INUYASHA
No clue why I decided to name anything a Soul Reader, but other than that, this isn't half bad. Stopped in the middle of a cute, important scene, though. Couldn't decide how to describe it. You'll know what I mean.

Nexus Quest

She ran along the forest path, her shining black hair billowing out behind her in the wind. The bluish-green feathers gripped in her fingers felt like silk, and the sun on her back felt like warm streams of cheerfulness from the people of her village. Perhaps as a parting gift, as it was her last day in the valley.

The wind that blew through her hair was cool to the touch, like water, and the sounds of the forest around her were calming in her ears. Now was as good a day as any to leave her home. But it sounded better to say to leave for her destiny.

She would find her Soul Reader out there, in the wide world, away from her carefully protected valley home. No Soul Reader was permitted into the valley, for fear the students and children would bond too early. But there were many out there in the EarthRealm, and she would find one.

First to find someone who sold Soul Reader eggs. She couldn't buy hers, of course. She'd have to get him to give it to her, and she could work for him for a while. She would get to be around the other Soul Readers, and around their potential partners. She might even find a Partner of her own.

Everyone knew that a Bonder needed a Partner. You couldn't do it alone. So, eventually, she'd need a partner, too...

"Boy. Come here. I need you to clean out the pens. The chickens are making quite a mess of things."

"Kaede, you old hag, I don't work for you! Why don't you get one of those twittering idiots to do this stuff for you?"

"You do work for me, boy, so get used to cleaning out the chicken pens." The old woman turned back to her paperwork. "If this is correct, we're to be getting another of those 'twittering idiots' you hate so much right about..."

ding, ding the front door chimed as a customer walked in.

"...now. Go see who that is, would you?" She waved him out of her office. Grumpily, he walked out into the front room.

"What is it?" he gruffly asked the young woman standing there.

She didn't cower away like all the other young girls working here did. Instead, she held her head up high and looked him straight in the eye. "That is no way to treat someone who comes for help. You shouldn't act like that! I came to apply for a job."

With a snort, he turned and headed back to Kaede's office. He leaned half in the door, knowing full and well the girl could hear him. "Ya' old hag, you were right. Another twittering idiot for a job."

The girl, her face bright red in anger, stomped over to him and smacked him upside the head. "You shouldn't act like that!" she cried again. Then she turned to the old woman. "I apologize for entering so rudely. I would like a place to stay, and a job, if you don't mind."

The boy made as if to say something else, but caught the warning look she shot him and kept his mouth shut.

Kaede laughed. "Child, if you can help out and keep this lad under control, you can have board, a job, and I'll give you a Nexus Egg."

The girl's eyes lit up. "Really? Oh, thank you, thank you!" she cried, clapping her hands like a little child. "I thought that I'd have nowhere to go after I left Twilight Valley, but you've taken me in! Oh, thank you!"

"Humph." the boy muttered, leaning back against the doorframe. She turned to him.

"And you. I'm sorry I was so rude. Could you tell me your name?" she asked politely.

"You should be sorry," he wanted to say, but held his tongue. That didn't mean he'd tell her his name, though. "What's yours?" he asked instead.

Her anger came back in her eyes, and he almost regretted his words. But he didn't.

After a few minutes, he gave in and told her his name.

"It's Kagome." she said at the same instant as he said, "It's Inuyasha." Each looked up to the other in surprise, and their eyes locked. For a few moments, Inuyasha was lost in the pools of silver blue before him, and Kagome felt that she could just about be swallowed by the golden abyss that was Inuyasha's eyes. But then they each looked away.

"Oh, and about that Nexus Egg, um...Miss..." Kagome stopped, not knowing the old woman's name.

"It's just Kaede, dear. And yes, you can choose a Nexus Egg. Come with me." She stood, and Kagome followed. So did Inuyasha.

She led them to a trap door in the ground, and opened it up. "Cellar," she said in answer to their confused looks before going down. With a shrug, both followed.

Kagome gasped at the sight before her the instant her feet touched the ground. Inuyasha was a few steps behind her, but when he landed, he gasped as well.

For before them, lining the shelves on every wall and even the ones decorating the middle, sitting in little nests on tables, in nitches in the floors and ceilings, in miniature hammoks hanging from the ceiling and windows, and even a few on a raised dias in the center of the room, were thousands of eggs. Most every color, pattern, and size ever imagined for Nexus eggs, and even a few no one could have thought of.

They both wandered around the room in awe for a while, staring at the eggs. Kagome noticed a shining blue one in a hammok near a window, but didn't have the slightest wish to investigate, even though it lit up its entire corner. Inuyasha saw a glowing black one that drew his attention no more then any of the others, even though it was the only one of its kind.

Eventually they both made it to the dias in the center of the room, and they both, at the same instant, drew their hands out to touch the eggs there, before drawing back. Kagome looked to Inuyasha, who looked over at Kaede for permission to touch them. She nodded with a smile, and both youths turned back to the dias.

There were only two eggs there. One was a pale, silvery pink, and the other was a tan brownish gold, with pale specks. Both pulsed as one of the teens drew near.

