Almost done! Chapter 11!
Disclaimer: Still don't own Inu Yasha and all those people.
"Come on, Inu Yasha," Kaze sighed, turning her head to the pouting demon sitting in front of her. "Forgive me?"
"You kicked me into the middle of the lake!" Inu Yasha yelled, his back still to her.
"You're a dog, shouldn't you like the water?" Mel asked, bored with the two fighting.
"She kicked me!" Inu Yasha complained.
"Maybe she just doesn't' like dogs," Koga snorted. Inu Yasha pushed him out of the boat and into the water.
"Come on, don't start fighting with Koga," Kiara sighed. "You and Kaze-sama have been fighting since the lake, don't fight with anyone else." To emphasize that she wasn't in the mood for back-talk she threw Inu Yasha into the water.
Kaze snickered as Koga and Inu Yasha came up for air and climbed back onto the boat. "What are we going to do about horses when we get to the other side?" Mel asked, shielding herself form water droplets as Inu Yasha and Koga shook themselves.
Sho curled up on Kaze's lap to hide from the water himself as she answered, "We'll find something. The village is just a straight shot south, so if nothing else we'll walk."
"Ooh, what's that?" Kiara asked, pointing a bit away from their boat. A tiny island floated nearby, something shining near its lone bush.
"I'll go see," Kaze said, dumping Sho into the bottom of the boat and hopping out. Without thinking about it, she stepped on the water and another step took her to the island, where she knelt on the sand and picked the item up.
"What the…" Koga gaped, having seen Kaze step on top of the water without sinking. "Who did she-"
"It's a necklace," Kaze stated, stepping into the boat as it passed by the island. "Here." She handed the necklace to Kiara and leaned on the side of the boat.
"Ooh, pretty," Kiara said, ignoring Koga's glare. Inu Yasha had flipped his hair over his face and had managed to miss the whole thing.
A while later the boat stopped once it hit the sand and Kaze hopped out, holding Sho, and walking a step or two on top of the water before hitting the sand. Inu Yasha followed, dragging Shippo out and the other three splashed up to the shore, Mel and Kiara soaking their socks and shoes completely.
"Ugh, I wish I could walk on top also," Mel grumbled quietly to Kiara.
"But that'll give it all away," Kiara insisted, pushing Mel towards the village in front of them. "C'mon, let's see if we can trade this boat for a couple of horses." She pushed Mel to the village, followed by the others.
"Excuse me, miss," a man called from a doorway. "Is that boat any good?"
"It got us across this," Kiara answered, pointing behind them at the lake. "And the oars are still in there. Why?"
"Do you have any use for some horses?" The man asked excitedly. "No one here has a good boat, but everyone has some horses."
"Um, yea, three," Kaze spoke up, Sho sitting on her shoulder. "Want to trade?"
"Yes, please!" The man said, hurriedly untying three horses from a tree near him and handing the ropes to Kaze.
"Knock yourself out," Kaze said, shrugging and loading the horses with their bags. "Let's go, I guess."
The three girls climbed onto their horses, followed by the demons, and started out of the village. "Shouldn't' we spend the night here?" Shippo asked.
"We can keep going," Mel told him, smiling. "We are used to long travel."
"The horses carried them south, passing through towns and avoiding demons on the road so that by the time they did finally stop they were near the town Sango had described.
"Why are we stopping?" Inu Yasha asked angrily. "We're almost there!"
"Which is why we should stop," Kaze explained, hopping off the horse and pulling down her sleeping bag. "If we rest here we will be more prepared when we do get there."
"What could we need to rest for?" Inu Yasha argued. "Most likely it's just some pathetic demon that the demon slayers have already taken care of."
"I have a bad feeling, Inu Yasha," Kaze whispered, yanking on a piece of his hair to bring his dog-ear closer to her. "If you have a specific reason why we should go right now, you need to tell me. Now."
Kaze stared at him, trying to probe the emotions she could see passing behind his eyes until he pulled away and sat down heavily in front of a tree. "The morning will be fine," he said, folding his arms and legs in front of him.
"Okay, if you're sure," Kaze shrugged, noticing that the others had ignored them and were already settling down.
"He doesn't fight with her as much as he did with Kagome," Shippo noted, earning a harsh glare from Inu Yasha, but no retort. Kaze fell asleep soon after lying down and missed Shippo's comment.
