AN: Thanks for reading and reviewing! Any suggestions are appreciated! I have a baby sitter for the night as I have to go to my sister's wedding tomorrow.
Yuhana was suddenly aware that something was different. Her clothes felt strange and heavy, and the scent of the room was different. She sat up as she opened her eyes and gasped slightly as she looked around the room and down at herself. Everything had changed. She had never seen a place like the one she was in now, only heard of it. The room was large and clean, with fresh tatami mats on the floor, and beautiful scrolls on the walls. In front of her were a large set of rice paper doors, opening onto a small garden. A breeze floated in, comfortably warm and soothing.
"Did you fall asleep again? You need to quit being such a lazy ass." a voice said from behind her.
"I…" Yuhana started, but she couldn't force the words out. She was looking up at Kenru, and she almost didn't recognize him. He wore the traditional dress of a nobleman, with his hair in a topknot. His features were still hard, but not nearly as rough, and he was quite a large man with sufficient weight on him. He was giving her an almost quizzical look, and she knew he was only poking his own kind of fun. Did he even do that?
A noise suddenly caught her attention. She looked down and Mugen lay beside her, still dozing. His clothes and hair were actually clean, and he looked peaceful. He was mumbling in his sleep, and rolled over against her. She looked at the clothes she was wearing, it was a lovely but simple silk kimono. A hand strayed to her hair, carefully styled and placed atop her head. Everything seemed so quiet, no noise of people constantly bustling about and clamoring outside. She felt rested, not exhausted as she usually did, and she wasn't hungry.
Panic seized her. Was she dead? Had she passed into the other world? Were Kenru and Mugen dead as well? She looked around frantically, then found that she couldn't move. Things around her were fading, as she heard a noise she couldn't yet place. Her eyelids again lifted slowly. The fire was in front of her, it's embers barely glowing. Outside, two people seemed to be arguing over a night of gambling gone bad. It was their shouting that had awakened her. Mugen was there beside her, mumbling in his sleep as he had in her dream. Tears slipped from her eyes as she lay back down. Her body was wracked with fatigue, but surprisingly she wasn't terribly hungry. Even when she didn't eat all day, she seldom felt hungry anymore. She was glad for it.
"I wish we could live in that world together." she whispered to her sleeping son. She brushed his hair away from his face. He grimaced somewhat in his sleep, and she guessed it was from hunger. Of course his appetite was growing with him, although he was able to eat more with her eating less. "I wish that life could be easier and kinder to you than it has been to me." she told him, as she faded back into a thankfully dreamless sleep.
"Do you think these herbs will help Yuhana get better?" Yuki asked Ikuno, "Maso told me that he got them in on one of his shipments and didn't need them." she told her.
"They may ease her suffering some, but they will not make her well." she said to the young girl.
"What kind of herbs will make her better?" Yuki asked, obliviously.
"There is no herb that can cure her. The only thing that can be done for her now is to help her and try and ease her suffering what little we can until she passes on." Ikuno told her rather bluntly. In truth, she wished that Yuki had stayed home today. Yuhana was getting worse rapidly. She knew she would not live much longer.
"No!" Yuki cried. "But, Yuhana can't die! What about little Mugen?" she asked. But her question went unanswered. She followed Ikuno bleakly into Yuhana's house.
"Make some rice." Ikuno ordered, after they stepped into the dim light. Yuki glumly went about the chore, and Yuhana woke to the sound.
"Ikuno, have you ever seen a noble house?" she asked weakly.
"I was a servant in one before I came here. How I envied them, with their beautiful home and clothes. Everything seemed so perfect in their clean and orderly life." she told her. "Why do you ask such a thing?"
"I..dreamed of one earlier." she said quietly. "I just wondered if what I dreamed was anything like real life for them."
"Well, in a noble house, everything must be kept in it's proper place and order at all times. The men and women dress in beautiful silk clothing, and nothing about their appearance must be out of place. They even keep their gardens this way. Not a weed is allowed to grow there." she said, a hint of nostalgia and wonder tracing her words.
Yuhana smiled. Then it was like her dream. Maybe, if she was lucky, when she died things would be like that wherever it was she ended up. "You all mustn't come and do all these things for me. You will make me a lazy woman." she told them, thinking of Kenru's comment in her dream.
"Nonsense. You've got your hands full enough with what's beside you." Ikuno said, waving a hand at Mugen. Yuki was still quiet.
Yuhana ate a few bites, and gave the rest to Mugen along with his when he woke. Her breathing was becoming more shallow, and her complexion more pale. Yuki took Mugen outside to play, and Ikuno sat in relative silence with Yuhana. Yuhana looked as if she might doze again. Ikuno was gripping her ragged kimono somewhat tightly, and she suddenly realized that she was on edge. She had seen a lot of death in her life, including some of her own children, and she felt now as if she was going to lose another.
She had seen many girls like Yuhana come to the island out of bad circumstance, and they all sooner or later fell prey to the harsh life there. Yuhana was the only one she had seen that had kept true to themselves. And now, she was dying. Ikuno wished it was her; she was so tired of losing the people she cared for. She supposed she would care for Mugen until the end of her days, which certainly wouldn't last until he was big enough to fend for himself.
Yuhana woke again to the gray shapes of her home. She realized that she had dozed again, and now it was nearly dark. Ikuno brought Mugen back to her, and he lay down beside her to sleep. He rolled over against her, and she put her arm around him, fighting back tears. She dreaded the day that her illness forced her to leave him behind.
