A special thank you to…
dragonflamez13
Moccha
Esk42
Clouds of the Sky
Boylessgirl52941
sweetrosie
Avelyn Lauren
bdrake07
The Lonely Bird
Mistress of Demons
ffgirlmoonie
chiclet180
MeiunTenshi
Animekitty07
The rest are at the bottom.
Disclaimer:
Pwale: RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!
Everyone: Why! What's going on!
Pwale: There's an attacking hippo!
Everyone: What!
(A big brownish African mammal comes barging into the room)
Lia: …Pwale?
Pwale: (Huddling in the corner) Don't let it find me!
Al: …Pwale? That's a rhino, not a hippo.
(Rhino bellows and then proceedes to hold them all at…er…tusk-point)
Pwale: Okay! Okay! I'll say it! Just don't hurt us! We don't own the characters!
(Rhino lumbers off)
Mr. X: That wasn't so hard, now was it?
Mario: (Popping into the room) Hey, did you guys see I rhino around anywhere? It seems to think that it's a hippo.
…
The Stamp Of Gold
Piratical
By Pwalefriend
…
"Kaede," Kagome said one morning, looking out at the slushy January grounds. Kagome had ignored this issue long enough.
When in a place where something happened, and everyone (but you) knows exactly what happened, but nobody's telling you, well…there's only so long you can put up with it.
And Kagome had reached her limit.
"Kaede?" She asked again. It was after the children's lessons and she was helping her old friend by sorting herbs in the infirmary with her.
"Child?" Kaede asked.
"Who is Kikyo and why does Inuyasha hate her?" Kagome asked, deciding to go for the blunt and forward approach. Kaede sighed and shifted her weight so that she could watch Kagome's face.
"I knew that ye would be asking after this sooner or later." Kaede said sadly. "And I'm only telling ye because, by the looks of things, ye shall need to know the full of it.
"Kikyo was Inuyasha's fiancée many years ago." Kaede paused. "What's the matter, child? Ye look perturbed."
"She was going to marry him?" Kagome demanded.
"Aye." Kaede said.
"But…But…But…But…But…"
"Aye." Kaede agreed. "We all had much the same reaction. But, as bizarre as it may seem, they were very much in love."
Kagome's face contorted into a disgusted expression. The thought of Inuyasha in love with anyone was simply ludicrous! Kaede ignored her listener's air.
"Kikyo was a calm young woman who looked after all the youngsters in the mansion. Inuyasha was the temperamental young lord."
Kagome snorted. 'Was?' She wondered. 'He still is!'
"No one was especially aware of anything between them." Kaede continued. "But one day, out of the blue, they announced their engagement.
"Nothing really changed in our lives after that, until Lord Sesshomaru, who had been to the East on a business trip, returned. And it wasn't so much him returning as it was who he brought with him." Kaede stopped talking and stared out the window of the infirmary for so long that Kagome thought that she wasn't planning on going on with the story.
"Who did he bring with him?" Kagome prodded. Kaede jerked, clearly brought out of her reminisces. She turned to face Kagome with a little wry smile.
"A beautiful and broken youkai." Kaede said. "Kagura."
Kagome blinked. She could not imagine Kagura as broken. Sango, yes. Herself, yes. After all, she had seen both of those times. She could imagine Kanna and Kaede. Rin, Satsuki, hell. Even Tensaiga was more likely to be found in such a wretched state then Kagura,
As if she sensed Kagome's thoughts Kaede nodded wisely.
"Aye." She said. "But it is the truth. Kagura and Kanna had suffered much at the hands of their own father, the man you know as Naraku Onigumo. Sesshomaru had found them, how and where I do not know, and had tried to rescue both of them, but only succeeded in getting Kagura.
"Now, as I'm sure you're aware, the Lord's have and unreasonable amount of honor and an insatiable need to always appear the hero."
Kagome nodded fervently, showing that she knew exactly what Kaede was talking about. Why, just yesterday she had complained about her pencil being blunt and Sesshomaru and Inuyasha had battled over who could sharpen it with his finger nails better. In the end they had resorted to blows and she had gone to get a pen from Sango.
"Well," Kaede went on. "Naturally both Inuyasha and Sesshomaru tracked Naraku down so that they could rescue Kanna, and since they were working together, the rescue went off without a hitch. Except for one small detail.
"Naraku wasn't there."
'Damn Kaede and her story telling abilities!' Kagome cursed as she found herself leaning forward to catch Kaede's next words. But she had to admit; the story was getting pretty interesting.
