Summary: What happens when Katara is accidentally bitten by a demon and is near death when another finds her and gives her a chance to live. But what if this causes her to forget her past and everything and live her life not as a human but as a demon herself and then later goes back to the human world and meets up with two strangers from her past. Will she be able to remember and want to go back or will she stay with the mortal she finds herself falling for. Zutara.
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar, or parts of Inu Yasha or any others, only the names 'Ryoko' and other OC's I make up.
And don't forget to review it and others in my profile! Now on with the fic!
The Heart And Spirit
Of A Yokai
Chapter One
Katara raced through the forest, feeling the branches and cold icy wind clawed and ripped against her skin, hair and clothes as she ran for her life, trying to escape the beast that was after her. The thing, whatever it was, still was following in hot pursuit, her heart hammering in her chest like a trap rabbit with the predator chasing her.
Oh why did I have to leave the camp, stupid Katara! That was very idiotic of you, you do know that don't you? Why are you always able to get yourself into these troubling situations without wanting to cause them in the first place?
All she had wanted to do was take a small stroll and then go back to sleep but no, she found herself now being chased by some creature that she didn't know what it was and wasn't planning to stop and ask it questions.
She doubt it was going to do that with the way it kept hissing hungry after her and slithering down the trail and she manage to sidestep before a second its head lung at her ankle and kept running. She was thinking why she hadn't just stayed with everyone back at the camp instead of getting herself into this mess. While she was dodging the roots and vines below above to keep from tripping and falling over, images flashed in her mind of shortly few minutes before this happened, before running for her life.
Katara couldn't sleep, just couldn't as she tossed and turn by Appa and the others in her sleeping bag, burying her face into his shaggy white fur of the large bison lying next to them. Nearby she could hear Aang's soft breathing and Sokka's loud gruff snores and they both didn't seem deprived of their beauty sleep like she was.
Momo, the lemur was lying on top of Aang's head and thought it look almost cute with the way they slept so peacefully. Her brother, Sokka had his mouth hanging open again and had to resist closing it otherwise he might catch himself a very dry throat and complain he was thirsty in the morning.
Well then again he was always complaining about being hungry and they had very limited rations with what they could eat or have the time to spend an enjoyable meal without having to go off somewhere for a while before continuing their journey.
They were traveling from the South Pole, hers and Sokka's homeland after they found Aang the Avatar encased inside a block of ice along with Appa. Though he didn't seem much to the eyes with his child-like nature, he carried a great power within himself that disadvantage his looks and carried a heavy responsibility on his small shoulders. He would help stop the war that was rising once he learned and mastered all four elements: Air, water, earth and fire.
Aang had mastered two out of four but they still needed earth and fire. Earth they hoped to find a master soon to have him learn earthbending but fire was going to be a lot tougher than they thought. The whole fire nation were all against the Avatar as he was the one trying to put a stop against Fire Lord Ozai and there was only one person that was chasing them everywhere and getting in their way constantly whenever they met to tried and capture them.
Prince Zuko, the exiled banished prince of the Fire nation. He had been sent by his father, the Fire Lord himself, to capture and bring the Avatar but had yet to succeed as they kept escaping his clutches and kept a far better step ahead of him.
I just hope that it stays that way, she thought, remembering how she had a close encounter with him with those pirates after stealing the scroll and how he 'saved' her.
More like held me hostage against my will. She had jumped from the frying pan into the fire, literally this time into Prince Zuko's hands and when he took the only thing she treasure, her mother's necklace. She didn't know if there was any compassion beneath that cold mask he had, even with the scar that marred half his face, which was a shroud of mystery to her as to even why she bothered being curious about him.
So far her thoughts were that he would keep on coming after them to capture Aang and she wasn't going to allow that to happen no sir.
She sighed, trying once more to go back to sleep but couldn't. She tried counting penguins but once reaching to a hundred and twenty-five it was no use.
Maybe if she took a walk it might clear her mind and get her to sleep easier. Slowly, without daring to wake her comrades, she crept towards the woods and walk down the quiet path. The shadow-cloaked forest was thick and dense but she could easily find her way back if she needed to thanks to the moonlight beaming down from the sky. She look up and saw how bright the moon was.
Yue…poor Sokka her brother had loved her, the princess of the Northern water tribe and how she had sacrificed herself in the end to save her people when the Fire nation attacked their home, just like in the South.
They had both been showing some feeling towards each other and before they had a chance to have a relationship was now too late and Yue lost to him forever.
