AN: Hey, guys…
I have no excuse, I know. But, believe it or not, it has NOT been a year since my last update! I was convinced it was…
Nonetheless, YOU SHOULD PROBABLY RE-READ SOME STUFF TO REMEMBER WHAT BE GOIN' ON. THANK YE.
All I can really say, guys, is that I was just hit with a writer's block the size of Manhattan. Maybe bigger. It was like, every time I tried to update, I didn't like what I came up with. Then school started, and there were essays to write and tests and exams to study for and just BLAH.
But, as dreams do for me, I was just hit with this overwhelming wave of "UPDATE, AUGUST. UPDATE. NAO." And I was like "OKAY! I'M SORRY!"
ANYWAY. I am really sorry you guys. I haven't abandoned you. If any of you are still out there, I hope you enjoy!
Music was the lovely soundtrack of my house. Which, with all our birds, is quite noisy.
DISCLAIMER: Psh. Owning characters is LAME. (Oh how I wish I owned them…)
CHAPTER 8:
"Remind me, again, why we thought this was a good idea?" Sango asked as the group approached the silvery circus tents.
"We didn't." Kouga replied sourly.
Kagome shot them both half-hearted glares before returning her attention to the mystical circus looming overhead. If that gaudy flyer was correct, then the girl from Dream #2 was in here somewhere. Kagome's heart raced at the very thought.
Typical crowd noise swarmed over them as they approached the ticket-taker, a goofy-looking man in a black jester's outfit sprinkled with silver.
"Tickets, please." The man asked the group.
Kagome gulped. "Um, we were hoping we could buy some?"
The man fell silent and looked over the group in front of him. How curious. Two wolf-youkais, one taijiya, one monk, one hanyou, and a human girl. The jester narrowed his eyes. No, wait. Not human.
"Miko." He murmured in astonishment.
Kagome narrowed her eyes. "Excuse me?" she asked suspiciously.
In a flash, the jester was grinning. "Of course. Is this your entire party?"
"No. We've got the body stashed in the hanyou's hair." Kouga growled. He was in a strangely terrible mood.
Inuyasha whipped around and slammed Kouga face-first into the dirt. He then shot the jester a nervous grin. "Don't mind him. Wolf humor."
The jester nodded. "Of course. Over here, please."
After Ayame had successfully ripped Kouga out of the ground, the six friends lined up as the jester passed out tickets.
"Just show these at any games or shows you attend. The main event begins at midnight precisely, in the center tent." The jester explained as he handed out silvery rectangles to each of them. He paused a moment when Kagome took hers, letting his gaze linger upon her own a moment before he let go of the ticket. "Do enjoy yourself, miss."
A shudder coursed through Kagome's spine, though the night was fairly warm. "O-of course. Thank you, sir."
In a flash, Inuyasha was by Kagome's side and leading her carefully away from the strange ticket-taker, who was gazing after the two as they walked away.
"Excuse us, sir, can we go in now?" The voice came from a rather rotund woman who was at the front of the line.
"That poor priestess will never see the light of day again." The jester murmured in response.
"Excuse me?" The woman snorted.
The jester blinked a few times, as if to clear his head, and turned to the woman and her family, taking their tickets. "Of course miss, have a lovely evening."
The woman gave a pointed harrumph before entering the circus.
:o0o:
"What the hell," Kouga began angrily, "are we supposed to do for three and a half hours before this stupid main show?"
Sango shot the wolf youkai a pointed look. "You're in a worse mood than usual."
Kouga bared his fangs and angrily thrust an arm behind him to gesture to where Kagome and Inuyasha were walking side-by-side. "WHY THE HELL DO YOU THINK I'M IN SUCH A BAD MOOD?! THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A DATE BETWEEN ME AND KAGOME! NOBODY ASKED ANY OF YOU OR THAT MUTT-FACE TO COME ALONG!" he shouted.
"Actually," Inuyasha started, having appeared behind the angry youkai with Kagome next to him, "Kagome did ask us to come along."
Kouga blinked and turned to Kagome questioningly.
"Um…well…it'll be more fun if we're all here together, Kouga. A circus is more of a group event, anyway." Kagome explained nervously.
Kouga visibly drooped. "But Kagome…"
Inuyasha slapped Kouga on the head as he sauntered by. "Lighten up, wolf."
"DON'T TOUCH ME!" Kouga growled as he grabbed the cotton candy ball Ayame had been enjoying and threw it at the hanyou's head.
Inuyasha whipped around angrily. "What the hell was that for?!" he snarled.
"Oh, I'm sorry, did I mess up that perfectly shampooed head of hair of yours, mutt?" Kouga challenged.
Aside, the girls and Miroku watched on with looks of distaste.
"I'll go try and break them up…" Miroku groaned and, with a lingering glance towards Sango, drudgingly walked toward his fighting friends.
