The Lake of Time

~*~Chapter Two~*~
~*~The Seven Day Curse~*~

Three years passed since Mya passed on the knowledge of Sky's mother's death to Sky. It slightly disturbed her that Sky was really never bothered by it, but she had raised Sky since she was a couple days old, so that could easily be the explanation for it. Sky was now old enough to roam around to the next street with out supervision, but no further than the next street. But today, Sky wasn't in the mood to roam around the village, or even leave bed. She was not feeling good, and she wasn't herself for about a couple of days, and then three days ago, she went to bed, and never woke up, but she was still breathing. Mya did everything her miko powers allowed her to do, but Sky still didn't get better. It was as though someone put an incurable curse on her.
Mya stirred restlessly about the village, asking farmers for herbs, paying them as much as they asked. She made different medicines with different strengths, and gave Sky different amounts. Every time, she failed, and she almost came to the conclusion of putting Sky to sleep permanently, and painlessly, but she shook her head and emptied the thought from her mind.
“She'll get better,” she assured herself one morning while making yet another dosage of medicine. Her face was tear stained from crying all night, and her eyes were puffy and swollen from sleepiness. She wiped at her eyes as she made the medicine, and carefully poured it into a small tube once it was finished, and closed it with a cork. She walked to Sky's room where she was still sleeping. Carefully leaning down, she gently set the tube of medicine down on her right side.
It was late afternoon, and Sky was still asleep. She was curled up on her side like a little puppy, her moonlight silver hair sprawled over her little body, and her blankets were shoved down by the foot of the mat.
Tears sprang to Mya's eyes again, but she dabbed them away with her sleeve. She carefully rolled Sky onto her back, and opened the freshly made medicine. Then, she tilted Sky's head up, and carefully let it pour into her mouth, little by little so Sky would be able to breathe and swallow. Now all she could hope for is that Sky would at least wake up.
She waited all day for Sky to wake up, but Sky didn't even move from her spot. Every time Mya went to check on her, she was always in the same position. Then one day, she finally gave up, and decided that it was time to find a priestess or even a priest who was better skilled at medicine than she was.
She walked over to her friend Suyo's hut, and knocked on the side of the entrance. “Suyo,” she called. “Are ye here?”
A woman at medium height, a slightly chunky girl, came to the door. “What is it Mya? What is wrong?” the woman asked. “Ye look as though ye have been up all night crying?”
“It's Sky,” Mya answered, her body shaking from head to toe. "She fell asleep a few nights ago and hasn't woke up since, and she's been vomiting in her sleep. I have tried every remedy I know, but none seem to prevail over her illness.” Tears slid down her cheeks as thought they were pebbles sliding across the ice on a stream or river. “Please. Do you know any other priest or priestess who is greatly skilled in the uses of medical remedies? My attempts do not seem to be working.”
“Fortunately, I do,” said the woman known as Suyo. “There's a priest in training just a few streets away. He may be only sixteen years old, but he is highly skilled in the knowledge of medicine and medical remedies. He is my friend’s younger demon brother. Shall I go get him for you? Ye need to watch Sky.”
“Could ye?” Mya asked thankfully, her tears flowing even more rapidly.
“I'd be happy to,” Suyo said. She turned her head, “Yuki, Yumi! I'm going out for a little bit to get the priest a few streets away. Sky is sick, and needs medical attention. I shall be back soon. And Yumi, listen to your elder sister.”
“Yes, mommy,” came a little voice.
“Girls, they can be such trouble makers sometimes,” Suyo said to her friend as she turned to face her. “I shall be back soon. It shouldn't take me long to get him. The next village is only a few streets behind us. I don't know why they decided to build it so close to us.” She turned on her heel and ran towards the direction of the next village.
Mya smiled thankfully after her friend, and then headed back to her hut. She entered the hut and went into the room in which Sky was in. She went in to Sky's room, and was surprised to see her sitting up on her mat. Her face was the usual one she wore when she woke up, only her face was pale, and her face looked more like she was exhausted than tired, and she had slept for three days!
Mya rushed over to Sky to see if she was alright and knelt down beside her.
“Sky, are ye okay?” She observed the little girl more closely, and realized that her eyes were blank; it was the look of death, the same look Sky's mother had in her eyes before she died. They were exactly the way the man described Sky's mother’s eyes to be at the cremation ceremony. “Sky, wake up!” She gently shook the girl's shoulder, but it seemed to have no effect on her at all.
Just then, someone knocked on the hut by the entrance. Mya stood up and rushed over to the door to see Suyo and the sixteen year old boy. He was pretty tall for his age, he's also very good looking for his age, and his hair was as black as midnight, his eyes an amazing color of emerald green.
“Hello,” she said. “Please, come in.” She ushered them inside. “Sky is now sitting up, but she has that same look in her eyes her mother had before she died. She's not going to die is she?!” She started to panic, and Suyo wrapped her arms around Mya.
