I thank those who reviewed, and I'm glad you appreciated the sudden desire of mine to add a little humor (however corny and horribly cliché it might've been). I'm also surprised, I never realized how many people read and don't leave reviews! Please, if you've read my story (and the updated chapters) please leave me a review telling me your thoughts. I really do think I need a lot of improvement, and getting a heads up from another aspiring author would help. Thanks!
By the way, sorry for taking so long to put this up! I got a super insane case of writer's block, and couldn't finish this dang chapter for the life of me! It was so impossible for some reason…
Disclaimer: I want to add this in, since most of my disclaimers don't put this: I don't own Beauty and the Beast. I don't own Inuyasha either.
Chapter the Eleventh
Preparations
"Up, up Kagome! It's time to get up! Hurry now, you don't want to be late!"
Kagome rubbed her eyes tiredly, "Late for…what?" She asked in all her groggy glory.
Sango and Ayame, who were both in the room at the same time, exchanged grins and knowing glances.
"You'll see!" Ayame giggled with an added wink. She then proceeded to grab Kagome's arms and pull her up, "Come on!"
"Can't I get dressed first?" Kagome asked, "I'm still in my underclothes!"
Sango waved a hand towards Kagome passively, "Of course, of course, but hurry!"
The two then giggled again and bustled out the door.
Kagome rubbed her eyes again, staring dumbly at the closed door. She let out a yawn and stretched her arms high up above her head, trying to feel more aware. Kagome knew one thing: Sango and Ayame sure were one heck of a wakeup call.
Once she'd brushed her hair and dressed in warm clothing and made herself relatively presentable, Kagome stumbled out the door. No matter how relatively nice she may've looked, she was still not a morning person.
"Come on Kagome, buck up! I want to see you up and at em'!" Ayame cheered, punching a fist in the air excitedly.
Sango smiled and nodded, "Ayame sure is right, you need to wake up!"
"And why is everyone hyperactive today?" Kagome asked, feeling more dead tired than she ever thought she would.
Sango shrugged, "It's just Ayame and I. It was a castle tradition, but when the curse came on…there were no women besides us to attend. But since you're here now, you absolutely must take part. It would be horrendously insulting to the King and Queen's names to not let you do it."
Kagome was feeling incredibly out of the loop at this point. She blinked and cocked her head to the side, still much too drowsy to put much effort into getting annoyed, "What are you talking about?"
"Nothing Kagome, don't worry about it. We'll get you ready. Of course, you'll have to get a new dress…" Sango trailed off. She then paused, grinned, and pulled Kagome towards the dining hall, "First though, you need to eat. Inuyasha refused to dine with us today."
Kagome said nothing. She was the reason he refused to dine with them. Yesterday she'd run off and almost gotten killed just because he lost his temper a bit. He didn't even say anything extraordinarily mean. She placed her hand on her forehead and rubbed her temples in exasperation.
"Kagome…?"
She looked up from her thoughts to see Sango peering at her worriedly. "What?"
"Are you feeling well? You look sort of pale."
Kagome blinked and blew out a breath of air, "Yeah, fine. Don't worry about it, just thinking."
"Oh. Okay then." Sango said, directing Kagome towards the servant's dining quarters. Sango and the others never ate in the real dining hall, so Kagome decided it was better just to join them than force them to join her.
The servants' quarters was a smaller, less grand room. It had a lower ceiling, and there were a series of tables instead of one gigantic one. They always ate together at the one nearest to the door on the right hand side of the middle aisle. It was the longest, fitting twelve people. Of course, they only liked it because it had the comfortable seats.
At the table was the usual breakfast spread. There was a plate of bacon – from the wild pigs that Koga liked to catch, eggs from the chickens (there were chickens in a coop out back that Sango tended to), some vegetables, and a series of baked foods that Kagome adored.
"Hey Kagome, are you feeling better?" Ayame greeted, waving from her spot at the table.
Koga, who was beside her, smirked like he always did and also waved.
Kagome nodded, "It wasn't me who was hurt anyways. Has Inuyasha surfaced yet?" Kagome asked, directing the question to Miroku.
"Nope," Miroku replied. He was the one who always kept lookout for Inuyasha.
Shippo was bouncing in his seat. He'd already started eating, but stopped when Kagome got there and bounded over to her, "Kagome, Kagome! We were so worried about you yesterday! We thought you were gone for good!"
Kagome petted the tike, setting him down and letting him jump back to his spot at the table, "Aw, give me some credit you guys! I'm not going to leave. I probably would've come crawling back anyways."
"You'd better have," Koga said with a joking growl, "Or I'd have to drag you back and make you sit through hours upon hours of Ayame and Sango's girly stories!"
Ayame elbowed Koga in the side, "Oh please, she's a girl! She doesn't find our stories boring like you do…she actually has a thing called taste."
Kagome let out a snicker at the two's bickering. It was really quite cute how they loved each other so much and still could keep the good humor going. It was a wonder that they never really found anything to actually fight about. She let out a small sigh. How she wished that she could find a fairytale prince who loved her like those two did each other…
"Kagome…?"
She snapped her head up, grinning sheepishly at Sango and going to sit down, "Sorry. I'm a little spacey today."
"Tell me about it," Koga said, "You looked like you'd gone off to la-la land and had no intention of coming back to the world of the sane."
