Yet again, sorry for the lateness. Main reason: School has started, and
it's just been leaving me so tired each day that I can barely do normal,
every-day functions, let alone produce something creative *sheepish smile*.
But, I wasn't feeling too, too tired today, and I think I might have gotten
a decent grade (or at least a passing grade) on my Spanish test today, so
that helped get me in the mood for writing.
Oh, goodness. I know it's selfish about me, but I just have to impart a bit about my Spanish teacher. She's insane. It was the third day of Spanish 101 (a.k.a. the first class of Spanish, ever), and she's already given us three tests, two Monday and a slightly major one today. Gods. There's lots of fun little nuances about her, too. For instance, I found out today that if you don't title your homework/test/whatever last name first, she will throw it away and give you a zero.
She also gives you a zero for the day and (if you're taking one) for the test if your cell phone or watch goes off during class. Even if it's an accident. Even if your wife is pregnant or your sister has leukemia or your grandfather's getting a liver transplant.
There's lots more. But I digress. Sorry, it's mostly out of my system now. Okay, onward with the story:
Disclaimer: Inu-Yasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, not me. Y'know, in case you were confused about that.
*---*
A light breeze began to stir, in response to the chill settling in with the lowering sun. Unaffected, the young demon continued to march through the thickening forestland, leaving his mortal companion to straggle (with difficulty) behind. Her breath was halted and her cheeks flushed when she gasped, "Please! Slow down!"
Though he heard her immediately, Inu-yasha's responding turn was slow, calculated to give the effect of nonchalance. "What's the matter, wench? Daily exercise not part of your regime in your share of society?" His hand lifted to scratch at the cloth bandage about his torso; noticing Vera's grimace, he hastily lowered his appendage.
Despite her state of being out of breath, Vera had enough energy to regard him with a vengeful scowl. "I'll have you know I went for weekly strolls around the lake, twice a week during Lent. And this discomfort isn't mine," she puffed, "it's yours."
A low growl rose in his throat, as he did not like to be reminded of their situation. "Yea, whatever." Losing patience, he turned heel and stepped toward her, and without waiting for permission grabbed her about the waist, hefting her up easily. He, of course, felt nothing, but every lesion in his body seemed to pop open with this simple movement, and Vera bit her bottom lip hard enough to bleeding order to keep from crying. She probably didn't have enough moisture left in her tear ducts, anyway.
"Wh-what are you doing?" she demanded, before emitting an obsequious moan and relaxing, only a slight tensing in her shins giving sign that she was not entirely pleased with the situation. Inu-yasha grunted, reminding Vera of a bulldog. Her lips quirked and she shrugged, resigned to her fate. "Where are we going, anyway?"
"Southeast, of course. That's the way she said to go."
Vera blinked, disbelieving he could at times speak so eloquently yet still have the single-minded-ness of a wolf. Well, he was a dog demon, after all. She sputtered, "You mean you're just blindly going in one direction? You're not going to-pardon the expression-sniff around at all?" Had he no tracking skills whatsoever? Vera certainly didn't, but common sense seemed to imply that searching involved more than just following a pointed finger. Especially if they were looking for something as small and insignificant- looking as a charm.
Although Kaede had never actually said the charm was small. Maybe it was huge; maybe it was buried in dirt and looked like a mountain, though how Kaede could expect them to carry back such a large object was beyond her. Or maybe it-
"You really are a sight," Inu-yasha observed suddenly, apparently ignoring her comment. "What did those kobolds do to you before I saved your sorry ass? Your hair is a mess, your skin is covered in ash, and your clothing- gods."
"*I'm* a sight?!" Vera exclaimed, irritation at having her question ignored only adding emphasis to her voice. "You're missing half your arm!!"
"Well, now, that's an exaggeration." Without skipping a step, he shifted her until he could stretch out an arm, pulling down the bandages a bit and eyeing the severed flesh as if studying something he found dead in the road. "Just a few scratches. Nothing lethal."
"That's what you say," the girl muttered, groaning painfully when Inu-yasha experimentally licked one wound. "You're just lucky the kobolds were civilized enough (ha!) to carry around a medical pack. If it weren't for that and my clerical training, you'd probably be dead right now with gangrene!"
