A/N - Wahahaha! The disclaimer is gone! ^-^ Oof that thing bothered
me...¬_¬ And for some weird reason, I didn't notice until now how long
chapter seven is. o.o It's like 7,500 words long. Whoa... That's
definitely a record for me. And! *sob sob* I didn't post this one in under
a week...it took me nine days this time. o Darn...
With You
Chapter 9
Elope?
"Question!"
"No. Don't ask any questions, because I don't want to give any answers!"
"Well I'm going to ask anyway, because I want to know." Kagome stated and quickened her pace a bit. Inuyasha seemed to be walking faster all of a sudden... "I don't have any money, and I don't think you do either, so...how are we going to eat?"
"I'll-"
"No way Inuyasha, you're not going to steal; not while I'm around. So don't even think about it." She admonished.
"Okay..." he grouched. "What is she, a mind reader?" "You can go eat some grass, and I'll get some food for myself off some random farm..."
"Inuyasha..." she sighed and pushed her hands into her apron pockets. He knew that wasn't the point...She didn't want him to steal at all. Would this guy ever learn? "You really shouldn't be..." Kagome's words slowed to a stop and she looked down into her hand as she pulled out of her pocket the two small gold pieces Kaede had given her. Wait...those weren't as small as she remembered. And hadn't Kaede only given her one...?
At that moment, a devious little idea popped into Inuyasha's head. "Hey," he brought himself to a standstill and turned to Kagome as she stopped beside him. "You know how I'm taking you all the way to the western lands? What if I were to say I require a little payment in advance..." he elucidated as he glanced down at the gold pieces in her hand.
"Payment in advance..." she glowered "You never mentioned anything about that. And besides, I don't have anything to give you!"
He gave her a flat look and pointed unceremoniously to her hand. "How about those?"
"Auh!" she gaped, tightly clutching her prize "But we need these for food!"
"Correction; you need me for food. So hand over the money and I'll go nab us something to eat!"
"'Nab' as in steal? From who? Some poor family that's barely getting by with what they have? Inuyasha..." she sighed crossed her arms. "Can't you just skip the stupid 'payment in advance' so we can buy food in stead of stealing it?"
"You can buy food, but I can't, idiot. And you can't accuse me of stealing from the poor - I don't do that! I just borrow from the more wealthy villagers...I'm not evil or anything." He grumbled and slipped his hands into the opposite sleeves. (A/N - You all know that famous little Inuyasha pose. ^_^)
Kagome unfolded her arms, letting them hang fisted and loose at her sides. "What do you mean you can't buy food? I don't plan on using all this money for myself..."
"It's not the money," he sighed impatiently "They won't let me buy food. You still don't get it do you?"
"But I-"Oh wait...that was it, wasn't it? "Is it because you're...what you are?"
Inuyasha made an irritated sound in the back of his throat and twirled in a new direction. "Follow me; I'll get you to the village."
"Oh...okay..." She must have said the wrong thing...hit a soft spot or something. It didn't really surprise her that he was touchy on that subject though; he had the right. It must have been even worse for him than little Hana. For all she knew, he was alone and completely unloved when he was a little boy. An orphan like Hana, but it would have been worse for him, wouldn't it? Being half-demon and all...
He turned around and furrowed his brow at her. "What are you doing? Hurry up!"
By the way he'd looked at her, her face must have been harboring a rather saddened expression. She didn't want to be depressed or anything...that wouldn't help Inuyasha. She had to be cheerful, right? "Coming!" she chirped, slipping a smile onto her face as she jogged up to him.
Inuyasha raised an eyebrow at her joyful mood before he faced forward and resumed his walking again. "What's with her...?" he wondered.
"So," Kagome piped when she caught up to him "Is the nearest village far?" They had been walking on the same forest path since that morning, and hadn't eaten anything. And judging by how the sun was nearly setting, they should have already been eating.
"No; only several miles or so."
"Several miles?! It'll be dark by the time we get there! The markets close at sunset!"
He shrugged indifferently "So?"
"Inuyasha," she frowned at him "If you knew we'd never get there in time to buy anything, then why are you..." Then it hit her. He'd just been acting like they were going to buy food; playing along whenever she'd mentioned it. But he had planned on stealing whatever he wanted all along! "You jerk! You knew it the whole time! Even when I told you that you shouldn't do it, you still planned on it!" she chided and slugged his arm.
"Hey!" he put his hand over his offended limb "That was uncalled for!"
"You're dodging the topic, aren't you?"
"No!"
"You're a horrible liar you know." She gave him a flat look as she put her hands on her hips.
"Well I'm still right!" he spouted.
"About what?!"
"About...about...I don't know! I'm right about something!" Inuyasha shouted back pitifully.
"You're confusing me!"
"I'm confusing me too!"
"If we're both confused, why are we still shouting?!"
"I don't know!!"
"Neither do I..." Kagome frowned "So let's stop."
