Sleeping Beauty by Catalina

Cursed

For Sayah1112’s Disney challenge. I warn you this is MUCH darker than the original, and likely will have some forceful situations, it is also set in Japan rather than France. I’m trying to tread a fine line, and this will not perfectly match the original story. I don’t suppose it would be all that interesting to read if it did, neh? Not to mention Phillip in the original is SO not like Sesshoumaru it is gross!

Enjoy!

Disney owns the story of Sleeping Beauty in this portrayal of said story, Rumiko Takahashi owns the characters I am using. I seek no monetary gain by my portrayal of either this story or the characters. This is strictly for entertainment purposes alone.

Sesshoumaru looked in disdain upon the sleeping human his father wished for him to mate. She was a baby, but that hardly mattered, humans aged quickly and this human would be old enough to mate in just sixteen years. It was repulsive to him, at sixteen a youkai was still a toddler.

These inferior creatures, his father cared for them, had even bred a child with one. It made no sense to him, but he couldn’t go against his father and alpha. For years there had been wars between humans and youkai, they disputed over the same space. The humans here had been unusually blessed with holy powers, and had often engaged in skirmishes with the youkai who ruled.

No longer, his father planned to make peace. Peace! Sesshoumaru would rather the whole lot of them were washed away in a Tsunami, this infant with them. She was useless, would grow as a pampered princess in this fortress and be handed to him, and what was he supposed to do with such a foul creature?

Mate her, obviously, breed with her as well the idea made his stomach turn.

Toga, his father, grinned as the marriage contract was agreed upon. Sesshoumaru reluctantly gave his own consent. There was no point in fighting fate, that little human would be his mate and wife one day, his father had been sure that the word “mate” had appeared in their discussions.

Two mikos and a monk approached the sleeping child. A powerful woman by the name of Kikyo, another weaker woman who was her sister named Kaede, and a very young monk, probably no more than ten years old himself named Miroku. They had the most holy power in the lands that were claimed by this human tribe and his own family.

He found their purification powers irritating, but no more. His father on the other hand needed to step away from them. They were on edge with so many youkai around, their energies spiking and rubbing against the daiyoukai in an uncomfortable way.

It wasn’t comfortable for Sesshoumaru either, but he refused to allow purification powers to outwardly trouble him. For a long time now he had been deliberately trying to stop himself from being consumed by their holy powers, and it was working. Many had attempted to purify him, and though he wasn’t completely immune he was long past the point where he was made completely vulnerable by such energies. He was certain they could not kill him any longer.

“We would like to offer our prayers, for your daughter Higurashi-sama.” the small monk in training said bowing as the two priestesses bowed behind him. As the male of the group, even a pint sized one, he was the first to speak.

Higurashi inclined his head, and the trio walked over to the baby and began their prayers. That was when a horrible stench began to permeate the building. Sesshoumaru and his father both curled their noses in distaste, the three holy humans tensed turning away from the bundle to watch the shoji door fly apart.

“What?” Higurashi stood up while his wife took her infant into her arms, attempting to shield it.

Useless, Naraku and his two daughters stood in the doorway. If their aim was the child that woman could do nothing to stop it. Though hanyou by rights, Naraku’s power was far greater than many true youkai ever managed to achieve. “Oh?” Naraku began to walk forward, seemingly unconcerned coming to a stop a few feet from Toga and Sesshoumaru.

He laughed as he looked at the scroll lying on the table between the humans and the daiyoukai. “So, you think to make a peace treaty with this new little human. I do wonder why you didn’t think to appease me as well.”

The baboon covered head turned to look at the three holy people. “I would have taken such an offering.” he was talking about Kikyo, it was well known that this disgusting hanyou craved the woman, but hated her as much as he wanted her. He had caused a great deal of trouble over the woman, and more importantly, caused problems within Sesshoumaru’s own family because of her.

She didn’t blink, the woman was nearly as cold as Sesshoumaru was himself. She was also one of the most tainted miko women he had ever encountered. She and his brother had very nearly been mated, but Naraku had put a strong wedge in the relationship by disguising himself as Inuyasha and attempting to kill the priestess.

Neither of them trusted one another any longer, and it suited Sesshoumaru just fine.

“What do you want, Naraku?” Kikyo said with a sound that reminded him of boredom in her voice. “This does not concern you.”

“Where are my guards? Guards!” Higurashi called.

“You mean them?” Kagura asked raising her fan, through the wall several humans who were very much dead pushed through, breaking the fragile wooden walls as they clamored to get in. “I’m afraid they’ve turned sides.”

Higurashi put his pathetic human hand on his pathetic human sword, but Kikyo stepped forward. “I ask again, what do you want Naraku.”

The vile hanyou laughed. “I come to offer a gift. In exchange for attempting to appease these dogs.” his hand lifted, and a needle appeared from absolutely nowhere. It was an ordinary sewing needle but for one thing, it was made completely out of his personal poison. “Before that princess reaches her sixteenth birthday, she will touch this needle and die.”

