Dream Thief by Raeanna Red Roses

Chapter One

One of a thousand fic ideas I'm trying to start! I realized after I had started this fic that it seems a bit like the manga "Shutterbox," but just to clear it up, I didn't get any ideas from it! Well, I hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: Not mine. Don't sue.

Chapter 1

As the moonlight filtered in through her open window, Kagome threw her legs over the side of the bed. She sat there for a few moments, as if deciding whether or not to get up, and then she slowly rose and crossed the room.

Kagome wandered down the stairs, through the house, and outside to the God Tree, where she stood. But in Kagome's mind, she was not in her house. She didn't see any of the things she walked past, or even the stairs as she walked down them.

Kagome Higurashi was asleep.

:::Kagome's Dream:::

Kagome made her way through the village, and though it was littered with shadows, she knew exactly where she was going.

The path that wound between the makeshift shacks was also a patch working of different kinds of stones in numerous different colors, sizes, and textures. Some looked as if the patterns could cut her bare feet, while others were as smooth as glass.

As she looked ahead of her, it seemed not as if everything were dark, but as if certain things had lost their colors altogether.

Kagome neared the edge of a bank and as she stepped down, she found a round stone step beneath each foot until she reached the soft grass again. The path had disappeared, and now she stood before a dark forest full of white trees. They rose glowing before her, shining like the sun, but looked as if they were sleeping, their silver leaves whispering in the breeze as if they were muttering in their sleep.

As Kagome took in the scenery, the silver shapes reflecting in her blue eyes, she noticed that a small stream wound between the trunks.

She had never seen water so clear: if it weren't for the glints of light in the moving water, she might not have noticed it at all. Kagome knelt down. Looking at her reflection, she reached out a finger, jabbing the surface of the liquid. It shivered and her face went crooked. Her touch was so brief that she didn't notice that the water had no temperature.

Where am I she asked herself. Her mouth moved, but the words were uttered only in her mind. The rustle of the silver leaves was her only answer, and she stood quickly, bewildered by the inhuman whispering.

The forest was stranger than any place she'd ever been. Though the thin white trees were strange and the colorless stream seemed stranger still, the only thing out of place was the slight form of Kagome, dark-haired and small in her night clothes.

Kagome picked her way between the trunks and over the stream, thinking that she'd never seen a forest before with no plants but trees. There were no small shrubs. There was no undergrowth or even grass to mask the pale earth. The forest floor was tan, and looked like sand, though the texture was almost like carpet against her bare feet.

Curious... she thought as she came to a spot where the trees thinned out. In the center of a circle stood another white tree, though the trunk was wide and the leaves were tipped with green. The colorless stream cut off to the right of the tree and vanished into the far side of the forest. As she left the line of pale trees, Kagome noticed for the first time that she couldn't feel anything. Though the leaves rustled and her hair moved in the breeze, her skin didn't get cold, and her bare feet felt neither comfortable nor cold. The trees looked like winter and the murmuring silver leaves might have given her a chill, but she could not feel it. Sighing, she started forward again.

The tree in the center was more familiar to her than she could have known, and as she placed the palm of her hand flat against it, something that might have been a memory woke within her mind.

I know you, she thought. Something behind her stirred, and she turned. There was the briefest glimpse of white skin and silver hair before she woke up.

:::End Dream:::

As Kagome's eyes slid open, some part of her registered that she was not in her bed. She was standing in the yard in front of the Goshinbuko, with the night still dark around her.

"Hello?" She called, looking around, sure she was not alone, but there was no one there. "I dreamed it. I dreamt there was somebody behind me, that's all." Even as she said it, she wasn't so sure.

She entered the house a few minutes later when she couldn't figure it out. The dream--the white forest, the colorless stream –was gone from her mind, everything but the hint of the stranger standing behind her.

With a heavy sigh, she made her way upstairs.

"Ah, this is heaven!" Kagome heard herself say as she stood beneath the hot spray of the shower. She felt tired though she had been sleeping, and the bottoms of her feet were dirty. She had tried to go back to sleep, but with little success, so she had decided to take a shower. Things swirled in her mind, but nothing was solid. And even as she toweled herself dry and slipped back into her pajamas, she had nothing but fragments of a dream.

"I had the strangest dream last night," her best friend Sango Taijiya was saying the next morning as they walked to class. Kagome had known Sango since they were four, and now, at age nineteen, they were attending university together. Sango lived on campus, but since Kagome house was a three minute walk from the school, they met at Sango's dorm and went to class from there.

