InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Twist of Fate ❯ The Fox and the Hound ( Chapter 5 )

Chapter Five: The Fox and the Hound

Story: Twist Of Fate

By: Sky

He was transfixed by them. They were a color of silver he hadn't ever seen in anyone's eyes, creature or human. But they were beautiful, like liquid silver trapped in a sphere. He could almost swear the pattern in them was constantly changing. He saw a movement above them, and located a pair of ears on top of a beautifully shaped face, with ebony locks swirling around its shoulders. In fact, the ears matched her color of hair, for he was quite sure it was a her just by the way she looked of what he could see of her.

He only took a moment to see her other features, but then returned to her eyes again, with those depths in which he could become lost in. Then a thought stuck him.

`Why am I acting so strange over some strange girl I've just seen? I'm acting like a fuckin' jock. This isn't like me.' Then, as his mind started working again, another thought occurred. `Wait a minute. Ears?' He glanced back to the top of her head, and saw one of her ears flick backwards.

InuYasha closed his eyes and shook his head as if to make sure he wasn't seeing things, and then looked again where he had seen the girl, to find that she wasn't there anymore.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Kagome had been tracking to see where the human smells had gone to when she ran across the cave; with Karamina's warning fresh in her mind.

“Exterminators leave us well enough alone, if we leave them alone,” Karamina had cautioned, as Kagome sniffed around the scented area that she wanted her to memorize. “But on both sides, there are those who do not like the other. Therefore, we are always cautious when approaching or dealing with one. Many are friendly enough, but you can never be too careful around them. For with them, you must always keep the thought foremost in your mind; they were born and bred to kill our kinds. And the fact that there are some thriving Exterminator villages means they're very good at it.”

Kagome had promised herself that she would remember as she started tracking the odder of the two scents. It smelled human, but she couldn't figure out what other scents were mixed with it. That's when she had happened to look up into a pair of violet eyes, and froze.

At first, his eyes had the glow of a fighter ready to fight, which she had seen on her brother and father a few times, and knew what they could do when their eyes bore that flame. And she became afraid that she was going to have to fight. He may be human, but she was just learning her skills. If he had the right brains or cunning, she would be a prized pelt on a wall.

`But Karamina is around, and she would save me from this danger, wouldn't she? I mean, I'm her pupil that she is training, right?'

Then, his eyes registered surprise, then a sort of caution after he had looked at her ears, and she sighed in relief. The fire of a fighter still shown in his violet eyes, but not in the bright-hot flame that meant she was in trouble. When he shook his head as if to clear it, she made a quick get-away, making sure not to move the bushes more then the wind could have, and she ran as fast as she could back to the well.

“Karamina, I saw a human!” she blurted out as she saw the kitsune still sitting by the well.

“It was a boy Kagome. The cavern he was sitting in reeked of the Exterminators scent, so he must be the traveling companion, or one going through training. We will leave them alone. They have started no fights, and we shall not start any either.” Kagome's jaw dropped.

“You were there?” she asked, incredulously. Karamina took one look at her pupil and snorted.

“Come come Kagome. You're going to catch flies. Yes of course I was there. I wouldn't have let you go alone yet. Especially since you just blundered right into him. Be glad he was hurt and unwilling to fight, or you might have been a prized pelt on some Exterminators wall, and your bones turned into weapons. I will have to tell your father about this though. He will want to know that there's an Exterminator running about in the woods. He'll have to warn the others to behave themselves and stay out of trouble, including you and your brother.”

“I can't believe you were there, and I never scented you, sensed you, or even felt you approach.”

“Then that should show you the proper way of sneaking, and a bit of the technique of how it's used.” Karamina gave a growling chuckle as Kagome still had her mouth swinging open. So she reached out a front paw, after curling her tail around her back paws, placed it under the young pup's chin, and effectively pushed it up to close her mouth with a resounding clack. Kagome yelped at her teeth met, then started working her jaw.

“Wha'd you do that for?” asked Kagome, trying to get her teeth to stop hurting.

“Well, someone had to since you seemed incapable of the task. Besides, if you started snorting, sneezing, or coughing when you actually caught said fly, it might give us away. For if you might recall, the Exterminator was not in the cavern.” One of Karamina's ears flipped backwards, and she slowly closed her eyes in a relaxed gesture. Her pupil however, seemed to go on full alert.

Kagome crouched so that her hands were also placed on the soil. Her tail bristled, a bit, her ears constantly shifted atop her head, and she scanned every inch of the clearing many times. She vividly remembered the horror stories her brother had told her about Exterminators; how they would ruthlessly slaughter any demon young or old, and laugh over the killing. Then they would turn your skin into a prize to show their prowess, and turn your bones into weapons to kill your own kin.

And now, they were out here alone in the forest, and one was actually lose around them. The Exterminator could be anywhere; stalking them, creeping up upon them…That was when she caught sight of Karamina.

“What are you doing? If the Exterminators not there, then it's out here somewhere, and it could be hunting us right now!”

“Kagome!” Karamina barked sharply, her eyes flying open, her ears flipping back in agitation, an her tail uncurling from her legs and moving behind her. The pup stopped her restless moving, and turned her full attention to her agitated teacher. “Didn't you hear me say that as long we leave them alone, they're likely to leave us well enough alone?”

“Yes, but what if this is an bad Exterminator, like the ones that laugh over your slaughter and carve your bones to use specifically to kill your kin!” Kagome wailed. Karamina narrowed her eyes, which started gaining a slightly amber hue, her tail bristled a bit, and her hackles rising a bit as well.

