"Ouff." Serena and Darien said at the same time as they landed on the dirt floor, Serena on top of Darien. Serena scrambled up right away, but Darien was too dazed to get up immediately.
"Are you okay?" Serena asked.
"I will be as soon as I can breathe again," he returned dryly.
"Shut up and get up."
Darien opened his eyes for the first time and looked up.
"Oh, shit," he spurted out.
"What? Are you hurt?" she asked, concerned.
"Look up," came the strained reply.
"What? I know we're at the bottom of a well you idiot!"
"LOOK UP!" he all but yelled.
Serena's head snapped back at the tone of his voice. "Whaa…???" Was all that she could get out.
She knew full well that the well had been inside a shed. What she saw when she looked up was blue sky broken up only by leafy branches of trees.
Serena lowered her head a little to look at Darien, who had stood up by then. "What happened?"
"I don't know. Maybe the shed collapsed. Let's just climb up and see."
Serena groaned at the thought of climbing the steep walls.
"Please tell me you can climb this!" Darien said.
"I, uh," Serena thought for a moment. Maybe if she managed to get out of the well Darien would refrain from blaming her for this incident. "Yeah, I can," she said with a nod and a confidence she definitely did not feel.
"Good. I'll go first and help you where I can."
Darien nimbly started scaling the walls making use of the vines that grew down.
'Come on girl, you're Sailor Moon. You can do this!'
With a sigh Serena followed, albeit a bit slower.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
Five minutes later Darien pulled Serena out of the well, saving her from having to pull herself up the last few feet.
"What took you so long?"
"Half way up I slipped and fell to the bottom," she answered glumly.
He could not seem to help himself. One second he was fighting back a chuckle and the next he was laughing uproariously.
Serena ignored him while she looked around at her surroundings. No shed, no temple, no house. No sign of civilization anywhere. She tried waiting patiently for Darien to calm down, but it seemed useless. Finally she lost her patients.
"WOULD YOU SHUT UP AND TELL ME WHERE WE ARE?!!"
Darien stopped in mid-laughter and winced at the decibel level. He too had noticed their surroundings, or lack thereof.
"I don't know, I'm sorry. Maybe we should…" he was unable to finish his sentence because he saw a blur of red heading their way. The blur was leaping form tree to tree and then to the ground in front of them.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" A voice growled. Darien saw the terrified look on Serena's face, and so almost fearfully turned so he too could see.
There stood a boy of no more than eighteen, if he could be called a boy. On top of his head stood two ears and on his hands were claws opposed to nails. His eyes were of a golden shade, and had an angry sheen to them. A fiercely angry sheen. On instinct Darien pulled Serena behind him and stared down the person in front of him. He was about to tell him that they did not know why they were there, but he did not get a chance for a pair of hands appeared over the edge of the well. Before the hands could pull themselves up, the boy in one swift motion pulled what proved to be a girl out of the well and forcibly placed her behind him.
"Inuyasha? What's going on?" the girl asked, confused as to why there were two people from her time standing before her friend.
"I don't know, you tell me, wench. They came from your time," Inuyasha growled out.
"Excuse me?" the girl said indignantly, stepping out from behind Inuyasha. "Why is it automatically my fault?! AND STOP CALLING ME WENCH!"
Serena stepped out from behind Darien to watch the spectacle, no longer afraid because she recognized the uniform the girl was wearing.
Inuyasha now turned to Kagome, temporarily ignoring the strangers.
"It's your fault because it's your well! WENCH!"
"Ooo! SITSITSITSIT!"
Darien and Serena looked on amazed as Inuyasha was magically slammed into the ground four times.
"Woah… how did you do that?" Serena piped up.
Kagome turned to them in surprise but immediately calmed down. "It's the rosary around his neck. When I say the magic word, he's immobilized for obvious reasons." She looked down as the dog-demon was struggling to stand up.
"I would love to get some of those for Darien," Serena said in wonderment.
"In your dreams, Meatball Head."
"Don't call me that Jerk-Face!"
It was now Kagome and a now standing Inuyasha's turn to stare at them.
"Ooo, you hurt me lame-brain."
"Clumsy!"
"Who's calling who clumsy?!"
"Hey, I wasn't the one that tripped us into another world!"
"You PUSHED ME!"
"I DID NOT! I was trying to hug you! Maybe if you weren't repulsed by human touch we wouldn't be here!"
"I am NOT repulsed by human touch. Just YOURS!"
"SHUT UP!" Inuyasha yelled, ears pressed flat against his head due to the noise.
Darien saw the hurt in Serena's eyes from his last comment before they were startled by the dog-demon. He regretted the words immediately, he knew he had gone too far.
"Now now, Inuyasha, be nice," a new voice said.
Serena turned around and saw two people approaching them. One was a man in monk garb and the other was a pretty girl with a board strapped to her back. The next thing she knew the monk hand her hands in his and was staring intensely into her eyes.
"Especially to such a beautiful goddess as this."
Serena flushed a deep red. So did Darien, but for a different reason.
BONK!
