Chemical Reaction by Angelic Memories
Reunion
I have decided to add yet another series of challenges to these collections. Skye’s The Seven Deadly Sins Challenge is obviously a series of seven prompts over seven weeks. So I give you my first entry of seven.
Prompt: Sloth
Open word limit: 1 185 words used.
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Reunion
The shrieks of a bird reached the woman’s ears even with the wind rushing past as she ran. A weight to her right forced her to stop and avert her attention. The elements had caused a large stump to become exposed from beneath a thin layer of earth. It had tripped the young girl next to her, bringing Rin to her knees.
“Rin are you okay? Come on you have to get up,” Kagome urged.
The miko pulled Rin up, but the sound of the bird behind them was much louder. She stopped long enough to turn and shoot an arrow before whipping around and taking hold of Rin’s hand once again. She set their previous speed, making sure Rin was able to keep up with the miko. Kagome broke through a particular bush, and heard a familiar angry female voice.
“Sango,” Kagome whispered before the area was filled with a warning cry of the bird. “Rin, duck,” she shouted, pushing the child to the ground faster with the assistance of her hand on the youth’s back.
The two females had made it to the ground just as the bird swooped down in an arch, claws extended in an attempt to reach its prey. As soon as the bird headed back into the sky to loop around and try again, Kagome got to her feet, and aided Rin to do the same.
“Kagome?” Rin gasped as they rushed further through the thick foliage, “Where’s Sesshomaru-sama? He’ll save us right?”
“He has to take care of the other youkai that attacked.”
A second and third shriek joined the first, which had Kagome sarcastically thanking her luck. However, as Rin and Kagome broke through the tree line, the miko’s anger grew. She could see the pack she had been waiting for lounging around the fire. The gaze of blue fell upon a form sitting in a tree, ears twitching as they picked up high pitch screeching from where Rin and Kagome came from.
“Inuyasha!” Kagome yelled, “if you were here why didn’t you come help?!”
“Kagome! Watch out behind you!” Sango screamed.
The miko pulled Rin behind her as she turned on her heels, bow and arrow in hand and directed towards the enemy nearing her line of sight. In her anger, her powers morphed into a powerful ball around the tip of her arrow and as she released the projectile the energy intensified and purified the target, turning to ash.
“Inuyasha! Sit!” Kagome screamed after she took out the second and third targets in the same manner.
The hanyou crashed through the thick branch he was balanced on and the three located in various distances beneath him. The land shifted to make room for the half inu, the large crater growled after a few seconds, put Kagome did nothing.
“You lazy bastard!” she screamed when Inuyasha began crawling from his hole. “Sit down when I’m talking to you! I can’t believe you wouldn’t come to help. If you hear someone in danger you should do something.”
“Kagome calm down,” Sango tried to call to her friend.
The miko’s gaze only averted for a second before she turned back to the hanyou, once again he was trying to make it out of the, now deeper, crater. “Were you even looking for me?” Kagome asked as she took note of the sight of the camp. It looked like they had been there a few days. The ashes in the fire and the bones of animals for each meal.
There was a strange silence that ran between them. Kagome stared into the yellow gaze of the hanyou and then to the violet orbs of the monk followed to the browns of her best friend.
“We have been Kagome,” Sango rushed in to explain, “But the other day… well Miroku was hurt and he can’t step on his ankle. Shippo took Kirara to head to Kaede’s for more supplies and instructions because I’m no healer.”
“Stupid bitch,” the hanyou snapped suddenly, “Who do you think you are? You can’t just come marching here after spending days running away.”
“Running away?! I’ve been stuck, I can’t fend off Naraku by myself, so I stayed were I was safe, waiting for you!”
“Miko,” a voice interrupted, a new figure joining the group in the clearing, “It is time we leave.”
“But… my friends, I want to stay with them.”
“The half-breed is an unworthy guardian. His slothful behaviour would have a negative effect upon your innocence.”
Looking at the inu lord in a curious confusion, she noticed the way his eyes narrowed dangerously before darkening to an intense shade of gold.
“I don’t understand, can you explain what that means?” Kagome demanded when the inu didn’t elaborate. Sango lowered her head when the younger woman’s attention was drawn to the slayer. “Sango?”
After a moment’s pause and realizing that Sesshomaru wasn’t go to add anymore, Sango finally spoke up. “You have the soul of a pure miko Kagome. Anything pure can be tainted. Usually shrine maidens go through a process of cleaning their souls, making sure they remain pure. In your case you have no training. What Sesshomaru-sama is saying is that being around those who are sinful has an effect on you. The longer you stay around innocent souls mean the more your soul can replenish itself to the pure original state.”
Finally beginning to understand things, Kagome took some time to think.
“Come miko, we depart.”
Kagome looked at each of her friends and then Inuyasha. The hanyou seemed to take very little interest in her and Sesshomaru. It was almost as if he had become lazier since she had left, and that behaviour was affecting his attitude towards things that use to rile him up.
More than ever she wanted to stay with her friends. But from the sound of things she would be of no use if she continued to travel with them. However it made her wonder… what about Sesshomaru? He was a demon and typically she was told that demons were full of sin.
However, she obediently turned on her heels and followed the inu, Rin tuck into her side, not daring to let go.
“Why do you care about my soul Sesshomaru-sama?” the woman asked after they had re-entered the wooded area. “And… won’t being around you contaminate me?”
“This Sesshomaru understands that you will play an important role in the time to come. The presence of this Sesshomaru is blocked from the surrounding world and therefore you are not affected.”
“What about Jaken and Ah-Un?” Kagome asked as they were rejoined by said youkai.
“Their power is too insignificant; a power has to be at a certain level compared to the vessel of the pure soul before tainting the soul. Jaken and Ah-Un are low class youkai.”
At long last she was beginning to catch up with things. The reason Sesshomaru took her from Inuyasha and why he kept her with him even though he didn’t seem to enjoy her company. In fact, it explain why she was feeling better, fresher, than ever before.
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Ja ne
Angelic Memories
© 2009