A/N: Here's chapter three! I hope you guys are enjoying it so far. I know it's been kinda slow but I will try to get them in the palace in the next chapter.

Chapter Three

I'm not sure what really woke me up this time, but there was this feeling. This feeling that someone was there, watching. It didn't feel sinister or threatening, no if anything it felt protective. I scanned the area around me but I didn't see anything. If I had been anymore awake I probably would have looked around more, to make sure there really wasn't anything out there. However, in my sleep induced brain I decided to leave well enough alone. I should have probably have looked around anyway. But it made me feel safe, like someone was looking out for us. Like someone was protecting us while we slept.

We were in the clearing for a few more days before anything changed. Rin and I played tag and hide and seek together. We tried to get Jaken to join in but he would just scoff and say 'demons don't play silly child games". Rin taught me how to make flower crowns and how to catch fish with my hands and cook the fish over the fire. And I braided her hair and told her stories. Over those few days Rin and I became like sisters. I had also learned the reason I seemed to healing so fast. Apparently Lord Sesshomaru had gotten me some ointment to heal my wounds faster. I appreciated it, but part of me wondered why he would do it. It's not like I was anything to him. In the end I just chalked it up to being a gift of gratitude for saving Rin.

We were playing tag when it happened. There was a change in the air. I stopped in my tracks and looked towards the trees expecting to find nothing out of the ordinary, like all of the other times it had happened, but this time a man stepped out of the tree line. The man. Lord Sesshomaru. Jaken hopped up from where he had been sitting on a rock and runs over to him, then drops to the ground and bows.

"Lord Sesshomaru I'm so glad you're back!" Jaken cried.

The great dog demon didn't even spare a glance towards the imp as he continued forward. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Rin dash forward.

"Lord Sesshomaru!" Rin said happily coming to a stop in front of him.

"Rin." His voice was monotone and void of all emotion as was his face. If he was happy to see the child and the imp he didn't show it. "Jaken."

"Y-yes my Lord?"

"Come." One word. Just one word and Lord Sesshomaru headed back the way he came. One word that sent Jaken scrambling to get his feet under him and to get AhUn to move.

He hadn't said anything about me and I couldn't tell from his face if I was welcome to follow or not. But if I had to guess it probably wouldn't be wise to follow the group without getting permission. Rin glanced back at me, seeming to be thinking the same thing. I waved good-bye to her thinking I wasn't ever going to see her again. The loss hit me harder than I thought it would, I had only known the girl a few days and I already felt so attached. Then fear set in also, I had nowhere to go, I didn't know how I got here and I didn't know how to get home. Hell I didn't even know if I could go home. But Rin surprised me by running forward and catching up to Sesshomaru.

"Lord Sesshomaru may Nicole travel with us? She did save me and she's really fun to be with. Please can she?" Rin begged.

Sesshomaru didn't even slow down, "As you wish."

"Thank you!" Rin ran back over to me, took my hand and starting pulling me after her Lord.

After several hours of walking Rin and I had taken a spot upon AhUn's back, who knew keeping up with demons would be such hard work? Once during the journey I had asked Rin where we were going but she said she often didn't know where they were going, that she just followed them. For a moment this had shocked me, that an eight year old could be so loyal and trusting and not at all curious, but that was before I remembered that Sesshomaru had saved her life. No wonder she's so loyal.

Another hour into our travels and I could feel the wind change again, the feeling seemed to come from Lord Sesshomaru himself. Like he had sensed something or noticed something or was expecting something to happen. The others didn't seem to notice anything but I kept a close eye on him as he continued walking like nothing was different.

"Jaken." That was the only warning he gave before he disappeared into the trees.

"L-lord Sesshomaru! W-wait!" The imp called as he took off after Lord Sesshomaru.

I turned to Rin, "Where did they go?"

Rin shook her head, "I don't know." She patted AhUn's neck, "Come on AhUn let's go find Lord Sesshomaru."

It didn't take us very long to come to an open field where Jaken was yelling at a group of people. Sesshomaru was standing in the middle of the clearing facing a man dress all in red wielding a giant sword.

"Who's that?" I asked pointing at the man in red.

"That's Inuyasha."

"The brother?"

"Yeah."

"Oh," I looked over back towards the group and noticed that they had a little kid with them. He looked utterly adorable! He was so tiny and he had little fox feet, so cute! "Hey I have an idea, why don't we ask that little boy if he wants to play?"

Rin looked at me with surprise, "Ask him to play? Shippou?"

"Yeah sure, it'll be fun. Haven't you ever asked anyone to play before?"

Rin looked down, "No…"

I felt my heart break a little at the sight. I remember she told me her family had been killed when she was young and then she had been on her own. And if I had to guess there probably hadn't been very many opportunities to play with others since she had joined Sesshomaru. Making a decision I slid from AhUn's back and turned to help Rin down also, "Come on, let's go."

