Disclaimer : I do not own or claim anything related to Inuyasha, or Rumiko Takahashi.

Time is Not Your Friend

Chapter four: Something Wrong?

She could smell the spring in the air, and grew excited. It was always her favorite time of the year. A small warm breeze blew gently through the opened house, caressing her pale skin, ruffling the dark hues of her silk kimonos. She loved the smells of the flowers that came out at this time, the early morning dew, and the feelings of renewal, of life. How ever, she mostly loved that she was visited by a turnabout of events. Capered and pampered, loved and enjoyed. She had seen that this was the last spring she would see here at her Family's home. This Danno line was about to be cut off from life, extinct. She could only smile though.

Her beloved killed so many, more head counts then possible to keep track of, her own blood even. She was not frightened or felt remorse from it however. He could kill her siblings, Lord Hiroshi, her Father, even those poor innocent maids that only loved her. She saw it as his own way of showing his affection for her. Just his own way of loving. She knew it was probably wrong of her to think like such, but when in love, thinking is prone to dive deep into such type of abysses.

She pulled out her flute, wooden, with two magenta stripes. Her lips were not painted this day, but her eyes were with magnificent meaning. Majo. This year she was officially a Majo, and she would dare dress it, even though the petty threats from her family coursed brighter and heavier now that she did.

They thought her an evil one, corrupt, how else could she bewitch the almighty Inu Taiyoukai, The infamous Lord of the West, Lord Sesshoumaru. He who was famed for not only his succession of power, but his hatred of all humans.

But this could not be true, mere lies and rumors. Just last spring he had taken her to some small village, Edo, to visit some child he had raised. Rin-san was her name. She was an elderly Lady now, whom she had gotten along well with. And beside her, he had many a time made love to her. A human no doubt.

A smile drilled its way onto her lips, cruel and bitter this one was as she thought to the dream she had bore just that night, of her Father, whose false claims for love were about to end. Before the next spring he would be a pile of festering rotting pile of flesh, devoured by maggots. She thought not of the wife he had, her own mother, the one whom she had gotten her 'bad blood' from was long since dead.

Oh how she loved Sesshoumaru. . .

The eleven year old Sam awoke with beads of sweat crowning her forehead, a confused look on her face. She had been having these weird dreams for the past year. She hadn't hadn't known what had started them either, and she told no one about them. Some were stranger then others, like the one where she had dreamt that the girl in 7th year would be too sick during their Exam Season, and it had actually happened. Or when their house cat Yon, had kittens, two black and three calico, a few weeks later Yon had brought said dreamt of kittens to the house. . .

She had turned a swift ten years old here at the Higurashi shrine, her first celebrated birthday, followed by a year of hard work, learning the language as best as she could, keeping grades up in school. She loved it here, by her eleventh birthday, just a few weeks ago, she had invited her two close friends, Kyo and Shihan, twins that absolutely adored her. The two boyish looking girls were extremely protective of their tinier lady like best friend. So even though there wasn't any bullies at school, she would have been well protected from such.

Sam was very proud here though as well, no one ever made fun of her, picked on her or anything. Everyone was always very accepting and helping, respectful. With the help of her friends and new family she learned the language fast and quite easy. It was as if she was just a natural language learner. She loved the language, so there for it was easy to learn she guessed.

Her other grades were good as well, she loved learning in the classroom, even when she has trouble keeping up with the teachers. One of her favorite classes was Ongaku , Music class. She was excellent at playing the recorder, the notes just seemed to come to her. She couldn't wait until she was able to join one of the clubs for Ongaku so she could play something a little more also favored the History class, Shakai. It was more or so like a travel class often times because they took many field trips. It was a fun class for sure.

She looked forward to coming home from school days too. It was always either Kagome or Inuyasha that picked her up and walked her home. And sometimes when Inuyasha did he would often times ask how her day was. It was warming that he was thoughtful like that when usually he seemed quite dense. Upon coming home, Kagome would either be cleaning or sorting things in one of the many sheds around the property. She had met her grandmother, Kun-Loon, the day after she had moved in, she too lived in the Main House. But wasn't often seen unless in the kitchen or painting in one of the back rooms, she traveled to other shrines, visiting them. She had taught Sam to call her Obaa-chan or just Baa-chan though.

Sam finished brushing her teeth, still having to stand on her tipsy toes to look in the mirror, two years later. At eleven years of age she was still a tiny child. She gave a small sigh, brushing her long black hair before braiding it back, something she started recently. It pulled all the hair from her face, so people could see it. Kagome nagged about showing her eyes off too, said they were too pretty and unique to hide away. She had nice clothes now, a full closet and wore a night shirt at the moment how ever, it wasn't a school day, so she was going to lay back, maybe.

