"Left! Turn left!" Kagome shouted frantically, clinging as tightly as she could to Sesshomaru, fearing that if she let go, she would fall.

Sesshomaru quickly turned left sending sand flying behind him onto the face of Rolland. Sesshomaru smirked, hearing Rolland cough up the sand that he had swallowed, slowing his pace giving Sesshomaru a larger lead.

Sesshomaru felt Kagome give a small twitch before she yelled "Stop!"

He abruptly stopped making Rolland, who was still blinded by sand, crash into his back. Sesshomaru set Kagome down before inspecting the land where they had stopped.

It appeared they had stopped on a giant sand dune overlooking the vast expanses of desert that lay before them. There were no signs of civilization or of any living beings in the aria, and as far as Sesshomaru could tell, there hadn't been any for quite some time.

Sesshomaru looked down at Kagome and saw that she was trying in vain to brush off all the sand that had clung to her clothes and noticed that she winced every time she bent her slightly sun burnt arms. His attention moved off the miko when he heard Rolland spit out the last of the sand that was in his mouth and saw him wipe off his tongue with the palm of his hand.

Rolland glanced at the expanse of desert and apparently came to the same decision as Sesshomaru. "Why did we stop here?"

Kagome looked up from brushing off her skirt. "I felt the presence of a bell just a second ago," She looked around "But it's not here anymore."

"A demon most likely has it." Sesshomaru said.

"But I don't smell anyone else here." Rolland said, looking around once more. "It looks like were the first to ever come here." Sesshomaru sighed. 'Why must the one's I bring on this quest be so idiotic?'

"Sand works like water." Sesshomaru explained "With every gust of wind, the grains of sand that were holding a scent were blown in different directions. Likewise, the tracks that we made coming here were blown away."

Kagome sighed, sitting down in the sand. "So tracking those down just became nearly impossible." She sighed again and picked up a handful of sand, letting it flow through her fingers and join back with the ground. Kagome looked up from the sand and at her traveling companions.

She saw Rolland first, laying on his back with his eyes closed and his hands folded behind his head. Kagome wasn't sure why Rolland was so eager to join them. 'Maybe he was just bored of the artic.' Kagome thought looking at the polar bear demons sun burnt arms, which appeared not to bother him at all.

She then turned her attention to the demon lord from the West standing next to her. She was still slightly fearful of Sesshomaru, seeing as he had tried to kill her friends in the past. But after spending a few days with him, she thought there had to be a reason he kept seeking out their shard hunting group. 'There has to be some object to picking fights with Inu-Yasha.' She thought. Kagome thought back to Sesshomaru's battles with his little brother. Even with Inu-Yasha slowly mastering the Tetsusaiga, Sesshomaru always seemed to be three steps ahead of him. When the battles usually ended, Inu-Yasha was in deep trouble, but when Sesshomaru had the chance for a final blow, he would walk away. 'Could it be that Sesshomaru was helping him?' Kagome thought, eyes widening. 'Sesshomaru might not admit it, but I think that he's helping Inu-Yasha master the Tetsusaiga.' Kagome smiled, feeling her opinion change about the cold demon lord who was currently scanning the land around them.

Kagome was shocked out of her thoughts when she noticed that the two demons were getting taller and taller. She wondered if they were walking towards her, but quickly dismissed the thought seeing as Rolland was lying down and Sesshomaru was standing still. She bent her head in confusion and let out a piercing scream. Kagome was now buried up to her elbows in sand and could feel her being slowly pulled under by what felt like invisible hands.

Sesshomaru and Rolland quickly turned in Kagome's direction when they heard her scream. They both rushed over to her when they realized that she couldn't get herself out. Sesshomaru grabbed hold of the remaining part of her left arm and instructed Rolland to do the same with her right. As they pulled, they could feel her arms slowly slipping out if the sand.

Kagome, now that she had both hands free, grabbed onto the demons' wrists and the two demons moved their hands down to Kagome's wrists in a similar fashion.

The sand, almost as if sensing that someone was trying to take its prey, began to pull Kagome down with a much greater force. The sudden jerk caught the two demons off guard and caused Rolland to fall onto the sand, sending Sesshomaru crashing down with him, causing him to growl in frustration.

Kagome would have laughed if she wasn't in this situation, but instead increased her struggles to get out. She was being pulled under faster then before and was now buried up to her neck in sand. She was still holding Sesshomaru and Rolland's wrists in a death grasp who were now up to their elbows in sand as well. The three knew that there was no way out of this, so they just held still and let the sand consume them.

