Define Normal

Chapter Eight - A Very Short Reunion

As planned, Kilala, Miroku, and Sango were the first to reach the Kouga's mountain caves. The made sure to make a big show of it, having Miroku and Sango leap off Kilala dramatically and land in fancy poses, while Kilala flared up and looked as ferocious as she could. Next came Shippou, using his fox fire to attract attention. He was followed by a pouty looking Inuyasha, who, upon reaching the top, unsheathed his Tessaiga. All in all, it was a very dramatic entrance, and it had worked completely.

---Sneaking around back---

Wednesday had powered down when they were close to the top, making sure AJ had a foot and hand hold in the cliff face beforehand. He did this directly above AJ's head, so he fell nicely onto her shoulders. AJ almost lost her balance when Wed's claws dug into her shoulder by accident, but AJ had seen this and grabbed her hand and pulled her back. Of all the ones there, Diamond was having the most issues. When they were about two thirds up the mountain, he couldn't take it anymore, and Jessica had to carry him piggy-back (getting amused looks from the group). "Dime," Jess thought, using Diamond's nickname, "if you don't quit struggling, your claws are going to pull down my pants." "I can't help it," the old dog replied, "your jean's beltloops are my only footholds, and I'm not doing the best job having my paws hooked around your shoulders." "Well, we're almost there," she said out loud. "Thank God," huffed AJ, "I'm never even looking at a rockwall when we get back home." Her thoughts began to wander, "Home... my mother and grandma must be going insane.. but maybe much time hasn't passed, I can only hope so." Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, they made it to a place where they could actually get on horizontal rock instead of vertical. Diamond gladly hobbled off Jessica's back. As he did so, Jessica noticed something that she had never seen before. She put her hand on Dime's back to keep him from walking any further and said, "Diamond? Where did that scar come from?" "What scar," he asked, alarmed. "The one on your right shoulder, it looks like a cross!" as she said that, she put her finger to Diamond's scar, and she felt her own right shoulder twitch. Alarmed, she hurridly pulled up her shirt sleeve, and sure enough, there was a pink paw print on her shoulder. She touched her finger to Dime's shoulder again, and this time she saw both their scars glowing a faint pink. Suddenly, AJ got into the act. She pulled Kagome aside, "Quick, tell me, does my forehead glow when I touch Wednesday's scar?" Having said that, she brushed the backs of her finger's accross Wed's forehead. Kagome blinked and said, "Um.. yes. Is that normal for you?" "No. No it's not..Jessica!" she whisper/yelled. Jessica and Diamond looked up at her, their eyes were a little worried. "Jessica, did this happen to you when we were falling through that time space continuum thingy?" said AJ urgently. Jessica thought for a second, then nodded her head, "Yes! It did! Didn't it Dime?" "Yes, I do recall my shoulder being pained." he replied to Jessica. Excitedly, AJ did a small jump for joy, "Dude, I know what happened! Do you remember the shiny pink crystal thingy that Dianna found?" Jessica nodded, Diamond just continued starring at AJ. Kagome was afraid what she she thought AJ was going to say next. "Well, I think when it broke, the pieces were shot into us!" "Darn it," thought Kagome, "how did I know?" "Guys," she said out loud, "I don't think that this was an accident. You see my necklace? AJ already recognized it, but I don't think you saw it, Jessica." Kagome took off her necklace and put the bottle right next to Jessica's pawprint scar, as she feared, it glowed. The strange thing was, so did Diamond's. "You two and your friend Dianna, if this same thing happened to her, yes? Okay, then all three of you and your pets have very small fragments of the Sacred Jewel Shard in you. Usually it only grants it's powers to demons, but for some reason, you six are being affected." "Wait a minute," said Jessica, "demons? As in 'bwa ha ha ha, may you live in unending sufferring forever in hell'. THOSE types of demons?" "I don't like that," mind-shouted Wednesday to AJ. "Wait a minute, drat!" hottly whispered Kagome, "if both of you light up every time you come near a jewel shard, that must mean that your friend does too. All six of you are now handy jewel detectors!" "And this issss..bad?" asked AJ uneasily. "YES! If Kouga finds out, it's going to be MUCH harder to get Dianna out of his grasp! He kidnapped me for that same reason a while ago! Luckily I had Inuyasha to save me... Ugh! We need to get her out as soon as we can!" All four nodded their head and said "Right." With Wednesday staying a normal, small two-tail for convenience, they started their journey to break Dianna out of jail.

---Holy crap, that was a looong paragraph.---

---Ehem, anyway.---

---Back at the top of the mountain---

"Inuyasha, and his little friends. I see we're all here." said Bane, hiding his thoughts behind a smirk. "All here except for Kagome and those other newcommers." "May I enquire as to exactly why you are visiting Kouga's Mountain?" "We've come to retrieve something that was lost," said Inuyasha, a fight in his voice. "Ahh, retrieve, eh? Being a good little mutt?" said Bane, unable to resist the joke. Inuyasha knew he wouldn't be able to resist joking about him, and he knew this was all to buy time, but that didn't mean he had to like it. He growled a little bit, and Shippou stepped forward, in a rare act of bravery. "You only make jokes about him because you could never beat him," the little fox demon said, ending it by sticking out his tongue. Bane, and all the members of the pack behind him, took the bait. "So, you think you could beat ALL of us?" yelled one of the demons in the back. "Yeah," said Sango, walking up to Miroku, "and this guy could do it with one hand behind his back." Miroku played along, putting his normal hand behind his back, holding his staff with it. He did all this with an annoying "Nyeh nyeh!" smile. A wolf demon somewhere in the crowd yelled, "That's it, priest! You think you can take us all on? Well come and get it!" "Oh, I will" growled Inuyasha, and lept into the air, raisng Tessaiga high above his head.

---Back in the prison cell---

When Romeo had poked his nose to Dianna's pawprint scar, Dianna had orange on the edge of her vision, but she thought it was because of her stomach. Now, when she asked Romeo to do it again to test that theory, she found that her vision was slightly orange around the edges, again. "Romeo..does your vision go orange when you do that," she asked quietly. "Yes," he replied, "I just never actually thought about it untill you pointed it out." That's when Dianna noticed something even more alarming. "Romeo..your eyes! They're all ORANGE!" she yelled, forgetting that she was trying to be quiet. ((think of it sort of like a black cat with orange eyes, but with reddish higlights, and that's what the eyes look like)) Romeo blinked a few times, then closed them hard, and reopened them. "Still?" he asked. "Yes." came Dianna's shocked reply. "Well," he said, "I didn't want to scare you, so I never mentioned it before, but now that you've noticed mine, I guess it's safe to tell you that your eyes are orange, too." Dianna meeped and got onto her knees. "What! How long have they been like that!" she squeaked. "Ever since you touched my heart scar on my chest." Romeo replied.

Because they had been so focused on their conversation, they didn't hear footsteps comming to their cell. And when Kouga opened the door, Dianna must've jumped five feet into the air with surprise. Kouga looked at the pair for a moment, then stepped inside and closed the door. Romeo growled, but he ignored it. "I have a question for you," he said, and took a step forward.

((he he, kouga seems to like ending chapters that way, eh?))