Enchanted Orbs
Chapter 8~
Everyone in Sesshomaru's fortress was buzzing. Why had their lord been acting so strangely? No one knew why, but he had been hiring human servants. The demons that walked the halls began to wonder if their place under his service was about to be terminated. Sesshomaru had never employed many servants; he never asked much of them. It seemed he only had them as a symbol of his status. Their only jobs were to prepare meals, clean his estate, and keep the gardens and grounds. He never wanted luxuries, he made his own purchases, and he kept his own counsel. So why all of a sudden had he brought in more servants? And why humans? They were so fragile; they were cheap labor, yes, but the lord was in no financial danger. And didn't he despise humans?
The demon servants were in an uproar. Of course the lord and his retainer never knew of the status of the household.
He acted as if he needed more servants, but some questioned whether he was just making up jobs to be done as an excuse. But why?
He had brought in about twenty human servants. Their duties consisted of laundry, sewing and stitching kimonos, waiting on him during meals, and bringing him any desire he might have while laboring in his study.
All these things do not seem out of the ordinary, but not to those who know the habits of Lord Sesshomaru. He hated being fawned over. He would rather do everything himself if it didn't consist of him being in the servant's areas (kitchen, gardening shed, servant's quarters). Their lord was fiercely independent...well, that was until just recently. What had caused such a big change?
********************************************************************
"Come with me, bring a pitcher of water and a glass." Sesshomaru ordered one of his newly acquired servants. He waited for her to retrieve what he asked, then made his way to the dojo.
When they arrived at the monstrous building outside his home, spoke to a guard he had recently assigned to watch the entrance. 'Foolish, having someone guarding a dojo; a place so full of weapons where one sharpens their fighting skills, and I place a sentinel outside. Oh well, what must be done to ensure privacy. I must get into these habits now.'
"Make sure I am not disturbed." The watchdemon parted the doors for his lord. Sesshomaru entered with the servantgirl following him. There is an exterior room outside the main practice area. This room was designed to facilitate learning close combat skills, but there was also a window cut into the wall. Generals and other superior officers could watch the training of troop through this hole.
Now, however, no one was allow into the dojo, none except the lord of this fortress and a servant girl who was there to serve him should he become thirsty.
"Stay in this room. Do not enter the main area lest you have a death wish or unless I call for a drink." With that he turned on his heel to begin his daily practice.
Katas, meditation, and physical training from hell kept the youkai lord in the dojo for hours. The maid servant who accompanied him in case his thirst was provoked was not envied by any of the staff, demon or human. Hours became decades when there was nothing to do. At least the demon servants could watch him practice, but an untrained and weak human servant could not even watch his performances.
(A/N: I hope this isn't too confusing, but all will be explained.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"INUYASHA!! That hurt, you JERK!!" Kagome squealed as she glared daggers at the half demon
"Feh, the 'almighty' Kagome and her new powers are undefeatable, but she complains when she gets hit by a little pebble!" Inuyasha taunted
"If someone wouldn't throw them at me when I wasn't looking, maybe I could dodge them! You just enjoy taking cheap shots!" she snapped back
"I already told you I didn't throw it at you on purpose, you got in the way!"
"Yeah, sure, and I have a purple Chihuahua named Scooter!! Got in the way of what? You just randomly get the urge to throw a rock at another rock!! Just admit it, Inuyasha you're jealous that I could beat you now!!
Sango looks at Miroku. They exchange weary glances. Once again the battle of the sexes rages between miko and demon (well, half demon). Shippo long tired of this game and Kirara tried to walk as far from the yelling duo as possible for her hearing's sake.
Inuyasha cocks his head to the side with wide eyes trying to figure out what a purple Chihuahua was and way anyone would have the name scooter, granted he didn't know what that was either. Then, like lightning, it hit him. She just said he was jealous of her!!
"WHAT?!? You've got to be joking! You couldn't hurt me. The Windscar could beat your floaty lighty things any day!!"
