Summertime! Summertime! Sum-sum-summertime! Woot! School's out and I have some long awaited chapters! 2 for your reading pleasure this afternoon! The first chapter has been in my notebook forever so I feel really bad about posting it so late. But at least it is being posted! Be happy! And read on!
P.S. Sorry if people don't sound like themselves! And Hachiro means 'eighth son'.
Claire looked back at Todd. "Is he okay?" she asked Kilana.
"He's just upset Alicia left." Kilana said.
"Can't he just bring her back?" Becky asked.
"I don't think s," she answered. "Every time I ask he yells, 'Because I can't', and then ignores me."
While no one had seen Kilana physically ask Todd that, they guessed she had because earlier she had asked a different question out loud and gotten an answer in her mind. When this had been questioned, they had learned that once bonded, a Light and their person could mentally communicate. Claire had tried this with Alicia, but no dice. The answer for this was that Alicia was too far away for Claire to hear her and vise versa, but after a week or so they'd be able to hear each other from farther and farther distances.
"He doesn't seem like the type that would yell." Claire commented. Becky and Erin made voices of agreement.
"You're lucky you can't hear him then." Kilana said. "He's loud!"
Ahead of them, Inuyasha suddenly jumped into a bush on the side of the road.
"What is he doing?" Becky asked. Shippo jumped back to the girls and scuttled up onto Yuki's shoulder.
"He thinks something is following us." The kit explained.
"Is something?" Sarah asked. Shippo didn't have to answer because Kagome was at that moment dragging Inuyasha out of the bush and calling him crazy because no one else had heard anything and it was probably just a rabbit anyway.
"A town!" Clara said happily. "Finally!" The group had left Todd and Alicia's house about two and a half days ago and were ready to eat something besides the rabbits Inuyasha caught and the trail mixes everyone else had.
"I said I was sorry!" came a voice from behind. Every stopped and saw that Alicia was back. Todd was walking angrily away from the newly returned group member.
"Todd." Alicia tried again to make the man stop. Todd only continued to ignore her as he marched toward Kilana. He stopped right in front of her and touched her forehead. He disappeared in a small blip of green light. Everyone stared at the place he had just been standing while Alicia rubbed her right temple.
"He knew I was going to go. I usually do and he always manages to get all upset over nothing." Alicia muttered.
"Where did you go?" Claire said, she was the first to tear herself away from staring at Kilana's forehead.
"Where did he go?" Erin countered, the second to stop.
"I went back to our house in Natsuko to make sure that boy and his mother were settling in alright and he went back to our actual home." Alicia said, dropping her hand as she approached the girls. "Right now he's probably sulking around that fallen yew of his. You two have seen our home already." She smiled at Claire and Kilana. "The rest of you will see it soon enough. In fact, some new Lights are in that town there." Alicia looked at everyone.
"Well then what are we waiting for?" Sango asked. She and Miroku took the lead into the new village. After only a few steps everyone heard the tell-tale smack of the monk and everyone smiled.
Unseen by all as she hung back, Alicia glanced at the bush Inuyasha has attacked earlier and whispered, "You'll have to come out eventually."
After she had walked down the road, a little white head poked out near the bottom of the bush and gave a soft whistle.
((Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.
From somewhere I can't remember))
"What's this place called?" Kanji asked.
"Hachiro." Becky answered once she had wrestled the map out of her bag. They were all sitting in a grass-field northwest of town waiting for Kagome, Sango, Shippo, and Miroku to return with hot food from the village.
"Can I see?" Claire asked and Becky handed her the sheet of yellowed paper. "Where are we?" Claire looked over the map trying to find a city name she recognized.
"What's that?" Abby, who ad been looking over Claire's shoulder, pointed to the miniature pictures of a dark green circle and a single purple feather next to a town dot.
"Those stand for Todd and myself." Alicia said, returning with Inuyasha and an armload of firewood for the night. "They'll show up whenever a new Light is found." She dropped her wood on Inuyasha's pile. "Which reminds me, I'd better talk to him. He'll have to come out sooner or later, and with new Lights nearby it'll have to be sooner." She touched Clare's forehead and vanished. Claire shivered.
"How did she do that?" Asked the newly arrived Shippo. He was holding a steaming box.
"Food!" Sarah and Kanji said together.
"Dinner!" Kagome yelled the obvious over the grass at the group.
"Finally! I'm starving!" Inuyasha complained.
"All we did today was walk." Sango said.
"Hey, I went and got firewood." Inuyasha pointed out.
"Guess what's happening in town tomorrow?" Shippo asked the girls, happily changing the subject.
"What?" Erin asked.
"The children's festival." Miroku answered, handing Becky, who was closest, his box of food. "All those young women dressed in their best kimonos, dancing, flirting, and whap!
"Maybe we should leave here before then." Sango said; her own food box in Yuki's hands and her boomerang on the monk's head.
"I was just saying…" The monk started.
"You guys want to go?" Everyone looked up. GK was floating cross legged at about the height of Miroku's eyes.
"Whaa!" Shippo cried, jumping onto Clara's shoulder and hiding in the girl's hair. GK looked at the kit.
"Sorry Shippo." She landed lightly on her feet. "So do you guys want to go?"
"Go where?" Yuki asked.
"To the festival." GK said as if it were obvious.
"We could go?" Claire asked eagerly.
"Well, I thought you might want to at least," GK said putting her hands on her hips. "Considering who else is going."
"Huh?" Sarah said cocking her head to one side.
"I guess I'd better explain." GK smiled and dropped her hands. "Tomorrow night after the big drum dance, go to the little booth selling the brightly painted wooden cats. There will be three more Lights for you to meet." She smiled like she still knew something everyone else didn't.
"But don't we need to dress up to go?" Kagome asked.
"Yeah," GK's smile widened to show her front couple teeth. "But that's not much of a problem." She winked at the fox kit, who was still behind Clara's hair, and disappeared.
I know it wasn't very long, but there are two! And as soon as I can finish the next Dream I can post two more chapters. It may be a bit before I get the next chapter up, because I still need to type it up and all, but hopefully I'll have it up today! See you all next chapter!