Sesshomaru was mentally rebuking himself as he got one last glimpse of the sky before going under the sand. He was only under the sand for about three seconds before he felt himself being yanked further down and instead of being engulfed in more sand; he felt his feet break out into an open space. There was one last tug and Sesshomaru was completely out of the sand and quickly falling down a fissure. He felt Kagome's wrist in his hand and saw that she was conscious and could tell she was confused as well. He realized that she probably couldn't tell she was falling since it was so dark. A quick glance to his right told him that Rolland was alive as well and held Kagome's wrist in his hand as well. One quick glance down told him that they were about to hit the bottom of the hole. He knew that Kagome wouldn't survive the fall if she just stayed out in the open and it looked like Rolland was too shocked at their situation to do anything. Thinking rapidly, Sesshomaru pulled Kagome's' body close to his own causing her wrist to slip out of Rolland's hand.

Kagome opened her eyes wide in surprise when she felt herself collide with Sesshomaru. A glance down removed all her fear and she immediately clung to Sesshomaru and shut her eyes.

Sesshomaru tightened his hold on her as he landed softly on the firm ground, hearing Rolland fall to the ground next to him with a loud 'thump'. He looked around where they had landed. They had landed on a hard floor made of black marble. The walls around them and the ceiling they had fallen from were made of sand and there were six glowing green orbs sticking out of the walls casting a green light all around the circular chamber they were in. There was a hallway about fifty feet in front of him which was illuminated by four of the green orbs before disappearing into the darkness. Sesshomaru looked away from the hallway when he felt Kagome begin to move around.

Kagome opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was a firm chest. She blushed madly, but made no move to get away. 'I know I'm being held by Sesshomaru,' she thought 'but I don't really want to move. It must be because I just fell about two hundred feet. Yeah, that's it.' She looked up into Sesshomaru's face and saw that he was looking at her as well. Kagome turned her head away and blushed harder and she could almost feel the smugness rolling off of him in waves. She quickly turned her thoughts away from Sesshomaru when she heard Rolland groan.

Rolland stood up and brushed away all the sand that had clung to his clothes. He quick looked around and asked "Where are we?"

"A cave of some sort." Sesshomaru said, concentrating on the hallway in front of him. "And if I'm correct, we're not alone."

His words made Kagome and Rolland nervously look down the hall, where they could both hear footsteps rapidly approaching.

After a few tense seconds of waiting two hooded figures cloaked in brown robes came into the room. The five stood there in silence for a couple of seconds before the taller of the two figures stepped foreword and drew back his hood. It revealed a man in his late twenties with light brown hair and tan skin. He had dark eyes that were regarding Sesshomaru, Kagome, and Rolland with thought. He spoke to the three clearly in a language neither Kagome nor Sesshomaru could understand.

Sesshomaru and Kagome both turned to Rolland and saw that his face was twisted in concentration. After a short pause, Rolland spoke back to the man slowly in the same language. The man's face became grave and he motioned for the figure behind him to step foreword. The figure did so and drew back its hood as well to reveal a woman, also in her late twenties with shoulder length brown hair and dark brown eyes. Unlike the man though, the woman had some kind of animal ears perched on top of her head. She looked at Rolland and softly said something in the foreign language which Rolland replied too much more quickly.

Kagome, sensing it was safe, wiggled out of Sesshomaru's arms and asked Rolland "What's going on? What are they saying?"

Rolland turned to Sesshomaru and Kagome and said "This man asked me what I was doing here. I told him that we had been pulled under by the sand. Then this woman," He said, pointing to the woman standing next to the man "Asked me what I we were doing out here in the desert and I told her that we were looking for the four golden bells."

"Ask him who they are." Sesshomaru told Rolland.

Rolland nodded and spoke slowly to the man. The man frowned for a second before quickly muttering something to Rolland and walking back down the hall. The woman smiled at them before turning and following the man.

Rolland turned to Sesshomaru and Kagome and said "They want us to follow them." Rolland and Kagome turned to Sesshomaru and when he nodded, they followed the man and woman down the dark hall.

The hall seemed to go on forever and Kagome could feel herself getting tired. The green lights seemed to draw away all her strength and made her want to lie down on the ground and go to sleep. Kagome looked around Rolland, who was walking in front of her, and saw that they were nearing another room.

The room they entered was much like the first one, circular with six green lights attached to the walls, but these lights were much brighter then the previous ones and allowed Kagome to see the room clearly. There was a wooden table in the center of the room and there were many maps scattered all over it. The table could seat ten and had wooden stools surrounding it. Behind the table was another hallway with faint green lights illuminating part of it. There was also an identical hallway to the first hallways left and another on its right.

The man and the woman stood behind the table and motioned them to sit. Rolland and Kagome took the offer gladly but Sesshomaru remained standing. The man began to talk slowly, to make sure that Rolland could get everything he was saying. He placed a hand on his chest and then motioned at the woman next to him and then waited for Rolland to translate.

