Ch.6

More Problems and More Little People

"Lady Crow, its been happening since three o' clock this morning. First thing that happened is, I got cold so I grabbed my blanket to warm myself up. But it froze when I touched it." Fala looked at her hands as she spoke in a light voice. "Then when I got out of my frozen bed and walked in a circle to warm myself, I got to where I had started walking, and saw I had made a perfect circle of ice on the floor. I walked around aimlessly then, and soon my whole room was iced over. They put me here until you came back." Fala looked over at Miroku and Sango, who were sitting on the floor of the cavern. "Who are they, Lady Crow?"

Lady Crow was shocked at the sudden change in subject. She looked at the couple and child. "They are people who need our help."

"A couple like the last?" Fala asked.

"No, this one is more... unique."

"More of a challenge?" Kala asked.

"Why, don't we like a challenge?"

"Yes, Lady Crow." The girls stood as one. Lady Crow followed, with some help.

"Miroke, Sango, we are departing from here, the mixed Dojoe. We are going to the Blue Dojoe."

"How far is it from here, Lady Crow?" Miroku asked.

"Fourteen days walk." Lady Crow said plainly.

"Fourteen days!" Sango almost fainted.

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W.W.- "Fourteen days? What are you thinking, B.B.! Are you trying to kill them?"

B.B.- "It's not my fault the dojoes are so far..." (Stops in mid sentence) "Wait, yeah it is." (Starts to laugh nervously)

W.W.- "DUH!"

B.B.- (still laughing nervously) "No, I'm not trying to... Um... Kill them."

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"It's okay, Sango, you may ride in the litter to the Blue Dojoe. But Miroku will have to walk. No student of mine is going to ride when he has perfectly functional legs."

"But Lady Crow, Sango has..."

"A baby and she's a woman."

Miroku shut up as Fala hid a smile under an icy white hand.

"Kala, go prepare the litter for Songo. Miroku, remove those old traveling monk clothes and find a pair of decent rat robes. Sango ..." Lady Crow's eyes turned amber. "Let me hold the baby." She smiled as Sango laughed at the sudden change of talk. Sango placed Tay in Lady Crow's arms. "Fala, show Miroku to the robe room." Lady Crow looked back at Tay. "Hi, you cute little thing. How are you?" Tay giggled as Sango and Lady Crow surrounded her with an assortment of the colored rocks Sango always carried with her. "Aww..."

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"Come on let's move! Miroku, get your ass out here... NOW!

"Coming, Lady Crow!"

"I won't believe it till I see it! NOW MOVE!"

Miroku walked out of the Mixed Dojoe in baby blue rat robes with a red face. Sango started to laugh. "Miroku, you look like one of Tay's colored stones!" She looked through her bag and brought out a baby blue stone. She held it up for Miroku to see and turn red even more.

Lady Crow started to laugh now. "Your face is an impure color." Miroku turned ever more red. "Remove that color at once!" Lady Crow was cackling, trying to act angered at the red but not being able to get over the sight of Miroku in baby blue.

Fala turned. "Oh, dear!" She exclaimed. "Allow me, Lady Crow."

"Go, Fala, do what you can." Fala walked to Miroku.

"Blushing is actually just the blood in your face becoming hot." Fala explained to Miroku. She waved her hand ion front of his face and it went pale.

"Cold." was the only word that would form on Miroku's lips.

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B.B.- "Hmm..."

W.W.- "'Hmm...' what?"

B.B.- "'Hmm...' Miroku's lips." (Smiles dreamily)

W.W.- (anime fall) "I should have known."

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"Miroku, are you okay?" Sango called from her litter.

"Cold." Miroku repeated as his face started to thaw.

Sango looked out to see Miroku's face dripping. "Did it start to rain?"

"Cold."

"No," Lady Crow said. "Fala froze his face to get rid of the red color, and now it's melting."

"Really?" Sango was trying not to laugh, again. "So... He's...Melting?" She wouldn't be able to hold it much longer. "Now... Miroku... Put your...Voice... in... a high... pitch... and cry... out... 'I"M MELTING!" She lost it.

"Cold." Miroku turned to Fala. "Cold. Sango. Cold."

"Look, his second word!" Sango laughed. "My name!"

"What are you trying to say to me?" Fala asked.

"Cold. Sango. Not cold baby. Cold Sango."

"Oh. Okay." Fala turned to Lady Crow. "Lady Crow, may I?"

"Yes." Lady Crow turned to Sango, her eyes violet in color. "Sango, may I hold Tayallay?"

"Yes." When Sango handed Lady Crow the child, she sat back in her litter. Fala walked to the litter and waved her hand at it. The thing now had a sheet of ice on it.

