Fortress in the Clouds
An abandoned castle that isn't as abandoned as it seemed...

There were legends about an ancient castle that sat atop one of the mountains in the Tohoku region of Japan. Far in the north, covered in snow and shrouded by clouds, the ancient citadel was a fortress built for strength, and for tactical advantage in looking over the entire country to the south. And to the north? Only the waves of the ocean that surrounded the island nation of Japan.

For five hundred years it had been rumoured to be empty, that in the wake of the War of Champions the Taiyoukai of the North had taken her life in response to the shame of her humiliating defeat. It stood like a stone, alone and inert in the clouds and above the human world. But it was rumoured that inside there was a great library; within the crumbling walls were scrolls upon scrolls of ancient and esoteric wisdom of all sorts and all types. Perhaps...simply waiting for someone to go and claim them. But so far, most that tried had never returned, presumed perished in the ice and snow that forever coated the peaks.

The castle's inhabitant, however, was far from dead. Though Leiko stayed hidden in her castle, and kept on doing what she always did--studying Go by a kifu of a now ancient match. The game itself was one that she had played (and lost) five hundred years ago. Five hundred years of study, and she still couldn't find the flaw in her opponent's game. Five hundred years the Northern Citadel had been silent

An ominous clicking sound filled the castle as she studied, too rhythmic to be random, too imperfect to be accidental. It was of course the sound of the stones being set methodically on the goban she kneeled in front of, but there was no way for a visitor to know that.

Hopefully, any 'visitor' she might get would get bored of the climb -up- to the castle and give up before they arrived. Many people frequently did. Although the ones that didn't die of exposure usually went down to spread rumours that caused trouble for the demoness. The castle was reputedly haunted a thousand times over, and in the centuries that Leiko had been antisocial, a thousand stories had sprung up to explain the happenings at the castle.

Most of them involved tales of unrequited love, and Leiko had to laugh ruefully at how close to accurate the human storytellers were. Of course, she had not been a human woman, and she had most certainly not killed herself. But they couldn't possibly have known -exactly- what had gone on to make the kitsune retreat into her castle and dismiss all of her servants.

Since she'd stayed there for five hundred years, watching the castle crumble around her, it only made sense that people had assumed she had died. And the march of time changed all stories eventually. She supposed she ought to be grateful that she was still remembered at all, even if incorrectly.

It kept people from trying to reclaim the castle, if nothing else.

Rin did his best to stifle his harsh pants for breath as he fled ever higher up the mountain, the snow beneath his boot clad feet crunching and leaving an all too visible trail for the wolf hanyou's taste. The sound of the not-so-distant pursuit kept his black and gray tipped ears twitching almost constantly and spurred him to run even faster. The boy spotted an outcropping of rocks not too far off and sprinted towards them until he could pull his lean body up and over. Now that he was slightly higher, Rin took the chance to breathe a little bit while he checked to see how far away his pursuers really were. The hanyou brushed several locks of dual colored hair out of his copper brown eyes, and growled out a curse. Why is this particular group of humans so damned persistent!? He didn't feel that stealing one measly rice ball warranted a hunting party of what looked to be thirty humans! I'm just one measly little half-breed who just wanted something to eat! Would it have killed them to share? I don't think I've been truly full for months now, and I didn't even get to finish that rice ball. Bastards... The sheer absurdity of sending so many humans after someone like him was just mind boggling to Rin. Here he was, a short, underfed, scrawny specimen that had just passed his one-hundred and thirty-seventh birthing day, and whom was riddled with scars from fights he had only barely survived, while his pursuers looked to be male and female farmers in their prime. It just wasn't fair!

Rin allowed himself a few more deep breaths before he took off again, always heading higher. The boy was almost positive that he had heard rumors of a haunted castle somewhere up here, and he was hoping, maybe, just maybe, if he could find it, the villagers would give up. Please...

