Once Upon A Little China
Chapter 1: Transportation
Note: All conversation written in bold is spoken in Chinese.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, all rights belong to Rumiko Takahashi and the respective animation producers
Honk Honk!
"Fresh flowers for...How much is this? …get out of my way, in-coming carriage!...Come, come, four-fifty kuai.*"
"Yes mom, I will be fine. I have survived the plane ride here, so I am sure I'll survive a train ride." InuYasha gritted, shutting his eyes tightly and trying to ignore the tumult of sounds cascading around him. He looked up when the carriage door slid aside to reveal his two friends – Sango and Miroku – both holding on to plastic bags filled with food and various assortments. "Bye mom, I'll phone back in a few days." He clicked his phone shut and threw it unceremoniously at a corner of the seat.
"Come on, don't mope anymore, it's not that bad!" Miroku chided his friend and handed him an orange. InuYasha merely frown suspiciously at the fruit and waved it off.
"Why are we staying for two months in this obscure place?" InuYasha murmured to no one in particular.
"Since you have pretty much toured through the majority of your home country's tourism sites already, your parents thought it would be a nice change to have some adventure in this...Shin-Jii-An place." Sango offered a reply, trying to pronounce the name she saw on the brochure.
It was an idea that InuYasha's parents devise a month ago: considering that InuYasha, Miroku and Sango were studying business and tourism management; InuYasha's father – who controlled one of Asia's biggest tourism firms - sent his son and co onto an internship in which they work in his Chinese division. But before the start of their internship, InuYasha's mother proposed that the three friends first get a two-month holiday break from university. And so, they found themselves on the train towards Xin Jiang**.
Just then, a lurch signaled the start of the train. InuYasha lay back against his seat as he watched his carriage pass by the crowded platform. Heaving a sigh, he closed his eyes and drifted off into slumber.
Brrr...
"What the f-"
"Now, now InuYasha, remember how your parents talk about restricting the 'f' word?" Miroku reminded his friend.
"What the hell are we doing here?" InuYasha growled, narrowing his eyes at the horse that had just neighed in front of him.
When the train stopped at their destination, the trio found themselves in a worn-out train station that obviously hadn't been through any renovations for decades. As they exited the station, they were greeted by the scene of peaceful lush meadows, vast blue skies, drifting foliage...and a horse neighing in front of them.
"Are you sure we hadn't got out of the wrong station?" Sango queried worriedly as she stared at her ticket, trying to decipher the words.
"I am pretty sure this is the right one," Miroku grunted, "that's what the train lady said."
"Could you explain then where the f- I meant hell is our tourist guide? And why is there a horse in front of the train station?" InuYasha waved his hand incredulously at the giant animal.
"Hmm...We could always ask," Miroku thought as he trained his eyes around the moving mass of people exiting the train station. Just then, he caught an old woman with an eye-patch scrutinizing them. When she saw Miroku looked at her, she ventured to walk up to them slowly.
"Are you InuYasha?" The old woman looked at the threesome curiously, speaking in fluent Japanese.
"Aye, that will be me," InuYasha huffed, somewhat surprised by the old woman's grasp of his native language. "And who are you?"
"Ah, welcome! Welcome! Your parents contacted me and said that I would be expecting the three of you coming over to my house. I am Kaede. For the next two months, you will be staying at my house. Come on, young lads, we better get moving before dusk." Kaede ushered the trio towards a wagon located nearby.
"You got to be kidding me," InuYasha muttered under his breath when he saw the old woman heave their baggage unto the back of the wagon. The wagon looked about as old as the woman, with a few bits and pieces sticking out at odd ends. There was no hood covering the top of the wagon, which meant that should it rain (and InuYasha dearly hope that it wouldn't), all the passengers would be soaked to the bones.
"Come on, we haven't got all the time!" Kaede called out to the three of them as she moved onto the wagon seat, carefully arranging the horses' reins.
Miroku shrugged helplessly back at InuYasha before helping Sango onto the wagon. Muttering a string of obscenities under his breath, InuYasha followed suit, and the wagon trundled off.
A/N:
* kuai: currency for Chinese money, just like dollar is for US's
**Xin Jiang: A location in the northern parts of China
Hope you liked it so far and feel free to correct on any of my grammatical and spelling errors! =]