“It's okay, Mya,” Suyo said soothingly as Mya sobbed onto her shoulder. “She'll be okay. Tary will know what to do. He was born in America, where he learned the arts of medicine and healing. They are highly skilled in the arts of medicine and medical remedies. He has brought some of his ways from there.” She looked over at the boy who was still standing, his arms crossed, and tapping his foot impatiently.
“Can I start now?” he asked impatiently. “I'm tired and want to go back to bed.” They didn't give him an answer so he asked, “How old is the girl?”
“Only six, I believe,” Suyo said, looking over at Mya who nodded. “Yes, six years old.”
“Well, where is she?” Tary asked; the tone of impatience still in his voice. “I can't do anything if you guys are just standing there.”
Mya led him to Sky's room where she still sat up, her eyes still open and the same expression on her face.
Tary knelt down next to her and smirked.
“This is easy. I'm surprised you didn't sense it. Demons are playing tricks with your emotions Mya,” he said. “It's just a partial illness that usually only lasts a week. It's more like a seven day curse as I call them. There's no counter-curse for it. How long has she been like this?"
“It all started five days ago,” Mya said.
“She'll be alright in a couple days,” Tary said surely. "I'll stay here just in case though. Not everyone survives the Seven Day Curse.”
“Tary!” Suyo said sternly. “She doesn't need to hear that right now!”
“Hey, I was just being honest,” Tary said, perfectly calm as though she had not yelled at him at all. "My best friend died from this curse---"
“Tary!”
“--- so I'm gonna stay here just to make sure she stays alive. And I'm not trying to scare any one; I'm just being perfectly honest. A priest has to be honest. It's part of his duty, and since I'm a priest in training, it's part of my duty to be honest.”
"I guess you're right, but you should've waited for her to calm down before you told her that," Suyo said.
"Sorry, but I figured she needed to know. It's important that the patients parent or guardian knows what's going on." He looked at Mya. "Have you given her any medicine?"
"Yes," Mya said her voice worried, and shaky.
"Good, that should prevent her death. The demon may be inside her, possessing her, but I do not know. I sense no evil aura around her." He looked at Sky, and then back at Mya. “She's a demon?”
“Yes,” Mya admitted. “I adopted her when she was two days old. Her mother was mortally wounded, and died right in front of my house. My village cremated her, and buried her ashes in front of my house and put up a memorial for her.”
“Wow,” Tary said. “I have never known a demon to be loved by humans.”
“Oh, everyone loved her,” Mya said. “She almost married a human, but she fell in love with a demon, and married him instead, and he is just as nice. Sky has never met her father, but I do not know his whereabouts. The last time I knew, he was helping the others in a village in a war about a mile away from here, if not farther.”
“Oh, you mean the village of old Silver Beard?” Tary asked.
“Yes,” Mya said. “Do ye know about the war?”
“’Course I do,” Tary said. "Let's see..... Old Silver Beard won the war, and the village fighting them.... well.... no one on the enemy's side lived. The victory was won just a few weeks ago. There's talk that a demon soldier is going to set out in just a few days now in search of his wife and daughter. They say that he’s supposed to stop by this village to see an old friend to ask for help. Would you be the friend that he talks about?”
She nodded. “Yes. I've known him since he married my best friend nine years ago. I was seventeen when they married, and now I am twenty six. Sky's mother gave birth to her during the war, which really must have been harsh on her. The poor girl, she didn't even live long enough to see her daughter grow. Sky is going to be as beautiful as her mother. The only difference that I can see between them is their eyes.”
“Really?” Tary asked.
“Yes, her mother's eyes were midnight blue,” Mya replied. “She has her father's eyes. His eyes are also sky blue, but the only difference between their eyes is Sky's eyes look as though they were coated with a clear sapphire. I love to look into her eyes.”
"Wow, her eyes must be really pretty then," Tary said.
“Oh they are,” Suyo agreed. "I asked her just last week if I could see what color her eyes were, and they were the most gorgeous colored eyes I have ever seen."
A knock sounded on the hut.
“I'll be right back.” Mya stood up and walked over out of the room and into the main room. She opened the curtains that covered the entrance way. “Yes?”
A group of teenagers, or young adults as they were called in this time, were standing outside the doorway.
“Good evening Lady Priestess, my name is Asami, I am one of Sky's friends,” the girl in the front said. “My friends and I haven't seen her around lately and we were wondering if she was okay.”
Mya smiled tearfully. “She's okay,” she said, her voice a little wavy.
“Lady Priestess? Are you okay?” Asami asked.
“I'm fine,” Mya said, dabbing at her eyes with her sleeve. “You see, Sky fell ill a few days ago. She fell asleep one night and she never woke up, but she was still breathing. She vomits in her sleep. My dear friend Suyo, brought over a priest to help me, and we found out what is wrong with her.”
“May we come in?” Asami asked.