"Cold. Miroku. Cold. Kill." Sango walked out, pale and frozen. She walked to Miroku, who was too cold to run, and placed her cold hands around his neck. "Cold. Death. Cold. Miroku!" She continued to strangle Miroku until Lady Crow said a word of power that made Sango disappear back into her litter to warm up.

"Warm." Lady Crow said to the litter. It glowed orange, then it settled.

"Warm, Sango, Cold Miroku." they heard from the litter. "Baby warm too!" Lady Crow knew Sango wanted her baby.

"Miroku warm too? Miroku warm too?"

"Yes, 'Miroku warm too' ..." Lady Crow said the same word of power.

"Miroku Hot! Miroku Hot!" Miroku's clothes melted off his body.

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B.B.- "Yum! Fried Miroku! Ha ha ha!"

W.W.- "Eww." (Covers eyes) "Give me the story."

B.B.- "No!" (Drool, drool) "I'm looking at Miroku's hot, naked, yummy body."

W.W.- (snatches story while B.B. distracted, and commences trying to erase Miroku being naked, with no success) "Damn."

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W.W.- "I'm not against naked hot guys running around, but, damn it all, Miroku is not on my hot list!"

B.B.- "DIE!" (Runs and dives at W.W. W.W. steps out of the way. B.B. lands in the dirt)

W.W.- "Still not on my hot list. But it's my turn to write now!" (Runs away laughing)

B.B.- "Damn it."

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Ankha was about three miles from camp when she felt the movement inside her cloak. Startled, she stopped in mid-stride. A muffled shriek came from within her cloak's dark folds. Bewildered, the cat demon pulled one side of it away from herself and shook it. A familiar ball of fluff fell out. Totally confused now, she shook the other side, and out came Rorrim. The pieces fell into place. The assassin spoke in a low, dangerous voice.

"What the hell were you doing in there?"

The green girl ignored the demon's obvious anger and brushed the dirt off her clothes.

"Couldn't you have found a nicer way to get me out?" She looked oddly at the simmering female. "You have some really weird stuff in there." Rorrim pulled out of her pocket what she had taken. She held up the blue stone monkey with green eyes. "What's this used for?" Ankha snatched the thing away and started to growl low in her throat, but forced herself to be patient.

"What were you doing in my cloak?" She said again.

"Going with you. Gram said she didn't want me to go, but she's always telling me to live the way I want to, so I ignored one thing and went with the other."

"I have to take you back."

"NO! I'm tired of the forest. I'm so tired of that house. I left Gram a note, if she needs me she'll just fly to you. Please, please, let me go with you. Gram will understand. PPPPLLLLEEEEAAAASSSSEEEE?"

Ankha figured she could wait until the child was asleep to take her back to her grandmothers. But she still tried one last time to make her go back now.

"I could take you back by force right now."

"And I'd only sneak out again and follow you. But this time I'd be alone." 'Damn, this kid is smart! She's knows I'd rather have her come with me then go in those woods alone.' The demon shot the innocent looking green child a dirty look.

"Oh, all right, let's go."

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W.W.- "Damn! I just went through our story and saw how long it was! I hope you people out there are comfy. We still have a way's to go. I had no idea it would take this long."

B.B.- "Shut up! You're taking up more space!"

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Ankha walked in silence the next three miles of the journey. Unfortunately for her, Rorrim would not follow her example. The cat demon ground her teeth together as the high-ish voice of the child went on and on. She heaved a sigh of relief when the familiar camp smells reached her nose. She could leave the girl with them so she could go off for some real peace.

Her companions had no idea of her mood, poor them.

"SURPRISE!" The assassin hissed in surprise and attacked the person nearest her out of sheer reflex. Poor, poor Inuyasha.

It took both Rain and Loeyla to pull the crazy cat demon off the mangled remains of the half breed. Sessho would have helped, but he was too busy laughing. Shippo and Kagome were nowhere to be seen.

Quickly Ankha calmed down. Her face looked normal and unembarrassed, but her ear tips were very red.

"Um, hi, everybody." When they just stared at her, she continued, her ears turning an ever deeper shade of red. "What was all the yelling about?"

"Before or after you attack the mutt!" Sessho said through his laughter. "Ow!" came from his lips as his mate pinched his arm, hard. "What was that for?"

Loeyla ignored him and turned to her former patient saying, "Well, today's your birthday, so we got you something."

Ankha had forgotten it was her birthday. She smiled warmly at the Wolf-Fox and took the small box handed to her. Lifting off the lid, she exclaimed with great delight,

"CHOCOLATE!"

It was full of chocolate! Not the weird ones with the filling,

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W.W.- "I don't like those. I'm always getting coconut filling."

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but solid, bite-sized pieces of chocolate. A.K.A.- bite-sized pieces of happiness.

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Rain- (stupidly interrupting W.W. happy dreams of chocolate) "Can we please get on with the story!"

