"Lady Kaede?" Kagome called delicately into the priestess's private quarters.

"Yes, Kagome," Kaede responded. "What is it?"

Kagome stepped deeper into the chamber and held out the Shikon Staff she had kept with her overnight. "I should return this to you now."

Kaede shook her head. "It's yours now. You've earned it. You'll need it on your journey, I'll wager."

"B-but, Lady Kaede!" Kagome protested. "You can't seriously be putting something so sacred into the sole trust of an acolyte like me!"

"You are my best, Kagome," the old woman sighed. "You know not yet how great your powers are, but soon you will see that the Shikon Jewel that resides on the end of that staff is best kept in your hands. You are aware of the story behind the Shikon Jewel, correct?"

"The priestess Lady Midoriko," Kagome recalled. "It sprung from her body while she was combatting a demon."

Kaede nodded. She went on to add, "The Jewel of Four Souls is a powerful gem indeed; the crystallized soul of arguably the greatest priestess that ever lived. You mustn't allow the jewel to fall into the wrong hands. Keep it safe, and never use its power with malicious intent. I know your training will prevent that from happening."

"This is a lot to place on my shoulders," Kagome moaned. She quickly added, "Not that I don't accept it with responsibility, or that I don't want it... I mean, I'll do my best!"

"I know you will. I trust you with the jewel. Your training will assure that my judgement is not wrong."

Kagome bowed. "Thank you, Lady Kaede. Your trust means a lot to me. I'll do my best to keep the jewel safe, and complete my mission."

Kaede nodded once more. "Go, then. You have my blessings. Journey safely."

"Thank you," Kagome said as she left. "Farewell!"

"How much longer must I wear this?" Inuyasha demanded bitterly. He lifted the cloth of his hood from in front of his eyes to glare at Kagome. "We're in the middle of nowhere. Who do you think is going to see me?"

"We can't take any chances," Kagome replied. Evening had fallen once again, and she watched the dark forest surrounding the carriage's path anxiously. "There could be some people wandering the forest at night..."

"Yeah, bandits," Inuyasha insisted. "I think it would be wise if I were to expose my face. No bandit with a brain would attack a carriage with a demon on board."

"Be that as it may, don't show yourself yet."

Inuyasha slumped in his seat and grumbled incoherently.

Kagome sighed and began to wonder if Inuyasha was going to insist on being this detestable for the entirety of the trip. She had just decided to start a conversation to ease the mood when Inuyasha spoke first.

"Can I take my hood down to fight the bandits that are in the process of surrounding us?"

"What?" Kagome demanded stiffly. "What are you talking about?"

Inuyasha lifted his head and delicately whiffed the air. "Wolves..."

"What?!" Kagome squeaked. "Will you just give me a straight answer?!"

"Lady Kagome," Shippou murmured shakily, transformed with his kitsune powers into the carriage driver outside. "There's a man blocking the path."

Kagome leaned over and squinted into the dark forest. As if out of some horrible nightmare, the figures of men and wolves alike grew out of the shadows of the trees.

"Shaman bandits," Kagome murmured.

"What are they?" Inuyasha inquired.

"Shamans can commune with animals and animal spirits," Kagome explained. "They bind themselves to animals, like these men with their wolves. Some shamans abuse their powers and become bandits."

Inuyasha lifted an eyebrow. "You want I should get out and dispatch them, then?"

"Don't be so hasty," Kagome muttered, gripping the Shikon Staff tightly. "Let's just see if we can't talk ourselves out of this."

Inuyasha snorted. "Friggin' unlikely."

"Good evening to you, sir!" the man blocking the path called jovially with a hearty wave. "You've reached the toll of the Wolf Tribe! Hand over your woman and all your gold, and you may pass!"

This elicited a chuckle from several of the other men surrounding the carriage. The wolves among the men snarled dangerously.

"Hand over your woman?" Kagome repeated, teeth clenched. "Oh, I'll hand them something alright..."

