Introduction

Disclaimer: says it all, doesn't it? Dis... claim... er... I don't claim.... DON'T SUE!!! (begs) all I have is two dollars and change anyway....

"God damn it, Nicole, get that idiotic dog away from my snow fort!" Ely yelled.

"It's not my fault, mother let him out!" Nicole yelled back.

"Just get rid of him!"

Rachel and Jessica were both armed with snow shovels, as were Ely and Ryoko. There weren't quite enough so Nicole and Alisha didn't have one.

"Fine!" Nicole replied. "But just wait and see– "

Kagome was getting exasperated. They had been waiting for nearly an hour while Inuyasha and Koga argued, and while Kagome knew the argument probably still centered around her, she had stopped listening after the first five minutes. She, Miroku, Sango and Shippo were sitting on a fallen log. Miroku and Shippo, leaning against a tree, seemed to have gone to sleep.

Sighing, she turned towards the two who were arguing just in time to see two people appear five feet or so above their heads and immediately fall prey to gravity, landing on the unsuspecting heads of Inuyasha and Koga.

"Gahh!" Inuyasha yelled, pulling himself from under one of the people. "What in seven hells was that?!"

"Oof." the girl replied.

"Are you all right?" Kagome asked, hurrying over.

"Umm, yeah. Rachel, you OK?"

"I'll let you know in a minute, once I can breathe again."

"I want to know what they're doing falling out of the sky like that!" Koga demanded.

"Not our fault, and no idea."

"Who are you?" Kagome asked. Sango, too, must have gone to sleep against the log, since she had not come over to investigate. Kirara, however, came over to see what all the fuss was about.

"Oh!" the girl said. "It looks just like Kirara! I love it!"

"You know who Kirara is?" Kagome asked.

"Yeah... Hey, if that's Kirara..." She looked around at everybody. "Oh! You must be Kagome!"

"What?! Do you know the people, Kagome?" Inuyasha asked her.

"I've never seen them before!" Kagome protested. She turned back to the two girls. "Who are you?" she asked again.

"I'm Ely, and this is Rachel."

"How the hell did you get here?!" Inuyasha demanded.

"Already answered that; dunno." the girl Ely replied.

Kirara ran back to the fallen log and nudged Sango awake. Sango became aware of her surroundings once more– to find that they had switched from grass and forest to snow and strange-looking houses.

"– Mother'll make yo let him stay out here– Ely, where'd you go?" Nicole finished the statement she had begun. She looked around her, and found a large group of people, including Ely and Rachel, standing around a small tree in the middle of the front yard.

"Yahh!!" Jessica screeched from behind her. "Is that Inuyasha?!"

"What in seven hells?" Inuyasha demanded. "What have you done, witch?!" he continued, grabbing Ely by the hood of her coat. The hood, being detachable, came off.

"Yow!" Shippo exclaimed, having been woken up unceremoniously by being dumped into the snowy branches of the sapling. Sango surreptitiously kicked Miroku awake.

"Well, at least we're back." Rachel commented, picking herself up out of the snow.

"Wh-wh-where are we?" Kagome chattered.

"Umm, Ely, Rachel, where did you get them?" Jessica asked.

"Not at all sure." Ely replied.

"One moment we were here, the next there, and then here again." Rachel supplied.

"Where is this?" Miroku asked, brushing snow out of his robes.

"EEK!" Nicole interrupted as Max (the dog) bounded out of her grasp and began bounding towards the group under the tree. Immediately Inuyasha had the Tetsusaiga out and was menacing the dog.

"Inuyasha SIT!!" Kagome ordered as Max cowered and whimpered. "That would be an ordinary unmenacing animal!" she berated him.

"Feh!" Inuyasha replied, shaking snow out of his hair.

"Why is it so cold here?" Sango asked, cuddling Kirara for warmth.

"Oh! That would be because here it's winter." Ely replied. Just then Alisha and Ryoko came around the corner of the house.

"GAH! It's Inuyasha!" Alisha yelled.

"How do all these people know me?!" Inuyasha demanded.

"It's Inuyasha?" Ryoko repeated. She looked around the company. "And Sango, and Kagome, and Miroku, and Shippo– and Koga?! If Koga's here where's Sesshomaru? Why isn't he here?"

"Wh-why do you WANT him to be here?!" Kagome asked.

"I vote we go inside and sort this out." Rachel said.

"YES! Mother might have finished making cookies by now!" Ely exulted.

"Seeing as she put them in five minutes ago I doubt that." Nicole said, tromping to the garage door.

"Come on, everybody in." Ely said, leading the group through the garage and into the house.

"Back inside so soon?" Ely and Nicole's mother asked, looking around the cupboard corner to see them. She surveyed the group minutely before soundlessly falling backward onto the linoleum.

"What's wrong with her?" Koga asked.

A/N: (I fear I am not doing Mother justice when I had her faint, because I suspect that this is a very out of character action for her, but hey, I don't know what exactly she would do and this gets her out of the way for the moment. Heh, I guess I'm just evil... mwaha!) R&R's welcomed!! Flames will be used to warm everyone now trapped in a winter wonderland!