A Poet's Muse
By Kikanemi
Miroku groaned, his fatigue falling on him like a load of bricks. Stretching quickly, he sat up on the edge of his bed and ran his fingers through his hair. Minding his state of nudeness, he slipped on a pair of slacks and a worn blue leather jacket. He then sat at his desk, picking up a feather, and then proceeding to dip it into a small vat of ink.
"You are…" he hesitated, "You are like…"
He looked back to his bed, a small form still outlined by his sheets. Still, nothing.
"You are like…what?" he looked back to his paper, "Three damn words. I was wrong. She gave me nothing."
He crumpled up the paper and threw it next to tens of other pieces of parchment scattered over the messy floor of his one room apartment. Someone came in then, a man just his age with a maroon waist coat and silver hair. He paid no regard to the person in the bed and sat down, shaking it enough to wake the occupant still resting.
"Miroku, got anything?"
The woman, sat up, covering herself with a sheet, "Excuse me? What is going on?"
"Your next muse I presume? She is a dog!" Miroku's friend said harshly.
Miroku slapped his head, "And an even worse shag…"
"Excuse me?" the woman, clearly offended, yelled.
Inuyasha, the friend, only waved her off, "Do not mind us. This is business."
"Humph!"
Inuyasha rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest, "Sesshoumaru is bugging me again. When are your next pages going to be done, Miroku? I am a dead man walking if that answer is anything but soon."
"Fine then, soon." He stuffed the feather back into it's rightful place and stood up, beginning to pace the room, "But that can only be farther from the truth…"
"What is taking you so long? You are a poetic genius! Scribble down a few verses and be done with it!"
Inuyasha gave the woman an odd look when she began to dress, as if she were interrupting them. Miroku ignored her, deciding she wasn't even worth his time anymore.
"It is not so simple. I need my muse…someone who can-"
"Who can show you the world in one look, and write all your books and pages to come within their heart. Yes, I have heard it before. But there seems to be no girl that can fit such a description, you are asking quite a bit, don't you think?"
"Look, Inuyasha. There has to be a woman out there…someone who is all of that and more."
"And when you find her, alert me. I need those pages." He got up and ushered the girl out of the door before him, "Then I will turn her in for a witch, Miroku. No girl is that perfect."
Seeing he could not retort as his friend had already shut the door, he only sighed and leaned against a wall of his room.
----------
In a place not so far away, along the cobblestone streets and marketplaces, there was a small house. That used to occupy a family that seemed to be unbreakable. But now there was only one left. One who was now sobbing her heart out on the torn and moth-eaten sheets of her bed.
Wiping away whatever trail of tears still present, she sat up and looked at herself in her mirror. One of her most prized possessions that she could actually afford. Her torso was distorted by a crack she had created not so long ago, but her face was still clearly visible. Sango stepped forward, examining her image.
"Well, eyes take your last look. Tonight is my last parting." She sighed and walked into the kitchen.
It was empty, like most of the other rooms throughout the house. She didn't have the heart to sell her parent's bed or her brother's either. That way she could pretend that they always had a bed to come home to. She knew the truth, though. They were dead.
As she walked outside, she noticed the alleyway that led to her small abode was dark. The day had come and fallen while she had been cooped up in her room. Sango continued to venture beyond her neighbors' houses, feigning happiness as waved and bowed her head in acknowledgement. When she made it to the main street she frowned, took in a deep breath of air, and then started her way on the path to find seclusion.
"Sango," she heard a deep voice call as she made her way through town, "You have not come to my shop lately. Where have you been?"
Sango immediately recognized the voice as Mr. Batter, a friend of her father's who specialized in kitchen knives. Usually she would stop by to talk or vent her feelings. But not lately. She didn't want to talk to anyone. Turning around, trying to hold the last ounces of temper within her, she grinned at him.
"Why hello, Mr. Batter." She walked slowly towards his small stand in the marketplace, "I have been busy with housework, I am quite sorry."
"Oh, it is quite all right, Sango! I understand! But, please, come back soon so I can finish telling you my adventures of becoming a knight."
Sango waved to him quickly before running off, just so she wouldn't have to explain that after tonight she wouldn't be around anymore. When she passed the limit of the village she stopped to take in the last of the lights behind her. The lanterns, all hung on their small wooden posts by every doorway, reminded her of fire flies. The people, so calm and happy, bustled about without a care in the world. That was why she needed to leave. She didn't belong with people who deserved to have so much joy.
Stepping out onto the long prairie grass of the vast field ahead, she noticed something off within the forest in front of her. A silhouette. The black outlines of another stranger occupying the shadows of the glade. The idea intrigued her that someone, somehow, was tired of life like she was.
Sango walked slowly, as if in a trance, towards the person. When she got so close that she could almost make out colors, the person spun around and Sango quickly found herself behind a tree so that the being did not know that it was being stalked.
"Hello…? Is someone there?" a voice called out.
It was a girl. All of Sango's romantic ideas about the situation were quickly stifled and doused.
"Please, I saw you. Come out."
Sango decided that if she were to be murdered for this it would not be such a bad idea to come out. It would make the job easier.
Stepping aside from the trunk that concealed her, Sango walked forward to see a girl, her age, dressed in a worn burlap cloak.
"I am sorry. Quite sorry."
The woman waved her hand, "No need to be."
