Disclaimer: This writer does not own any characters created by Rumiko Takashi.

Chapter One:

The Rocks

Kagome sat in her cube, the floor was deserted, but she had a deadline to meet. It was more than just a deadline; this story could make or break her career. Normally she was sent to cover the fluff pieces – the hot dog eating contest, the flapjack fundraiser, the puppies on parade – she appreciated those opportunities and being out in the field. She hated being in her cube, under the florescent lights and the ever-prominent male gaze.

She let out a small sigh, reached up and twisted her hair into a loose bun on top of her head and stuck in two pencils to hold her hair in place. She couldn't stand being hunched over her desk with the weight of her dreams and hair on her shoulders.

Her cursor blinked, a static rhythm, as she tried to tie up the piece.

The words above the blinking cursor told the story of an ancient cropping of rocks, protruding from the earth in a rural area. It was a tourist attraction and something special to the locals, north of the big city, but it was technically on private land and that private land was being sold to a developer that planned to build a resort and create a golf course right where the cropping of rocks lay.

So much of the countryside was changing as the large city she lived in continued to sprawl. When she was a little girl she remembered the city ending, forests and farmland would zip past the window of the train. The miles between the stops were longer and taking a small holiday to the countryside was good for ones health.

Now it was subdivision after subdivision, resort after resort, mall after mall – concrete, asphalt, short green grass covering large manicured lawns leading to houses that all looked the same. Small towns were torn down and cobblestone roads were replaced with four lane arterial streets.

But this small town was different; these people still had distance between the suburbs and where they lived. There were still forests and farmland and a slower steadier pace of life. The sky was bluer and the breeze fresher. They had seen what had happened to the small towns that bordered the city and then the small towns that bordered those small towns and while they probably couldn't stop the resort from being built, they wanted to protect what they all held dear – that odd ancient cropping of rocks.

Kagome was going to help them secure the land through her piece. It would be on the front page of the daily city newspaper. Everyone liked a cause and she was hoping she could tell the story well enough that people would help the locals turn the area into a historical landmark.

She knew the words were there, the punctuation where it needed to be. The opening quote would draw the reader in, the large photo of the beautiful hillside where the rocks lay would create a wanderlust in even the most hardened city folk, she just needed to type a finishing line that would capture the heart of the reader.

Kagome rubbed her temples and closed her eyes. She quickly opened them and started typing feverishly on her keyboard. As she pressed return a small smile spread across her face, growing as she reread the last line again. She'd done it.

Saving the file she opened her email and attached it to the editor. Turning off her computer she stood and stretched, it had been a long night. She shut her laptop and packed it in her bag, turned off the small light on her desk that was supposed to simulate sunlight and pushed in her chair.

- break -

Kagome smiled as the wind rushed against her cheeks, the sun peeking from behind the morning clouds.

She opened her eyes. There in front of her lay the rocks – she had hopped on the train late last night. She wanted to see the cropping one last time before her article came out, tomorrow, on the front page of the Sunday paper.

It was early fall and cool, she had dressed smartly; skinny jeans, a long sleeve white cotton tee under a cream colored wool duster, which she wrapped up around her neck as she climbed the small hill. She was thankful she had opted for her Sorel boots instead of the fashion sneakers that lay in her room at the town's bed and breakfast, as the ground was wet with dew and slippery.

Her mind wandered to her mother, who had grown up in a similar small town in the countryside. There had also been a small outcropping of rocks that the locals fondly looked after. Her mother had always told her stories of the rocks how on special nights throughout the year the local women would dress in white and visit them.

She had called her mother before leaving the bed and breakfast that morning. Her mother was happy to hear from her daughter and proud of her for the work she had done. Kagome was close to her mother; she had only moved out a year before and still talked to her on the phone every day, seeing her every weekend.

Since she had taken up this article, Kagome's mother shared stories of her experience with rocks in the town she grew up in. She said there were many different tales of things happening surrounding the rocks and that there were different croppings throughout the countryside that all had different "abilities". Some were said to help you speak to a deceased loved one, some were said to give you strength before going into a battle, some were supposed to provide a bountiful harvest, but they all had one thing in common, there was something deeply spiritual and ancient about each one and no one knew where they came from if they were a natural phenomenon or built by people long, long ago.

Kagome's mother told her that the space, air, feeling around the rocks was always different than a small distance away. There was a power to them and she warned Kagome to be careful, sense that power and respect it.

Falling out of her thoughts, Kagome realized she had made it to the top of the small hill. It seemed slightly cooler and the wind had picked up. She brought her wool sweater tighter around her neck and pulled her arms slightly in the sleeves hoping to warm herself against the growing wind.

