InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Of Dog Gods & Mortals (new version) ❯ Chapter 1

DISCLAIMER: I'll make this short and sweet. `Inuyasha' and all character involved belong to Rumiko Takahashi and not to me. Any questions? No? Good, now on with the story.

 

This story has been posted before, under the same name. I was forced to remove it, due to complaints, but as you can see it is now rewritten and reposted, and hopefully I will not have the same problems with this version. For those of you who read my original version, this one has seen some changes in parts, and while the main plot of the story is unchanged I would still recommend rereading the entire story to avoid being confused.

 

Chapter 1

 

Two Years later, Ergos, Earth

 

The Temple of Inuyasha in Ergos was, without a doubt, the largest and grandest building in the village. The priests and priestesses that had worked there, now, and in the centuries past, took great care and pride in maintaining it. It certainly wasn't as large or grand as some of the temples in the major cities, but for a town as small as Ergos, it was a work of wonder. Located slightly out of town it sat close to the river, it's white marble walls and columns standing out sharply against the green and blue backdrop. Beautifully constructed, it was without a doubt the first thing any travellers to the village noticed. Although there were a few small shrines located throughout the village dedicated to the other Gods, Inuyasha's was the only Temple in the village. Inuyasha was the village's Patron God, and had been for centuries. Devotion to him may have lessened slightly in the years since the Temple was built; however all that changed and worship of Inuyasha instantly became popular again, literally overnight, the day Inuyasha appeared in flesh and blood in the Temple one day, and declared that he would be staying on earth and in Ergos for a full ten years. Almost as quickly, Ergos had become far busier as travellers from all over started to come to the city in order to pay homage to the God of Protection.

 

It was barely past dawn one morning, almost exactly two years later, when Inuyasha sat on the roof of his Temple, watching as the sun slowly rose in the sky and the Temple and village started to stir; its people getting ready to start their tasks for the day. Below him Inuyasha could hear his head priest, Miroku, who was going about one of his regular checks to be certain there was no damage to the Temple that needed attention, while his newest and youngest priest, Kohaku, swept the main Temple steps. Inside he could faintly hear his third and final priest, Hojo, along with his priestesses, his High Priestess Kaede and her niece Kikyo, going about their morning duties as well. Soon villagers would arrive bearing the offering that would serve as their breakfast. The temple itself would not open to villagers or any other travelling worshipers until later in the day.

 

At peaceful times like this, Inuyasha had to admit to himself that his father's order to live on earth hadn't turned out nearly as bad as he'd thought it would. Actually, on the whole it was a rather pleasant experience. For starters, for reasons nobody alive could explain, there in fact was a room at the Temple set aside for use by it's deity, that - though somewhat smaller than he was used to - in terms of luxury, rivalled anything at any of the mortal Kings' Palaces. For another, the priests and priestesses here were all dedicated and for the most part okay to be around. Third, now that he no longer lived with him in the same realm, Inuyasha was all but free of the pain in the butt that was Koga. On the other hand, the Gods that he did want to spend time with came down to visit him often enough that he had no chance to really miss them. In all, Inuyasha sometimes felt that, once his ten years on earth were up, he would be tempted to remain. But he was getting ahead of himself; he had to get through another eight years first.

 

Back to the here and now, Inuyasha knew that there were also problems around the temple that he should probably do something about soon. Those damn rumours were still going around and still causing him all sorts of annoyance. However, he didn't know how to get them to stop; denying them for two years straight hadn't made the least bit of difference. Maybe he was taking the wrong stance about this, maybe denying them was just drawing more attention to them. Maybe he should just ignore the whole thing and hope people would eventually get bored with it and let it go. Having a solution in mind that, while not exactly being ideal was better than nothing, Inuyasha resolved to putting the rumours out of his mind for now and moving onto other things.

 

First and foremost on his mind, were his problems with his priestesses. Eight months ago Aleko and Tia, a married couple who had served as priest and priestess for over three decades, had retired from his service, wishing to spend their remaining years in the company of their daughter and her family who lived in another village three days to the south. While Inuyasha was willing to let them go, having no wish to become some kind of tyrant, this made things harder for his remaining priests and priestesses. For as long as anyone in the village could remember, the temple had had three priests and three priestesses who served under a Head Priest and a Head Priestess, and now they were down to four and with no Head Priest.

