Author's note: Well, it's been a little while, but here's chapter two. But
first off, I really, really want to thank all of the people that reviewed.
Thank you!!! Reviews really rock. You have no idea how great they can make
a writer feel . Anyway, on with the story. Oh yeah. One other thing. I DO
know that Miaka and Tamahome's daughter is named Hikari, but . . . I like
the name Tsubaki better . Whenever someone says Hikari, I think of
hickory nuts (not offense to anyone named Hikari! Sorry!). I did
consider naming one of my cats Hikari, though. They're black and white and
I wanted to name the white one Hikari and the black one Yami .
Unfortunately, that didn't really pan out... but ANYWAY, as you can probably
tell I have a serious problem with ramblings. So, once again, on with the
story! But first . . .
Disclaimer: I claim nothing, except for the stuff I claimed in the last chapter .
Tasuki doesn't want to give up Tama and Miaka's kid, apparently. Every time he sees me he keeps laughing and poking at me and telling me how much I remind him of my parents. I hardly notice it, since I think I'm still a little in shock. I mean, I'm inside a story for christsake!
After finding out that I'm the daughter of the Suzaku no Miko, Cassian seems to be avoiding me. I'm not quite sure why. I'm not really sure what's going to happen either. So I asked Tasuki, the only person who seemed to be in charge.
"What's going to happen??" He exclaimed. "Hmm...I know! The first thing we have to do is take you to the palace!"
"What?? The palace?? Why??" I exclaimed back.
"Because!" He said, as if it were obvious. "You're Miaka's daughter! The emperor's gonna want to meet you, and probably everyone else too!"
"But... but my parents probably have no idea where I am," I stuttered.
Tasuki waved a hand carelessly. "Ah, they'll figure it out."
Somehow, I wasn't quite sure about that. But before I knew it, things were moving so fast that I was swept off my feet. I hadn't really thought Tasuki was all that serious about taking me to the palace, but apparently he was. The next thing I knew, he was yelling to some bandits to ready the horses.
I have never ridden a horse before. This was a problem. As I was trying as best I could to scramble up onto the back of a horse that seemed as high as a building, I heard wicked laughter from behind me. Slowly turning around and glaring, I spied Cassian, laughing at my fumbling attempts to mount. Suddenly Tasuki was behind him and smacked him across the head. "Go on now!" He said. "Help her with her horse!"
"No way!" Cassian argued. "If she can't get onto her own horse then she should just walk!!"
Tasuki tapped him hard on the head with the tip of his tessen. "Now, now, my son. Yer gonna do what I tell you to do! Come on, hurry it up! We don't have all day! Have you even packed yet?"
"M-Me??" Cassian exclaimed, looking around frantically to see if there was anyone else whom Tasuki might have been remarking too.
"Of course you!" Tasuki said. "You didn't think you were staying behind, did you? You've never even been to the capital before! Aren't you at least curious about it??"
"Well, yeah..." Cassian muttered. "But I would have preferred to go there under different circumstances... much different circumstances."
Horseback riding was fun... for about the first half an hour. After that I started feeling sick with each bump after bump after bump. Cassian seemed to be enjoying my suffering though, and I would occasionally hear a low snicker from behind me. I wondered what he had against me, anyway. What had I ever done to him?
By the end of the day, the insides of my legs felt like someone had taken a knife and scrapped off all my skin. It hurt to bend them. I grimaced and held back the pain, not wanting Cassian to see how much pain I was in. Unfortunately, it was quite obvious once I dismounted. Well, I wouldn't call it dismounting. I would call it falling.
"Gods, I forgot," Tasuki said as he started to set up a fire. "They don't have horses in your world, do they?"
"Yes, they do," I said stiffly, my legs still aching. "We just don't ride them around all day."
"Right..." Cassian said from behind me, pulling out the mats that had been rolled and strapped to his horse.
"Anyway," I said, eager to change the subject. "How long do you think it will take till we reach the capital?"
"About five days," Tasuki said.
"F-Five days..." I said weakly. I couldn't imagine five more days of this pain. Wasn't there any other way besides horses to get around? Suddenly a thick sheet was thrown over my head and I twisted to untangle myself. "What the hell??" I said, managing to get the sheet off my head. Cassian grinned wickedly at me as he threw down his own mat beside the fire.
"Oi." Tasuki said strictly. "Stop fighting you two. I'll be right back and I don't want you two to tear each other to pieces by the time I get back."
"Where are you going?" I asked as he rose.
