InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Pride (In the Name of Love) ❯ Chapter 135

Pride (In the Name of Love) 135 / ??
Written by Jezz-Ra
Warnings - Not all warnings apply to all chapters. Yaoi, Het, Rape, Lemon, Violence, Language, Torture, Angst, Incest, Dark (at times). It's a massive story, folks, it's got a little bit of everything.
Disclaimer - I don't own Inuyasha, don't make money off it. Wish I did.

Sidestories can be found under my author profile at any of my archive sites.
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// blah // indicates thoughts.

A/N - I know, I know. I vanished without much warning. I apologize. Lots of stuff happened.

So I decided to take a go at this professional authoring thing, though I'm not sure I'm quite good enough. We'll see. I need to survive somehow. So I spent a bunch of time trying to make a website and then ultimately switching everything up entirely...so I have to make the site all over on a new server and I'm html stupid. Couple that with the fact I have virtually no net access right now....well. Yeah. And my muse took off on me...writer's block like ya wouldn't believe.

Not sure if I'd have anyone interested in subscribing to a web serial or not - it'll be high fantasy, sword and sorcery and all that good jazz, some of my original works. Probably a chapter a week (bigger than these ones), pretty cheap. Would anyone be at all interested? Just drop me a line (if I get any responses to this it'll make me a lot more motivated to get the site up and running, that's for sure.)

Anyway! I'm gonna try and get back on the ball writing and stuff...I just have NOT felt my muse lately and it's made things rough. No motivation to get up and go and all that.

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Within the next few days, everyone was back home in the Western Castle, Sairex included. He and Sesshoumaru had a brief conversation and Sesshoumaru actually apologized to the raven.

Since the political drama was more or less settling down, it gave the West a bit of a breather. The East and North were stabilizing. Things were still in turmoil in the South, but all reports of southern bandits being found far north of their territories in any direction had been cut down drastically. Naraku had burst onto the scene and proclaimed himself as the new Southern Lord. With the help of his borrowed military, he was putting down those that would dare challenge him and stating his authority. It seemed the kumo was born for this role. Shimaku's old advisor had readily joined up with him, and between the two of them, things were being tied back down under the new law.

Sairex dove almost immediately back into his books and his notes. While he enjoyed his daughter having a playmate her own age, he knew he desperately needed to put things right with the wolf king. Kouga made a cute cub, to be sure, but that was hardly the point.

Miroku peeked over the raven's shoulder. "Anything I can do to help?"

Sairex sighed and set the amulet down in front of him, stretching. "Kaa...I'm afraid not. Da zpell vas interrupted. As far as I can tell, it zhould have vorked as I intended if I had finished da casting, but vith it being interrupted and misfiring like dat, its zo hard to figure out vhat I need to do to reverse da effects. On da upzide, it DOES mean I've found a vay to meddle vith time itzelf...""And on the downside, Inuyasha is mated to the three-year-old king of the wolf pack, which Ginta and Hakkaku can only stall for so long."

"Exactly." With a sigh, Sairex picked up the runed amulet by its chain and watched it swing slowly back and forth. "A counter-zpell von't vork, but maybe if I tried a reversal from da point I vas interrupted at..."

"You know exactly where you were interrupted?"

"Exactly, no...but da vay I zee it, even if I get him close to his old age and he has everyting important back in his mind....a couple days or veeks or vhatever of his life being missing is a lot better dan a lot of years."

"That's true."

Sairex scowled, his optimism vanishing. "It's just zo damn frustrating. I'm no fledgling. Dat kind of mistake isn't one I ever, ever zhould have made. Anyone can get distracted and my concentration broke, but to zay a name and direct it? Dat vas ztupid. Ugh. Vith as long as I've been doing this..." Sairex slapped the amulet down on the desk with an unhappy little grumble.

The amulet began to glow, runes flaring to life with purple light. Sairex's eyes widened and he stared at it in surprised horror. "Oh bloody hell....vhat d--" The raven was cut off as the thing started to shake and a brilliant flare of light erupted from the golden disc.

Miroku heard a roar of wind rushing past his ears, and everything around him was too bright to see. He had the sensation of falling endlessly, with no sense of direction and no idea where he was, everything spinning until his consciousness faded away to nothing.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"...And if we bring along those extra soldiers, they can cover us from anything unexpected. It should be fairly simple."

Sesshoumaru nodded, eyeing the rough map spread out on the table and sipping at his tea. "A good plan, my Lord Father. I would not expect extra resistance, however, if you and the raven took out as many of Jormandar's troops as you say."

"True enough. Any army, created or summoned or even hired...takes time to gather. Even if he has built up his defenses since Sairex and I attacked, they surely cannot be back to full capacity." Toga grinned and idly munched on another of the wonderful, delicately seasoned little strips of meat his cooks had brought for him and Sesshoumaru. "And with us better prepared..with the addition of your strength and your brother's...as well as a proper army...it shouldn't present too many difficulties."

Sesshoumaru nodded, pleased. He finally felt like they were making inroads in closing this whole nightmarish debacle. The dracolich was trapped in that crimson orb...and that orb had been carefully sealed in a heavily warded chest, buried deep in the castle's treasury in the room that only the reigning Lord of the West ever had access to. The West would fall before someone would get into THAT room.

