And so it goes on . . . .
Winter Wonderland
Chapter Thirty-Eight
The pounding pain in her head caused the exterminator to stir. As Sango left the world of dreams, she started to realize her head was not the only thing pounding. She could feel small cuts and bruises over her body, but as her eyes started to open, it was still completely dark. Groaning softly in the dark, Sango could faintly hear the sound of water dripping, and something moving slightly beside her. Sango shivered, she was soaking wet, and the hard rock she was lying on wasn't that comfortable. Coughing, Sango tried to move, but the soft sound of metal against metal filled the silence of the cave. She could feel metal chains on her wrists and ankles.
"S . . . Sa . . . Sango?" whispered a voice.
The exterminator coughed, "Kagome?"
A small grown cam from Sango's left. The exterminator tried to move as much as she could and what her body would allow her. She cam in contact with someone, and immediately knew it was Kagome.
"Where . . . are we?" whispered Kagome.
"I don't know . . . I can't see anything . . ."
"Neither can I . . . oh . . . ah . . . my stomach hurts . . . I'm starting to feel sick .. ."
"Well we didn't eat our breakfast . . . it's still in the canoe . . ."
Kagome started to cough, and whimpered, "Who has . . . done this to us?"
Sango was about to respond, but the sound of footsteps was starting to come towards them.
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Miroku and Inu-Yasha lunged at the door, trying to break it down once again, however it was no use. The half demon removed his fire rat top and placed it over Miroku as he ran at the door again, only to be thrown back.
"We have to find another way out Inu-Yasha!"
The half demon nodded and started to head for the stairs with Miroku at his heels. Inu-Yasha looked up at the burning roof, trying to figure where the weak spot would be to burst through. Miroku wrapped the fire rat cloak around him tighter, trying cover himself more from the flames. Inu-Yasha finally found a spot, grabbed the monk, and leaped into the air before the whole house would collapse on them. Inu-Yasha burst through the burning roof, giving off a small grunt instead of a cry out in pain as he burst through the flames with out his fire rat shirt. The house was completely covered in flames, and wouldn't be standing for very much longer. Inu-Yasha's house was still fine, however the front door was wide open. Inu-Yasha headed into the house, while Miroku looked at the strange footprints in the sand. The house had been totally trashed, everything was turned upside down, his sword was lying on the floor, and upstairs he noticed that all of Kagome's clothes had been torn and shredded. He picked up Kagome's camera and was thankful that is wasn't broken.
"Who could of done this?"
Miroku came running into the house, "I've never seen tracks like those . . . do you smell anything awkward?"
The half demon sniffed the air. It filled with the scent of fish, but it was slightly different. Finding no clues in the house, both Miroku and Inu-Yasha ran outside, trying to find some evidence of where Kagome and Sango were.
"Look!" cried Miroku.
Inu-Yasha looked towards the ocean to see a canoe slowly making it's way back to the shore. Kagome's arrows and Sango's sword were in the boat, as well as two towels.
"Kagome!" screamed Inu-Yasha, calling out to the ocean as if she would respond.
"You don't suppose they were dragged underwater?" asked Miroku, not bothering to hide the fear in his voice.
Inu-Yasha could feel his demon side pulsating through his body. If the Tetsusaiga had not been by his side, he would surely have transformed. Miroku ran towards the canoe and pulled it into shore. The first thing that caught his eye was the strange scratch marks on the side of the boat.
"I've never seen markings like these . . . "
Inu-Yasha sniffed the air again, "I don't recognize this smell . . . "
"We have to go after them . . ."
The half demon and ran back into the house quickly, "Get the other canoe ready . . . the one with the anchor!"
Confused, Miroku did what he was told. Inu-Yasha soon reappeared carrying the strangest outfits he had ever seen.
"What on earth are those?"
"Scuba outfits . . . Kagome said something about taking us scuba diving this afternoon . . . she taught me how to use them last night,"
Miroku nodded his head and followed Inu-Yasha's lead as he put on the equipment and waddled into the boat.
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Sango tried to struggle from her chains, but her body felt so weak that she couldn't. A small dim from a fire was coming their way. The small light was enough for Sango to see they were at the back of a cave, and the form of two creatures slowly approaching them. She could hear Kagome slowly starting to sit up as well, whimpering out in pain from the cuts on her body. The two figures were starting to come closer. They both had long green hair, and Sango's shivered as she stared into their life less black eyes with red pupils. Their skin was a pale blue, and Sango could make out the gills on their throats, and the webs on their hands and feet.