For some reason, the demon seemed amused by her declaration. He grinned at her, showing just enough fang to make her shudder. "Don't be stupid. Demons don't get gangrene." Then his expression flickered as he remembered something, and his skin seemed to drain of color as his jaw set. "Though apparently we can get the sickness, which you were so thoughtful to bring along with you."
Her face, too, grew harder, though most of her anger seemed to be directed elsewhere. "I know. I-It's not my fault, but I'm sorry."
The pink of his tongue flashed as he opened his mouth to retort, but instead he shook his head, white hair shivering in every direction, and stared ahead of them. His eyes grew vague as he noticed something in the distance.
Vera "oomph"-ed in surprise as he set her down suddenly, his hand going towards his belt as if he was used to carrying a weapon around. Said hand groped air, but his walk shifted into stalking mode, fingers extending and claws somehow looking longer and more dangerous than before. Vera hovered for a moment indecisively, then crossed to a large pine and slid her body behind it. Grabbing the bark with her own nails, she peered after Inu- yasha. "What do you see?"
"Don't see. Smell," he growled, ears twitching in reaction to things Vera had no hope of hearing. "Humanoid. Not demon. Probably poachers."
"Poachers?" Vera echoed, the concept of poachers in Inu-yasha's forest somehow inconceivable to her. Inu-yasha paused and both of them waited, until soon even Vera could hear the company approaching. And smell them. They stank of liquor and dried blood.
At first it sounded as though they were coming straight towards them, but after a moment of holding her breath, Vera realized they were actually following a hacked-out trail some strides away. The poachers-all men, it seemed, which didn't surprise her-would have obliviously passed her without event, if they had been left undisturbed.
Vera heard rustling from her other side and turned, expecting to see Inu- yasha about to pounce, but to her utter horror and surprise, instead saw a tall, arrogantly aired youth with long black hair descending quietly upon the trespassers. And what was more, the youth was not in an opposing stance, but almost a welcoming one, as if he delighted in meeting illegal hunters, alone in the forest. Vera's eyes widened and she hid herself further behind the tree, but the youth paid her no mind, either unperceptive of or ignoring her. Was he one of them?
"Ho, there," someone called, causing the others to choke in surprise. Vera stared forward, and saw that it had been a poacher who had called first. The youth seemed unperturbed; perhaps he had made his presence obvious intentionally.
"Ho," the youth returned in a passive voice. That tone-it was familiar, but more guttural and definitely more human. Inu--? She almost swallowed her own tongue in shock. Of course! Kaede had told her Inu-yasha was the King of England; surely he had a human form so he could interact with his subjects without raising alarm. Suddenly relaxed in her understanding of the circumstances , she was almost smug in her assurance of the poacher's impending doom. She turned to the scene with a much keener eye.
"A boy! What are you doing out here, laddie? Don't want to get et up by wolverines now, der ye's?" The foremost poacher, medium-sized and nondescript other than having a rather wide face, barked out in a voice akin to the baying of an injured stag. His laugh was even coarser: uproariously loud, and sounding forced due to the wheezing that accompanied each "HAW!" His companions, like lesser dogs, joined in. All three regarded Inu-yasha condescendingly.
Inu-yasha began to sneer, but quickly dampened the mien. "A good day to you, sirs. Am I right in thinking you are heading after the price on the Witchiwa's head?"
Confusion covered the faces of the poachers (which turned the healed scars of two of them into virtual crevasses). "The witch-what? What are you talking about, boy? Not quite there, are you?" He grinned and lifted a fist, about to knock the youth on the head but reconsidering when Inu-yasha fixed him with a death glare (one that had sent men with weaker wills running). Inu-yasha brushed invisible gnats from his hair and turned his eye from poacher to poacher, lowering his gravely voice ominously as he spoke.
"The Witchiwa is a fearsome beast, once peaceful but lately it's taken to ravaging the countryside. It has the hands and feet of a man, but everything else is demonic and covered with scales like a snake's. It has fangs the length of my forearm, and its spittle is said to be poisonous." His speech finished, Inu-yasha lifted his chin, waiting for his words to take full effect. Being simple crooks, the poachers heard the word "beast" and pride turned their eyes glassy. The leader grinned.