That morning as they walked to their nine 'o clock philosophy class, Kagome listened as Sango went on and on about a weird dream involving never-ending corridors and people who weren't who they said they were.

"And he kept saying he was my brother, but I'd never seen him before in my left! And just as I started to realize who he was, I woke up," Sango said. Kagome nodded.

"That is strange." Her voice sounded far away, but she didn't notice. Sango raised an eyebrow.

"Kagome," Sango placed a hand on her best friend's shoulder, "what's wrong?" Kagome looked at her blankly for a second before shaking her head.

"Nothing," she said. And then, after a pause, "Why?" They had stopped walking by then, and Sango moved to face her friend.

"These past couple of weeks, you've been acting really strange. You've been quieter than normal, you've seemed more tired than usual, and you never want to go out anymore. And you fell asleep in class yesterday!"

"..." was Kagome's intelligent response. Had she been that way? She hadn't noticed. Kagome knew that she'd been waking up a couple of hours before she had to because of strange dreams that she could never remember, but she had just attributed it to stress. She would wake up, trying to pull forward any memories of these dreams, and lately she'd been so concerned about these dreams that she'd only been getting a few hours of sleep. She could never remember the dreams, or she might have thought it odd that she'd been having the same one for almost a month now. The only thing that she could remember, the only constant was the stranger who she never saw.

"See, you can't deny it," Sango said, linking her arm with Kagome's as they entered the building. "Now after class, come back to my dorm and get some sleep. You're lucky you only have one class today." Sango began babbling about how she could get about two hours of sleep before they went to lunch, but Kagome's attention was soon diverted. A tall man in black dress slacks and a white dress shirt walked past them. He had long black hair, pale skin, and, Kagome thought with a slight smirk, a pretty cute butt.

Where do I know him from? Kagome wondered as Sango dragged her into the classroom. They grabbed a seat up front and had been talking for just a moment when one of their other classmates, a redhead Kagome didn't know very well, came up to them.

"Hey, sorry to interrupt, but did you guys hear what happened?" she said. She put her hands on her hips and raised her eyebrows when they both shook their heads. "Professor Nicosia's been reported missing.

"What?" both girls said in unison. The redhead nodded and sat on the edge of the table, picking at the seam of her jeans.

"Yeah. The principal called when she didn't show up for class yesterday morning, and when the police went to check, she was nowhere to be found!" There was a twinkle in her eyes as if she was delighted by the horror of the situation.

Kagome and Sango had philosophy on Tuesday and Thursday, so neither of them had noticed that Lydia Nicosia was missing.

"Do they have any idea what happened to her?" Sango asked.

"No," the girl, whose name Kagome now remembered was Ayame, said, "but they're saying she was kidnapped." Ayame tugged at the curling end of one of her pigtails.

"Okay everyone, take your seats," a voice said. Ayame slid off the table, saying a quick goodbye as she made her way to her own seat at the back of the classroom. Kagome took out her laptop and looked forward. She felt her mouth drop open.

Standing at the front of the classroom was the stranger from before, and now that Kagome could see his face, she could see that his butt wasn't the only cute thing about him.

He had a gorgeous face, and the strangest brown eyes she'd ever seen. They were almost golden, but that was crazy. Nobody had golden eyes.

"Good morning," he said. "I'm sure you've all heard about Ms. Nicosia's... absence, so for the time being I'm going to be teaching you all. I'm Dr. Sesshoumaru Taisho. Now..." he began to talk about Plato and Kagome didn't so much as listen as she watched his mouth move. She would type the occasional note about this or that, but she was very interested in this beautiful stranger. There was something comforting and slightly familiar about this man. She was paying attention to the way his ponytail trailed ever so close to that cute behind of his when she heard her name.

"Kagome Higurashi?" she looked up. Dr. Taisho was looking down at her. She felt her heart begin to beat faster and her breath hitch in her throat as all conscious thought stopped. She searched frantically for words and said the only thing she could think of.

"Hi." A few people snickered and Sango sighed, and Kagome felt herself turn red.

"Well, hello yourself," he said with slight smirk. Those strange brown eyes met her own sapphire ones and Kagome knew something at that moment: She had seen him before. She didn't know where, but she had. But before she could figure out where, he was speaking to her again. "Would you care to answer the question?"

"Uh... could you repeat the question, please?" Kagome pressed her back against her chair as Dr. Taisho leaned forward, putting a pale hand on either side of her as he leaned across the table.

