Ichigo: Hana! *jumps up and down* I finally got my connection to the internet back, so now I can open the calendar door for our christmas project which was due yesterday!

Hana: Oh great! I already feared we might not keep up with our plan *beams at Ichigo*

Ichigo: Do not blame me, blame the internet, which decided it would be so much more fun to stop working for ours *sigh* Anyway, any guess what kind of story could be behind the next door?

Hana: I don´t know...What could it be? Maybe something with Inuyasha? We haven´t heared anything of him lately.

Ichigo: It is about Inuyasha, at least more or less...let´s just say that Kagome gets a lot of help with her studies, even though not exactly how she imagined it.

Hana: Help with her studies? Well. That is a new one. Usually Inuyasha just wants to help her slay the demon "exam".

Ichigo: It is not Inuyasha who wants to "help" her this time.

Hana: Is it not? Who then?

Ichigo: The old and wise flea demon Myoga of course! Was there a time when he couldn´t give usefull advise?

Hana: Old? Definitely. Wise? Okay, why not. But useful advice? Um...I would not agree with that last part. But he is an expert at disappearing when danger occurs. The best alarm ever invented.

Ichigo: Ok, forget the "useful" part. He will however give advice, just wait and see...or rather read. I do not own Inuyasha.

Hana: And don´t forget to leave a PM with the solution to the riddle below the short story.

Geography with Myoga

Kagome stumbled into the hut Kaede had provided her to stay in as long as she visited the feudal era. She threw her gigantic yellow bag in a corner and stretched her hurting back a little. Damn her geography teacher, who insisted on writing a test in two weeks, exactly at the time Kagome planned to travel back into her own time. He already informed his class, that they had to deal with the topic of mountain building, an absolutely boring and, unfortunately for her, difficult topic. Being a responsible person, Kagome had packed her school books and took them with her, so she could learn in between her adventures with Inuyasha, provided the half demon would let her. Letting out a sigh the human girl shook her head.

Who am I kidding, he would probably try to distract me, snatch away my textbook, look at it and throw it away, as he doesn´t get it. Then he would drag me out of the hut to Kami knows where. I can´t blame him though, he never went to school, I´m not even sure if he can write or read his own name. Maybe I should teach him?

Her thoughts were interrupted however as Kaede entered the small housing. The elderly miko greeted her and together they lit up a fire for preparing some food. Surly Inuyasha and the others would be hungry as soon as they came back from wherever they currently were. A few minutes later the air filled with the scent of grilled fish and freshly cut vegetables. Being tactless as he was, the half demon would probably complain about their meal and ask for some ramen instead.

As soon as everything was prepared, Inuyasha, Sango and Miroku mysteriously appeared, followed by Shippo and Myoga, who were currently discussing something. Like Kagome had predicted, the silver haired demon asked for her "ninja food" and started sulking as she refused to give him any. However it did not kept him from stealing one of Shippo´s grilled fished, which caused yet another fight between the two.

"Inuyasha! Sit boy!", Kagome shouted annoyed by his behavior. Said boy hit the ground face first and growled something about crazy woman, while rubbing his chin. Shippo on the other hand was happy as the young miko handed him another grilled fish.

"How was your time back at home, Kagome?", Sango asked without paying attention to what just happened. Everybody was used to it right now. "Quite stressful, yet relaxing at the same time. It felt wonderful to have a hot shower and a real bed to sleep in, but school was as busy as usual. I have to catch up to everything and our geography teacher decided we should write a test in two weeks." Her friend looked a bit confused. "What is this geography you speak of exactly?" Kagome had to think about it for a while. How did you explain a subject to someone, who never had any lessons at all? "Well, we learn a lot about the earth, like how the weather works, how population has shifted over the years, how rivers and rocks are formed and lately how mountains came into being. It deals a lot with nature and people in general."

