InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Half-Breed ❯ Chapter V ( Chapter 7 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: rockthedragon7 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 02.27.2005 | Updated On: 03.31.2005 | Pages: 1 | Words: 1.6K | Visits: 198 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 02.27.2005 | Updated On: 03.31.2005 | Pages: 1 | Words: 1.6K | Visits: 198 | Status: Completed
Half-Breed: Chapter V
Sounds of screaming and shouting bounced in my head, phantom voices echoing across endless black. Silence. And then shifting wood. Fresh air, sun-baked soil, blood, fear. The scents washed over me, and I forced myself to crack my eyes open. Hazy light filled my vision. The door was open… ‘I’m dead,’ something inside of me groaned, and I let my eyes slide shut again. A shape moved to block the glow, a shadow falling over me. I felt a cool hand beneath my face, turning my lifeless head, and I let one eye open a bit. A great, dark and foggy figure was peering down at me. It occurred to me that the smell was very familiar. It came to my mind that the shape was curtained with silver. The hand slipped under my back, cradling my head in the crook of an elbow. I was lifted into strong arms, and I could feel something soft, like fur, against my forehead.
The fragrances of the forest drifted around my head, the sound of birds chirping somewhere in the distance, a stream softly singing me from unconsciousness. I cracked my eyes open, expecting to see darkness, but instead I was gazing up at emerald treetops, sunlight falling down around me, dancing in patterns as the leaves moved in the breeze. ‘I’m not dead?’ I asked myself quietly, and gave a flicker of my ears. I could still hear my heart beating within me, a feeble and quiet rhythm, but there nonetheless. A hand passed slowly and purposely before my eyes, and I followed its movement closely. It was pale, clawed, deceptively slender with a pair of violet stripes on one side. The scent of autumn, when the trees die and the world sleeps, hung about it. I knew that scent.
The hand slipped out of my range of vision, sliding beneath my head with no measure of tenderness to prop me up. Something cold and wet was pressed to my lips, and I sipped at it tentatively. My brain received a mental slap when I realized that the liquid was water, and I drank hungrily. It was gone all too soon, the cup taken away, and I gave a whimper. “Water,” I whispered faintly. “Please.”
“Silence,” replied a deep, cynical voice, one that I knew well.
I raised a tired and shaking hand, halfheartedly touching the knee of the other. “Sesshomaru…”
He moved away from my fingers almost immediately as if I was a disease. “Silence, I said,” he repeated firmly. “You are weak, little brother. Seven days without food.” There was a pause and a soft splash. He put the cup back to my lips. “Five days without water. I am surprised that you have not fallen prey to demons.” My brother set the cup aside. “And yet, I cannot believe that you had fallen victim to a knot of filthy humans.” His fingers wrapped about my small shoulders, moving me into a semi-sitting posture against a tree. “When news of your mother’s death came to me, I went to your home to find you already gone, your scent swept away by the rain. I followed rumors of your movement, which ended at the root cellar in the village. Those fragile creatures intended to starve you until you died. Half-breed or not, it is not a fate befitting of an Inu no Taishou peer. Men are dead, and so I have kept my word of honor to Father that I would protect you. Do not expect any more of me, little brother.” There was a rustle of cloth as Sesshomaru loosened the knot of a leather packet, removing a cut of uncooked meat and thoughtlessly dropped it in my lap. “Eat.”
I frowned at the slab of venison. “Sesshomaru,” I began hesitantly, “it’s raw…”
My brother glared at me from the corner of his eye. “Very observant,” he hissed. “So it is raw, and that it the way you will eat it.”
I furrowed my brow. “I don’t like raw meat…”
“You have never eaten raw meat,” Sesshomaru interrupted.
“But I…” I started to protest.
“Eat,” he commanded, and I bit my lip, glanced down at the chunk of uncooked food, and unwillingly took it in one hand. It didn’t smell right. It was cold. The thought of digesting it made me grimace, but one more look from my brother, and it disappeared into my mouth. It stayed there for a good deal of time, pushing it around with my tongue, feeling the sinewy grain. “Swallow it,” my brother growled. I did, but I can’t say that I liked it all that much. “There is more in that sachet should you want it.”
I glanced at the leather pack, unexpectedly feeling ravenous for whatever I could get my claws on, and I undecidedly reached for it, clutching it with trembling, tired fingers. I was still very weak. Eating would help to bring my strength back, even if it was raw meat. But the packet felt heavy, just as my body felt as though it was made of stone. Sesshomaru watched me for a moment, then picked up the sachet with a narrowing of his eyes, casually letting it fall into my lap. I looked away, feeling unwanted. But then, that’s the way it had always been between me and my brother. There were no ties of brotherly love here. “Sesshomaru,” I said very quietly, knowing that he could hear the words perfectly. “Why do you hate me?”
“Because you are a half-blood,” he stated brusquely. “Because your blood is poisoning the Inu no Taishou line with weakness and dishonor. If ever there was a chink in Father’s armor, it would be you and your pitiable human mother.” Of course. That was the world’s estimation of a half-breed, wasn’t it. Life didn’t seem worth wasting on a half-blood, and it didn’t matter if they were the product of love… like me.
