InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Guardian Cu' ❯ Chapter 5 ( Chapter 5 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Cu Cebhfhion 
dreams of fish dinners, fish and stealing fish
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Comedy / Drama / Fantasy | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 04.10.2010 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.7K | Visits: 193 | Status: Work In Progress
dreams of fish dinners, fish and stealing fish
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Comedy / Drama / Fantasy | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 04.10.2010 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.7K | Visits: 193 | Status: Work In Progress
The Characters and World of InuYasha belong entirely to the admirable and talented Rumiko Takahashi. I in no way lay claim to them or make any money off of them.
Cu' the Guardian, aka GinCu' is mine, so is his meadow and the plot of this story.
Chapter Five
This particular morning he awoke with an unmistakable craving for fish. Ensconced quite comfortably among the high branches of a massive oak, well hidden from any unfriendly eyes happening to wander by, way down there on the ground below, the red clad figure lazily stretched, yawned wide enough to make a normal person's jaws ache, sat up, then swung his left leg over to dangle off the limb serving duty as his makeshift bed. Sniffing the morning breeze, he glanced eastward, noting that it was only just a few minutes after sunrise, rotated his shoulders, worked an annoying little kink out of the back of his neck and decided...Yep, it definitely needs to be fish this morning.
He supposed his craving was really the result of once again having That Dream. Since many of them weren't very pleasant, he only slept deeply when his body absolutely demanded to in order to avoid the mental chimeras that enjoyed messing up his head and leaving him a sweating wreck. Unlike the nightmares he feared, though he would be the last to admit some stupid sleep induced fantasy could ever hold any power to scare him, the dream he had awakened from was certainly one of the good ones. It was an old dream that had followed him out of his childhood and one which he wished would visit him on a far more regular basis than it did.
It involved a tall man, who gave him plenty of fish and rice to eat, spoke to him kindly and made him feel safe. In it he was always a very small boy, afraid of everything. This man didn't look down on him for being a hanyou, didn't try to hurt him, offered him words of encouragement and a promise that things would someday turn out all right. He always felt an overwhelming sense of peace sitting in the man's lap as they talked and it seemed to him the dream was probably about his father or at least how he wished his father could have been.
The exact contents of this ' Papa Dream ' varied. Most of the time, they just sat comfortably by a campfire and the man talked quietly to him while letting him gorge on the biggest trout and rice dinner in the world. Sometimes the man would heroically protect him from a monstrous Oni by leaping high into the air, brandishing a sword of light to strike down the wicked, ravenous beast wanting to make a meal of the poor defenseless little hanyou. That was certainly something a father would do... right? Save your ass from an Oni. Afterward they would both sit down while the boy stuffed his face with fish..and
rice.
Better yet was the really great variation where Dream Papa protected him from his evil tempered older brother. Standing like a mighty shield between them, his reprimanding of Sesshoumaru to the point where that supercilious bastard was reduced to standing there dead silent, eyes bugged out and mouth agape in total humiliation was one enjoyable dream. Just before telling him to run along the Dream Papa always added one further insult by giving the mighty Sesshoumaru Sama a peck on the forehead like he was some silly little girl. Of course this variation also ended with the obligatory ..fish and rice.
No matter what course the comforting 'Papa Dream' took, it always ended with a meal of the biggest, fattest, most golden brown trout imaginable...and rice. He'd had the really good version last night, the meal smelling and tasting so real that the memory lingered in his nose and on his tongue even after waking and ...Damn, he had to have some fish this morning.... the fact that his big bad brother had been reduced to a little girl once again only sweetened his mood. It was great to wake up on the right side of the branch for a change.
Well, since it was highly unlikely any self respecting trout was going to be thoughtful enough to fly up out of the river and into the top of his tree, there was nothing to be done but go coax the slippery little bastards out of bed by using some quick handed snatch and grab. Leaping up to the next higher limb with a well practiced expertise that would put even the nimblest monkey to shame, he took another tentative sniff, smelled water then bounded up to the topmost branches for a visual to provide him with the safest approach down to the river. Body bobbing and swaying among the branches stirring in a light wind, he scanned his target.
