Disclaimer: I do not in any way, shape or form own Inuyasha or any of the other characters. Need I be reminded?
Sorry for not updating in so long guys! Thanks for all the reviews too! I think I made this chapter a little longer...don't forget to R&R!
Chapter 9: Skipping Rocks
"Inuyasha…? Are you still awake?" Kagome whispered.
"Yeah, why?" Inuyasha said, trying to sound like his uncaring, normal self, but it wasn't often that Kagome woke him up in the middle of the night. Not that he had been asleep.
"You really think she's okay?" Kagome's voice was filled with worry, and guilt.
The human form of Inuyasha could not smell the despair, looming around her. He had never seen Kagome this sad or worried for….well, never. "Yeah, quit worrying, will ya?"
Kagome didn't respond, but instead, wiggled out of her sleeping bag, and slid out of the tent, into the moonless night.
The hanyou followed without hesitation, but found himself entwined in his futon. Inuyasha twisted, turned and flailed about in his sheets. Miroku was awakened by a smack on the face, surprisingly from Inuyasha, and not for being a pervert.
Finally, once Inuyasha had extricated himself from the contraption, he stalked out of the tent. It was unexpectedly silent, considering the ruckus he previously caused. Sango and Miroku, even though they were awakened by Inuyasha's fit, stayed in the tent, to talk among themselves.
"Miroku, do you think Kagome's ok? She was really quiet today," Sango asked, worried about the girl who had become so close to her over the past many moons. Sango considered her a sister to her, like Souta thought of Inuyasha.
"I'm sure she'll be fine, once we find May Lee, and she realizes that everything is okay," Miroku reassured her.
"Well, I hope May Lee is okay too. She seemed to be so close to Kagome," Sango wondered out loud. In truth, the demon slayer was a bit jealous. The girl, May Lee, did indeed seem to be very close to Kagome. Sango feared she would be replaced. You're being stupid. Kagome loves you, you're like sisters. She comforted herself. Anyway, she'll have to go back to her own time, and things can go back to the way they were. Just you, Miroku, Kirara, Kagome, Inuyasha and Shippo.
"Sango, are you okay?" Miroku asked, now he was worried, but not about May Lee. He worried for Sango, the secret love of his life.
"Hmmm. I'm fine," Sango lied.
"Are you worried that May Lee will come between you and Kagome?" He asked her, though, if she said yes, no words came to his mind to comfort her.
Sango didn't say anything. If she said no, she'd be covering her feelings, but it would sound insensitive too. If she said yes, Miroku would try to make her feel better, which wasn't what she needed right now.
The monk sensed her uneasiness, and decided to drop the subject.
Outside the tent:
"Hey Kagome," Inuyasha said, as he approached. He was sure that she knew he was there, but he felt in necessary to announce his presence.
"Inuyasha…" Kagome whispered. Inuyasha couldn't rely on his youkai nose to smell her fear, but he could see it, all around her. Why did she worry about this girl so much? It's not like she was dead or anything. Just….lost.
"I'm here," he replied, he hoped to calm her with his presence, and soothe her uneasy spirits.
Kagome eased herself down to the ground, and leaned against a giant tree trunk. She looked blankly at the earth before her, lost in thought.
Inuyasha lowered himself to the ground as well, and found that he was sitting closer to Kagome than he had expected. Normally, he would never sit this close, and Kagome wouldn't either…how he hated when he turned to a full human. His sight, depth perception, smell, everything was distorted. Inuyasha re-focused his thoughts on Kagome. "Hey, don't worry 'bout it. 'kay?"
A silent tear slid down Kagome's cheek. Inuyasha almost reached to brush it off, but did not move. The young girl let the moisture drip from her face, onto her shirt, where it was quickly absorbed by the soft cotton. Her eyes sparkled with the wetness of the tears, and for once, Inuyasha was grateful for his human form. He did not want to smell Kagome's sadness, or the salt of her tears.
Kagome looked at the black haired boy, here to save her, once again. "Oh, Inuyasha….this is all my fault…" Kagome said, her voice was anguished. She seemed to shrink as she drew her knees to her chest, and hovered over her legs, sobbing.
Inuyasha swallowed his pride for once. Kagome's happiness to him, was more important than his egotistical nature. He didn't mind getting sat, to save his pride, but never, ever, would he sacrifice Kagome's happiness. Inuyasha laid his arms around Kagome's shaking shoulders, and pulled her close to him, hugging her.
Kagome leaned into Inuyasha's chest, breathing in his smell. She cried to her heart's content, and Inuyasha, was pleased he was able to ease Kagome's distressed mind.
