I've been having trouble with my reviews lately. *sob* So, if you want to review my story, could you please go to my URL and send me an e-mail instead. I'd really appreciate it. If fanficion.net fixes this review problem, I'll let you know. Thanks. Now...ON WITH THE FIC! ^_^
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Yusuke dropped the dice onto the board, watching them roll. They landed on a four and a two, totaling to six. His black elephant moved down the board, coming to a rest right behind Neiko's white lion. He leaned in to see what the board would say.
"Don't be fooled, it isn't thunder; staying put would be a blunder," he read out loud.
Suddenly the room began to shake.
"An earthquake?" Kuwabara cried as the bookcase against the far wall toppled over.
Kurama shook his head. "No, I don't think it's an earthquake."
"Then what the hell is it?!" Yusuke cried.
Neiko turned in her sleep on the bed, uttering on word. "Stampede."
"STAMPEDE?!?!" Yusuke yelled incredulously.
The shaking got more intense, to the point where it was a struggle just to stand up.
"Can we get out of here before the friggin roof comes down or something?!" Yusuke called over the noise.
Kurama nodded in agreement and, after scooping up the still sleeping Neiko in his arms while Kuwabara grabbed the game, he lead the way out. They half-fell half-ran down the stairs and out the door. They didn't stop until they had gotten safely across the street, and not a moment too soon. As they turned back, they were met with an impossible sight.
It was a stampede alright, and what a stampede at that! Animals of every shape and size moving down the center of the street, causing the asphalt to crack. There were mighty rhinos and enormous, two-ton elephants that let out a deafening trumpet as they rumbled past. Zebras made there way here and there through the parade of animals, followed closely by jumping gazelles. They crushed cars and bent signs as they passed, completely demolishing the street and everything on it. One blind and old looking rhino stumbled along at the back of the group, bumping into the side of a house or two before finding it's way back to the street.
The group watched all of this, stunned. They had seen many strange and all together unbelievable things over their past adventures, but never anything like this. Kuwabara was the first to voice the groups astonishment.
"Whoa," he breathed, staring after the stampeding animals as they continued down the street, into the distance.
"What was that?" a voice asked. They all looked to find that Neiko had awakened form her drug-induced slumber. "I thought I heard something," she said as Kurama gently set her on her feet.
"Oh, it was SOMETHING all right," Yusuke scoffed, as he examined a stop sight that had been bent flat against the ground by a passing elephant.
"Why don't we finish the game out here? You know, so something like that doesn't happen again and totally destroy Kurama's house," Keiko suggested.
"Sure why not, Kuwabara, it's your turn," Yusuke said.
Kurama gave Keiko an appreciative smile as Kuwabara rolled, glad that his house was no longer in danger.
Kuwabara's dice skidded across the board, finally stopping on a five and a four, totaling to nine. His white rhino moved nine spaces, stopping as more sinister words began to appear.
"With six foot wingspan, sound of swish; it thinks the game board is a fish," he read out loud.
"What does that mean?" Keiko asked. She didn't have to wait long for an answer.
Before anyone could stop it, and enormous seagull had swooped down out of nowhere and picked the game board up in it's beak.
"Nice, bird. Good, bird," Neiko cooed, taking a step towards the bird as it stood there at her feet with the game clutched in it's sharp beak. It just blinked stupidly at her. She took another step, and again the bird didn't register her as a threat. Then she lunged, and the bird took off, leaving her to skid across the grass empty-handed.
"Damn bird! Come back here with that!" Yusuke yelled, taking off after the bird.
Neiko was after him in a flash, and soon Hiei had blurred away too. Kurama and Kuwabara were about to follow as well, when they heard Keiko scream. They turned to see what was wrong now, and took a step back in shock.
They had forgotten about the bats. The tree directly behind them was filled with nothing but big, yellow eyes.
"Just don't make any sudden movements and we shouldn't have anything to worry about," Kurama instructed, not really in the mood to fight off hundreds of attacking bats. Keiko and Kuwabara nodded, and the three of them started to slowly back away. Luck wasn't on their side, however.
