A/N: Hi everyone! This is my first story posted on Fanfiction. I hope everyone enjoys it and reviews.

Disclaimer: The characters in this story are not originally thought up by me and the main idea of this story taken from a Chinese series. However, there are some things that I have changed around and some of the characters are originally unique.

A Pearl Beneath the Sea

Chapter One

So royal, So ordinary

The night was cold. The wind blew through the curtains of an old carriage, which held a woman and a newborn baby. It was way past dark and everyone in the small town was fast asleep. The carriage took them to an older part of the town. The woman looked out of her window and told the driver to stop in front of an old restaurant with some rooms for lodging on the second floor.

The baby was sleeping soundlessly. She had just been born today. The woman reached down and unwrapped the blanket around the baby. She woke with a start when the woman bit into her arm. The baby started to wail. The teeth marks were deep and bleeding. The woman murmured to herself, "It's to recognize you later on. You will never be able to lift you face in society here."

She quickly wrapped the baby in her red blanket and hurried out of the carriage and into the street. She placed the baby on the front steps of the restaurant and quickly stepped back into the carriage. She drove away without even looking back.

Kaede, the keeper of the restaurant and the lodging rooms, woke with a start when she heard the wail of the baby. It seemed to come from somewhere very close, but none of her guests that night had a child with them. She quickly dressed and went down the stairs to find where the noise was coming from.

She approached the door when the crying was getting louder. Kaede slowly opened the door. Peering outside, she didn't see anything at all. Kaede was about to take a step forward until her realized that there was baby laying there. She picked her up and tried to sooth her.

The baby had no note, no clothes. She just had a blanket keeping her warm and two sets of teeth marks, one on each arm. Kaede took one last look outside to see if anyone was there to give them their baby back. When everything was totally silent, she stepped back into the house and decided silently to herself to raise this child.

&

At about the same time in the palace of the king, his wife had gone into labor and was going to give birth. The queen lay there in pain, hoping and praying that she would give birth to a son. The king had had many previous wives that were killed or dismissed for not being able to have a child or having a daughter.

Late into the night, she finally had her child. It was a boy. The queen lay silently on her bed, thinking to herself. She thought, "I have done the right thing. It's a boy. I will be loved by my husband and by all the people of China. We now have an heir to the throne…"

The new prince was whisked off for the king to see. She didn't even get the chance to hold him. The queen was soon too tired to think about her son, the prince and the soon to become king, and fell asleep.

The next day, it was announced throughout all of China of the new prince, Inuyasha.

&

Nineteen years later…

Kaede had kept the child that she found that night and raised it like her own. She named the child Kagome and never told her the story that she was found on her doorstep. Kagome believed that Kaede was her aunt and that her parents had died soon after she was born from a deadly disease. She had stuck to her story and wasn't sure when she would let Kagome know what had truly happened.

"How were my parents like?" asked Kagome at the young age of five.

"They were good parents. They loved you like no other. When they knew that they were going to die, they had given you to me to take care of. They made me promise them to take good care of you."

"Why don't I remember them? How did they look like?" asked Kagome curiously.

"Your mother was fair and beautiful. You have her pretty eyes. And your dad was built and strong. You are nothing like him physically, but mentally and emotionally you two are ever so similar. He was kind and caring, always wanting to help people. They both loved you dearly, Kagome."

It tore Kaede to lie to Kagome. Kagome's parents probably didn't love her or else why would they have left her on her doorstep when she was so little? Kagome was a sweet child and loved to help Kaede. "Her parents would want to have such a wonderful daughter as Kagome." Kaede thought to herself. "But I love Kagome. I don't want her to ever leave me…"

Kagome was happy at the restaurant. She worked in the kitchens every since she could remember. The restaurant was old and in a poorer part of the town, but it still had lots of customers and lodgers. Kaede's family had owned this restaurant as far back as 200 years ago. The restaurant didn't earn enough money for remodeling, so it has stayed the same way ever since Kaede took it over.

Kaede couldn't afford to give Kagome an education and couldn't teach her herself either, since she didn't get an education herself when she was young.

Kagome picked up the newspaper left by one of the customers and stared blankly at it. Looking over at Kaede, she asked, "What does this say, Aunt Kaede?"

