Once again exchanging glances, the girls whirled about to face their newest foe and not one of them bothered to mask the looks of shock that flew onto their faces,
"Oh my God."
Age of the White Dawn
Sneak Peek Chapter 21: Obligatory Memory Lane Chapter Part 1
The person hovering before them was beautiful; a tall figure with billowing robes, a childishly smooth complexion and mussy tendrils of black hair brushing against the purple markings running, almost mournfully, down from two heavy-lidded eyes. Those eyes--dark--were deceivingly demure, a startling contrast to the ominously thick fog that licked at the edge of the figure's purple robes. The person hovering before them was, without a doubt, very beautiful.
But it wasn't the ethereal, mist-silhouetted beauty of the stranger that caused the surprise-tinged expressions of confusion to fly onto Sango and Kagom's faces.
It was the fact that the voice they heard earlier was decidedly male.
And the creature that stood before them appeared decidedly female.
This time Sango was the first to overcome her confusion; her hand, which had instinctively flown to the hilt of her sword, finally tightened about it as she prepared to attack the creature before her--regardless of whether she could determine its sex or not.
"Come now girly," the creature sneered, seemingly at the mention of Sango's gender, "use your head; if you draw your sword, your boyfriends are dead." It then lifted its hands and displayed the thick green vines wound prettily about its fingers, "See these vines wrapped about my hand? Your men will suffocate to death with just a tug on a strand."
"Okay, fine. You win Dr. Seuss. Now what do you want with us?"
"With you?" It arched a brow, looking disdainfully between Sango and Kagome before adding suggestively, "It's not you, but the men folk I want to do something to."
Flushing, either from anger or embarrassment, Sango opened her mouth to retort, but Kagome cut her off,
"Is there any way we can convince you to let them go? Like, a deal or something?"
"A deal you say? Hm, how interesting. Just how much are you willing to pay?"
"Interested in a cat?"
"Sango!"
"Just kidding?"
"No a cat will not do. Though I have a proposition for you two."
"Go on."
"Well, it gets rather boring around these parts and I can do with some entertainment. I'm not just going to hand back those delicious morsels of men, mind you, but I'm willing to give you two a chance to win them back if you're interested."
Kagome cocked her head to the side, confusion and a little bit of disappointment etched onto her features, "Hey, none of that rhymed."
"Oh please, you didn't expect me to be able to keep that up forever did you? Obviously it was just a ploy to get your attention; a marketing device; a means of giving character to my character if you will," it explained with a roll of its eyes.
"Oh."
"Brilliant strategy, it was very effective. Now continue please."
"Don't rush me woman. Any way, if you want your men back all you have to do is sprinkle some of those gorgeous orange flowers--aren't they pretty? I made them myself--into the water of the lake and breath in the smoke that comes from it."
"Sounds simple," Sango said, eyes narrowing suspiciously, "What's the catch?"
"Well I've always preferred my men marinated in terror, so currently they're trapped within the deepest depths of their mind from which you have to pull them out."
"And if we succeed?"
"You get your men back of course."
"And if we don't?"
The stranger gave a careless shrug, "You'll probably end up stuck within the men's minds, perpetually reliving their worse fears or nightmares until you find a way out."
An uneasy look passed between the two; aside from the lovely, rather unnerving, picture the stranger's words painted for them, they both knew that they would inevitability accept the proposal, no matter how great the risk. But--almost like the deep, reassuring breath one takes before diving head first into a pool--they continued questioning the stranger,
"How exactly are we supposed to drag them out of the deepest depths of their mind?"
"Why are you helping us out any way?"
"Who do you work for?"
"What are you?"
"In response to the second question, it'll be very entertaining to witness your antics, and as for the rest, that's none of your business. Now do you accept or not?" The stranger asked in the most bored of tones, absently playing with the pendent about his/her neck.
Again the two girls shared looks before Sango stepped slightly forward and said, "Yeah. We'll take your proposal."
"Oh good!" Instantly the stranger's delicate features rapidly morphed from boredom to that of childish delight, "Now, just get a handful of those flowers, yes, you can just scoop them right off the ground, and go over and sprinkle them into the lake where your friends are. And that's all there is to it, it's simple as pie. Just do as I told you. Now farewell, goodbye!" And so ending the way it began, the stranger dissipated dramatically with the mist leaving Kagome and Sango crouched at the edge of the lake, orange blossoms spilling out of their hands.
As they extended their flower-filled hands over the lake, both girls hesitated, a few rogue petals slipping out of their hands and into the crystalline waters, rippling the image of the sleepy faces that lay beneath the lakes surface. Already thin wisps of purple smoke were curling upwards from where the few petals had fallen, bringing with it the shadow of the vague, dreamy sensation one feels when transitioning between the states of awake and asleep.
Kagome turned to Sango, and forced out a determined smile despite the suddenly lazy atmosphere, "Well, I guess I'll see you on the other side."
And she released the crushed flowers into the water.
For a moment, all was still, and then suddenly clouds of purple smoke were rising from the lake, the air was thick and humid and there was a heavy smell ofsweet exotic flowers that assailed Kagome's senses and urged her to sleep, to close her eyes, to let go and to dream. It was overwhelming, stifling and disconcerting--she heard the distant splash of Sango releasing her own handful of flowers into the lake, but she was too busy struggling to stay conscious, too busy struggling forward. Her eyelids were so heavy, but she couldn't sleep because she must rescue her friends, save them from the darkest depths of their minds, save Inu Yasha as he had her so many times before; for a brief instance it was as if their faces were directly before her, appearing emotionless and pale and so unlike them that determination momentarily welled within her, but then the image flickered away, leaving only a chilling darkness and the sounds of waves crashing against the shore….
A/N: ….heh heh. Yeah, I know. WOW. It's been a while. This is actually just a sneak peek of the whole of chapter 21. I was intending on finishing it over thanksgiving break, but I didn't have the time. Woo junior year. You'd think that with all the stuff going on academically that I would just utterly push this story aside, but Age of the White Dawn has been in development since I was in the eighth grade, and I figured it would be a shame if it never got an ending. So I decided to restart it again. Just keep in mind that the updates will be really slow, and the whole chapter may not come out for a while. The weeks after break are always psycho thanks to evil AP teachers. Any who, it's late and I have a test tomorrow (of course. What better time to update then the night before a test? It would be very un-honor student like if I updated when I actually had free time…) so hope you had a happy read, and feedback as to whether you like the direction the chapter's going (or even a comment on the state of my writing style) would be much appreciated.