A/N: well, i was sorry for making you wait an extra 2weeks for this, but i haven't gotten any new reviews and that makes me sad. and i didn't make you wait on purpose, i was traveling to college (took me 5 days by car) then we went on a retreat for freshmen & my computer's been broken for like a whole month and i've finally gotten it fixed. so i got this up as fast as i could.
Tales of a Cat
Scroll 3: A New Enemy
"…Unless, of course, you'd rather I sharpened my claws on your fair little head," she threatened with an eager smile.
"Huh?" Inu Yasha stuttered in confusion.
"Fine, I'll put it in simple terms: If you don't want to die, give me the Jewel!" she told him impatiently.
"No, Inu Yasha!" Kaede broke in. "You must not let her have it!"
Inu Yasha hesitated and looked around between the old woman, the young girl, and the Jewel in his hand.
"Do you think I'm just a nice little kitty, pretty boy?" Kagome growled. "Not when you reek of the priest who killed me!" she raged as she slashed at him.
"Whoa!" Inu Yasha yelled, barely jumping out of the way.
"Next time, I'll actually cut you in half, boy." Kagome sneered as Inu Yasha took a few more steps back.
"Lady Kaede, me-thinks we'd have preferred the giant centipede to her after all!" the villagers stammered.
The old priestess sighed. "Oh, me, 'tis ever thus. I am ringed by fools," she lamented, pulling out a set of prayer beads.
"Now, DIE!" Kagome yelled, charging at Inu Yasha.
"I'd rather not!" Inu Yasha replied darting behind a tree. Kagome slashed the tree and it toppled, knocking Inu Yasha over.
"You're mine!" Kagome said, leaping over the fallen tree trunk. Suddenly, something slid over her head and around her neck. She didn't bother with it since it hadn't affected her, and continued her advance towards Inu Yasha.
"Inu Yasha! Utter a subduing spell!" Kaede instructed.
Subd—huh! Inu Yasha thought in confusion.
"It matters not which! Any word to subdue her!" Kaede continued.
The hell does she mean a subduing spell! he thought, scooting backwards in desperation.
"You…subdue me!" Kagome laughed as she stalked closer.
"Uh…BAD, KITTY!"
"AUGH!" Kagome yelled as she flew face down into the dirt.
The villagers were stunned. "By 'bad, kitty' she was subdued?" they asked incredulously. Kaede nodded in satisfaction.
Kagome twitched on the ground in shock. She sat up and began tugging at the prayer beads around her neck. "Wh—what in the nine hells--?" she screeched when they wouldn't come off.
"Spare your strength, Kagome. Not all your power will lift those prayer beads from your neck," Kaede informed her matter-of-factly.
"Why you—you withered old hag--!" Kagome cried launching herself at the old priestess.
"Inu Yasha?" Kaede asked, not even flinching as the enraged hanyou flew towards her.
"Bad, kitty!" Again, Kagome smashed face first to the ground. This time she just lay there twitching.
"You may all return to the village. This show is over," Kaede told the villagers. Inu Yasha, still sitting by the fallen tree, was trying to hide his smirk as Kagome yowled her frustration into the ground.
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Back in the village, the people were beginning to make repairs on the damaged buildings. Villagers passing by Kaede's hut could see the old priestess examining the strangely dressed boy's wound while the raven-haired hanyou reclined with her back to them, her tail lashing back and forth in anger.
"Here, let me see your wound," Kaede was saying. "Some healing herbs should take care of it…" she said as she finished mixing a few different things together. "But what a place we're left in, eh?" she asked as Inu Yasha lifted his shirt to reveal the bite Mistress Centipede had taken out of his side. He looked warily at the paste the old priestess was about to smear on his wound. "Now that the Shikon Jewel has reappeared in this world," she continued, ignoring Inu Yasha's gasp and flinch of pain as she applied the healing herbs, "the evil beings who desire its power will begin flocking here soon."
"Like monsters and demons and stuff?" Inu Yasha asked.
"Yes, but also men. Sometimes men can be worse." Inu Yasha stared at her as she continued. "In this era of war and chaos, the powers of the Jewel of Four Souls can make any ambition a reality."
"But you," Inu Yasha said addressing the still fuming girl, "why do you want the Jewel? You're already powerful. Why do you need more?"
"She's only half a demon—" Kaede explained.
Kagome sat up and whirled to face the other two occupants of the hut. "Why do you keep acting like you know me, old hag?" she growled, smashing a hole in the floor.
"Then you really don't know do you?" Kaede asked giving her a flat look. "You don't remember the little sister of the man who enchanted you?"
"Kaede?" Kagome said in surprise.
"It's been fifty years, and some of us grow older," the old woman explained with a shrug.
"If you were that little whelp, then Sesshomaru must be even more withered than you!" Kagome smirked. "What a bore you mortals are!"
"My elder brother is dead," Kaede told her blandly. "The same day he put the spell on you."
"Hmm…is that so?" Kagome purred. "The little bastard kicked it then?" she smiled and went back to her reclining position, purring in contentment. "Finally some good news!"
"I wouldn't start celebrating just yet, Kagome," Kaede admonished, poking the fire. "There is still the matter of reincarnation. Wouldn't you agree, Inu Yasha?" Inu Yasha looked at her in confusion. Kagome's eyes flicked towards the fair-haired boy. "Your outward appearance, your mystic abilities, and the Shikon Jewel hidden within your body? There can be no other answer. You were born to protect that Jewel," Kaede concluded.
