Ok, so thanks to a prompt proposed by kokoro-beat on tumblr a few days ago, I came up with this completely new IchiHime fic. I thought of keeping it Tumblr exclusive, but I couldn't keep it from my readers who don't have tumblr. I'm so, so into this new plotline omfg it's not even funny. I hope you guys will like it.

Category/Community: Bleach - IchiHime

Genre of FanFiction: Romance/Drama/Tragedy/HighFantasy

Rating: T(for now)

Cover Art: ChubyMi

Chapter 1

The fall was endless.

The darkness… An insurmountably vast precipice that stretched as far as her weeping eyes could see.

There was so much pain… everywhere, on every inch of her and with every beat of her trembling heart that was being crushed by the crippling fright that now haunted her.

She would never see her home again.

The clear droplets of her tears floated behind her in the dark and stormy emptiness in between dimensions.

Nothing mattered anymore.

And maybe… maybe things were better this way.

Her amber eyes slowly fell shut as she gave in to the darkness around and within herself, wishing, to some extend, that if she were to finish like this, that she could go to where the one she'd loved the most was.

To share Oblivium with him for eternity.

And never wake up.

He was having that dream again.

A pair of leathery, black clawed wings, a crown made of obsidian that smashed onto the ground. An immense beast of black smoke and fire, trapped in a cage and impossibly long, golden brown hair and a pair of eerie cold amber eyes.

Words he couldn't understand, spoken from unknown lips.

Hushed whispers and hasty footsteps echoing through flame-lit corridors. Pursuers. Too many of them.

A blade. A bone-chilling scream.

Blood splattered against flaming stone walls.

An unknown woman falling from a cliff into dark, stormy clouds.

"Tra'aklin, Tra'aklin… Come to me, Tra'aklin… To forever Oblivium, Tra'ak."

He gasped awake again, like he always did when he heard those whispered words in his sleep. The soft, airy voice of the woman who spoke them always lingered with him afterwards as he wondered what those last words meant. For as long as he could remember, they had haunted him and no matter how hard he wished for them to mean nothing as time had gone on, he couldn't, because he wanted to believe that perhaps they held the key to unlocking a secret, or solving a riddle he felt he'd been spending his entire life trying to solve unknowingly.

Perhaps it would help him reveal the true purpose of his life, one that didn't see him end up being nothing more than the son of their village's hunter.

Ichigo sullenly blinked at the canopy of leaves above him, wondering how long he'd been dozing off on the bank of the babbling brook when he noticed the pink tinged sky in the spaces in between.

He sat up with a sigh and scratched the back of his vibrant orange hair, making an annoyed face at how tired he felt.

Today had been a good day, though. Most of the traps he'd lain in the woods the day before had yielded results and he looked forward to being able to return to his family with plenty of food for them and for trading.

"Nenya?" he then called, looking around for his silver colored wolfdog. He stood and hit the dust from his brown leather pants and white tunic. He waited a few moments longer and brought his fingers to his lips to whistle on them, smirking when he heard the bushes behind him bristle and she appeared with an excited bark, sauntering up to him happily.

Ichigo grinned at her lovingly, recognizing her animated behavior instantly. "Did you find something good?"

Nenya barked and jumped in place once, wiggled her tail wildly and took a few steps away from him in the direction of the cottage he currently occupied behind the bushes and looked back expectantly. "Or maybe you're just hungry," he realized with an amused chuckle and a shake of his head. "I have been asleep for a while… Let's get dinner going, come on."

He followed the dog through the bushes and up the path leading the the small, wooden hunter's cottage standing on a small hill. A smirk graced his features when Nenya barked impatiently as he decided to check on his black steed in the small, shielded stable attached to the small wooden structure first, picking up some hay from his sturdy cart nearby and placing it in front of the animal for it to eat.

Nenya was barking incessantly by the time he was done and he walked up to her with an amused scowl. "Alright already, what's gotten into you?" he told her, walking up to the door and only then noticing it standing slightly ajar. He was certain to have locked it before leaving earlier.

His lips pressed together sternly as he prepared to find the worst in there, lifting his right hand to push against the wooden door.

The place had been completely ransacked.

