The sparkling essence of champagne poured over the edge of the green-glassed bottle to fall onto the white sand. Slowly the alcoholic beverage soaked in leaving a solitary damp spot on the otherwise dry sand at the edge of the lake. A group of boisterous business men stood around the bottle talking animatedly about various subjects. Another man gleefully pounded thick wooden stakes into the ground nearby and then stapled the large artist's rendition of what the new buildings would look like when they were done.
An hour passed as they stood their, making their noise and then leaving the dirty bottle carelessly tossed into the reeds not far from the bank. They bid their farwells to one another, herded back into their swanky cars, and were soon on their way back to the city. All except for one. He took off his tight leather shoes and long black socks and sat on the white sand looking out over the placid lake. He smiled to himself as he imagined the resort buildings, beutiful and white they would be, built around the curve of the otherwise untouched lake and how much money they would bring him.
He stared at the water where it met the sand closest to him, momentarily marveling in the absolute clarity of the water and how the stark white sand contrasted with the bluish water. The gentles ripples he spotted that seemed to go slightly against the rest in the lake were chalked up to a mere change in the wind as he rose to his feet and wiped the dry sand from his suit pants. As he turned to go back to his car a melodious, haunting voice called out to him.
"Would you really destroy all of my hard work, and my home? So easily, without a second thought?", the whispered words made him stop. Not out of need to speak to the unknown person but out of nervousness and fear. There wasn't anyone there a second ago, and the ethereal quality the voice carried sent shivers down his spin and goosebumps erupted over his skin.
He turned his head slowly to look where the voice came from. His throat constricted at the sight that met him. There stood a nude woman, a blue whisp of energy that resembled sheer cloth flowing on a wind that only existed for her. Her raven black hair fell down her back and poured into the water like black ink that refused to meld completely with the lake. Her painfully honest gaze focused back at him, the clear azure of her eyes matching that of the water that danced around her ankles.
When he was too awed to answer her she spoke again.
"Do you have so little regard for what Kami have put here? Do you care so little for what the old have done so much to protect that you would destroy it so callously for a few more yen?" He didn't answer again, staring wide-eyed and silent at her for a seemingly endless spanse of time.
Then he answered, his voice quiet and hesitant. "Yo... You wish for me to call of the build?", he received an affirmitave. "Why?", he asked, not knowing what else to say.
She raised her left hand, the green glass champagne bottle balanced carefully in the delicate clutch of her fingers. "Beauty, hard earned is easiy destroyed. I have guarded this place for centuries, would you force me to leave it all behind now?"
He continued to stare back at her, thinking. He realised he would never be able to deny her anything she asked of him. So he walked slowly to the edge of the water, sat down cross-legged in the sand once again, and he asked her a question. "Would you tell me how you came to be?"
The smile he recieved struck a chord in his heart. He couldn't fathom the depths and time it woud take to make one so beautiful smile so sadly. She kneeled in front of him, nestling the bottle into the sand in front of him, and she told him her tale.
OOO
Pale hands held onto the gray coarse paper of the yesterdays post. He glared at the article in the business section. The lake side property he had watched over for years had finally been put on the market by the government and another company offered far more than his own up and coming real-estate company, thus aquiring the property. He threw the paper across the room, watching it flutter to the floor. He ran his hands through his black hair and shut his eyes tight against the oncoming headache.
Just as he thought he might get some peace his office foor flew open. His secretary quickly scurried in and dropped his concealment spell before beginning his excited squaking. "Milord! Milord!", he shouted excitedy as he reached the side of the swiveling chair. He happily brandished the morning's post that had just been delivered. "Look, look!"
Sesshoumaru dropped his conceament spell as well and reached forward with a now clawed hand to the business section. In the same place where the announcement to build the new resort was yesterday there was now a notice that the plans had been recinded a wildlife preserve would be in it's place. Curious as to the drastic change of heart from the new land-owner he read on. His eyes widened as he reached the quote from the land-owner, Takeo-san, stating that 'Tenshi came to him and told him the lake should be preserved and not exploited'. The mention of Tenshi in conjunction with Kagome's lake tickled something in the back of his mind. He was saved from trying to remember by his retainer.
"I told you milord! I told you there was something in that lake! We should have gone back. We should have never left in the first place. Tenshi lived there and she probably could have told you of the Lady Kagome!", he gasped for breath and paused before continueing his barrage in a quieter tone. "Will we go back now, Lord Sesshoumaru? If this Takeo-san summoned the Tenshi some how I'm sure you could milord.."
Sesshoumaru sighed at the ramblings of the little imp as he turned in his swivel shair back to his desk. "I will think on it", he said quietly.
Jaken leapt and squawked happily as he placed the now rumpled paper on the corner of the desk to be read later. They both put their concealment spells in place as Jaken reached a hand towards the door. He paused for a moment before turning back to the tired looking man sitting at the desk. Jaken momentarily thought over all that happened the last few centuries and how the stress of guilt and loss seemed to be catching up with his lord.
"Milord?", his voice was barely above a whisper, "If I may speak freely...", knowing that the pen had stopped moving across the paper was a sign to go ahead he continued, "I hope that you hurry your decision to go to the lake, milord. No one waits forever, not even Tenshi." With that he quietly stepped through the door and closed it behind him with a soft 'click'.
He didn't see the Sesshoumaru's shoulders slumped heavily and he sagged over his desk, laying his forehead down on the laquered surface.