The blind rhino had evidently gotten lost from the stampeding group once again. It came running blindly around the corner at full speed. It's horned noes hit the tree going forty miles per hour, knocking the tree clean over and sending the bats up into the air in an enormous black cloud.
Keiko screamed and covered her head, Kurama and Kuwabara doing the same, except for the screaming of course. They were engulfed in an endless sea of black wings. After about thirty seconds of this, Kuwabara took out his spirit sword and began swatting at the bats, hitting only a handful of them. Kurama, on the other hand, realized how long it would take to fight of all of the bats like this and focused on finding Keiko. He finally managed to locate her and, grabbing her hand, dragged her back across the street, out of the cloud of bats. They were joined shortly by Kuwabara once he realized he was now alone. The bats, lacking a target to terrorize, took of into the sky in search of another tree they could rest in until dark. The poor rhino...well...he had knocked himself unconscious when he had hit the tree.
With the treat of the bats gone, Kuwabara, Keiko, and Kurama set off to rejoin the others. After about five minutes of walking in the general direction where they had seen Yusuke and others run, they spotted them. They were by a fast-moving stream that had a small access bridge over it for cars. The bird had rested on a pile of rocks protruding from the middle of the stream, setting the game down on another rock in front of it, where the game teetered dangerously. Yusuke was on the bank, trying to reach the game without tipping it into the water or scaring the bird. Neiko and Hiei were watching with amused looks on their faces.
Yusuke stretched his hand a little farther, but the bird made a move to grab the game, accidentally knocking it into the stream. The disconcerted bird flew off while the group stared in horror as their only salvation from the mess they had created floated further and further out of reach.
Neiko spotted a branch leaning over the water further down stream, and took off for it at a sprint. When she reached it, she quickly climbed up it, trying to ignore the groans it made as it threatened to break under her. When she finally reached the end, she locked her legs around it and hung upside down, her hair brushing against the surface of the water. As the game floated past, she promptly grabbed it and scrambled off the branch before it broke under her weight.
"Good thinking, Neiko," Yusuke said as she collapsed onto the bank, game in hand.
"Thanks," she smiled, opening up the game and making sure it wasn't damaged. It wasn't. The bird hadn't so much as chipped the paint and, despite being dropped in the water, the inside was bone-dry.
"Here, it's your turn," she said, handing the dice to Kurama.
He reluctantly took the dice and rolled them across the game's eerily dry surface. The dice tumbled to a stop on a one and a six, totaling to seven. The white elephant piece moved down its path, stopping as smoky words appeared once again.
"Jungle plague germs. There's a medley, you can't see them, but they're deadly," Kurama read out loud, paling slightly.
"Jungle plague?" Yusuke asked nervously, reading over the message once again to make sure he wasn't mistaken. Kurama nodded numbly. They didn't have to a wait long to find your exactly what 'jungle plague' was. Just as with all the other messages, this one took effect rather quickly.
Kurama lost all color in his face, suddenly breaking out in a visible cold sweat.
"Kurama!" Yusuke cried, as the red-head collapsed forward. Yusuke caught him just in time. He gently laid his ailing friend of the grass, not sure what else to do.
All of the usual sparkle about Kurama's emerald eyes was completely gone and his breaths came in ragged, uneven gasps. Neiko turned away. Having watched her mother die of some strange illness in a cold, sterilized hospital bed, she simply couldn't watch.
"KURAMA!" Yusuke screamed again as Kurama's dull, emerald eyes rolled back in his head as unconsciousness took him.
"NO! NO, NO, NO! This isn't suppose to happen! You can't die like this!!!" Yusuke yelled, shaking Kurama. There was no response. Keiko was crying by now, and Kuwabara simply sat stunned. Hiei wasn't sure what to do, or what to feel. He just stood their and stared at he scene unfolding before his eyes.
Neiko, who had turned away, opened the eyes that she had clamped shut and caught sight of the game board. It gave her an idea.
