Beyond Earth and Shadow, by LyraintheDark [Seven Treasures Challenge]
Title: Beyond Earth and Shadow
Author: LyraintheDark
Prompt: Pearl
Word Count: 700
Rating: T
Genre: Action, Drama, Romance
Universe: Alternate
Summary: He is the Pirate King, buried in boredom and wealth. On the prompting of a dream, he will journey across the sea - seeking a woman, who may be the rarest treasure of all.
A/N: This is the seventh and final chapter of "Sunlight and Shadow". It can be found here: http://www.dokuga.com/fanfiction/story/6695/7
-Seven Treasures Challenge -
VII
Beyond Earth and Shadow
On the evening of the tenth day, they found a deserted islet with sands that wavered hot and black and glittering in the twilight. The waters nearby wore a blue hue even in darkness and there, on the reefs in warm shallows, Sesshomaru's sharp eyes spotted the blue-flower coral.
They dove for it under the light of the full moon; in Kagome's hands, the violent vibrance of her power intersected with the pale blue polyp of coral, and became a hard, dark shell holding a glowing blue elixir.
Her voice was quiet in the dark.
“This will heal her; my mother....”
~~~ - - ~~~
In the morning, they left for Edo; it was raining. The rain followed them across the sea, at times a faint and refreshing shower, at times a raging tempest. They ran before the wind with their sails straining; behind them, Lady of Mercy followed as she was able.
Watching Kagome's concern, her intense concentration as she guided them into her home waters, he wondered what it was that was about to happen -
But the reunion that he escorted her to was nothing like he imagined.
Kagome waited in the courtyard, in the rain. Sesshomaru stood ten steps behind her,watching an old man make his way slowly out to greet her.
“Kagome...little one, you have grown up.”
“Yes, grandfather. Here.”
Sesshomaru watched her hand over the vial of priceless elixir; the old man handled it with urgent delicacy. His umbrella fell and lay untended on the ground.
“Kagome, Kagome! Where did you get this?”
Sesshomaru had never seen a smile so tender on her face as he did then.
“I made it. You were wrong, grandfather. Wrong about everything. But it's okay.”
She was at the gate before Sesshomaru knew it; her voice came to him, carefree and clear.
“Are you coming with me, Inu mine?”
“Always.”
~~~ - - ~~~
The seas were wide and vast and open, and time was a precious thing to them both; to Kagome, for her life was short, burdened by a mortal frailness - to Sesshomaru, because he was, if anything, more aware of that than she was.
In battle, he protected her, despite her skill; for twenty years, they lived and loved and fought and bled together, excelling at great and mysterious tasks.
She would not let him take her as a mate; as she grew older, she saw in him the signs of continuing youth far past what his flesh alone showed. It would be hundreds of years before he was ready to be bonded; hundreds of years, before such a claim could be tied to his life.
~~~ - - ~~~
When she disappeared, it was not unexpected; it was the thing he had been expecting ever since she drifted into his life on the tendrils of a dream.
She took with her only three things that had tied his life together; her rapier, Bakusaiga, jeweled and lovely, infused with his own youki: a weapon to protect. Their daughter - their only child, the child of their love, more beautiful than any gem, more deadly than any weapon.
“And you took my haori, precious woman; you took it, why? Why, if you meant to leave me behind?”
~~~ - - ~~~
At night, Sesshomaru, the Pirate King, dreams of a woman and a girl.
He dreams of a girl, who grows to be a woman - a woman of one blue eye and one golden, a woman of power, and presence; “I want to be a Pirate”, she says, and he knows her for his own daughter.
He dreams of a woman, and her hair turns the color of pearls; he dreams of a woman who lays by the sea with her arms outstretched, holding an old haori close in her arms. He dreams of the woman, and loves her still, though he knows now why she left:
It was not yet time; she will wait, as he is waiting, for another moment and another time. There is a forever just waiting to happen - what is true always seeks the light.
And she took our daughter...and my haori...and...the sword....
At night, Sesshomaru, the Pirate King, dreams of a woman, and a girl.
And he smiles...
~~~~
Word Count: 700
Prompt: Pearl
A/N: I did it, I did it, yaaaay! Seven chapters, and it's actually finished!! Oh I'm so happy now! :D
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