A/N: It has recently been brought to my attention, the differences between the Romanization between two common Japanese terms; Taiyoukai and Daiyoukai. I've discovered that the Romanization "taiyoukai" is incorrect in all ways, and thus will be using the Romanization "daiyoukai" throughout the rest of this story, and apologize to anyone this improper terminology may have insulted. It has been farther brought to my attention that "daiyoukai" is a Japanese term meaning "large, great demon" or more commonly "demon lord", due to unknowing what this meant, I have been incorrectly using Japanese terms in an English tale, and will attempt to be using only English from now on, though likely I will mistakenly type "daiyoukai" or "taiyoukai" a few times. Again, I apologize for this improper use. Anyways, I know you're all very eager to read the next chapter and so here you go, enjoy.

The suffocating blackness seemed only to gain mass as it inched toward the young priestess, grappling at the hem of her red and white ensemble. Frightened, she whacked at it with the bow that was suddenly in her hands, but the inky black only used it as leverage to pull itself closer to her. "Ewwww!" She cried, swatting at it with more enthusiasm, "Getoffgetoffgetoff!" She cried, when all of a sudden a brilliant ray of light sliced through the blackness. She hurried towards it, surprised that the darkness grappling at the lower half of her ensemble didn't give her any trouble as she easily stepped through it and was soon jogging for the ray of light. A flash of red made her heart race, InuYasha! InuYasha came to save me! She thought, excitedly, before reality crashed down, crushing all hope and her step faltered. InuYasha was with his very pregnant wife, he wasn't going to be running after her anymore. She'd come to a complete stop outside the shine of light, now, and jumped when the image of a child appeared. The only thing her mind would comprehend the gray haired little girl as, was something her mind summoned up for InuYasha and Kikyo's unborn daughter. But something just did not add up, the pointed dog-eared little girl before her looked nothing like her half-demon companion or like Kikyo. She knew nothing about demon genetics and thus was unsure it was possible for the white haired half-demon to produce a gray-haired child. The little girl gave her a wide grin; her eyes were closed, and waved enthusiastically towards her. Suddenly, the light blinked out and came back on a moment later, the happiness gone from the child's features, filled instead with fear. She was reaching out for the priestess, but the priestess did not notice, her eyes were locked with the child's wide, frightened, unnaturally bright, unnaturally aquatic-colored eyes. Finally the priestess realized the child was beginning to fade, and dashed forward to grab at her before she disappeared completely.

Kagome sat bolt upright, gasping for breath, before she caught her breath and took in her surroundings. She was inside Kaede's hut, one of the largest huts in the village; it had become her place of residence after the jewel had been completed. She shared the hut with the elderly priestess and a young girl in the village whom Kaede was training to replace her. Kagome had insisted that the old woman take on a proper apprentice since she wasn't exactly sure of her place in the village anymore. Haruka was a sweet, enthusiastic little girl, though she was easily disappointed and had difficulty paying attention to some of the more boring lessons in her study. In the dim light of the little hut, she could see that both Kaede and Haruka were still sound asleep, and so she ran through the events of her very odd dream while she waited for them to awaken. She couldn't make any sense of the events though, who was the gray haired little girl? She felt like she ought to know her from somewhere, but could not place her in her memories. Where had the original flash of red come from? The red she'd thought was InuYasha. How was it all related to that grappling blackness of the beginning of her dream? What had scared the little girl? Shaking her head, she got up, unable to sit still any longer. She quickly donned her priestess clothing, picked up the intricately woven basket at the hut entrance, pushed aside the straw curtain and started out towards the forest for some early herb gathering. Aside from some farmers, not many people were awake, and those that were dipped their heads in respect before returning to their work as she past. She lengthened her path in order to avoid one hut in particular, but she barely even noticed the lengthened path anymore, having become so accustomed to the longer trail. Head partially bowed against the chilly morning breeze, she hurried across the brief open field before disappearing into forest. Pausing to cast one last sorrowful glance back at the village, she had to remind herself that she ought to go home, back to the time she had been born into and not return. She didn't belong here, once upon a time, her place was at InuYasha's side, but not any longer, that space was occupied by his wife. Still, she couldn't shed the feeling that she should belong here. Do I have another part to play? She thought as she turned back to the forest, of course she didn't have another part to play. She'd proven that when she'd insisted that Kaede take Haruka on as an apprentice, hadn't she?

With a quick shake of her head, the young woman cast her gaze off to the sides of the little trail, worn down from four years of constant use, four years of running from the village to the well and back again. It didn't take very long for her to realize she was no longer on the familiar trail, her head snapped up in attempt to recognize something in her surrounding to point her in the right direction to get back. "Maybe… I should have told someone I was out here…" She muttered, when she didn't recognize anything around her. She was in a bog-like setting now, wondering where it had come from. In four years, she'd never known there was even a bog around these parts. That, in itself, should have been more than enough to set put her on edge, but the priestess merely shrugged, spun on her heel, and started back the way she'd come. Or at least she meant to, until she smacked into a tree. "Owe. Okay, that hurt." She grumbled, reaching up to rub at her forehead when the tree quivered and an ominous cackle told her the tree wasn't a tree at all. Oh perfect! Just what I need! She growled inwardly. Demons just didn't scare her the way they used to, maybe it was because she'd just become accustomed to challenges but since the defeat of Naraku, no demon came close to his former caliber. "Excuse me." She stated, pushing past the demon that moved willingly enough, likely too confused to resist.

"Hey! Aren't you scared of me?" The demon she refused to acknowledge barked, grabbing her wrist and spinning her around to face him. Kagome blinked as she finally took in the demon's appearance, he'd taken on the formation of a human-like creature, so he was one of the higher class demons. "Not really, no." She responded, jerking her hand free of his light grip, and trotting off again. She could hear his baffled gurgles behind her and had to bite back a laugh, it wasn't often she got the chance to baffle a demon so easily.

"Well… You still shouldn't walk around here by yourself." The demon added after regaining his composure, falling in step beside Kagome. "It's dangerous, you know?" He commented, dropping his arm around her slim shoulders.

"Thanks, but no thanks. I can find my way back just fine." Kagome groaned, shrugging out from under his heavy arm.

"A pretty girl like you shouldn't be wandering the forest all alone, at least let me guide you back to the forest edge." He persisted.

"I said, I'm capable of making my way back just fine-" Kagome started to argue when another voice cut off whatever she was about to say.

"The priestess is not alone. Release her." She knew that voice a little too well, and it wasn't one she was comfortable with hearing without her – Kikyo's – half-demon protector. "…Sesshoumaru…" She muttered, as soon as the name escaped her lips, the annoying persistent demon took a giant leap away from her. Ookkaayy…? Now I'm confused. She silently commented, but before she could voice any thoughts, the demon lord barked an order that left no room for disobedience; "Come."

"You better go with him, Lord Sesshoumaru isn't known for his patience." The still nameless demon commented, when he noted Kagome's hesitance. Confused, she could only nod meekly and step towards the clearly dominate demon.

E/N: This chapter was going to be longer, but thinking about how I'm going to write the next chapter, this makes for a good stopping point. The strange, random demon staring in this chapter might become a dominate character later on in the tale, but for now, he's just a filler character. Sorry for how short and fairly blunt it is, I had a difficult time writing this chapter having rewrote it at least a dozen times and still it is not fully satisfactory.