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A/N: Sorry that this has taken a while again guys...I'm sorry...(sighs) still more complications with the guy I have dubbed my Miroku, he's trying to IM me even as I type this despite my away message...he and his girlfriend have broken up and now, less than a week later he wants me so bad he can taste it, and I have to struggle with this delicate balance between friend and too much...graduation is like two weeks now...anyway... CONGRATS! to The Moonless Night who was the lucky number 300! YAYS! You've gotten this more than once haven't you? Well anyway, I think this chapter needs no explanation...enjoy! THANK YOU all reviewers! Over 300 now I think! YAYS! My computer tweaked at the end of this and ate a lot of what I wrote in reponseso a lot of those who reviewed for this were never named in it...I'm VERY sorry about that, but time is of the essence, and I need to post this...enjoy...

Into The Western Lands

The pup was utterly bored. His miserable whimpering and whining seemed to encourage Kagome's headache. What was worse was that she felt absolutely miserable with the knowledge that Inuyasha had missed their son's true first word-like sounds. These were made, it was true, as a result of his boredom, but still, Kagome mourned that Inuyasha had missed them.

So far she was an ignored member of Lady Taikokajin's household. A maid or a servant scurried by every so often—Kagome made out the sounds of their feet, bare and sandaled or slippered—didn't matter. She listened eagerly whenever some members of the household chatted near enough for her to overhear it, though most often it was a very boring and bland discussion, hardly worth hearing. But once it was enough to make her heart start up rapidly—and Koinu against her squirmed at it, mumbling incoherently in his baby language at her cardiac muscle's sudden eagerness. A guard and a maid met in the hallway outside the room that sheltered her and talked quietly, either having forgotten that she was in the room, or thinking that because she was so quiet she must've been asleep.

"Did you hear Mitori?" came a man's voice, gruff, whispering.

"About what, Ikio?" a soft, pleasant woman's words responded, gently.

"Momo—the Lady's current favorite among the servants—says that she's been ordered to fix up the pup's room."

Apparently Mitori was stunned by this news, "Really? But why? How? Will the inuyoukai clan send her any more mates? I thought that they—"

"No, they won't send her a mate." The guard, or at least Kagome thought he was probably a guard, was saying, laughing as he went on, "But they wouldn't send her one before when Tsukiyume was born…you know the Lady doesn't ever stop until she has what she wants. She's as ruthless as they come! I'd say she'd take that feisty hanyou cousin of hers as a mate if she was so inclined for sure!"

Mitori gasped as Ikio chuckled at his own joke, "Could she, really? Do you think so? Are they first or second cousins? How close within the family do the demons of this clan mate?"

"I don't know for certain Mitori, it's just a rumor but—" this time the conversation was interrupted when Koinu began crying against Kagome, eager to nurse again, being his usual ravenous self. Kagome tried to shush the child, but, truly imbued with the spirit of his father, the pup's bright blue eyes threw her an almost angry glare and the ears turned backward. His crying grew shriller still.

The voices in the hall fell away into quick whispers that Kagome couldn't make out and then their footsteps echoed through the hallway, passing her by. She sighed, wondering if they'd meant to make her feel miserable, as it was obvious to her that they hadn't merely forgotten that she was present.

She settled down to nurse Koinu again, wondering when, or if, they would ever remember to feed her or even simply show her where the bathroom was. She scowled at that, realizing not for the first time, that she had to pee. Shifting uneasily on the mattress that had been spread out for her sometime the night before while she had been unconscious, Kagome tried to ignore her fears and concentrate on the room around her, ignoring her bladder as well as the swarming pain in her skull.

It was larger than the bedroom she and Inuyasha shared. Screens allowed sunlight to filter through, but left the room in a sensual—or more accurately at the moment: disturbing—dimness. It was only perhaps two hours since she'd last seen Inuyasha and the two inuyoukai that called this palace home…was she in the main area of the castle, or further away somewhere? Did the dog demons need to travel quite a ways to reach her? That could explain why she'd been neglected for so long—but somehow Kagome doubted it. The beauty of the room was striking, too striking to be apart of the servant's quarters. Fear threatened to attack her, to weaken her, but Kagome staved it off, chewing on her lower lip as if worrying it might just cure her external problems.

