By Kracken L.W. & the mystery authoress.
Disclaimer: We do not own Inu-Yasha & co. If we did, Kracken would destroy them all inside of a week for driving her unsane and I'd feed them to my owl.
Somewhere in Japan, not far from what was once the home of a renowned (or infamous) Dog Hanyou, lies the small valley of Cold Stone. The caldera of an extinct volcano, it was once renowned for being a tropical paradise even in the depths of winter. A paradise nearly impossible to reach, due to the sheer, basalt cliffs that formed the walls of the valley. Still, many thought it worth the effort to visit, if only for a short time, this small corner of heaven on earth. Then, a thousand years ago, give or take a few, a great cataclysm rocked the once tranquil valley. In the very center, in a grove so perfect that few ever dared to walk there, there appeared a red marble statue of a winged woman holding in her cupped hands a creature slightly resembling a squid, (A/N: if you can't guess what it is, go jump off a bridge.) carved entirely of gleaming obsidian. It seemed to glow from within, but the air around it was cold, and the cold spread. Soon, no matter how much heat the many geysers and hot springs generated, the whole mist shrouded valley was enveloped in an inexplicable chill. Soon, not even the youkai could be persuaded to walk there for any reason. Slowly over the next century or so, the beautifully crafted gazebo's and pagodas fell into disrepair, shrine and demon lair alike echoed in their emptiness the foot steps of the mice and birds that were all that would now inhabit the valley. All that was truly left untouched was gleaming; marble road that wound it's way to the center of the valley, and the cursed glade of the so-called Lady of Cold Stone.
And so it came to pass that for nigh on to six hundred years the only creatures to disturb silence were the mice, squirrels, birds, and the occasional temperamental goddess.
***~~~***
Dionysus was drunk. Nothing unusual about that. As the god of mainly wine and fertility let it be known, if he wasn't drunk, that would have been a sad thing indeed. Shaking her head Athena turned back to her beautiful owl to finish feeding him. He was finally finished. A good thing too. Olympus was incredibly cold right now and she wanted to take a hot bath.
Dionysus stumbled along. He couldn't see clearly, walk straight, but he felt good. He was the god of wine and life was good. He tripped over a root and fell to the ground, his ever and always full wine goblet tipped and a bit of his wine spilled, turning the hot spring into the very cold wine. Righting himself he ambled on humming a merry little tune.
Stripping off her toga, Athena disappeared and re-appeared above the hot spring in dive form. She was an artist after all. She completed the dive into the water without a splash. She was in for a shock. A very cold one at that.
She came up freezing, teeth chattering and very cold wine dripping off her and from her hair. The frigid air that Demeter was causing with her grief wasn't helping too much either. "Dammit Dionysus! Damn you!!" her scream echoed throughout Mt. Olympus.
***~~~***
Athena was fuming. That was just so very wrong (A/N if you don't that refers to I can't help you). She could think of only one place to go for a truly hot and after that war with the wine, needed, bath. She appeared in a valley surrounded by its basalt cliffs. Dark beauty. 'Kracken, why the HELLS do you insist on keeping this place so damned cold?' She ignored the chill and the beauty and strode over to the statue of marble. She looked at the statue for a few seconds then:
"Kracken? Hey Kracken? Are you there? I know you hear me."
The statue didn't answer.
"Kracken!!!!! This is not the time to piss me off. I know you're in there! Dammit! I'm a goddess! You're supposed to answer me damn you!!"
The statue briefly rolled its eyes and continued staring off into space.
"I saw that! WAKE UP AND ANSWER ME!! I'M COLD, I'M PISSED OFF AT DIONYSUS AND I NEED A BATH TO GET THIS WINE OFF ME!! ANSWER ME!!!"
Silence.
"So you want to play do you? I'll have to force you to wake up." Athena took out her sword and banged the hilt on the statues head. "Wake up!"
Still no answer.
Again she rammed the hilt down on the marble head.
Nothing.
Finally incredibly peeved, she went behind the statue, climbed up, and brought the hilt down with her full strength. 'That should do it,' she thought smugly.
Just then she was thrown backwards into the hot spring as the statue exploded. A blinding flash enveloped the clearing as the little obsidian figurine vanished in a gout of black flame. When she regained her sight, Athena was looking up at the vague, brightly glowing figure of a butterfly/dragon winged woman with a singularly disagreeable expression.
"What the fuck did you do that for you crazy bitch?!"
"Nice to see you too, Kracken," she said looking down at her melted sword. Damn another one gone to dust, or rather, melted metal. She really needed to stop waking Kracken up this way.
"You think you'd know better by now," she said smugly.
"Fuck off," Athena replied. "How did I ever manage to become friends with a crazy bitch of a light wraith (A/N's notes: yes, to talk like Hoggle: That be's whats it stands for the l.w.'s.) like you?"
The creature just grinned at her. "That would be your fault. I didn't ask you to haul me out of the Aegean Sea and wake me up, now did I?"
"I was under the impression that you liked being awake oh temperamental THING!"
"How is Hephaestus going to react when you tell him you need yet another new sword, oh great goddess of all things wise?"
"I don't know, and I don't care. And the can the sarcasm you crazy bitch."
"Oh I'm so hurt, and here I thought you were my friend."
"No comment temperamental lawn ornament."
Kracken grinned again, Athena was one of the few and that's a lot in her case, people that she talked to rather than incinerating.
"And stopping draining my energy. I'm pissy enough as it is!"
Smiling, she said: "That's not me. It's this little bauble," she said holding out a shikon shard. "I plucked it off the last youkai I ate."
Athena looked at it for a second. "What is it?"
"I don't really know, some power item, think it was for granting wishes, but I don't know for sure. It seems like it though. Feels like the oracle stone at Delphi. Whatever it is it doesn't matter. Go take your bath before you stink up my valley with the stench of Dionysus' sour wine."
"Thank you," Athena said tossing the toga out of the hot spring.
Kracken wandered off down the marble path humming tunelessly to herself. "I'm going to find a snack," she called over her shoulder.
