[The Dog General's Tomb]

Looking up Kagome was met with a now familiar flat golden gaze. "You!" She gasped. She couldn't bring herself to be frightened of him as she was in their first encounter in the alley. Even if it was just a dream the night before he had saved her, and it felt so realistic that night she wasn't sure it was a dream.

Feeling strangely safe in his grasp despite the turbulent winds around them she clutched tight to his shirt, clinging closer to him. Her eyes trailed over the tense muscles in his shoulder to his hand, the only place keeping them anchored to the room and preventing them from being sucked into the vortex created by the black pearl. Despite the ease reflected in his face she could see the way the muscles in his forearm twitched and strained, and his knuckles were white from the tension of holding onto the slippery door jam.

She could both feel and hear the animalistic rumbling growl of frustration as his claw tipped fingers slipped from the metal, leaving think lines of silver where the paint scraped away in their wake.

Kagome shut her eyes against the strange feeling of vertigo washing over her. A cloudy mist and a dark light engulfed their wind swept forms, pulling them through the thin walls between one world and the next. Strong arms held her tight to the silver haired man's still rumbling chest, keeping her from being pulled off into the ocean of chaotic energy between the planes. They were pulled on their own jet stream of magic until she no longer felt as if she were in a tumbler but falling strait down.

A clawed hand caught the deceptively strong neck of a skeletal crane and swung them both to stand on the flat of it's back, and stopping their downward descent. Peeking around while still clutching to her companion's shirt she took in her surroundings. The skies were gray and murky, matching the layer of clouds obscuring the ground from their view. The skeletal birds filled the sky a aplenty, dotting the gray backdrop with their stark white bones. In the distance a giant armored skeleton loomed over the ground like a macabre undead monument to a once great king.

The muscles beneath her hands was still and tense, speaking of the agitation and aggrevation of her silent partner. Unsettled by her uncertainty Kagome felt the need to speak and seek answers.

"Where is this place?" She ventured.

Her companion's feet shifted, seemingly steering the bird closer to the looming armored skeleton. "The netherworld," he answered stiffly.

Kagome gasped as a sense of despair washed over her. They were in the netherworld.. that could only mean one thing. Right? "Are we dead?" She asked, her voice trembling as she balanced on the verge of tears.

"No," came the terse reply. His arm came up to grasp the back of her shirt and he pulled her some him like a collared puppy. Small hands clutched at his arm trying to hold on, the hand holding her shirt now the only thing give her a minute grasp on balance. Suddenly Kagome was incredibly frightened again, if she wasn't dead yet would she be so soon? Would he let her fall? She searched his flat gaze for her answer and found it. He had no reason not to... and somehow she had instated his ire full force with one or more of her actions.

"You," he hissed, "are not dead yet." He paused and shook her slightly for good measure. "But you have doomed someone else to a worser fate with your meddling." He pushed down on her back as he pulled her behind him and her shocked body complied. Kagome held tight to the crisp white bones of the bird as she shook off the residual tendrils of fear.

They were closer to the giant tomb skeleton now, but still a ways away. The subtle shifts as the bird waned to the will of the silver haired figure atop its back and flew towards their destination went unnoticed by Kagome. Her thoughts rambled on and ran together in an incomprehensible mess as she tried to find where his accusations sprouted from. She found nothing.

"What do you mean? I didn't do anything to harm any one... I just..," she paused in a moment of clarity, "is this about that boy? The one pinned to the wall?"

He nodded stiffly, "He is trapped there now. The only method I knew of for his safe revival is barred."

Kagome chewed her bottom lip in a show of indecision before she reached forward to tug on the khaki material of her companion's pant leg. "I... I know you don't like me, but I was only trying to help. I wanted to set him free... I was trying to figure out how... but I think it would be best, now that we're stuck here together, if you explained some of this to me. A good place to start would probably be your name?"

Cold golden eyes perused her sitting form from over a broad shoulder. "Sesshoumaru." He stated simply. "And the boy is Inuyasha."

She nodded, "So.. Why is he stuck there? In that place? And did you seal him there? I had this weird dream..," his hand came up to cease her rambling so he could answer her questions. She was right, she was pulled into this and now stuck in this world until they found a way out so she deserved to know the story thus far.

"He is of Hanyou blood," he paused to see if she understood the significance of the statement but only say confusion in her cerulean gaze so he pressed on. "The youkai half of his blood makes his disposition unstable, it can override his human conscious mind and turn him into a rabid beast. An enemy of his sought to use the weakness of his blood to their advantage and awoke his violent nature. As his elder brother it was my responsibility to see that he didn't cause unnecessary havoc. The only solution I could come up with was to seal him until I found a way to subdue his youkai blood."

"That's aweful..," Kagome mumbled. "How'd they do it? Stir up his youkai side I mean..."

He sighed while still deftly steering their mount and resigned himself to a longer conversation than he would like. "The mist emitted by the pipes that cloud the alley. It causes mild confusion and often panic in humans, and has no effect on full youkai like myself. But to Hanyou it is detrimental to say the least. His enemy, a youkai known as Mistress Centipede, continues to keep the alleyway filled with the mist making it impossible for me to set him free safely. I would attack her... but she is illusive and has evaded my efforts in tracking her down. I found a provision our father made for Inuyasha before he passed, a sword that would quell his blood. But I had no way of reaching it without Inuyasha."

Kagome nodded, "So where is this sword?"

Sesshoumaru gritted his teeth. "It's here... and as far as I know the only way to reach this place was through the pearl you unleashed," his accusing gaze fell on her again, "The pearl can only be used once. And since Inuyasha isn't here to release the sword from it's seal I have no way of obtaining it or bringing it back to him, he will be trapped in his sealed state forever."

Kagome whimpered in both sympathy and guilt as she realized the magnitude of her flub. As she was lost in a downward spiral of remorseful thoughts their skeletal transportion landed on the giant shoulder plate of the massive Tomb.

"We have arrived. I believe the only way back to the plane of the lving will be through here, let us not dawdle." And he stepped smoothly from the creatures back and calmly plodded down the smooth lines of the armor and ribcage to reach the bottom of the tomb while Kagome clumsily followed.