Love of Friends

Chapter 11: Bloodlines revealed.

BC: (Pounding door back into place) Hey all! Ready for chapter 11? You better be!

QJP: BC, what are you doing?

BC: What does it look like? If I leave this door off, who knows who'll come in here! I've got to get it on fast!

PLP: But why are you doing it?

BC: (Stops pounding) Huh?

PLP: Why don't you make Baka-chan do it?

BC: Good idea! (Hands Baka-chan hammer) Go on and fix this please?

Baka-chan: What if I refuse?

BC: (Hits Baka-chan in the head a few times)

Baka-chan: GAH! Talk about knuckle sandwiches for energy...

BC: Forget Demon Diary and just go fix the door!

QJP: Don't order my Boyfriend around!

BC: Why not?

QJP: Because that's my job.

BC: You people give me a headache... and so do the Robo-lawyers! So here's my fic, I may not own Inuyasha, but at least I own this. Enjoy!

As Inuyasha shot into the camp, humans still trailing behind him, he skids to a halt. Talgi was stirring the stew. When she notices him; she lifts the spoon and points it at Inuyasha. "Good, then the others are coming. Next time you spy, someone should stay back and watch the food."

"Don't look at me... Kagome's the one that cooked."

"Inuyasha! Why aren't you…?" She spots Talgi, "Oh. Thank you so much…"

"I wasn't going to just let it sit. I don't care for burnt stew."

Miroku and Sango enter the camp. Sango smiles to Talgi. "It's the monk's fault. He distracted Kagome."

"Sango, I did not!"

Kagome waves her hand, "Sango, it really was my fault, I forgot all about the stew."

"So can't we just blame him anyway? He didn't remind you."

Talgi snickers, and both Sango and Miroku look at her. Sango was smiling even wider, and Miroku was glaring. To Miroku, Talgi was acting like she was Shippo's age. Where was the fox demon anyway? "Talgi, you didn't lose our young friend Shippo, did you?"

"No! I sent him off to find a herb."

"Why did you not go yourself?"

"Monk, I didn't think I'd have to point this out to you. Shippo can't exactly reach high enough to stir, so I asked him to look for me." She puts the spoon back into the pot, "You don't mind, do you Kagome?"

"No, it's fine with me. Hey, I'm not a stew expert."

"And what if I mind?"

"Inuyasha… sit."

Inuyasha's forced to the ground, and not as lightly as the last time either. "What the hxxx are you doing, wench? I thought I was gonna get less sits!"

"You're not being very nice Inuyasha, what do you expect?"

"How did you do that? And… uh Kagome, the herb doesn't go in the stew, it might taste funny if it did. I was just making sure you didn't mind that I was taking care of your stew."

Kagome looks over to Talgi, the spoon was still in the pot but she wasn't stirring. "Oh, I knew that! I wanted to make sure you did too."

"Kagome, you're such an idiot."

"Don't even get me started on you dog-boy! Besides, you thought the herbs were going in the stew too."

Inuyasha hops up off the ground, "I never said that, now did I wench?"

Talgi watches, a bit confused. "Guys I…"

"You mean to tell me that it would upset you for Talgi to stir! You're a real jerk sometimes!"

"Hey, I'd rather not trust it! We don't know what she might throw in there. Some of those weird foods from your time are really bad, or you just can't cook 'em. Either way, she might have added them in because you were stupid and left them out!"

"Did he just insult Kagome's cooking?"

"I think he may have Sango."

"Uh-oh."

"SIT!"

Inuyasha's brought down to the ground, the crater he left looked like it should have been after one of Kagome's sit rampages, not just one. After a while of twitching, Inuyasha manages to pull himself out. "What the hxxx was that Kagome?"

"It must be the new prayer beads…"

"Or maybe it's the crazy bxxxx behind them!"

"Are you sure you two aren't mates?"

Inuyasha and Kagome turn to Talgi fiercely, fire seeming to burn in their eyes. Miroku and Sango continue discussing the "show" in front of them.

"You know Miroku... I never realized how much fun this is to watch when you're not involved."

"It is different seeing their 'accused of love wrath' being taken out on another, rather then one of us."