 

The duty of Head Priest was given to Miroku, as he was the most senior priest remaining. The man was still rather young, only in his early twenties, and was an impossible lecher, but he was also a dedicated priest. His father had been a priest of Inuyasha, and his grandfather had been Head Priest before Aleko. Miroku had every intention of living up to his family's legacy, especially since his deity was now actually living in the Temple and watching his every move. Besides, it wasn't like Hojo was up for the duty of Head Priest. The boy was barely into his late teens. He was kind hearted, dedicated and a decent healer, but he was impossibly naive.

 

Finding a third priest turned out to be a much simpler task than first envisioned. Kohaku, one of the village boys, had dreamed of being a priest of Inuyasha for years. As his family had long served as part of the village guard, they had good reason to be dedicated to the God of Protection. Kohaku was proud of his family and their occupation, but he himself did not like fighting. He still wanted to do something to help protect the village, and eventually his family's repeated prayers for Inuyasha's help in allowing them to fulfil their duties had lead Kohaku to the conclusion that he could do so by becoming a priest of Inuyasha himself. Seeing as the Temple in the village was rather small, he had thought that to do so he would eventually have to consider leaving the village and moving to one of the cities to fulfil his dream, but Aleko's retirement had given him the chance of becoming a priest in his own village, which is what he wanted most. He hadn't thought he would have much chance of being accepted, as surely the Temple where Inuyasha was currently living should have the best and most experienced priests available. However, Inuyasha could easily sense how much Kohaku wanted to be his priest, and so gave him the position. Besides, Inuyasha knew that otherwise every priest out there with an inflated sense of his own worth would come flocking to the Temple, seeing serving a God directly as a way for themselves to gain power.

 

In all, Inuyasha's priests all had their flaws, but overall he was happy with them. His priestesses were something of a different story.

 

Inuyasha had no problem with Kaede, his High Priestess. The old woman had been serving as his priestess even longer than Aleko and Tia had, yet she had no plans for retiring. When asked about it, she simply laughed and said she wouldn't know what to do with herself if she wasn't a priestess. She had never married, having dedicated herself solely to the service of her God and the people of the village. She was also the most skilled healer for miles, and had long ago turned one of the Temple storage rooms into an infirmary where she would treat anyone who needed it, free of charge. Inuyasha had to admire her for that. Her niece Kikyo, however, was a problem.

 

Kikyo hadn't started out as a problem. In fact, not so long ago Inuyasha would have said she was a wonderful priestess. She had all the skills a priestess needed. She even had some spiritual powers as well, something very few priests or priestesses in this day and age had. She was dedicated to her God and went about her duties with a passion. She was also learning the art of healing from her aunt. But not long after Inuyasha arrived at the Temple, she started to slowly change.

 

It wasn't much at first; she seemed to grow more confident in herself and her abilities. This was hardly cause for alarm, her confidence seemed like it was a good thing and it was certainly well deserved. But over time her confidence grew into arrogance, and Kikyo started to act like she believed she was better than everyone around her. She also became colder, more withdrawn from everything that wasn't directly part of her duty as a priestess. She also stopped trying to learn healing from Kaede, stating that it wasn't part of a real priestess's duty. Inuyasha, as well as Kaede and his priests, were troubled by this behaviour, but they had been willing to let it go so far as she was still fulfilling all her duties as priestess, and she was doing so extremely well. However, even that was starting to slip and Kikyo was getting out of hand. Inuyasha knew that Kaede had been telling Kikyo for a while now that she needed to change her attitude, but so far Kikyo had brushed off her aunt's warnings, and Inuyasha knew that if she kept this up for much longer, he would likely have to step in himself.

 

Then there was the problem with their third priestess - there wasn't one! Oh, they had had plenty of wannabe priestesses come and offer their services. Indeed, it was rare that a week went by that they didn't get an application or three. However, so far they had all either been greedy bitches looking for power, whores trying to gain favour of a God, or else simply not acceptable for the job. Inuyasha wasn't usually that picky - if he was most of his current followers would be out of work - but so far he had yet to come across a woman he would be willing to make the Temple's third priestess, and the extra work that empty position created was starting the wear the others down.