"Ms. Higurashi, if you had been paying attention, than you would know that I had asked you where your book was," his voice was completely devoid of emotion, and those odd eyes were cold. "And judging by the fact that I see no book, I can only assume that you weren't paying attention. Now, if you have a book, I would suggest you get it out, turn to page 133, and read the passage." Kagome swallowed and extracted her book from her backpack. With a shaky voice, she read the passage, relieved when he turned and went back to the front of the room.

Wow, she thought when he began to make various comments about the passage she had just read, he's cute but what an asshole! For the rest of the class period, Kagome continued to zone out. Before she knew it, she was fighting to keep her eyes open, a battle she was quickly losing.

:::Kagome's Dream:::

When Kagome opened her eyes, she was sitting in the clearing as the base of the white tree. She ran a hand across the strange earth, and it was then that she noticed the footprints.

What the...? she thought as she looked around. She didn't see anyone as she turned her head to each side, but when she looked forward again, he was standing there.

Dressed in all white, with his porcelain skin and silver hair, he looked more like a ghost than any human being. And there were strange markings on his face, but it was his eyes that caught her attention. She knew those eyes...

Then he opened his mouth to speak...

:::End Dream:::

"Kagome," she looked up. Dr, Taisho was staring at her, and beside him were Sango and the redheaded Ayame. The rest of the room was empty. "Are you alright?"

"Huh?" she mumbled. She was confused. How could he be here when he was just in the forest with her? And why was his hair black? She was about to ask him how he got here, when it clicked: it was a dream. She had been having a dream, and she could actually remember it!

"Kagome?" Sango was looking at her with very worried eyes.

"I'm fine," Kagome said, though her voice was a lot weaker than she had wanted it to be.

"Class is over," Dr. Taisho said, his mysterious brown eyes glinting. "You should go get some rest." He was every bit the unfeeling jerk he had been before, but his voice held an edge of concern. There were shadows of worry on Ayame and Sango's faces as well.

And as Kagome stood up, their expressions grew more concerned.

"Kagome, what's on your hand?" Ayame asked, her green eyes staring at the palm of Kagome's right hand. As she lifted it, her eyes widened. There was dirt on the palm of her hand. Quickly she hid it behind her back.

"Uh, nothing," she said. Sango and Ayame were staring at her.

"Well, I better get going," Ayame said after a moment of silence. "I have class in fifteen minutes."

"Okay," Kagome said.

"Alright," Sango began, before adding, "Kagome and I are going to lunch at around 1, if you want to join us." Ayame's smile was instant.

"Sure," she said, calling that she'd see them then. As soon as Ayame was gone, Sango grabbed Kagome's hand.

"What is that?" she said, looking at the dirt on Kagome's palm before she wrenched her hand away.

"Really, it's nothing. I must have just set it in something," she said, knowing that it was the weakest excuse ever. Sango narrowed her eyes.

"I'm worried about you," she said simply. She stared at Kagome for a long moment before she continued. "You know you can tell me if there's something wrong. We've known each other our whole lives."

"Yeah, I know," Kagome said with a weak smile. She was debating on whether or not to tell Sango about the dreams, but decided it could wait. "I appreciate it, Sango, I really do, and I'll let you know if there is something wrong." Sango put an arm around her best friend's shoulder and they headed for Sango's dorm.

"I'll be back in about two hours, so help yourself to anything," Sango said to Kagome as she grabbed her books and purse before heading for her next class. "Sleep well!" Sango called as she shut the door behind her.

Kagome barely heard Sango's last words as she curled up on Sango's bed. It was almost as comfortable as her bed at home, and she was asleep before she knew it.

Kagome woke up barely a second later, and realized that she wasn't in Sango's dorm bed anymore. The next thing she realized was that she was freezing.

"Where am I?" she asked, looking around. The room she was in was dark save for a small fire in the corner. Over it hung a kettle, which was emitting puffs of blue steam.

Kagome looked down at herself, wondering where the hell she was if not in Sango's dorm bed, when she noticed her clothes. She was wearing what appeared to be darker blue leggings and a sleeveless blue shirt with a mandarin collar than came down to just above her knees. She would have mistaken it for a dress if it hadn't been for the slits up to her hips. She had on what appeared to be a long-sleeved undershirt the same shade as the leggings, and a couple of shades darker than the shirt. She was barefoot, and her feet felt like ice. She grabbed the blankets and pulled them up to her waist and twisted a lock of hair around her finger.