Talgi lets out a nervous laugh and tries to change the subject. "So Kagome… how did you make Inuyasha slam into the ground like that?"

"Oh! Prayer beads, when I say the word sit…" the beads glow and ripple, but don't react, "they can pull Inuyasha to the ground."

"Dxxx it! I hate these things!" Inuyasha snarls.

"So… are you a priestess?"

"Yeah. Something like that…"

"Talgi! Talgi, I found them!" Shippo runs up with a small bushel of green plants. He looks up to Kagome. "Talgi saved the stew! It was bubbling and looked ready to overflow, and she stopped it!"

Kagome giggles, "I see that Shippo."

"What are these plants for, Talgi?"

Talgi tears off a few leaves and chews them thoughtfully, "I like 'em, that's all."

"Can I have some?" The female half-demon nods and Shippo grabs some leaves for himself. "Hey! They're kinda sweet… and they don't have a real grassy taste!"

Kagome bends down and grabs one of the fallen leaves. She tears it and smells, "I think it's something like mint… or maybe it is mint, I don't know. But it does smell sweet."

"Feh, you sent the runt off to find some plant just because you like it?"

"I was planning on sharing… Shippo wanted to help, and it was helping me! He didn't even go too far for it, so you don't need to worry!"

Inuyasha plops down by the fire, "Whatever… are we eating or what?"

Kagome sighs and takes the spoon from Talgi, who doesn't even notice and continues to chat with Shippo as she sits next to him. "Calm down Inuyasha, and I'll dish you out some first." She scoops some of the stew into a bowl for the hot-tempered hanyou and then some for everyone else. When she gets to Talgi, Kagome was the only one left. She starts to hand a full bowl to the half-demon, but rather then taking it, Talgi grabs the empty bowl and scoops in some stew for her self.

"What are you…"

"I'm not part of your pack. I'm just here eating your food. I don't have the right to get my food before you." Talgi smiles as Kagome sits down by Inuyasha, and then she heads for her spot by Shippo. She blows on her first bite, and once it's hit her tongue, she sighs. "It's been too long since I ate a good meal…"

"You're pretty pack oriented for being fox and dog demon." Inuyasha sneers, "You sure you're not wolf too?"

"Dogs live in packs!"

"Not dog demons."

The group continues eating, a lot quieter now. After they're done, Kagome yawns and stretches out her arms. "I think we should start heading to bed. Talgi, it's too late to find somewhere else to camp, so I insist you stay with us." Kagome had an evil sort of glint in her eye, and Talgi wasn't about to argue with it. She just nods her head.

The gang try to find places to sleep, leaving Talgi looking into the fire. After some time, she starts to lie down near the fire, but hears a growl and looks up. She can just barely see Inuyasha perched in a tree above a sleeping Kagome and Shippo.

Talgi scrambles up, and stumbles back to the edge of the firelight. She's about to lie down, when Inuyasha growls again. She could almost feel Inuyasha's angry eyes bore into her own, slowly Talgi backs away. She stops when she bumps into something hard. Stretching her hand behind her, Talgi feels rough bark beneath her hand. Glancing toward Inuyasha for approval, and after hearing no objections takes his silence for it, Talgi hops into the tree. Soon enough, she's drifted off to sleep.

Talgi sits up on the tree branch, and stretches her arms. She looks to the opposite side of the fire, to Inuyasha looking thoughtfully into the flames. A sight just over his shoulder makes her smile, but her gaze returns to the other half-demon. She hops down from the tree and stalks over to Inuyasha, Talgi flops to the ground noisily and stares intently at him. He just ignores her.

Talgi folds her arms in front of her and gives Inuyasha an evil glare, but still she's ignored. She growls and stands up threateningly. "Look! What's your problem? I can understand if you don't trust me or whatever, but you're treating me like I ran up to you, then went and attacked some village, and then ran back and said I didn't mean to do it! It's crazy, not to mention you're the most overprotective person I've ever met! So spill it already! What do you have against me?"

"Blood."

Such a short and simple word, catches Talgi off-guard. "W-what?"

