~Easier To Run~

. . .

Chapter Three: Old Acquaintances
. . .

Teilen crouched in a tree by the school, similar to the one she had been in the day before, watching. Watching and waiting. She didn't know when the humans got out of school, so she had been there since the beginning of the afternoon. Finally, just as she was about to drift off to sleep, she saw the doors of the school open and human teenagers come flooding out. They produced so much noise as they jabbered on to one another. Humans were such incredibly annoying creatures. Teilen didn't see how Kurama could stand being around them all the time.

She kept her eyes shifting from student to student, trying to locate a certain person. Finally, there she was -- long maroon-colored hair, tall, lean and slender figure, possessing the elegant and naturally beautiful features that, say, a horse might also have. Teilen had known instantly who Mare was the second she'd seen her. It didn't matter that Mare was in a human form; the features were still the same and so was the spirit energy, even though it was being hidden. Also, the skin was the same deep tan color that the horse's hair had been.

Teilen smirked. She had located the target...and now for the interrogation. She let Mare get a good distance ahead of her before she leaped out of the tree and began to trail her; darting in and out of the shadows, jumping across rooftops and from tree to tree. Then, as soon as Mare turned into an empty alley, Teilen made her move. She dropped down between the two buildings and landed in a crouching position directly in front of the surprised demon.

. . .



Mare gasped when she saw her. She had known all along that she was being followed, which was why she had cut into the alley, but she certainly hadn't expected to run into Teilen.

"How did you know me?" She wondered.

"Do you really think I would forget my only survivor?" Teilen glared at her. "What do you want this time?"

"What are you--" Mare stopped and sighed. "I don't want anything. I've given up my old ways, and now I only wish to live a normal life."

"I'm sure you do," snorted Teilen sarcastically. "Now just tell me who the Dark Messenger has come for this time. Is it me again? I'd love a re-match..."

"Teilen, that's not who I am anymore." Mare looked at the ground.

"Tajew, I know." Teilen smirked. "You've grown much weaker. I'm sure I could finish you off the next time we fight."

"There isn't going to be a next time," Mare told her. "I told you, it's over. I no longer work for Thuurei..." She took a deep breath and looked directly into Teilen's cold eyes. "Dagni is dead. Thuurei gave me her word that she wouldn't kill my sister if I cooperated, but she did it anyway. So I left. I've given up using the dark powers. That's a part of my past now."

"And you're future is with these disgusting humans? Have you gone mad?"

Mare was unshaken. "If I'm not mistaken, Teilen, you are half human yourself."

"Seger!" Teilen snapped back. "Don't remind me. Just tell me the real reason you're here."

"I have, Teilen. I'm here because I want to live the rest of my life in peace."

"Em hotep?" Teilen had never heard of such a thing. "A life in peace. Is that even possible?"

"I'm not exactly sure. But I'm going to find out." Mare started to leave, but then turned back. "By the way, what are you doing here? According to your rules, you should be in the Makai."

"I never spoke of any rules," Teilen answered. She began to turn away.

"Teilen."

"Tajew?"

"You haven't answered my question," Mare reminded her. "Is it possible that you've made some friends in the human world after all?"

Teilen grunted, "Maybe," and then disappeared into the shadows as suddenly as she had come.

. . .



Mare arrived at the place she currently called 'home' a few minutes later. The Makinos lived on a very small ranch, with about two acres of land that Mare thoroughly enjoyed running in. When she got back to the ranch, she saw that there were no cars in the driveway. The Makinos weren't there. Most likely the parents were still at work and the children had not yet returned from school. This was a good thing for Mare, because she could sneak back into the pasture without anyone noticing.

Hiding her backpack deep in the hedges by the house, Mare climbed the fence of the pasture and let herself fall down to the other side. She made sure she was in a place where nobody could catch a glimpse of her when she transformed. Seeing that the coast was clear, Mare closed her eyes and prepared to change.

The first thing she felt was the dramatic change in her spirit energy. It went up--way, way up. Then she felt her body begin to warp in shape; her arms grew longer until they were legs and she tipped forward onto them, her mouth and nose extended in length and dark brown fuzz grew on them, her fingers and toes disappeared and were replaced by hooves. A long, maroon-colored tail sprouted from her rear. Her ears grew longer and pointier. And finally, hair the same color as her skin grew all over her body.

Mare had become the horse demon.

She felt so free; no longer cramped inside her human form. She jumped around a couple times before she took off running, as fast as she could go until she was just a tan blur speeding around the circular pasture. It felt so good to run! Mare tossed her head and neighed. After two days of stress trying to fit in at a human school, this was just what she needed. Mare ran for hours. To her, it was heaven.

When she finally came to a stop, she noticed that the sun was beginning to set. She guessed that the time was six-thirty. Looking toward the house, she also noticed that the lights were on. The Makinos were home.

