InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Forbidden ❯ Chicken or Cow? ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Disclaimer: I own Inuyasha. He is half of a foot tall, stuffed with fluff, and sitting on the desk in my room. His butt says "Made in China".

AN: My head really hurts...if I shake it, I can literally feel my brain rolling around in my head. It's very painful, but kind of cool. I should probably stop though, or I won't have enough brain cells left to write this chapter.

On with the story!

(Sorry, I know this was supposed to be 'Time and Sea' but something came up, so that will be the title of the next chapter )

Forbidden

Chapter 2

Chicken or Cow? (Don't ask.)

Akira opened his eyes groggily to the sounds of blaring horns. He frowned, sitting up in his four poster bed, stretching his tired limbs stiffly. Judging by the amount of light streaming in through his window, it was only five, maybe six in the morning. Why the hell would the sentries be blowing conch shells so early in the morning...?

The sleepy lord sat and pondered this for a few minutes, the sound of the shells getting on his nerves more and more. Then, when they finally finished blowing, a drumroll started, shocking Akira out of his thoughts.

Blares of the conch shell, followed by a drumroll...this was the North's way of announcing the deaths in war. Any moment now, there would be drumbeats, one for every person who died.

Sure enough, the drumbeats started. Akira tried to count at first, but gave up somewhere around 261. He jumped out of bed, throwing on some clothes. Right now, what mattered was seeing that Inuyasha had returned safe.

After getting dressed, he threw open his bedroom door and began making his way down the hall towards the docks. He walked with bated breath, then berated himself for being so silly. Inuyasha was right, he was turning into a worrying old fart. This made Akira smile, and his strides became less huried as he told himself that Inuyasha was probably fine and kicking. He always was. Why would this time be any different.

Before reaching the docks however, he stopped short as he spotted Miroku making his way up the stairs towards the castle. Akira knew of Miroku's friendship with Inuyasha, and the somber look on the monk's face made the king stop cold in his tracks.

Miroku came to a stop before his king, all the while keeping his gaze on the floor. "Victory." He grumbled.

Akira nodded, only vaguely processing this piece of information that should have any lord great joy. "And Inuyasha?"

Miroku finally lifted his head to make eye contact with his lord. The look in his eyes told Akira all that he needed to know.

&&&

Kagome chewed thoughtfully on a piece of bread, staring off into the distance. She watched as the waves rolled and crashed, as if in a never ending brawl to gain the upper hand. She and Sango were sitting on the beach, enjoying some quiet time as they sat and ate, doing nothing else other than enjoying each other's company.

"What are you thinking?" Sango said, tearing off a nice sized chunk off the large loaf of French bread that they had brought along with them.

"I'm thinking..." Kagome made a face at her bread. "This needs some butter."

"Quite the philosopher aren't you?" Sango passed the butter over to Kagome.

"Hey." Kagome spread a thick layer of butter on her bread before stuffing it in her mouth. "Hoffu effar gunof ilin buffo?"

Sango blinked. "Have I ever gunned off island buffaloes before...? Can't say that I have..."

Kagome shook her head, swallowing her mouthful before trying again. "No, have you ever gone off this island before?"

"You call this an island?" Sango said, motioning around her. "This is the Southern Empire, Kagome. It only feels like an island because you spend too much time on this beach next to the water."

Kagome sighed. "But it's so peaceful here...There's no one around to bother me or interrogate me or tell me to do things or do things for me or ask me what I want or-"

"Alright, point taken."

"-or to betroth me to some pig-headed, pompous, simple-minded wolf." Kagome finished darkly, kicking at the sand in frustration. Sango didn't respond, just kept eating her bread. "It's just so suffocating living like this." Kagome continued sullenly. "Every day is filled with duty and routines with nothing to..." She drifted off. Sango looked up at her with a puzzled expression.

"Anyway, getting back my question." Kagome snapped out of her reverie. "You know what I meant. Have you ever been anywhere other than...well, here?"