She slowly stepped down all the stairs, humming something she must have made up, until she got to the kitchen. Kagome and Obaa-chan and were making breakfast, so she went to help set up the table.

"Good morning Mom, good morning Grannie." She said in Japanese, she nearly always spoke so now.

"Morning Sam! Did you sleep well?" Kagome asked pleasantly, Baa-chan smiling in her greeting. With a nod from Sam,

"Yeah, just dreaming weird still." Sam looked like she had been caught, a hand going to her mouth like she had an itch.

"What dreams?" Kagome asked, she hadn't known that Sam was dreaming . . . she thought about those paper charms her Gramps had made to keep bad dreams away. . .

"Oh . . nothing too important, just silly dreams . . .you know . . . kids have those." She was trying to get out of telling her that they were all Feudal themed, and she was always in dressed formally and always thinking about someone. Or how she had dreamed of things that ended up happened shortly after. She knew it was weird to have these strange dreams and also about a man she had never met, and quite frankly it was really embarrassing to her; but no luck for her, Kagome turned around, letting her own mother handle attending the food.

"What dreams Samantha?" Uh oh .. her full name, she would have to comply. Unless she could wit her way out it of course.

"Why is it important? Just dreams. . .You are acting like I am in trouble or something. . ."

"Sam, you aren't in trouble . . ."

She gulped, looking up at her, a gleam in her Mothers eye that told her something was wrong however.

"They are silly, just some woman." Real vague, good. Or she had thought, but Kagome had wiped her hands off, and walked towards Sam, grabbing her by the hand and walking her out onto the the kitchen side porch.

"Sam, it's important for you to tell me these things. You have to trust me on this, ok?" Sam thought about it and it made her wonder why, what could be so important. She knew that she was adopted into a 'strange' family, her mom was some kind of Priestess, a Miko. She often did spiritual things for others, healing and such. It was her job she figured.

She sighed, nodding however, she could only give in to her. So she told her of last night's dream, but left out a few details, she then told her vaguely of some other recounts of things that had happened. She looked up and she saw Kagome's eyes were wide.

"The man's name, the uh, the lady's father, the lord, what was his name?"

"Hiroshi?" Kagome's mouth flew open, "His surname?" She sounded almost hysterical.

/-/

"Um . .Danno I think? Yeah . . Danno." Kagome looked so shocked, and I hadn't even had to tell her that Sesshoumaru had been the man that the lady had longed for.

"Oh my . . . .I have to . . .go get. . ." She trailed off, running back inside. I heard her run up the stairs, but I wasn't worried too much. Ok so it was odd that her reaction was so dramatic . . . it was more confusing then anything.

I went to the table, Baa-chan smiling waving for me to go ahead and eat. I must have sat down in a manner that said I was upset, cause Baa-chan took a seat next to me and placed a soft hand on my shoulder.

"Everything is ok sweetheart, just you eat, so you can grow taller." My face relaxed into an expression I often had around her. She could put two exactly opposite things in one sentence and make it work . . .crazy. With a smile I went ahead and began to eat, Sota coming in from outside. He washed his hands and sat at the table, there was stomping upstairs and weird shouts.

"Um . . .are they ok up there? They aren't fighting again are they? I refuse to fix anymore walls this week. . . " He said in his soft voice, shaking her head, his dark brown medium length hair mussing up more.

This followed with Kagome running down the stairs after Inuyasha, who looked ready to eat the table. He sat down, with a huffing Kagome on his tail. The table was quiet for breakfast, a first in this house. I wasn't sure what was going on, but I felt really bad for some reason. Like someone was missing from the table. It was weird. Even more odd was the looks Inuyasha kept giving me, and Kagome whispering to him. I scooted towards the ever calm and accepting Baa-chan, she would protect me.

Protect me? Where had that come from? I suddenly had the oddest of feelings, like I was being watched . . . .and I looked straight at Inuyasha, catching his golden eyes. They went wide, and the food dropped from his mouth, and Kagome looked to me, her own blue eyes following suit.

"Ok, what?" My voice was stark and angry, but so was my feelings. I was not ready for this stuff. What was wrong?

"Have I developed some kind of horn on my head? Am I growing tiger stripes?" I accentuated these with hand movements, but nothing quite prepared me for Sota's comment,

"Your eyes are glowing."