"Oh, ye's got a pesky demon ye's needs us to take care of? Worry not ye furry head, laddie. We'll take the ol' spawn o' Satan out, no worries." Bellowing in his raucous laugh, the man turned, and began traipsing the way Inu-yasha indicated. His companions followed, only slightly less reluctant and one of them turning a distrustful eye to the youth before moving on. Inu-yasha stood motionless, watching them go. When at last they were out of sight and hearing (for Vera, anyway), the girl stepped from behind her tree and approached him.
"Where did you send them?" she asked, trying not to shudder as Inu-yasha's human features melted away like wax and were replaced by his demonic attributes. Most startling of all were his eyes, as they diffused from brown to amber, round to cat-like. His ears, as well, were disquieting, first losing their shape then traveling in a lump to the top, where they flattened out and sprouted white fur. Most disquieting indeed.
The demon smiled, fangs in full display. "To the Witchiwa." The whisk of his hair whipped her in the face as he abruptly turned and started marching southeast again. Vera stared after, face a study in bafflement.
After a moment or two of stupidly standing, Vera began to run and hurried to catch up with him. The exertion caused a slight tightening in her chest (not pain, which Inu-yasha would have felt), but the aching was getting duller, and easier to accept. No, not just that...it was going away; Inu- yasha was healing. Very fast.
"I don't understand." A root appeared out of nowhere and tripped her. Vera jumped forward on one foot until she could regain her balance. "You mean that thing is real?"
"Of course it's real. Do I look like a liar?"
"Well, actually..." A smart insult was already forming in her mind, but ultimately Vera decided another fest of derisions was not going to make things flow any smoother. Instead, she established a gait for herself, one that still kept her breathless but allowed her to stay beside him moderately well. She had no idea where they were headed, other than in a cardinal direction, and she hoped they didn't stumble blindly into any trouble. Oh well. Whatever happened, Inu-yasha was sure to protect her. If only to keep his own threshold for pain at bay.
Oi, gods. This curse, or whatever it was. A blessing or a bane? It was too soon for Vera to tell.
--
For dinner, they had rabbit, straight off the bones. Vera had started a fire (with difficulty and many attempts), finally accepting a slab of steel and flint from Inu-yasha and using that instead of the prehistoric method of rubbing two sticks together really fast. After making sure the fire wasn't going to piddle out seconds after it ignited, Inu-yasha disappeared into the forest, charging Vera with making sure the wind ("What wind?") didn't relieve them of their warmth. Then he returned only a dozen minutes or so later, bearing two rabbits, already skinned, which Vera wordlessly puzzled over but accepted and set over the flame. She knew very little about camping out, but what she did know, she had learned from her outdoors- inclined grandfather, so they were sound skills to have.
In any case, they talked idly while the stringy meat was purified of germs (Vera did most of the talking; Inu-yasha seemed too tired to do more than grunt), then ate, and went to bed. Both had been too hasty and shortsighted to bring sleeping supplies with them, though Inu-yasha seemed perfectly fine leaned up against a tree. Vera, her skin far more delicate, deigned to clear a patch of dirt from pine needles and lay on that. It was hard and cold, but at least she was so tired that she hardly noticed. Of course most of the discomfort transferred to Inu-yasha, but that, too, escaped her attention.
When her mind faded and she entered the dreary monotony of slumber, shades began to haunt her vision and dark dreams made her tremble.
In the morning, Inu-yasha stirred just after dawn, barely sparing time to piss behind a tree before poking Vera awake. Used to sleeping late most days, Vera greeted him with a furious yell and a jaw-popping yawn, but when Inu-yasha started pulling on her hair she relinquished and started following behind him.
Soon they settled back into the routine of walking, and Vera was too absentminded to acknowledge when Inu-yasha abruptly came to a halt without warning. She slammed into the back of him, automatically grabbing at his garments and trying to regather her senses. "Uhh..." she drawled, looking up then around him to find the reason for his stopping.
A tall woman, skin the color and texture of ivory and with unbelievably long hair to boot, leaned against a tree ahead of them. Her eyes were hollow, colorless, and her slim, feminine fingers ended in blackened claws. Vera shuddered. What witchery was this?
"Good afternoon, dog demon, or shall I call you Inu-yasha, Lord of England? Nice little patch of woods you have here. Of course, it's a mere gathering of stumps, compared to my jungle in the East..." she continued, waving her hands animatedly like an Italian as she went on without introduction or incitement to speak. Inu-yasha only stared at her, brows lowered and eyes deceptively calm. Vera, distracted by her waving limbs, stared at the woman's appendages, and noticed after a moment that she was holding something in her right palm. During a rare and momentary lapse in speech, her hands stilled, and Vera saw that it was a tiny ivory comb, matching the rest of her silken outfit and skin perfectly. Vera's eyes lifted, and she shuddered. The woman was smiling directly at her.
