Chapter 8

Originally posted Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Reposted January 6, 2007

When they finally arrived at their home, Akiko was surprised to see a delivery van in their driveway, with a man knocking on the door, shuffling from foot to foot to keep warm because of the cold, Akiko presumed.

She brought her car into its usual place and honked the horn, immediately waking up the two teens, but her youngest slept on, completely oblivious.

The man turned to them, smiled happily and quickly made his way towards her. Akiko got out of the car as Hikari rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, but Hiro, she noticed, was already alert and completely focused on the man approaching her. Curious.

"Excuse me, but are you Mrs. Akiko Yamato? Or do you know where I can find her? I have two packages for her that needs a signature." Said the man, looking down at his clipboard for the name and then handing it to Akiko, who took it and flipped it so that she could read it.

"I am she; I wonder who sent the packages?" Mused Akiko, looking over the clipboard and looked for her name, when she found it she looked at the senders' name. "Oh, it's from Obaa-san!" She signed where she was suppose to and handed the clipboard back to the man, who left to get the package from his truck. "Hika-chan, Hi-kun, you can come out, you know. Hika-chan, could you bring in Ken and look after him and Hi-kun, could you bring in the bags? I'll help them nice man bring in the boxes and I'll come help you."

Hikari nodded silently and got out of her seat and proceeded to bring her little brother indoors.

Hiro also got himself out of his seat and opened the trunk of the car then he miraculously managed to grab all the bags at once before following Hikari into the house.

After placing bags out of the way beside the staircase, he turned around to go help Akiko with the package when he saw her come in with one and the man he saw earlier tugging at a larger parcel.

Seeing that Akiko could handle with the one she had, he went to help the man by grabbing the back and picking it up, getting a smile from the man in return. Hiro was a little surprised at how heavy the thing was.

After Akiko had put the other parcel in the kitchen, she navigated both of them to the living and miraculously they didn't knock over a single thing! Breathing a little heavily, they both leaned on the large box, gladly taking the glasses of water Hikari offered them.

"Thank you very much for bringing it in, you too Hi-kun, here's a little something for helping." Said Akiko, digging through her purse and handing both of several dollar coins each.

The delivery boy thanked her and left, closing the door firmly behind him.

"Kaa-san? What did Obaa-san send us?" Asked Hikari, coming into the living room, a sleeping Ken in her arms, his little head in the crook of her neck, mouth slightly open and drooling only the tiniest bit, but it didn't seem to bother her that much.

"I don't know, but let's go open the first one, would you mind going to go get it, Hi-kun? I left it only the table."

"Sure." He pocketed the money and went into the kitchen. There, on the table, was the package that Akiko brought in, it was smaller than the other one, and had small holes around the top at equal intervals. As he reached for it, it shuddered and he jumped back in shock. After waiting several seconds with the package not moving, he gingerly picked it up and brought it to the living room, where he set it on the floor.

He immediately noted that in his absence, Hikari had left, most likely to put Ken in his crib, and Akiko was reading the letter that had come with the packages. He set the box on the floor, gently, and leaped back again when it shuddered one more time.

"Take a seat, Hiro-kun; we'll just wait for Hika-chan to come back, I want to talk to you both about what Obaa-san wrote to me." Stated, Akiko, not even looking up from her letter, silently Hiro sat down on the couch and closed his eyes for a bit, all that shopping earlier had worn him out, even all he had done was try on what seemed like hundreds clothes in different styles, sizes and colours.

Hikari entered at that moment and immediately took a seat beside Hiro, head drooping slightly.

"Tired?" Inquired Hiro.

"Yeah, a bit, I think I'll go to bed early tonight." Yawned Hikari, bring a hand up to her mouth." She jumped in her seat when the box on the floor jerked once, then stopped moving. "Kaa-san….what's in the box?"

Akiko looked up from her letter.

