InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Twist of Fate ❯ At It Again ( Chapter 12 )

Chapter Twelve: At It Again

Story: Twist Of Fate

By: Sky

Kagome stalked quietly down the path, placing her paws gently on the ground and hoping to not be caught by any of the sentries that were posted along this part of the forest for this particular occasion. Ever since their run-in with trouble, Karamina had stepped up her training on Kagome. She now felt like she had more muscle then baby-fat under her pelt, and she needed a break from it. Karamina had told her father that she would probably try to sneak down to the cavern again, so they had decided to make a sort of `safe path' for Kagome to travel down when she wanted to visit the boy. She had used it several times; and about of the time, she was seen. The other times, she was sure she passed by undetected, save for one individual.

“Aren't you supposed to be in training?” came a voice from above, and Karamina couldn't help but groan. Guthrow, again, had caught her, and she didn't even scent him this time.

“Damn it. Why can't you be like everyone else and be a bit easier to find? You always have to mask your scent and hide in a tree.”

“True. Take it as good training. Which, I see, you've mastered shrinking your form. Besides, if you actually looked up, you'd see I'm not hiding.” Kagome looked up, and saw him lying openly on the branch above; free from the leaves on the branches; and groaned again. That just made it worse.

“You're pelt doesn't help you know,” she grumbled as Guthrow rose to his feet.

“Ah, but my pelt helps keep me alive pup. And I'd like to think it serves its purpose well.”

“I thought it looked better on Karamina's walls,” she asked, trying to look innocent. Guthrow leapt down from the branch, swinging a paw at her, which she ducked.

“You, my dear, are becoming far too much like InuYasha.”

“Well, he keeps you on his toes, doesn't he?”

“Some days more then others,” he grumbled, just barely audible to Kagome.

“Oh?” she asked innocently, trying to keep her ears straight. However, Guthrow heard the eagerness in her voice, and aimed another paw at her.

“Go on. Get out of here before I leave a scar for your sharp ears and boldness.”

“Yes sir mister Guthrow. Whatever you wish mister Guthrow. My life is but to serve mister Guthrow.” Guthrow started running towards her, and Kagome eeked, and quickly turned and ran down the path.

“Far too much like InuYasha. I might have to ban you from seeing him if you keep up that attitude.” Kagome laughed at him, and he broke off his pursuit of her. Guthrow shook his head, sighed, and headed back into the forest to hunt. However, he was chuckling as he headed out.

0o0o0o0o0o0

“InuYasha!” called Kagome, padding into the cavern clearing. She could smell that he wasn't in the cavern, which meant he was somewhere in the clearing. Lifting her nose a bit to test the air, she swiveled her ears forward and backward to catch any sounds around her. That's when she heard the breeze of movement before the attack. Kagome ducked just as InuYasha leapt from the bushes, barely glancing off her shoulder, landing on his hand and flipping to land in a crouch.

“Almost got you that time.”

“You're improving human.” InuYasha growled at her, and Kagome bared her teeth back. They stood facing each other down for a moment, when InuYasha once again, backed down with a “Feh”. “Good. I didn't come here to fight. I came to see if you were up for a challenge.”

“Oh no. Last time you asked me if I were up for a challenge, we ended up getting attacked by a giant-sized pride of velkir, and we both got in trouble. I want to know what this challenge is first.”

“Oh, come on now. We took off a few more times after that, and those outings were uneventful. Besides the fact, it's just a cave. You know. Nothing exciting happening.”

“Just a cave?” InuYasha gave her a sidelong, disbelieving look.

“Just a cave. No youkai living in it, not located in a dangerous area. Just, a cave. A bit of a run from here, but still just a cave.”

“You're sure.”

“Yes, I'm sure. You ready to go?” InuYasha looked her up and down for a moment, then shrugged.

“Yeah, I guess. Let me grab some stuff.” He disappeared into the cavelet, and emerged several moments later with a rabbit-skin nap sack thrown over one shoulder, and his blade attached to his hip.

“What's the bag for?”

“Just incase we get into trouble again with one of your schemes.” Kagome stuck her tongue out at him, but stood still. InuYasha jumped onto the horse-sided dogs back, and she shifted back to her normal size.

“You know, at some point, I'm gonna make you walk.”

“Not if you keep on wanting to take me out to area's that are `a bit of a run' away.”

“Oh, fine. I'll try to find somewhere closer so you can actually use your feet for once.”

“Feh.” Kagome sprung into the forest again, with InuYasha comfortable settled before her shoulders.

