Unable to face the choices presented to me, there was another image of myself that seemed darker-more sinister than I could imagine. Approaching the mirror with the shadow, it was like looking into a murky bog and a monster lurked within it. The priestess hissed at the figure, disdain written on her face as she scowled to me approaching it.
"What is that?"

"That" she pointed, "is what most human turn out when they fall."

"Fall?" She didn't say anything as she looked away and I went back to her wanting an answer. "What do you mean fall?"

Her eyes on me, slowly blinking as she gave thought to what she could possibly explain, a sigh escaped her as she leaned on the fox statue casually. "The human call it greed...maybe a mixture of ugly emotions turned one. Corruption, malicious intent, jealousy...it all melds into one ugly beast that can take control and ruin you"

"...that could be me?" Holding my neck, thinking it would end me just by looking at it again, the priestess took hold of my head and turned me back to her.

"Any human can turn into that. Stop wasting your time trying to understand, just choose if you want to be a pathetic mortal or a fox."

"..." there was nothing more for her to say to me as the other mirror started to fade away, I looked to my mortal self that hovered above the small pond and to the priestess. There as so much I wanted to do back home and what I strived for that it was hard to think letting my humanity go would just end it all so easily. Taking everything into account of my venture with Sesshomaru, how mixed up and rebellious-self-centered and completely unorthodox I've become made me rethink everything. I felt more confident in some ways I never did before. Though I could use a kick in the ass to bring it out, I did give my humanity up for that short time and didn't feel as attached I thought I'd be.

"So?" The priestess grew weary waiting on me.

"If I choose to be a demon...will you vanish?"

"Well," she was surprised and twirled a strand of her hair. "I would...considering your soul finally chooses to be something other than two. My purpose was only to meld your soul and that was that. Being around this long, never considered it happening."

"I see..."
I looked once more between the two and threw everything to the back of my mind and followed what I wanted. Change, desire, hopeful for something that could be made possible. The priestess seemed to enjoy my inner battle and left me alone when I felt my body start to feel numb and warm?
"what?"

There was a murmur of sorts coming from nothing around me and I could feel my arms being touched gently by someone. I touched the same spot and it felt ticklish to the touch, yet somehow I was familiar with it. Closing my eyes and thinking on the feeling, there was more voices before I could clearly hear him. Sesshomaru was speaking to me, but his voice couldn't carry through to me as strong whilst here and another voice in the distance I placed as Toga's. My heart fluttered being touched by Sesshomaru that I felt relieved that he'd come for me when I walked away.

"...I've decided." Speaking out and hearing the priestess perk up and walking back to the shrine, she was eager to see my choice. "I'm certain this time...and it's my own choice."

"Son, release her this instant!" Toga roared as he watched Sesshomaru hold onto the burning body that burst so suddenly without warning that caught both off guard. Seeing his son refuse to release her, calling out the woman's name in vane, Toga was unable to get close. "Release the wench!"

"Grr...tch" Sesshomaru held her still as the blue flames surrounded even him, burning everything else around them as though within a raging forest fire. Blue flames licked the ground as well as a fiery orange, showing nothing mercy to its whims of power.

Clara's body became darkened as the fire engulfed her. Clothes became charcoal, fueling the flames as her hair disappeared and skin became that of rotting flesh. Toga kept trying to pull his son from the flames of the woman's fire, but he refused to part from her. Anguish came over Sesshomaru as he called out for her, losing his voice in the process as the flames entered him and scorched his throat. No matter how quickly a demons capability to heal goes, burning one's own throat repeatedly would leave a scar. Enraged by his foolish son's actions and risking himself being torched, he yanked on his son's mantle and pulled him out of the fire.

"She's dead!" Toga lurched at his son, yanking him to face the fact. "The priestess was wrong for choosing such a mortal...and I am to blame for that mistake." Snarling as the body dissipated, nothing remaining but the blue flames, Sesshomaru twisted from his father's grasp and dug his claws into the ground with anger. Shouting at nothing, anger fueled him as his demon aura seeped out and began changing him. Toga intervened and grabbed the back of Sesshomaru's neck to quell the anger he held and rid his son's demonic phase by brute force.
"She's gone...don't let your emotions control you. It is undignified for us." Toga spoke with a snarl trying to contain him, but it came through eventually as he simmered down and returned to his senses. "She is no longer here son...move on."