"A girl? Well, Inu-yasha. I never would have taken you for the type to prefer mortal chits over our kind. Well, no matter," she set her feet wide apart and suddenly pointed at the young man with the comb. "You will duel with me, Inu-yasha. Now."
He snorted, smirking, even as he pushed Vera behind him and stretched his own claws outward. "What if I say no?"
"Then, my dear," said the woman, answering his smirk with her own honeyed flash of fangs. "Then, I will kill the girl, and the rest of your subjects, until you change your mind."
Her hands nervously clutching his shoulders, Vera almost felt the change in temperature as his blood ran cold. Sparing a glance upward, she saw Inu- yasha's ears flattened against his skull. How...odd his dog ears were.
"Fine. I'll fight you." Vera gasped breathlessly when he shoved her into the foliage.
The demon woman smiled. "Delicious." A glimmer momentarily blinded them, as her tiny comb expanded and became big enough to tackle even Inu-yasha's length of hair. "Let us begin."
*---*
Next episode: The shikon jewel appears!! (under a different name, of course...) And gets broken! Ooh Noo! Stay tuned next week, kids!
Anyone ever wondered why Inu-yasha has eyes like a cat? Dogs have round eyes, like us humans. They do. Look. And only little cats have vertical pupils. Big cats have round ones, too. I guess round ones are handy like that.
A lot of people think Inu-yasha's ears look like they belong to a feline. I don't. They make me think of a husky, or maybe a toy Pomeranian. Hehehe.... I am reminded of something my friend said once... "I wonder if his hair is white." No, not that hair. *That* hair. Heheheheheheh.
O-kay then. Didn't mean to scare you off, there. I'm not sure if school is going to get harder or easier as the semester progresses, but I promise you, as soon as I have time and energy again, I'll update. If not this story (thought it will probably be this story), then another one. I'll try not to start any new ones before next summer. :p
Anyway. Thanks for reading. Feel free to R&R, even if only to tell me I still have *some* readers hanging in there. :p Alright. I'm babbling! Bye.
Until next chapter.
Oh, goodness. I know it's selfish about me, but I just have to impart a bit about my Spanish teacher. She's insane. It was the third day of Spanish 101 (a.k.a. the first class of Spanish, ever), and she's already given us three tests, two Monday and a slightly major one today. Gods. There's lots of fun little nuances about her, too. For instance, I found out today that if you don't title your homework/test/whatever last name first, she will throw it away and give you a zero.
She also gives you a zero for the day and (if you're taking one) for the test if your cell phone or watch goes off during class. Even if it's an accident. Even if your wife is pregnant or your sister has leukemia or your grandfather's getting a liver transplant.
There's lots more. But I digress. Sorry, it's mostly out of my system now. Okay, onward with the story:
Disclaimer: Inu-Yasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, not me. Y'know, in case you were confused about that.
*---*
A light breeze began to stir, in response to the chill settling in with the lowering sun. Unaffected, the young demon continued to march through the thickening forestland, leaving his mortal companion to straggle (with difficulty) behind. Her breath was halted and her cheeks flushed when she gasped, "Please! Slow down!"
Though he heard her immediately, Inu-yasha's responding turn was slow, calculated to give the effect of nonchalance. "What's the matter, wench? Daily exercise not part of your regime in your share of society?" His hand lifted to scratch at the cloth bandage about his torso; noticing Vera's grimace, he hastily lowered his appendage.
Despite her state of being out of breath, Vera had enough energy to regard him with a vengeful scowl. "I'll have you know I went for weekly strolls around the lake, twice a week during Lent. And this discomfort isn't mine," she puffed, "it's yours."
A low growl rose in his throat, as he did not like to be reminded of their situation. "Yea, whatever." Losing patience, he turned heel and stepped toward her, and without waiting for permission grabbed her about the waist, hefting her up easily. He, of course, felt nothing, but every lesion in his body seemed to pop open with this simple movement, and Vera bit her bottom lip hard enough to bleeding order to keep from crying. She probably didn't have enough moisture left in her tear ducts, anyway.