To the Makinos, Mare was just an ordinary horse who usually came and went as she pleased. They knew nothing of her human form or the fact that she was a demon, and why would they anyway? They always supplied her with food (although it was food meant for the domestic horses that humans kept, but Mare didn't mind) and were very kind to her. In the winter, they let her sleep under the shelter of their barn with the other three horses. In return for their kindness, Mare made sure to guard the house and the family, and keep them safe.

Mare thought about joining Kayko and her friends in the park after all. She liked Kayko; Kayko was so nice to her. Mare decided to return to her human form and go to the park. She quickly changed back, making sure that nobody was watching, and left the pasture. She ran down the road as fast as her human legs could carry her, and suddenly something made her stop.

She had no idea where the park was.

. . .



Yusuke looked up at the sky, which was turning a bright orange color as the sun sank over the horizon. He, Kayko, Kuwabara, Yukina, Kurama, and even Hiei (who was perched up in a tree nearby) were all gathered together at the park. They had all arrived at different times, Hiei being the last to reluctantly show up. At any rate, most of them were enjoying themselves; Kuwabara was trying to impress Yukina as usual, Yukina was laughing at all of the things Kuwabara was saying to her, and they were all tossing around a frisbee as Kurama tried to pursuade Hiei to join in.

"Isn't your friend supposed to be coming?" Yusuke asked Kayko, after sending the frisbee whizzing toward Kurama, who jumped to catch it easily.

"Mare said she might come. She had some things to do at home, I guess."

Kurama thew the frisbee to Kuwabara and turned his attention to the conversation. "Mare Makino, right?"

"Yes," Kayko nodded. She ran to catch the frisbee as Kuwabara sent it flying.

"What's up, Kurama?" Yusuke wondered.

"Kayko's friend is not human," he answered once Kayko was out of earshot.

"Yeah? I kinda got the feeling she wasn't." Yusuke watched as Kayko, Kuwabara, and Yukina fought over control of the frisbee. "So what do you think we're dealing with here?"

"I cannot be certain," Kurama replied. "But I do not believe she means any harm."

Yukina now had the frisbee, and was laughing as the other two were chasing her. Hiei was keeping a close eye (or shall we say 'eyes') on her from his position in the tree.

"Hm." Yusuke noticed that somebody was conspicious by her absence. "So Hiei, got any idea where Teilen might be?"

"Hn," he replied. "How would I know? I'm not her keeper."

Yusuke shrugged. "Just wondering, that's all. Thought you might know."

"Know what?"

Yusuke jumped, and turned around to see Teilen standing behind him. "Damn, don't DO that. You're like a friggin' ghost or something, you just appear without warning."

"Hello Teilen," Kurama said. "What brings you here?"

"I seem to have picked up a straggler," she answered, motioning behind her to where Mare was walking toward the group, looking a little lost.

"Sorry I'm late," she apologized when she arrived. "I forgot to ask Kayko for directions to the park."

"There is no need to apologize," Kurama said. "We were just wondering if you were coming or not."

"Oh yeah? Well, here I am." Mare shrugged. "So what are you guys up to?"

"We're just sort of hangin' out," Yusuke said. "We've got the frisbee game going on over there," he nodded towards the girls and Kuwabara, who were still throwing the frisbee and chasing each other down, laughing their heads off all the while. "Kurama and I were just talking, and Hiei's been up in that tree the whole time."

"Hiei?" Mare squinted up into the tree. "I don't believe I've met him. His name sounds familiar, though."

Kurama and Yusuke exchanged glances. Hiei wondered how the hell Mare could think he was familiar if he'd never met her. Like Kurama, he had also suspected that she wasn't human, though that still didn't explain who she was. Teilen, who knew everything they didn't know, leaned onto the trunk of the tree Hiei was perched in and smirked.

Kayko noticed that Mare had arrived, and ran up to her. "Hi Mare, I was wondering when you were going to get here."

Mare smiled politely at her. "I had a few things to take care of, Kayko. So what to you guys want to do?" She was very curious as to what humans did for fun, when they weren't in school (and Mare was beginning to suspect that human children didn't particularly LIKE school).

"Hey, I know!" Yusuke said. "Let's go to 7-11 and grab something to eat!"

"Okay!" Mare happily agreed. She turned to Kurama. "What's a 'seven-eleven'?"

"It's a store, haven't you ever been there?"

"Nuh-uh," she shook her head. "Can we go there now?"

"Sure."

"Hey! Kuwabara and Yukina, we're going to 7-11!" Yusuke yelled. Kuwabara dropped the frisbee and the two of them went to join the group. Yusuke looked at the tree Teilen was leaning on and Hiei was sitting in. "Are you two coming?"

"No," Teilen answered. "What's the point?"

"Hn," Hiei replied. "I'd rather not waste my time surrounded by weak humans in pursuit of that revolting trash they call food."

"Suit yourselves," Kurama said as they left.

. . .



"Wow!" Mare pressed her face against the freezer door."Is that what you hu--I mean, is that 'ice cream'?" She stared at the many cartons inside the freezer, stacked on top of each other.

        "Well, yes," Kayko answered, a little surprised. "You've never had ice cream?"

"...No," Mare shrugged in reply. "Looks delicious, though! Can I take some?"

