[i]Eight Years Prior...[/i]

Running wildly through the thick underbrush of a small forest, a small dark brown puppy panted in exertion and terror as it tried to escape it's pursuer. It was dark here, and the nameless pup did not like it in one bit, the shadows no doubt hiding powerful and malicious monsters he was far too young and weak to face alone. He had already been wounded by one of his predators and thick, warm blood flowed from his soft tummy at an alarming rate. He had lost his mamma, would he loose himself as well? No, he did not want to die!

Tears gathered in golden eyes as, with the desperate strength of the dying, the young inumimi suddenly dodged a grasping clawed paw that was aiming for his unprotected furry side and ducked under a low root, his assailant momentarily stuck by his maneuver and crashing into the big oak tree nearby. He had been more or less lucky so far, but the young yokai knew that if he did not escape soon and find help, he would die alone and consumed by the various evil spirits populating this forsaken forest.

Praying with all his pure soul and spirit for an escape from his despicable fate, his tearful but silent prayer was answered, but not before he was sent flying into a patch of wild roses a few meters before him with a strong youki filled roar that shook the trees and plants and sent both the young puppy and many debris away from the powerful source of the bellow. Using his last strength to escape his entangling and sharp new prison, the unnamed dog youkai sprinted away from his pursuers.

As it was, it seemed that the way gave birth to a small trail and, with the last strength he still possessed and a faint but reinvigorating hope in his tiny heart, the brown ball of fur, claws and fangs sprinted toward the dawning sun visible through the heavy thicket of various plants and roots littering the soft and rather grassy earth below his paws. Pain racked his diminutive body, and with the last of his strength he broke free of his verdant tomb. He was free, but his lifeblood still spilled hopelessly from his body.

'So... that's it for me, then?' He thought to himself, a grimace of anguished agony twisting his little canine face. 'Will... will I see mamma again, then?' As he thought that last comforting thought, he saw some hope for salvaging his life, a small boy was playing nearby.

Half crawling, half limping on his three good legs, the young puppy uttered the most pathetic howl he had ever let slip his maw, hoping beyond reason that he would be heard... and saved. With that done, he fell into unconsciousness...