A few minutes later she turned her attention to the screens and their gentle light, trying to take some pleasure, some comfort from them silently. Koinu squirmed, bored in her grasp, fighting her grip on his anxious young body. Some instinct within her was reluctant to let him forage about the room away from her continuous watch and protection. The pup wanted nothing more than to pick up the littlest crumbs from around the room and gobble them up—whether those tiny goodies were rat droppings or poison pills he didn't care in the least.

Inuyasha's worry over the protection of the pup in particular was heavy on her mind. If he didn't think it was safe she would follow and obey that interpretation. Inuyasha understood the inner workings of the inuyoukai mind she suspected, and the thought of leaving her and the pup had filled him with a worry that she didn't like in the least. But as Koinu squirmed and squealed in her arms, fighting her, whimpering pitifully, Kagome had to let him go, though she refused to take her eyes off him as he muddled about the furs that had kept them both warm the night before.

She shivered in the dimness; her body was tired, weary. For a moment she bowed her head, slipped into a gloomy dozing sleep…just a moment of peace, she thought weakly, closing her eyes on Koinu as he picked at the hair on the white furs in front of her happily. When she opened them again—seemingly only a few moments later—it was to the steadily increasing sound of crying.

Immediately Kagome sprang wide awake and looked around, her maternal instinct crushing even the terrible pain in her skull. Her eyes scanned the room and found Koinu on the opposite side, bumping his little clawed fists against the wall. She blinked, how did he get there so fast? But even as she rose to her feet and rushed to reach her child, a smaller voice whispered the truth: You dozed off for a longer time than you think you did, look at the light…

It was far brighter than it had been before—as much as an hour had passed and the sun had climbed to its zenith, lighting the earth far more eagerly and effectively than it had before her nap. I must've been more tired than I thought I was!

When she scooped Koinu up into her arms the reason for his distress was swiftly revealed to her—he had dirtied hid underpants of course.

"Oh no…" she muttered, looking around desperately. When they'd been dragged through the well and into the Feudal Era again Kagome had been wearing her jacket, some loose sweat pants and the too-big-for-her red robe. Koinu, meanwhile, was even less dressed for the occasion—wearing only his diaper the pup might as well have been naked, he probably would've enjoyed that more.

At any rate none of it left her with another diaper.

"Shhh…" she murmured, brushing his tears away gently, but Koinu's clawed fingers fought hers, scratching and clutching at her hands. The little blue eyes were overflowing with salty moisture.

She searched the room again—and saw only the white furs. Can I make that work? Would the dog demons kill me for it if I did? Are those furs worth anything to them?

Just as she made up her mind and began to step forward to use the furs, Kagome hesitated, hearing the feather whisper of robes and the gentle tapping of feet on the hard floors outside her room. Fear coursed through her, lending the young mother strength she hadn't known she possessed. Holding Koinu carefully to her she dashed to the furs and placed him there, despite the pup's struggling. She buried him under a few of them, though his cries increased in intensity at it, then she rushed toward the door, waiting tensely as the taping footsteps reached the door…

It opened and, although poised to strike, Kagome hesitated when a young woman returned her gaze wearing a short blue kimono. The maid—for that was certainly what she was—blinked in surprise for a moment and the fell to her knees, bowing low. "Lady Inuyasha…" she murmured, though her voice sounded hesitant and confused. After a moment she sat up once more, her eyes nervously sought out Kagome's and she asked, "Can I call you that, as Lord Inuyasha's mate?"

"I…suppose so."

The maid girl bowed again, easily. "I was sent to tend you, Lady Inuyasha, by my mistress, lady Taikokajin. She scented that your pup needed assistance, and so do you."

