Getting To Know You

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Chapter 12
Living In Memories
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It was the third noon of a very uneventful week. The pack had found a suitable place to rest from their traveling in the hot countryside of the eastern border. He was tired and agitated as it was, but no matter where he went, Nashua couldn’t escape the others. If it wasn’t enough, his brother had been pouncing around all day like a newborn kit; it was driving him nuts.

He loathed the youko with such a passion he could watch as he fell over a cliff and drown in a rushing river. Their mother would not take too kindly to that. Yoko was always her favorite since the day he was born. These thoughts caused him to laugh bitterly as he strummed his fingers on the decaying bark of a fallen tree.

As it was, Yoko was still a kit compared to him, a good thirty-seven years separating them. He was only seventeen and already thought he owned the world. This was one of the many reasons he despised his brother. For the first twenty years or so, a kitsune would age as normally as a human would, for hundreds of years after, it would seem they aged not a year over. At the ripe age of fifty-four, Nashua had everything he could ever want. Youth, beauty, and wisdom belonged to him. There was only one thing that was missing that he desired the most and his brother had more than enough of. Attention.

On a rare occasion, with the right breeding, and the greatest blessing from Inari herself, a silver youko was born. Migumi, his mother, had received that blessing, and bestowed upon him the greatest of curses. He never met the father, just as he had never met his own, but he had to have been powerful, for Yoko possessed abilities at age seventeen, that at age fifty-four, he had not. His beauty was beyond belief, surpassed that of his own mother. He was pampered and spoiled for most of his life, though he acted indifferent towards it all, this snagged more attention.

As a handsome kitsune himself, he had bedded quite a few of the females in the pack, and a couple in the neighboring packs. It made his blood boil to know that Yoko had not bedded one of them, as if they were not good enough for him. For some reason, it brought shame to the other male youko of the pack; they didn’t like that very much.

Yoko had always been the sort of loner. As far as he knew, his brother held no true ties to the pack, as if he planned from the very beginning to leave. Not even his own mother could understand his ways. There was one youko that had surpassed the rest of them and became a partner of sorts to Yoko. Tacoma was a troublemaker though, and as Yoko’s guardian, Nashua was blamed for most of their wrongdoings. A hunter killed Tacoma only a couple years later. Nashua for one was grateful.

A small “ahem” interrupted his musings and Nashua turned to his advisor sitting to his right. Tenma had asked him to relive his memories of the past with him so that he could better understand the hatred his Lord felt for his brother. Nashua was only happy to comply. Exhaling to gather his thoughts, the dark haired youko continued.

“Yoko left the pack a few years later. In other words, the males of the pack, seething with jealousy, drove him out. I was one of them. I hated my brother most and wanted nothing more than to see him die. Every couple years he would find the pack again and visit with our mother, and each time, I would imagine a rope about my brother’s neck. Each time, I would think of the neglect and loneliness my brother had caused me.

Then he brought an outsider into the midst of the pack. Kuronue. It had seemed they were partners of some sorts.

We could all sense the change in him. Mother rejoiced at his safe return, but the others were terrified of what he had become. Standing beside a tall demon with long black hair and wings darker than night, a disturbing aura surrounded them both. We all felt the tingling sensation in our gut, warning us that there was danger among us. Of course, mother would not hear any of it and invited them to stay.

I had never felt sicker to my stomach than I did that day. When we were younger it took only a few of us males to run Yoko clear out of our territory, hoping that he was gone forever. We never dreamed that he would return as powerful as he was. He walked into our territory with the look of air and superiority that befitted a lord, and he feared none of us. Going so far as to look our leader in the eyes and smile, then walk away without a word, knowing full well that it was that very youko that constructed his banishment. It seemed as he if was daring him to try and run him off again.

We later learned that it was Yoko and his partner, Kuronue that had been the cause of upturned rumors that had traveled as far as our territory so far north. Turns out they were quickly on their way to becoming a legend in Makai as the greatest bandits ever known. They started in the southern regions of demon world and were making their way north. Even being so cruel as to tell mother that they were only passing through.