Four of the seven rabbits he'd hung above the fireplace to dry were gone, the large sack with the meat he'd dried and salted lay empty and upturned on the floor, the small table now missing a leg and standing upside down with the two matching chairs pushed into a corner, one of them broken neatly in half.

When his gaze finally came to rest on his straw bed he let out an involuntary yell of surprise, waking the strange looking, black winged creature that had taken possession of it. It certainly did not look human and it was obviously too big to be a bird– or by the appearance of those wings– a bat. Was that a tail peeking from underneath a double slit, leather skirt? And black.. talons? Wait, he'd heard about these things–

A pair of downward-pointing, with gold decorated black horns then suddenly peeked from behind the leathery clawed wing that had been covering the creature's upper body and he found a pair of pale, eerie yellow eyes staring at him from behind golden brown bangs.

"Holy shi–!" he gasped, falling back against the wall near the door.

The creature suddenly jumped onto her feet– it was definitely feminine, there was no mistaking that part– and then fell back on all fours on the bed, hissing at him threateningly with her thin black tail whipping back and forth and baring her sharp fangs at him, before growling deep in her throat, much like a wounded animal.

Nenya barked and snarled at it warningly and the woman creature flapped her one good wing at it before making a pitiful, hurt purring sound when she mistakenly tried to move her injured wing as well.

Ichigo looked on in pity, understanding all too well that she was obviously feeling threatened and, judging by the way her body trembled and was covered in bruises and scrapes, feeling very much scared and in agony.

He knelt down next to Nenya to keep her quiet and then stood again once she was, approaching the intruder with raised hands carefully and making shushing sounds. "It's okay… you're okay… you're safe here. No one will hurt you."

She hissed at him warily, her golden eyes glaring at him as she scrambled away from him towards the closest corner of the cottage, her one good wing stretched open in warning while the other, clearly broken, quivered against her back. Her chest that went hidden behind the black leather band top was heaving from the effort it required for her to move the still functioning appendage.

"Stay away from me, disgusting human!" she panted, lifting her hands.

He halted in his approach, surprised that she could speak the common tongue and then alarmed when a black, ornate bow and arrow materialized between her outstretched hands and she took aim at his head. "Easy…" he murmured, lifting his hands innocuously and taking a step back. "You have magick…" he then stated quietly, nodding to himself when he connected the facts he gathered so far in his head. "You're one of the Daemonkin, right…?"

She never answered, but only continued to stare at him intently and with deep distrust, even when droplets of sweat rolled down her temples and her grip on the weapon faltered because of her apparent exhaustion.

"I'm not going to hurt you. I promise," he said softly, taking off his utility belt with his hunting knife and placing it on the floor very slowly.

"Kel Oblivium se Tra'aklin verdek…" she whispered in a trembling voice before he watched her eyes roll up into the back of her head as she passed out and fell in his arms when he caught her just in time. The bow and the arrow had now vanished.

Something stirred within him as he stared at her surprisingly beautiful face in rest, his eyes growing soft with sympathy at the thought of what she must've been through to be in the pitiable state that she was in. He couldn't explain the mystifying attraction he felt towards her, because he'd heard the horrifying legends about the Daemonkin and their history of abducting and allegedly eating humans, every child born in the last few centuries had, but her presence here with him, in that moment felt like it had been a long time coming. As if he'd been here, in this moment, with her, before.

Even the golden headpiece made of fine threads of gold and precious stones adorning her head and the two black horns protruding on each side of it felt vaguely familiar. He even caught himself smiling at her cute little horns for some reason, only to frown at himself a moment later. Her huge, black leathery wings were folded neatly on her back now and he had a good view of her pale skin, his eyes growing wide when he noticed how the black discoloration of her forearms and calves retreated back towards the tips of her hands and feet, making her nails that had been talon-like and black revert to a normal, human-like size and colour.

And then, as if caught in a loop inside his head, the words she uttered moments before came to him again and he laid his eyes on her sleeping face, eyes wide in silent disquiet.

He'd heard her voice and those same words before.

Because they were the voice and words he'd heard in his dreams.

Thank you for reading! Like, fav, review okay? If you have a question, just shoot it in the comments!

To be continued…

-MistressBlaque-