Kagome felt a brief sense of unease ass through her. "If I may just have a diaper and something to clean with I could take care of Koinu myself…"

The young servant shook her head, "No, you do not need to concern yourself with the changing of his messes, my lady." Another bow was administered, though this was the shallowest of them all, and Kagome thought she sensed amusement around the maid.

"But he's my son…" Kagome stubbornly insisted, remembering Inuyasha's fear.

"As you wish." The ghost of a smile appeared on the servant's lips again, "Please remain thus until I return with the proper things." She quickly turned and left, disappearing so easily, without any remarkable sound to announce the departure.

Kagome looked back toward the bundles of white furs and the frustrated wailing of her son, saw that Koinu had found his way out of the things, and had proceeded to attacking his diaper with his little claws. "Oh no you don't…"

When the young maid returned, carrying towels, water, and a cloth diaper, Kagome was immensely relieved. Once Koinu was clean, and his crying had lessened to a diminished whimpering, she tried to learn all she could from the maid.

"Am I to be your mistress's prisoner?" Kagome kept her voice quiet and timid, hoping that that tone would be the most likely to get the truth from the dog demon's servant.

"Lady Taikokajin?" the maid asked, her face blank of any readable emotion, "She is watching over you and the Lord Inuyasha's child." The young woman's eyes strayed to the pup's form, crawling on the white furs, a short distance from the two women. She smiled genuinely, her dark eyes sparkling at Kagome, "He is absolutely adorable!" she gushed.

Warily Kagome ventured a new question, "Does you mistress plan to have more children—pups of her own?"

The servant girl shrugged easily, "Lady Taikokajin, I believe, has had her fill of them." Kagome wasn't sure what to make of such a response, for although it was truthful she sensed, it was also inadvertently cryptic, for it was mentioned in a mournful tone.

"What do you mean?"

As if realizing what she was saying suddenly, the maid bowed again, uncertainly, and murmured, "Lady Inuyasha," once quietly. Kagome suspected that she was stalling for time, thinking over her words, perhaps wondering if they were thing she should not be speaking of or not. Kagome wondered if it were possible that the dog demon mistress of the palace could overhear their words from wherever she was even now.

But despite the nervousness, the maid answered Kagome's question anyway, "My mistress has had many pups in her lifetime, and is still young enough to have more, but only Shishi-sama and Lady Tsukiyume have survived—" she seemed to stop herself there, meeting Kagome's eyes with an abruptly dark glimmer in her eye before she turned her gaze away, focusing on the easy neutrality that little Koinu offered.

Kagome was wrapped up in her worried thoughts, thinking of the conversation that had been held by the guard and the maid of earlier—Ikio and Mitori. Could this inuyoukai want to force Inuyasha into mating with her? That isn't possible…she tried to cover the frown that was forming over her face as the thought took form in her mind. Never before had demons played such sick games as that, in fact usually they underestimated Inuyasha and wanted him dead because he was half human…but this Taiko-demon woman has a daughter that's hanyou, doesn't she? So what does she think of half-demons then?

Distractedly, Kagome had failed to take notice of the confident tread that was approaching their room from the outside hallway, the swish of thick luxuriant robes. Instead she looked to the maid beside her, who was still beaming at the sight of Koinu, who was now sucking on the furs, drooling on them as his tongue intimately explored the foreign object's texture.

She reached forward, realizing with a frown that she didn't know the girl's name, and touched her arm, asking carefully, "What is your name…?"

The girl smiled slightly and lowered her head in a bow, "I am called Nikimi."

"Nikimi…" Kagome tasted the name for a moment, nodding, and then pressed forward, "Can you talk about your mistress's hanyou daughter…what did you say her name was?"

Nikimi opened her mouth to speak when another, deeper, more powerful voice rose in answer from the doorway. "Her name is Tsukiyume."