The flea demon looked up from his small slice of fish and gave her a puzzled expression. "You learn about something build by demons?" "Huh?", was Kagome´s equally surprised reaction. Myoga jumped on her knees. "How do you suppose they were formed if not by the greatest demons of all time?"
"At school we learned that they needed thousands of years to…"
"Nonsense, I saw lots of them being created in just some months." The girl´s eyes became even bigger. Months? That was not the time given in her textbooks. She walked over to her bag and grabbed her notes from her last lessons, to look over it again.

"You must be mistaken Myoga. How could something so gigantic be formed in such a short period of time?"
"Simply, like I said, by demons, daiyokai to be more precisely. The great Inu no Taisho was one of them, I remember clearly seeing him creating Mount Fuji, which got later purified by lots of miko´s and priests, making it a holy place."

Inuyasha´s ears lifted at the mention of his father. "My old man did what?"
"And how?", Kagome added. "Let me tell you a story", the flea started, automatically gathering everybody around him. Even Shippo seemed interested, as he hopped into Kagome´s lap and looked at the elderly demon with big eyes.

"Long ago, the land was almost flat and even everywhere. Lakes and rivers divided the scenery together with some lonely volcanoes, which were the only mountain-like phenomena back then. Great forest and large plains marked the landscape. Some smaller villages could be found too and the first larger mansions came into being. The human kind had not taken control all over the country, their fields were rather small and the housings were only planted on smaller rivers or lakes.

At this time, when I myself was young, I met the young dog demon who would later become the infamous Inu no Taisho. He was barely older than two hundred years, but already determined to gain the status of a powerful lord. All he needs was something that showed his power and drew attention towards him, something which would attract supporters too.

As he still harbored the curiosity of his childhood and youth, he would travel a lot, even as far as going oversee to visit foreign countries. Reaching Asia, especially China, he noticed its tall mountains, impressive cliffs, often containing waterfalls, its large caves and wide hills. All this seemed to be able to outlast hundreds of years, while still looking impressive. Creating something like that would gain him a name and also help to divide the land.

Full of enthusiasm he came back, ready to take action. As he wished to become the lord of a promising empire, he searched for unclaimed land, which was rich of fertile soil, clear water, wildlife, minerals and other goods needed to create a new center of power. Unfortunately, he was not the first daiyokai having such an idea, which forced him to fight to take over some land. Being already a skilled warrior, he was able to do so. His first action after successfully conquering enough ground was to build a wide and large mountain, so he could overlook each corner of what was his.

I was with him at this time, and I can tell you that I was amazed at his power and endurance. Day by day he would dig into the ground, moving large rocks and soil from one place to another, collecting it at his chosen spot. To make sure his pile would stay in place and be solid enough to actually build something on it, he used his acid claws and saliva to melt the material, making it stick together.

As the young Inu no Taisho was not only strong and brave, but clever too, he buried the bones of his prey near his soon to be maintain too, creating it even faster. Already having attracted lots of admirers for his hard work, he soon found support for building a mansion atop of it. Together they created smaller hills and mountains in his new claimed land, making it complex and easier to defend.

Impressed by his work, the Inu no Taisho did not only gained new followers, but also got to know Sesshomaru´s mother, as she was attracted by his power, strategy and success in keeping such a wide area under his control. Well, and what can I say, more dog demons are able to create more mountains.

Doing so even became a kind of sport, as every demon who thought of himself as powerful wanted suddenly to form its own hill. The taller and wider they were, the more mighty a demons seemed. And if course it was also a great way to get rid of bones of your prey.

The hut was silent. Everybody was looking with disbelieve at Myoga, who seemed very proud of his story and Inu no Taisho.

