Temptation

'So,' Sesshoumaru thought as his rage subsided, 'father and mother have joined forces against me. No matter… For the moment, I will play along… Perhaps I will find something of use to me, in the end.'

It was only now that he realized he'd forgotten to ask his mother what exactly his father had said about his half‐breed and what had brought the subject up in the first place. He cursed his own rashness.

As he landed at the entrance to the southern valley where he'd ordered his traveling detail to meet him, he found the place empty, and with no hint of them ever having been there. It was only the two of them, his hanyou and the little wolf, Kaijou, that worked his father's stables, so there should have been no delay due to numbers.

'Useless bastards, making me waste even more of my time.'

His irritation only grew as he followed the land trail back north towards where he had left them the day before and continued to find no trace of either of them. His orders had been more than clear, and he knew this path did not deviate or hold any especial dangers that they could not handle on their own.

Finally, at a fork in the road, he found both their scents. They followed the second path, which also led south, but aimed toward the coast instead of the valley he had indicated. The wolf, Kaijou, seemed to be excited; his half‐breed was anxious.

'...Has... my half‐breed fled with the wolf?'

He frowned, greatly disturbed that this was his first thought; disturbed also by the angry clenching in his gut and chest that caused his claws to lengthen and his eyes to bleed red as he headed towards the coast after them.

***

Kuroihi walked in mutual tension‐filled silence behind her traveling companion, Kaijou. Without Sesshoumaru around to force him back to the bottom of the food chain, he had decided he was top dog and Kuroihi had no issues letting Kaijou take point on their journey. It was a minor dominance display that she could allow. It wasn't as though it would damage her image with the servants back at the castle.

It wasn't that she and Kaijou had any sort of expressed dislike for each other, they'd just never gotten along. She remembered him saying something once or twice about the 'inferior canine breed' he was being forced to bend knee to; that, of course, was his wolfish pride talking. He never said it where the general or Sesshoumaru could hear, she noticed, or around herself for that matter.

Mile after mile they walked, past trees and fields and other travelers. She matched her footsteps to the beating of her heart to keep herself on pace and kept Kaijou at least within sight, though she was happy to allow a good distance to grow between them. This way, anything of interest further down the road would engage Kaijou first, such as the merchant whose wares he now paused to examine. Curious, she came to stand quietly behind Kaijou, also inspecting the wares the merchant had set out on a blanket in front of his small camp.

'Might as well. My feet could use a rest.'

It seemed this one had been traveling quite a bit himself, for he had a mishmash of items from distinctly different provinces. There were small trinkets and cloth from the east, some herbs and dried meats from their home province of the west, as well as a few small tools that called to a southern influence.

Most of the items they gladly overlooked, but a few things caught their respective attentions. After a fair amount of bartering, the two were on the road again with choice items. Kaijou nibbled happily on his dried and salted meats, which Kuroihi had the sneaking suspicion were human in origin, and Kuroihi continued to contemplate the meaning of the pendant she had found and purchased, questions now rising in her mind.

The strip of leather it hung from was different from any hide Kuroihi had come across, and a quick inspection from an irritated Kaijou offered no answers either. The pendant itself was simple enough; an imperfect circle of bone about half the size of her palm, but the carving on it was what had caught Kuroihi's attention.

It matched exactly the design on her scrap of paper back at the castle; the half‐shaded circle with the sunburst lines on the right side.

She'd had that paper, now yellowed and curling, for as long as she could consciously remember. She always attributed to her parents, her family, either from being told as much before she came to the castle or from her own deluded fantasies spawned from a desire to be connected to some greater significance in her life. Not that she could remember the details of anything she imagined she had been told; it had been so long ago.

'There's no connection...is there? Could there be? No, there must be something to it. The same exact design doesn't just show up twice like this only by chance.'

She frowned as she tucked it away inside her yukata.

'Even if there is something, does it matter at this point? What could I possibly hope to gain?'

The more she tried to put it from her mind, the more she focused on it and the more her pace slowed until there was nearly a mile between Kaijou and herself.

He won't know the difference.'

Kuroihi spun on her heels to dart back to the merchant. She had questions for the man.

When she returned, the merchant happily tried hawking more of his wares off on Kuroihi, who quickly shut him down and got to the point. She wanted to know about the pendant, where it had come from, who had it last, etc. The more she pressed, the more resistant he became, as though fearing some sort of retribution. Not surprising in these times. After all, he had no clue who she really was or who they truly had been. Through various amounts of coin and coercion, though, she got the answers she was looking for.

A pair of half‐breeds had traded the pendant to him for provisions only a couple of days ago. One of them, the male, had ears much like Kuroihi's, with black tips and tufts of fur. The female had been completely silent and otherwise common in every way one would expect a hanyou to be.

Most notably, they had both had freshly cut hair that fell only to their shoulders. When he'd asked about it, though, he had been viciously told to mind his own business. He suspected they'd been exiled or disgraced and were now on the run. He'd last seen them heading south towards the sea, and was more than happy to see them go.

The sea was in the same general direction as the valley they were supposed to be meeting Sesshoumaru at in the nearby future, but enough out of the way that it would require the sort of diversion that would need a good explanation. As she raced to catch back up with Kaijou, Kuroihi considered the available options for such an excuse.

She wanted to go find these other half‐breeds that had pawned the pendant off. Perhaps she could trace it back to her parents or some other relative and she could finally know where she came from and how she had ended up in service to the dog general. Maybe these people were her parents.

Going would mean directly disobeying Sesshoumaru's orders, though, and she'd faced his displeasure more than once already. The burn on her wrist tingled with the phantom memory, almost as if to warn her against what she already knew she was going to do.