Would You? by Opal-Dreams
I Dreamed a Dream
Warning: This a a sad tale!
I Dreamed a Dream
Disclaimer: I don’t own Inuyasha or its characters. Say hello to the very talented Rumiko Takahashi who owns him and the entire cast. Hello Rumiko Takahashi. Hehehe! The song 'I Dreamed a Dream' belongs to I'm not sure who actually. (It's from a musical).
By: year of the snake (at fanfiction) (aka.) crescentmoon (at mediaminer) And now Opal-Dreams on DeviantArt and Dokuga.
A screaming young woman was dragged into the camp. She was kicking and fighting like a hellion. But there were too many of the tiger-demons. Soon the girl was in the 'training collar', an inhuman collar that's metal stretched from neck to navel, like armor to guard the chest. It would prevent the girl from leaving, or disobeying her master, in this case the Young Lord Gorou.
The laughing demons flung the girl at the feet of another person.
“We leave her in your hands, oh powerful one!” one laughed coarsely at his joke. “Teach this hell-hound some manners!”
The demons continued their crude and jeering jests as they ambled off.
The girl looked bravely into the face she thought would be her 'master's'. She was surprised to come across a weathered, wrinkled face. The woman was older than her and hunched under years of heavy blows and just as harmful words. Her black hair was dirty and turning white, her hands were both work hardened and work torn. Her clothes were almost more patch and hole then any fabric should withstand. Everything about the older human woman announced how broken life here had made her. The woman was so broken that she no longer had to wear a collar, she stayed and did as she was told anyway.
The woman looked at her briefly. The look was one of pity. Then turned her face so she couldn't see the young woman's eyes. They were too fiery too alive for a slave, they were the eyes of a master to the older one. One didn't look anyone, especially a master in the eye. So she didn't look at the strong willed young woman.
The woman got up. “Come.” she rasped in a whisper. That was the only word the broken woman said to her the entire day.
And she followed meekly. The look of the woman was so... something that the girl couldn't yell, complain, fight or do anything that might make the older woman cower in fear.
The only thing the young woman could do was whisper every so often, “He will come for me.”
Yet she didn't do it too often, because every time she did the woman's look turned pained for half a second. Then she would again flick those pitying eyes at her. It was almost enough to make her firm conviction, that he would come, shake and crumble. She felt pain for the woman, what else could she do under such a look?
So all day she worked alongside the older woman. The woman silently taught her the chores that she would be expected to complete on her own.
Suddenly the young woman noticed the sun was set and the evening was quickly getting darker. And she found herself shocked that he hadn't come.
After serving the raucous tiger-demons the woman led her to a pitifully kept tent. Although she found the inside was clean and there were two small beds laid out for them. For the first time that day she saw what might have been the light of a young soul in the older woman when a ghost of what should have been a smile came and left her face.
Gesturing to one bed the lady laid down on the other and turned her back to her. Offering her the privacy to cry, and the girl knew inside that she would too.
“What happened to you?” the young girl asked looking at the woman without moving towards the bed.
She stiffened then shrunk again. “Do you know me child?” her raspy voice fluttered at the brink of silence.
“I-I think so.” the girl nodded.
The woman really looked at her for the first time over her shoulder. “Hmm. Perhaps I look like a ghost from your past. I do not know you.” The woman turned back.
Flinging herself down on the bed at last the younger one had herself a good, fearful cry. And the older one forced herself to pretend to sleep.
*
Long before the sun came up a shaking started. The girl jerked awake. The older woman was bent over her. “Shh.” she whispered. “Your rescuer has not come. You need to know what is to come, a kindness that was not given to me. And remember this, the sooner you learn to do as you're told without anything that can be taken as rebellion the safer you will be.”
“What happened to you?” she asked again.
“If you stay quiet the tiger-demons will not awaken and I can tell you.”
“You used to be strong.” the girl said.
“I can almost remember such a time.” Her sad eyes looked at her worn hands. “There was a time when men were kind when their voices were soft and their words inviting. There was a time when love was blind and the world was a song. And the song was exciting. There was a time ...then it all went wrong...”
The young woman was entranced by the older woman's pain filled yet numb look and her words of the past.
The older woman remembered the past, even though it felt like they should be someone else's memories. A few men she recalled both of demon and human blood who were kind to her. Some of whom had claimed to want her as their wife. Life had been exciting and even in times of fear she had felt that nothing could stop her, hurt her and her friends, not really.
*
I dreamed a dream in time gone by, when hopes were high and life worth living,
There she sat, young and hopeful again. She was sitting on a log a secret smile on her face as she watched familiar people play and work. She was planning a future that for now would be between her and herself. A beautiful future where happiness was as constant a friend as it could possible be.
I dreamed that love would never die, I dreamed that God would be forgiving.
She was in love with a man and life was prefect. She daydreamed of him. Of the most lovely wedding, a wonderful life and lots of children. In her prefect vision God would bless them with, when the time came, death in each other's arms.
Then I was young and unafraid, when dreams were made and used and wasted.