"Aw, Koga, I'm not going to the world of the sane, I already said I wasn't leaving!" Kagome joked, making Koga flush and then grin stupidly.
"So," Ayame began with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes, "What're we doing about tonight?"
"What?" Kagome asked.
Sango looked equally as weirdly excited. God, not this again!
"I'll do her hair!" Sango volunteered.
"Uh, guys?"
Ayame raised her hand, "Koga and I will make the dress!"
"Hello?"
Shippo laughed, "I'll pick some flowers for her!"
"And I'll deal with…the other one." Miroku said with a groan.
"Guys…!"
All eyes turned to Kagome.
"What…are you all talking about?" Kagome huffed, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow in question.
"Nothing at all!" They answered simultaneously.
Her eyebrow ticked at their elusive, yet strangely annoying and obvious behavior. Why, oh why, was she attracted to friends who were psychotic?
Shippo tugged at a piece of bacon, "I'm going to go hunting," The tike declared, "Kagome, want to come?"
Kagome half-gagged, "Hunting….what exactly?" She had a very quick gag reflex, and little to no tolerance for anything bloody or nasty looking (or smelling).
"Oh," Sango said with a laugh, realizing why Kagome's face had gained a slightly green hue, "Shippo's 'hunting' is searching for flowers in the flower field outside the grounds. Koga's taken you there, hasn't he?"
Kagome nodded, suddenly feeling much better about this hunting trip, "Okay Shippo. I'll come."
He bounced out of his chair, grabbing Kagome's hand and tugging her out, "Well let's go already!"
"Kyaa!" Kagome cried, taken off guard by the child's strength.
Shippo bounded down the hallway, Kagome in tow and bent low because of his firm grip on her ring and middle fingers. She had to let out a short laugh at his exuberance. After all, he had lived with a curse, and still had the strange ability to be free and light hearted.
They quickly reached the main doors, and when Shippo asked Kagome politely to open them, she obliged giddily. Of course, this glee was quickly destroyed when the door opened to reveal a gust of wind that bit at her face savagely. She put a clothed arm up to shield her face, squinting from the wind's harshness.
"Are you sure there are any flowers alive in this cold?" Kagome asked with an involuntary shiver.
Shippo nodded eagerly, letting her walk out and close the giant doors, "The flowers bloom right until the first snow, which isn't due for a few months still!"
She smiled again, letting him lead her to the flower field…even though she knew the way quite well herself. She couldn't ruin Shippo's fun.
After all, you're only a kid once.
Shippo began to hum a tune, and quickly broke into the song of a child.
"The thistles in the mountain groves, grow amongst the trees and cloves, they're tough and sticky through and through, gross and icky they stick to you," Shippo chanted, his child's singing voice making Kagome smile and laugh warmly.
She knew the song well.
"So run in groves with me today, and we will play the secret way," She sang along, "In the hidden place where thistles grow, we'll travel up, down, high and low."
Shippo giggled slightly, bobbing his head as Kagome hummed the ending of the song, "Kagome, how did you know the Thistle Lullaby?"
"My father used to sing it to me at night when I was a little girl. I loved adventure, so he always took me to a place we called the 'secret grove' and he'd sing the song for me." Kagome replied, a tear slipping down her cheek.
It was unnoticed by Shippo.
She wiped it away quickly, sighing and letting Shippo bound through the tree line and dash into the flower field.
"Kagome, do you like blue flowers?" Shippo asked from across the field.
Kagome nodded, "I like all flowers Shippo, but I especially love yellow and blue."
"What about purple?"
"I've never seen a lilac here before!" Kagome exclaimed with a laugh, bending to pick her own bouquet.
Shippo zigzagged through the clearing, picking four flowers for every one of Kagome's.
With lack of size, Shippo definitely made up with speed.
Kagome picked a flower, and stared at it quietly. She hadn't even realized what she'd picked.
"A lily…" She whispered, staring at it fondly.
They were her father's favourite flowers. He loved them. There were many lilies in her and his 'secret grove'.
Kagome had forgotten how much she loved them after all those years…
Her father…
He had died when she was ten. He'd left her, her mother, Souta, and gramps behind. At first, she'd resented him for it, screaming at his grave and demanding an answer to why.
Kagome had never known why. She'd just been left with the horrible memory of finding him…finding him lying there dead in their meager hut. His face drained of colour, his hair wet and sticking to his face with sweat. His was body unmoving…no breathing, no heartbeat.
"Kagome, look Kagome!"
Kagome's eyes went to where Shippo was, seeing him holding up a lilac, "I found one!"
She smiled, walking over to him and taking some of the huge load of flowers out of his grip, "Okay. Do you want to go back now?"
"Well, I don't want to leave," Shippo admitted, "I like the flowers too much. But we have to go anyways; the others are probably done soon. They need the flowers."
"Done what?" Kagome asked.
Shippo put a finger to his lips, "I can't tell you!"
And with that, the tike went laughing and running out of the clearing, Kagome following behind in confusion.
Why, oh why, was she being kept out of the loop?
Kagome bit her cheek and growled – as much as she, a human, could – and sighed.
She'd just have to wait and find out.
End of Chapter
I apologize again for the long time it took to post this! I really do feel bad. Things are hectic as life approaches Christmas time. Well, I'm sure you know what I mean.
Review!
