When Worlds Collide
Chapter 2: It's a Cave Troll!
Without a second thought Inuyasha jumped in front of Kagome. This further intensified Aragorn's belief that somewhere deep down Inuyasha cared for the girl. He protected her honor earlier and now he was protecting her from an unseen foe. But of course Aragorn had no idea what Inuyasha was supposed to be protecting Kagome from. After all, all she had said was something about a 'shikon shard'. Must be something else we don't have in Middle Earth. I wonder what kind of creature it is.
Where Aragorn thought a shikon shard sounded odd in his mind, Gimli just came right out and said it. "So what kind of enemy is a shikon shard?" asked the dwarf gruffly.
All three from Middle Earth thought this was a very valid question. So they had no idea when both Kagome and Inuyasha suddenly started laughing. They were further puzzled when Inuyasha gasped out, "You're an idiot!" between his laughter.
Aragorn raised one eyebrow quzzicaly. "So I'm getting from your response that a shikon shard is not an enemy?"
Kagome, finally calm enough to answer, explained it to the newcomers. "No, a shikon shard is not an enemy. It is a jewel that gives you extra power. These shards are scattered all over Japan so Inuyasha and I, along with our friends who we have split from for the time being, are traveling around trying to gather them all."
"What is the purpose of doing this?" asked Aragorn. After all, it seemed like a rather pointless endeavor to him. Something almost like corsairs would do, journeying around to find treasure. And in his world corsairs were dark men, corrupt men, he silently hoped Kagome could ease his suspicion.
"The demons who get the shikon shards almost always tend to be evil. With their new power they go around terrorizing innocent people while trying to find the other shards," answered Kagome while one fist unvoluntarily clenched. She hated it. Coming upon a village that was burning while the screams of the still dying pierced her ears. She knew it would haunt her dreams forever.
"So Inuyasha is good?" asked Gimli in disbelief. He still found it hard to believe that the hardheaded dog-eared man was in fact on the side of good.
Aragorn quickly shot Gimli a look that clearly said 'stop trying to get Inuyasha mad.' But he was relieved. He did not enjoy thinking Kagome might have been something along the lines of a corsair. To hear her say she was fighting those who stole the shards gave him newfound respect for her. She appeared so young, and yet she was already fighting for the cause of good.
"Feh, don't get any stupid ideas in your head," said Inuyasha curtly, "I'm not good. I'm just gathering the shards so I can become a full demon."
And so just when the Middle Earth clan thought they were beginning to make sense of their situation Inuyasha had to go say that.
"Full demon?" wondered Aragorn aloud, "How are you supposed to do that with a jewel? And what are you now?" This world was bound to give him a headache, that he was sure of.
Kagome sighed. They really had no time for this. The demon was getting closer as they talked. And this conversation could go on for days. Or even possibly weeks with how Inuyasha tended to act. "I have an idea. How about we get to know each other after we fight the demon. It should be getting here really soon."
With that statement Inuyasha snapped to attention. He looked over his shoulder to the three outsiders. "Can you guys fight?" he gruffly asked.
Aragorn, seeing a chance to get on Inuyasha's good side, nodded quickly. "Yes, we are all very good fighters. Can we be of any assistance?"
"Feh, I highly doubt you could help. But that means I won't have to worry about protecting you." Inuyasha almost spit out the last couple of words, acting for the world as if the words were poison on his tongue. And for him, it wouldn't be that far a stretch of the truth. After all, he clearly didn't like Aragorn's group. If it were up to him he would have left them for the demon to take care of. But then his weak spot was Kagome, what she wanted she tended to get. And this time she wanted to help Aragorn. So be it.
Well, thought Aragorn wryly, it's a start. He was worried about having to protect us.
But once again the stubbornness, and fierce loyalty, of the dwarves reared its ugly head. "I don't like the way he speaks to you Aragorn. Shall I teach him a lesson?" Gimli asked, holding up one of his axes.
Inuyasha got a kick out of that. "Teach me a lesson? You're lucky I don't kill you. I'm beginning to have second thoughts about helping you."
"The feeling's mutual," responded Gimli, "I don't wish to receive your help. I want the young lady's help. She seems nice and friendly." Inuyasha's attitude was really beginning to bother the dwarf. He was used to cocky people, after all, dwarves were one of the cockiest races, but Inuyasha was going overboard. And he spoke to Aragorn in a rude and arrogant manner. And no one did that to Gimli's friends.
