Ch: 10

The Day AFTER The Next Day

Rayanne snickered a particularly evil snicker. Messing with this woman from the year L.E. 3299 was so much fun, more so then usual. But the other woman, Mara Rose, would be pronounced healed today, and Rayanne had realized that she had not yet messed with Sky while she was with this group.

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WritingWoman: ATTENTION, EVERYONE. If you have noticed a change in my writing styles, let me point out two important facts.

1.) I have just finished reading 'The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy' trilogy, books one through four. No, that is not a typo.

2.) It is very late, and I have gotten maybe two hours sleep total this whole weekend.

I also have a third point. The words, 'ATTENTION, EVERYONE' seem to work fairly well at getting a person's attention.

So does yelling 'FIRE!' but it's illegal to yell that unless there's a real fire, so you're better off with the first option.

And here's a little known fact: Turtle's can breathe through their butts.

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Well, she couldn't allow that to continue, now could she? She slipped the mask on, and hid in the bushes, waiting for Sky to come get some water. Rayanne heard light footsteps, and prepared to pounce. She jumped.

"I AM YOUR EX–" Rin stumbled and fell on her bum in surprise. A masked woman had just jumped out of the bushes at her, screaming, but had tripped on a stray root, and fallen. What was important was that she didn't hit the ground.

Rayanne ran out of the bushes, trying to make a dramatic entrance, but that stupid root caught her foot and made her go tumbling out of the bushes. Before she hit, Rayanne saw not Sky, but Rin. She totally forgot about hitting the ground, so she didn't.

"Um, is Sky going to be coming this way?" Rin nodded. "Good. Don't tell her I was here, okay?" Another nod, and the little girl got up and walked away. She was accustomed to strangeness, and there was still that plaguing question of what was a banana.

Rayanne absentmindedly got up, and brushed herself off. "What a quiet little girl." More footsteps; she hid again.

This time, it was Sky. She had gone off into the forest to get some lunch. It was just easier to transform the capsules out here, where no one could see, then actually have to explain, so that's what she did. Rayanne jumped out again.

"Why, hello. What's your name, and why are you lounging around in bushes? Did you fall out of this one? Do you want me to help you get back in? If so, I'm terribly sorry, but I'm in a hurry to get back with the food, so I can leave." Rayanne was shocked. Why wasn't she startled!

What Rayanne didn't know was that Sky had been 'conditioned' all her life for such surprises, by her thoughtful brothers who were forever tried to scare her out of her skin, just as Rayanne was trying to do now. Sky was no longer effected. Still, Rayanne decided to plunge on.

"I AM YOUR EXECUTIONER! KNEEL BEFORE ME AND BEG FOR MERCY, AND I MAY JUST KILL YOU QUICKLY!" Sky was just staring at her.

"Have I met you before? You seem awful familiar."

"NO! NEVER! BUT YOU WILL DIE BY MY HANDS!" No reaction. Except for,

"Well, Miss. Executioner-Whom-I'm-Sure-I've-Met-Before, did you realize that you're floating? If you haven't, you may want to know." Rayanne realized that, as a matter of fact, she was flying. She quickly dropped. "Oh, I can see you didn't. Sorry about that. I guess you haven't learned the secrets yet. About the missing part."

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WritingWoman: Oh, sorry about that. I know, that's almost out of the book, but it was so awesome, and it was so obvious, once you thought about it... isn't that what birds do in the first place? Throw themselves at the ground and miss? Anyway, the whole thing that I just wrote, about flying, it came from 'The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy'. So, yeah... I'm a fan! Fan Fiction! Heeheehee... I have no idea what I am saying.

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Rayanne got to her feet, and spoke slowly. "I have no idea what you're talking about. That was magic. Pure magic."

"No, it was simple ignorance of physics. Anyway, what were you saying? Something about me dying at your hands? Well, could you not do that today? I got some stuff to do. Maybe we could set up an appointment?" An appointment Sky intended to miss.

"Uh... sure, I guess. How's next Wednesday?"

"Let me check..." Sky went rifling through all her millions of little slips of paper that she kept all her notes on, until it took so long that Rayanne realized that she was being duped, and immediately began a rush attack on the woman, sword first.

BANG! ping! Rayanne went flying, not quite sure what had happened. Sesshomaru took a deep breath, and turned to Sky, expecting at least some gratitude, which he would blow off.

She hadn't noticed a thing.

Sesshomaru almost fell over in exasperation. He had followed this woman out of the camp, listened to her discussion, then saved her life at the last minute with his mere hand, and she DIDN'T EVEN NOTICE! He walked closer to her, to strangle her, when her head popped up, a slip of paper in her hand.

