"What hast thou done to me,
Girl, with the dream in thine eyes?
Brightened the sun to me,
Lightened the skies;
Made there be one to me,
One only sun to me Not in the skies.
What hast thou done to me,
Girl with the dream in thine eyes?
Darkened the sun to me,
Blackened the skies;
Made there be none to me,
Nor star nor sun to me,
Only black skies"
-"Et Melle Et Felle," Anonymous
What prompts people to fall in love? Is there truly such an emotion so vivid as to allow two different people to come together and care for one another so deeply as to be monogamous?
In my experience, there is no such thing; lust is the only factor in any relationship, and it depends solely on the strength of it to determine whether the two are monogamous or not. So far, there has never been a monogamous couple. The man will stray eventually, seeking out other bed-partners.
Love has never existed in any relationship.
III...The Nightmare Lullaby
The gods are having a laugh at my expense, this time I was absolutely positive. I mean, come on! Who else but the gods would make sure my money supply ran out faster than expected, offer me a job as a shrine maiden, send a demon to almost kill me, and then toss out a pretty torque that they just knew I would have to try on? Man...those gods've got me pegged pretty good...damn.
But, yea, all that really paled in the significance of what the silvery collar meant. I really wouldn't have put the torque on if I'd known beforehand, but that's exactly what those vindictive gods wanted: me not knowing the significance.
So, there I was, sitting beside a roaring fire with a coldness inside that couldn't be warmed, not even with the double layer of clothing I wore. In fact, the cuteness of the little girl yammering on in Japanese right beside me couldn't warm me. Why?
Because I'd just found out that the stupid effin' collar made me a demon's whore.
Why, gods? Why? What had I done to deserve this? Well, other than a few stuff back in my childhood...but I was a kid then! I didn't know better! I guess this is what I get for wracking up bad karma.
"Neh, Onee-chan?" The little Japanese girl was looking up at my face, practically halfway in my lap. Her big brown eyes looked pleadingly at me, and I wonder what she'd asked.
"Uhhh...what was that again? I'm afraid I didn't catch what you said," I said, feeling a tad embarrassed for spacing out in front of a little girl. I loved children, just not when they annoyed me.
"Rin wants to know if you can sing her a lullaby!"
I blinked: a lullaby? Oh all the things to ask for, why a lullaby? "Uhh...why?" I asked most intelligently, trying to ignore the searing glare that was trying to pierce a hole in the back of my head.
The little girl, Rin, pouted cutely and sat back on her haunches, looking sad. "'Cause Rin can't remember any lullabies, that's why Rin wants Onee-chan to sing to her," she explained, looking up at me with those big, puppy-dog eyes. I couldn't resist.
"Alright," I sighed, patting her on the head while she climbed into my lap. "I don't know any lullabies from around here, but I'll sing you one that my Grandmere always sung to me when I was really little."
"Grandmere? What's that?" She chirped, wonder in her eyes.
Uhm...okaaay... That was weird. She didn't know that 'grandmere' was French for grandmother? She may be young, but I wouldn't think that she hadn't had at least some exposure to other cultures.
A low growl behind my back warned me that I'd better start singing unless I wanted to say goodbye to nice, fresh air. "Uhh, nevermind that now, Rin-chan," I smiled, albeit a tad nervously. "Let's see...I think Brahm's Lullaby should be good."
Grinning softly, I started to croon out the words to her, glad for once that Grandmere had taught me to sing the lullaby in it's original German. It was actually a very beautiful song, one that I liked to sing to the little children I used to babysit in order to raise money for this whole trip.
Roughly translated, it went something along like this:
Lullaby and good night, with roses bedight
With liles o'er spread is baby's wee bed
Lay thee down now and rest, may thy slumber be blessed
Lay thee down now and rest, may thy slumber be blessed.
Lullaby and goodnight, thy mother's delight
Bright angels beside my darling abide
They will guard thee at rest, thou shalt wake on my breast
They will guard thee at rest, thou shalt wake on my breast.
And, seriously, it's not meant to be perverted. It's an old song; the people back then weren't afraid to say 'breast'...or other stuff, but let's not get into that sort of discussion.
By the end of the lullaby, Rin had laid her head against my ample bosom, sleeping quietly and peacefully. I resisted the urge to squeal at the sheer adorable picture she made, but only because her guardian was still viciously glaring at my back.
"Just so you know," I muttered at him in English, grinning viciously to myself, "You're a very cute-looking, long-haired bishie...even if you are shorter than me."
"What did you say, wench?" Came the low growl, and my back shivered as I felt his presence draw nearer.
"Uhh, nothing, nothing at all!" I laughed nervously, scratching my hand viciously, as was my habit to do so in nerve-wracking situations such as these. Yes, I'd be paying for it later, but it helped to keep me somewhat calm now with the pain.
Like a snake, a hand shot out and grabbed the hand I'd been scratching so harshly. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the golden-eyed beauty examine my hand as it started darken as the blood welled to just below the surface of my skin. "Why did you scratch yourself, girl?"