Sango thought for a moment, than shook her head. "Not really. Well, I was born in the mountains, but I moved down into the city before I turned three, so I don't remember anything from that time." She frowned. "Other than that, I've never stepped foot out of this kingdom. Why do you ask?"

Kagome sighed, turning her gaze towards the direction of the sun as it set in the horizon. It almost looked like the sun was sinking under the water with the stark contrasts of the bright orange against the dark grey. "I just think...I've always believed that my life was supposed to amount to more than this. I always thought that there was something out there, out there beyond this vast sea, and that it was just waiting for me to go experience it." She looked down at her feet. "But instead, my life seems to be heading nowhere, nevermind across this ocean." She ran a hand through her dark locks. "Is this all that I am, all I'm ever going to be? Am I going to marry Koga in a few weeks, cope with a loveless marriage, settle down into middle-age, make some babies with the bastard, raise them and make sure they don't turn out like their father, then peacefully die exactly where I was born?"

Sango sighed, putting down her bread to fully face her friend. Sometimes, Kagome's imagination worked a little too hard. "Kagome, I know you've probably heard this a thousand times from a thousand people, so I hate to tell you again. But take a step back and look at your life! Your father is king of an entire empire! That's like, half the world! And if that's not enough, you were blessed with good looks and a kind personality. You have servants surrounding you all day, waiting on your beck and call. You've had twenty-seven handsome, if not a little dim, men seek your hand in marriage within the past year. You never have to worry about where your next meal comes from. Do you know how many people would love to be you, Kagome?"

Kagome flinched a little at Sango's blunt criticism. It was one of her favorite things about her best friend though, she had to admit that the lack of sugar-coating Sango placed on her words served as a good wake-up call to Kagome, but sometimes she found her friend a little unnerving.

"I'll have you know, it was twenty-two suitors, twenty-two."

"Well yes...but that's because a few of them tried twice!"

"It doesn't matter anyway, they only came after me for my position! They were all just greedy, selfish, King-wannabes."

"So what? They still wanted to marry you. How many suitors have I had in the past year?" Sango asked angrily.

Kagome pretended to think for a second. "Um...let me see...thirty-three?!"

"Exactly my point! I've had..." Sango drifted off, snapping suddenly out of her mad rant. "Thirty-three? Really?"

Kagome nodded.

"Wow." Sango said in stunned silence. "That many huh? That's like, eleven more than you!"

"No, six more, I had twenty-seven remember?"

"No, you only technically had twenty-two."

Kagome sighed, crossing her arms. Sango didn't notice, still entranced by how many men have gone after her. "Dang Kagome, either way, I've had more than you."

"Thanks for being so sensitive about it and not rubbing it in." Kagome huffed. Sango wasn't a princess, so her suitors weren't just after her money or title.

Sango smiled, turning to look at Kagome. "Well, other than that, you are luckier than most girls on this island, as you call it."

"Sometimes, I wish I was born a commoner." Kagome lay down on her back, staring up at the orange sky. It looked like a mirage painting, streaked with soft pink, baby blue and lavender.

Sango lay down beside her best friend, joining her in marveling at the sky's beauty. "Kagome, Kagome, Kagome..." She whispered. "Always on her little cloud of fantasies..."

The remark didn't hurt Kagome, she knew Sango meant it well. Plus, she said it all the time.

Sango continued, closing her eyes. "When will you come back down to earth and join the rest of us normal people?"

They lay in silence for a few minutes, just enjoying the cool, ocean breeze as it played through their hair and tickled their senses.

"When I fall off."

"It's gonna be painful."

"I know." Kagome replied calmly. "I can take it."

Sango smiled and turned to look at her best friend to find that she had fallen asleep. The truth was, Sango sometimes dreamt about the same things as Kagome did. She would find herself wondering about adventures in a far off land, with a man she fell passionately and uncontrollably in love with. Proof that Kagome was rubbing off on her.

