Hāmonī, Inuyasha's Sister ( inuyasha fanfic)

Chapter 13: Fire Rats

They continued to trek toward where Inuyasha was last seen. After a few hours of walking through the forest greenery, Hāmonī finally called a stop for lunch. Yuri, noting aloud that the supplies were low, headed off with Minto to a nearby village to get more. They didn't have time for hunting, not when Inuyasha was so close.

While Minto and Yuri were gone, Hāmonī and Kiyōna lunched on some bread that was left. No sense in waiting for the other two to eat. After another fifteen minutes of listening to more stories about Kiyōna's dreadful brothers, Minto and Yuri returned, finally.

  Kiyōna was lucky.  Another five minutes, and she may not have had a head...

Yuri put down the food and opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by Minto. Hāmonī could see he was practically jumping out of his fur with excitement, waving around his tails like a banner. "Hāmonī, you'll never guess what we found out," he said, his voice pumped with energy.

  Hāmonī grinned "Spit it out before you pop, Minto." she said teasingly. Minto gave her an injured look, and continued "Apparently," he said, voice rising "There are FIRE RATS in the area!" Hāmonī was impressed. Fire Rats were pretty rare, and their skin... Hāmonī smiled.

 Yuri, it seemed, was getting a new coat.

*****************************************************************************************************

Hāmonī and Kiyōna stalked carefully  to the area where the rats were spotted. Minto had stayed behind to guard the camp. At first, Hāmonī hadn't wanted to take Kiyōna, but she had begged and promised to be silent. Now the green-skinned girl was stepping silently, not a word slipping from her mouth, blending in with the trees.

  Hāmonī secretly admired the dryad. She had a natural grace and deft fighting skill that took most people ages to train for. If it wasn't for her big mouth, she would be, as far asHāmonī was concerned, one of the best fighters in the region. 

The sound of a squeak brought Hāmonī around. Twitching her ears, she carefully located the sound coming from their right. Hāmonī flashed up into a tree,  Kiyōna joining her a second later.  Hāmonī   tapped the girl on the shoulder and pointed. There was the large fire rat, guzzling water from a nearby stream.

It was a good thing that this fire rat was so big. The rats were notorious fighters, and Hāmonī wanted to fight as few as possible. Kiyōna waited, poised for the signal.

With a nod fromHāmonī, a thorn less vine whipped out from the trees, wrapping the rat in a tight hug. They wanted as few holes as possible in the hide.  The less work, the better.

The rat struggled feebly for a while, then hung limp in the vine's grip, slain. Kiyōna reeled it in, and Hāmonī  slipped it into a bag.

They moved on, listening and watching for more rats when they were taken by surprise from some rats whose sound had been covered up by the stream. The fight lasted a while, with Hāmonī reduced to fighting with icicles because the fire wouldn't do anything, and Kiyōna trying to catch rats with a vine. A few scars and multiple icicles later, the rats were dead and Kiyōna and Hāmonī were cleaning their wounds and stuffing the three large rats in the bag.

"Do we need anymore rats?" Kiyōna questioned, her breathy voice hushed. Hāmonī examined them, then nodded. "Sadly, yes," she said, equally quietly "One more should do it." They stepped softly through the trees, pausing at any sound. Finally the came upon one last fire rat. This one, however was huge. Enough, Hāmonī thought, to finish the coat. But at what cost?

Deciding stealth would not be the best option, the two attacked. Hāmonī shot some icicles at the fire rat's eyes. The rat glared at her and charged. Kiyōna got a vine in, and it wrapped around its beefy neck. The rat angrily started to gnaw at the vine, chewing through the plant material. 

Hāmonī remedied this by aiming carefully, and shooting the rat in his teeth, shattering them to tiny shards. The animal roared, sensing it was trapped, struggling and gumming on the vine, which squeezed tighter and tighter around its neck. With a final choking cry. It fell to the ground dead.

"Well," said a voice from behind them "You two are quite the the team."

*****************************************************************************************************

Hmmm.... wonder where that new character's going...

Hello my apprentices!

I hope you've like how I've ended my chapter. It's a nice plan to put in the first contest winner.

Just so you guys know, I'll be updating on Thursday instead of Friday next week, because I happen to be going to a dance. Just letting you guys know so you aren't too surprised.

I just checked, 9k reads! Keep going you guys!

Cheers!

Magic Hippo