A/N chapter 6, reloaded to fix (author's comments) so they no longer look like part of the story. sorry, guys. (edited, for the second time, missed a comment the first time around)
New character! She won't get in the way of any pairings, that's a promise.
Btw, I just realized there's a type in chap 3. somewhere in the first half, the line goes "A blue of white and red..".. it's supposed to be "a blur of white and red" sorry if that confused any of you.
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The headache had finally gone away, but in its place came the discomforts of sleeping on cold, hard stone, and long days with little food. Sleep was fitful, constantly interrupted by the sounds that echoed loudly through the caves.
A slender hand rubbed eyes grown dull and circled with fatigue. Brown eyes, the hopeful light gone, stared nowhere.
And always, the gold eyes watched. Always, watching, waiting.
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It had been two days. Two long, dragged-out, restless days. Two days of pure torture. Two days of doing nothing but sit in a cold damp cave, surrounded by dogs, and wait and hope for rescue. But even in so short a time, hope could fade. Hope could die.
As Kagome's was dying. She had all but given up hope that she would be rescued. Her only saving grace was that one of the youkai had taken pity, and they had developed a wary sort of camaraderie (am I spelling that right..?). Kimiko was the only female in the entire pack. She was a full-blooded inu youkai, and could only be described as warrior. It was a miracle to Kagome that Kimiko was at all sympathetic to her.
Kimiko, for her own part, saw a strength in the human female, but saw also a great sadness. The pain and hopelessness that fell from the girl's face was not sprung solely from having been kidnapped. It was not the weakness of a noble's daughter. And somehow, intuitively, she sensed that this was not a weak noble's daughter. No, the pain and hopelessness was sprung from a deep loss, as if everything that she held dear was torn, ripped away and barred from her.
She knew this pain. She had felt this pain.
She knew also that the pain for this girl was different. Kimiko was born and raised a warrior. Every fibre of her being was trained and honed to a deadly force. This human child was born and raised a lady. There was a little sympathy to be had there.
She sat down beside the girl, tucking her legs in and settling down comfortably. Amber eyes watched a fat, round tear roll down the pale cheek.
"Higurashi-san… don't cry." She brushed at her hair, cream with a single, blood red streak. She wrapped one arm around the girl's shoulders and squeezed gently, hoping to give comfort. "It will be okay."
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Sango and Miroku stiffened. The rings on Miroku's shakujou monk's staff jangled in a warning tone.
"Something's here."
Sango bit her lip. She had been trained in combat, yes… but she would never have been able to guess that she's have to try out her skills in her first real combat… in the demon's forest. It was unnerving.
She prayed it was just a harmless animal and not a demon.
No such luck.
Shrubs and leafy undergrowth exploding. White claws, flying dirt. Cold brown eyes. Wooden staff, capped in golden rings, swung protectively. Brown eyes, retreating into the shadows, waiting.
Waiting, watching. Backing slowly, step by step, deeper into the shadows. Gone.
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Sango shivered.
"It's gone?"
"It appears so." Miroku lowered the staff, slowly. The two continued to watch the spot where the youkai had disappeared, their horses sweating and paralyzed with fear.
It was undoubtedly one from the same band that had kidnapped Kagome. Sango worried that this would alert them to her presence. What would they do? She prayed they would not hurt Kagome. And she prayed that they would not be attacked many more times before they reached Kagome. A monk's staff and a lady's maid's combat training would not hold off youkai attack for very long.
They stayed there for several more minutes, until the regular noises of the forest resumed and all sense of danger had dissipated.
Eventually Sango shook her head, and nudged Yume forward, followed quickly by Miroku. They were eager to leave this spot and find a safer place.
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Kikyou was trembling with rage. How dare they kidnap her sister!
Angrily, she released the arrow, letting it sink into the target with a thunk. She picked up the next arrow stuck in the ground next to her and knocked it, then let it fly to split the first arrow.
She let out her anger, furiously shooting arrow after arrow, until she had no arrows left. Then she retrieved the last one from the target and yanked out the remains of the others, slamming them to the ground.
Her burst of angry energy spent, she collapsed onto the ground, sobbing.
Why… Why Kagome? Why have you taken her from us?!
Slowly the flow of tears stopped, and she rose, pale and shaking with a combination of anger and sadness. She swiped at her eyes with her sleeve, and silently vowed revenge.
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A figure landed in the opening of the cave and bent deep to the golden-eyed shadow. "Sir."
"What is it now?"
"Sir, we spotted two humans moving through the forest."
"Two humans? Alone?"
"Yes, sir. One is a monk, the other is a young female."
"Hm."
Golden eyes glanced towards the tightly curled shape in a corner of the cave.
"They must be coming for her. We'll have to move. Have Haruto stay here in case they are looking for her."
"Sir, we've also received reports that Kouga is on the move."
White claws clenched.
"Finally waking up, hey, mongrel? I'll show you who the boss is around here. I'll slaughter every single last one of your damned curs, and then I'll kill you."
He bared his teeth in a feral grin and laughed.
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"Higurashi-san!" Kimiko shook the girl's shoulder gently.
Kagome blinked, then rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand. "uhnn..? What time is it?"
Kimiko chuckled. "Not quite sunrise. We –"
"Get up. We're moving" A tall figure swept past, golden eyes gleaming coldly in the shadows.