"Yes! I found it! Now, as to Wednesday, perhaps–" she cut off as she found Sesshomaru's face near hers. She blinked a couple of times. "Now, that's magic. You turned from a masked woman into a cute guy! I bet you're great at parties." Sesshomaru snarled silently. "Wow, that's really kinda creepy. You even grimace like him." The youkai's snarl deepened slightly, and he grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her.

"It's not a grimace, it's a snarl! I just saved your life, and you're blabbering on about parties!" She wasn't listening, she was just staring at his tail. Again. "What is it with you and my tail!" He asked.

"Well, it's so cute, and soft, and pretty... do you brush it a lot, to keep it that way? By the way," she started to whisper. "I think that frog thing wants to steal it too. You'd better keep it safe from him. After all, he'd probably make it all slimy or something, with his green skin..." She shuddered, and so did Sesshomaru, slightly, at the thought of his beautiful tail covered in green slime. She looked up. "Well, I guess you're the real Sesshomaru, so... could you let go of me? My shoulder's hurt now." He was surprised that they weren't crushed. Abruptly, he let go, and turned. Sky threw a stone at him, not hard enough to really hurt him, but to get his attention. "HEY! Couldn't you have been any nicer about that! ...just drop me like that... jerk... cute... tail... soft..." He turned around, and found that she wasn't there. Sky was attached once more to his tail. "It's so soft!" He pried her hands off. "Darn... couldn't you give it to me as a goodbye present?" Sesshomaru was startled.

"What?"

"Well, Mara Rose is just fine now, no thanks to you and your attempts to scare her. She's tougher then she looks, and besides, that needle did a real good job. Also, is appears that Orchilum has some sort of healing effect... What's wrong? You're not going to give me that tail, are you?" Sesshomaru's face had turned very grim.

"No, I'm not going to give you my tail. And I will go and pronounce if the woman is all right or not. I will not be fooled by you, a human." He made up his mind swiftly, then snatched her up, and went back to the camp.

Mara Rose was sitting there with Rin, playing a game, with the central motif being a banana. They were making it up as they went along. The point of the game was to try to figure out just what this mysterious banana was. Wild ideas were being put forward, and eventually rejected.

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WritingWoman: Uh, do you suppose I should leave off with the banana's? I probably should, but I get a laugh out of just typing it. It's a weird word... but I am going on about it just a little too much...

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Sesshomaru interrupted it without thought, barging in, and picking up the woman to see if she was all right. As a matter of fact, she was, and she accentuated the point by trying very hard to kick him in the face, a thing that would be VERY hard to even attempt if she was remotely injured. Sky was still just hanging under his other arm, and Rin watched it all with a level of amusement. Her lord looked very funny indeed, as if he was trying to juggled the two.

Finally, Sky got tired of hanging there (it was rather uncomfortable, not to mention odd...) and bit what she could reach. It was Sesshomaru's side. Well, he wasn't expecting it, and he rather abruptly dropped both her and Mara Rose.

"You bit me!" He said. Sky rose with a large dose of dignity, and brushed herself off, only to be pulled back into the dust by Mara Rose, who was also trying to get up. This time not caring about dignity, Sky scrambled to her feet, pulling Mara Rose up with her. Then she turned to the still astonished Sesshomaru.

"Yes, I bit you. You didn't seem to be in any hurry to let me go, and it was very uncomfortable, hanging there under your arm. Anyway, I have to get my stuff together, for me to go. Hey, Mara, do you want to go with me?" Mara Rose shook her head, and grabbed Rin's hand.

"Sorry, Sky, but I have to stay with Rin, and protect her from him." She threw a disgusted look at Sesshomaru, then turned to Rin, who was clutching her hand very tightly. "What's wrong, Rin?"

"You're leaving?" She was asking Sky, and she looked like she was about to cry. "Why?"

"Um... well..." Sky paused. She didn't rightly know. It had seemed like such an important thing there, in the beginning, but now... what was so important that she had to get back to? Kagome and the rest were her friends, sort of, but she couldn't get the Well to get her back to her own time, so what was the point? They couldn't help anymore then these people could. Well, then, wasn't she better off on her own, anyway? Then wasting these people's time? "Because I need to get back home, Rin, and you don't want to be spending all your time trying to help me. I've got a long way to go, but I do have to get back..." She muttered the rest, "...somehow..."