"There's a river a couple miles up this way. Sometimes it gets flooded at this time of year. If it is, then tomorrow we'll have to take the long way down the river bank to the next bridge." Tasuki explained as he pulled himself back onto his horse. "I'm just gonna go ahead and check. It'll save us a lot of time tomorrow. Don't worry; I'll be back in about an hour. Hya!" He yelled as he kicked his horse in the side and disappeared into the darkness, the thumping of the horse's hooves against the dirt slowly fading away.
I glanced at Cassian only to find him glancing back at me from the corner of his eyes. When our gazes caught, he immediately ripped away. Great, I thought. Just great. Tasuki told me not to worry, but how can I not worry with this guy around?
After an uncomfortable few seconds of silence, Cassian plopped down on his mat across the fire from me. I was already sitting in my own mat. "You keep watch first," he said, to my surprise.
"We're... keeping watch?" I asked.
"Of course!" He shot back. "We aren't on Mt. Reikaku anymore so we have no idea what's lurking around in these woods."
I'll sleep great tonight, I thought. "Why do I have to keep watch first?"
"Because it's easier since you haven't actually gone to sleep yet. It's harder when you're woken up in the middle of the night and have to stay awake." Cassian rolled over in his blankets, his back facing me. "Just wake me up when Tasuki gets back."
I was silent for a few minutes, which seemed to pass by agonizingly slowly. There was nothing to do but stare into the darkness or into the fire. And since the fire made my eyes hurt, I chose the darkness. I glanced over at Cassian. He wasn't moving. "Hey... Cassian." I said. "Are you awake?"
"Whatta you want?" He grumbled, but he sounded completely awake. I was guessing he was just lying there staring off into the darkness like me.
"How could you don't call Tasuki 'Dad' or 'Father' or anything?" I asked. "You just call him Tasuki like everyone else."
"I don't know!" Cassian said, his back still facing me. "That's just how I grew up, I guess."
"What about your mother?" I asked. This question had been prodding me for a while, but I hadn't had enough courage to ask Tasuki himself.
Cassian didn't say anything. I realized that I had probably made a stupid mistake and his mom was probably dead or something and now he was going to hate me even more than before, if that was possible, and it was all because I had to open my big mouth and-
"She..."
My thoughts jerked to a stop as I heard Cassian speak.
"My mother, she..." Cassian whispered so softly that his voice was drown out by the crackling flames. He didn't continue.
That's the last thing I remember.
I now had a headache that made the burns on my legs feel like a splinter. When I first opened my eyes I had the sensation of just waking up in the morning and I thought that maybe, this was all a crazy nightmare and I had heard one to many stories.
"You okay, stupid girl?"
Okay, that was definitely Cassian, and unless there was a clone of Cassian in my house, this wasn't a dream.
I sat up with extreme difficulty and my eyes seemed off focus. I blinked them hard and hit the side of my head as if I could jolt them back into place. "W-What happened?" I asked, still squinting my eyes.
"What happened was you turned out to be a lousy watch guard," Cassian said. "They snuck right up behind us before you noticed anything."
"Who snuck up behind us??" I asked frantically.
"See!" He exclaimed. "I knew! You didn't even notice them until they hit you on the head!"
Well, that explains the headache. "Okay," I said calmly. "Please, just explain to me straightly what happened."
"We've been captured, that's what happened," Cassian said. "Look around!"
For the first real time I took notice of our surroundings. We were both in a tiny rectangular space with a high ceiling. Each of us had one of our wrist chained to the wall, and walls of boxes were stacked up on either side of us. "Where... exactly are we?" I asked.
Cassian sighed. "The worst place possible. A wagon."
"A wagon?" I repeated, wondering if I had heard him right. Suddenly I felt the floor shake and a low growling. "W-What's going on??"
"Looks like they've decided to leave," Cassian said, and sure enough, we started to move.
"So... we're chained to the inside of a wagon," I said. Things still weren't that clear. "And... WHY would someone chain us to the inside of a wagon??"
"Gods, you really are clueless," he remarked. "They're probably gypsies, slave dealers, or something like that. It appears that they intend to sell us."
"S-Sell us??" I stuttered in disbelief.
"Stop repeating everything I say," Cassian glared. "You're not deaf, are you?"
I quickly shut my mouth, but it wasn't long before I needed to ask another question. "Um, so, Tasuki's coming to save us, right?"
Cassian glared at me. "If he can find us. We're moving at a rapid pace, and we've got about an hours lead. This is all your fault."
"How is this my fault??" I exclaimed. "I don't have eyes on the back of my head!!"
