Tender Love

Chapter 22

The weather held fair and the winds blew softly out over the blue seas, bringing joy and hope to the crews who manned the many vessels that roamed the seas. Foremost in the thoughts of all these men was the hope that fair weather would prevail until they reached their home ports.

But for one half demoness at sea there was no joy in the weather or much of anything else. There were only hope, anguish and fear. Inuyasha had been aboard the pirate ship now for over two weeks. The time had gone slowly, almost at a crawl. She paced the floor of her cabin and tended her son; then, nothing else to do, she paced again, going over and over the course of events which had shattered her life.

The only other person, besides Shippo and Keitano, whom she had seen in the course of her imprisonment, had been a young human cabin boy who brought their meals and water for them to wash. Turns out the boy is Sango's little brother, Kohaku. The rouge pirate had kidnaped the child after killing his parents. She had not seen Naraku, or Sya for that matter, since they had been brought aboard the ship that horrible morning.

Inuyasha once more went over that morning in her mind, as she held her infant son up to her breast to nurse.

Flashback-

When the small boat had finally pulled along side the larger pirate ship and they had boarded, her last glimpse of Sya had only revealed the girl's hatred for her and it had also seemed to Inuyasha that she also had seen a look of triumph in Sya's eyes.

Almost as soon as their feet had touched the deck of the ship, Naraku had given the order to hoist the sails and then he had gone to Sya and whispered in her ear. That was the last Inuyasha had seen of her; for after turning and looking in Inuyasha's direction for a matter of seconds, Sya had turned and disappeared down a passageway, leading to where, Inuyasha had no idea.

After Sya was out of sight, Naraku had turned to Inuyasha. "Now, my beautiful butterfly, let me show you to your cabin." He took a firm grip of her arm.

Inuyasha jerked away from that hateful grip upon her person. Earlier her only thought had been of her sons, but now the whole scene of what stood before her made her want to fight and scream her rage at this madman who had dared to take her and her sons from their home. "I can walk to my prison without you putting your filthy hands upon me," she snarled between clenched teeth.

Naraku looked at her as though her words had cut him deeply. "No, my sweet, I insist.” His words were a deep, husky promise which sent icy shivers down Inuyasha’s spine as he continued. “You had better start getting used to my hands upon you, for from this day forth you are mine and no other shall ever have the right except myself to hold you." Once again he took hold of Inuyasha's arm, as he led her grudgingly to her cabin. Shippo, fear written on his face followed close behind carrying Keitano. After realizing that the two pirates that rowing them were the Thunder Brothers, the kit’s tiny hand clutched tightly to the fabric of Inuyasha’s kimono.

Naraku led his captives to the same cabin that Inuyasha had shared before with Sya but as he opened the door, Inuyasha froze, as she viewed the interior. She looked about her, not believing this to be the same room which she and Sya had shared a year ago. There was a thick white Persian carpet on the floor and yards and yards of white satin cloth hung from the walls; the middle of the room held a massive bed and scattered about were statues and ceramic figurines that could have at one time been residing in a human king's castle.

"Your royal barge, my lady." Naraku made a deep bow. "I hope you find everything to your liking. Every feature was placed here with you in mind."

Inuyasha ignored his words her chin raising a notch higher in the air. "You are a fool if you think for one moment I shall enjoy a fancy prison more than the filthy one I occupied before. You are very much mistaken. I despise the very sight of you." She sneered into Naraku's face.

"You will learn, my little hellcat, and you will also submit. I think I shall enjoy every moment of breaking you to my will, for I swear to you that you will bend to my every whim." He said this menacingly, his crimson, piercing eyes watching her face for the reaction he was sure would come.

Inuyasha glared back at him, looking into his eyes with her own cold stare. "You tame me? Never, do you hear? There is but one that has tame my heart and my soul and his name is Sesshomaru Aoki. You are nowhere near his equal. For my heart only beats for him. You do not have what it would take to tame my spirit or the hatred I feel for you. Sesshomaru will hunt you down and kill you for the filthy bastard that you are."