The hanyou bounded over a particulary tall snow drift, and he thought he could see a vague shape somewhere up ahead of him. Rin orientated his direction towards that shape and forced himself to run even faster, praying that it was really the castle he had heard about and not just yet another ridge.

The mountain was cold and silent around him, with nothing more than the snow and the wind to indicate that he hadn't gone deaf. The last ridge he pulled himself over finally gave way to a clearing, though not much of one. Just a scant ten feet before the mountain seemed to rise up again, though this time rather than rocks and cliffs it was the very smooth surface of the front entrance to a castle. Once upon a time, the well built fortress had been impossible to scale, built too tall to be jumped over and the rocks too solid and smooth for handholds to be found. That had been five hundred years ago. There were boulders that had fallen and trees that had grown; it would be -difficult-, but it was possible to go up and over the front wall. No doubt, given the age and the style, there would be a courtyard towards the back, where he would be able to drop to the ground and get inside the castle the easy way. For humans pursuing him on foot, however, it would be far more difficult, if they managed to get that high at all.

The castle was saturated in the smell of kitsune, if nothing else. The Taiyoukai of the North -was- a kitsune, but she hadn't been spotted since she had been humiliated at the Battle of Champions. The question, it seemed, was whether the smell was a lingering scent from her centuries of having lived there, or was she still there, hiding in the castle? It was a fifty fifty guess, all things considered. But if she -was- still there, what sort of person would she be that she had locked herself away in her castle without showing her face for half a millennium?

Leiko stayed in her library, the room still rife with fire damage though the scent of smoke had faded a little bit with the centuries. She had grown used to it, though the suffocating smell for the moment kept her unaware of her approaching 'guest'. She kept working with her kifu, placing stones down and thinking carefully about what she was doing. She had not been bothered in five centuries, and had no reason to believe she ever would be.

Rin gasped with equal parts relief and exhaustion as he stumbled into the small clearing that contained his goal. The wolf hanyou hadn't heard the sounds of his pursuit for some time, but he had forced himself to continue. No way was he sleeping out in the snow and risking discovery when there was a perfectly good building that he could skulk about in. The rumors that the place was haunted didn't worry him all too much. After the many times he had been beaten, stabbed, cut, and outright abused throughout his life he was much more worried about physical threats than spiritual ones. Rin didn't have nearly as much of the miraculous healing ability so many demons demonstrated, as his vast multitude of scars attested to.

The boy slowed his headlong rush as he approached the castle, attempting to both catch his breath and find a way over the huge wall presented before him. His eyes flitted from the wall, to the boulders strewn haphazardly about, to the trees and then back to the wall again. "I can probably climb it..." he muttered, his voice a surprisingly light tenor. "This will be one of the few times I'll be glad of being scrawny." Rin had a habit of talking to himself... when he wasn't running for his life.

The young hanyou clambered atop his chosen boulder and then launched himself into the air, his hands grasping the tree branch as he used his momentum to hurl himself up the tree. He was good at tree climbing, it was one of the things that he'd had to learn for survival that he actually liked doing. Using his claws when needed, Rin scaled the tree until he reached the point that the tree wouldn't hold even his meager weight if he attempted to go higher. The boy cursed as he examined the wall, one arm wrapped around the tree trunk for stability. "Damned small tree..." he grumbled. The tree had helped immensely in his quest to get into the castle, but unfortunately there was still quite a bit of wall left that he would have to heave himself up before he reached the top. Rin inched around the tree until he reached a branch that was oh so conveniently placed right up against said wall and he started to climb, shoving his fingers and toes into the gaps in the mortar. He slipped a couple of times as he tried to get toeholds, but he kept his boots on. No doubt he could get a better grip without his boots, but seeing as Rin shivered each and every time his hands encountered the cold stone, no way was the boy taking of his boots.