Both Kagome and Nikimi whirled their heads in the direction of the door and saw that, silent as a spirit or phantom—or perhaps she was closer to an assassin that slips in through the window at night to end another's breathing—Taikokajin had appeared. The pink-eyed, pallid-skinned, silver-haired demon woman wore a dark purple kimono; her obi was small and silver, matching her hair. Though her clothing was muted and no longer extravagant—indeed, Kagome had more expensive, better-looking kimono in her own closets at her home, presents from Inuyasha—Kagome still got the feeling that Taikokajin was like a distant island in the ocean. She was a faraway, dreamlike place of serenity and beauty, but only on the outside.

And as the pink eyes flickered, seeming to burn just underneath the surface, Kagome thought she caught a glimpse of the real creature beneath the surface of that tranquil outer garden. It was a place that groaned and shifted and twisted, like the bowels of the earth, hot and always burning away at itself. Once again she felt something stir within her—pity perhaps, until those pink eyes dashed to where Koinu was still clutching at the white furs. Then Kagome saw something in those eyes that made her stomach clench up like a fist, her head spin. Nikimi's words, 'Lady Taikokajin, I believe, has had her fill of them,' resounded inside her mind again, but now they brought no comfort whatsoever.

A thought, cold and heartless as the northern wind in a blizzard in the middle of January, insinuated itself into her core: She hungers for more…

"So where does this bastard hang out?" Inuyasha growled over his shoulder in the direction of the gray-eyed inuyoukai lord behind him. He struggled to hide his stiffness with the "pup" but wasn't sure if his restraint was effective. Surely the pup could scent his unease…? But if that were true the pup revealed nothing, he offered Inuyasha only a respectful silence, and, like wolves in a pack, he let Inuyasha lead the way as if he were the alpha, the highest, strongest member of the group. Such behavior—from one that was a hostage at best, an enemy lying in wait at worst—made Inuyasha's muscles tight with suspicion. He'd learned, through hard experience over many long years, that strangers were rarely allies. They almost always sprung some hidden trap further down the path.

The cool, calm voice that answered back was gentle and without emotion, "I do not understand your expression."

"Feh!" the hanyou half turned his upper body to the left, throwing a deadly glare over that shoulder into the clear, youthful face of his hostage. "That bitch must keep you locked up, Shimo-kun."

The gray-blue eyes of his hostage looked quickly away, though not before Inuyasha caught sight of the inuyoukai's brief flare of pain and anger. "I am her heir, cousin." The gaze lifted again, the blue of the young dog demon's eyes touched upon the golden of his hanyou cousin's, like the slithering currents of a river reflecting the dying brilliance of the sunset. Inuyahsa refused to shudder or cower under the intensity of those eyes, though there was a curious stirring within him: whether it was remaining wariness or something akin to respect he wasn't sure yet.

"Surely, cousin," Shimofuri's voice was deep now, serious, "You wouldn't allow your son to join the company of your enemies—my mother's feelings are the same. She wishes only what is best for her pups."

Inuyasha scowled, his lips parted slightly to reveal the gleam of white fangs. He turned away from Taikokajin's heir, focusing his eyes on the path they were walking, the melting piles of crunchy snow, and the shimmering expanse of a lake to one side, barely free of ice. Long legged birds—cranes, Inuyasha supposed—languished in the shallows amidst the reeds that bent and swayed in the wind.

"She seems like a cold-hearted bitch to me, pup." He grunted, half to himself, still trying to silence his unease and discomfort at the situation. "But I'll ask it again for you—where can we find this bastard that has your sister, or whatever the hell excuse that pink bitch had for sending you and I out here…" and taking Kagome and Koinu as her own hostages…his clawed fingers flexed dangerously at his sides.

"Garou prefers the southern lands. He is a creature built for open plains and warmth; our lands do not suit him. We shall likely have to follow his trail from and through the Western lands."