Inuyasha looks up from the fire. "Blood... you reek of it. It's too old for me to tell if it's human, demon, or whatever else. But for the scent to be that strong, you had to of killed something."

"I... thought it was gone." Talgi looks down to her hands, trying to find the words. "I couldn't smell it anymore! I forgot..."

"Forget you're covered in a scent that strong? Feh."

Talgi clenches her hands, and looks back to Inuyasha. "Well you're not going to have to worry about me, or my scent, for long. Once Shippo's woken up, I'm leaving."

"Just Shippo? What about Kagome and Sango, they convinced you to come here. Or Miroku, he sorta understands you, even if you did seem about ready to kill him."

"I'm sure Kagome will understand." Talgi smirks in self though, "And Sango and Miroku have other things to worry about."

"What?" Talgi gestures past him, and Inuyasha turns to look over his left shoulder. Sango was propped against a tree, asleep. Miroku was resting against her outstretched leg. He sighs. "Guess I better go and rescue the monk before Sango wakes up..." Inuyasha walks over to the two. Carefully, he reaches over Sango, and grabs Miroku under the arms.

"I'll give you a hand." Talgi hops up from her spot, and joins Inuyasha. She grabs Miroku's ankles. On a quiet count of three, they both lift. The two half-demons carry Miroku a ways away from Sango.

Carefully Talgi sets down his feet. Inuyasha passes the monk to her so he can get out from being stuck between Miroku and a tree. He repositions himself in front of Miroku, taking Talgi's spot and pushing her out of the way. From almost completely standing up, Inuyasha drops Miroku.

The monk wakes up startled, feverishly he looks around. Once he spots Inuyasha, he sighs. "Don't tell me... I did it again."

Talgi looks over Inuyasha's shoulder, "You mean to tell me you've done this before?"

"What are you doing here?"

"I just helped save you, that's what."

"I can't believe you... are you stupid?" Inuyasha shakes his head. "You're just lucky Sango didn't wake up."

"Who's lucky I didn't wake up?"

Slowly the three turn to Sango. Inuyasha and Miroku are at a loss of words. Talgi looks between the others and an idea forms while Sango waits for an answer. Talgi steps forward. "I'm lucky. I was walking around and I tripped over you. These two were just saying it's good you didn't wake up, because you might have accidentally attacked me."

Sango leans forward and whispers to Talgi, "It's funny. I'm usually a light sleeper. I can sort of remember drifting off into a deeper sleep. That good feeling you sometimes get just came over me... when it left I woke up."

Talgi laughs slightly nervously, "It's probably nothing to worry about. It's my fault, pacing around and telling these two I planned to leave once Shippo woke. I'm gonna just go...will someone just tell Shippo bye for me?" She turns and gets just a couple of steps when Kagome appears in front of her, Shippo sitting on her shoulder.

"And where do you think you're going?"

"What is it with leaving? I try to make things go as quiet as possible, but you're all against me!"

"Do you... really want to leave that bad?" Shippo sticks out his lip, making it tremble slightly.

"Aw come on Shippo. I'm just trying to get out of the way. If I leave, it's not like I won't come back." She winks. "Inuyasha can try to get rid of me if he wants, but that doesn't mean he'll succeed."

"You know Talgi. You don't have to go. You could always..."

"Stop right there Kagome."

"Oh what's your problem now, Inuyasha?"

"How do we know she's not one of Naraku's incarnations?"

"Does she smell like Naraku?"

"No... but he may have figured out a way to disguise the scent!"

"So what do you want to do?"

"We check her back for the mark!"

"Wait, someone mind telling me what's going on? What mark do you plan to check me for?"

"It's just to put Inuyasha's mind at ease. We can do it behind those bushes over there. No reason to give these guys an accidental peep show." Kagome starts to lead Talgi away, and Sango runs up.

"I'll go with you Kagome. Shippo, you should watch these two."

Shippo jumps down from Kagome, "Right!" and the three continue on their way.

After a bit of time, the three girls return. Talgi still looks confused, but Kagome and Sango are smiling. "No burns, no scars, not even a spider-shaped freckle! She's not an incarnation."