"We were so close..." Shippou lamented. "Only a short way left before we got to the village..."

Inuyasha pulled his cloak off entirely and stepped out of the carriage. "I've heard quite enough."

"Wait!" Kagome pleaded, stepping out with him. "You're not going to kill them, are you? Can't we get away with this without resorting to that?"

"What are you, some kind of pacifist?" Inuyasha inquired off-handedly. "I don't recall you taking any concessions with me."

"That's a demon!" one bandit shouted.

Inuyasha cast a glance at the acolyte next to him. "Intelligent lot."

"A reward to whoever brings his head back to the den!" the leader proposed.

The Wolf Tribe let out rowdy cries and attacked.

"I rather like my head right where it is, thanks," Inuyasha said calmly, despite the shaman brandishing a short sword coming straight at him. Unfortunately for the shaman, he soon found himself without his weapon. It was still gripped in the hand that had been severed from his wrist. He screamed, from shock as well as pain, but was silenced by a swift kick in the head by Inuyasha.

"Do you have to be so rough?!" Kagome demanded.

"What?!?!" Inuyasha shrieked, taken aback by her comment. He was distracted from anything he was going to say next by yet another onslaught from a shaman. Inuyasha's claws met with the shaman's polearm. The fingers of the demon's other hand curled into a fist that impacted deeply into the shaman's solar plexus. The shaman's wind was knocked out of him, and he slumped to the ground in a heap.

Wolves surrounded and snapped at the horse, still tied to the carriage. She reared up and whinnied frantically, jarring the carriage dangerously. Shippou returned to his true form in a poof of smoke, trying desperately to get a hold on the reins again with his now tiny hands.

"Fox Fire!"

Blue flames erupted around the pack of wolves at the mare's hooves. They whimpered and were scattered a bit, but were not much worse for the wear. Shippou moaned fearfully, filled with disappointment that his kitsune powers could not do more than singe the wolves.

Kagome parried the blows of the shamans to the best of her ability. She realized, after having fought off most of them with ease, that were not actually trying to cause harm. She remembered that their intention was to kidnap her, not kill her. This conclusion only succeeded in making her anger erupt into newfound strength, knocking the shamans' weapons out of their hands and convincing them to back off. The Shikon Jewel seemed to sparkle with multicoloured light in tune with her emotions, swirling in a trail of sparks with every swing of the staff.

She could still hear the sounds of combat on the other side of the carriage between Inuyasha and the shamans. She searched her surroundings fervently, but all of the shamans that had been engaging her had disappeared into the shadows once more.

"Would that by any chance be the sacred Shikon Jewel you carry on that staff?"

Kagome whirled around at the challenge of a man behind her. She saw that it was their leader, his eerie sky blue eyes dancing with strange colours in the light of the jewel of which he spoke.

"KYAAA!"

Kagome let out a warcry as she lunged at the shaman, but was cut short by a throbbing pain at the base of her neck. Stars exploded in front of her eyes, and then everything went dark very quickly.

"Retreat!"

Inuyasha ceased his attack on the shamans as they fled back into the forest.

"Yeah, get outta here, you bums!" Inuyasha shouted after them. "Run away with your tails between your legs, just like you should!" Satisfied with his taunting, he turned back to the carriage. "Hey, Kagome, you alright?"

He received no response.

"Hey! Kagome! What's the deal? Answer me already!"

He still got no answer from anywhere in the clearing. It was eerily silent, and the dark of the night suddenly sent a chill up his spine.

He ran all around the carriage, squinting into the forest and fervently searching the carriage. There was no sign of Kagome, or Shippou.

"Hey, horse!" Inuyasha called. "Where'd Shippou and Kagome go?"

The mare blinked and snorted.

"You're no help... Hey, Kagome! Shippou! Anyone!" he shouted at the top of his lungs into the night sky. "Kagome! KAGOME!!!"

