Other Fan Fiction / InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Kagome's Trial ❯ Chapter 6

Okay, I'm going to California on Monday, and I don't know if I'll be able to update while I'm over there. So, I guess this makes this the last update until I come back, which will be close to the end of June. However, if someone sends a review my way before 9:00 p.m. Pacific Time tomorrow, then I'll update again. If it comes after that, then I won't have time. Sorry. My dad likes to leave early, so I'll probably be getting up somewhere around three or four in the morning to make it to the airport on time. Anyway, those of you who are still reading, enjoy!

 

By the way, words that appear in < > are what the Valeans are saying, but Kagome can't understand them. Just in case anyone's confused.

 

~*~

 

Kagome stared at the object this Jenna girl put in front of her. It looked like a stick, but Jenna kept calling it a <staff>. Jenna repeated <staff> over and over, and Kagome tried her best to mimic her sounds until she got it right. Once she had that word down, Jenna would clap happily and move onto a different object.

 

Since there was no electricity here, candles were lit. It wasn't as bright as Kagome was used to, but she wasn't about to complain. After all, these people were taking her in for who knows how long, so she was going to make it as easy for them as possible.

 

Jenna yawned, then after saying something in her language, she climbed into bed and pulled the covers over herself. When she spoke again, Kagome assumed she said goodnight, so she said the same and got under her own covers. Overall, she felt that her first day here with these people had gone pretty well. At least she's with people her own age.

 

That boy didn't say much. I don't think he said anything to me other than his name. Well, at least Jenna's friendly. Still, I hope this won't take too long. Inuyasha and the others need me. If I'm gone too long, then he'll come for me, and then there'll be general panic when I'm not at home or in the Feudal Era. There's nothing I can do now, so I might as well sleep on it.

 

The next morning she was woken by Jenna shaking her shoulder. Muttering under her breath, she followed the brunette down the hall and into the kitchen. Arianna was serving breakfast to her husband and son, so they were the last ones up. The redheaded woman smiled when she saw her daughter and Kagome and motioned for them to sit down. Kagome did as she was bid and tried to remember what these items were called from last night.

 

I know this isn't a kappu, she thought, staring at the bowl-like object at the top of her place. It's similar, but not the same. What is it? Maybe it's a fork? Pointing to the item, she asked, “Fork?”

 

Jenna laughed and shook her head. “Cup,” she corrected.

 

“Cup,” Kagome repeated. Okay, if that's a cup, what's a fork? Where are their chopsticks, for that matter? Picking up a sharp metal thing next to her left hand, she turned to Jenna and tried again. “Fork?”

 

This time Jenna nodded. “<Yes, fork,>” she said.

 

I guess `yes' means `hai', so that's good. If they say `yes', then I'm doing something right.

 

Jenna's brother said something that Kagome couldn't hear, but Jenna nodded happily and smiled. Then Arianna said something, causing her son to bolt from the table and up the stairs and Jenna to start shoveling food into her mouth as fast as it could go. Kagome watched in astonishment as she followed her brother's example after demolishing her food. There was a lot of thumping going on upstairs as well as the sound of things being thrown around. The two of them then reappeared for one brief moment and disappeared out the door.

 

The two adults shook their heads in amusement and continued with what they were doing. Kagome was still mystified by what had just happened, but knowing that she wouldn't get an answer that she could understand, shrugged and helped herself to breakfast.

 

After she was done, Arianna showed her where the sink was and, since she didn't see a dishwasher, assumed that she was supposed to wash them herself. I can't see how they can have running water and not have electrical lights, she said to herself as she washed her dishes. I guess it's one of the mysteries of life here. Once that was done, she and Arianna started their “schooling” of Kagome in the language of these people.

 

~*~

 

This pattern continued for weeks on end. Every day she would eat breakfast with Jenna and her brother and then they would leave for their lessons with the old man she ran into on her first day here. Then she and either Arianna or Eric, when he was home, would practice teaching their language and other useful things, like doing laundry without a washer or a dryer, and cooking and cleaning. Before she knew it, months had passed and she was starting to adjust to her life here.

