written by Christine

Chapter 13

42 years prior to Otherworld 1

“You have no choice, Sesshomaru,” Inutaishou said, shocked by his son’s bigoted response to the news. “Izayoi is my mate now. She is a warm and kind woman. She was there to help me through a very rough time. I love her and our son was created from that love.”

“Mate? You mated with her?” Sesshomaru sputtered. “A human? How could you stoop so low? You recovered from Mother awfully fast. Were you already having an affair with this whore? That’s why Mother left, isn’t it?”

Inutaishou swung around with such speed that Sesshomaru had no chance to duck the punch that his father landed square in his face. The force of it sent the young man sprawling on the ground.

“Your mother left us, apparently without a second thought,” he said. “She made it quite apparent in that letter that she did to me as you are now accusing me of doing to Izayoi. You know I’m not like that. Yes, I will use women of the clan when I’m in heat, but even before your mother that was not often and, until your mother, my heats never produced offspring. In fact I have not been in heat since your mother left us!"

“Don’t ever call Izayoi anything but my mate. She suffers enough bigotry at the hands of her own kind; she doesn’t need it from my children. InuYasha will also have a difficult time growing up in this world and he will need family that will accept him as he is. He is my son and thus, special. He's likely to be my last child. You will accept InuYasha as your brother. You have no choice.  If something ever happens to me, I expect you to protect both of them and to train him as he grows up.”

Sesshomaru returned to his feet and brushed himself off. He had no intention of following through with his father’s request but wisely kept that to himself. There was something else he said that concerned him though. “What do you mean by ‘if something happens to me’?”

"She saved your life?" his son asked, softening a little. Does this mean the prophecy has been averted? he thought.

"Then I'm in her debt for, despite our differences, I don't want to lose you, Father."

"Death comes for us all eventually.  My brother InuHaru is dying. Akina is taking him to the mountains for his last days. I also have the feeling that Ryuukoysusei will strike again while they're gone. If it does, I doubt I’ll be able to stop it this time and even if I do, it will likely take my life. In that event, I want to be sure everyone is cared for, including Izayoi and our son. I've been searching for a more accepting village for them but I've failed. The villagers have made it quite apparent that the two of them are only suffered to live near the village because of my threats of abandonment. In this you must carry on for me.”

“I will guard the lands as you do,” Sesshomaru said, “and... I promise to keep an eye on the woman's welfare.  If the humans act dishonorably, they will suffer the consequences.”

Inutaishou knew that response would have to do. He wondered, not for the first time, how everything turned so dark since Isabo left. His eldest son was now a cold shell. He could no longer expressed emotions normally. Even in anger he was cold and detached. At home his remaining children were also different. They supported each other but spared none for their father.

It was mostly his fault. Shortly after Isabo left, he expressed his anger toward their mother and disavowed his love for her as nothing more than bewitchment. They argued with him.  They claimed that Isabo still loved them, especially him and that she would be back someday.  Akina and Sesshomaru were especially earnest in that belief.  But at that time he just couldn't see how she could just up and leave her whole family without so much as a hint of why.  His anger and actions pushed his children away from him.  Now that he could think of how sad and depressed she had been just before she left without anger, and see the whole picture, maybe they were right.  Maybe she was forced to leave. That made more sense; Izayoi helped him see that too.

After Isabo left, he traveled to every den in the Dog clan searching for her.  He finally realized that he didn't even know which den she had come from. He couldn't find even one den that knew of her as other than as his mate. Then there was the note.  It said her heat was over.  Females don't have heats.  He finally became convinced that she was not even a Dog Demon. He didn’t know what she was but at that point he really didn’t care, or at least that’s what he said. He had been deceived and felt like a fool.  That was the day he turned his back on her and in the process lost the connection and support of his family.

They now turned to his brother, InuHaru, for their needs. Inutaishou thought, I should have known better. I should have known that they would always love their mother. They were much closer to her than to me. Even in her abandonment of them, they seem to sense that there was more behind her leaving than what the letter said. Because of Izayoi, I can see now what I've lost.  I just don't know how to get it back. The light of love that once roared as brightly as a fire in his home, had now dwindled to the light of a small candle waiting for a puff of wind to put it out. He had no idea how to bring the love back. Home for Inutaishou was now with Izayoi. She was his lifeline, his reason to keep going. All he wanted to do now is to be with her.

Sesshomaru watched his father depart in the direction of the human village. His hands curled into fists as he fought the emotions building up inside of him. He swung around and headed in the opposite direction, toward the den, toward his home. To Sesshomaru, his father had just abandoned him and all his siblings for a human wench and her Hanyou son. All his dreams of reconciliation between his father and his mother were gone.  They died when his Hanyou baby brother took his first breath. He would never forgive his father nor his half-breed brother for that.