InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Bitter Blood ❯ Chapter 6

Bitter Blood

Chapter 6

Days turned into weeks, and weeks into months. Under Dokumi's care, Rin gradually regained her health and began to move about the castle grounds again. Her lord had moved from their chamber, but she saw him often enough not to complain. And, as she was not quite up to performing her "wifely duties," she thought sleeping apart was the best idea for both of them.

Also, despite her lord's admonitions, she'd taken quite a liking to Dokumi. She was bright and cheerful, and full of stories. She'd traveled and adventured and seen lands she'd never dreamed of. She was good with Daichi and amicable with all the servants. She advised without condescension, and she helped without being asked. In fact, she was everything Rin hoped to be when she'd gained a few more years.

And even Jakken had commented how much more smoothly the household ran with her in the castle.

The only one who had yet to warm up to her was Lord Sesshomaru.

But because of his disposition, Rin found this easy to ignore. And she enjoyed the time she spent with Dokumi, either in the nursery with Daichi or strolling about the castle grounds. She was the first girl friend she'd ever had . . .. The only thing that struck her odd about her new-found friend was her seeming fascination with the garden and the hedge maze within.

"It's such a beautiful day," Rin said.

Dokumi sat at the entrance of the hedge maze as she and Daichi wandered about the grounds, soaking up the sun and enjoying the warmth of the day, her new robes, flowing behind her.

"Yes," Dokumi said. "It is. I can't remember the last time I saw a day so fine."

Rin laughed to herself. "You are impressed with nature, aren't you?"

Dokumi smiled. "It's in my blood. Bog demons are outdoor creatures. We don't do well in closed-in areas."

"Oh?" Rin said.

"In the castle, it sometimes feels as if I'm suffocating," she said. "As if I'm trapped and have nowhere to go." She laughed a little uneasily. "I won't hesitate to tell you how I long for the wide spaces and open areas of my home."

"But this is your home, now," Rin said. "You're just like part of the family. A sister to me, an aunt to Daichi. And with you around, I don't have to bother Jakken nearly as much as I used to. So I'm sure he appreciates your presence as much as I do."

She laughed more to herself than out loud. "I notice there's a member of the household you neglected to mention, my lady."

She gave a nervous laugh. "Well, my lord is certainly appreciative of the work you've done for me. And for Daichi, of course. He just . . . He's very. . ." None of the words she could think of portrayed him in the proper light. She didn't want Dokumi to think he didn't like her. . . "He just . . ."

"Thinks very highly of himself," she said.

"Well . . ." she couldn't really disagree with what she said, but . . ..

"You shouldn't make excuses for him, my lady. I know he doesn't like me, and to be honest, I don't care much for him, either. Or any of the aristocrats, for that matter . . . A more self-important bunch of fools, I've never seen. The true aristocracy died with Lord Inutaisho."

Rin was at a loss. Certainly, as the Lady of the Western Lands, she should rebuff her, but ...

"I do apologize, my lady. I meant no offense to you or your lord husband . . . There's simply a bit of bad blood between us."

Rin grabbed Daichi's foot as he attempted to crawl off farther than safe. "'Bad blood?'" she repeated. "What wrong did my lord ever do you?"

She laughed to herself, shaking her head. "It's silly to say," she said.

"It can't be that 'silly' if it's caused you to hold such a grudge against him."

She lowered her eyes and spoke more to herself than out loud. "It's a small thing really. I'd hate to bore you with such a trivial matter."

"Bore me," she said.

Dokumi shrugged as if it really didn't matter. "It was centuries ago," she said. "I was still but a child, and my father brought me with him when he had to meet with Lord Inutaisho, your lord's father."

"I know who he is," she said. "Was this before or after the first war with the demons of China?"

She seemed surprised. "You know about that?"

"Well, you did bring it up. And when you didn't completely answer me, I asked Jakken."

She nodded to herself. "You're quite resourceful, aren't you?"

"So, was it before or after then?"

"Before," she said. "I believe they were making battle plans at the time. But, anyway, my father told me to play in the garden while he attended to more important matters." She stared up and around at the castle grounds.

Rin listened while she watched Daichi roll around in the grass.

"It was here that your lord and I first met," she said. "I was sitting exactly in this spot at the entrance of the hedge maze, playing with a doll, quite content to be in such a lovely place . . . And he walked over to me and stopped, then he looked down and glared at me, as only your lord can glare. Now, I was only seven at the time, and he, a few years older--eleven or twelve, I think. But I was playing with a porcelain doll my father had given me, and he'd asked what I was doing in the garden, or rather, 'What are YOU doing in OUR garden?'"

Rin laughed to herself. It seemed that everyone had a Sesshomaru impression.

"I answered him, of course. 'I'm playing,' I said.

"Then he looked at me as if I were stupid and said, 'I can see that. But who are you, and what are you doing in our garden?'

