Alternate Summary:

Haruna has made a decision: she's going to lead life her own way for once! Unknowingly her decision sets a lot in movement... be it for good or bad. She quickly discovers it's not so easy to cut ties with her past. Her actions lead her to encounter Lord Sesshomaru, and around the same time a threat arises from the Realm of Shadows. A threat that only existed in legend until it managed to enter the feudal era once again... Haruna and Sesshomaru find themselves battling the dangers from the Realm of Shadows, but do regular fighting methods work? Destiny forces them to work together, and Haruna slowly becomes aware of her growing feelings for the stoic demon. Can love blossom between them? One thing is for sure, they need to solve the puzzles from the past in order to overcome their enemies before it's too late...

A/N: this story takes place about 2 years after Kagome returned to the feudal era, which would mean Kagome is about 20 and Rin about 13 years old. Although it's also going to be a romantic story, Sesshomaru isn't the hot blooded casanova that would easily fall for a woman, let alone a human. This story will focus on adventure and character development and relationships will be established gradually. There will be plenty of action, sometimes gore, as events proceed it will get more romantic. Read on if you're curious what lurks in the shadows...

Hope you enjoy the story, please give me feedback!

Chapter One

"She's getting away, catch her!" a man shouted.

It was nighttime and the sky growled with the foreboding of thunder, the air was heavy with the scent of the oncoming rain. A group of men carrying torches hurried their way through the thicket, carrying pitchforks and other utensils to hunt down their prey. The girl panted heavily as she tried to stay ahead of the torchlights, minding her feet not to trip over the exposed roots of the trees. If she was caught it would be over. The foliage was getting thicker. She forced her way through a narrow path between two thorny bushes and scratched her legs and arms.

"I see her!" someone called out.

"There! There! Stop you witch!"

Her heart was pounding in her chest, pumping the blood through her veins. She felt no pain when she tripped over a rock and hurried to scramble back on her feet. All she could think of was survival, was finding a way to lose these men and hide! Hide for more nights and days until she would feel safe to come out of hiding. Anguish filled her heart. Even if she would escape from here… she wouldn't be out of peril… She could make out by the faint light of the torches back of her that the overgrowth grew thin ahead of her. A moment later she ran out of the forest and noticed a steep ledge in front of her that ended in a wild river that flew down from the mountain. She snapped her head to the right and left looking for an exit way, but from all sides were crackling noises of people running across the forest floor coming closer to where she stood. She could make out six…seven… no, eight dancing lights closing in. Then the men entered the clearing. She could feel their murderous intent filling the atmosphere.

"You rat! You can't escape now. We'll eradicate your evil from this world"

"N-no! It was an accident!" she replied, shaking her head. Unconsciously she was taking a few steps back.

"Hand over that katana!" it was the village head who spoke.

"No.. N-no that's…-"

"-If you won't hand it over, we'll take it by force!" The village head lurched forward towards her and threw a knife. She opened her eyes wide, shocked. A pain entered her side, opening the flesh and sinking in deeply. Her hand moved down in a reflex and her finger tips graced the hilt of the knife. She coughed and spat up blood. The villagers were stepping forward towards her, their faces twisted into scowls. The sky was roaring.

"I-I…" she croaked, taking another step back. Then suddenly the ground gave way and she felt herself losing balance. She threw her arms to the front, trying to take grab the ledge. The leader rushed forward wanting to grab her hand. But it was too late. In the dim light of the torches they saw her panic-filled face fall down into the darkness of the gurgling river. They could hear the splash of water and knew her body was being carried away.

"Shall we track her down the river, father?"

"The current is too swift and there is no riverbank she can wash up on for miles… She's dead," he replied, "the witch had what was coming for her".

A crack of thunder flashed across the heaven and the rain started to pour down.

"Let's hurry back home, your mother will be worried."

The rain drummed on the water surface while she was mowing her arms around to keep her head up. The river splashed its water into her mouth and nose while it drained the blood from her wound and the rain fell hard on her head. She felt the stabbing wound in her side and ignored the knife that was still embedded there. To her relief the katana was still attached to the leather strap on her back. If she could find something to hold on to… something… The sky lit up with the flashing thunder and she could make out the high rocky walls that were on each side of her, then the darkness returned.

'Don't strike!' she prayed, fearing the lightning.

The cold of the mountain water radiated through her limbs, numbing her muscles and the pain. An animalistic panic and urge to survive took over her senses. The sky cracked. She noticed a tree trunk which nearly passed her and without thinking kicked her legs and pushed her arms through the water to reach it. When she made it she couldn't haul her body on top because of the knife in her side. Instead she wrapped her arms around a half broken off branch and clung onto it for her dear life. Her mind went blank though her hands didn't lose their grip and she let herself get washed down the stream.

