"Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it."

~Charles R. Swindoll

Kohaku groaned as she sat up from the side of the two-headed lizard, who had decided to curl around her. Some hours must have passed because the once blue sky was now dark, filled with twinkling stars and the bright glow of the full moon. The moon always mesmerized her. Its being was supposed to be appreciated and sometimes worshipped, at least that's what her paternal grandma told her.

In front of her, a fire crackled, embers floating up and flying around like fireflies. Across the fire pit, the mysterious handsome man sat against a low-hanging tree. He wasn't looking at her, his eyes were closed, and it honestly looked like he was sleeping. But she knew he wasn't. The faint rise and fall of his chest may have painted that picture, but something inside of her told her that he was not sleeping. Just pretending. Maybe even contemplating what to do with her.

"Are you going to continue to stare at me?" he suddenly asked, which startled the girl a little. His eyes slowly opened, looking straight at her. Or maybe through her. Golden pools coldly stared into her dark amber eyes, searching for something, she didn't know what.

"What?Sorry...Idon't speak Japanese well. But I can write and translate most words well," she replied in English before switching to her broken Japanese. She was about to grab her bag, which was surprisingly laying against the giant lizard but hesitated and looked over to the man as if awaiting hisapproval. He nodded slightly upon noticing her reluctance, and she sat up more to get her sketchbook and a pen. They hadjust so happened to be sitting on the top of her bag, waiting for her to make use of them.

Grabbing her book, she opened to the first page which was crisp and clean. Quickly grabbing and opening a black brush pen, she swiftly but quietly, clumsily writing down simple Japanese characters to convey a message for the man to read. She was scared but the fear she felt was slowly turning into slightly giddy ness. She may not be a fluent Japanese speaker, but the written language was something she loved to study. As she concentrated on writing a message, the man waited and took his time to analyze her.

This girl (she said her name was Kohaku) was a mystery to him.He had seen from a distance she fell from the sky in a flash of light and upon his dragon. At first, he thought she was a witch of sorts, from the way she dressed in weird clothing, spoke in tongues, and how her appearance out of nowhere could not be explained. But he later retracted that thought, she wasn't like any witch he has come across, who were all evil or crazy to an extent, and she doesn't have the aura of one. She couldn't be a demon either, not even half, for she didn't exude any demonic energy. Not even when he moved her body after passing out did he feel a weak signature.

It was after five minutes of endless scribbling of words did Kohaku stop before hesitantly crawling on her hands and knees to pass over what she wrote. Tentatively, with slightly trembling hands she passed over the sketchbook before quickly backtracking over to the two-headed dragon. It was currently safer over there than being near the unknown man. Plus it wasn't bothered by her leaning on it so she took it as a good sign.

With calm but calculating eyes the man read over her writing, all in somewhat clear and readable kanji. Some strokes were slightly smudged due to her shakiness.

"Hello, my name is Ao Kohaku, age fifteen. I don't know how I got here or where I'm at. I'm not a native of Japan so I'm not good at speaking with others. I do know how to write and read very well in Japanese because I have studied extensively. Can you point me to the nearest bus stop so I can leave here?"

It was clear to see that this girl was well beyond educated than other common females he has ever come across. No woman, unless she was of an aristocratic family, would know how to write or even read.This could either mean she wasa runaway princess or a scholar of sorts from a foreign land. But she also claimed to not be native, that she wasn'tfrom here. And what was a 'bus stop'? Did she mean a village? But if she meant a village, she would have written that instead. Something was amiss with her and he would find out one way or another.

Holding out his hand the man gestured for her to hand over the writing utensil so he could give her a written response. He will believe her claims for now until proven otherwise. With slight vigor, possibly because he no longer felt treating to her at the moment, she grabbed her pen before quickly crawling over to the man. If he could answer her questions, that means she might be able to leave this weird place. She's still even debating whether this is a dream or a very good acid trip. And she doesn't do acid or any other type of drug. That's something her uncle would do.

With quick precision, the man wrote. After two minutes he was done. Calmly he handed her back her book. His response was what she both dreaded and hoped for. She just couldn't believe it.

