Summary: 50 stories about Kenshin and Kaoru, sometimes meandering to include the other Ruroken cast. A mix of canon and AU one-shots. Some crack can be expected. Read and Review!
Rating: T
Characters: Kaoru and Kenshin
Disclaimer: Anything you recognise here belongs to the one and only Watsuki Nobuhiro.
Author's Note
Hello everyone! Wow it's good to be back! Back to writing! Back to reading fanfiction! I have been away a really long time and I just want to tell everyone who kept writing to me that I am so grateful for the love and encouragement. It's been a rough and stressful couple of months and I am eager to get the stories going again.
Magistical M – I am SOOO sorry I didn't reply to your email. I was just focussing on my exam and so forcibly staying away from all things fanfiction. That said and done, I was delighted to find another fellow Indian fan. Don't know any in real life you know.
Cat – You kept me going even when I thought – this is it. The end. Caput. And I can never thank you enough for that. Love and Karma.
This one-shot will be continued. Sorry if it seems a little confusing, its meant to do that. I really wanted to do something fantastical, hoping I can flesh out enough material for this universe. Hope you all like it!
Slave
Muttering a soft curse, the man perched on the lead camel twisted his neck and squinted against the harsh light of the sun. It was almost four hours past noon, but the glaring light reflected off the golden dunes showed no sign of dissipating. He pursed his lips. They would be within sight of the gates of Tabrez in two hours. He watched as the lumbering forms of the camels made a swinging, curving line stretching as far as the eye could see. He narrowed his eyes and stared at it; the line curved but did not break. That was good. There was strength in numbers. Taking a hundred extra men on the journey from Awadh was expensive but it was worth the trouble if the caravan was protected from the cursed bandits that swarmed the sands like pestilence.
There was no telling when the wretched bandits would strike again. He could not afford to become complacent. There were women in the caravan; wives and daughters of the Nawab's household; each worth her weight in gold, if brought safely to Tabrez. A vein in his neck bulged as he swallowed. But if they were harmed, the Nawab would extract their worth from his flesh and blood.
He nudged the camel off the edge of the dune and down into a shallow valley of sand to observe the movement of the caravan. The guard at the tail end of the caravan raised his hand, signalling that all was well. He nodded imperceptively and rejoined the head of the line. He didn't notice the bright pair of eyes that peeked out from between the curtains of one of the palanquins.
X
Azure eyes stared past the golden sand dunes shifting ever so subtly, towards the horizon where the beryl coat of the sky met the golden silk of the never-ending sand of the desert. The journey was almost over. By nightfall, they would reach Tabrez, the city of her promised husband. Tabrez, the magical water city that lay snuggled in the middle of a vast, cruel desert – the city she was now to call home. Twelve natural springs fed water and life into this ancient city of stones walkways, bridges, ponds, and canals. The Shahenshah built Tabrez to reward his most trusted general for the invasion of Samarkhand and called it the Jewel of the Desert. Only those loyal and willing to die for the Shahenshah were allowed to set foot inside this paradise.
As the wind teased the curtain and pulled it away from her fingers, she let her mind wander back inside the palanquin, where her aunt was speaking in loud tones to a secondary, more distant female relative.
"We have been fortunate. Three weeks was not nearly enough time to prepare for a wedding, and wedding in Tabrez at that! But we managed, and now the deal is done." She stretched and picked up her box of paan. Flicking the lid open, she offered it to her companions, only drawing it back to herself when the proffered delicacy was refused. Carefully placing the betel leaf on her tongue she chewed expertly before turning her eyes to her niece.
"Look you; must you carry such a long face around? Anyone would think we were escorting you to your death!" She smiled in approval as the remaining lady in the palanquin tittered with bashful delight.
The girl took a deep breath. "Is there a difference?"
Begum Alia snapped her head towards her niece, her eyes shimmering with barely concealed anger. "Stop your absurd prattling! Do you hear yourself? A thousand girls would die for your good fortune but you don't even realize it." She sat up straight. "Listen to me, you silly girl. You have been given a gift. A marriage into the family of the Emir of Tabrez - what more could a girl want?" She raised her fingers, counting off on them. "Twelve caskets of gold asharfis, silks and muslin beyond your imagination, six camels, a chest full of precious stones, and the permission to spend one month of every year back in Awadh - positively baths of asses' milk. And this girl turns her nose up at it."
The other woman seated in the palanquin wore a glazed look in her eyes. "Is that what they offered for her?"
Begum Alia smirked. "That's not all. This came with the initial proposal, afterwards the Emir's son even named one of the river palaces as hers, along with servants and gold. These girls have no brains." She waved a hand dismissively.
The girl turned away and frowned. Baths of asses' milk indeed. Well if she didn't have any brains, her aunt definitely had no imagination. There was so much more to the world than robes woven with gold thread and a river palace.
She leaned her arms on the window sill and stared out again. The sun was finally showing some signs of relenting as it edged closer to the distant horizon. Soon, it would slip beyond the sand dunes like a coin in water and disappear. And then the stars would wheel about in the firmament and she would dream - of galloping horses, and wild rivers, of mountains so high one would feel giddy looking up, of temples hidden in valleys deep and old, of the bazaars of the ancient world, of adventure and excitement that resided far, far away from her destiny as the wife of the son of an Emir.
X
The dreams arrived as swiftly and strongly as they had for over a week, since they had left Awadh. It was not to be her lot in life to simply marry, bear children and fade away in a perfumed shroud. Her dreams took her to wild, untamed lands, where men battled for honour and blood flowed like water. In the teeming darkness, the seeds of fire eddied and swirled onto the blank paper of her mind, and the figure of a man twisted away and slunk back in the shadows. She leaned forward but could not see his face. She squinted and narrowed her eyes but he would not step into the light. He remained at the edges of the yellow light dancing around because of the fire.
She strained and pulled at the flimsy fabric of her dream, pulling at it, willing it to reveal what it hid. He began to walk. She glanced down and gasped. He knelt at her side, his bright teeth glinting in the light as he smirked.
His hair was contained at the crown of his head in a ponytail, its red strands falling down his back like raw silk. His cheek was marred by a scar and in his hand, resting carelessly in long, firm fingers, he held a sword.
She gasped for breath and woke, shivering.
X
The guard lifted his scimitar and held it against the bars of the jail cells. Calling out to the prisoners, he rammed the sheath of the scimitar against the bars and began to saunter down the corridor, calling out, "By the will of the Emir of Tabrez, the Merciful, may the Heavens preserve him, all prisoners are to be sold to the noble families of Tabrez, so that their souls may find redemption by serving their betters!"
His voice echoed in the hollow, rat infested dungeons. As the sound of his voice died away, prisoners stood by the doors of their cells, speaking to one another in low voices.
A man sat deep in the shadows. He smirked at the guard's words. Redemption for those that sin. How very merciful.
A low rumble sounded in his throat as he stretched and rose to his feet. His eyes were veiled by clumps of hair that fell in his eyes. He shook his head slightly and stared down the corridor. His fingers twitched. He glanced at them.
Not long now. Not long.
X
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