Itoshigo by Kathy Duncan "Nephuraito-chan!" The sweet voice rang out clear and strong across the rolling summer-green hillside. The gangly child with the long wavy auburn hair and sparkling blue eyes straightened up from the patch of Queen Anne's lace flowers in which he'd bee sitting and dayreaming about being surrounded by galaxies of stars. Little sprigs of the tiny white blossoms caught in his hair as he rose. "Yes, mama, I'm coming," he called back cheerily, snatching upa half-dozen stalks of the plant as he called, getting his hands all sticky with the green and anise-smelling fluid. Like a rocket he launched himself from the flower patch, hair streaming out like ribbons behind him, speeding towards the great white mansion that sat upon the highest hill. She stood, tall and slender, dark auburn hair of her own flowing loose down her back in rich waves, pinned back on either side of her face with barettes decorated with tiny porcelain-pink roses. Seeing him burst through the tall grasses in that way set her to giggling merrily. He kept the bouquet of blossoms cradled against his chest even as he ran. Panting and sweaty, he clambered up the steps and presented her with his treasure. "For you Mama -- flower-stars!" Smiling affectionately, she responded," And this is for you, itoshigo -- lemonade." She traded him the bouquet for a tall glass of ice-cold lemonade, sniffing the pretty but terrible-smelling flowers with a smile. Nephrite took the glass eagerly and gulped down three or four huge swallows of lemonade before she admonished him, "Easy son, you'll give yourself a stomach-ache drinking so much so fast!" He stopped and blushed up at her. "Sorry Mama... but I was so thirsty and I didn't even know I was so thirsty and it tastes so good and thank you Mama" --here he flung himself at her, hugging her hips and burying his face in her tummy -- "you're the bestest sweetest kindest mama ever in the whole world!" The sheer enthusiasm of his praise startled a laugh from her. She stroked the wavy-haired head gently... then with a grin began picking the tiny flowers out of his hair. "Trying to grow your own prvate garden, sweetling?" "Hm?" He looked up to see what she meant and spied the little flowers stuck in his curls. "Oh mama, get them off me, they make me look like a giiiiirrl!" Giggling again, she knelt and hugged him. "Never, my son -- you will always be my little tall man," she assured him. He blushed again, pleased as always when she called him 'little tall man'. "There, no more little flower stars in my darling's hair; now come inside, it's getting much too warm out here, sweetheart." Nodding quietly, he slipped his little hand into hers and strode in with her to the cool interior. She noted with a small frown the already-pink skin of his shoulder against the yellow of his sleeveless shirt. Curling a finger at one of the maidservants, she gave instructions for the cold cream to be fetched and brought to the library where she and her son would be having their story time. A loud bark resounded through the hallway. "Sirius!" Nephrite cried joyously and dropped to his knees, arms open wide. A black and white collie barrelled down the hall, skittering and sliding on the polished wood but mostly headed straight for Nephrite. He managed not to spill a drop of his lemonade as the dog launched into his embrace -- not too hard as he'd drunk close to half of it already. He giggled as the dog slathered his face with affection. "Stinky doggy breath!" he cried, holding his nose, wincing and laughing at the same time. Sirius just lolled out his tongue and grinned at the boy the way dogs do. It was just at that moment that his mother noticed his bare -- and very dirty -- feet. "Nephuraito!" The boy froze and slowly turned his gaze up to his mother looming over him with her arms folded across her chest. "Y-yes, mama?" "What have I told you about going outside without shoes?" Nephrite blinked his big blue eyes. "Um.. it's.. bad?" Tiny tears welled up as his gaze took in the stern expression on his mother's face. She closed her eyes. He thought perhaps she was getting even madder at him; the truth was that those tears were breaking her heart. "That's right, aiji; you could get cut, or get something stuck in your foot. Mama would be so unhapy if her little tall man were to get hurt," she said softly, bending down to hug him. Nephrite swallowed hard and flung his arms around her neck. "I'm sorry mama," he whispered as he snuggled to her. "It's alright, itoshigo, you're forgiven," she told him while stroking his hair. "Just don't let it happen again," she added with a very light swat to his bottom. "'Hee hee... okay Mama." And they both headed into the library. "What story do you want today, my sweet?" Nephrite squirmed in beside her in the big easychair. "Cygnus!" he crowed. "The Swan again? That's your very favorite, isn't it, Neph-chan?" He smiled and nodded happily. She returned the smile, telling again the story of Cygnus the Swan, using an illusion spell to conjure the tale before his very eyes. He quietly wept as the beautiful white bird stretched out its long neck and spread its wings out about itself, warbling its only song. The tears gave way to smiles as the dying swan transformed into the constellation of stars and floated into the heavens. Still smiling, he lay his head against his mother's shoulder and drifted off to sleep, where he dreamed his dreams of playing among the stars brought to life by his whim. Taming ferocious Leo; dancing with the maiden Virgo (who bore a striking resemblance to his mother); hunting with Orion; playing tag with the twins of Gemini. His mother smiled down at him as he slept, the cold cream drying whitely on his poor burnt shoulders. Carefully she shifted the child so she could hold him against her. She rose with him, his legs reflexively wrapping around her hips. She carried him carefully to his bed and laid him down without waking him. His eyelids barely flickered as she laid his head on the pillow. For long moments she watched him sleep, a tender smile playing across her lips. "Sleep well, my itoshigo.... sleep and dream your dreams," she murmured, backing from the room