A Heartless Winter by mandy

Purity by Death

A Heartless winter

by: Mandy

Disclaimer: I dont own Inuyasha, or the hunchback of Notre-Dame. I will not be selling this or distributing, this is only a hobby. I dont own any of this.

Authors Note: So I hope everyone enjoys this horrible little plot bunny. I had to write a five page conservational biology paper and this is what happens because it wont leave me alone enough to finish what I have too. Now that its out, I hope sombody enjoys it. I'll probably just write on it in my spare time just to get it out of my head. Hopefully I can finally write my biology paper now. (if the plot bunny is satisfied)....

__________Chapter one :Purity by Death_____________________________________

The snow fell in heavy blankets, covering the city of Paris in its pureness. A bustling city of merchants and consumers fast asleep under winters harsh persuasion. The storm itself was not quite the strength of a raging blizzard but had potential to become just as dangerous and every citizen had knowledge of the dangers of a blizzard. Though most slept in hope of a brighter tomorrow, high in the town’s only castle like stronghold a man in black sauntered a measured gait to his wall sized window and watched the city resting beneath him with dark calculating eyes. Pulling the chalice of wine to his mouth, he took a deep swallow of the crimson liquid before returning the glass to waist height and swirling its contents; his other hand stroking the thick gnarled leather of his trusted saber reassuringly, almost as if to sooth the inanimate object to rest. Some would try to run, he was sure of it. His eyes once more cut across the landscape critically, watching for any movement towards the western bridge and eastern docks, the only exits and entrances to the whole city. He would be their judge, jury, and executioner. His hand tightened on his sword and a sinister grin twisted his left lip upwards; the tainted beasts would bleed their last if they ran. Treason, theft, murder, it didn’t matter he would sentence them to a life in hell for only breathing. The vial abominations, their thieving, whoring ways, and their disobedience of God’s rules; righteous justice would be had tonight and anyone who dare say different than him could die with the pestilence!

A hard rapping at the door interrupted his thoughts and broodingly he turned to receive them. Perhaps they carried information on some escaping bugs in need of eradicating.

“Enter and state your reasons for disturbing me.”

A built man pushed the door forth and stepped into the light, his silver armor shinning in the candles of the room, head bowed in respect, brown hair pulled tightly back from his face in a low ponytail, and his helmet under his left arm.

“Judge Cyril, there has been a spotting near the docks. Shall I gather the guard and saddle your horse?”

“Yes, move at once.” Cyril’s voice boomed through the room with his excitement. It’s deep timbre vibrating the air. “Have my steed ready in 10 minutes and have the guard shut down the docks; they shall not escape or it will be someone’s head.” Not a threat, a promise.

The young solider nodded once upon standing and quickly spun out of the room in a graceful flurry of glowing metal and determination.

Perfect. He seethed. His hand was already reaching for his thick winters cloak and hat. The jingle of his blade echoed his delight as he quickly flew about the stone room gathering his bible, holy water, and sat his goblet down on the table closest to the window. He paused a moment at the large pane and once more gazed at the pure and beautiful Paris swathed in white.

“No worries my dear, you will be washed this night of some foulness. Then you need no longer crave the snows harsh fall to embrace purity. Be it God’s will.”

 The snow, though cold and deadly in its own way, was his comrade and tonight he would stain it red with the blood of the damned.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

“We leave tonight.”

Father’s voice was tight when he spoke, a sure sign he did not fully want what he was proposing. Mother quietly turned away from his sharp gaze and I could see the tears gathering at the edges her eyes as they bore into me.

“Do we have to so soon?”

Her voice was a whisper, coated in hidden tears, her eyes still steadily trained on me as if the question was meant for me. I couldn’t look away. It was improper of me to stare like this when the alphas were discussing but no matter how much I wanted to, my eyes were entranced by her stunning sorrow.

“What other choice do we have?!”

His voice boomed with authority and anger. I knew from my ten years of living with him that he was only hiding his grief behind his irritation. It’s what he did when my mother died, when his right hand man was caught and hung, when my uncle was murdered in the town square for only being in the wrong place at the wrong time; this was how he coped. And later he would sit down alone with a single bottle of alcohol, drink only one cup, and cry silently when he thought no one was watching, like he did every night.

My father’s hand came up and pushed his bangs out of his face with a strained thrust, he released a sigh of frustration before pulling both hands up and rubbing frantically at his eyes and finally shoving both palms completely through his hair and down to his sides once more. He was cornered. This was the behavior of a threatened dog and honestly that’s what we were. We were Inu-youkai. He paced madly like a trapped animal before swinging around once more to face mother’s back.

“There is no other choice. Haven’t we suffered enough here? Do you wish to risk your life, our child’s life, and Sesshomaru’s life? Haven’t I suffered enough?”

My father’s eyes were red ringed from stress and withheld tears, his voice thick with emotion as him and the alpha female discussed the packs future.

