Shards of Light: I really should fire my muse. She gives me NOTHING on Snake Bite, and this just flows out!
Muse: Hey! You wrote this in three hours didn't you?
Me: 'glares at muse' There is that, but I still need to give you a name.
Muse: Huh?
Me: 'evil grin' So I can use my awesome authoress powers on you.
Muse: 'recoils in horror' B-but . . .
Me: 'shrugs' It's either that or exchange you for someone with an actual work ethic.
Inu Yasha: No one cares! Get on with it already!
Muse: . . .Uh oh . . .
Me: 'twitching' I told you to make sure they weren't here.
Muse: Yeah, well-
Me: 'starts strangling muse'
Inu Yasha: I'll just do the disclaimer.
Disclaimer: Shards of Light does not own me or anything affiliated with me. Thank all the gods there are.
Me: 'looks up from strangling muse' Wait a second. You know what 'affiliated' means? Oh, never mind! Just go away! I have enough problems as it is!
Inu Yasha: Again, NO ONE CARES! Just do the story!
Reflections of a Demon
In his more lucid moments, he wondered where he had gone wrong.
He had just wanted to be a demon. He had grown tired of always being weaker. Weaker than his father. Weaker than his brother. Weaker than the miko.
Oh, he had especially hated being weaker than the miko.
No matter how many times he attempted to steal the Shikon Jewel, she always disregarded the numerous opportunities to kill him, always settling for a less forceful dissuasion. She claimed they shared a bond. Eventually he came to have a grudging respect for her.
Over time, his grudging respect for the miko deepened to reluctant friendship. That friendship was the only reason he didn't kill her the first time she suggested he use the Shikon Jewel to become human; he merely looked away and declared that humans were too fragile and died too easily.
The miko winced, saying nothing in the return. It had been a monstrously insensitive remark, even for him; bandits had invaded the village just last week, attempting to steal the Jewel. They hadn't succeeded, but before they were driven away, they had killed some of the villagers, including the miko's younger sister. He felt a rush of guilt upon seeing her pained expression, but it was not strong enough for him to apologize.
As summer faded into autumn, he felt his friendship with her turning into faint stirrings of something stronger.
Love.
When she asked again that sunset on the river, for the first time in his life, he answered with his heart. He told her yes, ignoring the protests and objections his mind dreamed up. He would become human for her. He would give up the only life he had ever known for her.
She agreed to bring him the Shikon Jewel, albeit at a certain time and place. However, before he could go to meet her, she came to meet him. Her bow was strung, an arrow on the string. An arrow aimed at him.
She missed him; he really had thought her a better shot than that. Infuriated by her betrayal, he attacked the village, determined that if she would not give him the Jewel willingly, he would take it by force. The logic of his anger-clouded mind proclaimed that her professed wish for him to become human was a lie, nothing more than a clever ploy to finally eliminate the constant threat of his existence.
In that moment, the first faint feelings of love in his heart changed irrevocably to bitterest hate.
Although he did succeed in stealing the Jewel, before he more than grazed the edge of the forest, an arrow pierced his heart, driving him back against a tree. He cursed himself for not scenting her earlier, even as he cursed himself for not keeping hold of the Jewel. As the blackness ate away at his vision, he took a perverse satisfaction in seeing her collapse. A few seconds later he took one last shuddering breath and his eyes dulled and finally closed.
It seemed only a minute's passing when he suddenly awoke, eyes snapping open, bound to the tree with vines as well as arrow. He growled ferally, scenting her nearby. In fact, he positively reeked of her scent. He snorted in disgust.
Then, she ran into the clearing, in strange dress and panting heavily. A centipede demon followed her, crying to be given the Shikon Jewel. He snarled. The Jewel was his, not this demon's!
The little miko stumbled and looked up at him, shocked when he not only looked back, but grinned. He taunted her, telling her to dispose of the centipede as she had done away with him.
Her look of confusion turned instantly to fury. She had opened her mouth, a scathing remark on the tip of her tongue, when the centipede bit her. Her eyes blazing with anger became glazed with pain and shock. She fell against him, blood spurting out her side. Blood . . . and the Shikon Jewel.
Every instinct he possessed cried out for him to reach out that scant distance and grasp the Jewel. However, that option was vetoed when the centipede wrapped its body around the tree, pinning her to him. Besides, he had discovered he couldn't move, anyway.
Staring as the centipede engulfed the Jewel, his Jewel, he quietly asked her if she could pull out the arrow. As the villagers, finally arriving, cajoled her to under no circumstances do what he asked, she glanced up at him, fear rampant in her soft brown eyes.
Slowly, as if gaining strength from his gaze, her eyes filled with fiery determination. She reached for it tentatively, hesitating briefly when she heard the villagers' declarations that he would kill them all. However, her hand resumed movement after he asked snappishly if everyone would rather be eaten by the centipede.