"And why would he wish to hunt me down, little one?" he demanded, his lips drawing back into a sneer. He had not expected these heated words of hate from her. He had hoped to see fear written on her face and perhaps to see her beg for mercy. "Let me tell you something, my pretty, in the first place Sesshomaru has no idea of your whereabouts, and in the second, do you think that a proud man such as Sesshomaru Aoki, who has been forced into a mating, would not gladly await its ending? I know Sesshomaru, and he has no concern for anyone but himself and his lands. But if by chance," he added in a low growl, "if he should be stupid enough to search for you and the brats, I shall be waiting his coming with sword in hand and I assure you I shall be done with him as I should have a few years ago."

Inuyasha's voice could not conceal the sarcasm as she replied, "have a care, bastard; if I were in your place I would not be too overconfident of the outcome of your meeting with my mate for I vow to you and ever other person aboard your scurvy ship that Sesshomaru will come for me and his sons."

Naraku stood admiring her fierce anger and had to squelch the thought of taking her this moment to show her how easily he could shatter her fierce pride. "Then, my precious, we shall see in due time the outcome of this folly and whoever will be the victor will be able to enjoy the spoils." He gloated and caressed her with his eyes as if he were already the victor.

Inuyasha felt a cold fear grip the pit of her stomach. ‘What if Sesshomaru were to find them and be killed by this horrible pirate?’ she knew with a certainty, if Naraku could help it, it would not be a fair fight. What then would happen to her and her sons?

"I’m sorry I cannot spare more time now, little one. I must go topside and see to my ship," he said strolling toward the door. "Perhaps soon we shall see things to there ending."

Inuyasha did not wish to beg or grovel at this horrid bastard's feet, but she had to persuade him to release them. For her two sons' sake, she felt she had to make a try. "I shall ask of you one more time to release us and go on your way with Sya, if that is what she wishes."

Naraku turned around at her words and softly chuckled. "Do you think I would let you out of my hands now? After these many months of nothing else on my mind except your fair beauty?"

"But what of Sya? She loves you and would gladly go anywhere you want?"

"She is nothing compared to you." He walked over and lightly caressed a tendril of hair that had settled across her face. "She is the type of demoness who only wishes to rob a man of his manhood and in return give nothing but her scrawny body and her ceaseless bickering."

"But why-why have you used her in such a manner?" Inuyasha gasped, jerking her hair out of his reach.

"To get to you, lovely Inuyasha; need I explain more?"

"You must be mad!" Inuyasha stammered not believing any man, no matter how foul, could be this heartless to a person that loves them.

"I truly am mad, my love, but only for you."

"Then you are doubly mad, if you think I shall ever willingly let you put your vile hands on me."

"Oh, but you shall, my sweet, for when we reach our destination you will be treated with all the honor and splendor with which my mistress should be treated. You will live in my home and will also treat me with all the respect that I shall insist upon," he said sternly. "But for now, I must see about my ship and crew." He walked to the door, slammed it shut and locked it behind him.

Inuyasha stood stupefied as she watched him leave. ‘I have to pull myself together. What am I going to do if Sesshomaru does not come soon? Could I possibly give myself to this vile creature?’ she doubted it; even at the risk of Shippo and Keitano's lives, she doubted she could do that desperate act.

Shippo's whimpering brought Inuyasha from her horrible thoughts. She made her way to the boy and took her infant son. "Don’t cry Shippo. Your father will rescue us any day now."

End Flashback-

And now with the passage of time, two weeks since the day of her abduction. Inuyasha still did not know what was to become of herself or her children. Each day seemed to dash to pieces the small hopes which she held in her heart. She never doubted that Sesshomaru would find them and rescue them, but now the fear that he would arrive too late filled her with constant dread.