Standing before her was a threatening demon. Long silver-white hair, fluffy white fur and golden eyes. He glared down at her. She stood tall and brave. He could beat her with very little effort, kill her with even less. Yet she stood proud and defiant.
He had quirked a brow at her obvious defiance. She had smirked in return.
He gently lifted a couple strands of her raven hair and scented them before turning and walking off.
There was no ransom to be paid, no song unsung, no wine untasted.
Another time she joyfully taught a little child songs to entertain him. There was at least twenty of them on that one particular day. They sang them for hours. They had been happy.
*
But the tigers come at night, with their voices soft as thunder,
“It happened one cold night in late autumn, the village I lived in was attacked. I can still hear the terrible war cries, death songs and wood shattering all around me. So many people were wounded and killed that night, people I knew and cared for.” The older woman's eyes reflected the numbed terror of that night years ago. She shook her head to dispel the visions that haunted her. “I was stolen away by the tiger-demons along with two other women. You've probably seen one of them, she's still alive. The other woman got sick and died not long after our capture... I think she may have been with child... If she was I am glad she died.”
The youth's eyes widened in shock.
As they tear your hope apart, as they turn your dreams to shame
Her wizened eyes took in the younger one. “Does that shock you child? It would have been a hanyou, hanyou are not treated well here, even by their fathers. It would have been a harder life than his mother's, and likely ended once he began to grow into a man. I would not wish such a life on a child.” She blinked and changed the subject. “I too had someone whom I thought would rescue me. He never came, not even after all we meant to each other.”
*
He slept a summer by my side.
She was again in that beautiful, bright life before the harsh, dark life she was living now. The demon with the gold eyes lounged beside her. His legs stretched out after hers, his head in her lap. He was so relaxed that he seemed to be asleep. Yet she couldn't be sure. She stroked her hair, then transferred her hand to his hair. He didn't seem to mind.
He filled my days with endless wonder,
She gently explored his face with her fingertips. She watched in wonder as his closed eyes continued to blink and his breathing fluttered the nearby hair. Watching him now she would never guess that he was a super deadly demon.
He took my childhood in his stride,
After her fingertips whispered over every inch of his face and ears she could reach his head turned to face her and his eyes opened. “You are still so young as to be fascinated by a face.”
She suspected that when he turned his face into her stomach between her sternum and belly button it was to hide the captivation he had with her own face.
But he was gone when autumn came.
Then all of a sudden, one day, he was gone.
*
“And yet sometimes I still I dream he'll come to me and we will live the years together! But there are dreams that cannot be, and there are storms we cannot weather. I had a dream my life would be so different from this hell I'm living. So different now from what it seemed. Now life has killed the dream I dreamed.”
The younger girl looked at her, her heart connected with the woman in a way it had never done before.
*
Later that day the tiger-demons began running around and yelling. It ensighted curiosity in the older woman, but not enough to question any of the demons. If she thought anything could make them afraid she would say they were. But that was impossible. Wasn't it?
The two women saw a silver-white haired demon walk pass them, hunting the tiger-demons like they were easy sport. The older woman fled to the nearby forest leaving her new charge to do as she pleased. Unable to go much farther from the camp she peeked out from behind a tree.
Minutes later a vengeful demon stepped in front of the youth. She smiled up at him. He nodded down at her. Then she explained about the woman who had helped her, and looked around for her.
The older woman had turned to walk away.
The demon walked into the forest and stopped behind the human woman who he had been told about. His presence halted her. She turned towards him but was not able to look him in the face. “Sesshoumaru-sama.” She bowed.
(Ending 2)
“I am glad you have found something to protect Sesshoumaru-sama. She must be a very special girl.”
Sesshoumaru refused to answer her.
She bowed again to the demon. Then she walked away, never to see him again.
The younger girl rushed up and grabbed his sleeve. “Who was she Sesshoumaru?”
“Inuyasha's mother.”
“Oh! Do you think they'll find each other?”
He looked down into her blue eyes. “Yes.” He turned a different way. “Let's go, Kagome.”
“Sure!” She ran after him, and wondered about the woman who had helped her. Her own black hair swished as she walked happily because she was reunited with her love.
The End
AN: You may have noticed that above it says ending 2. That is because this is the second ending that I came up with. But I couldn't decide which one was better. I put ending 2 here because the personwho won this is here on Dokuga. I thought she/he would like the happier version best. I will post a link to the other version (with the sadder ending) on my Profile. Enjoy.
This is for Sandreline's Musical Challenge at dokuga http://www.dokuga.com/forum/29-challenges/73698-sandrelines-musical-challenge#73717 .
Please let me know what you think of it! Thank you!
This was the prize at the end of the last one-shot. A person who goes by the name; NicoRavenPen at dokuga won this. The answer was: The King and I.
I have decided to continue giving out prizes to the first person to guess the musical the songs come from.
PRIZE: The first person to review with the musical this came from will be allowed to request another Sesshoumaru/Kagome song-fic, using a song they choose, from a musical. (Must be a logged in user so I can contact them.) PS. The person who won this prize cannot answer the question, so someone else has a chance, you can't win twice in a row. But I will allow previous winners to enter again, they can win every other time. Thank you.