ch9.4
“Don’t feed me that shit!” Azuka screamed, her eyes squeezing closed, “We’ve been keeping secrets since we were pups!! What’s one more?? You could have died and I wouldn’t have known!!”
Azuka shook her head, pacing away from the group, “Go on ahead without me for a while. We’re still on duty and I need to think...”
Aderyn sat down against a large cherry tree and put her chin on her knees. “I’m sorry. I was afraid. “
Kagome knelt down in front of the golden raven, “I’m not sure what’s going on, but I’ve been around Inuyasha enough to say that she was afraid too, and she doesn’t fault you for what she did. She just has a hard time dealing with her fear... like Inuyasha she seems to battle it with anger.”
Kaori crossed her arms, “At any rate, Azuka is right. We have to keep moving, we’re on border patrol and Sesshomaru will kill us if he finds out we have procrastinated. Again.”
“I do need to find that charm though. I knew she’d be mad, but I was afraid to tell her. I just....”
“I feel that way with Inuyasha all the time, usually its because I want to go home, and I know he’ll be mad. I think he’s afraid I won’t come back, sometimes.” She smiled reassuringly.
“Azuka is different. Her fury... She won’t be back for a few days at least. Even then she won’t talk to me or even acknowledge me.” She shook her head and ran her hand through the grass, catching her hand on a delicate gold chain. “What do you know; I found the damn necklace. Let’s go.” She got up slowly. “I’m going to have you ride one of the twins. I need some space.” She turned to Kagome and slipped the long chain over her neck. “Keep this safe.” She transformed and took the sky, wings silent.
Kagome blinked, looking down at the beautiful piece of jewelry, “I wonder...”
“Hn?” Shizuka came up beside Kagome, looking down at the necklace, “Ah, it really is pretty!”
Kaori came up on the other side of Kagome, equally interested in the trinket, “I’m not playing ‘horse’ for the human.”
~~
It rained for the next two days, and they passed solemnly as the torrents that fell from the heaven, as the little pack that had formed through friendship and trust, slowly began to drift. Kagome felt the tension like she herself had been strung tight on by her tendons and bones. On the dawn of the third day and still no Azuka or Aderyn, Kagome became quite fed up, “Thats it! I can’t take it anymore!” In the hollow of a large tree that they made into camp for the night, sat the twins and a stewing Kagome.
“Why do you think she wears such outlandish clothing?” Shizuka asked, gnawing on a strip of dried meat. Kaori sniffed and crossed her arms behind her head, looking for all intents and purposes to be completely uninterested, “I for one, want to know where she gets them. I could work with a design like that.”
“It’s not as bad as Azuka-san tho, eh? If she’s not in demon form, she’s naked. That woman don’t know how to wear clothes!” Shizuka snorted, earning a grin from her twin. “Although, you’re no better.”
“What can I say, the less the better.”
