InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Twist of Fate ❯ Afternoon Journey ( Chapter 6 )

Chapter Six: Afternoon Journey

Story: Twist Of Fate

By: Sky

InuYasha and Sango moved four days later from the cave. Every time Sango went to hunt, she always caught one piece of prey more then they would eat, and she would disappear out the entrance, and return without it. InuYasha couldn't understand why she was doing this. The forest was empty. What unseen force would demand them to pay for hunting down a few rabbits and what-not? It was driving him crazy. So, when Sango had pronounced him fit to travel, he strapped the curved blade and a ninja-to to his side, and lead the way out of the cavern. A little bit later though, Sango took back the lead.

They walked in silence for 20 minutes, when InuYasha's patience had finally warn out at the lack of conversation.

“Oi, where the hell are you taking us Sango?” Sango looked up from where she was cutting a vine from their path, and scowled.

“InuYasha, you know how much I hate cussing.”

“Well, what the fuck else am I supposed to do? There's not a damn thing out here to tell any marks or direction with. This is why I funkin' liked to stay near my crib. I couldn't get lost there.”

Sango growled deeply in her throat, then launched back at the boy with a side kick. Since she had done this many times in practice, instinct now took over InuYasha, and he deftly moved out of the way of the attack. When she tried again, he blocked her foot and held it.

“What's up Sango? I don't think this is a funkin' good time for lessons.” Sango answered him by using the foot he held as an anchor, and quickly bringing the other one up to the side of his head, sprawling him flat on the ground.

“Just shut the Hell up InuYasha. You're acting like some damn brat who is always getting their way, no matter what happens or what the consequences are. I know you can act a lot better then that, so if I maybe kick the balls off of you, you'll start acting like that boy. How's that sound for a plan?”

InuYasha decided he wouldn't answer. Only twice had he gotten Sango really angry at him. Once, she cracked six of his ribs. The next time, she dislocated his shoulders. She was a formidable opponent, and he was not about to live through those lessons again.

“Sango, I just don't understand what the fuck is going on, or how we're going to get out of this mess. I mean, we're trapped in an alternate dimension if not another time all together. Demons roam the earth, humans are good appetizers for demons if the stories are correct. How would you handle this?”

“Well, for starters, I'd get my head out of my butt like you have yours, and start thinking. I know more of the legends about this place and time then you do, for I grew up with them all my life. So you might want to take that into consideration that I might just have a better idea about what's going on then you do.”

“Okay, I'll give you that one. Why were you throwing part of your catch away?”

“We're in the time when Japan was ruled by the Silver Clan. They are very powerful silver kitsunes that it isn't a good idea to mess with. I sensed there was one near the cave, and decided to play it safe and give them some of the catch that I took from their land. A peace offering you could say.” InuYasha nodded, for he could understand that.

“Alright. I buy that one, but you're and Exterminator. Shouldn't you be exterminating them?”

“The Silver Clansman are off limits. You mess with one of them, and you'll mess with the entire clan, and there are a lot of them, from what legend says. And I'd rather not find out from personal experience if there are a lot of them and how powerful they are, okay?”

“Feh,” was InuYasha's only answer, and Sango took it.

“Now, can we continue on, or do you want to stay on your back for a while?” InuYasha grumbled at her remark, then got back up to his feet with Sango watching. He brushed himself off, then crossed his arms over his chest, and stood glaring at her.

“Well? You're the one that wanted to get moving. Don't just stand there. Let's get going.” Once again in dealing with this boy, Sango had to remind herself not to kill him or maim him, for it would take too much time for him to heal.

“At some point in the near future, I forsee kicking your butt again InuYasha. In the very near future.” InuYasha's stance turned from haughty to wary, as his arms dropped from his chest, to clasp before his waist in a nervous gesture. Sango caught this from the corner or her eye, and smirked. Well, he was starting to learn at least when to be wary. That was a pretty good sign.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Kagome swung her legs casually over the side of the pond rim, and placed her legs and feet into the cooler water. Karamina had been true to her word, and had kept her inside the gardens until she was satisfied with Kagome's progress, and the fact that the girl had learned her lesson. Now all Kagome had to do was to get her feet to stop hurting. She couldn't count how many sprints and climbs she had done around the gardens under Karamina's critical eye. And every time she had forgotten a lesson, Karamina would run her around the gardens until she was ready to drop. Then, they would work on the lessons again and again, sometimes well into the night and early morning, and then start early the next day. Kagome swore that she would never do it again. She didn't want to have to live through that entire ordeal again any time soon.

After she had gotten her feet properly cooled and the throbbing to stop, she found her mind wondering back to the boy with the violet eyes. They were a color she had never seen before, and they kept appearing in her mind. What was it about that boy's eyes? Suddenly, Kagome had to find out. Looking one direction, then the other, and testing the air, she dashed for the side wall of the garden, and disappeared over it.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Sesshomaru growled as Karamina sat before them in the private greeting chamber, and told them of the Exterminator in the forest.

“This means that they will be coming into our lands now. Father, we must get rid of this Exterminator before it starts recruiting villagers, and then us having to deal with whole villages of the beasts.”

