HIIIIIII! This is my first Inuyasha fanfict. I've always loved the fact that Shippo is a shape-changing fox and now I'm writing a story about him andhis 'cousin' (not really…). There's some background at the end of this chapter. ENJOY! (disclaimer: Inuyasha belongs to the people it belongs to and not me!)

"SHUT UP!"

"All I'm saying is that if you told him to get lost he would-"

Kagome whirled on Inuyasha, her face furious.

"Maybe you just can't deal with the fact that Koga…."

Miroku sighed and swung his staff to keep pace with his step, listening idly to the furious argument in front of him. He nudged Sango.

"Although these little spats between Kagome and Inuyasha do amuse me during these prolonged marches, I think it would be best that we stop them before we lose both of our love birds." Sango rolled her eyes.

"Fine. If you want to, have fun. Me, I like having my head securely on my shoulders." Kirara mewed in agreement. Miroku smiled amiably and, as if he hadn't heard, strolled up to the quarreling pair. Shippo, practically unnoticed, and, as usual, ignored, stumped along at Kirara's heels. He tried not to listen as Miroku, as what normally happened when he tried to interfere in Inuyasha's arguments, received the fury of both participants. He was heartily bored with the entire thing. Jeez, you'd think that those two would nave run out of stuff to argue about by now, or at least have gotten bored with old material. He couldn't count the number of times that he had heard this one… He didn't notice as his steps grew slower in comparison with the rest of the group.

The sun beamed happily through the boughs of the trees above him and the birds chirruped serenely, uninterrupted by Inuyasha's and Kagome's bickering. Shippo looked up in relief… and only then realized how far he had fallen behind. He stopped in shock and looked around. The forest seemed to have changed timbre from the second before. He was surrounded by dark, forbidding trees, and his feet rested on damp undergrowth rather than the path that the group had been following. In fact, he couldn't see the path anymore at all, for a light silver mist had come and insidiously hidden the path and any landmarks he could have used to return to it. Shippo tried to swallow his welling panic. Just great. How was he supposed to get out of this one? Besides being completely lost, he didn't have a single spell in his repertoire that could help him. Could he send one of his messages ahead? But that only worked if he knew precisely where they were, and he obviously did not. A cold wind blew and darkness began to fall over the trees. Shippo wiped his eyes and stepped more quickly. I must be brave, he thought desperately. After all, someone would come after him sooner or later. Kagome! She had to have noticed by now. Heartened by this, his step grew more confident. Yes, he would be alrigh- he stopped. A soft growl came from the dense bushes to his left, and suddenly a huge black shape came hurtling out of the brush and slammed Shippo onto his back… he didn't even remember screaming, as darkness befell him, with the only light being a flash of dancing violet eyes, directly above him.

Shippo's breath came in short gasps and he couldn't seem to get enough air into his lungs. Brave, he thought desperately, as the eyes loomed over him. BRAAAAAVE! But, as usual, thinking this did not help at all and he closed his eyes to the menacing fires above him and gave himself to panic.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!"

In this story, Shippo comes from only one of the tribes of demon foxes that are scattered throughout Japan, the red tribe. This tribe specializes in deception in trickery, as each separate tribe has their own specific method of magic. The most powerful tribe is the Silver tribe, who can make a complete change of form (not just a pink balloon, awesome as it is). Magic runs most deeply in them. Well, that's all for background! Thanks for reading and I hope you liked it! See ya! (P.S. I'd love writing critiques, good and bad)