A cave of wolves, somewhere in the distance…
May Lee was able to stop the words from echoing in her mind, though they still repeated themselves, every so often. 'She does not belong here, with us'
May Lee's attitude toward the situation had changed over, many times. When she was mad at Kouga for saying those things, she tried to reason with herself: It's not his fault he doesn't think you belong here. You don't. They're demons, you're just a girl. He didn't say it to be mean, he just said what he thought, and he's right. When she was sad, she tried to comfort herself: Well, Kagome and Inuyasha will come and get you soon. It's not like you wanted to stay here, right? So, when they find you, you can leave, and everything will go back to normal.
May Lee slept in fits, unaccustomed to the hard rock wall that she leaned on, or the itchy bear hide that covered her. May Lee dozed off, she had bored herself by watching a small beetle walk by. When she awoke again, she was disappointed to see that the beetle was no more than two feet away.
May Lee listened carefully, for any noise coming from the men outside. She heard none, and waited for what she thought was about thirty minutes. Not a single sound. May Lee quietly pushed herself off of the ground and made her way to the cave's mouth. She looked out and saw all the soldiers, sleeping by the bonfire they had created. Some, held empty bottles of saké in their hands.
Drunks. May Lee thought. She was somewhat disappointed that even in the feudal ages of Japan, some still couldn't hold their liquor.
Quietly, May Lee made her way down the rocky crag, near the pool of water where she had talked with Kouga before. She thought back to when they gathered herbs, which seemed like ages ago, instead of a few short hours.
Kouga was awakened by the sound of a pebble, hitting water. The light plunk! had triggered his sensitive youkai hearing. Instinctivly, Kouga made his way to the only water hole near here. Stealthily, he maneuvered between big boulders and small rocks, as he made his way down the hill toward the small pond. To the wolf prince's surprise, it was no intruder that he saw at the water's edge. It was May Lee. What is she doing here? Humans don't wake at these hours. Kouga told himself. For a brief moment, he thought perhaps it was someone else. But as a gentle breeze blew her scent to his nostrils, he knew it could be no one but her. Her scent lingered for a moment, before it was carried on, but Kouga enjoyed the warmth it brought to his body, before it was blown away. He was brought back to the situation at hand, and decided the best thing to do was make known his presence. He was sure she didn't know he was watching her, since she had nothing more than mortal ears and nose.
"You shouldn't be out here," Kouga said, more gruffly than he intended for it to sound. He knew that humans were especially fragile creatures, particularly, the females. He thought briefly of Kagome, before scolding himself and wiping the image from his mind.
Startled, May Lee spun around and threw a pebble at Kouga, before she realized who it was. Fortunately, May Lee was a bad shot, and Kouga, a quick dodger. May Lee watched the pebble hit the ground and roll a distance before she looked up to meet Kouga's gaze. "Sorry. I didn't know it was you…"
"It's fine." Kouga said briefly. "Like I said, you shouldn't be out here." Kouga tried to look like he was scolding her, but failed miserably. He had the odd feeling that he had no right to scold or chastise this young woman whom had chanced upon his life.
"I couldn't sleep," May Lee informed him and crossed her arms before adding, "And you don't have to treat me like a child. I can take care of myself."
"I doubt it," Kouga muttered and looked away from May Lee's intense glare.
"What was that?" May Lee challenged Kouga's intended incoherent statement, which undoubtedly had something to do with her ability to watch over herself.
Kouga decided to drop the subject, because he knew there was no way he could possibly win in an argument with this stubborn human. He looked May Lee up and down, and couldn't help thinking how funny she looked when she was being defensive. The wolf prince chuckled lightly, at the sight of an oddly dressed, human girl, with a handful of rocks, her arms crossed, wearing a face that was meant to be serious.
"What are you laughing at?" May Lee said, though she desperately tried to sound stern, Kouga's laughter was contagious. The young girl soon found herself smiling, and playfully tossed a pebble at him. As she had predicted, the small rock came no where near striking range of the young wolf demon.
Kouga could not suppress it much longer and allowed himself a light laugh. The girl's aim really was awful. "You," Kouga replied, in answer to her question. In an instant, Kouga was standing five feet from May Lee and gathered up two pebbles of his own. He looked at the small rocks in his palm and looked up again at May Lee, who now had her laughter under control. "What were you doing with these, anyway?"
May Lee looked to see what the wolf demon held in his hands. They were pebbles, much like the ones in her own hands. "I was skipping rocks," May Lee told him, even though she knew she wasn't really "skipping" rocks. She was more like "throwing rocks into the lake". She was no good at skipping rocks, and she knew it. Then May Lee wondered if they skipped rocks in the feudal era. Surely they did…
Kouga looked slightly puzzled at the phrase "skipping rocks". "What's that?" he asked, naively.
"You mean, you don't know what skipping rocks is?" May Lee asked, astonished. She thought for sure that skipping rocks was an ancient thing…something done since before time. Maybe it was, and Kouga had never skipped rocks before.