"And I was a very genial child, so I smiled my biggest smile and introduced myself. 'I'm Dokumi,' I said. 'My father told me to play here while he visits with Lord Inutaisho. Would you like to be my friend?'"

Rin laughed again. That sounded like something she might have said if Sesshomaru and she had been children together.

"I know. It was a stupid thing for me to say, especially in hindsight, and possibly the first mistake I made with him. But, anyway, he said he didn't need any friends. So I made, what I now see as, my second mistake and laughed at him. 'Everyone needs friends,' I said.

"He glared at me, then turned up his nose.

"'And then I made, what I consider to be, my third, final and worst mistake. 'Would you like to play with my doll?' I asked. I held it up to him and smiled the biggest smile I could . . . Then he took it, threw it on the ground and stepped on it.'"

Rin winced.

"It was porcelain, so it broke immediately. And I, being a child, burst into tears, and he walked off . . . My father, as fathers do, came running when he heard me crying. I told him what had happened, and he smiled at me and patted me on my head and said, 'Pay him no mind, Dokumi, for he is an unhappy child with an unhappy life, and he probably envies you a great deal.'"

Rin stifled a laugh. "I'm sorry," she said. "I'm not laughing at you. It's just--I don't imagine my lord envying anyone anything."

"Neither did I," she said. "I just figured my father was covering for the rotten, little brat because he was friends with his father, and didn't want to stir up any 'bad blood' between the two of them."

Rin again grabbed Daichi's foot and pulled him back to her side. "And that's what started it?" she assumed.

Dokumi laughed. "Started it, ended it. That's all there was to it," she said. "The rude heir of a demon lord, and a crybaby daughter of a low-class healer . . . Silly isn't it?"

She smiled thoughtfully. "I don't know," she said. "I think I would've cried too if someone had broken my doll . . . Either that or pushed him in the mud," she laughed.

Dokumi laughed with her, then fell silent. A sudden sullenness seemed to fall on her, like the setting sun on a new moon night.

"Dokumi?"

"I really liked that doll," she said. "It was the only one I ever had. She . . . I was told by my father that she resembled my mother a great deal. The white skin, the glistening eyes and long, black hair." She laughed somewhat sadly to herself. "I never knew my mother, you see. She had a complicated birth, and it was--it was save the mother or save the child, and . . . she chose to save me," she said. "That doll was the only thing I had to remember her by, and, quite honestly, I've forgotten her now. I . . .." She cut the sentence short and stared off into space. "It's unfortunate how we don't appreciate things till they're gone."

"I suppose." Daichi tried to crawl off again. "Stay," she picked him up and planted him firmly on the ground. "Why are you so hard-headed?"

"He takes after his father," she said. "Why should he listen to the likes of you when he's clearly capable of going his own way?"

She scolded Daichi, then scooped him up, holding him securely in her lap. "That's a little harsh, don't you think?"

"Your lord husband is a harsh man," she said. "He's cold and cruel, and hasn't a heart to weigh the consequences of his actions."

They were silent for a moment.

"I know my lord has his ways," Rin said. "But he's a good man. I am well cared for, and you've seen with your own eyes how he fawns over Daichi."

Dokumi scoffed. "Isn't it in his own best interests to keep his mate happy and see that his child is well looked after?"

"Well, of course, but . . ." She wasn't sure how to best finish the sentence.

"But what, my lady?"

She shook her head. "Certainly, my lord isn't so self-serving as you make it sound. I mean, he had nothing to gain, taking me in as a child. And I was a great inconvenience to him at times, and yet, he still kept me around . . . AND spoiled me greatly, I might add. What was the benefit to him in doing that, I ask you."

Dokumi looked from Rin to Daichi and back again. "You tell me, my lady."

Rin waved her away. "You twist things and make them appear more dubious than they are. Surely, my lord has his faults," she said. "And in the past, I have no doubt that he wronged many people and, perhaps, caused a great deal of harm. But that was then and this is now. He loves me, and he loves our son. And I assure you, he'd never do something so harmful now . . . Had you met for the first time today, he would've been a perfect gentleman, and though he may have ignored you, he wouldn't have broken the doll." She tightened her grip on Daichi. "My lord is a kind man."

Dokumi laughed to herself. "Any kindness your lord ever possessed was beaten out of him by his mother a long time ago. He cares for you because it is to his benefit . . . A child feeds off the emotions of its parents, you know. If its parents are loving and kind, the child will be loving and kind. If its parents are constantly in discord . . .." She left the sentence unfinished, but Rin drew her own conclusions.

Daichi continued to squirm in her lap. "Daichi!" She scolded him, then put him to her shoulder. "I don't wish to speak of such things any more, Dokumi. My lord is who he is, and Daichi is quite restless today."

Dokumi reached out and tickled him beneath his chin. "He's colicky," she said. "He's miserable, so he intends to make you miserable. I'll give him something for it when we go back inside."

Rin pushed their previous discussion to the back of her mind, choosing to focus on the good, rather than on the bad. "Thank you," she said. "I hate to think of him suffering."