Inuyasha stood there, trying to think up a response. He'd almost said a nice little 'sure', but he'd stopped himself before then. He couldn't get comfortable around her no matter what. That was the first step to getting closer to her. So if he avoided that, he avoided her, right? This'd be simple...mind over matter, mind over matter... "This silence is freaking uncomfortable though..." he grouched. And what was really awful, was that he couldn't think of how to respond to her...
So he said the first thing he thought of - despite how he cursed himself for it later. (A/N - Much later. ^_^;) "I'll make a deal with you. There's a way I can get you to the village before nightfall, but you'll have to give me one of those gold pieces for my services. We won't need both of them for food; those are worth a lot." He smirked to himself; he was getting money left and right... "Deal?"
Kagome looked at him suspiciously, analyzing his motives in her head. "How could you possibly get me there in such a short amount of time? That doesn't make any sense." A sharp crease marked her brow and her lips were fixed in a tight line as she looked directly at him. "He must have just made that first part up..."
"What, you think I'm lying?" he scowled. But maybe that wasn't something he could blame her for... "I am part demon you know, I'm not as slow as you humans are. All I have to do is carry you and run."
"You're really that fast? Ooh!" she beamed, quite fascinated. "I guess that'd be okay then...but do you have to take a whole piece? I don't think just one of these will last us all the way home..."
"Sure it will." Inuyasha shrugged "And if it doesn't, you said you were a prince's servant or something...right...? The townspeople will probably help you out..."
Kagome looked down at her feet uncomfortably; she hadn't explained about that yet...It seemed that he felt awkward when he'd spoken of it as well - not to mention a little upset. But if she made up some story and convinced him that she really was a prince's servant, he'd never know that she was really a princess...because if a time came when she'd be forced to tell the real truth to him, she wouldn't have the strength to admit that she'd been faking it the whole time. She didn't like keeping him in the dark, but...
She didn't want him to know she was a princess; if he knew, he'd start treating her differently - just like everyone else. Doubtless not too differently; this was Inuyasha she was talking about. But still...he was someone she'd be spending quite a lot of time with, and she didn't want him to be uncomfortable around her. Even though now they were still in the 'argue all the time' stage, it'd pass; Inuyasha would soften over time. It might take a while...but they'd be friends eventually.
Wouldn't they?
Anyway...she should tell him. Despite how he actually seemed to have been a pinch nicer...lying to him for such a long time wouldn't be a good choice. "Inuyasha, about the whole servant thing...I'm..." she quickly swallowed the little lump in her throat and tried to push aside the sudden -and very strong- urge to keep being a 'prince's servant' in his mind. "Sorry for not telling you about that."
Well, that hadn't worked out exactly how she planned.
He shrugged it off nonchalantly as he got into a crouching position "Forget it and get on."
What...? That hadn't bothered him at all? "Okay..." she walked in back of him and stood there staring hesitantly. What if he planned to drop her in another river...?
"Just get on, damnit!" he growled impatiently. "Stupid girl - I'm not going to bite you or anything."
Kagome jumped a little at his abruptness. Well if he was going to be that way about it... "Inuyasha, sit."
With a few choice words, Inuyasha wrenched himself off the forest floor. "What was that for?!"
"For calling me a 'stupid girl' again! I have a name you know, and it's not 'stupid girl'."
"Bitch...!" he snarled as he finally got into a standing position.
"I swear I'll say it again if you don't stop giving me those repulsive nicknames!" she warned.
"Well, if you hadn't stared at me like I was going to eat you and had just gotten on, I wouldn't have called you stupid!"
"I just didn't know if it was safe!"
"Of course it's safe!"
"'We shall see, what we shall see.'" she quoted, holding one finger in the air. That was another one of her mothers' sayings...
"Whatever..." Inuyasha grumbled, crouching down again. "Get on already."
Kagome climbed onto his back obediently and gripped the material at the back of his neck, keeping them latched there as he got to his feet; a little surprised that he hadn't dragged that argument out any farther. But what was really bothering her was that they'd just wasted a good fifteen minutes quarrelling...
"Hold on." He instructed as he glanced back at her with a slightly evil smirk on his lips.
"Huh? - Aah! Inuyasha, you should have warned me about that!!" she yelped, grasping his haori tighter as she closed her eyes and buried her face between her hands. What was his problem!? Jumping off so suddenly and scaring the living daylights out of her.
"I did, you earsplitting witch!" he cringed as he barked the validation of his anger.
Oops... "Sorry!" she responded in a little more than a whisper. She'd forgotten about his sensitive ears again... But her contrite attitude soon switched over to an awestruck one as she poked her head up and looked down at the landscape below her. "Wow..." she breathed; watching the bare tree's and all their fallen leaves come closer and then farther away from her as Inuyasha landed for a third time and leapt up again. They hadn't been this high up before...
Kagome shivered as the light -but cold, none the less- wind picked up it's pace and blew all but fiercely around the two of them; whipping their hair every which way as they dashed through the skies. She huddled closer to her long haired companion and ducked her head once again in an attempt to hide her face from the unexpectedly frosty wind, and maybe swap some body heat. (A/N - Lucky for her, he didn't really notice. ^ ^;)
She looked to the westward to see how much longer until sunset, and noticed a dark shade of orange in the sky through an opening in the grey clouds. "Inuyasha, the sun's already setting!" she told him over the force of the ghastly winds.
