Challenge Collection by Sessylove219 by Sessylove219

The Whipping "Boy"

Title: The Whipping “Boy”

Challenge: Chibi Challenge

Word Count: 760, According to MSWorks

Rating: T

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Nothing could prepare her for the pain. She was a slave, her life was pain, but most of that was revolved around not having any freedom and the certainty that her life would not be her own. When she felt the first burning sting, the ripping pain, she thought that she would die, it was so intense.

Her mother was taken prisoner in one of the raids on the Eastern villages where they had lived a peaceful existence. When the village elders told the lords that they could not pay the tithe that was required to pay for the war, the lord razed the village, killing the men, raping the women, and taking the abused females and their children as slaves.

Kagome had only been at the Eastern Citadel for a year, but it had been the worst year of the short seven she had been on the earth. She had been rebellious when she first arrived, but it had been beaten out of her. She had watched her mother be tortured to death, and that was the end of her spirituous displays. She did not know why they kept her alive, but it was getting to the point where she did not really care.

One day, she was cleaning the room of the young Eastern heir, Kouga, when the wolf noticed her beauty and told her that one day, he would free her, and they would be together as mates. He seemed so wise and strong to her, being a whole two years older. He seemed strong, and she thought that one day he would be her salvation from a life of servitude. When Kouga’s father, the ruler of the East, heard his son talking to the young slave, he yelled at Kouga and told him he was to be punished for speaking to someone far below his station. Instead of punishing Kouga himself, the Eastern Lord tied down the young slave girl, and brought down the cat-o-nine tails upon her back until she passed out.

It was her first day as the whipping “boy” for the young Eastern lord.

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The Western delegation was finally making their way to their annual meeting with the Eastern rulers. The ruler of the West, Inu no Taisho came with his two sons, Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha, who he was hoping would develop a friendship with young Master Kouga, seeing as how they were all around the same age, and would someday rule allied kingdoms.

The young Western heirs could not be more different, the younger, who had only seen six summers, was expressive, honest, and brash. The elder, Sesshoumaru, who had just turned seven, was stoic, emotionless, and fierce. The boys were a mystery to their father, although both were loved.

The day after they arrived, when the Lords were in a conference and the younger boys were left to their own devices, Kouga was running through the halls with Inuyasha and accidentally knocked over a priceless vase, breaking it. When his nanny found him with the broken heirloom, she told him he was going to be punished. The Western heirs winced, because they had often been punished by their sire. They felt bad for their new friend, but when a young servant girl was brought in crying, they were confused. It wasn’t until the first strike was brought onto her back, and the first drop of blood was shed, that they understood. Sesshoumaru ran forward quicker than the eye could see, and grabbed the arm of the one striking the girl. His growl was heard throughout the citadel.

Inuyasha was quick to follow his brother, and lifted the poor girl into his lap. He begged her not to cry, and told her that they would protect her. Sesshoumaru looked into her blue eyes, and was lost…

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When the Western delegation left the East, they were accompanied by a new member, a young girl of about seven, whom Inu no Taisho had declared his ward. He normally would have tried to rescue the girl from the cruelty of the Eastern wolves and taken her back to the West to be a servant, but one look into the eyes of his eldest, one look at the devotion and compassion, and he knew that the little girl would be very important to the House of the Moon one day. He was surprised that one little girl, a slave, could stir emotions in his stoic heir. He knew that life in the West would never be the same, and he couldn’t be happier.