Disclaimer: I do hereby proclaim that I do not own Inuyasha and company, I just like to bend them to my whims. All creative prowress for these characters goes to Rumiko Takahashi. Nor do I own the poem Annabel Lee, by Edgar Allen Poe, even if it is my favorite.
The Moon Never Beams
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
Sesshomaru stared out at the watery expanse and beyond the years that had seperated them to remember once more how she had looked into his eyes the first night he had held her in his arms. Her eyes glittered like the endless pools of starlight, and her hair had swept down her back like a veil of night. Her beauty had enchanted him, her loyalty surprised and intrigued him, but it was her bravery that had ensared his heart. He had fallen for this little onna without a sound, his heart a willing conquest.
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
She was still on the cusp of womanhood, and innocence flowed from her like a purifying rain upon the parched earth of his soul. She had seen beneath his cold and silent mask of indifferent regality to find the passionate man behind the facade. The man that only she would ever see. Her love came with no conditions and great understanding, and in return his love would know no bounds and would never be given to another.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.
He had time and again laid his life on the line for her; rescuing her from dark hanyou, rockslides, and poison crazed mad men. Had it been a foe to defeat or a disaster to sweep her from he wouldn't have failed her, instead it had been the merciless cold that had stolen her away one winter. If the well had remained open he would have swallowed his pride and called upon his brother to take his love to the physicians of her time to help her, no price would have been too much to pay.
The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
The old priestess had come to the Western Palace and tended his beloved wife for many days and nights, but the old woman could not exorcise the illness. No tea could chase away the rattle in young woman's lungs. No herb or poultice could bring down the fever, nor blankets warm the bone deep chills the racked her beautiful frame. He had whispered words of endearment and promises of pups and even reconciliation with his brother if she would but live. She had smiled at him and caressed his cheek and lovingly stared into his golden orbs with her fever bright eyes, before they fluttered shut, never to open again.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
He'd built a momument to her beauty in the form of a sepulchre by the sea that she had loved so much. It's vast stone walls overlooking the beach where they had danced at their mating the previous spring. For years it had been filled with the bouquets and wreathes of all the favored flowers of the mother Rin had loved so much. Shippo had ignited and spent much of his own childhood tending to the eternal flames that lit the effigy of his long lost Okaa-san. Even the hanyou had spent his days guarding the tomb from would be intruders.
In time the children had grown and found mates of their own, and Sesshomaru was left alone once more. For years he ruled his kingdom quietly, with the icy indifference the stoic demon was known for, but when the duties of his station were done, he would always return to her resting place on the night tide to lay beside her and whisper once more of the dreams they'd shared and of the longing he felt to be by her side once more.
For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And so all the night-tide, I lie by the side Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride In the sepulchre there by the sea, In her tomb by the sounding sea.
He looked one last time at the moon's shimmering light upon the waves before returning to the side of his beloved Kagome. The stars and a lone servant bore witness to the taiyoukai's sorrow as he lay beside his mate one more time. Even over the roar of the waves Jaken could swear he heard his Lord's whispers of love and his Lady's laugh once again.
As his eyes drifted shut he dreamed of his great Lord whisking his Lady around the beach in a dance that went from the tomb to the very edge of the sea, the waters lapping at their feet. Her laughter tinkled like bells and her beauty ethereal, they were as beings made of the pale of starlight as they swirled around the edges of his dreams. As Jaken arose from his stony perch to awaken his Lord, he found Sesshomaru's still form embracing the stone effigy of his bride a smile on his cold blue lips.
Prompt: Reinventing a classic
Original Post Date: February 18th, 2011