No, no, no I admit it I own neither Inuyasha nor Hawksong. Though I wished I owned Inuyasha. That would be sooooooo awesome.

On with the tale!!

Chapter 1: A Song of Hope

Kagome sat at the desk in her room reading a petition from someone to open their own store in the market for homespun clothing. Doing things like this kept her mind busy and off the fact that her brother, Souta, had gone to the Fields today. She didn't know how he fared. No report had reached her ears yet.

So she sat and read petitions, reports, and responded to request letters that came into the capitol. Her mother said that this was good training for when she would ascend the throne.

Good training it might be but it wreaked all kinds of havoc on her already tired eyes. She looked up and out her window. It was still dark out side. Kagome was amazed dawn hadn't broken yet.

Though Kagome sat at a desk, she was dressed for the Fields. When the battle was over she would fly over to the latest battle sight to tend the wounded, sing to the dieing, and help anyone she could. Her long silky black hair had been pulled to the nape of her neck and braided in one thick plait down her back. Her clothing was simple deer skin and light brown. It fit her form and left nothing dangling to catch on something or give her away in hiding. Though it was rather plain, even by human standards, going to the Fields without camouflage was reckless bordering on idiotic.

Getting up a minute to rest her eyes, she walked to her window and looked outside. Not to the ground did she look, but to the top of a canopy of trees. The leaves were still in the calm of pre-dawn and below her she heard the calls of the night birds.

The Keep was a city built into the trees. A huge complex spanning across the large trees and offering protection to many people. On the first level, that closest to the ground, and still many, many man-lengths from the bottom, was that of the poorer people and of course the famous human markets. Humans were famed for their ability to make great treasures of precious stones that could be both delicate as a feather yet also completely unbreakable.

The next levels were devoted to the families of higher living people who could afford the protection of higher levels. Then on the next to last levels were the guards and warriors quarters. The most elite on the upper level to protect the royal family who resided on the top of the trees.

The Keep only looked delicate and the way it swayed with the trees in the winds made those who came close to it underestimate its strength and durability.

The Keep was crafted with the strongest and most powerful, yet also supple woods, humans could find. The trees that they rested upon had also been enchanted. With a few spells from the most powerful Workers they now resisted fire, saws, and of course, repelled demons.

Demons were the whole reason the Keep had been planned with war in mind. Fighting with them was a very hard process and humans only had two advantages over them. The first was the Power. Every human had the Power but it usually wasn't very strong. So they had developed the poison. A concoction that could kill a huge and powerful demon with a tiny scratch if you had enough coated on your weapon. Yet the same weapon scratching a human would only make them sick. How sick depended on how much poison coated the blade.

The creation of that poison a few centuries ago had kept humans from extinction when their numbers had been drastically reduced. With this new weapon the humanswere able to drive the demons back and keep the War going when they would have surely all died.

Kagome sometimes wished they had, so that this War would not still be going on. It seemed peace between the two species would be impossible. The differences between them were many and there seemed to be no similarities.

Demons wore jewel bright colors from a pitch black to a blinding white and all the bright and dark colors in between.

Humans donned only soft and quiet colors. Usually ones picked to blend with the forest around them.

Demons were a people who craved touch and comfort from each other.

Human etiquette dictated that it was impolite to show emotion, and casual touch in public, while not forbidden, caused many eyebrows to be raised and mouths to frown.

Demons had superhuman strength, speed, and agility.

Humans had the Power.

It is said that each species can live centuries but with the War people died too early in life and no one was sure how long a life span was anymore.

The peoples were just way too different to ever mix under the flag of peace. Or even to ignore each other under the flag of truce.

Though no one was sure how the War started anymore, people here still fought. Now only to avenge the thousands upon thousands of loved ones that could never be avenged

"Lady Kagome." A voice behind her called.

Kagome turned and spotted her dearest friend, captain of the Royal Guard, Miroku. Her dear friend had black hair that, when let loose, fell to his shoulders but, warrior that he was, he confined it in a small ponytail at the nape of his neck. His dark brown eyes were serious and he too was dressed in dear skin clothes for the Fields. He also had a dear skin belt around his waist with a dagger, a few throwing knifes, many throwing stars, and a short sword.

The only reason he would be here this early would be that she could now go to the Fields. She nodded in understanding at his unspoken words and grabbed her own belt with many of the same features. Though where Miroku carried a long staff in his hands, Kagome grabbed a bow and quiver of arrows.

Kagome looked at Miroku's expressionless face for a hint at her brother's fate. It betrayed neither emotion nor any clues.

Miroku escorted her down a flight of steep stairs and into an airy room where soldiers trainde in the daytime. Moving along, they walked outside onto a balcony, wooden like the rest of the Keep, with waist high railing to keep people from falling.

Here, soldiers learned combat with their wings. Wings are a spell that humans Work to make wings sprout from their back and give them flight. Each set of wings was as different to each person as their Heartsong.

Glancing back at Miroku to make sure he was still with her, she ran to the end of the balcony where there was six feet of rail-less space. Feeling for the Power inside her, she jumped off down into the air.

She took a breath and invoked the Power and immediately a set of wings burst from her back through the slashes in her tunic. Angel wings only in shape; they were colored a see through shimmering light green.

Kagome snapped them open and flew off toward the Fields. Another snap behind her told her that Miroku was right there. Seconds later a dozen more humans winged their way up from the trees surrounding the Keep and fell into formation around her.

Kagome took a second to change the color of her wings. It was hard forcing your wing's color to change, but it was possible. They glowed a bright white making a wind whip her braid before the color settled onto a light see through brown.

