Collection of Nonsense by Itsumademo
Prompt: Battle
Bi-Monthly Dokuga_Official Contest
Title: A Battle that Burns
Author: Itsumademo
Prompt: Battle
Genre: Drama, Action
Rating: T
Length: Oneshot; probably
Word Count: 1820
Summary: He’d gone to hunt the invader ravaging his lands, but found himself before something wholly unexpected. Something that belied everything he thought he knew, and everything – about himself. Something that burned…
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I wasn't really sure about the genre(s) for this piece, because honestly it doesn't feel like it quite fits into anything, but perhaps i'm merely not seeing it. Who knows. I also had a lot of trouble coming up with a title for this. Nothing sounded right, and i'm still not really happy with the one i chose.
Surprisingly, i made only a few edits to this after writing it in one sitting—written just yesterday as well—, primarily spelling/word fixes, commas, etc. If only everything i wrote would turn out so easily... le sigh :/
Anyways, i hope this comes off well, i actually rather like how it turned out! It holds a great deal of mystery i know, but that's part of the charm to the piece i guess :3
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Initially, the rumors hadn’t been enough to tempt him from his usual path, his nomadic indulgences. However, the sudden destruction of a village, strewn and desolate in the rumored creature’s wake, had been what ultimately forced his hand.
He’d left only three days ago since given word and so far Sesshoumaru had yet to come across the fabled being. Demon, surely, though skilled at covering their tracks it would seem.
A shift in the air caused him to halt, the forest swiftly falling into silence. Every creature Sesshoumaru could sense on the outskirts of his awareness had either vanished or merely laid in wait for whatever was coming to pass on. Rather than move or search for the catalyst, Sesshoumaru stood his ground, using his senses alone to investigate. The air was clear, no overtly foreign scent reached him, neither was there a presence out of place. His brow furrowed marginally. For a great many years Sesshoumaru had traversed his lands, as well as those bordering it, and he’d become intimately familiar with the sounds of the forest. Those common, and those uncommon. Outside of the blanket of silence that had descended, there was nothing otherwise unusual.
Sesshoumaru turned, purposely focusing his attentions behind himself. While it was impossible that anyone could feasibly pursue him without his knowledge, it was the only thing Sesshoumaru could identify as the cause. He was either being hunted by something that had finally prepared their reveal, or he’d stumbled upon someone who was now bidding their time before attacking.
Because what else could they want, but that? No one walked up to the Lord of the West in the middle of nowhere. Not without a death wish.
So he waited.
However, minutes were quickly slipping away, two then five then ten, and no answer was forthcoming. With a slow breath, Sesshoumaru resigned himself to the mystery. For the time being, he’d continue on and hope that an answer presented itself. Otherwise, he didn’t have the time or desire to wait.
Sesshoumaru had taken less than two steps when a flicker of something snagged his attention from the corner of his eye. He swiftly turned his head but found nothing yet again. No body, no scent – nothing. Irritated, primarily with himself, Sesshoumaru moved back to his path only to find himself stopping yet again.
Several feet away, quiet and seemingly curious, crowned with long dark hair and dressed far stranger than anything Sesshoumaru had seen before, was what appeared to be a young woman. She was surprisingly still as she regarded him, her head tilted just so, the gesture being the only allusion he had to her curiosity. Provided he was correct in that assumption at all. Being of a quiet nature himself, as well as prone to observing his counterparts, neither of them were very much suited to being the instigator in this encounter. Sesshoumaru preferred to interact via indirection; let the other lead while he played off their input. Currently, the only input he received from her was a sedate interest, and that was difficult to work with.
She blinked, and Sesshoumaru found himself jerking slightly in response. The action had seemed sudden, as though she hadn’t done so since they’d laid eyes on one another. He didn’t believe that was the case, although he had admittedly been a little preoccupied with his own thoughts.
Suddenly, and this time it most definitely was sudden, the woman stepped forward. Her attention remained affixed to him, unwavering and almost unsettlingly pointed as she moved toward him. Every step was slow, sure but cautious, and unexpectedly fluid for a human. Because she was a human. She had to be. While peculiar, there was nothing out of place about her that rang as anything but that. In fact, she appeared so obviously human that it nearly cancelled itself out, rendering a part of Sesshoumaru actually questioning whether it were true.
With only a few feet separating them now, she stopped. Still staring, still wide-eyed and curious, still oddly unmoving as though she had every infinitesimal bit of herself in perfect control.
Up closer, he could see she was truly pale. Not pallid or sickly, merely fair skinned, and not a single mark – natural or otherwise – marred the skin she bared. Her hair appeared far darker now that she was near, almost void-like if not for a subtle hue, a shine of midnight blue reflecting in the sun’s rays that seeped down from the tree canopy above. The raven hair was quite long, perhaps settling at her lower back, and was interspersed with waves; it looked much nicer than one would expect to see on a wayward traveller. Though he hadn’t truly divined what she was.