With the dracolich out of the picture, the female raven dead, the political nightmare dying down, and no new enemies rearing their heads...Jormandar remained the lone major point of contention and he seemed to be on shaky ground at best.

"This Sesshoumaru will begin preparations for our assault immediately. I..." Sesshoumaru trailed off as the doors to the dining room opened and Aliana came in. The little raven made a beeline for Toga, climbing up into his lap.

"Hi, Uncle Toga!"
Toga chuckled. "Well hello there, Lady monk."Ali shook her head vehemently. "I'm not a monk anymore. I'm a ninja now."

Toga nodded sagely. "Ah, of course...and a wonderful ninja you are! I did not even realize you were a ninja, so great are your skills at disguise! Here I thought you were a mere monk...you've fooled this old dog, girl."

Ali beamed, not having thought of it THAT way. Sesshoumaru couldn't help but smile a bit - his Lord Father certainly had a way with the little ones, didn't he?

"So, what can I do for you, Lady ninja? Or are you just coming to visit us?" Toga slid the snack plate closer, much to the girl's delight.

"Oh...I can't find my parents anywhere. I looked all over, but they're gone...and their room is a mess! It looked like the last time one of my father's spells blew up."

"Really? Well, I'll have to make sure it gets cleaned up." Toga shot a concerned glance over the girl's head in Sesshoumaru's direction, and his pup nodded.

"This Sesshoumaru will look into it," Sesshoumaru stated as he stood up smoothly, leaving his father to entertain the young demoness.

'A mess' was one way of putting it. The entire room had been burned out, the stone scorched and all traces of furniture nothing more than black ashy spots on the ground. A sharp odor, like the ozone smell of lightning, assaulted his sensitive nose. There was no sign of Sairex or Miroku. Before Sesshoumaru turned to leave, however, something curious caught his eye.

// Sand?...Why is there sand on the floor? //

Having no answer, the taiyoukai turned and quickly headed back to report what he'd found to Toga, alarms going off in his head. The first was worry for his friends...yes, friends. The lot of them had all become something of an impromptu family, no matter their differences. Even if Sesshoumaru tended to hold himself apart from them on most occasions... that did not mean someone else was allowed to hurt someone from his pack. And further...if both the raven and the monk were gone, they had no way to get to the Black Circle...and that meant they couldn't stop Jormandar. This nightmare couldn't end.

This was definitely not good.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

It was so, so hot. Miroku felt like he was in an oven. His tongue felt like a piece of dry leather and he tasted the grit of sand in his mouth. // What?...// Groggily, he opened his eyes. What he saw made him shoot into a sitting position.

There was nothing but sand in all directions. The sun beat down with blistering, scorching heat. Miroku shut his eyes and opened them again, trying to make sense of the scene in front of him. // A desert?... How? What...what happened? Sairex! //

The raven was laying next to him and was starting to come to himself. Sairex went through the same stage of initial shock and disbelief before turning to look at Miroku. His voice was a dry croak at first and he had to try a couple times to get his words out. "Miroku...are you alright?"

"Yeah," the monk said after a moment. Talking was painful. Just how long had they sat there baking under that sun, anyway?

"Vhat is dat?" Sairex squinted and pointed off to the right. Miroku raised a hand to shield his eyes from the sun, but he couldn't make anything out besides the wavering heat rising from the sand.

"I don't know. Your eyes are better than mine."

"I tink it might be zome zort of buildings. Come on. It's better dan zitting out here cooking." Sairex made an effort to get the sand out of his hair and wings. Miroku very soon began to wish he was dressed in a simple waist wrap like his mate rather than his heavy robes.

"I can't travel like this, Sairex, I'll die of the heat." Soon Miroku had stripped and was dressed only in his purple kesa, tied around his waist. "It looks like a skirt..."

Sairex chuckled. "It's very cute on you."

"Oh, shut up," Miroku muttered as they headed off. Sairex's eyes proved to be accurate - what he had seen was a small cluster of rough clay adobe buildings, apparently some sort of village. The two exchanged a glance, have never seen anything like it before. "Where do you suppose we are?""I have no idea."

The two of them stopped in their tracks as a group of men came around the corner. They were dark haired and had deeply tanned skin. All of them wore white wraps around their waists and carried bronze-tipped spears. They caught sight of Miroku and ran over.

"Tjen!"

Miroku blinked and glanced at Sairex, who hadn't yet come out of the shadow of the building. Three men with spears was hardly much concern for the well-seasoned monk who had fought down so many demons.

One of the men walked up towards Miroku, eyeing him very suspiciously. Miroku didn't blame them - here he was, a pale Japanese man wearing what looked almost like a purple skirt and carrying a staff, sporting a decent sunburn by now - that had to look odd.

"Pet er renek?" the man demanded, pointing his spear at Miroku.

Miroku frowned. "Er..."

Sairex slid forward to stand next to his mate. The effect was immediate. All three men gasped and dropped their spears, dropping to the ground and bowing their heads. "A'a netjer!"

Sairex and Miroku exchanged confounded looks - what in the world had they gotten themselves into?

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A/N - Miroku and Sairex are in ancient Egypt. XD And YES, it's REAL ancient egyptian! You have no idea how much research I've done for this...and I'm sure I'll get some of it wrong...but it'll be at least pseudo-correct. Mwehehehe.