"I know that." he murmured "But it doesn't matter, because we're already here!"
Ahead of them laid a small village, quaint and plain, but very pretty. The remains of harvested crops were spread across the small countryside surrounding it, and the fallen leaves were dancing with the wind on the lifeless grass. Charming little huts were lined up neatly and evenly spread apart, leafless trees scattered here and there. The dirt paths that ran in between and around the huts had larger stones lined up neatly at their edges, making them look quite noteworthy. The villagers must have worked hard to make their little home so eye-catching.
There weren't any people out on this exceptionally breezy day, which didn't surprise her too much. There was though, one elderly gentleman manning his...what was it, an herb cart? Most likely - the jars sitting on it were probably filled with spices and such.
"Alright," Inuyasha began as he landed just inside the edge of the forest and set a shivering Kagome on her feet. "Run over there, get whatever you want, and get back here. Don't take a long time; I want to get as far as possible tonight. Oh yeah, and make sure to grab a couple of potatoes if you see any - Got it?"
"I think so...but why do you want me to get potatoes?" She watched him curiously.
"Because I like them - something wrong with that?" he shot back saucily.
"No, no." she smiled lightly despite how she was shivering; letting the cold wind whisk her hair back and forth across her pale face. "I like them too."
He took a second or two to give her grin the once over. She better not have had to glue that one to her face to make it stick...but no - it looked pretty genuine. Why was she smiling so brightly about potatoes...? Not to mention that her face was positioned almost like Kikyo's when she smiled that way... (Insert sigh here) And she was shaking a lot...was she really that cold? Anyway... "Well, go!" he commanded hastily with a wave of his hand.
His companion shook herself out of la la land and bobbed her head quickly, running down the dirt path into the village.
Kagome rubbed her bare arms as she jogged down the dirt path; aiming for the little cart at the end of it. Once she got over there, she noted that it wasn't an herb cart at all, and all the jars she'd seen were empty - it was a pottery stand. The old man there seemed to be quite stressed - apparently, he was trying to get all his jars and pots into his house before the current weather decided to knock them over and break them. But as she reached him, he stopped his work and looked at her strangely.
"Good evening sir!" she greeted rather loudly over all the ruckus the wind gusts were making. "I'm looking for someone who could sell me a bite to eat! Do you think you could assist me?"
He frowned at her "Well, first young miss, who might you be?"
"Oh excuse me sir!" she curtsied promptly "I am Miss Kagome Higurash-"The young miko quickly slapped a hand over her mouth. "I did it again...!"
The man's eyes widened considerably "You mean the Kagome Higurashi?! Princess of the western kingdom?!" (A/N - Oh darn... there it is again - I made Kagome sound like a cowgirl. ¬_¬;;) He bowed hastily, clearly ashamed "Excuse my manners, noble princess! I did not recognize you! But please spare me my punishment, gracious one! I am but an old man with not much of my life left to live-"
Kagome inwardly sighed - she'd made this mistake countless times. "Please sir, you don't need to worry about being punished or anything like that - I don't have any reason to. But I would greatly appreciate knowing where I could buy something to eat..." she trailed off as she held her hair in her fist; having it constantly whipping across her face was a little annoying...
"Oh, thank you, miss! I'm eternally grateful to you for your kindness! And yes, I know a good lad that would be able to give you a bit of assistance in the area of vittles - he's a courteous young man." (A/N - I just had to have that guy say 'vittles' sometime. XD Note to self: Stop watching 'The Beverly Hillbillies', you're scaring your readers ¬_¬) He grinned good-naturedly as he led her back down the same road she'd come up, and they stopped at the third hut.
The old man knocked on the door and called loudly through it over the noisy winds. "Hey, Renchi! It's me, Bouarakya!"
Not long after, the door opened to reveal a tall, dark- haired boy that looked several years older than Kagome. "Hello Bouarakya," he welcomed warmly as he stepped back and held his arm out for them to enter "Come on in."
Once they were in and seated in a few small wooden chairs in a corner of the fire lit room, the boy turned to Kagome. "So who is it you have brought with you today, Bouarakya?" he smiled as he glanced over at the man to his right, then back to Kagome.
"You best pay your respects lad, this is the heir to the throne of the west before your eyes." The older of the two men informed.
"The princess?!" he exclaimed as he jumped from his seat and examined her carefully "My goodness! It really is her! She fits their description exactly!
Kagome frowned at his last statement "Whose description?"
"That group of officers that stopped by here lets say..." he paused for a second to think "Oh, about two and a half weeks past. They were going about asking for information on the whereabouts of 'The Princess of the West' - they said you were kidnapped or something of the sort. But here you are now!"
Oh goodness gracious...they'd been so close to finding her, but they still hadn't. That was a little frustrating... But before this talkative boy went on any more, she should probably ask for the food, give them the money, and hightail it out of there; in all likelihood, Inuyasha was getting impatient. "I'm sorry to be so blunt...but I'm in a bit of a hurry, and I really need to get food for us, so-"
"Us?" the two men wondered in unison.
