InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Lifetime Loving You Part 1; Seasons in Owari ❯ Breaking the Dog Demon Blood ( Chapter 26 )

Chapter 26; Breaking the Dog Demon Blood

(Inu-taisho)

Thunder

At least that was what my ears told me when I heard the sound of rumbling in the clouds, and water tapping on the ground and my body. I could feel the water too, and taste it on my lips. Once I opened my eyes I could see the dry earth turning into mud.

Yet, of these four senses, one wasn't working. My nose was burning with the scent of clover and some fowl herb that made it hard to breathe through my nose. I snorted ferociously to try and get the horrid smell from my nose, and in my complete confusion I found the surroundings completely different as well.

As I blew my nose into the air and wiped it on my sleeve like a low class animal to smell, I discovered I wasn't in the garden. I was in familiar woods not far from home, but nowhere near the shrine Mika resided in. I sniffed the air to find any source of scent to find her, but the herb held no mercy.

I couldn't smell. I couldn't smell a fucking scent.

"Mika!" I called out, hoping that she just might be near by.

"Mika?"

I found my strength to get to my weak and discovered that my entire body was in pain. I tumbled to the earth and for the first time discovered how weak I was. I was covered in mud, with no sense of smell, and shivering in the cold with one single thought in my head.

What happened?

I was supposed to wake up that morning and find Mika at my side soothing my ear perhaps, or feeling her lips caress mine. Yet here I was in the wet and cold wood, dirty and shivering with the smell of bitter herb in my nose.

I was lost and confused.

I felt lost, remembering that last night I was filled with Mika's warmth and kiss, and now I was in a cold and wet wood without her warm, sweet scent to comfort me. I was so lost that I hardly even noticed the females of my pack had found me while they had gone on the hunt to find food.

Tinari, my youngest sister (not related), called my sisters to come to me, and all carried me to my home through the miserable rain and wet until I found myself warm in my bed at home. I was home in my white silk linens surrounded by my pillows and futons and the fire crackling in the corner.

The bitter herb smell was gone, but I could only smell air and nothing else. I couldn't smell the females that had come to feed me, and I couldn't quite taste the food in my mouth completely.

Worst of these was when my son came to my side. He circled me a few times and looked at me as he put his claws through my mane to look at my sad expression. This baffled Sesshoumaru and he just looked at me like the rest of them, knowing something had happened to me. I wasn't the same.

Three days passed and I was still bed ridden with my son at my side through out the time.

The females sat around the bed that morning in their dog like stance, each one waiting for something to happen.

Suddenly, one of them spoke. "He has been mourning over the loss of his mate for days now. Our Lord should be rejoicing by choosing one of us and continuing the dog demon blood. Inu-taisho and his son are the last of the males, and they should choose a mate. Two of us must bear sons in order to replenish our blood."

Another responded, "Aye, but who is worthy?"

"The lord will choose whom he deems worthy." Tinari approached them on all fours and glared at them. Her red tresses and yellow stripes enhanced her beauty as a young maid. She was far younger than my son, a mere child filled with the innocence of one.

She came to me in my moment of darkness and looked at my face. "My Lord? I mourn with you. I lost my brother in the great battle weeks ago. If it is not to bold to say, I share your pain."

I looked to the child and in a horse voice spoke, "I do not mourn for the loss of my mate. I mourn over a broken heart."

This perplexed all of the females in the room and my son. Their bickering continued as I lay on my side wondering if I would ever be able to smell again. My nose longed to smell only one scent, however, and that was Mika's sweet flower and oil perfume.

Why did you leave me? You promised I would smell your scent in the morning. You said you would bring your kiss in the morning...your touch. Mika, where are you? Why won't you come back? Why are you gone? What is this pain in my chest that won't go away? Why do I feel so weak?

At that moment, for the first time in my life, I cried. My eyes flooded with hot tears and I cried. I cried out of pain, confusion, and from a broken heart. Why didn't you say good-bye? Why can't I spend one more moment of warmth with you?