Kagome shivered.
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"Hurry up! Humans, always so slow. Hey, can you at least pick up the pace?" Inuyasha stood several metres ahead on the path, fists propped up against his hips. He glared angrily at Kagome, every muscle in his body twitching, anxious to keep moving.
Kagome walked a little faster, her eyes glued to the ground. Her heart felt like a stone, devoid of any emotions. She had no energy to spend on defiance, every last ounce focussed on continuing. On living. On surviving.
Where was Kouga? She missed him. Did he miss her? Was he, at this very moment, planning her rescue? The pebbly ground passed under her feet as the thoughts flew through her mind.
Suddenly, she bumped into something. Rather, someone. She took a step back and looked up into cold, golden eyes. Another step back, and she could see his entire face, framed by long, white hair, with two triangular… ears?
One of them twitched, and she had to resist the temptation to reach up and touch it. She bit her lip as she glanced back into his eyes.
He turned around and crouched. "Get on."
"What?" She took another step back.
"What are you, stupid? Get on. You're too damned slow."
She hesitated, then tentatively stepped close. A small cry escaped her lips as Inuyasha, impatient with her timidity, wrapped his hands under her knees and stood up abruptly, bending forward slightly so she wouldn't fall. She wrapped her arms desperately around his neck, shocked out of her shyness.
"Not so tight! You trying to choke me or somethin'?"
"Oh… sorry…" she whispered, then loosened her arms, suddenly aware of their closeness.
"Yeah, well… Hold on, or you'll fall off. I don't want you to waste more time than you already have."
With that, he bounded forward, taking a huge leap into the air. Kagome emitted a small squeak, surprised. He glanced back at her for a moment, then turned back to the path ahead. Kagome looked back. The rest of the small pack followed in much the same fashion, jumping every now and then and settling into a run. A very fast run. They were very easily and effortlessly running faster than even the fastest horses Kagome had seen. Demons..
It was hard to forget her captors weren't human.
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Without opening her eyes, Sango swung a hand in front of her face, leaving a very red, rather painful mark on the face hovering inches from hers.
"Sango, I was just checking to see that you were breathing, honest!"
"Yeah right. Now back off." Sango was not quite so much angered as simply irritated. She had (frightful thought!) become used to the thought of having Miroku as a travelling companion, even if it was (hopefully) only temporarily. Sadly, within the space of a few days – three, to be exact; she counted every minute until she would find the very-soon-to-be-dead-bandits – she had also learned to anticipate and respond to Miroku's… habits. Generally the response ended up in Miroku getting a very nice red hand-shaped mark on his face. Or the threat of never being able to use the offending hand again.
"I would like you to know, I am an honourable priest, in search of enlightenment, and – hey, where are you going?"
"Moving." Sango replied shortly. "The sun's rising. I'm going, with or without you."
"Whoa, hey, hey, no need to be so impatient, m'lady!" Miroku scrambled to his horse. He kept all he needed within the voluminous folds of his cloak (oh, I just love that expression! Okay. Back to writing..), and was ready to move, having slept sitting up against a tree.
Sango quickly saddled her horse and threw the saddlebags over its back (yes, "its", not "it's" see note at bottom if you're confused). and clambered into the saddle. Please, please... let me find Kagome!
She nudged her horse forward.
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High up in the mountains, Haruto looked down into the forest, watching the two mounted figures make their way down the path. Towards the mountain. Towards Haruto. Towards where Kagome Higurashi had been. But they were now too late to find her.
He smiled. Inuyasha would be pleased.
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note about apostrophes – "its" vs. "it's" –skip to bottom of page.
Well, I'm very, very sorry for the extremely long time it took me to finish this. In fact, I would have made it longer, but I decided I may as well throw this one out to you guys for the time being, and just go on to a new chapter. Surprisingly, after 6 chapters, I have managed NOT to write myself into a corner I couldn't get out of, something of an accomplishment.
I would also like to add – I take back that comment last chap wishing that my Writer's Craft teacher wouldn't see that sentence. I now hope she'll never see any of this, because she'll strangle me if she ever sees how badly I write while taking the course. Sad. Then again, this isn't really being marked, and I'm not going to spend the time to go over and edit it because I would probably go mad and strangle myself.
This is one of my pet peeves. Apologies to those of you who commit these mistakes simply because you never understood, but now you can't say I didn't try. The apostrophe is generally used in two situations: when used to indicate possession (Kagome's, Inuyasha's) – with an exception: it. Never, ever, EVER use an apostrophe to indicate possession with "it".
True, a phrase may go "Inuyasha's furry ears" but you just can't say "it's furry ears". Don't ask why, (I know it may not make sense, but there's a reason) it just is.
Situation #2 (and thus, the aforementioned reason): when it is an abbreviation. This is only the case with "it" that you may use an apostrophe – "it's" is an abbreviation for "it is", or "it has", etc, etc.
There. Now for all of you aspiring writers (or for those of you who just never understood), there you have it. And if I make such a mistake within my writing, please, please let me know lest I should glimpse it accidentally and then strangle myself, effectively ending any more story-writing. You don't want that, do you?
And finally, REVIEW!!! Woop. Okay, very long endnote. I'm done (and I have Writer's Craft class next)