When she opened her eyes she noticed she was still holding onto that dead tree trunk. It took her a moment to realize she was no longer moving forward. They had gotten stuck between two rocks in a turn of the river. She averted her gaze to the sky and noticed that the morning sunlight seeped through gaps in the clouds and the rain had stopped. Her joints were stuck and her fingers were cramped. She felt her body was losing strength.

'If I stay in the water the wound will never close'.

Laboriously she moved to the side of the log towards a sandy shore, soon her feet were able to touch the bottom of the river and it was easier to wade to the land. She slouched with knees half bend from pain and lack of strength until she reached the field of grass beyond the shore where she carefully dropped on her knees and lowered herself to lay down on her back.

'If I remove this knife I will surely lose more blood, but if I let the wound close around the knife it won't heal right…'

The river's current was significantly calmer at this point of its track and the sound of the water combined with the rustling of tree leafs actually had a calming effect. A bee buzzed passed her head and birds chirped happily. Amidst all this life lay a dying creature, contemplating if she would spend her last moments right there, in the grass sullied with her blood, or moving on, likely in vain. Her mind began to run its own course...

"I'm off to the Hishura temple, darling." A woman with deep brown hair that cascaded down her back said whilst crouching to look at her in the eyes. That face looked serene, at peace with the work she was set out to do. A small smile played on her lips as the woman used her fingers to brush a speck of dirt from the child's complexion.

'Kaa-san... my mother...'

The young girl had her lips slightly parted and her chin turned towards her chest, looking with big eyes at her mother, as if to ask her when she would return. Her mother stroked her hair and kissed her cheek.

"You be a good girl, listen well to what Kodama-sama tells you, I'll be back".

She stood up and the girls head came up to only three-fourth of her legs. The child raised her arms towards her mother and began to hop on her feet, wanting to get picked up. Mother was leaving, but she didn't want to be left behind, she didn't want to listen to Kodama-sama. But her mother only smiled and repeated what she said earlier "be a good girl" and "I'l be back tomorrow". She walked through the big white gate with red tiles onto the dirt path that led to wherever Hishura temple was. The toddler wanted to look at her mother's back until it disappeared out of sight, but was quickly taken by the hand by an elder woman who ignored her protests. She turned to face the old women and noticed it was actually a lizard demon with big yellow eyes and a dancing tongue.

'My mind's wavering, I'm falling asleep,' the young woman suddenly thought alarmed. Without noticing she had been recalling experiences from the past and was beginning to doze off. Her sleep deprived mind was starting to mix her memories with dream-like fiction.

"Okay, get up. Time to get up!" she scolded herself and pushed herself up with gritted teeth. If she was going to fall asleep, she might never wake up again.

'I need to find a doctor, or I need medicinal herbs that help stop the bleeding'.

She stumbled forward with one hand placed under the knife. She noticed the shore she had been washed upon was only a relatively narrow strip of land in between the high canyon walls. It looked like this place had been created throughout time when the river used to be wilder and eroded the rock away. Her heart almost sank into her shoes until her eyes spotted a point behind the trees where the stone walls suddenly weren't visible. It wasn't a very wide gap, but large enough to perhaps form a passage way. She continued onwards, pushing back the branches of the young trees and finding a way around large bushes until she came at the wall. It seemed she hadn't been walking in a straight line and followed the edge of the wall until it bended back into a passageway. She was lucky!

The height of the stone walls were steadily receding but were still too high to climb, the width of the canyon bottom had been growing which gave her more space for movement. The ground here was nearly arid, with only stiff grasses and leafless thorny bushes growing here and there. While moving forward she felt an increasingly intense demonic aura being emitted from within the canyon. There were probably several yokai hidden somewhere in the fissures of the canyon wall.

She smiled bitterly, 'perhaps it's karma?'.

She wiped her hand across her forehead and noticed she was sweating, she also started to feel a little fuzzy in her head.

'I shall continue,' she decided and kept walking forward.

After a while she felt as though she could see things move swiftly in the shadows from the corners of her eye, but she wasn't sure if it was her imagination. She felt clammy and the wound in her side throbbed. It was due to the fact she kept moving that the wound was still bleeding, but she had her mind intent on seeing how far she could come before she would collapse. There it was again, something black slithered passed that big rock over there, or didn't it? Nothing strange could be made out as soon as she averted her gaze to look more carefully. But she could feel it, the hairs standing up in her neck, giving a chill down her spine... Demonic aura. Suddenly she heard a loud high pitched scream and snapped her head towards where it came from. Something small and orange was falling over the ledge of the canyon leaving a trail of flowers and dust as she skidded across the surface of the steep wall... A young girl! Something behind her hissed. For a split second she felt bewildered, but then her legs started going towards the young girl. From the other side of the canyon a centipede larvae exposed itself from its hiding place. It's countless flexible legs carried it swiftly across the ground.

'I'm too slow! He'll get there first!' she realized.