Changing Wyrds
Chapter 6: Confiding in You
Kagome and Kureru sat in the wake of the campfire, looking into the flames and the dark. The others had gone to sleep soon after camping, leaving the insomniacs to their starlit vigil.
"It's going out," noted Kureru after a while. Kagome nodded off- handedly. Then she turned to him with sudden interest.
"How'd you end up like this, Kureru-kun?" He shrugged.
"I told you. He saved me." She sighed in exasperation.
"And...?" He turned night-sea eyes on her.
"You don't need to know. It's not your right."
"We saved you too. I would take your story as payment. Do you really want to owe me as you do Hashiaku?"
"You would take away your generosity to learn things that are not yours to know?" He was disgusted, and unpleasantly shocked.
"I would. Tell me." He sighed, knowing that she would never let him say no.
"Very well. But do not ever tell anyone of this tale. It is mine, and I covet it as much as I despise it.
"I was young, very young, when Hashiaku took my life. My parents...my father was mortal, and my mother youkai. My father cared for me, because my mother was wild and refused to settle down to tend to her bastard son. I was bitter to be hated, bitter to be alive at all.
"My father did his best, but he couldn't stop me from becoming a terror- not the terror that all young children are, but a true terror. I hunted people down just to smell their fear and hear them scream. I never killed; it was all in the hunt. Their deaths would have held no meaning for me. I guess it was the only way I could prove that I could do something right, that I was real, that the whole world wasn't just an eternal nightmare. Of course, I had a soul that told me afterwards what a horrible thing I had done. That- my conscience- only made it worse.
"One day when I was about eight, taunted by human children in the village, I couldn't restrain myself. In a rage, I attacked the jeering leader, not thinking, simply fighting. He was terrified by my sudden and ferocious attack. I was smaller than they were, and he never expected that I would dare attack him. He didn't know that I was the demon that had been hunting the villagers for the past few years.
"He started off putting up a good fight, but my anger and hurt withstood anything he could fling at me. Besides that-" Kureru raised his claws. "-I was at a slight advantage."
"I hadn't even realized that it was over- really, truly over- until one of his friends began to scream. I looked at his bloody face, realized slowly that his eyes were directed at the sun, and he wasn't blinking.
"I remember stepping back, one step and then another, until at last I stumbled on a stone jutting out from the road. I fell there, hardly breathing and seeing as little as the boy I had killed, and I didn't move until one of the village men dragged me up by my ears.
"They took me to the center of the village, a mob of them, crying out for blood. My father sobbed and begged them to spare me. They shunned him, saying that a man disgusting enough to have a child by a demon deserved no place in the village's decisions. The elder of the village, and old, pear- like man, gave them leave to do as they would to me. It was his grandson who had died by my claws.
"They were ruthless in their vengeance, more ruthless than I had been. The pain was so great that I soon couldn't see clearly. I knew, in a vague way, that they would kill me, but not yet. It would be long hours before I stopped breathing. They had lashed me to a tree, rendering me vulnerable to anything they wanted to do, when he came. The elder's son, and the boy's father, had drawn a knife. He held its claw-sharp point against my jolting heart. He was so angry he was beyond crying. His eyes were dry as the desert, and that scared me worse than tears would have done.
"'You little bastard,' he said. 'A freak like you never should have been allowed to live.' And then..."
Kagome tasted iron in her mouth, and realized she had bit her lip to bleeding. She found herself entranced, horribly, by the hanyou's story. Kureru drew a deep breath.
"And then, he fell to the ground. A pool of blood blossomed beneath him, soaking my bare feet. The villagers had stopped jeering, and were standing like statues, staring at the place where he had fallen. We all stared, for a moment or a year, hearts stopped in their tracks and breathing long forgotten.
"A youkai appeared in front of us, tall and beautiful. He smiled at them, and they shrank back in fear.
"'You will leave the young hanyou to me,' he said. 'Go.' I had never seen them run more quickly. He turned to me then, running a finger along my swollen cheek. 'You are safe from them now,' he told me. With a single swipe of his claws, the ropes around my arms broke free. I fell forward, and the youkai caught me under one arm.
"'I am Hashiaku,' he said. 'Learn the name well, for you now belong to me.' I hardly heard him. The next day, though, and every day after that, I wished that I had been left to die. Hashiaku may have stopped my death, but he destroyed my life. There are many tales to be told of those days, but if you wish to hear those stories, you must save my life a hundred times over." Kureru's voice dropped out abruptly. Kagome stared at him mutely. She looked closely, and saw that his cheeks glistened in the dying firelight.
"I apologize," she said softly. "I should not have asked you to tell me that. It was not my right, as you said."
"Don't bother," he answered. "Sleep, Kagome. Tomorrow will be long."
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Author's Notes: I know, I know--not a very satisfactory ending. But I can't be perfect (All my teachers: 'You're telling me!'). BTW, Wyrds means destinies, but the way it would have been pronounced would have been sort of like words. Just so you know...-_-;; REVIEW! REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW!! I need reviews to continue. *sniff* I'm so depressed that no one will read...don't you DARE read w/out reviewing!
