Sarah was at a loss.  She was stuck several hundred if not thousand feet above the ground on the back of a two headed dragon and worst of all, she was stuck with Jaken as her only conversation.  They had been up in the air for about a hour, or at least it felt like an hour, she didn’t have a watch to check if she was right.  They had already flown over about half a dozen castles that could’ve belonged to Naraku, but hadn’t stopped at any of them.  Every few minutes she would look over to the cloud that was floating beside them, carrying a rather vacant looking Sesshoumaru, wondering if he would kill her for asking him to stop, but as her luck would have it, she didn’t have to ask.  Just as she was getting up the courage to ask him to land, he made a motion with his hand and the dragon started to slowly descend, causing Sarah to grip its’ sides tightly.        

“Why are we stopping?” she shouted, trying to be heard over the wind.        

“How should I know, Lord Sesshoumaru obviously spotted something we didn’t,” Jaken shouted back.  He hadn’t been as bad to travel with as she’s feared, the taunts and endless insults had stopped after the fourth time she hit him, but he had chosen instead to ignore her entirely and wait for her to say something stupid.

As they neared the ground, Sarah could make out something that looked like the remains of a camp site, which made her nervous.  There was only one person that Sesshoumaru would track other than Naraku if he got near, and that was Inuyasha.  They landed with a dull thud and Sarah slid thankfully off Ah Un’s back.  The dragon wasn’t so bad, but sitting with her legs straddled over something for that long made her thighs hurt and she really wanted to stretch them out.  The others had only just hit the ground when Sesshoumaru started walking.  Sarah made a mental note to find out where all his energy came from.        

That’s when it hit her, Nathaniel’s scent, and the scent of Naraku.  She felt her eyes redden as her body turned in the direction the scent was coming from.  She took off in whatever direction her nose led her, forgetting all about Sesshoumaru and the others and ignoring the fact that if Sesshoumaru didn’t want her to leave then she wouldn’t.  She came to a clearing where the scent stopped, changing direction suddenly; she heard laughter, evil, mocking, insidious laughter.  She stood in the middle of the clearing, her eyes scanning everything there, trying to find a sign of either of the men she’s caught scent of, she couldn’t see them.  She let out a scream of rage that shook the trees, sending several birds and smaller demons flying or skittering away.    

“Now now Sarah, no need to be so loud, I’m right here,” came the taunting reply.

“Show yourself you slimy bastard!” she shouted, turning, trying to find the source of the voice.   

“Now why would I do that when you’re in such a state?” the voice asked.  “Calm down and maybe I’ll be nice and give you something,” it said.        

“You’ll show yourself or I’ll rip this forest apart and you along with it,” she said, her voice shifting to a deathly whisper.  As soon as she finished her sentence, she heard a rustling behind her and heard someone drop to the ground, but it didn’t sound exactly right.  She turned and there was Nathaniel, held up by two vines, or at least they looked like vines.  He was semi-conscious; his head was lolling back and forth like someone in a troubled sleep.  She started to run to him, but a strong arm caught her around the middle.   

“Don’t,” it said.  She turned and saw Sesshoumaru behind her.     

“Let me go, that’s my friend up there,” she said, struggling, but it was of no use, he was much stronger than she was.    

“Naraku!  Found you at last.” Someone shouted, running into the clearing.  Sarah swore fiercely under her breath and craned her neck to see Inuyasha and the rest of his merry band of bad timing running head long into the clearing, weapons out and ready.        

“Ah, a full house, how lucky for me,” Naraku taunted, keeping hidden in the trees.

“I’ll be happy to destroy you all in a moment, but Sarah and I have some business to discuss,” he said.   

“I’ve got nothing to discuss with you except how many pieces of you you want me to bury and where,” she shouted, starting to struggle again.        

“Why do you fight me so much, all I want is for you to come with me to my castle and show me how that little machine works,” he said, his voice deceptively sweet.

“Like hell I will, let Nathaniel go NOW!” she shrieked, causing Sesshoumaru to step back and cover his ears with his arms.  She took the chance to run forward, reaching the tree just as Naraku pulled Nathaniel up.  She stepped back and kicked the tree, making it shake so bad it almost fell over, making Naraku jump down, carrying Nathaniel with him.       

“Well, now I suppose I should tend to the rest of you shouldn’t I?” he sneered, tossing Nathaniel aside.  Sarah ran over to him and tried to grab him but was repelled by a shield.  “Come now Sarah, I’m not so dim as that,” he said, grinning back at her.  The rest of the “group” had been slowly inching forward during their little exchange but as they got close enough to attack, Naraku snapped his fingers, disappearing in a cloud of poison insects, leaving no trace behind except a piece of paper with something written on it.  Inuyasha got to it first and picked it up.

“Now what the hell does this mean?” he asked, reading it over again.        

“Let me see,” Kagome took the letter and tried to read it. 

“I think it’s in English,” she said.    

“What’s English?” Inuyasha asked, looking over at her.       

“I can read it,” Sarah said, jumping up and walking over to her, taking it without waiting for an ok.  She read it through once and dropped it, stepping back until her back hit the tree that Nathaniel had been in, her eyes swimming with tears.    “Riyo, what is it?” Kagome asked.        

“It was a goodbye letter from Nathaniel, and a threat to all of us.  Naraku has something that can destroy all of us, and I gave it to him,” she said, her voice sounding shocked and sad.   

“I knew you were working for him,” Inuyasha shouted, advancing on her.  She just looked up at him and waited for him to get within range before she grabbed him around the neck.        

“Listen, you dumb ass half breed and listen well, because I won’t say this again.  I am not working for him.  That bastard took the only person who has ever cared about me and my way home along with him, so shut up and stop letting stupid things fall out of your mouth, or I’ll shut it for you…permanently,” she sealed her threat with a final squeeze around his neck before tossing him a few feet away.  “This is no longer a problem that we can deal with separately, we’re going to have to work together if we want to stop him before he can get his plan moving, got it.  That means that the two feuding brothers need to bury the hatchet and get the hell over themselves or we’re all dead, understand?” she said, her voice loud and oddly commanding.      

“I will not work with a half breed,” Sesshoumaru said, pulling himself up to his full height.        

“And I’ll be damned if I’m working with him,” Inuyasha said, glaring over at him.     

“Then. You’ll. Both. Die!” she shouted, putting a space between all of her words to impress the importance of what she was saying.  “I don’t care if you get along, you can kick each other from here to hell and back each day if you want to, but we need to put all our resources and knowledge into one effort or we all die,” she said.

“Are you sure?” Kagome asked, looking from the note to her.