"Yeah, me and Inuyasha-"
"Inuyasha...?" and as what they thought was realization hit them, they blurted out their new conclusion. "Princess - did you elope!?"
"Elope...?" Kagome blinked; and at the comprehension of the conclusions they'd ended up with, she corrected them quickly. "N-no!! Inuyasha and I didn't e-elope! I don't even like him that way!!" she looked down at her feet, quite embarrassed. "He's just my guide..."
But at the third mention of someone running away without their parents consent to get married, a young woman -dragging a little boy with her- burst into the room. "Who eloped?!" she shouted her inquiry as she tumbled to a stop - dropping all the vegetables in her arms onto the floor. Kagome turned to stare at the girl several years older than her that was standing in front of them with a six or seven year old boy standing next to her. She was fully equipped with an apron and a work dress, and the boy was in some kind of a robe-ish piece of clothing; both shooting curious glances around the room.
"The princess!" Bouarakya exclaimed and pointed to Kagome.
"I did not! I told you, I don't like I-Inuyasha that way!!" the poor girl was quite flustered by now.
The older girl turned to her with a grin "Sure you don't."
"But I really don't...!!" she cried out in exasperation. Why were they all so positive that she had eloped with Inuyasha!?
"Yeah, right. Mm hm; that's believable-"
"Oh! Excuse me for not making introductions;" Renchi broke in, clearly not wanting to debate for a half an hour whether or not a princess eloped. "Miss Kagome, this is my wife, Shikasa, and my son, Jimoru. Shikasa, this is Princess Kagome of the western lands." (A/N - Doh! There it is again...)
"You're telling me that that ugly lady is a princess...?" Jimoru blinked innocently.
The two men fell off their chairs.
"Jimoru - be respectful!" his father scolded as he climbed back on his seat and turned to Kagome. "Sorry about that..."
"It's okay...eh heh......but um, anyway." she cleared her throat and sat a little straighter in her chair. "Renchi, I was wondering if you happen to have any food that you could sell to me...I don't exactly have any at the moment."
"Sell? Oh no Miss, you don't need to buy it from us!" he waved his hands in front of him. "You can have as much as you like for free."
Kagome shook her head "No, I really couldn't do that..."
"Please! It's our pleasure!" Renchi stood and bowed.
"Well...okay then." She conceded "But not to much! I don't want to take all your food..."
"It's fine, really!" he assured her as he stood up his wife nodding as well. "We have plenty."
Renchi leaned down and picked up the scattered vegetables while Shikasa whispered something to her son, then assisted her husband. He bobbed his head and ran off into another room in the hut, arriving back a few minutes later with a large basket full of fruit. "I got them, mom!" he grinned proudly as he set the basket on the floor next to her.
She nodded silently and enclosed the vegetables in a sack, picking it and the basket up and walking over to Kagome. "Here," she held the items out to her and smiled "Sorry we don't have any extra meat to give you...but the vegetables and fruits grew faster than the weeds this year, so we had plenty of them."
Kagome stood up and returned her smile as she accepted the rather large gifts. "Thank you so much for helping me. But...are you sure you don't want any money for all of this?" she asked, gesturing to the food in her arms.
"No, no!" they shook their heads rapidly in reassurance.
She shrugged, and after a bit of a hiatus, she spoke up "Well, I really need to be going; Inuyasha wanted me to go quickly." She smiled once again and bowed, then turned and ventured back out into the current windstorm. "Goodbye!"
"Bye!" they waved after her as she left "Have a safe trip home!"
"I will! Bye! - Oh...actually, wait!" Kagome stopped and set down the food. "Jimoru; come over here for a second!"
The boy eyed her somewhat carefully, but eventually pranced over and stood in front of her. "What?" he asked confidently.
"Now, Jimoru..." she leaned down to his level, reached into her pocket and pulled out one of the gold pieces. "I want you to take this, but I don't want you to give it to your parents until tomorrow morning, okay? 'Til then, you have to keep it a secret."
He snatched up the gold piece and nodded dutifully. "Yes ma'am!" (A/N - Ha! When I wrote that I thought of Rock Lee...)
"Alright!" she grinned and patted him on the shoulder "Thank you, sir!"
Kagome stood up and watched Jimoru march back and disappear inside the hut. She waved one last goodbye to her friends and turned around briskly; picking up her merchandise and flouncing back along the windy path. Speaking of the wind, it seemed to be dying down...
She closed her eyes and breathed in the fresh air; it smelled so good outside... "Umph!" she flicked her eyes back open and sighed - she should have known Inuyasha's patience would have run out and he would have come to hurry her up...
But the person in front of her wasn't Inuyasha at all.
A/N - What was that chapter? It was like full of nothingness. ¬_¬ Oops.
Oh my goodness. As I was typing this chapter, I had to run over and look at chapter 1 to check and see if I had used the correct information, but as I was looking for the little paragraph I had in mind, I found so many spelling and grammar errors. x.x And there was like six parts where I totally exaggerated the situation. Not to mention that I would use the same expression like 10 times on one page. Ugh - I am so going to re-do the first chapter. Maybe I'll check up on the second and third ones too...Anyway, 'til next chapter, ta ta!
