+Life Source+ by RisuBento

+Prologue+

I'll never forget the day I had first seen her. I was still but a pup--not even 10 summers old. I was playing in the garden with my father--my mother sat and watched a distance away with her usual scowl marring her face--when a servant walked into the garden.

My father had tossed me the ball one last time before looking up and nodding in recognition to the servant. It was strange...the servant hadn't said a word and my father knew what he was talking about. I watched as my father left me and my mother, and into the oshiro (castle).

I hate to admit but, being a young pup...even this Sesshoumaru had a curiosity to match that of my younger half-breed of a brother...the vermin. I had quietly entered the castle and made my way down the long narrow hallway which led to my father's study. I had paused outside of the shoji screen when a strange aura--almost lavender in colour--seeped from underneath the door and surrounded me. I had inhaled deeply and without realizing it, I had opened the door a crack and was peeking inside.

She was...beautiful. Voluptuous. Vivacious...so full of life...so many words could describe her. She was of the elfin race, a peaceful, beautiful race, reigning in the Northern realm. Her long ebony tresses were loose--something to which I was not used to seeing--and she wore a flowing gown rather than the usual everyday kimono. What struck me as unusual was the fact that she was barefoot.

But that didn't bother me...I knew from that moment...that I would have her. And no one would stop me. Me. Not even 10 summers old...lusted for an elfin maiden hundreds of years older that I. How disgusting...how disgustingly erotic.

Father had smelled me in the door way and ordered me, gently, to come in. I did. And I kept my stoic facade plastered onto my face--the one that I had been practicing for a long time. I stepped up to my father's low table-like desk and forced myself to not look at the enigma next to me.

"Sesshoumaru...may I introduce, Kagome. She is an elf exiled from the Northern realm and she will be, from this day forward, under my control as your mentor and tutor." Touga, the Inu no Taisho of the Western Realm, spoke, beaming at the raven haired beauty kneeling in front of him.

I swallowed and turned towards the woman. I felt my insides twist, and a strange burn of liquid ventured to the area around my loins when I became lost in her heavenly sky-blue eyes--much too strange for a Japanese woman...then again...she was of a strange race...

The woman smiled and bowed her head towards me and I found myself reaching out and running a hand through her obsidian tresses. She gave a startled gasp and I found my loins in pain. I heard the doors slide close...but I didn't need to look up to know that my father had left us. How foolish of him.

"Look at me..." I had said, dropping my hand back to my side.

She did. And she smiled. She kissed my cheek and tweaked my nose...did she not know what that meant?

I was about to tell her when I smelt a tangy sting of liquid salt that made me salivate, as if I was eating a lemon (A/N: The actual fruit people...yeah.). I looked up and found her still smiling...with tears coursing down her face.

I had reached out and wiped her face with my clawed hands. She smiled, even brighter. She said a soft, yet so sensual, 'Thank you' and leaned forward and kissed the crescent moon on my forehead. Her lips...I will never forget...like an orchid flower petal beautiful...so soft. I never understood why she'd been crying until later when I mentioned it to my father. He said that she'd been banished from the northern realm for sharing the elfin life source with a demon.

I'd made a face. 'Life source?' My father had told me that in the bosom of the an elf maiden is the life source of the elfin race. A milk so powerful, a teaspoon would add a thousand years to your life span. I had scoffed and brushed it off. 'Who would honestly believe as something as idiotic as that?' I'd pondered. My face must have had shown my disbelief for my father continued his explanation. He said that when a person drinks the milk from the bosom of an elf maiden, and they are not of the elfin race, then they become delirious and harm anything and everything in their path.

That was only the first night.

People who want to lengthen their life spans seek an elf maiden. But the milk of an elf maiden, he had said, was deadly as was delicious. "Deliciously Deadly" he'd called it. I quirked an eye brow and rolled my eyes. 'Father...I still don't understand why anyone would want something so...distasteful...' I'd questioned aloud, more to myself than to anyone.

My father had sighed and clasped his hands onto the table between us. He'd watched me for a long while with tired, weary eyes until he spoke once again. He said that it was the greed of man that lusted for the bosom of an elf maiden...and the Shikon no Tama.

The Shikon no Tama. Fools jewel... My father was going to continue about the jewel, but we were interrupted by a soft knock on the door. I had stiffened and swallowed hard. It was her. My father had told her to enter. He looked down at me and I looked back at him. He and I somehow...in some way had made a bond. He knew of my intentions with the elfin maiden. But did he stop me? No. Did he warn me of what I was going to do to myself if were to become involved with the vixen? Occasionally. Did I listen? No.

It wasn't until I received my first taste of the 'life source' from the elfin maiden, did I realize my foolish mistake.