"But surely we can help! Right, Lord Sesshomaru?" He sniffed uncaringly. "See! It's all right. We can at least walk with you some of the way. Is that okay, my Lord?" He sniffed again, not a no, but not a yes. "All right! Let's get going!" Rin started off, leading Mara Rose through a thick part of the woods where it's very hard to get through it you're not a small child. Sky stared. Didn't she get a say in this? She decided that yes, as a matter of fact, she did, then turned and went off into a different direction. She got three steps.

"Didn't you hear her? We're taking you home. Isn't it the place you wanted to go to?" Sky flinched at the voice. 'Almost!' She had almost gotten away. Slowly, she turned, and faced Sesshomaru.

"Well, you see, that's the problem... I don't rightly know where it is... so you can't really walk me even part of the way, because I don't know the way. The paths through time are few and far in between, it could take forever to find the right one..." She got real close to the truth, trying to baffle him (it sort of worked, though she couldn't really tell), then ran like a demon was chasing after her.

Which he was. Then he got in front of her, and stopped her from going any further.

"You can't leave me with a riddle like that. It would be very rude. Now, tell me, what the hell did all that mean, 'The paths through time'? We can stand here all day, if you like. I've got time." And he did, though Rin and Mara Rose were crashing steadily through the undergrowth behind them. He could hear them well, and would know if they were too far away or in trouble.

"It's kinda a hard concept to explain, because I don't really understand it myself. I'm an archeologist, not a physicist. Besides, if I told you, you'd think I was crazy."

"You have no need to worry about the answer making me think you are crazy. I already think that. Now, tell me. We really can stand here all day." Sky glared at him, then spat out,

"What do you think it means! That I come from the other side of the woods! No! It means I come from a different time, you tail-wearing buffoon! What do you think now, huh? Still want to travel with me!" He looked at her very seriously, then tucked her once more under his arm.

"Huh. You really ARE crazy. Well, then, we will try to find you a nice safe place, and until you can prove to me that you won't hurt Rin in a moment of insanity, this is how you're traveling. Jaken," he barked sharply. The imp/toad thing appeared, and bowed low.

"Yes, my lord?"

"Run up ahead and tell Rin to come back. There is an easier way to go."

"Yes, my Lord." He cast an evil glare at Sky, and went to do his master's bidding. Sky twisted her neck to look up at the youkai.

"You know what? I don't think he likes me very much. Do you?"

"Why would he like you? You keep referring to him as the 'Froggy Thing.'"

"Well, that's because that's what he is! If he can't accept that, then he needs to go to some therapy!"

"I suppose you would know all about that."

"Oh, shut up! Besides, he absolutely adores you, and you repeatedly kill him!" He looked at her, startled. How did she know? She smirked at the look on his face, which annoyed him into almost making her head crash into a tree. Sky shrieked in panic, and instinctively moved closer to Sesshomaru. He snarled in show off disgust, and held her away from him. When she realized what she was doing, she did the same thing, trying to move as far away from him as possible under the circumstances.

When Rin showed up, she had to stifle her laughter at the pair. They were arguing, or rather, Sky was arguing both sides for him, mimicking his voice, and Sesshomaru was merely walking along with a pained expression on his face. Mara Rose didn't try to contain hers; she laughed with all her might, eventually falling down.

Later, they were walking along. Sky had fallen silent hours ago, as it was almost four now, and it had been nine when they had started. But now, she was really tired, dust coated, in pain, and, most of all, she was hungry. She was wondering if she should bite Sesshomaru again and try to make a run for it, but decided against it; he would only stop her again. She had finally figured out that she had no chance of outrunning him. Now, she was working on a way of outsmarting him.

But that was all beside the point. She was HUNGRY. So she twisted up to look at him, and said, "Hey, Sesshomaru, would you mind putting me down? I'm hungry, and if I don't get something to eat soon, I may take you up on the offer of being crazy, and take a bite out of you instead." She fell into the dust. Getting up, she didn't make an issue of the rude manner he was using, but instead asked mildly, "So, what's for lunch?"

"Find it yourself, if you're so hungry."

"Could you find some for me, too, Sky? I got the biggest case of the munchies..." Mara Rose added. Sky rolled her eyes, and stomped off into the woods, trying to be as casual as possible, half wishing now that she hadn't reminded Sesshomaru of her supposed insanity. Would he let her go? Yep; she reached the woods at the edge of the road with no interference. Moseying off into the cool darkness underneath the branches, she carefully took the pouch out of her pocket, opened it, and called forth (A/N: Ack! Over-killed phrase! Over-killed phrase!) some capsules, and turned them into food. The first tray she gobbled down instantly, but never had a chance to eat the second.

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WritingWoman: Bye, ya'll!