SLEEPING BEAUTY...-SDA-InuYasha POV
CHELSEA WELSH
It frightens me how easily humans and demons take things for granted. The changing seasons, their loved ones changing as they grow older, changes in skin tone and height...those things that passed unbenownst to me when I lay upright against my tree. For half a century I couldn't hear laughter or singing. I missed too many sunrises and sunsets. ...Kaede grew older and Kikyo was consumed by fire, laid to rest beneath a heavy stone. I never got to say goodbye.
My palm rests against the rough bark of my tree. I feel calmed by it, despite the memories that still haunt me. Her voice yelling my name, angry and rough and pained as she bled onto the forest floor, giving too many roots a taste of her final moments. And that hatred...I'll never forget the deeply rooted emotion in her eyes. I'd seen it so many times growing up. But from her, it made me ache.
Closing my eyes, I listen to the silence. No one has entered here in fifty years. The wind blows hotly through my hair, though I can't let myself relax. I haven't had a peaceful sleep since I woke up.
...I haven't been the same...