The Demon Bride
By Crystal Arrow
Chapter 7: The Awakening
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or the other characters from that story; they belong to someone else who actually has talent.
Many weeks passed, yet Michera still did not recover. She sometimes lingered so close to death, that she would be mistaken as dead by the chamber maids. Had Michera been awake, she would have been celebrating her tenth month of life, but instead she lay in an unending sleep in her mother's arms. For her age, Michera was incredibly small, yet somehow stayed alive.
It was on the morning of the tenth month of Michera's life that she stopped breathing. Her mother had gone to her crib and found her deathly pale, her chest still and lifeless. Her mother said nothing, but walked into the gardens with her dead child in her arms. The residents of the palace all turned towards her as she passed, then swiftly turned away as they realized that the child was dead. One by one, the servants left the gardens, leaving only the mother and her child.
Sesshoumaru approached his stepmother with Inuyasha following close behind. They stopped several yards away from her and just watched her, both having already heard the fate that had befallen their sister.
Michera's mother knelt before the rose plants that grew in that part of the garden with Michera cradled in her arms. With her head bowed, she preyed silently to the spirit of Sesshoumaru's mother to aid her in keeping their daughter alive. As if it was a sign, a single white rose petal fell from the plant and landed softly on Michera's head. She remained there for several more minutes before she abruptly got up and left back to her chambers. Without a sound , Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru followed.
In complete silence they watched as their mother sang one last lullaby to her lifeless child before setting her down in her crib once more, completely wrapped within her blankets to leave nothing of her showing. Their mother sang one last song, which she'd never sung before as she gazed down upon Michera's lifeless face.
Now should this be our destiny,
Granted by the fates,
To bid farewell in spring morning's fine wake.
I'll take the blessing, of having you,
And bid thee our last goodbye.
I pray only that you heard this last lullaby
Before leaving me behind
For each song I sang to you in your sleep
Was a prayer for you to stay.
But since you've already left me here
Simply allow me to say
Each song I sang, I pray you heard
Was my way to say I love you.
So goodnight, this one last time
As morning lights your face,
Goodbye from this world, you never knew
Farewell, I love you.
She cried as she covered Michera's face with the blanket. Inuyasha wept into Sesshoumaru's pant leg as Sesshoumaru himself shed silent tears in farewell to his infant sister as his stepmother collapsed onto her bed and cried herself to sleep. For the rest of that day, all was silent as news of his pup's death reached the ears of the demon lord of the west. Sesshoumaru spent the greater part of the day caring for a grief stricken Inuyasha.
As the sun set that night, giving rise to the full moon, Sesshoumaru put Inuyasha to sleep then left to his step mother's chambers once again. He found the room empty, his stepmother having been taken back into his father's chambers now that she had no child to care for. From the doorway, Sesshoumaru gazed at the now cold fireplace where he had sat by his stepmother through her sadness. Moonlight flooded the room, leaving only the darkest of the corners unlit by the eerie light of the moon. Right across from one of the large windows was the pup's crib. Moonlight lit up the entire crib, making it easy for Sesshoumaru's to tell that the pup's body had yet to be removed. With a sigh Sesshoumaru turned and was about to leave the room when he heard something.
Sesshoumaru spun around, his silver hair flying wildly at the sudden movement. Listening carefully, he was able to hear little yips and cooing coming from within the room. He quietly stalked into the room, following the sounds he heard. His eyes grew wide in shock as he realized they were coming from the crib! He ran up to the side of the crib, afraid that something may be feeding upon the corpse of his little sister. When he looked into the crib, he saw the bundle of blankets as they were before, nothing else in the crib.
Just as he was about to turn away to search elsewhere for the source of the sound, he saw a raggedy black tail twitching from side to side from out of the blankets. Eyes wide, Sesshoumaru carefully drew back the blankets from Michera's body. To his great surprise, he found Michera cooing at him, hugging her tail with bright golden eyes shining. "Michera?" he asked in confusion. Wasn't she dead? Sesshoumaru reached down into the crib to pick up the pup. As his hand came close, Michera grabbed onto one of his fingers, her tiny claws extracting and stabbing into his finger. "Oowww, yeah, that's definitely you." he cried out happily. After carefully prying his finger free of her claws he picked her up and gazed at her, smiling. He spun around and ran out of the room, yelling at the top of his lungs, "FATHER!!!! FATHER!! MOTHER!!!!!! MICHERA'S ALIVE, SHE'S ALIVE!!!!"
Down the hall, the demon lord came out of his room, his wife close behind him. Truly shocked, he stared down at the pup in his son's arms. She gazed back up at him, tail twitching curiously. Her little gray ears swiveled back as she tilted her head to the side. As the demon lord gazed down at his pup, he recognized something he hadn't seen in her eyes before. Her left eye had a speck of green hidden amongst the golden depths while her right eye appeared more gold with a brownish bronze glow to it. He knew very well that there were no green eyes in his or his wife's lines. However, his wife did have a bronze glow to her deep brown eyes. There was no green in any of their families, except for his previous wife, Sesshoumaru's mother. She had brilliant green eyes. But… he glanced back at his human wife questioningly. She glanced down into her now live daughter's eyes and saw what her husband saw, and only smiled. She saw the green hidden in her eyes, just like she saw that white rose petal hidden within the blankets around Michera's face.
"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute," Kagome interrupted, "do you mean to tell us that you came back from the dead?"
"Yes."
"Well then," Sango reasoned, "How do we know that you really are Inuyasha's sister?"
With an exasperated sigh, Michera answered, "If you would let me finish, then you would know." She glared at Kagome and Sango while Inuyasha snickered, which earned him an even more deadly glare. The snickering stopped immediately.
"I'll continue then."
The following day, Michera was officially introduced as the princess of the western lands. Noble demons from across Japan came to the demon lord's palace to see the child that came back from the dead. One demon was suspicious to Michera's bloodline. The demon lord laughed at his foolishness. He called the other demons to come around to prove his daughter's bloodline. He and his wife stood by each other as the demon sniffed their scent. The demon then sniffed Michera for their scents within her, and found them, but also another scent hidden amongst them. He demanded to know what it was. For that, Sesshoumaru came forth with a necklace wrapped in silk. He held it delicately before the demon, who sniffed it, and found the scent of Sesshoumaru's mother on it, which he identified within Michera.
The demon stared down at Michera in amazement, for he knew that she had a third spiritual parent, not Sesshoumaru, for he was too young for it to be possible. Michera was revived by her own step mother, it was a miracle.
"Oh wow, that's amazing!" Shippo cried out. The moon shone overhead as the group chattered in wonder. Sesshoumaru stayed silent, and only gazed at his little sister. She's a great story teller, I wonder where she got it. And those songs, she knew them………… did she actually hear her mother in her sleep?
Miroku stoked the fire back to it's former glory. The stars were shining, and a cool breeze chilled the air. Miroku looked up from the fire and asked, "What happened after that?"
Michera giggled, "We grew up. The word of me died out and I grew up normally among much feuding between my brothers over me. It was cute. At four years old though, everything changed. What I will tell you next is what you really need to know, the demise of my parents. Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha, and my life was completely destroyed when the witch that cursed me came and kept her word………"
Author's note:
Sorry it took me a while to get this chapter up. I know it's been in the past for a really long time, but just one or two more chapters and the story will be back in present times, meaning feudal age, you know what I mean. I'll try to get the next chapter soon. Please! Review!
~Crystal Arrow