She knew what it was like losing someone as they had already lost their mother and remorse at how cruel fate could be to innocence people such as theirs.
Yue, her mother, almost everyone she met had been killed or deeply changed because of what was happening to them because of this war, because of the Sozen comet that was coming.
She touched the choker around her throat, rubbing the carvings on the stone and was so lost in her reminisce thinking she didn't see the creature that followed her from her camp, watching her with hungry bloodthirsty eyes.
It wasn't long before Katara notice something was wrong, how everything was still and silent as if some evil presence was near by. Even the wind had suddenly died down but left a cold chill down her spine.
A twig snapped and she turned, expecting to be Aang or Sokka, waking up to find her gone and went to go find her but knew it couldn't be as she felt it right in the pit of her stomach. Maybe it was a Platypus Bear and she knew it was not that either. It was something worse than she ever imagine, even worse than Prince Zuko and his fire army.
Oh no… She saw two glowing red slits piercing through the bushes, staring at her and then as she froze in growing horror and fear, a scaly reptilian head and then the next thing she knew she was running for her life in the opposite direction from it. She hope she could lose it but it was gaining at a fast pace as it went after her, hungry for its prey, slithering through the bushes and on the ground.
She wish now of all things in her life, that she had changed her mind and never left the camp and stay inside her sleeping bag and pretend to sleep, whether to get a wink or not but at least be with her friends instead of this.
Or at least had her water skin to carry some water to waterbend against it! Again she cursed herself for being so stupid in not thinking something like this might happen. She kept running until she saw a clearing up ahead and at that clearing was a river, flowing freely and shimmering with the moon's reflections on its silvery surface.
YES! If she could use the water to bend and save herself or make it stay away and distract it from her before finding some way to escape. Once she reached the clearing and formed her water whips to strike at it while it slithered and dodge them each time.
She tried to fight vainly against it and before she had a chance to break away and escape, the serpent lung at her, fangs bare and coil its massive body around her and bit deep on her neck, piercing through the silk cloth and flesh and into her veins to pump it poison through her blood.
She screamed, feeling the hot blinding pain and her limbs becoming numb and flailing to her sides and hanging limp like a rag doll. As the poison seep through and paralyzed her, her body growing still and her voice losing strength while thinking of how she wanted to live and try to scream one last time, for someone, anyone to save her.
Someone, please, Spirits help me!
Darkness was edging around her vision and before it had a chance to take over something spurt up from the water itself, splashing cool droplets on her and the monster and standing above the water surface.
A shadowed figure, illuminated in the moonlight and for one moment Katara thought it was her mother before she closed her eyes and felt the constriction around her chest became less tight and able to breathe when she was released.
The figure stood and stared at the hebi yokai, her eyes threatening to end its very life if it didn't leave this place as it stared back at her challengingly and hissed with a rattled breath but held fear as her eyes struck terror within its two beating hearts.
"You are not welcome here. This is one of my domain you have dared disturbed and bring bloodshed when my husband and lord, Seiryu of the East, one of the four Shijin who decreed and forbidden this on the territory of this world and you have broken the sacred law to which leads to death as the consequence." She said, her words like ice and making the hebi's blood run cold as she raised her hand to the sky, ready to strike the heavens down on it, "You are to never return to this world again!" The demon slithers away, leaving its prey behind, fleeing for its life.
But not quick enough before she send water from the river to surround and turn to ice to encase its struggling body and then summon lightning to strike down, electrocuting it.
"And the law has been dealt…" She stared at its smothering corpse then summoned the fire to burn its putrid body and carry its ashes to the wind. Once the remains were lifted and disappeared, she turned her attention to the one before her as she walked towards it and stood by its stiff form.
A young girl, possible twelve or fourteen, almost close to her womanhood but was sadly wilting fast, noticing the paleness in her skin and heard the heavy shallow breath she took. Her clothes were with tears and scratches and blood was leaking from the side of her neck through the cloth of her necklace. She bend down and remove the choker to see how badly the wound was.
A tooth that had been embedded inside when the hebi took its fangs away only to leave one behind for the poison to continue to seep in. She recognized how poisonous and deadly they were to mortal, but never to their kind, yokai.
The girl opened her eyes and stared at her with a beautiful shade of blue that were glazing over.
Those eyes, they reminded her of her own daughter. Her one and only child that died a long time ago…
Ryoko…The girl's lids fluttered and was gasping in between breathes with each harboring gasp to try and say something, reaching up with a shaky hand towards her.
