The farther down the river we got, the darker it got. Most of the torches were under water, but a few were still lit. But the ones that were lit, were just barely light. It was also quite chilly, as there was a wind blowing from the north somewhere. I wasn't shaking as bad now, as my clothes had dried some. My shoes were filled with water and bits of dirt, so I took them off, and dumped them out, over the side.
"I can't believe all of this stuff was in my shoe. It's disgusting," I said, as I set my shoe down. My socks were just as soaked, so I took them off too, and rung them out.
"And you're telling me all that water was just from a sock? What do they do, make them with super absorbancy?" InuYasha joked.
"Yeah, they're better than Bounty paper towls," I joked back.
Xavier suddenly sat up, quickly.
"What?" I asked, a bit of concern could be heard in my voice.
"I have a feeling, that Jade isn't too far off. I think he planned all this. He's waiting for us," Xavier said.
"Whatever gave you that idea?" I asked. This sounded pretty strange, but then again, this place was strange.
"I don't know, I just sorta seen it," Xavier said.
"That's odd, but I've heard it could happen," InuYasha said.
"Alright then, so we just gotta be on our guard, that's all," I said, as I tried to keep the worriness out of my voice, but it was no luck.
"Don't worry, we can tackle anything Jade throws at us, right?" Xavier said, sensing my voice being worried.
"Yeah, that's right. We took down his 'army', so there's no way that we can't handle Jade," I said. I felt better.
The piece of floor was slowly wearing down as we went on.
"Guys, uh we're gonna have to get off of this sometime, it's starting to wear down," I said, as I looked down at the floor.
Even though it was dark, I could still see fine.
"It looks like there's a ledge over there, to the left, where we could get onto and walk along," Xavier said.
"Alight then. We just have to get this close enough to the ledge," I said, as I was looking around for something to use as a paddle, but there wasn't anything.
"Guys, one problem. We don't have a paddle, or anything we could use as a paddle," I stated.
"Relax, Teal, we could use Tetsusaiga!" Xavier said excitedly.
InuYasha, who had been sitting down, stood up quickly.
"Did you just say use Tetsusaiga as a paddle in this water?" he asked Xavier.
"Yeah! It will work perfectly!" Xavier said.
"No, we are NOT using it as a paddle! What if it messes it up or something?" InuYasha asked.
"Then it gets messed up, but I doubt it will. The water looks sanitary," I said as I peered over the edge into the blueish water. I could see Xavier, InuYasha, and myself in there. It looked like a lake, but I didn't want to swim in it.
InuYasha let out a sigh, and stuck Tetsusaiga into the water. He moved it back and forth as a paddle, and we over to the ledge in no time.
Once we reached the ledge, we sat down. It was good to be on non-moving land. It felt awkard, being on land and all.
"Is it just me, or does it seem weired to be on land again?" I asked, as I stumbled forward. I felt like I was drunk or something, because I could barely keep my balance.
"It's just from being on moving land. You'll get your balance back in time," InuYasha said as he started walking.
Xavier just shrugged and followed. I wondered why I was the only who felt that way. I just kept following, attempting to walk. I kept stumbling though, and it felt like the ground was made of jello. As we were walking, I tripped over a rock, and fell toward InuYasha. He grabbed me before I fell down, though.
"Be careful, there's rocks all over the ground," He said.
I felt my face turn red. I started walking slower, pretending I was looking out for rocks.
Xavier slowed his pace, and was walking beside me.
"Talk about pathetic. Why would you trip on purpose? Are you really that attracted to him?" Xavier whispered in my ear.
My face turned even redder now.
"No, I'm not!" I whispered back.
"Sure..." Xavier said slowly. He then picked up his pace.
I sighed. Everytime I was around InuYasha, I felt funny. I wasn't what the feeling was though, and I had been trying to deny it, but it was just... there. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get rid of it.
"Hey, Teal, you coming?" InuYasha called out from a distance.
I didn't realize that I had been walking so slow.
"Yeah, I'm coming," I said as I started running, watching out for rocks.
I kept my eyes on the ground, so as not to trip. I was being careful, because I didn't want to make a fool of myself. I eventually caught up to them both, and managed to keep up too. I was walking in between InuYasha and Xavier.
Xavier leaned over again.
"You happy to be walking by your hotstuff?" he whispered in my ear.
I turned my head, and shot him a glaring look. He could be so annoying at times. He made some funny looks, so I smacked him on the back of the head.
"Ow, whaddya do that for?" he asked, pretending not to know.
"Teal, don't beat the wimp up," InuYasha joked.
This astounded Xavier, as he gaped. Then a look between mad and funny swept across Xavier's face. Xavier shoved me out of the way, and tackled InuYasha down to the ground.
"What did you call me?" Xavier snapped.
"I called you...," InuYasha said slowly," a WIMP!"
"Oh, that's it, it's on now!" Xavier yelled as he stood up, getting ready to tackle InuYasha again.
"You want some, come get some!" InuYasha said, confident.