Inuyasha casually shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever, just stay in the back and watch me fight. Maybe you'll be able to pick up a few pointers."
Aragorn quickly spoke up before Gimli could. It was getting harder and harder to keep peace between his companions and Inuyasha. "As you wish Inuyasha. But my friends and I are good fighters. We can help you fight." Aragorn willed Inuyasha to say yes, he thought that if his companions could fight alongside Inuyasha they would get along better.
Inuyasha thought differently. "Stay the hell out of my fight. You're just a puny pathetic human. You'll wind up getting killed," he sneered. There was no way, no way, he would be accepting help from these three people, one of whom had held Kagome had knife point. It was already hard to earn Inuyasha's trust, but threaten one of his friends, Kagome no less, and that trust grew infinitely harder to gain.
However, the words out of Inuyasha's mouth was the final straw for Legolas. He had managed to keep his temper up until now. Mainly because up until now Inuyasha had been arguing with Gimli. Now of course Legolas liked Gimli, they had been through a lot together. But his friendship could not even begin to compare to the fierce loyalty and protectiveness Legolas had for Aragorn. So once Inuyasha insulted Aragorn he had crossed the line. Legolas calmly walked up to Inuyasha, his blue eyes flashing angrily, they were the only sign of emotion that crossed his face. In a calm, cool, collected voice brimming with barely contained anger, Legolas spoke. "I don't care who you are, but no one insults Aragorn. He is trying to help you and all you do is spit in his face. You do not deserve his help. You do not deserve any help."
Inuyasha was not affected one bit by the angry elf. "That's good because I don't want his or anyone's help. So get the hell out of my face and go annoy someone else."
And Legolas was not affected by Inuyasha. "I am not going anywhere until you apologize to Aragorn," Legolas coolly replied.
"Fine, then I'll just kill you myself and be rid of you. You're probably just spies of Naraku anyways. You can die along with that evil bastard." Inuyasha cracked his knuckles and prepared to fight Legolas when Kagome screamed. Inuyasha whirled around to see a demon jump out of the trees and knock Kagome to the ground. The demon's face lowered until it's gnashing teeth were a mere six inches away from her.
The demon was big. And ugly. It stood on two legs as thick as tree trunks and had a pudgy belly extending over a worn and dirty loincloth. It had big bulky arms that ended with four fingers with dirt encrusted nails. It's face looked lopsided. Its eyes were evenly placed but the right eye had a large wart over it which made the eye look smaller. It's skin was gray, it's back was hardened, and it's underbelly flesh was a pale gray. In its right hand it held a club with deadly spikes protruding from it. Kagome was currently cringing under the creature's mouth as spit rained down upon her. When Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli saw this creature they were all stunned.
"A…cave troll?" uttered Gimli, trying to understand what was going on but failing miserably.
Aragorn was shocked as well but then he snapped to attention. "Legolas!" he yelled.
Legolas knew immediately what Aragorn meant and quickly fired off three arrows, all three hitting their mark as they buried themselves into the troll's flesh. The cave troll roared in pain and stumbled away from Kagome. Inuyasha took that opportunity to dash in and pull Kagome out of harms way. Kagome clung to Inuyasha in fright; she kept seeing the creature's mouth coming down to claim her life.
"Kagome let me go, I have to fight." Inuyasha frantically said. He saw the demon regain its composure and knew it wouldn't be long before it was ready to fight. When Kagome refused to let him go he tried to gently shake her from him. By this time the demon was charging towards them. Shit, I'm going to have to fight with Kagome. Inuyasha was getting ready to unsheath tetsusaiga when Aragorn dashed in front of him and cut the troll off. He got in a quick slice before jumping back to safety. He turned around for a split second to shout at Inuyasha.
"We know what this creature is. We have fought them before. Keep Kagome safe, we'll take care of it." He then returned his attention to the troll just in time to dodge another attack.
As the troll regained its balance after missing Aragorn it suddenly grimaced in pain. A throwing axe was imbedded in its shoulder. Gimli took advantage of the troll's momentary lapse in concentration to get in a hit on the troll's leg. At the same time, Aragorn dashed in and landed a deep cut on the troll's back. As soon as he got out of the way Legolas let two arrows fly and watched as they landed in the cut that Aragorn had just opened. When the troll was hit with the arrows it began to wildly swing its club around, managing to get a hit on Gimli which sent the dwarf flying backwards. As Aragorn went to aid the fallen dwarf the troll turned its attention to Legolas.