"Mother…please…help…. me…" Delusional as she was but couldn't bear to watch her suffer nor let a young one die and the way she called her 'mother', just as her own did before she...
There was one possible way to help but there was always a likely chance she would not make it as many could not handle the transfusion of their blood or power and sometimes dies in the process afterwards. She grabbed her trembling hand in hers and wiped her matted hair away from her forehead, feeling the scorching heat of the fever she had as her body was trying to fight the infection but had no fighting chance against its poison unless she tried what she had to do and hope for the outcome to prevail for her sakes.
"I'll help you but you must understand that what I might do will change you for the rest of your life or bring you closer to death. Would you still want to take the chance, to do it even at the possibility you might not make it…"
The girl tried to speak, saying she would at the very least to want to and risk it but Yuki-onna understood, seeing it in her eyes the spirit residing inside, dealing with the conflict of wanting to live with what might come of it and nodded very slowly, accepting her chance of fate.
"Very well then." She untied her robes and pulled them aside to reveal her white bondage and remove them for her chest to be out in the open, her skin hot to the touch as she made tiny incisors over the left breast with her sharp nails, breaking the flesh, hot blood leaking out quickly.
The girl winced, taking a sharp intake of breath then felt a pair of cool lips pressed down on her, sucking and lapping the blood that spill and relaxed. Yuki-onna pull back, her lips a dark red that looked almost like stain berry juices as she used her hand to wipe it away. She then lift her arm, her sleeve falling back to reveal more white skin and made a slash her palm with her lips, her own lifeblood bleeding through and pressed it against the cut. The girl shivered and Yuki-onna tried to speak reassuring words to comfort her through the process.
"You must try to relax, it will hurt only for a moment as it is my blood passing through into bloodstream. It will kill the poison and make you immune to any kind as time pass along with other changes you will find later on. There will be pain and it will seem unbearable but should disappear and you'll probably become unconscious but I assure you you'll get better I promise on my honorable word that you will."
The girl hadn't hear what she was saying as her lips moved with no words spoken but could guess what she was trying to tell her, looking with such kind loving eyes and did allow her to do what she had to. It wasn't long before the pain rushed in like liquid fire, moving throughout her entire body, slowly incinerating everything inside but yet kept her alive to feel it burn as it went. It made her want to scream at the top of her lungs, to struggle against it before it fade away leaving a gentle nothingness she found comforting that there was no more torture to go through and could hear her heart beating steady against the woman's palm, vibrate and so alive.
Yuki-onna watched patiently before she went to remove the tooth and saw the blackness of the poison liquid spurt from it slowly began to stop and then the wound closed itself, leaving drying blood and used her sleeve to clean it away.
A tiny black-blue mark appeared where the puncture wound had been and began to shift into a tiny spiral that showed a dragon lying dormant within its shell. In time that dragon would grow and spread around her neck like a choker itself and body, an elaborate tattoo across her flesh, marking her as yokai of their kind and kin to her blood.
She pulled her hand back and watch to see how the girl was faring as her breathing became normal, her eyes heavy and tired then falling into a deep sleep.
She fixed her clothes and picked the girl up, cradling her small form against her as she stood up and silently summoned one of the creatures in the near area. A comet of wolf spirits flew from the sky, howling as they moved in their pack, one landing right next to them, a massive black beast with red eyes watching Yuki-onna holding the girl in her arms.
She bowed her head before she got on its back and held on with one hand, the other holding on to the girl still to her chest as she nuzzled against her soft kimono, before they took off, following the clan and heading back to their home where her lord and master await for her return with news of what happened.
Katara felt light as a feather, like her body had been lifted to the heavens before lying down on such clouds that surrounded her entire form. She rolled over and felt how soft they were and the heaven even smelled sweet and could feel warmth covering the whole as she laid in comfort in her dream. But then the dream was slowly dimished as she heard noises that didn't well match to this sort of heaven.
She could hear crickets chirping and frogs bellowing outside in the pond where one or two made a splash and voices, faint but clear that sound close by to where she was. She listened to what they were saying.
"…Poor child, how could something like this have happened?"