'Yep, there's a village scattered along that bend in the river alright... so that's where that damned human-stink fouling up the morning air is coming from... Hn, fields look well tended though, rice paddies, temple up on the hill...Temple..Yep, we need to avoid that place like the plague.'
Villages could be dangerous enough for a hanyou stupid enough to venture into one. He'd learned, the hard way....more than once. Villages with a Miko or Priest in residence could be downright deadly. He didn't entertain any desire to test his luck and wind up learning the kind of lessons they would be more than happy to teach him.
'Nope, not going there, no way, no how....ever.'
After meandering past the village with its paddies and neatly planted fields, the river once again brushed along a stretch of shady tree-lined banks perfect for exactly what he had in mind. Bounding across the treetops he headed toward a spot on the river well out of sight of that smelly village.
He could travel fast enough over the open ground to put a fleet horse to shame, but leaping about from treetop to treetop was his preferred way to travel. The forests were his domain, he was the master of their green leafy canopies, perfectly at home in the safety of their branches, gracefully at ease dancing across even their highest crowns. Had the whole world been a sea to sea forest it would have suited him just fine.
Funny, he never could quite remember exactly when he had decided to take to the trees. He had just woke up one morning, surprisingly draped along a wide limb of all places, with the revelation that life would be far more protected for him up there than on the ground. Being still very young he didn't know what inspired this startling gestalt, or even exactly how he had come to be sleeping so far above the ground in the first place, but he had primarily lived between heaven and earth in his aerial haven ever since.
Reaching a spot where the trees edged down close to the water, InuYasha leapt lightly to the ground, and secured his wide red sleeves by hoisting them up to his shoulders then tucking their loose ends through the back of the sash around his waist. Satisfied that they were well out of his way he waded into the river to catch breakfast. Patience and excellent timing paid off and he soon waded back out with a large brown trout wiggling in hand. After dispatching Breakfast with a smart smack of it's head against a broad flat rock, he sat back and devoured it sitting on the same flat rock, cooling his toes in the water while he ate. All that was left when he finished was a neatly picked head and backbone tossed among the scattering of scales he had amused himself with by seeing how far he could spit them. Since one fish was never enough he stood up preparing to wade back in, then whirled around, reflexively crouching down as his sharp ears picked up the sounds of voices coming his way.
He was off the rock and hidden within the safety of the trees long before the two roughly dressed men, whose loud ongoing conversation had been what alerted him to their approach, came strolling along the bank to stop at the very spot InuYasha had already chosen as his breakfast table. From a leaf enshrouded perch, he silently watched them, fuming at the fact that the noisy pair, nets in hand had decided to usurp HIS fishing hole.
' Damn, I was here first ya stinkin' bastards..'
Starting to spring away in utter disgust at the unexpected downturn in his luck this morning, InuYasha paused, body coiled low for the leap, just as he was struck by what he felt to be, a rather inspired plan. He'd just let this pair of idiots catch a nice big mess of fish, then he'd play big hairy scarey Youkai, run them off and have a really satisfying breakfast. The more he tossed this idea about, the more attractive it became, so he quietly stretched out, made himself comfortable and waited for the annoying interlopers to do all the work. If he was really lucky maybe they even had a couple of rice balls he could scare them out of as well.
Apparently unperturbed by the litter of scattered fish-bones and semi-chewed scales, most likely because they appeared to be the end result of a successful hunt by one of the village cats, the duo continued to chatter while they rolled out their nets and went about their fishing. Their nonstop discussion, which seemed to consist largely of some mean spirited gossip about several of their more well to do neighbors immediately began to put InuYasha's teeth on edge.
'Don't these bastards ever shut up? They're gonna scare all my fish away with their yappin..'
After trying to ignore them for a while he began thinking that maybe it would be a better idea just to get it over with, scare the shit out of them and reclaim his spot before every finned denizen in this part of the river swam away to preserve their sanity. As he prepared to leap down out of the tree a sudden turn in the topic of conversation made him settle back down to do some serious eavesdropping.