“Silence Sesshomaru. Let Karamina finish speaking,” growled his father, not liking his sons attitude before Karamina. Sesshomaru growled, but crossed his arms and settled back down into his chair. His father sat to the left of him, and the chair on the other side would have been for his fathers mate, if she was still alive. A rival that had lived on one of the other lands had killed her for revenge, and the lord of that land had allowed InuTaisho to hunt the perpetrator down and slay him any way he wished. It had been a stinging loss to Sesshomaru, who had actually been quite fond of his mother, and Kagome barely remembered her. That's why Sesshomaru though that Kagome got along so much better with Karamina. She was the only real adult female Kagome had ever known.

He had to grudgingly admit that Karamina wasn't that bad. He had had to face the formidable wrath of the elder kitsune when he was still in his earlier stages of training. He still bore the scars on his shoulders and behind his ears from that encounter, and even though he was gruff in manner, he had a healthy respect for the sly silver kitsune.

“I'm not sure though that this one is one of our `trouble' Exterminators,” Karamina continued, arching her back slightly to relieve some of the tension in her shoulder-blades. Though she hated to admit it, she was getting a tad bit too old to be running foolish pups in laps around large gardens. But she would admit she had a good time at it. Kagome was thankfully a bit different from her brother. She only needed to be run around once and threatened with those laps later on to make sure she remembered her lessons and behaved herself. Unlike her brother, who needed claws a few times to get him to remember himself and recall his lessons.

“What would make you say that Karamina?” asked InuTaisho, leaning forward in his chair, clasping his hands and putting his two index finger to his lips.

“She remembered her manners for one,” Karamina said with a chuckle. “She gave me part of her catch for each time she caught something as payment for hunting on the lands. And I didn't have that tingling down my spine or the prickling of my fur as I do with those that are less then friendly. I think she might be a guide for the boy she was traveling with, or she has brought him around to train him.”

“Why our lands though?” asked InuTaisho. “Wouldn't they be training them at their villages?”

“Mayhaps he has come out with her to experience first-hand handling youkai. Or maybe the Exterminator found him while she was out, and offered him a place in the village. Therefore, she would be giving him first-hand training on the way there, so he will already have some experience and the village will accept him better.”

“The Exterminator offering to train an outsider? Do they do that?”

“Very rarely,” Karamina replied, shifting on her back haunches to become more comfortable. “Only to those with the most promise and mayhaps the most skills are offered a position. Which means, we have to hope he is going to be another `friendly' Exterminator. If he isn't, we're going to have a real competitor on our hands.”

“That bad?”

“If he was picked up by a roaming Exterminator, oh yes. It's that bad.”

“Then we should get rid of him now,” started Sesshomaru, but he stopped when Karamina held up a paw.

“Remember what I told you about the Exterminator he's traveling with. If she is one of the `friendly' ones, then I doubt she would pick up an `unfriendly' one. One reason I say that is because if he was that different from her, she would more then likely kill him on the way back to the village, because he would drive her simply nuts. Two, she would have to put up with his mistakes as her own if she was to train him; meaning that whatever he does wrong, she will get blamed. And I don't think she would take to that too well.”

“Yes, but we can never be sure…” Sesshomaru trailed off as he watched the silver kitsunes ears perk, and her head turn so that she looked behind her. He body language read that she was listening intently, so both male dog demons sat there quietly until the kitsune was done with whatever she was doing.

“I have to be going,” Karamina told them as she turned back to face both males, but she rose to her feet.

“What is it?” asked InuTaisho, raising a bit from his chair.

“Nothing you can help with. Your daughter has decided to go exploring on her own, and I'm afraid that that isn't the wisest idea at the moment with the Exterminator and the trainee running around.”

“I'll go and retrieve her,” stated Sesshomaru, rising from his chair.

“No Sesshomaru. I will get her. I don't trust you around the Exterminators yet, and I'm pretty sure you will try and go after the boy. Therefore, I will retrieve the girl. You stay here.” In a flash of silver, Karamina had turned and disappeared out the door.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Kagome panted as she finally came up to the cavern where the boy had been last seen. She entered it carefully, noting the staler smells of both of the previous occupants. Apparently, they had left no longer ago then this morning. Taking another test of the air, she filtered out the Exterminators scent to only smell the boys. He didn't smell so strange anymore, and now that she thought of it, he had a very pleasing scent. Kagome sniffed around the cavern, and found where he had been sitting with his back against the wall. She took in several deep breaths of the sandy soil, placing his scent into memory. `Why is that smell so tantalizing?' Kagome thought, sniffing at it as though she was smelling a flower. `Why am I so attracted to it? What is so different about his scent?'

Kagome heard a noise near the entrance, and realized that in her quest for finding the boys scent, she had placed herself deep enough into the cavern that she had no way out. Bracing herself by one of the walls, she turned to face whatever her attacker was going to be with teeth bared and tail lashing back and forth bristled. The noise continued, and she waited tensely to see what it was. A familiar scent then hit her nose, and it was mixed with the smell of blood, and the strong pungent smell of youkai gore.

The boy that she had been here searching for walked into the entrance of the cavern, his clothing a bit torn and bloody, and a blade covered in demon gore in his hand. That's when he looked up and froze, his eyes locking on hers and staying there, assessing her in degrees of danger and threat. Outside the cavern though, an ice-blue pair of eyes studied the pair from the shadows.