“Don't make me regret telling you that early pup,” Karamina growled. Kagome gulped in a bit of fear. Karamina was now looking like the formidable opponent she was. “I thought you might be a bit different from your elder brother, since it took us nearly till the end of his training to get him to not start killing humans after we told him, for the excuse that they might be potential Exterminators one day. You seemed to not hate the creatures so much, but I may be wrong about you. Besides, you should not be listening to and believing all the stories that your brother tells you. If you start up the same argument your brother did, I might have to postpone your training till you're older.”

Kagome placed her ears down flat against her head in distress and humility. She was the youngest one to be trained by a Silver Clansman in a little over two centuries. And the fact that Karamina herself had come down to train her was a great honor, since she hadn't trained someone in nearly four times that amount of time. It would be a great dishonor to her father and family should Karamina decide to halt her training until she was older, and to pass the training off to another Silver Clansman. Kagome bowed her head to her teacher.

“I'm sorry Karamina. I overreacted. Forgive me for my rash behavior.” Karamina's hackles settled, and her tail became its normal size, though it still twitched in agitation, and her ears tilted with an irritated slant.

“Alright Kagome. This time you can get away with it. You're still young, but promising. However, since the forest is apparently making you jumpy, I'll have to keep you in the gardens with lessons until you come back to your senses about the surrounding area.” Kagome's shoulders slumped, and she hid in her throat a whimper. That meant no field trips until she had proved herself to Karamina that she was worthy again. Karamina was a hard teacher at some points, but she was one of the best, and Kagome had promised herself and her father that she would learn all she could from the elder kitsune, no matter what.

“I have a question Karamina,” Kagome asked in a meek voice.

“Go ahead.”

“Why do you think the Exterminator's here, and what does it mean?”

“Very good pup. You're thinking again,” Karamina replied, her tail now taking on a lazy movement, and her ears almost losing their agitated slant. “I don't particularly know why the Exterminator is here. Mayhaps training that boy we saw in the cavern, mayhaps just passing by. Either way, it means we will have to be cautious until the Exterminators scent has left the forest. As I had mentioned before, there are many good Exterminators who won't bother us if we don't bother them. But there are always some bad ones that will kill whatever they can find. Since we did not see the Exterminator, and did not meet them face to face, we do not know which type this one is. So we will be cautious, and we will be watchful, and we will be patient.” Kagome nodded her head, lifting it slightly from where she had it bowed.

“I have another question as well.”

“So many questions!” Karamina replied in mock astonishment, then looked back down at the ebony-haired pup with a grin. “But it shows you are using you head again. Now, what is it?”

“If he had attacked me, would you have saved me?” Karamina pondered that question for a moment.

“Yes and no.”

“Yes and no?”

“Yes, I would have saved you before he had killed you or before you were too seriously maimed; but no, I would not have saved you right away. It would have been to your advantage to learn the importance of caution, and to see the importance of the basics of fighting you have already learned. And it would have been a great lesson for you to learn and keep in mind, for I could never teach you what experience could teach you best and more memorably. Now, get going home pup. You're at least running some of the distance there.”

Kagome's head came up and her eyes widened.

“But that's so far away. How am I supposed to run the entire thing?”

“Did I say you were running the entire thing? I just said to run. Besides, how are you supposed to strengthen your legs if I'm carrying you all the time?”

Kagome smiled at Karamina's smirk, and then headed off towards the direction of the palace. After she had left the clearing though, Karamina turned her head back in the direction of the cavern, ears perked and eyes alert. There was movement that direction now. As she continued to listen, she caught the scent of three freshly killed rabbits. She tilted her head to the side for a moment, processing the information, and stayed perfectly still. A few moments later, there was a bit of a crashing sound coming her direction, and Karamina knew it was the Exterminator by the strong scent that now came towards her. As it reached the edge of the clearing though, it stopped.

Karamina examined the young dark-haired woman that stood before her in the traditional black garb of the Exterminators, but she had no weapons drawn. Instead, she had a rabbit in her hand. Without a word and with a deft motion, the Exterminator tossed the rabbit towards Karamina, and before it had even landed, had turned and headed back towards the cavern. Karamina tilted her ears in surprise, and then padded forward to grab the rabbit. Mayhaps they had a friendly Exterminator currently camped upon their lands. She would have to see.

After scooping up the rabbit into her jaws, Karamina headed after her charge, with a lot of thoughts racing through her mind.

0o0o0o0o0o0

“Didn't you have three rabbits?” asked InuYasha, after Sango had come back to the cavern.

“Yes, but it is proper edict that when hunting on someone else's lands, you let them have part of your hunt. Then they might be willing to leave you alone during the time of your stay.”

“Someone else's lands?” asked InuYasha while furrowing his brows. “No one's stopped by to tell me that we were on their lands.”

“These are youkai InuYasha,” she replied with a sigh. “They leave marks around the forest that say which territory belongs to whom. And if legend is correct, we should be on the land of the mighty Dog-Lord, InuTaisho.”

“Who and what?” Sango sighed, and shook her head.

“Never mind. I'll tell you later. Right now, just know, that the one who owns these lands knows that we are here, and that we have shared part of our kills back with them. That should appease them enough to let us alone for a while.” InuYasha just mumbled a reply, and dozed on the side of the cave wall until the rabbits that Sango had placed in the fire were done.

Sango though, looked out of the cave entrance with a slightly curious expression.

`Could that really have been a Silver Clansman I just saw by the well? Are we actually in a time when they still existed?' she thought. Then she turned her eyes up to what sky she could see, and the stars that twinkled merrily there.