Chapter 1: Strange Portal
Sarah stared into the strange, silver mass of swirling mist. Her eyes were locked onto the only sanctuary from those that chased her from- "Git 'er!" There came a cry, and then a snort.
Sarah took a deep breath and dove for cover in the mist. A strange thing happened then- she felt herself falling... falling god only knew where. "Feh." There came a grumble from below her, a voice that seemed annoyed at something.
"Inuyasha-" there came another voice, "Inuyasha, look out!"
By then it was to late, Sarah had tumbled out of the portal that had transported her here and landed atop something warm and fuzzy- she caught sight of two adorable ears, and couldn't help but dazedly touch them, "Get the hell off me!"
Sarah was in the air again and landed with a pained, "Oomph!" She glared at him furiously, "Hey! Just what the hell was that for! It wasn't my fault that you stood there like an idiot when I fell!"
"What was that!" The one called Inuyasha stared at her through slitted golden eyes.
"Inuyasha- sit boy!" A girl, about Sarah's age exclaimed from behind the enraged hanyou.
"Kagome, just what the hell was that for!" Sarah watched wide eyed as he glared up at her from inside of a crater formed by his body.
"Just who are you guys?" Sarah glanced between the two rather curiously.
"Lady Kagome!" There was a monk in purple robes fast approaching, a young woman close behind.
The woman wore a strange body armor, and even had a little slip that went over her mouth, she carried a large boomerang. "What happened Kagome, we heard shouting?" The woman had come to a stop before the three, and the monk stood just beside her.
"And, who are you?" The monk looked at Sarah before kneeling before her and grasping her hand, to the girl's astonished horror, "Will you bear my children?"
Enraged Sarah hit him over the head with her satchel, "You idiot, I'm engaged." Her jaw jutted out and she looked at them haughtily, "besides, I asked who they were first- if you ask me I say that you're all just a little bit nutty."
"I'm Kagome." The girl in the skirt replied, "this is Inuyasha, Miroku, and Sango."
"My name is Sarah. And- out of curiousity- where is here?" Sarah asked, glancing around at the thickly placed trees.
"This is called 'Inuyasha's forest." Kagome said, "how did you get here?"
"Ummm..." Sarah pointed upwards at a swiftly disappearing portal, "that would have been my exit I suppose. I dunno, I was in the Underground, trying to get away from these stupid- demons... when suddenly I was here." She smiled as though that explained everything, when she only recieved wondering, confused glances.
"And just what the hell is the 'Underground' anyway?" Inuyasha scoffed.
"Forget it." Sarah sighed, turning away from the group, "I'll find my way home, no need to pester you're oh so busy group- ta ta!" She began to walk lightly away, only to feel a hand grasp at her arm.
"No, wait." Kagome said, "why don't you join us for a while? Until you find a way home at least?"
"I wouldn't want to intrude." She glared pointedly at Inuyasha.
"It's no trouble, really." Sango's voice was nearly lost behind the mask.
Sarah nodded in consent at last, "Fine, I will join-" What the hell was that? A strange feeling had torn through her mind, something powerful was approaching quickly, Kagome seemed to note it lightly.
"I sense a jewel shard!" Kagome exclaimed, pointing southeast, "It's that way!"
"Then what are we waiting for?" Inuyasha knelt down and allowed Kagome to crawl onto his back.
There was a strange flash from behind her, and suddenly Sango and Miroku were on the back of a large cat. "What the-" She whispered to herself.
"Are you coming or not?" Inuyasha seemed rather impatient.
"You guys go on ahead, I won't be to far behind." She smiled secretly and darted into the trees, a moment later she knew that they had left as she made her way a little to the left of where Kagome had pointed, they would get there in time, possibly even ahead of herself. Sarah felt drawn to the mysterious force, and could not explain as to why.
When she came to the area where that strange force was emmitting from, she found that they had in fact arrived before her and were now locked in combat with a large- Snake demon. Sarah shuddered but stepped forward from the cover of the trees, she did not want to be seen as a coward after all.
The beast saw her and tore after the prone girl, hissing as Inuyasha clung too it's back, his sword buried in the scaly flesh. Sarah leapt to the side just in time as it tore past her, although it rounded faster than she had expected and soon had it's scaly length pressed around her. Inuyasha was in the air in seconds, "Wind-"
"Inuyasha!" Kagome cried, "You can't do that, Sarah is right there!"
Sarah looked into the beasts eyes and saw- hatred, hatred so deep that it made her shudder, "You girl, you have the jewel of realmssss, how issss it that a puny girl such assss yoursssself came to possssessss it?"
"What the hell is the 'jewel of realms'?" Sarah gasped out, struggling against the demon's grasp.
"The Jewel of Realmssss wassss created at the joining of the passsst, pressssent, and future. It wassss created with the power of many Ssssacred Jewelssss, by a great priesssstessss who married a monk." The demon began, "The two were killed in a battle to protect all three realmssss, but before they died, they placed all of their power into a ssssingle jewel."