Yusuke laughed. "It's a store, Mare. You're supposed to buy stuff; whatever you want."

"Ok." Wearing a large grin, Mare opened the freezer doors and removed about 9 cartons from the shelves. "Okay, now what?"

"...Uh, you go over to the counter over there to pay for it," Kayko said, a little confused. Didn't she know that?

"Oh, right!" Mare laughed, nervously. She knew she was acting very suspicious... She took her armload of ice-cream cartons to the counter and dumped them in front of the cashier. "Hi, I was told that I'm supposed to 'pay' for these here. Is that correct?"

"...Uhhh, yeah," answered the cashier, rolling her eyes. She began to add up the price of the ice-cream using a funny little beeper thing that Mare just couldn't figure out. Humans were so strange! "So you, like, having a party or something?" The cashier asked in a dull, bored tone, as if she had been asking the same question all day.

"No, it's my first experience with ice-cream," Mare answered happily. The cashier looked at her as if she had gone mad.

"......And your total comes to $17.64. You want paper or plastic?"

"Excuse me? What does that mean?" Mare was confused.

"She will take a paper bag," Kurama answered for her from behind. "She was just asking you what type of bag you want to put your items in," he explained to Mare.

"Oh, I understand now." Mare nodded as she took her paper bag full of ice-cream from the cashier. "Thank you very much," she said to the cashier. She started to walk away.

"Hey, you like, have to pay for your stuff!" The cashier called after her. Mare stopped and stared at her, a confused expression on her face.

"Um...'pay'? I thought I did that already."

"No, you like, didn't. You need to pay me with money, you know, like cash." The cashier looked at her and waited for payment. "You owe me $17.64."

"...Oh." She looked to Kurama for help. "What's 'money'?" She whispered to him.

Kurama dug into his own pocket. "Don't worry, I will take care of it," he said to her. He pulled out a couple pieces of paper colored green with a man's face and a the number '10' printed on them. He handed them to the cashier, and she typed some buttons on a box with a drawer on it. The box opened, and the cashier put the money inside and gave Kurama back his change. Mare watched all this with interest. When it was over, Kurama turned to her.

"I'm finished. Shall we go now?"

"Okay," she shrugged. They walked out the door, where they stood waiting outside for Yusuke, Kuwabara, Yukina, and Kayko. "Thank you very much for doing that for me," Mare said, feeling like an idiot.

"Your welcome," Kurama answered. He was always so kind to everyone, and that was the part that threw Mare off completely when it came to him. She had suspected that he was not human, but would a demon really be this nice? "That is quite a large amount of ice-cream," Kurama continued. "What are you planning to do with it all?"

"Well I was thinking we could all go back to the park and share it. Does that sound ok?"

"That sounds very nice," he said, smiling politely. They both looked up as the others came out of the 7-11, each carrying a small plastic bag. Yusuke was laughing about something.

"Yusuke, you're such a jerk!" Kayko was saying. As Yusuke continued to laugh, Kayko smacked him, hard, in the arm.

"Ow, Kayko, that hurt!" He complained. But a second later he was snickering again.

"Are we prepared to leave?" Kurama asked them. They all nodded.

"We're going back to the park to eat my ice-cream," Mare informed them. "If you want to," she added.

"Ice-cream, yeah!" Yusuke said. "I'm in. Come on guys, let's go."

They began to make their way back to the park, Yusuke still laughing over whatever it was he did or said to Kayko, Kayko smacking him every once in a while, Kuwabara reciting sweet nothings to Yukina while she giggled in amusement, thinking he was just trying to make her laugh. Mare and Kurama led the way, discussing random things they happened to pass by. The sounds of a couple sirens could be heard off in the distance, however the group paid little attention to it since it didn't concern them.

The sounds of the sirens gradually drew closer, and then when they came to a crosswalk they found that they had to stop to wait for five fire trucks to speed by, sirens wailing loudly.

"What's happening?" Mare asked, watching the trucks disappear down the road.

"There's a fire somewhere," Yusuke said. "Must be a pretty serious one to need all those fire trucks."

"Fire?" Mare was watching the route that all the trucks seemed to be taking. Suddenly she got a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach--the trucks were racing towards the exact location of the Makinos' ranch! Her jaw dropped in horror. "Oh no!" She cried out suddenly. She dropped the paper bag full of ice-cream and ran down the road as fast as her human legs could carry her, hoping that when she got there it wouldn't be too late...

. . .

Translations (the language is Egyptian, by the way):

Em hotep -- "In peace"

Tajew -- "Yes"

Seger -- "Silence, quiet"

AN: Long chapter this time, I know. Anyway, umm, what was I gonna say? ...Oh yeah. Anyone think this is gonna turn into a Kurama x OC fic? Well guess what, I'm not tellin'. Know why? 'Cuz I haven't quite decided yet, that's why, though I am leaning towards 'no'. I mean, EVERYBODY does that. Do I wanna do it too? Maybe. Who knows? Tell me what you think I should do! Reeeevieeeewwww, please?