InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Once Upon an Inuyoukai ❯ Adflictationis ( Chapter 4 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Empatheia 
The beginning of Izayoi's suffering on Inutaisho's behalf. Uncomfortable situations.
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Hentai / Romance | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 02.19.2006 | Pages: 2 | Words: 3.4K | Visits: 277 | Status: Work In Progress
The beginning of Izayoi's suffering on Inutaisho's behalf. Uncomfortable situations.
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Hentai / Romance | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 02.19.2006 | Pages: 2 | Words: 3.4K | Visits: 277 | Status: Work In Progress
Warning: This chapter contains mature situations and events that may be uncomfortable to some. Said sections will be highlighted if you wish to continue with the story without reading them.
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or anything to do with it. I'm not making money off this, if I was I'd only have enough for coffee. !holds arrow on lawyers! Move and kiss your kneecaps goodbye!
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
< u>Chapter IV: Adflictationis
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
He considered killing her very seriously.
It wasn't every day, after all, that he learned that someone had been sitting pretty in the middle of his land for months, sucking mana from his lands in order for the coming flood to have the most serious effect. Little human whore! he thought, his fury bleeding his vision red. His claws twitched, itching to rend her flesh. How dare she? The old familiar blood rage flooded him, as it had when he had slaughtered her village. The demon dog within screamed for blood, would not be denied. His knuckles cracked.
He looked down at her. She was kneeling, slumped and defeated, on the floor; her glorious hair pooled around her feet. Her arms were bloodstreaked and she was shaking. But not a sound had escaped her after that last choked admission of surrender. She would take her death like a samurai, silent and honourable. Like a demon. There was no one left to fight, so she would go into death open-eyed and graceful to await her next rebirth.
Through the crimson haze that burned his mind, a thought appeared out of nowhere, cool and blue and calming. She knew. She knew what my probable reaction would be, and she came anyways to warn me. She betrayed her liege lord to save my people.
He became aware that she was standing again, pale-faced and resolute before him. She was speaking, and with a great effort he pulled back far enough to listen.
"....understand if you want to kill me. I probably deserve it. But don't forget that I came clean in the end, all right? Remember my death as honourable." With that, she reached up and swept her hair away from one side, baring her whie neck to his avenging claws. "Go ahead. I'm ready."
And suddenly, inexplicably, he completely lost the desire to kill her. The red haze winked out like it had never been, and he was left cold and empty, and feeling very alone. When she saw that he was hesitating, she filled the gap with hope despite all her resolve to accept death.
Besides, the thing she'd forgotten to say was rather important.
"There's one more thing you should know. The reason I was able to stay in your land so long undiscovered, the reason you didn't feel the need to kill me when you met me: it's because a member of your court has been protecting me. He, or one of his contacts, cast a spell on me to discourage you from killing me, and to as much of an extent as possible encourage you to help me. It was very advanced magic... whoever it was is a force to be reckoned with." She continued, oblivious to the terrible expression on his face. "You have a traitor, my lord Inutaisho. Be warned."
"Who?" he asked hoarsely, feeling the walls of his life dissolve around him like snow in rain. She shook her head negatingly, to his great disappointment.
"I don't know, it was all done anonymously, across shoji in darkened rooms. I never saw them. It was a different messenger every time, and I doubt I could identify their voices. I'm sorry, Inutaisho-sama. I wish I could help." He shook his head slowly, disbelieving. His greatest enemy was working with one of his allies, aided by his own household. Did he have any friends left? Until he identified the traitor, he could trust no one. He was completely alone.
He felt disjointed, like he had been cut loose from the fabric of his universe and was floating freely with nothing to anchor him. He couldn't think. Couldn't breathe. He had lived for nearly three millenia, but never had he been so totally betrayed. His staunchest ally, Sakenmaru, the lion demon of the South, had betrayed him. The North remained neutral as ever under the Wolf Lord Kuroga, and the East had always hated him. His very household, his extended family, were under suspicion as well. The only one he was reasonably certain was faithful was Jaken, his new personal adviser. The little toad's deference and hero-worship had been real, he was sure of it.
One. One person in the world world he could trust. How had it come to this? Logically, he knew that in all likelihood most of his staff were loyal, but in the light of her stunning revelations, he coulnd't help but wonder how many weren't.
Vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvV
Hell with it, she thought. If I have a chance for survival, I'm taking it. "If you should choose not to kill me outright, I will be your ally," she hazarded, praying she wouldn't strike a nerve and lose her head before she could blink. It seemed she was in luck, for Inutaisho only raise heavy-lidded eyes to meet her own. "You may wonder how you can trust me since I betrayed my lord..." he had in fact not considered it yet, but it was a valid point- "but the simple fact is, he betrayed me first. He cast off my loyalty and forfeited all right to it long ago. I do not feel I have betrayed him at all." Please please please... "I am not entirely useless as an ally- I am, as you know, a seer, and I have some small control over the mystic arts as well." She hesitated, took a deep breath, and took the plunge. "The fact is, my lord, that I'm one of the only people on your side here. It should say something to you that I nearly ran myself into the ground to get this warning to you in time with no regard for my safety once I got here. I have nothing to gain from betraying you- as of five minutes ago, I'm living at your discretion. On borrowed time. I have enough honour not to betray that."
She stopped talking. Any more would sound like begging, and she had sworn not to do that. So she waited. And prayed.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
He was, to say the least, astonished. She was right. How utterly unthinkable. He'd spared her life twice now, and he had seen her honour in action. She would indeed hold herself to her new path. If he let her live.
If.
It seemed a foregone conclusion, now. Of course he would let her live- how idiotic would it be to eliminate one of his three remaining allies? Like it or not, she was really all the muscle he had on his side now, aside from himself. Jaken and her dragon steed didn't really count- Jaken had no power and the dragon had no brain. She was it. His only real ally.
In the space of barely ten minutes his carefully maintained world had fallen to pieces around him. "Leave me," he said hollowly. "I need to think." She nodded, scent suddenly flooding with hope though her face remained carefully blank. She rose, bowed deeply, and swept out. Once she was gone and the shoji slid shut behind her, his breath exploded out of him and he whirled into a fast pace. In his mind, he began to categorize all the major players into categories- allies, enemies, and neutrals. Enemies: Sakenmaru, Ryuunomei, their entire kingdoms, the traitors in my own court. Number: about fifty thousand. Ugh. His long fingers carefully massaged his temples, thoughtlessly avoiding his claws. Neutrals: Kuroga and his kingdom. Number: about twenty thousand. Allies: Jaken, the dragon, and the woman. Number: three. He groaned, deep voice vibrating through his skull.
How could this have happened? What could have possibly happened to make Sakenmaru turn against him? They had been allies for centuries! What could Ryuunomei have offered him as incentive? Money? Land? Whatever it was, it had to be impossibly valuable to change something so deep and long-standing. What? What?
There would be no help from the Northern wolf tribes- though they remained neutral, they had a long-standing rivalry with the dogs and would be much more inclined to join the South and East in grinding them into the dust than help the West. There might be some help from the outlying islands, but it that would number in the hundreds, not the thousands he needed.
Slow down. What needs to be done? he asked himself. One: root out the traitor.
Easier said than done. His household numbered about four hundred, between servants, labourers and miscellaneous royalty. The woman's comment about it being advanced magic did not help- magical power had little to do with political affluence. The traitor could be any servant with the gift.
Two: get that talisman out of my lands.
This was less difficult- all he had to do was find a remote spot on his border to cross, take it- and by extension her- a ways out without being detected, and leave it. Trouble was, the only unpopulated place on his borders where he would be unlikely to be detected was with the North, and as they were the only nation not directly opposing him, he was loath to do anything that would cause them to turn against him for good. Besides which, putting the talisman there would make a mana drought there, which would cause the flood from the South to cross his lands directly, which wouldn't help matters at all. So he would have to risk crossing the border with the South, which was heavily populated. The chances of getting caught would be enormous.
Too bad he couldn't trust anybody but the aforementioned three to take it across the border- with her a well known lackey of Ryuunomei's, she would be easy to recognize. Jaken was too weak, and the dragon not smart enough to travel alone with the amulet. If the woman was recognized, she was not powerful enough to avoid being taken. He'd think about the solution for that later.
Three: find out why Sakenmaru turned on me and try my damnedest to turn him back.