"Yeah, whatever, and you couldn't use the Windscar against me anyways...hello, I'm HUMAN!! You need a demonic aura! So before you could even try, you'd be on the ground."
"Well, consider yourself lucky that I don't want to kill you because if I used the Tessaiga against you, you'd never live to regret it."
"Ha, if I can stand up to Toukijin's attack without being phased, what makes you think you could do any better?" Kagome retorted without thinking. 'OOPS, dang it. I really, really shouldn't have said that!' She almost whimpered when she realized what she just said.
Inuyasha was about to respond with another derogatory remark when what she said registered in his head.
"WHAT?!? You said he didn't hurt you! I'll kill him!" Inuyasha was slightly annoyed earlier, but was secretly enjoying their banter. Now, though, he was UPset.
"And he didn't" Kagome calmly stated. She knew he would be more likely to calm down if she was serene.
"But apparently he tried" Inuyasha huffed.
"It was more of a test than an attempt to hurt me, but hey, I passed."
"Well, don't get too excited." He replied sarcastically. "Hey, why are you defending him?"
"I'm not excited; I'm just glad I'm not dead. I'm pretty sure death would have followed if I hadn't beat his attack...and I'm not defending him. I am just stating fact." Kagome replied as she crossed her arms, turned her dace away from him, and stuck her nose in the air. "Besides, its really funny to see him with a look of shock on his face! It took everything I had not to laugh."
"Laugh at what, Kagome? How did you shock him?" Sango questioned. She had been tuning out their argument, but when she mentioned Sesshoumaru's attack, Sango's attention had been captured.
"Oh, heehee, I managed to cut him. He didn't think I could do it. In fact, he mocked me, the jerk. Until I proved I proved him wrong." A triumphant smirk found its way onto her face.
"Feh, accidents happen. Anyone can get lucky once." Inuyasha was taunting her again
Kagome leveled a knowing gaze on him, looking him straight in the eye and said "Who said anything about once, Inuyasha? I left ten lovely little gashes on the lords person." And with that comment Kagome refused to answer anymore questions concerning Sesshoumaru.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The companions had calmed from their earlier explosions and now walked in silence. Kagome was left to her thoughts as Sango and Miroku kept each others company, Inuyasha was acting as if the others didn't exist, and Shippou happily chased Kirara around everyone's ankles.
She could feel Naraku's presence. Could still could not pinpoint his location, but she could give an area in which he was residing within a radius of three miles. First things first, they still had one shard on the loose. Normally Kagome would have been nervous, but they weren't racing Naraku for the last shard. At least it didn't seem that way. He wasn't anywhere near the location of the last possessor, and if he sent a kugutsu (demon puppet) after someone with a shard, he would at least instill a shard into the puppet to give it enough strength to beat the demon.
She couldn't feel but one shard besides those still being slightly cloaked by the evil hanyou. She still was not sure about how he was cloaking the Shikon no Tama chunk he held with him. All the other pieces practically screamed out to her, begging her to join them together again. The cloaking magic he used was becoming more transparent to her, but as of now it was still a bit foggy. Because of this, she only had a general area of his being, but at least she could tell if a trap had been set.
Emerging from her own musings she looked down to see two very cute, very little demons looking up at her. Their silent pleading to join in the chase was obvious, so Kagome resigned to her fate.
She quickly reached down to tag Shippou, "You're it! Catch me if you can!!" and with that Kagome and Kirara ran away from the pouting kitsune.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Evening time once again, Sango and Kagome head to the waterfront to prepare for bedtime. Sango and Kagome rinsed out the cooking pot in the river.
The two girls conversed quietly by the water's edge before stripping and entering. Cool water drifted by as Kagome and Sango cleansed themselves, joking and laughing as if they had known each other all their lives.
