Ch 6

After I had left the Boarder to the Afterlife, I took the black pearl with me as I traveled to Totosai's mountain home to receive the rest of my elder's instructions.

"That you would have to discover on your own, I cannot reveal everything."

I sadly nodded, "I understand, or else I might interfere with fate's design."

"Listen closely my grandson, go to the smith's apprentice, Totosai, and tell him that we have spoken. I have intrusted in him the scrolls of my fathers that contain evidence and past records about the coming of slavery and why it should have been illegal in the beginning. He will also have a list of instructions of how to change your sword."

"My sword? Tenssaiga? Why?"

"He will tell you when you speak to him."

I held up a hand, 'Wait! What of my mate, where do I find her?"

"Patience pup, she will be born when your first son reaches his 200th year."

"WHAT?!"

"Something the matter?" I could have swore I saw my grand-shire's familiar smirk.

"She would be younger than my own son! I cannot take a female that young!"

The light apparition make deep chuckling noises as he raised a clawed finger, "Don't worry about that! She would be old enough when you meet her and mate."

"But I can't!"

"You will! When Mates don't come together, their lifespans become less and less. My own mate died before me, so I followed a year later. I fought to stay alive to tell you everything I could before I passed. All the more reason you cannot die before your second son is born! Besides her age will the least of your worries."

I looked up in shock, "There's more?"

"I'm afraid so, your case for equal rights will not go over well with the demon council, and the humans will also reject you the first time."

"First time? How many attempts will it take?"

"Unfortunately, someone of great evil will take advantage of the idea and use it to his own means of destruction. It would bring about a long and costly war."

"Who? Who is he so I may dispatch him before his plans are carried out!" I demanded, angry and confused that someone would dare use our dream for his own agenda. I wondered sorrowfully how many lives would be taken.

"I'm sorry, but I cannot answer that as well pup."

I ran a clawed hand down my face in frustration, "Forgive me for my lack of patience Grand-shire."

"You are still young after all, but you must stay determined no matter what happens!"

I landed silently on the side of Totosai's volcanic mountain and gently walked on the narrow path towards the skull shaped cave that housed the apprentice talking to his pet cow. No one knew for sure why he would take a demon cow as a companion but I chose not to question that.

"Totosai-san! I know you're in there hiding, I can smell the ash from your clothes!"

The skinny demon with large eyes poked his head out with his hammer resting on his shoulder, "The Master! What an honor! What brings you back to this nick of the woods?"

I nodded my head in respect to the man in salutation, I always knew this man was talented but whatever possessed Grand-shire into choosing him as a resource for our cause I'll never know. It was no secret that the apprentice was cowardly at times, but when cornered he did use his abilities to the extreme to escape. Yet, I didn't know where his loyalties were at this point.

"Come milord, we will talk inside I was about to cook a roast boar. Is Tenssaiga giving you grief? You didn't break it did you?! Oh! my greatest work!"

As he bawled like a baby, I sat down at his work bench to untie Tenssaiga's sheath from my obi, "She's fine Totosai, I give her a good rub down everyday till she purrs. She and I are getting along fine."

The poor apprentice wiped his eyes before turning around to face me, "Oh thank kami! She's one of my best works, she's meant to be the most superior sword used for battle but must be earned in her favor. Another reason why I gave her the disguised appearance of a rusty old katana, humans and demons are such prideful creatures when it comes to matters of appearance. And thus is one of the reasons why you are here I suppose young Master?"

I smirked, "There are days I forget that your only 100 years older than me, unless you want to count the time we accidentally caught Grand-shire's hair on fire!"

Totosai chuckled a bit before turning sober once again, "...and yet he entrusted me with his most secret possessions, I don't even have the chops to make the great lord's shoes, may he rest in peace. I don't understand why he would chose someone this unworthy."

He turned his head for a few seconds as he blew fire from his mouth into a pit where a raw carved boar meat was waiting on a spit, the meat sizzled as it cooked from the flames.

Returning to me Totosai's eyes narrowed at me as he leaned forward to whisper, "Before I entrust you with the late master's material, as he had instructed me, tell me who's side you are on?"

I blinked, "You know my loyalties are to my Grand-shire's dream and the house of Inu and those who reside on our lands."

"The house of Inu has become split into two different groups of loyalty due to it's lord's corruption, with all due respect Master, your father is leading himself and his people down a dark path that may take generations to rebuild. I fear that even members of the great house of Inu would become almost non-existent. I can see it in your eyes, Inu no Tashio, you know that I am right."

I silently nodded, the guilt eating away in my heart and soul knowing that the strong house my father's father had established was deteriorating. Grand-shire always knew how to keep it together in times of peace and war, and he was only related by marriage. His loyalties to the clan were sound and continued even from the grave.

Totosai spoke again, "Your grandfather was a strong and wise demon, Master, he trusted in you the knowledge and abilities to not only become a great lord, but someone who would change our very history!"

"At what cost Totosai? How many lives would be spared, who many will die? The way things may turn out, it might be the worst civil war Japan has ever had to experience."