Sesshomaru gazed at a girl's lifeless body. The body lay on a road, the only visible parts of which were those in the immediate vicinity.
He did not know where he was.
Without warning the darkness rose, surrounding him in a whirling mass of power before retreating, taking the child with it. Sesshomaru turned his head in time to see the darkness rushing down the path, and followed with no hesitation. He had to save the girl.
He ran down the path for what seemed like hours before he saw the girl again. A giant . . . thing clutched her in its hand. Sesshomaru could not see the features of the creature. It appeared to be made from the darkness itself.
It stood in front of a hole that hung in the air like a reddish black moon, a sign of foreboding. Bodies surrounded the monstrosity. Thousands of bodies piled in heaps. Dead bodies. Was this the Lord of the Underworld, Sesshomaru wondered, as he continued to approach the beast.
He came to a precipice. His prey stood right in front of him, facing the other direction. Killing him would be easy. As soon as Sesshomaru had this thought the creature raised its empty hand. The moon of destruction began to absorb all of the bodies.
He did not have much time before the girl would be sucked in too. Sesshomaru pulled out the Tenseiga, leaped at the beast and brought the sword over his head as he came down.
He sliced the fiend in half. Sesshomaru caught the girl before she hit the ground and waited for her to open her eyes. They stayed closed.
It sunk in without warning. She was dead and he could do nothing to bring her back. The force of the realization caused Sesshomaru to drop his sword and pull the small figure close. He missed the warmth that normally radiated from her.
The remaining bodies, which had escaped the deadly portal, began moving toward Sesshomaru's abandoned sword, stretching their withered limbs to it. They drew closer. Grief held him tight, and Sesshomaru had no will to stop the corpses from taking the only birthright his father had seen fit to leave him. He wanted solitude and time to mourn, but they continued to come closer until . . .
Sesshomaru's eyes flew open. He was panting and a thin layer of sweat lay upon his forehead.
This dream had plagued him for as long as he could remember. He did not know what, if anything, triggered it. It seemed to come of its own volition, stealing into his consciousness like a thief. He detested this dream. It left him feeling powerless, which was unacceptable since those emotions resulted from something as insubstantial as a dream.
He wondered for the millionth time about the identity of the girl. In all his one thousand years of living he had yet to come across anyone who resembled her. There were girls who looked like her, but they lacked a vital element the girl possessed even in death. When he was younger, he had thought the dream a premonition, but time passed and he had never come to care for a woman, let alone a child, the way he did for the one in his dream. Sesshomaru pondered these questions that had dogged him for centuries. A soft pair of lips interrupted his musings.
Kagura. He had forgotten she was there. They had engaged in several rounds of mating before Kagura succumbed to exhaustion. Some of her energy had returned. Her lips continued to move down his chest.
Sesshomaru had been with Kagura for over a decade. He knew that she was waiting for him to make her his mate, and he could not say why he had yet to do so. She suited him in every way.
Kagura reached her destination and with little play took him into her mouth. Sesshomaru closed his eyes in response. When he'd had enough of her teasing, he reached down and pulled her up to him. Kagura nipped at his ears and Sesshomaru had to make a decision: did he feel like going another round or two with Kagura? Or did he want to continue to mule over the dream? The lingering powerlessness and despair provided the answer.
Sesshomaru rolled over and pinned Kagura beneath him. He held her hands by her head while he buried his face in the crook of her neck, inhaling as he entered her. He was rewarded with a moan. Sesshomaru concentrated on losing himself in her body, and felt the after effects of the dream fade from his mind.