In a rage, Toga charged forward, swinging Tetsusaiga at the baboon pelt, even knowing it was utterly pointless. This was not the true Naraku, just a doll.

The needle continued to hover in the air as the doll was broken, before vanishing. Kagura gave a dissatisfied grunt before turning. Toga was having none of that, and neither was Sesshoumaru, how dare they appear in this fashion? These were peace negotiations, not a place for the hanyou and his vile offspring to appear.

Kagura flicked her fan towards the two youkai and the dead human guards lurched forward. “Dance of the dead,” Kagura said low in her throat as she and Kanna all but vanished.

The human bodies fell, dead to the floor, and Sesshoumaru flicked his hair behind his back. Were it not for these foolish humans he could have simply transformed and been rid of the foul creatures himself.

Higurashi’s wife was sobbing as she cradled her child. Naraku’s curses were infinitely well known to be absolutely perfect. If he said her daughter would die, there was little chance of her surviving.

“Don’t cry,” the little monk in training Miroku said stepping forward. In his own hand was another curse of death, the little boy had lost his own sire to this curse and knew, even at this young age that he would likely die from this curse. “We will find a way to save her.”

Sesshoumaru contemplated what, if anything, to do. If the girl died, he would not have to mate her, however that would just leave him with another human to mate sometime later. A human he wouldn’t like, more than likely. “I have an offer.”

Toga gave his son a sharp look. “That needles is made of poison, I have my own poison one that is as powerful if not more.” the humans were all paying attention. His father’s eyes had narrowed in justifiable suspicion. He knew well how his son felt about this mating.

Sesshoumaru held up his right hand and it began to glow green from his poison. The humans all covered their mouths, afraid that he would let it spread. “If I find a human worth mating to before this one’s sixteenth year, you will absolve the contract, but continue to bare the terms. In exchange I will give you my poison, and every year on her day of birth she will drink some of my poison, allowing her to become immune.”

The humans looked at one another and his father growled. Toga was far less than pleased by this, but he couldn’t say as much in front of the diplomats of warring state. That had been the point of bringing this up here and now.

The mother held tight to her baby, looking down at her still sleeping child. Higurashi did the same, it was strange that these parents bore so much affection to a waste of a child, a girl child. Strange indeed. “We accept your terms, Sesshoumaru-sama.” Higurashi bowed his head.

“Hn. I will need something for you to store my poison within. Glass.” after a moment a human servant approached him, holding out a glass vial. Sesshoumaru filled it with his poison, before marking sixteen times on the side. “Each year you will have to give her more. I have marked the doses. If you give her any today, be warned, it will kill her.” He handed the servant the vial before heading for the door.

Toga pinched the bridge of his nose in obvious annoyance before bowing his head slightly to the humans and said, “We will be back in sixteen years for the ceremony. Until then.” before following his incredibly headstrong son out of the palace.

“That won’t keep her alive if she fails to ingest enough of his poison before being killed.” Kikyo pointed out, walking over to the mother and picking up the infant. “She will need a great deal of additional protection.”

“Kikyo-sama?” the little would be monk said, coming to stand next to her. “Do you have a plan?”

Kikyo nodded looking at her younger sister and the small boy. “We will take her from here; raise her ourselves to keep her as far from Naraku as we can.”

Higurashi stood up. “You can’t take her, how can you keep her safe? Here she will have the defense of the fortress.”

Kaede, still young but a very good diplomat at just fourteen years old, three years younger than her older sister, stood next to the powerful human leader. “It is the only way. Look at what your guards were reduced to by that witch, Kagura. If we get her away there will be very little chance that she will be found before her sixteenth year.”

Higurashi looked at his daughter and his incredibly distraught wife before sighing. There really was no choice, he thought as he moved his gaze back to some of the best human fighters his land had to offer. They had been little more than toys in front of Naraku and his filthy pets. “Very well.”

His wife cried out in surprise, but was wise enough to keep her mouth shut. “Take her far from here, and do not tell us where she is. Give her a new name, so that no one can ever hope to trace her back to this place.” he gently placed his hand on his daughter’s head. “We must protect her, or this land will continue to war for centuries longer… and it is better that she be gone from here than to die.”

Kikyo nodded but the child’s mother stopped her a moment, laying a kiss upon the sleeping child’s head. “Farewell, my precious child, may you return to us one day.” a tear slipped from her painted eyes and she quickly turned away, not wishing to disgrace herself before the people.

The servant came forward and gave Kaede the vial of poison. Quite possibly the only saving grace for this infant. Kikyo sighed as she considered what her life would become now, nurse to an infant princess, one that would have to be protected and trained in the arts of nobility.

It would be a long sixteen years, she hoped she was prepared for it. She also hoped that when the time came to give the child back, that she could handle it, and handle giving her to the brother of one of the two hanyou who worked to make her life miserable.

Was there strength enough within her, for the trials ahead?