 

Inuyasha sighed in annoyance as he stood up and got ready to jump off the roof. In the distance he could see a group of young boys coming towards the Temple carrying the village's morning offering - a.k.a., breakfast. The day was officially starting. Inuyasha hoped that by the end of it he could solve at least one of his problems, though he rather doubted it.

 

###

 

It was a little later that morning when a young woman of eighteen walked along the northern road toward the village. As the Temple came into view, she couldn't help but give a small cry of relief. Why she was so happy to see the Temple, she couldn't rightly say. It wasn't like she had much hope that she would be taken on as a priestess there; that was even considering that the Temple had priestesses and not just priests like the one in Lorinth.

 

Kagome looked down at herself, taking in her dirty and torn garment; the scrapes and bruises on her arms and legs. She was sure that her hair was an absolute mess, and that her face was as filthy as the rest of her. Although she tried to fight them, Kagome felt tears start to form in her eyes as it dawned on her once again just how far she had fallen.

 

Oh, if only the King and his sons hadn't come to her grandfather's Temple that day. If only she hadn't volunteered to help out. If only Prince Naraku hadn't noticed her… But all the `if only's in the world couldn't change the past. Two weeks ago - had it really been such a short amount of time? - Kagome's biggest worry was that the temple of Inuyasha was still not accepting priestesses and that she had yet to find another God she felt truly drawn too. Feeling depressed and believing she may never find a Temple to serve, Kagome had volunteered to help out at her grandfather's Temple to prepare for the annual Great Feast of Taisho. It was to be an extra special feast that year, as the Temple had received word that the King himself, along with three of his sons, would be attending. Her grandfather was bursting with pride that his Temple had received such an honour. Kagome had been helping out as a server, and everything had been going well at first. That is, until the King's eldest son, Naraku, had spotted her, and asked who she was. Even though she had still not become a priestess, she was her grandfather's pride and joy and the old man couldn't resist the urge to brag about her to the Prince. Kagome wished he wouldn't. She always felt embarrassed when he grandfather started bragging about her, feeling that she did not deserve such praise, but this time it was more than that. She could not stand the attention the prince was giving her; it made her skin crawl and her heart clutch. Kagome had heard too many rumours about Prince Naraku not to know that he was notoriously cruel to those unfortunate to cross his path. But not only that, as soon as Naraku's eyes had fallen on her, Kagome had had a vision. It was not clear; in fact it was truly vague even by her very low own standards. All she saw was darkness, but it was filled with a sense of evil, danger and pain, and left Kagome with no doubt that Naraku was dangerous especially to her. As vague was the vision was, it frankly terrified her, and she thanked every single God out there when he finally left the Temple while she frantically prayed that she would never have to encounter him again.

 

However, the Gods were not that kind to her. A week later, she received a summons to the palace to meet with Prince Naraku. Kagome didn't want to go, she dreaded the very idea, but she knew that she had no choice. When she arrived, she was lead into a private audience chamber where her greatest nightmare came true. Naraku declared that he wished to make her his wife, and that the wedding would take place in exactly three days. She was given no chance to say no, simply told to go back home and pack her things, that everything would be taken care of by Naraku by the time the three days were up.

 

Kagome just couldn't do it, not with her vision still so vivid in her mind. She didn't care that this was the kind of honour most woman could only dream about, that it would most likely mean she would become queen pf Lorinth one day, and that she would forever live in luxury. She could not bear the thought of marrying that man, the thought of his hands on her made her physically ill and the very idea of spending her life by his side terrified her more than she could possibly put into words.

 

And so it was that in the dead of night the day before the wedding was to take place she left home and ran. She didn't even bring anything with her, she just left. She needed to get away while she still could, and she didn't need anything slowing her down. She knew Naraku would no doubt try to follow her and once again force her to marry him, as he was the type of man who was well used to getting what he wanted and became rather angry when denied. It was only as she lay down to sleep by the side of the road sometime the next day after she had worked herself to exhaustion, that she finally realized what she was doing. She had no food, no money, no place to go. She had nothing. For the first time in her life she was all alone and the thought terrified her. She cried herself to sleep that night.