When Kaze woke up the sun was immediately overhead and Inu Yasha had nodded off to sleep near her. She stood, stretched, and took a step, only to fall to the ground. She looked down to find she had stepped into a small crater near her sleeping bag. "That wasn't there when I went to sleep," Kaze mused, shrugging it off and rolling her sleeping bag as the others began stirring. Within minutes they were all mounted on their horses and on their way.
Kaze kept turning her head to eye Inu Yasha suspiciously. After a few times, he finally snapped at her "What do you want?" Kaze shook her head and looked away.
The village came into view with a few people walking around outside, picking up debris. "Hey, what happened?" Kiara called out to the closest person as Mel cringed at the damaged houses.
"The demon killed those demon hunters and was angry about our betrayal," the man replied sadly.
"It killed them?" Kaze gasped, looking worriedly at Inu Yasha. He glared at her.
"What does the demon call itself?" Mel asked the man.
"Naraku," he stated, his shoulders drooping.
"Oh, no!" Kiara whispered, exchanging glances with Kaze.
"Where did he go?" Inu Yasha demanded from his cross-legged position behind Kaze.
"The man pointed east and Mel urged her horse forward, followed by the other two. Kaze looked hesitantly at Inu Yasha again and he snapped, "What?" Kaze pulled her horse back slightly to get out of hearing range of the others.
"You haven't been acting like yourself," Kaze said to him, keeping the horse behind the others. "Sho didn't even want to ride with us."
"Good, I don't like him," Inu Yasha snarled.
"Inu Yasha," Kaze began.
"And I've been acting exactly the same as I always act," he insisted.
"You don't' smell the same," Kaze stated. Inu Yasha froze behind her before his legs dropped to either side of the horse and his head dropped to her shoulder. "What's wrong?" Kaze asked, eyeing the horses in front of her.
"You'll find out," Inu Yasha sighed, looking up at the setting sun before wrapping his arms around her waist and dropping his head back on her shoulder. "I won't be much help tonight."
Kaze turned her head to look at him before urging the horse to catch up to the other two.
Soon after, a small patch of trees came into view and the girls stopped the horses. "I can smell him," Koga stated, smelling the air. Kaze led the horses to the small pond in the middle of the trees and removed their ropes, dropping them on the ground.
"I suggest we leave the horses here," Kaze said, just as the sun's last rays disappeared.
"Oh, hell," Inu Yasha muttered, his talon-less hands going to his black hair.
"It's the new moon!" Koga growled. "Why didn't' you say anything?"
"Back off, Koga," Kaze warned, pulling bags off the horses a few feet away.
"You may have put us in danger!" Koga yelled, grabbing Inu Yasha angrily.
A second later, Kaze was between the two with Kiara's gun to Koga's chin. "Back off," Kaze whispered. "Or you will find yourself headless." Koga let Inu Yasha go and backed off. "The only thing we can do is leave him here," Kaze continued, putting the gun to her side. "He can watch the horses until morning."
"Hey, wait a-" Inu Yasha began, but Kaze turned a dark expression on him and he stopped.
"You're a human right now with only a rusty sword at your disposal, you won't be much use against Naraku, so please," Kaze said. "Wait here."
"Maybe we should send a team to check things out first," Mel suggested as Kiara pried Kaze's hand open and took the gun.
"I'll go with Sho," Kaze stated before anyone could say anything. She grabbed her bow and quiver and picked Sho up and placed him on her shoulder to prevent arguments.
"You aren't-" Inu Yasha began, but Kaze ignored him and turned to Kiara.
"If we aren't back in two hours…" Kaze began.
"We'll come find you," Kiara said, nodding at her. "Good luck."
Sho shivered on Kaze's shoulder nervously as she left the cover of the trees, moving in the direction they'd been heading. After a while her jumped off and continued walking as a demon so he could talk to her. "I didn't know Inu Yasha turned into a human some nights," he muttered.
"And if you mention it to anyone you can be sure that the next time you go to sleep you won't wake up," Kaze replied.
"Right," Sho murmured.
"Sh," Kaze whispered, pushing Sho behind a rock. They had just begun to see a chasm in the ground and Kaze heard talking. Sho turned into a kitten in order to hide better.
Before Kaze could understand anything being said, she was grabbed by a tentacle and dragged out from behind the rock. Kaze noticed Sho escaping, hopefully to get help.