Chapter 4 - Amaya

Chapter 4

Amaya

Sesshomaru rode deep into the mountain range over huge jagged peaks. A-Un began to speed up the flames at their feet suddenly growing brighter. Sesshomaru stroked their smooth pebbly necks.

“That's right boys”, he said, “We're going home.”

It had been a few hundred years human time since anyone had lived in his father's castle. Even so, each time he went, the dragons seemed happy and excited. He did not share their enthusiasm. Soon the black castle came into view. Even now it was an impressive sight. It was carved directly into the living black rock of the mountain. Once it had been full of life; the home of the White Dog Clan, his clan. Now it laid empty and forbidding in the high rock.

Sesshomaru's father, as had all the great Dog Demon Lords before him, had kept a storehouse full of gold, jewels and other riches accumulated during battles. Even after the disaster his father had continued to add to the treasure. So had he, Sesshomaru, since his father's death. He always supposed his father had planned to rebuild the castle. He, Sesshomaru current Lord of the desecrated White dog Clan continued because that was what he had been taught.

They set down on a platform at the base of a grand stair case that led up to the castle. Sesshomaru put down food he had brought for A-un and began to ascend the steps toward the castle. The sky was a leaden gray and the wind was hard and cold today. He entered the main hall and looked around. The castle was falling into decay. The wind and elements were taking their toll. Still he supposed perhaps it could be rebuilt. He kicked a loose stone with his boot. Would he really bring Rin and Catherine here. No, there were too many ghosts in this place. He walked up a few steps to his father's throne carved into the black rock and sat down. The tapestries were gray and tattered and the wind howled through the hall. For a short time he was a happy child here. The hall had been full of family, Uncles, aunts, cousins visitors from allied clans. There had been other children like him. They had run together laughing free through the castle, playing, exploring. Most of all he remembered his mother Amaya, tall and beautiful and passionate. She had been his world. His father was Lord, Inu-no-Teicho, Dog Leader, aloof, one that you tried to impress or at least not disappoint . His mother, though, loved him unconditionally. She was the one who told him the stories and legends of his clan's history. He remembered how she would transform into a magnificent white dog. He would cling to her back as she flew high over the mountains.

He remembered the argument his parents had just before the disaster. Word had come that the Demon Shibala'a sons had formed an alliance with some of the demons of the Western mountains. Together they were destroying the dog Demon Clans. He sneaked form his bed to listen. Even though he was a young child, not yet even as old as Rin he remembered every word..

:What about the curse?” his mother kept saying. The curse had been placed on his father by Shibala the Demon witch just before he had used the wind scar to destroy her.

“You will not be able to protect those you love. You will never be there in time. I place this curse on you Inu-no Teicho and your sons and their sons and on through your linage until your bloodline is no more. This curse will not end with my death!”

His father wanted to go and investigate the reports that some of the allied Dog Clans had been destroyed. But his mother wanted his father to stay to protect their clan.

“They are on the land across the sea,” his father had tried to reassure her, “Even if they were to come here our sentinels would see them, our demons would destroy them before they got here.”

Amaya was not convinced. She was from a white dog clan to the far north. Her clan had tangled with Sounga son of Shibala before. She knew he was much more powerful now and she was afraid.

His father had gone. He always did as he willed, always. Soon after he was gone it was as if the demons dropped out of thin air. One second the sky was clear and serene, the next it was full of demons bearing down on the castle. They destroyed the sentinels and warriors before they were even aware of the attack. Sesshomaru remembered the blood, blood everywhere.

His mother had grabbed his hand and together they ran to the room adjacent to the throne room. She pushed him behind a carved stone screen into a storage cubby.

“Do not move until your father returns” she whispered.

He watched as she attempted to transform but it was too late. Sounga himself was upon her. He grabbed her by the throat and then he ripped her apart. Her blood spurted like a font around the room., on the walls, against the screen behind which he hid. He was splattered with her warm blood. The memory still made him tremble involuntarily as if it had just happened.

After the attack Sounga and the other demons searched the castle. Sesshomaru sat perfectly still barely breathing. Finally, satisfied they had killed everyone. They left like they had come, silent like a giant swarm and all was quiet.

Sesshomaru sat frozen in the cubby through the day and a long dark night. Finally late the next day his father returned. Sesshomaru was roused to see his father kneeling over the mass that had been his mother. His eyes glowed red and he was screaming in anguish. His screams filled the halls. He thrust his hands into the still wet gore and smeared his face with her blood. Sesshomaru found he still could not move or cry out. He watched as his father transformed roaring and as a huge white dog leaped out into the sky and away.