Chapter 6: Confiding in You
Kagome and Kureru sat in the wake of the campfire, looking into the flames and the dark. The others had gone to sleep soon after camping, leaving the insomniacs to their starlit vigil.
"It's going out," noted Kureru after a while. Kagome nodded off- handedly. Then she turned to him with sudden interest.
"How'd you end up like this, Kureru-kun?" He shrugged.
"I told you. He saved me." She sighed in exasperation.
"And...?" He turned night-sea eyes on her.
"You don't need to know. It's not your right."
"We saved you too. I would take your story as payment. Do you really want to owe me as you do Hashiaku?"
"You would take away your generosity to learn things that are not yours to know?" He was disgusted, and unpleasantly shocked.
"I would. Tell me." He sighed, knowing that she would never let him say no.
"Very well. But do not ever tell anyone of this tale. It is mine, and I covet it as much as I despise it.
"I was young, very young, when Hashiaku took my life. My parents...my father was mortal, and my mother youkai. My father cared for me, because my mother was wild and refused to settle down to tend to her bastard son. I was bitter to be hated, bitter to be alive at all.
"My father did his best, but he couldn't stop me from becoming a terror- not the terror that all young children are, but a true terror. I hunted people down just to smell their fear and hear them scream. I never killed; it was all in the hunt. Their deaths would have held no meaning for me. I guess it was the only way I could prove that I could do something right, that I was real, that the whole world wasn't just an eternal nightmare. Of course, I had a soul that told me afterwards what a horrible thing I had done. That- my conscience- only made it worse.
"One day when I was about eight, taunted by human children in the village, I couldn't restrain myself. In a rage, I attacked the jeering leader, not thinking, simply fighting. He was terrified by my sudden and ferocious attack. I was smaller than they were, and he never expected that I would dare attack him. He didn't know that I was the demon that had been hunting the villagers for the past few years.
"He started off putting up a good fight, but my anger and hurt withstood anything he could fling at me. Besides that-" Kureru raised his claws. "-I was at a slight advantage."
"I hadn't even realized that it was over- really, truly over- until one of his friends began to scream. I looked at his bloody face, realized slowly that his eyes were directed at the sun, and he wasn't blinking.
"I remember stepping back, one step and then another, until at last I stumbled on a stone jutting out from the road. I fell there, hardly breathing and seeing as little as the boy I had killed, and I didn't move until one of the village men dragged me up by my ears.
"They took me to the center of the village, a mob of them, crying out for blood. My father sobbed and begged them to spare me. They shunned him, saying that a man disgusting enough to have a child by a demon deserved no place in the village's decisions. The elder of the village, and old, pear- like man, gave them leave to do as they would to me. It was his grandson who had died by my claws.
"They were ruthless in their vengeance, more ruthless than I had been. The pain was so great that I soon couldn't see clearly. I knew, in a vague way, that they would kill me, but not yet. It would be long hours before I stopped breathing. They had lashed me to a tree, rendering me vulnerable to anything they wanted to do, when he came. The elder's son, and the boy's father, had drawn a knife. He held its claw-sharp point against my jolting heart. He was so angry he was beyond crying. His eyes were dry as the desert, and that scared me worse than tears would have done.
"'You little bastard,' he said. 'A freak like you never should have been allowed to live.' And then..."
Kagome tasted iron in her mouth, and realized she had bit her lip to bleeding. She found herself entranced, horribly, by the hanyou's story. Kureru drew a deep breath.
"And then, he fell to the ground. A pool of blood blossomed beneath him, soaking my bare feet. The villagers had stopped jeering, and were standing like statues, staring at the place where he had fallen. We all stared, for a moment or a year, hearts stopped in their tracks and breathing long forgotten.
"A youkai appeared in front of us, tall and beautiful. He smiled at them, and they shrank back in fear.
"'You will leave the young hanyou to me,' he said. 'Go.' I had never seen them run more quickly. He turned to me then, running a finger along my swollen cheek. 'You are safe from them now,' he told me. With a single swipe of his claws, the ropes around my arms broke free. I fell forward, and the youkai caught me under one arm.
"'I am Hashiaku,' he said. 'Learn the name well, for you now belong to me.' I hardly heard him. The next day, though, and every day after that, I wished that I had been left to die. Hashiaku may have stopped my death, but he destroyed my life. There are many tales to be told of those days, but if you wish to hear those stories, you must save my life a hundred times over." Kureru's voice dropped out abruptly. Kagome stared at him mutely. She looked closely, and saw that his cheeks glistened in the dying firelight.
"I apologize," she said softly. "I should not have asked you to tell me that. It was not my right, as you said."
"Don't bother," he answered. "Sleep, Kagome. Tomorrow will be long."
_______________________________________________________
Author's Notes: I know, I know--not a very satisfactory ending. But I can't be perfect (All my teachers: 'You're telling me!'). BTW, Wyrds means destinies, but the way it would have been pronounced would have been sort of like words. Just so you know...-_-;; REVIEW! REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW!! I need reviews to continue. *sniff* I'm so depressed that no one will read...don't you DARE read w/out reviewing!