It was finally the last battle between Naraku and our group, finally the ending of a drawn out, four-year battle filled with chaos, heartache, pain and suffering. When I first fell into the well and traveled to this era, I never thought that I would stay this long or find my true family here. Sango and Miroku were the older sister and brother that I never had, but always dreamed of. Shippo was my first son, my first comfort and Inuyasha was my first crush who turned into a great friend that was willing to do anything to protect me.

Today all of that ended, all in what seemed like one split second. My new family was gone, stripped away from me all too soon. My family destroyed Naraku, not me. They all died because of me, because I didn't know how to protect myself and didn't care to learn. Maybe if I had taken the time to train for battle then they would all be alive.

All that matters now is that they died as heroes, Naraku is finally gone from this world, and the most daunting, I'm alone in this world now. Unfortunately, the well sealed for unknown reasons, but if I thought about it, I always knew that it would eventually. All that was left for me was Kouga and his pack.

My plan was to go straight to his den and beg entrance, if I had to. I wasn't the begging type, but I have nowhere to live now and I need a family and the comfort that comes with one. Hopefully, Kouga and his pack could be that family.

I looked around the battlefield for the last time and gathered a possession from each of my friends. I went to Inuyasha's body first and slowly pulled off his subjugation beads from around his neck. I sat down beside his body and started fingering the beads. Against my will tears started to fill my eyes.

"I'm so sorry Inuyasha." I chocked out. "This is all my fault. If I never came to the battle like you asked you would still be alive to yell at me for disobeying your wishes." Words became too hard for me to speak and I simply let myself fall silent and cry away all my fears and guilt. I crawled over to Miroku's body and grabbed his prayer beads from around his hand. I waited until I had some semblance of calm before I spoke.

"Brother, I will miss you so much. Remember when we had that talk about Kouga and you said that if anything were to happen to you guys that I should go straight to Kouga and his pack? Well brother that is my plan. He's is my only chance of having a family again and I'm going to take it, for you and for me."

I moved over to Sango and Shippo last. I started with Shippo first, picking up his small body into my arms. I grabbed a lock of his hair and tied it together with a ribbon that I grabbed from his hand. "My boy." I cried," I love you baby and I will meet you in the heavens when it's my time to leave this earth." Gently I set his body down and looked over to Sango. "Sister, I will miss you like no one else. Thank you for always being there when I needed you the most." I quickly picked up her sword that she always wore into battle, her lucky sword. I strapped Sango's sword to my back and carefully places all of the items into my empty bag. Whispering a quick chant, I sealed the bag.

I stood up, wincing due to the soreness in my body and started to trek towards Kouga's den. As I walked I started thinking about how much my life was going to be changing. Thankfully, I was okay with change, not like I could do anything about it anyways. The closer that I got to Kouga's den the more excited I got to reach my destination. I unconsciously started to walk faster and faster until the inevitable happened … I fell. Landing heavily, I cried out softly in pain. Looking down at my leg, I quickly saw what the problem was. My ankle was swelling which meant that I sprained the poor thing once again.

Sighing, I stood up and leaned against the nearest tree. How was I supposed to get to Kouga's den now if I had a sprained ankle? Gingerly putting my injured foot on the ground, I hissed in pain. "Well, let's think this through." I said to myself, "I obviously can't walk there because it hurts too much to put any pressure on my foot. I'm a little too far away for Kouga to smell me coming, but if I could just get in that range then someone can carry me the rest of the way, but how can I get to the base of that cliff?"

I slid my way down the nearest tree until I was in a comfortable sitting position. "Well, I could just sit here until someone from his hunting party finds me." I paused, "But they may not come this way and I could be stuck waiting here forever." Sighing, I sat in silence.

I don't know how long I sat there thinking about what I should do until my mind just went blank with unknowing. Monks always say to clear your mind until you are thinking of nothing at all because only then will Buddha inspire you with his knowledge. That was the state of mind I was in; completely in a trance-like state filled with nothing – no emotions, no thought process – I was just there.

Distantly I heard something snap to my right. Before I could tell my body to move my head and look, it had already done so, like my body was one step ahead of my brain. Slowly the dense branches twitched and spread until I saw a very familiar face.

"Kagome! What are you doing here by yourself?" asked Kouga, rushing over to me when he saw my swollen appendage, "and what happened to your ankle?"