When he finally - Finally! - reached the top, Rin let himself lie there for a moment, shivering again as a strong wind tried to knock him off his precarious perch. He only let himself rest for a moment before he stood up and made his way along the castle wall, looking for a good place to clamber down. He finally found one in the shape of another tree when he reached a courtyard near the back. He launched himself into the tree and made his way down until he was on the last branch. It was still a good ten feet to the ground, but that didn't bother Rin. He jumped and had almost reached the ground when the smell hit his over sensitized nose. What would have been a graceful landing turned into an undignified sprawl that sent the wolf hanyou face first into the snow. He quickly leapt to his feet, and spent several moments sneezing as he tried to get the snow, and the overriding smell of kitsune out of his poor nose.

It was the sound of feet on the roof that finally got Leiko's attention; she drew herself out of her studies and headed towards the entrance of the castle. But whomever was up there was headed towards the back, no doubt headed for the courtyard and the way down and in that it would present. She headed for the courtyard as well, her heavy junihitoe leaving a trail behind her in the dust that had accumulated in the castle.

She stood quietly in one of the doorways as she watched someone hopping down from the roof by way of one of the overgrown trees in the courtyard. She ought to have her one remaining servant prune them, if they really were proving to be so helpful in climbing over her defences with. He'd nearly reached the ground when he started sneezing. She snapped open a paper fan and hid her mouth with it, not wanting to break her façade of quiet and regal by letting him see that she was close to giggling at his misfortune.

She'd forgotten how strong the smell of dust, mildew, decay, and even her own scent was within the castle. She stayed still, waiting for him to notice her. Of course, in the heavy and formal junihitoe she wore, especially with her fan in front of her face from the nose down, she looked quite a bit like a ghost from the long ended Heian era. The only thing at all to suggest that it was a living woman in front of him, aside from the fact that she smelled alive rather than like death, was that her nose twitched just a little bit, sniffing him curiously.

A wolf, was he? The fur on her two silver-grey streaked tails bushed just a bit, but she forced herself to stay calm. Predator animal or not, he was weaker than her. She was the Taiyoukai, after all, and he...smelled like...half breed.

The realisation hit her like a ton of bricks, and she closed her eyes shut to take a deep breath. A half breed...that was...what might have run through her castle, what she would have happily raised if...

She bit down savagely on her lip, willing herself to not think about it.

By the time Rin got his nose clear of the snow, and at least semi accustomed to the rather strong array of smells he realized that he was soaking wet, and the smell of kitsune had gotten stronger instead of fading. He snorted to clear his nose and sniffed a couple of times. Some instinct made him look towards the doorway, and the sight that met his eyes made him let out a rather undignified squeak and stumble backwards, right back into the snow. The hanyou scrambled to his feet and retreated till his back was against the tree he had used to climb down. His ears were tight to his skull, his tail bristled, and his eyes were wide with fright as he stared at the apparition in the doorway.

Rin growled low in his throat, hoping to scare her - for she was definitely a her! - away, or make whatever she was leave him alone. He was well aware, however, that he probably looked as far away from threatening as it was possible to get. He didn't look any older than a fourteen year old human at the best of times, and now with his clothes soaked from the may times he'd fallen into the snow they clung to his scrawny frame, making him seem even smaller. The only thing that might make him look fearsome was the notch cut into his right ear and the thin scar that stretched from above his right eyebrow down to the middle of his left cheek.

After his initial growl he kept completely silent, not wanting to antagonize the ghost, demon, or whatever she was into attacking. If the twin tails he could just barely see were any indication, then she was probably the source of the kitsune scent, which meant she was probably something alive. Ghosts don't have a smell, right? Rin didn't know, and thus he watched the figure warily, quite ready to turn and flee up the tree if the need was called for.

The deep sadness her train of thought brought to her was easily visible in her eyes, and even in her very bearing as she regarded the boy that had all but fallen into her courtyard. But...wolf or not, he was only a pup. Leiko herself appeared as though she were in her mid twenties, enjoying the appearance of someone a bit older as she did consider herself to be a bit more mature than a young person. She let him get himself as settled as it looked like he was -going- to get, and then she finally spoke up.