They retreated from the water, dressed, and began to leave, but Kagome noticed something as she bent near the water to pick up the pot. Her hair was still partially pulled back. 'Oh yeah, I forgot about the chain holding my hair back. Such a weird dream.' She didn't see the chain anymore. It was as if her hair was held back by nothing at all. She reached up to her hair and felt the physical presence of the metal chain, but in the waning sunlight, there was no sparkle of silver.
Leaning so close to the water she was about to fall in she looked. The chain was still there, but it had change to black. Now it blended in perfectly with her hair, as if it needed to be camouflaged.
'So that's why nobody said anything about it today.'
Still in awe over the change in color Kagome didn't expect the "Kagome what are you doing?"
"EEEPP!" wash heard as a fully clothed Kagome plunged back into the stream.
Sango was a bit worried when she turned around and realized her friend was not following her back to the campsite, but the sight of Kagome flailing helplessly trying not to fall back into the river and her ultimate failure was too much. She laughed so hard she was forced to bend over and grab her stomach.
A sopping wet Kagome grumbled as she climbed out of the water, passed a violently shaking Sango, and headed back to camp. When she got there, laughter greeted her there, too. She was a sight with her hair plastered to her face, her pajamas dripping wet, and a sour expression on her now thoroughly clean face.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sorry this was so short, but hey FINALS SUCK!! Anyways, I know this chapter is EXTREMELY boring, but I changed my outline last minute, so things are going a bit haywire. Plus I'm waiting on some information before I start progressing into another action sequence (Ya hear that Blaze, hurry up!! *grins* kidding!) I promise nest chapter will be more eventful and the plot (GASP, yes I will have a plot!!) will be further progressed. So don't judge my (lack of) skills as a writer on this chapter. Hopefully nothing as shameful as this chapter will happen again! Don't hate me!
Love to all Syrinx
OH!! P.S. Firewitch666 and Sukera of Darkness...you didn't get review responses because my email system doesn't like your addresses. I tried to send you a response several times, but it kept getting returned. I'll try again next time...if that doesn't work I don't know. *sigh* I just don't know
Chapter 8~
Everyone in Sesshomaru's fortress was buzzing. Why had their lord been acting so strangely? No one knew why, but he had been hiring human servants. The demons that walked the halls began to wonder if their place under his service was about to be terminated. Sesshomaru had never employed many servants; he never asked much of them. It seemed he only had them as a symbol of his status. Their only jobs were to prepare meals, clean his estate, and keep the gardens and grounds. He never wanted luxuries, he made his own purchases, and he kept his own counsel. So why all of a sudden had he brought in more servants? And why humans? They were so fragile; they were cheap labor, yes, but the lord was in no financial danger. And didn't he despise humans?
The demon servants were in an uproar. Of course the lord and his retainer never knew of the status of the household.
He acted as if he needed more servants, but some questioned whether he was just making up jobs to be done as an excuse. But why?
He had brought in about twenty human servants. Their duties consisted of laundry, sewing and stitching kimonos, waiting on him during meals, and bringing him any desire he might have while laboring in his study.
All these things do not seem out of the ordinary, but not to those who know the habits of Lord Sesshomaru. He hated being fawned over. He would rather do everything himself if it didn't consist of him being in the servant's areas (kitchen, gardening shed, servant's quarters). Their lord was fiercely independent...well, that was until just recently. What had caused such a big change?
********************************************************************
"Come with me, bring a pitcher of water and a glass." Sesshomaru ordered one of his newly acquired servants. He waited for her to retrieve what he asked, then made his way to the dojo.
When they arrived at the monstrous building outside his home, spoke to a guard he had recently assigned to watch the entrance. 'Foolish, having someone guarding a dojo; a place so full of weapons where one sharpens their fighting skills, and I place a sentinel outside. Oh well, what must be done to ensure privacy. I must get into these habits now.'
"Make sure I am not disturbed." The watchdemon parted the doors for his lord. Sesshomaru entered with the servantgirl following him. There is an exterior room outside the main practice area. This room was designed to facilitate learning close combat skills, but there was also a window cut into the wall. Generals and other superior officers could watch the training of troop through this hole.