Inuyasha scowled deeply, the calm, dispassionate voice behind him reminding him entirely too much of the current dog demon lord that presided over those Western lands…he remembered clearly somewhere a little over a year ago he had had to fight for his mate and unborn child, ready to die unless he could live beside them. It seemed just yesterday to him, but in that expanse of time so much had changed—Koinu had come, blessing their lives together with new meaning, new depth. But although Koinu's arrival was a huge event, irrevocably changing both of them, Inuyasha thoroughly remembered the promise he had given his brother in exchange for peace between them. To never enter the Western Lands again…his ears fell back, flat against his skull.

"I ain't going through Sesshomaru's lands." He snapped, halting abruptly. He heard Shimofuri come to a quick stop as well.

"Why?" it was spoken quietly, hesitantly—likely because Shimofuri was carefully trying to avoid inciting Inuyasha's wrath.

"That doesn't matter, you stupid pup!" the hanyou rounded on his full-demon cousin, glaring viciously. "I. Won't. Go. Through. There." He dared Shimofuri to object with his golden gaze, "You'd better come up with a better way of finding this Garou bastard, got it?"

Shimofuri's gray eyes were cool and indifferent. "Sesshomaru will not care that we travel through his lands—perhaps we might even call upon his help in the matter." He bowed his head slightly, noting the way Inuyasha's fists were swiftly clenching up at his sides in silent rage at Shimofuri's insistence. "There is no other way to know where Gaoru has gone, Lord Inuyasha."

The hanyou's rage abruptly diffused, confusion and suspicion filtering in to replace it instead. Lord Inuyasha? Shimofuri had made a point of calling Inuyasha an equal—maybe even a superior…immediately Inuyasha suspected that it was deliberate manipulation, but when he searched Shimofuri's face and tone of voice, as well as the scents that the pup's body revealed, no malice was revealed. It seemed to be genuine respect.

He screwed up his features, forced on an outer shell of anger onto his face, but remained confused and unsure of the young gray-eyed lord.

"Why in the seven hells would my jackass brother care anything for our plans to kill this Garou bastard? If I know Sesshomaru he'll just kill us without asking what we're doing."

Shimofuri bowed his head once more, "He would not. While you are in my company he could not follow such a desire. It would cause a civil war amongst the families. Also," the gray gaze met Inuyasha's with a keen sparkling in their depths now, "Sesshomaru's mate is human. His offspring will be hanyous—subject to Garou's threat."

Inuyasha blinked for a moment. He'd forgotten that girl again. For a moment he smirked to himself. Sesshomaru is such a hypocrite…

"If you're sure…" he growled, deeply, throwing Shimofuri a warning glare. The youth nodded assuredly, a glimmer of pride showing in the delicate lines of his handsome face. The turquoise marks on his cheeks seemed to flare, especially prominent in that moment.

"I am."

The hanyou nodded once, lips pursed. "Then let's get our butts moving."

Taikokajin forced her features to remain emotionless and calm as Nikimi—the foolish, big-mouthed wench of a maid—bowed carefully to her. "My lady…" she murmured at the floor in the midst of it. The inuyoukai woman didn't acknowledge the maid's show of respect; in fact she completely ignored it and looked instead to her hanyou cousin's mate curiously.

"Nikimi," she called, keeping her voice soft and gentle, but her eyes were intense, and they never left her cousin's human mate. "You have not introduced me to Inuyasha's mate properly yet." Though she was speaking with Nikimi, her tone and her eyes seemed to be aimed at the woman, daring the human to introduce herself. Taikokajin studied her carefully, trying to judge her cousin's inner mind by judging his choice of mate carefully. It had not passed Taikokajin's notice that the human woman, for as frail as she was, despite her terrible position—kept inside a foreign castle by a dog demon mistress that she knew just about nothing of—had failed to bow to her.

Accepting Taikokajin's challenge, the human woman bowed once—improperly, Taikokajin thought—and answered, "I am Kagome Higurashi and—"

Taikokajin waved one clawed hand slightly, gently, the single movement silencing Kagome instantly. The demon woman's curiosity was piqued, "You do not accept your mate's name?" she asked, genuinely perplexed. Her pink eyes narrowed as she regarded the bizarre human woman before her.