As it charged Legolas calmly put his bow away and pulled out his long white knives. He crouched down into a fighting stance and waited for the troll to arrive. When the troll lashed out wildly Legolas gracefully spun out of the way and landed two quick blows before jumping back. By this time Aragorn was back in the fight.
As Aragorn and the troll traded blows Legolas jumped up onto a tree branch and pulled out his bow. As he notched an arrow he waited for an opening. Aragorn saw the waiting elf and knew exactly what to do. He darted between the troll's arms and stabbed his sword through the troll's foot all the way into the ground. He quickly rolled between the troll's legs and to safety.
The troll roared in pain. Legolas fired his arrow. The arrow found its mark as it hit the troll between the eyes. With a painful groan the troll fell to the ground, presumably dead. Legolas jumped nimbly to the ground and along with Aragorn walked to the troll. The elf reached out a hand to pull his arrow out. He couldn't contain his jump of surprise when he saw the troll twitch. What? How could it still be moving? Legolas stared at the troll, a look of bewilderment plainly etched across his face.
Aragorn received the same response when he went to retrieve his sword. As he grabbed the hilt the troll's whole body shuddered.
"Get back!"
Aragorn and Legolas turned to the person who had shouted. Kagome ran up to them and they watched in wonder as she scanned the troll's body, almost as if looking for something. She appeared to have located it when she nodded and turned to face Inuyasha who had come up as well.
"Inuyasha, it's in the neck."
Inuyasha ripped through the troll's neck and pulled out a little white sliver that had an evil aura surrounding it. As soon as Inuyasha removed the shard the troll's body stopped twitching. He handed the shard to Kagome who turned the shard back to a healthy pink. She held it up between two fingers.
"This," she said, "is a shikon shard."
Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, who had joined them as well, looked on in amazement. The troll's life had somehow been connected to the shikon shard that Kagome now had put into a small bottle hanging around her neck. This world truly was a new experience for them.
Inuyasha, happy once the shard had found its safe new home, turned to the otherworlders. "Did you say you fought that demon before?"
"Well not that particular one, but we have fought its kind before," responded Aragorn, finally able to pull his sword out of the troll's foot. Legolas and Gimli followed suit and retrieved their weapons as well.
"What kind of demon was it?" asked Inuyasha. He didn't mind so much using the newcomers for information. But he for one refused to thank them for their help. He easily could have defeated the troll if they hadn't interfered in his fight. He told them to stay, they didn't listen, it was not his fault ihe still disliked them. And besides, wasn't the easiest way to achieve your enemies trust to aid them in some way? No, Inuyasha would not be letting his defense down just yet.
"I am not sure if would be what you say a 'demon' is, but it was a cave troll."
"Is it from your world?" asked Kagome. "Assuming of course you came from another world and not simply another place in the world." But from what she was seeing, hearing, and witnessing Kagome was beginning to firmly believe they were in fact from a new world. After all, they certainly didn't appear to have the look of those from the future. They had more of a medieval look and she highly doubted that in the future of her time civilizations would regress back to those ages. But in all her history classes she had never heard of elves and dwarves, and definitely not cave trolls.
"Yes. I do not understand how it was transported here. There were no trolls around when we were transported to this place."
"I don't care about that. What I care about is how it got a hold of a shikon shard," growled Inuyasha.
"Isn't it also important as to how it got here in the first place? That would seem to be a problem," responded Aragorn politely while cleaning the grime off of his sword and sliding it back into its sheath.
Legolas sidled up next to Aragorn. "Aragorn, we should move on. I do not like the feeling of this place."
Aragorn turned to his friend, trusting the elf's instincts. "What is it you feel?"
Before Legolas could voice his suspicions Kagome interrupted. "We should leave now. I feel this evil cloud coming this way. We have to get out while we can."
"No, we stay and fight it." Inuyasha grabbed the hilt of his sword, ready to pull it out and fight.
"We cannot stay! There are too many weird things happening. These three get randomly transported here. We fight an enemy from their world. This enemy had a shikon shard. And I've never felt this kind of evil before. We should go back to Kaede's and figure out what is going on. Maybe Miroku will be able to help as well," Kagome vehemently replied.
"I agree with the lady. Legolas feels evil as well. And before you can argue, he is an elf. Elves have heightened senses and my friend is rarely ever wrong. If both Legolas and Kagome feel evil we should leave." Aragorn was hoping Inuyasha would show an ounce of intelligence and agree with him and Kagome. But he was highly skeptical, seeing how Inuyasha had responded to everything he had thus far said.