After his father had left Sesshomaru found he could once again move. He crawled out of the cubby and to the destroyed body of his mother. Then, as he had seen his father do , he dipped his small fingers into her blood and smeared his face. Something caught his attention then . he reached out and lifted it from the pool of blood, it was his mother's moon stone. She wore it always on her left hand. He remembered her words to him.

“Your father gave this moonstone to me on our wedding night so we would be bonded to each other. The moon stone is always given by mother to eldest son. When you are a man and have chosen a bride I will give this moonstone to you”

He slipped the ring into a pocket of his robe and went back to the cubby to await the return of his father. For three days he waited surrounded by the charnel house that had once been his home the smell of death surrounding him. Finally on the morning of the forth day his father returned. He had known he would return to bury the dead. This time Sesshomaru was not frozen, this time he got up and revealed himself immediately. When his father saw him he ran over and fell to his knees. He held Sesshomaru close sobbing, “my son, my son, I thought you were dead!”

The spikes on his father's body armor dug painfully into his skin but Sesshomaru didn't flinch. He had never been hugged by his father before, he had never seen his father cry. This was a new world with new rules that they walked into.

His father saw the blood on him and became alarmed. “Are you injured son?” he said feeling his arms and legs and looking into his face. “We must wash the blood off you to be sure. “

He lifted Sesshomaru in his arms and carried him to the castle bath house. Touga, for that was his father's name, removed his body armor and drew water to fill a large pot, then he built a fire to warm the water. He then filled a tub with the warmed water. When he began to undress Sesshomaru, the boy cried out and held the blood stained robe to himself.

“No son, no” Touga said gently, “you cannot wear your mother's blood. We will put the robe on her funeral pyre so she will have it with her in the after life.”

He then lowered Sesshomaru into the warm bath and washed the blood from his hair and body. He was glad to see that the child was not injured.

Sesshomaru was able finally to relax in the warm water. He had been chilled to the bone. His tears came fast and salty running down his face.

“Good,” his father said, “You need to cry, you need to flush out the poison of grief.”

His father then left to get him some clean cloths and something dry him with.

Sesshomaru climbed out of the tub and crept over to the blood stained robe. He wanted to wear it. He wanted to keep his mother's blood with him always but he knew his father would not let him so he took the moon stone from the pocket and crept back into the tub. His father returned a few moments later with a small blanket which he wrapped Sesshomaru in and a clean shirt and kimono pants. He never noticed the child's tightly fisted hand holding the moon stone. When he was dressed Touga lifted his son in one arm and his body armor with the other and bore both outside away from the horror within. A-un was waiting outside and as soon as he put Sesshomaru down the boy ran to the dragon hugging both necks. Touga smiled, his son had always been fond of A-Un.

Soon the dead had been gathered and the funeral pyre lit. the little blood stained robe was laid across the blanket that covered Amaya's remains. As the flames consumed everything Touga put his hand on Sesshomaru's shoulder.

“I killed them son, the demons who did this, I killed them all except Sounga. Him I bound to this sword..” he indicated the new sword at his waist. “Someday, when I can, I will cast him into Hell.”

That was the end of Sesshomaru's childhood. After that his days were filled with training and battle. His father would speak constantly of rebuilding the clan.

“We will find another Dog Clan,” he would say, “I will take a wife and we will find a bride for you. You will be betrothed and as soon as you are old enough, you will marry. We will rebuild the castle, You'll see,everything is going to be alright.”

He was wrong. Sesshomaru knew that nothing was going to be all right ever again. He and his father fought many battles and continued to rule the western lands but they never found another Dog Clan.

His father would go back to the castle and search for the moon stone. Sesshomaru kept it hidden. It was his, from mother to son, not to be given by his father to a new bride. His father never spoke his mother's name again nor would he allow Sesshomaru to speak it. It as if she never existed. She did exist, though, Sesshomaru would never forget. Soon after his father's death he had a robe made for himself in a white fabric with a dark red resign that reminded him of the splatters of his mother's blood. He told the old tailor to put the fabric aside for all his robes would be made with it. He was was wearing it now. The moon stone he wore on the little finger of his right hand.

Sesshomaru walked into the room adjacent to the throne room. He kneeled by the dark stain that had been his mother's blood. He touched the stain and touched his face, “Amaya,” he said as he touched the stain and again touched his face, “Amaya.

I will not forget you Mother!”

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