InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Seven Feudal Fairy Tales ❯ Mon-Ki and Fe-San ( Chapter 44 )

Disclaimer: These characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi and other associated companies.

 

 

Chapter Forty-Four: Mon-Ki and Fe-San

 

 

Crowning the rich, cerulean sky, the brilliant orb of the hot, midday sun shone down, warming the easy sloping hills of the countryside with its penetrating radiance. The inescapable heat of summer accompanied the dazzling rays of light, thirstily drying the already parched air and earth of what remained of their paltry moisture. A plain ribbon of packed dirt cut across the sparsely treed grassland. Worn to dust at its edges by the hard wheels of the occasional, passing cart, the road seemed to be split at its center by crumbled earth and the determined sprouting of stunted grass.

 

Along the horizon where the path met the cloudless heavens, the dark silhouette of a figure appeared, its vague image fluctuating in the sizzling vapor rising from the ground. Slowly the person plodded down the barren road, the blue, beige and black of its definition becoming clearer with every, meandering stride. Her gender betrayed by the curve of her hip and her narrow waist, the young woman paused in her step. Pivoting lightly on her heel, she casually turned to face the way she had come as her sight settled upon the crest of the hill where the faintly rutted road she traveled disappeared from her sight. One of the once-white, rolled cuffs of her tunic rose to her glistening forehead while she patiently waited, wiping away the beaded sweat that loitered there and its wetness that dampened her bangs. Then down her cheeks she gently dragged the cotton fabric until it soothingly slipped under her collar to dry her neck.

 

With concern etching her face, Kagome's chapped lips parted and a name lingered on her tongue as she considered calling out for the missing companion for whom she waited. To her growing dismay, another moment passed emptily and her ill ease reached its pitch. But, before her sandaled feet could stir, a crown of long, silver hair appeared to waylay her fears.

 

“Sesshoumaru-sama,” the school girl called out softly in relief as the silk and armor clad demon ambled over the rounded peak, his pace slow and careful. The amber of his vision drifted to her darker gaze at the sound of his name, the usual glitter of his irises dull even in the brilliance of the sunlight. She shifted uncomfortably under his hollow and empty expression as a labored stride and lusterless eyes were not alone in attesting to his wanting health. The striking paleness of his skin matching the white silk of his robes and the charcoal tinted bruising beneath his eyes all spoke volumes. A sharp pang of worry knitted her brow and pouted her lips.

 

“Yes?” he finally answered when his look her way seemed too subtle a reply.

 

“Oh,” Kagome mumbled her surprise, her ruddy cheeks flushing now from both the sweltering heat and her mild embarrassment. She spun around and searched for an answer in the fluttering, golden grass of the rolling hills, spying her rescue not far along the easy winding trail. “There's some shade ahead,” she added with a gentle smile of satisfaction and gestured to a wind-twisted tree and its scantily leafed boughs, “that is if you want to rest.”

 

“Hn,” he snorted and then continued his tired walk, passing the miko without a word. She watched on in silence, her brief contentment dissolving at his shuffling step and the ailment it spoke when his words would not. Nervously, she moistened and bit at the dry, torn flesh of her lip in her concern.

 

Under the merciless rays of the harsh sun and upon the endless coil of road, the travelers journeyed as the tale instructed, seeking their eventual comrades and hopefully finishing with the cool waters of the sea. And while Kagome found herself taking solace in that his need for respite along the way had been waning, the tai youkai had been more than simply exhausted. Since his emergence from the peach pit, there was something else that pooled beneath the surface of his aloof demeanor, an unseen injury that could not be healed with the ease of youki. Its thick mortar isolated the demon, constructing renewed walls of indifference and cementing deep moats of coldness. He was once more the secluded fortress she remembered best and the warmth and camaraderie that had grown between them had all but disappeared.

 

A strange, yet familiar sensation crept stealthily into her vision, stinging and blurring her sight as it slinked in nearly unnoticed. The school girl's fingers rose to find her tender eyes and with the soft heel of her hand she dried them of their dampness and eased their prickling pain with a gentle rub. Staring at the smeared remnants of tears that now stained her palm, she wondered at their nature. She wondered when Sesshoumaru had become more to her than the cruel, elitist brother of her closest friend. She wondered when their unspoken alliance to complete the poem had evolved into a deep friendship. Then a dull, barbed ache burrowed its spurs into her chest and for the first time she could remember since she had been swept into the eternal realm of the scroll, Kagome felt the disconcerting comfort of loneliness.