Possibly the tallest order yet. This would involve meeting with him in person, which would naturally involve passing through his lands, right into the very heart of his power. It wouold be an enormous risk, and utmost stealth would be required.
Four: get more allies.
He would have to find a way to determine who was loyal and who wasn't, beyond a possibility of doubt. Unfortunately, nothing came to mind. As far as he knew, there was no foolproof method to determine loyalty. So he would just have to trust those he could get- something he was highly uncomfortable with. There was nothing for it. So what first? The talisman, I think.
It suddenly occurred to him that he'd thrown a third of his allies out into the hallway without a guard, in his mazelike, hostile compound. Damnation! He threw the door open, and sucked in a breath when he realized she was nowhere to be seen. Damnation and hellfire! Where is she?
Vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv V
WARNING- uncomfortable situations
Vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv V
Izayoi was off balace. Whatever she'd expected, it hadn't been this precipitous ejection from his presence. She couldn't remember anything about the way from the gate, and the halls twisted away bewilderingly in either direction. In the room, she could hear the canine lord pacing frantically, and felt a great compassion being born within her. Poor man, she thought sadly, he must not have any friends left. I wonder if he'll be smart enough to let me stay with him. There was a disquieting notion in there, and she doubled back to reexamine it. Do I want to stay with him?
Her shoulders throbbed from the four deep punctures, and her heart was still wildly fluttering from her almost-death. He hurt me. But she had to admit, he could have done a lot worse than he had. For her brashness in coming to his home, her, a known ally of his worst enemy, he might have had her flayed alive. It was not unheard of. Instead, he'd left her alive and relatively unharmed.
Besides, he's so beautiful, a small part of her brain that she rarely allowed to speak slipped in. Her cheeks flamed and she savagely quashed the small, heated voice. But it was too late- her traitorous imagination was drifting to the fierce lines of his face and tall, straight-backed strength. Her ears rang with the low tones of his growling voice. She moaned, shaking her head and dropping it into her hands. Shut up! Shut up! He is not beautiful!
It seemed a strange word to use to describe a man, but 'gorgeous' and 'handsome' slid off him like the pathetic human words they were. They were too small and too petty for what he was. Beautiful.
Shut up!
She paced the hallway, desperately clutching her head in an attempt to squeeze the images and thoughts out. Back and forth, back and forth, stop it stop it stop it...!
So it was that she did not notice that she was no longer alone in the hallway. Back and forth she paced, oblivious to the new company, who licked his hairy lips and flared his nostrils. A ferret demon, low level and mostly despised. He was humanoid, but distinctly ferretish at the same time. Coarse, yellowed white hair grew profusely over most of his body, and his eyes were completely black and beady. Long claws curved off the ends of his stubby fingertips. He was not pleasant to look at, unlike some of the females of his species.
He was nearly upon her before she noticed. It was his movements out of the corner of his eye that alerted her, and she turned to regard him neutrally. She took comfort in the fact that the lord of the castle was just a doorway away. It was then that she discovered that in her pacing she'd gone quite a ways from the door. Fear bloomed in her belly and she tensed.
Here, she made a fatal mistake- she assumed the demon would talk to her first before deciding to ravish. She was mistaken. Before she could even open her mouth to greet him, he clapped a furry hand over her mouth and hoisted her bodily. She shrieked, but it was muffled by his hand- kicked, but because of her position was unable to gain any purchase.
Horror drowned her as the realization of the situation dawned on her. The ferret intended to have her, and there was no way to stop him and no one to help her. She redoubled her efforts, to no avail. They entered a dark, dusty room at the end of a long hall, and with despair she realized that even the maids never came down here. She was going to be ravished, and then probably killed. Vomit boiled in her stomach, but she couldn't even relax her larynx enough to be sick all over the ferret's disgusting, hairy hand.
The world tilted and she landed heavily on her back on something lumpy and reeking of sweat and semen. He brings all his victims here, her mind clinically told her, and then she was sick, hurling violently off to the side. The ferret laughed, high and cackling. "You're a toothsome piece," he snarled appreciatively. "Be nice, now."
In response, she let loose an unholy shriek that reverberated throughout the small room. The demon's eyes widened and he knelt beside her. "Quiet, wench!" he snarled, and dealt her a stunning blow to the side of her head.
