InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Once Upon an Inuyoukai ❯ Stolen Music ( Chapter 9 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Empatheia 
Waiting for Jaken's return, Izayoi makes some stew for dinner.
...Are you sure that green stuff is a good idea?
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Hentai / Romance | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 02.19.2006 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.9K | Visits: 255 | Status: Completed
Waiting for Jaken's return, Izayoi makes some stew for dinner.
...Are you sure that green stuff is a good idea?
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Hentai / Romance | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 02.19.2006 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.9K | Visits: 255 | Status: Completed
A/N-If you notice a grammatical mistake such as spelling or missed punctuation, please let me know, I hate having that kind of thing in my work. Poisons it. I'm a perfectionist, can you tell?
Haven't done one of these in a while- just to be safe I'd better. I don't own Inuyasha or anything to do with it, nor am I making any money from this. ...Out of curiousity, if this was a finished book, paperback, about three or four hundred pages, how much would you pay for it?
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
Chapte r IX: Stolen Music (I don't know why the muses want me to call it that- they just do.)
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
It was dark again. There was no storm tonight, something that made them both secretly relieved for Jaken and Ah-Un. They huddled in the cave, her bundled in furs and him stoically pretending he wasn't cold. Below them the castle continued its stilted death march, soulless and rotting from within. Even further below lay the barely restrained lake of frustrated mana, struggling to break free of whatever hold was keeping it mostly below ground. Despite the force of the storm of last night, it had been caused only by the small amount of mana that had managed to escape the underground medians. If the true fury of all the blocked mana were released, they would have been dead, barrier or no. Their narrow escape the night before could not actually be attributed to the shield, she'd realized earlier. It was truly the effects of the amulet that had saved them, which she had astoundingly forgotten all about. As they walked, it absorbed much of the surrounding mana, protecting them from the brunt of the seepage.
"So.... what are we going to do for three days?" she asked, feeling a little bit jittery at being alone in close quarters with a demon lord she was fast becoming attracted to. Ixnay! she thought frantically. Of course he's attractive, all taiyoukai are. Have you forgotten so quickly about...? she cut the thought off midsentence. Don't want to go there. Not going there!
"Wait?" He sounded as though he was unsure as to whether she was expecting a different answer.
VvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvV
Is she expecting a different answer? he wondered. It was only three days, barely an eyeblink to him. He'd slept longer than that before, if he had nothing else to do.
"You mean... just... sit here and do nothing? For three days?" Apparently she was. What to say now?
"Yes...?" Her face spread in a tragic expression of woe.
"Oh, kami," she muttered. "Three whole days..."
"Is this onerous to you?"
"Three days is a long time!" she cried. He stared at her. Perhaps because she was human? Did three days seem so long to her because her total lifespan was so much shorter than his?
"Find something to occupy yourself, then."
"What will you do?" He leaned back, shutting his eyes.
"Sleep." She threw up her hands.
"I'm going to look for some food. I feel like stew."
"Do not go out of earshot. Remember that we are in enemy territory." He didn't have to look to know she was rolling her eyes.
"I'm not an idiot. I'm not going further than a quarter ri, thank you for your concern." When he didn't reply, she ducked out of the cave into the darkness.
VvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvV
She stared around at the bewildering natural garden.
Who could've guessed that a difference of a few hundred ri would so drastically change the resident plant life? Hardly any of it looked familiar. In the flickering light of her makeshift reed torch, so scrutinized a low-growing spreading green crawler. It looked a lot like a plant from home that was delicious in stew.
Probably the same family, she speculated, and cut some off.
She continued that way for a while, finding plants that looked somewhat familiar and collecting them. It was perhaps not the wisest thing, but she was hungry and very sick of dried fish. Nor were her thinking processes at their clearest- the occasional tendril of mana that was curling up from below had a numbing effect on her mind, dulling the edges of her thoughts. And the air was so soft... and fuzzy... In any case, she was less than cautious in her gathering.
Perhaps that's why she missed the mistweed that slipped into her basket with the wild leek.
VvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvV
He woke to the rich aroma of stew. She had a fire going, and a neat tripod held a pot she'd hidden somewhere in the packs full of bubbling green liquid. She sat with one eye on it, drinking a bowlful down. As he watched, eyes half-lidded, she got another bowlful and downed it. "Are you going to share?" he inquired, making her jump.
