The dim moonlight from the window slid over the red frame of a hunched Inuyasha. He was kneeling. A cascade which appeared like milk flowed from his forward bent head and down between each shoulder blade. Below him was the girl in the green skirt and empty eyes laying on a pallet bed. A clawed hand emerged from the front of the red figure, and two fingers gently lowered the girl's lids until she appeared to simply be sleeping just like the rest of the room.
All of this was easily visible from the small hammock Dodgers had situated in a far corner of the room. Feeling the pull of the woven rope holding the kid's weight through the thick folds of cloths, the kid just lay there limply on one side with a tattered sleeve thrown across that freckle dotted face as half shut eyes watched the half-demon's movements in silence. This guy . . . Inuyasha, he always seemed to be so careful not to let on what might be inside of him. Heh, that sounded familiar to the kid who barely rocked in midair by the movement of the child's own scrawny chest with each slow breath, silvery tail left to dangle down from the rope bed. We might not be so different, Dodgers thought while ignoring the silent bodies of the masked Samurai, the monk, the demon-slaying lady with the cat demon curled upon her chest, and even the small sleeping young fox who had made his bed close to the gurl known as . . . Kagome.
She seemed so important somehow, the kid watched each small white ear slowly curl back on the warrior Inuyasha's head as he let his ivory bangs wag across his forehead bent over the girl.
Shippou quietly resituated himself, snuggling closer to Kagome's head.
I'm not completely oblivious to these feelings . . . Dodgers words were silent, lips unmoving, Tristan, so far away . . . Mister Mitsukaru laying here as if in death . . . and so many times before, so many people, so . . . the same. But we can't let these crimes go unavenged, we can't let these spells go without being undone. This is the time when we thrive, when it's up to us. We can't let everybody down. And we won't.
Almost with the child's thoughts, the red figure grew until it stood tall in the room, the long flowing sleeves and billowing legs thinly outlined in light while the rest appeared deep shady red in the dark. The milky hair turned until it became a determined face with narrowed yellow eyes glancing towards Dodgers corner. Each tiny white ear curled forward for a moment until, seeming satisfied with something, the half-demon turned to the window. Bending slightly at the knee, he paused as clawed fingers slowly closed around the sheath of the Tetsusaiga, then darted away in a streak of red and a quiet fluttering of cloth.
Half shut eyes suddenly popped open behind silvery bangs as large, triangular ears perked up, head lifting away from the hammock, So that's your style, eh?
With in the instant the half-demon disappeared beyond the windowsill, Dodgers leapt up, twisting that lanky body around and only landed a moment in the middle of the room before zooming away in Inuysha's direction. Feeling a light tug of cool evening wind against those thick cloths, leather clanking softly against rusty buckles, Dodgers swiftly flicked both legs to one side while bursting out of the window in midair, spotting Inuyasha landing in the flowered branches of a tree. Twisting around, the kid landed leaning back against it's trunk in front of the half-demon before he really knew what was going on, green sleeved arms crossed smugly over that scrawny chest and two tails curled up to one side.
"Hey!!" Dark brows pressed together over wide, golden eyes as Inuyasha's jaw went slack seeing the kid suddenly appear.
"Don't just stand there looking at me! Let's get going!" One bulky leather boot stepped forth onto the branch Inuyasha was perched upon.
Suddenly not feeling like arguing, Inuyasha nodded and turned to leap forth once more to head out of town but was suddenly halted in mid-step by an other voice, "Lord Inuyasha! Do you even know to where you are going?"
"Ack!" Yellow eyes widening and ears peeling back, the kid slapped at the air with both leather gloves then carefully peeled them apart in front of Inuyasha's face to reveal a flattened flea fluttering slowly downwards like a tiny slip of paper.
Mouth shortening and brows lowering further over each golden eye, Inuyasha held out the palm of his hand to catch the falling flea until it popped back to it's normal size again, "Thank you, Lord Inuyasha. It's good to see that somebody appreciates all of the hard work I've done finding out about the Orb of--" But before the flea could finish his sentence, the half-demon's hand scoldingly closed and resquished him flat.
"Coward, what hard work??" voice lowered sarcastically, Inuyasha watched the flea drop again.
But a gloved hand reached out and quickly snatched the falling dot in midair, "Hey, wait a second! What's this talk about an orb? Speak up, you little spec!" Dodgers held up the dizzy Myouga in the palm of that dirty leather glove as both sets of yellowish eyes looked to the flea demon.
The flea slowly stood up, brushing at his head with two arms while dusting at his cloths with the other two looking rather offended, "My name, young Dodgers, is Myouga. And I would be more inclined to tell you if you would only--"
"Inuyasha!" the kid held out the open hand with the flea demon at it's center and Inuyasha lifted his bare hand over the flea's head threateningly.
Suddenly hopping to a full stand, Myouga began to hurriedly speak, "Somebody has been using the Orb of Baast to steal people's souls! It's an ancient artifact from the land of spirits and it has the power to take the living souls out of humans."
"So that's what happened to Kagome and the others! Is Kikyo using this artifact to gather her souls now?"
"We have to follow the trail of bodies." the youthful voice spoke informatively, catching the attention of not only Inuyasha, but Myouga as well.
"Quite right, young Dodgers." the flea bowed his head approvingly, closing two sets of hands together in front of himself.
"Hey! Wait a second, how did you know that, kid?" Inuyasha stood tall, looming over the child shrouded in sakura branches, his golden gaze bent down towards the kid in leather and buckles suspiciously.