The monk let go of Serena's hands to ruefully rub his head. Serena looked behind him and saw the pretty girl reattaching the board to her back.
"Miruko," the girl growled at the monk warningly. She then turned to Serena and smiled. "Don't let the monk outfit fool you, Miruko is actually a lecher in disguise." Serena gave a timid smile back.
"Hey, you go to Jubban, don't you?"
Serena turned to Kagome and nodded. "And you go to Narita* right?"
"Yeah, when I'm not here. I'm Kagome, by the way. This is Inuyasha. He's half-human, half-demon. You've met Miruko. That's Sango." Kagome pointed to each person as she named them. They gave a smile and a nod as they were named, except for Inuyasha who just glared, arms crossed.
"Hi, I'm Serena, this is Darien. Where is here?" She got right to the point.
"Feudal Japan. About 500 years in our past."
Serena and Darien looked at her, jaws dropped in disbelief.
"F-f-five hundred years?" Serena stuttered.
"Feudal Japan?" Darien mused, trying to clear his head. "Oh no, we're not staying here! How do we get back?" He seemed to know something he did not like.
"The well." Kagome nodded to the mentioned well.
"Just jump in?" Kagome nodded. He turned to Serena. "Do you want me to go first?" She nodded. Without a second thought or a good bye he jumped into the well. Kagome leaned over to look in.
"He didn't go through," she said.
A few minutes later he climbed back up, a defeated look on his face. He turned to Serena. "I didn't make it, but maybe you will."
Serena looked at the well. "Uh uh. I already did that once, I'm not climbing out of that again."
"Yes you are."
"You can't make me!"
"You're going in there if I have to drop you in!" Serena did not doubt the fierce look in his eyes. With a gulp she too let herself down into the well. Five minutes later she arrived back at the top, panting. "Damn." Darien turned and looked at Kagome. "Is there any other way?"
"If I jump down with you, it may work." She saw Darien motion towards Serena with his eyes. Kagome felt sorry for Serena, but did as he requested. Serena was sitting on the edge of the well, her feet dangling in, so it was just a matter of grabbing her wrist and pulling her down as she jumped.
"Arg! What was that for? Now I've got to climb up again," Serena wailed.
"Sorry!" Kagome said, trying to calm her down. "It was best to just get it over with."
Serena stopped wailing and nodded. "I guess you're right." She looked up and sighed. "We're still here though." Kagome looked up, sure enough she saw the blue sky.
"I guess you're stuck here for awhile then." She saw the panicked look on Serena's face. "It's not so bad here, and I'm sure we'll find a way for you to get home soon." She flashed Serena a smile. "Now come on, let's get out of here."
With a sigh Serena started back up. She looked up and saw that Kagome was already halfway up. It took her several more minutes to reach the top.
"I'm NOT doing that again!" Serena said, panting. She sat down with her back against the well. By the time Darien and Kagome had climbed out from their try, she was breathing normally.
"And so we're stuck," Darien said with a sigh, none too happy.
"Why were you unhappy when you learned where you are?" Miroku asked.
"Because I know my history," Darien replied but would say no more.
"My parents are going to start worrying soon," Serena said sadly.
"Do you want me to bring them a message?" Kagome asked.
Serena shook her head. "I don't know where they would be right now. But maybe you could bring one to my friends?" she asked hopefully.
"Of course." Kagome dug into her backpack and found a pen and a piece of paper and handed them to Serena. She offered to do them same for Darien, but he just shook his head.
After thinking for a few moments, Serena began to write.
'Girls,
I'm sorry I missed the meeting, but I have a really good excuse! I just can't tell you it, not directly anyways. I've gotten caught up in something and will be gone for who knows how long. Don't bother looking for me, because I don't think I can be found. I'll try to make it home soon, but again, I don't know how long it will take. Show my parents this note and tell them not to worry. (I'll be fine Mom and Dad, please don't worry, I'm fine and I'm with friends.)
Well, at least I get to miss school. Love you and take care,
Serena
P.S. Darien got sucked into this thing too, so don't worry about him either. (Don't get mad Rei, believe me, it wasn't my choice!)'
Serena handed the note to Kagome. "Read that and tell me if it reveals too much."
Kagome quickly scanned the note. "It looks good. Who do I bring it to?"
"Downtown there is an arcade called Crown Arcade. It's not too hard to find. It's on the main road about half a mile away from my school." Kagome nodded, she had an idea where it was. "Inside the arcade in the very back booth will be three girls. One will have short blue hair and will be reading a book. Another will have medium length brown hair tied up in a pony tail and she will be trying to calm down the third girl, a very angry girl with long black hair. Put the note on the table and get away as fast as possible and lose yourself in a crowd. If you don't, they'll hunt you down and try to get more information from you. Okay?"
"I think I got it. I'll be back in half an hour, an hour tops." With that she disappeared down the well.
_______________
*Sorry, I don't know the name of the school that Kagome goes to. Narita is the airport by Tokyo. It's a very nice airport too! :) (Had a 7 hour layover there once.)