"Of course!" she said cheerily, eyes strangely dilated. His brow crinkled. Something was amiss. He sat up and ladled himself a bowlful, lifting it to his lips. It smelled... off.
"What is in this?"
She shrugged, the expression on her face bordering on maniacal. His hackles raised. "I don't know, some green stuff and some other green stuff. And some dried fish, and rice."
His eyes widened incredulously. "You made a stew of strange plants and did not test it? I thought you claimed not to be stupid!"
She drew herself up unsteadily. "Hey, they looked just like the ones I used to cook with at home. They taste funny though." She giggled, and the offness clicked into place.
"Of course they do," he grated, "this is mistweed you utter idiot." She cocked her head at him, and giggled again. He clenched his fists, breathing very deeply. The little fool had managed to get herself intoxicated on a hallucinogenic weed without him noticing, and the three days had hardly even begun yet. How could she be so...oh. He noticed then the dusty scent of the air and spotted the tiny drifting fluffballs. Damn, I suppose I cannot blame her when the damn plant is sporing. She would have inhaled them while picking already. No wonder she did not notice. She was swaying and singing quietly to herself in a pleasant clear alto now, alternating lines of song with gulps of soup.
"S'good," she slurred, eyes unfocused. "Mistweed, you say? Gotta remember that."
He snatched the bowl away, earning a muzzy protest from the drunken woman. "That's enough, you little idiot. Any more and you will faint." She laughed like he'd said the funniest thing she'd ever heard. Then suddenly, her laughter cut off with startling abruptness.
"Do you like me?" The question was sudden, and more serious than she had any right to be while full of mistweed soup.
He scratched around the corners of his brain for an answer, but as it turned out, he did not need one. All the talking would be on her side tonight, it seemed.
"I like you. I'm not sure why. I don't like demons anymore." She flung her arm out, clumsily smacking his shoulder. "All they do is hurt people. Why do you all want to hurt us humans? We liked you, in the beginning, I think." She was rambling, but he let her talk, stunned to silence by her admission. "He hurt me," she said, quietly.
"Who?" he choked out, throat closed.
"Ryuunomei-sama," she said matter-of-factly. He flashed back to her nightmare, the shrieking agony and heart-wrenching wails. Perhaps he was at last about to learn the truth of that incident.
"Why?" Her eyes welled.
"I don't know!" she wailed, disconsolate and very, very drunk. "All my life," she gulped, "I served him faithfully. I was a good hostage, in the beginning, and then later, I Saw for him and saved him so many times. Everything I had, I gave to him. I suppose," and she paused for a moment, wonderment in her eyes, "I loved him, a little... perhaps more than just a little. He was my lord, I idolized him. Then one day... he changed." She inhaled deeply, apparently searching for calm. "Why am I telling you this? I haven't told anyone this."
"I do not know."
"I should stop."
"If you wish." Truth be told, he was curious now about the 'change' in his ancient rival, but he would never, ever admit that to a human. Inferior or not. Thankfully, he did not have to. She continued.
"No... I want to talk about it now. It's far enough behind me now, and for some reason I trust you."
His eyebrow raised, but then he paused. Was her trust truly misplaced? Somehow, he no longer felt that it was. Perhaps the slippery slope had not waited for his decision before shifting until he fell helplessly.
"One day, he started calling me beautiful, like he did his wives, and touching my hair like it was precious to him. I loved him so, and so I was glad of his attention. For a long time, it continued like that. But then... he started to touch me where he shouldn't. But I loved him, so I said nothing." She sat before the fire, opposite him, and stared unblinkingly into the flames. "For years he did this, and I grew to like it less and less, but I was accustomed and still said nothing. Then... he went too far. He brought me back to his chambers and... did things. Things that hurt, things I didn't want. I begged and screamed but he ignored me and kept on hurting me. When he was done, he told me to say nothing or he'd... he'd... kill my father." Tears poured down, golden in the firelight.
Inutaisho sat cold and furious. This was a side of his enemy he'd known nothing of.
