The Comet by Ashlyn Braere

Chapter 1

Kagome set out all her stuff for the night. Luxury bed roll, extra blankets, food to snack on, and a tiny lantern. Everything one needed for staying up all night watching the night sky.

She had found the perfect spot for star gazing. It was a gently rounded top of a large hill out in the middle of nowhere. Oh, there was a village not too far away, but the light was almost completely hidden by the tall trees surrounding it. However, here there were no trees. Something had scoured the top down to bare rock, odd whorls gouged across the top. Kagome figured it had been youkai in origin since she hadn't seen any place else like it on her travels.

A whisper of sound next to her distracted her for a moment. She glanced at her companion out of the corner of her eye. "You don't have to stay if you don't want to. No one could possibly sneak up on me here." Her mate had insisted on accompanying her on her expedition, on the grounds that it was too dangerous for her to travel far alone.

"I will stay," he replied. He met her eyes and continued, "There are other dangers than the living. One of your space rocks might fall on you."

Kagome huffed. "They're called meteorites, Sesshoumaru, at least the ones that land. And it's so rare for that to happen that it's not something to even worry about."

Sesshoumaru snorted. "We are talking about your attraction to trouble, mate. It would not be simply one rock, but an avalanche."

She glared at him. "Yeah, right. I don't get in that much trouble." She ignored the look he gave her. "And besides, there won't be any tonight. I'm looking for a comet. Yeah, they make meteors, but they won't arrive for several more months."

"I am forewarned."

She snorted, amused at her mate. He took everything as a possible threat, especially when it came to his mate. She grimaced to herself when she recalled that he kinda did have a point. There were far too many times he'd had to save her from something or other. And as he'd already pointed out, not all of them had been an enemy. Or even alive. Or dead. Or...

Okay, she needed to stop. Yeah, trouble seemed to be overly infatuated with her... or obsessed... Yeah, she got into trouble a lot. Sesshoumaru seemed to thrive on, though. He took it as a challenge to keep her uninjured. And did he ever love challenges.

Still, nothing could hurt her up here. "Seriously, nothing will happen. You could leave if you wanted. It might get pretty boring."

He kept his eyes outward. "I will stay," he repeated.

She shrugged. "Okay." She recognized stubbornness when she saw it.

Kagome pulled out her newest book - historical astronomy. Her grandfather had dragged her to an estate sale saying he needed an extra set of arms to help carry things home. Souta had gotten out of it by having a team practice, so Kagome was 'it'. The book had caught her eye, and she couldn't pass it by. The coincidence was too great - just the night before she had spotted a large comet.

Were the Kami trying to tell her something? She wasn't about to take the chance on ignoring it.

She set up the lantern and fiddled with the shades so she had a small spot of light pointing downward. She then pulled out the book and looked up the section on comets. There was a list of dates and a description of each one, complete with quotes from whichever document it was sourced from.

She found three that were close to what was in the sky now, all at the same time of year. She sighed at the dates. She had hoped to be able to use it to help pinpoint exactly what year it was. Unfortunately, each were many decades apart. Still, she read through each description.

Kagome squinted at the page. No, that couldn't be right. She quickly looked up at the sky. Back down at the page.

"Sesshoumaru? Doesn't the sun rise over there?" She pointed off to the right.

He raised an eyebrow.

"Please, just humor me."

"Yes."

Kagome bit her lip and looked back down at the information. She looked at the other listings for comets. Aside from two obvious ill-matched listings, the ones for this time of year said the same thing. They were all viewed looking southward. This one was in the northeast.

Maybe she didn't have the right comet? Maybe... maybe she wasn't as far back in time as she thought? She moved along the list, turning pages. Her stomach twisted as she noticed a trend. It obviously had a stable orbit since it was seen regularly. However, it shifted higher in the sky as time went on. The list stopped in the late 1800's.

She closed the book. Did she really want to look at her modern astronomy book?

"Kagome."

She jumped at her mate's voice. She turned to him. "Yeah?"

He touched her elbow. "What is wrong?"

She bit her lip. "I'm not sure yet." She looked over at her bag. The one that held the dreaded book. She forced her arm to reach for it. "I need to check something."

The tables were toward the back of the book. She started in the back, since the order was reversed for this book, and quickly found the ones she wanted. Again, she followed the years, and noticed the same trend. And one stood out as the most likely object.

Dated... now.

How long she sat, staring at it, she didn't know. She jumped when Sesshoumaru laid his hand on her arm. She looked up at him, eyes wide.

"Mate, what is it?" he demanded.

She tried to form the words. Mouth opened and closed, but nothing came out.

Her mate's eyes hardened and he glared at the book in her hands. She watched, as if in slow motion, as his glowing hand reached for the book.

Suddenly, she realized what he was about to do. "No!" she yelled as she threw her body over the precious text.

With a curse, he quickly arrested his actions. He snarled. "What is wrong? You will tell me."

She opened her mouth again, but this time, the words came. "It's not the past." She watched his incomprehension. "This isn't my past. It's the same time."

Sesshoumaru frowned. "What do you mean?"

She pointed to the comet flying in front of her. "That is in the wrong place. If this was five hundred years ago, like everything else seems to be, then it should be behind us."