"…Lady Yuki-onna was fortunate at the time to save her from the hebi yokai…"
"…How dreadful of them, their kind is no worse than those mortals when they learn of our kind…"
"…She's speaking with lord Seiryu right now and I'm wondering if she's discussing to him about planning whether to keep the girl here…"
"…Lord Seiryu is very stubborn at times but will considered and compel to his lady's wishes to everything she asked…"
"…It's true, and did you hear what she told him, the child has blue eyes…like Ryoko-san's…"
All these voices, what were they talking about, who were Seiryu, Yuki-onna? What was going on?
Her head was throbbing and her mind was lost in the confusion, becoming aware that something must have happened. Something that had to do with her she had no doubt. She open her eyes to see through a hazy blur and felt a cloth on top of her face, the reason for her vision to be momentarily blind.
She pulled it off and sat up to see she was in a large suite where sliding paper panels with garden and mountain landscapes, decorated folding screens divided the room and many lavished riches crammed inside an alcove with built-in cabinets to the right while on the left lead to a door made of lattice and paper, similar to the one she saw outside. A low table with a set of small trinkets sat near by and a small lantern where she saw the flames rise and brightens the room when she looked its way.
But if they were so dim then how could she have seen everything in the dark without the glow, even the fine decorative markings on the whole room? She looked down and found herself dressed in a pale blue silk kimono with silver-white clouds and had soft blankets covering her and soft plush pillows surrounding.
She was suddenly becoming frantic as these questions on how did she get here, why was she here and…why did she feel that she didn't know who she was? Her heart was racing while trying to get herself to calm down, saying there must be a reasonable explanation but couldn't find one as of yet and that she shouldn't really start panicking until she find some ideas on that she desperately needed to know.
"W-who am I?" She said before she heard another set of footsteps approaching and saw movement outside in the shadows of the paper door where a tall figure join the other two that had been standing by her door. The two bowed, greeting out loud for her, 'Lady Yuki-onna' and left while the other remain standing there then slide the door open and step into the room.
The woman, Lady Yuki-onna, had a smooth youthful complexion, her alabaster skin white and flawless without a single blemish. Her long hair flowed behind her back like the night sky and her eyes shaded a lovely blue that shimmered like two sparkling jewels, holding wisdom beyond her age even though she looked to be in her mid-twenties.
Her lips were the brightest color red she ever seen before, like red berries or fresh blood spilled across snow. Her kimono was ivory with silver designs and gold chrysanthemums added an elegant and superior air around her as she entered and she felt fear and wonder and awed by her presences, so beautiful and mysterious.
Lady Yuki-onna saw she was awake, staring at her in with wide bewildered eyes. She looked so scared and confused, afraid almost of her presence when she knew might know nothing of what happened or barely remembered their encounter.
She had enough for one evening and doesn't deserve anymore to be torture of the nightmare she had to go through but she needs to know right now as this may be the biggest change to her forever.
Yuki-onna step in, bowing to her in greeting, showing courtesy that she meant not to harm or frighten her, "Hello young one, I see you must be feeling better by now to be awake and sitting up right now. The healers said you would be after a good night sleep and that you would need plenty of rest and forgive me for my intrusion if I disturb you from your slumber as I only came to check on you. It is surprising however that you're up now after what has happened and should be sleeping for another few hours."
She walked closer to her and then bend down to look deep into her eyes, sitting down next to her on an extra cushion for her use and then touch her with her pale hand, feeling them as cold as ice against her skin.
"I am lady Yuki-onna, wife of Seiryu, lord of the East Kingdom, please do not be frighten my dear, you have no need to here, you are well welcome in our home as my husband and I…" The girl meekly lowered her eyes, feeling to be in the presences of a great noble woman who had came to her room, checking to see how she was accommodating and she didn't even know who she was and felt even more ashamed than embarrassed.
Yuki-onna noticed the withdrawn look and cupped her chin and turn her face to her again, the same drawing stare that she felt compelled to the moment she walked into the room, her mouth, "Your body is still weak from the poison we had to bled out and the healers said you had to recuperate until the transformation is complete. And you must be dreadfully hungry as you look like you hadn't eaten in days." She had seen how thin the child was, almost could count her ribs when she removed her old clothes to place the new ones on her.
The girl clutched her empty stomach at the mere mention of not eating anything send a jolt of pain that growl saying she was hungry.
Lady Yuki-onna stood up and went to the door and called someone in then took her seat back down to her. A servant arrived, carrying a tray of laden covered dishes with a steaming pot and two delicate cups, sitting them before the two and removed the covers and poured the tea for them. The lavish spread of sashimi, grilled prawns, sweet cakes and other delicacies commanded all their attention. Lady Yuki-onna nodded and dismissed the servant as she picked up one of the cups and blew on it gently as the girl continue to stare at all the food, trying to not think of it as a figment of her imagination.