Kagome's hand extended of it's own accord at the same time Inuyasha's did, and they both touched their respective eggs at the same moment. A flash of light, and both of them hid their eyes with their other hand. A moment later and it had passed, they looked down to see which egg they held.

In Kagome's hand was the pale silvery pink egg, and in Inuyasha's, the brownish speckled one. They looked to each other, at their own eggs, and then they smiled.

'Mother finally led me where she intended.' Kagome thought.

'If my brother could see me now! ' Inuyasha cried in his head.

"Well, then, if both of you have made you're choices..." Kaede murmured, snapping them out of their thoughts. "...I'd like to get back to work. Inuyasha, she'll be having the Evening Mountain suite, and if you don't mind taking her bags..."

"Why do I hafta...a'course I mind...always orderin' me 'round..." he grumbled as he stalked back upstairs to gather the bags she'd left in the main room.

Kagome looked after him concernedly. Kaede noticed this, and went to soothe her thoughts.

"Don't worry, child. He's not really as angry as he seems. I'm certain he's glad you're here. Even if he doesn't know it." she said with a wry smile.

"Alright." Kagome said, but she still looked doubtfull. Then she suddenly remembered something. "Oh, wait, Inuyasha!" she called up the stairs, running up after him. "I forgot about my-"

She was interupted as a loud bang sounded from upstairs. She winced as his violent curses streamed down through the floor. "- Nex Hex." she finished lamely, and slowly trudged up the stairs.

Inuyasha stood at the top of the stairs, staring down at the clothes that littered the steps. "What did you do to that frickin' bag!" he asked as she slowly made her way into the room. "As soon as I got to the top of the stairs, the thing feels like it's on fire!"

Kagome stared at him. "Is that all? I thought it fetched Nakatsu with the way you wailed. He would have brought his curse down on you, for sure." She smiled playfully. "He still might."

"Why did the stupid bag catch fire in the first place?" he asked gruffly, deciding to ignore the curse business until later.

"The only reason I can think of is the Vinculm Magnez. It...ah...gets hot when a...a bond is close. Or particularly strong." She stopped to think. "...but I can't see why it would react now."

"The egg, child. The egg." Kaede said. "You, too, boy. Look at your egg."

Both looked down to the soft shells in their arms. Kagome pressed her palm flat against it's shell, the way she'd seen her mother do to some of the dragon's eggs from their valley. She paused, and then her excitement showed on her face, with a hint of anxiousness.

"What is it?" Inuyasha asked, making his way back down the stairs, curiosity taking over.

Kagome looked up, and then ran up the stairs. "Show me where my room is!" she said hurriedly.

Inuyasha, still confused, led her up the stairs to a door on the side of the hall. It was made of a dark wood, with intricate carvings of mountains and dragons soaring over them. So much detail, you could see the image with only a touch, if you tried. But Kagome paid no head; once she was shown the door was to her rooms, she shoved through.

She strode down the hall quickly, her eyes on the egg in her arms, as if she had lived there all her life. She turned right, into a door closer to the other end of the hall. Inuyasha, following her, instantly recognized the room for what it was - a den. Soft, fluffy pillows of different shades littered the floor. The lamps, which had been lit when Kaede sent the maids in this morning, were cheerily glowing, but it was a soft, dimming glow. The colors of the room were shades of gold, silvers, reds, and pinks, and the scarves draping over the sconces were shades of gold as well, giving the room the look of a real, fiery, wild dragon's den.

She plopped into the largest pillow - a big silver one in the middle - and looked up to Inuyasha. "Come inside." she called. "Quick."

He hustled into the little room (quite large compared to any other room in the house. It was the largest suite, and a den in a suite is the largest room) and sat, a little nervously, beside her. But he was still a ways away, and she was impatient now. She reached out her arm and tugged him over beside her.

"It's starting." she said swiftly, pulling his egg over and laying her hand across it. "They're hatching. Look, you can feel it."

He laid his hand on the egg, and realized he could feel a sort of pulse. "What's happening?" he asked, jerking his hand back.

"I told you. They're-"

She was cut off as a faint cracking sound came from her egg. She fell back, lying on her side and tucking the egg against her stomach, cracking side out.

A small, hair-thin line ran up one side of the shell. It spread out, growing little branches, until finally it snapped open, and a small paw slid out. It shivered, and looked solid red and slick. The cracks got larger and larger, until finally the little red creature spilled out.

It was a fox.

A baby fox. It was damp, but not wet, and its eyes were shut tight. It sneezed, slowly lifting it's flattened ears to listen around itself, then clamping them back down. It opened its eyes to look for the offending sound that so scared it, and caught sight of Inuyasha. The boy was too far away, it knew, to be its mother, so it turned to the warmth at its back, sneezing again.

When it saw Kagome, it let out a squeal and leapt at her stomach, snugling deep into the folds of her clothes.

"How did you know what to do?" Inuyasha asked.

"My mother raised orphan dragons back in Twy. I've been to the orphanage barns before." she said softly, looking fondly down to the little red fox. It was little more then a few inches long, and curled up against her stomach, looked even smaller.

Suddenly there was another cracking, this time louder. Kagome looked up to the brownish egg Inuyasha still had pressed to his chest. It was cracking open - alot quicker than Kagome's had.