"Come away from there, you'll catch your death of cold staying in the courtyard. It's warmer inside." She moved out of the doorway, leaving a way for him to come inside. She kept the fan up, in front of her mouth, every inch the refined and all but unapproachable ideal of a Japanese noblewoman. Only her tails betrayed that she wasn't a porcelain doll, swishing behind her in a display of emotion in general, even if she couldn't figure out entirely which emotion she was feeling at the moment.

Sadness, regret, loss, pain...all those emotions she'd always felt were better reserved for Noh plays or other human dramas, they were all washing over her as she continued to think about the past. Five hundred years she'd had to stew on it, and five hundred years hadn't softened the blow any at all. But it seemed he had quite a bit of emotion to him as well. Namely? Fear. She slowly lowered her fan, tucking it into her sleeve before a slow smile grew on her lips. She wanted to reassure him. Maybe she could take care of him, he could be the little hanyou she almost had...

Rin hadn't really been expecting the woman to speak and the sudden sound after the long silence made him jump a little. He blinked at her a couple of times as he processed what she had said. The words seemed welcoming, and they didn't echo hollowly like he suspected a ghost's would, and... she seemed rather... sad.

The boy's ears started to perk up, when he saw her smile, before lowering back towards his skull again as a thought occurred to him. "H-how d-d-o I know you're n-not going to st-st-steal my soul if I get c-close to you?" he questioned, his teeth chattering so hard that he was afraid he was going to bite his tongue off. Now that he wasn't moving he was freezing, and the thought of warmth beckoned strongly, but he'd much rather risk freezing to death than violent mutilation or the loss of his soul, no matter that his mother had told him didn't have one the one time he had approached er after his father's death. Rin hastily shoved that thought back down into the depths of his brain. He refused to think of his demon mother, not after the way she had rejected him.

She raised an eyebrow, not budging from her place near the door. "I'm a kitsune, not an onryō. Get inside before you freeze, with my luck you'll haunt the courtyard if you do." So he did think she was a ghost. No matter, one way or the other he'd be coming inside. If he stayed out there much longer, he'd faint from the cold. And if he did -that-, she'd carry him to a guest room. Not that any of those had been opened in centuries... Hmm. It seemed like a bit of cleaning was in order. But...if he was going to be staying in her castle, maybe she'd get a bit of work out of him. Fair trade, it sounded like to her.

"Come on, the only ghosts in here are memories, and those only plague me."

Her words made sense, but what really decided Rin was the violent sneeze that shook his body, and the tree above him, and, of course, the shaking made the tree dumo a small load of snow on his much abused head. He shot the tree a nasty look and growled a little. I climb all the way down it and don't shake a thing loose, and it decides to dump a load of snow on me now? Stupid tree...

The hanyou shook the snow out of his hair and cautiously approached the doorway, and subsequently, the woman standing near it. His eyes watched the lady's every movement warily as he inched inside. Once past the doorway he walked only a few more steps so that he wouldn't be in the kitsune's way, and then he stopped. The smells were much stronger now that he was inside and they made him sneeze again.

More so than kitsune, the castle smelled of dust and of decay. Whatever rumours there were about this place, they seemed at least partially founded upon fact. The castle was not well cared for, and had the eerie emptiness of a place that had long been abandoned. Save for Leiko and the rustle of silk that followed her movements. She frowned deeply when the boy began to sneeze. "Are you allergic to dust?" Odd, that...she hadn't known that hanyou's senses could be so delicate.

"Once you've warmed up, then, we can work on cleaning out a room for you. I haven't had guests in a -very- long time." She paused for a moment, looking intently at him. "Why -are- you here?"

Rin blinked up at her and shook his head. "No, I'm just really sensitive to smells," he admitted, and rubbed at the tip of his nose. He was quite glad that his teeth had stopped chattering now that he had gotten out of the wind and snow.

