It took two hours for them to encounter any type of demon at all, and this one rushed them alone. They seemed to have wandered into it's territory and it was extremely angry at them. It didn't have a jewel shard, so they took care of it quickly and left without a word.
It was the next village that struck them curiously. Most of the people were running around screaming, while others fell with no sign as to what struck them. Inuyasha sniffed the air while subconsciously moving in front of Kagome.
"I smell cat." He growled.
His hand instantly went to the Tetsusaiga and drew it. He glanced back at the others while Sango, now in her battle outfit, and Miroku, hand clutching the prayer beads around his right arm, stood slightly behind him to his sides. Kagome took her bow and strung up an arrow, but didn't see a target to hit at.
"Where are they?" Kagome asked curiously, glancing around.
Inuyasha scoffed sourly. "They're hiding right now. I think it's spears they're throwing, something like that. Freakin' cats."
Kagome looked up at him. "Then how do you expect to fight them?"
Inuyasha glared back. "I think a DOG can win fight against a cat, or have you not read about that yet?"
Kagome felt the anger rise and her eyes watered with it. "No, in fact, I DIDN'T!" She screamed at him before turning on her heel and marching into the woods.
Kagome had a thing for getting herself into trouble when she was mad, and today was no exception. As she made herself go farther and farther away from Inuyasha, she became closer and closer to the cats Inuyasha had smelt before. The same cats that were now killing the village and the same cats Inuyasha was having a slight problem with.
"Geez, Inuyasha is still the same jerk as befo-"
A rather wicked looking cat demon jumped out of the bush just then and shut Kagome up rather quickly. The cat looked somewhat like Kirara did, large with white fur and fire streaking from it's paws, but Kagome knew the difference. This cat had large, black eyes and fangs dripping blood. With a mighty roar it lunged at Kagome. She shrieked and grabbed an arrow, but was too slow. The demon knocked her over before she could get the arrow strung upon the bow.
The cat-demon pinned her down under it's huge bulk, claws already a centimeter into her skin and drawing blood. She screeched with her small breath. (Not much of a screech.)

The weight itself was crushing her and, with every second, it was getting harder and harder to draw breath. The cat's fangs were barely centimeters from her face, so close she could smell the rancid, metallic stench of blood.
Once she was sure the cat-demon would either rip her head off in a single bite of it's huge fangs or crush her to death, a figure flashed by and the weight was instantly thrown away from her. Kagome opened her eyes and drew a single, precious and rather long breath. She heard a nasty slashing noise and the cry of a dying animal before she caught a glimpse of who had saved her.
She had expected it to be Inuyasha who had come to her rescue, not the person standing over the dead carcass of the cat-demon. Though it didn't really surprise her that he was there at all. Kouga kneeled beside her, still growling slightly, and wiped the cat-demon's blood off his hands with Earth.
"Are you alright, Kagome?" he asked concerningly.
He looked her over quickly before finally landing on her face. Kagome had nodded her head rather quickly even though her shoulders were still dripping blood. But when she came eye to eye with him again, she saw that he seemed rather confused. And he was staring right at the bridge of her nose.
"K-Kagome.." he stuttered.
That was enough for her. She knew what was going to happen next, and she also knew she wasn't going to like it. Kouga, a wolf-demon, saw the mark upon her nose, the mark Inuyasha himself had planted. And, as far as Kagome could tell, Kouga was growing less and less confused and more and more enraged.
"Kouga, don't.." she started, but a noise behind her cut her off.
"Kagome! Are you alright?!"
With a tremendous crash of debri, Inuyasha leapt from the underbrush and looked around wildly. He knew he smelt Kagome's blood and he came as fast as he could, concerned and enraged that someone would touch his Kagome. But when he saw that Kagome was sitting on the ground and Kouga was above her, his rage grew even worse. What the hell was Kouga doing? Trying to kidnap Kagome again, I bet!
"You despicable mutt-face!" Kouga growled slowly, taking small baby steps towards Inuyasha. "How dare you mark MY WOMAN!"
