Sango had been chasing her nightmares for as long as she could remember. Other than one past memory, she couldn't remember anything before she was ten-years-old.
Truth be told, she afraid to sleep, knowing that once her eyes closed, that one memory was the one thing that would haunt her mind by escaping from her subconscious. And until her Siena brown eyes opened, her mind would be trapped in a horrible nightmare.
"Sango-san, the sun sets bringing thieves." Kaede came forward, bowing in respect.
"Hai." Sango nodded. "I shall be along inside in a short moment. I only wish to breathe fresh air."
Kaede bowed once more, then silently pushed past the grass door inside the hut. Sango smiled lightly to herself, and her facial muscles ached with her sad attempt at the grimace. She rubbed her soft chin thoughtfully at the sore tissue, ever since she was little, it had always been hard to smile.
"Sango-san." Kikyou came forwards to her with her hands folded in front of her.
"Hai?" she asked, looking at the setting sun.
"Would you prefer a bath? The water is ready." She informed her.
"Arigatou." Sango sighed. "That would be nice." She nodded, then she grunted as she stood. She knew that her aching muscles were just beginning for her to relax in the hot water.
Kikyou showed her the thin tub, then she left the corner. Kaede and Kikyou both stared into the fading ashes of the fire as Sango removed her armour and clothes, then slipped into the steaming water.
She untied her hair as she leaned back against the wooden basin. She felt the clay that sealed the cracks between the slaps of bent wood against her spine, and the hard clay under her blistered feet.
Feeling the hot water soak through her pores and her skin become moist with the heated pleasure of satisfaction, she sighed heavenly as she brushed her hair back then lowered herself under the surface of the water.
She felt bubbles of compression brush against her face as they rose to the surface as she felt the hot water brush against the ends of her eyelids, trying to sneak through and invade her dark sight. Her mouth stayed slightly open, but the liquid did not go past her sealed teeth. The water clogged up her senses, and this relaxed her.
Knowing that her senses were vulnerable, that this peaceful tranquillity could end her life in a matter of moments, amazed this samurai. If she only stayed here, then she would go peacefully, even if her lungs seized and the pain from lack of oxygen burned deep within her chest, her senses would be dormant.
However, she had a purpose in this world, and she wouldn't leave it unfinished. She rose again to the surface, with her hands still resting on the top of her cranium. A sigh of relief escape her wet mouth as her senses started to return.
The heat of the water soon died as Sango rinsed her hair from the soapy suds gathered in the strands. The bar of hard soap that she practically tore her scalp away with rested there alongside the harsh bristled brush that she used to scrape away the dead skin along her body.
She still had her back to Kaede and Kikyou when she left the tub. She picked up her robe from the floor then wrapped it around her wet body. The thin fabric clung around her female curves as the water soaked through it. She looked down and saw as her hair wet it further, as water ran down her skin from the soaked strands.
She cursed under her breath as the fabric soon became heavy again, and started sliding down from her shoulders as it had been doing while she had been walking through the rain, with only her armour to keep it up.
"Here." Kikyou handed her a clean, pure white, and dry folded robe.
Sango smiled faintly then nodded her thanks as she took it. She removed her wet one, then replaced it with the cleaner, thicker and dryer one. This one was made of a strange fabric, it was irritating to her fresh skin, because she was not used to the fibres. She grimaced lightly, then she hung her white robe above the fading ashes.
Kikyou had lied down on her white futon and pulled up the covers up to her shoulders as Kaede had done previously. There was another futon off to the side, which was left for her usage. However, Sango never found a futon to be that comfortable, for multiple reasons. One - she was use to sleeping on the hard, cold ground; even through snow. Two - because it was a samurai tradition not to lay on a futon until their wedding night, and three - because of the previous reason, she never wanted to marry.
She sat down and leaned against the wall. She crossed her arms over her knees as she pulled them up to her chest. This was meant to protect her from whatever could come. Whatever might come in her dreams - if in reality she was in this position, she believed that her subconscious would hold this pose as well.
As she closed her eyes, her mind soon drifted out into the illusion of dreams as reality faded in the darkness.
...
The dust never settled in the village of the samurai. The dry gound's earth easily broke loose under footsteps or even the wind. The wind brought the warning of something fierce, but everyone ignored it's heed.
Sango coughed in rejection to the dust that entered her mouth, and rubbed her irritated eyes. "Chichi-ue, there's dust in my eyes!" a small, young cry emerged from her mouth.
