Author's Notes: Blah blah blah....haven't posted the first chapter, so I have nothing to say....

Title: Darkness and Light Author: KaBunny E-mail: Alexandra_Miyoko@yahoo.com Rating: PG-13 (for IY's dirty mouth, hehe)

Chapter Two: The Journey Begins

"Ah, you must be InuYasha," the man responded, standing up and smiling down at the half-demon. "I am king of the realm.....my name is King Myouga (heh heh) and the lovely woman sitting beside me is my wife."
"Get to the damn point! I want to know why the hell I had to walk three days to come see your royal ass," the dog demon replied, staring at the king as if he didn't care if the man was wearing his underwear on his head and was the king of Candyland. He crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned onto one foot.
"Pardon me?" Kikyo asked from beside him. She took a few steps up to InuYasha who stared at her out of the corner of eyes as she stepped up to him, quite unafraid. "I'll have you know that you're before royalty and as custom of the gods deems, you must bow!"
"Feh! Stupid wench!" InuYasha growled, rolling his eyes before closing them as if pretending to ignore Kikyo.
"I said.....BOW!!" Kikyo yelled, grabbing one of InuYasha's streaming tufts of silver hair and tugging on it rather harshly. She had intended to pull him to the floor, but he was much too strong for her to move him much.
"OW! What the hell did you do that for you wench?!" he screamed, twitching in anger and pain.
"You should bow before your superiors!" Kikyo answered, glaring at him, her hands on her hips as she leaned up into his face.
"I don't give a damn about superiors, if you haven't noticed!" the half-demon yelled, glaring back at her as he let a growl escape.
Kagome had to put a hand to her mouth to stifle her laughing. If he was frustrating her well-mannered sister like this, she could only imagine how the next month was going to be. She didn't control her temper as much or as well as her sister because she had no need and that would prove to be a problem, unless......Kagome stopped laughing as she abruptly got an idea, an evil idea.
She glanced at her parents. Her father was trying to silence the unneeded display and her mother was too busy laughing to do much of anything. Everyone was distracted, perfect.
She pulled the rosary bead necklace off of her wrist from where it had been wrapped for quite some time. She held it up infront of her in her left hand and she placed her right middle and pointer fingers to her forehead. She began a chant that caused the beads to glow and float where she had held them. All attention was surely on her, but no matter....they couldn't stop anything.
The beads scattered and gathered in the shape of the necklace around InuYasha's throat as the glow on them started to die. The half-demon mercenary managed a "What the hell?" before he realized what had happened. He glanced down at the rosary bead necklace wrapped around his neck and looked strangely at the cloaked figure. 'Must be a monk,' he thought, glaring at her.
"Look....I appreciate your gift, but I don't want it," he replied, reaching down to the necklace. As he tried to pull it up over his head, it got stuck on some invisible force around his jaw. "Get this damn thing off of me!"
"Sorry, InuYasha, but I need some way to be sure that you will behave upon our journey," Kagome stated, her giggle stifled into a small chuckle. "Sit boy."
Those simple words meant nothing to a normal being, but something in the necklace weighted InuYasha heavily and unexpectedly. Therefore, down he fell, flat onto his face, as the necklace sprang to life at Kagome's voice.
"Interesting trick, Kagome!" Kikyo called, smiling at her sister. "Sit boy!"
InuYasha looked up from the floor to Kikyo, his face smudged from the dirt on the floor. He growled at her and then realized that the necklace had not worked again. He grinned maliciously as he stood up abruptly and easily. "Stupid wench! It must've only been a one time spell!"
"Actually, it only works for the caster or someone whom the caster has deemed necessary. In this case it will only work for me," Kagome responded, regarding InuYasha seriously. "Now, if you wouldn't mind listening to what the Higurashi family has to say, they have summoned you here for a good reason."
"Damn you, monk," InuYasha growled, glaring at Kagome, still thinking she was a man, before turning to look at the king and queen. He twitched in annoyance as he bowed slightly, hoping that the monk would not use another 'sit' command. "Fine, spit it out. The least I could do is listen to what the hell you have to say."
"There is a clever wyrm located in the farthest region of Athena. He has situated himself onto the line between this kingdom and that of Zeus. He has been slumbering on the horde of Deimos on the Mountain of Hades for several thousand years, but somehow the seal has broken off of the mountain and some fool decided that his horde looked rather enticing. Amure has been running amok ever since," Myouga explained, staring rather calmly at the floor.
"I can't help you with your problem.....if you damn humans weren't so greedy then maybe you wouldn't have gotten yourself into this predicament," InuYasha answered, staring blankly at the king.
"Let him finish," Kagome threatened, causing InuYasha to growl again as he fell silent once more.
"We don't actually want his horde, but one object out of his horde," Myouga said, looking up at the half-demon, finally. "He has immense power and we believe that he is receiving it from the legendary Shikon no Tama, or Shikon Jewel, if you will. We just want the Shikon Jewel out of his possession, if he has it. We could care less about the gold and jewels."
"What will I get if I decide to do this for you?" InuYasha questioned. His ears had perked up at the mention of the Shikon Jewel and now he seemed to actually be listening.
"First off, the deal is that you kill Amure. If you do not succeed in this, you will most likely not have a kingdom to return to. Secondly, you must take with you someone of my choosing. After meeting these requirements, you shall receive my daughter's hand in marriage and how ever many riches you so desire," Myouga replied, giving a small twinge of a smile.
"So, who the hell is coming with me?" he questioned, annoyed by this prospect.
"I am," Kagome said, staring interestedly at InuYasha from beneath the dark of her hood.
"Feh! I can't take the monk! I wouldn't be able to handle all the damn 'sit' commands!" InuYasha bellowed, glaring at Kagome.
