Western AU Snippet- A Fool’s Heart
RATED M FOR MATURE AND “MAYBE WE SHOULDN”T LET ME WRITE ANGST AND SHIT AT 12 AM’
under read more because. guys. death and blood.
There was something about the Territory that got to people. Seeped into their bones, cracked their skin, thrummed in their chest. It wasn’t a heart, as most people would have liked to claim it to be. It was much too warm for that. No, it was a Fool’s heart, a trickery of a beat that could convince even a dead man walking he still breathed in the dust and clay that thickened the air. There was no room for warm, gentle hearts in the Indian Territory. The weather was too harsh, the life too doubtful, and the people too worn-down.
Gentle hearts hardened, or they died.
That was the way of the West.
Inu Taisho thought he had successfully convinced himself otherwise when he met her. Her gentleness was vibrant and strong, fleshed out with resiliency and stubbornness. He couldn’t possibly still think that gentleness couldn’t survive, how could he? Izayoi was so bright and alive. There was no way she could end, in his mind. Human as she may have been, her soul seemed so eternal.
He found himself thinking that he had been wrong, that perhaps gentleness held its own certain power. A will to live was a will to live, after all.
Their son was only eight when they were all subjected to the result of his naivety.
Inu Taisho heard them before he saw them. The coach was travelling along at an easy pace, the horse’s gaits even and synchronized. He almost would have liked to pretend there wasn’t any danger if he didn’t trust his instincts as much as he did. The approaching hoof-beats were becoming too prominent to ignore.
“Papa? Are there horses coming?” Inu Taisho sighed and silently cursed his son’s enhanced hearing, turning to look at him. The boy’s head was poking out from the curtain blocking the door to the inside of the coach, where he and his mother had been napping since they’d left town nearly an hour ago. His snow white ears were swiveling to pick up on the increasing noise.
“Yes, Inuyasha, someone’s coming. I don’t know who it is, so get inside with your mother, alright?” The half-dog-spirit didn’t look convinced that that was the best course of action, but he obediently slipped back into the coach, letting the curtain fall shut behind him.
The hoof beats were gaining on them quickly, probably within a half mile of them now. Inu Taisho growled and snapped the reins, sending the horses into a ground-eating gallop. Over the clamor of their own horses’ hooves he could hear another group approaching from the east. Damn. They were trapped against the rocky cliff-side now. Whoever was coming had them surrounded.
Izayoi, assumedly awoken at the sudden jolt of the coach, clambered out from behind the curtain to see what was happening. “Honey, what’s going on?” By now the approaching horses were close enough for even her to hear, and he risked a glance behind them to see what they were up against.
A mob of at least twenty men on horseback were making their way towards them from behind, approaching rapidly. When he turned back around he could see another group of similar size coming at them from behind. He wished he didn’t know who they were.
“It’s the men from the village, Izayoi. Apparently chasing us off from their precious town of God wasn’t enough. They have to eradicate the pagans, too.” He reached back and guided Izayoi to sit on the bench beside him, handing her the reins. “Here, love. Don’t let them slow.”
Izayoi nodded firmly and kept her eyes focused on the dusty path ahead of them, snapping the reins to keep the horses’ attention.
Inuyasha had poked his head back outside again, trying to see what was going on. The older dog spirit ruffled his son’s hair and reached behind his back for the rifle he kept strapped there. “Stay put, son. There are bad people after us.”
The boy’s golden eyes looked up at his father with a glint of fear. “Like the people who call us sinful abobnimations?”
Inu Taisho furrowed his brow and perched the rifle against his shoulder, aiming through the sights to hit one of the men coming from the east. “Yes, Inuyasha, like the bastards who call you and your mother those disgusting lies.” He held no resentment for the Christians attacking him, as he was a spirit of the Hopi Tribe. He did, however, have a very large problem with them aiming those same shots at his wife and son.
He pulled the trigger once and sent one of the men flying off his horse, but his moment of satisfaction was short lived when that brought shots from the rest of the villagers. He shoved Inuyasha all the way into the coach, sending him tumbling with an oof, but he didn’t have time to consider any small bruises his son received when he was likely to see some much worse wounds from a bullet. Then he went to block his wife from the side so nothing would hit her as she steered the frantic horses.