“We’re next. His gaze has been on us for quiet sometime. I can feel it every time I leave the underground society, when I sleep at night its nightmares of him, when I bring home food I pray he hasn’t poisoned it. It’s only time until he kills one of us and I can’t take anymore. I can’t lose my family. I can’t watch a second time as my wife is murdered, or worse my sons!”

Mother turned with a sharp spin and noiselessly pulled his head to her shoulder; like a nursing infant he wrapped his arms tightly around her and buried his face deeper in her chest, careful to avoid the tiny infant cradled in her other arm. Her voice fell like a soothing chime over us all, calm and collected. All traces of tears gone from her person. She was father’s glue, his light after stumbling for years in the darkness.

“We will do as our alpha pleases. You have the packs interest at heart. Be still my love, and worry no more. I understand. Our son is still so young and it only worries me to bring him into such a winter storm as tonight, but if it helps ease your ailing heart we will do as you bid. No more fears my love, no more tears, God be with us.”

I knew the discussion was over. The verdict was made, we would travel by the shadow of night and snow to the boats and sail for free land. Or maybe any land other than France. Even though the discussion was finished and our plan set, Mother hugged father closer to her breast and whispered her adoration and it was then that I caught his tears. Someone we knew had died.

My heart raced and I could feel my hands shaking; the comfortable numbness that had encased me was fading and suddenly I could stay no longer. With a leap I was at the flap of our tiny tent filled with trinkets and three bed rolls. I paused only at the mouth long enough to throw my destination over my shoulder before leaving. I didn’t wait for their response, I knew I would need to be back in a few hours as night swiftly approached, but I couldn’t stay in the place that reeked of my father’s sorrows, fear, and pain any longer. Not that it helped much as our whole underground city reeked of misery. This had been my home though, since I could remember, leaving it was unthinkable. My mother lived here. My mother. The tears that had started to retreat returned full force and despite my best efforts I could feel the sob building. Closing my eyes to hide the tears I set out in a sprint, down the dirty mud soggy floor that stank of poo, past the tents of dying demons, away from the starving, needy children, and out into the open sewage water. The tunnels were long and winding but finally after many turns I found it, my haven in the dark. I pulled as close to the grid like opening as comfortably possible, slinking as close to the wall as dirt and watched the sunset in vivid reds, pinks, oranges, and blues; a fire across the sky too beautiful to describe. The beauty was blemished though, my eyes searched the sky line and I saw them, the limp bodies on the horizon, hanging, most I had known all of my short life, some of them related to me, all of them family. But this was my life and death was my future, just like my mothers, just like theirs.

I don’t recall how long I sat staring at the bodies wondering whose lifeless form was the one that I knew. I do, however remember the disturbance that pulled me from my tranquil abyss. A clacking of stone above my head had me nervous to look who had found me. It was with a baited breath I had turned and found a little blue eyed girl in green, her raven tresses pulled back in a tight leather thong.

“You were crying.”

Her voice echoed around me but I was too shocked to move let alone talk, how had this slip of a human found me? Was she going to kill me like the rest of her kind? Minutes passed with her only staring at my face, as if to memorize it. Finally she turned her eyes towards the grate and out to the already darkened horizon where snow already was pilling up.

“It’s okay to cry if you’re sad. That’s what my momma says.”

Her voice once more met my ears like the ringing of the smallest bell of Notre-Dame.

“So are you sad?”

Her piercing cerulean gaze once more locked onto mine, the light of the moon illuminating her faced and half her clothes. I felt as if a witch had cast a truth spell on me when I heard an answer echoing our small tunnel, one that I had voluntarily given non-the-less.

“Yes”

The small human child with innocent eyes never stopped starring as she slowly approached, her hands spread wide as if comforting a frightened dog. And before I could stop her she had raised to her tip-toes, pulled a star embroidered scarf from her pocket and gently began to clean my face.

Slowly she pulled the make-shift rag back and dropped to the running water below to soak her cloth before coming back up and ringing it out; then continuing the process by going to her tip-toes to press the rag against my puffy and abused eyes.

“I lost my papa this year. Mama said that even though it’s hard, were going to make it. I moved down her to the underground sanctuary because mama thinks I might be special and she wants to keep me safe.”

Again the little female paused, dropped to the running water below, soaked her rag, twisted out the excess and laid the rag over my eyeballs.

“Why are you here? Are you special too?”

The simple wording of her question disclosed her truly innocent soul and before I could stop myself, I sank to my knees and allowed her to kneel in front of me while I answered.

“I was born here. I am special enough to deserve death.” The last part came out almost in a growl and with a deep breath I finished “As my mother and uncle before me.”

The little girl never stopped in her ministrations and before I knew it, she had laid the small cloth within my clawed hand, her eyes once more locked on mine. A stern expression crossed her face as she spoke.