 

But that didn't stop the pangs she felt when she thought of her family and her friends in the Feudal Era. In her backpack, while it didn't contain schoolbooks, it did have pictures along with a few other odds and ends. When she was feeling homesick, she would take out her photo album and leaf through it, smiling sadly at the funny pictures and think about what they were doing at that moment. Of course, she always made sure that no one was around when she brought out her pictures. There wasn't really a reason why she did this; she just wanted to keep her old life separate from the rest of this world.

 

“Kagome, can you go by Dora's and drop off these herbs for me,” Arianna called from downstairs.

 

“Okay,” she called back, setting aside her memories of home. By now she had most of the language down since that was all she heard every single day. A while ago Arianna and Eric had allowed Jenna and Felix to introduce their friends to her, and now they came by almost every day. They went to lessons with Kraden, the old scholar, but she stayed with Arianna. After all, she'd only been there for five months, so she still was a bit behind, and Arianna had told her that Kraden would ask her a lot of questions in a very short amount of time and probably overwhelm her. She knew that Arianna planned to have her join the rest of the children soon since she didn't know that the Wise One would be taking Kagome home when there was no longer a danger to the Lighthouses.

 

She took the basket of herbs from Arianna and walked out the door, ignoring the strange look Arianna had given her. Yes, she was dressed in the garb of a Shinto priestess, and it did look strange, but for some reason she had felt like wearing it that morning. She was surprised that it was in her backpack, as she didn't remember putting it there, but accepted it.

 

She waved to some of the people she now recognized and they waved back. It wasn't too far to Dora and Kyle's place, though it did require her to walk up those incredibly long stairs and then back down, which was just as bad as going up since there were no rails to keep people from falling off the edge. Because of all the stairs in Vale, as the village was called, her calves were a lot stronger than when she had first come here. Finally, she reached Dora's home. She knocked on the door, and Dora herself answered the door.

 

“Why, if it isn't Kagome,” she said warmly, not mentioning the girl's outlandish clothes. “Come in. Did Arianna send you?”

 

“Yes, ma'am,” Kagome replied. “She said to give this to you.” She offered the older woman the basket.

 

“Thank you,” Dora said to Kagome, taking the offered basket. “Since you're here, do you think you could do me a favor?” When Kagome nodded her head, she stepped back and walked to the kitchen with Kagome following curiously. “Here,” she said, giving Kagome a cookie. “I just made these and I need a tester. Since Isaac is in school with the rest of the children and Kyle is working, I'll just use you. Tell me if they're any good.”

 

Kagome bit into the cookie and savored the sweet taste of it. “It's great!” she said happily, quickly finishing the cookie. “You always make good cookies.”

 

Dora smiled. “Then here, you can have these.” She gave her an entire basketful of cookies. The basket wasn't as big as the one Kagome had given her, but it was still a good-sized basket.

 

“That's too much,” she protested. “I'm sure that Ms. Arianna wouldn't want to take all these from you.”

 

She laughed. “Don't worry, I've made too many this time, so I was looking for an excuse to get rid of some, and you've just given it to me.”

 

“Well, in that case, thank you,” Kagome said. “Do you need me for anything else?”

 

“No, dear,” Dora said. “You go enjoy the day. I'll see you later.”

 

They parted ways and Kagome trekked back down to her, no, Arianna's home. This isn't good. That rock thingie never said exactly when it would take me home, and now I'm started to think that this is my home. I like it here, but I hope it takes me home before I forget and not want to leave here when the time comes. She walked in, gave the cookies to Arianna, and ran upstairs to get her album. Running back outside, she sat under one of the large trees that were scattered around Vale and started leafing through it.