"He's been marked!" one of them screeched, and every female sneered. "Our sister has marked him with her own claws and made him untouchable. She has cursed us all."

The females sneered and showed their fear. I sat up and shoved the female that had discovered me to the floor and backed her down. "You look to mate? Then you have failed asking for it from me."

The oldest of the females stood before me, the one old enough to be my mother, Praia. She looked at me with great curiosity and her nose began to twitch. Then she growled and put on a face that could have scared the demons in the netherworld. "So, that is why she cursed you! A warning to us that you have shamed yourself."

I glared at her, and prepared myself. "What mutiny is this, Praia?"

She bared her fangs and her eyes glowed red as the rest of the females awaited her word. "He has shamed himself, his blood! The scent of a human woman is in your skin a scent of passion."

I snarled at her as the females gasped. "I have made no mate since Sashimi's death. You do not smell shame."

Praia's red eyes glowed with her accusing and now the females began to join her. She hissed, "You choose a female of the mortal race to be your mate? You shame your blood! You shame your son! No female demon will find you worthy to mate with once they smell the scent of a mortal woman on your skin and in your mane. You have shamed your son! You have shamed yourself!"

I couldn't control my anger as it built in my chest. Mika was not a mortal woman to be called shameful, and I stood for this. In all my rage I roared and scattered them across the room as they snapped and roared. None has the gall to stand up and fight me though, and soon in a moment of time I had chased them over the wall of the castle as they yipped in fear and limped away in their injuries; Praia's right eye was my prize that proved my victory. Yet, the fear in young Tinari's eyes made my heart shake.

Why did the innocent have to suffer the guilty party's crime?

"Find sanctuary Tinari! I pray for your innocence to bare fruit worthy of the western tribe," I whispered as I looked at the blood of my sisters on my claws as they ran into the woods and toward the mountains.

"Hear my word! You are band from this place forever more! Never return, for if your wish is to bare sons, then rut with the wild wolves in the mountains and bare your blood in their shame. Bare your sons under this shame, for I will never allow you to walk these grounds again!" I howled as they ran into the thickness of the wood and into the mountains. They would live in the far west away from the eyes of man, away from the eyes that would discover the end of the dog demon bloodline.

I stumbled into my quarters and fell to my knees looking at the blood on my hands. In a moment, Sesshoumaru was at my side and touched the blood. "Father, what have you done? You have forsaken a demon creed by letting the blood of the dog demon die in the blood of wolves. Why? Why do you show such madness?"

I didn't even turn to my son when I spoke. "Go into the wilds, Sesshoumaru, and never return to this castle. Your shame will not be lived out at my side."

I looked at my son and saw only Sashimi's hateful eyes. "Learn your lands, for the western domain is yours now. I have shamed myself by falling in love with a mortal woman, and if you stay with me, your shame will be made greater."

I got to my feet and looked out the broken window as the sun began to disappear over the mountains. "Go now and leave me to die this way. I will die in my shame, and if you return to find my bones, then cast them into the ocean. For even all the water in the world will not wash this from me."

In a moment of complete silence, I dared not to even look at my son; and, in a moment of time he was gone, too.

