InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Knight ❯ Chapter 7 ( Chapter 7 )

I am soooo sorry for the long wait, but it would seem that I had a fairly short relapse into my depression, basically the day after I had last posted. *sigh* Remember those exams I had told you about? The ones that I took the year off to study for?…well I failed most of them….ok I barely passed, so I wont be going back to my school…I'll have to leave my friends as I do not have to grades to go to the next level….unless I repeat. *sigh* I am in deep contemplation about that…anyway, thanks for the reviews, they keep me sane...and enjoy this chapter!

 

Chapter 7

 

 

They had arrived at the castle at around high noon. The two young demons could only stand with their mouths agape as they took in the structure before them. It looked to have been made from the mountain it resided in, the stone looking structure stood regally.

 

They entered the premises through the gates, manned by four youkai guards, who, Kagome noticed, eyed her and Shippo oddly. She couldn't blame them though; you see your lord and master strolling in from battle without the company of at least two warriors of the battalion he left with, yet in the presence of a demoness and child. It was enough to make anyone wonder.

 

They entered the imposing building, the front room alone was huge; regal columns stood off to the side leading to a set of stairs before them. Two staircases met in the middle of the floor, both coming form separate wings of the structure. Before the staircase was a queue of servants, all bowing at the return of their lord and master in good health.

 

“Lord Sesshoumaru, this lowly vassal is relieved for your safe return,” came an out of place squawk. Kagome followed the sound along with he tapping of wood on wood to see an irritably sordid green thing with eyes holding onto a staff twice its size with two wilted heads atop it. Kagome made a face and Shippo tried his hardest to bottle up his laughter. Sesshoumaru glanced at him curiously, raising a brow at their reaction to seeing his right hand man… er something.

 

“Lord Sesshoumaru! Lord Sesshoumaru!” came the unmistakable squeal of a young female child, the ward, Rin; which Sesshoumaru had told her about. A smile came to Kagome's face as a little girl ran excitedly in their direction and grabbing onto the legs of her idol guardian, holding it for dear life.

 

“Rin.” The feared demon lord said affectionately, patting the head of his ward. The girl let go and peeked behind said legs at the two demons behind her master. She giggled as she caught Shippo making a funny face at Kagome. The two looked over at her and Shippo hopped down from his perch to be on ground level with the human. Rin flinched back a bit but then noticed that she was a whole head taller than the smaller demon, the fact made her smile brightly.

 

Sesshoumaru who had been giving instructions to ready two rooms for his guests, turned to see Kagome bending to be level with his ward as the two kids spoke avidly about whatever it was they had struck up a conversation about.

 

He motioned for Kagome to follow him while Rin ran off with Shippo in tow. The two adults walked up the left set of stairs through a long hallway lined with different paintings of battle scenes. The western lord stopped before a door and motioned for Kagome to slide it back and enter.

 

She did as told and gasped at what she saw; the room had to be at least three times the size of the one she stayed in at Naraku's stronghold. It was a pale yellow color, sparsely yet elegantly decorated. In the center of the room laid a slightly raised futon with oceanic green covers. There was a low table by one wall along with the wardrobe and vanity table.

 

“Is it to your liking?” the lord asked.

 

“Yes, yes its beautiful,” she gushed in a whisper, still awed that the room was to be hers. She turned to him, “thank you,” she smiled broadly at him, the only true smile he's seen her display since she had been kidnapped. She only gave goofy grins or was laughing at the kitsune's expense. It made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside. He wanted to get rid of the feeling, it wasn't that it was repulsive, quite the contrary, it was pleasant. The smile, he noted, also made her look… tantalizing.

 

He blinked away his traitorous thoughts before nodding and leaving her to break in her room as she saw fit. A few moments later a demoness with long blonde and green hair walked in and bowed, the woman's beige wings folding around her form. Her blond locks falling carelessly over her shoulder.

 

“Good afternoon milady, I am, by Lord Sesshoumaru's order, your handmaiden. Is there anything you would like?”

