Disclaimer: I do not own Inu Yasha or any of its characters. The rightful owners do.
Author's Note: Originally, I had written this as part of my contribution for my school's yearly magazine. That is excluding the Inu Yasha part, of course. Since I had written this with me in mind as the protagonist as I have raven hair, I thought I should give it a try to post this as a fanfic. And as Kagome relates to the same-hair-color part, I decided to write this as an Inu Yasha fanfic. I hope I did a good job on this…
Acknowledgements: i. This is for my former English teacher who deemed this plot not fit enough for the school magazine and gave me very cheap excuses for not publishing it. I know she'll never get to see this. But nonetheless, I'm at peace.
ii. Thousands of heartfelt thanks to Javelinia777 who was so gracious to offer me her beta services and also for putting up with my writing and guiding me. Miss Javelinia, I really owe you one!
Meanings: Yuugure= 'dim light of the early evening'. It might as well be regarded as 'Twilight' in English.
I lay in the lush, green meadow in the midst of nature's calm epicene where the place was so beautiful and exuding such fascinating charm that I wouldn't actually be surprised if I should find a shy Dryad peeking at me from behind any of the trees; the place I was in ought to have been in the illustrated pages of an epic fairytale. But unfortunately, it was not the kind of scene that belonged there in the Japanese Feudal Era which was filled with monsters and the like, into which I was being called forth by my destiny.
I was lying on the mouth of the earth on my stomach with my elbows propped up, and my chin resting on the back of my folded palm. My legs which were up in the air were crossed at the ankles in a relaxing posture. As the clearing of the meadow was cut at the horizon, my point of view was directly facing the west thus giving me a large view of the evening sky as it was then.
The setting of the sky from where I sat could have been just the perfect portrait crafted by an ancient painter. If I had just taken a snap of it then and hung it in the walls of art gallery or in a museum back in Tokyo in the modern time where I belong, and boast it to be the masterpiece of a renowned historic painter, as a considered 'relic' of art lovers, I'm sure that it would fetch millions.
The sky with its vast palette of colors was an absolute treat to both my eyes and my heart. If I should have imagined the vast expanse above me to be a canvas, I should say that I could find every other dark hue ready to mingle with the light ones and take over them. The tints of the light colors—the orange, yellow, red, gold and other colors from the day, were mixed into this palette with the dark blotches of the nocturnal colors—black, cloud black, hints of purple, dark blue, violet, indigo and traces of smoky grey here and there.
The view seemed complete with the background set together having the pasture greens of the earthy meadow below and the light sky above, which was being absorbed by the darkness. The wide line of the horizon was even along the path of the sky, almost touching. If a child were to look at that, he might think of a race ensuing between the two elements and that sight made me want to believe for a brief moment that the earth itself was attached to the sky.
The sky was beginning to darken, one shade following the other and the process was slow and natural. After all, Mother Nature sure has all the time in the world for herself. I, too, took my time and began to observe my surroundings. The birds above, the woodland animals nearby and even the tiny ants: I noticed that every other creature was scurrying about; they were all bustling and seemed to retire from their day's activities now that the bright rays of the sun had begun to dull.
With the darkness eating into them, the rich rays of the setting sun were slowly crumbling away. The colors of the day began to disappear from the lovely mixture of the palette in the sky, leaving the darkest of hues to rule over. Another day was coming to an end and I felt sad.
I stopped being lachrymose and consoled myself by dwelling on the fact that the same routine had been taking place ever since the birth of the Earth. I stretched a little and hummed a low tune to myself to kill some time before I watched the glowing stars take their turn to shine in the everlasting sky which was dark by then.
After I had exulted upon the lovely scene above me and paid attention to what was going on around me, I noticed that my surroundings gave off an eerie feel to me; the small animals, with whose company I felt complete in there had slogged home, leaving me to be the only living entity out on the meadow, except for the plants who were so slender that they moved ever so slightly with the soothing breeze of the wind.
A dent formed in between my eyebrows as I frowned while letting out a small sigh escape my lips and directed my glance to the timeless expanse above me once again. This time, I found the sight exhilarating: the brilliant glow of the stars together with the full, round beauty of the moon were perfectly in contrast to the dark background of the sky. It made me think of the sparkling Shikon No Tama, nestled carefully in a black, traditionally lacquered jewelry box.
I kept watching it for what seemed to be hours while the atmosphere grew chilly around me. And just to prove that, I think I had non-voluntarily produced quite a loud sneeze and the sound echoed widely in the dark meadow which seemed very quiet save for that one sound I'd made. I realized that it was finally time for me to leave; I'd finished reading the fairytale and now it was the time for me to go to bed—just how little kids would do.
I got up on my feet to give the sky one last admiring glance and turned my back on it. I hurried along the lone path in the thick forest, which led back to Kaede Sama's little hut where Inu Yasha and the others were resting. And thinking of the group…just when I wondered why Inu Yasha hadn't come looking for me as I'd gone for so long, I noticed him walk by me silently.
"Since when did you get here?" I stopped to look at him directly in his soft, smoldering butterscotch orbs. He turned his face away from me to hide his blush though it was clearly visible to me from the side. "I was here ever since the beginning. It looks like your senses haven't improved much again. Feh!" He tried to retort in his usual cocky voice, only that the tone hadn't come out as he'd intended it to be. I found it rather affectionate, in a way.
I took his hand to link it with mine and watched his blush spread all over his face. "Let's go back to Kaede Sama's place. Everyone might be worried," I said in a soft manner and I'm sure he didn't miss the smile in my voice as he just nodded and gripped my hand a little tighter. And off we went back to our friends who were awaiting our arrival.