AN: Here's the next chapter! Hope you all enjoy.
Kagome was chatting with a highly pissed off Ayumi, back in the kitchen they had both appeared in. The lady in white... from what she could understand, was actually a queen, and that made Kagome feel like... fool. It seemed her first meeting with royalty would forever be curse.
Looking back, since Sesshoumaru was a Lord that made Inuyasha in a sense a prince. Both of which tried to kill her on their first meeting. Then there was 'Princess' Kaguya, though she had wanted a piece of Inuyasha's fire rat haori, had in turn also wanted to devour like she had the moon Princess because of her immunity against time. Then Kouga, Prince of the wolves kidnapped her, Princess Ayame was probably the only one she could think of that was even remotely civil.
"I'm telling you Kagome-chan, they're all in on it! This is some sort of kidnapping to get money from our families! How else would you explain all of this?" Ayumi huffed from her spot atop a tea cup, clutching the ribbon she had closer to herself.
"If that were so, then why are Eri and Yuka not here with us?"
"That's easy! They're keeping us separated so we don't work and plan together so we can escape!"
Was her friend full of nothing but conspiracy theories?
"I highly doubt that's what's going on..." she trailed off as she watched the queen mix a rather, questionable concoction. Her eyes widened as she watched her spit in it then add an old dead persons finger.
If it were at all possible, they widened even further as she watch her pour the concoction into a cup and handed it to Ayumi. Said girl drank the concoction without question, though Kagome knew if her friend had just witnessed what she just did, she would have been screaming about how they were trying to poison her.
Before she finished her, drink, the queen picked her up and placed Ayumi onto one of the stools. Immediately following the transfer, Ayumi began to grow. It continued till she was once again her actual size.
Ayumi let out a happy squeal, seeing that she was once again normal. Though it quickly turned to an embarrassed shriek when she was covered in nothing more than whatever porridge was left on her. She quickly threw herself off the stool and ducked under and behind Kagomes legs.
Kagome switched from looking between her friend and her friends clothes still in her arms. The clothing was somewhat dry and would most likely be uncomfortable to put on, and Kagome was sure she heard the Lady mummer something under her breath, and the situation was made worse when the door to the kitchen opened and the stupid ninja-wanna-be rabbit walked in.
Quickly dumping Ayumi's clothes so to cover her, Kagome made a mad dash and started to herd the rabbit out of the kitchen, ignoring it's protests about unruly porridge and being kicked out of it's kitchen. All she knew or cared was that it was male, and was not welcome at the moment.
Grabbing the door and using her foot to try and keep the rabbit out so she could close said door, her eyes spied a man holding a bolt of fabrics. Biting her lower lip, and still trying to keep the damn rabbit out of the kitchen with her foot, she contemplated if she should take the fabric or not.
Her friend was naked and covered with drying porridge, and sitting in a strangers kitchen after drinking some... questionable concoction from the Lady in white.
"Kagome-chan-?"
Ah screw it. So what if it looked expensive, her friend needed it more than whatever it was going to be turned into. Quick as lightning while still maintain her pose, which was a feat all onto itself, she snatched the bolt of fabric and clutched it close to her chest.
With an extra push from her foot, the rabbit stumbled back, and shouted something less than pleasant at her, where she merely stuck her tongue and slammed the door shut and locked it.
"It's better than nothing. Well, until we get you some proper clothing, or get yours washed." walking over to her friend, taking the pins out of the very rich looking and feeling fabric.
Hesitantly, Ayumi stood up and allowed Kagome to wrap the fabric around her, forming a short toga of sorts. She was just glad she wasn't naked anymore, though she was still somewhat covered in the sticky mess. Holding the rest of the bolt, she watched as her friend grabbed a pair of scissor and carelessly cut it. Her eyes followed as a knot was tied over her left shoulder and the rest of the fabric taken back.
Kagome sighed as she stared at the fabric in her hands... she could set it off to the side... or~ she could give it back. Damn her conscious for needing to do the right thing. Walking back to the door, she unlocked it and opened it to see that both the man and the rabbit were still there. The rabbit looking rather angry and the man... well she took her first look at him and ended up blinking a few times.
He had the reddest or orange-ist hair she had ever seen. His eyebrows were the same coloring, and both were wild and curly. And his eyes were a bright yellow-green. It was then she realized, every... person that she came across was rather... pale, and it made the color around his eyes stand out all the more.
The clothing he wore... from her peripheral vision, was just as bright and wild. His top hat was... it had an array of large... needles? Sticking out of it and as she mechanically handed the bolt of fabric back, she noticed his fingers were wrapped in bandages, with a few dark spots she knew to be were blood managed to seep through.
Then something white that stood out against the man's colorful spectrum of an outfit caught her eye, and when she read what was on it... it just clicked. A 10 over 6. Why hadn't she seen it before? Chess pieces! Talking rabbits! Hell! Dancing porridge – err pudding... WHATEVER!
"Ayumi! I know where we are!" quickly, she spun around and made it to her friend's side.
The sharing of her epiphany was cut short when the Lady blew a powder in both Ayumi's and her own direction. Their hands automatically went up to clear the air around them, coughing and sneezing as they inhaled the stuff.
