CHAPTER EIGHT: WAKE-UP CALL

Ari shook her head and turned around in her futon. The ringing just wouldn't go away. Actually, it was worse than ringing. It was this darn Austrian Polka music that kept repeating itself over and over again in her head. She hated Austrian Polka.

She turned around and buried her head in her covers, hoping the music would go away.

Ari opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling. She absentmindedly found herself counting the tiles in the ceiling. Wait. Since when does Kaede's hut have tiles? That thought shook her fully awake. "What in the world...?"

The girl looked around a very familiar room. Couch, TV, table, VCR... I'm back home? How? Then she heard the ringing again. It was coming from somewhere beneath the pillow under her head. As she retrieved her phone, she fumbled around a little bit, not being used to handle it anymore.

"Yes?"

"Ari?"

"Hey...Tim." She tried to place the voice to the face.

"Yeah. Ari, listen, Sung's arranged a training session at the dojo tonight. Are you going to come?"

"Anaheim dojo?"

"Which one else?" The cheerie male voice replied.

"All right."

"Good."

Ari frowned. "By the way, this may sound weird, but what date do we have?"

"Well, it's Saturday, January 30, 2004. Why? Is something wrong?"

"No, it's all right."

"Good. See you later."

"Later,"

As she hung up the phone, she sighed. It had just been a dream. A good one, at that, too. It had felt like real. Still, it was just a dream. Ari sighed and cleaned up her living room. As she went to switch off the TV, she noticed the credits running.

"INU-YASHA, created by Rumiko Takahashi..."

She smiled slightly as she remembered her dream.

When she woke up the next day, she found a long, silk-wrapped package next to her on her nightstand. On it was a card. It read,

"I'll be working on my technique. Until another time, woman."

Ari smiled.