"S-S-S-Sango…" Ayame whimpered.
Sango turned. "What?"
Ayame was holding the stick that had once been the home of a lovely fluffy cloud of cotton candy, before Kouga had thrown it. "H-h-he…m-my…cotton c-c-candy…"
Sango sighed and pulled Ayame towards her, patting the wolf youkai's head like she would a child's. "There, there." The taijiya turned to Kagome. "I'm gonna go get this one some more sugar. Wanna come?"
Kagome shook her head and smiled. "No thanks. I'm gonna…um…go take a look around. Decide on something we can all do. Have fun, though."
Sango nodded and carefully lead the sniveling Ayame away towards a tent filled with all kinds of candy.
Kagome glanced at the boys.
"SAY THAT AGAIN, I DARE YOU!"
"COME AT ME, GO ON!"
"Boys, boys…"
Kagome sighed and shook her head. They wouldn't notice her absence as long as they were too distracted by their own problem of being within five feet of each other. Carefully, Kagome glanced around the circus which, at the moment, looked more like a small, silvery town. She chose a path at random and hurried away, hoping she would have the chance of running into what she was looking for.
:o0o:
In her tent, Kikyou sat on a silver stool dotted with black designs and ran her slender fingers over the beaded jewelry in her lap. All her soul-gatherers were swarmed around her, cooing and purring. All but one.
There was a gentle cry from the tent entrance, and the last soul-gatherer slithered inside. In the air, it swam towards its mistress and whispered words only she could understand. Kikyou froze when the creature had finished.
"So," she began in a voice as smooth and fine as the silk of a spider's web, "they've come. Sooner than foretold. But I suppose the timing doesn't quite matter." She stood then, with a silence and grace that many women could only dream of possessing. She held the beaded jewelry tight and looked herself over in the rustic mirror. Her priestess outfit fit her perfectly. The jewelry she held was a simple necklace, though on the slim circus girl, it could have been a belt. With her other hand, she stroked the head of the soul-gatherer that had been the messenger. "I suppose we'd better get ready, my pets."
:o0o:
Kagome let out a frustrated sigh as she wandered the streets of the silver city. Granted, she didn't really know what she was looking for, precisely, but she held on to the feeble hope that she might just…find it. Waiting for her.
Of course, no such thing had happened.
So far, on her journey, she had slammed headfirst into a large man with an even larger temper, had almost tripped over the tiniest dog on the planet, and had gotten careened into by several groups of screaming children. She was very close to calling it quits and just going home.
Kagome smiled when she thought of how warm and welcoming her bed would be. How wonderful it would be to just be asleep right now.
Except sleep brings dreams. Dreams of certain hanyous.
Kagome groaned, her peaceful vision of her bedroom shattered. She had about had it with these stupid dreams. Not only did she barely know the aforementioned hanyou who starred in them with her, but he was a guy. Guys were capable of nothing but taking innocent girls' hearts and crushing them with needles and pins and swords. And anything else sharp and painful.
Against her will, memories of her previous relationship swarmed her. Suddenly, everything she saw in the circus brought about a different memory. Tears pricked at her eyes and she cursed, rubbing her eyes with her hands. She rubbed so hard it was painful, and she laughed. Just proof that that men were evil and brought nothing but pain to the innocent woman.
"You look like you could use some good news." Said a voice from the shadows.
Kagome fell silent and glanced around. "What?"
"Good news. Isn't that a remedy to heal tears?" the voice asked.
Kagome turned around and around, desperately trying to locate the source of the voice.
"Over here, darling."
Kagome whipped around and was sure her mouth fell open to her knees. Before her stood the most beautiful woman she had ever seen. She had warm brown eyes the color of gingerbread and long, black hair that shimmered and glinted in the moon's light like a river of obsidian. In her graceful and strangely pretty hands, she gently held a gorgeous and intricately detailed object that appeared to be a music box. Words failed Kagome and she was unable to even stutter a greeting.
"I'd be delighted to tell you your fortune. Free of charge." The woman smiled gently and took a small step towards Kagome.
"Um…why?" Kagome finally managed to ask.
"A pretty young thing such as yourself shouldn't be crying. Was it a boy?" the woman asked.
"Y-yeah…it was…" Kagome murmured and folded her arms, looking away as a shamed blush crept across her face.
"I'm sorry, dear." The woman stepped towards Kagome and smiled in sympathy. "I, too, was hurt by a man. Many times, in fact. It seems like the right one will never come about, doesn't it?"
Kagome met the eyes of the woman and grinned, nodding. "None of my friends agree with me."
"They haven't had their hearts broken, thank goodness." The woman guessed.
Kagome nodded. "Yeah…that's true. I'm Kagome."
The woman's smile warmed. "I'm Izayoi. Now, how about that fortune?"