"Naraku," Kaede said. "Appeared at the mansion before they could return and swore to curse Inuyasha. Kikyo, who had stayed behind, was the one who ran him off. At first we were all worried about the curse and were careful with absolutely everything.
"But the curse came in a way that none of us could have foreseen." Kaede stopped here for dramatic effect, and looked down with saddened eyes. Kagome resisted the urge to roll her own eyes. She was sure that the old woman was only doing this for the response. But Kagome knew that is she didn't take the bait she's never find out what this "curse" was. So she bit, hook and sinker.
"What was the curse?" Kagome asked. Kaede looked back up at Kagome with a twisted smile.
"Ourselves." Kaede said. "Just ourselves. If there is one thing that Naraku can exceed at, it is reading relationships. And he saw what no one else had seen in one certain relationship."
Kagome's eyes widened. If this was going where she thought it was going…
"Kikyo…" Kagome gasped. Kaede nodded.
"Aye, Kikyo." Kaede agreed. "Shortly after Naraku placed the cure Inuyasha and Kikyo had a horrid fight. The rest of us had to leave the mansion for a while it was so disturbing. Only a few of us stayed behind to make sure that things didn't get out of hand. I was one of those few.
"The fight was wretched. Even those who merely listened wanted to start crying. Just like a child does when his parents argue oh so loudly at night. That fight was the end of their relationship, and of Inuyasha's happiness. He might have been alright if not for Kikyo's last words to him."
Again Kaede stopped and again Kagome prodded her to go on in her tale.
"What were Kikyo's parting words?" Kagome asked. Kaede looked as if her heart was breaking and Kagome might have felt guilty is it weren't an incredibly suspenseful and drastically cheesy "touching moment".
"She said," Kaede began. "'I am ashamed to have ever known you. I can only pray that someday I will have the honor of the chance to cull you.'"
Kagome frowned.
"Cull?" She asked. "But that refers to-oh…"
"That refers to the slaughter of a lesser beast?" Kaede finished. "Aye."
Kagome suddenly felt the desperate urge to pull Inuyasha into a big bear hug. She knew how sensitive he really was, and she had seen first-hand how deeply those words had cut him…but...
"Kaede?" Kagome asked. "Is there something you're not telling me?" Kaede looked confused.
"Nay." Kaede said. "I told ye all that I know. But Faith, do not tell Inuyasha of our conversation. He will surely throw a tantrum if he learns of it."
"I won't tell anyone." Kagome said absentmindedly. Something was bugging her about the story. It seemed awfully one-sided to her. And if there was one thing that Kagome knew it was that there was no such thing as a one-sided truth. Maybe Kaede was biased?
"Kaede?" Kagome asked. "What was your relationship with Kikyo?" Kaede looked up from the herbs she had returned to sorting.
"With Kikyo?" Kaede repeated in surprise. Then she looked sadder then ever before. "She was my daughter.
No more words passed between the two herb-sorting women until it was time for Kagome to head to Inuyasha's rooms for her lessons. They exchanged a cordial farewell and Kagome walked to the door. But just as she was about to walk through it she heard Kaede say-
"And the worst part? Kikyo said it calmly and walked out softly. She meant it."
Kagome could think of nothing to say to that. This woman was obviously in pain because of the old memories that Kagome had dredged up. What could she say? Then something that her late father had once said to her came floating to the front of her mind.
"When you can't say anything, silence speaks loudest."
So Kagome just looked back, met Kaede's eyes once, and left.
…
The next day was Kagome's day off, but she simply wasn't up to going to town. So instead she took a nice long ride in the forest with Kagura and Sango.
"Kagome?" Sango asked after a while. "Are you all right?" Kagome looked at her friend in surprise.
"Of course I am." She said. "Why wouldn't I be?" Sango shrugged.
"I don't know." Sango said. "It's just that you've been awfully quiet all day."
"She's right, you know." Kagura joined in. "Is something bothering you?"
"…No." Kagome lied. "I just didn't sleep well last night." Well, at least that was the truth. In a way…In the strictest fashion, naturally. She hadn't gotten much sleep the prior night because her head had been spinning and there was that little thing that kept nagging her, but she couldn't quite figure it out.
She had almost had it while reading a particular section from one of Inuyasha's magic books. Something about a mystical power called the Shikon no Tama, which had then led on to the three worlds, then Yin and Yang, the scales of Good and Evil, etc. etc.
Maybe she's re-read that part on her-
Kagome's thoughts snapped to a halt when the three women rode into a small clearing to find a bizarre and rather random sight.