Sesshoumaru had only just allowed himself to accept the conclusion that he would need to speak first, when the woman abruptly lunged for him. He hadn’t anticipated it, hadn’t sensed it, felt the shift of the air or the seen the telltale coil of her limbs – nothing. She was swifter than he’d seen a human move, a blur both pale and dark, and she’d collided with him harder than he’d ever have anticipated possible for such a small thing.
When he steadied himself, a growl on his lips, he looked down to heave a threatening glare on the woman now holding him surprisingly well against the firm trunk of a tree, the bark thick and irritating even through his clothing.
The first thing he noticed other than the entirety of her body shoved against his own was the cool touch of a blade at his throat, not intent but clearly there, clearly meaningful. The second was that even now the woman registered as nothing out of the ordinary. If anything, he might even venture to say he sensed nothing at all, as if the woman who’d charged him, pressed along his body and held a knife to his neck, was a mere figment. Third, and for some reason the most jarring, were her eyes. The moment their two glares joined was what truly knocked Sesshoumaru off balance, kept him stuck and unable to continue his own threat.
The eyes that pinned him, locked him so firmly in place with only their gaze, were unlike any he’d ever seen. Her eyes were otherworldly in their allure. In truth, they burned. Blue; iridescent, brilliant, like the hypnotic core of the hottest fire. He’d been sure, at first, that she was human, but now he wasn’t so keen on that certainty. It wasn’t her swiftness, her harsh strength, her unnatural presence of nothing which ultimately altered his opinion. It was her eyes.
Oblivious to his thought process, the woman pressed herself closer against him, molded and radiating warmth, the sleek edge of her blade a hairsbreadth of pressure away from sliding into the skin of his neck. Her handle of the weapon was measured and firm, what should be a precarious stance against him considering her much shorter stature had no ostensible bearing on her threatening aura. Nothing about her was wavering, her tacit intentions as unmoving as she herself had appeared from the moment she arrived. The woman would slit his throat without a moment’s hesitation, a flicker of a second. And, as much as Sesshoumaru knew it was utterly preposterous to think, there was some small part of him that wasn’t entirely certain he could avoid it unscathed.
Her eyes narrowed just slightly, her head tipping again as though a question were on her tongue.
"Who are you?" she asked, her tone low and direct, smooth and melodic. There was something about her voice that was as inescapably compelling as her eyes, the words begging an answer. The two combined were almost like a physical pull, dredging up a reply whether he wished to give one or not.
Refusing to submit to this…whatever she was, he fought off the answer she beckoned. However, he was unable to keep from speaking altogether.
"Why?" he nearly hissed, keeping his gaze as sharp and pointed with hers as he could manage.
She pushed abruptly against him, jolting his body back into the tree, "I asked first," she snapped back, her lip curled in frustration, though the indignant bite was still smooth to the ear, her breath hot on his neck, his cheeks. He hadn’t noticed her lips before, not really, they were startlingly pink, full and soft looking, like petals on a flower. "Who are you?" she urged further, her free hand pressing harder against his chest where she had a tight grasp on his kimono.
There really wasn’t a single reason he shouldn’t answer, couldn’t answer, in fact he generally found himself quick to correct anyone ignorant of him and his title. Considering his renown, it was basically an insult to be unknown. However, much like the oddities that had continued to fall the moment he stepped into this particular piece of forest, Sesshoumaru found himself unwilling to do so. He was, essentially, curious, and a somewhat traitorous part of him whispered that the woman would likely vanish once she had her answer. He didn’t want that. He had questions of his own now, and he could be terribly stubborn.
The burn of the woman’s eyes seemed to ignite in his pensive silence, every place she was held against him felt even warmer than before, as if her entire being were trying to scorch him into submission.
"Answer," she encouraged in a gentle voice, a demand laced perfectly through the façade of a calm request.
But he could only watch as her mouth formed the word, feel the heat of her whisper brush his skin. This morning he’d left anticipating, at most, a swift fight, a quick but hopefully satisfying defeat of a nuisance before returning to his prior tasks. He’d never anticipated a battle. And he could never have believed that battle wouldn’t come with weapons and fists, blood and inevitable death. Instead it would be honeyed tones and soft skin, raven hair that fell like silk and curled as if wishing to be touched. Firm strength in a short, curved body, slender hands with irons grips, and no presence beyond a heartbeat and a breath. Instead it would be eyes that burned and begged and kept him in place with their glowing blaze alone.
Sesshoumaru had always yearned for battle. There was something in his soul, carved in his very bones that needed to fight, to drink in the ferocity, feel the stretch of his muscles and swift rush of his blood. Not once had he thought to find that addictive thrill in a person and not a battlefield. But, somehow, it would seem he had.
As the woman all but purred, her lips so much closer than he’d realized, his own body betraying him by leaning in to her thrall, he knew he’d never win this battle.
He never had a chance.
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Don’t forget!!
I ALWAYS have the statuses and information about any updates and/or progress of this ‘series’, or any of my stories on my profile in the ‘Main’ section. ^-^
~itsu