A/N: Alright, I finally have time to add this little note here. Sorry for the summer delay, I had vacation and was rather busy. Also, I've been working on Heaven's War, but I do have the rest of the chapters for Curse of Dragons planned out and they just need writing up, so updates should be much faster now. School has started, but that shouldn't change much. Christopher Paulini's Eldest has been released, the sequel to Eragon. READ IT!
Also, it appears Chapter 10 received 99 hits... Thanks to the 8 people who took their time to actually review. -.-
.:Curse of Dragons:.
.:By: Maiden of the Seven Stars:.
.:Chapter 11: A New Mission:.
"Sango?" She asked, tentative.
"Yes, Kagome?" The fighter asked, dropping from her ready stance. She had been about to swing Hiraikotsu, but training could wait a minute.
"I really don't think you should go through all the trouble of letting me stay here-" She began, but the warrior stopped her at once.
"Of course we should, you needed a place to rest after what Naraku did you to and-"
"But, Sango! That's the problem, that's all! I feel like I'm just cluttering this place up, draining your supplies!" She insisted.
"Kagome, we're fine, the supply routes are firmly intact, Naraku's been quiet, and we can spare the supplies for you." The warrior insisted in return, lowering Hiraikotsu to her shoulder and putting her free hand on her hip.
"But anyone in Naraku's compound could have seen Inuyasha fly this way, they'll be on to you all because of us!" She said in return, waving off Sango's ready reply. "You're going to fight him eventually, I know, but I still fell like it's my fault! I want to do something about it, to help you!"
Sango glanced at her, seeing the sudden burst of fierce determination in her eyes. She's serious; she wants to help us… But what can she do?
"I want to join the Taijiya, I want to fight Naraku." Kagome said, grabbing Sango's wrist.
"Let me, please!"
The warrior stopped, as if determined to speak against her, but at last Sango sighed.
"I don't suppose you're any good with a weapon are you?"
She grinned.
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With a yawn she pulled down the covers, slipping out of bed and into the summer sun that poured in through a gap in the tent flap. Inuyasha was long gone, only a small depression in the straw in the corner signifying he had ever been there.
She opened her eyes, then squinted at the sudden light. Was it just her, or was it brighter for some reason?
She yawned, supposing she just wasn't used to the light, and went to grab her training armor from the bed stand. It was of soft, durable leather, looser than normal Taijiya armor, but it was too big for her anyways.
She changed quickly and pulled on the boots she had been giving, but stopping as she tied the laces of her left boot. Was she mistaken? No, her leg… it was glowing.
"The shards…" She cried aloud, she had forgotten about the jewel shards embedded in her leg. But she hadn't seen them glow in a long time, which meant—
"My power's back!" She cried to no one, but it didn't matter. She hadn't felt her sacred power since she and Inuyasha had escaped from Naraku's compound, but she felt it strongly now.
As if in answer to her thoughts the shards in her leg pulsed for a moment then the glow receded and she finished lacing her boots before getting off the bed and heading out of camp, only then realizing she was on edge. It was like something was pulling at the edge of her thoughts, and it was distracting.
She ignored the scent of bread and breakfast wafting around her and focused on the sensation, realizing that it was pulling at her almost. She took a step in the tugged direction and the pull grew a little stronger.
Determined to find out what this was she took off at a quick walk, in a relatively straight path. It looped her through the castle courtyards, before she finally stopped in a large yard before a shrine. She knew the place, it was the shrine that Miroku took care of, but it was off limits to the warriors, except on certain occasions. She assumed the monk slept here as well, since Sango didn't seem like she was going to let him live in any other corner of the stronghold.
She strode up the steps and pushed at the doors. They were unlocked, the Taijiya never locked their doors, and she stepped in, only to find the room empty. It was a large room, but somehow the shrine looked larger from the outside. A gold statue of Buddha was placed in the center and incense and candles burned all around. There were prayer mats on the ground, but other than that the place was rather plain.
"This place is off limits?" She asked to the air, closing the door behind her and stepping up to the statue, offering a quick prayer before looking around. The place was beyond plain; it was dull, though the gold statue was something of value. She closed her eyes, feeling the pulling feeling again, and was sure she had come to the right spot, when a mew jerked her out of her thoughts.
"Wah!" She cried, jumping back into a fighter's stance, but only the two red eyes of Kirara blinked back at her, and the cat mewed questioningly again.
"Oh, it's just you Kirara." She sighed with relief, bending down and scooping the little cat demon in her arms.
"Don't tell anyone I'm here, alright?" She whispered to the cat, giving it a pat on the head, but Kirara slipped out of her arms and scampered across the floor, slipping behind the statue of Buddha.
"Hey!" She called after the cat, running after her, but falling short as she nearly ran into a wall. Where had Kirara gone?
She bent down to look for tunnels, but after a few back aching minutes she gave up. Wherever the cat had gone, she wasn't about to follow.
"I don't see what's so important about this place." She said to the air, leaning back against the wall, only to have it slid away behind her. With a yelp she fell backwards connecting with the hard wooden planks of the floor, hitting her head and watching as all eyes fell on her.
The upside down people glared at her and even Sango and Miroku eyed her strangely. The only person who hadn't glared at her wasn't even a person. Inuyasha, curled in a corner, scales gleaming and with a blood red collar around his neck looked up with a yawn, jaws snapping together as he finished.
"Well that's the most interesting thing that's happened in this stupid meeting. Nice of you to drop in, Kagome."
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"You can see the shards?" demanded Yasuri, leader of the fourth and last Taijiya division for what must have been the tenth time, and she nodded, yet again, and a rustle of scales came from her left.
"Put a sock in it, Yasuri. This is a strategic meeting, no time to dote over somebody's newfound talent." Snapped Inuyasha, his words accompanied with a growl.