Grasping the arrow shaft firmly, she gave it a swift tug, yanking the arrow from its resting place in his heart, causing it to disappear in a flash of pink light. He growled in triumph as he felt movement return to his limbs. The vines retracted from his body, cringing away from his released youki.
He slashed the centipede to pieces with a single swipe of his claws, yet he could see the demon reforming its body even as he turned to tell her to remove the Shikon Jewel from the still quivering hunk of flesh it was entombed in. However, as he completed his turn, he was surprised to see her reach unflinchingly through the blood and gore to pluck out the Jewel, staring at it in soft wonder.
She received one concession for releasing him from the tree; he asked her for it first. Amid shouts of violent negation from the villagers, she shook her head slowly, a trace of confusion present in her expression. She pronounced that the potential for misuse was too great if the Jewel should fall into the wrong hands, namely, his.
He growled in annoyance and demanded the Jewel again, threatening that he would use all force necessary to obtain it. When she still shook her head in refusal, he demonstrated his determination. He jumped at her and casually swept his claws at her general area, deliberately missing. She blinked at the five deep furroughs in the ground, her eyes widening in astonishment.
He smirked, promising that next time he wouldn't miss. When she ran, he jumped after her, chasing her through the brush. She managed to elude him for a good half-hour, but she finally tripped jumping over a fallen rotting tree trunk, twisting her ankle.
Unfortunately, he had already started his attack before he cleared the log, catching her across the chest. Her leg had partially blocked the strike; she was in a sitting position with her leg raised in front of her, examining her ankle. The cuts were not deep and bled only sluggishly, but she fainted as he reached to seize the Jewel from her hand.
He hesitated, torn. Despite who she was and what she had done to him, he felt a sense of obligation towards her. After pondering for a moment, he decided to return her to her village so her wounds could be treated. However, since he wasn't quite sure where her village was, he briefly sniffed her clothes to get his bearings.
And frowned. He inhaled deeper this time, but there was no mistake about it. Her clothes smelled of smoke, rotting wood, soil, blood, and one more underlying thing.
Demon bones.
Only one thing in the immediate area had a scent like that, the Bone Eater's well. She had been either in or living near the well for some time, judging from the way the scent permeated her clothes. He decided that there would be as good a place as any to drop her off. He picked her up and, placing the Shikon Jewel in his pocket, carried her to the well. He jumped into the well, gently placed her on the floor, and jumped back out, disregarding the blue glow that chased his heels to the very edge of the well before retreating. He then raced off deeper into the forest to contemplate his prize.
He made his request of the Jewel that very night, wishing to become a full demon. Under the light of the waxing crescent moon, his claws and fangs lengthened; his eyes turned blood red; his hair grew longer and wilder; finally, two violet stripes appeared on his face, tracing his cheekbones.
Also, the Shikon Jewel became as dark as the space between stars.
He had kept it on his person since that night. Several demons, humans, and even a pathetic hanyou had attempted to take his jewel, but he had killed them before they stole so much as a glance of it. He had laughed while they died in anguish. Laughed.
His personality had changed, becoming more violent; his sanity was fleeting at best. In those rare moments, he would take out the Jewel and stare at it, roll it around his hands, admire its pearly gray color. Silently wish he had done things differently.
For at night, she invaded his dreams. Her lustrous hair and shining brown eyes haunted him. Occasionally, another person graced his slumber: a woman in demon slayer armor, a man in the garb of a Buddhist monk, even a young kitsune. The foolish hanyou he had killed some time ago made sporadic appearances.
What amazed him the most about the dreams was the fact that he was distinctly content, even happy in them. The closest he had come to being happy in years was that twilight on the river, but even that was tarnished because of the betrayal associated with it.
No, that wasn't quite true.
In his more lucid moments, he wondered where he had gone wrong.
However, in his increasingly frequent base, soulless moments, he joyed in blood and sorrow, death and slaughter. That caused him happiness in his current state.
The man he once was mourned the loss of his morals, his conscience, his emotions, his very soul.
The demon he now was only laughed and called for more blood and lives.
Shards of Light: Well, that's it! The end. Please review. Oh, and this will remain a one shot, for now.
Muse: 'shudders in fear' Please, don't flame. You won't like what happens. If you must say the story is terrible, offer good reasons for why you feel like that and offer suggestions for improvement. Oh, and Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, winter solstice, whatever it is you celebrate.
Me: I hope to update Snake Bite before New Years, so check it then. After that, I'm not sure when I'll be able to update because my sister got some bad grades last quarter, and my mom's going to lock us out of the computer. 'groans' It's most uncool. So. . . till next time!