Kagome blinked, confused and uncertain of a response. "Take my mate's name?" she asked, hesitantly, then frowned outright, "What is Inuyasha's surname?"

Nikimi had also begun to stare with surprise at Kagome's apparent naivety. As Taikokajin looked at her cousin's mate she thought that although the human was gifted with a kind heart she wasn't reasonably intelligent. Her gaze strayed to the pup, his silvered hair bright in the room, blending well with the white furs, his ears swiveling toward the sounds of the adults' conversation. She could scent the pup's spittle, his dirtied diaper, his simple happiness and security…her body stiffened. That stipid woman and my bitter hanyou cousin will raise that adorable pup away from the clan, away from its teachings and protection. He will grow to be as stupid as the woman, as bitter and uncouth as Inuyasha, and as ignorant of the world of his kin as any peasant human! It is an outrage; such beings are not fit to be blessed with such a pup!

"A demon always takes its father's first name as a surname. Sesshomaru—your mate's half brother, right? He calls himself Sesshomaru Inutaisho. Inuyasha would've done the same thing, but I suppose he didn't know it." Nikimi was explaining amiably to the rather befuddled but interested Kagome, "When a demon is mated they take on the male's name for as long as they are united. Any offspring they have take the father's first name as a surname of course. So…" she looked toward the squealing pup, smirking at the child's apparent delight as he entertained himself, "What is your pup's name, Lady Inuyasha?"

"Kagome is fine…" the human tried to respond, but Taikokajin had lost most of her patience.

"Answer Nikimi's question." She murmured, her voice cold and emotionless, but holding the full weight of a command in its depths.

Kagome gave the demon woman a quick glare but answered Nikimi nonetheless, "His name is Koinu."

Nikimi's smile was immediate and she covered her smiling lips with one hand, laughed delicately into them. "How appropriate a name!" she exclaimed, beaming. She tried to look back to her mistress for the same jovial demeanor, but saw that Taikokajin was deep within her brooding, ruling lady's thoughts. In a second she was looking back at Kagome and giving her a lesson again, "As I was saying, Lady Inuyasha, your pup will be called Koinu Inuyasha."

Kagome frowned, "Not Koinu Inutaisho?"

The young maid shook her head, "No, just as Shishi-sama is not called 'Shimofuri Koshoshiro' after his grandfather, or 'Shimofuri Taikokajin' after…" her words were silenced by the small, barely audible growl that issued forth in warning from Taikokajin. Immediately Nikimi's eyes widened and she turned swiftly on her knees and bowed very low, her forehead touching to ground, to her mistress. "Forgive me, mistress."

The pink eyes were alarmingly bright, as if glowing from the inside out. Kagome remembered that Sesshomaru could do the same thing just before he…she silenced her thoughts and felt her hands shake as she started to bow alongside Nikimi, though she had done nothing but listen to the maid speak. She stopped the bow halfway down as she heard Koinu's innocent gurgling. The pup's safety immediately overshadowed everything else and she rose quickly to retrieve him from on the furs…she felt Taikokajin's suddenly burning hot, heavy gaze follow her as she moved, scooping up the pup into her arms.

"Will you raise your pup within the clan?" Taikokajin snapped suddenly, her tone demanding, utterly without any pretense of respect.

Kagome shuddered, avoided the inuyoukai woman's heavy gaze as she settled back down on her knees just behind the still bowing Nikimi. Koinu was clutched to her chest carefully. "It depends on my husband's opinion." She answered, evasively.

"It will be a waste." Taikokajin spat after a lengthy silence, her voice thick with cold disgust. After a moment the demon woman slipped out of the room in a rustle of robes, calling over her shoulder the moment her form was gone, "Nikimi—have our guest bathe, the pup too—they stain this entire hallway with their stench."

"Yes my lady." The maid immediately answered, bowing to the now vanished mistress, her forehead once more kissing the hard floors. After a moment she rose and turned to Kagome, reaching down to help her up.