She thought her skill had come unglued, and she was sure she felt her brain leaking out her ears. There was a high, shrill sound somewhere just beyond the corner of seeing, and it pierced her head like a dagger. Tears of agony rolled unnoticed down her broken cheek, down into the fragrant mess of her hair. "Much better," the demon grunted, and in a few jerky movements shed his kimono.
She wailed in silent horror within the depths of her shattered mind. He roughly shredded her kimono, too impatient to undo it properly.
It was autumn, she remembered dimly. The air was cold on her bared skin, and she shivered. And then it was all warm breath and heavy hands, coarse hair scratching her raw and pain in places she'd spent the last year trying to numb. His warm, rank breath gusted over her face and her stomach heaved again, dryly and painfully. She couldn't remember how to speak. He grunted, moving in short, percussive thrusts that agonized her.
Unable to bear the world, she turned inwards and fled to the farthest, darkest place in her mind and curled up there, shaking and weeping for her mother. Her mother was not here. Her mother was gone, long dead, far beyond being able to help her. Her father was a prisoner, probably dead now- another stab of a different agony for that- and impotent as always. She was alone, friendless, and drowning in all the wrong that surrounded her.
Help, she sobbed to the darkness, which only gazed back with silent, cold eyes. Somebody, save me.
But there was no one. She was alone with the demons outside and those within. Death would be welcome, now, and she found herself longing for the sweet release of Inutaisho's silver claws. But he was not here either, and would not be inclined to help her even if he was. Please, please, somebody, please, anybody, please please please...
It felt like days that she lay beneath the hot, damp lump of grunting hairy demon wishing she were dead. It might have been hours, was probably only minutes. But to her it was a forever of sorts before light flooded the room from behind the dark silhouette crouched between her damp, trembling thighs. There was a jerk, a horrendous tearing sound, and a warm splatter. She wondered whether it was blood or something even less pleasant. Not that it mattered, nothing mattered. It was a faraway curiosity, leftover from when she was alive.
She barely even felt the strong arms that gathered her pieces off the floor and took her into the light.
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A/N- Don't hate me! I promise you, that was not just a plot device meant to manipulate your emotions. I would never, ever do that. It was necessary to make their love story real and deep. There can be nothing to overcome together if there's nothing to overcome, right? I don't want them to just fall in love like that, that's not satisfying at all to read or write. So I hope you can forgive me for doing that to her, I hated doing it but the story told me it was necessary. It writes itself, I am only its voice.
Here's a good place to flame me, if you wish. Push the button, I don't mind.
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or anything to do with it. I'm not making money off this, if I was I'd only have enough for coffee. !holds arrow on lawyers! Move and kiss your kneecaps goodbye!
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
< u>Chapter IV: Adflictationis
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
He considered killing her very seriously.
It wasn't every day, after all, that he learned that someone had been sitting pretty in the middle of his land for months, sucking mana from his lands in order for the coming flood to have the most serious effect. Little human whore! he thought, his fury bleeding his vision red. His claws twitched, itching to rend her flesh. How dare she? The old familiar blood rage flooded him, as it had when he had slaughtered her village. The demon dog within screamed for blood, would not be denied. His knuckles cracked.
He looked down at her. She was kneeling, slumped and defeated, on the floor; her glorious hair pooled around her feet. Her arms were bloodstreaked and she was shaking. But not a sound had escaped her after that last choked admission of surrender. She would take her death like a samurai, silent and honourable. Like a demon. There was no one left to fight, so she would go into death open-eyed and graceful to await her next rebirth.
Through the crimson haze that burned his mind, a thought appeared out of nowhere, cool and blue and calming. She knew. She knew what my probable reaction would be, and she came anyways to warn me. She betrayed her liege lord to save my people.
He became aware that she was standing again, pale-faced and resolute before him. She was speaking, and with a great effort he pulled back far enough to listen.
"....understand if you want to kill me. I probably deserve it. But don't forget that I came clean in the end, all right? Remember my death as honourable." With that, she reached up and swept her hair away from one side, baring her whie neck to his avenging claws. "Go ahead. I'm ready."
And suddenly, inexplicably, he completely lost the desire to kill her. The red haze winked out like it had never been, and he was left cold and empty, and feeling very alone. When she saw that he was hesitating, she filled the gap with hope despite all her resolve to accept death.