"YEAH, WELL YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN PAYING ATTENTION INSTEAD OF ASKING ME STUPID QUESTIONS ABOUT MY MOTHER!!!"
I swallowed. That was... loud.
We didn't say anything for a long while after that. I swear I could feel the hateful energy looming around him. I sighed. It was completely dark in the wagon. It must have still been sometime around midnight. I wondered if I would make it through this night alive... or at all.
Disclaimer: I claim nothing, except for the stuff I claimed in the last chapter .
Tasuki doesn't want to give up Tama and Miaka's kid, apparently. Every time he sees me he keeps laughing and poking at me and telling me how much I remind him of my parents. I hardly notice it, since I think I'm still a little in shock. I mean, I'm inside a story for christsake!
After finding out that I'm the daughter of the Suzaku no Miko, Cassian seems to be avoiding me. I'm not quite sure why. I'm not really sure what's going to happen either. So I asked Tasuki, the only person who seemed to be in charge.
"What's going to happen??" He exclaimed. "Hmm...I know! The first thing we have to do is take you to the palace!"
"What?? The palace?? Why??" I exclaimed back.
"Because!" He said, as if it were obvious. "You're Miaka's daughter! The emperor's gonna want to meet you, and probably everyone else too!"
"But... but my parents probably have no idea where I am," I stuttered.
Tasuki waved a hand carelessly. "Ah, they'll figure it out."
Somehow, I wasn't quite sure about that. But before I knew it, things were moving so fast that I was swept off my feet. I hadn't really thought Tasuki was all that serious about taking me to the palace, but apparently he was. The next thing I knew, he was yelling to some bandits to ready the horses.
I have never ridden a horse before. This was a problem. As I was trying as best I could to scramble up onto the back of a horse that seemed as high as a building, I heard wicked laughter from behind me. Slowly turning around and glaring, I spied Cassian, laughing at my fumbling attempts to mount. Suddenly Tasuki was behind him and smacked him across the head. "Go on now!" He said. "Help her with her horse!"
"No way!" Cassian argued. "If she can't get onto her own horse then she should just walk!!"
Tasuki tapped him hard on the head with the tip of his tessen. "Now, now, my son. Yer gonna do what I tell you to do! Come on, hurry it up! We don't have all day! Have you even packed yet?"
"M-Me??" Cassian exclaimed, looking around frantically to see if there was anyone else whom Tasuki might have been remarking too.
"Of course you!" Tasuki said. "You didn't think you were staying behind, did you? You've never even been to the capital before! Aren't you at least curious about it??"
"Well, yeah..." Cassian muttered. "But I would have preferred to go there under different circumstances... much different circumstances."
Horseback riding was fun... for about the first half an hour. After that I started feeling sick with each bump after bump after bump. Cassian seemed to be enjoying my suffering though, and I would occasionally hear a low snicker from behind me. I wondered what he had against me, anyway. What had I ever done to him?
By the end of the day, the insides of my legs felt like someone had taken a knife and scrapped off all my skin. It hurt to bend them. I grimaced and held back the pain, not wanting Cassian to see how much pain I was in. Unfortunately, it was quite obvious once I dismounted. Well, I wouldn't call it dismounting. I would call it falling.
"Gods, I forgot," Tasuki said as he started to set up a fire. "They don't have horses in your world, do they?"
"Yes, they do," I said stiffly, my legs still aching. "We just don't ride them around all day."
"Right..." Cassian said from behind me, pulling out the mats that had been rolled and strapped to his horse.
"Anyway," I said, eager to change the subject. "How long do you think it will take till we reach the capital?"
"About five days," Tasuki said.
"F-Five days..." I said weakly. I couldn't imagine five more days of this pain. Wasn't there any other way besides horses to get around? Suddenly a thick sheet was thrown over my head and I twisted to untangle myself. "What the hell??" I said, managing to get the sheet off my head. Cassian grinned wickedly at me as he threw down his own mat beside the fire.
"Oi." Tasuki said strictly. "Stop fighting you two. I'll be right back and I don't want you two to tear each other to pieces by the time I get back."
"Where are you going?" I asked as he rose.
"There's a river a couple miles up this way. Sometimes it gets flooded at this time of year. If it is, then tomorrow we'll have to take the long way down the river bank to the next bridge." Tasuki explained as he pulled himself back onto his horse. "I'm just gonna go ahead and check. It'll save us a lot of time tomorrow. Don't worry; I'll be back in about an hour. Hya!" He yelled as he kicked his horse in the side and disappeared into the darkness, the thumping of the horse's hooves against the dirt slowly fading away.