I giggled nervously, "Well, I tripped." He looked me in the eye and then smiled at whatever he found there.

"Where were you headed?"

"Actually, I was headed to your den" I said quietly, my head bowing down in sadness.

Kouga lifted his hand and curved a finger under my chin, nudging my head up until I was looking into his eyes. "Kagome? What happened?" he looked around, "Where's your pack?"

I sighed and looked away, "I don't know if I can talk about it right now, Kouga. I promise that I will, but I can't right now."

He watched me for a couple more seconds before he nodded. "Alright, I'm glad you're coming to live with my pack." He said with a smile. "Let's get you out of here."

Kouga picked me up into his arms and raced up the cliff, through the waterfall and into his den.

Kouga's den was more of a chain of caves. There was the main cave which only the males were allowed in, for protection, and then past the main cave was the rest of the 'housing' if you wanted to call it that. Somewhere in that maze there was also a bath house for men and a bath house for women and children. Each couple had their own room which was covered with fur for privacy.

None of the children slept in their parents den, there was a special cave for the children, which was located in the middle of the den. Kouga explained to me one time that there were a group of 5 female wolves that would keep watch over all of the children during the day and then 5 different females would take their spots at night.

Outside of the den there was farming land, hunting land and the river that went through the area. The females would grow the crops, the males would hunt and the laundry was done in the river.

Kouga carried me through the main den into his private chamber and set me down on his bed.

"I'll go get the healer to look at your ankle."

Before I could protest and say that I was fine, Kouga had already left the room at a steady jog. I stared at the doorway for a little while and figured that it could take awhile for him to come back. I looked around at his room and noticed that it only had the needed things and nothing that personalize it. The bed was covered in pelts for blankets; there was a dresser of sorts for his clothing and a chest at the foot of his bed. The whole room had the air of wealth, which surprised me since the lack of furniture and possessions was staggering.

Getting up from the bed, I slowly made my way over to a small doorway at the back of the room and looked inside. The area looked almost like a little kitchenette and past that through another doorway looked like a large private hot spring.

"Kagome?" startled I spun around, loosing my balance and slammed right into Kouga's arms. I slowly looked up, a blush spreading across my cheeks.

"You okay?" Kouga whispered, smiling down at me with a glimmer of humor sparkling in his eyes.

My blushed darkened, "Yes I'm fine." He nodded once, picked me up and deposited me on his bed so the healer, who I had not noticed until now, could look at my swollen, red ankle.

"I have been informed that you name is Kagome. I am Amaya, the healer for this pack." She quickly bowed to me and moved closer to take a look at my sprain. Her gentle hands grasped hold of my foot and brought it closer to her face for a better look. My ankle had started to bruise to a deep purple and blue color. I tried to pull my foot out of her grasp when I felt the pain of the sprain, but she held my foot harder and leveled a gentle glare in my direction.

"Hold still Kagome. Let me see." Amaya felt my ankle gently checking for any breaks and nodded her head in satisfaction. "Looks like a simple sprain that some bandages will cure. I'll just wrap it up in a jiffy and you'll be on your way in a couple of days." Amaya quickly wrapped my ankle up in some thick bandages and gathered her stuff to leave.

"Thank you. I can be such a klutz sometimes." I told her with an easy smile.

"You're welcome dear. Now I want you to take it easy for the rest of today and then starting tomorrow if you want to go somewhere you can, as long as someone carries you there." Amaya said with a wink. She quickly exited the room and left me alone to talk with Kouga.

"You look tired." He said, "Why don't you lie down on my bed and take a nap until it's time for our evening meal."

"That sounds like a good idea. I can barely keep my eyes open, but would you mind staying?" I asked, "At least until I fall asleep?"

"Of course Kagome."

Kouga gently slid me over across the bed and tucked the furs in around me. He laid down next to me and wrapped his arm around my waist.

"Good night Kagome. I will wake you when it is time to eat."

Before I could say goodnight, I had already fallen into a light slumber.

- - - Author's note - - -

Well there is my first chapter. It was a whole lot harder than I thought to get it out. If you notice any misspelled words please let me know.

Just so you know the name Amaya means "night rain" I thought is seemed … pretty

I'm hoping to get my next chapter out next weekend, but I won't promise anything.