QoH: Whew, I'm glad I could get my material back after that rather embarrassing episode of losing my disk... -_-' I think that saying, "You'd forget your head if it wasn't attached" was created for people like me... And I had a good share of the second chapter of this already done, too! Oi, what a nightmare... Ah well, the strange thing is, when this sort of thing happens to me, the lost material actually comes back better than before! So, you people kinda benefit from my baka mistake, even if you have to wait a bit longer for the results.
Chapter 2: Journey
"So, where are we going, anyway?" Inu-Yasha asked as they came to the edge of the village, "No one answered me before."
"Well," Kagome answered, "when I felt the pull of the Shikon fragment from somewhere in the mountains just to the east of us, I asked Kaede about it. According to her, a powerful snake-demon lives up there. Evidently, there's been rumors of him getting stronger and terrorizing the villagers, even more than usual of late."
Inu-Yasha froze in his tracks. The mountains? A snake-demon? Could it be-?
"Hey, dog-breath!" Shippou hopped up to him, "What's wrong with you? Why'd you stop?"
Kagome looked at him in concern, "Inu-Yasha, are you all right?"
Inu-Yasha shook his head, trying to bring himself back to the present, and started walking again, "Yeah, I'm fine."
"Are you sure?" Miroku wondered, frowning, "You didn't look it a few seconds ago. Do you know of this demon? Is that why you reacted like you did?"
"Look," Inu-Yasha glanced over his shoulder, a slight growl in his voice, "I don't know anything for sure right now. At this distance, there's too much interference for me to try and sense this guy properly. It won't do any good to speculate on the identity of whoever this is until we have more to go on." He turned around and walked stiffly ahead.
"But, if you have any ideas about it that could help us-" Sango stopped when Kagome held up her hand.
"It's all right, Sango." Kagome said quietly, watching the hanyou contemplatively, "It's obvious something is bothering him, and as much as we want to know what's going on, we need to let him approach us with it, not the other way around. If he wants our help, he will come to one of us in time."
"How do you know, Kagome?" Shippou asked, staring at her.
She smiled slightly, "I don't, not really. There's one thing I do know, though. Inu-Yasha doesn't seem to be any more sure of his thoughts than we are."
"You're right, of course, Kagome." Miroku nodded, looking at Sango and Shippou, who did the same, "We'll leave the issue alone for now," he grinned mischievously, "You will tell us what he says, won't you?"
"Why would he tell me?" she asked, eyebrow raised.
"It makes sense, I would think," Sango put in thoughtfully, "You're the one he's known the longest out of all of us. Not to mention that, aside from the whole 'Sit' thing, you're also the one he's most likely to be closest to."
"Really?" Kagome wondered, surprised, "Why do you say that?"
"When you guys first met me, for example, I tried to kill you," she answered, frowning as she thought back to that time, "Not the best first impression ever."
"Please don't say you blame yourself for that!" Kagome exclaimed, taking her hands earnestly, "Naraku brainwashed you! None of that was your fault!"
"I don't anymore," Sango smiled at her friend, "but, even so, I'm still better friends with you than him, you know that," she leaned forward conspiratorily, motioning to the houshi and fox-child, "And do I even need to say anything about these two's relationships with him?"
Kagome laughed, "I suppose that's a good point." Miroku and Shippou grinned broadly at this.
"Hey!" Inu-Yasha's voice floated back to them, "Are you all going to stand around and talk all the live long day, or we going to get this shard?"
"We're coming!" Kagome yelled in return, and they all ran to catch up.
****
That night, after a very exhausting trek, they finally set up camp in the forest that lay in the shadow of the mountains. Kagome and Sango were off to find a suitable spring, while the guys arguing about who would make supper. Sango hadn't been to sure about this, but Kagome took her by the arm.
"Sango," she muttered, "who knows when we'll get another chance like this to have a bath without their interuption?"
"I know that," Sango replied, "but I really don't want to eat burnt ramen, either."
"Ramen's incredibly easy to make, though!" Kagome laughed, still pulling her, "All you do is put the stuff in the pan with water, add the flavor, and heat. I'm sure they'll do fine."
Sango glanced doubtfully over her shoulder at their bickering travelling companions, "Do you really think so?"
"I'm positive," Kagome answered, "now, come on!" she grinned teasingly, "Of course, if you'd really rather stay here..."
"All right, you win, then." With that, they disappeared into the brush.
Speaking of our amatuer chefs, let's join them now. (A/N: ^_~ hehe. Ok, that was lame. -_-')
Miroku, the "level headed" one of the three (A/N: scary thought, eh? lol), sighed in irritation, "Well, why don't we just divide the jobs up, then?"
"Fine." Inu-Yasha said, "I've got dibs on making the fire."
"Ok, then I call the noodles and such."
"Hey!" Shippou cried indignantly, "What's that leave me?"
"Getting the firewood." Inu-Yasha grinned smugly at him.
