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A VERY Long Night
Night had fallen over land, the grass wavered in the wind. A full moon, the largest you've ever seen, shown brightly through the dark sky. Little specks of starlight dotted around it. It was the perfect night for us to travel. Nothing could ruin this perfect night journey, except for one thing.....school.
Shippo was asleep in the basket of Kagome's riding contraption as she pushed it along. She was chatting quietly with Delila. Inuyasha, Miroku, Sango, and I, walked along with them. When suddenly Delila stopped short in her tracks, making me bump into her. "Um, Delila? Is something wrong." she still stood there, not answering. Then after a few seconds of silence, she screamed at the top of her lungs, scaring the crap out of me and hurting my ears. Shippo jolted awake and fell out of the metal cart on his head. "Hey, what was that for, Delila?! I'm trying to sleep!" Shippo complained drearily. "I completely forgot!!!!" she yelled. "Forgot what?" Miroku asked. "I never told my mom I left! She doesn't know about Kimiko, you guys, or this world! And I've been gone for days without telling her where I went! She gonna probably call a search party to look for me! Plus I have school in 2 days when my vacation ends! I'm totally gonna fail if I'm here all the time!" Delila bent over and started hyperventilating. I put a hand on her shoulder blade. "Woah Delila, calm down, just take it easy. I'll take you back to your world." She calmed down a little, but her breathing was still heavy. "Even if you do take me home, we'll never make it there in time!" Delila panted. "Then I guess we'd better book it!" I encouraged her. Delila's breathing finally settled. "Here, get on my back." She smiled, then climbed onto my back. "We'll be back as soon as we can." I said to the others, and with that, I hit the ground running top speed back to the well between the worlds.
I had been running nonstop for two and a half hours now. I felt exhausted. Every part of my body ached to the extreme. But I somehow pushed through it all and kept running. "Kimiko, you shouldn't push yourself so hard. You should stop for a while." Delila said after a while. "You....don't know...how good...that sounds...right now! But....I can't....I need.....to get....you home." I replied through staggered breath. My running had slowed a little since I started. I kept running until finally my legs gave way and I collapsed. Delila fell off. I was on my hands and knees, panting continuously, I couldn't feel my legs anymore for I had grown numb to the pain after so long. "You can't keep going on like this, Kimiko. You may be a half demon, but you still have limits to your abilities." she said and she came back over to me. I starting taking deep breaths to regain a normal flow of air. Delila reached into her bag. "Here, drink this. I don't want you to get dehydrated." she said as she pulled a bottle of water from her bag and handed it to me. I yanked off the cap and began chugging it down. I decided not to drink it all and save some for the run ahead. I poured a little on my hand and wiped it on my face. The water felt so nice on my hot forehead. After twisting the cap back onto the bottle and handing it back to Delila, I got up and said "Come on, let's keep going, we still have a ways left." Delila lifted the backpack over her shoulders and said "Are you sure? You still look like you should rest some more."There's no time. I feel good enough. Now let's go." I said as readied myself to run again. Delila climbed back onto me, and I took off again.
Another three hours or so had passed now."Look! I can see Kaede's village! It's not much longer, Kimiko. Just hang in there!" Delila announced. And hearing that great news, I somehow gained my strength back, and I began running twice as fast. Not even three minutes later, the village flashed by as I ran, and we were now In the forest on the other side of it. And after about a minute of running through the forest, I burst into the large clearing where the magic well waited to greet us. "Hold on!" I told Delila as I leaped down into the well. We gently fell through the dark abyss then landed in the bottom of the well in Delila's time. I leaped up out of the well, and landed with a thump. My legs didn't support such a landing after a run like that, and they collapsed upon contact. Delila jumped off of me as I fell to the ground. I lay there on my back, my breathing tremendously erratic. My muscles shook uncontrollably.
"You did good." Delila said as she pulled out the water bottle and dumped the rest of its contents into my mouth. I happily swallowed the water. I looked out the door of the shrine where the well was kept in Delila's era and saw a light pink color start to break the black sky. It was morning. I had ran all night. "Do you think you can get up?" Delila asked. "My house is just outside. You can lay down in my bed" I gathered what little ounce of strength I had left and stood up. I slowly shuffled after Delila as she hurried out of the shrine.
"We'll go in the back door. I don't want my mom to see you. She'll freak out." But she stopped dead in her tracks. Cops stood outside of her house. "See! I was gone too long! She thinks I've gonna missing!" Delila whispered to me as we hid in a bush, trying not to be seen. "I know. I'll get us in through the second floor window." I said. Delila nodded at the idea, and she got on my back again as we sneaked to get closer to the house. "Ready? One, Two, Three!" I whispered. And I leaped high above the officers heads and into the window of Delila's room. Thankfully, the cops hadn't noticed us. "I'd better go downstairs and let Mom know I'm ok." Delila said as she got off of my back. And she ran out the door and down the stairs into the kitchen where her mom and several officers stood. I quietly sneaked down the stairs and quickly hid in the hall closet. I stood there in the dark, listening to Delila talk to them.
"DELILA! I'm so glad you're alright! Where on EARTH have you been?!" her mother shouted delightfully. And after that, it was questions from her mom and questions from the cops about where she'd been. Delila had a cover story for everything. She kept repeating them that a friend of hers was going on a trip and she was invited, but forgot to tell her mom she was going. It went on like that for a while. After about half an hour of asking question after question and getting the same answer, the cops finally left and Delila's mom allowed her to go up to her room. I then opened the closet door and sneaked after her, trying not to be seen by her mom.
After Delila had shut the door behind her and locked it, I sank myself into her bed. Delila laid a blanket on the floor and lay down there. "Let's get some rest now." She said as she closed her eyes. "Gladly. Looks like we won't be going back for a while with how worried your mom is, so rest sounds good." I replied, and I closed my eyes as I greeted my long lost friend, Sleep.
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