Xavier chareged forth, but InuYasha stuck his hand out and kept Xavier from ramming into him.
"Hey! That's no fair!" Xavier screamed. He was throwing punches like a wild gorilla.
"I never said that we were playing fair, now did I?" InuYasha smirked as he put his arm down, and pushed Xavier back.
"C'mon, let's just go. This place gives me the creeps," I said.
"Aww, is the little baby worried?" Xavier asked.
"No, I just hate this place," I replied back.
"Yeah, c'mon. Let's go, I wanna mop the floor with Jade anyhow," InuYasha said as he started walking.
Could we really hurt Jade though? I mean, it seemed as if he was being controlled, but none of us were sure.
As we kept walking, everybody was silent. I was glad that there weren't any more bugs. I guess the flood had killed them all. Xavier was rubbing the back of his head, because I must have smacked him hard when I did. Oh well, he wasn't tormenting me anymore. I was still stumbling a bit, but I wasn't tripping over anything or falling down.
After we walked another hour, I started complaining.
"Can't we rest? My feet are killing me," I whined as I slowed down.
"Teal, that's the tenth time you've said that. They can't be hurting that bad, can they?" Xavier asked.
"Yeah, they are. I'm not used to all this walking," I said as I sat down.
"Fine, I guess we could take a short break," InuYasha said.
I sighed. It was a relief to be sitting down. I had re-gained my balance, which I was thankful for. I never realized how good it was to have balance.
"Anybody know what time it is?" Xavier asked as he was looking around.
"Why do you care?" I asked.
"I want to know if it's lunch time yet," he replied.
"Who cares what time it is? We don't have any food anyhow," InuYasha said.
"Yeah, you're right about that. At least in the cells, we did get food," Xavier said.
"So what, you'd rather be locked up and fed than be free and hungry?" I asked.
"No, not necsisarily," Xavier replied back.
"Then what?" I asked.
"Well, I'd rather be free and fed than anything else right now," Xavier said.
InuYasha started laughing. I couldn't tell what was so funny.
"What's so funny?" I asked.
"Nothing, just that we don't really have a choice to be anything right now," He said.
"Ha, I guess that is sorta funny," I said.
"Are you two done resting yet?" Xavier asked. He seemed to be impatient.
"Yeah, come on, let's go find the Pimp masta," I joked as I sat up and started walking.
The water was starting to slowly get more shallow the farther on down we went, so there must have been a drain. The walls looked now like they were made of some sort of glass like material. One wall in particular, was smashed in, but the glass on it wasn't broken. We just kept walking.
After a few more hours or so, the water was completly gone, so we were walking on the main path. Torches now lined the walls again, just as they did in the beginning. Everything was resembling something that we had already seen, except the walls. They looked like they were made of wood now, so I guessed that we must be closer to Jade's chamber.
"Hey guys, look!" I said as I pointed to what looked like a door.
"What, I don't see anything," Xavier said. He was standing right in front of the door, but couldn't see it. I thought maybe he was just blind.
"You mean that door right there?" InuYasha said as he walked over to it.
"Yeah, it's right behind you, Xavier," I said.
"I still don't see a door," Xavier said.
"Stop playing stupid, I know you see it," I said. I was starting to get annoyed with his little game.
"I'm not playing stupid, I do not see a door anywhere," He said.
"Well then, I guess you can't go on," InuYasha said.
"No, he has to go on. We are not leaving him here," I said.
"Yeah, why am I the one who has to stay behind?" Xavier said. He seemed annoyed.
"Maybe there's some sort of spell on you that prevents you from seeing it," I joked.
"Hey, that's not funny. That could be real, after all, you can walk through walls!" Xavier snapped back.
Just then, an idea struck me. If Xavier couldn't see the door, I could get him through with my power.
"Yeah, we don't have to leave you here. Just grab my hand, and we'll all walk through!" I said as I grabbed Xavier's and InuYasha's hands.
Xavier pulled his hand away. "No way, what if it doesn't work, and I smash into the wall or something?"
"Well, then, I guess you stay here," InuYasha said as he let go of my hand.
"It's your choice, Xavier. Either you can stay here, alone, or take a chance and come with us," I said.
"I don't want either," Xavier stated, "There's too many risks involved."
"Xavier, everything worth doing has risks. Even taking a walk down the street has risks, belive it or not," I said.
"Yeah, but still..."
"Come on, Teal. Let's just leave him here. Xavier appearantly doesn't want to do either," InuYasha stated.
I sighed. Why did Xavier have to be so difficult? He obivously wasn't going to change his mind, so I was starting to think that we should just leave him.
Suddenly, something from the ceiling fell down on my head.
"Owww, what was that?" I asked as I rubbed my head. I looked up at the ceiling. Nothing was there, not even a hole. I looked around, looking for what fell on my head. I seen something sparkle, so I walked over to it.
"Hey guys, come here and look at this," I said as I motioned for InuYasha and Xavier to come over.
"What?" Xavier asked.
"Look, it's shiny, like a diamond," I said as I picked something that looked much like a pearl.
