A Mother's Love

When he is conceived, she frets. Half-demons are so uncommon and little is known about them. They are feared and misunderstood. She isn't sure if she will be raising a baby or a puppy. Her lover visits often, bringing gifts of fresh food to promote healthy growth. He doesn't have the answers to her questions but his love makes her strong.

When he begins to grow and make her belly swell, so does her heart. With each passing day her love for him grows. She has decided she will love him the same whether he is born with fingers or paws, teeth or fangs, fingernails or claws, soft flesh or fur. He grows more and more perfect within her belly. Her lover seldom visits but whenever the western winds blow a warm front over the village, it feels like he is all around her.

When her lover brings tidings of bad news, she fears for her family. To defend herself and her unborn child she spends what little money she has to purchase a knife but her lover laughs at her naivety. He tells her to kill as many red rats with that knife that she can find around the old bone eater's well so that she can protect herself in ways even he can not.

When he begins to kick and move, she has already begun turning the pelts of the fire rats into a fine silken thread to weave into a robe as her lover instructed. She is told that the robe will protect against even the harshest of fires. Though the robe will undoubtedly prove useful, she still clings to her knife. A presence lingers just outside her room often and her fear grows constant.

When he is soon to be born, her fear escalates. Giving birth to a half-demon allows for no sympathy. No midwife will take up the responsibility, no doctor is trustworthy enough not to crush her baby's head once he has arrived. A jealous man watches with no fear of being caught. She sleeps with the knife beneath her pillow every night and wishes she'd kept the fire rat robe.

When he is born into the world, her lover returns but it is too late. Her heart has been pierced by a jealous man and her newborn cries without reason between her ankles. Her lover is wounded but his love for her burns true and uses his sword meant for life to bring her back. She and her newborn ― a boy ― are clothed in the fire rat robe and taken to safety while the home their love built burns and hisses to the ground. Born anew she is weary like a newborn herself but the love she feels for her family envelopes her like the silken red robe draped over her shoulder. Her lover knows just what to call him once they peer down together at his tiny face. "Inuyasha."

When he is just a few days old, her lover ― his father ― dies. She feels lost without him but she has to be strong for their son. Being the noble dog demon that he was, she is not allowed to know where he will be buried. She cries for her dead lover and her son cries with no other reason than being alive and able.

When he is a few months old she can tell he is different. He looks entirely human except for his hair, which is a snowy white just like his father's, marking him from birth as a half-demon. Atop his head grew two droopy dog ears that she liked to caress carefully until he would fuss. She hides him close to her bosom in a sling when she leaves her home so that no passersby notices the strange child in their midst.

As years pass and he grows, she can hardly see abnormalities. He plays and eats like a normal child but his ears ― now erect ― and his long white hair allows others to single him out. Human children treat him with caution learned from their parents and he seems so lonely to her. She wishes her love could take away his pain but she too is lonely. Without her lover to guide her and her son she feels as if she's a stranger among humans herself.

When he reaches a proper age, she wraps the fire rat robe around him and ties the obi tight around his waist. He has not yet grown into it but she thinks the soft warmth around him will comfort her as it did him for so many years. One day he will grow into it and perhaps hand it down to a family of his own to protect them. He smiles at her and she doesn't feel quite so lonely.

When she dies, it is sudden. She dies peacefully in her sleep but her son believes it is from a broken heart. No matter when the time came, it would've felt too early. Through his tears, he clings to his fire rat robe; the last piece of his mother's love he has left.