 

“N-no not now thank you, I think I would take a nap now,” Kagome answered, clearly unused to having a personal servant.

 

“Yes, it has been a long journey” the woman replied, walking over to the bed and turning down the sheets.

 

“Uh-yes it has, um, could you wake me for dinner please?”

 

“Of course milady.” With that, noticing that her new mistress had no idea of dismissing her, the woman took her leave, wondering just what was going on. Kagome wasted no time and climbed on the bed and laid down, the softness of the fabric conformed to her body and she instantly fell asleep.

 

*** o0o

 

 

Shippo chased Rin through a random garden; they had been like that for hours upon end. Their giggles floated through the air past the trees to the hawk youkai guards at the gate who each smiled briefly.

 

Shippo had found out that Rin was Sesshoumaru's ward and that she had found him in the forest one day, gravely injured. She had told him about a pack of wolves that had attacked her village and killed her, and then how Sesshoumaru had used his sword and revived her, something that boggled Shippo; weren't swords used to kill people? Not revive them. He decided not to question it, but ask Kagome about it later.

 

“Lady Rin, Master Shippo,” a gentle voice called out to them, Rin turned to see her handmaiden, Yume, by the door of the garden. The demoness' blue-black hair was coiled around her neck, giving the pretence of a furry scarf.

 

“Yume-chan!” Rin squealed as she ran towards the smiling demoness. She began reiterating all about her afternoon spent with Shippo to the woman who only nodded with a smile. Her emerald eyes shone with amusement.

 

“Lady Rin, I need to get you and master Shippo ready for supper, the lord will be joining you this night.”

 

“Really?” she gushed, “Then let us go!!” she yelled and ran into the castle.

 

Kagome's eyes popped open, there was another presence in the room, the two weeks of Kagura's pressuring for her to always be alert had paid off, or had brought her eternal unrest, and she would now not be able to sleep with someone in the room with her.

 

She sat up slowly; pushing her sleep mussed hair from her face, and looked around. There before her bed was a golden knot. A big golden knot. She blinked, her blue eyes still fuzzy with confusion and sleep.

 

“You have awoken,” came the statement from the knot, Kagome was beginning to really question her sanity. The mass rose, showing the demoness servant that Kagome now realized was her handmaiden.

 

“Yes I have,” Kagome answered yawning.

 

“I am here to get milady ready for supper, the lord will be joining the children and you tonight.” She said not looking at Kagome. The younger demoness got up out of the bed reluctantly, instantly missing the comforting haze of sleep. The woman walked, more like glided over to the wardrobe and opened it. “Which would you like to wear milady?” she said motioning to the wide array of beautiful furisodes.

 

“Anyone would do,” she answered, she really had no idea.

 

“As you wish” the servant withdrew a royal purple furisode, silver comet-like streaks rained on it. She helped Kagome put it on and allowed the girl to fix her hair in the way she saw fit. Kagome took up the unadorned lilac colored brush and drug it through her hair lightly, it took a while for her to get out all the knots and tangles it developed from travel, and to ensure that it stayed neat she simply braided it down the length of her back.

 

Seeing that she was done, the servant led her down the few corridors towards the staircase that lead directly to the dining area. Once before the door, the woman slid it back allowing her lady to enter before sliding it shut and walking away.

 

Sesshoumaru blinked when he saw the demoness enter the room, he had been listening to Rin blather on enthusiastically about her afternoon spent playing in the gardens with the kitsune kit. When the girl had stopped chattering away in order to gasp he wondered just what it was to divert her attention so aptly. It was then that he had noticed that Kagome had entered the room; he had turned to greet her.

 

The sight of her in the furisode left him speechless. The violet of the furisode contrasted greatly with the pastel of her skin, adding the braid that she had set her hair in made her look elegantly beautiful. He noticed her inky tresses had a purple gleam to it, complementing her look.

 

She walked up towards him gracefully and bowed, he nodded slightly and motioned for her to seat herself. She did so, at his left, the place assigned her. It was then that the servers came out, placing the food in the middle of the table. They stepped backwards and bowed before filing out as silently as they came.