Where am I? Did I sleepwalk again? she was starting to get scared when the kettle started to whistle, startling a tiny yelp out of her. A moment later, when Kagome had caught her breath, a woman in clothing quite similar to Kagome's, except it was black and pink, bustled into the room. She had short pink hair that was partially pinned up, with short pink bangs hanging in her eyes.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" she shouted to the screaming kettle. "I swear... oh, hello there." Her red eyes found Kagome, and she smiled. "So you've found us at last then, have you?" She was slightly tan, with freckles spotting her cheeks, and an easy smile. "Tea?" she asked, holding up the multi-colored kettle, which was still puffing out clouds of blue smoke.

Kagome was a bit bewildered. She had fallen asleep in her best-friend's bed, and now she was sitting in a freezing shack with a stranger who was offering her tea. There was only so much a girl could take!

For lack of anything better to say, Kagome said, "Um...sure." The girl hung the kettle back over the fire and turned to what Kagome thought was a blank wall.

"It's around here somewhere...aha!" The pink-haired girl ran her hand over the dark stone wall until a silver handle appeared, and then she opened a cabinet. Kagome stared with wide-eyes as she pulled out two chipped china cups and then shut the cabinet door. The handle sank back into the wall, which looked like it had no idea that it was or ever had been a cabinet.

"How did...?" Kagome said, but the question died in her throat. I don't want to know.

"Sugar?"

"Yes, please." Kagome said, watching as if the girl was going to produce the sugar out of nowhere. But instead she got up and retrieved a white canister off of a small table that Kagome could see close to the far wall.

"How many?" she asked, unscrewing the cap and holding up a spoon.

"Two." Kagome watched her put in two spoonfuls of sugar in a purple and yellow china cup, and then put three and half in a pink and white one, and then screw the lid back on the canister.

"Cream?"

"Yes, please," Kagome repeated, and then watched in amazement as she shook the sugar canister, which shifted it's shape until it was a white pitcher, complete with a handle and spout. She poured the cream, and then set the pitcher back on the table, where it silently changed back into a sugar canister. Kagome was silent as the girl handed her the tea.

"Go on," she said. "It's not poisoned." She smiled and sipped her own tea. Kagome stared at her, and not because of the amount of sugar she'd put in the drink.

"What just happened?" Kagome asked after some time, her eyes still on the sugar canister. It didn't change again, but Kagome thought that if it could, and it just might be able to, it would probably be laughing at her.

"I fixed you some tea. It would've been bad manners for me not to have offered you some," she said, taking another sip.

"I mean, how did you...?"

"How did I do that with the sugar?"

Kagome nodded.

"It saves space if you have one container instead of two," she began, "but since that would be an awful mixture and a waste of sugar, we just keep them in the same place." She giggled as Kagome gaped at her. "You'll learn in time."

Unsure of what else to do, Kagome sipped her own tea, which, she was surprised to find, was just the right temperature and tasted perfect.

"Oh, deary me, I'm sorry!" she said, setting down her cup and extending her hand. "I'm Asha. I should've said."

"That's, okay," Kagome said, shaking her hand, which was slightly chilled. "I'm Kagome." Asha nodded.

"Well, welcome to my home, Kagome," she said. The two sat in silence as they finished their tea. A thousand thoughts flew through Kagome's head.

What if Sango comes back? She'll be so worried. She'll have no idea where I am, not that I have any idea where I am!

"Where am I?" Kagome said, shifting to sit more comfortably as she vocalized her latest thought. She traced the patterns on her teacup as Asha answered her.

"You, my dear, are in one of the many Weavers' villages in Nambia." This was all said so matter-of-factly that Kagome was almost more confused than she had been before.

"Where?"

"Nambia," Asha said again. At Kagome's confused look she elaborated, "The dream world."

"So I'm dreaming?"

"No."

"But I'm in the dream world?"

"Yes."

"Does that meant that I'm awake?"

"Yes." Asha said. "Although I'm afraid that while you are awake here, you cannot be asleep in your world, what we here in Nambia call the Waking World." She set her teacup down and crossed her legs, smoothing her shirt down across her thighs before resting her clasped hands on her knees. "What that means is that while you are here, awake, you are nowhere in your world, as you may have already guessed." Kagome bit her lip. "So, for now, I'm going to have to say goodbye." Kagome sat up and opened her mouth to protest, but she vanished, leaving behind only a tangle of bed sheets and an empty teacup.

End Chapter 1.

I know it's not the best place to end a chapter, but that was about four pages longer than I wanted it to be, so I had to end it there. Gomen! As usual: r, r & r. Till next time! ::waves and skips away::