Inuyasha snorted and turned his face down to the ground. "Feh, she was never your woman to begin with!" With a tremendous snarl, he threw his head back up and drew his Tetsusaiga. "And don't you dare call her your woman!"
Kagome stared in shock between the two teenage, hormone driven demon and half demon boys, but her look lingered a bit more on Inuyasha. He was trembling now with his rage, the sword itself shook in his hands. Kouga was in the same state, though not as bad, and he shook his fist right in Inuyasha's face.
"I laid claim to her first, I was just waiting for her to accept it! How dare you take the lead and mark her! You shouldn't even be half-demon, you're not worth it! You let Kagome almost get killed, that's why she's wounded! How can you call yourself a worthy mate?!"
That was the last straw with Inuyasha. Dropping his sword, another shock to Kagome, he leaped at Kouga with his fist poised back and socked the wolf demon straight in the jaw. Kouga flew backwards and smacked into a tree, ripping the tree's roots straight out of the ground and crashing with it. Inuyasha didn't wait for Kouga to get back up, he grabbed the wolf-demon by the neck and hit him again. This time, a little disoriented, Kouga managed to land somewhat on his feet and glare at the still trembling Inuyasha.
Kagome didn't know what to do. If she tried to jump between them, she might be hit in their rage. If she let them have at it, they might either destroy one, or each other, during their brawl. It didn't matter what she would do anyway, she was still too shocked to move.
"Geez, boys will be boys, eh Kagome?" A voice called out from behind Kagome.
Both boys stopped and stared. A small, petite little figure stepped out from the bushes with her hands on her thin hips and her face set in a stern, but playful glare. Kagome looked over at this newcomer and her eyes opened even more. The girl seemed maybe five years older than Kagome with long, streaming white hair French braided and deep green eyes. She was wearing an outfit similar to Kouga's, only the fur was white-ish silver and she wore no leg warmers. With a friendly, though rather toothy, smile and neared the fighting boys and tisked again.
"You boys should really stop, I mean you haven't even taken notice that cat-demons have surrounded you." She swept her arm around the forlorn clearing, pointing out all the glowing eyes.
Inuyasha didn't take any notice in the cat-demons, just continued to stare at the girl. The girl caught the stare and shook her head.
"Haven't I taught you anything, Inuyasha? It's not polite to stare," she said with an eyebrow raised. "I know it's been awhile, but, geez."
Kouga was too busy looking around at the multiple eyes than at the girl and what she was saying. He then looked back at Kagome. His whole body drooped slightly when his eyes lay upon the mark and he forced them to look away. Without conviction, he growled and glared at the demons.
"Well, we might as well rid ourselves of these cats before we continue our fight, Inuyasha."
The girl shook her head. "No more fighting. Kouga, I want to talk to you later about something. Inuyasha, you too. But, for now, let's leave the boys to their battle with the demons, okay Kagome?" The girl walked up to Kagome and smiled happily.
She reached out a clawed hand and Kagome took it hesitantly. When the girl noticed her hesitation, she laughed merrily.
"Don't worry, Kagome, I don't bite...hard." She then picked Kagome up and looked back at the others. "Have fun, we'll meet you in the village when your both done."
With that, she took off. Inuyasha stared after her before looking back at Kouga. Stepping over to his forgotten sword and picking it up, he shrugged his shoulders.
"Might as well do as she says.."

When they finally settled down into the village, the girl let Kagome onto her feet and took a step back to glance at the damage. Practically the whole village had been destroyed and most of it's occupants lay in heaps. She shook her head and sighed heavily.
"Cat-demons do more damage than most other demons." She said softly before turning back to Kagome. "By the way, my name is Yume. I'm a wolf-demon from the High Mountains."
She bowed slightly to Kagome and, since Kagome was always for the polite ways, Kagome couldn't help but bow back. This demon's cheeriness seemed almost catching and Kagome found herself with a small smile on her face despite the tragedy around her.
"Why are you here, Yume? I'm not trying to sound rude, but you just seemed to appear and...well.." Kagome let the sentence end and looked up almost pleadingly.
