Random Note: In my world, Ayame doesn't exsist. :P Sorry!

Define Normal

Chapter Seven - Is it just me or are things a little TOO fuzzy around here?

Dianna was laying down on her back in the little cave/jail cell that she had been put in. Romeo was a couple feet away, sniffing the stone floor. She inhaled deeply and groaned, "Ugh..." "Why are you groaning so much," asked Romeo, a little annoyed. "Well, lets see what my day has been like so far, shall we Romeo?" the girl said, wondering how Romeo wasn't feeling all that bad. "First, my friends and I all got separted, and while we were going through that warped time space tunnel thingy, it felt like someone stabbed me in the chest. Then, right when we got done falling, we fell right in front a bunch of human eating men with tails and elf ears! Then, when we tried to get away, I finally met up with someone I knew (Jessica), and they caught us! For all I know, they got Jessica and just ate her right there the bloody forest! Stupid bastards! Why'd we have to end up in the territory of a man eating, fur wearing tribe!" Romeon let her vent, and when she was finished, sat down in front of her and said "When we were falling, I felt something stab my chest, too." Wanting to make sure Romeo was okay, Dianna called him over and inspected his chest. "Romeo, when did you get that?" she said, poking him right inthe middle of his white chest fur. "When did I get what?" he said, trying hard to angle his head to see, but it was impossible for him. "You have a little pink heart type scar on your chest! Aww, that's so cute! Your name is Romeo, and now you have a little pink heart!" she said, using that annoying voice humans always used when addressing small, fuzzy animals. "Okay okay, I believe you! Just stop talking like that, geez." Romeo cut in quickly before she could go on. After a moment, he said "Hey... do yo have anything on your chest, like mine?" "Uh..I don't know. I haven't really been able to stop and check, and even if I did have time, why would I check for something like that?" She said that all that to herself, mumbling it very softly. She took Romeo out of her lap and set him on the floor, where he stood up and watched her. She carefully pulled down her tanktop just a tiny bit, almost afraid to look. She saw two pink tips of something. "Oh no..." she said, and pulled it down a little farther. She had a little pink paw print, about the size of Romeo's paw, two inches below her neck-line. "What the heck? What happened to us, Romeo?" she said, trying not to be too loud so nobody would open the door and look in to check on them. "I don't know, but it doesn't seem to be doing anything bad to us," as he said that, he put the tip of his nose to the pawprint scar, and that scar and his glowed a dull pink. In a milisecond, Romeo heard Dianna's stomach turning. He quickly pulled his nose away, but she was able to catch it in time and swallowed (yuck!). "I'm sorry!" he said, thinking it was his fault. "Oh, don't worry, it's not you," she said, "you see, while you got the luxury of being held steady in some guys arm, the guy that was carrying me was leaping from rock to rock, climbing up a mountain. One, I'm afraid of heights. Two, everytime he jumped his shoulder rammed into my stomach. Three, since my nose suddenly has your capabilites, I could smell him sweating seeing as my face was right next to his back. Bleh." She could hear Romeo trying not to laugh.

"Romeo, what, pray tell, is so funny?"

"Oh.. nothing. -he he-"

"Romeo!"

"Well, I always heard that it hurts the first time a girl ever got to smell a man's sweatiness so well."

CRACK!

"Ow!"

---Outside of the cell---

Wednesday had tried to impress Kilala by being able to carry three passengers (AJ, Jessica, and Diamond), but in the end, he wasn't very good at flying yet, and having that much weight on his back unbalanced him greatly, so Jessica and Diamond had to run along the ground with Inuyasha and Kagome. Well, only with Inuyasha, technically, seeing as Kagome rode on his back. "Man, why is he making an old dog do so much running," wheezed Diamond into Jessica's mind. Unable to speak because she was running so hard, she unconiencely answered him with her thoughts, instead of her speech, "Yeah, I know, it only took a couple minutes to get everything organized and then right after we were done running from the fur wearing people, now we're running again, but this time directly to them." "Hey," said Diamond, surprised, "you spoke to my thoughts! That's the first time you've done that!" "Hey, you're right!" Jessica mind spoke again, "I wonder if AJ can do this?"