"Hiei, roll the dice!" she yelled, holding the dice out for Hiei to take.
"WHAT?!" he asked. He wasn't sure what to do, but continuing the game most definitely wasn't it.
"Hiei, it's your turn!" Neiko insisted.
"How can you be thinking about that damn game?!" Hiei cried, renting all of his anger on the girl.
"Maybe it will help!" Neiko protested.
Kurama elapsed into a fit of coughing that left flecks of blood on his pale lips.
"HIEI! PLEASE!" Neiko cried desperately.
Hiei was about to argue back, when Yusuke cut him off.
"Hiei, it may not help, but it couldn't hurt," he said.
Hiei stared for a moment, first at Neiko, then at Yusuke. His eyes finally came to a rest on Kurama. He winced as his friend let out another fit of coughs, coating his lips with more blood.
Silently, Hiei snatched the dice from Neiko's hand and threw them to the ground. They landed on a one and a two, totaling to three. His black rhino moved three spaces at an agonizingly slow pace. Finally, it stopped and words formed in the black abyss once again.
Hiei read them out loud. "Here's a lesson you will learn, sometimes you must go back a turn."
Once he had finished the sentence, his rhino moved back to it's original position, and Kurama's white elephant did the same, moving back to where it was before Kurama had taken his turn. The effects of the virus on Kurama seemed to stop as well.
Kurama's skin slowly began to regain it's usual color and the cold sweat ceased to pump form his pores. After another minute or so of everyone watching anxiously, the red-head opened his eyes to reveal green pools that had regained all of their original life. He sat up slowly, looking at all of them staring at him. Then everyone stared to talk at once.
"Oh, Kurama! I'm so glad your okay!" Keiko squealed while Yusuke yelled "I knew you'd wouldn't let that stupid virus get the best of you. The day Kurama dies of any kind of sickness is the day hell freezes over!" not to mention Kuwabara's scream of "Oh man! You scared me buddy!," and Neiko's cry of "Oh thank God! You really had me worried there for a minute!"
Hiei just smiled and uttered a relieved "Hn," as Kurama blinked in surprise at the group bombarding him with praise all at once.
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Yusuke dropped the dice onto the board, watching them roll. They landed on a four and a two, totaling to six. His black elephant moved down the board, coming to a rest right behind Neiko's white lion. He leaned in to see what the board would say.
"Don't be fooled, it isn't thunder; staying put would be a blunder," he read out loud.
Suddenly the room began to shake.
"An earthquake?" Kuwabara cried as the bookcase against the far wall toppled over.
Kurama shook his head. "No, I don't think it's an earthquake."
"Then what the hell is it?!" Yusuke cried.
Neiko turned in her sleep on the bed, uttering on word. "Stampede."
"STAMPEDE?!?!" Yusuke yelled incredulously.
The shaking got more intense, to the point where it was a struggle just to stand up.
"Can we get out of here before the friggin roof comes down or something?!" Yusuke called over the noise.
Kurama nodded in agreement and, after scooping up the still sleeping Neiko in his arms while Kuwabara grabbed the game, he lead the way out. They half-fell half-ran down the stairs and out the door. They didn't stop until they had gotten safely across the street, and not a moment too soon. As they turned back, they were met with an impossible sight.
It was a stampede alright, and what a stampede at that! Animals of every shape and size moving down the center of the street, causing the asphalt to crack. There were mighty rhinos and enormous, two-ton elephants that let out a deafening trumpet as they rumbled past. Zebras made there way here and there through the parade of animals, followed closely by jumping gazelles. They crushed cars and bent signs as they passed, completely demolishing the street and everything on it. One blind and old looking rhino stumbled along at the back of the group, bumping into the side of a house or two before finding it's way back to the street.
The group watched all of this, stunned. They had seen many strange and all together unbelievable things over their past adventures, but never anything like this. Kuwabara was the first to voice the groups astonishment.
"Whoa," he breathed, staring after the stampeding animals as they continued down the street, into the distance.