"Eat please, eat to your heart's consent." The girl blink, feeling a bit fluster for what she had been doing, staring, grabbed a piece of prawn and chewed it eagerly, savoring the taste then swallowed. She never tasted anything like this, and went to grab a piece of sashimi and Yuki-onna watched her over the rim of her cup, "Delicious isn't it? Try the tea, it's made from the leaves of the white dragon bush, a fine delicacy that's heartbreaking and will sooth your mind at ease." She picked up the other cup and blew on it before handing it to her. She was right as the tea did help make her feel more relax while she dine with her, making small talk before what Yuki-onna mention earlier came back to her mind.
"Um forgive me for asking you this but you mention something earlier, what do you mean by 'transformation' and after what happened?" Yuki-onna had her cup of tea towards her lips but stop halfway when she heard what she asked and lowered the cup back onto the tray and tried to gather her thoughts and where to begin. The girl looked at her confused and then felt an itch on the side of her breast and reach out to scratch it, touching a thick pad under her clothes when Yuki-onna stopped her.
"You mustn't do that, you'll reopen your wound if you do," She finally stared at her, her eyes filled with concern, knowing she would have to ask what she felt dread inside, "Tell me, do you not remember anything, anything at all what happened?"
The girl shook her head, "What about who you are or what you were before? Or what's the last thing you do remember?" Again she had respond with negative answers, wishing she knew what was going on and asked her. Yuki-onna sighs sadly, knowing this would happen.
This was worst then she had even imagined and knew or had expected even with the toxic cleanse that there were side affects to it, which even with the best healers had expected as well. They told her to survive a yokai poisoning and the fusion itself the results would most likely be to lose all of their memories of their former selves.
It could take weeks, months or even years for one to gain them back but if they had been in the same case where she had been, death would be ensure and along with her blood transfusion that helped spared her life. In the end, when the transformation was finished, all the memories that the girl once had, treasured and cherished would disappear and might never resurface ever again.
She decided to explain everything, break it as gentle as she could to let her understand what her situation was and hope she didn't hold any regrets to what happened.
She took a deep breath, "You were attacked by a hebi yokai, one of the few lower yokais of our kind. You weren't killed but one of its fangs was embedded in your neck, carrying its poison through your body," She pointed to around Katara's throat and continued, "I heard you and came and 'dispose' the yokai as it was against one of our many laws and codes of our kind to shed mortal blood against certain grounds and he was near mine. I found you dying and help saved you at a price." She took a deeper breath, knowing this would be a heavy blow on her and hope she would understand what her next sentence would be to her, "You are no longer going to be human, you are becoming like us, a yokai. A demon."
The girl didn't know what to say as everything she was told was already going through her head, repeating over and over to see if there was anything she missed but found none.
She looked to her and uttered in a still shocked state, "Demon…I'm becoming a yokai. You're a yokai and I'm going to be one myself?"
Yuki-onna again nodded, watching her every reaction as she spoke in turn, "I have given you my blood, my yokai blood from my veins to yours. Once the transformation is done, your human side will be no more." She lifted her hand, opening her palm to reveal the slow fading scar on her porcelain skin and she felt a dull pain on her left breast and look down to see a dark stain on the pad showing, not much but a little to show where the mark had been made.
Yuki-onna continue, "You will become stronger, more powerful than any mortal has ever been but only with the right proper training will you harness your full potential as a yokai to master your abilities under the Seiryu name." She watched the girl bowed her head, her dark hair falling into her eyes and Yuki-onna reached out and brushed them aside to stare at her, "I'm truly sorry this had to happen."
She was unsure how to take it but felt that strange awareness of her power coursing inside her body, rushing with fierce exhilaration of the process near finish on her transformation. Pretty soon she would no longer be human but be a full-blooded demon like her and probably everyone else here if she was going to be living in a world full of yokais.