 

The next morning, however, she had felt much better about her choice. Anything would be better than becoming wife to that monster, of that Kagome had no doubt. He would not only crush her spirit, he would relish in doing so. Besides, it was not like she could expect to stay under her family's protection forever, she would have to be on her own sooner or later. She had actually thought not so long ago that it would be before this, that she would be a priestess by now. She faced the fact that that might never happen now, but she would not sit around sniffling about it. This was the fate the Gods had chosen for her, and she would face it with dignity. As she continued walking down the road, she realized she was on the road to Ergos, the village where the God of Protection currently resided. This had filled her with a joy she had not known she could still feel. Ever since she had heard that the God had decided to live on earth for a time, she had been filled with the overwhelming desire to see him for herself, and now she might just get her chance. As she kept walking, the notion that maybe she could get work at his Temple as a priestess entered her mind, although she felt that was all but impossible.

 

Now looking at the Temple, the crowds of worshipers already gathering, Kagome felt she had been too optimistic in her previous thoughts on the subject.

 

Nevertheless, Kagome marched on and went to join the crowd. As she got closer she realized there weren't quite as many people as she first thought, certainly no where near as many as would be expected at one of the city Temples, but there were still a lot. One man, a well-to-do merchant by his appearance, took one look at her and sniffed scornfully. Feeling even more self-conscious than she did a moment ago, Kagome ran her fingers through her hair trying to get it to lie flat, and shook as much of the dirt off her dress as she could. She knew it was a wasted effort though, and that she still looked as downtrodden as a moment ago. Kagome was starting to question in her mind whether or not she should even ask about becoming a priestess here; it seemed to her that she would just be setting herself up to be laughed at and thrown out of the Temple. Oh well, it wasn't as if she was likely to get smoted for asking. And besides, even if she did at least then she'd never again have to worry about Naraku.

 

It was only a few minutes later when the doors to the Temple opened. A priest in maybe his early twenties stood in the doorway, ushering the crowds in. He had black hair pulled back in a short ponytail and a hansom face, but Kagome was surprised to see that his robes were bright red. All the priests of Inuyasha that she had seen in the past wore the traditional white. Why were his so obviously different? Didn't Inuyasha get offended?

 

Kagome entered with the rest of the crowd, though she tried to stay back and out of sight for the moment. Once she was inside, she saw a figure sitting on a throne-like stone chair behind an alter near the back of the room, which the priest went over to stand besides; a young priestess was already standing on the other side. She noticed that the priestess's robes were also red, and wondered if that meant their God had changed the colour for some reason. For a moment, she avoided looking properly at the figure in the chair, not feeling herself worthy to look upon the face of a God, but after a moment her curiosity become too much for her.

 

Kagome couldn't help but gasp as she got her first good look at Inuyasha. All the statues she had ever seen of him didn't do him justice; they weren't even close to being right. All the statues she had seen of him in the past showed Inuyasha as a powerful warrior, tall with bulging muscles, shoulder length hair and dog-ears. In reality, he was much smaller, though he was still well built and seemed to radiate strength even when he was sitting casually like he was now. His hair was also longer than on the statues she had seen in the past, easily reaching his waist, and it shined a beautiful silver colour. His ears the statues had more or less gotten correct; they were indeed dog-ears, but the ears on the statues had never seemed so irresistible to Kagome, so adorable. While the alter blocked Kagome's view of the God's lower half, she could see that his chest was covered only by a partially open vest in the same red of the priest and priestess's robes. But it was his face that captured most of Kagome's attention; it gave new meaning to the word `heavenly'. He was without a doubt the most handsome man she had ever seen. She wished she could tell what colour his eyes were, as she was sure they would be as beautiful as the rest of him, but she was too far away for that.

 

Kagome could barely stop herself from hyperventilating. Like she wasn't nervous enough already, now she had to find out that Inuyasha was in fact the most gorgeous man on earth or heaven? More slowly than before, Kagome continued forward, unaware of the danger that was fast approaching from the opposite direction.

 

###

 

Inuyasha sat on the `throne' behind the alter as the streams of worshipers entered the building, barely suppressing the urge to yawn. Without a doubt, greeting worshipers was his least favourite duty of being a God. About eight out of ten people who came in here were rich old men who were basically trying to buy their way into heaven by buttering up the only God currently on earth. Sure, some of the people who came here generally wanted to show respect for him, some even had real concerns they were willing to come and plead for. But for the most part only the rich could afford to travel here, the rest being forced to remain at home and work, so hence the large numbers of rich old men trying to buy their way into heaven. That kind of thing got old very quickly. But like his father had said, Inuyasha had to get back into touch with his followers. So, here he was on the off chance that someone came in in real need of help.

