Alpha by Lyra
History
Drabble Collection Alpha
CLXIV
Prompt From Priestess Skye's Bi-Weekly Challenge
History
Inuyasha walked forward, until he was standing only a step away from his brother, and then leaned back in surprise when Sesshomaru spoke. Such violence in his words – such fury!
“You return, father – and with an army at your heels. Did you not think to inform me you intended to bring so many youkai to this place?”
“I rule here, Sesshomaru! Have you forgotten? I do not require the permission of my son before I -”
Sesshomaru did not let him finish.
“You rule here? In name, you may be the Lord of the West, but I have ruled these lands since the day I cast out my mother.”
The silence of the youkai battalions ceased to be undisturbed unity, and became a fractious tension instead. The Inu no Taisho eyed his son, and then jerked his head sharply to the left.
“Walk with me, Sesshomaru.”
The tone of his voice was dangerous, but Sesshomaru seemed not to notice. As he moved, Inuyasha moved with him, and the shade of their father walked beside.
“Your mother showed you the first time I returned to meet your brother; this is the second time, Inuyasha. Your brother moves swiftly towards his second century, and I had all but deserted him. I left him to do as he says – to rule – while I added layers of darkness to the rumor of my name.”
He inclined his head towards the figure of Sesshomaru standing at a distance now with his former self.
“Listen, Inuyasha. Your brother has the right of it...though I would not admit that until I was dead.”
Inuyasha jogged over to Sesshomaru, and caught the end of an icy rant.
“...while you pleased yourself with battle in the South, there have been famines and wars. Human settlements grow like leprous blotches on the landscape!”
The Inu No Taisho looked shocked, and uneasy.
“Wars? Famine?”
Sesshomaru’s blank mask finally cracked into a scowl of tremendous fury.
“You do not even know? You paid no attention? For three seasons of harvest, rot spread through all the West, and into the North. Nekomata and their lords attacked in the winter, two years past, seeking food and flesh - of which there was none! Not even for our own people; even mother, my own mother, sent messengers requesting aid.”
Sesshomaru paused, and drew a deep breath, swayed forward a bare inch.
“And now I know why those messages came to me, and not you. I hear you are a great general, father, that you lead the Youkai Army to many victories – but you are a terrible Lord! Those who are yours, you care nothing for! Only the new matters to you; new conquest, new territory, new weapons -”
“Enough!”
Inuyasha’s eyes widened in surprise; he stared at the vision of his father's past in confusion. Rage, rough and open, was spread across the Inu no Taisho’s face. More surprising still, Sesshomaru did not back down. He seemed almost...pleased, to have evoked such a reaction.
“You are barely more than a pup; you do not understand the importance -”
“I have fought wars at your back! I have slain hundreds because of this understanding you say I do not possess. Is this beyond your comprehension, father? Are you missing my point? For more than a hundred years I have ruled here in all but name! You left my life at my discretion – do you remember that, father? Our one experience of meeting; the single instance we were together before now?”
The rage had subsided in his father’s face; replacing it was concern, and irritation.
“I should never have allowed that! You have become – what have you become, Sesshomaru?”
His son stood tall, with glittering eyes.
“I have become the Lord of the West. I have become stronger. But still, I -”
And there was a pause, a moment of stunning silence when Inuyasha saw his brother’s face contort, become a smile-that-was-not-a-smile.
“I have not found the straight way I was seeking; the path of supreme conquest. Fight me, father. Fight me – a real battle; a true test of power.”
The Inu no Taisho laughed.
“Fight you? Why would I fight you, my own son? A match to first blood was one thing – but now you speak dangerously!”
“A fight without limits, father. Dangerously...that is only a single word, and I have lived through worse. No one is my match – no one challenges me – and still, I cannot reach the fullness of the strength I know is within me.”
“No! You are a foolish pup still, if you think you are yet skilled enough to challenge me! I, I who have beaten youkai and holy men and kami alike – I, who hold the reins of the youkai army in my fist – I, the Inu no Taisho!”
As he spoke, he grew, and shifted, flesh and muscles rippling, changing; in a very few moments, Sesshomaru stood in the shadow of an enormous Inu, the true form of his father. A howl rent the sky in minor tones, left the air shivering.
It was a summons, a demand in the language of the Inu’s darkness: Run with me! Run with the night - forget this foolishness, and run!
At the sound of that call, Inuyasha saw Sesshomaru's power leaping in his veins, across his skin, a flicker of greengold lightning demanding freedom. It gave him a golden glow; skin and bone, his shape flowed. Like ice become fire, he stood suddenly revealed as the Inu. He was not even a quarter the size of his father’s greatness - but his howl was just as strong and fluid.
The two Inu darted forward, wraith-shapes of silver that disappeared into the folded darkness of the night.
Inuyasha stood in silence beside the shade of his father, watching the distance dim and fade away into nothing.
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A/N: Yahey! Surprise! This chapter is NOT from DDN...instead, it's 1000 words of fun! Dedicated to r0o who has been dying from teasing :p Better now? Onward!
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