A/N: Ah, an update! It sure will be fun to see the plot progressing!
~laughs wickedly while a lightning strikes in the background~
Beta: Cstorm86
The Dog and His Wife
Following a path leading through the mountains was a young man. His name was Take and he was the fifth son of a samurai lord and was on a mission.
Dressed in plain robes that bore no sign of his clan, he had to travel through the dangerous mountain patch during winter to reach the palace of their ally and bring him his father's letter.
It was a great honor to serve his clan so, to carry such an important and secret message, yet it was a dangerous mission and one that exposed Take to hunger, bitter cold and weariness of aching muscles.
He sighed and looked back when a gust of biting cold wind blew past him and - to his annoyance - through the heavy wool mantle he was wearing. The storm clouds, heavy from the snow, were closing in on him and he realized he should find a shelter before the storm hit. In the mountains, far from any village, he didn't expect to find much, but a cave would surely shield him at least from some of the blizzard.
He doubled his effort at moving as fast as possible, looking for a good place to hide. When he walked around a rubble of boulders he needed a couple of minutes to realize what he was looking at.
In the center of a small glade, hidden between tall trees and under a blanket of snow, stood a house. Not a dilapidated shack, but a real house, bigger than a village hut and obviously inhabited. The bewildered man approached the building cautiously, almost certain a group of bandits or a youkai was going to jump at him in a second.
But the house looked way too tidy to be a bandits' hideout, And it didn't look like a youkai's lair either.
Before Take could reach the door and peek inside to see whose house it was, the sliding screen was opened and a woman in red and pink kimono came out of the building, carrying a lit lantern, which she hung near the doorway, under the overhanging roof. Take just stood there, frozen a couple of meters away from the house, looking at her.
She was the most beautiful woman he'd ever laid his eyes on. Petite and slender, despite the multiple layers of her rich kimono, she looked like a heavenly maiden, her hair cascading down her back and reaching her knees, a waterfall of black that made her pale skin shine. Big, innocent and dark eyes turned his way as the woman noticed him, a delicate hand went up to cover the gasp that left her red, full lips. She was perfect, like a dream, and Take felt his heart beat faster.
"Oh, goodness!" her voice was soft, sweet like a silver bell. It charmed Take's heart and the young man swallowed before bowing.
"I am sorry for intruding on you, heavenly maiden," he said. "I'm traveling from beyond the mountains and am weary from my travel. And the storm is close and I wished to ask if you could let me stay in your dwelling until it passes."
The lovely lady shook her head.
"I am no heavenly maiden, good traveler," she said in amusement.
"Then you must be a princess of a noble house!" he exclaimed, smiling at her. He hoped she'd let him stay, not only because of the weather that was worsening with every minute. "For certainly you can't be a commoner or a youkai!"
"I am most certainly a human," she laughed and shook her head. "But my honorable spouse is a youkai, and one who dislikes unwelcome guests. But if you promise to be civil and keep this place and our presence here a secret I think he wouldn't mind you spending the night under our roof."
Take was shocked at that reply, but quickly agreed to her terms. What woman would agree to be a youkai's wife? Maybe she was under a spell? Or held against her will by the vile creature? He decided to see for himself instead of asking her directly, risking upsetting her or her spouse overhearing them.
Not even an hour later the blizzard hit, shaking the trees in the forest, howling overhead and snowing heavily. Take was extremely grateful that he was inside, near the fire, with a warm bowl of stew in hand, with a beautiful lady keeping his company. But the woman was only partially focused on their conversation, glancing towards the doors often.
"My husband is bound to return any minute now," she explained herself and Take nodded, his smile vanishing. The woman looked so worried, he wanted to wrap his arms around her and swear that he was going to protect her. But when he offered to deal with the youkai she laughed and then looked at him sternly. "My husband is an honorable male, brave and strong. I am his wife because I love him and he loves me. If you desire to fight him know that he will kill you in a heartbeat and I won't stop him, because attacking the one in whose house you're spending the night, whose food you eat, is against the customs and common sense."
Take bowed and apologized, but since that minute the lady was less open towards him and smiled less. He cursed his hasty tongue that betrayed him.
Suddenly the door slid open and in a cloud of snow and cold air a huge white dog entered the house, its red eyes scanning the main room.
"Paws!" the lady exclaimed and ran to the creature standing beside the door. Take watched speechless as the princess knelt beside the dog dripping cold water on the dirt before the raised floor. She took a towel and carefully wiped the dog's paws before throwing another towel over its fur and helping to dry the youkai. It had to be a youkai, no dog was that big, nor had those blood red eyes, nor slashes of blue across cheeks.
Once dry and free of towels the dog jumped to the raised floor and glared at Take, who barely restrained himself from reaching for his sword. The dog looked to the lady standing beside it.
"My beloved, this is Take," she introduced. "He is a traveler who asked for shelter from the storm. I let him in after he promised to keep our secret."
'Very well,' the dog nodded. Its maws didn't move, yet Take heard a male, low voice that had to belong to the lady's spouse. The dog sat on the other side of the fire and the princess busied herself with preparing a meal for him, Take watched the canine eat for a minute before he excused himself and went to the corner of the room where he was going to sleep. He watched the couple sitting next to each other through half closed eyelids until the dog stood up and led the lady deeper into the house, probably to their bedroom.
The mere thought that he, Take, was sleeping on the floor in the main room, while that creature was going to sleep with the lovely lady on a futon was enough to keep Take up for a long while despite how tired he was.
The next morning the storm was over and the world was covered by a thick layer of new snow. Before Take left the house the lady implored him again to keep his promise of keeping their house and presence a secret.
When two days later, after reaching the palace of his father's ally, Take got a bit tipsy with sake and told about his encounter with the youkai and the lovely lady, he thought that a promise given to a dog and an enchanted princess wasn't a binding one, so he felt little regret about gathering the younger sons of the lord and some of his samurai to go and retrieve the lady he had been thinking about since the fateful day.
They found the house hidden high up the mountain path easily, but to Take's disappointment, there was no sign of the lady nor her hound around, their belongings had vanished and the ashes in the fireplace were cold.
When the group returned to the palace they got a scolding from the lord, a wise old man, who - upon hearing his story himself - enlightened Take, that the lady he had met was indeed a princess of a house that was no more, the fair Izayoi, and that the dog that was her husband was the dog daiyoukai known to humans as Inu no Taisho. The old lord forbid his sons and samurai to chase after them, fearing the fierce youkai's retaliation, but Take couldn't stop thinking about the beautiful princess who so clearly needed him to save her. So he dedicated all his free time to gather rumors and investigate, trying to find her again and this time battle the youkai to free the princess so she could become his wife.
For years all he found were rumors and cold ashes. Until one day one of his samurai brought him a letter from a friend, telling him the whereabouts of the great dog youkai that was waging a war against a dragon youkai.