 

Kikyo stood on the right of the throne next to her God, trying not to smirk at the crowd entering the Temple. Ah, so many rich men, means so many expensive offerings, Kikyo thought with an inward smile. When she had first became a priestess, she hardly thought of it as a way to get rich, especially not in a village as small as this one. That had turned out to be an added bonus of the job that had come about when Inuyasha had descended to live on the earth. Being at heart a practical God, Inuyasha was inclined to decide that any offerings that were not actually useful to the Temple were either given to any of his priests or priestesses that wanted them or else sold in order to buy that which was needed. At first Kikyo wasn't sure about taking from the offerings like that even if Inuyasha did give his permission, even his blessing. She had gotten over that eventually though, and as a result, her room small room was now filled with many beautiful and expensive things she wouldn't otherwise be able to dream of having.

 

But still, it wasn't the riches that made Kikyo so happy that Inuyasha had decided to come down to earth. It was the power. She was now one of the few alive who could say she had served a God directly. Of course that made her far more important than any other priestesses at any other Temples. She had never really considered how meaningless their lives were before two years ago. Imagine worshiping a statue like it was going to give you what you wanted. Ha! Kikyo knew the truth now, she knew how important she now was. It was clear that others felt so too, that was why so many other priestesses turned up so often looking to fill the remaining priestess position at the Temple, they all dreamed of being like her. Well they weren't, she was so much better. And she would prove it to the world before much longer. Her old aunt would retire soon enough, and if she didn't, old age would take her to see Yura instead. Then she would become High Priestess of the only God on earth, and the entire world would see how she was superior to them all. And then, if the rumours were true - and she was sure they were no matter what Inuyasha might claim to the public - soon after that Inuyasha himself would see just how amazing she was and her true destiny would come to be. But for now, she must pretend she believed none of the rumours and go about her duty. He would see soon enough and she would be ready when he did. She could be patient until then.

 

To no one's surprise, the first few worshipers to come forward were rich merchants and the like who blabbered out long compliments to Inuyasha and left extremely expensive and extremely useless offerings. Before long though, a young woman who was currently very dirty came forward nervously. The three behind the alter had rather different reactions to her. Kikyo barely suppressed a sneer at the sight of the obvious vagabond, especially since it almost instantly became clear that she had absolutely nothing as a tribute unless you counted the dirt she was covered in. She was inclined to throw her out immediately, but knew better than to overstep her boundaries. Miroku instantly noticed that despite the mess the young woman was in, she was stunningly beautiful and had a gorgeous figure. If he was not so in love with his dear Sango, Miroku felt he would have been more than happy to have a chance to get to know her better.

 

Inuyasha on the other hand, reacted mostly strongly to her out of all of them. Two thoughts jumped out at him at once. The first being that this woman was clearly one of those he actually wanted to hear from, the ones who had real reasons for seeking out the help of a God. He didn't think anyone had come into his Temple in such bad shape as long as he had been there… well, unless you counted that time were Miroku was stupid enough to flirt with one of the village girls in front of that village guardswoman he was currently courting, but that was another story. The second thought being that she had so much power within her. The woman was overflowing with spiritual energy, more than he had seen in any one individual in over two hundred years. Granted, most of it was currently dormant but not all of it, and there was always a chance that the rest could awaken eventually. After a moment, a third thought joined the other two that was surprising similar to Miroku's; that, despite the dirt, she was breathtaking. He then wondered where that thought had come from as he waited for the woman to speak.

 

Kagome stood nervously before the alter, wondering what on earth had possessed her to come here. She didn't even have an offering, even one as small as a flower or a piece of fruit or something. Now what was she going to do? Could she really just come out and ask if she could be a priestess here? There was no way she would be accepted; the barely concealed sneer on the priestess's face made that perfectly clear. With a heavy heart Kagome gave up on that dream completely, and was about to simply ask if the God would be generous enough to send her a blessing of protection for a long journey when she heard a shout behind her that made her blood run cold.

 

“Make way all for Prince Naraku, eldest son of the King of Lorinth, here to make an offering to the God Inuyasha!”

