Chapter 3: Leaves Fall in Winter
The rain fell like layers of mist around the Higurashi castle. The clouds were almost black, and the wind cried like a lonely wanderer lost in the storm. Kagome, being as she was only a child, did not see that this horrible scene was the perfect setting for her mother's funeral, nor would she care. She thought only of her sadness, and the empty feeling in her chest.
The procession of priests and priestesses walked slowly through the rain, their wet robes, once white, were a dull yellow. Some of Kagome's distant aunts and uncles were present, but she took comfort in seeing none of them. She clutched Keade's wrinkled hand tighter as they followed the train, her thoughts a bundle of regrets and anxious feelings.
Keade's face remained stoic, but her chin quivered when they set Lady Higurashi's body upon the funeral pyre, and a single tear trickled down her cheek when the fires were lit, and then re-lit due to the weather.
Kagome stared straight ahead, but she didn't see the fires swelling upward to the sky, the wood cracking and hissing around her mother's face. She saw her self, last fall, when she had been out in the forest with her mama. They had been watching the leaves fall, and when Kagome asked why they fell, her mother smiled and said something she would always remember.
"The leaves fall so that they can reunite with the trees again in spring. If they remained together in winter, the leaves would die, and the tree would be lonely."
"But won't the tree be lonely in winter anyway?"
Lady Higurashi smiled. "Maybe, but knowing the leaves were safe somewhere, even if they didn't see proof, the trees would be at peace, knowing that someday, they would be with the leaves again."
As Kagome thought of this moment, a small smile of hope turned up her pale lips. Her mother was the leaves, and she the tree. Even though her mother was gone from her, she would never really lose her, for she knew in her heart that she would see her again.
Yes, she thought. I won't be lonely, Mama. I promise.