0o0o0o0o0o0

“So, what do you think?” asked Kagome, as they journeyed into the black belly of the large cavern. InuYasha walked behind her, a special torch lit and high in his hand.

“Feh. It's not so bad for a cavern.”

“I'd say it's a pretty good size. But wait till you get to the one I wanted to really show you.” Kagome was back to her human form, and was picking a path along the fallen rocks of the gigantic cavern. They had been traveling for a while now (about an hour), and had been traveling through a few caverns, and crawling through a few more. Finally, they reached the cavern that Kagome was proud of finding. “Hah! Now what do you say?” InuYasha whistled.

“Whewt. Now that's a cavern.” Lifting his torch, InuYasha couldn't see the roof of the cavern. What he couldn't see though, was that the cavern was big enough that InuTaisho could have stood comfortably on his hind paws and stretch out, and also to stretch out comfortably in the caverns length.

“That's not the half of it,” Kagome stated proudly, grabbing InuYasha's hand, and dragging him forward. He stumbled for a few steps, but then got his pace back, and followed the girl across the cavern floor. It took about half an hour to reach the other side, for they were constantly dodging pools of clear water, and large formations growing in the cavern belly. Finally, InuYasha caught a glinting in the torchlight, and turned his attention to it.

“What's that?”

“That's what else I wanted to show you.” She jogged the last few steps, and leaned down a hand into a large pond. When InuYasha arrived there, he gasped.

A section of the wall, about 30 feet long, had flowing water trickling down the rocks. And in that area, the entire wall was covered in a shiny golden substance.

“I don't believe this,” he said in astonishment, examining the wall breathlessly. “Is that really gold?”

“If you think that's impressive, life your torch up a bit, and look into the pond.” InuYasha did, and about dropped the torch in surprise. The entire bottom of the pond was covered in gold. Kagome reached in, and then removed it. She opened her palm, and in it was a nugget half the size of a baseball.

“Wow. That's impressive.”

“I thought so too.”

“This underground stream must run right next to a gold deposit. Since the stream goes here first, and then trickles off to other ponds, this large one must be the one that collects most if not all the gold the stream carries.”

“What do you mean?”

“The gold travels in the water most of the time in flakes, because the water runs by and, and erodes it off like that. Sometimes, it will break off sections, like the one in your hand. For those to get through though, at some place the stream isn't seeping through the wall, but actually running through a hole that's been created. Nuggets are hard to find. The larger they are, the harder they are to find. That's a nice-sized one you have there, which means there's a pretty nice-sized whole that this stream comes from.” A thought stuck InuYasha, and he suddenly shook his head and chortled.

“What is it?” asked Kagome, looking up at him with curiosity. She hadn't found anything he said to be funny.

“I guess I did learn something in my geology class, besides how to catch up on my sleep.” He rubbed a hand on the back of his head. “Damn. I can't let my teachers know that. They'll start thinking I might actually turn into someone useful someday for sure. Can't have that happen.”

Kagome shook her head at him. Sometimes, she just didn't understand what he was talking about. That's when she noticed a strange thing.

“Look InuYasha, the waters turned muddy.” And sure enough, the water was brown and gold as it spewed from the mountain, and started to muddy the pool water bellow.

“Huh. That's funny. I wonder what caused that.” He shrugged it off though, thinking there was a rainstorm somewhere that feed the stream extra dirt. “You know, you could make a mint with this stuff?” InuYasha stated, scooping out another nugget from the fastly muddying pond.

“A mint?” Kagome asked in confusion.

“Yeah. It's a place where you print paper money and stamp coins…” He saw the confusion in her silver eyes grow more and more as he kept talking, so he decided to stop. “Well, it's nothing you need to worry about.” Kagome was about to retort, when an eerie silence settled into the cavern at that moment. It had been deathly quiet before, save for the two talking away, but now, it was a heavy silence that hushed both man and beast. The sat there for many moments, breathing hard as the pressure seemed to increase.

“InuYasha, do you feel that?” Kagome asked in a soft voice.

“The pressure?”

“It feels like something is about to snap. InuYasha, I'm frightened.” InuYasha pulled the girl close in his embrace, and a few moments later,it did just what Kagome said it would. Something snapped.

There was a deep rumble in the earth, like a growl, and then the ground started shifting. And each moment, it seemed to shift more violently, until it actually started to shake.