"Afterwards, he'd sometimes call me back to his rooms and do the things again. The older I grew, the less gentle he was. Sometimes he left bruises. Once he broke my arm. I told my father I'd fallen." Her hand unconsciously rubbed her left forearm in memory. "As the years went by, he called me less and less often, until I thought he'd forgotten me, and I was glad. Then, a year ago, he called me back after two years of never touching me. It was the worst yet. He was angry about something, and took it out on me. When he was finished, I was a bleeding mess. He knew that nobody would believe me if I said I'd 'fallen,' and so he decided to get rid of me. He made me swallow the amulet and took me far into the Western Lands. Then he left me there, alone and wounded, and told me never to come back if I valued my father's life. He had me write a letter saying I'd eloped with my lover from the court. I had no lover." It was eerie, how the tears ran down in utter silence while she spoke, flat and unemotional.
"I spent the next nine months wandering the Western Lands, staying in one place until they discovered my mystical talents and drove me out, or a raid demolished whatever town I was in. That was when you found me." She looked up at him, eyes deep and sorrowful. "I almost hoped you would kill me. But I never meant for the others to be harmed. I'm so glad you didn't take me up on the offer I implied." She looked away, ashamed. "I'm such a coward."
"No, you are not." He hadn't even realized he'd spoken until after the words hung in the air. "What was done to you is abominable. Ryuunomei is already a dead man walking, but I think I shall kill him a little extra for this." The force of his cold anger stunned him. She was only human. But somehow it was hard to remember that 'human' and 'youkai' meant different things when her eyes met his, diving as deeply as possible, perhaps looking for something to give her hope. Whether or not she found it, he did not know, for in a twinkling the pain in her face vanished, locked away again in its dark little corner of her brain. A falsely bright expression pasted itself over her real one.
"Sing for me!" He only looked at her. "Come on, I want to dance. Sing for me!" When she saw that no song was forthcoming, she pursed her lips and stood up unsteadily. "Fine then. Be that way. I'll sing for myself." And sing she did, clear and tuneful despite her intoxication and the pain that still echoed around her. And as she sang, she danced.
The flickering firelight created the illusion that she wasn't remaining entirely within the form of her body, like her spirit was flickering out beyond the borders of her flesh. The pain was in there, but only as a facet of the whole. It was dizzying, and mesmerizing. He watched. Her arms floated like live things, undulating serpentine through the thick air of the cavern. Her legs, invisible beneath the night-black hakama, seemed to float, never quite touching the stone but always moving. He watched. That heavy curtain of sable silk seemed light as moonbeams as she spun, ebbing and flowing about her head in a midnight tide. It did not seem strange to think her beautiful, not now. She was so graceful. It was only natural. Her lashes lay thick and dark on her cheek as she danced blindly, dangerously close to the fire but always seeming to know where it was. It became a prop in the story her limbs were telling, a supporting player. He watched, and the slippery slope was there again, waiting for his decision. Still he stood wavering. Mai... what about Mai... my love, beloved, Mai, Mai, Mai...
Izayoi.
And at long last, he understood what his beloved mate had seen in the humans in her last few centuries. What she had seen that had made her defend them, fight for them, even love them. This was what she had seen- the light of life burned brighter in those whose lives were shorter. The woman in green before him showed him, swaying motion by gentle smile, why humans were not inferior. He looked at the slope again and decided. The beckoning darkness would win its long battle with his ingrown code, the pathway he'd rutted himself into. But not yet. He would not step off yet. Not until...not until... he wasn't sure what the breaking point would be, but now was not the time and so- he resisted.
I will. I will remember truth, and pain. But not now. Now, all he wanted was to watch Izayoi dance.
He watched her dance for hours. She was inexhaustible, at sharp odds with her earlier state of depletion. It was almost as if dancing rejuvenated her, and perhaps it did. The longer she danced, the more alive she seemed. Her gentle voice grew stronger and clearer, pure and haunting as its dance within a dance curled in his ears. Time seemed a silly thing, a mortal invention that meant little and affected less. In the small cave above the dying castle, she danced in the firelight forever.