There was a huge ice demon, that looked like a very big yeti, and it was accosting…
"You know," Sango said thoughtfully as if she were discussing the weather. "The yeti is weird enough, but what is a salesman doing here?"
Sure enough, the random yeti was about to eat a random salesman in the middle of a deep dark forest. It was almost as odd as that Flying Spaghetti Monster event.
Kagura was frowning at the salesman, who was in turn frowning at her.
"What are you doing here?" The salesman demanded. Kagura gaped in outrage.
"What am I…What are you doing here? I thought I killed you!" Kagura yelped.
Kagome, Sango and the yeti all stared at Kagura.
"Um…" The salesman said, looking very nervous.
"Wait a minute!" Kagura screeched, perfectly outraged. "I did kill you! How the hell are you here?"
"Divine intervention?" The salesman volunteered cheerfully. Kagura twitched and the three spectators decided to get out of the way.
"Why you…" Kagura hissed, her hands tightening on the reins till her knuckles were white. Her horse, a light and sure-footed bay, seemed to sense her displeasure (if you could call it that) and began to paw the ground in excitement.
"Now, now." The salesman said in a manner that he must have thought was soothing but was really just infuriating. "There's no need to get angry."
At his tone Kagura snapped.
"That's it!" She screamed. "I'm going to kill you!"
"Well, it didn't work last time, did it?" The salesman pointed out. Kagura's bay lunged forward and it's rider livid.
"You are DEAD!" Kagura howled.
"Going away now!" The salesman said and then zipped off into the forest, Kagura right behind him.
Silence rang supreme.
"…I was going to eat him." The yeti said in a rough, gravely and strangely forlorn voice.
"That's disgusting." Sango said. The yeti stiffened and then turned to look at Sango and Kagome, a sly look on his face.
"Sango!" Kagome hissed, trying to back up her filly without making any sudden movements. Sango realized what she had done.
"Oops." Sango squeaked right before the yeti attacked.
"RUN!" Kagome screamed as she and Sango wheeled their horses around and dived wildly into the underbrush of the snowy forest. The yeti was at their heels and they could feel his hot breath at their backs. Fear welcomed Kagome into its embrace and she fell swiftly into it.
She didn't know when or where she was separated from Sango, but the yeti must have deemed her the better catch for it kept on after her.
The trees began to thin out and hope, beautiful shining hope, rose up in her. But it came crashing down when she burst into the clearing where the Tree grew and found that she didn't remember how to got back to the mansion from there. She turned around her nervous and testy horse and the yeti burst through the foliage, panting and grinning.
"Well run, girlie." The yeti said triumphantly. "But time's up."
"Eek!" Suddenly the salesman burst from the woods behind Kagome. "Wrong way!"
"You!" The yeti howled angrily, then lunged toward the salesman whose expression darkened with fear.
For Kagome the world slowed down. She calmly watched as the yeti lunged past her, reaching his long claws towards his prey. She knew that she should feel frightened, but she didn't. All she felt was the over-powering urge to protect.
The salesman took a step backwards and when he did Kagome suddenly knew, for a split second, exactly how to protect.
She lifted her hands and when she did light streamed from them, glowing and burning.
She closed her eyes and had a slight sensation of falling.
…
When she opened her eyes Sango was kneeling over her, she could see Kagura a little ways away, but there was no sign of the yeti or the salesman.
Kagome whimpered as she felt the acute pain in her head.
"Kagome!" Sango breathed in relief. Kagome smiled weakly at her. "How do you feel?" Sango asked, still worried.
"Ghastly." Kagome said. "What happened?"
Sango's expression changed, and she and Kagura shared a look. Kagome understood then.
She understood everything.
She stood up and coldly walked away.
"You know," she called over her shoulders. "Someone might have told me that I was a witch."
…
A supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (or however you spell that) thank you to…
Hearii-sama, Punk Rock Miko2, preistessmykala, readingwriting wench, Goddess of the Moonlit Sky, Smiley Gurl 87, silverkonekotsukari, alchemistgrl09, Al, total-manga-freak!
Wow! So many of you guys reviewed that I couldn't put it all up at the top of the page like I usually do!
…
Yes, I know. Cliffie. I'm sorry! I just have one more week of camp and then I'll be done! I'm sorry!
I have to go now!
Please review! And to all who left food, thank you. I forgot to leave food for the Review Lion so she's really grateful!
So Review!
Sincerely
Pwalefriend