"He says that his name is Derfarious and the woman next to him is his wife Lealaeh." Rolland said.

As Kagome took this chance to better look at the two, she noticed that Lealaeh was very pregnant.

Derfarious began to talk once more, motioning to one of the maps on the table as he did so, occasionally tapping one of the parts of the map to emphasize his point.

"Okay," Rolland began "This is a little longer and I'll translate as best as I can." He paused to collect his thoughts. "Up until twenty years ago the Manerica, that's the name of their tribe, had lived peacefully above ground. All was well until one day when they heard that a great and terrible monster had come and was destroying everything in its path. They ignored these rumors, thinking that there was no way a monster of the size they were describing could make it through the desert, and went on with their lives. About a week later, a neighboring tribe that they had always gotten along with was attacked by what appeared to be a giant snake and completely wiped out save for one person."

Rolland paused in the tale to point out to Sesshomaru and Kagome where exactly the snake had attacked. When he was sure that they were done and ready he continued.

"The sole survivor was in bad shape with long gashes down his arms and legs and a hole in his chest that was dripping poison. He crossed the desert to come to the Manerica to warn them of the danger. He told them of a huge black snake with scales that gleamed in the sun and could disappear in the sand. The most unusual thing about the snake was that the space right between its eyes seemed to be able to put everyone in an almost hypnotic state leaving them helpless so it could devour them. That was all he was able to tell before he died of blood loss."

"Do you think that was one of the bells?" Kagome asked.

"Probably. I've never heard of any other object with power like that." Sesshomaru replied.

"Anyways, the Manerica took this warning seriously and decided to put out guards to watch for this monster. Three days passed and nothing seemed to be going wrong until one day, the guard watching the east side disappeared. One by one, every person who was sent out never came back." Rolland paused. "This next part was harder to understand but what I think he was saying was that a couple days later the monster had appeared out of the sand and when it looked in their direction, nobody was able to move. It began to slowly devour the Manerica while they were standing there helpless. He told me that he believed that the whole tribe was doomed, that is until the sun set. As soon as the sun began to set, the monster froze in its tracks, screamed, and dove under the sand, breaking the spell that had been placed over the Manerica. They decided to come and live under the sand, where the monster would have no power over them and didn't see the monster again for a while after that."

Rolland stopped speaking and looked back at Derfarious who once again began to talk to Rolland, this time motioning to the green lights that were sticking out of the walls.

"Alright, did you get all of what I said earlier?" Rolland asked Sesshomaru and Kagome. When they nodded, he continued. "Good, well the Manerica were safe for another month or so and believed that they had tricked the great black snake. Well one night, when they were all about to head to bed, the snake came barreling through the walls, collapsing many of their recently made tunnels. Again when the snake looked at them, they found themselves unable to move. This time instead of devouring them, it slithered past them and headed to the nursery, where all the young ones were sleeping. It barreled through the door and woke up the children causing them all to scream in fright and then freeze, just like the adults had. All the adults were behind the snake, using whatever they could find to hack at the snake since they had been released from the snakes spell. He said that the snake suddenly froze and let out an ear piercing scream before quickly retreating through one of the walls. This confused the Manerica because they knew that their weapons were having no effect on the monster. After investigating this for a while, they found out that these orbs," He pointed to the green orbs on the wall "Have the same affect on the monster as the sunset does. Although living underground made the snakes spell slightly weaker, it did not stop the monster from coming, so they lined the walls with these green orbs, and they haven't seen the monster since."

There was a long silence before Sesshomaru asked "So what do they want with us?"

Rolland translated the question to Derfarious and Lealaeh and Lealaeh quickly answered him, her eyes pleading at the three.

"They would like our help in defeating the monster and freeing their people from fear. They believe they know a way to defeat it, but none of their people are brave enough to go and face the monster."

"How do they think they can defeat the monster?" Kagome asked.

Rolland once again relayed the question to Derfarious and Lealaeh and replied "The lights on the walls. They believe that if the monster can swallow one of those orbs, or even if one comes in contact with its skin, it will destroy the monster."

Throughout this whole speech, Sesshomaru had been in deep thought. He glanced at Kagome once and Kagome, knowing what he was asking, nodded her head. He turned back to Rolland and said, "Tell them we agree to help."

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Wow that took a along time to get in. I had no good reason for getting it in this late other then I was lazy.

I have a favor to ask of my reviewers. I would like your suggestions on places for the group to go. I already have one in mind (and no, I can't tell you what it is) but I need two more places for them to travel to. I would love to hear all of your ideas and they would be a big help. I guess that's all I have to say. So, thank you all for reviewing!