“Earthquake!” called InuYasha, grabbing the stunned girl by the arms and starting to roughly haul her towards the direction they had come. He remembered these from when he was little, and he remembered the buildings that fell when the harder ones struck. InuYasha didn't think that several million tons of crushed earth above their heads was a good idea, especially since the quake seemed to be getting stronger. “Come on Kagome! Move your butt! I don't want this cave falling on our heads!”

That removed Kagome from her shocked stupor. She quickly changed, grabbing InuYasha round the middle, and leapt across the huge cavern floor. His torch singed some of her fur and whiskers, but all she cared about was doing as he had asked. She didn't like it so much in this cave now either.

They finally got to the other side of the gigantic cavern, and Kagome was forced to set him down, so she could shift into the human form to get through the narrow passage that separated this cavern from the next. They could feel the vibrations through the walls as the quake continued to build. Everything was shaking now. Huge stalagmites and stalagtites were falling from the ceiling, or tipping onto their sides from the force of the shaking, or other objects causing them to take such action. Huge columns would break in the center and crash to the floor, or fall in the entire glorious structure. Rocks fell from everywhere, both big and small, and it was absolute mayhem. Praying that all would be well, she watched him wiggle out of the narrow crevasse, and into the next cavern, and she sighed with relief. Only a few more to go, and they would be safe.

However, Kagome heard a loud cracking noise, and happened to look up in time to see a large portion of the ceiling on the next cavern break away, and fell towards the human sprinting across the middle of the floor. He didn't see it. He was too intent on getting to the other side! Kagome wiggled faster through the narrow passage, and as she got to the other side, she knew she would not be fast enough to save him. And she reached out a hand to the boys back.

“INUYASHA!!!”

The boy took a dive towards a crevice near the wall, and that's when the ceiling hit the floor. It sound was deafening, and Kagome ducked back into the crevice she had just emerged from, and covered her ears. Stone grating on stone still penetrated her ears, and she whimpered and sunk down to her knees. Stones bounced against her knees and arms, and the ground still shook. Is this ever going to end? she thought, whimpering again in terror. Eventually though, after what seemed like years (though it was more like 20 seconds), the trembling stopped, the rocks stilled, and all was quiet.

Kagome coughed and choked on the thick dust in the air. It was pitch black, and she couldn't smell anything because of the dirt and dust in the air; she could hear anything because dust and dirt was clogging her ears; and she couldn't see anything because the torch had gone out with InuYasha. She couldn't open her eyes anyway, because the dust and dirt had been collecting on them and making them very gritty. Kagome coughed again, and removed her chest wrap. She then used her claws to tear at the inside lining of the wrap, which Karamina had insisted that she sew on, and removed the pale blue swath of silk. At the time, Kagome had not understood the lesson, or when she would need the pale blue silk to help breath in a dusty environment. Now, she was absolutely grateful that Karamina insisted that she had done it. She quickly doubled over the silk, and placed it over her nose and mouth, tying it securely behind her head. Then she went for the second item that she always wore.

Reaching for the necklace that Karamina had also insisted she wear, Kagome yanked the chain off her neck, and placed the white bobble in the palm of her hand. Kagome knew every detail and every curve of that necklace like she knew the scent and sight of her own family. Rubbing the silver insignia that she knew was near the base of the chain, the orb started to grow in her hand, and started to glow as well. Tossing it a bit over her head, the orb stayed at the peak of the toss, and bobbed gently in the air.

Thick, multi-colored dirt and dust shifted everywhere, causing the orb's radiance to not penetrate too far from where she was sitting. Kagome moved forward out of where she was ducking, and the orb followed her every shift of movement, staying exactly above her. And as she moved forward, she started to see the pile of stones that were strewn all over the cavern floor where InuYasha had last been seen running.

“InuYasha!” she cried, making her way over to the side of the rock fall that she had last seen InuYasha diving for cover. She ignored the pain of the lacerations and bruises she had gotten from the stones that had hit her, and quickly scrambled to the place she knew the boy had been. “InuYasha!”

She looked around frantically, trying to place in her memory where he could be. With tons of stone falling on him, he couldn't have gotten too far from where he leapt. He was probably crushed flatter then a blade of grass. `NO! Don't think that!' she reprimanded herself, tears starting leave trails down her dirt-stained cheeks. `Don't even think it! He's gotta be alive! He's a tough human; tougher then most! He can pull through this!' Panic started to well inside of her, but she quickly shoved it back to where it came from. She didn't have time for this. That was, until she deftly kicked a rock at the edge of the fall nearest the crevice InuYasha had been running to, and discovered a limp hand beneath it. And the panic came back in full force.

“INUYASHA!”