 

Absolutely terrified, Kagome turned her head to see if indeed Naraku was there, but her traitor body refused to do anything more than that and run like she desperately wanted too. To her undying horror, Naraku was indeed striding into the Temple, flanked on either side by his guards. He had the same confident smirk on his face he did last time she had seen him, but mere seconds later he saw and instantly recognized her, his face morphing into angry shock.

 

“You!” He roared, enraged and delighted all at once. “How dare you try to run away from me you little whore? But you'll soon realize your mistake, you belong to me now. Seize her!” The last was snapped at his guards who without pausing to think about it moved forward to do as they were told. Kagome just stood there, tears of despair rolling down her face as she wondered why the Gods clearly hated her so much that they would not allow her to escape from such a horrible fate. Resigned to her fate, Kagome didn't try to run this time, she just waited for the guards to grab her as she silently promised herself that Naraku would not hold her for long, as at the first chance she got she would end her own life and enter into Yura's embrace. Even that was better than the alternative.

 

“Now hold on!” Another, angry voice said, as Kagome looked up in shock to see her view obstructed by red cloth. The priest had moved forward to place himself between her and Naraku's men. “Explain yourself! This is a place of worship that you are disrupting. Why are you after this girl?”

 

Kagome couldn't believe this, was she maybe going to be saved after all?

 

Naraku looked surprised that his orders were being questioned, but quickly got that under control. “I apologize for my seemingly rude behaviour, but this girl is my slave whom I have been looking for for several days. I will take her back now priest.”

 

At Naraku's words, something inside Kagome snapped, as she span around to face Inuyasha and dropped down to a prostrate position on the ground. “Lord Inuyasha, I beg you to take me on as your priestess.” She cried. She knew it was an extreme long shot that her plea would be answered, but she felt she had nothing left to lose and that she had to at least try.

 

A chorus of shocked murmurs travelled through the hall around her, and she heard one voice clearly ask why on earth a God would want a slave as his priestess. She couldn't be sure, but she thought it might have been the merchant who had sneered at her earlier.

 

“I'm not a slave.” Kagome said clearly, though he voice shook somewhat in fear. If her prayers weren't answered Naraku would likely drag her back to Lorinth and force her to become his wife; after beating her soundly that is. “My name is Kagome. I come from a long line of priests, and was trained to become a priestess myself. A week ago Naraku summoned me to his father's palace and declared that he wanted me to become his wife, giving me no chance to refuse. Please my lord, I can't marry him, I just can't! I have some powers of a seer, and I know that is I was to marry him my life would be filled with nothing but pain and despair. Please, if you have any mercy within you take me as your priestess. If not that, at least kill me and spare me that life.”

 

“I believe you'll find that Lord Inuyasha does not wish the likes of you as his priestess.” The young priestess in front of her said in a scornful voice, and Kagome's heart died within her chest. Once again tears started to pool in her eyes at the rejection of her plea when another voice spoke.

 

“Do not think to speak for me, Kikyo.”

 

Kagome looked up it shock as Inuyasha rose from the throne and moved around the alter to stand directly before her. Out of the corner of her eyes Kagome saw the priestess Kikyo looking as shocked as she felt, but all of her attention was on the deity now standing before her. Now that he was standing before her, she saw that along with the vest he was wearing a pair of slightly loose leather pants of the same red and no shoes. However, the only thing she was really interested in right now was whether or not he would accept her plea.

 

Inuyasha had actually been as surprised as everyone else when Naraku's man had shouted out his arrival, all of his attention being on the woman in front of him. He had been annoyed by the interruption and had looked up ready to tell the man off, when he had been shocked speechless for the first time in nearly three hundred years.

 

All Gods had certain abilities that allowed them to sense things from mortals. All Gods, for instance, could instantly tell when a mortal who was in their presence was lying or telling the truth, while some Gods had other powers as well, which usually went hand in hand with their positions. Inuyasha, as the God of Protection, was able to sense when a mortal was dangerous by the negative feelings within them. Evil, hate, anger and jealousy were the easiest to sense, and showed within a mortal's aura as various shades of darkness. Which was why he was so shocked as he looked at Prince Naraku now.