"You have to take someone with the powers of light. Amure has set up a barrier around his domain of the Mountain of Hades that can only be broken by the power of light. However, someone with the power of light cannot destroy Amure because he is immune to such power of goodness and only the power of darkness can obliterate him. So, you see....you need both equal strengths of dark and light," the queen replied, causing InuYasha to stare at her with slight amusement as if he had just noticed her sitting there.
"It appears I have no choice," InuYasha answered, sighing heavily in deafeat. Mentally he grinned as he thought of his ploy. 'I'll kill the monk after he gets me inside the dragon's lair and then I'll claim the Shikon no Tama for my own!' he thought, excitedly.
"You will be setting out today before the sun sets, then?" Kikyo asked, slightly interested as to when this annoying man would be leaving her prescence.
"We are leaving this very moment," Kagome replied, bowing to her parents and tilting her head lightly at her sister. "We have used up enough of your time. Come InuYasha."
Kagome began on her way out the door of the royal chamber, InuYasha following in her tracks, mumbling as he went. He made sure to glare one last time at Kikyo and growl at the rest of the royal family. As they approached the drawbridge, an idea suddenly occured to the half-demon. "Monk! What hell are we supposed to eat?"
"Hey, stupid, if your nose is fifty million times smaller and you can smell food two miles away, don't you think that if Amure decided to smell the air, he could smell our food much farther away?" Kagome questioned, still walking and not looking back.
For once, InuYasha had to agree, she had a good point. But, he would not let her onto that. "That still doesn't answer my damn question," he muttered, arching a brow as he crossed his arms and continued to follow her.
"We'll eat whatever we catch or find. If you need something more, I'm sure you'll have the ability to find something," Kagome murmured, continuing down the road.
They wandered on in silence, InuYasha finally giving up on conversation in fear of having to fall on his face once more. He hadn't realized it, but now walking behind Kagome, he began to question that if his suspicion of her being a male was true or not. 'He smells an awful lot like that princess from the castle. Perhaps they are lovers, but he is sort of small for a man,' the half-demon thought, stuffing his hands into his sleeves.

~~~~~~

Kagome had set the fire and lit it with the flint she had brought with her. She had then leaned up against a tree after telling InuYasha that it was his job to do the hunting tonight. She had also said she would gather water later after he found some with that wonderful nose of his. She then sent him on his way.
She yawned lightly before glancing up at the moon far above her head. It had become much later than she had believed it to be when they first made camp after dark. Perhaps she needed to learn to judge time better. She shrugged this off as she turned to watch the dancing fire. She yawned again before closing her eyes for a short rest.
A stirring in the bushes caused her to jump up and knock her bow in the direction of the rustling. She stared intently at the spot, waiting for whatever it was to appear. She became annoyed when she discovered it was just InuYasha and rolled her eyes as she relaxed, putting her arrow away once more and setting her bow back down beside her.
The half-demon skewered the skinned rabbit before holding it over the fire in a bored fashion. He crossed his legs indian style as he sat on the ground. He then put his head in his free hand and set his elbow on his knee all before he realized that the monk was staring at him. "What do you want?"
"I was just sensing out how far you have tapped into your dark abilities," she answered simply.
"That's for me to know and you to find out, dammit," he growled, glaring at her.
"Are you always like this? I thought that perhaps after a long day's walk you would be much calmer and relaxed. Perhaps I am mistaken?" she questioned, watching the small skinned rabbit roast.
"Why don't you mind your own damn business and I'll mind mine, alright monk?" InuYasha mumbled, turning his attention back to the task at hand.
"Whatever you say, InuYasha," she replied, giving a small laugh. "Where did you smell water?"
"A little ways to the north," he answered, glancing at her as she stood up and wandered off in the direction he had said.
Kagome wandered through the woods for a few moments, glancing up at the half moon when she could see it through the trees. She sighed lightly when she reached the small stream. She opened her cloak and pulled out the two cantines that had been previously hidden beneath her clothing. She then removed her hood before kneeling down to fill them in the small stream.
She made her way back to camp, the cantines in hand. She glanced down at her stomach as it gave a small growl before turning her attention back to making her way back to the glowing area that was her camp.
As she stepped into camp, she made her way over to InuYasha and held out one of the cantines filled with the water. He glanced up at her and growled before jumping away from her. "How'd you get here, wench? Did you follow us or something?" he snapped, glaring up at her.
"What are you talking about?" she questioned, not quite sure what was wrong with the half-demon.
"I'll have to give you a piece of my mind because I'm sure the monk won't once he gets back," he muttered, still glaring at her.
"What the hell are you talking about? I am the 'monk'!" she replied, looking at him like he was crazy. "And for information my name is Kagome....got it? Also, I'm a miko not a monk."
"You can't fool me! You're that Kikyo wench!" he retorted, leaning up into her face to glare at her as she leaned down to get a better look at him as she yelled.
"Argh! Sit boy!" she yelled, crossing her arms and stepping away from him as he fell flat on his face again. She plopped back down infront of the tree she had been previously leaning against.
"Damn you, wench!"

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Well, that's chapter two! I still haven't posted one so I haven't anything to say. I hope this story does well!

Stay Tuned for Chapter Three: Surprises.....a slaughtered village...an unannounced pact....a lightening of the heart....and an injured girl!

Ja ne! ~KaBunny