FicWad

Chapter 8: Art Illuminates My Soul

by: ellyse the silent

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"First we need to get you in some proper cloths and then we can go out. I have something I want to show you."

(K-pov)

I ate my breakfast quickly and tossed on the cloths Kaede provided me with. They were hers, and probably expensive judging from the feel of the material. She had brought me a beautiful broomstick skirt, it was sage green and the way it moved around my ankles made me feel graceful. Kaede was smaller then me so the skirt must trail the ground when she walked.

She also gave me a charcoal grey shirt with long sleeves. Against the autumn chill she gave me a tunic-like coat that came almost to my knees and had slits up to my thighs. It was quilted charcoal grey like my shirt with leaves and cherry blossomed embroidered in sage green and soft pink on it.

Kaede smiled, a bit sadly, when she saw me dressed. "Ready?"

"Where are we going?" I asked following her to the door. I glared down at the painful sandals I had worn last night.

Kaede handed me a pair of soft felt boots, and pulled on a pair of her own. "Downtown."

I put on the socks she handed me and pulled on the boots, which were a little big, and tightened the laces. "Uh... ok..."

Kaede grinned at me as she opened the door. "It's a bit of a surprise."

I grinned back and followed her out the door and down to the bus stop. We sat in comfortable silence waiting for the downtown bus.

Once on, we seemed to fly into the downtown arts district that overlooked the ocean. Kaede pulled on the wire and the bus slowed to a stop in front of a fancy little café.

"Come on, we are going to have to walk a couple blocks." Kaede was getting excited at the prospect of getting to the place we were headed. I just wished I knew where that was.

As we travelled deeper into the arts district, entire streets were blocked off for a huge art bizarre. I stared around me, enthralled with the colour the diversity of the tables. I am sure I looked like a child in a candy store. Kaede hurried though the beautiful chaos without a second glance.

We finally made it to an art gallery, the sign that hung over the double glass doors read Gallery of the Innocents. It was an old stone and brick building, maybe a hundred years old, but the old world charm of the carved stone hadn't crumbled yet.

"What is this?" I wondered aloud.

Kaede turned back towards me, eyes alight, breathing hard. "It's an art gallery for amateur artists."

I stared at her. What the heck? Why would we come here?

Kaede smiled at the blank look on my face, "You'll understand in a minute." She flashed a card to the boy at the desk and he waved us through the marble tiled room into a more casual hall. One of the museum workers waved at her as she propelled me through the tastefully decorated rooms lined with art. She waved back at her distractedly.

Suddenly she stopped at the entrance to another room. "Go in." She nodded to the gothic archway.

I walked inside, slowly looking from side to side, feeling as if I was going to my death. The walls were painted black and I tried to remember if I had ever been in a museum that painted its walls black before. Then I understood why they had.

The first canvas I came to was lit by one electric light over it. It looked as if it was from another time period, another world it almost seemed. It was a war. I stared at the scene before me, samurais and their horses lay strewn upon the battle field, outlined in thin black strokes and without much personal detail. The blood that ran from there necks, stomachs and severed limbs was painted with thick red paint.

There was no sign of another army to wreak the bloody havoc that I saw. I stared at it, it was only lines and paint on a canvas but somehow there was something more to it. There was poetry in each brush stroke; beauty and terror, sane madness. It was made more poignant by the dark walls.

I leaned over to read the plaque next to it.

'Death of the Emperor's Army'

'Oil Paint and Ink'

'Yasha Shiro'

Kaede was standing behind me when I looked back at her. "He did this?"

She nodded. "He did all of them." She motioned around the corner to the rest of the display.

I looked back at her and then took a leap of faith.

Canvases lined the walls in the hall like room. They varied in colours but red seemed prevalent in most of them. The painting closest to me was dark and in the foreground there was a tree, with the moon on the far side. The outline was picked out in white and silver.

"The Goshinboku," I whispered as the form registered in my mind. It was the tree in my yard, the God-Tree. The plaque said:

'Goshinboku'

'Watercolour and Oil Paint'

'Yasha Shiro'

Kaede's presences faded as I walked to the next canvas.

Samurais on horses and Japanese foot solders arranged in neat rows facing away from the viewer, banners over head. A dark cloud was coming just over the hill in the distance.