“Eat and rest, half-breed. I will watch you tonight, but when morning comes, you are on your own again.”
I barely nodded my head, chewing on my lower lip, trying to keep the angry tears from falling, and began picking at the pieces of meat.
True to his word, Sesshomaru stayed with me, settled cross-legged with his hands tucked into his sleeves, unmoving as a sculpture, and he watched me long after I had fallen asleep, curled up against his side, arms wrapped about the fluffy thing he carried with him. Not once did he move. Never did he look at me. He stared off into the darkness, golden eyes a pair of glowing orbs in the night, senses vigilant. True to his word, my brother was gone at first light.
I knelt to the ground, nearly brushing the dirt with my nose. If I was going to find food, I was going to have to learn to hunt, which meant I would have to figure out how to track, which wasn’t exactly one of my strong points at the time. There was the faint scent of a rabbit clinging to the grass. The little animal wouldn’t be much meat, but it was better than nothing. It was my fifth day on my own, and I could have sworn that I was going insane with hunger. Taking in a deep breath and focusing clearly on the rabbit’s discarded aroma, I crawled forward, pausing with each footfall to reexamine the trail. I felt like an idiot down there on my hands and knees, like someone’s allegiant little terrier, but I supposed I would have to learn to track or starve. It was that simple. The scent was getting strong, and I began to move a little faster. My head collided with an undergrowth of bushes, and I jerked backward, staring at the branches for a moment before I raised my claws to hack the stupid things to pieces.
It was quiet, but I heard it - the tiny steps of an animal over the forest floor. I lowered my arms, peering through the bushes, and I caught sight of the little brown rabbit nibbling at some grass only meters away. I silently set my palms to the ground and stepped up onto my toes into a crouching position, keeping my head low and my ravenous eyes on my quarry. With a push of my legs, I crashed through the bushes. The frightened rabbit leapt into a speedy run, veering and turning as I easily kept pace behind it. My clawed fingers wrapped around its back legs, and it began to kick and scratch and struggle violently. I dropped to my knees, trying to get a firm hold on the thrashing creature. My instinct seemed to call to me, and I hesitantly locked my fangs around its throat. Frankly, I wasn’t too fond of being subjected to the arresting tussle of the animal as it slowly had its very life choked from it, or the feeling of its heartbeat throbbing through the gush of its blood inside my mouth, but I quickly decided that I would have to get used to it.
I picked every bone clean, even closed my eyes and eaten the viscera. The meat was bloody and raw, but this morning it wasn’t half bad. Yes, I think that I could definitely get used to this.
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Sounds of screaming and shouting bounced in my head, phantom voices echoing across endless black. Silence. And then shifting wood. Fresh air, sun-baked soil, blood, fear. The scents washed over me, and I forced myself to crack my eyes open. Hazy light filled my vision. The door was open… ‘I’m dead,’ something inside of me groaned, and I let my eyes slide shut again. A shape moved to block the glow, a shadow falling over me. I felt a cool hand beneath my face, turning my lifeless head, and I let one eye open a bit. A great, dark and foggy figure was peering down at me. It occurred to me that the smell was very familiar. It came to my mind that the shape was curtained with silver. The hand slipped under my back, cradling my head in the crook of an elbow. I was lifted into strong arms, and I could feel something soft, like fur, against my forehead.
The fragrances of the forest drifted around my head, the sound of birds chirping somewhere in the distance, a stream softly singing me from unconsciousness. I cracked my eyes open, expecting to see darkness, but instead I was gazing up at emerald treetops, sunlight falling down around me, dancing in patterns as the leaves moved in the breeze. ‘I’m not dead?’ I asked myself quietly, and gave a flicker of my ears. I could still hear my heart beating within me, a feeble and quiet rhythm, but there nonetheless. A hand passed slowly and purposely before my eyes, and I followed its movement closely. It was pale, clawed, deceptively slender with a pair of violet stripes on one side. The scent of autumn, when the trees die and the world sleeps, hung about it. I knew that scent.
The hand slipped out of my range of vision, sliding beneath my head with no measure of tenderness to prop me up. Something cold and wet was pressed to my lips, and I sipped at it tentatively. My brain received a mental slap when I realized that the liquid was water, and I drank hungrily. It was gone all too soon, the cup taken away, and I gave a whimper. “Water,” I whispered faintly. “Please.”
“Silence,” replied a deep, cynical voice, one that I knew well.
