"My lord, sources say that the priestess has left the Western lands on the back of a two-headed dragon. They were headed in the direction of the priestess's village in the East!" The voice came from a guard who was kneeling down before a screen that hid the one that the guard was talking to from view.

"Excellent. Send out the best troops immediately and take her before she can return to the West."

"Yes, my lord!" With that, the guard rose to his feet to see that his master's orders were obeyed.

Kagome was surprised at how quickly she got to Kaede's village. Even so, she had nothing better to do during the journey then think about what Sesshomaru had said. As she thought about it, she had started to acknowledge that maybe she shouldn't have been so rude, especially in front of the children. But that didn't make her feel all that much better. When Ah-Un landed, she slowly slid down off of his back.

"You can wait here, Ah-Un. I'll call for you when I'm ready to leave," she stated, smiling when they nodded to her and proceeded to walk to a tree and lay down in the shade and she turned to walk into the village proper, moving through familiar pathways to Kaede's hut, pushing aside the blind covering the doorway and stepping inside. "Kaede?" she called out, smiling as she noticed the elder woman sitting before her fire pit. "Hello, Kaede," she stated, sitting down before her.

"Kagome! I expected you to return with the others after Naraku's defeat. Where have ye been, child?" Kaede asked as she looked up at Kagome. She ladled some of the stew she had been making into two bowls and offered one to Kagome. "Here, ye must be hungry, child."

Kagome smiled, reaching out to take the bowl and placed it to her lips, sipping lightly at the broth. "Thank you, Kaede! You're right, I was hungry. I had to leave Sesshomaru's palace without finishing my breakfast." She smiled, rather pleased with the lack of formalities here.

"So it is true! Ye have been with Sesshomaru. Miroku and Sango said that you had taken up with InuYasha's brother the last time that they were here." Kaede seemed surprised that what Miroku and Sango had said was indeed a fact. "Why have ye decided to join with Sesshomaru?" The last she had heard, Sesshomaru had been considered an enemy.

Kagome shrugged slightly as she sipped on her stew. "Sesshomaru saved me from… something really bad, and offered to let me come to his palace to clean up a bit." She gave another half-hearted shrug. "He treats me better than InuYasha ever did," she added as somewhat of an afterthought. "Except he's totally an insensitive jerk." She nodded matter-of-factly.

"What do ye mean? Why do ye compare InuYasha and Sesshomaru?" Kaede sipped at her own bowl of stew as she watched Kagome.

"Well, Sesshomaru is kind of… courting me as a potential mate," Kagome told her, sporting a nervous smile as she simply tried to brush it off. "It's no big deal, really." Except it was. Already she had seen more of Sesshomaru then she had ever thought possible. He wasn't the horrible demon that InuYasha had always led her and the others to believe. She stared down into the bowl in her grip and sighed.

"Ye mean to say that Sesshomaru wants to marry ye?" Kaede could not hide the shock from her voice as she watched Kagome, her stew in her bowl forgotten for the moment as she wondered what could be going through Kagome's mind. "What did InuYasha have to say about this then?"

"Who cares what InuYasha has to say about anything? I know that I certainly don't care what that jerk has to say about it," Kagome huffed, glaring down at the stew as if it had been the thing which offended her.

"Oh my, did ye two have a fight again?" Was this what Sango had meant when she said that she did not think that Kagome was going to be as forgiving of InuYasha as she had been before? What had this child gotten herself into?

Kagome huffed, setting down her half-eaten bowl of stew and crossing her arms over her chest. "No, he's just an immature jerk-face who doesn't know how to act like a grown up, that's all." She sighed, shaking her head slightly. He wasn't at all like Sesshomaru, who in addition to being strong was mature and able to hold a full conversation without lying to her about something or other. Or keeping something from her.

"I actually just came for my things, Kaede, but thanks for the stew, it was really good." She rose, moving towards her yellow bag in the corner of the little hut and tossing it over her shoulder. She picked up her bow and shift of arrows then, draping both over her shoulder as well. "Tell Miroku and Sango I said hey next time you see them, kay?" She smiled brightly before she moved out of the hut completely and headed to the edge of the village where she had left Ah-Un.

Lost in her thoughts as she walked, Kagome reached the outskirts of the village in no time at all. She looked around, glancing to the tree that Ah-Un had lain under and found that he was not there. She sighed at this revelation. It looked like she was going to have to look for the dragon after all. She walked down the road a bit more, away from the village. "Ah-Un?" she called out, placing a hand cupped to the side of her mouth to help her voice carry. "Ah-Un?" Nothing.

Kagome frowned, wondering where Ah-Un had gotten to, she hadn't thought he would run off and leave her behind. What if he'd returned back to the palace? She sighed, hanging her head slightly. "Just my luck." She stopped in the middle of the road, turning her attention skyward. "Ah-Un, where are you?" Though right at that moment was when it happened.

Kagome let out a scream as she was attacked from behind and forced to the ground. "Hey! Let me go! What are you doing?" She demanded of her captors as her bow and arrows were ripped away from her as well as her bag. "Get off me!" Though two of them were pulling her to her feet and tying her wrists behind her back.

"Get her on one of the horses," one of the men stated and the two wrestled Kagome onto one of the horses and then one climbed up behind her. "Alright, we have what we came for, let's go."

Leaving the bow, arrows, and yellow bag on the side of the road, the horsemen took off at a full gallop back to where they had come from. The man riding behind Kagome, in attempting to keep her cooperative, pulled out a sword and putting it against her chin as he held the reins to his horse in the other. "We were never told to bring you back in one piece, so you might as well just behave priestess."

Kagome gave a soft cry as she leaned forward against the neck of the horse, wondering what was going on. What had happened to Ah-Un? Had these men done something to them? Where were they taking her? Worst of all, there wasn't anyone who would be looking for her and now she was completely unarmed. This just wasn't her day!

The ride took several hours before they came upon a rather large palace, not unlike the one Sesshomaru owned. The horsemen came up to a stable and dismounted, dragging her down from atop the steed as they dragged her inside.

"Let me go! You're going to pay for this! When my friends find out what you've done, you'll be in for it!" Kagome shouted, struggling against her captors. Well, that is, if her friends ever did find out. Would Sesshomaru get worried when she didn't come back in a couple of days? Would he think that she'd just taken off on him? But no, he wouldn't, he would know something was up when Ah-Un didn't come back, wouldn't he? Would he figure out where they had gone? By the time he found out, their trail might be too old to follow. No, she was probably all on her own.

She set her resolve as she was dragged through the hallways of the palace and brought into a greeting room and thrust down to her knees. Well that wasn't very nice.

"We got her, my lord. We got the priestess who defeated the hanyou, Naraku." It was the guard to her right which spoke, and Kagome raised her head to see who they were talking to. Wait, wasn't that-?

"Lord Akinori? Is this the priestess that you were searching for?"

The demon lord slowly got to his feet and approached the trio, stopping in front of Kagome as he reached down, gripping her chin with bruising force and forced her gaze up to his own. He smirked broadly, revealing his demon fangs.

"Yes, she is the one. Take her to my chambers."

A/N: Thanks for all who have reviewed and read my story! Hope you enjoy it!