 

“Miko?” the baritone of the youkai lord beckoned coolly from beneath the dappled shadows of the warped tree. Blinking away the wetness and swallowing the salty liquid that built in her throat, the school girl confidently strolled toward him, denying the awkward shame she felt with each purposeful stride.

 

“Yes?” she answered smoothly, ignoring his raised brow and odd look at her reddened eyes.

 

“We have company.”

 

At his casual remark, Kagome's tempted curiosity overwhelmed her discomfiting thoughts and she stepped nimbly past the demon now leaning comfortably against the rough, peeling bark of the tree trunk. Cradled in the gnarled curls of exposed roots, the soft lumps of fur and feathers greeted her sight. There were two animals that she could tell and in a scroll where no magic was without reason, the school girl had a good guess as to who they may be.

 

“The monkey and the pheasant?” she softly whispered the fruit of her logic after sorting out the happily dozing creatures before her.

 

A noncommittal nod in her direction was his answer and the miko slipped closer to get a better look. Masking its definition and confounding its appearance, the misshapen fowl's small head was hidden away, nestled contentedly under a tucked wing. Rich reds and greens dyed its colorful plumes, becoming more brilliant with the long shafts of its splendid tail. Resting its head against the downy side of the bird and with the brim of its broad, cone-shaped hat tipped over its face, the monkey slept sprawled upon its back beside it. Tan in color, the thick hair of his pelt covered his naked torso, only to be concealed at its waist by a small pair of burgundy, hakama pants. In his tiny and relaxed palm, a smoothly hewn stick lay with a long length of string trailing from its tip. The line from the makeshift fishing pole trickled down the steep bank into the shallow remnants of a creek bed. Lost among the cracked webs that carved the molded silt, the hook hung bare, dried of bait as the stream around it was dried of water.

 

The unexpected snap of a twig under her foot broke the barren silence with a harsh crack. Springing up from its peaceful slumber as if it had never been asleep, the little primate leapt to its feet excitedly and shoved the cap back from its brow.

 

“Wake up, Fe-San! Wake up!” the monkey exclaimed loudly with the fishing pole firmly gripped in both hands while it danced about barely able to contain its enthusiasm. “We finally caught one, wa-ah!”

 

“What?! What?!” the bird twittered fretfully at the abrupt awakening, its iridescent green head crowned with a similar coned hat quickly snaking out from beneath its wing at the jumbled cries of its friend. “Are we going to die?! Or are we already dead?! Please, let us already be dead!”

 

“We're not dead,” the primate sighed its reply before casting a look back at the nervous fluster behind it, a few tufts of fur pressed against its pink brow by the woven cap. “We just caught a fish, wa-ah.”

 

“A fish, Mon-Ki?” Fe-San asked, rising to its golden, taloned feet to join the monkey in its zeal. “We've never actually caught a fish. Reel it in! Reel it in!”

 

“I am! I am!” Mon-Ki shouted gleefully as it pulled the line in with its nimble fingers. The mottled thread bounced along the uneven earth with each yank until its barbed end landed in the eager hands of the monkey, the jagged metal relishing the puzzlement it swiftly found there.

 

“There's no fish.”

 

“I can see that, wa-ah.”

 

“Why did you say there was a fish when there is no fish?”

 

“I heard a sound and I thought it was a fish, wa-ah,” the monkey explained touchily, turning the fruitless hook over in its disappointment.

 

“Wa-wait,” the pheasant stuttered looking down from beneath the low brim of its hat. “You heard a sound?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“But, there's no fish.”

 

“Yeah, I just said that, wa-ah.”

 

“Then where did the sound come from?”

 

“Good morning,” the warm voice of the school girl greeted cheerfully from her perch on the thick root above them. “I'm sorry I woke you both.” With a quiet, hollow clatter, the thin pole fell to the ground at the creatures' feet as they gawked in abject horror at the pleasant smile of the figure above them. Then in a flurry of feathers and squawks, the panicky bird scrambled into flight, seeking the haven of tangled branches overhead and shamelessly leaving its ally at the mercy of the intruder below.