 

“Itadakimasu.” Sesshoumaru said splitting his chopsticks open and helping himself, the others followed shortly after.

 

Dinner was a relatively short affair, after eating, the children ran off to play in Rin's playroom. The servers from before came and cleaned up. The dining hall was silent save for the light clanging of ceramics striking each other. After the table was cleared, a woman, Kagome noticed that she was her handmaiden; walked out with a small carafe and two drink bowls. Kagome took a small sniff and deduced that the liquid she heard lightly sloshing in the jug was sake.

 

“That will be all Kaori,” Sesshoumaru said coolly dismissing the woman from the room. Once he decided that they were fully alone, he began another line of questioning, pouring some of the tawny liquid for the both of them. “Do you know what type of youkai you are becoming?” he asked lightly sipping his beverage.

 

Kagome sipped hers quietly, the whiskey burnt her throat slightly on the way down, and it also left a bitter taste in her mouth. “No.” she replied setting the bowl down “I was never told, anything,” she added as a short afterthought, “just used.”

 

“Hmm, it figures Naraku would prefer to keep all uninformed.” He commented, more to him than her, taking another sip, “from what I have deduced, it seemed you are becoming a panther, a mistress of the shadows.” He watched her as she nodded once, the movement causing unruly locks of her hair to fall in her face.

 

“Thank you for telling me,” she said after a while, digesting the information as well as the sake. He put down his empty bowl and poured himself some more of the cocktail, before looking at her acutely.

 

“From tomorrow onwards you are to report to the library every morning after the morning meal for etiquette classes-“

 

“Etiquette classes?” she echoed looking at him strangely.

 

“Yes,” he answered slowly, he liked being interrupted as much as he liked repeating himself, and he hated doing either. “Etiquette classes, as long as you stay here, yourself and the kit will act like persons of court.”

 

“Ok,” she nodded, wondering just how long he was keeping them for but not daring to voice her thoughts. “But can I finish my training?” she asked hopefully, she wasn't really sure why she wanted to continue the horrendous experience, but the words had left her lips before she had the chance to think about them.

 

He paused in mid-sip and looked at her, he lowered the bowl, “the classes last for the entire day,” he replied curtly, disliking the way she seemed to deflate at the words. “Why would you want to continue with it anyway?” he asked, he was genuinely curious.

 

“I'm not entirely sure,” she replied, “I think it was just something to do while at Naraku's. If I wasn't being hard-pressed in the dojo, I was sitting in my room doing nothing.” She explained, slightly hoping he would let her continue for some reason.

 

“Well now you would have classes with Yume to fill your time, so the answer is still no.” he said finally sipping his drink.

 

Kagome took a sip from her bowl; she now understood the working of the drink, sake. It left a bitter taste in one's mouth, and the only way to get rid of it would be to sip more of the substance until it was all done. But by then it wouldn't matter if there were no more to be had because the drinker would already be too inebriated to care.

 

But she wasn't sitting here to think about sake, she wanted to argue with the demon lord before her about training her, “Why not?” she asked.

 

“Because women are not meant to fight.” He responded, she knew then that, that one declaration would out rule any arguments she had. With a somber sigh she continued her drink.

 

*** o0o

 

Painfully short chapter, once again I apologize, well my internet is down so I'm posting this from work…which I am sorely pissed about since I shouldn't be there this week, for my final day was to be last Saturday…I was told by mere coincidence that I had to work another week…. but I shouldn't complain...I am after all getting another week's worth of pay n__n

 

I believe that I have decided to repeat…but I honestly do not want to redo certain subjects so I will have to see if I can get them to do something about that…that is if they consider me at all…. after all I was told that they had no space and I had a snowball's chance in hell to go to the upper level (I was told nicely)

 

So anyway, enough about my dismally spiraling life….drop me a line…tell me something about you!

 

Sayonara

-Sora…….(I haven't done this in a while XD)