"Who are you!? What do you want with us?" hissed Sango.
The two creatures didn't answer. They were both female and work very skimpy clothing. The one on the right knelt down beside Kagome while the other came to eye level with Sango. Suddenly Sango was slapped hard across the face, as well as Kagome. Both creatures then placed their scaled hands on Kagome and Sango's stomach, murmuring to each other in a different language. Kagome now had started to cry as she tried to struggle against her chains. The two creatures smiled at each other before standing and started whispering to each other. After they were finished, one of them grabbed a key and knelt down beside them again, starting to release their hands and ankles. Sango smiled and placed her feet solidly on the floor, preparing to attack once they released her. Glancing to the side, she could see that Kagome was thinking the same idea. Even though they were tired, sick, pregnant, and hurt, this could be their only chance to escape. As the last chain was released, Sango and Kagome each tackled a creature, hitting them with everything they had. The creatures started to struggle, but since they were caught off guard, Kagome and Sango had the advantage. Finally both of the creatures were unconscious. Sango and Kagome helped each other up and grabbed the torch lying on the ground. Grabbing onto the side of the cave for support, they started to walk down the long tunnel.
"Kagome . . .how are you doing?"
"I've been better . . . I just feel so sick . . ."
"Just hang on . . . once we get out of here we'll find Miroku and Inu-Yasha,"
Kagome nodded and kept walking on, trying to not step on the rather sharp rocks. Sango had to stop for a moment to take a breather . . . she felt like any minute she would collapse.
"Do see that?" whispered Kagome.
Sango looked up to see a circular light ahead, "The end of the tunnel . . . were home free . . ."
Kagome started to walk faster, wanting so much to see the sun and breathe in the smell of the fresh ocean air again, instead of the muggy cave smell. As they stepped into the light, they both covered their eyes for a brief moment, and when they opened them, Kagome almost wanted to scream. It was almost like an underground village Kagome had seen in science fiction movies. More of those creatures . . . of all shapes and sizes . . . were everywhere. Two male ones were standing near the exit of the tunnel and immediately seized Kagome and Sango, grabbing them both by the hair.
"Let me go!" screeched Kagome, trying to defend herself. Sango tried to free herself was well, but it was no use. More and more of the sea creatures came to help restrain the two women. Kagome finally stopped struggling when she knew it was no use, as did Sango. Kagome looked more around their surroundings. She could see pools of water almost everywhere through out the small village of these sea creatures. Kagome had a small suspicion that they were at the bottom of the ocean . . .but if that was true, how did they survive? The pressure from the water would have crushed their bodies.
"Where are the prisoners?" called a voice through the chatter of the sea creatures.
Kagome and Sango turned their heads towards the voice.
Parting, the sea creature created a path towards the two women to make way for who ever was coming. Kagome and Sango gasped. The male sea creature was bigger than the rest, and had a small crown on its head.
"Who are you?" cried Sango.
"Silence!" cried the creature, slapping Sango across the face.
It approached Kagome and felt her stomach, and then Sango's before turning towards the others and started talking in the strange language they had heard earlier.
"Sango . . . are you alright?" whimpered Kagome.
"I'm okay . . .what about you?"
"I'll be fine . . . what do you think these creatures want with us?"
Sango started to look around, trying to figure out what would be happening to them, but saw nothing suspicious. When the creature was done talking, Sango tried to talk again, "What do you want with us? What are you?"
"We are mer people . . . I thought that was obvious . . ."
"What do you want with us?"
The leader knelt down to be eye level with Sango, "It is none of your concern . . . but since telling you will be no harm, you might as well know of your fate. By sacrificing the life of two maidens who are with child, we can bring back the great ocean demon . . . Maru . . . back into the world. He was our leader almost a three hundred years ago, but was killed by the great dog demon, Inu-Taishi . . . and so using you two, we shall bring him back," He then turned away from Sango and disappeared into the crowd of mer people.
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Sesshoumaru gave off another sigh as he tossed away another scroll. Going through the castles entire library was going to be more boring than he thought. Rin was sitting in a chair near by, Jaken was sitting on one of the top shelves, and Jarlarg was sitting between Sesshoumaru and Rin.
"I should have done this years ago . . . now there's so many scrolls that are older than myself,"
"Your father did keep lots of his old scrolls . . . messages he would get . . . records of demons he would kill . . . anything that would seem important he kept," sighed Jarlarg.
