InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Transient Winds ❯ Hair ( Chapter 1 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Transient Winds

By; Kindnessofillusions

Chapter 1;Hair

--(((())))--

The jagged rocks dug deeply into the soles of her feet as she leaned closer to the edge on the stream to examine herself. The differences in her features were astounding. Gripping the handle of the small dagger tighter, she proceeded with the task at hand.

She clutched the last of the silky black strains and pulled them hard, jerking her head with a sharp gasp. The thin blade was sharpened to perfection and at first contact with the black mass of hair the blade tore through easily. Thus, she continued the task with ease.

Once the tresses that had so long been a part of her disconnected from their foundation, she cringed and drew away from the thin face that gawked back at her in those freezing waters.

It looked nothing of the beauty that she once was or that she was forced to be. Her hands began to shake uncontrollable as her grip on the small dagger tightened.

"I make my own destiny." She spoke the words, but she could not truly convey the meaning of them. When was it that she had a destiny, every made a destiny.

To escape was futile to her. She knew that she could not survive a night in wilderness. In her mind, the faint memories of her mother's solemn face, as she trailed her father's footsteps in silent obedience. She served him as a wife would, living discontented and dying the same.

At first sight of her future husband and lord, her stomach turned and she could feel the bile rise in her throat. Not that he was ugly. No, not at all. He was merely the spitting image of her father; even his very disposition was similar and she felt shameful when a frown of understanding and then a smile of approval graced the contorts of his face when he laid eyes on the young woman that she was.

"He will not have me," she lied to herself between clenched teeth and an uncertain heart. She gazed at the dark strains of hair as they danced between her fingers swayed by the midnight breeze.

She knew that her father wanted a son, yet her mother only supplied him with one daughter and no sons to count. For that simple reason she believed father to dislike her and in some instances he'd openly shunned her.

However, with the marriage to this powerful lord, she would take her place in her father's eyes. She would be the linkage connecting her father to power. He even called her his `gift' to the royal family. Certainly, it would do him good to become of their status.

But the daimyo was spoiled with power, though he held a calm demeanor in her presence. She was not certain about his views of women and she was too timid to ask. She had seen him slap the face of a peasant girl and kiss the cheek of a concubine. Was it all his image? Sure, there were classes and standards. She just did not understand where he drew the line for the distinction of the two.

He was experienced and she had not even had her first kiss, not even he was not allowed to
touch her before their wedding in a year, when she would reach the age of seventeen. For that she was grateful.

Her trepidation for that life was apparent to her the instant she fell to her knees beside the quietness of the narrow river. Glancing into the still water, she forced a startled gasp to return to her throat.

The sharpened dagger clanged against the rocks below. The sound falling on death ears as elegantly well kept fingers traced the many lengths of hair from her forehead to the back of her neck and back again. Her polished lips froze in a perfect O as if the sight before her was horrid.

In her mind though, it was and for a moment she scared herself, wondering of the woman that stared back at her through the waters, mangled strains of hair compliant on her head. She kneeled closer scrutinizing what was left. It wasn't until her nose touched the translucent surface and the ripples wrinkled the violet eyes staring back at her that she realized how close she was.

She drew back stunned at the realization of what she had just done.

It was… she tried to define her actions before lifting to her feet.

"Invigorating," she whispered aloud eyeing the woman in the waters. Lifting a much less burdensome head to the sky, she smiled at the light decoration of stars not hidden by the low clouds.

The moon is gone tonight, she noted. Thoughts of the lonely, poignant woman that smiled at her on her deathbed, whispering words of love to her only child, sent harrowing tremors down her spine.

She took in a breath of humid winter air as a refreshing breeze combed through the left over hair on her head, raking each strain softly. Tilting her chin upward, straightening her marked resolve, she turned on her heels to return to her father's dwellings.

--(((())))--

Words That May Help

Daimyo- Literal meaning“Big Name”;Samurai with superior revenues;Lords

Updates

Next week is my best guess. I don't want to give an exact date for fear of a promise that I can't keep. As the story moves on though, I will be more certain.

Disclaimer

I do not own any characters in the anime series Inuyasha by Rumiko Takahashi. Thus,I do own some of the character placed in this story.

Take Note

If you would like to ask questions about the story, feel free. I'll answer as many as I can. Oh, and chapters will not necessarily be this short throughout the story. This is only the beginning.

Thank You for Reading.