"Oh, Obaa-sans' letter doesn't say specifically what it is, only that 'he's someone to keep Hikari-chan company when she gets lonely'." She quoted from the letter. "I'm guessing she didn't get my letter about Hiro-kun yet. I'm also guessing the second box has the cage for the…whatever it is." She finished awkwardly.

"Can we open it now?"

"Yes, you may, but be gentle, you don't want to startle the poor dear and it must have been a long trip for him, even if it was 'next day delivery'. He might be a little stressed out." Warned Akiko as Hikari slid off the couch and crawled the short distance to the box.

Hikari looked at Hiro and motioned for him to join her, which he did. Together they carefully removed the first layer of thick paper and slowly revealed a pet carrier. Peeking inside, Hikari came face to face with one of the cutest things she had ever seen.

"Aww! He's so adorable! Hi-kun, Kaa-san! Obaa-san sent us a ferret!" Exclaimed Hikari quietly, so as not to startle the little guy. "Hey, cutey, wanna come out? Kaa-san, can I take him out?" She looked hopefully at her mother. "Please?"

"Alright, as long as you're careful." Said Akiko after several seconds.

Hikaris' face lighted up with a giant smile and she turned to the cage and slowly opened the door, cooing gently to the little creature inside. Once the door was open, she placed her hand, palm upwards, at the door of the carrier and stood perfectly still.

Hiro leaned forward to get a better look at what his friend was doing.

As he was looking in the cage, he noticed that something was slowly coming out. It was rather small, about the size of his hand and half again, and was extremely thin, Hikari could have easily wrapped her smaller hand around its belly and it wouldn't be a tight fit.

The head was small and triangular shaped, and was mostly creamed colour, with the exception of a darker brown around the eyes like a mask, and its small triangular ears. Its front legs and tail were also the same colour, with a band on its back that went from one leg to the other. All in all, it was cute.

When it as half way out, its pink little nose twitching incessantly, it took a good look around, then cautiously moved towards Hikaris' hand, taking many good sniffs, the gently, put its front paws and began making its' way up her arm and onto her shoulder where it finally came to a halt, when it wrapped itself around her neck like a living scarf.

"What do you think, Hi-kun, isn't he just adorable?" Said Hikari, petting the ferrets head as it dooked (1) contently.

"Yeah, he is. What do you want to name him?" Asked Hiro, bringing his hand up and rubbing the head of the little ferret, who dooked happily again.

Hikari thought about it for a while. After several long minutes of thought, all she drew was a blank.

"I don't know. Let's wait a while before deciding. It's kinda late, how about we think about it in the morning? I'm sure we're all very tired right now. Kaa-san, does Obaa-san mention in her letter what's in the other box?"

Akiko glanced over the letter one more time.

"Yes, it's the cage for our new friend, for when we're all out of the house. Although I think he'll be fine in the carrier for tonight, we can set up the cage tomorrow morning. Now, off to bed, both of you." Said Akiko, folding the letter and putting it back in it's envelope as Hikari got up and put the ferret in it's and Hao dug through the bags of clothes to find a pair of flannel pyjamas that they had bought earlier. The one had a simple design; it was completely black except the cuffs, which where an icy-blue in colour, and a simple stylized star on the left breast pocket. He went upstairs to his room to change.

After going to the washroom and brushing his teeth, he crawled into bed and fell into a dreamless sleep almost right away.

A while later, roughly halfway across the globe, another young boy of the same age, was not as fortunate.

No, Yoh Asakura was having a rather haunting dream. Although to anyone else, it would seem ridiculous, the feeling he got from the images in his dreams sent goose bumps across his skin in waves.

In his dreams, he was walking along a dark path in a forest he wasn't familiar with. The forest felt like the woods around his home in Izumo, but, different, somehow, as if all the spirits living there wear crying out in pain, but not theirs, for someone else and in fear. Something was walking among them that didn't belong there.

"Hello?" He yelled out cautiously. (2)

Receiving no answer, he slowly made his way down the path, trying to be constantly aware of his surroundings. Whatever was out there didn't feel like anything he'd like to meet anywhere, let alone in a dark forest.

