Land by Rainumora

Land

The lord of the land was unhappy. What made the villagers so cheerful? They didn't have power, they weren't gentry, and they weren't rich. What was it that made these inborn ignorant people so fond and caring of the earth and life around them? The lord decided to find the answer to his questions and visited a hamlet in his lands, to see once and for all how, and why, these people were happy.

The hamlet smelled of unwashed bodies, feces, and other odors that assaulted his nose. Putting a scent-blot up to his delicate nostrils, the lord, followed by his faithful retainer, approached a man. "You there, old man." The man fell to his knees, making a large 'splat' as his prostrated in the mud beneath him.

"What do you ask of me, o lord?" The man asked. He was old. You could tell by the gray hair sprouting along the top of his balding head.

"You do not have money, power, beauty, or lineage, and yet you are happy. Explain this." Demanding this of the terrified subject, the lord scowled as the man started to stammer.

"M... Milord! Of course you, the supreme law, knows t-that family and toiling in the soil is what makes a man happy. M-my wife and three children k-keep me alive, everyday." The man replied, his forehead pressing against the muddy ground.

"I see." The lord replied, and looked at his retainer. "Pay the man." The retainer scampered over, giving the man a sack of gold coins.

"T-thank you m-my lord! I can afford the medicine my youngest daughter needs. T-thank you!" Bowing again, his body covered in mud, the man ran towards a small hut in the distance.

"Filth." The lord said, scowling as he left the hamlet. It didn't make any sense to the lord, how could family and toiling in the baking sun keep a man alive? It seemed as if it would kill him, rather then preserve him. The lord returned to his castle, planning on asking his father many questions.

"Father." The lord acknowledged the king of the entire territory, his father.

"Yes, my son?" The king replied, sitting on a regal, white throne.

"I visited a hamlet today, and I encountered something very disturbing, I approached a local man and he said that wealth is not what one needs to be happy, nor blue blood. But rather... Rather, he said family." The lord scowled, as if this were an insult.

The king closed his eyes, sighing softly, before regarding his son. "You have much to learn before you take over command in this country. Men cannot survive solely with material possessions, and until you learn what it means to live fully, you may never inherit your true place; this throne."

Aghast, the lord nodded, quickly leaving the throne room. It was an impossible notion, him not receiving the crown and title of this land, this land he had protected for countless years. The lord returned to his quarters, brooding over what he had learned.

Some days later, there was a report of a bandit raid on a local hamlet, specifically the one the lord had gone to. Taking himself, and three of his best men, the lord set out quickly to defend the land of his father, not the people who inhabited it.

When he arrived with his soldiers, the lord was stricken with a deep feeling of remorse. Fields were on fire, huts and other buildings had been burned to the ground, and corpses lay everywhere. The lord walked among the bodies, noting that one was of the old man he had given the gold coins to just days before.

Bending down, he checked the mans pulse, seeing if he was still in the world of the living. The man was dead.

Gently shutting the old man's eyes with his left hand, the lord stood, looking out at the carnage. From the few remaining villagers, it was found that the bandits had attacked because one of the farmers supposedly had a sack of royal gold hidden away.

Upon hearing these words, the lord felt his stomach fall to his feet. He had caused this pain upon these people, he was the one solely responsible. His influence, his ideals, had created all of this. Looking down at the man again, he remembered the farmer speaking of his wife and children. "Has anyone found any young children, or youths?" The lord asked, and all he received were blank stares and soft 'no's.

Feeling obligated, the lord left the decimated hamlet, searching the woods surrounding it, looking for any sign of life. He followed a path of broken twigs and blood, his sensitive nose picking up trace scents of fear and pain. Thinking the worse, he stepped over a stream, before continuing on.

The lord was in the woods for some time, the sun setting to the west. Without finding anyone or anything, the lord almost turned to leave, before he heard the sounds of shaky breathing. Pushing apart bushes, the lord was stunned at what he found.