I glanced at Cassian only to find him glancing back at me from the corner of his eyes. When our gazes caught, he immediately ripped away. Great, I thought. Just great. Tasuki told me not to worry, but how can I not worry with this guy around?
After an uncomfortable few seconds of silence, Cassian plopped down on his mat across the fire from me. I was already sitting in my own mat. "You keep watch first," he said, to my surprise.
"We're... keeping watch?" I asked.
"Of course!" He shot back. "We aren't on Mt. Reikaku anymore so we have no idea what's lurking around in these woods."
I'll sleep great tonight, I thought. "Why do I have to keep watch first?"
"Because it's easier since you haven't actually gone to sleep yet. It's harder when you're woken up in the middle of the night and have to stay awake." Cassian rolled over in his blankets, his back facing me. "Just wake me up when Tasuki gets back."
I was silent for a few minutes, which seemed to pass by agonizingly slowly. There was nothing to do but stare into the darkness or into the fire. And since the fire made my eyes hurt, I chose the darkness. I glanced over at Cassian. He wasn't moving. "Hey... Cassian." I said. "Are you awake?"
"Whatta you want?" He grumbled, but he sounded completely awake. I was guessing he was just lying there staring off into the darkness like me.
"How could you don't call Tasuki 'Dad' or 'Father' or anything?" I asked. "You just call him Tasuki like everyone else."
"I don't know!" Cassian said, his back still facing me. "That's just how I grew up, I guess."
"What about your mother?" I asked. This question had been prodding me for a while, but I hadn't had enough courage to ask Tasuki himself.
Cassian didn't say anything. I realized that I had probably made a stupid mistake and his mom was probably dead or something and now he was going to hate me even more than before, if that was possible, and it was all because I had to open my big mouth and-
"She..."
My thoughts jerked to a stop as I heard Cassian speak.
"My mother, she..." Cassian whispered so softly that his voice was drown out by the crackling flames. He didn't continue.
That's the last thing I remember.
I now had a headache that made the burns on my legs feel like a splinter. When I first opened my eyes I had the sensation of just waking up in the morning and I thought that maybe, this was all a crazy nightmare and I had heard one to many stories.
"You okay, stupid girl?"
Okay, that was definitely Cassian, and unless there was a clone of Cassian in my house, this wasn't a dream.
I sat up with extreme difficulty and my eyes seemed off focus. I blinked them hard and hit the side of my head as if I could jolt them back into place. "W-What happened?" I asked, still squinting my eyes.
"What happened was you turned out to be a lousy watch guard," Cassian said. "They snuck right up behind us before you noticed anything."
"Who snuck up behind us??" I asked frantically.
"See!" He exclaimed. "I knew! You didn't even notice them until they hit you on the head!"
Well, that explains the headache. "Okay," I said calmly. "Please, just explain to me straightly what happened."
"We've been captured, that's what happened," Cassian said. "Look around!"
For the first real time I took notice of our surroundings. We were both in a tiny rectangular space with a high ceiling. Each of us had one of our wrist chained to the wall, and walls of boxes were stacked up on either side of us. "Where... exactly are we?" I asked.
Cassian sighed. "The worst place possible. A wagon."
"A wagon?" I repeated, wondering if I had heard him right. Suddenly I felt the floor shake and a low growling. "W-What's going on??"
"Looks like they've decided to leave," Cassian said, and sure enough, we started to move.
"So... we're chained to the inside of a wagon," I said. Things still weren't that clear. "And... WHY would someone chain us to the inside of a wagon??"
"Gods, you really are clueless," he remarked. "They're probably gypsies, slave dealers, or something like that. It appears that they intend to sell us."
"S-Sell us??" I stuttered in disbelief.
"Stop repeating everything I say," Cassian glared. "You're not deaf, are you?"
I quickly shut my mouth, but it wasn't long before I needed to ask another question. "Um, so, Tasuki's coming to save us, right?"
Cassian glared at me. "If he can find us. We're moving at a rapid pace, and we've got about an hours lead. This is all your fault."
"How is this my fault??" I exclaimed. "I don't have eyes on the back of my head!!"
"YEAH, WELL YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN PAYING ATTENTION INSTEAD OF ASKING ME STUPID QUESTIONS ABOUT MY MOTHER!!!"
I swallowed. That was... loud.
We didn't say anything for a long while after that. I swear I could feel the hateful energy looming around him. I sighed. It was completely dark in the wagon. It must have still been sometime around midnight. I wondered if I would make it through this night alive... or at all.