Chapter 5 - Betrayal

Curled up by the huge fireplace, Aura began her story….



When I had finally gotten off of your grounds, I searched for the demon plains, which was basically a barren desert with a few small villages. (Kind of like the Wild West stories and towns) I found a town that seemed fine, and started working for the blacksmith there. Unfortunately, he was a wanted man, and was taken by bandits soon after I had been with him for a few months.



*recalls memory* Aura''''s in a room with a kiln and a bunch of sword making devices, with the blacksmith in his living room, sitting in an armchair reading a small scroll. Suddenly, there is a knock at the door, and the blacksmith answers it. He looks stunned and is grappled and pulled through the door while struggling and giving slight yelps here and there. Aura looks through the doorway, but out of sight…or so she thought, until the kitsune who appeared to be the leader averted his piercing golden eyes toward her. She somehow gets the message that he was going to expect her to see them again, eventually. *end of recalling the memory*



In the morning after his kidnapping I dressed myself as a male, as to not give the kitsune that captured him the satisfaction of knowing his prediction had been correct. I flew over the forests looking for a clearing where a camp may be or may have been. I finally found the camp, but the kitsune mistook my visit and offered me a place in their guild. I thought it would be wise to join, just to get inside information and access to their prisoner tent. So I joined. Next I found out that the blacksmith had already been sold to whoever wanted him, so my ventures were in vain.



“Why didn''''t you go after him that night? Right when he was being taken? It seems stupid to wait that long to go after him,” Sesshoumaru commented.

“I wasn''''t ready. I had been working on a male ninja costume for myself while I was there, and it wasn''''t done until morning.”

“Did you necessarily need to look male?”

“Yes, or they would''''ve sold me as a slave as well when I first got there.”

“Then we would''''ve found you earlier.” Sesshoumaru smirked.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Aura replied, not amused, but she continued her story.



I found myself fond of the guild rather quickly. I found out the kitsune was named Kuromori, but a lot of people just called him “Kuro” for short. I grew very fond of him over the decades.



recalls memory* Kuromori had rich gold eyes, with flowing black hair that went down to his waste, and a tail coming out the back of his navy blue and white kimono. He had black claws and white fangs, with two long pointed fox ears coming out of the top of his head. He had always preferred to use plant weapons and techniques in battle and in capture. (Capturing other people, that is…) *end of recalling the memory*



Then there were the people that worked closely with me. They were of higher rank in the guild than I was, but I was always treated as a friend. Well, most of the time. There were times when I was sent to build a weapon for one of the guild members, or be sent to fetch something that took stealth and only one person, but other than that, we were friendly to each other. There was Takeno, who had his own style of clothing. He preferred the western style over the usual kimono, but there was so rare of it that he took whatever dark clothes he could get. He was a bat demon with a precious gauntlet around his wrist that he treasured greatly, and could arguably said have been the cause of his death. Then there was Kyoshi, who didn''''t live up to his name. (Author''''s note: Kyoshi means “quiet”.) He was always either arguing with Kuro or playing with him. Kyoshi had shoulder-length black hair, purple eyes, and two horns coming out the side of his head. He liked wearing light armor under an almost toga-like outfit. Then there was Kuromori himself.



“Sounds like you were high in rank to me.”

“I felt like I was accepted, yes. Anyway,” Aura continued.



Then the betrayals began. Everyone thought that Kuro was the most loyal leader of all time. He''''d always show up when your life was in danger, even if you didn''''t tell him where you were going or what you were doing. But there was one mission where he and Takeno went together, but Kuro came back alone. He said Takeno went back for his gauntlet, but fell into a trap looking for it. He tried to help, but Takeno wanted him to keep going, and that there was nothing for him to do. Kyoshi didn''''t believe Kuro''''s story, so he decided to take matters into his own hands one day. He''''d heard a rumor about a castle in the north, guarded by many traps and mystery. He took some of our finest men, and went out looking for it, but never came back. When I told Kuro about it, he just smirked.



“He definitely set that up,” Sesshoumaru commented.

“That''''s what a lot of us believe.”



Then it happened to me. Kuro came into my tent one morning, uninvited, and saw me for a fraud. But I was surprised when he didn''''t do anything for the first couple of days. But, eventually, he did seem to remember that morning, and invited me out to the bonfire, where a lot of the group would hang out every night. That''''s where he cut my armor in half, in front of the entire guild. All of them had about the same idea: Sell her, use her, torture her, kill her.



“They decided to sell you, then.”

“Kuromori was nice enough to do that, yeah.”



The rest of the night went by, Aura and Sesshoumaru by the fire, eventually fell asleep. But before Sesshoumaru went to sleep, he called in a messenger, asking to gather his old friends for an announcement.

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