"I don't know, dear. Maybe you should ask them sitting over there."

Kagome walked over towards two young girls. "I was wondering what this says." She handed them the newspaper.

The older girl replied, "Oh, the prince, Inuyasha, is coming of age. He's going to be traveling throughout China in disguise and seeing the towns and cities for the first time of his life. He actually left the kingdom today. His destination is unknown for his safety." The girl looked up at Kagome. "He's about your age isn't he? You're nineteen too this year, right?"

Kagome nodded. "Yeah, I am. Me and the prince were born in the same year." She laughed to herself at the coincidence.

&

Inuyasha lived in the palace all his life with hundreds of maids and servants at his every beck and call. He had longed to go out of the palace and be free.

In the palace, Inuyasha had a strict instructor to teach him everything he ever would need to know from arithmetic to how to rule all of China when he was grown up. Best of all, Inuyasha got to learn how to fight. He would practice everyday. It was something Inuyasha could do to get away from all the palace's troubles.

When he finally reached the age of nineteen, the king, his father, had decided that he was old enough to go out and see China for the first time. His mother had objected, but soon had to agree with the king.

Finally it was the day to leave the palace. Inuyasha was all too excited and was getting far too impatient.

"MYOGA, HURRY UP!" bellowed Inuyasha.

"Gosh, if you didn't have so much luggage, I'll be done already," said Myoga disgustedly.

The carriage was filled up with all sorts of things. Finally by noon, they were ready and Myoga, Inuyasha's closest servant, and Inuyasha headed on their way.

Myoga drove lazily on a dirt road. The palace where Inuyasha grew up was slowly disappearing below the horizon. Myoga turned to Inuyasha inside the carriage and asked, "So where will we be headed to your highness?"

"Okay, first off you have to stop calling me your highness. You will now refer to me just as Inuyasha. Now, for our destination for tonight, we will probably have to stop at the closest town since it going to get late pretty soon."

"Alright, your highness. I mean Inuyasha," he added quickly. "This is going to need some time to get used to."

"Well you better not make any slips. I don't want people to come after me and kill me."

They were silent for awhile. Inuyasha looked out of the small window from inside the carriage. They passed small farms. One of which was no bigger than a small shack. There was an old man out tending his fields. The man was probably close to seventy years old and still he was growing his own food and sleeping in a tiny shack. Inuyasha had never done anything for himself, much less grow his own food. He stared at the man for a long time and decided that tonight he was going to try and live like this man.

Inuyasha sighed to himself. The air was even easier to breathe out her than in the big palace. He wondered how life would be if he wasn't a prince.

Interrupting Inuyasha's thoughts, "Your highness, I mean Inuyasha. Sorry. Anyways, we are now going to be entering a city. I just wanted to let you know."

"This city is pretty run down, don't you think?" Inuyasha said as he looked at the small shops and the old homes lining the street.

"I would have to agree, but we have been living in the palace all our lives, so maybe this is just ordinary life in China."

"I guess… I'm getting hungry. Why don't we just stop in that restaurant up ahead? It also has rooms for guest on the top, so we can just spend the night there." Inuyasha had chosen that particular restaurant since it was old and shabby. It looked like the oldest building on the street actually. Since this was probably where that old man on the fields would stay, Inuyasha would try it out for tonight and if he didn't like it he would stay at someplace nicer tomorrow. "One night couldn't hurt anyone, could it?" thought Inuyasha.

"Sounds like a good idea. It'll get us to experience the regular standard of living."

Inuyasha got out of the carriage and stretched out his arms when Myoga stopped in front of the restaurant. He found a spot of keep the carriage overnight and joined Inuyasha to get some dinner.

Inuyasha walked into the restaurant first and smelled the sweet aroma coming from the kitchens. He found a table for two in the corner of him and Myoga.

Inuyasha noticed that the place was nice and clean. Many of the tables were filled and the food looked delicious. "Maybe this was a good idea after all," Inuyasha thought.

"Waiter please!" yelled Inuyasha, so he could be heard over all of the other noise.

Kagome, hearing a call, hurried out of the kitchens and towards the new guests that had just sat down. As she approached their table to get their orders, she slipped on something wet on the ground and landed straight onto Inuyasha.

A/N: Is love in the air for these two? You will have to see…