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Later the next day Inu Yasha wandered around the village. He had offered to help the villagers rebuild, but their varied looks of shock, horror, and admiration convinced him to back off. Soon after that, he'd overheard a conversation between a few of the villagers.
"They call him Lord Sesshomaru reborn," the woman had said.
"He does have a regal bearin', now that I look…" the man had replied.
And just a few hours earlier, he'd caught a few of them praying to him! Praying! He'd cringed and barely refrained from going over and smacking them.
Now he was hauling around baskets of food that the villagers had given him in offering. Trying to ignore the awed villagers, Inu Yasha searched for the one person in the village who didn't stare and gawk at him. In fact, that person could be downright nasty to him. It was almost refreshing in that being-hated-death-wishy way.
He winced. He couldn't decide which was worse, the entire village practically worshiping him, or one hanyou wanting to kill him.
Soon he found her sitting in one of the trees just outside of the village.
Kagome was reclining on a branch near the top of the tree and brooding. I can't believe that…twit…is supposed to be Sesshomaru, she thought sullenly. She heard a noise and put out her hand. She caught the projectile as it was passing her head. She looked over at it. "Huh?" It was a pear. She looked back at the source of the flying fruit.
"There's part of your share," Inu Yasha explained.
"What is all that?" Kagome asked looking down at him.
"Food." Kagome began to growl and glare. "It's offerings from the villagers for killing Mistress Centipede," he explained hurriedly. "C'mon, I can't eat all of this by myself." He sat down and began looking through the food. Kagome glared at him in suspicion. "What are you scheming, boy?" she asked him, jumping gracefully to the ground.
"Nothing," Inu Yasha replied, talking a bite out of an apple. "Just wondering why you hate me so much."
"You make me sick!" she told him, snatching a vegetable and taking a big bite out of it.
"Okay, listen, you," Inu Yasha sighed. "My name is Inu Yasha, not Sesshomaru. I'm not him, so maybe you could cut the death glares?" she asked her hopefully.
"Keh. Do you think I'm stupid?" she laughed, standing up to tower over him. "I don't care who you are. You could be a powerful god or demon and I still wouldn't show you any mercy when it's time for me to take the Shikon Jewel."
"Well, mercy or not," Inu Yasha mused, "if I say 'Bad, kitty'—" Kagome's eyes widened as she smashed into the dirt. "Oops!" Inu Yasha said, trying not to smile. "I didn't actually mean it!" Kagome growled and gave him her most vicious death glare yet as she sat back up.
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Later that night, Inu Yasha tossed and turned trying to find a comfortable sleeping position. It's been two days since I got here, he thought. Mom and them must be worried. He yawned and his eyes began to droop. Tomorrow…gotta find…a way…home." He began to snore lightly.
At the window, unnoticed by the now sleeping boy, were three glowing slitted eyes, staring at him. A rock bounced off the windowsill, startling the creature perched there. Kagome flicked another rock at the retreating form. Crouching on the fence post, she watched and glared into the darkness.
Nasty buggers, crow demons, not even edible, she thought in disgust. Already sniffing out the Jewel's scent, bringing trouble.
Early that morning, before the rest of the village was awake, Inu Yasha quietly slipped out and determinedly headed towards Kagome's Forest and the dry well. If I came out of the dry well, maybe I'll find a way home from there, he mused as he picked his way through the forest.
Back I the village, Kaede and the villagers had finally realized Inu Yasha wasn't there.
"Nary a sign in the whole village," the villagers reported.
"Surely he would not have gone beyond…by himself…" Kaede said in surprise.
Up on the roof of a nearby hut, a black tail twitched. Kagome frowned.
Inu Yasha was focusing on where he was going so he didn't hear the rustling leaves behind him. Suddenly arms came from behind him, covering his mouth and grabbing his arms. They held his arms securely and marched him forward. Soon they reached a building. They stomped through the door and the two men kicked Inu Yasha's feet out from under him. They shoved him face down on the floor, catching the attention of the rest of the men inside. They were all wearing what Inu Yasha assumed was armor and drinking something that he suspected was sake. The men looked at the two holding Inu Yasha in confusion.
"A boy?" "Why'd you get a boy?" "What're we s'posed to do with a boy?" they muttered.
Ignoring their confused comrades, the two men addressed the big man in the center being served food and drink. "Here you go, boss. The foreign boy just like you asked." The others looked at the boss, various looks of confusion, shock, and surprise flashed across their faces.
"Boss?" one of the men began uncertainly, but the big man cut him off and addressed Inu Yasha, who was struggling against the two men holding him.
"The Jewel…"
Inu Yasha's head snapped up and the stopped struggling. "Huh?"
"The Jewel…Give me the Jewel," the boss mumbled again.
"Uh…what Jewel?" Inu Yasha asked desperately.
Out in the forest, Kagome ran through the trees following Inu Yasha's scent. "Idiotic boy!" she grumbled. "Where were you going with my Jewel on you!"
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well, if you don't review, it might take longer than a week or two before I post again. so the more reviews I get w/positive responses, then I'll try to post more regularly and closer to a week between posts instead of two or more weeks.