Condition Of Desperation by The Hatter Theory

Chapter One

Condition Of Desperation

By: The Hatter Theory

Chapter One

Disclaimer: I don't own Inu Yasha, now the rights to the fairy tale this is (very loosely) based off of.

 ~*~

Snow fell to the ground, swirling around him as he stood in front of the tree. Gold eyes filled with frustrated, angry tears as he walked forward again, knowing what would happen but refusing to accept simple logic.

As it had every other time, the barrier repelled him, pushing him back so violently, with such angry force that his blood sang with the shock and his back cracked against a tree that had been his unwilling cushion more than once. Already back had given way and branches had broken. This time he felt the sharp end of a broken limb stabbing into his shoulder. The copper tang of his own blood filled his mouth, and he could smell it, felt it dripping down from his nostrils and filling up his mouth.

Something crunched behind him, once, twice, and again and again, then stopped. He ignored it, knowing exactly who it was. Pushing himself up from his spot on the ground, he began running forward, determined to breach the barrier.

Once again he felt the lightning of the barrier take hold of him for a mere second, just long enough to boom through his blood before rejecting him and sending him hurtling back.

Dazed, he looked up into solemn purple eyes. There was regret there, and hints of fear. Despair.

It wasn't time for that, there wasn't reason for any of them to be afraid. He'd never given up before, and he sure as hell wasn't going to now.

“Inu Yasha, the barrier won't let you in. At least come to the village and let Kaede tend to your injuries and feed you. We can plan while there.”

He had been trying to break through the barrier for two days. Giving in to the sure knowledge that if he couldn't get through it, no one else could, he ignored the outstretched hand and stood, weaving slightly as the remnants of a monk's ki pulsed through him. Frustrated and weary, he allowed himself to be led back to the village, hand wiping away the blood that poured over his lips and down his chin.

Kagome, silent, oblivious, continued her slumber.

~*~

He smoothed a finger over a subtle, raised line, not for the first time. There was a mild surprise that he hadn't worn it down, eroded either it or it's match with his persistent fascination. But they persisted, the pearlescent lines staying etched on the skin. Two lines that touched, reminding him.

There were no other scars on his body, nothing to hint at the myriad battles he had fought, the wars he had engaged in. Even the loss of his arm had not left such a mark, his skin healing smoothly over the wound despite his abuses and with it's regeneration, leaving no mark of it's mutilation. The two small lines were subtle, but distinctive. Unique in their simple existence.

It was not just their presence that often stirred his attentions, but the strange feeling of them. Not a physical feeling, he had memorized the surface of both, mapped their every irregularity with his fingertips. No, it was a different feeling, something off, almost as if they retained the energy of the woman who had given them to him. Though he knew only that he was normally immune to the magics of human priests and miko, he did know that such energies dissipated over time. It had been four years since he had caught her arrow and been branded by the subtle magic within it. In that time he had felt something, though what it was he couldn't name.

In the past week he had felt it more strongly, had felt that strangeness pulling at him insistently. Logic told him that there was something amiss if such a change had occurred, and that he should seek the woman out and demand to know what her powers had done to him. Pride however, held him back. It was shameful enough that he had been marked in such a manner, but humbling himself to demand answers of her, his half brother's mate, that was unthinkable.

In spite of his instincts, in the name of his pride, he stayed away. It did not stop him from rubbing the marks from time to time, as if worrying an ache that had begun to spread.

 ~*~

A/N: Yes, it's a Sleeping Beauty story. Normally I have no time for Sleeping Beauty, but when I saw the challenge my muse took up residence next to my ear and began shouting.