“Yes, of course,” Mya said, and she stepped aside to let the group of teens in. There were only seven of them, so it wasn't too crowded in the room. "I will allow only two at a time to see her."
“Okay,” they agreed, and then they started to argue over who would get to see her first.
Mya sighed in frustration. "Please, stop arguing, I will say who goes in first," she said. "Asami, you and that other boy may go in to see her."
“Oh. Him? He's Hyotaru,” Asami said.
“Okay, you and Hyotaru may go visit her.” She led them to Sky's room, and added, “I will be back in here in a short while.”
They walked into Sky's room to find Suyo and Tary sitting next to her. Tary was mixing something which they figured must be medicine. Sky lay asleep on her mat, and she was curled up on her side, her hair sprawled around her like a blanket of silver lit by the moonlight even though it was morning.
Asami sat as close to Sky as Hyotaru and Suyo would let her, but Hyotaru didn't sit all that close to Sky, he wasn't sure if it was contagious or not. Asami looked at him. “Hyotaru, chill, she's not contagious.” She turned to Hyotaru and Suyo and asked uncertainly, "Is she?"
“No, it's just a curse that some demon put on her,” Tary replied. “She'll survive.” ‘I hope,’ he thought. ‘Most children her age who get this curse usually don't survive it. All I can do is assure them that she will survive, and then hope that she will...... That little girl better survive ‘cause I'm not staying here for nothing!’
Asami looked at Sky who was still sound asleep in her bed. She looked as though nothing could disturb her, nothing at all. Just looking at the little demon girl in the cot was enough to bring tears to her eyes. “Be strong Sky,” she whispered.
Mya came into the room a few minutes later. “Okay you two, time for someone else to visit her.” She moved aside to let the young adults out, and followed them out into the main room. “Ye. What is your name?” She pointed to a young man who looked older than the others.
“My name is Gonshiro,” he introduced himself.
“Ye may go visit her,” Mya said, and she allowed him to go past her and into Sky's room. She then pointed to a young girl. "What is the name which ye are called?"
“My name is Sanako,” the girl said. She only looked to be about thirteen years old; she also had some resemblance to Gonshiro.
“Ye are related to Gonshiro, are ye not?”
“Yes, he is my elder brother,” Sanako replied.
Mya smiled. “Well, you may go in with him. Ye are Sky's friend, are ye not?”
“Yes, I was one of her closest friends,” Sanako said.
Mya moved aside and let her in. “Ye will have the same amount of time as the last two.”
It wasn't long before everyone had a chance to visit Sky, and they were all happy to know that Sky was okay, she just needed sleep.
‘I must send a message to her father some how,’ Mya thought. ‘But the young priest did say that he was already on his way here didn't he?’ She glanced around the empty room which was once full of young adults, and then over at the room where Sky was sleeping and being watched over by Suyo and Tary.


The night went by fast. When she woke up, she felt like she had only closed her eyes and opened them a second later. As soon as she got up, she immediately went to Sky's room. Suyo, and Tary were still sleeping, and so was Sky, but at least she wasn't vomiting. She sighed. ‘I hope you get better soon,’ she thought.
Sky is her pride and joy. She loved Sky the moment she was handed to her as a two day old baby, and she never, ever forgot that day. Every one in the village loved Sky, and were all worried. Every time she walked by someone that day, they asked her if Sky was alright, and if she'll get better. She cried every time some one asked her and told them that the priest that was taking care of Sky said that she'd be okay, but she wasn't convinced, and neither was anyone else. They just looked at her but hoped for the best. It was around night time again before she went back to her hut, and she made herself some dinner and right afterwards, she checked on how Sky was doing, and then went to bed.
She had trouble sleeping all that night. Dreams of Sky dying, images of Sky just laying there, suffering. No dream seemed to give her hope; each dream just made her doubts even higher. Each dream made her lose hope. She doubted if Sky would ever survive the illness placed upon her by who knows who. She did not know weather if Sky would survive it or not, but her dreams just placed higher doubts upon her, and greatly lowered her hopes of Sky ever surviving. Tary did say she was going to survive right? But why did her dreams doubt her? she asked herself. Was Tary lying to her to make her feel better and more confident? She did not know, but something was telling her that she didn't want to know.
She woke up really early the next morning, and did not try to get back to sleep, so she stripped herself of her night clothes, and put her morning clothes on for a morning stroll. She did not want to leave the hut, but Tary was up, so she asked him if she should, and he agreed.
“You really should,” he said. “It's not good for you to keep thinking about this.”


A/N: I hope you like this story as well. It's not all that great, I guess, but still, I hope you like it. Although, my stories that I used to write are mushy gushy, but either way, I hope you liked it.
“But--?”
“Go.” She turned on her heel and left the hut for her morning stroll, tears painting her face.
She did not want to go, but she knew that Tary was right. If she kept thinking about it she would end up getting sick too, not a good thing because she needs to be there for Sky.