“Mother says that no one deserves death because they are different. We are all different and should be judged on character alone, not on talents, tastes, abilities, and handicaps.” Yet again the female looked away from me and cocked her head as if hearing something even my keen ears couldn’t. Minutes rolled by in comfortable silence with her holding my clawed hand with the scarf in between our palms before finally she turned back around.

“What is your name?”

I answered without hesitation for her; having only spent several minutes within her presence I already trusted her.

“Sesshomaru Tashio, and you?”

Her smile melted me internally with its blinding sincerity at my return question. Her eyes glowed like sapphires and immediately I knew her mother was correct to hide her.

“Kagome, Kagome Higurashi”

For a final time, little Kagome cocked her head, looked to the grate at the moon lite sky with its thousands of snow flakes, looked back to the dark tunnel that lead back to the underground sanctuary, and finally turned back to me.

“Sesshomaru, I think you are very handsome and deserving to live. Find me one day, Okay? I think Im going to miss you the most.”

At the finish of her sentence, she rose to her full height, gently clasped my head between her two hands and kissed the moon shaped mark at the center of my forehead, my mark of shame, my now badge of honor, And Before I could even ask her about me finding her one day, she turned and ran into the darkened tunnels leaving without a sound. The only evidence of her visit was the star embroidered cloth now clasped within my hand.

It only took me a few minutes to return to the sanctuary. It might have been shorter if I hadn’t searched for tiny foot prints to indicate where Kagome had fled to; but in the end, I found nothing and was distracted the whole way home. When I arrived back to the place our tent sat, father had already packed a small potato sack with our things and mother had already swaddled my half-brother tightly within his newly made white blanket.

“Good Sesshomaru, you are here. We are to depart in only a few minutes. Are there any last goodbyes you would like to say?”

I shook my head obediently and headed to help my mother handle her fussy son.

“Then we depart now.”

Father walked confidently to the front of our small entourage and began the journey to the sea. We followed the underground tunnels to the furthest point possible before breaking to the surface for the final stretch of our journey, the Ocean.

It was only a moment, but as father was pulling me out of the sewage tunnels and onto the land he squeezed me tightly and secretly handed me a single charm. When he turned and continued to the front, my curiosity got the best of me. I looked into my hand and found a single metal dog with a hole pushed through it so it could be made into a bracelet or necklace. Biting my lip I withheld my questions and decided to inquiry further on this charm once we were safe, once we were all sailing to freedom.

The dock was in view when the heavy hooves of a horse and its heavy breathing caught us. My body froze and in a flurry of motion father pushed me and I stumbled stupidly back into the fish bins filled with netting and old fish guts. The old fish bones gauged my hands upon landing and because of my struggling I was tied tightly within the unforgiving nets, stuck. Silently I struggled to free myself, one rope at a time as the confrontation beside me continued to heat in intensity. I heard the moment father struck the first solider and stole a horse for mother. I listened with baited breath, both in hope that they would escape and that they would safe me. How selfish of me, life has always been about choices.

In the end father stayed and only gave mother and her son the horse. He needed me. I worked harder to free myself, the sounds of his labored breathes egging me on to freedom. He was still alive, he still needed me. I was 1/3 free from my rope prison when the blood curdling cry of my father sounded. My heart froze, a deadly chill swept through the entirety of my body, and a deep instinctual dread settled in my bones. For many moments I lay completely silent in my net prison, waiting for his voice, his breath, his anything but all I received was the continued sounds of the ocean rushing to meet the land, and the chilling winds of a winter time sea voyage. I laid hoping for the best, praying to any god listening for his help, but when I felt the gooey warmth against my back I broke. The metallic smell of his blood encased me, his life giving liquid had leaked under the fish bin and into the netting, my father had died and I could do nothing. My only family was killed, gone; I was alone, completely abandoned. The build-up of dread and despair was too intense, surely this would kill me. Please. Please let it kill me. I could feel myself mentally begin for death and without noticing my throat was already voicing my thoughts. Heart breaking wails tore from my throat, I screamed in hope that they would find me. I cried for them to kill me too. It was my only bright thought that I might join them all in the afterlife away from this loneliness. This horrible solitude, but in the end no one came; I suffered through the night until my throat was raw from screaming and finally I passed out from exhaustion with the tears staining my cheeks.

I was found the next day by a sailor in need of a cabin boy, and because of the charm my father gave me, I appeared human to the human sailor. He stole me away, thinking I was an orphan, but I no longer care. I will one day kill the man who killed my family; that is all I want.

With a finally glance at the shore, the black castle in the background loomed hauntingly. I know I will be back, but I will first gain rank, authority, and power. Then I will return and kill the man who lives in that tower for the pain he’s caused my family, for revenge, that is my promise, that is my life’s reason now, nothing more.

Turning away from the shore, Sesshomaru let loose the sails at the captain's command and slipped his hand into his pocket to stroke the star embroidered scarf.

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yes, this was a prologe. Have a great day everyone!!