 

“Fe-San, you coward!” Mon-Ki accused angrily before leaping over a root at its back, welcoming the meager barrier the tree provided between itself and the motionless human looming ahead. “I thought we were friends, wa-ah.”

 

“I will always remember your sacrifice, Mon-Ki.”

 

“Damn it, Fe-San!”

 

“Don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you,” Kagome soothed sweetly, nearly unable to mask her amusement at their frantic antics. “My name is Momotaro.”

 

“Momotaro?” the little primate repeated with a furrowed brow, leveling an intense, golden stare on her. “The Momotaro?”

 

“I think so,” she replied with a soft, self-conscious laugh which ended in an abrupt squeak as the agile monkey unexpectedly scaled the tree trunk in a flash, settling so close that the warmth of its breath joined the coldness of its critical glare.

 

“Are you indeed the great boy general who is journeying to the evils of Oni Island to defeat the cruel Ogre Warlord who has been plaguing the emperor's lands with his horde of demonic followers, wa-ah?”

 

“Ye-Yes?”

 

“Where is my gift?”

 

“Your gift?”

 

“Yes, my gift, wa-ah,” Mon-Ki replied with a sigh before pointing to the cloth satchel that hung at her waist.

 

“Oh, your gift,” the school girl blurted out in her realization and fumbled through the small bag. “I completely forgot.” A moment later her hand emerged and in it the bundle of carefully wrapped rice cakes. Delicately, she retrieved one and halved it as she remembered from the tale. “Half of one, right?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Here you go,” she offered with a gentle smile, setting the split bun in the monkey's outstretched hand before enjoying her portion. With cheeks puffing as it munched, it happily ate the generously given meal and Kagome grinned while she watched the expressive animal's enjoyment. Meticulously licking every gooey bit from its fingers, the primate finished with the smack of its lips. “Are you satisfied?”

 

“Almost, wa-ah. Give me half of the remaining rice cake.”

 

“You need that one too?”

 

“Yes. Yes, I do.”

 

“Mon-Ki, what are you doing?” the pheasant questioned shrilly from its perch high above, the fluttering of leaves cascading below as it shifted nervously.

 

“Just give me part of the cake, Momotaro-sama,” the monkey demanded kindly with a smile, unfazed by the anxious fluster overhead.

 

“I don't know if I should,” the school girl answered doubtfully while she carefully tore the final cake. “Doesn't this piece go to--”

 

“Thank you, wa-ah,” Mon-Ki replied as it quickly snatched the broken cake from her grip and bounced away from the tree in its glee.

 

“Mon-Ki, come back here!” Fe-San screeched and burst from the branches as it glided after its cunning friend.

 

“You don't deserve it, wa-ah! You abandoned me!” the primate yelled as it scampered, finishing the bun in a single swallow. Then in a fit of squawks and squeals, the two collided, becoming a snarled flurry of fur and feathers. Nearly at a loss for words, Kagome hesitantly approached the wild and strangely comedic torrent of animals rolling about on the ground.

 

“It's okay, Fe-San,” she said calmly, holding out the last of the cake and her share, hoping to appease the disappointed bird's bruised pride. “You can have mine.”

 

“Really, Momotaro-sama?” the pheasant asked hopefully from beneath its cap as it untangled itself from the exhausted and still gloating monkey. “You'll let me have your piece?”

 

“Of course, but you both have to stop fighting.”

 

“We promise,” they agreed in unison and the school girl leaned in, holding the bit of rice cake out to the eager fowl's beak. After several deft and gentle pecks, the bun was gone to Fe-San's belated satisfaction.

 

“Are any of you prisoners here?” she asked after a giggle when Mon-Ki scooted next to its friend and began to groom the still ruffled feathers as an apology. “You know, trapped here by the god, Susanou?”

 

“Susanou?” the monkey replied quizzically, catching the bird's equally befuddled expression.

 

“I guess not.”

 

“He would know who,” Fe-San spoke up suddenly as a thought snared in its mind, “If anyone knows, he would.”

 

“Who?”

 

“The monk.”