InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Kotone ❯ The Child and Her Taiyoukai ( Chapter 1 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Kotone watched over a small human child as the little girl picked wild flowers in her field. The child had appeared for the past three days at the same time, always singing the same song in which she pledged her self to a certain lord. The girl could not have been more than seven years of age, with long black hair, a small portion of which was tied in a small ponytail on the right side of her head. The child was always barefoot, and wore a white and orange checkered kimono with small, green circles and a green obi.

She was also delighted that day when the two headed dragon the girl affectionately called Ah-Un had not accompanied her that day. It had appeared docile the first two days and she was sure it had sensed her presence. Perhaps the dragon had decided that she would do no harm to the child and decided to let the girl play on her own. She wouldn’t have minded the young girl on her own and might have even enjoyed her singing in the otherwise quiet and lonely meadow; but, the child smelt of an inu youkai and she hoped to stay hidden.

Despite the smell of the inu she was pleased to have a visitor in her meadow. It seemed like, and probably had been, years since anyone other than an animal, or the occasional demon had stopped for a visit. Animals never stayed long, most sensing the forbidding aura of the meadow, and unwelcome demons were swiftly chased away by her kitsune-bi.

She had been trapped in the meadow for so long that she had lost track of the years. Without any company she spent her long days warming her golden red fur in the sunlight or practicing her kitsune-bi on grasshoppers. Since the appearance of the strange child she spent her time watching the girl, and waiting for her to come back when she left.

Kotone’s black tipped ears twitched as she heard something rustle through the tall grass at the edge of the forest the child emerged from. She dropped low to the ground, her snow white belly crushing some flowers against the earth as she listened and sniffed the air cautiously.

A hebi youkai. She was sure of it as she crept closer to the blissfully unaware child. She stopped close to the child, hiding amongst the grass as the girl began to weave the wildflower she had collected into a crown. The snake was circling around them, she could hear it slithering into a tighter ring with each circle and then tensed as it stilled.

The young girl cried out in surprise, falling backwards and releasing the flowers into the air as the hebi youkai struck at her. Kotone leapt from the safety of her hiding place and tackled it, pinning it’s head down with her black paws.

Her kitsune-bi engulfed the hebi and, along with the flowers that had fallen around them, an a small portion of the surrounding grass, burned away to nothing. She turned briefly back to the astonished child and, with a flick of her white tipped tail, returned to the sanctity of the high grass and wildflower.

Her heart sank as the girl gathered herself and fled from the meadow, leaving Kotone alone once more. She dared not to hope that the girl would ever return to her meadow and curled into a small ball, tail over her nose, to sleep away the rest of the evening.

“Here! The hebi attacked me here Sesshomaru-sama!”

Kotone’s head raised in alarm as she heard the small girl’s excited voice. With her, was the overpowering scent of an inu. She knew at once, without seeing hin, that she had been mistaken for thinking him to be a simple youkai. This man, Sesshomaru, was taiyoukai.

“See here? Where the grass is all burned? It’s where the fox saved me!”

“Rin,” said a cold, deep voice that sent a shiver down her spine. “Don’t come back to this place again.”

Kotone’s ears flattened against her head, she shrank down and slowly began to move away from the inu.

“I... yes Lord Sesshomaru,” Rin said with a quiet, disappointed voice. Kotone heard the girl sigh softly and then listened as they left the meadow.

With the demon gone she was able to relax. Kotone laid down on the soft grass and placed her head upon her front paws. The girl, she was certain, would never return to her meadow and she was all along again.

She whined softly, and closed her eyes wishing that the snake demon hadn’t attacked; or that she had shown herself sooner.