One of them had mention the Shikon No Tama.
That was exactly what he was hunting for.
I'm telling you Hiro, it's an honor...An Honor that our Lady Kikyou was selected for this great service. Only she is strong enough to purify the Shikon Jewel, straightening up, the tall speaker wiped his brow on a sweaty forearm before lacing another fish onto the line holding his share of the catch.
Honor, shmonor..It's a bad idea all the way around, his short, potbellied friend countered as he pulled a flopping trout loose from a poorly maintained net. Only nasty hellish things 'll come of it. You mark what I say.
Like what? Name something. Pulling his net the rest of the way in, the tall man tossed four more good sized fish onto the bank.
Like...like demons. That thing's gonna draw them like flies to a honey pot. Why do you think those damned demon hunters brought that thing here in the first place? Hiro glanced over a little enviously at his lanky comrade's decidedly more impressive catch.
His hard working friend merely grunted, shrugged and strung another fish on the line.
Well, I'll tell ya why. Cause they were tired of having all the damned demons come and hang around their village...that's why.
That's stupid...would you listen to yourself ? They're a village of Demon Hunters, it's what they Do. Makes life damn easy if your line of work delivers itself right to your door, I say.
Hiro indignantly folded his arms across his prominent middle, entirely unconvinced that he wasn't right in his assumption that their little village was headed for trouble on a terrifying scale. Mark me, mark me. Just wait and see. Gonna be demons crawling all over the place after that damned jewel.
And if there is, our Lady Kikyou will protect us. The tall man laced the last fish on his line then started rolling up his net. Besides once Lady Kikyou purifies it, that jewel wont be a problem for anybody, least of all our village.
I still ain't convinced. How long is it gonna take for her to do it Ebi? Days? A month? A year? Ever? A lot can happen to us before she does. Doing a quick silent count it was, as always, irritating for Hiro to see that once again the tall man had twice as many fish to take back as he did.
Nothings gonna happen, Ebi snorted as he started to sling his catch over his shoulder, I swear, you see a demon behind every damned bush..in every tree...
Uh..E..E..E buhbuhbuh..bi? Hiro was just standing there, staring straight ahead, his meager catch lying in a heap next to his tangled net. Wha..Wha..Whats..thu..thu..thu..that?
Ebi glanced around, face growing pale at the sight that had already transfixed his friend. The catch hanging over his shoulder slithered out of suddenly nerveless fingers to land with a loud 'Schallomp' at his feet. Itsa..itsa itsa...
DEMON! Catches and nets totally forgotten, the pair of gossiping fisherman simultaneously voided their bladders, threw their hands over their heads and took off towards the village like every devil in all of the Seven Hells had just popped into sight to fly nipping at their heels.
Clothed in a voluminous outfit the color of bright red blood, thick silver hair fluffed out to twice it's normal volume, fangs widely bared beneath a black-browed scowl and claw-tipped hands poised menacingly before him, InuYasha held his pose until both of the screaming idiots had passed out of sight. Then he collapsed in a fit of laughter against the side of the tree he had jumped out of. After a few moments, he shook his hair back into place, tossed both nets as far down the river as he could send them, slung both lines of fish over his right shoulder and with a still delighted snicker returned to the trees.
He felt not even the least amount of guilt for tossing away their nets, or stealing every last fish from those two stupid humans. After all the only thing that humans had ever consistently done was to steal away those things that to him held value. His mother, his home, his dignity...bastards had stolen it all, so what were two nets and a few measly fish compared to the shit he'd had to put up with for almost a century and a half.
Finding a high airy perch InuYasha proceeded to make a leisurely meal of what Hiro and Ebi had so generously provided. No, he never minded switching around the tables and stealing things from humans at all. They really did deserved it after all. Besides, sometimes he just happened to need what they had to survive. Oh, yeah... He planned on surviving for a very long time, just to spite each and every one of those heartless fuckers.