~Eternal White~
With You
Chapter 9
Elope?
"Question!"
"No. Don't ask any questions, because I don't want to give any answers!"
"Well I'm going to ask anyway, because I want to know." Kagome stated and quickened her pace a bit. Inuyasha seemed to be walking faster all of a sudden... "I don't have any money, and I don't think you do either, so...how are we going to eat?"
"I'll-"
"No way Inuyasha, you're not going to steal; not while I'm around. So don't even think about it." She admonished.
"Okay..." he grouched. "What is she, a mind reader?" "You can go eat some grass, and I'll get some food for myself off some random farm..."
"Inuyasha..." she sighed and pushed her hands into her apron pockets. He knew that wasn't the point...She didn't want him to steal at all. Would this guy ever learn? "You really shouldn't be..." Kagome's words slowed to a stop and she looked down into her hand as she pulled out of her pocket the two small gold pieces Kaede had given her. Wait...those weren't as small as she remembered. And hadn't Kaede only given her one...?
At that moment, a devious little idea popped into Inuyasha's head. "Hey," he brought himself to a standstill and turned to Kagome as she stopped beside him. "You know how I'm taking you all the way to the western lands? What if I were to say I require a little payment in advance..." he elucidated as he glanced down at the gold pieces in her hand.
"Payment in advance..." she glowered "You never mentioned anything about that. And besides, I don't have anything to give you!"
He gave her a flat look and pointed unceremoniously to her hand. "How about those?"
"Auh!" she gaped, tightly clutching her prize "But we need these for food!"
"Correction; you need me for food. So hand over the money and I'll go nab us something to eat!"
"'Nab' as in steal? From who? Some poor family that's barely getting by with what they have? Inuyasha..." she sighed crossed her arms. "Can't you just skip the stupid 'payment in advance' so we can buy food in stead of stealing it?"
"You can buy food, but I can't, idiot. And you can't accuse me of stealing from the poor - I don't do that! I just borrow from the more wealthy villagers...I'm not evil or anything." He grumbled and slipped his hands into the opposite sleeves. (A/N - You all know that famous little Inuyasha pose. ^_^)
Kagome unfolded her arms, letting them hang fisted and loose at her sides. "What do you mean you can't buy food? I don't plan on using all this money for myself..."
"It's not the money," he sighed impatiently "They won't let me buy food. You still don't get it do you?"
"But I-"Oh wait...that was it, wasn't it? "Is it because you're...what you are?"
Inuyasha made an irritated sound in the back of his throat and twirled in a new direction. "Follow me; I'll get you to the village."
"Oh...okay..." She must have said the wrong thing...hit a soft spot or something. It didn't really surprise her that he was touchy on that subject though; he had the right. It must have been even worse for him than little Hana. For all she knew, he was alone and completely unloved when he was a little boy. An orphan like Hana, but it would have been worse for him, wouldn't it? Being half-demon and all...
He turned around and furrowed his brow at her. "What are you doing? Hurry up!"
By the way he'd looked at her, her face must have been harboring a rather saddened expression. She didn't want to be depressed or anything...that wouldn't help Inuyasha. She had to be cheerful, right? "Coming!" she chirped, slipping a smile onto her face as she jogged up to him.
Inuyasha raised an eyebrow at her joyful mood before he faced forward and resumed his walking again. "What's with her...?" he wondered.
"So," Kagome piped when she caught up to him "Is the nearest village far?" They had been walking on the same forest path since that morning, and hadn't eaten anything. And judging by how the sun was nearly setting, they should have already been eating.
"No; only several miles or so."
"Several miles?! It'll be dark by the time we get there! The markets close at sunset!"
He shrugged indifferently "So?"
"Inuyasha," she frowned at him "If you knew we'd never get there in time to buy anything, then why are you..." Then it hit her. He'd just been acting like they were going to buy food; playing along whenever she'd mentioned it. But he had planned on stealing whatever he wanted all along! "You jerk! You knew it the whole time! Even when I told you that you shouldn't do it, you still planned on it!" she chided and slugged his arm.
"Hey!" he put his hand over his offended limb "That was uncalled for!"
"You're dodging the topic, aren't you?"
"No!"
"You're a horrible liar you know." She gave him a flat look as she put her hands on her hips.
"Well I'm still right!" he spouted.
"About what?!"
"About...about...I don't know! I'm right about something!" Inuyasha shouted back pitifully.
"You're confusing me!"
"I'm confusing me too!"
"If we're both confused, why are we still shouting?!"
"I don't know!!"
"Neither do I..." Kagome frowned "So let's stop."
Inuyasha stood there, trying to think up a response. He'd almost said a nice little 'sure', but he'd stopped himself before then. He couldn't get comfortable around her no matter what. That was the first step to getting closer to her. So if he avoided that, he avoided her, right? This'd be simple...mind over matter, mind over matter... "This silence is freaking uncomfortable though..." he grouched. And what was really awful, was that he couldn't think of how to respond to her...