"What did you say that made her so angry?" Kagome asked, confused, trying to remember what they had been talking about. It had seemed so trivial to her, why would it enrage the seemingly serene Taikokajin? Kagome had thought that the demon woman was like Sesshomaru—only to be proven quite wrong now.

Without looking her in the eye Nikimi took Koinu gently into her arms, shushing the pup as he whimpered at her unfamiliar scent. When she answered Kagome it was in a quiet, whispering voice, "I spoke of the fact that her son, the heir, Shishi-sama, will not carry her name as his surname. He will carry on his father's name instead: Shimofuri Haiseishoku he will be called."

Kagome scowled, "Why would that make her so mad?"

Nikimi looked up at her now, the dark eyes made even darker by some strange unreadable emotion in their depths, "My mistress hated her mate Haiseishoku. She wishes Shishi-sama to drop his father's name and to take hers instead."

"He won't?"

The maid nodded as, cautiously, Kagome and she stepped out of the guest room and into the hallway. Kagome blinked with the sudden surge of sunlight to her senses. "Shishi-sama was very fond of his father…Lady Taikokajin hates that." She laughed nervously, as they walked, their bare feet padding over the floors, "I am told that they fought over Shishi-sama as if he were the last bit of meat in a stew."

Kagome remembered, vaguely, the gray eyes of the young lord that Nikimi spoke of, sad eyes, and deep secrets…how would Koinu feel if Inuyasha and I hated each other? How does any child feel when its parents fight so much? She shook her head, clearing it, and asked, quietly, "Why doesn't this Shishi-sama live with his father?"

Nikimi's answer was swift and her tone dark. Kagome realized swiftly that the subject was one of some strange suspicion or pain. "He's dead."

As Nikimi's words hit home she remembered Shimofuri's eyes again and a thought passed through her mind, and once there she couldn't get it to leave her: Taikokajin had her mate, her pup's father, killed…no wonder he won't drop his father's name…

The forest thickened around them, like a murderer's grip tightening over the throat of his victim. The shadows were deep and dark enough that when Shimofuri turned his eyes in any direction light glinted—shining red—from the back of his eyes, from the retinas. When Inuyasha's eyes did the same they flashed a a fiery gold, so bright that the hanyou seemed possessed in some way, whether it was by an outside force or by his own inner strength and will was anyone guess.

They had traveled steadily for hours, into the evening now, in utter silence. Shimofuri wished, idly, that he could hear Inuyasha's rendition of the legends that surrounded his name—but he sensed that the hanyou wasn't comfortable with him…and asking such a thing was, he thought, childish. Yet, with nothing but his thoughts to entertain him, Shimofuri found his mood growing steadily darker—like the very shadows aging and maturing around them.

He wondered what his mother was doing. Was she busy tearing away their cousin's pup from his human mate? He wondered if they were too late to save Inuyasha's human mate from Garou's strange and evil powers. And, was Tsukiyume still alive at all? Was she a soulless husk? Unbidden, the inuyoukai heir saw his sister's wide, innocent and gorgeous brown eyes shining from within his memories…and then she became a slumped shell, her eyes half closed in a deathly lethargy, the light in her eyes vanished. He saw—like Inuyasha's when he was stricken by failure at Taikokajin's unfair deceit—his half-sister's ears slump lifelessly against her shining black hair.

Before he'd realized that he'd done it, Shimofuri heaved a light sigh of worry and pain, and instantly Inuyasha whirled on him, golden eyes flashing. "Shush!" he hissed, and Shimofuri realized that they had come to the border between the Middle Lands and the Western Lands.

Both travelers could feel the tingling of their senses as they slowed, passing through the border. It was a sensation generated by the sudden shift of youkai powers. It was particularly powerful on this border because they were passing from a territory ruled by a female's aura, and about to enter the lands owned by a much younger, fiercer spirit.