 

Here was a picture of Inuyasha and Miroku fixing something in the village, and here was one of Sango giving Kirara a bath, though it looked more like Kirara was giving Sango a bath with all the fuss she was putting up. Then one of the whole group smiling and laughing on one of their rest days when they were waiting for news of jewel shards or demon attacks or Naraku's whereabouts were located. Each picture had a different story to it, and Kagome relived all of them as the pictures dictated.

 

“Kagome?” a voice asked.

 

Startled, her head snapped up to look at Felix, who was looking at her in a concerned way. This surprised her. He rarely spoke to her in the five months she had been living with him, but Jenna said that was normal, that he was more of a listener than a talker. Even then, though, the two of them had very little to do with each other. He didn't help her learn the language as much as the rest of the family, and Isaac and Garet when they were over, so she didn't know him very well.

 

“I thought that you'd be in school with Jenna and the others,” she said, getting up quickly.

 

He looked at her strangely. “We've been done for hours,” he informed her. “Look at how dark it is out here.”

 

Just like he said, it was getting darker. The sun was almost completely gone, and the shadows were lengthening. It was surprising that she didn't notice that, considering that she was looking at pictures, which required light to see.

 

“Sorry, I lost track of time,” she apologized as she got up.

 

“Mom was worried, that's all,” he told her. “She's paranoid that something will happen to you.” By now she knew of the two week trial that Arianna agreed to before she came to stay with them, and she apparently passed with flying colors, since two weeks was a long time ago. Now Arianna used her as a helper, and Kagome was more than willing to earn her keep.

 

She was about to leave when Felix asked her, “What's that?” He pointed to her album.

 

She was about to refuse to tell him, but he wasn't normally this talkative, and she figured it wouldn't hurt anything to let him see it. “This is a book with pictures from my home,” she said. He cautiously walked over to her and they both sat down. Kagome opened the book to the first page, which had a picture of the entire group smiling and laughing. “These are my friends back home,” she said softly. “I'm sure that they're worried about me, but there's nothing I can do about it.”

 

Before she knew it, she was showing him every picture and telling him the stories that went along with them. To her surprise, he opened up and was laughing along with her. By the time they were done, Felix knew about every person in that book almost like she did. It was almost a relief to be able to talk about them to somebody; she couldn't even do that in her home, since none of her friends at school knew about the well or her friends in the Sengoku Jidai.

 

Felix looked up at the sky and shot to his feet. “I was supposed to bring you back,” he explained when she gave him a questioning look. “It's really late now; I'll be surprised if the entire village isn't looking for us.”

 

“Could they not find us?” she asked. “I mean, Vale is big and all, but if they looked really hard for us, couldn't they find us in a short amount of time?”

 

“Not while we're here,” he answered. “This is where I normally go when I want to be alone, so I know that they can't find his place unless their eyes are really sharp.”

 

Kagome stood up. “We don't want to worry Ms. Arianna.” They started back, but then Kagome thought of something. “Felix?” she called.

 

He stopped and looked back at her. “Yes?”

 

“Thanks for listening,” she said shyly. “You have no idea how much that meant to me. It's just, I don't know if I'm ready for everyone else to know about it.”

 

He smiled. “I won't say anything about it,” he promised. “Now come on, Mom's going to tan my hide as it is, and the longer we take, the longer she'll make the pain last. By the way, what are you wearing?”

 

“Oh, this?” She indicated her miko clothing, and he nodded. “It's just something from home. I felt like wearing it this morning, that's all.”

 

His mother didn't tan his hide when they got in, but she did yell at the both of them for some time. Of course, they both knew she was just worried, and they did deserve it, so they stayed silent and waited for her to finish ranting. After she was worn down, she sent them away, so they went upstairs where Jenna had wisely stayed.

 

“Why were you two so late?” she asked. “Did it really take you that long to find her, Felix?”

 

They informed her that he'd found her a long time ago, but then they got distracted with the stars and stayed where they were, Felix showing her what constellations there were. There was no mention of the pictures. Satisfied with their explanation, Jenna and Kagome bade Felix good night and they left for their room and he to his.

 

~*~