But unlike Kagome, Sango's realistic side dominiated her dreaming side. She knew that this was life...It would be useless to yearn for something more, because in the process, you could find that you've ruined what you already had. It was like one of those contests at the town marketplace. Keep the chicken and go home and have chicken broth? Or chuck the chicken and take another chance at a draw for a cow? If you won, well hell, you'd be having ribs for dinner for the next two weeks. But if you lost? Go home emptyhanded.

Kagome was a "toss-the-fowl-bring-me-the-beef" type of person.

Sango was a "keep-the-goddamn-chicken" type.

Sango blinked, noticing just how weird that sounded. Well it made sense...soon she closed her eyes, letting herself drift of to sleep like her friend beside her.

&&&

Akira cursed what he wore...black trousers, black smock and a black cape. Black, black, black. The color of mourning. The color of loss. The color of death.

The lord stood at the front of a concession. On either sides of him was a row of people, so that they formed a pathway in front of Akira. It was a stone pathway, scattered with scarlet rose petals. The petals were probably the only color in this seemingly black and white ceremony. Red was Inuyasha's favorite color.

Coming down the walkway in his direction was a large boat, carried by ten soldiers with Miroku in the front. Seeing this made something inside Akira snap. He knew that Inuyasha was dead...but seeing the funeral boat he lay in brought that into a sharp, painful focus for the young lord. As the boat neared Akira, they stopped to give the lord a chance to say his final goodbyes.

But as Akira peered down into the boat at the peaceful face of the hanyou, he found no words to utter. He simply reached out a hand and placed it on Inuyasha's cold cheek. Inuyasha and Akira were in no way related, but he felt the loss as deep as any father whose son had died would. He withdrew his hand, giving Miroku a solemn nod, and watched as the boat continued past him.

Miroku and the other soldiers placed the boat on the edge of the beach, giving it a gentle push into the ocean. It bobbed in the water before calmly and slowly floating out to sea. The boat was filled with Juniper leaves, an extremely flammable plant. A row of archers stood atop the cliffs, about fifty feet above the ground. Each held a bow and one flaming arrow.

The archers took aim, and one by one, fired. As each arrow hit the boat around Inuyasha with a thunk, they felt like daggers to the heart for Akira. The Juniper leaves around the hanyou burst into flames, blocking him from view. Cremation by sea. After the body was reduced to ashes, the wooden boat would burn away, letting the ashes of the person fall into the water.

Akira felt a hand on his shoulder, and he turned to see Miroku standing beside him. Neither of them said anything, simply stared at the big bonfire on the ocean.

"You know..." Miroku started. "Perhaps it's time you found yourself a wife."

Akira just nodded, knowing that now that Inuyasha was gone, he had no heir. But he just couldn't bring himself to worry about finding a girl. His younger sister was trampled to death by a frightened horse when he was eight. Four years later, his mother died while giving birth to his younger brother, who died three days after being born. After the death of his mother, his father, th elord of his country, committed suicide, leaving Akira at the tender age of twelve to fend for himself on the throne. Three years later, he was forced to go to a unification meeting where all the lords of the North were murdered, except for him. Then, just a few days before his sixteenth birthday, he was made king of the entire Northern empire. Now Inuyasha, the boy he loved like a son, has died in battle. If he took a wife, that'd just be giving him something else that could be snatched painfully away from him.

Over and over, people that he loved were taken from him. When he first lost his sister, a knife was stuck into his heart, and her death seemed to set the boulder rolling. Everytime someone close to him died, the knife was pushed deeper and deeper. With Inuyasha's death, it was the final twist. He didn't know if he could ever feel close to someone again. All that ever seemed to come out of it was pain.

Akira let the tears flow freely down his face.

AN: Sorry about the long wait...You know that headache I talked about up there? Well that turned into a full-blown migraine and fever. Yay, I have the flu!

So I had to put this chapter on hold for a few days. I just started feeling better today, so I finished this as fast as I could. It's not very long, but I decided that I should just post it to give you guys something to read while I recover. So, next chapter...Time and Sea! (Again.)