"Wh-what are you doing?" she demanded, before emitting an obsequious moan and relaxing, only a slight tensing in her shins giving sign that she was not entirely pleased with the situation. Inu-yasha grunted, reminding Vera of a bulldog. Her lips quirked and she shrugged, resigned to her fate. "Where are we going, anyway?"
"Southeast, of course. That's the way she said to go."
Vera blinked, disbelieving he could at times speak so eloquently yet still have the single-minded-ness of a wolf. Well, he was a dog demon, after all. She sputtered, "You mean you're just blindly going in one direction? You're not going to-pardon the expression-sniff around at all?" Had he no tracking skills whatsoever? Vera certainly didn't, but common sense seemed to imply that searching involved more than just following a pointed finger. Especially if they were looking for something as small and insignificant- looking as a charm.
Although Kaede had never actually said the charm was small. Maybe it was huge; maybe it was buried in dirt and looked like a mountain, though how Kaede could expect them to carry back such a large object was beyond her. Or maybe it-
"You really are a sight," Inu-yasha observed suddenly, apparently ignoring her comment. "What did those kobolds do to you before I saved your sorry ass? Your hair is a mess, your skin is covered in ash, and your clothing- gods."
"*I'm* a sight?!" Vera exclaimed, irritation at having her question ignored only adding emphasis to her voice. "You're missing half your arm!!"
"Well, now, that's an exaggeration." Without skipping a step, he shifted her until he could stretch out an arm, pulling down the bandages a bit and eyeing the severed flesh as if studying something he found dead in the road. "Just a few scratches. Nothing lethal."
"That's what you say," the girl muttered, groaning painfully when Inu-yasha experimentally licked one wound. "You're just lucky the kobolds were civilized enough (ha!) to carry around a medical pack. If it weren't for that and my clerical training, you'd probably be dead right now with gangrene!"
For some reason, the demon seemed amused by her declaration. He grinned at her, showing just enough fang to make her shudder. "Don't be stupid. Demons don't get gangrene." Then his expression flickered as he remembered something, and his skin seemed to drain of color as his jaw set. "Though apparently we can get the sickness, which you were so thoughtful to bring along with you."
Her face, too, grew harder, though most of her anger seemed to be directed elsewhere. "I know. I-It's not my fault, but I'm sorry."
The pink of his tongue flashed as he opened his mouth to retort, but instead he shook his head, white hair shivering in every direction, and stared ahead of them. His eyes grew vague as he noticed something in the distance.
Vera "oomph"-ed in surprise as he set her down suddenly, his hand going towards his belt as if he was used to carrying a weapon around. Said hand groped air, but his walk shifted into stalking mode, fingers extending and claws somehow looking longer and more dangerous than before. Vera hovered for a moment indecisively, then crossed to a large pine and slid her body behind it. Grabbing the bark with her own nails, she peered after Inu- yasha. "What do you see?"
"Don't see. Smell," he growled, ears twitching in reaction to things Vera had no hope of hearing. "Humanoid. Not demon. Probably poachers."
"Poachers?" Vera echoed, the concept of poachers in Inu-yasha's forest somehow inconceivable to her. Inu-yasha paused and both of them waited, until soon even Vera could hear the company approaching. And smell them. They stank of liquor and dried blood.
At first it sounded as though they were coming straight towards them, but after a moment of holding her breath, Vera realized they were actually following a hacked-out trail some strides away. The poachers-all men, it seemed, which didn't surprise her-would have obliviously passed her without event, if they had been left undisturbed.
Vera heard rustling from her other side and turned, expecting to see Inu- yasha about to pounce, but to her utter horror and surprise, instead saw a tall, arrogantly aired youth with long black hair descending quietly upon the trespassers. And what was more, the youth was not in an opposing stance, but almost a welcoming one, as if he delighted in meeting illegal hunters, alone in the forest. Vera's eyes widened and she hid herself further behind the tree, but the youth paid her no mind, either unperceptive of or ignoring her. Was he one of them?
"Ho, there," someone called, causing the others to choke in surprise. Vera stared forward, and saw that it had been a poacher who had called first. The youth seemed unperturbed; perhaps he had made his presence obvious intentionally.