W.W.- (eyes narrow to slits and start glowing red)

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You know a good way to find Shippo? Yell CHOCOLATE! really loud.

The foxling came bounding into the clearing, intent upon reaching the candy, when he suddenly collided into a form not much bigger than himself. In fact, he had collided with himself.

In her panic, Rorrim had shifted to 'look' like Shippo, in the same way she had 'looked' like Ankha. The Red/Orange hair and tail became a icky gray, and his pale skin near black.

Shippo snorted in surprise. Seeing no threat, Rorrim smiled at the confused demon and melted back into her original form. Understanding, Shippo relaxed and laughed at her little performance, then shifted to look like her.

Rorrim's eyes widened. She had never seen another shifter. The she laughed as well. They played this game for a while, shifting into the other's shape, until it became boring. Shippo then remembered the reason he had come back so quickly. Chocolate! He bounded toward Ankha, dragging his new friend with him.

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B.B.- "W.W., I WANT CHOCOLATE!"

W.W.- "SO DO I! (Tears stream down their faces.)

B.B.+W.W.- "WWHHAAHH!"

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The foxling stopped abruptly and this time Rorrim ran into him. She pulled him down with her. Scrambling up again, he said, "My name's Shippo. What's yours?" He extended his hand to her and pulled her up.

"I'm Rorrim. Nice to meet you, Shippo." He smiled and continued pulling her toward his friends.

"Come on, I want you to meet them." He didn't feel her shift and change. 'And I want some of that chocolate!'

"Ankha!" Shippo yelled to get her attention. The group turned to look at the two Shippos'. While the rest of them stared in shock, Ankha laughed. She had already figured out what was going on. Leaving off their staring at the double foxlings, they stared at the still laughing cat demon. Looking back and forth, they must have looked pretty stupid.

Inuyasha broke down first.

"RUN! It's a sign of the apocalypse! Two Shippo's and a laughing assassin! Run for your lives!" The half-breed took off into the bushes.

Sesshomiru looked at his mate. "You know, he may have a point." Loeyla sighed at the brainlessness of males. Human, demon, or both, it made no difference. She grabbed his collar before he went too far after his half brother.

"It's not the apocalypse, dear." She spoke as one might to a child. "It's probably a joke." She patted his head and he calmed down. The Fox/Wolf turned to the cat demon, who had left off laughing to stare bewilderedly into the bushes where dog face had disappeared. "Ankha, who's that?"

"Who?" Ankha remembered the two Shippo's. "Oh. That's Rorrim. The gray and black one. She followed me home."

Kagome finally made an appearance, looking like hell and glaring daggers at a certain foxling. But it was the wrong foxling. This one she had never seen before. Blinking, she said

"Has Shippo turned... Black and grey?"

The false Shippo melted into a puddle. Kagome screamed in surprise. Out of the puddle came Rorrim, green skin, white hair and all. Everyone's confusion cleared up. Just another shifter. Kagome turned to the real Shippo and he cowered before the fury he saw.

"SHIPPO!" She yelled at him. "HOW DARE YOU LEAVE ME IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WOODS TO CARRY BACK ALL OF THE WOOD BACK TO CAMP!"

"But Kagome..." He whimpered. "...chocolate..."

"I DON'T CARE! SHIPPO, YOU HAVE DISHES, WOOD AND CLEANING DUTY FOR A WEEK!" She saw him look anxiously at Ankha. "AND IF YOU EVEN THINK OF ASKING ANKHA TO HELP YOU IT WILL BE TWO WEEKS!" Shippo stared at her thinking, 'How could she be so mad? She only had to carry the wood back.' Then he noticed the leaves in her hair and the grass stain on her socks. A vague memory came to him of knocking into something after dropping all his firewood in his hurry to get to the chocolate. He must have knocked her over! Shippo stifled his smile so Kagome wouldn't see.

Finally, she calmed down. Ankha shared her chocolate with Shippo and Rorrim and the two sat and talked as they cleaned out her box, while everyone else gathered around the fire to talk. Except for Inuyasha. He was still hiding in the woods, waiting for the end of the world. Someone would have to go looking for him. They drew straws, and Sessho lost. Mumbling, he went after his half brother.

"Well, at least you had an exciting day." Loeyla said after Ankha had finished telling them why Rorrim was there. "We went into town. There's no shards anywhere. We asked everybody. It was so boring." She looked questioningly at the cat demon. "Will you ever give your shard up, Ankha?"

At first, Ankha had no idea what the fox/wolf was talking about, but then she remembered her shard in a bottle. "Sure, why not? I never use it anyway." She disappeared into her cloak for a moment, and came up with the small bottle. Uncorking it, she tipped it upside down and emptied its contents out onto her palm. Holding up the glowing shard, she handed it to Kagome, then settled back into her seat.