The demon lord nodded, "I would like to keep them, but I need room for my own records,"
Jarlarg nodded, "Well, keep the ones you want to keep, I'm sure your father would not mind,"
"Sesshoumaru . . . how many demon lords did your father kill?" asked Rin, looking at the scroll in front of her.
"Too many. All of them were trying to take over his land,"
"Why do you ask Rin?" asked Jaken.
"I was just looking at this one . . . about the cat demons trying to take over . . . and then there was another one about mer people trying to take over the western lands,"
Sesshoumaru looked up from his scroll, "Mer people? Why on earth would they want to take over the western lands?"
"Don't you remember? I could of sworn your father told you that story? They wanted to take over the western shores . . .it was at first fine with your father since the ocean didn't really concern him, but when they started to attack villagers, your father tried to negotiate with them, but ended up killing their leader, as a warning to never kill humans again,"
"Why would they be killing humans? I thought mer people at fish and other plants at the bottom of the ocean,"
"Of course they don't eat fish . . . after all they are part fish . . . they seemed to prefer the taste of human blood, not the flesh . . . mer people don't eat meat, but blood and plants seem to be their favorite,"
"Interesting . . . I'll have to do more reading on them in my spare time,"
"Your father did a lot of research on them too, he was afraid they would try to rise their leader from the dead, almost like how the cat demons did to theirs," (Somewhere in the sixties that happens, The Targets are Sesshoumaru and Inu-Yasha . . . I think that's would the episode is called)
This caused Sesshoumaru to look up again, "And is there?"
"Well . . .there is . . . but it would be impossible for them to achieve it. Humans have been banned off the western shores,"
This caused Sesshoumaru to freeze, as well as Rin and Jaken, "And why is that?"
"Well in order for them to raise their leader from the grave, they need the sacrifice of women who are with child, the heir of the leader, which happens to be Tifflehoff the leader of the mer people now, and they would need his sacred trident,"
"What?" cried Sesshoumaru.
"Don't worry my lord . . . since mer people can only be on land for only a day, they can't reach any humans . . .the nearest village is a three day walk,"
Sesshoumaru looked at Rin, then at Jaken before running out of the library. Rin was right on his heels.
"Was it something I said?" asked Jarlarg.
"The western shores is where Inu-Yasha and his friends are!" cried Jaken, taking off after his lord.
Jarlarg dropped the scroll he was holding, "Oh no . . . it could already be too late,"
Sesshoumaru ran as fast as his legs would carry him as he left the castle and headed towards the western shores. He could hear Rin close behind him *Damn it! How could I have been so stupid? I basically served those mer people their true goal on a silver platter . . . I can only hope I'm not too late!*
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Inu-Yasha checked Miroku's equipment and then his own, "Okay . . . were good to go, now let's get into the boat and see if we can find Kagome and Sango,"
Miroku nodded and followed Inu-Yasha into the boat. The half demon started to push them into the water . . .
"Inu-Yasha!" screamed a voice.
Inu-Yasha looked up and almost screamed as Sesshoumaru suddenly appeared in front of him.
"Stop doing that! I don't have time for games . . . Kagome and Sango . . ."
"Don't tell me they have been kidnapped?" cried Sesshoumaru. Rin suddenly appeared by the lords sighed, looking worried.
"Do you know what's happened to them?" asked Miroku.
"Yes . . . but we have very little time . . . we need to get into that water. . ." said Sesshoumaru.
"Well it's a good thing Kagome brought four of those scuba diving outfits. Wait here and I'll grab them, then you better start explaining what the hell is going on!"
Sesshoumaru nodded, "Hurry, we have little time to waste, I fear that your mates could be already dead, and then we would be dealing with a formidable foe,"
Inu-Yasha started to turn pale, but ran into the house as fast as his legs would carry him, and came running back out with the remaining scuba wear.
"Alright, I'll help you get into these outfits . . . but tell we what the hell is going on!"
TBC . . .
You didn't actually think this whole thing would be over did you? Oh and by the way . . . I know this is a spoiler . . . but oh well . . .no . . .no one is going to die (main characters anyway). . .I've had enough with deaths . . . although there is going to be a lot of violence. Oh, and the next chapter will take a while to get up . . . I am swamped with work and family events that it's driving me up the wall. I will have a little time on Saturday, but that all depends if I get enough review to start the next chapter, or you guys are going to have to wait a while. Anyway, till next time!
Lynns