A young girl, no older then sixteen, lay on the rocky forest floor. Her kimono was ripped apart, the remnants of male ejaculation was spread all across her body. Her face was bruised and battered, and her inner thighs were bleeding where they had rubbed against armor. Appalled at the human suffering, the lord took a step back, raising his hand to cover the stench of the ravished girl.

She had some consciousness left in her, and she turned, staring at him with deep blue eyes, uttering two simple words, "Help me." Her voice was shaky, and it was obvious that a few of her teeth were loose.

Taking another step back, the lord felt his mind race, and he became scared, scared of human evil, pain, and treachery. He couldn't stand to look, or smell the girl anymore, and he turned around, fleeing back towards his palace.

Her words rang in his head. The pathetic, soft voice haunting him as he rushed through the main gates. Clasping his hands over his head, he tried to block out the words, but they permeated his brain, his psyche. Hands shaking, he dropped to his knees, staring at the cobblestones underneath him.

He felt tears well up, and he almost lost his inner self, feeling a beast tear at his feeble mind. Shuddering, he shook his head, holding back his tears. He had done nothing wrong. The farmer was an idiot, he should have refused the payment, or spent it immediately. Not horde it.

Standing, he took a shaky breath, placing a hand on the hilt of one of his swords. He had done nothing wrong.

The lord continued to have visions of the girl, days, weeks, months, then years after he had abandoned her. His mind was plagued with her appearance and her words. His dreams were filled with the sound of her shaky breathing, of her plea for help.

The lord felt his mind splinter, and one day he left the court of his father, taking off a small band from around his head. Leaving it on his father's throne, the lord left the land of his ancestors, traveling out into world.

He walked through hundreds of towns, he saw thousands of people, and he experienced almost every sensation that a being could. Except for one thing. One precious, little thing that he needed to feel. Love. The lord would cringe each time he saw lovers appear. Each time he saw the happy, carefree smile of a young woman who was either admiring him, or another man.

Shaking, the lord came upon the lands of his banished half-brother, which were on the Eastern outskirts of his Father's domain. His brother was not officially recognized, a bastard from one of his father's many travels across the world. The lord approached the border of his brother's lands. He had traveled for almost an entire moon to reach this place, and yet he was uncertain, up until the very last moment.

The lord entered the dark woods, looking around him self. His ears were heightened to any sound, watching for any sign of movement. Body tense, he gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, whipping it out as he heard a branch crack behind him.

"Ohayoo!" A feminine voice called out, one that had haunted him for years, for decades.

Turning around quickly, the lord was surprised to see a girl standing a few feet off from him. Her clothes were unusual, and she was taller, healthier looking then many of the women in this area.

She waved her hand towards the lord, not having any hesitancy towards him, not intimidated at all. She seemed so full of love, so full of life, that the lord felt his body and soul call out to her, but he suppressed the feeling, instead addressing her. "Wench, where is the lord of this land?"

She scowled, and she put her hands on her hips, taping her left foot against the ground. She wore odd, leather shoes, and her kimono hardly covered the necessities, the green skirt going down to just above the knee. "My name isn't 'wench'! It's Kagome! Get it? Ka-go-me!"

The lord was taken back at her, and he let out a growl, moving forward. Her impudence needed to be punished. Raising a hand to slap her, she glared up at him with large, blue eyes. His hand quavered, and he slowly lowered it. "Answer my question, Ka-go-me."

She glared at him, and crossed her arms, letting out a large sigh. "There is no lord of the land here, only the hanyou called InuYasha, but he isn't here right now."

The lord nodded slowly, studying the girl. She smelled of his brother, InuYasha, perhaps she was his wench. "And why are you here, with him?"

"That's none of your business, now is it, brother?" A husky voice called out from the tree behind him.

Kicking him self mentally, the lord turned around, seeing his half-brother balanced in nearby tree. His garb was garishly red, causing the lord to become even more annoyed. "And are you collecting human wenches now, InuYasha?" The lord asked, his eyes narrowed.

He heard an angry huff from the girl behind him, and the hanyou let out a laugh. "Hardly, brother." His voice turned menacing, and the hanyou dropped to the ground, approaching the lord. "I suggest you leave now... Or get out of my sight for the time being, I don't have time to put up with you." A large sword came out, and the hanyou held it in front of him self.