"What was that?" a voice asked. They all looked to find that Neiko had awakened form her drug-induced slumber. "I thought I heard something," she said as Kurama gently set her on her feet.
"Oh, it was SOMETHING all right," Yusuke scoffed, as he examined a stop sight that had been bent flat against the ground by a passing elephant.
"Why don't we finish the game out here? You know, so something like that doesn't happen again and totally destroy Kurama's house," Keiko suggested.
"Sure why not, Kuwabara, it's your turn," Yusuke said.
Kurama gave Keiko an appreciative smile as Kuwabara rolled, glad that his house was no longer in danger.
Kuwabara's dice skidded across the board, finally stopping on a five and a four, totaling to nine. His white rhino moved nine spaces, stopping as more sinister words began to appear.
"With six foot wingspan, sound of swish; it thinks the game board is a fish," he read out loud.
"What does that mean?" Keiko asked. She didn't have to wait long for an answer.
Before anyone could stop it, and enormous seagull had swooped down out of nowhere and picked the game board up in it's beak.
"Nice, bird. Good, bird," Neiko cooed, taking a step towards the bird as it stood there at her feet with the game clutched in it's sharp beak. It just blinked stupidly at her. She took another step, and again the bird didn't register her as a threat. Then she lunged, and the bird took off, leaving her to skid across the grass empty-handed.
"Damn bird! Come back here with that!" Yusuke yelled, taking off after the bird.
Neiko was after him in a flash, and soon Hiei had blurred away too. Kurama and Kuwabara were about to follow as well, when they heard Keiko scream. They turned to see what was wrong now, and took a step back in shock.
They had forgotten about the bats. The tree directly behind them was filled with nothing but big, yellow eyes.
"Just don't make any sudden movements and we shouldn't have anything to worry about," Kurama instructed, not really in the mood to fight off hundreds of attacking bats. Keiko and Kuwabara nodded, and the three of them started to slowly back away. Luck wasn't on their side, however.
The blind rhino had evidently gotten lost from the stampeding group once again. It came running blindly around the corner at full speed. It's horned noes hit the tree going forty miles per hour, knocking the tree clean over and sending the bats up into the air in an enormous black cloud.
Keiko screamed and covered her head, Kurama and Kuwabara doing the same, except for the screaming of course. They were engulfed in an endless sea of black wings. After about thirty seconds of this, Kuwabara took out his spirit sword and began swatting at the bats, hitting only a handful of them. Kurama, on the other hand, realized how long it would take to fight of all of the bats like this and focused on finding Keiko. He finally managed to locate her and, grabbing her hand, dragged her back across the street, out of the cloud of bats. They were joined shortly by Kuwabara once he realized he was now alone. The bats, lacking a target to terrorize, took of into the sky in search of another tree they could rest in until dark. The poor rhino...well...he had knocked himself unconscious when he had hit the tree.
With the treat of the bats gone, Kuwabara, Keiko, and Kurama set off to rejoin the others. After about five minutes of walking in the general direction where they had seen Yusuke and others run, they spotted them. They were by a fast-moving stream that had a small access bridge over it for cars. The bird had rested on a pile of rocks protruding from the middle of the stream, setting the game down on another rock in front of it, where the game teetered dangerously. Yusuke was on the bank, trying to reach the game without tipping it into the water or scaring the bird. Neiko and Hiei were watching with amused looks on their faces.
Yusuke stretched his hand a little farther, but the bird made a move to grab the game, accidentally knocking it into the stream. The disconcerted bird flew off while the group stared in horror as their only salvation from the mess they had created floated further and further out of reach.
Neiko spotted a branch leaning over the water further down stream, and took off for it at a sprint. When she reached it, she quickly climbed up it, trying to ignore the groans it made as it threatened to break under her. When she finally reached the end, she locked her legs around it and hung upside down, her hair brushing against the surface of the water. As the game floated past, she promptly grabbed it and scrambled off the branch before it broke under her weight.
"Good thinking, Neiko," Yusuke said as she collapsed onto the bank, game in hand.