Besides, the thing she'd forgotten to say was rather important.
"There's one more thing you should know. The reason I was able to stay in your land so long undiscovered, the reason you didn't feel the need to kill me when you met me: it's because a member of your court has been protecting me. He, or one of his contacts, cast a spell on me to discourage you from killing me, and to as much of an extent as possible encourage you to help me. It was very advanced magic... whoever it was is a force to be reckoned with." She continued, oblivious to the terrible expression on his face. "You have a traitor, my lord Inutaisho. Be warned."
"Who?" he asked hoarsely, feeling the walls of his life dissolve around him like snow in rain. She shook her head negatingly, to his great disappointment.
"I don't know, it was all done anonymously, across shoji in darkened rooms. I never saw them. It was a different messenger every time, and I doubt I could identify their voices. I'm sorry, Inutaisho-sama. I wish I could help." He shook his head slowly, disbelieving. His greatest enemy was working with one of his allies, aided by his own household. Did he have any friends left? Until he identified the traitor, he could trust no one. He was completely alone.
He felt disjointed, like he had been cut loose from the fabric of his universe and was floating freely with nothing to anchor him. He couldn't think. Couldn't breathe. He had lived for nearly three millenia, but never had he been so totally betrayed. His staunchest ally, Sakenmaru, the lion demon of the South, had betrayed him. The North remained neutral as ever under the Wolf Lord Kuroga, and the East had always hated him. His very household, his extended family, were under suspicion as well. The only one he was reasonably certain was faithful was Jaken, his new personal adviser. The little toad's deference and hero-worship had been real, he was sure of it.
One. One person in the world world he could trust. How had it come to this? Logically, he knew that in all likelihood most of his staff were loyal, but in the light of her stunning revelations, he coulnd't help but wonder how many weren't.
Vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvV
Hell with it, she thought. If I have a chance for survival, I'm taking it. "If you should choose not to kill me outright, I will be your ally," she hazarded, praying she wouldn't strike a nerve and lose her head before she could blink. It seemed she was in luck, for Inutaisho only raise heavy-lidded eyes to meet her own. "You may wonder how you can trust me since I betrayed my lord..." he had in fact not considered it yet, but it was a valid point- "but the simple fact is, he betrayed me first. He cast off my loyalty and forfeited all right to it long ago. I do not feel I have betrayed him at all." Please please please... "I am not entirely useless as an ally- I am, as you know, a seer, and I have some small control over the mystic arts as well." She hesitated, took a deep breath, and took the plunge. "The fact is, my lord, that I'm one of the only people on your side here. It should say something to you that I nearly ran myself into the ground to get this warning to you in time with no regard for my safety once I got here. I have nothing to gain from betraying you- as of five minutes ago, I'm living at your discretion. On borrowed time. I have enough honour not to betray that."
She stopped talking. Any more would sound like begging, and she had sworn not to do that. So she waited. And prayed.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
He was, to say the least, astonished. She was right. How utterly unthinkable. He'd spared her life twice now, and he had seen her honour in action. She would indeed hold herself to her new path. If he let her live.
If.
It seemed a foregone conclusion, now. Of course he would let her live- how idiotic would it be to eliminate one of his three remaining allies? Like it or not, she was really all the muscle he had on his side now, aside from himself. Jaken and her dragon steed didn't really count- Jaken had no power and the dragon had no brain. She was it. His only real ally.
In the space of barely ten minutes his carefully maintained world had fallen to pieces around him. "Leave me," he said hollowly. "I need to think." She nodded, scent suddenly flooding with hope though her face remained carefully blank. She rose, bowed deeply, and swept out. Once she was gone and the shoji slid shut behind her, his breath exploded out of him and he whirled into a fast pace. In his mind, he began to categorize all the major players into categories- allies, enemies, and neutrals. Enemies: Sakenmaru, Ryuunomei, their entire kingdoms, the traitors in my own court. Number: about fifty thousand. Ugh. His long fingers carefully massaged his temples, thoughtlessly avoiding his claws. Neutrals: Kuroga and his kingdom. Number: about twenty thousand. Allies: Jaken, the dragon, and the woman. Number: three. He groaned, deep voice vibrating through his skull.