"So", Kagome started after a while of awkward staring at each other. "Inuyasha´s father randomly dug around in the ground and used his saliva to solidify everything. And this is how the first real mountain was created in Japan."
"That´s right Kagome, he was the first one to…" He could not finish his sentence as the girl started to laugh like a mad woman. Inuyasha on the other hand looked very irritated. "I do not want to sound disrespectful Myoga", Sango said quietly, "but it seems that Inuyokai behave like ordinary dogs too, as I saw some of them digging around in the ground to burry bones."
"Well, you see miss Sango…"
"You want me to believe that my father ran around like a mad dog, throwing soil through the air to create some piles!"
"That is not what I meant Inuyasha!", the flea tried to defend himself, and probably the deceased demon too. "He was a great man who did impressive work!"
"But this is how normal low-life dogs behave too!"
"Would you just listen to me!" Myoga tried to shout, which was quite hard if you were as small as him. "I´m out of here", Inuyasha growled as he ran for the door. "That sure was interesting", Miroku added, trying hard not to laugh.

Kagome let out a sigh. "Thank you for the story Myoga, but I guess I cannot use this information in my test in two weeks, nobody would believe me." The flea seemed hurt by the lack of admiration he got, so he simply disappeared. He was an expert at vanishing into thin air after all.

"Do you mind if we stay here, Kagome?" Said woman shook her head. "Of course not Sango. You, Miroku and Shippo can stay here if you like. I only want some time to study a bit, but I believe you are less distracting or loud as Inuyasha is."
"You know I can here you!", someone screamed from atop the roof. "But it is true", the young miko shouted as an answer. "Would you like some more fish or vegetables?", Kaede interrupted their shouting. She offered the remaining friends some of her cooking, which soon was gone.

Happy and tired Shippo curled up in Kagome´s lap after the meal and listened to her soft voice, while she read though her geography notes. "The way you learned how those mountains came into being sounds extremely complicated, how do you manage to memorize all of this?"
"Honestly", she answered with a smile, "I have no idea."

Miroku and Sango decided to stay overnight at the hut too, and made themselves comfortable in a separate corner. After the demon slayer slapped the monk for offering her to share his bed, both of them were quiet. Kaede too went to sleep, only leaving a small fire. As there was only little light left, Kagome put away her notes and carried Shippo over to her sleeping bag. Tired she soon closed her eyes too, still holding close to the small demon.

It was in the middle in of the night when she woke up again, believing she heard a noise. There was indeed one, as Inuyasha had finally come down from the roof. "Go back to sleep", he ordered in a hushed voice, as he placed himself close to her to get some rest too. "Say Inuyasha?"
"What is it?"
"Have you ever dug a hole like a dog?"
"Go back to sleep!", he growled a bit louder. Giggling Kagome decided to drop the topic and finally get some rest before they went off to a new adventure. Her dreams however were filled with her favorite half demon running around digging holes like an crazy animal everywhere.

Riddle:

Who am I?
I am swift as the coursing river - or more like the wind
I have all the force of a great typhoon - I can even create them!
I have all the strength of a raging fire - and I like to fight with someone whose colours resembles said fire
And of course I am mysterious as the dark side of the moon - though not half as quiet...

Oh and, I am a MAN!

Bonus points for everyone who gets the reference in the riddle ^^

If you know the answer, send us a PM with the solution. As soon as all 24 Stories for our advent calendar project are uploaded, the one who solved the most riddles can determine one of the stories we uploaded to extend to a "full story". For more Information, please look up our first story written by Hana.

Stories so far:

1st December: Inuyasha – Lord of the kitchen

2nd December: Artemis Fowl – The tale of the handsome commander

3rd December: Inuyasha – Miroku´s wish list

4th December: Iron Fey Series – Dream beaches

5th December: Kamisama Kiss – How to not freeze to death

6th December: Inuyasha – Surprise surprise

7th December: Kamisama Kiss – I´m going into town, Tomoe

8th December: Artemis Fowl – No one ever calls me to simply drink coffee

9th December: Tiger´s Curse – Tigers and Badminton

10th December: Inuyasha – Geography with Myoga

11th December: Preperations