Soon, he thought with great satisfaction, he'd been stealing the best thing in the whole world from them. Something that would insure that no one...not human, not Youkai...would ever steal anything he valued away from him again. A broad smile graced his boyish face as he lay back and watched the golden sunlight filter through the leaves above his head. That Shikon Jewel was gonna solve all his problems and all he had to do was take it away from some stupid human girl.
Cu' the Guardian, aka GinCu' is mine, so is his meadow and the plot of this story.
Chapter Five
This particular morning he awoke with an unmistakable craving for fish. Ensconced quite comfortably among the high branches of a massive oak, well hidden from any unfriendly eyes happening to wander by, way down there on the ground below, the red clad figure lazily stretched, yawned wide enough to make a normal person's jaws ache, sat up, then swung his left leg over to dangle off the limb serving duty as his makeshift bed. Sniffing the morning breeze, he glanced eastward, noting that it was only just a few minutes after sunrise, rotated his shoulders, worked an annoying little kink out of the back of his neck and decided...Yep, it definitely needs to be fish this morning.
He supposed his craving was really the result of once again having That Dream. Since many of them weren't very pleasant, he only slept deeply when his body absolutely demanded to in order to avoid the mental chimeras that enjoyed messing up his head and leaving him a sweating wreck. Unlike the nightmares he feared, though he would be the last to admit some stupid sleep induced fantasy could ever hold any power to scare him, the dream he had awakened from was certainly one of the good ones. It was an old dream that had followed him out of his childhood and one which he wished would visit him on a far more regular basis than it did.
It involved a tall man, who gave him plenty of fish and rice to eat, spoke to him kindly and made him feel safe. In it he was always a very small boy, afraid of everything. This man didn't look down on him for being a hanyou, didn't try to hurt him, offered him words of encouragement and a promise that things would someday turn out all right. He always felt an overwhelming sense of peace sitting in the man's lap as they talked and it seemed to him the dream was probably about his father or at least how he wished his father could have been.
The exact contents of this ' Papa Dream ' varied. Most of the time, they just sat comfortably by a campfire and the man talked quietly to him while letting him gorge on the biggest trout and rice dinner in the world. Sometimes the man would heroically protect him from a monstrous Oni by leaping high into the air, brandishing a sword of light to strike down the wicked, ravenous beast wanting to make a meal of the poor defenseless little hanyou. That was certainly something a father would do... right? Save your ass from an Oni. Afterward they would both sit down while the boy stuffed his face with fish..and
rice.
Better yet was the really great variation where Dream Papa protected him from his evil tempered older brother. Standing like a mighty shield between them, his reprimanding of Sesshoumaru to the point where that supercilious bastard was reduced to standing there dead silent, eyes bugged out and mouth agape in total humiliation was one enjoyable dream. Just before telling him to run along the Dream Papa always added one further insult by giving the mighty Sesshoumaru Sama a peck on the forehead like he was some silly little girl. Of course this variation also ended with the obligatory ..fish and rice.
No matter what course the comforting 'Papa Dream' took, it always ended with a meal of the biggest, fattest, most golden brown trout imaginable...and rice. He'd had the really good version last night, the meal smelling and tasting so real that the memory lingered in his nose and on his tongue even after waking and ...Damn, he had to have some fish this morning.... the fact that his big bad brother had been reduced to a little girl once again only sweetened his mood. It was great to wake up on the right side of the branch for a change.
Well, since it was highly unlikely any self respecting trout was going to be thoughtful enough to fly up out of the river and into the top of his tree, there was nothing to be done but go coax the slippery little bastards out of bed by using some quick handed snatch and grab. Leaping up to the next higher limb with a well practiced expertise that would put even the nimblest monkey to shame, he took another tentative sniff, smelled water then bounded up to the topmost branches for a visual to provide him with the safest approach down to the river. Body bobbing and swaying among the branches stirring in a light wind, he scanned his target.
'Yep, there's a village scattered along that bend in the river alright... so that's where that damned human-stink fouling up the morning air is coming from... Hn, fields look well tended though, rice paddies, temple up on the hill...Temple..Yep, we need to avoid that place like the plague.'