"This is important!" Snapped the division leader, folding his arms across his chest. He hadn't appreciated the idea of taking orders from a dragon, a dragon! "The decision could affect our entire strategy. With her we can find where Naraku's keeping the shards!"
"You know, she's sitting right across from you." Snarled the dragon, his mug slowly lifting from his forepaws, his tail beginning to weave back and forth. "How will we ever get close enough to Naraku to ever get the shards from him, infiltration takes time!"
"We have spies in any of his standing strongholds-"
"And I doubt they've gotten anywhere at all. You weren't in there, you don't know!"
"And you do, I suppose." Snapped Yasuri, scowling and Inuyasha snapped, sending a waft of hot air through the room. The paper's fluttered but had long since been held down with paperweights.
"You were not held in one of his compounds," Snarled the dragon, his nose stretching over her shoulder and into Yasuri's face.
"You don't have a dragon's nose, you could not smell what I smelled, known what I knew. You did not see Naraku's strongest advisors, you will never know what we are up against!" Roared the dragon, he had gotten to his haunches, sitting, head and shoulders above everyone in the room.
"Those people were not people, they were creatures, creations, and they smelled exactly like Naraku. Those were not people, they were separate entities of the same being, they were Naraku, and that is why we will never get to the shards, Naraku guards them with himself!"
The four leaders and advisors gasped, and Miroku's staff jangled in discord.
"He has made reincarnations of... himself?" The monk asked, and the dragon nodded affirmation.
"There were two, or so I believe." Inuyasha said, his tones conversational again. "There was an advisor… Kagome'll know that one better." He mused then paused, somewhat puzzled.
"There was another too, she was in the fire, and at Naraku's side then as well… but she was… scentless, like the void. I'm sure she was a reincarnation though."
"So it's pointless?" asked Miyazu, third division leader, lifting her eyes from the table before her. The Taijiya were not gender-biased about their warriors.
"Not pointless." Inuyasha sighed. "Just suicidal."
"The point exactly, but still we need to get something done. We need to attempt infiltration, and the girl's the best thing we've got." Yasuri said, and Inuyasha's scales bristled.
She shivered, not liking where the conversation was turning. Yasuri had been staring her dead in the eye this entire time and it sent chills down her spine, and the thought of being sent as a spy… but it was true she was-
"She is not expendable." Snapped the dragon, as if he had read her thoughts. She glanced up at him but he was glaring at Yasuri.
"You're asking to sacrifice the greatest well of Sacred Power alive, would you risk putting that strength into Naraku's hands?"
"What does she do for us here, she is not a fighter, though a decent archer. She has wasted enough of our supplies, and Sacred Power is as dangerous to us as it is to our enemies. We can't keep her around for your own fancies." Yasuri sneered and Inuyasha snarled savagely.
"Take that back, before I rip out your tongue!" He threatened, his neck snaking forwards, but she grabbed at his collar before he could complete the motion.
"Inuyasha, this is not the place nor time for fighting." Snapped Sango, her voice that of a commanding official. "And Yasuri, what you just said was entirely irrelevant to what lies at hand. We have a problem with the sacred jewel shards, we have almost none in our possession and who knows how many Naraku has?"
"Exactly why I should go." Kagome suddenly decided and all heads turned to her.
"Don't even think about it." Snapped Inuyasha, glaring down at her, but she met his gaze with a fierce one of her own.
"You're wrong, I am expendable, because if everything Miroku said was true Naraku just can't kill me. Not if he wants to keep her alive." She said, and the others nodded agreement, even a reluctant Sango and Miroku. They had all be informed of the soul sucking soon after she had arrived at the stronghold.
"Besides, I'll be the only one able to find the shards." She said, and again the others, however reluctantly, nodded.
"You're crazy." Growled Inuyasha, the turning to Miroku, "Tell her she's crazy."
"Kagome," The monk intoned sensibly, "You're crazy… crazy but right."
Inuyasha, who had been nodding in triumph, literally dropped his draconic jowls.
"Lecherous monk…" He grumbled, turning back to Kagome, "You are not-"
"Going to stop her from making her own decisions about her future." Sango said with a sigh, and the dragon glared at her.
"Kagome can decide for herself what she will do with her future, she is not a tool of the Taijiya, to be ordered to do or not do something." Sango continued, "Kagome, do you really want to do this?"
She paused for only a moment, to glance at Inuyasha, but the dragon had pulled his inner membranes over the amber eyes and she couldn't see a thing in them. The membranes had probably been closed the entire time, they just hadn't noticed.
"I'll go, I want to help you… after all, I'm the cause of this problem." She said with a sigh, and most of the assembled council visually started.
All they had known was that a peasant girl had shattered the jewel, none of them had known it was her.
"Should have known, the jewel's practically unbreakable." Miroku said with a smile, he obviously didn't mind that little detail.
"Well, nobody will ever say the Taijiya were an impractical band." Sango said, "We were only focused on getting the shards."
"Then… You aren't angry?" she asked, glancing up at them.
"Well of course not, better Naraku have most of the jewel then all of it, we're glad for a fighting chance." Said a familiar voice, and, surprisingly, it had been Yasuri.
"You're positive about this Kagome?" Sango asked, again, and she nodded.
"Then we'll have to start training you like a spy should be trained, archery will get you nowhere when you're sneaking around." Miroku said simply, "We'll get you started in the morning, it's best that we leave for an evening meal now." He said and got to his feet, dusting his robes.
"How do you know it's that late?" One of the division leaders asked, and the monk chuckled.
"My stomach's roaring." He said and opened the secret doorway, and the council members began filing out, but none could beat the silver dragon out the doorway.
A/N: -.-