The wolf youkai remained silent, feeling a little dim-witted for not knowing anything about "skipping rocks". This was obviously common knowledge where this girl came from.
May Lee noticed Kouga's lack of speech and sudden tenseness, so she decided to wave the whole thing off and try to explain what skipping rocks was. "See, skipping rocks is…well…hard to explain. Anyway, just try it. Go like this." May Lee told him as she threw a rock at the water wit ha sideways flick of her wrist, and sent it sailing. The pebble however, did not jump across the water like it was supposed to, but instead, made the familiar plunk! noise that Kouga had heard earlier. May Lee turned back to where Kouga stood, and watched the ripples that the pebble's disturbance had caused. Now if was his turn to look at her in disbelief, as May Lee blushed a light shade of crimson.
"Was it supposed to do that?" Kouga asked, even though he was pretty sure that the rock was supposed to do something special. If that was all that "skipping rocks" was, then May Lee's generation was not quite as intelligent as Kouga once thought.
"Well, um…not really. See, it was supposed to bounce over the water. But, I'm not very good at it." May Lee explained.
Kouga wasn't really sure how you could make a rock bounce on water. So he just threw his into the water, similar to what May Lee did. The two rocks made a familiar plunk! and made a small splash each. Seeing the little disturbance that the small rocks caused, Kouga grinned mischievously and picked up a bigger rock, the size of two cupped hands.
The wolf prince slyly tossed the rock into the pool of water, which caused a large splash.
May Lee, who stood at the water's edge, near the location that the rock landed, was splattered with water from her waist down. She turned to the wolf demon who was smiling innocently, and pretended to be angry. "You did that on purpose!" she accused him, and removed her light brown loafers and tall socks, revealing her bare feet. After putting her socks and shoes in a relatively dry place, she daintily, she made her way to the shore, the rocks pricking her tender feet.
While the human girl made her way to the water's edge, Kouga wondered what she was doing. Curious, he took two steps closer, before stopping, as he watched May Lee walk into the water, up to the middle of her shins. Kouga knew that to a mere human, the water must be fridgid, though it would hardly effect a strong youkai like himself. Inuyasha wouldn't think the water was cold… Kouga told himself. He quickly scolded himself for allowing that ignorant half-breed to get the better of his thoughts. But some part of Kouga couldn't help comparing himself to Inuyasha, always the little question lurked in the depths of his mind: What does he have that I don't?
The wolf demon was jolted from his thoughts as he was pelted with cold water droplets. He looked up to see May Lee smiling, as she hovered over the pool, before she bent down and shoveled more water at him. Kouga looked at his almost soaked attire before looking up at May Lee again. She straightened from her crouching position, and smiled innocently at him. The wolf youkai figured this was her way of payback, and was instantly caught up in the splashing game they had started. Kouga jumped into the water and began splashing May Lee back.
May Lee was drenched instantly, but continued to hurdle water at Kouga. Unfortunately for May Lee, the wolf demon's speed allowed him to dodge the water, time and time again. When Kouga and May Lee stopped, after about two minutes, a by-stander would see a young human girl, soaked to the skin, and a wolf demon, who, compared to the girl, was very dry.
"No fair," May Lee mock-complained.
"Sure it is," Kouga protested teased. He couldn't help but start laughing. May Lee really was a sight to see. Her hair was plastered to her face and in her eyes. Her sleeves clung to her arms and whenever she moved she made a swish! noise.
May Lee watched as the wolf youkai tried to contain his laughter, making an occasional snorting noise. Slowly, she made her way over to where the wolf demon stood. The freezing cold water was up to her waist and May Lee had to bite her lip to keep her teeth from chattering. When she stood close to two feet away from the semi-dry demon, she extended her arms to his shoulders, and pushed.
Taken by surprise, Kouga found himself falling backwards, where he was met by a rush of cool water. Sputtering, the wolf demon rose from the water. "What was that for?"
Now it was May Lee's turn to giggle. Kouga's long, black hair was a mess. His crystal-blue eyes were clouded with confusion. Does he think he did something wrong? Kami, some people can't take a joke. May Lee thought, but despite her attempted seriousness, continued to giggle.
Seeing that May Lee had taken revenge on him for getting her wet, he also began to laugh. Neither Kouga or May Lee knew how long they stood in the cold water, laughing. May Lee was almost doubled over, and held her sides to comfort her aching stomach.
From somewhere behind them, Kouga picked up the sound of snickering. His smile quickly faded, and in one massive leap, was standing by a large rock, near the bottom of the crag.
From where May Lee stood, she could only see Kouga, with a deadly scowl on his face, peering behind a rather large rock, about 10 feet away from the water's shore. May Lee was uncertain of what she should do, but she called out to Kouga anyway. "K-Kouga? Is something the matter?"