"Really?" Rin asked looking hopefully.

"Really," I smiled.

We made our way over to the group and once we got closer we could hear that there was an argument going on between the group of people and Jaken. "Lord Sesshomaru will kill that filthy half-breed and take the Tetsusaiga for sure this time!"

I took this as my cue to step forward before an all out brawl broke out. What I didn't expect, however, was that upon seeing us approach the group immediately got into battle ready positions. I quickly moved Rin behind me in case I had misjudged these people and they were going to attack us.

"What do you want? Have to come to attack us to?" One of the women demanded.

"And since when does Sesshomaru have a woman traveling with him?" The child asked.

"And why do you clothes look like something someone would wear in my era?" The other woman commented.

But the strangest thing happened when the man stepped forward and grabbed my hands, "Hello beautiful maiden, would you do me the honor of bearing my children?"

"Uh…" I took a step back, effectively removing my hands from the man's, "we just came to see if Shippou would like to play." I explained tentatively.

They all looked shocked by my statement, "Wait. You're traveling with Sesshomaru and you don't want to kill us?"

It was my turn to look shocked, "Kill you?! No! Why would I want to do that?"

The little boy scratched his head, "Well that's kind of how it goes when we run into each other."

I turned to Jaken in disbelief, "You try to kill people?"

Jaken huffed at me, "I don't have to answer to you wench!"

I turned back to the group, "I don't want to kill you, honest I don't! It was just that I saw you had a little boy with you and I thought it would be good for Rin to play with another kid, that's all." I held my hands out in a non-threatening gesture.

They seemed to take a minute to think about what I said and then one of the girls stepped over to the little boy. This girl had on what looked like a school uniform with a skirt so short I'm not sure how she moved without showing her butt. "Shippou would you like to play with Rin? You could show her your crayons."

Shippou considered this for a moment before smiling and whipping out a box of crayons, "Okay!"

Rin looked up at me with a questioning expression, I figured that she might be a little nervous. I bent down so that I could eye level with her and patted her on the shoulder, "It's okay Rin, I'll be right here if anything happens. Just play and have fun. And make sure you stay where I can see you, okay?"

Hesitantly she nodded and smiled, "Okay."

I smiled to myself as I watched them run together a little ways from us and lay on the ground, Shippou was showing her how to use his crayons. Rin already looked like she was enjoying herself and I felt rather accomplished. Satisfied that Rin was safe and having fun I glanced over to the fight. It mostly still looked like a lot of yelling, like they were trying to get under the other's skin. They had yet to land a real blow, just attacking and countering never really aiming to injure, at least not yet.

The other girl cleared her throat getting my attention, "Yes? Is there something you want to ask me?"

"Yes," she said shortly. I was a little confused by her temperament but I tried to be polite as possible as I told her she could ask me as many questions as she liked.

The girl with the school uniform jumped in and asked, "Are you from the future too?"

I blinked, the future? "Umm… I'm not sure what you're talking about…"

The girl looked even more confused, "If you're not from the future then where did you get your clothes?"

I looked down at myself, "They're my clothes. My mom bought them for me at the mall."

The girl squealed, "So you are from the future!" She ran over and hugged me, "but you said you weren't from the future."

"I just said I don't know what you are talking about. All I know is that I woke up in the woods a couple of days ago. I'm still kind of hoping this is a dream. But if it is, it's the weirdest dream I've ever had."

The group stared at me once more looking shocked at my answer. It was starting to get awkward so to break the ice I decided to introduce myself, "Um… I don't really know your names but… I'm Nicole."

"Oh!" The future girl exclaimed. "Sorry, I'm Kagome. That is Sango and Miroku," she said motioning to the other girl and the man. "Sounds like you already know Shippou. That's Inuyasha and that," she said pointing to a giant cat behind Sango, "is Kirara."

Me being the cat person that I am I immediately blurted out, "Can I pet her!?"

Sango seemed taken aback by my eagerness and the suspicion in her eyes seemed to waver a little bit, "Uh, sure."

I slowly made my way over to the cat, I didn't know if it liked humans but I didn't want to take any chances that it wouldn't like me. So not to scare it I slowly held my hand out so that she could smell it. At first she looked at it funny like I was showing her a foreign object but eventually she sniffed my hand. And after a minute of consideration she pushed her nosed into my palm. Taking that as a 'good ahead and pet me' I went closer to the animal and began petting her behind her ears. It didn't take long for her to start purring and rubbing against me and I couldn't contain my laugh of joy.

"She's so soft!" I commented.

"Thank you," Sango said, "I'm sure Kirara enjoys the attention."

"So…" Kagome started, "you have no idea where you are."

