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Sesshomaru leaned against a tree and watched his tiny pack sleep. The woman had recovered very well from the fright he'd given her that morning. She had been in good spirits, even sang to herself as they walked. She hadn't fought sleep tonight, hopefully she'd be more agreeable tomorrow morning than she had been this morning.
She had made a wooden fishing spear she called a gig from a maple sapling earlier that day. And Jaken had shown her some plants that she had apparently not known were edible. She'd only picked one and had not yet eaten it. Jaken had berated her for being foolish when she'd rubbed a small piece of it on the skin of her arm.
Sesshomaru knew she was actually being very wise, she was checking it for toxicity. Several hours later when her arm was fine she'd rubbed a piece against her lips. In the morning he knew she'd chew a piece and spit it out. When her mouth did not tingle or burn she'd swallow a very small amount. After that she would know it was safe.
After all, she had no way to know they had traveled with a human before. No way to know they knew it was safe for her. She'd have been foolish to assume she could safely eat anything Jaken gave her.
The only problem they'd had since the misunderstanding was that she'd slowed down as the day wore on. He supposed she wasn't use to walking so much. And she seemed to feel the stones and brambles they trod on more than Rin would have, swearing more than once. He wished more than once they still had Ah Un, but he'd given the beast to Kohaku.
She mumbled something in her sleep then turned over to drool on the other sleeve. Her heels were toward him now, he noticed they did not look tough and callused as Rin's had been. Still were. Even with the dirt in the dark they looked smooth. He doubted she'd gone without shoes a day in her life. It might take a little longer to get to Inuyasha's village than he'd thought, but they had no reason to hurry.
Melissa was standing in her grandparent's RV hurtling down the road out of control. The driver's seat was empty but every time she tried to grab the wheel she was stopped by something. Where was her grandfather? Why wasn't he driving?
"Honey Bee, calm down. You worry to much child." Melissa turned and saw her grandmother sitting at the tiny table, a lacy shawl around her thin shoulders and a bandanna around her head. Beads and crystals dangling around her neck.
"Come read with me my busy little Bee." Melissa sat across from the old woman. She didn't understand the layout of cards. It wasn't a Celtic Cross layout like they always used. Three cards were laid on the table. The 5 of Swords and the 5 and 7 of Disks. None of them were good cards.
Cody jumped up in the middle of the table, scattering the cards. Melissa felt the blood drain from her face, in his teeth Cody held The Tower. Ruin, danger, calamity! All witches feared turning up that card!
Her grandmother took the card from his teeth. "What's wrong child?" She asked looking at it, "It's just Death." Her grandmother turned the card back to Melissa, it was indeed just Death. She knew that Death was not a card to fear. It simply meant transformation, change, the old ending to make way for the new. She took the card.
The RV hit a rough patch of road. Melissa looked up, she could see nothing ahead of the RV, but that didn't bother her. The shaking grew in intensity. She'd seen Cody with The Tower, but her grandmother said it was Death so why was she holding...
Her eyes fluttered open. "...the 2 of Cups?" She muttered to herself. She was confused. Why was she looking into two golden eyes? She blinked. The face came into focus, they were an elf's eyes. He spoke again.
"You had better be a nightmare." She muttered turning over. A hand wrapped around her elbow and she was jerked to her feet. As she had the day before she stumbled and fell forward. Her lip stung where she hit it against his breast plate and his free hand gripping her shoulder, keeping her upright until she could regain her balance.
She glared up from his chest. "All right, all right. I'm up, you sonovabitch!" It was quite fortunate he couldn't understand her. She stepped away from him and wandered off to the woods. There wasn't any thick under growth here so she had to settle for walking several dozen yards away and ducking behind a large tree.
She heard Jaken speaking excitedly. When she came back Sesshomaru was no where to be found. "Where is Sesshomaru-sama?" She asked the kappa. She had made the mistake of addressing him by just his name the day before and Jaken was quick to correct her.
Jaken did not seem overly concerned. Grumpy, but not concerned. Apparently this was a common thing.
"If we're staying behind the cock sucker could have at least let me sleep in." She griped as she walked over to the river to clean up. Then she tossed some wood on the embers of the fire and picked up her gig to catch some breakfast.
She was sitting watching her fish cook while Jaken ranted beside her. She glance over and noticed a loose thread hanging from his sleeve. He wasn't paying any attention so she discreetly wrapped that loose thread around a twig on a sapling right beside him.
He wandered away and his sleeve began to unravel. She watched and waited to see how long it would take him to notice. She had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing. He continued to walk around camp muttering to himself. A quarter inch... half an inch... 1... his sleeve was half gone when he finally noticed. Then she let herself laugh, he was to busy freaking out to notice.
He started pulling on the thread, trying to break it. He only unraveled his sleeve further. He tried to follow his thread back to the original snag, but got tangled. Melissa was getting to her feet to cut him loose when he aimed the staff at the biggest knot and flames shot out of it.
The flames quickly traveled up the thread. Jaken was free. He was also on fire! He screamed, waving his arms as he ran into the river.
Melissa jumped to her feet and followed him in to the river. "Are you O.K.?" She asked grabbing his hand so she could look at his arm. He waved her away irritably. The brief glance she had revealed nothing charred or blistered and he didn't seem to want help.
"Hmph, see if I ever give a rat's ass about your well being again!" She stalked back to shore, wrung out the edge of her kimono, and sat down to enjoy her fish. She wondered who would fix Jaken's sleeve. Would he fix it himself or have someone fix it when they got where ever they were going? She hoped neither of them would expect her to fix it just because she had boobs, because that wasn't happening. Of course she had no way to know many youkai wore enchanted garments that fixed themselves given time.
'Of course when you think about it Jaken's little mishap is Sesshomaru's fault.' She thought as she washed up after breakfast. 'He woke me up at the crack or dawn then took off without us. It's his fault I was even awake. His fault he let me get bored. His fault I was left without adult supervision. Yep, it's definitely Sesshomaru's fault. Oh, speak of the devil.'
A familiar looking shadow had fallen over her and she turned to see Sesshomaru had returned. "Hi." He frowned slightly, as though confused by her greeting. As Jaken started kissing ass Sesshomaru dropped several objects in her lap. A pair of sandals, a pair of odd socks, and a wooden comb.
"Thank you." She examined the objects, thy appeared to be good quality, not that she would be able to really tell. The socks were like mittens for feet, with a separate little pocket for your big toe. She guessed to accommodate the sandals. She pulled the socks and shoes on then straightened out her hair. The comb worked much better than her fingers had for the past two mornings.
As she worked on her hair her thoughts strayed to her pets. Snickers was technically a wild animal. He could find his own nuts. Cody would have slipped out the doggy door and be chilling at the neighbors. He was as much theirs as hers, had been since she adopted him. But what about poor Skittles? Who would feed them? Surely someone would notice she was missing soon, someone would feed them.
She felt eyes on her and looked up to see Sesshomaru had been watching her comb her hair. She smiled and got to her feet, guessing he wanted to get moving. He spoke his word for "come" and started walking.