He pretended not to care but at the first whiff of her scent he was off for the bone eaters well at a faster pace than an indifferent person would typically choose. Somehow she'd already managed to haul herself and her monstrous yellow pack out of the structure before he got there. She flashed a sunny smile at him and offered a happy wave in way of greeting. In return he folded his arms over his chest and began walking towards the village slowly enough for her to catch up easily. She smelled odd today, not quite all there.
"Keh, took you long enough. How did your tests go?"
She smiled again and presented a casual shrug. Now he knew something was up normally she didn't miss an opportunity to chatter about the latest up to the second news about her life and several other peoples' lives. It was then he noticed a shiny white square with pens clipped onto a belt at her hip.
"What's this?" he asked poking it with a claw.
Unclipping it from her hip she quickly wrote a phrase on it, he scrutinized the characters unimpressed. She waited and it was starting to dawn on her that he might not comprehend the marks. Her face was starting to fall in disappointment.
"Just say what you need to say I'm right here" he grumbled
She favored him with a dry look, and stalked past slightly straining under the weight of her pack. He grabbed the strap and lifted the bag and his traveling companion off the ground. She looked exasperated but more than that she looked pale and drained.
"Are you sick or something?" he muttered sniffing at her slightly
She gave him a look that needed no words 'now he gets it'
It was at that moment the rest of the group crested the hill and made their way towards them. Shippo sprinted calling kagome's name the whole way. The little fox cub took in the situation and snarled "Quit picking on kagome!" with that he leapt at his foe sinking his teeth into a fleshy area above the ankle with his needle sharp baby teeth.
Inu-yasha yelped in pain and dropped kagome and the bag in an unceremonious heap she winced in pain but made no other noise. Rushing graciously to her side miroku offered a gentle hand to help her up and for once didn't try anything inappropriate in favor of examining the inscription on the board at her hip.
The characters were unfamiliar in the calligraphy style that seemed somewhat artless but he could still make out the basic meaning. The racket of the quarreling males was becoming tiresome and sango looked ready to step in and add all the more to the din.
"Excuse me everyone, lady kagome is sick with laryngitis so if you would please get along things will be much easier on us in the coming days" For not being familiar with the ailment his calm, yet firm voice magically got all the name calling and biting to end instantly.
Kagome gave him a thankful and relieved smile. She rubbed out the old message and wrote out a new message; before quickly erasing that line as well.
-I'm so glad you can read-
He smiled beamingly "It seems as though I will be your only interpreter then"
Kiarra growled next to him and shippo scooped her up and listened to her mewling "Kiarra says she can read a little as long as it's simple."
At this news kagome looked hopefully at sango who shook her head in the negative. "Sorry kagome, it just wasn't a priority in my training"
Kagome gave her an expression of understanding and made an 'oh well' gesture. So that left kiarra who needed Shippo to translate or miroku. This was just not her week.
"What the hell is laryngitis?" Inu-yasha gruffly demanded.
Kagome quickly began listing out symptoms and approximate dates of progression through the illness. It appeared that she was in the last phase with a sub-note of being non-contagious.
Miroku hummed contemplatively "To sum this up: We can't catch your illness, you have already endured the worst of it, and the only remaining issues are loss of voice, pain, and depleted stamina?"
Kagome nodded in the affirmative but still gamely hefted her pack as if to prove she could still keep up with her comrades. Sango deftly removed her of the luggage and began heading north, kiarra transformed and knocked kagome on to her back and stalked quickly after her mistress. Kagome quickly scrawled another note and miroku smiled slyly at it as he fell into a stride alongside the fire cat.
"Lady Kagome thanks you all profusely for being such fantastic friends"
Inu-yasha waved it off with a bashful "Don't mention it"
Shippo and Sango smiled warmly with the trite expression "That's what friends are for" it hadn't sounded like something kagome would say but they would allow the monk to embellish a little if he still got the message across to the rest of them.
Kiarra glanced back read the board before it could be cleaned -No need to fuss over me I can still be of use-
Kagome was eyeing the monk with a conflicted expression torn between the fact he hadn't relayed her words, and gratitude for being thoughtful.
-Are you going to misinterpret everything I say?-
Miroku grinned innocently "For all your education, there are days that you strike me as a simple sort of woman"
Bristling slightly at this she urged him with a gesture to explain a bit better. Smirking to himself he informed her quite merrily in a conspirators tone "I simply passed on what you meant to say"
Inu-yasha jumped in front of miroku with a warning growl taking a defensive posture as he none to subtly began guarding kagome.
"Whats that inu-yasha? You would like to apologize for dropping her earlier? How very considerate of you! Glad everything is cleared up" With a satisfied nod he trotted ahead to keep Sango company. Both youths looked after him in bewilderment at how skillfully he managed to bamboozle them without effort. Kiarra huffed in amusement to herself, and inu-yashas ears swiveled and twitched.
"So you can't make noise at all?" He queried
Kagome nodded
"Very interesting" the hanyou leered his eyes fixed on Shippo, kiarra caught wind of his intention and nipped him in warning. Putting on his best 'I didn't do anything' look he fixed her with a challenging glare. The rest of the afternoon was spent in their usual trudging towards the horizon to the tune of the world and the jangling rings of mirokus staff.