Villages could be dangerous enough for a hanyou stupid enough to venture into one. He'd learned, the hard way....more than once. Villages with a Miko or Priest in residence could be downright deadly. He didn't entertain any desire to test his luck and wind up learning the kind of lessons they would be more than happy to teach him.
'Nope, not going there, no way, no how....ever.'
After meandering past the village with its paddies and neatly planted fields, the river once again brushed along a stretch of shady tree-lined banks perfect for exactly what he had in mind. Bounding across the treetops he headed toward a spot on the river well out of sight of that smelly village.
He could travel fast enough over the open ground to put a fleet horse to shame, but leaping about from treetop to treetop was his preferred way to travel. The forests were his domain, he was the master of their green leafy canopies, perfectly at home in the safety of their branches, gracefully at ease dancing across even their highest crowns. Had the whole world been a sea to sea forest it would have suited him just fine.
Funny, he never could quite remember exactly when he had decided to take to the trees. He had just woke up one morning, surprisingly draped along a wide limb of all places, with the revelation that life would be far more protected for him up there than on the ground. Being still very young he didn't know what inspired this startling gestalt, or even exactly how he had come to be sleeping so far above the ground in the first place, but he had primarily lived between heaven and earth in his aerial haven ever since.
Reaching a spot where the trees edged down close to the water, InuYasha leapt lightly to the ground, and secured his wide red sleeves by hoisting them up to his shoulders then tucking their loose ends through the back of the sash around his waist. Satisfied that they were well out of his way he waded into the river to catch breakfast. Patience and excellent timing paid off and he soon waded back out with a large brown trout wiggling in hand. After dispatching Breakfast with a smart smack of it's head against a broad flat rock, he sat back and devoured it sitting on the same flat rock, cooling his toes in the water while he ate. All that was left when he finished was a neatly picked head and backbone tossed among the scattering of scales he had amused himself with by seeing how far he could spit them. Since one fish was never enough he stood up preparing to wade back in, then whirled around, reflexively crouching down as his sharp ears picked up the sounds of voices coming his way.
He was off the rock and hidden within the safety of the trees long before the two roughly dressed men, whose loud ongoing conversation had been what alerted him to their approach, came strolling along the bank to stop at the very spot InuYasha had already chosen as his breakfast table. From a leaf enshrouded perch, he silently watched them, fuming at the fact that the noisy pair, nets in hand had decided to usurp HIS fishing hole.
' Damn, I was here first ya stinkin' bastards..'
Starting to spring away in utter disgust at the unexpected downturn in his luck this morning, InuYasha paused, body coiled low for the leap, just as he was struck by what he felt to be, a rather inspired plan. He'd just let this pair of idiots catch a nice big mess of fish, then he'd play big hairy scarey Youkai, run them off and have a really satisfying breakfast. The more he tossed this idea about, the more attractive it became, so he quietly stretched out, made himself comfortable and waited for the annoying interlopers to do all the work. If he was really lucky maybe they even had a couple of rice balls he could scare them out of as well.
Apparently unperturbed by the litter of scattered fish-bones and semi-chewed scales, most likely because they appeared to be the end result of a successful hunt by one of the village cats, the duo continued to chatter while they rolled out their nets and went about their fishing. Their nonstop discussion, which seemed to consist largely of some mean spirited gossip about several of their more well to do neighbors immediately began to put InuYasha's teeth on edge.
'Don't these bastards ever shut up? They're gonna scare all my fish away with their yappin..'
After trying to ignore them for a while he began thinking that maybe it would be a better idea just to get it over with, scare the shit out of them and reclaim his spot before every finned denizen in this part of the river swam away to preserve their sanity. As he prepared to leap down out of the tree a sudden turn in the topic of conversation made him settle back down to do some serious eavesdropping.
One of them had mention the Shikon No Tama.
That was exactly what he was hunting for.
I'm telling you Hiro, it's an honor...An Honor that our Lady Kikyou was selected for this great service. Only she is strong enough to purify the Shikon Jewel, straightening up, the tall speaker wiped his brow on a sweaty forearm before lacing another fish onto the line holding his share of the catch.
