The sun set brilliantly; night's net crawling across on gossamer strands of fiery tendrils across the cheek of dusk.
Two witnesses stood to watch the triumph from a cliff over looking the dozing city. One could only watch the golden tear carve a trail across the bell of the sky. Ebony strands swept down her back and across her pearled lips, yet her cloudy eyes were for one thing.
The golden heart beat its last and fell behind the distant mountains.
"Eleanor-chan?" Kagome asked. The girl beside her, hair lose and floating in the seeming of a glowing coronet, smiled and offered her a flower crown. "Why do you think I lost my memory?"
Eleanor leaned back into the grass, resting on her elbows and catching a piece of her hair between her fingers and watching it catch the light.
"Hmm? What do I think? Oh here." She gave her a gentle smile, continuing with a faraway look.
"There are any number of possibilities for you not to remember- it could be too painful,or perhaps too harmful and yourmind has decided thatit's bestyou don't remember.Would you rather that you gothrough apain sogreat that you'vealready forced yourself to forget once? It's a potent question, don't answer it now."
Kagome considered the girl and the problem she posed for a moment, emotion flickering in her eyes. She felt distinctly betrayed. "You know more than you're telling."
"Yeah," Eleanor said softly.
The stars were coming up and they turned their eyes skyward.
-Kagome-
She almost wept.
The God Tree wept with her, she felt, shared her burden, and finally drew her to it.
She came unwillingly, walking with her head down and shoulders hunched, to the tree. She took no notice of the crushed blooms beneath her but only of the gnarled roots that cradled her broken soul.
She lay both hands upon one, running the pads of her fingers of the rough bark, and the pressing her cheek to it. It was in that first contact, her cheek soft against the wood, that she could almost clearly hear the voices.
"Sango…you really must return to the village; she will not return…" Male. It faded out and a female's took the place of it.
"I feel closer to her here than anywhere…"
"Why did she leave? When's she coming…" It was a child's voice, rough with untempered sorrow.
"I don't know, I just…" It was the man again.
"Inuyasha's gone mad, hasn't he?" The child said, but now muffled.
"He's just very, very sad…"
The voices faded away as Kagome pulled her cheek away from the tree, her mind reeling, her heart hammering, something was pulling at her conscience.
She contemplated fainting; somehow the idea seeming very appealing at the moment. She shook her head and let it rest upon her folded arms, shying away from the tree.
Inuyasha…
Reviewer's Corner:
agent-doo: Bah humbug! I do hope you're happy! >. I was perfectly content with this chapter until I reread your review and then decided it wasn't good enough. -sighs sorrowfully- It's not fair.