Shippou eyed him suspiciously, "Shouldn't that be your job?"
"Nope," he replied calmly, "Since I have better control over my speed than you do, my only job is to get it going. Someone else has to find the fuel."
"Whatever." Shippou rolled his eyes, "I still think I'm getting the bad end of the deal here."
"Tell you what, you can put in
the flavoring." Inu-Yasha glanced at Miroku, "You don't mind that, do you?"
"Not at all," the priest
returned graciously, trying to hide a smirk.
"Gee, thanks." Shippou retorted and stood his ground, "And what if I won't go?"
"Think about it." Inu-Yasha said, turning away from arranging the little ring of stones, "You heard Kagome and Sango talking before just as well as we did. I don't know about you, but I'd like to prove that we can work together in more than just battle."
Inu-Yasha laughed to himself as Shippou stalked away, muttering how unfair his life was. Kid, you have no idea... He stood up and walked around the edge of the clearing.
"That's the third time you've done that, you know." Miroku finished breaking the noodles in the pan and sat back on his heels, "Why are you so jumpy?"
Inu-Yasha sent him a scathing glance, "I'm not jumpy!"
Miroku snorted, "Yeah right. You've been as edgy as a cat dropped in the middle of pack of wild dogs all day," he thought about what he'd just said, then fell over backward in his laughter, "Which is really funny, considering you're a demon of the canine variety!" He clutched his stomach and rolled over, "Oh boy, I've got to tell Shippou that one! He'll love it!"
Growling, Inu-Yasha grabbed him by the back of his shirt and dragged him away from the cooking site, "Since I don't figure anything I say or do will stop you from making a fool of yourself and me, the least I can do is keep you from knocking over our meal."
Miroku was still gasping for breathe when Shippou returned. He looked curiously at him and dumped the sticks beside Inu-Yasha. "What's up with him?" he asked, jerking his thumb over his shoulder.
Inu-Yasha didn't answer as he started the fire. Not satisfied with this, of course, Shippou walked over to Miroku and poked him, asking him what was going on. Soon, Shippou, too, was howling in amusement.
When Sango and Kagome came back, they were greeted with an odd scene, of sorts. Miroku and Shippou were putting the finishing touchs on supper, still intermittently bursting into fits of giggles, and Inu-Yasha sat on a low branch of a tree at the opposite end of the campsite, a dark scowl on his face.
Kagome sighed in resignation, "Were you guys making fun of him again?"
"Just a little bit." Miroku grinned as he put the shrimp-flavored noodles in their bowls.
"How'd you make him mad this time?" Sango wondered, rolling her eyes as she wrung her hair out.
As they sat down, Shippou told them what Miroku had said. Hearing this, Kagome frowned and stood up, picking up Inu-Yasha's bowl along with her own and walked over to him. When they tried to follow her, Sango yanked Miroku and Shippou back down, "Oh, no, you don't, you two. Just eat, all right?"
Kagome leaned her head back and studied the sullen half-demon after she'd sat back against the trunk. "Hi," she said simply, "I got your bowl for you."
"Why aren't you over with the others?" Inu-Yasha asked testily, "I'm afraid I'm not the best company at the moment."
She frowned as she began eat, "Well, at the moment, as you put it, I'm not too happy with a certain two thirds of the group over there. I'd rather be here. "
Inu-Yasha jumped lightly down beside her, his expression curious, "Really? Why?"
"I didn't think they should have said what they did." Kagome replied after swallowing a mouthful, "It wasn't right. It'd be like making fun of Shippou for being a kitsune, or Miroku being human," she shrugged as she handed him his bowl, "People are what they are, and others have no right to insult someone for that."
He smiled and took it, "Thanks Kagome, both for bringing this over, and for what you said."
"No problem."
They ate in silence for a little while, lost in their own thoughts. Finally, Inu-Yasha cleared his throat when he'd finished.
"Kagome, would you like to know why I've been acting odd today?"
She looked up from the last of her supper, "Did you figure out what was bothering you, then?"
"Not all of it, but enough."
"Okay, what's going on?"
He gazed through the trees up at the mountain they were to climb the next day, "About this snake... I think I know who he is."
"How?" she asked, putting her bowl down.
"I'm not positive, but from what I remember..." Inu-Yasha looked back at her, pain evident in his eyes, "You see, I was very young when this happened. I think he may be the one responsible for the death of my parents."
QoH: Cliffy! ^_^ Am I evil, or what? lol Thanks Ryu-Obake, for givin me the shrimp idea (which I've never had), and the review!
Yugi: *pokes his head in* So it's not just on Sweet Sorrow you do this, huh?
Yami: *smirks* Evidently.
Inu-Yasha: *growls* What are you babbling about...?
QoH: Oh, lookie there... *yawns* It's one o'clock in the morning again... *stretches* G'night people! *walks out*
Inu-Yasha: *twitches* GET BACK HERE!
Yugi: We've already tried that. As you can see, it has no effect.