'Waiting'

'Watercolour and Ink'

'Yasha Shiro'

The next was the same scene almost; I realized they must be a pair. The storm cloud was higher in the sky and the rows of solders were not so strait. One samurai sat on his horse in front of the ranks, curved sword raised in the air. His face was shadowed by his helmet and he banners were whipped in a savage wind.

'Unease'

'Watercolour and Ink'

'Yasha Shiro'

Another battle, storm clouds layered over there heads. The Japanese solders fought inhuman monsters. I leaned closer to look at the shapes that tore the men apart; daemons, every one of them. Blood was everywhere. The corpses, horses and banners littered the ground. The three must go together.

'Fighting'

'Watercolour, Ink and Oil Paint'

'Yasha Shiro'

I turned to the next. The rain was falling, water and blood mingled and flowed away. The daemons were no where to be seen. It was sad and yet joyous at the same time. The men were dead but a bit of blue sky showed through the clouds.

'It had Ended'

'Watercolour and Ink'

'Yasha Shiro'

I looked back over the violent paintings. They screamed out of the walls like angry poetry. I stepped backwards and my legs bumped into a bench. I collapsed onto it.

"Kagome?" Kaede sat down next to me.

I looked at her, past her, not really seeing. "He is really good."

Kaede nodded and smiled, pulling me from my daze. "He is."

"Where does he get his ideas?"

Kaede frowned sadly, "His dreams."

I sighed looking over the pictures. "I wish I had such a muse."

Kaede laid her hand on my arm. I turned to look in her eyes. "Kagome, I am not trying to..." She paused as if contemplating words, "distance you from my son but... there are things he has not told you. Things that would..." She took a deep breath and continued, "maybe, confuse you. He isn't bad or dangerous, to you..." the pause frightened me a little, "but he has secrets."

I blinked. "Why are you telling me this?"

"I am warning you, for your own good, he has a past."

I looked away, searching for strength to ask my questions. "You don't like him and me together?" I licked my lips... that hadn't come out the way I had wanted it to.

Kaede blinked and replied hastily, "I like you a lot! I think you are good for my son I am just not sure he will be good for you."

"So it's just a warning?"

Kaede smiled a little. "Just a warning."

"So I don't have to leave your son alone?"

Kaede laughed outright, "I wonder if he would let you, but no you do not have to leave my son alone. I just... want you, both of you, to be happy."

I stood and looked back at her. "I take it you aren't going to tell me Inu-Yasha's secrets."

Kaede shook her head. "No, he forbade me too." My disappointment must have shown on my face because she hurried on, "Besides it is one of those things that would be better from his lips."

I was very curious now, "Will he tell me if I ask?"

Kaede bit her lip before replying, "I do not know."

We walked through the rest of the exhibit. I had a feeling that Kaede had brought me down here only to warn me about Inu-Yasha. With that goal done the mood became lighter. Most of the rest of the pictures were landscapes of what looked like feudal Japan. There were two portraits, one of Kaede and one of another woman who I had never seen before.

"I like your portrait," I said to her as we paused in front of it.

Kaede smiled, "He coned me into posing for it." Her eyes twinkled at the memory.

I grinned back. The more art work I saw the more I wondered at the creator. Inu-Yasha didn't seem the type of person to be interested in the arts and certainly not the type to create such works.

"He is complicated."

I didn't realize I had spoken out loud until Kaede answered, "Yes he is."

We turned to look at the other picture. It was a young Japanese woman with thick black hair and no facial features. Her kimono was spread out around her and she sat on the bank of a river. I stared at the portrait for a few moments before speaking.

"Who is this?"

Kaede sighed, "I have a suspicion but he hasn't told me."

The plaque said:

'Tranquil on the Surface'

'Watercolour and Ink'

'Yasha Shiro'

I looked up and our eyes met. Kaede seemed to be debating whether or not to speak.

"Kagome?"

"What?"

"Please don't hurt him." She smiled weakly, and reached out to touch my shoulder.

I looked her in the eyes. "I won't." I hoped my vow was enough to keep us all safe.

((A/N: So I want to thank Petpeeves12 again! She had some trouble getting this chapter to me so I just want to say thank you! Yay painting:-) I can see Inu-Yasha painting.))