As he moved himself into place, another shot seemed to ring out louder than the others, and suddenly one of the chestnut horses hitched to the coach screamed in agony and dropped, throwing the entire weight of the coach forward. The other mare couldn’t compensate, too terrified to continue on her path, and immediately surged hard to the right. Izayoi fought to keep her on a straight path, but it was too late. The coach was so off balance that it rolled forward while also tugged to the side by the traumatized horse, leaving them upside down in midair for a split second as everything came crashing down around them.
Inu Taisho found himself reaching for his wife, trying to grab onto the coach at the same time to keep them anchored, but he had no grip on her as his leg was smashed by the wooden wheel of the vehicle. His entire body was pinned by wooden planks, sending him crashing to the dusty red clay so hard he was sure his entire ribcage had to be broken.
There were a few moments in which the only sound he could hear was the ringing in his ears, which only served to make him more aware of the haze around his vision. Then slowly, he began to hear a high-pitched noise, one that help a note of panic in it. It settled away from the ringing and eventually distinguished itself as the terrified cries of Inuyasha.
The dog spirit jolted and twisted his head to locate his son. The boy was crouched several feet away over a long figure laying on the ground. Some numb part of himself told him it was Izayoi. He rolled over and, ignoring the pain in his chest, shoved himself out from underneath the busted coach.
The eight-year-old’s screaming was suddenly the only thing Inu Taisho could hear, and he choked and stifled a sob when he saw Izayoi’s neck was bent at an unnatural angle, encircled by the stray length of the driving reins she had been trying so hard to stay in control of.
The bile in his throat thickened so much that he didn’t even realize he was coughing until he had already bent over the ground, kneeling in such a way that aggravated his ribs even worse and made his stomach heave. He clawed at the strings of saliva he felt on his chin and lips, as if that could get rid of the pain that blinded him in that moment.
Then he heard Inuyasha’s cries again, and he stood up painfully, driven by some force that he couldn’t explain. “Inuyasha, come here. Quickly.”
The boy was still screaming, and Inu Taisho allowed himself one sob before he went to the surviving mare, still yanking against the yoke that still attached her to the coach. In a fit of rage he snapped the wood in his fists, throwing it as hard as he could against the ground before grabbing her bridle and leading her, prancing in terror, over to his son.
Without a word, he picked up the boy, who turned and wailed at him for pulling away from the body of his dead mother. He kicked and bit at his father, suddenly just as much an animal as he was human. Inu Taisho ignored the retalitation and sat his son on the horse’s back, which didn’t react other than to pivot around as Inu Taisho gripped her bridle.
“Inuyasha, you listen to me.” His voice felt sounded too high, too choked. “You run as fast as you can to Myoga’s place right now. Keep going south and you’ll recognize your surroundings. I’ll meet you there.”
The boy gripped one hand in the horse’s mane while using the other arm to wipe at his bloody and tear-stained face. He knew it was a lie just as much as his father did, but Inu Taisho would not see his son die like this. It was too late for Izayoi, but the boy would survive. He had too. “No! I won’t! I’m not leaving Mama or you!”
Inu Taisho was suddenly aware that the shots had stopped, probably because the men assumed they were sitting ducks. Perhaps he was, but his son wasn’t. “You listen to me, son. Go now. I’ll be fine. Your mother wouldn’t want you to stay.”
He lifted his hand, and he watched his son’s eyes widen as he realized what he was about to do. “Papa, no!”
Inu Taisho forced himself to keep his eyes open, wanting the face of his boy to be one of the last thing he ever saw. He would take his memory to the grave. “Be brave, Inuyasha.”
Inuyasha flinched at hearing the words of their native tongue roll off his father’s lips just as he brought his hand down hard against the horse’s flank. She squealed and whirled around, racing off with the boy on her back.
Inu Taisho didn’t watch him go, but instead turned to see the body of his wife still lying silently where she had been thrown. He was aware there were tears streaming down his cheeks, and he made no effort to stop them, letting them fall freely as he took in her eyes, still open and staring dully at the sky.
One of the last thoughts he had, as he turned to rush the mob of men who were screaming slurs at him, was of the touch of the human woman he had fallen in love with so many years ago. How light and passionate it had been, and how gentle.
As he felt the searing heat rip through his chest, he could almost imagine it was his wife’s hand brushing across his heart. It was beating so hard he couldn’t hear anything else.
But of course, it was a Fool’s Heart. A figment of his desperate imagination. Because that was all gentleness gave to you in the unforgiving west.
i blame @lojomojouniverse and you should too (im so sorry this is so bad and there’s so many mistakes i legit whipped it up on like 4 hours of sleep halp)