Now, however, no one was allow into the dojo, none except the lord of this fortress and a servant girl who was there to serve him should he become thirsty.
"Stay in this room. Do not enter the main area lest you have a death wish or unless I call for a drink." With that he turned on his heel to begin his daily practice.
Katas, meditation, and physical training from hell kept the youkai lord in the dojo for hours. The maid servant who accompanied him in case his thirst was provoked was not envied by any of the staff, demon or human. Hours became decades when there was nothing to do. At least the demon servants could watch him practice, but an untrained and weak human servant could not even watch his performances.
(A/N: I hope this isn't too confusing, but all will be explained.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"INUYASHA!! That hurt, you JERK!!" Kagome squealed as she glared daggers at the half demon
"Feh, the 'almighty' Kagome and her new powers are undefeatable, but she complains when she gets hit by a little pebble!" Inuyasha taunted
"If someone wouldn't throw them at me when I wasn't looking, maybe I could dodge them! You just enjoy taking cheap shots!" she snapped back
"I already told you I didn't throw it at you on purpose, you got in the way!"
"Yeah, sure, and I have a purple Chihuahua named Scooter!! Got in the way of what? You just randomly get the urge to throw a rock at another rock!! Just admit it, Inuyasha you're jealous that I could beat you now!!
Sango looks at Miroku. They exchange weary glances. Once again the battle of the sexes rages between miko and demon (well, half demon). Shippo long tired of this game and Kirara tried to walk as far from the yelling duo as possible for her hearing's sake.
Inuyasha cocks his head to the side with wide eyes trying to figure out what a purple Chihuahua was and way anyone would have the name scooter, granted he didn't know what that was either. Then, like lightning, it hit him. She just said he was jealous of her!!
"WHAT?!? You've got to be joking! You couldn't hurt me. The Windscar could beat your floaty lighty things any day!!"
"Yeah, whatever, and you couldn't use the Windscar against me anyways...hello, I'm HUMAN!! You need a demonic aura! So before you could even try, you'd be on the ground."
"Well, consider yourself lucky that I don't want to kill you because if I used the Tessaiga against you, you'd never live to regret it."
"Ha, if I can stand up to Toukijin's attack without being phased, what makes you think you could do any better?" Kagome retorted without thinking. 'OOPS, dang it. I really, really shouldn't have said that!' She almost whimpered when she realized what she just said.
Inuyasha was about to respond with another derogatory remark when what she said registered in his head.
"WHAT?!? You said he didn't hurt you! I'll kill him!" Inuyasha was slightly annoyed earlier, but was secretly enjoying their banter. Now, though, he was UPset.
"And he didn't" Kagome calmly stated. She knew he would be more likely to calm down if she was serene.
"But apparently he tried" Inuyasha huffed.
"It was more of a test than an attempt to hurt me, but hey, I passed."
"Well, don't get too excited." He replied sarcastically. "Hey, why are you defending him?"
"I'm not excited; I'm just glad I'm not dead. I'm pretty sure death would have followed if I hadn't beat his attack...and I'm not defending him. I am just stating fact." Kagome replied as she crossed her arms, turned her dace away from him, and stuck her nose in the air. "Besides, its really funny to see him with a look of shock on his face! It took everything I had not to laugh."
"Laugh at what, Kagome? How did you shock him?" Sango questioned. She had been tuning out their argument, but when she mentioned Sesshoumaru's attack, Sango's attention had been captured.
"Oh, heehee, I managed to cut him. He didn't think I could do it. In fact, he mocked me, the jerk. Until I proved I proved him wrong." A triumphant smirk found its way onto her face.