"Arg! I could have went without inhaling and tasting something like this... ewwww~"
"SEE! They are trying to poison us!" Ayumi's angry cry ended with a sneeze.
A nervous laugh twittered past Kagome's lips as she looked away from all parties.
"Ha-ha-ha... wrong Queen, Ayumi."
"What are-" sneeze "-are you talking-" cough, cough "-talking about?" when her little tirade was done, she planted closed fists in her hips, something Kagome had done and seen often enough while she was doing her little time traveling stint during Jr. High.
"Well... let's just say... I may know where we are."
"Oh that's wonderful then!"
Both turned to the Lady... who Kagome had an inkling of her actual title. Though, that didn't mean she was just going to out and say it. Nooo~, her friend would question her sanity, something she was doing this very moment.
"That will help keep things short then."
Kagome raised a brow as the woman held her hands at shoulder height. Was it to make her look... feminine or something? Dainty even? She would never understand some of the things people did throughout history that required women to prove themselves to be in fact... well women. And she lived through some of that history!
"Ah... I said... may know where we are... I think... I hope not though." Kagome's brows pinched together in deep thought. Earlier she had been laughing it off, she was sure the pressure of... whatever it was had gotten to her then. But not now. No. Now she had an idea to where she was, though some of it didn't make much sense, like some factors contradicted her idea.
Raising her hands, she buried her face in them and let out a frustrated groan. She was getting a headache. Due to the powder... she was sure of it.
"Kagome... that rabbit is... giving me an evil eye..." a set of hands clasped around her upper arm.
Looking up, Ayumi had moved to her to stand behind her trying to hide from the rabbit. Said rabbit was muttering under it's breath till it caught what her friend had whispered.
"Rabbit! I ain't no rabbit! I happen to be a Hare!" as the rabbit... hare began it's own tirade against what Ayumi for calling it the wrong thing, said girl squeaked and ducked behind her only shield. Namely Kagome.
Said girl was watching the... hare with mild fascination as it grabbed at it's own ears and began going on about tea and every one being late. That settled Kagome's idea as to where they were even more. All she needed now was that... cat to appear
Oh! Speak of the devil!
"Ah, your Majesty, Thackery, Tarrant, and estranged guests." Kagome blinked at the rather purple cat that was floating in the middle of the kitchen. Ayumi let out another squeak and shifted to Kagome's back. Her fingers digging into the skin, making Kagome wince.
All chaos ensued. The cat was baiting and teasing the hare, a few dished were thrown in it's direction, how the hare moved from the door way to into the kitchen without anyone noticing was a mystery to Kagome. The Queen herself was smiling simply, the man in the doorway was clutching to the bolt and Kagome herself merely closed her eyes and began whispering one of her favorite mantras.
"It's just a dream. It's just a dream. It's just a dream." yet when she opened her eyes, the scene was still playing in front of her eyes. Letting out a whimper, Kagome began to make her way out of the kitchen, Ayumi still clutching to her and shuffling behind her.
"May I ask where you're going?" Kagome paused and turned to face the Queen, now that her title had actually been said out loud.
"Find my other friends, and those two... strange people and get back what was stolen from me." Kagome resisted the small little pushes her friend was giving her to continue her movement.
"Oh? There are others from your world?"
"Ah, yes. We followed, an..." Kagome trailed off on how to describe them. Also wondering, that the two could have been tied to this Queen some how...
Her headache was growing. She knew the story, hell she and everyone she knew from home grew up with the stories. But there were to many variables that didn't make sense to her at the moment.
"Oh just spit it out already! An extremely tall guy with an eye patch and a woman with a large head!" Ayumi let go of Kagome's back and folded her arms over her chest. "They stabbed you in the leg and stole your necklace! Not like you can't buy another one." the girl muttered under her breath.
As if realizing what she just said the others froze, while Ayumi's eyes shot open and was once again clutching to her friend.
"Oh Kagome! I'm so sorry. You have been running all over the place after getting stabbed in the leg, and I've been no help to you either. We should go to a hospital and let a doctor see to it!"
All of a sudden Ayumi was dragging her friend in whatever which way she deemed as the exit, and Kagome allowed herself to be dragged, her headache reaching an all time high like they haven't in a very long time. Whimpering about how her life was never going to be normal again.
A shout from the kitchen caused her to turn her head and look behind her, still being dragged away.
"DOWN WITH THE BLOODY RED QUEEN!"
After that, more shouts were followed and the sound of dishes smashing while pots and pans were thrown about confirmed Kagome's realization about her life, lack there of, and how it would never be the same.
"Why couldn't I have landed in something else? Like my bed, or a nice hot spring? Something normal just for once?" eyes raised up, as if to ask the heavens themselves. Of course her answer didn't come, or one that she wanted.
AN: Okay, I really had to force myself with this one. From the lack of reviews, I feel like this one isn't really all that much liked. Now, I usually am against when an writer asks for reviews, but now I can understand where some of them are coming from. Reviews shows us that who ever is reading our stories are interested enough to put in what they think, what they noticed and their appreciation. So... if I don't see any new reviews for this story soon, I may take it down or offer it up for adoption. And it really hurts to say these things, but that's also how I feel about this story. So... we'll see where things go from here.