A single silvery ear folded half way back upon the kid's head a moment as a matching brow lifted, gaze turning up to the taller, more mature half-demon, "I talked to your friend around here, that old lady Kaede--very informative woman! She's heard tell of people recently falling unconscious for no apparent reason, their eyes blank and empty and unable to be shaken from this mysterious sleep. It's got to be the orb--and it's got to be that Kikyo witch controlling it! If we can find some of the victims as it's happening, we can follow their souls straight to the source just like how I found her the first time! Then it's game over!"
"You're a sneaky little fellow, you know that?" was Inuyasha's only response.
"Inquisitive, I'd say, if not brash, arrogant and a little familiar as well, come to think of it." the flea commended the kid, then squint a little in thought up at Inuyasha.
"Eh-heh! heh! heh!" eyes squeezing shut from a goofy, toothy grin, the kid scratched the back of that fuzzy head with one glove akwardly.
"Ye be in luck, if ye can call it such . . . "
All three attention spans suddenly jolted down to the trunk of the tree where a grim old woman stood, a patch wrapped around her head to cover one eye.
"Hey! How did you know we were here?" the air fluttered through the long red robes as Inuyasha stepped off of the branch and landed softly on both bare feet at the tree's base, sounding a bit annoyed that his quick escape had now turned into a mass conference and it was all that foreign brat's fault.
"When ye are as loud as cocks crowing for the dawn, ye must expect men to wake, Inuyasha. Now, there is not much time to loose--several villagers have fallen already, I will do all I can to protect the rest. It is up to ye to bring the living souls back." With the old woman's stern words, the night suddenly took a darker turn around them, and everybody could feel the urgency of the situation.
As if time stood still, wide eyes like yellow twin moons turned their gaze until it shot through the darkness and to a patch of dark midnight where souls could be seen gathering, swarming like small clouds, and being pulled by unseen forces. Those eyes quickly narrowed, brows sliding together.
"Now this is more like it! We'll take the hunt from here, Lady Kaede! You do your spiritual-stuff!" Myouga's glove-perch lifted to set the flea down between the kid's pointed ears before the child dashed through the air with the light clanking of leather and buckles, "C'mon, Mister Inuyasha, it's up to us to save all the people!"
"What??" now a little more than annoyed at somebody actually being more quick to action then himself, Inuyasha turned and followed after the pair of soaring silver tails leaving Kaede as she hurried herself off to the shrine, readying to protect the human souls of this village. It was only a moment later, following the bouncing kid who darted in streaking arcs through the air onto the steep, shingled roof tops that he actually noticed the souls the kid was following. Then again, he caught up to the child and the pair of bulky leather boots pushed off the shingles in rhythm with the half-demon's bare feet, This kid's sure not holding me back.
The misty ring around the moon was now meshing together with the brightening sky above them. A pair of quick streaks, one red the other forested colours, darted in long leaps from treetop to treetop following the ethereal clouds which traveled on tirelessly. A slow dawn was now causing a rusty rim along the eastern horizon to frame their silhouettes of movement.
"Pardon me, Master Fox." the flying greens and browns spoke with a deep, respectful tone.
"Bite me once more, flea, and I'll eat you." the flying greens and browns threatened squeakily.
"Will you two shut up already?" the red streak known as Inuyasha scolded.
"Sorry!" the two voices spoke in unison.
It had been like this the whole night with no sign of an orb or of it's wielder. Still, something else had been playing on Inuyasha's mind for most of the journey, and he turned to glance at the leaping kid as they crossed paths now and then clinging to the upper most branches and flinging themselves off again, "Hey, kid, have you had the feeling that we're not alone yet?"
"Yeah! As a matter of fact, Mister Inuyasha! Wasn't sure if it was just the souls or Mister Vampire here or what--but since you mention it . . . " that loud squeaky voice called from over one shoulder as both silvery tails swished through the air in the trail of a forward leap.
And that's when it struck the half-demon, "Wait a second! I don't remember you having Two Tails!" brows lowering in suspicion.
Loud blurts of laughter were heard from the bouncing kid, "Two Tails? Don't be silly! I've lived with myself long enough to know I have only one! Ha ha ha, what are you getting at?"
"Then I think you'd better turn around . . . "
"Huh?!?" the pair of bulky leather boots halted on a branch as it slowly bent with the sudden weight, but a pair of wide curious eyes looked over the shoulder of that tattered yellow vest only to reveal . . . two wagging white-tipped tails. A pair of silver brows slid together, "Hmm" and the kid swept one tail in wide side-to-side motions only for the other to soon follow it's lead. Then the first tail was told to flick at the air, and soon it's counterpart reacted the same way. Needle sharp teeth grit just as Inuyasha landed in a nearby tree, the kid swished and swashed, flicked and flat, bristled, wiggled, wobbled and wagged that tail into intricate motions. The other bat itself around a bit before dizzily bristling and then drooping, "Ha-HA!" One leather glove closed in on the impostor tail and popped it off only to reveal a big orange puff of fluff in the kid's grasp instead with a little Shippou attached to the end of it.
"Shippou! Great, now we're gonna loose the souls!" Inuyasha shouted harshly before gritting his teeth and dashing off after the ever traveling clouds again.
Wide yellow eyes watched Inuyasha dart off, and the kid lifted the little fox to the shoulders of that yellow vest before leaping after him.
Seated piggyback style on the foreigner's shoulders, the little fox suddenly cried out letting two streams of tears fly to either side of them which caught the growing sunlight, "I'm sorry! But you guys were leaving and I wanted to help Kagome! I don't want to stay there and be helpless, I wanna come too! Wahhh!"
Inuyasha was just about to open his mouth and shout over one shoulder scoldingly at the little whining tike until he was cut off by a sudden loud squeak of enthusiasm, "Wow! That's great, Shippou! Ha ha! And great trick too, I didn't know you were a shape-shifter! But we can use all the help we can get, and I like your spunk! Stick with us, me hearty, you'll grow into a great hero yet!"