:o0o:
Covered by a cloak she had stolen from the costumes tent, Kikyou prowled the circus roads carefully, scanning the crowd for any sign of the girl and the hanyou. How hard could it be to find a silver-haired hanyou in a crowd of humans?
"Apparently, very hard." Kikyou muttered to herself, browsing the arcade tent wearily. She stopped in front of the mechanical fortune-teller game, as she did before every show. The game was simple enough, and only cost 5 yen. Once the money had been accepted, the mechanical fortune-teller's mystical television screen would show a prompt for your fortune, something like "Picture a family member" or "Imagine a place you love". Then, a gaudily decorated card featuring a fortune about that prompt would emerge out of a slot in the outstretched hand of the fortune-teller robot. A cheesy game, child's-play really, but it had been something Kikyou had done since she first arrived at the circus.
She fished a coin out of her costume and plunked it in the money slot. It took a little longer than usual, but eventually a prompt slowly showed itself on the screen:
Think about someone you treasure.
Kikyou paused and searched her mind for someone. Finally, a memory from long ago surfaced and Kikyou smiled wearily. Of course, he would show up now. Her grumpy childhood friend, the little silver-haired hanyou. With her mind full of the memory, the card emerged from the fortune-teller's hand. Kikyou took a deep breath and reached for it.
:o0o:
"Um, okay." Kagome consented. "But I can pay you, I promise."
"No need, dear. A gift. From one broken heart to another." Izayoi explained.
Kagome hesitated, but shrugged and looked Izayoi straight in the eye.
"Now, I'm going to tell you to think about something. This could be a person, a place, or an object. I want you to close your eyes and really focus on that thing and, after a while, I will ask you to open your eyes and take the card that has emerged from my box of tricks. That card will contain your fortune."
Kagome nodded. "Sounds simple enough."
Izayoi smiled. "Are you ready?"
Kagome nodded again.
"Now, close your eyes."
Kagome closed her eyes.
"Think about someone you treasure."
Kagome's first thought was of Sango and Ayame, her two best friends. She didn't know if she had to pick just one person, though, and she couldn't decide between the two. Her next thought was of a family member, but it was a similar ordeal. She couldn't pick just one of them. No one in her school was someone she really could say she "treasured", and Kagome was about to settle on a pet or something when a face popped into her mind.
Kagome frowned. The silver-haired hanyou had been haunting her dreams lately, true, but did she treasure him? Not especially. She remembered how cool he had looked out on the field during that stupid little football game the boys enjoyed so much. She remembered every perfect detail of the dreams. She remembered how he had told off Hojo and Ayumi.
Whether Kagome was aware of it or not, she was focusing solely on Inuyasha.
"Now, open your eyes and take the card." Izayoi's gentle instructions broke through Kagome's thoughts.
Kagome's eyes shot open and she saw that a card covered in lovely designs had emerged from a hidden slot in the box Kagome had previously thought was a music box. Kagome took a deep breath and reached for it.
:o0o:
On exact opposite ends of a magical silver circus, two practically identical girls thought of the same hanyou and reached for a fortune-teller's card. At the same time, they pulled the card free of its slot.
And, at the same time, the girls cautiously flipped the card over to read their fortunes.
And simultaneously, the girls read the same words:
You are destined to be together forever.
:o0o:
So, there you go. The magical Cirque de Argente makes an appearance! I am deeply in love with this circus I've created. I kinda want it to be real.
Anyway, a few of the things that occurred in this chapter were inspired by other stories:
The Cirque de Argente, as some of you might have already guessed, is largely inspired off of the Night Circus and sort of by Cirque de Soleil. I read "The Night Circus" not too long ago and MAN. IT'S BEAUTIFUL. ONE OF MY FAVORITE BOOKS EVER. So I wanted something sort of similar to the Nigh Circus, but not quite…that, and I love silver stuff. It's all shiny and pretty and yeah…
The fortune-teller's card is something I stole from another book. Well, I stole the words at least. A card with those exact words is a plot point in Dean Koontz's novel "Odd Thomas" which is INCREDIBLE. Please read it. It's amazing.
I wanted to use those words on a card in this chapter to bring about the whole symbolism of how BOTH Kagome and Kikyou are technically destined to be with Inuyasha forever since, you know, same soul and all that. ANYWAY. Loads more symbolism later.
So, as far as the other stories go...
I am sorry, guys. I've been curled up most of Christmas break with Gossip Girl and MY NEW COMPUTER. I have named him Bartholomew. And I went on a mad search a while ago to find the disc for my video editing program and I found everything that came with the disk...except the disk...so I'm gonna go curl up with more Gossip Girl to cheer myself up...and then I'll write AND DEFY THIS OBNOXIOUS WRITER'S BLOCK. GAH. :)
PLEASE REVIEW. IF ANY OF YOU ARE STILL OUT THERE. :P
~August