"Stay out of it. You have no clue what you are talking about. I will stay here and kill anything that comes."
Aragorn sighed. Well, at least he didn't disappoint me.
"You jerk!" shouted Kagome, "I don't believe you! You're just going to ignore everything I said? Well then you can just SIT down and we'll drag you out. I for one have no desire to die today because of your stupidity!"
Gimli was treated to the sight of Inuyasha plummeting to the ground, and unlike his two friends he couldn't hold in his laughter. "HAHAHAHA! That was great! You don't happen to have one of those spells for my elf friend here, do you?" asked Gimli, his eyes twinkling at Legolas's unspoken annoyance.
"Sorry, but you can ask the lady we will be staying with. She may have an extra lying around," laughed Kagome. "Sit."
And Inuyasha, who had been slowly standing back up, flew back into the ground. Damn wench, she must have eyes in the back of her head or something!
"I shall have to do that," said Gimli.
Legolas rolled his eyes before stepping lightly to Inuyasha's side, accidentally elbowing Gimli in the head in the process. He bent down and delivered a lightning fast strike to Inuyasha's neck, successfully knocking the hanyou out. "Now we will be able to carry him out of here much faster," he stated.
"Ooh, nice one Legolas, but you will have hell to pay later," informed Kagome.
Legolas shrugged his shoulders and unbuckled his quiver from his back. After placing the quiver on the ground he slung Inuyasha's arms over his shoulders and stood up, effectively giving Inuyasha a piggyback ride.
"Are you sure you can handle him?" asked Kagome worriedly. "It looks like he weighs more than you do."
"Do not worry yourself Kagome," responded Aragorn while picking up Legolas's dropped quiver, "as an elf Legolas also has strength and endurance that doesn't seem to match his body or muscle size. He will last quite awhile, and when he does get tired I'll take over for him." Aragorn inwardly smiled, this was bound to get Legolas riled up.
Legolas looked at Aragorn. "What is that human? You'll take over for me? I could carry Inuyasha faster and longer then you could carry just your sword."
Aragorn grinned, it worked every time. "Oh yes, forgive me my prince. I forgot about your inferiority issue to the humans. So to prove you can, you have my good grace to carry Inuyasha the whole way."
"No, I simply worry for your safety and health. Humans are clumsy creatures so if I allow you to carry Inuyasha you may wind up falling, thus injuring both yourself and Inuyasha," replied Legolas without a thought.
Kagome, not knowing if this was normal or if they truly were arguing, intervened at this point. "Um, you don't need to argue about carrying or injuring Inuyasha. He probably wouldn't even notice if we just dragged him along by his feet."
Both Legolas and Aragorn grinned at the girl. Aragorn eased Kagome's worry. "We're not arguing Kagome…well actually we are. But it is merely our way of teasing each other. Ever since I was a child and became friends with Legolas we have been teasing each other about the 'weakness' of humans and the stubbornness of the elves."
Kagome grew a little red at this statement. And here she had thought they were actually arguing. "Oh. Heheh, oops?" she offered.
"But what I said earlier was true, even though Legolas looks puny and weak," here Aragorn avoided a leg Legolas put out to trip him, "he is actually quite strong. He won't tire easily."
Gimli crossed his arms in annoyance. "Hmph, I could carry him just as easily. No reason to inflate the elf's ego any more," he said gruffly.
"I'm sure you could, your problem would just be having his arms and legs dragging on the ground because of your size," replied Legolas jokingly. It was nice to relieve stress with the teasing and joking the three of them had adopted once their adventures had begun. Goodness knows, if they had no humor all three would have been driven to a stony depression long before now.
"Blasted elves," muttered Gimli under his breath.
"Well we probably should get moving out now," said Aragorn. "We've already wasted enough time." Aragorn moved off as if to take the lead. However, he paused in midstep and turned to face Kagome. "My lady, could you lead us out of here? I have no idea where I am," said Aragorn, his face turning slightly red.
Kagome giggled at the embarrassed ranger before agreeing to his request. As Kagome turned to take her new companions to Kaede's village two very distinct laughs could be heard. One was a great rolling chuckle that seemed to come from the very depths of his soul while the other was a musical, lighthearted laughter. And of course both were laughing at the expense of the ranger, who for the first time in his life was completely and utterly lost.
Last revised: April 12, 2006