I raised a tired and shaking hand, halfheartedly touching the knee of the other. “Sesshomaru…”
He moved away from my fingers almost immediately as if I was a disease. “Silence, I said,” he repeated firmly. “You are weak, little brother. Seven days without food.” There was a pause and a soft splash. He put the cup back to my lips. “Five days without water. I am surprised that you have not fallen prey to demons.” My brother set the cup aside. “And yet, I cannot believe that you had fallen victim to a knot of filthy humans.” His fingers wrapped about my small shoulders, moving me into a semi-sitting posture against a tree. “When news of your mother’s death came to me, I went to your home to find you already gone, your scent swept away by the rain. I followed rumors of your movement, which ended at the root cellar in the village. Those fragile creatures intended to starve you until you died. Half-breed or not, it is not a fate befitting of an Inu no Taishou peer. Men are dead, and so I have kept my word of honor to Father that I would protect you. Do not expect any more of me, little brother.” There was a rustle of cloth as Sesshomaru loosened the knot of a leather packet, removing a cut of uncooked meat and thoughtlessly dropped it in my lap. “Eat.”
I frowned at the slab of venison. “Sesshomaru,” I began hesitantly, “it’s raw…”
My brother glared at me from the corner of his eye. “Very observant,” he hissed. “So it is raw, and that it the way you will eat it.”
I furrowed my brow. “I don’t like raw meat…”
“You have never eaten raw meat,” Sesshomaru interrupted.
“But I…” I started to protest.
“Eat,” he commanded, and I bit my lip, glanced down at the chunk of uncooked food, and unwillingly took it in one hand. It didn’t smell right. It was cold. The thought of digesting it made me grimace, but one more look from my brother, and it disappeared into my mouth. It stayed there for a good deal of time, pushing it around with my tongue, feeling the sinewy grain. “Swallow it,” my brother growled. I did, but I can’t say that I liked it all that much. “There is more in that sachet should you want it.”
I glanced at the leather pack, unexpectedly feeling ravenous for whatever I could get my claws on, and I undecidedly reached for it, clutching it with trembling, tired fingers. I was still very weak. Eating would help to bring my strength back, even if it was raw meat. But the packet felt heavy, just as my body felt as though it was made of stone. Sesshomaru watched me for a moment, then picked up the sachet with a narrowing of his eyes, casually letting it fall into my lap. I looked away, feeling unwanted. But then, that’s the way it had always been between me and my brother. There were no ties of brotherly love here. “Sesshomaru,” I said very quietly, knowing that he could hear the words perfectly. “Why do you hate me?”
“Because you are a half-blood,” he stated brusquely. “Because your blood is poisoning the Inu no Taishou line with weakness and dishonor. If ever there was a chink in Father’s armor, it would be you and your pitiable human mother.” Of course. That was the world’s estimation of a half-breed, wasn’t it. Life didn’t seem worth wasting on a half-blood, and it didn’t matter if they were the product of love… like me.
“Eat and rest, half-breed. I will watch you tonight, but when morning comes, you are on your own again.”
I barely nodded my head, chewing on my lower lip, trying to keep the angry tears from falling, and began picking at the pieces of meat.
True to his word, Sesshomaru stayed with me, settled cross-legged with his hands tucked into his sleeves, unmoving as a sculpture, and he watched me long after I had fallen asleep, curled up against his side, arms wrapped about the fluffy thing he carried with him. Not once did he move. Never did he look at me. He stared off into the darkness, golden eyes a pair of glowing orbs in the night, senses vigilant. True to his word, my brother was gone at first light.
I knelt to the ground, nearly brushing the dirt with my nose. If I was going to find food, I was going to have to learn to hunt, which meant I would have to figure out how to track, which wasn’t exactly one of my strong points at the time. There was the faint scent of a rabbit clinging to the grass. The little animal wouldn’t be much meat, but it was better than nothing. It was my fifth day on my own, and I could have sworn that I was going insane with hunger. Taking in a deep breath and focusing clearly on the rabbit’s discarded aroma, I crawled forward, pausing with each footfall to reexamine the trail. I felt like an idiot down there on my hands and knees, like someone’s allegiant little terrier, but I supposed I would have to learn to track or starve. It was that simple. The scent was getting strong, and I began to move a little faster. My head collided with an undergrowth of bushes, and I jerked backward, staring at the branches for a moment before I raised my claws to hack the stupid things to pieces.
It was quiet, but I heard it - the tiny steps of an animal over the forest floor. I lowered my arms, peering through the bushes, and I caught sight of the little brown rabbit nibbling at some grass only meters away. I silently set my palms to the ground and stepped up onto my toes into a crouching position, keeping my head low and my ravenous eyes on my quarry. With a push of my legs, I crashed through the bushes. The frightened rabbit leapt into a speedy run, veering and turning as I easily kept pace behind it. My clawed fingers wrapped around its back legs, and it began to kick and scratch and struggle violently. I dropped to my knees, trying to get a firm hold on the thrashing creature. My instinct seemed to call to me, and I hesitantly locked my fangs around its throat. Frankly, I wasn’t too fond of being subjected to the arresting tussle of the animal as it slowly had its very life choked from it, or the feeling of its heartbeat throbbing through the gush of its blood inside my mouth, but I quickly decided that I would have to get used to it.
I picked every bone clean, even closed my eyes and eaten the viscera. The meat was bloody and raw, but this morning it wasn’t half bad. Yes, I think that I could definitely get used to this.
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