“The Hot Hanyou”

By: M.W. Roach

Prologue: “Lords of the Bling”

1000 years ago (feudal time), a witch by the name Aratule, mother of Urasue, ran rampant throughout the Northern tip of Japan on the Continent. Her spells and creations destroyed many villages and taking hundreds of lives. She was also well known for her horrid tricks on people. One day, she went out and gathered the teeth of a male fire lizard, and the teeth of a female fire lizard. She made two bracelets, and bounded them together with the hide of a griffin. She put a spell on the bracelets; so that if the ties break, and the bracelets are separated, the souls whom wear them will switch bodies. If the two do not reunite the bracelets by the Lunar Eclipse, the souls will be trapped in each other’s bodies forever.

Finally, villagers grew tired of her tricks and destruction. She was captured and burned, along with all of her spells and potions. But, the bracelets remained hidden, and unharmed, for 1000 years.

(Feudal Era; 1000 years later)

Everyone was laid up for a week now, a terrible storm whipped through the trees. The icy rain battered all that were not sheltered. After another week, the storm died down, but not before doing a world of damage to all of feudal Japan and the Continent. Houses were blown away, villages were flooded, livestock had drowned and fallen trees were all the result of the devastating storm. The ground, too, was disturbed. In the center of a bear demon’s territory, the Fire Lizard bracelets had resurfaced.

Being that much of the forests had been completely destroyed, demons had to fight for what little territory was left. One bear demon in particular was searching for a new home. It wandered into the territory already occupied by one such as itself. The two met face to face, the bracelets between them. One bear gave an eardrum shattering roar. The occupant bear reared up on his hind legs, letting the other one know that he was not going to leave his home without a fight. The intruder happily accepted and charged. It stopped right before stepping on the bracelets and swiped the ground with it’s paw, throwing dirt in the other bear’s face. The intruder was unaware that it’s claw got caught on the griffin hide tie. It snapped and the bracelets each flew separate ways. One flew into a bush. The other was tossed into a clearing. The bears continued their fight. The occupant did not make a bluff charge as the intruder did, but tackled it to the ground and bit down hard on it’s neck. The intruder pushed the resident bear demon off, and ran away in search of a territory occupied by a smaller, weaker demon. Both demons were completely unaware of the trouble that they had just caused.