AN: This is my second IzayoixInuPapa piece. It is the sequel to In the Beginning, and will make just a little more sense if it is read after that drabble. You have The Sorrowful Vampress to thank for this, and so do I. I had no intentions of continuing along this plotline until she sent me a PM asking if I would. That small, incredibly significant show of interest was enough to knock me into a frenzy of inspired plotting. I know this has taken me forever to post, but take comfort in the fact that multiple chapters in continuation of this are sitting on my desktop. Enjoy, and please let me know if you're interested in seeing more.

Sable

Second Coming

The palace was in a flurry when their eldest princess was handed into the arms of a common huntsman by a demon that left only the title Taisho.

In the days that followed Izayoi's great adventure, the young woman diligently ignored the scandalized whispers that followed her around, choosing instead to pay special heed to the middle aged man who had been the one to take her from the demon.

He had taken to following her around the grounds, fetching cool water for her when she sat in the gardens, helping her balance while she exercised her ankle to recover her mobility. It was when he began to stand guard over her while she slept and bathe that she began to suspect something was slightly off.

The heavens were flinging themselves violently against the earth, lightning acting as waves crashing upon the shore. She woke from a dream she could not remember, the last crash of thunder echoing between her ears, to see a dark shadow cast upon her shoji door.

Fear seized her heart, followed swiftly by a wretched anger that wiped all sensibility from her mind. She was angry that he had dared enter her personal wing, angry that he had been stalking her, angry that he had managed to make her so afraid. She stood before she knew what she was doing, ignored the small protest in her ankle and strode the door, sliding it back so forcefully that she heard the wooden frame crack.

"Hotaka!" she said, her voice low and sharp. Lightning stabbed across the sky once more, reflected in the huntsman's wide, crazed eyes. Izayoi felt the wind pick up, stirring the heavy lengths of her unbound hair.

The man stared at her for a long moment, so still and silent that Izayoi wondered if his mind had fled when she called to him.

"What are you doing here?" she snapped, her tone that of an incensed lady who was very used to being obeyed.

His eyes narrowed, and she moved with a speed she hadn't expected out of the large man. His hand, which she suddenly realized was about the size of her head, wrapped around her arm with bone-cracking strength. He jerked her towards him and she cried out.

"You were going out to meet the demon, weren't you?" he growled, spittle flying from his lips.

"What are you-"

He shook her hard and she whimpered like one of her father's hunting Shiba.

"What have you done to the princess, demon?" he hissed, dragging Izayoi out into the rain.

She clawed at his hand, struggling to find her footing on the sodden ground. He was half dragging her across the wide expanse of gardens, heading for the looming darkness of the open side gate and the tall trees beyond it.

"I am the princess!" she screamed. "I am Izayoi!"

"No!" he shouted, jerking her arm so that she plummeted into the mud. He dragged her swiftly through the gate, jerking her roughly over any rock or branch that got in their way. "You're a demon, a trickster! You've stolen Izayoi-sama!"

Izayoi shrieked in pure terror, scrambling to bite, claw, kick, anything at all.

Above her, the huntsman ranted on and on, not even noticing when she managed to draw blood on his wrist and fingers. He dragged her inexorably deeper into the forest, heedless of the heavy rain pouring down on them.

They came upon the stream suddenly, and Izayoi recognized the very place she had been rescued by the demon lord.

The huntsman hauled her up, taking her by the shoulders and staring into her face. "You will give her back!" With an inhuman shout, he shoved her backwards.

She hung suspended in the air for what felt like a lifetime, watching the lightning dance across the sky, white, bright, silver, and breathtakingly beautiful. It burned itself into her eyes and she closed them to watch it play across the back of her eyelids.

With a splash, she plummeted into the rain swollen river. The cold shocked the breath from her lungs and she clamped her mouth shut before she sucked in any water. She thrashed, but the current was strong. The river snatched her away, pulling her under and wrapping her in a haze of black hair and white yukata. Her lungs ached for their deprivation.

She had been tumbled so badly that she no longer recognized up from down. She wouldn't have known which way to swim even if she could get her numb arms and legs to cooperate. 'Up' came as a solid band of living steel wrapping around her middle and dragging her from the river.

She didn't quite see how it happened, being too busy desperately gasping, but in the span of seconds she was curled against the broad chest of a man standing on the high bank of the stream.

"Izayoi."

His voice was calm and uninflected, but it sent warm shivers racing through her. She made a noise that was halfway between sob and laugh. "The huntsman, Hotaka," she told him, clinging to the straps that held his body armor in place.

"He has been dispatched."

"D-dispatched?" she whispered, staring ahead of them into the darkness, slightly afraid to look on the demon who had saved her twice.

He was silent for a long moment. "Is the idea of his extermination displeasing to you? It is within my power to reverse the effects if you have need of him."

Izayoi's head twisted towards him and was trapped by the dark amber gaze that seemed to glow in the pale moonlight. It was then that Izayoi realized that the storm had passed them by.

"Reverse the effects of his extermination?" she repeated dumbly.

His brow wrinkled. "You are insensible. Perhaps as the result of your fall or of your duration in the water… or is it the shock? Human systems are notoriously susceptible to shock."

"I am not insensible," she protested, slightly insulted. "I was merely… surprised."

He stared down at her unblinkingly, breathing slowly and deeply through his nostrils. "You are not lying."

She felt the insane urge to laugh. "That is correct, my lord."

"Then do you request that your attacker be revived?" he asked, sounding deliberately patient.

Izayoi's hands clenched around the straps they held. "No. Where is he?"

"Somewhere he cannot hurt you again."

"But you said he could be revived…"

"Only I can do that, Izayoi, and I will not."

"Th-thank you," she stuttered, her mind boggled by the impossibilities he suggested.

A strange expression flickered across his face. "You are… welcome." What she could only assume was confusion was wiped away from his face when he smiled at her.

It was so brilliant, so joyful and pleased, that all she could do was smile in return.

-end-