Shadows in the Sun
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Rippon
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Kage Otome: Aww, thanks for reviewing. You were the first one! YAY! BTW, I love your fiction! It rocks your socks off!
DragonsFlame65: You got it dude! Hehe! Uh the pairings… well in the summary it says V4P, and that means Vote for Pairings, but I kinda already have someone in mind. It will most likely be Legolas, although if you people ask for it, I could do Sesshomaru… Just tell me whatcha want! Thanks for reviewing!
Oswari49: Well, I'm very glad you like it! And here's your update! I hope you like this chapter too! Thanks a billion for reviewing! Ja!
Sara: Oh shucks! That was so nice of you to compliment me. Oh, and don't worry about rambling! I'm an expert at doing it, so I know how easily it comes! Thank you for reviewing my humble story, and I hope you all will continue to do so!
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Chapter Two:
The Search Begins
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The first thing she noticed was that it was dark. Kagome realized her eyes were closed, and had to forcefully snap them open. She immediately regretted it. The sun blinded her, and she slapped a hand over face, trying to shield her eyes from the bright light that had hurt her pupils.
Nearly seven minutes later, Kagome decided to try an open her eyes again. This time, she managed to succeed.
She froze.
Greenland rolled for miles, and the sun was roaring intensely in a bright blue sky. The wind kissed her cheek, and even that felt foreign. Her big blue eyes took in the sight of what paradise might just look like.
Slowly, almost hesitantly, Kagome took small, baby steps toward this great, new land.
She could see it here. Life; she could see it. But then, somewhere in her consciousness, a dark cloud rose up. Kagome straightened herself, and closed her eyes. Taking deep breaths, she prepared herself for what was coming.
Her eyes snapped open. She was ready.
Kagome took off into a full out sprint, knowing just what she needed to do. She would begin her search here.
There would be no going back.
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She had been traveling for hours. So far, she had killed eight hideous, disfigured creatures, and had met only animals. She wasn't having much luck, but this was only the beginning. In her heart, she could feel that something dark, something magical lingered. Kagome was close. She was so very close to finding that which could bring life to her friends.
Kagome felt the familiar prick of tears at the back of her eyes at the thought of her friends. She pushed them away with an iron will. 'No more crying,' she reminded herself. 'No more crying.'
Later that night, Kagome sat beside a fire she had made. It had started raining about a half an hour ago, but she had managed to find shelter. It was a cozy little cave off to the side of a giant ruin of a watchtower. She liked it.
Kagome was currently polishing Hotaru. She loved that sword to death; she had found it lodged inside the Goshinboku, as if it had appeared out of nowhere. She had been suspicious at first, but it hadn't long before she had fallen completely in love with it. In some ways, she felt almost as if it had been meant for her…
Kagome smiled softly to herself. She could almost hear Inuyasha telling her that such a thing would have been ridiculous. Then Miroku would take that as a distraction, grope Sango, who would in turn smack him, and they would all have a good laugh.
There was wetness on her cheeks in a second. Nevertheless, she kept on smiling. The things she was remembering now were so happy and wonderful that she didn't want to stop experiencing them.
She fell asleep crying joyful tears.
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A screech echoed throughout the valley she was occupying. Her eyes were open and her hand grasped Hotaru's hilt in a second. She found herself running blindly to the source of the continuous screaming.
Someone was at the top of the old watchtower. She needed to get up there. She could hear people crying out for help; she would protect them.
She sprinted as fast as humanly possible up the steep spiraling paths to the very top. Hotaru was drawn and ready for action. She could see the familiar glow of her Firefly (1). Hotaru was hungry for some blood.
She had reached her destination in a matter of minutes, and when she got there, she didn't even take the time to be shocked at seeing strange, evil creatures dressed in black cloaks attacking what appeared to be children.
She simply began fighting. Hotaru began to glow brighter, as if issuing a warning to its opponents. The creatures seemed shocked at first, but were soon proving themselves battle worthy.
Kagome whipped her arm outward, catching one of the disturbingly dark creatures off guard. Off-handedly, she wondered what they were, but was soon to occupied with her fray to continue pondering such. Damn. These things were obviously fluent in the art of the sword. Just her luck…
Grunting, Kagome managed to dodge a possibly deadly stroke from the tallest of the swines, and thrust her leg out, catching it off guard. It dropped to the ground, having not expected such. It screeched again, as if angered horribly by this whole ordeal.
It was then that the strange happened. A man, not much older than her, appeared with a great battle cry, swinging pillars of fire at the beasts. She watched, fascinated for a moment, before regaining her senses, and hopping off the floor to assist.
The strange man had been facing another direction, when Kagome had spotted one of the ogres sneak up behind him. She had been there in a heartbeat. The man had turned around, surprised to see a young woman of incredible beauty hacking away at one of his enemies.
With a finals scream, the fiends retreated, and Kagome gave out an exhausted sigh. She turned her sights to the man. He stared at her as if he had never seen another human being before.
Kagome curtsied lazily. "Konnichiwa; Watashi wa Kagome."
The man stared at her, a confused expression falling over his features. Inwardly she grimaced. Alright, so he didn't know Japanese… hey, what about English?