Sango recognized this tone - it was her younger voice. She remembered this voice, filled with such innocence and youth.
"Go inside, Sango." Her father spoke, his voice dry from dehydration.
Sango nodded, then ran up the wooden steps and found her younger brother leaning against the doorway, coughing in rejection to the dry air that damaged his weak lungs.
"Ane-ue, where's chichi-ue?" he murmured.
"He's outside, Kohaku. Where's haha-ue?" she asked.
"I'm right here, Sango." A tall, but young woman stepped forwards. She was dressed in a long white robe and her long, brown hair was tied back in a wet bun with her bangs and loose strands hanging limply.
"Haha-ue." Sango rushed and hugged her around the waist. "The wind scares me..."
"There is nothing frightening about today's weather, Sango." Her mother attempted to soothe her by stroking her hair.
Sango nodded as she gripped the damp fabric of her mother's robe. The fibres were partially moist from the woman's previous bath.
Sango would never forget the feeling of wet fabric beneath her small hands, or the scent of her mother's freshly washed hair.
The sound of stampeding horses rumbled past the house, as well as the cries of people that tried to get away from the raging mammals. Sango was told to stay back with Kohaku, and then her mother went to the doorway.
However, no sooner had she gone to the doorway, did a large cloud of dust throw her back by the large gust of wind. As her mother fell to the ground, they found that it wasn't the wind that had befallen their mother, it was the sword implanted between her breasts.
As her mother's head fell back, white and lifeless, she heard Kohaku release a scream that shattered part the hearing in her left ear. Then as the dust settled, then the thick smell of smoke entered the house with the dark clouds. And soon following after the toxic fumes was the flickering of the red flames that had caused it.
Sango watched those flames as they danced around the dry, wooden hut, consuming it entirely. They reflected off of Kohaku's wet, brown eyes as tears ran down his dirty, chubby child-like cheeks as he looked on as their mother's body soon disappeared.
Kohaku screamed again as the flames soon then circled them. Sango scooped up her young brother in her arms, then she ran and dove through the wall of fire over the entrance, and their only exit. She felt herself fall outside of the flames with her closed eyes, then she rolled over several times, scrapping her elbows and knees and along her arms and legs and she crashed over rocks and hard, irritating grasses.
Suddenly, she was yanked up by the back of her kimono, as Kohaku slipped out of her arms with another scream that soon disappeared. As she opened her brown eyes, they were clouded with the water of her pupils that were drowned from the unseeingly smoke of the flames that had burned her eyes.
"Well, well. What have we got here?" a voice chuckled.
She looked around, but could see nothing except the shadows of the figures that surrounded her. They were chuckling and whispering, almost amazed that she existed.
"The otome of the Daishou Samurai, eh?" one chuckled.
Sango's vision began to clear as tears of irritation ran down her face - she wasn't scared; much.
Suddenly, the sound of a wild horse irrupted around them, as a white stallion emerged forwards. A shadowy figure appeared from atop of the horse, his eyes glowing bright red.
"We've found the heir." One called out, then tossed Sango to the ground.
Sango didn't have the time to stand, until there was a sharp, excruciating pain in the middle of her back. All of her senses were dulled out as it began to grow, until her mind blotted out entirely from the pain.
...
Kikyou awoke in the night, hearing something shift in the darkness. She lit a small candle, then saw Sango in the corner. The vagabond was in a sitting position, with her arms brought up to her chest, almost protecting herself.
Judging by her current position, Kikyou knew she was asleep. Her hands were gripping her shoulders, as though trying to prevent something from coming. Her lowered head and tight position just begged for something to stop. It was almost screaming the desist of something horrible.
Kikyou sighed, then blew out the candle. She could not help her, she would awake on her own. If she dared disturb her subconscious, then Sango might react violently, as many did after awoken from their haunting nightmares.
...
Sango awoke with a long, frightening, yet relieved gasp as she raised her head and opened her eyes, wide with the fear that she would never awaken from her nightmare. She released her arms from her own grasp, then looked around at the darkened room. The light graze of the rising sun glinted through the cracks off the wall and through the grass door in front of her, causing her to sigh again. She knew daybreak was upon her, and that she should leave.
Sango stood silently. She stripped from her robe, then she returned her own white robe, and then all of her armour following.
She left just as the sun peaked over the distant hills of the horizon. The day was new and alive, and it gave her hope. With a faint smile, she anonymously left the solemn village and disappeared into the morning mist.