Chapter Seven : Insomnia

Ishiru slept only until sundown. Almost as soon as the sun drifted beneath the horizon, her emerald eyes fluttered open to see the final indigo dregs of the sunset. She tried to roll over onto her back and go back to sleep, but she couldn't move. 'Not again.' She grumbled mentally and stared out the window.

The stars came out and the moon rose and passed her window. Still Ishiru lay awake in her bed, her eyes wandering around her line of sight. When the moon crossed her window, she could tell that there was a light shining on her, and couldn't fall asleep. Now she couldn't fall asleep altogether. She whimpered and rolled onto her side, then froze. She could move again!

'I'd better not overdo it. Or I'll end up stuck somewhere.' Ishiru thought as she slowly slipped out from under the blanket. She sat on the edge of the futon, taking a breather. Even from the small movement of getting out of bed exhausted her. She pouted in annoyance and frustration at the darkness and noticed a shimmer in the corner of her vision. She looked to find to bottle on her bedside table. Ishiru picked it up and sniffed it gingerly. It had the same scent as the salve that Sesshoumaru had used on her earlier. She shrugged and opened the bottle, then began working the stuff into her hands first, then up her arms and so on.

Once she had finished, Ishiru felt much better than she had since she had arisen earlier that day. Somewhere in the back of her mind she wondered how it would have felt if Sesshoumaru had done it. She had been so out of it before she could not remember very well. She stood up, somewhat shakily and made her way across the room to her window. Ishiru leaned heavily on the sill for support before starting back along the wall.

She felt her knees about to give out and grabbed onto the wall for support. The panel of the wall slipped to the side. Ishiru looked at her hand, mildly confused. 'Was that there before? The servants door is over there...' Ishiru looked to the other side of the room, confirming the thoughts. She listened to the air currents behind and around the door. The door would work; she smelt no rust or rotting wood to suggest that it was broken.

Ishiru turned the handle and silently pushed the door open. Silent to her ears was nonexistent to any other. She crept into the room; careful to monitor her strength and make sure she wouldn't collapse. She slid down the wall a little ways into the room to rest. Her chest heaved and her mouth was open in a silent pant. She closed her eyes and tilted her head back against the wall. Ishiru took in a deep breath, then froze as a familiar scent met her senses. She opened her eyes and slowly turned her head to the side. Carefully she stood up, then padded silently across the room to stand beside the object of her fascination.

The moonlight fell across his elegant features, lighting his silver hair with a celestial shimmer. Ishiru let herself fall to her knees. 'To conserve energy' She excused her actions mentally, denying the real reason. She studied his features. In sleep, he looked so like an angel. Her hand lifted of its own accord and gently rested her fingers on his cheek. Ishiru froze, waiting for him to wake up. She held her breath as he moved ever so slightly in his sleep, his skin brushing against her hand. But he didn't wake.

Ishiru let out her breath in a gentle sigh. Half of her mind said that she should just go back to her room and go to sleep. But the other half wanted to stay right where she was. Ishiru went with the second. He looked so beautiful, for lack of better word, lying there in the moonlight. She didn't want to leave until she absolutely had to. Ishiru tuned her ears to this heartbeat. She wouldn't leave until she really had to sleep, or he woke up. His heart rate would tell her when he would wake up.

Her hand, still resting on his cheek, gently traced the deep red markings on his cheeks, then trailed up to lightly stroke his ear. She felt him stir and his heartbeat speed up slightly. Ishiru stood up, her hand sliding reluctantly from his face. Moonlight danced in the corner of her eye and Ishiru turned to look out Sesshoumaru's window. She walked over to the window, resting her arms on the sill.

'It's so beautiful. . .' Ishiru thought dreamily, then snapped out of her thoughts as something occurred to her. 'I can see it!'

The night air was clearer and more crystalline than diamond, such as which the stars shone, radiating their brilliance down on the land below. The fortress was built on the side of a cliff, looking out on the valley and giving a splendid view of the mountains miles away. Ishiru caught her breath of the sight of the land bathed in moonlight. The markings on her cheeks sparkled in the moonlight, a small gem briefly becoming visible on her forehead before vanishing once again.

