Tapestry Ch5: The Rebellious Age

Alt text: In which the FF site poops out for a day and I jump back in time

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After living for hundreds of years, the mundane day-to-day became fuzzy. The where, the when, occasionally the why fell to the wayside of thought. This was especially true if you didn't have to sleep or eat or any of those other routine things. You were left with the much less substantial to occupy your mind.

He was always traveling. Always very aware of where he was, but didn't linger on the fact. He didn't need to. Humans and demons, faces hard to pinpoint, scents that didn't need remembering. A life like this left one's mind abstract. Strange things would stand out to him—the sound of this waterfall as opposed to another, the warm feeling of red embraced between his fingers after a battle, the smell of human hearths in the distance, the thick and unrelenting smog left in the wake of a swing of his sword.

Not that he did things wantonly. Everything had a reason, had a time and a circumstance and a role. But after so many battles and comrades and moments of hot anger and energy, joy, even fear- after lives and lives lived, one had to be selective.

His world was not simply instances. There were interactions; there were times and places and people worth remembering. These were more distinct than any other in his nearly endless catalog of knowledge. His clan was one of these.

For many other demons, even those in positions of power similar to his, he supposed they would be more invested in what could be called their family. He knew this was true of the small clans of the wolf, fox, and cat. But he was in a very unique position.

One such instance of importance was the day he killed his father.

The flea had truly been the first to meet him—after the danger had been dealt with, of course. His nasal buzz of excitement was almost a comfort, a semblance of normalcy in the numbing aftermath. It wasn't meant to be comforting, he knew, but he hadn't really listened to his tiny companion, simply allowed him passage as he jumped excitedly on his shoulder.

No, the real first one he had met, the first of his clan, had been his son.

Sesshomaru was not fully grown yet. Not a pup, but not yet acknowledged as the Lord he was to become. He was taking after his father in his almost total detachment from his clan, making his presence even more particular.

The General had enough sense to know he was approaching and courteously stopped, causing Myoga to whir with fresh terror at the change. Aptly, the flea soon fled. The Demon Lord was left alone, light dappling down from the canopy leaving patches of shadow along his face.

Sesshomaru landed in the clearing, stopping his momentum with two steps toward his father. They still had great distance between them in the forest cove. The young man had not approached further to stand at his father's side as he normally did—perhaps cautiously—but comfortably. No, now there was great untred space between them, and there it would remain until his death.

The silence held. The General knew he would speak when he was ready.

"You killed him." He finally said, his voice deepened with new maturity. "You killed Grandfather." It wasn't a question, but he answered him anyway.

"Yes."

More silence.

"I know why you did. I know what he was, what he really was…what we come from."

Sesshomaru seemed not quite himself. His chest still heaved silently—he had rushed here. His eyes were just a bit too wide, his body a bit too tense, his voice too stiff, betraying his front.

"It needed to be done. Done long ago. I told you as much, didn't I?" he continued.

"Yes, my son, you did." In no Taishō said solemnly, allowing the lack of respect creeping into the boy's tone.

"He'd gone mad-"

"Yes, that is why I-"

"-gone long before now, just like all the others. But you waited." Sesshomaru's voice remained relatively calm, but his eyes blazed. "You waited until now. Until he had deteriorated to…until he disgraced Inugami even further."

"…disgraced?" his father's voice was quiet now, dangerous.

"You know what he represents, what he did to this clan-"

"FOR this clan." The general boomed before becoming soft again. "You also know what he did for it. What all the Elders did."

"The Elders went mad."

"It was in there nature to."

"In their nature?" he spit, his back bristling before he recovered some composure, his voice lowering to match the pitch of his father's. "The Elders were corrupted. Their very existence was, their creation a mistake."

His father laughed. The sound was alien in the serious hush of the conversation

"Then you'd rather our un-existence? You curse your creator, your origin." His lips curled in a smile but his eyes remained stony. Cold. "You are still young."

Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes. He might as well have bared his teeth and snarled for what the subtle gesture revealed. "This is the humans' fault. Humans are weak. Infectious."

"You came from humans."

"NO!" He barked, demeanor cracking and eyes flaring red. His father tipped his head back in a grimace as the aura-charged air whipped around him, warning. Sesshomaru calmed. "No, I did not. They may have, but I have nothing to do with humans."

"You are young." His father repeated. "You distance yourself from our clan for the wrong reasons—For the exact reasons I cannot bring myself to tear completely from them. You see weakness where I see something precious."

"Precious?" The scandal of emotion the normally emotionless demon shook with was fierce. "The weakness of humans is like a disease, infecting all that involve with them. Humans created a being for themselves as a tool and a weapon—and even then made it flawed, doomed to insanity due to their hands, their design. Precious? There is nothing precious there."

"Enough." The Demon Lord finally said, ending what he viewed as a petty argument from a youth. He turned from his impetuous son. "Return to me when you are instead willing to offer your condolences."

A twig snapped behind him and a low growl began to rumble. A huge presence expanded behind him, swirling ruby and purple plumes of power.

Inu no Taishō stopped, his face breaking into a cross of disappointment and disgust. He turned to face his son, now an enormous hound, his back easily reaching above the treetops. What little wildlife remained around the two after their prolonged argument fled to the skies. The huge demon lowered his head to level with his father's yet small form. A snarl ripped around foaming saliva, snout wrinkled and furious. Thus he demanded his father's response.

So he gave it.

Another hurricane of power, larger, torrential. The beast of the first born Inugami was far bigger than his son. Standing stiffly to his full height, his chest cleared the tree line with room to spare. The new beast didn't even dignify the rebellious pup with a growl, only curling a lip to reveal glistening fangs in anger at the other's childlessness.

Sesshomaru cringed back while the rest of his body language remained aggressive and tense. Despite getting what he wanted from his father, he couldn't bring himself to move, bound by the Alfa's molten stare.

The Demon Lord locked eyes with his rival blood. Sesshomaru fought every nerve that told him to succeed, to look away and admit the other's dominance. He kept the gaze, red eyes met in primal struggle.

Inu no Taishō had had enough. Stepping forward with a sound like thunder, he lunged at the younger, catching his throat expertly in his mouth. Sesshomaru all but yelped in defiance, his own bite snapping just out of reach. The Demon Lord's eye burned as he forced the weaker to the ground, slowly but impossibly strong. Sesshomaru crumbled. His back legs strained upward to rake at his father's underbelly. Inu no Taishō's bite tightened. Black blots bloomed in Sesshomaru's vision. The teeth like spears dug into his flesh, staining a red collar around his neck, eerily similar to another.

The Demon Lord raked with bared claws, rolling his son on his back, stomach exposed, forcing his submission. Sesshomaru stopped his struggle, left pinned to the ground, one eye locked on his father, still refusing to break the contact. His chest's erratic heaving was the only movement in his now petrid form.

He could do it. In a sick way he wanted his father to do it, to finish what his jaws had already started and end him for his disrespect. To crush his throat, tare it from him in a fount of gore. To prove, apodictically, that he was not weak, that origin or no origin, humans or no humans, he was powerful.

Because he was. His pulse beat wildly against the vice of teeth, and with eyes like flame he knew his father was strong.

But his father didn't end him. He instead released him to bare teeth red with blood at his son, shaking the ground with a thunderous growl.

Sesshomaru continued to lay there long after his father had leapt to the skies and left him, feeling the sanguine fluid pour form his wound, nose thick with the alkaline smell of his own blood. It mixed with the sharp tinge of fresh pine, hanging heavily in the crushed remains of the glade their scuffle had decimated.

Eventually he rose, but not until the pounding in his head quieted.

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So the FF site pooped out to the max for a day so this didn't get up earlier like I was supposed too. Anywho, enjoy the father-son-ness.

As always, please REVEIW!