The rock formation spanned the top of the small hill, five large stones about as tall as she was surrounded seven smaller stones. They were a dark weathered gray with veins of what almost looked to be obsidian. Stepping through the outer stones, Kagome circled the smaller stones nestled inside. Even though they were smaller than their counterparts they were the size of large boulders, close together creating a tight ring, it reminded Kagome of a large well.

"Maybe a well for a giant…" Kagome thought and smiled at herself.

As she slowed in front of the lowest inner stone the wind picked up even more, circling inside of the large stones around the smaller stones as she had. She realized even though the wind grew in strength there was almost no sound. No sound to the wind, no birds, no planes flying overhead. The silence made Kagome's heart beat faster.

As her heartbeat quickened, a headache started at the nape of her neck, growing with intensity as the wind did. Kagome squinted up at the grey sky to see how fast the clouds were moving and if there was a storm coming in. The clouds were sill. Kagome thought how odd that was given the new force of the wind, that they would seem unmoving.

The pain in her head continued to grow and Kagome moved her hand to shield her eyes from the dull morning light. She could feel the wind at her back, pushing her, egging her closer to the inner circle.

"Kagome"

The faint whisper caused her to remove her hand and open her eyes wide, she quickly turned around expecting to find one of the townspeople on the hill with her, the whisper must have been them calling out and their voice getting caught in the strength of the wind.

No one was there.

Suddenly a great gust of wind hit her in the chest, and though she tried to keep her balance, she began to fall backwards. A bright flash of light encompassed her as she fell, too bright to keep her eyes open against it she finally forced her eyes tightly shut.

- break -

Something was wrong, she felt as though she had been falling for more than the few seconds it would have taken her to hit the ground over the shortest rock she had been standing in front of. It was black around her, darker than if she had simply had her eyes closed, she needed to open her eyes, to see what had happened.

The pain in her head had subsided except in one area on the back of her skull. "Great, I probably hit my head against one of the rocks when I fell." Kagome groused internally. Slowly opening her eyes, the weather appeared to be the same, except that now the wind was still and the birds were chirping.

As she sat up she thought there was more growth around the rocks and more trees. "Maybe I just didn't notice them on my way up the hill because I was thinking about what Momma had said." Kagome thought to herself.

Standing slowly she took in her surroundings. Turning there was a forest where a field had been, she couldn't make out the town below and something about the world seemed more natural, less developed.

Shaking her head, Kagome thought, "How hard did I hit my head? Am I actually awake? Are the stones trying to tell me something? Why they need to be saved?"

Turning back to look at the small cropping of rocks she placed herself in front of the smallest one again. She knew if she turned around and continued on a course from that rock down the hill that it should lead her to the town below, or the town that had been below.

Kagome set off on her journey back to the town, but she knew in her heart that something wasn't right. Everything seemed so different, she felt out of place, like she didn't belong. The vegetation was too dense; there were too many trees. Continuing on her path she thought she heard a branch break. "Is someone following me? Ugh, don't be such a city girl, its probably just an animal, you're in nature." Kagome shook her head, rolling her eyes at herself.

She continued on at a slightly faster pace, the hairs on the back of her neck standing to attention. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Letting out an earth-shattering scream, she whipped around; her eyes were as large as saucers, her mouth wide and her pale skin ashen.

A man stood there, an off-putting grin on his lips. He was above average height, maybe six feet tall, his jet black hair had a wave to it and was pulled away from his face at the nape of his neck, his eyes were dark and unsettling, he wore an army uniform, a red coat – "He's part of the British army! Maybe I stumbled upon a reenactment? Were there any wars where battles where close to here? Why is he still grinning?" Questions poured through Kagome's mind. She finally shut her mouth and her eyes diminished from their saucer like appearance.

"Hello."

"Hello?" Kagome said to the man.

"What are you doing out here all by yourself miss?"

"I, uh," Kagome stuttered, "Dammit Kagome! Think!" Kagome started again, "I was out for a morning walk, I wanted to see the rocks."

"Without an escort? These are dangerous times miss." He smiled at her; she could tell the smile was supposed to be intimidating. "What is your name?"

"My name is Kagome, and I was just returning to town."

"Is your husband or intended waiting there for you?" He was now mere inches from her as his words slowly finished.

"I was returning to my mother and brother. They are expecting me." Kagome hoped her lie would at least allow her to get back to the town. It couldn't be more than a mile at this point.

"Hmmm, so no husband and no intended and your brother let you go out alone?"

"Shit." Kagome kicked herself. "How am I going to get out of this? I need to get back to the town and his ideas about a woman being alone are definitely not current ideas…"

She let a smile pass her lips, "Maybe if I seem unhinged he will let me go? But then he could think I'm a witch, or worse…"

"I believe you wear this odd men's clothing to hid you are a woman, or maybe you are not from here, but no woman should be out in the woods by herself. May I escort you back to the town?" He extended his arm for her to loop hers through.