So he said the first thing he thought of - despite how he cursed himself for it later. (A/N - Much later. ^_^;) "I'll make a deal with you. There's a way I can get you to the village before nightfall, but you'll have to give me one of those gold pieces for my services. We won't need both of them for food; those are worth a lot." He smirked to himself; he was getting money left and right... "Deal?"
Kagome looked at him suspiciously, analyzing his motives in her head. "How could you possibly get me there in such a short amount of time? That doesn't make any sense." A sharp crease marked her brow and her lips were fixed in a tight line as she looked directly at him. "He must have just made that first part up..."
"What, you think I'm lying?" he scowled. But maybe that wasn't something he could blame her for... "I am part demon you know, I'm not as slow as you humans are. All I have to do is carry you and run."
"You're really that fast? Ooh!" she beamed, quite fascinated. "I guess that'd be okay then...but do you have to take a whole piece? I don't think just one of these will last us all the way home..."
"Sure it will." Inuyasha shrugged "And if it doesn't, you said you were a prince's servant or something...right...? The townspeople will probably help you out..."
Kagome looked down at her feet uncomfortably; she hadn't explained about that yet...It seemed that he felt awkward when he'd spoken of it as well - not to mention a little upset. But if she made up some story and convinced him that she really was a prince's servant, he'd never know that she was really a princess...because if a time came when she'd be forced to tell the real truth to him, she wouldn't have the strength to admit that she'd been faking it the whole time. She didn't like keeping him in the dark, but...
She didn't want him to know she was a princess; if he knew, he'd start treating her differently - just like everyone else. Doubtless not too differently; this was Inuyasha she was talking about. But still...he was someone she'd be spending quite a lot of time with, and she didn't want him to be uncomfortable around her. Even though now they were still in the 'argue all the time' stage, it'd pass; Inuyasha would soften over time. It might take a while...but they'd be friends eventually.
Wouldn't they?
Anyway...she should tell him. Despite how he actually seemed to have been a pinch nicer...lying to him for such a long time wouldn't be a good choice. "Inuyasha, about the whole servant thing...I'm..." she quickly swallowed the little lump in her throat and tried to push aside the sudden -and very strong- urge to keep being a 'prince's servant' in his mind. "Sorry for not telling you about that."
Well, that hadn't worked out exactly how she planned.
He shrugged it off nonchalantly as he got into a crouching position "Forget it and get on."
What...? That hadn't bothered him at all? "Okay..." she walked in back of him and stood there staring hesitantly. What if he planned to drop her in another river...?
"Just get on, damnit!" he growled impatiently. "Stupid girl - I'm not going to bite you or anything."
Kagome jumped a little at his abruptness. Well if he was going to be that way about it... "Inuyasha, sit."
With a few choice words, Inuyasha wrenched himself off the forest floor. "What was that for?!"
"For calling me a 'stupid girl' again! I have a name you know, and it's not 'stupid girl'."
"Bitch...!" he snarled as he finally got into a standing position.
"I swear I'll say it again if you don't stop giving me those repulsive nicknames!" she warned.
"Well, if you hadn't stared at me like I was going to eat you and had just gotten on, I wouldn't have called you stupid!"
"I just didn't know if it was safe!"
"Of course it's safe!"
"'We shall see, what we shall see.'" she quoted, holding one finger in the air. That was another one of her mothers' sayings...
"Whatever..." Inuyasha grumbled, crouching down again. "Get on already."
Kagome climbed onto his back obediently and gripped the material at the back of his neck, keeping them latched there as he got to his feet; a little surprised that he hadn't dragged that argument out any farther. But what was really bothering her was that they'd just wasted a good fifteen minutes quarrelling...
"Hold on." He instructed as he glanced back at her with a slightly evil smirk on his lips.
"Huh? - Aah! Inuyasha, you should have warned me about that!!" she yelped, grasping his haori tighter as she closed her eyes and buried her face between her hands. What was his problem!? Jumping off so suddenly and scaring the living daylights out of her.
"I did, you earsplitting witch!" he cringed as he barked the validation of his anger.
Oops... "Sorry!" she responded in a little more than a whisper. She'd forgotten about his sensitive ears again... But her contrite attitude soon switched over to an awestruck one as she poked her head up and looked down at the landscape below her. "Wow..." she breathed; watching the bare tree's and all their fallen leaves come closer and then farther away from her as Inuyasha landed for a third time and leapt up again. They hadn't been this high up before...
Kagome shivered as the light -but cold, none the less- wind picked up it's pace and blew all but fiercely around the two of them; whipping their hair every which way as they dashed through the skies. She huddled closer to her long haired companion and ducked her head once again in an attempt to hide her face from the unexpectedly frosty wind, and maybe swap some body heat. (A/N - Lucky for her, he didn't really notice. ^ ^;)
She looked to the westward to see how much longer until sunset, and noticed a dark shade of orange in the sky through an opening in the grey clouds. "Inuyasha, the sun's already setting!" she told him over the force of the ghastly winds.
"I know that." he murmured "But it doesn't matter, because we're already here!"