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B.B.- "That's it?" (Eye twitching.)

W.W.- "What's it?"

B.B.- "She just gives it over?"

W.W.- "Yeah. Like she said, she wasn't using it. So?"

B.B.- (doesn't say anything, just stares at W.W.)

W.W.- (unnerved by stare) "Um, back to the story!"

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The evening felt weird with four spaces around the fire empty. But as Ankha sat, thinking about how she would kill Rammahallen, her thoughts were interrupted by two small bodies flying at her and knocking her over

When she got up again, Shippo and Rorrim were jumping up and down before her, screaming.

"Little men! Little men! Little men paint the grass green!" The cat demon fell over again.

Rising from where she had fallen, she said in a dry voice,

"Does this mean I have to stay up all night, again?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" they shouted. 'I think they had too much sugar.' They kept shouting. So she yelled (to be heard over them)

"All right! All right, already! But if I do, you have to be quiet the rest of the evening!" Immediately they shut up. 'I am never giving them chocolate again.' Ankha thought.

The sun set, Inuyasha and Sessho came back, and Rorrim, Shippo and Ankha settled down to watch for little green men.

The moon rose as the two children sat, trying desperately to keep their eyes open, pinching each other when the other's eyes started to droop. Ankha sat under, not in, a tree, a blanket pulled tight around her shoulders. The shadow by the fire got up and walked over to her.

Ankha had been watching them leave for bed, had been watching this one stay there. It was Rain. He was carrying something, and he handed it to her as he sat down beside her. It was a cup of hot tea. She smiled her thanks for the warming drink and turned her attention back to the moon. It was full that night.

"I wonder how long they'll last." Rain's voice startled her out of her reverie.

"I don't know. By the looks of it, not very long." She took a sip of her tea. "Thank you. It was getting cold out here." They sat there for a few minutes, each not knowing what to say. Their last meeting had been less than comfortable.

When Rorrim and Shippo finally dropped off, Ankha got up to put them to bed. She decided not to take the young mix back tonight. After safely tucking the girl in, she turned to do the same for Shippo, to find Rain had already done so. He was watching her, and she knew they would have to talk. She walked back to her tree and sat heavily.

He sat beside her again.

"Are you going to give me a real answer?" She wasn't surprised by his bluntness. Sighing, she answered him.

"My answer is no. I will keep my me memories, bad and good. And I would appreciate if you don't tell anyone what you saw."

"And if I do?" She looked straight at him, and he knew she was serious.

"I will kill you. Slowly." To interrupt their serious conversation came a noise.

POP! Ankha's head snapped up.

"What was that?"

POP! POP!

"I heard it too!" POP! POP! POP! They saw the source of the noise.

"LITTLE GREEN MEN!" They shouted together, their voices effectively waking up the whole camp.

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B.B.- "I'M WEARING BUTT FLOSS!"

W.W.- "Where the hell did that come from!"

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"Little men! Where!" Shippo yelled. A chorus of 'pops' filled the air as little men disappeared. Ankha and Rain dived at the bushes and dirt, trying to grab the little green men. They failed in their task.

"I swear, there were little green men, right here! They had paint brushes and little buckets of paint. I saw them!" Ankha said frantically.

"I saw them too!" Rain agreed. Together they continued searching the area. The others rolled their eyes and went back to bed.

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B.B.- "Wait, where's Talabinya?"

W.W.- "Um, I don't know."

Loeyla- "She left before we went to town. My mother said she missed my father." (Snorts) "They're like newlyweds."

W.W.- "Oh. Well, that's more information than I needed, yep, just like the butt floss."

B.B.- "BUTT FLOSS!"

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Around dawn, they gave up looking. Rain fell asleep, but Ankha could not. Her brain wouldn't let her. Finally, her conscience won. She set off at a dead run to Wind's house, following their faint trial from the day before. She arrived before the sun had moved. Resting for a minute, she considered what she would say.

"Hi. I did not mean to kidnap your granddaughter, she followed me home."

"Really. Is that what happened." The voice startled the cat demon. She had heard no one approach. 'But there had been a slight breeze...' Rorrim's grandmother stood beside her, silver eyes piercing into Ankha's.

"Yes, ma'am, it is. When should I bring her back?"

"Whenever you want." This woman knew how to shock the assassin, alright.

"Pardon?"

"She needs to see more of the world. I've kept her sheltered here for far too long. However," her tone meant business. "if she dies, you will be held responsible." The light breeze turned into a driving wind, stinging the cat demon with the flying debris. Then the wind stopped abruptly. "Understand?"

"Yes, ma'am." She went back to camp, never knowing about the passenger she had

carried to the grandmother. Wind picked up the floof and said, "Well?"

"I think this will work out nicely." It replied.