How could this have happened? What could have possibly happened to make Sakenmaru turn against him? They had been allies for centuries! What could Ryuunomei have offered him as incentive? Money? Land? Whatever it was, it had to be impossibly valuable to change something so deep and long-standing. What? What?
There would be no help from the Northern wolf tribes- though they remained neutral, they had a long-standing rivalry with the dogs and would be much more inclined to join the South and East in grinding them into the dust than help the West. There might be some help from the outlying islands, but it that would number in the hundreds, not the thousands he needed.
Slow down. What needs to be done? he asked himself. One: root out the traitor.
Easier said than done. His household numbered about four hundred, between servants, labourers and miscellaneous royalty. The woman's comment about it being advanced magic did not help- magical power had little to do with political affluence. The traitor could be any servant with the gift.
Two: get that talisman out of my lands.
This was less difficult- all he had to do was find a remote spot on his border to cross, take it- and by extension her- a ways out without being detected, and leave it. Trouble was, the only unpopulated place on his borders where he would be unlikely to be detected was with the North, and as they were the only nation not directly opposing him, he was loath to do anything that would cause them to turn against him for good. Besides which, putting the talisman there would make a mana drought there, which would cause the flood from the South to cross his lands directly, which wouldn't help matters at all. So he would have to risk crossing the border with the South, which was heavily populated. The chances of getting caught would be enormous.
Too bad he couldn't trust anybody but the aforementioned three to take it across the border- with her a well known lackey of Ryuunomei's, she would be easy to recognize. Jaken was too weak, and the dragon not smart enough to travel alone with the amulet. If the woman was recognized, she was not powerful enough to avoid being taken. He'd think about the solution for that later.
Three: find out why Sakenmaru turned on me and try my damnedest to turn him back.
Possibly the tallest order yet. This would involve meeting with him in person, which would naturally involve passing through his lands, right into the very heart of his power. It wouold be an enormous risk, and utmost stealth would be required.
Four: get more allies.
He would have to find a way to determine who was loyal and who wasn't, beyond a possibility of doubt. Unfortunately, nothing came to mind. As far as he knew, there was no foolproof method to determine loyalty. So he would just have to trust those he could get- something he was highly uncomfortable with. There was nothing for it. So what first? The talisman, I think.
It suddenly occurred to him that he'd thrown a third of his allies out into the hallway without a guard, in his mazelike, hostile compound. Damnation! He threw the door open, and sucked in a breath when he realized she was nowhere to be seen. Damnation and hellfire! Where is she?
Vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv V
WARNING- uncomfortable situations
Vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv V
Izayoi was off balace. Whatever she'd expected, it hadn't been this precipitous ejection from his presence. She couldn't remember anything about the way from the gate, and the halls twisted away bewilderingly in either direction. In the room, she could hear the canine lord pacing frantically, and felt a great compassion being born within her. Poor man, she thought sadly, he must not have any friends left. I wonder if he'll be smart enough to let me stay with him. There was a disquieting notion in there, and she doubled back to reexamine it. Do I want to stay with him?
Her shoulders throbbed from the four deep punctures, and her heart was still wildly fluttering from her almost-death. He hurt me. But she had to admit, he could have done a lot worse than he had. For her brashness in coming to his home, her, a known ally of his worst enemy, he might have had her flayed alive. It was not unheard of. Instead, he'd left her alive and relatively unharmed.
Besides, he's so beautiful, a small part of her brain that she rarely allowed to speak slipped in. Her cheeks flamed and she savagely quashed the small, heated voice. But it was too late- her traitorous imagination was drifting to the fierce lines of his face and tall, straight-backed strength. Her ears rang with the low tones of his growling voice. She moaned, shaking her head and dropping it into her hands. Shut up! Shut up! He is not beautiful!
It seemed a strange word to use to describe a man, but 'gorgeous' and 'handsome' slid off him like the pathetic human words they were. They were too small and too petty for what he was. Beautiful.
Shut up!
She paced the hallway, desperately clutching her head in an attempt to squeeze the images and thoughts out. Back and forth, back and forth, stop it stop it stop it...!
