I got no excuse for this, I just wanted to write crack. The parings are: Inutaisho/Sansa, Jon/Sesshoumaru's mother (Inukimi)
Toga, the Inu no Taisho, was halfway through the final patrol of his lands before winter when he caught the scent of divine-tinged blood in the wind.
He was off with a flash, poison gathering in his claws and fangs as he prepared himself for battle. His mind raced as he streaked towards the conflict.
He had come across the lesser kami hundreds of times in his life, had even done battle with and killed his fair share, but he had rarely come across their children. Or even their descendants.
And every time he had come across a kami-child, they had been accompanied by their divine parent.
That was one distinct similarity between kami and youkai: a protectiveness for their young that bordered on homicidal.
So the question was, why could he smell the blood of a partially divine child, but not that of their parent?
In any case, it was Toga's responsibility, as the Lord of these Lands, to protect innocents who were being harmed, no matter the race.
To say that Toga was surprised at the scene he came upon was a slight understatement.
A wounded man with coal-dark hair, the source of most of the blood in the air, was standing protectively over an injured fire-haired woman, and a young boy of the same colouring. All three were wearing foreign clothing. All three of them had foreign features. And all three held the scent of divinity.
But there was no divine parent. In fact, the only hint of divine protection was the snarling red-eyed wolf with blood-splattered white fur guarding the three. Toga was tempted to call it a wolf youkai due to its immense size, if not for the fact that he could sense divine ki, not yoki, from it.
A heavenly wolf then. He had never come across one of the sort in his life.
The man was wielding a foreign sword with expert precision, fighting off two boar youkai even through the pain of his wounds. Littering the ground of the clearing were a good amount of boar youkai corpses. Some were quite literally torn limb from limb - likely the work of the wolf - and others had been obviously dispatched via sword.
The wolf growled, and leapt forwards to maul one of boar yokai when the man faltered for a moment, his injuries clearly beginning to overtake him
The remaining youkai quickly became a non-issue due to Toga's claws ripping through its throats and his poison dissolving its body before it could hit the ground.
Toga idly let his poison dissolve the blood from his hands as the man lifted his sword into a defensive position and barked out something in a language that took him a moment to place.
…English. Yes that was what it was called. The last Toga had heard it was in the wandering of his youth, long before he had claimed the title of Inu no Taisho.
It took him a moment more to place what the man had said. 'Stand back.' The wolf growled menacingly, clearly tensed to attack.
Toga did so, not because he was intimidated by the threat - far from it - but out of respect for the man's determination to protect his companions
Toga was, after all, inuyoukai. He could scent the emotions coming from the three kami-descendants before him. Fear was a strong one. Anger another. Exhaustion was a third.
But all he could see on the man - and woman's - faces was a grim sort of determination.
His grasp on their tongue was likely centuries behind the dialect these kami-descendants spoke, but it should suffice for the time being.
"I shalt not harm thee."
The man did not lower his sword. However, the woman came forward - though Toga noted that she kept herself between himself and the child. Good instincts, that one had - and rested her hand on the man's sword arm until he reluctantly lowered it. The wolf stepped backwards to stand protectively in front of the child.
The women walked in front of the man, who hadn't sheathed his sword, and curtseyed.
"I am Sansa of House Stark, my Lord. This is my br…cousin Jaehaerys and my brother Rickon. You have my thanks for saving us."
She was about to say brother, Toga noticed, but did not press her on it.
The woman had the bearing of a noble, despite her injuries and unkempt appearance. And Toga was beginning to suspect that she was one. She, along with her brother and cousin, looked relativly hale and hearty. Her skin was porcelain pale and blemish free, she had introduced that with a house name, and her curtsey - a mannerism that Toga also hadn't seen in anywhere but the foreign lands to the Far West - was done with an ease that only came from long practice.
But the most damning thing of all was the complete lack of recognition on the woman - Sansa's - face at his title. Everyone in these lands knew him or at least knew of him.
Her eyes lingered for a moment on his claws, eyes, and markings, and he could scent her apprehension, but her face revealed nearly nothing.
These kami-descendants, with their foreign cloths, weapons, and features, were not from his lands. And judging by the woman's well-masked surprise at his youkai features, may hail from a land with none of his kind.
They were not of his people, that was true, but it would hardly be honourable to let them wander an unfamiliar land on their own. And it would hardly be wise to allow three kami-descendants out of his supervision until he found out how and why they had arrived here.
"I am the Inu no Taisho, Lord of the Western Lands…" He paused for a short moment as the man - Jaehaerys - and Sansa's fear-scent spiked for a moment when he said 'Western'. Interesting. "...Cometh. I shalt assist with thee and thy family's wounds."
He turned and began to walk towards his campsite, senses trained on the trio to see what they would do when faced with his 'vulnerable' back.
There was no attack, not that he believed there would be. He scented no deceit in Sansa or Jaehaerys. Nor did they run, which was a distinct possibility with the fear and apprehension the three had been giving off through the entire encounter.
Instead, the boy - Rickon - spoke for the first time, quietly enough that a human would not have been able to hear him.
"Mother?"
Mother? Sansa had introduced Rickon as her brother. There was clearly an interesting story to be had there.
"We will go with Lord Inu no Taisho, sweetling." Sansa barely stumbled over the unfamiliar-to-her syllables of his title.
"Sansa..." That wary statement was from Jaehaerys.
"We must," said Sansa, clearly resolute. Immediately after Toga heard the grass and leaves crunch as the trio and the wolf followed him.
So she was the alpha of the group, then. Toga made a note of that - she clearly had some quality about her that made her cousin and brother follow her, despite her not being the fighter of the group. That was clearly Jaehaerys.
In the Youkai clans, the leader was the most powerful of the group. Toga had learned that this tended to be the case in human units as well.
That meant that Sansa had either done something or was someone - or both - worthy of making her someone for her brother and cousin to defer to without much in the way of questions.
Interesting, thought Toga once more, as he led his unlikely companions to his campsite.
As y'all can tell, things have diverged wildly on the Game of Thrones side of things. Don't worry, what happened will be revealed in the coming chapters.
Next chapter will be Sansa's POV of things, as well as a bit on how the Stark Squad got to this point.