She had no idea where they were headed. Naraku had talked of his home, but he had not spoken the name of the place where that home was. If she knew where they were going perhaps she could start planning some sort of escape for them all. Without knowing, there was little sense in making any kind of plan. She had hoped, at first, when Naraku had not visited her cabin, that perhaps he had had a change of heart and would settle for a woman who was in love with him, but as soon as this hope rose it fell. Did she not already know what kind of man held her captive? He seemed to feed off people who did not care for him. Did he not say he would enjoy breaking her and bending her to his will? This was the type of man who would never be satisfied with a girl like Sya who would gladly do his bidding. He was the type who thrived on conquest and would not willingly take that which was offered, preferring to indulge his power in the taking.

Constantly the hope of Sya visiting, if only to try to vex her, was close to Inuyasha's thoughts. Perhaps she could persuade the girl to tell her what Naraku had planned and then she would be able to make some form of escape plan. Sya, most probably, would know of their destination and would have some idea when they would arrive there. 'She may even help us to escape if only to keep her beloved Naraku away from me.' Inuyasha sighed in disgust. 'Sya truly is a blind fool.' But she had not seen the other girl since that first morning, and Inuyasha thought that Naraku had probably had the same thoughts as she, and did not allow the girl to come to visit his prisoners.

Most frightening of all Inuyasha's consideration was the fact that her sons' lives depended upon her. At any time, Naraku could order some kind of harm to them and she would be powerless to do anything about it. She had no doubt that he would use her children's lives as an instrument to bend her to his will and she knew that if her boys' lives were to be put at stake she would have to comply with every whim of the black-hearted villain who held their lives in his hands.

It seemed to Inuyasha that in the past two weeks not a minute had gone by without her thoughts being full of a black dread. Shippo still grew terrified every time the cabin boy brought in their meals, thinking the opening of the door would bring either Naraku or one of the pirates that murdered his parents, intent on doing them some harm.

Inuyasha could not count the number of times in the past two weeks in which she had to go to the boy, who sat whimpering in a corner, when he would hear footsteps outside of their cabin door. Inuyasha would go to the boy, almost glad for the distraction and thankful to the heavens that Shippo was here with her. If she had not had to show a brave face for Shippo, Inuyasha knew that she herself would have been reduced long ago to a trembling mass of tears.

Indeed, the only bright spot in Inuyasha's life now was her son, who did not notice the fear and sorrow around him. Little Keitano's only thought was of his stomach and occasionally, of playing with his mother or big brother. But this small happiness was also her undoing. Each time now that she looked upon her infant he seemed to be growing more into the image of his father. His silver hair had the same sheen and color tone as Sesshomaru's and when his golden eyes looked into Inuyasha's with a trust and love that were shattering, Inuyasha could feel the tears come to her eyes. Each time she looked upon her child she yearned desperately for Sesshomaru to be at her side and to find herself safe and warm at her home just waking from a terrible fever induced nightmare of pirates and death.

xxxxx

The air became stifling; hardly a breath of a breeze could be felt as the demons labored, meanwhile glancing constantly at the large, ominous-looking clouds overhead. A storm was brewing and by the looks of it the heavens would open up and unleash their mighty fury at any moment.

Naraku stood in the midst of his men, shouting out orders to secure his ship and hoping with all of his might that the rain would wait until everything was in order. The sky had darkened so quickly they had been taken by surprise and now Naraku cursed himself for a fool, for being lulled into the sense of security he had felt for the past few days.

Only a matter of two more days of the fair winds they had been having and they would have reached the shores of Grand Gravah and been safe in port. he should have known better than to trust the sea. She was as fickle as any woman ever was, and could change from calm, serene depths into a ravaging, deadly opponent.

He held no doubt about any of his men and knew that they each would give his best in any kind of storm to keep the ship from being swallowed by that great lady, the sea. If not, each crewman knew, he would in time answer to him.

Naraku smiled as he looked about. Aye, his men would rather face the storms at sea any day than to be left defenseless in front of him.