Shippo runs up to them, "It's about time! I almost couldn't stop Inuyasha from running over there, good thing Miroku helped."

"What?"

Kagome's fist clench, "INUYASHA!"

"Huh." Sango shakes her head, "And I just thought Miroku was the pervert."

"Wait a minute! Before the runt gets me in too much trouble, I have something to say!"

"What, you want it engraved on your tombstone?"

"Will you listen Kagome? You guys were taking too long, if Talgi had turned out to be one of Naraku's incarnations I might not have been able to get over there before both your heads were chopped off!"

Kagome lowers her fists. "Oh."

"Oh is right, do I seem like a pervert to you?"

"You've been caught spying on them enough..."

"Shut up Shippo! All those times I was trying to stop Miroku from spying!"

"Does someone want to tell me who this Naraku guy is now?"

"He's a demon that we're after. Naraku's been collecting jewel shards and killing humans." The others nod in agreement to Inuyasha.

Shippo jumps up to Talgi's shoulder, "He's really evil! Not only can he change his appearance, he sends out fakes of himself to attack us. A lot of times, he wears a baboon pelt."

"A baboon pelt?"

"Yeah, a white one."

"A white baboon pelt? I've seen him before!"

Inuyasha's attention turns to Talgi, "Where?"

"It was a while ago..."

"Dxxx it!"

Miroku sighs, "Another trail leading nowhere..."

"So what happened?"

"Well, I was traveling through a forest when he approached me. He told me that I had caught his attention, and he had a proposition for me. He thought with a little help I could defeat you, Inuyasha."

"Yeah right."

"After he described you, I figured I might have a bit more trouble then that too. I was sure whatever his help was, it must have been something really good. He offered me a jewel shard, and was caught off guard when I had my own. He tried to get me to use it, and he told me a little about all the rest of you. I told him that I was going to look for you, never said I would fight though."

"So he tried to send you after us..."

"After he told me about you guys, I started to pick up as much gossip I could about you. I managed to find you from it."

"Really..." Miroku ponders this for a moment, "No wonder you had such a front up against us. Just what was it that made you want to find us?"

"Uhh..."

"We can talk about it in a bit." Interrupts Kagome, "Right now I say we get food."

"Yeah! That's a good idea Kagome."

Looks like Talgi was saved by the bell.

"Here we go! I decided to make some Ramen. It'll be done in just a bit."

"What's Ramen?"

"It's food, and edible."

"I sort of figured that."

"Talgi, what caused you to find us?"

"You're like a dog with a bone, monk."

"I am merely curious."

"It was just something Naraku said about one of you."

Talgi was trying to get out of answering, but Miroku wasn't going to let her. "It would be nice to know, especially if you plan to join us."

"He was telling me your names, and I recognized one. I had... met them before."

"Who?"

Talgi smiles, "It was years back, but I still remembered Shippo. You don't forget someone you're related to."

Shippo's mouth drops. "Related?"

"Yeah, you were a baby and your parents took shelter from rain at my home. Our parents started talking, and figured out we were related. It's a bit distant though."

"I... sorta remember them telling me about something like that. Wow."

"When Naraku said your name, I knew I had to find you. And I did."

"That's so cool!" Kagome passes a bowl to Talgi before she can say anything and rushes to her spot.

Talgi looks to the bowl skeptically, before taking a bite. Her eyes widen. "That's really good!"

Inuyasha slurps his own bite, "Told you."

Talgi gives Inuyasha a sidelong glance and takes a big bite. He cocks his head to the side until he realizes and takes an even bigger bite. Soon they're in a full-blown Ramen feud.

"What's going on?"

"It's a demon thing. My parents used to have little contests, because they were mates, all the time!"

"W-what?"

"Don't worry Kagome. I'm a demon slayer, I've had to learn about demons. I know what Shippo's referring to. It's not just mates, but brothers and sisters too."

"Demons tend to be quite competitive."

"Oh... Heh. I, wasn't worried. Really."

After a couple of bowls, Inuyasha and Talgi were even. They were both stuffed, and both of them had nothing but the broth to finish off. Talgi strains herself to finish it, but she can't, and falls unable to get back up. Inuyasha gives his own bowl a sickly look, and downs it.