He turned to look at it. "And you are certain it is the same one."

Kagome was used to his not-so-questioning inquiries. "Fairly. Comets have been documented by several different civilizations. Experts in my time have correlated the different events so even if one was missed by one or two civilizations, others would have written about them.

"This can't be five hundred years from my time." Wait. Was it even her time anymore? "Not 'time'... 'world'."

He turned back to her. "World?"

She swallowed. "If this isn't my past, then this can't be the same world."

He studied her for a moment. "Hnn. Then, you were still destined to be this one's mate."

Kagome gawked at him. Earth-shattering revelations, and he focuses on himself? Wait... that... was just Sesshoumaru.

She pressed her face into the book with an internal whimper. She felt a migraine coming.

...

"You know, it kinda makes sense," Kagome mused sometime later. She had sat for a long time, just watching the comet. Her migraine never fully manifested, thanks to the quiet and darkness. Now, she felt better able to discuss her discovery.

Sesshoumaru glanced at her. "Hnn..."

She shrugged at his "continue" noise. "Lots of things. Neither Inuyasha nor I ever sensed youkai in my world... well other than a couple of artifacts. Youkai are only myths. All the ways magic affects this world, they aren't translated to mine. No mysterious blast marks or great slashes in the earth. Heck, there's no native magic at all. I'm guessing it all comes from this world."

"Your ability to travel between worlds?"

She shrugged again. "Magic? I don't know. But I do know there are lots of myths about portals between my world and a magic world. The Bone-Eater's Well isn't the only one. Heck," she continued as she remembered more facts, "there are whole religions centered around the idea of the other world interacting with mine."

Sesshoumaru's obvious interest spurred her on.

"Okay. So, let's say it really is this world, and there are other portals into my world. Our worlds are connected by these portals, probably created from this side since there's no native magic on mine. Magic occasionally leaks through - something or someone passes through. They come to my side, where no one has any idea about them. People make up stories about them, and since there's some sort of proof, a religion gets started."

She huffed, frustrated. "But there's just one problem with that. All these stories and myths end about a thousand years ago."

A small, "Hnn," and then silence. After a while, he said, "That was the time of the War of Thousands."

Kagome perked up. Something new! "Tell me?" she begged.

He glanced at her with a slight smile. "You are no child to beg."

She huffed, again. "Just tell me, Sesshoumaru. I never heard about this."

He looked back to the comet, still with the that little smirk. But he did as she bid. "The war started far to the west, in a land of hot sands and rock, bordered on two side with water. It is said it had once been quite fertile, but the people turned selfish, and their Kami turned their backs on them. After a time, the people grew desperate - humans blamed youkai, youkai blamed humans. A sect of priests arose to power, with an odd belief. They believed the youkai were anathema to their Kami, as well as any human who defied them. They thought if they subjugated the lands and killed all the youkai, the Kami would bless them once more.

"The people were desperate, and humans recklessly flocked to them. They quickly turned on the youkai. In their zeal, they painted the land red."

Kagome grimaced with him. It was sickening to think of the genocide of an entire race.

"With the release of that much youki and blood, they did manage to restore their land. But everything is finite, and the land reverted after only a few years."

"They didn't actually have their Kami's blessings," Kagome whispered. "It was only blood magic."

"I believe so. However, the short-lived success spurred them on. The priests called for an army to conquer other lands and slaughter the youkai that lived there. War broke out among neighboring lands. Some parts of the army spread even farther, traveling beyond the warring lands. It seemed their gluttony could not wait for the nearby lands to be pacified before they expanded. The 'holy paladins', as they called themselves, wrecked havoc far beyond their native lands.

"It was hundreds of years before the wars faded. So much magic was used by both sides, that many places were depleted. To this day, there are places where the land will drain any who walk close in an effort to heal itself."

Kagome stared at him, in shock.

"Hnn. The worst of the fighting, when magic use was at it most prolific, was just over one thousand years ago." Sesshoumaru glanced at her. "It would seem your theory fits." He sniffed lightly. "If one trusts Inuyasha's nose."

And that was all it took to snap Kagome out of her shock. "Hey! He has a good nose, and you know it mister," she harrumphed. "And you know as well I do, we both have looked for other youkai. My theory does make sense. There's no way to hide," she waved her hands to encompass everything around them, "all of this. And there's been lots of written history in my world. There's no way youkai and magic could possibly be so completely hidden."

"Hnn." Sesshoumaru turned to inspect their surroundings.

Kagome quieted as he did a circuit. She mulled over the revelations in the dark. It amazed her that none of them ever thought that this might be a completely different world, instead of a different time. But then again, they just took her word for it. The society here was similar to the feudal era. She never questioned it...

She should have.

"You must be descended from some human who crossed over from this world."

She was startled from her thoughts. "Oh. Uh, yeah, I guess so, since I have miko powers." She pursed her lips, thoughts derailed by this new idea. "I wonder who it could've been." She determined then and there to ask her grandfather about it. "Strange how things come circle. One of my ancestors comes to my world, eventually I'm born, somehow have the Shikon Jewel inside me, and I'm dragged back here."

"It is as I said. You were destined to be this one's mate."

Oh, lord, there's his ego again...