After walking for what seemed like forever, and feeling totally disoriented, Yoh ended up at a large glade that had a huge, crystal clear lake in the middle. It was absolutely beautiful, especially with the full moon reflected in it.

The only thing was a solitary figure standing at the edge with its back to Yoh.

He stepped closer to the figure and noticed that, whoever it was, was wearing a dress and even with only the light if the moon, he could tell that the dress was pink and had a tilt string of stars around the waist and another string of stars going through the young girls long brown hair.

Just as he was about to call out to her, he noticed something in the corner of his eye. He turned his head and nearly fell down.

Because hurtling towards the girl on four grotesquely misshapen legs and a bestial face that only belonged in the worst of nightmares. It was huge, and was either a dark brown or black in colour, but its bright red eyes shone like beacons in the darkness.

It seemed as if its mere presence was scaring away the light because even though there were to trees to create a shadow to hide in, the created seemed to be enveloped in darkness.

He tried to call out to the girl, but for some odd reason, his voice wouldn't listen to him. Just as the Dark Beast was about to tackle the girl, who was still staring out at the lake, completely oblivious to the danger, he was blinded by a bright light.

With a startled yell, Yoh shot up from his futon and looked around wildly before realizing that he was at home at Funbari Onsen. He took a shaky breath to try and calm him down. He brought a hand to his face to remove the hair from his eyes and noticed that his hand was trembling.

"Is something wrong, Yoh-dono?" Said Amidamaru, coming out of his tablet to see what had woken up his master.

"I-it's nothing, Amidamaru, a bad dream is all. I'm just going to get a glass of water, I'll be right back. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. I guess that means no more curry bread just before bed!"

(1) This is the sound a ferret makes when it's happy, it's called dooking.

(2) I know this seems OOC for Yoh, but one must remember, he is a Shaman and thus in tune with nature, though not to the degree of Horohoro, so, if the trees tell him Something-Bad-Is-Out-There, I figured he might listen. He's lazy, not stupid. Just look at Shikamaru from Naruto, he's incredibly lazy, but also the smartest guy in the whole series, with the exception of Kakashi, maybe.

AN; Yay! Another chapter posted in less than a month! And quite long too, five pages! This chapter is my holiday present to all of you, my dear readers, and if you don't celebrate Christmas, which is highly likely, then consider this just a plain gift for fun! I hope to have another chapter up or almost completed before I leave for school, on the first of January. Unfortunately, my second term starts on the second. Fear not, however, I have the next fear chapters all planed out, so they'll most likely come faster than before, depending on my school schedule. This chapter was to originally have some shaman action, but it was already quite long, but I promise the next chapter we will see some new ghosts.

Now, a challenge for all my readers. As you may have noticed, I did give them a pet, however, I was having a hard time coming up with a name, and so, I would like some of you to come up with a name. What you must do to get your name selected, you must state you name, what the name means and a good reason to chose it, look at this example;

Name; Yuki

Origin; Japanese

Meaning; snow

Why; because they got the ferret when it was snowing.

For your name to be chosen, you must have a good reason, you can't choose one because it's 'cute' or 'cool'. The name also doesn't have to be English or Japanese. If you're Native American, you can use one from your language, or a Chinese name, even a Russian name would be fine! Remember, I cannot post my next chapter until I have a name!

Also, besides getting your name chosen, you'll also get the honour of reading my next chapter 24 hours before I post it, so be sure to give me your e-mail as well! So that I can read it, just write your email like this; for (underscore) the love (dash) of a (!) shaman at blah-blah. Com.

Second challenge;

Who do you think the person in the dress is? What about the monster thing? What about the flash of light? For the first person to guess all three correctly, you'll also get to see my chapter 24 hours before I post it! Good luck!

I also hope you guys liked my Omake, I might be doing more in the future, whenever I get writers block.

Until next chapter,

Silver Fox Trot!