A/N: All Inuyasha characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi.
The Long Awaited Adventure
By Ivaliny
Chapter 1
"Lives Can Be So Boring"
"The chosen one will come!"
A maniacal laugh verberated through the small, damp chamber. "I think not my princess. Your kingdom will be no more." A man in a dark, ragged cloak appeared from out of the shadows. "There is no chosen one," the man hissed.
"He will come, and you will be sorry you ever messed with Efeu!"
"Such brave words for a captured princess."
She glared at his cold smile, which suddenly grew serious.
"I may let you go if you tell me what I want to know. Although, if I do let you go, your fate will be the same. You will die sooner or later, most likely sooner." He chuckled at the thought.
"I will tell you nothing!" she snapped, struggling against the hard leathery strops.
"Who is the white-haired boy you were with?"
"Why?"
"Just answer me," he growled.
She said nothing.
"Fine, you can stay here while Efeu falls to the hands of my minions. Say good-bye to your precious kingdom, princess," he hissed, flashing sharp pointy teeth.
"I am not worried, the chosen one WILL come and destroy you, Warrik."
"Vampire kid! Vampire kid!" screamed an over excited teenager. The girl behind the counter looked up from her notebook as the teenager ran into the silent convenient store, hyperventilating, and out of breath.
"Vampire kid is back, Rin! I saw him sucking on a cow in the middle of the road, and then he disappeared! It was totally awesome!"
Rin jumped up off the stool she was sitting on, squealing. " I can't believe he's back!"
The two girls gave another squeal and started to jump around in a circle.
"Now that he's back we can get the evidence we need to prove vampires exist!"
"I know, Artemis!" Rin jumped around some more.
"Come, you have to go see the cow! It's about three miles from here."
Rin began to follow Artemis out of the store when she stopped at the glass doors and sighed. "I can't. I'm working."
Artemis looked at her friend with a frown,"It's 1 AM! Why does Mr. Tihomirov make you work all night when you don't even get any customers in the day time? Why keep it open so late, better yet, why keep the store open at all?"
"I don't know," Rin shrugged,"but you know how attatched Mr. Tihomirov is to this store. He's had it open forever! But whatever the reason, he pays a lot, which gets me one step closer to leaving this crap hole called a town and on to a new, way more exciting, adventure."
Artemis shrugged," So, ditch the store for half an hour and some see the cow."
Rin shook her head," I can't. Mr. Tihomirov trusts me. I can't just leave. It would be wrong. I'm staying, sorry Artemis." She walked back to her stool and picked up her notebook and pencil.
With much disappointment, Artemis left the old convenient store, leaving Rin alone like she was every night. Tenoh's Stop 'n Go, was in a tiny farm called, Barnesby. Barnesby was an old farming community that has been well populated in the early 20th century, but had later been abandoned when the Great Depression struck their crops, so most people left for the big cities. Now only a hundred or so live on surrounding farms with the post officebeing the main hang out point to learn juicy details about your surrounding neighbors. All but a few of Rin's graduating class left Barnesby as soon as they could get away from the boring and dull town. Rin wanted to leave as well, longing for a grand adventure that you could only get outside of Barnesby. As for Artemis, she didn't want to leave, always saying "Barnesby has a sense of homeliness you can get anywhere else," but Rin new the real reason, the Vampire Kid.
The Vampire Kid was one of the girls' many paranormal projects that helped to pass the time. One night a few years ago, the two girls came across a boy sucking on a bloody rabbit in the middle of the woods. They told some people at school and were braded as freaks fro the rest of their high school careers, but that didn't stop their love for the paranormal. They have studied everything from aliens, werewolves,to the allusive Big Foot, which was one of Rin's favorite.
Rin loved the fantasy/science fiction drama of the world and would spend hours reading books about alien invasions, vampires controlling their victims, and ghosts haunting houses. But her favorite thing to do was draw and express the scifi realm through art. As of late, her artwork has been centered around dragons, fairies, strange creatures, mermaids, princesses and princes, and castles from a far off mythical land.