The boy couldn't keep his gaze on the woman's eyes for very long, and he very quickly cast his eyes towards the floor in a sign of submission. This lady was obviously the more dominant of the two of them and Rin's wolf instincts told him not to challenge her. "I'm hiding from the humans," he said, quietly, but clearly. As much as he wanted to mumble, being in this kitsune presence was too intimidating. The hanyou didn't know why exactly, but she just felt much more powerful than any of the demons he had ever encountered. "They're afraid of this place, and I didn't think there was anyone here," he added, the last bit seeming quite apologetic, especially with his ears and tail lowered like they were.

She nodded quietly as she listened to his tale, wondering why she felt such a stabbing pang of sympathy. Then again...if she hadn't been defeated five hundred years ago...humans wouldn't have dared trouble someone with demon blood. Even a half demon. But that was ancient history now...

She led him through a path in the dust, obviously back the way she came. For having such a large castle, she didn't really seem to go to very much of it. Finally, there was a fork in the 'path' through the dust, and without even considering she took the right hand one. She was obviously headed somewhere specific, though, and soon they came to their destination--the castle wasn't -that- big, after all. Certainly large enough to be a functioning fortress, but not more than that.

"Do you drink tea? It will warm you quickly." She got out a teapot and two tea cups, and busied herself with making tea without even waiting for his reply.

Rin nodded, seeming rather dazed as he tried to adjust. Faint shivers wracked his body, caused, no doubt, by the wet clothes clinging to his thin frame. He stood, rather awkwardly, in what he hoped was an out of the way spot and watched the woman preparing tea out of the corner of his eye.

After a while where the only sounds were that of the kitsune preparing tea, he spoke. "I'm Rin," he offered, in the hope that she might tell him her own name in return and then he could stop mentally calling her the women, or the lady.

She blinked in surprise when he told her his name. It hadn't occurred to her to ask. Five hundred years without company had rusted her manners significantly, apparently. She put cold water into the teapot and put her hands around it; a moment later steam rose out of the spout. She poured tea for the both of them and offered a cup to him. "I am Leiko. Has...the world really forgotten me?" She'd known that it had been a long time since she'd come out, but....so much? It was a bit shocking to be confronted with it so directly.

Rin gratefully wrapped his fingers around the cup, and when they started to tingle painfully as the warmth seeped in he realized that they had gone numb when he hadn't been paying attention. "Maybe not by the world," he replied slowly, cautiously sniffing at the brew within his cup. "-but I've never heard of you." He shrugged in what was a purely adolescent male sort of way before taking a very small sip of his tea. "Should I have?" he asked, his ears twitching worriedly. "I haven't been in this part of country for very long..."

"You should have been warned when you entered my territory... The entire Tohoku region is mine, as is the Hokkaido region..." She sighed softly, not sure what to say now. "If no one you encountered bothered to tell you.... It is...somewhat likely I have faded into legends."

To become legendary...if it were for fighting prowess or something such as that, it might have been an honour. To fade away into a legend told by the nobility as a morality play about love... She had to wonder if there was a Noh drama about her. And that was a bit....discouraging.

"I am the Taiyoukai of the North..." She laughed ruefully at her title. "She who saw the demons subjugated at the War of Champions five hundred years ago..."

The hanyou's ears flicked back and forth uncertainly as he watched Leiko. "Oh..." he said quietly. "I'm sorry...?" he added tentatively, uncertain of why he should be be sorry, but feeling that it was the only response he could currently make. He wasn't sure what this 'War of Champions' she was talking about was. Rin had raised by his human father until he had died of old age and had never learned all that much of demon history, or human history for that matter. He frowned a bit as that thought ran through is mind, staring down into his tea. I guess that means I am ignorant... The boy pouted ever so slightly. He hated being called names, and it made it just that much worse when they were true. Rin most likely would have gotten very upset at that point; if rather large bit of water hadn't started sliding down his back, right along his spine and making the hanyou shiver as he controlled the sudden urge to shake himself wildly until all the water was out of his fur. That would probably not make his hostess very pleased.

