Yes, I know I'm really late with this chapter. And I apologize (sort of.) I'm just really, really, lazy and let the days slip by.
AAAAA – Change of time/place and whatnot.
"Talking", 'Thinking', .:Telepathic communication:.
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Skava
Chapter four: And up, and up, and up…
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Skava awoke to the beginnings of a morning peeking through the lip of the burrow she had taken refuge in the night before. The transformation that the land had taken was amazing. Sun glared off a fresh blanket of pure white snow, glittering like diamonds in the light.
'Wait… was it really only last night? Oh no, my internal clock still isn't set to this world. I have no idea what day it is! I have to get moving!' She scramble out of her shelter and, blinking in the sunlight, began to leap up the slope.
'How did I let myself sleep that long! Why didn't I wake up immediately after the blizzard stopped? Why, why, WHY?!?!' cursing herself and running at the same time, she checked her surroundings, and was slightly surprised to find her three pursuers closer behind her than she would have thought.
'Well, are least they are still behind me. But I still have to hurry. I can't stop, or they will catch me.' So saying (A/N: Well, really, thinking, but let's not quibble) she raised her speed and became merely a blur, dodging behind trees and hopping over rocks.
AAAAA
"Ok, so how much longer NOW?"
"Yusuke. Three hours ago you were told 10 to 12 hours. Do the math." Yusuke responded with his only (not exactly) clever comeback.
"Hey Hiei, meet my little friend. He's called the middle finger." Hiei did not respond, preferring to shake his head at the nerve of youth and the idiocy of a certain black haired teenager. They climbed on silently for a while longer…
"Ok, how much time NOW?"
"YUSUKE!"
AAAAA
Onward and onward she ran.
'Crap, they really are catching up to me. How are they doing this? Do they know where I am? They are quicker than they have any right to be.' Suddenly, she felt something at her back twitch.
'Oh no, is it really that serious? All right, all right, I'll use them.' So thinking, she felt the back of her shirt rip as wings burst through to shine in the sun. Made to look like moth wings, they flapped a few times, lifting her only slightly off the ground. She began to run faster, using her wings like a glider, keeping her above ground longer and prolonging her strides. To her great relief, she felt the distance between the three behind her and she grow longer. Still, she adjusted her course to take herself out of their path and ran on.
AAAAA
"Yusuke, let me make you a deal. Refrain from asking that imbecile question for the rest of the climb and I will refrain from sharpening my sword on your throat."
"But this is boring! And hard!"
"Well, I don't care if you are roasting in the eternal fires of hell, ask one more time and I will drag you out of it and just as you are about to breath a sigh of relief, I will throw you back in just to listen to you scream!"
"Ok boys, let's stop the arguing please. This will not help our pursuit for Skava, it will only slow us down. Yusuke, I will ask you to please stop pestering us with constant questions. They are aggravating. I will tell you when an hour has gone by, AND how much longer it is likely to take. Will that do?" Yusuke pouted in mid jump over a fallen branch.
"But no one's talking except me! If I stop talking… then no one will be talking!" (A/N: He's a smart one…)
"Just deduced that, eh Detective?"
"Shut up Hiei."
AAAAA
Skava still ran. She ran over rocks, ducked under branches (remember, they're still in a forest) and occasionally found her foot crashing through a thin layer of snow with a soft and muffled thud. When this happened it was usually accompanied by a muffled curse and a hurried scramble to dislodge her foot from the snow. Then she would rise and be bounding off again.
Suddenly, she felt her self flying as a rock that she had not seen rose to exactly the right height, tripping her perfectly. She hit the snow and rolled, her wings snapping back into her back to prevent damage, leaving two small holes in her shirt located up between her shoulder blades where they had originated. Had any one gotten close enough to look closely, they would notice two discolored knobs where they were stored. She raised herself with a soft moan and shook herself off, reminiscent of a dog. She ran a quick hand through her silvery hair and sighed.
'You know, I'm actually kind of glad those things are gone. I know they help me with speed, but I still hate to use them. Oh well, better get going. Lord knows how much longer I have until they start to encroach on me again.'
AAAAA
Amazingly…Yusuke was silent. Hiei was reveling in the silence, while Kurama was reveling in that his bargaining had actually gotten through the Toushin. Yusuke had agreed to keep his mouth shut until someone talked to him, which Kurama promised to faithfully do every hour. Kurama was, indeed, beginning to feel a little more optimistic about the entire climb. They were moving at much faster pace now the Yusuke wasn't pestering them, causing Hiei to threaten bodily harm, causing both of them to start arguing like children, causing delays, and Kurama's own foot hadn't sunken into hidden pockets of snow for at least 15 minutes. However, he had no real idea of where they were on the mountain, nor even how high up the temple was that they had to guard and, eventually, attempt to protect from the thief, as well as capture. Then he began to think about that.
'How high exactly IS this temple? And where exactly are we? I've felt a general upward shift and a gradual depletion in oxygen level, which means a rise in elevation, but exactly where are we? The clouds have been covering the top of this mountain since the beginning and now that we are in the trees it will be even harder to see, even if the trees do come to sudden and unlikely stop.' Sudden his sense of plant life stopped as he stepped out of the line of trees into a completely bare strip of snow that lasted for the good part of a mile before starting up again.
'Well, that would solve the tree problem…' Also, as though a huge fan had started, the fog and clouds that obscured their goal began to shred and fade away, leaving them with a clear view of exactly how much higher they had to climb.
"…Oh shit."
Kurama couldn't agree more.
AAAAA
Skava paused in her run as she felt her mind extra sense twitch. Looking up through the trees, she thought she could see the cloud cover on the top of the mountain beginning to shred away, but it was hard to tell. She shrugged, and continued to run. Distance wasn't really an issue in her mind; she had no problem with endurance runs, although the elevation might start to get to her. Really her only concern was time, and that not very much. However, if she wanted to use this gem as soon as possible, it had to be during the dark moon and that was three days away. She wanted to be off the mountain and out of the ice world long before then. That meant she had to run, and keep running. She could not allow herself to stop and rest. Her internal clock had adjusted itself accordingly and could feel the seconds tick by. She continued on.
AAAAA
"Oh damn it, Kurama! I thought this would take hours, but that! That will take DAYS!!! I hate this! All for some stupid girl thief that happened to steal one of Koenma's stupid pendants and now we're hiking up some damned CLIFF and it's going to take days and she might already be GONE!! THIS IS STUPID!!!"
"Yusuke, please refrain from shouting, it will not help the situation and my ears are hurting." Incredibly, the teenager quieted, preferring to sulk in silence.
"Thank you. Now, I have a few things to say. One: Shouting does not help anything. Two: I highly doubt that it will take days. Yes, it will take longer than I first predicted, but it will still only take us a day and a half at the most. Now, let's move before night catches us, I refuse to hike once the sun goes down."
"Yes Yusuke, and be aware that if you offend my ears again with your incessant noise I will not hesitate to knock you out for a few hours. And neither of us will carry you."
"That's cold Hiei."
"As the snow will be if you are left lying in it. Now let's move!"
"All right Kurama, let's go." So saying, the trio, once again, began to hike up through the snow, up the mountain.
A/N: Yes, I know there is a little more swearing in this chapter than before, but it mainly goes away after this. Tell me if you think I should up the rating, but I think it's fine.
Review Responses:
Naoko Asakura 009: No, why would I mind? I take it as a compliment, thank you. Sorry I took a long time to get this chapter up.