So it was that she did not notice that she was no longer alone in the hallway. Back and forth she paced, oblivious to the new company, who licked his hairy lips and flared his nostrils. A ferret demon, low level and mostly despised. He was humanoid, but distinctly ferretish at the same time. Coarse, yellowed white hair grew profusely over most of his body, and his eyes were completely black and beady. Long claws curved off the ends of his stubby fingertips. He was not pleasant to look at, unlike some of the females of his species.
He was nearly upon her before she noticed. It was his movements out of the corner of his eye that alerted her, and she turned to regard him neutrally. She took comfort in the fact that the lord of the castle was just a doorway away. It was then that she discovered that in her pacing she'd gone quite a ways from the door. Fear bloomed in her belly and she tensed.
Here, she made a fatal mistake- she assumed the demon would talk to her first before deciding to ravish. She was mistaken. Before she could even open her mouth to greet him, he clapped a furry hand over her mouth and hoisted her bodily. She shrieked, but it was muffled by his hand- kicked, but because of her position was unable to gain any purchase.
Horror drowned her as the realization of the situation dawned on her. The ferret intended to have her, and there was no way to stop him and no one to help her. She redoubled her efforts, to no avail. They entered a dark, dusty room at the end of a long hall, and with despair she realized that even the maids never came down here. She was going to be ravished, and then probably killed. Vomit boiled in her stomach, but she couldn't even relax her larynx enough to be sick all over the ferret's disgusting, hairy hand.
The world tilted and she landed heavily on her back on something lumpy and reeking of sweat and semen. He brings all his victims here, her mind clinically told her, and then she was sick, hurling violently off to the side. The ferret laughed, high and cackling. "You're a toothsome piece," he snarled appreciatively. "Be nice, now."
In response, she let loose an unholy shriek that reverberated throughout the small room. The demon's eyes widened and he knelt beside her. "Quiet, wench!" he snarled, and dealt her a stunning blow to the side of her head.
She thought her skill had come unglued, and she was sure she felt her brain leaking out her ears. There was a high, shrill sound somewhere just beyond the corner of seeing, and it pierced her head like a dagger. Tears of agony rolled unnoticed down her broken cheek, down into the fragrant mess of her hair. "Much better," the demon grunted, and in a few jerky movements shed his kimono.
She wailed in silent horror within the depths of her shattered mind. He roughly shredded her kimono, too impatient to undo it properly.
It was autumn, she remembered dimly. The air was cold on her bared skin, and she shivered. And then it was all warm breath and heavy hands, coarse hair scratching her raw and pain in places she'd spent the last year trying to numb. His warm, rank breath gusted over her face and her stomach heaved again, dryly and painfully. She couldn't remember how to speak. He grunted, moving in short, percussive thrusts that agonized her.
Unable to bear the world, she turned inwards and fled to the farthest, darkest place in her mind and curled up there, shaking and weeping for her mother. Her mother was not here. Her mother was gone, long dead, far beyond being able to help her. Her father was a prisoner, probably dead now- another stab of a different agony for that- and impotent as always. She was alone, friendless, and drowning in all the wrong that surrounded her.
Help, she sobbed to the darkness, which only gazed back with silent, cold eyes. Somebody, save me.
But there was no one. She was alone with the demons outside and those within. Death would be welcome, now, and she found herself longing for the sweet release of Inutaisho's silver claws. But he was not here either, and would not be inclined to help her even if he was. Please, please, somebody, please, anybody, please please please...
It felt like days that she lay beneath the hot, damp lump of grunting hairy demon wishing she were dead. It might have been hours, was probably only minutes. But to her it was a forever of sorts before light flooded the room from behind the dark silhouette crouched between her damp, trembling thighs. There was a jerk, a horrendous tearing sound, and a warm splatter. She wondered whether it was blood or something even less pleasant. Not that it mattered, nothing mattered. It was a faraway curiosity, leftover from when she was alive.
She barely even felt the strong arms that gathered her pieces off the floor and took her into the light.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX Warning over
A/N- Don't hate me! I promise you, that was not just a plot device meant to manipulate your emotions. I would never, ever do that. It was necessary to make their love story real and deep. There can be nothing to overcome together if there's nothing to overcome, right? I don't want them to just fall in love like that, that's not satisfying at all to read or write. So I hope you can forgive me for doing that to her, I hated doing it but the story told me it was necessary. It writes itself, I am only its voice.
Here's a good place to flame me, if you wish. Push the button, I don't mind.