"Ho," the youth returned in a passive voice. That tone-it was familiar, but more guttural and definitely more human. Inu--? She almost swallowed her own tongue in shock. Of course! Kaede had told her Inu-yasha was the King of England; surely he had a human form so he could interact with his subjects without raising alarm. Suddenly relaxed in her understanding of the circumstances , she was almost smug in her assurance of the poacher's impending doom. She turned to the scene with a much keener eye.
"A boy! What are you doing out here, laddie? Don't want to get et up by wolverines now, der ye's?" The foremost poacher, medium-sized and nondescript other than having a rather wide face, barked out in a voice akin to the baying of an injured stag. His laugh was even coarser: uproariously loud, and sounding forced due to the wheezing that accompanied each "HAW!" His companions, like lesser dogs, joined in. All three regarded Inu-yasha condescendingly.
Inu-yasha began to sneer, but quickly dampened the mien. "A good day to you, sirs. Am I right in thinking you are heading after the price on the Witchiwa's head?"
Confusion covered the faces of the poachers (which turned the healed scars of two of them into virtual crevasses). "The witch-what? What are you talking about, boy? Not quite there, are you?" He grinned and lifted a fist, about to knock the youth on the head but reconsidering when Inu-yasha fixed him with a death glare (one that had sent men with weaker wills running). Inu-yasha brushed invisible gnats from his hair and turned his eye from poacher to poacher, lowering his gravely voice ominously as he spoke.
"The Witchiwa is a fearsome beast, once peaceful but lately it's taken to ravaging the countryside. It has the hands and feet of a man, but everything else is demonic and covered with scales like a snake's. It has fangs the length of my forearm, and its spittle is said to be poisonous." His speech finished, Inu-yasha lifted his chin, waiting for his words to take full effect. Being simple crooks, the poachers heard the word "beast" and pride turned their eyes glassy. The leader grinned.
"Oh, ye's got a pesky demon ye's needs us to take care of? Worry not ye furry head, laddie. We'll take the ol' spawn o' Satan out, no worries." Bellowing in his raucous laugh, the man turned, and began traipsing the way Inu-yasha indicated. His companions followed, only slightly less reluctant and one of them turning a distrustful eye to the youth before moving on. Inu-yasha stood motionless, watching them go. When at last they were out of sight and hearing (for Vera, anyway), the girl stepped from behind her tree and approached him.
"Where did you send them?" she asked, trying not to shudder as Inu-yasha's human features melted away like wax and were replaced by his demonic attributes. Most startling of all were his eyes, as they diffused from brown to amber, round to cat-like. His ears, as well, were disquieting, first losing their shape then traveling in a lump to the top, where they flattened out and sprouted white fur. Most disquieting indeed.
The demon smiled, fangs in full display. "To the Witchiwa." The whisk of his hair whipped her in the face as he abruptly turned and started marching southeast again. Vera stared after, face a study in bafflement.
After a moment or two of stupidly standing, Vera began to run and hurried to catch up with him. The exertion caused a slight tightening in her chest (not pain, which Inu-yasha would have felt), but the aching was getting duller, and easier to accept. No, not just that...it was going away; Inu- yasha was healing. Very fast.
"I don't understand." A root appeared out of nowhere and tripped her. Vera jumped forward on one foot until she could regain her balance. "You mean that thing is real?"
"Of course it's real. Do I look like a liar?"
"Well, actually..." A smart insult was already forming in her mind, but ultimately Vera decided another fest of derisions was not going to make things flow any smoother. Instead, she established a gait for herself, one that still kept her breathless but allowed her to stay beside him moderately well. She had no idea where they were headed, other than in a cardinal direction, and she hoped they didn't stumble blindly into any trouble. Oh well. Whatever happened, Inu-yasha was sure to protect her. If only to keep his own threshold for pain at bay.
Oi, gods. This curse, or whatever it was. A blessing or a bane? It was too soon for Vera to tell.
--
For dinner, they had rabbit, straight off the bones. Vera had started a fire (with difficulty and many attempts), finally accepting a slab of steel and flint from Inu-yasha and using that instead of the prehistoric method of rubbing two sticks together really fast. After making sure the fire wasn't going to piddle out seconds after it ignited, Inu-yasha disappeared into the forest, charging Vera with making sure the wind ("What wind?") didn't relieve them of their warmth. Then he returned only a dozen minutes or so later, bearing two rabbits, already skinned, which Vera wordlessly puzzled over but accepted and set over the flame. She knew very little about camping out, but what she did know, she had learned from her outdoors- inclined grandfather, so they were sound skills to have.