Sara sighed heavily, "And who's to say that I have it, hn?"
"It'ssss there, I can ssssmell it on you." He hissed, flicking his tongue at her.
Sarah's face contorted with anger that had been previously suppressed, "Get the hell off of me!" She shouted, burying her teeth into the scaly mass that surrounded her.
There was a hiss of pain and the body recoiled away from her, allowing her to scramble backwards as once more Inuyasha flung himself forward, "Wind Scar!" He cried, the body was shortly incinerated, leaving behind a glowing shard that caught Sarah's eye.
Kagome stepped forward and picked it up as Sarah began to furiously wipe at her mouth, "Ugh! That was so vile! I can't believe that I bit that damned thing!" Sarah leaned over, gagging momentarily as she attempted to remove the flavor from her mouth.
"You idiot!" Inuyasha was shouting at her, "Why did you just stand there?"
"Maybe because my attention was on the fluttering figure that rode helplessly upon it's back!" Sarah shouted in return, clenching her fist.
She began to feel light headed but said nothing about it as she walked with the group, knowing that she had nowhere else to go. "Hey!" Miroku said suddenly, "I've just remembered a deadly attribute to that particular snake demon- it secretes a deadly poison through it's skin so-" His gaze fell upon Sarah, who had begun to pointedly stumble, "I don't think that it was smart for either of you to have touched it." His gaze moved to Inuyasha who looked at him in a slightly dazed bewilderment that turned to rage.
"You idiot, why the hell didn't you remember that sooner?" Inuyasha stopped moving and began to sway on his feet, aqcuiring a rather fevered look that caused his eyes to grow dim as he collapsed, lost within feverish nightmares.
Sarah was panting heavily as she turned and beheld the scene of an unconscious Inuyasha, "What happened to..." She collapsed before being able to finish her sentance.
The next few days passed in a blur to Sarah- there was always a cool cloth pressed to her forehead, and at times a sickly sweet concoction would be poured down her throat. More often than not she was pitched into the terrifying world of nightmares. There would always be some haunting face, long forgotten, that loomed near the surface of her memories, Jareth, why was it so important that she find her way back to him? Oh, right, she was engaged. Toby- she had to see him, "Have to see... Toby." She murmured aloud once, opening her eyes weakly, why was she so weak now? What had happened to make her so violently ill? She knew then why she had awoken. Sarah crawled across the hard ground, digging her fingers into the ground as she moved- and suddenly whatever had been in her stomach was forced up as the poor girl wretched.
"Ah! Sarah!" The voice of a young woman called, and suddenly Sarah felt herself being pulled into a sitting position, "here, drink this." The voice was soothing and Sarah sipped from some strange cup- water, water that seemed to soothe her aching throat.
"Jareth." She mumbled, "Must-" And then she collapsed again.
How long she was in such a pitiful state of health, Sarah never knew, but when next she had a sane, conscious thought, her illness had completely removed itself from her body. It was late- the middle of the night perhaps- she sat up shakily and looked around at the exhausted forms of Miroku, Sango, and Kagome, a small form slept in the crook of her arms, and when Sarah stood she took note that it was a child with the tail of a fox.
Sarah stood, holding herself upright against a tree for several minutes before stepping into the bushes to relieve herself. Returning from that Sarah lay before the fire, closer than before, it had grown chilly, and in a sudden wave of exhaustion slept until late the next afternoon.
Her eyes snapped open suddenly, at the feel of icy fingers upon her forehead, "I think she's better!" The relieved words of-
"Kagome?" Sarah murmured, looking sleepily up at the girl, "What's going on?"
"You're awake?" Kagome was surprised for a moment, "That's good, you're getting well again- but you still need to rest for a few more days."
"What?" Sarah forced herself into a sitting position, her gaze once more falling upon the kitsune, "Who's that?" She pointed shakily at him.
"My name is Shippo!" He said proudly.
"Wow, you're really cute!" Sarah smiled and reached out to stroke his tail.
He seemed to like her and stepped closer, "I wasn't here before because Kagome left me with Kaede." He said rather dejectedly.
"We didn't mean to be gone so long Shippo! Really!" Kagome appeared to be trying to make ammends.
"Who is K-Kaede?" Sarah asked softly.
"She is the Priestess of the nearby village- we would have taken you and Inuyasha there, but currently the poor people are facing an epidemic- a strange illness that has spread to all, save Kaede." Kagome said softly, "It's going away now, but she doesn't want to take any chances on bringing you to get treated for one thing, only to begin suffering from another."
Sarah nodded slowly and lay back down, the very excursion of holding herself up having exhausted her weakened muscles.
A/N: Well, there's chapter one of the sequal, I hope you guys liked it, I myself thought that it was horrible, but, you may have different views, ne? Don't forget to review for me!
Well, Ja ne!
Aka-chan