She pulled down the hood of her cloak to reveal a face much like her own, not many differences at all. Long auburn tresses flowed down her back, much like Sango's, but somehow in a more entrancing fashion. Sango could not bring herself to look elsewhere, the sight before her too wonderful and mysterious.
"We look quite alike. You will do," the girl murmured, causing Sango's face to scrunch up in confusion, "I am Savanna. Lady Savanna."
"Then you are a noble? Out here?"
Sango looked down at Savanna's finger that now covered her lips to silence her, she looked back up with a puzzling look. "Look, I need to ask you a favor."
Sango choked, "Me? But why me? I am a nobody! You do not even know who I am!"
"Then tell me your name! I am in dire need of your help. Please."
She didn't know what to say. Befuddled was an understatement, "I am Sango, but why must you know?"
"And Sango, why are you out here? Perhaps it is because you are tired of the life you once led and came to get away from it all?"
Sango felt a flash of fear well up within her, "How did you know…?"
"Because, my dear Sango, I am out here for the same reason." Savanna began to pace, "You see, I am tired of being waited upon. I am tired of attending every royal and fancy occasion. And I am most definitely tired of being treated as a selection for every male, young and old."
Sango wasn't quite sure what Savanna was getting at, "And so you are trying to make a suicide pact with me?"
Only dead silence remained.
Before it was rudely interrupted with the huge laughing fit Lady Savanna began to throw.
"Suicide pact?" Savanna managed to say in between guffaws, "I would not even think of doing such a thing!"
Sango only rolled her eyes as Savanna used her knees to support herself from all of the loud, uncalled for giggling.
"Sango, you humor me," Savanna quickly sobered up and dried the tears forming in her eyes.
"Then what is it? I do not wish to be mocked anymore."
Savanna put her hand on Sango's shoulder in a comforting gesture, "Do not give away your life tonight, Sango. It is far too precious. You may think you have the courage to kill yourself, but I know that you also hold the courage to live. Will you live?"
Sango only sighed, "I guess you are going to stop me, yes?"
"Of course I was going to stop your dumb little escapade! I would feel guilty if I had not!"
"Well, then, my lady, what favor do you ask of me?" Sango curtsied, feeling she should to a noble, after all.
Savanna quickly pushed at Sango's shoulders so that she stood straight before proceeding to curtsy herself, "I am asking you something very important, Lady Savanna."
"What are you getting at?" Sango inquired, bewildered as to why she was the one being treated like a noble and having Lady Savanna call her Lady Savanna.
"I am asking you if you would be me. So that I, Lady Savanna, may be normal. Only for a night, if you wish."
"I suppose…but what will I be required to do?"
Savanna straightened and took Sango's hands, staring into her eyes, "Tomorrow night there is a dance at my manor. You will come, be wooed, and be on your way. But please, consider a life as my most humbled maid rather than death."
"I guess it would not hurt."
"I promise that you and I will be friends. I will not be cruel or punish you like some assume maids are treated like."
"Alright."
Savanna tightened her hand on Sango's wrist and began running.
"Come!" she called behind her and led the way.
When they made it into a clearing, Sango began to inspect the mansion she would come to know as Whisper Manor. The most glorious estate she had stepped foot on in all her days of living.
Savanna harshly pushed the stupefied Sango into a small rowboat and started to row across the narrow river that led to the gates of the property.
"Amazing, is it not?" Savanna said, admiring it quickly from her position in the boat.
Sango could only nod in response, 'And utterly romantic.' Sango sighed and began to dream of what was yet to come in the next chapter of her life.
----------
Across town, miles away, Miroku was leaning his cheek to his palm at his desk. Deciding that Inuyasha may really die this time, even though Sesshoumaru's threats were usually empty, he told himself he would not leave that spot until something was finished. The day passed and he had not yet even scribbled a title, or so much as his name.
Inuyasha barged in rudely, like he did most of the time, but this time his arm was around a beautiful girl.
"Miroku, you workin' on those pages?" he said gruffly, sitting down on his bed and having the young maiden follow.
Miroku swiveled in his stool so that he could peer fully at his friend, "I am. But my mind has been rid of any romantic thought or deed."
The girl spoke up then, cuddling into Inuyasha's chest and she talked, "Then perhaps he and I can show ya' some inspiration."
Miroku's eyes narrowed, "You brought home another drunk wench, didn't you?"
Inuyasha looked at his friend dangerously, "She is not just another drunk wench. This is Kikyo, the one I told you about."
"Oh yeah, her."
"Anyway, my friend, I came to talk to you about something. It may be another chance to find such a woman that is what you deem worthy to become your muse."
"Yes? Then what is this chance you speak of?" Miroku leaned forward a bit, interested.
Inuyasha pushed at Kikyo when she began kissing his neck, not wanting to be distracted, "Tomorrow at Whisper Manor there is a dance. You always like those."
This started Miroku on all of his poetic mumbo jumbo. "Yes, the way that two people's eyes meet from across the room never ceases to amaze me. And when they dance, their fingers intertwine in a gesture that seems to be more intimate than making love."
"Miroku, spare me." Inuyasha stood and beckoned the girl to follow, "You go and have a good time there. But, please, come back with a muse. I need those pages."
He shut the door behind him and Miroku let his mind wander quickly, staring aimlessly at the night sky through his small window. "And I need you to stop reminding me."
"Tomorrow night, I will find a woman who shall make the sun rise and set in my life."