Inuyasha's ears flattened against his head, tightly. The muscles of his jaw tightened. He knew the feeling of his brother's soul as it washed over him—and the soul knew him too. It caressed him, tried to whisper into his ears. Taikokajin's lands had never affected him so. He had passed into them—had it only been one night ago?—from the lands that he and Kagome claimed as their own, a narrow strip further east that was unclaimed by the dog demon rulers. Then there had only been the tingling knowledge of passing through the barrier, from lord-less lands into demon-possessed earth. Inuyasha generally hadn't had such a strong reaction to the border's spirit, but now, he supposed, Sesshomaru had set an ever eager watch out for him, just in case.

He glanced once to Shimofuri, looking for a similar reaction—and saw nothing. The young dog demon was stoic and cold, much like the master of the lands that they had just crossed into.

The song of Sesshomaru's demonic spirit stroked Inuyasha for several long minutes as they plodded onward, all the while Inuyasha scowled deeply, trying to force his senses to either become numb to it or to banish his brother's influence from him completely. Eventually one or the other worked and the tingling chills and the feather light touches to his body ceased.

Above them, in the black, velvet blanket of the sky, the stars shone extra brightly. The moon was a thin sliver, like a claw, glowing silver in the night sky.

Inuyasha looked toward it with a mixture of worry and irritation. I've come, Sesshomaru you old bastard, and there's not a damn thing either of us can do about it.

Endnote: THANK YOU ALL! I must hurry with this, but as always I am grateful to EVERYONE that took the time to drop me a line...Lord knows with how lazy I've gotten in these weeks before graduation if my guilty conscience didn't make me post I'd have stopped ages ago...so thank you!

Zoderella, slummyreddragon, ItaiandChihiro4Ever (be as long as you want! Don't let anyone stop you!), FanstasyFreak (you're right about the pup, I agree...(sniggles) plans are already spinning the wheels in my head...) The Moonless Night (I'll look forward to those drawings!) orangepencils, angelpup, Tiamath (thank you...I have been curious about hyenas myself, I don't know how they're classified, I mean they're carnivores, but they're so weird...(shakes head)...) Ryoko Metallium (glad to please!) Heather (lol,Pinky is NOT popular is she?) sarah, InuYasha'sGirl KagomeSango(Hey there!(winks) Thank you!), Simonkal of Inyu(lol! I have not yet decided how bad Pinky will get...she may escape this story alive, she may even partly redeem herself, her character is strange...but then again, I really like Shimo-chan myself (I have a gily crush on my own character! big blushes!) and seeing him as Lord Shimofuri-sama makes me happy...(smirks) I'm like thinking of including him in later stories or in one-shots in the distant future...), SerenaClearwater (You bring up an interesting point...I have plans that may or may not come through involving Tsukiyume and no, I've never planned on her being bad. I'll hint a little here: read Garou's complaints involving her soul. He compares her to Kagome a little...unless I cut that paragraph out in editing? (blinks) I hope not...but yes...she may become very likeable just like her big brother.), Shikou (I would love that! Hey...draw my uberishly sweet Shimo-chan too! (squees!) If it's not trubling you at all...I'm jsut squeeing over the thought...Thank you!), kirarakitty( I made both Koinu in his half/quarter-demon form with dog ears and all at his birth on purpose. But goodness, you're sharp. You'll be keeping me on my toes...(snickers) I did it on purpose b/c in the third movie (that I had the privelage of seeing a few months ago) we get to see the past when Inuyasha was born, on the night of the new moon--just as Koinu was conceived under and just as he was also born under--Inuyasha as a baby (and my sisters and I all squeed together for a whole minute when we saw him crying grouchily) was golden-eyed and with white dog ears...even tho it was a new moon. Basing Koinu off that example I made him the same way...hope that makes sense...), NefCanuck (Thank you! I did try, I think, to make sure Koinu was special in that scene, not just a baby, but a physical extension of their devotion to one another's survival. So I'm glad to hear I did my job well! (grins)), DreamLily (I'm not quite sure what a beta is...Is it like an editor? If so I'm up for that...(grins) thank you!)