I shook my head and continued petting Kirara, "Nope."

"Then how did you start traveling with Sesshomaru?" Miroku asked.

"Well… like I said I woke up in the woods and then Rin came crashing out of the woods…" I started and continued to tell them how I had helped her escape a bear demon by jumping off a cliff. And how Sesshomaru had tried to kill me and then he cured me. Finally I ended with how we came upon the clearing and saw everyone.

"Wow," Kagome breath.

"Yeah," Sango said in disbelief.

"That doesn't sound like Sesshomaru at all," Miroku commented.

"Really?" I asked, my eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

"Yeah, he's more of a kill first and ask question later kind of person," they told me.

I tried to process this information, "Oh."

"But don't worry I'm sure he won't try to kill you again!" Kagome tried to reassure me, guessing at what had me worried.

Miroku leaned over and whispered something in Sango that sounded suspiciously like, "Hopefully."

Kagome glared at him and then turned back to me, "Would like me to tell you about where you are?"

I nodded, "That would be wonderful." Kagome explained to me that I was in the feudal era of Japan, and that she and the group were searching for the Sacred Jewel Shards. "Sacred Jewel Shards?"

"Oh!" Kagome said, "I wonder if you can sense them too and that's why you came here." She took a glass bottle out her pocket and held it up, "Do you see a light around them, or feel pulled to them in any way?"

I concentrated on the bottle but I didn't feel any different, "No…"

"Huh," Kagome said sounding somewhat disappointed.

Suddenly I felt the wind change and glanced over at the fighting pair. I looked at Sesshomaru and I had a feeling that he was really going to start fighting back now. I was right, out of Sesshomaru hand came what looked like a whip. And he's eyes changed, going from their normal golden color to a dangerous red. The fight got more intense, Sesshomaru had stopped responding when Inuyasha yelled at him and focused on attacking. It was a fascinating and terrifying sight to watch.

I saw Jaken pick up his staff, "I will help you Lord Sesshomaru!" and then fire shot out of one of the heads on his staff. I didn't know his staff could do that.

On reflex I hit the toad on the back of his head, effectively stopping the fire, "That's cheating."

The imp turned red, "Ch-cheating! I was helping him!"

"Leave him alone he's doing fine."

Jaken huffed, "I don't have to listen to you wench!"

I didn't even look at him when I rapped him on the back of the head again, my eyes were fixed on the sight before me. The battle itself didn't last long but a lot of damage was done. Inuyasha swung his sword and out burst a huge blast. I had thought for sure that Sesshomaru had been hit, but before I even had time to worry about his possible injuries, he appeared from seemingly nowhere and landed a strike to Inuyasha's face. I could hear Kagome beside me gasp and string an arrow on her bow, but before she could even let the arrow fly the fight was over. Sesshomaru had ended it by sticking his hand through his brother's stomach, I could hear the poison from Sesshomaru's claws sizzling from where I stood.

I couldn't stop myself from uttering a shocked, "Oh my God!" I shot a worried look over at the group, "Is he going to be okay?!"

They didn't answer, and I didn't even know if they could answer. I turned my attention back to the scene. The ground was torn up and a few trees were scattered here and there. And he just stood there. Looking at his brother's, hopefully unconscious and not dead, body. When he finally turned around his eyes were back to their normal golden color. All I could do is stare at him, for a second I thought he met my eye, but it was over so fast I couldn't tell, and his face didn't tell me anything. Then he turned and started walking back into the woods not saying a word.

"L-Lord Sesshomaru! W-wait!" Jaken shrieked and took off after the dog demon.

The others didn't wait another minute and ran over Inuyasha and dropped to their knees. I ran over with them, hoping that the half-demon was okay. We were soon followed by Rin and Shippou. Kagome went to work on checking the man's health and sighed in relief.

"He's alive." The others seemed to let out a collective sigh also.

All I could do is stare down at the bloodied man, "I'm sorry, so sorry." I had never seen such a horrible sight in my life.

They nodded but didn't look at me and after a minute Rin tugged on my sleeve, "Come on Nicole, we should go before Lord Sesshomaru gets too far."

I nodded but didn't move, the little girl had to lead me over to AhUn and make me get on him. We took off as soon as we both settle on the dragon's back. The entire journey I couldn't do anything but stare blankly at the back of the dragon's head, playing the fight over and over in my head. It ended the same way every time, with a bloodied Inuyasha laying still on the ground with his worried friends looking over him. Sesshomaru had done that, and I was traveling with him. What had I gotten myself into? Did traveling with him make me a bad person? And then a more shocking thought hit me. How many times had Rin seen this happen? I tentatively looked at Rin, the girl seemed just fine, like she had seen this happen a hundred times before. And for all I knew, she had.