Chronicles of the West

I was listening to My December today and this chapter just kind of happened.

Chapter Twenty Seven

Weeks went by, locked in the shroud of winter. Winds howled through snow covered trees. The world was silent in winter's rage. Watery sunlight trickled with greedy fingers into the snow swept gardens. Within the halls of Silvana, fires crackled merrily keeping the cold at bay. Within those halls hearts sought solace in the pristine whiteness that surrounded them.

Ryu sat on the snow covered roof, his silver white hair dusted with many flakes that bore testament to his many hours of quiet pondering. His golden eyes swept the balcony below him. White hair, white flesh touched by the thin light of the sun's hands. Unseen to him those blue eyes locked on the gardens far below.

Silvana's scent carried to him on the breeze and his heart ached. This was not the feeling he'd ever thought to feel. The ache and need that she brought to life within him. As a hanyou, regardless of his breeding, not many outside of Japan cared for him. He was sullied with the blood of mortality, even if the mark did not bind his years.

Silvana was what his country considered a Taiyoukai. A demon of immense power and respect. Like his father. Like his uncle. Like his brother. They should have been the perfect pair. Tall, regal and strong. Toga had lost his heart to a slip of a mortal girl and he had fallen in love with a woman his brother had had.

Looking down on her now, unseen and unsensed, he pondered her thoughts. What was she seeing as she stared at the figures in the frozen garden?

Silvana stared down from the shadow of a her balcony, Toga and Aislin were in her gardens. She watched as Toga pulled the small mortal against him, twirling her in the lacy flakes that seemed to fall so gently around them. Aislin laughed and Toga smiled. A smile that in all her years of knowing him, she'd not seen.

She was happy that he had found his way. Happy that together they might find happiness. At the same time, she felt the icy cold fingers of fear flitter through her. The harp strings of sorrow well in her soul. Was she destined to be alone? She had never believed that things with Toga would be more than they were. Or that she might wish differently of her own actions.

It was hard for her to acccept and understand the effect the hanyou had on her. Making her feel safe, making her feel naked and vulnerable to the world. Making her want. She thought he might feel the same, but since entering her chambers and kissing her, he'd avoided her. It made her feel uncertain, miserable.

She'd doubled her patrols. Spent countless hours in the frigid winds and driving snow. Of course no one was fool enough to attack in such conditions. She'd always felt as though she were being watched as she moved, but she never caught a scent, or a sight.

At night, she tossed and turned, her dreams haunted by golden eyes and tender kisses, a scent that lingered in the air on waking. Ryu. And night after night, she woke alone, feeling the emptiness grow colder within her than the storms outside.

Night after night Ryu found himself perched on her balcony, staring in at the restless female. Wanting to step past the tiny barrier of glass and rest beside her. To soothe whatever plagued her dreams. Night after night he leapt to his own balcony and scowled at his own empty bed and felt the emptiness in his half blood heart grow. She was full blood and while he knew that she was not opposed to sharing her bed with him…. He wanted more than that. Much more.

Toga spent long hours with Aislin. Dancing in the snowy gardens, pouring over maps, teaching her the lands they would travel to. Just the other day Kurama had witnessed a tender moment between them. Aislin sat on the floor, Toga behind her. A large bit of canvas spread out on the floor before them.

Toga's clawed hand grasped a brush and Aislin had covered his hand with her own, guiding it across the material in a splash of color. No words, no sounds, only movements. It was like seeing a dance far too graceful to put into words. Faces bent to observe their progress, hands and bodies moving in unison.

The fox had turned from the hall and left them in peace. Toga insisted she have the choice of her future. While he admired the inu for noble thoughts, he knew that should the human choose other than him, it would crush the mighty lord. Toga had become as fragile as the brush in his hands and like it, found it's purpose and vulnerability under the guidance of her hand.

He didn't understand them. Ryu had feelings for Silvana, he was certain. She held deep affection for him as well. Aislin adored her protector but was it enough, when the demon lord loved her to the point of obsession? It seemed that only he, Shippo, Victor and the ice imp were immune to the strange tumultuous winds that wove themselves around the towers.

Ryu shadowed Silvana on her patrols, unwilling to risk her. He knew that she was probably as confused as he was. He'd kissed her, willed her to feel what he couldn't say. Then he'd been a ghost in her halls, not seeing her. What could he say to her? That he had clue as to how to win her? Pretty words weren't his style, he preferred action. However it was just that type of action that had been used with her in the past and had been meaningless. He'd be damned if he followed down that path.

Silvana turned her head to look up at the roof, hoping for even a glimpse of him. But all she saw were snowflakes spiraling downward. She sighed, feeling moisture prick her eyes and retreated into her chambers. What could she say to him? That bedding his brother was not what he thought it was? That she wanted something more from him? How could she?

Toga told himself that he spent these hours with Aislin, because he'd been absent and as his ward, her comfort and happiness were his to see to. He lied when he told himself that he'd accept her heart being lost to another. He was pleading his case to her, without saying a word. Giving her his attention, his touches. Trying to cement the bond between them, so that even as she embraced her freedom, she would embrace him as well.

Aislin reveled in the time with her lord. He had been gone for so long and she felt at peace when he was near. She wanted to believe that he was there with her because he wanted to be. Still, she understood, now that she'd seen him. He was far too beautiful to want someone like her. He would want his own kind and then…what would become of her?

She wished she was braver. Like him, with endless amounts of courage. Wished that she could tell him what was in her heart. What she kept locked behind bright eyes and a soft smile. Toga touched her, kissed her, left temporary marks on her.

While she could never confide all of those things to anyone. Kaisin had spotted the discoloration on her shoulder and asked about it. She'd reluctantly asked him what it meant and how she'd come by it. The gentle fox was certain it was more than a simple proclamation of ownership. Surely the great dog saw her as more than some trinket he kept with him.

In the end he'd settled for a very abridged version of it's potential meaning. It would tell other demons that Aislin was under his protection, a member of his house and not to be trifled with. He would have thought that this would please her, but she seemed to sink into sad thoughts as she turned from him. Was that all she was? A thing he owned? Nothing more?

Kurama looked around the fortress, and sighed. The halls nearly screamed out with feelings denied. "What a melancholy winter" he mused to himself. Too many hours indoors left active minds little else to do but over think things. Would that spring would come.