That irked me: nobody has ever called me 'girl' before. Young lady, yes, but never 'girl.' Oh, he was most definitely on my list of people to hurt if I ever snapped.
"What can I say? You scare me," I muttered in English happily, wincing when he gave a vicious tug on my wrist.
"Stop speaking that foul language, girl," he snarled, his face getting closer to mine. "I know you can speak regularly."
"Of course I can," I snapped, not liking my personal bubble being invaded. "But it's not my milk-tongue, alright? I have more trouble talking in this language than I do in my native tongue."
"While you wear that collar, you will obey me: do not speak that heathen language of yours."
Wha! The bastard! I opened my mouth to curse him in English, but the chokehold started again. Well, damn. Now I can't even rant in English? Well...I could rant in my mind, but what fun is that? I could insult him to his face and not feel guilty about him understanding it, but now I couldn't. Well, this was just lovely.
Taking a deep breath and shivering in the cold air, I resisted the urge to rant and rave at him in Japanese. I had a suspicion he would probably make my life a living hell otherwise.
A drum beats in the darkness...
"Move along, wench! Master Sesshoumaru won't wait for stragglers," the little toad creature sneered at me from where he was leading that two-headed...dragon/horse...thingy, atop which Rin was riding. Of course, me being the low-life that I was in this 'lord's' eyes, I had to walk. At a fast pace. Or suffer being choked.
"Yea, yea, I'm hurrying," I grumbled in Japanese, wincing when my stomach complained at the lack of food. I was dizzy and faint from hunger, but I wouldn't let the golden-eyed beautiful bastard have the satisfaction of seeing me beg. I would never beg!
GRUMBLE...
Okay, maybe I would beg a little...if just to satisfy my stomach pangs. I don't like not eating anything in at least a day and a half... One time, I'd barely eaten anything for three days, but that had been when I'd had food poisoning. Now, I just had to deal with food allergies...and I had a lot, thanks to "Mommy dearest." Ugh, I need to eat soon, or I'm going to start mouthing off the fifty states and their capitals next.
Gasping for air, I trotted faster, eyes tearing up as I gasped for breath. As soon as the chokehold lessened again, I was able to breathe. Yes, it appeared that I couldn't be away from the golden-eyed beauty for more than ten yards before the chokehold began anew.
I swear I am going to kill the person who invented this damnable collar, even if it did save my life before. Being a virtual slave is wrose, dammit.
"Sesshoumaru-sama! Come back for Rin!"
Glancing up with wide eyes, I saw the little black-haired girl waving excitedly at the silver-haired man, who had turned away from the trail, going back into the forest. "Gah! Wait for me!" I called, already feeling the chokehold beginning.
Speeding up so I could catch up with Mr. Speed-Demon, I tried to move as silently through the forest as he did, but it seemed that every little twig found it's way beneath my sandaled feet. Who knew that twigs could make so much noise in an otherwise quiet forest?
Wait...quiet...this sounds cheesy, but it really was too quiet...there wasn't even that soft buzzing noise: white noise, I think it was called. Nothing...just...nothing.
I stopped, eyes wide as sweat trickled down the small of my back. Something...something was very close...and it didn't feel happy. Not. At. All.
Mommy.
Err...I'm not scared! Yea, that's it... Gulping down a breath of the suddenly-frigid air, I chased on after the golden-eyed man, my feet nearly as quiet as his now. But that was only because I was now adrenaline-driven, and didn't want to be anywhere near that unhappy presence I'd felt. Something told me that I shouldn't be following the golden-eyed man anyways, since it looked like he was heading towards the unhappy presence, but as long as this damn collar was on me, I was stuck.
Just my luck. No matter how much a coward someone is, one day they are most definitely going to have to go and face danger. Oh shit: I hope this danger wasn't the kind that involved me getting eaten by demons. I'd avoided that once, and look where it'd gotten me!
Right then, I stumbled into a clearing, gasped, and fell back on my butt. Before me stood that golden-eyed beauty with a sword in his right hand, facing off against a swarm of giant insects and demons. This would be a good time to run...if I weren't so scared.
If I ever survive this little adventure, I would never, ever leave the safety of my mom's house ever again!
End Chapter
Post Scriptum Author Notes: -is laughing so hard she can't breathe- Okay, I've always wondered how tall Sesshoumaru actually is. I figured he was one of those super-tall bishounen, over 6 feet and all. Turns out, he's only 5'9". -falls out of her chair laughing- My god, Adele is sooo much taller than he is. Wow, just, wow. Let's calculate how much taller Adele is than Fluffy-chan, hmm? -calculates hurriedly- She's at least 17cm/7in taller than Fluffy-chan...-bursts out laughing again- Oh man, I feel so guilty now. U Oh well... Anyway, this chapter is dedicated to Melancholie, who reminded me I had a good ficcy on withtheir reviews.
By the way, I did a swift lil drawing of Adele. You can find it on Deviantart by going here (just delete the spaces):
www. deviantart .com/ deviation/ 35438743/