"I am Lord Sesshomaru of the West. You have trespassed onto my land, but fear not, I will not end your life. Yet. If what you speak is the truth about not being from this land then I grant you this one time a pardon for your disrespect. I do not know where this 'bus stop' is, or what it is, but I can take you to the nearest human village."

Well, she learned his name for one. She also learned that, yes she was still in Japan for he wrote in perfect kanji, but there was still a mystery. He didn't know what a bus stop was. Either he was dumb (she wouldn't say that to his face) or, and she hoped not, she was dreaming. It would explain his clothing, the way he addressed himself as a lord, the two-headed dragon, and why the environment feels dangerous but not polluted with trash and exhaust fumes. Her dreams were always weird like that, almost life-like and almost corporal at times.

Shakily but still filled with some excitement she wrote again. This time with more questions and less introduction about herself. So far four pages have been used from her sketchbook and it seems more will be used frequently if what she suspects is true. She's hoping it isn't, but her grandmother had always warned her to never make a fool's bet.

Feeling quite bold, Kohaku shuffled over to sit next to Sesshomaru which in turn caused the gremlin who had been quite quietly hiding behind the dragon to squawk at her angrily. It took a cold glare from Sesshomaru to shut it up. Ignoring the thing entirely she showed the man what she wrote this time. Her writing also was as shakey or smudged this time.

"Thank you for the offer but I must decline. You see, I think this is all just some wild dream. Hear me out, please! The reason I think that is because of the lizard and the green thing. Plus you don't look entirely human and the clothing you're wearing is considered to be out of date and historic, and I for one love learning about different periods of history. I believe I somehow hit my head or somethingand ended up here in the weird but crazy coma dream. Or this is reality and you're playing a really bad joke on me. But I want to ask, will you be willing to please teach me how to speak proper Japanese? Please!"

Reading what the girl wrote made him think she was crazy. Dream? What makes her think this was some kind of dream? If anything, she was probably from a different period. This concept wasn't new to Sesshomaru since he has come across a scenario like this before. Back in his youth, when he was a pup, but that was a story for a different time.

He would indulge her for now until she finally accepts the reality of her situation. Plus something about this girl drew him in. Maybe it was her naivety. Maybe the way she was both scared of him but excited to learn something new. Or maybe it was a large amount of spiritual energy he feels coming off of her that piqued his interest. The energy felt different but oh so familiar to him.

But his reply was both shocking to her and a little to himself but it didn't matter. Either way, an adventure awaited both of them.

"I will teach you. But you must understand this is no dream. I am real. The dragon is real. The imp is real. All of this, everything around you is real. This Sesshomaru has no reason to tell any lies."

Reading his words carefully and thoroughly she started to get excited before dread slowly formed in her gut. He said all of this wasn't a dream. He said he wasn't lying. And she felt deep inside that he wasn't lying. Looking up from the book she looks at the man in front of her, many emotions flowing through her. Fear. Sadness. Anger. Confusion. And weirdly enough,longing.

In her short time of living, she craved adventure. For something exciting to happen in her boring life, but she wasn't expecting this. Hell, she didn't know where she was. She guesses she was still in Japan, but now she wasn't sure. And the creature she was previously laying on is a dragon, while that squawking creature is an imp? She just wanted to go home now.

"Why me?" she whined before flopping on her back next to Sesshomaru, the sketchbook and pen falling between the two. Sighing in defeat, Kohaku threw an arm over her face, hiding from the world for just a bit. She was getting slightly overwhelmed from thinking and trying to rationalize the current situation at hand. She could even feel a mild headache coming on.

Some time passed in silence before the light sound of snoring filled the air. Falling from the sky, meeting three weird creatures, and essentially being stranded away from modern civilization, all the hype finally caught up to her. Kohaku had fallen asleep.

Sesshomaru the whole time was studying the girl. The book and pen she possessed were not from here (whether from a different country or period, he didn't know), the way she wrote was different and some of the words she used were new to him. She went from afraid of him too eager to communicate in just a few hours (naivety or bravery?). And something about her nagged at him but it wasn't in a bad way. He would have to look further into it.

With one last look at Kohaku, Sesshomaru went back to rest against the tree, until she woke again. Tomorrow morning they will head out to the nearest village.