The Storybook
Prompt: Fairytale (SessKag monthly prompt)
Universe: Canon divergence
Genre: Drama
621 Words
Once Upon a Time, there was a girl who fell down a well.
Inside the well, there was a magic portal that swept the girl into a strange land of a distant past.
There, in that land beyond the well, the girl met a boy dog-eared boy pinned to a tree.
When a foul demon attacked the girl, she released the dog-eared boy and begged for his aid. He agreed to help and rescued her from the dreadful centipede mistress.
But not before the centipede mistress had dug her sharp claws into the girl and pulled out a jewel.
The Sacred Jewel.
The Sacred Jewel was known in this land, though it had been thought lost long ago.
Now, it had returned – with the girl.
The jewel was said to grant a wish, so it was coveted by demons and humans alike; by every being who was tempted by its offer of power.
By a mistake, the girl one day shattered the jewel, its shards scattering everywhere, all across the land.
And thus, the girl had to join the dog-eared boy on an adventure to collect all the shards and restore the jewel.
For no one coveted the jewel more than the dread Naraku; an evil spider hanyou hungry for power.
The girl and the dog-eared boy set out on a quest to find all the shards before Naraku.
On this quest, they travelled far and wide and faced many dangers. They made friends along the way, but also battled with adversaries, such as the henchmen of the evil Naraku.
And in the end, together with their many friends, the girl and the dog-eared boy bested the villain Naraku and made their wish on the Sacred Jewel – for the jewel to cease to exist so it might never again tempt anyone with its false promises.
And with the jewel gone and villain defeated, the girl lived happily ever after.
"The end," mama said, closing the storybook.
"Did the girl live happily ever after in the land beyond the well? With the dog-eared boy?" she asked.
Mama smiled at her, brushed her hair with a gentle hand.
"That, the story doesn't tell," mama replied. "Now sleep, my dearest."
"Ok," she said with a sigh and burrowed deeper under her blanket.
Her mother bent to kiss her cheek. "Good night, Kagome."
"Good night, mama," Kagome murmured back with a sleepy smile.
Mrs Higurashi left the room, cradling the storybook in her arms.
It was old, its leather-covered cracked. The silver embossed moon symbol was barely visible.
The ink, with which the stories inside were written, by someone's careful and elegant hand, had also faded by time.
The story about the girl falling down the well had always been Mrs Higurashi's favourite, even back when she had been a child and her father had read her the stories.
The storybook had been passed down the family for generations.
No one was quite sure of its origin – though sometimes Mrs Higurashi's father spoke of a legend, according to which the book had been a gift from a high lord blessed by the moon.
Mrs Higurashi wasn't quite sure what that meant, but her father had always loved his myths.
He'd told her some said the Lord of the Moon had written the stories himself, while according to others, the Lord's beloved wife had been the author.
But the origin of the storybook didn't matter, Mrs Higurashi decided, fondly tracing that faint crescent moon on the cover.
Wherever they had got it, it had become a family heirloom, one of their most precious possession.
And the stories of the book would live on – through Kagome, though Souta… and one day, Mrs Higurashi hoped, through their children.