Chapter 4

Suddenly Alex became very alert which got everyone's attention. Her face became cold and dark hiding secrets. "I suggest you come out Kimbo. I really don't like you watching me though I have no idea how you got here in the first place."

An ugly crow like bird came to land in front of the now emotionless girl. It bowed its head down slightly at her angry expression.

"How did you get here Kimbo? I specifically stated for you not to follow me. Why did you have to go and disobey me?"

The ugly bird like thing only looked at her with its sharp hawk like eyes. It seemed that it looked at everybody in the group with cold eyes but when they fell on the girl they softened somewhat.

The girl seemed to lose her anger now. "Come here Kimbo." she said quietly. "I'm sorry for getting angry at you. I kinda figured you would disobey me anyways once I left." She held out a hand that was wrapped in strong leather and the bird flew over and landed softly on it. Once it had landed on it, he transformed into a beautiful golden hawk with lethal looking talons.

"Is that better Kimbo?"

"Much" the bird replied startling the members of the group. Alex looked at them with amusement written all over her face.

The bird ignored them all still keeping its eyes on the girl. "What are you doing here Alex? How can I protect you if I don't know where you are at?"

Alex sighed impatiently. "Kimbo how many times have I told you? I had to get a way for awhile. I kept getting in trouble. I didn't even fit in. What did you want me to do?"

The bird dismissed the questions for now. "Alex are you alright? Have these people hurt you in anyway?"

"Kimbo...." her voice trailed off dangerously.

"Alex I have to know." he replied in a fatherly fashion.

"You'd think I was the one who had to be saved so many years ago instead of the other way around." she murmured to herself. "I heard that." the bird replied. "Must I remind you that I was injured and couldn't fly to get away?" he said it in such away like he was joking. His eyes had most definitely softened by now.

"If you hadn't been there in the first place you wouldn't have been injured, but you had to follow me didn't you?" she turned to her new friends. "As I'm sure you've heard this is Kimbo. Kimbo this is Inuyasha, Kagome, Shippo, Sango, Miroku, and can't forget Kirara." each one stepped forward as they were named off.

"How did you meet him Alex?" questioned Kagome.

"Well if you can't tell he's a demon. He was from this time but he somehow got pulled into this vortex that led not far from where I lived. I was walking through the forest one day that are near my house when I heard a cry of pain and went to investigate." she paused for a second. "When I came to this clearing there was Kimbo fighting some ugly two-headed snake, but he was badly injured and was losing. Using a stick I found I was able to destroy the demon as he was already weakened. I suppose when you run into a clearing and hear two creature yelling at each other you're not to surprised when they talk to you." she laughed.

"I took him home with me to heal him. Later we became friends and he told me about the vortex so we went to try and find it. We found it alright but it was closed. I think it was meant for somebody else and poor Kimbo here just was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Anyway when he found he couldn't go back he started to disappear more and more until he didn't come back for several months. He was in search for more of these vortexes but he just couldn't find any. He soon came back to me and I once again took him into my care telling my parents he was a pet bird I bought at a pet store hence the fact he looked like a crow because you can't own hawks in my time. Anyways he took up the job to look out for me and keep me out of trouble for I seem to get into a lot of that." she smirked slightly.

"So he is your protector and well as like a guardian to you?" Miroku asked thoughtfully.

"Yes he is." she replied "Though I think he had been following me before I met him due to the fact that this one time I got into a fight with a bunch of kids knowing I was in too deep but not wanting to back down I went to fight them. Anyways the most I remember was I was fighting them, then they had me on the ground beating me up then there was this flash and they were all on the ground laying in heaps. Am I right Kimbo?"

"I...I..um.." he started to say.

"Never mind I am grateful for your help either way." she said cutting him off.

"OK now that we got the story can we start shard hunting you stupid wench. I want to get started."

"Kimbo down." Alex's voice rang through the forest as Kimbo leaped for Inuyasha's throat but stopped at Alex's voice. So instead of attacking him he spoke angrily at Inuyasha.

"Don't you talk to her like that. If you ever do again I swear I will kill you." his eyes flashed darkly as he spoke promising death and Inuyasha didn't doubt his words.

"Kimbo you know as well as I do that such talk is common during this time." she turned to Kagome "You should have heard him when I first met him. He was cursing up a storm that would have made even a sailor's ears bleed."

"Alex I am your protector and...."

She cut him off once again. "Kimbo you know that I hear that talk all the time anyways. How can you not while fighting people? Besides you know as well as I do about everyone in this group from Kagome's letters as you had to read them to make sure I wasn't getting scammed or anything." Kagome gave a wide smile at that.

"He is very protective of you Alex. That is OK. Inuyasha will learn to behave more then most likely if you plan on staying with us for awhile. Right Inuyasha?"

"Feh" was his reply

"Can we please go hunting for jewel shards. That is one of the reasons that I am here in the first place." Alex said.

"Yes we should start doing that." Sango said speaking for the first time.

Soon the group was huddled up in a circle talking amongst themselves about rumors they had heard about where they could find jewel shards and which ones were just that rumors. Kimbo and Alex sat on the side listening to them speaking rarely unless someone in the group asked them their opinion on something.

Soon Alex felt a nagging in the back of her head that told her something was about to happen. She looked at Kimbo and noticed he was feeling the same way too. Something or someone was nearby and they didn't mean any good at all.

Oh man how does this keep happening to me? she thought darkly. I came here to get away from fighting and getting in trouble I guess I chose the wrong place to try and do that at. Maybe next time I'll just take a real vacation. You know with camping and all. That might keep me out of trouble. On the other hand probably not I'll most likely get into more trouble then usual. Why me???

She thought back on her lessons with Kimbo who was a very good spell caster and sent out a detecting spell to try and find the direction this intruder was at but she couldn't seem to find the intruder anywhere. Hmm that might not be good. All of a sudden little alarms went off in her head.

"Kagome. Guys. Do you mind if I place an idea for you guys?"

"Sure go ahead." Kagome answered with an encouraging smile.

"OK this is how it goes. DUCK!!!" she threw them all to the ground as arrows started to shoot at them. Alex plucked one from the air as it zoomed past her and she kicked Kagome's bow into her hand from where it had been laying forgotten during their discussion and she strung it quickly. In the blink of an eye she shot it in the direction that the arrows were coming from and caught another one sending it right after that one so fast you would have thought she shot both of them at the same time. From that direction they heard a bark of pain and before anybody could stop her Alex ran towards the sound.