 

By all the stars in heaven, how could one being contain so much darkness? He had heard from the other Gods that came to visit him that there were concerns over what would happen if Naraku was to become the next King of Lorinth, as there was a lot of darkness within his soul, but they had never said there was this much! When he heard Naraku call for his men to grab the woman, his instinct was to protect her from his evil and had Miroku not stepped between them first, he would have.

 

When the woman, this Kagome, had thrown herself to the ground and begged him to either take her as his priestess or kill her, his heart clenched with sympathy. He could tell that one power within her that was completely active was the power of a seer, and could well believe that she had indeed seen a vision like she had said, it certainly fit in with what Inuyasha had heard and now seen of the prince. That being the case, he could understand why she was so afraid of this prince. He was afraid of him and he was a God!

 

Coming to a stop before her, Inuyasha looked down at the girl, who looked back up at him in both hope and fear. Once again he was struck by her beauty, but he pushed that thought from his mind for now.

 

“You say you were trained as a priestess?”

 

His eyes are gold, part of Kagome's mind noted as she looked up at him, before scolding herself for thinking like that at a time like this, or at all. He was a God and as such too good for the likes of her to even dream about. She lowed her eyes humbly to the floor before she answered. “Yes my lord.”

 

“How come you have not become a priestess before now?”

 

It was a fair question, Kagome knew, one she was well aware her family had been wondering for quite some time. “I have been to all of the Lorinth that were in need of priestess, my lord, but none of them felt like they were the right Temple for me. I did not think it right to become a priestess of a Temple I did not feel passionate about.”

 

Inuyasha nodded. Made sense, and he approved of her reasoning. To become a priest or priestess of a God who you didn't feel honest devotion to just wasn't right. “Did you ever go to my Temple?”

 

“No my lord. I wanted to, but your Temple in Lorinth has no priestess, only priests. The Head Priest there claims that to do otherwise would be sacrilege.”

 

Inuyasha raised an eyebrow at that. He would have to go talk with this priest about that at some point, but right now he had other matters to attend too.

 

“And now, do you feel passionate about becoming my priestess, or are you just looking for a way to get away from Naraku?” He would not take her as his priestess unless it was what she truly wished for. However, either way he would protect her from Naraku. No one would deserve the fate in store for her otherwise.

 

Kagome considered the wording for the answer carefully. This might very well be the most important thing she would ever say. “I truly wish to become your priestess. I can honestly say that you were that God I most wanted to serve for as long as I can remember, but as I said in Lorinth that was impossible. I was planning on asking you even before I realized Naraku was behind me, though I never truly thought you would allow me to do so. But if you do, I swear I would devote my life to repaying your kindness and being the best priestess I could possibly be.”

 

Inuyasha smiled slightly, his powers telling him that every word she was saying was the truth. Well then, there was only one more thing to say:

 

“Then stand up and get ready to start serving your God, Priestess Kagome.” He said, ignoring the outraged yell from Naraku and Kikyo's shocked squawk. All his attention was on Kagome as she once again burst into tears. Only this time he knew that her tears were of relief and joy.

 

Author's Notes:

 

I realise that Inuyasha's outfit is not really what the ancient Greek would wear, and is based more of Kevin Sorbo in Hercules than in real life. However, I would like to respectfully point out to my readers that I don't really care. This story was never going to be completely accurate anyway, and besides I really like the mental picture that outfit gives me.

 

One more thing I would like to point out here, since I'm already writing all this. Ancient Greek was spilt up into `City States' which were independent of each other although they were all considered to be part of Greece as a whole, and each City State had it's own ruler and group of rulers as the case might be. Most that I have heard about were Kings, but Athens elected their rulers, Sparta had two Kings that ruler jointly and there may be have been more ruling methods that I have not heard about. I'm keeping this idea for this story. Naraku in this story is the son of the King of the city state of Lorinth, and at this stage the heir of that city alone, not all of Greece (or whatever I might decide to call the land, haven't really thought about that yet).

 

Gods (only Gods mentioned in chapter listed)

 

Taisho: King of the Gods, God of Law; husband of Izayoi; father of Sesshomaru, Inuyasha and Shippo

Inuyasha: God of Protection; son of Taisho and Izayoi; younger brother of Sesshomaru; elder brother of Shippo; Best Friend of Jenenji

Koga: God of the Hunt

Yura: Queen of the Underworld (aka, Goddess of the Dead)