"I'm sure my brother would appreciate a gentlemen escorting his sister home."

"Good, let us begin to journey back."

Kagome hesitantly wrapped her arm around his and they started off. There was something creepy about him, he was definitely older than she was, but he looked like he had lived in the lap of luxury, not out on the battlefield. And yet, he had an air about him that would convince anyone he had killed hundreds of men single handedly. It was unnerving.

They walked in silence until they happened upon a stream. Kagome recognized it; "If I follow this stream back it will take me directly to the town. I had been walking maybe fifteen minutes before he startled me, we've been walking probably another fifteen minutes, so if we are at the stream, that means we have, ugh… probably at least another hour, if not more at the pace we are keeping."

The stream ran down a small ravine below the path they were on. "Would you like to stop and take a drink?" He suggested.

She didn't want to, but Kagome smiled. "What a generous offer, but you've already spent so much time with me and we have quite a walk ahead of us, I don't want to waste your time."

"My dear," he bowed, "it would be my pleasure."

He had been kind to her up until this point, but Kagome could not shake the feeling that something wasn't right, either about the situation or him she still wasn't sure. But he hadn't been forward, his words had been slightly course, but she couldn't run away from him screaming just because of that. "Ok." She almost whispered, taking a deep breath.

He removed her arm from his and jumped down into the small ravine ahead of her. With solid footing he turned and raised a hand to her. She gingerly took his outstretched hand and began to shift her weight. As she started to lower herself into the ravine she lost her footing and began to fall forwards. The man caught her but she fell against his chest. He pushed his body against hers, almost grinding as he pinned her against the natural wall of the ravine, his lips at her ear, "I knew you were nothing more than a common whore. Pretending to fall so you could rub your body against mine. You thought I would be an easy target, right? A military man, away from home, I must be able to pay you handsomely. But I don't pay, what did you say your name was? Ah yes, Kagome, a pretty name for an average whore, I don't pay for what I can freely take."

He laughed then, at her wide eyes. He held her wrists above her head and looked at her, a blackness growing in his eyes she hadn't seen before. "Shit, oh, shit Kagome! What have you gotten yourself into? You didn't need to be nice, you should have acted crazy, you should have run, you knew where you were going you could have gotten to the town and hidden."

Finally realizing her situation and how dire it was, she screamed. "I am not a whore! I AM NOT A WHORE!" She tried to push him off of her, but it was no use. He was so much bigger than she was and had her in a position that wouldn't allow her to actually cause any harm to him.

"So you like it rough little whore?"

His leg was between hers, he was practically growling, as he looked her over. "Shit, there's no one out there, what am I going to do?"

As she was trying to figure out if she could over power him, she closed her eyes. Maybe if she closed her eyes she would wake up and this would have all just been a terrible nightmare or hallucination she endured after hitting her head on one of the rocks when she fell backwards.

Suddenly, the pressure on her wrists and from his leg between hers was removed. Her eyes shot open.

In front of her stood another man, his back to her. He yelled, "Again Naraku? Can you leave no one who crosses your path alone? Must you always leave a broken person behind?"

"Ah, half-breed," Naraku smirked, "shouldn't you be in hiding?"

The man standing between her and Naraku let out a low warning growl. "Did he just growl?" Kagome thought to herself, "How much damage did that rock do?"

She took in what the man who was now in front of her was wearing, a once white shirt and red plaid kilt "Barefoot? Why is he barefoot? And why does his shirt look kind of like a blouse? Oh my goodness! His hair! Its… its silver?" Kagome opened her mouth slightly in surprise, he was close enough to touch it and she began to reach out, but just as she was about to touch it, he lunged forward.

Naraku let out a hiss. Kagome tried to look over the other man's shoulder to see what had happened. It look there was now blood across her attacker's chest. "Maybe he stabbed him?"

"This isn't over half-breed, you will be mine one day." And with that final statement he ran.

The man who had protected, who has saved her from, "Naraku", Kagome shuddered even thinking his name, turned slowly around. His silver hair caught a few of the sun's rays that had broken through the thick branches of the tree and almost glowed. Kagome looked at his face and her breath caught in her throat. "Oh my, he's… beautiful."

Golden orbs stared at her, almost looking into her soul. The light danced and glistened off of them. His boyish, hey rugged face was something out of a fashion magazine; he was tall and lean, "Beautiful…" she whispered as her eyes closed and she was encased in black once again.

Author's Note: Well, there we go, chapter one complete! I'm looking forward to telling this story. I am using parts of the Outlander story line, but will deviate and twist in some of the Inu Yasha storyline. I'm hoping for fluff and citrus in later chapters, I will have to see where the story takes me. Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you enjoyed it. I plan to update weekly, possibly more frequently depending on how much time I have to write. Until next time!