Kouga paid no heed to the confused girl behind him, who was making her way out of the water to retrieve her socks and shoes. Instead, he put his hands on his hips, and snarled, "What are you two doing here?"
May Lee slipped her socks and loafers back on, which was somewhat difficult, considering her wet feet made the socks stick to her skin. Avoiding deep holes and wobbly rocks, May Lee finally managed to make her way to the other side of the rock. She saw Kouga frowning at two young men, crouching behind the rock. Who are they? May Lee asked herself.
"Well….see..uh..K-Kouga…we-" one started, but was cut off by the other.
"We were just….uh….going for a walk…"
"Yeah, a walk!" the other chimed in.
It was apparent to May Lee that they had been spying on her and Kouga. But why? she wondered. Neither of the two men had turned around and seen her, so she assumed that they didn't know she was there. "Who are you?" she asked the two men before her.
At the sound of someone else's voice behind them, Ginta and Hakkaku jumped. Quickly, the young wolf demons spun around. Before them they saw the human girl, who had somewhat befriended Kouga, soaked to the bone. Her hair looked a little better than it had before, it was tamed and flowing in the directions it was supposed to, but since she had gotten it wet and hadn't brushed it, it was in clumps of wet strands.
"That is Ginta and Hakkaku," Kouga said brusquely from the other side of the rock, making the two scared wolf demons jump again.
"Oh. Hi, I'm May Lee," she told the two, who didn't jump, but were slightly unnerved. May Lee's words sounded kind enough, but it was Kouga's reaction to their presence that they feared.
Hakkaku, who found the girl attractive, decided to take his chance at introducing himself. "I'm Hakkaku," he said warmly, before adding rather dully, "and that's Ginta."
Kouga saw right away what Hakkaku was doing, and hit him over the head. The wolf prince crossed his arms in annoyance of his two pesky friends.
"Kouga, that wasn't very nice!" May Lee scolded him. She had no idea why Kouga just randomly hit one of his friends in the head. If you lived in my time, you wouldn't have any friends, behaving like that. She thought.
"What? What did I do!" Kouga said, trying to sound macho, but instead sounded whiny, like Shippo or Inuyasha.
"You shouldn't just hit people for no reason! All he did was tell me his name!" May Lee retorted, in a much similar fashion to when Kagome was about to 'sit' Inuyasha.
"Humph."
Ginta and Hakkaku snickered at the measly human's control over Kouga, and almost instantly we greeting by a thump on the head, courtesy of Kouga.
May Lee walked away, arms crossed. Instead of making her way back up the crag, toward the cave, she decided to take a walk in the woods.
"I can't believe him! He…he…rrrr!" May Lee complained about Kouga's behavior to herself. As she walked through the forest, she was aware that a dark cloud loomed overhead. It was dark enough as it was, being a moonless night, and now, without even the starlight to guide her, May Lee stopped. She felt around in the dark to find a tree. I'll just stay here for a while and wait for the cloud to pass… May Lee thought. Little did she know…
The tai youkai watched the pitiful human stumble around blindly in the dark. With nothing and no one here to protect her, this will be easier than I thought… Sesshomaru thought. With his lightning youkai speed, he was at the girl in an instant. She still does not know I am here, how pathetic. Sesshomaru grabbed the girl's right wrist, to ensure that she could not use her green light.
Feeling someone grab her wrist suddenly, May Lee screamed. "Let go of me!" she yelled at her attacker and struggled to get free of his grasp. But it was to no avail, and she felt herself being lifted off the ground. "Help! Hel-" May Lee was cut off by a hand around her throat. Within moments, she felt the world get darker than it already was, the last thing she saw, was a glimpse of silver hair.
Author's Note:
Okay guys...I need reviews...or you may never find out what happens...wouldn't that be awful!
Anyways, here's my special thanks:
Liz: Woot! Look how long I made this one! glomps again
Demonic Angelz: My faithful reviewer...I'm sorry I made you wait for this chapter!
B.D. Gerrtetson: Thanks for the review!
Icygirl2: Thanks! I'm glad you liked it!
Specilizeninjas4EVER: Thanks! I'm sorry I waited so long to update!
aGreatPenName: yay! Thanks so much for your review! I know this isn't a lot of Sesshy yet, but there will be more...and Naraku too! o.O
Bye! Remember to review, and it'll make me write faster!
Oh, by the way, I decided to kinda copy one of my favorite author's idea, and put a question at the end of each chapter, and see if you can answer it...so, this chapter's question is:
What in-animate object was Yura, of the demon hair? (episode #4)
Bye! Have a great week! Don't forget to review and try to answer the question! Good luck!