"Feh, accidents happen. Anyone can get lucky once." Inuyasha was taunting her again
Kagome leveled a knowing gaze on him, looking him straight in the eye and said "Who said anything about once, Inuyasha? I left ten lovely little gashes on the lords person." And with that comment Kagome refused to answer anymore questions concerning Sesshoumaru.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The companions had calmed from their earlier explosions and now walked in silence. Kagome was left to her thoughts as Sango and Miroku kept each others company, Inuyasha was acting as if the others didn't exist, and Shippou happily chased Kirara around everyone's ankles.
She could feel Naraku's presence. Could still could not pinpoint his location, but she could give an area in which he was residing within a radius of three miles. First things first, they still had one shard on the loose. Normally Kagome would have been nervous, but they weren't racing Naraku for the last shard. At least it didn't seem that way. He wasn't anywhere near the location of the last possessor, and if he sent a kugutsu (demon puppet) after someone with a shard, he would at least instill a shard into the puppet to give it enough strength to beat the demon.
She couldn't feel but one shard besides those still being slightly cloaked by the evil hanyou. She still was not sure about how he was cloaking the Shikon no Tama chunk he held with him. All the other pieces practically screamed out to her, begging her to join them together again. The cloaking magic he used was becoming more transparent to her, but as of now it was still a bit foggy. Because of this, she only had a general area of his being, but at least she could tell if a trap had been set.
Emerging from her own musings she looked down to see two very cute, very little demons looking up at her. Their silent pleading to join in the chase was obvious, so Kagome resigned to her fate.
She quickly reached down to tag Shippou, "You're it! Catch me if you can!!" and with that Kagome and Kirara ran away from the pouting kitsune.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Evening time once again, Sango and Kagome head to the waterfront to prepare for bedtime. Sango and Kagome rinsed out the cooking pot in the river.
The two girls conversed quietly by the water's edge before stripping and entering. Cool water drifted by as Kagome and Sango cleansed themselves, joking and laughing as if they had known each other all their lives.
They retreated from the water, dressed, and began to leave, but Kagome noticed something as she bent near the water to pick up the pot. Her hair was still partially pulled back. 'Oh yeah, I forgot about the chain holding my hair back. Such a weird dream.' She didn't see the chain anymore. It was as if her hair was held back by nothing at all. She reached up to her hair and felt the physical presence of the metal chain, but in the waning sunlight, there was no sparkle of silver.
Leaning so close to the water she was about to fall in she looked. The chain was still there, but it had change to black. Now it blended in perfectly with her hair, as if it needed to be camouflaged.
'So that's why nobody said anything about it today.'
Still in awe over the change in color Kagome didn't expect the "Kagome what are you doing?"
"EEEPP!" wash heard as a fully clothed Kagome plunged back into the stream.
Sango was a bit worried when she turned around and realized her friend was not following her back to the campsite, but the sight of Kagome flailing helplessly trying not to fall back into the river and her ultimate failure was too much. She laughed so hard she was forced to bend over and grab her stomach.
A sopping wet Kagome grumbled as she climbed out of the water, passed a violently shaking Sango, and headed back to camp. When she got there, laughter greeted her there, too. She was a sight with her hair plastered to her face, her pajamas dripping wet, and a sour expression on her now thoroughly clean face.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sorry this was so short, but hey FINALS SUCK!! Anyways, I know this chapter is EXTREMELY boring, but I changed my outline last minute, so things are going a bit haywire. Plus I'm waiting on some information before I start progressing into another action sequence (Ya hear that Blaze, hurry up!! *grins* kidding!) I promise nest chapter will be more eventful and the plot (GASP, yes I will have a plot!!) will be further progressed. So don't judge my (lack of) skills as a writer on this chapter. Hopefully nothing as shameful as this chapter will happen again! Don't hate me!
Love to all Syrinx
OH!! P.S. Firewitch666 and Sukera of Darkness...you didn't get review responses because my email system doesn't like your addresses. I tried to send you a response several times, but it kept getting returned. I'll try again next time...if that doesn't work I don't know. *sigh* I just don't know