And when her dance was done, she laid next to him and it was all right. He fell asleep with her filling the hollow in his side, and she slept with a hollow to sleep in. There were no more decisions that night.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
Thanks to all who reviewed last chapter. I'll be thanking you in my LiveJournal, and I've probably already replied to your review directly. I told you- I love my reviewers very much, so I thank them in several different places on different occasions. I'm going to go drink a bottle of wine now and continue to write, so don't be surprised if the next chapter sounds a little like rambling. May you all live in the joy beyond the pain.
Haven't done one of these in a while- just to be safe I'd better. I don't own Inuyasha or anything to do with it, nor am I making any money from this. ...Out of curiousity, if this was a finished book, paperback, about three or four hundred pages, how much would you pay for it?
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
Chapte r IX: Stolen Music (I don't know why the muses want me to call it that- they just do.)
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
It was dark again. There was no storm tonight, something that made them both secretly relieved for Jaken and Ah-Un. They huddled in the cave, her bundled in furs and him stoically pretending he wasn't cold. Below them the castle continued its stilted death march, soulless and rotting from within. Even further below lay the barely restrained lake of frustrated mana, struggling to break free of whatever hold was keeping it mostly below ground. Despite the force of the storm of last night, it had been caused only by the small amount of mana that had managed to escape the underground medians. If the true fury of all the blocked mana were released, they would have been dead, barrier or no. Their narrow escape the night before could not actually be attributed to the shield, she'd realized earlier. It was truly the effects of the amulet that had saved them, which she had astoundingly forgotten all about. As they walked, it absorbed much of the surrounding mana, protecting them from the brunt of the seepage.
"So.... what are we going to do for three days?" she asked, feeling a little bit jittery at being alone in close quarters with a demon lord she was fast becoming attracted to. Ixnay! she thought frantically. Of course he's attractive, all taiyoukai are. Have you forgotten so quickly about...? she cut the thought off midsentence. Don't want to go there. Not going there!
"Wait?" He sounded as though he was unsure as to whether she was expecting a different answer.
VvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvV
Is she expecting a different answer? he wondered. It was only three days, barely an eyeblink to him. He'd slept longer than that before, if he had nothing else to do.
"You mean... just... sit here and do nothing? For three days?" Apparently she was. What to say now?
"Yes...?" Her face spread in a tragic expression of woe.
"Oh, kami," she muttered. "Three whole days..."
"Is this onerous to you?"
"Three days is a long time!" she cried. He stared at her. Perhaps because she was human? Did three days seem so long to her because her total lifespan was so much shorter than his?
"Find something to occupy yourself, then."
"What will you do?" He leaned back, shutting his eyes.
"Sleep." She threw up her hands.
"I'm going to look for some food. I feel like stew."
"Do not go out of earshot. Remember that we are in enemy territory." He didn't have to look to know she was rolling her eyes.
"I'm not an idiot. I'm not going further than a quarter ri, thank you for your concern." When he didn't reply, she ducked out of the cave into the darkness.
VvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvV
She stared around at the bewildering natural garden.
Who could've guessed that a difference of a few hundred ri would so drastically change the resident plant life? Hardly any of it looked familiar. In the flickering light of her makeshift reed torch, so scrutinized a low-growing spreading green crawler. It looked a lot like a plant from home that was delicious in stew.
Probably the same family, she speculated, and cut some off.
She continued that way for a while, finding plants that looked somewhat familiar and collecting them. It was perhaps not the wisest thing, but she was hungry and very sick of dried fish. Nor were her thinking processes at their clearest- the occasional tendril of mana that was curling up from below had a numbing effect on her mind, dulling the edges of her thoughts. And the air was so soft... and fuzzy... In any case, she was less than cautious in her gathering.
Perhaps that's why she missed the mistweed that slipped into her basket with the wild leek.
VvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvV
He woke to the rich aroma of stew. She had a fire going, and a neat tripod held a pot she'd hidden somewhere in the packs full of bubbling green liquid. She sat with one eye on it, drinking a bowlful down. As he watched, eyes half-lidded, she got another bowlful and downed it. "Are you going to share?" he inquired, making her jump.
"Of course!" she said cheerily, eyes strangely dilated. His brow crinkled. Something was amiss. He sat up and ladled himself a bowlful, lifting it to his lips. It smelled... off.
"What is in this?"