Ahead of them laid a small village, quaint and plain, but very pretty. The remains of harvested crops were spread across the small countryside surrounding it, and the fallen leaves were dancing with the wind on the lifeless grass. Charming little huts were lined up neatly and evenly spread apart, leafless trees scattered here and there. The dirt paths that ran in between and around the huts had larger stones lined up neatly at their edges, making them look quite noteworthy. The villagers must have worked hard to make their little home so eye-catching.
There weren't any people out on this exceptionally breezy day, which didn't surprise her too much. There was though, one elderly gentleman manning his...what was it, an herb cart? Most likely - the jars sitting on it were probably filled with spices and such.
"Alright," Inuyasha began as he landed just inside the edge of the forest and set a shivering Kagome on her feet. "Run over there, get whatever you want, and get back here. Don't take a long time; I want to get as far as possible tonight. Oh yeah, and make sure to grab a couple of potatoes if you see any - Got it?"
"I think so...but why do you want me to get potatoes?" She watched him curiously.
"Because I like them - something wrong with that?" he shot back saucily.
"No, no." she smiled lightly despite how she was shivering; letting the cold wind whisk her hair back and forth across her pale face. "I like them too."
He took a second or two to give her grin the once over. She better not have had to glue that one to her face to make it stick...but no - it looked pretty genuine. Why was she smiling so brightly about potatoes...? Not to mention that her face was positioned almost like Kikyo's when she smiled that way... (Insert sigh here) And she was shaking a lot...was she really that cold? Anyway... "Well, go!" he commanded hastily with a wave of his hand.
His companion shook herself out of la la land and bobbed her head quickly, running down the dirt path into the village.
Kagome rubbed her bare arms as she jogged down the dirt path; aiming for the little cart at the end of it. Once she got over there, she noted that it wasn't an herb cart at all, and all the jars she'd seen were empty - it was a pottery stand. The old man there seemed to be quite stressed - apparently, he was trying to get all his jars and pots into his house before the current weather decided to knock them over and break them. But as she reached him, he stopped his work and looked at her strangely.
"Good evening sir!" she greeted rather loudly over all the ruckus the wind gusts were making. "I'm looking for someone who could sell me a bite to eat! Do you think you could assist me?"
He frowned at her "Well, first young miss, who might you be?"
"Oh excuse me sir!" she curtsied promptly "I am Miss Kagome Higurash-"The young miko quickly slapped a hand over her mouth. "I did it again...!"
The man's eyes widened considerably "You mean the Kagome Higurashi?! Princess of the western kingdom?!" (A/N - Oh darn... there it is again - I made Kagome sound like a cowgirl. ¬_¬;;) He bowed hastily, clearly ashamed "Excuse my manners, noble princess! I did not recognize you! But please spare me my punishment, gracious one! I am but an old man with not much of my life left to live-"
Kagome inwardly sighed - she'd made this mistake countless times. "Please sir, you don't need to worry about being punished or anything like that - I don't have any reason to. But I would greatly appreciate knowing where I could buy something to eat..." she trailed off as she held her hair in her fist; having it constantly whipping across her face was a little annoying...
"Oh, thank you, miss! I'm eternally grateful to you for your kindness! And yes, I know a good lad that would be able to give you a bit of assistance in the area of vittles - he's a courteous young man." (A/N - I just had to have that guy say 'vittles' sometime. XD Note to self: Stop watching 'The Beverly Hillbillies', you're scaring your readers ¬_¬) He grinned good-naturedly as he led her back down the same road she'd come up, and they stopped at the third hut.
The old man knocked on the door and called loudly through it over the noisy winds. "Hey, Renchi! It's me, Bouarakya!"
Not long after, the door opened to reveal a tall, dark- haired boy that looked several years older than Kagome. "Hello Bouarakya," he welcomed warmly as he stepped back and held his arm out for them to enter "Come on in."
Once they were in and seated in a few small wooden chairs in a corner of the fire lit room, the boy turned to Kagome. "So who is it you have brought with you today, Bouarakya?" he smiled as he glanced over at the man to his right, then back to Kagome.
"You best pay your respects lad, this is the heir to the throne of the west before your eyes." The older of the two men informed.
"The princess?!" he exclaimed as he jumped from his seat and examined her carefully "My goodness! It really is her! She fits their description exactly!
Kagome frowned at his last statement "Whose description?"
"That group of officers that stopped by here lets say..." he paused for a second to think "Oh, about two and a half weeks past. They were going about asking for information on the whereabouts of 'The Princess of the West' - they said you were kidnapped or something of the sort. But here you are now!"
Oh goodness gracious...they'd been so close to finding her, but they still hadn't. That was a little frustrating... But before this talkative boy went on any more, she should probably ask for the food, give them the money, and hightail it out of there; in all likelihood, Inuyasha was getting impatient. "I'm sorry to be so blunt...but I'm in a bit of a hurry, and I really need to get food for us, so-"
"Us?" the two men wondered in unison.
"Yeah, me and Inuyasha-"
"Inuyasha...?" and as what they thought was realization hit them, they blurted out their new conclusion. "Princess - did you elope!?"