Yume chuckled lightly. "I know Inuyasha, or, well, knew him. I sort of took care of him a couple of decades ago, after he lost his parents and was almost killed by a pack of exiled Dogs." She shrugged. "I don't know if that answers your question, but it took me this long to track the little mutt down and the first day I set eyes on him, he's fighting! I was slightly surprised, until I saw that he was the one who marked you and Kouga was trying to deny it." Her eyes darkened slightly.
Kagome blinked at her. "You took care of Inuyasha when he was younger?"
Yume nodded and her cheeriness returned. "Of course! He was so cute when he was younger, after he healed that is. He was always bitter and sour, but he was still such a sweet heart way down deep."
"Kagome! Hey, Kagome!"
Kagome turned and was almost knocked over. Shippo clutched tightly to her chest, smiling up at her and calling her name one last time.
"Where'd you run off to, Kagome? And who's this?" Shippo asked curiously, sniffing the air. His eyes grew wide. "W-Who are you?"
Yume chuckled again and gave him a fake, terrifying glare. She then laughed again when he ducked behind Kagome's shoulder.
"My name is Yume and I'm not going to hurt you, fox-kit! I was just kidding!" she said with a playful tilt of her head.
Shippo's head reappeared over Kagome's shoulder and peered at Yume once again. He sniffed the air delicately and, finally seeing it was safe, went back to hugging Kagome. While Kagome cooed him, Miroku, Sango, and Kirara appeared walking up to them, smiling sadly. Dirt clung to their clothes and Kagome guessed she was late on helping the burial.
"Hello, Kagome." Miroku said slowly.
Kagome saw the red hand mark on his cheek and smiled to herself. When she turned to look at Sango, she saw that her friend's smile seemed a little more forced than usual. Her smile grew slightly. Poor Sango, she almost always gets the worst side of Miroku.
"Are you guys alright?" Kagome asked, though she saw there was nothing wrong with them.
"Yes, we're fine. But your shoulders are bleeding, are you alright Kagome?" Sango asked concerningly and dragged Kagome away to tend to her wounds, leaving behind Shippo.
Yume looked up at Miroku and raised an eyebrow. Miroku said nothing, but stared at her. They stayed silent and still for another few moments before Shippo, under the intense stress of silence, started to jump up and down.
"Hey, hey, hey! Miroku, no funny stuff!" he yelled and Yume glanced down at the fox-kit.
"Funny stuff?" she asked amusedly.
Shippo snorted. "Yeah. He likes to get rather 'touchy' around girls."
Miroku's hand went straight to his forehead with an exasperated sigh. "My secret is never safe."
Yume laughed and winked at Shippo. "Don't worry about me. If he gets...erm...'touchy' as you put it, I'll make sure he doesn't have a hand to touch with later."
Before Miroku could retort, Inuyasha appeared behind him and growled shortly. Miroku just turned around and welcomed Inuyasha, though didn't get a word out when he noticed Kouga. Kouga had his arms crossed and an enraged expression still plastered to his face. Inuyasha looked quite the same, though their were more blood stains on him than Kouga.
Yume walked up to Inuyasha and grinned. "Take care of the remaining cats?"
Inuyasha nodded and uncrossed his own arms. Kouga stuck his nose up in the air. Yume clapped her hands together and smiled happily.
"Good! Well, while we're here, why not rest a while? Both of you seem rather tired."
"I'm not tired!" Inuyasha snipped defensively.
Yume raised an eyebrow, though her smile remained. "Fine then, we'll just sit and chat!"
Kouga glanced at Yume, eye's furrowed in curiosity. This wolf girl seemed good natured and all, but, despite her size compared to Inuyasha, she seemed to have the most control over Inuyasha. Kouga saw the way that Inuyasha avoided her eye's at times and laid his ears flat against his head, two signs of submission. He would have grinned, if he wasn't still feeling way over the edge.
"Where's Kagome?" Inuyasha asked with a sniff of the air.