"..." he didn't say anything, feeling his father's claws remove from his neck as he stared at the flames that now rage on in a single spot on the ground where she once laid. "What now...father..." he asked with little emotion left in him.

"Go on a journey...find your place among the ranks and fulfill your role as a young lord. Surpass me without need of a fox fire to manage your fang. for I will do the same."

"You will?" He questioned. Toga said nothing as he turned his back to his son, mounting his horse and facing back West. "If I find purpose...those fangs you carry, will I inherit them as my own?"

"If you prove to me your worth as a true demon lord, my fangs will be yours and I will relinquish my land to you." Speaking with a lords tone as he kicked the horse to a canter, Sesshomaru watched his father ride off.

"..." looking back to the flames once more, an inclination came over him to touch the flames once more as he approached and held out his sword. "You were a strange being entering my sight...though it was short, I've gained much to learn from this experience." The flames licked his blade, a power coercing through them as his fang began to glow. Struck by an unknown fear as he dropped his fang, watching it levitate in the flames, an apparition began to come forward holding it.

"Sesshomaru?" Clara spoke to him through the flames. Her image that of her mortal self before the priestess had taken hold of her soul.

"Clara..." her soul was within his sight, meaning she was moving on from this life. He felt hollow seeing her in that form, yet there was also something that interested him all the more. "You have final words for this one?"

"Final...seems appropriate I guess. I have a question for you actually." She paused while looking at the blade and holding it aloft as though she was solid rather than a spirit. "If I came to you as myself...a human...would you accept me as you did before when I had the foxfire?"

He didn't answer straight away. Her appearance was something he didn't consider at first being she was merely human. The more she became a demon, his interest became apparent, even for him. "If there was a choice of having you as a demon, our time would be much longer together than a mortals life."

"With the foxfire?"

Heading his father's words to disregard the fox power and hone his own strength, it was an ambition he wished to carry through. "I have no need for the foxfire to test my merit. I am Lord Sesshomaru."

She smiled with such glee he wasn't expecting that she hugged his sword and seemed to be holding it out for him to take. Approaching once more and taking his fang back, a resonating thrum filled him as his blade was brimming with power. The flames began to dissipate as it did so and the visual of Clara was fading.

"I'm choosing to live my mortal life...though it is short for you, I hope to spend it with you for whatever length is given to me." She held out her hand, wanting for him to take her and bring her body to him in a tight embrace. He didn't hesitate a second time as he'd done once before now and took her hand and felt the softness of her becoming one with the living. She smiled as her other hand reached out and touched his cheek when her ethereal form became whole again.

"Clara..." her scent filling him to the core, she embraced him with fervent strength she held as he ran his fingers through her hair. Taking notice her brown hair from before was returned, there was a change that he took notice. The very end of her hair was white as new snowfall, running his fingers down to feel the ends, it was soft as a wolf pup's fur.

"I may have forgotten to mention something," she looked up and her eyes shimmered a golden hue. "The priestess gave me her life essence if I were to prove to her you would choose me and not the fire. Though it was a gamble, this doesn't make me a demon, but will at least give me a longer life than most."

There was a swell of emotions that overtook Sesshomaru that he didn't know how to react to hearing such news. Taking her chin and lifting it high enough to look at her endearing and expectant eyes, he kissed her long and soft. Her smile between passing kisses as her hands grabbed hold of him with longing, he lifted her with ease as she fixated her hands to his face and held him.

"Thank you..."

THE END

Mahalo plenty everyone for reading this fun story I cooked up on a whim. Though it's been off and on from my busy daily life it was nice to just wrap this one up and focus on some other works I have going on. I left the ending this way on purpose to have anyone interpret whoever they want saying it. So again, mahalo plenty everyone and hope to have you read some of my other stories on here ^_^