"Elope...?" Kagome blinked; and at the comprehension of the conclusions they'd ended up with, she corrected them quickly. "N-no!! Inuyasha and I didn't e-elope! I don't even like him that way!!" she looked down at her feet, quite embarrassed. "He's just my guide..."
But at the third mention of someone running away without their parents consent to get married, a young woman -dragging a little boy with her- burst into the room. "Who eloped?!" she shouted her inquiry as she tumbled to a stop - dropping all the vegetables in her arms onto the floor. Kagome turned to stare at the girl several years older than her that was standing in front of them with a six or seven year old boy standing next to her. She was fully equipped with an apron and a work dress, and the boy was in some kind of a robe-ish piece of clothing; both shooting curious glances around the room.
"The princess!" Bouarakya exclaimed and pointed to Kagome.
"I did not! I told you, I don't like I-Inuyasha that way!!" the poor girl was quite flustered by now.
The older girl turned to her with a grin "Sure you don't."
"But I really don't...!!" she cried out in exasperation. Why were they all so positive that she had eloped with Inuyasha!?
"Yeah, right. Mm hm; that's believable-"
"Oh! Excuse me for not making introductions;" Renchi broke in, clearly not wanting to debate for a half an hour whether or not a princess eloped. "Miss Kagome, this is my wife, Shikasa, and my son, Jimoru. Shikasa, this is Princess Kagome of the western lands." (A/N - Doh! There it is again...)
"You're telling me that that ugly lady is a princess...?" Jimoru blinked innocently.
The two men fell off their chairs.
"Jimoru - be respectful!" his father scolded as he climbed back on his seat and turned to Kagome. "Sorry about that..."
"It's okay...eh heh......but um, anyway." she cleared her throat and sat a little straighter in her chair. "Renchi, I was wondering if you happen to have any food that you could sell to me...I don't exactly have any at the moment."
"Sell? Oh no Miss, you don't need to buy it from us!" he waved his hands in front of him. "You can have as much as you like for free."
Kagome shook her head "No, I really couldn't do that..."
"Please! It's our pleasure!" Renchi stood and bowed.
"Well...okay then." She conceded "But not to much! I don't want to take all your food..."
"It's fine, really!" he assured her as he stood up his wife nodding as well. "We have plenty."
Renchi leaned down and picked up the scattered vegetables while Shikasa whispered something to her son, then assisted her husband. He bobbed his head and ran off into another room in the hut, arriving back a few minutes later with a large basket full of fruit. "I got them, mom!" he grinned proudly as he set the basket on the floor next to her.
She nodded silently and enclosed the vegetables in a sack, picking it and the basket up and walking over to Kagome. "Here," she held the items out to her and smiled "Sorry we don't have any extra meat to give you...but the vegetables and fruits grew faster than the weeds this year, so we had plenty of them."
Kagome stood up and returned her smile as she accepted the rather large gifts. "Thank you so much for helping me. But...are you sure you don't want any money for all of this?" she asked, gesturing to the food in her arms.
"No, no!" they shook their heads rapidly in reassurance.
She shrugged, and after a bit of a hiatus, she spoke up "Well, I really need to be going; Inuyasha wanted me to go quickly." She smiled once again and bowed, then turned and ventured back out into the current windstorm. "Goodbye!"
"Bye!" they waved after her as she left "Have a safe trip home!"
"I will! Bye! - Oh...actually, wait!" Kagome stopped and set down the food. "Jimoru; come over here for a second!"
The boy eyed her somewhat carefully, but eventually pranced over and stood in front of her. "What?" he asked confidently.
"Now, Jimoru..." she leaned down to his level, reached into her pocket and pulled out one of the gold pieces. "I want you to take this, but I don't want you to give it to your parents until tomorrow morning, okay? 'Til then, you have to keep it a secret."
He snatched up the gold piece and nodded dutifully. "Yes ma'am!" (A/N - Ha! When I wrote that I thought of Rock Lee...)
"Alright!" she grinned and patted him on the shoulder "Thank you, sir!"
Kagome stood up and watched Jimoru march back and disappear inside the hut. She waved one last goodbye to her friends and turned around briskly; picking up her merchandise and flouncing back along the windy path. Speaking of the wind, it seemed to be dying down...
She closed her eyes and breathed in the fresh air; it smelled so good outside... "Umph!" she flicked her eyes back open and sighed - she should have known Inuyasha's patience would have run out and he would have come to hurry her up...
But the person in front of her wasn't Inuyasha at all.
A/N - What was that chapter? It was like full of nothingness. ¬_¬ Oops.
Oh my goodness. As I was typing this chapter, I had to run over and look at chapter 1 to check and see if I had used the correct information, but as I was looking for the little paragraph I had in mind, I found so many spelling and grammar errors. x.x And there was like six parts where I totally exaggerated the situation. Not to mention that I would use the same expression like 10 times on one page. Ugh - I am so going to re-do the first chapter. Maybe I'll check up on the second and third ones too...Anyway, 'til next chapter, ta ta!
~Eternal White~