Yume jerked a thumb over at a rickety hut. "Sango pulled her in there to treat her wounds."
"Yeah, the ones she wouldn't have gotten if only Inuyasha stayed with her." Kouga muttered sourly.
Yume's head snapped towards Kouga and a growl started in her throat. "Kouga, stop. Now. People make mistakes."
Kouga just huffed and turned his back on her. She growled again, then shook her head and turned back to Inuyasha.
"I wouldn't go over there yet, the wounds probably needed the removal of clothing. I don't think Kagome would like you barging in without her shirt on, would you?" Yume said with a grin.
Inuyasha blushed scarlet at the thought and turned his head to the side with a scoff. He could only guess at how many 'sits' Kagome would place on him, or worse she could argue and end up hating him. He blinked a minute. Feh, why should he care if she hated him anyway? He kicked dirt before leaping away without another word. The very thought of Kagome ever hating him seemed to hurt more than any wound he ever had inflicted upon him.
Kouga watched as Inuyasha ran off and made to follow him when Yume stepped before him. She had her finger up and her eyes down with a grin upon her face.
"We're do you think your going?" Yume asked as she raised her eyes and gazed into Kouga's.
Feeling her as more than a threat, he crossed his arms and glared into her eyes menacingly. "I'm going after Inuyasha to beat the pulp out of him!" He answered quietly, though his voice dripped poison.
Her finger waved in his face and her eyes never wavered. "I don't think so. Come with me, I want to talk to you."
"Like HELL I'll follow you!" Kouga suddenly snarled, bristling.
Yume didn't bother flinching or even moving, she just intensified her glare and snarled back at him. Her finger fell from the air and landed in a fist near her sides. Miroku, who had thought about going to see if Kagome was without a shirt on, stopped in his tracks and stared at the two having a stare down. Shippo hid behind his legs and peeked around slightly to watch. Kirara just trotted to a new spot and clucked lightly, as if disapproving of the stare down.
"I just want to talk to you, Kouga." Yume's normal, cheerful voice now dripped of venom.
Kouga was still bristling. "I don't want to talk to you, Yume, I just want a piece of that coniving little dog-shit Inuyasha!"
Yume cuffed him savagely. Kouga, slightly stunned, hit the ground and rolled to a stop near Miroku's feet. Miroku took a few steps back and watched as Kouga stood and made like he was going to hit Yume one when Yume got right up into his face.
"Your not going to hit, maim, or kill Inuyasha! Don't you see? You can't win Kagome over now, she's too far gone from you! And what if you kill Inuyasha? Do you think Kagome will ever forgive you? If she didn't want him, she wouldn't have the mark still upon her nose! Her heart belongs to him and they have a bond you won't even begin to comprehend! All Inuyasha has to do is finish the marking, and it's all settled!" Yume snarled, her nose barely inches from his.
Kouga was trembling now and rage ran through him like fire. "I won't let him finish the marking! He'll be dead before that!"
Yume thought about cuffing him again, but didn't make a the move to do so. Instead, she smiled and the growling stopped. Her eyes continued to linger on his before she shook her head and broke eye contact. Kouga stared at her, a little surprised at her reaction, then grinned triumphantly. Thinking he won the stare-down, he made to leap over her and tear after Inuyasha.
"If you try to break the bond, I assure you Kagome will not speak to you again. If you kill her Inuyasha, you can forget anything about any type of friendship. Hell, she might even think about either killing you or taking an arrow herself. Just a little advice. I won't stop you anymore, so, if you want to continue after Inuyasha, be my guest. Just remember what I told you and think about it." She then made her way over to the hut Kagome was sheltered in.
Kouga stopped as the words rang clear in his head. It was true, he was beyond her now. If she really didn't love Inuyasha or belong to him, the mark wouldn't be there. His whole body sagged once again and he turned around to watch Yume walk off. Miroku stared at him sadly before making his way to the hut as well. Alone and forlorn, Kouga ran the opposite way Inuyasha had went, letting out a mournful howl as he entered the forest.