OOO

Kanna knelt before her lord, her eyes blank and her small hands rotating her mirror, altering the image within. The mirror lit up, then crackled with blue-white electric light. Kanna flinched as her master looked on with moderate indifference. Naraku watched not his servant, but the image within her mirror. Ishiru stood in the window, the gem flashed with untold power on her forehead as the moonlight angled into it perfectly, causing it to shimmer with indigo and blue light.

Naraku memorized the girl's face. Even through the mirror, he could sense the power of the jewel in her forehead. To take it from her may prove to be another task, but he would find a way, just like he would find her. He would have her jewel, that power she possessed. . . Yes, he would have the girl.

As his thoughts became more and more malevolent, the air around Naraku began to darken, laden with his aura. It spread into the clear skies, forming dark thunderclouds, which spread across the bespeckled sheet of the night.

OOO

A shadow fell over Ishiru's face as a dark storm cloud covered the moon. The scent of rain filled her senses as she took a deep breath of the night air. She sighed, looking out on the land. She could practically see the rain coming closer. Then a drop landed soundly on her nose. She wiggled said appendage and wiped away the water as she backed up from the window, closing the glass shutters. How the shutters worked exactly, would remain a mystery to her for a long time to come. As soon as her hands left the glass, the edges of the shutters melded together and sealed into one pane of glass.

Ishiru watched the rain hammer against the glass of the window, creating a soothing drumbeat. She stepped back to stand at the side of Sesshoumaru's futon. She sat down gently, careful not to disturb him. Her eyes began to droop as the rhythm of the rain worked its way into her mind. She slowly, and unintentionally, lay down on the bed, facing Sesshoumaru, drifting slowly asleep.

Meanwhile, Sesshoumaru's dreams were taking strange courses. He stood in an indigo void, no walls, no objects, not a single scent, and it was cold. He looked around, then caught a familiar scent of forests and mist. A figure began to appear in the darkness. Slowly Ishiru came into focus and walked to him. She said nothing, but reached up and lightly touched his cheek, her fingertips lightly tracing his demonic markings.

Something surfaced briefly inside his chest, filling him with warmth and something akin to happiness. Before he had a chance to figure out what it was, the feeling vanished, squished by the dominant part of him, outside of his heart. Ishiru's hand left his face as she faded out of his sight. Sesshoumaru stepped forward, his hand nearly reaching out from his side. . . Nearly.

The young demoness came back into view. Her eyes held something he had never seen before. Fear, she was afraid. Of what? Sesshoumaru looked around, then back at her. She looked straight at him. For a moment Sesshoumaru was stunned. Why was she afraid of him? Then he saw her eyes following a form separate from him.

Black shouki gathered around Ishiru's feet, then bloated and flowed around her forming a thick, undulating wall. Ishiru reached out to him, then pulled her hand back as a shadowy form appeared before her. Sesshoumaru couldn't see, or smell the newcomer. But he could tell well enough, his intent.

Sesshoumaru struck at the shadow being, and hit nothing but air. Both Ishiru and the shadow had vanished. Sesshoumaru heard a voice, Ishiru's voice, but it seemed so far off in the distance. He looked up and saw the shadow flying away with his demoness in a mass of darkened shouki. Wait, his demoness? Since when was she his?

Sesshoumaru began to feel his dream slipping away. He let it go as he returned to consciousness. Sesshoumaru rolled to his side, then stopped. He looked down with sleep-clouded eyes to see what was now nestled into his chest. Ishiru had felt his warmth and instinctively snuggled closer, her hands lightly holding onto his haori. Sesshoumaru didn't move a muscle throughout her actions. He simply watched as she snuggled into his chest.

Almost instantly after Ishiru stilled, she was encased in Sesshoumaru's embrace, his nose nestled in her hair. His mind was still half asleep and though had no idea precisely why he wanted to hold her like this, it felt so right to him. His groggy, sleep-laden mind clung to Ishiru like a child to his toy. He slowly fell the few inches he was away, into dreamland with Ishiru.

Whilst on the edges of Sesshoumaru's lands, Naraku picked up a small plant from the ground and brought it up to his eyes.

"You will help me."