The Mysterious Springs

Chapter 3: The Medallions of Memory

The group set off early at morning, and it was nearing noon when they began walking through a rocky plain while they had a lively conversation about the events that took place the previous day.

- "That was a great performance!" – said Miroku with an ample smile.

- "Yeah, we never heard you singing, and you're both actually pretty good at it!" – said Sango, making both Miko and Inuyasha blush.

- "Hehe, thank you! I never thought I'd do it well!" – said Miko smiling.

- "And you can't guess how scared I was about it!" – said Inuyasha as he began laughing.

- "So you were scared..." – said Shippo in a mocking tone, but he immediately shut up when he saw the furious glare Miko was giving him. It was obvious she was still angry about what he did to Inuyasha.

- "Shippou... I think you owe Inuyasha an apology" – she reproached him. Shippou initially wanted to refuse doing it, but upon seeing how Miko was glaring at him, he ended up swallowing his pride and decided to apologize.

- "Fine" – he said in an irritated tone and turned to face Inuyasha – "I'msorryaboutwhatIsaidyesterday!" –

Inuyasha didn't understand anything he said.

- "What was all that?" – he asked confused.

- "Urgh... I said sorry about what I said yesterday!" – screamed Shippou.

At first it seemed that Inuyasha was going to hit him due to the face of surprise and rage he put on, but he simply went up to Shippou, put one hand on his head softly and he said as he smiled with closed eyes:

- "Okay, I forgive you!" –

- '*sigh* That was close...' – thought Shippou relieved as he fell bottom first to the ground.

- "Well, stop playing now. We have to focus on finding these medallions" – Sango scolded them upon seeing how they were falling behind.

After another while walking, during which the children had begun talking among themselves cheerfully...

- "Look, there's a village over there!" – said Shippou suddenly cutting the conversation about the games they had played up to that moment.

- "It's true!" – said Miko jumping in excitement, as she didn't remember ever seeing other village aside of Kaede's.

- "Do you think we should stop and rest for a while?" – asked Miroku as he sized up their current conditions. Miko, Shippou, and Inuyasha seemed a bit tired, yet they also were excited to continue traveling. But at that instant, the sound of several stomachs growling began being heard.

- "Yeah. I don't think we should go on without replenishing our energies" – replied Sango as she laughed upon hearing this.

And thus they continued their walking.

*******

But when they finally reached the village, the welcome they were given was anything but warm...

- "Hey, look at these travelers there. They're so weird" –

- "Yeah... A monk, a woman, a kid, some kinda fox and a monster kid" –

Even though they continued walking without paying any mind to what the people said, this last comment in particular enraged Inuyasha:

- "Who're you calling a monster!?" – he screamed enraged. As he had gotten used to his friends and the inhabitants of Kaede's village treating him as part of them, this ended up becoming a nasty reminder of his life before waking up in the hut, or rather, of the horrors he went through during his true childhood.