Ok, that was it, I stood up and apologized to Baa-chan, and then left the table. I went upstairs, and not knowing what compelled me to do so, I went to the bathroom to debunk such mouth flew open at the sight I saw in the too tall mirror.

"They are glowing!" Inuyasha was right behind me, he picked me up and sat me on the counter, I was too short to keep eye contact with comfortably I guess. I tried to not look at him, reverting my eyes downward like I used to.

"You have been dreaming of my brother haven't you?" My face flushed, I could feel it. He sighed heavily and ran a hand through his long silvery hair. I wondered how he had known.

"What does he look like?" What a silly question.

"I don't know, I haven't met him, how would I know?" He looked me straight in my eyes, making me flinch.

"You have always been such a smart ass with me. Your dreams, what does he look like in them? It's important Himi-" He cut himself off, his hands clenching.

He was going to call me Himitsu wasn't he? My look must have been simmering, cause he looked away, giving me space to think hard.

"I really can't . . .remember. It's foggy around him. Like something is masking him from my sight. Something is wrong, someone doesn't want him seen . . . " Whoa . . .where had that come from. I felt Inuyasha's eyes on me again, and this time, I was starting to freak out. How could I know these things? Also, I could feel him there. I jumped when I suddenly felt another presence. Presence?

"Kagome?" This startled all of us, and I became scared, and couldn't help the stupid tears that started to spill from my eyes. What was going on?

She came into the bathroom, and upon seeing my tears she came to me, wiping them away with her sleeve. She hugged me, rocking me.

"Sam, it's ok, just . . .this is all really weird, I know. I'm going to figure it out." This didn't help my confusion or frights of it all, but at least it was something.

The next day was a pleasant and sunny day. Perfect for working outside in fact. Sota offered to start a garden, if Sam wanted to help him, she was grateful, knowing that this would give her a chance to get her mind of things. They worked all morning plowing a square with hoes, sweat and hunger working its way into them. Kagome went with Baa-chan to another local Shine, to ask about a few things. She could only guess what about.

She and Sota decided to take a break, he smiled kindly at her,

"Hey Hard woker, how about we go find some cold tea and make some sandwiches?" She smiled, nodded back,

"Sounds like a great idea. I'm starving." He laughed, nodding to that. He looked down at her dirty sneakers and laughed again,

"You better tie your shoes better, you are going to trip and fall." She looked down to see her shoe laces untied mostly. She shrugged it off however.

They came back out about 30 minutes later, finishing off their sandwiches. They sat down for a few more minutes before getting up, and beginning their tedious work of plowing by hand. Suddenly the end of Sam's hoe broke off, and she just sort of stared at it.

"Sota?" He looked to her, her face solemn. She pointed to the broken tool, and he started to laugh.
"There is another one in the shed over there." He pointed to somewhere behind him, and she got up to go search. She looked, and saw that there were several 'sheds' and her face grew flat.
"Great . . .. " She opened one up, peeking inside, it was dark and dusty, but nothing but a bunch of old pots.

"Not here." She tried the next one over, and it was stacked full of boxes. She sighed, going to the one behind it. It was bigger, and looked like it was more then just a storage shed. She didn't think that it would be in there but her curiosity wanted to check it out. She put her hand to the old wooden slide doors, feelings enveloped her. It scared her a little, but she felt like she should open it.

And she did, it made a loud creaking sound, and she rushed a looked over her shoulder to see if Sota had come to look. Nothing, she let out a sigh of relief. She went into the building, leaving the doors open for light. She looked around, it was just an empty building, there were stairs, and she walked down them. She saw the large pieces of ply wood over the middle of the floor, and she walked to it. She stepped on it, and it buckled a little. . . .there was a hole? She pulled one of the pieces over the the side, her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth at the effort, the wood being a little too heavy for her small frame. She uncovered a small corner of what looked like an old dried up well.

"Cool . . . " Damp air could be smelled coming from it, and something else . . .

It smelled bad though, really bad. Something rotten, and old. Had some animal crawled down there and died? She shivered, the thought of maggots grossing her out. She heard Sota calling, and panicked suddenly. She didn't want to be caught in here. She rushed out, over to the stairs, but forgot the wood. She had to put it back.

"Ugh, it's so heavy . . . " She tried her best to pic up the edge, but on her way to sliding it over . . .her foot stepped on an untied shoe lace, and she fell head first. She put her free hand in front of her to block her face from the edge of the well . . but to her horror she kept falling in tot he dark depths of it! She had fallen in it, her hand the first thing to hit the bottom, her head the second, and thus 'lights were out' for her.