"Whoa, it's so pretty," Xavier said. It seemed as if we were in a daze. The pearl was sparkling, and it seemed wet with water.
"I don't get the deal, it's just a piece of jewlery," InuYasha said.
"But, it seems so.. it seems so..." I said as I tried to figure out a word to describe it. It looked so odd, that I couldn't quite find a word that fit it.
"Hey guys, what color does it look like?" Xavier asked, as he kept staring at the pearl.
"Neon," I said. I loved the color neon.
"Come on, let's just go," InuYasha said.
"Alright, but I'm keeping this," I said as I stood up and put the pearl in my pocket.
We walked back over to the wall where the door had been. It wasn't there now, though.
"Hey, what happened to the door?" I asked.
"I don't know, but we can keep walking down the path," InuYasha said as he started walking.
"Alright, and maybe next time, you guys can find an imaginary elevator," Xavier joked.
"Yeah, that would be nice," I said.
"You guys just keep on dreaming," InuYasha said.
We continued down the path, only to find a dead end.
"Great, now what do we do? We can't go on," I said, disappointed.
"Well, we could climb the wall," Xavier said.
"How would you like me to do that?" I asked.
"We could use this rope that's hanging here," Xavier said as he tugged on the rope.
"Yeah, but instead of climbing the rope, we could just float up on your head," InuYasha said.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Xavier asked, offended.
"It means, that you don't think twice about anything. Your head is just all hot air," InuYasha answered.
"Well, at least I... at least I..." Xavier said as he kept trying to think of a word.
"See, you can't even make a comeback," InuYasha said.
"Guys, just stop fighting! It's not getting us anywhere," I yelled, frustrated with both of them.
"Yeah, Teal's right, Xavier. This is getting us nowhere," InuYasha said.
"Alright then, as long as you two made up, can we think of what to do now?" I asked.
"Okay then, we will," Xavier said.
I stared at the wall. It looked like there were grooves in it here and there, to where we could hold onto.
"You think we could climb the wall using the grooves in it?" I asked.
"Well, it might be hard, but yeah, we could," InuYasha replied.
"Do you wanna try?" Xavier asked me.
I had to think about this. I had a really bad fear of heights.
"Well, I guess I can try," I said.
"Ok then. You climb behind me, and InuYasha can follow you, so that way, if you freeze or something, he can catch you, right InuYasha?" Xavier asked.
"Yeah, don't worry, you'll be fine. I know you can do it," InuYasha said as he gently hit my cheek.
"Ok, then, let's go!" I said, more confiedent than I had ever been.
I followed behind Xavier, not looking down. I kept my eyes on the wall, not above me, and not below me. Just right in front of me. After a few hours of excrushiating work, we made it to the top, and I was fine.
"That wasn't as hard as I thought it would be," I said as I sighed.
"I told you you could do it, didn't I?" InuYasha asked.
"Yeah, I guess you were right," I said.
A dense fog was starting to set in. We were in a forest now.
"Well, shall we go find Jade?" I asked.
"Yeah, let's go!" Xavier and InuYasha said at once.
The three of us took off into the distance, arm in arm.
We found ourselves in a forest. The moon was shining brightly above our heads. The stars shone brightly, cutting through the fog like a knife.
"Whoa, the sky looks pretty. I never seen it so clear," I said. We were in the middle of the fog, in a clear spot.
"Yeah, I suppose it does," InuYasha said.
"C'mon, don't you think it's even a little bit pretty?" I asked as I nudged InuYasha's arm.
"It's alright, nothing spetacular though," InuYasha said.
"Alright, fine then," I said.
"Will you to stop flirting for five minutes?" Xavier said.
I blushed. How was it Xavier always knew?
I started laughing in embarressment.
"What's so funny, Teal?" Xavier asked.
"Nothing, nothing at all," I said as I stopped laughing immediately.
"Okay then..." Xavier said.
"C'mon guys, we should press on. We need to stop Jade before he gets the whole world under his control," InuYasha said.
"Ok," I said as I started trailing behind Xavier and InuYasha.
I felt funny. It wasn't that feeling that I had ealier, it was different than that. I felt sick to my stomach, and my ears hurt real bad.
"You alright, Teal?" InuYasha asked me.
"I'm fine. Why would you ask me something like that?" I asked.
"Because, you look awfully pale," InuYasha replied.
"And you look like you're about to hurl your guts out," Xavier added.
InuYasha and I gave Xavier a glaring look. He wasn't helping much.
"Well, the truth is, I don't feel fine. I'm sick to my stomach, my ears hurt really bad, and I feel like I'm going to faint," I said.
"Do you want to keep going, or would you rather rest?" InuYasha asked.
"Let's keep going. I don't want to slow us down," I muttered. I really wanted to rest, but I didn't want to stay in the forest in this fog.
"Alright then..." InuYasha said.
No sooner than I had said that, I felt like the world was spinning. I could feel myself falling forward, but InuYasha caught me. His voice faded, as all turned into black.