Now, Haipaa is nowhere to be seen, so I'll inform you myself that the second half of the chapter goes to her. yuss… also the mysterious person who's identity I was evil enough not to reveal for two whole chapters, will be … revealed. And without further a due, the long awaited (don't I have a sense of humor) chapter 3 !!
Onward!
P.S. [dodges rotten veggies] I know that this story is also under 'Humor'. It's not a mistake, it will -hopefully- be funny. Let's hope our humor gets through to you! XD nyeah.
Chapter III – A path is set
The sound of a bell pierced the afternoon stillness. Soon after, chatter and cheerful conversations also filled the air. It was the end of yet another school day.
To most everyone, of all ages, the bell was, in it's own way, a blessing. It meant the end of, for some, torture, hard work and sleepiness; for others… plainly then end of school, the end of school for just another day.
"Oh my… so much homework…" whined one of the boys walking down the street, gripping his bag over his arched back. "the teachers must really be in a bad mood."
"That or they've all been taken over by evil aliens!" His friend chuckled.
The first boy glared. "Shaddap."
They where all heading home.
Another group of giggly girls was splitting, saying their good-byes and walking to their houses. "It feels good to be finally going home. I thought today would never end," said one.
Yes, home. That was one thing she didn't have. The bell, to her, meant hiding away in her little corner until the next day, just waiting for them to go to work or school. It was the only time of the day when she could roam the streets a little more freely.
Some people knew her face, and feared her. They would point her out on the street and everyone would step aside, scared. For some reason, she could smell their fear.
It was because of that one person that first noticed that she was different. That was the first time anyone noticed her dog-like ears and tail. That was when she stopped going into the city, and retreated to her little sanctuary in the patch of forest behind the buildings and houses.
She was heading for it already. On silent, feet she ran like the wind behind the buildings that loped parallel to the road. There was no need in her being quiet. The people walking down the street were practically deaf compared to her. She was also as light as a feather. Even the most acute of all listeners would not hear her if she did not mean to be heard.
It was all really great… all of these 'gifts', but she would have traded all of it to be normal, like them, accepted; because she was lonely, she had no friends. She glanced to the groups of students on the street. Not like them. They were always in groups and chattering and gossiping. She felt like a lone wolf. The loneliness ate away at her like a caterpillar on a fresh summer leaf.
Reaching the forest she slowed to a walk and entered her lonely sanctuary.
She walked lazily through the bushes and branches of trees, trying hard to decide what to do for the afternoon. She sighed and stopped. There was always that nice little pond in the middle of the forest where there was always something new to see. No, not today.
She walked on. A few minutes later she was standing parallel to the shrine. It wasn't too old, and it wasn't abandoned either. There was a family of humans living there, one that she had always found quite odd. The girl anyway, the family's daughter. She had seen her a few times, and had heard her friends talking of her, bud couldn't quite remember her name.
What was strange about her was that she only showed up at school once in a while. She always seemed to be away. She had caught a glance of the young girl once walking into the small shrine building who's back wall touched the forest. She had watched her walking in with a school bag that looked as if it weighed a ton.
The girl hadn't come out for days afterward. She thought a bit. Yes, her name was Kagome. She had heard her friends talking about all of the strange and exotic diseases she kept getting and how she was always so behind on school work because of them.
But she knew it wasn't true. She knew that Kagome was not sick, but in that shrine. She had never went in, or anywhere near the place as a matter of fact. There was something about that building, and the tree that stood not too far away form it, that awakened something old and familiar in her. She didn't like that feeling so she kept away.
She crouched down low, hiding behind the bushes as (from what she knew), Kagome's grandfather and brother entered through the gate and walked slowly towards that door to the main house.
She got up and turned back to the forest, aimlessly walking down the most seldom used path she could find.
Afternoon found her still walking randomly thought the forest, in deep thought. She was thinking about how someone like her could have ended up in a word like this. It was obvious she was not supposed to be here, but then, where was she supposed to be?
She was kicking random things on the ground; sticks, twigs, a bug or two that were in her way, when she noticed something that didn't really fit in with the rest of the scenery.
She bent down and picked up the blue and white, flowery object.
'A wallet!?' She arched and eyebrow and blinked at it. She sniffed it, and then the breeze. Who ever lost it must still be near by, their scent was still quite strong.
She put the wallet into her pocket and let the smell lead her to the owner.
She was walking slowly, with uneven steps; jumping over a log here, kicking a pile of leaves there, when she reached the place where the scent was strongest. With one more careful sniff, she would have noticed the scent wasn't like any ordinary human's scent. It had something familiar in it, almost like her own. However, that careful sniff did not come to be. She wasn't really paying attention to much, other than the trees around her (so she wouldn't bump into any) and the whispering breeze.
She noticed the owner sitting on the grass not too far away from where she stood herself. It was a young girl, about 14. She seemed to be bobbling her head to the beat of her music. (The CD player and headphones were only visible at a second, more careful glance) She also seemed to be fiddling with something, but the object in question was not visible since her back was turned towards our watchful heroine.