Honor, shmonor..It's a bad idea all the way around, his short, potbellied friend countered as he pulled a flopping trout loose from a poorly maintained net. Only nasty hellish things 'll come of it. You mark what I say.
Like what? Name something. Pulling his net the rest of the way in, the tall man tossed four more good sized fish onto the bank.
Like...like demons. That thing's gonna draw them like flies to a honey pot. Why do you think those damned demon hunters brought that thing here in the first place? Hiro glanced over a little enviously at his lanky comrade's decidedly more impressive catch.
His hard working friend merely grunted, shrugged and strung another fish on the line.
Well, I'll tell ya why. Cause they were tired of having all the damned demons come and hang around their village...that's why.
That's stupid...would you listen to yourself ? They're a village of Demon Hunters, it's what they Do. Makes life damn easy if your line of work delivers itself right to your door, I say.
Hiro indignantly folded his arms across his prominent middle, entirely unconvinced that he wasn't right in his assumption that their little village was headed for trouble on a terrifying scale. Mark me, mark me. Just wait and see. Gonna be demons crawling all over the place after that damned jewel.
And if there is, our Lady Kikyou will protect us. The tall man laced the last fish on his line then started rolling up his net. Besides once Lady Kikyou purifies it, that jewel wont be a problem for anybody, least of all our village.
I still ain't convinced. How long is it gonna take for her to do it Ebi? Days? A month? A year? Ever? A lot can happen to us before she does. Doing a quick silent count it was, as always, irritating for Hiro to see that once again the tall man had twice as many fish to take back as he did.
Nothings gonna happen, Ebi snorted as he started to sling his catch over his shoulder, I swear, you see a demon behind every damned bush..in every tree...
Uh..E..E..E buhbuhbuh..bi? Hiro was just standing there, staring straight ahead, his meager catch lying in a heap next to his tangled net. Wha..Wha..Whats..thu..thu..thu..that?
Ebi glanced around, face growing pale at the sight that had already transfixed his friend. The catch hanging over his shoulder slithered out of suddenly nerveless fingers to land with a loud 'Schallomp' at his feet. Itsa..itsa itsa...
DEMON! Catches and nets totally forgotten, the pair of gossiping fisherman simultaneously voided their bladders, threw their hands over their heads and took off towards the village like every devil in all of the Seven Hells had just popped into sight to fly nipping at their heels.
Clothed in a voluminous outfit the color of bright red blood, thick silver hair fluffed out to twice it's normal volume, fangs widely bared beneath a black-browed scowl and claw-tipped hands poised menacingly before him, InuYasha held his pose until both of the screaming idiots had passed out of sight. Then he collapsed in a fit of laughter against the side of the tree he had jumped out of. After a few moments, he shook his hair back into place, tossed both nets as far down the river as he could send them, slung both lines of fish over his right shoulder and with a still delighted snicker returned to the trees.
He felt not even the least amount of guilt for tossing away their nets, or stealing every last fish from those two stupid humans. After all the only thing that humans had ever consistently done was to steal away those things that to him held value. His mother, his home, his dignity...bastards had stolen it all, so what were two nets and a few measly fish compared to the shit he'd had to put up with for almost a century and a half.
Finding a high airy perch InuYasha proceeded to make a leisurely meal of what Hiro and Ebi had so generously provided. No, he never minded switching around the tables and stealing things from humans at all. They really did deserved it after all. Besides, sometimes he just happened to need what they had to survive. Oh, yeah... He planned on surviving for a very long time, just to spite each and every one of those heartless fuckers.
Soon, he thought with great satisfaction, he'd been stealing the best thing in the whole world from them. Something that would insure that no one...not human, not Youkai...would ever steal anything he valued away from him again. A broad smile graced his boyish face as he lay back and watched the golden sunlight filter through the leaves above his head. That Shikon Jewel was gonna solve all his problems and all he had to do was take it away from some stupid human girl.