She looked around the silent store and sighed as she glanced up at the clock. Only 5 more hours to go, she thought before returning her attention to her new masterpiece. Contained in the artwork was a man, tall with long silver hair, at the streams edge allowing his two-headed dragon a drink of water. The image came to her that afternoon as she napped by her favorite spot, a shady, soft grassy spot underneath a large pear tree. She dreamed of him and his dragon and couldn't let the image go. Smiling, she imagined the dragon happily, but wearily, drinking the cool refreshing stream water as the man talked sweet things to the giant lizard. Now as she stared at the scene, she longed to join the two in their travels.
She was snapped back from her day dreaming by a loud noise from the back of the store, Rin tumbled off of the stool in surprise. Cautiously, she moved towards the back rooms. What if it is Vampire Kid?Something wasbangingaround in the closetas the supplies crashed to the floor and toppled over, she grew nearer. Heart pounding, she opened the door to find a mess on the floor.
"What the...?"
She began to pick up the mop and cleaning supplies when something underneath a disarray pile of paper towels started to move. She jerked back her hand with a gasp. Gathering up her nerves, she reached down to see what lay beneath when the movement quickly stopped. She pulled away the towels to reveal a painting.
She looked down at the painting in awe. It was beautiful. The sky was painted orange and purple as silhouettes of birds danced across the sky. Below the sky were dark pine forests with a river flowing placidly between. Far off in the background were a row of mountains, and faintly, a castle rose about the peak, reaching towards the sky. The painting looked so peaceful and full of history. She almost didn't want to touch it. Where did the painting come from, and why was it in the cleaning closet? Form all the times of going into that closet she had never seen this paitning before. What could have made such a mess? A painting couldn't cause such a mess, knocking off supplies from each shelf, she thought. Reaching down hesitantly, she picked up the painting.
The painting was surprisingly very heavy. Walking out of the closet, she noticed every detail of each paint stroke. Whoever painted this piece of artwork put perfection and care into each stroke that made Rin feel deep appreciation for the artist. Thinking of the artist, she wondered if there was an artists mark somewhere. She looked around the corners and flipped it over to find the artist's signature. Tenoh Tihomirov.
Tenoh Tihomirov, she thought. "Must be a family heirloom." She looked at the signature again and saw below it a word, Efeu.
Suddenly the painting began to shake in her hands. Her eyes flew wide open as the painting began to glow. The orange became vibrant and bright casting orange rays upon her face. The river began to sparkle as the purple began to fade and the trees lost their silhouette turning bright green. The castle in the background became distinct, almost shining off the rising sun. It was as if the painting was changing the time of day. Rin looked at the painting with disbelief.
"What is this?" she heard her self say as the painting shook more violently. Rin set the painting down in a panic, as she tried to grasp what was happening. As soon as she set the painting down, the shaking stopped, sitting still on the counter next to the cash register. She looked at the painting in confusion.
"Why did it stop?" she wondered. "How could the painting change the tome of day?"
With a shake of her head, Rin decided to get back to her own artwork and forget what had just happened. Sketching and drawing the details on her piece, her mind kept wandering towards the painting. It was so still and quiet. Something was drawing her towards it and it was hard to resist as she reached out to touch it. Once her hand was hoovering above, the painting began to wobble. She pulled back her arm immediately and it stopped. She couldn't breathe, unable to understand what was going on. Trying to see what was making the painting shake, she examined the painting again, but this time she saw something different. Next to the river, a very tiny pulsating rock was glowing. The pulsating glow was barely noticeable as she felt her hand behind drawn to the rock. Slowly, she reached out to it. To her amazement the rock didn't feel like it was apart of the painting, it felt like an actual rock protruding from the canvas. She tried to pull it off, but instead her whole body began to tingle as a bright light exploded in her face. She screamed as she felt her body being pulled into the painting.
A/N: Hey! I hoped you all liked the first chapter! Please Submit reviews! I wanna know what you all thought! Oh, and don't worry, the second chapter is being typed upas soon as possible