It also looked as if she was wearing a jean skirt and a very baggy sweater on top of a white tang top. The sweater's sleeves were obviously a bit too big for her and getting in the way of whatever it was that she was doing. A result of this being that she had to thrust her hands up into the air once in a while and allow the sleeves to fall back to their rightful place near her elbows.
The first girl stepped out of the shadows and began walking lazily toward this new girl. Looking more carefully at her she noticed something new, something that she hadn't noticed before.
Ears. Long ones. Rabbit's ears. Ears which at first sight looked like oddly placed white ribbons. But which at a second glance looked like very realistic rabbit's ears. She thought them fake, since they were just lying there only stirring only from the girl's body movements.
She continued approaching. All was quiet. She was nearly an arm's length away from the 'rabbit girl'. She took the wallet out of her pocket when suddenly the usagi jumped to her feet, hands pointing to the sky, in a rock-ish manner.
"ROCK ME AWAY BABY!!" came her voice loud and disturbing to the quiet of the forest. A few birds left their nests and flew away, annoyed. A squirrel popped it's head through the entrance to it's nest and blabbered a few angry squeaks before returning to it's evil plans of taking over the world and of making everyone in the world go nuts for their own amusem- sorry… I'm going off topic…
The usagi girl's head bobbled a bit to the beat of her music. Then, with her eyes closed, she skipped around a bit, playing and imaginary guitar, after which she sat back down as if nothing had happened, and returned back to her fiddling.
The older girl lay on the ground, completely dumbstruck. The usagi's action had totally caught her off guard, the shock causing her to fall back… painfully… on her behind. But it wasn't only the fact that her hand had come mere inches from smacking her face. It was also that her rabbit ears had popped up right along with the rest of her body.
The fact left her wide-eyed and not to mention wide-mouthed. She also noticed, for the first time, that her scent was different. She finally noticed that it was a lot closer to her own than to any other human's. 'Could she be anything like me?' She also felt a strange power coming from her. One that told her to stay away. But her curiosity got the better of her, so she decided to approach.
She groaned and got up. She dusted herself off and once again, this time however much more cautiously, reached over and tapped the usagi girl on the shoulder.
She felt a cold chill run down the usagi's back. She felt her freeze with fear, and smelt the terror that polluted her aura all of a sudden. The first girl's eye-brow twitched a bit. Her temper was quite quick to rise. She felt offended. 'I cant be that scary, can I?'
She sighed and straightened herself, hands on her hips, behind the usagi. She examined her movements quite carefully.
First, her ears popped up again, cupped to catch any sinister sound. Then, she slackly turned around, blue in the face with fear and stared in to the golden eyes that so carefully stared back. She blinked, and all of a sudden jumped to her feet, screaming.
The thing that she had been fiddling with, which now proved to be a necklace of some kind, was thrown up into the air. As if reacting to this, it began glowing an eerie light blue. The beads split apart, and before anyone could do anything about it, each one flew straight at the golden-eyed girl. It reassembled on her neck and stubbornly remained there.
She frantically pulled at it but it had no intention of coming off.
"STAAAY!!" Came, loud and frightened, the usagi's cry. "STAY AWAY!!"
What she said was actually quite silly, but it was the first thing that came to mind. She was hysterically running around the other girl and screaming wildly when she noticed the small object on the ground.
"My wallet!!" she said happily and went to pick it up. "Ooh! Thank you for finding it!" She put it into her own pocket and smiled her sweetest smile. As if absolutely nothing had happened to any of them, she offered her hand and introduced herself, "Hi! My name is Chigiri," She smiled again, and her eyes sparkled in the sunlight.
She Walked over to the second girl's side and poked her. "What's your name?" she asked cheerfully. However, for some reason, the girl with the wolf-like ears (as Chigiri had not yet noticed) remained rigid as a stone. She bobbled to one side, then to the other, but managed to remain standing.
The expression on her face hadn't changed either. It looked like a mixture of annoyance and shock. Her eyes were closed and her hands gripped the necklace around her neck. Chigiri soon noticed it was the very necklace she had been working on only minutes before.
She walked behind the girl and grinned. She had a sneaky little idea that she honestly thought would work out perfectly. She obviously didn't think ahead.
Thinking that the other girl hadn't heard her properly the first time, she was determined to make herself heard. She sneaked behind, took a few steps back and, when she felt it was enough stopped. Her hands were pinned to the ground, her legs positioned behind her. She looked as if she were about to start a relay race.
She pushed off her back legs and began running towards other girl at high speeds. Despite the fact that she was going extremely fast for someone her size, her ears were pricked straight on top of her head.
Just as Chigiri was about to reach the other girl, due to her extensive and not to mention unnecessary speed (since she was only about 10 feet from her 'victim') she tripped over her own feet and was sent flying into the unsuspecting and remaining rock-still girl.
The impact was at the bottom or the girl's feet, since Chigiri came rolling towards her. The force of it wasn't quite enough to immediately knock her off her feet. It made her bobble forward the backwards, then a bit to the side, then to the other… Chigiri was just sitting up when the girl fell to the ground with a thud.
"Oooooh…" Chigiri got up and walked over to her. She heard her groan and her hands came to push herself up. She managed to put herself into a sitting position and instinctively rubbed the back of her head.