She shrugged, the expression on her face bordering on maniacal. His hackles raised. "I don't know, some green stuff and some other green stuff. And some dried fish, and rice."
His eyes widened incredulously. "You made a stew of strange plants and did not test it? I thought you claimed not to be stupid!"
She drew herself up unsteadily. "Hey, they looked just like the ones I used to cook with at home. They taste funny though." She giggled, and the offness clicked into place.
"Of course they do," he grated, "this is mistweed you utter idiot." She cocked her head at him, and giggled again. He clenched his fists, breathing very deeply. The little fool had managed to get herself intoxicated on a hallucinogenic weed without him noticing, and the three days had hardly even begun yet. How could she be so...oh. He noticed then the dusty scent of the air and spotted the tiny drifting fluffballs. Damn, I suppose I cannot blame her when the damn plant is sporing. She would have inhaled them while picking already. No wonder she did not notice. She was swaying and singing quietly to herself in a pleasant clear alto now, alternating lines of song with gulps of soup.
"S'good," she slurred, eyes unfocused. "Mistweed, you say? Gotta remember that."
He snatched the bowl away, earning a muzzy protest from the drunken woman. "That's enough, you little idiot. Any more and you will faint." She laughed like he'd said the funniest thing she'd ever heard. Then suddenly, her laughter cut off with startling abruptness.
"Do you like me?" The question was sudden, and more serious than she had any right to be while full of mistweed soup.
He scratched around the corners of his brain for an answer, but as it turned out, he did not need one. All the talking would be on her side tonight, it seemed.
"I like you. I'm not sure why. I don't like demons anymore." She flung her arm out, clumsily smacking his shoulder. "All they do is hurt people. Why do you all want to hurt us humans? We liked you, in the beginning, I think." She was rambling, but he let her talk, stunned to silence by her admission. "He hurt me," she said, quietly.
"Who?" he choked out, throat closed.
"Ryuunomei-sama," she said matter-of-factly. He flashed back to her nightmare, the shrieking agony and heart-wrenching wails. Perhaps he was at last about to learn the truth of that incident.
"Why?" Her eyes welled.
"I don't know!" she wailed, disconsolate and very, very drunk. "All my life," she gulped, "I served him faithfully. I was a good hostage, in the beginning, and then later, I Saw for him and saved him so many times. Everything I had, I gave to him. I suppose," and she paused for a moment, wonderment in her eyes, "I loved him, a little... perhaps more than just a little. He was my lord, I idolized him. Then one day... he changed." She inhaled deeply, apparently searching for calm. "Why am I telling you this? I haven't told anyone this."
"I do not know."
"I should stop."
"If you wish." Truth be told, he was curious now about the 'change' in his ancient rival, but he would never, ever admit that to a human. Inferior or not. Thankfully, he did not have to. She continued.
"No... I want to talk about it now. It's far enough behind me now, and for some reason I trust you."
His eyebrow raised, but then he paused. Was her trust truly misplaced? Somehow, he no longer felt that it was. Perhaps the slippery slope had not waited for his decision before shifting until he fell helplessly.
"One day, he started calling me beautiful, like he did his wives, and touching my hair like it was precious to him. I loved him so, and so I was glad of his attention. For a long time, it continued like that. But then... he started to touch me where he shouldn't. But I loved him, so I said nothing." She sat before the fire, opposite him, and stared unblinkingly into the flames. "For years he did this, and I grew to like it less and less, but I was accustomed and still said nothing. Then... he went too far. He brought me back to his chambers and... did things. Things that hurt, things I didn't want. I begged and screamed but he ignored me and kept on hurting me. When he was done, he told me to say nothing or he'd... he'd... kill my father." Tears poured down, golden in the firelight.
Inutaisho sat cold and furious. This was a side of his enemy he'd known nothing of.