Though wary, the males were furious, and rightly so. They had to endure defeat, rejection, and humiliation from Yoko since the day the vile kit was old enough to smile. And one day he just waltzes back into our lives like the plague and destroys our lives beyond repair.

I remember clearly that look in his eyes when he turned to me and smiled. It was cold and sinister. His eyes glowed like the devil’s fire and it burned me to the core. At that very second, I knew I should have killed him as a kit, because I was going to regret that night for the rest of my life.”

Nashua shuddered and cast his eyes out the window of the tall tower they stood in. The conversation he had with his brother that night still chilled him to the bones.

“You are not welcome here, Yoko. Why do you keep coming back?” Nashua growled and clenched his fists in order to restrain himself from knocking that smug expression from his younger siblings face.

“I would be careful how you address my partner, youko. Your precious mother is not here to see to your safety right now.” The chilling words of the dark winged demon put him on edge and his eyes shifted to where he lounged casually on the fallen tree Yoko was leaning against. Only six males had the gall to confront the silver youko and his partner with him, those six currently stood at his back, but he was sure that they were still no match for the two before them.

“What is the meaning of this? Why are you here, Yoko? Are you completely daft as to not realize that no one wants you here!” Nashua’s anger rose as his brother refused to speak a word on his behalf. He just stood there with his arms crossed over his chest, calm and collected. After nearly five minutes of thick, unbearable silence, the sound of his sultry voice cased them all to jump.

“I think it is you, Nashua, who doesn’t realize the depth of trouble you are truly in.” The pale moonlight drew long shadows on the ground from behind the two demons, giving them an almost phantom appearance. The only thing visible at their fronts was a pair of amber and violet eyes, glowing maddeningly and intense. “It’s a dangerous world outside this small community you live in, Nashua. It’s my world. In it, you kill of be killed, betray or die with the unworthy. In this world, I have learned to survive by any means necessary, and to never grant my enemies that opportunity… You, Nashua have lived a sheltered, and controlled life under the protection of those who believe you are who they made you to be… Where I… Belong to a world where living, and tasting the blood of those who’ve wronged you… go hand in hand.”

As he spoke, a haunting and eerie fog crept from the tree line of the forest towards them like living smoke. It surrounded the party of kitsunes as if to swallow them, and it twisted and rolled as it continued downhill to swiftly consume the cottages and tents below.

“The tables have turned big brother. My world is getting bigger, and this time, it’s you who are not welcome.” The screaming glint of metal captured their attention as Kuronue revealed two scythes seemingly out of nowhere, and behind him, the dense plant life of the forest came alive with creaks and groans of moving, bending, and twisting trees.

Nashua trembled in fear and disbelief as he realized there was no longer anyone behind him. He was now alone with these monsters, and he was sure he would not survive.

“I cannot recall what happened after the confrontation. All I remember is waking up the next morning to ashes and the smell of blood. The temporary village we had set up was in ruins; burned to the ground. But there wasn’t a soul in sight, living or dead. Confused and dazed, I wandered our territory for hours looking for someone who had survived the nights slaughter, but all I found was blood.” Nashua paused and fought the emotions rising to claim him in a fit of rage and contempt. Only when he was sure he could control himself, did he continue. “Tired and angry, I was wondering to myself at how two beings could be capable of such devastation when I happened upon the corpses. Every man, woman and child had been hanged by the neck from the largest tree I have ever seen. Gouged, cut, burned, beaten and broken, it was the most horrifying moment of my life. The sky was gray with looming storm clouds and the field that this tree grew in was charred black. Yet, I could only look from face to face in search for my mate and mother, praying to Inari to let them be okay…”

“Did you ever find them?” Tenma whispered inching closer to hear the rest of the story.

“Hm? I found them… My beautiful Touri was laid at the base of the tree. She was covered in rose vines… She had her eyes gouged, throat slit, and she was holding my unborn child… My mother was spared the other’s fates, but gone completely mad. She threw herself from a cliff the day I found her.”

“I’m terribly sorry, My Lord…”

“I’m sorry that I had to be the one to watch her jump.” Those were Nashua’s last words before he turned and left the room, not bothering to shut the door behind him.