Then Kagome sped up a little and focused on enjoying the magnificence of flight.

All around her she could smell the scents of decay, death, blood, and fire. The rain that had showered during the battle had made sure the flames only licked for so long before being extinguished.

Kagome could feel the death hang about her like a heavy cloud obscuring everything in its shroud, though it was still only dawn.

She walked carefully avoiding the bodies that littered the ground both of demon and human. Some had been burned and, along with the forest, gave off a scent of ash.

She walked forward looking for any dieing or wounded. She heard her guards move silently behind her. Even if the battle was over they would not trust that every demon had died. Besides, it was the only way her mother would let her walk the Fields.

She moved a branch and walked in on a sight that sucked the breath from her body.

Souta, her brother, was lying in a pool of his own blood. The dew of the dawn coated his hair and his eyes were closed in death. His skin had lost the golden shine it had and was pale.

Kagome had to force herself to breath again.

She forced tears down. Her brother would not want her to cry. And such a show of emotion as tears was against etiquette.

She closed her eyes to gather her strength when a cry came from beyond the brush across from her brother's body.

Not looking at it, and without thinking, she walked quickly and raised her hand to brush past another bush. Suddenly, Miroku grabbed her hand and shook his head. "Not that one, my Lady."

She tore her hand from his grasp and looked at him, a look bordering on a glare.

"I will not ignore a cry for help with what might be some ones last breath." She said quietly before rushing into the clearing.

Lying in the center, in a beam of early morning light, was a demon. He was crawling on his hand and knees, a hand to his stomach keeping his innards inside. His hair was shinning silver and his ears were pointed and his claws were digging into the earth in pain. His skin was paler than Kagome's and his breeches were pitch black. His shirt was jewel bright blue and when he heard Kagome's footsteps he looked up. His eyes were amber, nowhere near the bright gold his king's were rumored to be. Right now they were dulled with pain, until he caught sight of her, then they sparkled in fear.

Kagome walked forward, her guard right behind her, their weapons drawn. No one would take the chance that a demon, no matter that it was a fatally wounded demon, wouldn't hurt their princess.

The boy looked at her, defiance growing in his eyes.

Kagome sat next to him. She was horribly saddened by the fact that he looked no older than 15, not by the crescent moon on his forehead signifying that he was demon royalty.

"It's okay. Your safe now." She spoke quietly.

He looked at her in shock. This was just not what the soul-less humans said. But at the point he was at, any comfort was enough. The fear in his eyes faded and he said in a small voice, "End it, please."

Kagome nodded, tears coming to her eyes. She reached down to grab the dagger from her belt when a hand grabbed hers.

Miroku again held fast while whispering to her quietly, "The demons believe in mercy killing, but not by the other side. Not when it is the heir to the throne who kills one of the last remaining princes."

"It could take hours for him to die like this, Miroku!" she whisper back fiercely, pleading in her voice.

"Then we will wait hours." He insisted.

Kagome sighed before nodding and turning back to the boy.

"Lay down." She whispered to him. He gazed at her, curious, but he obeyed. She took his head and put it on her lap. She stroked his hair and sang to him, as she sang to many human soldiers before him. It was a child's lullaby, about peace and many things her world of War and death knew nothing of. She used her Power to make a delicate melody float out of the air as she sang.

"Hush now my baby,

Be still love don't cry.

I have a story to te-ell.

Of a land of peace

Where there is no War

A land of life and prosperity"

Then she used her power to make figures dance in the air above him. The music played to him softly as her figures of light danced showing a place where people lived and were happy. There was no War, and as it was a demon she was singing to, she let her most secret dream show through. She integrated demons in the vision. Showed them working, living, being along together.

She played the vision for him, of happiness and love, until she felt his heart start to slow.

"Lay down your head now.

Dream of this place,

And he-ear your o-own Heartsong."

She finished quietly letting the music play until she finally felt his heart slow and gradually, stop. His body relaxed as he escaped from the pain.

Kagome sat there a second more, letting her sweet melody play for a minute longer, so she could have time to stop the tears trekking silently down her cheeks. Her brother would not want her to cry for him, but she could and would cry for this stranger, this poor boy who was taken far too early.

When she finally got the strength to stand, she lay his head gently back on the ground, and she could have sworn she saw a bush across the clearing move.

When she looked, it was still.

"My Lady, let us return to the Keep. Quickly, before your mother starts to worry." Miroku suggested.

"Yes you're…you're right." Kagome agreed tearing her eyes away.

She invoked her power and let her wings spread, black in her mourning, and took to the skies.

Kagome's guard immediately followed her. They would return to get her brothers body once they made sure she was back in the Keep and safe.

From the bushes in the clearing, a man with stunning silver hair and burning gold eyes watched the princess leave. As the last of her guards left, his own immediately ran in to grab the dead prince.

Inuyasha's garb was much like his younger brother's who lay on the ground dead. Only his tunic was jewel red.

"It seems the tales were wrong." He mumbled to himself as he watch her shining black wings fade. The rumors that the princess was a heartless bitch with no feeling beyond that of the pleasure of killing couldn't be true. No person like that could sing to a dieing prince of the demons.

"What tales, Your Majesty?" a small, female guard asked. The cat-demon was a curious as the animal she was molded after.

"Nothing, Danica. It seems we may have hope after all." He finished to himself. The girl shrugged and ran to help grab the late princes body.

"Peace, life, and prosperity huh?" he said his eyes still looking at the spot were the princess had disappeared in the sky.

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YAY!! First chapter done. What do ya'll think huh?