"Thanks," she smiled, opening up the game and making sure it wasn't damaged. It wasn't. The bird hadn't so much as chipped the paint and, despite being dropped in the water, the inside was bone-dry.
"Here, it's your turn," she said, handing the dice to Kurama.
He reluctantly took the dice and rolled them across the game's eerily dry surface. The dice tumbled to a stop on a one and a six, totaling to seven. The white elephant piece moved down its path, stopping as smoky words appeared once again.
"Jungle plague germs. There's a medley, you can't see them, but they're deadly," Kurama read out loud, paling slightly.
"Jungle plague?" Yusuke asked nervously, reading over the message once again to make sure he wasn't mistaken. Kurama nodded numbly. They didn't have to a wait long to find your exactly what 'jungle plague' was. Just as with all the other messages, this one took effect rather quickly.
Kurama lost all color in his face, suddenly breaking out in a visible cold sweat.
"Kurama!" Yusuke cried, as the red-head collapsed forward. Yusuke caught him just in time. He gently laid his ailing friend of the grass, not sure what else to do.
All of the usual sparkle about Kurama's emerald eyes was completely gone and his breaths came in ragged, uneven gasps. Neiko turned away. Having watched her mother die of some strange illness in a cold, sterilized hospital bed, she simply couldn't watch.
"KURAMA!" Yusuke screamed again as Kurama's dull, emerald eyes rolled back in his head as unconsciousness took him.
"NO! NO, NO, NO! This isn't suppose to happen! You can't die like this!!!" Yusuke yelled, shaking Kurama. There was no response. Keiko was crying by now, and Kuwabara simply sat stunned. Hiei wasn't sure what to do, or what to feel. He just stood their and stared at he scene unfolding before his eyes.
Neiko, who had turned away, opened the eyes that she had clamped shut and caught sight of the game board. It gave her an idea.
"Hiei, roll the dice!" she yelled, holding the dice out for Hiei to take.
"WHAT?!" he asked. He wasn't sure what to do, but continuing the game most definitely wasn't it.
"Hiei, it's your turn!" Neiko insisted.
"How can you be thinking about that damn game?!" Hiei cried, renting all of his anger on the girl.
"Maybe it will help!" Neiko protested.
Kurama elapsed into a fit of coughing that left flecks of blood on his pale lips.
"HIEI! PLEASE!" Neiko cried desperately.
Hiei was about to argue back, when Yusuke cut him off.
"Hiei, it may not help, but it couldn't hurt," he said.
Hiei stared for a moment, first at Neiko, then at Yusuke. His eyes finally came to a rest on Kurama. He winced as his friend let out another fit of coughs, coating his lips with more blood.
Silently, Hiei snatched the dice from Neiko's hand and threw them to the ground. They landed on a one and a two, totaling to three. His black rhino moved three spaces at an agonizingly slow pace. Finally, it stopped and words formed in the black abyss once again.
Hiei read them out loud. "Here's a lesson you will learn, sometimes you must go back a turn."
Once he had finished the sentence, his rhino moved back to it's original position, and Kurama's white elephant did the same, moving back to where it was before Kurama had taken his turn. The effects of the virus on Kurama seemed to stop as well.
Kurama's skin slowly began to regain it's usual color and the cold sweat ceased to pump form his pores. After another minute or so of everyone watching anxiously, the red-head opened his eyes to reveal green pools that had regained all of their original life. He sat up slowly, looking at all of them staring at him. Then everyone stared to talk at once.
"Oh, Kurama! I'm so glad your okay!" Keiko squealed while Yusuke yelled "I knew you'd wouldn't let that stupid virus get the best of you. The day Kurama dies of any kind of sickness is the day hell freezes over!" not to mention Kuwabara's scream of "Oh man! You scared me buddy!," and Neiko's cry of "Oh thank God! You really had me worried there for a minute!"
Hiei just smiled and uttered a relieved "Hn," as Kurama blinked in surprise at the group bombarding him with praise all at once.