Chigiri noticed that her nose was peculiarly red and that her face was all covered in dirt. She innocently wondered why. It couldn't possibly be her fault, could it?
Forgetting all about the tumble and bump, she once again introduced herself with exceeding joyfulness.
"HI!! I'm Chigiri. Nice to meet you. What's your name?"
The other girl narrowed her eyes. Not because the innocent looking girl in front of her gave her the most curious sensation of annoyance and stress, but because she couldn't see much more than a white and maroon blur. She also didn't seem to remember anything.
However she did hear the friendly introduction and decided it couldn't hurt to give her name as well.
"um… hi… My name is Ookami. Nice to meet you too." She reached for the outstretched hand, but because her vision was so blurry, missed. She tried again and again, and finally managed to shake the hand.
Ookami shook her head a little and finally managed to get a clear view of the girl in front of her. 'It's that rabbit girl' she reminded herself as a feeling of annoyance invaded her mind all of a sudden.
Chigiri stared intently at Ookami, noticing for the first time that she was a wolf. But somehow she was not scared like she knew she should have been. She felt more of a warm and comforting feeling from the wolf, instead of the killer sense all wolves give out.
Ookami massaged the back of her head, trying to ease the pain, and at the same time fully aware of the stares coming from the little hare not far from her. Thinking back to the incident that happened with her and the rabbit girl, she again noticed the beady necklace on her neck.
A deep growl rose from the bottom of her throat, which soon turned into a deep rumble. This scared our rabbit friend half to death. She pulled roughly on the necklace, hoping it will break and free her. She slashed, scratched, even bit. But no matter what she did, the necklace showed no less stubbornness.
The rabbit girl smiled amused. Never in her life had she seen a full grown –ok, maybe almost full grown- wolf "dancing" like an idiot in front of her while attacking the necklace around her neck. She couldn't help but let out a giggle as the wolf clawed at her necklace. The sound of the clear giggle captured Ookami's attention. She glared at the giggling rabbit. Chigiri was now rolling on the floor trying to maintain her low volume giggles. Soon the low volume giggles turned into a booming laugher, echoing throughout the forest. Several red veins popped onto the back of Ookami's head.
"What's so funny rabbit?!" Ookami asked annoyed. She glared harder at the rabbit while walking towards her. Chigiri waved her arms around; trying to indicate the wolf it she was ok. But she failed miserably with giggles and laughter pouring out of her mouth like a flowing stream. (A/N Haipaa- she's having a giggle fit! I always have that…blah blah blah Taeru-ignore her.)
Finally, the little rabbit seized her laughter and sat face to face with the wolf. Seeing the action of Ookami still trying to unravel the necklace off her slander neck, Chigiri spoke up in a serious tone. "You know…that necklace is magical." Ookami gazed at Chigiri with a puzzled face, then asked the most obvious question. "What do you mean by magical?"
The little rabbit smiled and poked her cheek with her pale finger in cute manner. Then scratched her head, trying to explain to Ookami the best way she could think of.
"Well…um…you see… first of all, … it doesn't come off!" she smiled sweetly and
chuckled nervously rubbing the back of her head.
Ookami stared -- "jee, I figured that…"
"oh, but also" Chigiri continued trying to look as wise as possible "it, um …" she thought back to a while before "it makes you freeze whenever I say 'Stay'" she threw a sunny smile at Ookami and suddenly found a deep interest in the trees around her.
Ookami growled angrily again and glared at Chigiri as much as her eyes allowed her. 'Once the 'magic' of this bloody necklace wears off I'm gonna eat her!!' she thought in annoyance.
Chigiri thought to herself a bit. 'Stuff like this has happened to me before. I wonder where this power comes from and what it is called… hm…' but as being serious wasn't exactly her thing, she jumped to her feet and walked over to Ookami.
The effects were just wearing off so it wasn't exactly the best time to be around her. She was getting ready to grab Chigiri by the neck and give her a good strangling but she stopped dead in her tracks.
Chigiri smiled sweetly at her, and it felt like a ray of sunshine was standing before her. She certainly looked like an angel for that instant. "And you know what else that necklace does?"
"What?" Ookami asked distantly still getting used to that feeling of warmth she was feeling.
"It doesn't alow a distance of more than about 1 mole between us."
Crash.
"That's all I know so far. But that means you are stuck with me now." she smiled another smile of sunshine and jumped and hugged Ookami round the waist. X3
So much for a warm feeling. At that moment, Ookami's face was priceless. Her mouth was hanging open and her eyes as wide as dinner plates (Oo). "WHAT!?" The sound of her astonishment rang through the forest. (and one again disturbed the squirrels).
Well, I hope you've liked it. Please leave behind any thoughts or complaints! Arigatou!
As for the sqirrel thing, both Haipaa and I think they are cute, fluffy, energetic and downright evil. Yes, EVIL! Some will understand, others will soon come to see the truth behing those rodents. You wil-- [gets smacked by a squirrel] see! SEE!! [ahem]
Other than that, Haipaa's still not here, and I have nothing else to say. So, sayonara, and until next time.