In any case, they talked idly while the stringy meat was purified of germs (Vera did most of the talking; Inu-yasha seemed too tired to do more than grunt), then ate, and went to bed. Both had been too hasty and shortsighted to bring sleeping supplies with them, though Inu-yasha seemed perfectly fine leaned up against a tree. Vera, her skin far more delicate, deigned to clear a patch of dirt from pine needles and lay on that. It was hard and cold, but at least she was so tired that she hardly noticed. Of course most of the discomfort transferred to Inu-yasha, but that, too, escaped her attention.
When her mind faded and she entered the dreary monotony of slumber, shades began to haunt her vision and dark dreams made her tremble.
In the morning, Inu-yasha stirred just after dawn, barely sparing time to piss behind a tree before poking Vera awake. Used to sleeping late most days, Vera greeted him with a furious yell and a jaw-popping yawn, but when Inu-yasha started pulling on her hair she relinquished and started following behind him.
Soon they settled back into the routine of walking, and Vera was too absentminded to acknowledge when Inu-yasha abruptly came to a halt without warning. She slammed into the back of him, automatically grabbing at his garments and trying to regather her senses. "Uhh..." she drawled, looking up then around him to find the reason for his stopping.
A tall woman, skin the color and texture of ivory and with unbelievably long hair to boot, leaned against a tree ahead of them. Her eyes were hollow, colorless, and her slim, feminine fingers ended in blackened claws. Vera shuddered. What witchery was this?
"Good afternoon, dog demon, or shall I call you Inu-yasha, Lord of England? Nice little patch of woods you have here. Of course, it's a mere gathering of stumps, compared to my jungle in the East..." she continued, waving her hands animatedly like an Italian as she went on without introduction or incitement to speak. Inu-yasha only stared at her, brows lowered and eyes deceptively calm. Vera, distracted by her waving limbs, stared at the woman's appendages, and noticed after a moment that she was holding something in her right palm. During a rare and momentary lapse in speech, her hands stilled, and Vera saw that it was a tiny ivory comb, matching the rest of her silken outfit and skin perfectly. Vera's eyes lifted, and she shuddered. The woman was smiling directly at her.
"A girl? Well, Inu-yasha. I never would have taken you for the type to prefer mortal chits over our kind. Well, no matter," she set her feet wide apart and suddenly pointed at the young man with the comb. "You will duel with me, Inu-yasha. Now."
He snorted, smirking, even as he pushed Vera behind him and stretched his own claws outward. "What if I say no?"
"Then, my dear," said the woman, answering his smirk with her own honeyed flash of fangs. "Then, I will kill the girl, and the rest of your subjects, until you change your mind."
Her hands nervously clutching his shoulders, Vera almost felt the change in temperature as his blood ran cold. Sparing a glance upward, she saw Inu- yasha's ears flattened against his skull. How...odd his dog ears were.
"Fine. I'll fight you." Vera gasped breathlessly when he shoved her into the foliage.
The demon woman smiled. "Delicious." A glimmer momentarily blinded them, as her tiny comb expanded and became big enough to tackle even Inu-yasha's length of hair. "Let us begin."
*---*
Next episode: The shikon jewel appears!! (under a different name, of course...) And gets broken! Ooh Noo! Stay tuned next week, kids!
Anyone ever wondered why Inu-yasha has eyes like a cat? Dogs have round eyes, like us humans. They do. Look. And only little cats have vertical pupils. Big cats have round ones, too. I guess round ones are handy like that.
A lot of people think Inu-yasha's ears look like they belong to a feline. I don't. They make me think of a husky, or maybe a toy Pomeranian. Hehehe.... I am reminded of something my friend said once... "I wonder if his hair is white." No, not that hair. *That* hair. Heheheheheheh.
O-kay then. Didn't mean to scare you off, there. I'm not sure if school is going to get harder or easier as the semester progresses, but I promise you, as soon as I have time and energy again, I'll update. If not this story (thought it will probably be this story), then another one. I'll try not to start any new ones before next summer. :p
Anyway. Thanks for reading. Feel free to R&R, even if only to tell me I still have *some* readers hanging in there. :p Alright. I'm babbling! Bye.
Until next chapter.
