million and fourteen of them. She blurted one out then. "What is your name?" The beast gave her a curious look then. "Sahloknir is my name. In the language of the Dov it means Phantom Sky Hunter. What is your name? Shall I continue to call you little one with pretty eyes?" This dragon seemed to be quite the charmer. "My name is Takara and I have a lot of questions for you."
Sahloknir and Takara talked through the afternoon and long into the night. He was apparently an old dragon and knew what she was. In the Dov, or dragon speech, she was Dovahkiin, or Dragonborn. That was their meaning for a mortal with the ability to absorb a dragon's soul. According to him what she had done when she spoke the dragon language was spoken words of power in order to perform a Shout. A Shout consisted of three words of power and the
Shout she had used Fus Ro Dah was called the Shout of Unrelenting Force. It translated into Force Balance Push and was used mainly by Earth Kin to knock back enemies, which was why she had known it after absorbing the dragon's soul, which she also learned came at a price. It seemed that for every dragon soul she absorbed, she extended her life by the amount of time that dragon had lived. To many it was the gift of immortality, but when Takara looked at things, it was a curse. When she asked Sahloknir how he spent his many years and replied with meditation Takara groaned. She wasn't one for meditation.
She then showed the old dragon where her foe's bones still laid where he had fallen and the dragon inspected them, cracking a horn off the bleached white skull and examined the inside of it. "For one that does not wish to prolong her mortal life, you were very lucky. This was a young dragon." Takara cocked her head to the side as she looked at him. "How can you tell?" He lowered the horn so that she could see the place it had broken off from the rest of the skull. "First off it is rather small, so that meant it was a younger dragon, secondly, if you look at the horn it grows like a tree until they reach a hundred years. Every ten years, a young dragon's horn will thicken with an extra band. This Earth Kin only has five rings, making it only around fifty winters old."
"Only? Only fifty years old? That's an average lifespan for some people! I have to be old for twice as long?" Takara was ranting while Sahloknir was chuckling. "No small one. It means you won't start aging again for fifty years. You be young for a while longer. If you wish to avoid a long number of years, I would suggest you stay away from Vulthuryol. He was one of the first of our kind and many, many winters older than I. Should you end up slaying him, you would live forever and fifty years counting this one." He gave her a toothy grin as he nodded to the bones at his feet. "That's not funny, and trust me if he doesn't come looking for me then I won't go looking for him." The old dragon moved his chin to one of his front claws and scratched it. "He might though. He isn't fond of mortals, especially ones that could destroy him." Takara paled at that. She was suicidal, so if Vulthuryol did come after her she would fight, but immortality wasn't something she was after.
It was late in the night when Sahloknir finally left. Should she need any more instruction on anything dragon related or for the 'pure enjoyment' that his company brought, he taught her how to call him. All she had to do was use his name as a shout and he would come. Vulombrii was the dragon name he had given her, telling her that it meant Dark Hair Beauty. Sahloknir was most definitely a flirt to the highest degree. She wouldn't be alone with him to witness his dragon magic, as he had briefly touched on that was for sure.
Takara sat late into the night by herself, thinking about all she had been told and how she wouldn't even start aging for another fifty years. While she hadn't been looking forward to wrinkles or anything, she was looking forward to living her life like a normal girl and now life had dealt her an unexpected hand. She couldn't change her cards, but she would do all that she could with what she had been given.