Kagome shakes her head, "I can't believe how much you two ate!"

"Hah! She thought she could beat me? Hah!"

"Sango, you want to give me a hand with the dishes?"

"Sure Kagome..."

"Inuyasha, make sure nothing happen to Talgi like this. It's partially your fault she ended up this way."

"She'll be fine."

"Whatever, come on Sango." Getting the Demon slayers help, the two carry the dishes to find a stream to clean them in.

"Inuyasha, maybe a short walk will make you feel better?"

"Ugh... It's worth a shot. Shippo, watch Talgi." Inuyasha stumbles off leaving the Kitsune to take care of the other half-demon.

Slowly Talgi opens her eyes, "Did someone find the human driving the cart that hit me? I want to have a word with them..."

"This isn't good..."

While walking around, Inuyasha recovers. He's not the only one though. Miroku and him stop for a moment to chat, and Talgi ambushes them. Shippo watches from the sidelines as Talgi raps the two in rope and hangs them from a branch in a tree.

"Let us down!"

"When I get my hands on you I'm gonna... just you wait till I break free from this rope!"

"I don't think so Inuyasha, that's a demon made rope. Demon bulls couldn't break it. But don't worry, I'm only going to keep you two like this for a bit." She grins evilly. "I just want to make sure I'm not crazy."

"You must be to have done this."

"When I was talking with Kagome and Sango earlier, I thought you were mates. They made it perfectly clear that you weren't. But that doesn't mean it's an impossible thing. So I'm going to ask you two... if you could see them as your wives." The two clamp their mouths tightly and swing slightly in the wind. "Sure, now you're quiet..."

"Talgi, Sango and Kagome are coming this way!"

"What? Darn!" She scampers up the tree and unties the rope, lowering them to the ground. She jumps from the branch. "You two just got lucky." Quickly she unties them, and re-wraps the rope around her makeshift sheath. That's when Kagome and Sango walk up.

"So here you are!"

"We've been looking for you."

"We just decided to talk a walk! Right guys?"

The two make small affirmative sounds, and Talgi smiles. Kagome's not exactly sure on what's going on. "Uh, ready to go back to camp?"

"Yep! Let's go!"

Baka-chan: (Fixing door)

BC: Now then, to business. (Takes out jar with party blowers in it. Lays party blowers on table) Now would be the time to talk

Party blowers # 1 # 2: (Hold breath)

BC: PLP?

PLP: (Has a blowtorch) Ready when you are!

BC: On three... 1-2...

Party blower # 2: We surrender!

Party blower # 1: Just don't kill us!

BC: Ok PLP, looks like we won't need the blowtorch.

PLP: I really wanted to, too! (Gets idea and sneaks up behind Baka-chan)

QJP: Don't even try it! If you want to burn something, burn the Annoying Purple Fuzzy Chickens!

BC: Leave my bodyguards out of it!

PLP: Someone better give me something to burn before I torch the whole place!

BC: Calm down... In the backyard, there's a wooden version of Naraku running about. Perfect for target practice! Go torch that.

PLP: (Crazy laugh) fire burns things so nice! (Runs off to backyard)

BC: She scares me sometimes... HEY! Where do YOU think you're going?

Party blower # 2: (Stops crawling away) Ahh... nowhere?

Party blower # 1: You were going to leave me here?

Party blower # 2: I was going to go get reinforcements?

Party blower # 1: Oh! Ok then.

BC: What are you two?

Party blower # 2: Would you believe living party blowers?

BC: Why'd you want my door?

Party blower # 1: It was his idea! He wanted to punish you for throwing us out the window... twice.

Party blower # 2: Shut up you idiot!

Party blower # 1: Mom said it's not nice to call names!

BC: Just go home and leave me alone, please?

Party blower # 2: You haven't heard the last of us! (Bounces out door)

Party blower # 1: Don't worry, it won't be for a while. He's going to get grounded! (Follows after his brother)

BC: How much you want to bet that one was Talgi's?

QJP: I'd believe it.

BC: Please leave a review, thanks!

BC, over and out.