Naraku himself loved the changeable sea, as he had never loved any other thing. He had known even as a small boy that one day he would sail in a ship of his own and be the law and master over his own fate. He could remember as a young boy sitting in a corner of the small squalid shack that served as a home for him and his mother and listening to every detail of the tales that the men his mother brought home told of the sea. His small red eyes envisioned himself standing at the bow of a fine ship, the wind and water taking the very breath from his lungs; but all the time his young heart soared with the joy of being free and sailing across the oceans.

Flashback-

By the time he was ten, though, he was not allowed to sit and listen to the stories told by these filthy weak humans. The day of his tenth birthday his mother, who from the moment he had started talking had insisted he call her, Mitsuka, had told him that it was time for him to start helping out with the making of their meager existence.

She had been a schemer, his mother, so now with her son old enough she had thought out a plan to add a few more coins to her purse. That first night Naraku was as frightened as a newborn kit, but with the thought of the beating he was sure to get if he did not follow through with Mitsuka's idea, he forced himself to be brave. He had waited outside the small wooden, rat-infested structure that was their home, freezing in the cold for over an hour, until he heard his mother's signal, a loud tinkling laugh. To this day, sometimes late at night he would wake from his sleep thinking he heard the sound of her laughter filling his ears. Naraku, small, filthy and frightened had silently entered the front door.

The moon had cast an eerie glow into the room and at first Naraku had held his breath and looked fascinated at the couple upon the straw pallet against the wall, on the floor of the one solid room. There, lying on the floor, was Mitsuka, completely nude, her large breasts pumping with every movement of her body and her high-pitched laughter grating off the walls of the room. The man atop her, his skinny long frame seeming to Naraku to be trying to beat his mother into the floor, was so involved with his thrusting in and out and his increasing groaning that he never noticed the small, ragged figure. Finally, remembering his mother's orders, he moved silently toward the pile of clothing on the floor and quickly searched the man's pockets. So quickly did Naraku search the contents of the pockets and leave the small hut, that the couple were still going at each other for a time, which seemed like hours to Naraku, while he sat in the shadows in order to conceal himself and await his mother's loud voice.

Once Mitsuka had finished with her partner of the night and he was dressed again, she would become enraged over the fact that he could not seem to find any of his possessions in his pockets.

"You never did intend to pay, you scum, you thought to have your way with me and then be on your merry way, did you?" Naraku heard his mother's screams from his hiding place outside.

"I swear I had my possessions with me when I left the inn with ye this night," the man shouted in disbelief, searching frantically through his clothes for his few coins.

"Be ya calling me a thief, you filthy scum?" she shouted, reaching for a long stick she had hid under the pallet for just such an emergency.

"I ain't saying that now, but sure I did think I had me things."

"Well, I tell ye this sure, you loafer, ye got yer tumble for free and that will be all ye be a-getting from me, excepting if ye don't get out of me sight this minute, I'll be givin' ya a split head." She threateningly waved the stick about in the air.

The man quickly left the shack. Naraku watching him still searching his pockets as he disappeared from sight. Naraku smiled to himself; old Mitsuka sure knew how to get the upper hand where money was concerned and he himself liked the thought of outsmarting a man years older than himself.

Naraku's mother was as proud of herself and her son as she was of the coins that they had gained this night and for the next three years this ploy was used as often as possible.

The men whom Mitsuka took up with were mostly humans and a poor lot, working on either the docks or poor men who put out to sea and when on shore spent their money on sake and women. So never did the pair of thieves gain too much on these adventures, but it proved enough to buy more sake for Mitsuka and to buy a little more food than they'd had previously. At least when Mitsuka was not too drunk and could make her way to the market streets. She never went after demons for she knew that they would know she was a demon and would be able to sense her lies and kill her.

But alas one evening Mitsuka's foolproof plan did not work out as usual. Naraku had lain in wait until he'd heard Mitsuka's high-pitched laughter; then he crept into the hut, viewing the same scene he had witnessed over a hundred times in the past few years, and silently went over to the corner and started going over the man's clothing. As his fingers came into contact with the coins lying in the bottom of the pants, the man's voice boomed across the room.