The lord scowled, and consented, it would be foolish to fight InuYasha when he was in unfamiliar surroundings. Turning, he left the clearing without a word.

After that fated meeting he watched the two for sometime, his gaze and thoughts constantly focused on the girl. They traveled across the country, and the two never seemed to notice they were being followed, or they didn't consider the lord a threat. Annoyed at the later possibility, the lord would sometimes make him self known, in hopes of observing the girl closer, to find out who she truly was. Each time he tried to make contact, his brother interfered, and the lord had to submit to the hanyou's power.

The girl was not like other girls, and he quickly found that she possessed many quirks. Often he would follow her to hot springs that she regularly bathed in, using strange liquids from bottles made of a substance he didn't know. She was also a miko, something which surprised him even more. On first glance, she looked like a commonplace harlot, but as the lord was often quickly corrected of that mistake.

The lord followed the two, their ranks growing as more humans, and a small kitsune, entered the group. The lord felt the yearnings for companionship, pangs that reminded him of his home, and his duties, and yet... He could not leave this girl, not after he had searched for her for so long.

He watched them for a year, then another, then another.

The third year, things changed. The girl and her companions were thrown into a battle, fighting against a horrible monster that had engulfed a holy jewel. The girl had tried to battle, to participate, but his brother had forbidden it, he had stopped her each time. "You fool!" The lord said to him self as the battle reached a level of utter despair, "She is your strength!"

As if hearing his words, the girl jumped into the fray at the last moment, sending out a single, purifying arrow. That arrow blasted the monster away, but it broke something inside of the girl. She dropped to the ground, blood pouring out of her mouth, the girl clutching her side. Desperate, she fell to her side, her short kimono sullied with her own blood and dirt. She was going to die.

The lord watched, his brother was useless, out cold hundreds of yards away. The two other humans had been slain, or were severely injured, the kitsune was no where to be seen.

There was no one to help this girl, no one but him. The lord approached slowly, unsure of how to act around the dieing girl. She stared up at him, just as the one he had seen so long ago in the forest had done. Her blue eyes were wide, and she uttered the same two words, "Help me."

This time, the lord did not hesitate. He withdrew a sword of his side, the blue blade shining in the waning light. Slashing down, he cut across her chest, the chains of death disappearing. Another cut healed the girl of her wounds, but she was unconscious.

The lord kneeled down, tracing her delicate, soft features. He had been haunted by her ghost for almost an entire century, but he had saved her this time, he had heard her plea. Leaning down, he cradled her petite frame against his own, contemplating his next move.

He kneeled there, for what seemed to be hours. Finally, the girl, Kagome, awoke, and looked at him, a smile coming to her face. "You saved me." She whispered softly, her eyes tired.

"Yes." The lord's voice was hoarse, his soul filled with emotion. He understood the feelings he had for this girl, for the soul he had lost eons ago, it was love. All this time, his father had tried to teach him one thing. All this time, he had been searching for something that was in front of him, for something that was feasible.

He felt tears, held back for years, spring freely from his eyes. The girl's gentle hands cupped his head, and she gave him another loving, dazzling smile. Leaning over the small girl, the lord felt the sobs rack his body. How long had he held them in? How long had he felt guilty over the girl's death so long ago? How long had he yearned for affection, for love, for acceptance?

"Sesshomaru?" The girl asked, a puzzled tone on her voice.

The lord smiled, yes that was his name, Sesshomaru. "Yes?" He asked, his voice cracking.

"Do you love me?"

He nodded slowly, and his heavy tresses, long from years spent in the wilderness, getting into his eyes. "Yes, I do. I love you."

"Good." She whispered in reply, and leaned up, giving him a gentle kiss on the cheek. "I have loved you, ever sense I first saw you in the forest, those three years ago."

The lord felt him self smile, and hugged the tiny miko to his chest. She was his savior, she was the beacon of light in his sorrow. "You have saved me, dear Kagome, you have saved me."