Clearing her throat, she tried again. "Err- Hello. My name is Kagome. You are?"
The man blinked for a second, before the words seemed to sink in. "Ah, my name is Aragorn; pleasure to meet you Miss Kagome." He looked as if he was about to say more, when a groan interrupted.
The two stared at each other a second, before they turned and raced over to what appeared to Kagome to a child. Kneeling beside him, Kagome saw Aragorn pick up a dagger, mutter something that made no sense whatsoever to her, and then, shockingly, watch as the dagger disintegrated leaving behind nothing but a hilt.
Kagome turned worried eyes up to Aragorn. "What just happened? Is this kid gonna be all right? What were those things? Hey, are you okay?"
Aragorn turned his face up to Kagome, and she noticed just how tired he looked. He sighed, and lifted the boy up onto his shoulders. "Come with me. I'll explain everything on the way. Until then, we need to get the little ones out of here."
At his words, Kagome realized there was more than just one child standing around. Well, at least she had thought they were children. She managed to get a good look at the so-called kid in Aragorn's arms, and realized his face was quite mature. She noticed it was the same for all the "children".
A screech echoed in the distance, snapping Kagome out of her trance-like state. At Aragorn's plea, she snatched up the other three… whatever they were, and carried them.
It was nearly half an hour later that they finally came to a stop. However, Kagome soon realized that they were not out of danger quite yet.
Aragorn turned to one of the little men, "Sam, are you familiar with the Eferlas plant?"
Sam answered in an unsure tone. "Eferlas?" Aragorn's eyes squinted for a second, as if he was running over some options in his head, when he suddenly replied;
"Kingsfoil."
At the mention of this plant, Sam agreed that he had in fact heard of it, by mentioning that it was a weed.
Aragorn quickly stated that it would slow the poison, and the two rushed off in search off it. Meanwhile, Kagome and the two uninjured men watched over the one who had been stabbed.
"D-do you think he'll be alright?" One of them stuttered. He had sandy colored hair that curly about his head, and he appeared to be the youngest of the group of dwarves, as Kagome had deemed them.
The other one answered solemnly, "I don't know Pip. I just don't know."
Kagome stared at them for a couple minutes, before deciding that the atmosphere was too melancholy. 'Besides,' she reasoned with herself, 'introductions are long overdue.'
Decision made, she stood, dusted herself off, and marched over to the two dwarves. They must have heard her coming, for they looked up at her expectantly, just as she arrived beside them.
Curtsying again, Kagome said, "Hello, my name is Kagome. Who might you be?" The one who had inquired about his friend's welfare looked innocently up at her, smiling a toothy grin.
"'Ello to you to, milady. The name's Pippin. And this here's me cousin, Merry. Nice to be meeting ya." Kagome smiled fondly at him, before turning and smiling at the other dwarf man. Although he seemed a bit more cautious, he smiled kindly at her, and she found herself liking him a lot as well.
It was then that Aragorn and Sam came back. However, they did not come back alone. Along side them was a beautiful woman. She quickly knelt beside the wounded dwarf, speaking in an unknown tongue. Kagome grasped the hilt of Hotaru. The words, although not evil sounding, reminded her of Urusue's voice be-spelling her into loosing her soul, and Kagome immediately put herself on alert incase anything bad came of the strange words. In short, Kagome feared that the woman was whispering a hex.
That all came to an abrupt close, though, when Aragorn began to speak in the strange tongue as well. Kagome relaxed only slightly, still on high alert for those monsters from before. She'd be damned if she allowed anyone else to be harmed.
She was brought back from her thoughts when she heard the one named Sam's cry of "Those Wraiths are still out there!" in time to see the beautiful woman carrying the wounded dwarf off on a beautiful white horse. Here eyebrows furrowed. What idiocy was this?
Stomping up to Aragorn, Kagome spun him around and lifted him up by his garments, watching as his expression changed from that of worry to shock.
"Hey, those Wra-the-hoose-what-the are still out there; are you completely sure that woman can protect him? Well, are you sure!"
Aragorn looked for a single, solitary moment at Kagome, astonishment and awe shining brightly in his eyes, before he snapped them shut, and turned his head away from hers.
His answer was simple, yet frustrating, and it left Kagome in a worried fit for someone she hadn't known for but a few seconds when he had awoken on their journey to the small clearing they currently resided in.
"I don't know."
Owari.
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Yeah, changes from the movie (dialogue) but it wasn't as if I was watching the movie while writing this! So, I've decide you'll simply have to deal with this. HA! Hey, ANYONE WHO KNOWS ELVISH PLEASE HELP ME! Ahem, uh… oh! About Brothers; I'm trying and trying to get some inspiration for it, so some help tips should really help. BTW, in the next chappie of this fic, Kag meets the ever-famed LEGOLAS (drools)! YEAH! So, be expecting some friction (though not all good) in the next chapter. No promises though…
(1)- Hotaru is Japanese for 'Firefly' and if it was a little confusing about the whole 'glowing' thing, just think of Sting, Frodo's sword. It the same, except Hotaru glows orange-red, like a firefly, hence it's name.
Ja!