slowly, quietly. ***** Nephrite stood straight before Queen Beryl, blue eyes cold and indifferent. "Nephrite, I charge you to recruit to the Dark Kingdom one person of power," she commanded. "I know just the person," he responded with a stiff bow, forearm crossing his chest in a salute. "See that you bring this person across, for if you fail to do so, it will be your duty as my general to eliminate that person and any potential threat they may pose to our ultimate goals," she warned him. An emotion flickered across his features -- shock? Pain? A tiny cruel smile played across the monster-queen's face. "As... you command, Queen Beryl," he said flatly with a deeper bow that hid the troubled expression he could not quite will away from his face. With a shimmer of light, he vanished from her throne room. Beryl's throaty laugh echoed like the collapse of glacial ice into the arctic sea. ***** The library was as he remembered, a place of warmth and comfort. His silent materialization in the shadows of the back wall had afforded him the chance to look at her, and to reminisce on the nours he'd spent beside her in that same huge armchair where even now she was ensconsed with some great tome, whether an ancient or some new addition he couldn't guess. The fire of her hair had faded to cream, her smooth skin only slightly creased despite the years that had crossed it. He watched as she scanned the pages, eyes alight with the familiar rapture of the tale. Almost unconsciously he stepped forward, hand stretching out, wanting to touch, or to warn, to cry to her to flee before he could make his fell quest word to her. A mother's instinct never fails to recognize the movement of her own. Whether it was his familiar breathing, or a sense of the agony that stabbed his heart, someting made her first frown, then turn her gaze slowly up to meet his. For a moment, the world was silent. She slowly closed the book and set it on the endtable to her right. "This is unexpected, dear; but welcome home, aiji," she said as she slowly rose. Still her 'beloved child', even though long since grown into a man. He had to smile; even Metallia's taint could not touch the love he still felt for the woman who'd given him the stars, made them live for him. "Mother, I...." he started, but his throat closed on him and he could not speak those words he'd come to deliver. He looked away, swallowing, trying to still the throbbing ache in his heart. She sensed his turmoil. "Nefuraito-san, what is it that brings your heart such pain?" He cast a desperate glance at her. "I.. I have come here..... to offer you a place in the Kingdom, Mother." She smiled sweetly. "I have told you before, aisoku, I have no need to enter into Endymion's court," she reminded him. The way his face nearly crumpled and then smoothed over to flat expressionlessness gave her a moment's chill, though she knew not why. He turned to her eyes that once sparkled as do sapphires and now were flat as common stones. "It is not Endymion's court that I petition to you, Mother." The black essence of Metallia thrummed visibly in his aura for her mage's vision. Her face paled. "My son, what .. what has become of you?" Nephrite's eyes closed. "I have... taken my place in the ranks of Queen Beryl's command. I come to offer you a position in her dominion," he said, and his voice was frosted, but his eyes when he reopened them, they were glimmering wetly with entreaty. She could read his meaning. Please, Mother, do not refuse me in this. Please do not force me to do .. what I must do if you refuse.... Slowly she closed her own eyes. "My son, you must have known I could not agree to this. You must have known what my answer has to be," she said sadly. For a moment they both stood in silence, heads bowed. Their gazes locked. For a moment, rebellion surged within him. It was a moment too long for the influence of Metallia. Black energy pulsed, convulsing him in agony. His mother was aghast. "Nephrite, no!" She reached out to him. A tendril of black energy lashed out and flattened her to the wall. Their eyes locked once again. She closed hers slowly, a single tear creeping down her cheek. "Do what you must, my son," she whispered to him. The energy faded as he gaped at her. "Mother, no..." he began, but she laid her hand over his mouth with a small sad smile. "Your destiny awaits you, my son. It is not to end here in this room, not for my sake," she told him, smoothing back his hair, just as if he were her little tall man still. Tears rolled freely down his face. She knelt before him, looking up at him with proud, loving eyes. With a thought he summoned his sword to him, holding it before him like a king preparing to benight his faithful warrior. He gazed down at her, even now quailing at what she was encouraging of him. She smiled beatifically. "My precious son, I will not suffer you to be destroyed for my sake," she said in a dreaming voice. "You have a great leson to learn, and one to teach as well. Dying here today will prevent you fulfilling that destiny, and that I will not allow." One last time, she met his eyes. "I forgive you, itoshigo,'"she told him, then bowed her head and awaited her fate. His hands shook. With a scowl he thrust aside his emotions and summoned his strength. The sword rose slowly, glittering like ice in the lamplight. He swung it down, swift and sure, separating her head neatly from her body. He couldn't hear the body fall, and it wasn't until he felt a burning pain in his throat that he realized he had been screaming for the moment the sword began to fall. He fell to his knees, the already-cooling blood seeping into his pantlegs, sides heaving, every muscle twitching. Inside of him a tiny vice still screamed, but it was fading slowly, like a child running off across the hills, like the last of his humanity fleeing from what he had become in abject terror. He wanted to feel like joining that voice, but his heart was hardening, slowly but surely, as the warmth faded from his mother's body, as the light faded from the world. As the only sound in the world for long minutes to come echoed over and over inside him. "I forgive you, itoshigo......." END *Note: "Itoshigo" means "beloved, dear child".