"What the hell? What’s goin on here?"

Naraku froze stiffly, sensing danger with his instincts that were bred out of the fear which lived with him and every other child who were forced to live a life of theft and drudgery.

The large man atop his mother stilled and squinted in Naraku's direction. "What be that and what be you doing with my things?" he shouted, raising up off Mitsuka.

Mitsuka, her heart thudding hard, knowing something was amiss, started to pull her lover back atop of her. "There ain't nothing over yonder; ye be seeing things."

"You take me for a fool, you slut." He smacked her hard across the face. "What kind of game do you think your playing, bitch? I can see that little bastard going through my clothes.”

As soon as Naraku heard the man's voice and the slap given to Mitsuka he dropped to the floor the few coins he had held in his grubby hand and ran, as fast as he could, out the front door. Listening to the loud shouts and screams coming from the hut, Naraku had hidden next to the building, his heart beating wildly.

"Get ye'self out of me home," he heard Mitsuka shout.

"You think to steal all of my coins and then threaten me with that little piece of wood, do you, you vile demon whore?"

"How did . . ." Naraku could hear the shock in her voice. All the time they have lived in the human village. No one knew she was a spider demon. all they knew was that she was married to a bandit by the name of Onigumo but he had disappeared before his son was born.

"Because I ran into an old friend of yours, one Onigumo. He told me all about
you. He told me that you were a greedy grasping little bitch that do whatever she can for money. Even sell her own body." He laughed cruelly. "I'll teach you a lesson you won't soon be forgetting."

That dark night echoed with Mitsuka's screams, while the large man in the hut, without letup, smashed his large fists into her scrawny body.

Naraku silently hid and waited, listening to Mitsuka's pitiful pleas for mercy and her screams of pain, too frightened to try to give her aid. In this section of town no one much cared that another of their kind was being tormented as long as it was someone else. Plus, in the eastern lands, the ruling lord cared even less when the person that was being killed was a demon who had lain with a human and produced a hanyou spawn.

After a time the hut had become quiet and Naraku watched for the large man to take his leave. As soon as he left the hut, Naraku cautiously made his way back into the room. He knew without a doubt that Mitsuka would blame the man's beatings on him, and he had no doubt that he would be the next to get clubbed.

Within the shack Mitsuka lay quietly upon the straw pallet, her body's limbs bent in a number of odd directions. Naraku at first thought her to be sleeping, but on closer inspection he saw that her swollen and bruised face was lying straight up, her eyes looking hard at the ceiling, and no breath seemed to come from her mouth. In the center of her forehead was a strange slip of paper with a symbol on it. He slowly bent over her and called her name, but the only answer was the quietness of death. He reached a hand out to touch the paper and he felt his strength began to drain out of him. Quickly pulling his hand away, he realized that this must be a spell from a monk or priestess to drain a demon of their power.

Naraku, on looking at Mitsuka's form, did not feel any sense of loss, even though he realized that this woman lying in a broken heap was his mother. To be perfectly honest with himself the only emotion he was feeling was one of relief. Mitsuka's death meant the end of his having to look upon her too skinny body as she plied her trade upon unsuspecting men. And never again would he be the one who received the stick when he did not please her.

So on that same night, with his mother's body growing cold on the straw pallet, Naraku put his few meager belongings into a pack and left their small shack in the hope of finding some way in which to keep himself alive.

He wandered the streets all night hungry and not knowing which way to turn next. As the sun rose over the horizon and people began to prepare for the day, first order of business was food. He came upon a vendor opening his shop. When the man turned his back to call for his wife, Naraku crept up and grabbed three loaves of bread and quickly scurried away as fast as his feet could take him. He came upon an abandoned building near the outskirts of town. Once he was safely undercover, he immediately devoured his stolen meal. After not being able to sleep none that night after his mother was killed, the ragged boy laid down on a pile of rags and fell asleep.