"WEDNESDAY!" AJ yelled for the second time. "WHAT!" he retorted. "You weren't answering me." "What?" "I SAID YOU WEREN'T ANSWERING ME!" she yelled. "MAN, IT'S HARD TO TALK WITH ALL THIS WIND BLOWING AT US!" "If only you could mind speak like Jessica can with Diamond." W-day said, almost to himself, but AJ heard it. "SHE CAN DO THAT? HOW DO YOU KNOW?" yelled AJ, speedily approaching a lost voice. "Diamond just told me, I almost couldn't hear him because of how far down he is, though." "WHY DON'T WE TRY?" AJ asked, wondering why he had never brought this up. "I've already tried to make contact with you that way, but for you, for some reason, it's impossible." "Darn it, oh well. I'm going to quit talking, my voice hurts too much." she said, rubbing her throat with her free hand. "What?" Wednesday called back. "MY VOICE HURTS, I'M GOING TO QUIT TALKING. YOU CAN TALK, BUT SOON I WON'T EVEN BE ABLE TO REPLY!" she yelled as loud as she could. Her voice really died after that. She cleared her throat a bit, but it didn't help. Then her stomache rumbled. "Hmm, how long has it been since I've eaten," she thought to herself, "as far as I know, we've only been here for a little over an hour..maybe time goes by differently. ... I wonder how our parents are doing?"

Inuyasha reached the end of the forest and stopped at the base of the mountain, Kagome got off his back and stood next to him. "This brings back WONDERFUL memories..." she said to herself. "What is that supposed to mean!" Inuyasha said, his voice a little strained. "I was being sarcastic, dolt! I don't like Kouga!" she retored. That seemed to calm Yasha down a bit. A second later, Kilala landed, followed by Wednesday. Shippou was riding along with Sango and Miroku, and deftly lept off Kilala's shoulder and trotted over to Kagome. "I don't like it here," he told her, putting his hands around her leg. A bit later, Jessica and Diamond arrived. "What took you," said AJ, smiling. "I wish I had enough strength to hit her," Jessica told Diamond. "Want me to bite her?" he asked. "No, I'm not -that- mean." she thought back, smiling. "What are you smiling about?" asked AJ. "Oh nothing, just me and Diamond talking. Wednesday told you what we can do now, right?" Jessica asked. "Yeah, and I'm envious!" AJ said, poking Jess in the forehead. "Well, at least you have a flying steed at your beck and call," retorted Jessica, "I wish Diamond could do that." "I'm glad I can't," Diamond said to Jessica and Wednesday, "my back would die if I had to carry a person around all day." "Aww, you old geezer, do you need a rest?" snickered Wednesday. Diamond glared at him, but said nothing.

"Okay," said Kagome once everyone had gathered around, "since I know this mountain better than anyone here, I think I should guide AJ and Jessica to their friend. Inuyasha - you, Sango, Kilala and Miroku need to keep Kouga and his pack busy while we're finding them." "What," yelled Inuyasha, "I'm not going to leave you with only THEM for protection with that bastard around!" Sango cut in, "I'm sure she'll be alright. Just look at Wednesday!" Loving the attention, Wednesday lifted a paw and sheathed out his claws. They were much larger than a bears, and way sharper than a regular mountain lion's claws. Not to mention the fact that he was big, and if anyone got to close he could either bite them, or stick his feet or tail on them and burn them to death. Inuyasha still wasn't satisfyed, but couldn't come up with a legible argument. That settled, they started climbing up the mountain.

---Up on the mountain top---

Kouga looked down to see some very familiar faces, and some new ones. "Hmm," he said, "I wonder who that freak group recruited now." Bane had come to join him, looking down he said "Hey, Kagome's with them. Wonder if you'll get lucky and snag her again." Kouga looked at Kagome and said "I'm wondering if I really need her." "What are you talking about," said Bane, "she can detect Sacred Jewel shards!" "Yes, I know," replied Kouga, "but I have a feeling that our dinner possess that ability also. Or at least that little puppy of hers can." "How do you know," asked Bane. "You and I have a shard in our body. Didn't you notice that that dog you were carrying had a mark on his chest that glowed everytime he came to close to yours?" Bane blinked and said "Well..no. Does the human have a mark on her?" "I don't know," Kouga said, "I haven't gotten around to checking yet. She seemed a little queezy, I don't really care for her to get sick on me." After a moment, he looked up from Inuyasha's party to Bane and said, "I'm leaving you to greet them once they finally get up here, they're lousy climbers. I'm going to go check on our prisoners." With that, Kouga retreated back into the caves. It didn't escape Bane that Kouga's term for the human and dog went from 'dinner' to 'prisoner'. "Damn..guess we'll have to do more hunting tonight after all..."