What a little puzzle this boy was. He seemed so fragile, all but broken... Certainly unsure of himself... Was he really little more than a mangy stray? The poor thing. She wanted to reach out and pull him into her arms and lick out his ears for him, to.... Wait. Why had she gone all maternal all of a sudden? She sighed softly, knowing the answer was right in front of her no matter -how- much she didn't want it to be.

If....the man she'd loved hadn't -died-.... Their children would have been hanyous. She would have died centuries ago, tied to a mortal man--kitsune were bonded to their mate's lifespans, unlike other demons. But this boy...both reminded her of everything she now could never have...and gave her a chance to have it regardless. She sighed softly, smiling a bit when he shuddered. No doubt he was all wet still.

"I've...got dry clothes you can change into... You ought to stay for a while--humans are tenacious if nothing else..."

At her offer of dry clothes Rin's ears perked straight up, his tail started wagging ever so slightly and he offered Leiko a very tentative and somewhat shy smile. "Thank you," he said, before taking a gulp of his tea to hide the embarrassment he felt over having to hide from mere humans. He had hope that he'd get stronger as he got older, but he still felt vaguely ashamed over his current weakness.

Without him realizing it, Rin had finished all of his tea, and was left staring mournfully at the bottom of his cup. He shifted slightly as he wondered if it would be rude to ask for more. He didn't normally worry so much about manners, but something about Leiko seemed to demand that he display them to the utmost of his ability.

She took the teapot and refilled his cup for him, having noticed that it had emptied. It was adorable that he was trying so hard to please her, and it made her feel all the more indulgent of him. Surely she had a spare hanjiri around, didn't she? She turned to face the hallway and barked, the animalistic sound coming easily from the kitsune's lips. It didn't take long for her one remaining servant to arrive, tripping over his own feet as he ran up to her.

A large salamander, standing on his back legs so he seemed about four feet tall, and dressed in a hakama, came running up to Leiko. She gestured towards Rin, keeping her eyes on the salamander. "Sanshouuo-chan, get dry clothes for our guest. And after you've brought them, go make a room ready." The creature bowed politely to her, then hurried off to do that. But there was no missing the way his eyes had widened at her commands, the surprise showing easily even on his odd amphibious features.

Rin jumped rather violently at the bark that had emerged from Leiko's lips, hot tea sloshing over his hands. He winced and carefully set down the cup, quickly wiping the tea off into the sleeves of his haori. His garments were still soaking wet, and the cold water felt comforting against the sudden heat in his hands. Rin glanced sidelong at Leiko, a faint blush staining his cheeks as he hid his hands in his sleeves. He wasn't usually so jumpy... Okay... He was. But he didn't normally show such a visible reaction.

After the bark, the sudden -- at least in Rin's opinion -- appearance of the salamander wasn't nearly so startling. He watched the creature with wary eyes, the hands hidden in his sleeves gripping his elbows tightly, claws digging into his flesh just short of puncturing the skin. His gaze only darted back to Leiko after Sanshouuo had left the room and he let his grip relax slightly. "Thank you," he repeated, his voice soft, unsure of what else to say. In a way he wanted to apologize, but he wasn't quite sure of what he would be apologizing for.

Leiko smiled sheepishly when she realised she'd startled her guest. She hadn't meant to give him such a fright, and it was natural to her to call her servant in such a manner. Her barking carried far better than her voice would have, echoing around the crumbling old castle she lived in. Once upon a time it had been a brilliant fortress, but now...the whole thing was worn away and falling apart. Nonetheless she seemed to live here permanently, and she -enjoyed- living in her home.

Well. As much as she enjoyed anything any more. The deep chill of sadness followed her nearly everywhere, as she was plagued by thoughts of should-have-dones and might-have-beens. "It's no trouble...there's plenty of room. You...could stay here a while if you wanted to, actually..."