Sesshoumaru: Shard #1 - Legends

[a-hollow-year.livejournal.com]

Author's Note: The tales referenced are authentic Japanese myths.

Title: Shiro Inu
Claimed Character: Sesshoumaru
Theme: Legends
Rating: G
Squicks: None
Pairings: None
Words: 322
Summary: He had always thought stories were made from history, and not the other way around.

Shiro Inu

It wasn't until long centuries after she died that he thought maybe, just maybe, he, like everyone else, danced at the end of fate's red noose, and even all his iron-clad control could not deliver him.

With chilly feet, the idea walks over his grave.

He ignores the sunsoaked summer breeze and leans forward in his chair, the bustling city world outside his head forgotten, his breakfast going cold as he reads and rereads the folktale in front of him. Turning dusty pages, running his fingers over the shape of the world in words, he frowns and rolls the myth around and around in his head, to see if it resonates --

-- mountain gods that take the form of dogs, always enormous, always white, extremely dangerous, always connected to a human woman, always always always, she is eaten, is taken as his wife, is prisoner in his home, is stolen, is sacrificed, is under a spell, never escapes, white dog human women wife white dog human girl --

-- and the echoes it creates are deafening.

He could almost believe that this is his footprint, left on the landscape of time, were it not for the fact that his is not old enough, and neither is his father. Nor his grandfather, for that matter. Its origins are lost, its beginning somewhere between ice and iron.

This is a tale so old that it crumbles at the edges from millennia upon millennia of retelling.

How far back do stories go? he wonders. How long do they linger?

He has always done as he pleased, but perhaps it was never his choice to make. How many had gone before? Maybe his father was as helpless as he; maybe his brother was just as powerless to resist.

How long had it been waiting for him?

For the first time in years, Sesshoumaru shudders, very slightly, and wonders what other fates will catch him before he is over.

Comments

[vespurtine.livejournal.com]

It's origins are lost, it's beginning somewhere between ice and iron.

You want its, not it's.

I like it ^.^
Beautifully written, and some loverly metaphors... <3

[a-hollow-year.livejournal.com]

Ah shit. I'm too tired to be writing.

[paynesgrey.livejournal.com]

Stellar! I like how you always seem to masterfully potray what Sesshoumaru is thinking.
Not many can get inside his head, but you do, gracefully.

[wheezambu]

Simply gorgeous, the imagery in the piece is lovely and evocative. I particularly like how you build Sesshomaru's perception of his place in his history and in folktales. How he recognizes his place in fate and glimpses his own mortality. Very nicely done.

[raihu.livejournal.com]

Wowz. =O This is a wonderful piece. I particularly like the style; sort of stream-of-consciousness, but with discipline and direction. The idea itself is great - unexpected and powerful at once - and it makes sense. If all the demons Kagome saw in the Sengoku Jidai have disappeared (or blended in, whichever), it still stands to reason that something of their presence would have remained. It's pleasing that Sesshoumaru is the one to learn this, and that the legend he reads isn't quite his own - though the description fits him perfectly.

"somewhere between ice and iron" . . . now that is a poetic line.

Beautiful ficlet; it's an excellent way to capture this theme, as well as the more vulnerable side of this character. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed the read. "A lot" will have to suffice, I'm afraid. XP

[ladyathenis.livejournal.com]

==snip==
somewhere between ice and iron
==end snip==

::wow::

Now THAT definately describes Sesshoumaru. Just something about those five words alone, it made me feel it was about him, and not about the story, though the story is good.

::whoa::
::shamelessly admits to being a fan of your stories::

^O.o^