"Afterwards, he'd sometimes call me back to his rooms and do the things again. The older I grew, the less gentle he was. Sometimes he left bruises. Once he broke my arm. I told my father I'd fallen." Her hand unconsciously rubbed her left forearm in memory. "As the years went by, he called me less and less often, until I thought he'd forgotten me, and I was glad. Then, a year ago, he called me back after two years of never touching me. It was the worst yet. He was angry about something, and took it out on me. When he was finished, I was a bleeding mess. He knew that nobody would believe me if I said I'd 'fallen,' and so he decided to get rid of me. He made me swallow the amulet and took me far into the Western Lands. Then he left me there, alone and wounded, and told me never to come back if I valued my father's life. He had me write a letter saying I'd eloped with my lover from the court. I had no lover." It was eerie, how the tears ran down in utter silence while she spoke, flat and unemotional.
"I spent the next nine months wandering the Western Lands, staying in one place until they discovered my mystical talents and drove me out, or a raid demolished whatever town I was in. That was when you found me." She looked up at him, eyes deep and sorrowful. "I almost hoped you would kill me. But I never meant for the others to be harmed. I'm so glad you didn't take me up on the offer I implied." She looked away, ashamed. "I'm such a coward."
"No, you are not." He hadn't even realized he'd spoken until after the words hung in the air. "What was done to you is abominable. Ryuunomei is already a dead man walking, but I think I shall kill him a little extra for this." The force of his cold anger stunned him. She was only human. But somehow it was hard to remember that 'human' and 'youkai' meant different things when her eyes met his, diving as deeply as possible, perhaps looking for something to give her hope. Whether or not she found it, he did not know, for in a twinkling the pain in her face vanished, locked away again in its dark little corner of her brain. A falsely bright expression pasted itself over her real one.
"Sing for me!" He only looked at her. "Come on, I want to dance. Sing for me!" When she saw that no song was forthcoming, she pursed her lips and stood up unsteadily. "Fine then. Be that way. I'll sing for myself." And sing she did, clear and tuneful despite her intoxication and the pain that still echoed around her. And as she sang, she danced.
The flickering firelight created the illusion that she wasn't remaining entirely within the form of her body, like her spirit was flickering out beyond the borders of her flesh. The pain was in there, but only as a facet of the whole. It was dizzying, and mesmerizing. He watched. Her arms floated like live things, undulating serpentine through the thick air of the cavern. Her legs, invisible beneath the night-black hakama, seemed to float, never quite touching the stone but always moving. He watched. That heavy curtain of sable silk seemed light as moonbeams as she spun, ebbing and flowing about her head in a midnight tide. It did not seem strange to think her beautiful, not now. She was so graceful. It was only natural. Her lashes lay thick and dark on her cheek as she danced blindly, dangerously close to the fire but always seeming to know where it was. It became a prop in the story her limbs were telling, a supporting player. He watched, and the slippery slope was there again, waiting for his decision. Still he stood wavering. Mai... what about Mai... my love, beloved, Mai, Mai, Mai...
Izayoi.
And at long last, he understood what his beloved mate had seen in the humans in her last few centuries. What she had seen that had made her defend them, fight for them, even love them. This was what she had seen- the light of life burned brighter in those whose lives were shorter. The woman in green before him showed him, swaying motion by gentle smile, why humans were not inferior. He looked at the slope again and decided. The beckoning darkness would win its long battle with his ingrown code, the pathway he'd rutted himself into. But not yet. He would not step off yet. Not until...not until... he wasn't sure what the breaking point would be, but now was not the time and so- he resisted.
I will. I will remember truth, and pain. But not now. Now, all he wanted was to watch Izayoi dance.
He watched her dance for hours. She was inexhaustible, at sharp odds with her earlier state of depletion. It was almost as if dancing rejuvenated her, and perhaps it did. The longer she danced, the more alive she seemed. Her gentle voice grew stronger and clearer, pure and haunting as its dance within a dance curled in his ears. Time seemed a silly thing, a mortal invention that meant little and affected less. In the small cave above the dying castle, she danced in the firelight forever.
And when her dance was done, she laid next to him and it was all right. He fell asleep with her filling the hollow in his side, and she slept with a hollow to sleep in. There were no more decisions that night.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
Thanks to all who reviewed last chapter. I'll be thanking you in my LiveJournal, and I've probably already replied to your review directly. I told you- I love my reviewers very much, so I thank them in several different places on different occasions. I'm going to go drink a bottle of wine now and continue to write, so don't be surprised if the next chapter sounds a little like rambling. May you all live in the joy beyond the pain.