So that was why she could hear them outside so quietly and how she had seen in the dark with very little light. She look with eyes filled concern and worry and sadness as she knew with the minutes passing, her memories were fading even as she couldn't pinpoint them of where or who she had been, "And all of who I was or what my human past was will never, will they all be…"
"Gone, all of them I'm afraid to say." Yuki-onna said. Only time could tell if the girl would be able to remember some or at least think them merely as dreams or legends. She could smell the salt of her tears as they coursed down her cheeks silently and placed her hand on her face and rubbed them away, feeling the slight warmth radiate from her skin, "You must now sleep now and after you have rested, you may be clean and freshen up before tomorrow and will do whatever you desired. I'll take you to see our kingdom, show you all kinds of the wonder and beauty mortals have imagine. You can have whatever you want, the finest hagoromo to be worn by the tennyo, celestial maidens or jewels handcrafted by the greatest craftsman to make a sword made of diamonds to cut through anything or any jewels and the scabbard encrusted with gems.
You will be welcome by my husband and me and everyone else as I have already inform him of what has happened and he has agree to take you in and will proclaim you as our daughter before the full nation of our kingdom."
Her daughter, the word she had never been able to say without bringing up the sad memories of her once beloved child that departed their world so long ago. But she a strong connection between her and this child when she lock eyes with the girl's, her blue eyes and the powerful spirit that kindled within were one in the same and needed her just as much as the girl needed her for a child without a mother and mother without a child.
The girl looked to her curiously, taking what she had said moments before and spoke in almost a quiet tone, "I will become your daughter? And you will become my mother?"
"Hai if you wish to be. I will be your Okasan…"
"Okasan?" She nodded and Yuki-onna brought the girl closer, their bodies together as they held one another and return the touching embrace. She held her and said kind gentle words for her to hear as she rocked her gently in her arms.
She should have been scared, afraid, terrified, all kinds of dreaded emotions she should be feeling up to now when explained her situation but being with Yuki-onna, her new okasan, the one who saved her life, even at the cost of losing all of her human existence and the memories of them slowly diminishing before she could even get a chance to remember, a person's face or one happy time even just one to hold on for the time.
All she could think or care about was feeling the cool gently fingers of her new okasan's running through her hair and her comforting voice, a soothing melody to her ears and lied against her chest, rubbing against the soft silk of her kimono. She looked up, seeing her look down as well with her sparkling blue eyes, "I'd like that very much, thank you. I want to be your daughter."
Yuki-onna watched as she yawned tired and said in a sleepy, exhausted voice, "I think I'll go get some more rest then." She laid her back down on the pillows and Yuki-onna bundled her up in the blankets like a snug cocoon as she looked once more to her, smiling faintly before falling asleep, "Goodnight then okasan…."
Yuki-onna brushed a stray lock of dark hair from her forehead and gave her a small kiss before whispering inside her ear, "Goodnight then my Ryoko-chan…" And watch her lips curl up into a tiny smile before she left the room and closed the door behind.
She walked outside onto the veranda, strolling across the small bridge to the garden, to where the shadow blossoms, fire lilies, sun roses, star water dragon, and the herbs used for medicine or tea and other bloom. She found she wasn't alone and that someone waiting by the small koi pond underneath the Sakura tree and join his side.
"So you told her what had happened and what is to be." It wasn't a question, more a statement as she kneel down next to him, sitting and watching the clear water reflect the moon, nearly a fading distant orb with night near finish.
She nodded, "Hai and I thank you once again for letting me do this. I know I have asked you very much to accept what I did. Even though it goes against all codes of the Shijin to do what I did but I know greatness shall come out of her, I know it, I seen it within her eyes. She will be a great daughter and a fine heir for you to look proud upon Seiryu." Her husband turn his head, looking at her with silvery-blue eyes flecked with conflicting emotion she could not read. He had some doubts but he dare not say anything to upset his wife after what had happened. She had suffered enough and for too long after they had lost their first-born daughter and his only heir and would hate to see old wounds reopen between them, her in suffering and sorrow, his in anguish and anger for what had taken their child away from them.
He felt his wife's cool hand touched his forearm and together they sat there, watching the dark night fade and the sun rising, knowing a new beginning was coming into their lives and that perhaps with their new daughter, things will turn all right for them and their kingdom and hope some good fortune would be the outcome.
Definition Japanese/English Meanings:
Hebi-Snake
Yokai-Demon (In a dictionary it's akurei but I used the one from the InuYasha series, but if you like this too let me know)
Yuki-onna-Snow woman (I'll give description of her if anyone wants)
Shijin-Four Guardian Beast (I'll give information on those too.)
Seiryu-Blue Dragon Guardian of the East
Hai-Yes
Okasan-Mother
Otosan-Father
Ryoko-Huntress
And there's more where they come in later chapters. So read and review!