I was alone.

~~~~

Three days pasted, and my life as a shamed phantom dog was lived out on starving myself wondering when I would finally see the demons of death crawling over my body.

I looked at the sky that was covered in gray clouds that morning. This day would not bring me joy.

"Of all the wonders in the world, why is it that a mortal woman's warmth is the only thing I want?"

"Well, that's the funny this about the human emotion called love," a voice spoke making me jump to my feet and scan the room. "You honestly don't know what it will make a man or a woman do. It can be filled with pain, or filled with warmth if you decide how you plan to live it out."

I looked over the room with my eyes wide enough to pop out of my head. "Who speaks?"

"Oh honestly now, Lord Inu-taisho, have you forgotten about me already?" and in that moment a spec jumped out of my mane and on to the floor. My eyes came to his level and the flea sat down and crossed his arms. "Honestly, if there is anything more shameful, it's watching you reduce yourself to this. Your blood has even lost its good flavor because you haven't eaten."

I looked at the flea as he stared at me. "You're the flea from the garden! Father Myoga the Flea!"

The tiny demon's eyes blinked, "Aye, so you do remember me! I thought that that herb the priest used to hinder your sense of smell would have effected your memory of me as well for a moment."

I sat up, "A herb?"

The flea jumped and sat on my nose. "Aye, the plan the priest had in order to make sure that Mika didn't run off to be with you. The nurse discovered your true identity and had you cast out into the wilds, drugged and your nose scarred with holy herb. They made you disappear, while the girl cried in her room."

I jumped to my feet. "Mika...she still loves me? This was done without her word?"

The flea snorted. "I was in the room when it happened warming myself by the fire. I was hoping to stay there the night so that I could take the horses back to Kyoto since they were going to leave the next morning."

I found my body beginning to warm again, and suddenly at the moment these words were spoken I felt frozen again. "The new moon! Mika was to be wed on the night when the moon didn't show."

"Aye and that moon will be hanging in the sky tonight."

I crossed my eyes and looked at the flea sitting on my nose. "No! I won't allow her to live a life without the true warmth she gives me."

Myoga got to his feet, "If you plan on making this woman your mate, then the shame will bring a dark cloud over your name and hers."

"It matters not!" I growled, "I can't live a day without her in my arms. I have forsaken the demon live for her. I threw my blood and power to the side to be with her. Now I live for her affection, her kiss, and her touch."

I pinched the flea in my claws and placed him on a mantel. "Myoga, you know the way to Kyoto from here. You have the ability to smell blood, then you should know the scent of Mika's as well."

The little flea seemed to turn an ugly color of green. "Go...to Kyoto to break in on the wedding of Princess Mika? You have to be insane! The palace will be over run with guards and men, and if the nurse has told the Emperor then he'll have the guard on high."

I narrowed my brow. "The nurse would only tell what had to be known. She wouldn't want him to know that Mika's feelings are shared. She'd loose her job that way." I turned and opened my cabinet doors to look at my armor. I began to suit up. "I will free Mika from this and bring her back here where she'll be safe."

Myoga jumped down from his sitting and back to my nose. "This is not wise! You could be killed!"

I smirked. "Then I will die doing what I know is right, and I will be with Mika always in her heart and in her dreams. At least I can live in her dreams rather than staying here with her memory."

Myoga let out a heavy sigh and looked at me. I crossed my eyes to look at my newfound companion. "Myoga, please? I need you to be my nose. I need you to guild me to Kyoto, to help me save Mika."

The flea blinked and looked at me has if I had lost my mind. He puffed up his chest a moment later. "I'll go then."

I tied my sash and looked at my sword, Tenseiga. I'd leave it. "Myoga, remind me that I need to make a sword to protect Mika from demons, and one that will up hold my new way of life."

I walked through the window at the mesh curtains fluttered in the wind and I stepped up on the balcony rail. "The wind is calm to night. A good night to fly."

"Aye, but there is one thing I should tell you, Lord Inu-taisho." The flea said as he began to shake and his voice wavered. "Once we're in Kyoto, would you leave me in a place away from the action?"

I snorted and laughed as I got to my feet and ran over the treetops. "What is it, Myoga? You don't find honor in this?"

Myoga cleared his throat, "I find honor in not running head first into danger for any mortal woman."

I smirked, "Not even for the misses? Not even for love?" I asked him this as I took to the clouds.

"Love? So is that what you call your insane behavior?"

I laughed as I took to the clouds. Myoga sat in my armor and looked ahead. "Head northeast and if we stay dead on, we'll hit Kyoto by night fall."

"It will take the whole day? I can get to Kyoto on my nose in half the time."

Myoga crossed his arms. "Yes, but we're working on my sense of smell and the wind is not something I'm used to. It will take time!"

I felt my heart pound, 'Nightfall! Very well then, nightfall it is! Wait for me, Mika! Have hope! I won't let you live a life of cold loneliness.

'I love you!'