He paused, his arms hanging limp at his sides. "...Where'd everybody go...?!?!"

Kagome awoke to a pounding headache and the feeling of something soft beneath her body. Her eyes fluttered open, and she saw that she was lying on a bed of straw. She suddenly remembered what had happened; the shaman bandits in the woods, the leader suddenly appearing behind her, a throbbing pain at the base of her neck.

She reached back and tenderly felt the back of her head. A large welt had grown there, and she cringed at the pain it caused simply running her fingertip along it.

She noticed a pair of bare feet stop in front of her, and she froze. After a moment of realizing that she was clearly not somewhere she wanted to be, she sat up with a start. She immediately regretted the sudden movement as the room spun.

"Take it easy," the figure coaxed. He knelt down next to her, and she could see that it was their leader; the same man from last night with the opaque blue eyes. She could now see his long ebony hair, put up in a simple ponytail, and the mix-and-match armour of metal and pelts that he wore.

Kagome suddenly realized that something was missing. She looked down at the bed of straw that she had been lying on, and all around. The Shikon Staff was gone.

"Are you looking for this?" the leader inquired with a smirk. He made a motion with his hand, and another shaman stepped forward, carrying the Shikon Staff in his hands.

"Give that back!" Kagome cried.

"Gimme gimme never gets," the leader retorted tersely, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "All in good time. First, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Kouga, and I'm the leader of the Wolf Tribe."

"It's not a pleasure to meet you!" Kagome spat. "You kidnapped me and took my staff, and now you're trying to be all gentlemanly about it? Well you can forget it! Give me the Shikon Staff, and let me go!"

The shaman holding the staff snorted. "Got quite a mouth on her, the little lady does."

Kouga held up his hand. "Let's not be hasty. I can understand perfectly. We did, after all, take her away without her consent, and borrowed a precious item from her."

"Borrowed, my foot!" Kagome interrupted. "Give it back, already! I'm warning you, there's plenty I can do without that staff!"

"Now you stop that, you hear?" Kouga said with a sudden razor edge to his voice. "You haven't even heard our proposal. We need a favour from you."

"And what makes you think I owe you any favours?" Kagome shrilled.

"Thousands upon thousands of demon moths attacked our home in the mountains," Kouga explained, ignoring Kagome's previous comment. "The air became filled with poisonous dust, and we lost a few of our men in the onslaught. I can't begin to explain why the moths appeared, but they've shown up again. It's as if they're out to terminate all of the Wolf Tribe!"

"Oh, I get it," Kagome said quietly. "I've never heard of any shaman bandits in the woods around here, because there were none. The only reason you're here is because of the moths attacking your home."

"Exactly," Kouga nodded. "We need your help to get rid of the demon moths. You're a priestess, right? Your job is to exterminate demons, so this should be a simple task for you. The moths aren't much alone, but when there are so many that they cloud out the sun, the dust from their wing beats chokes you and you have no strength left to fight." Kouga sent her an earnest look. "So...are you going to help us, or what?"

"Well, that certainly is a job I could handle," Kagome mused. "But you don't understand. I have to be somewhere. I'm on a mission already, and there are a couple of people who will be looking for me right now."

Kouga stood up and exhaled in frustration. He paced a bit, then turned back to Kagome. He looked as if he was about to speak when he turned and noticed that one of his companion wolves had approached him and began sniffing at the wolf tail on his fur pelt.

"What the..."

Kouga reached behind and pulled out a tiny, nearly unconscious figure with auburn hair and a fuzzy yellow tail.

"Shippou...!" Kagome exclaimed.

"Hmph," Kouga sniffed. "Must have latched onto me back in the forest. Here you go, have a snack."

He tossed the hapless kitsune into the pack of wolves behind him. The starving animals all surrounded him, staring at him ravenously and licking their chops.

Shippou was suddenly quite awake, and cowered fearfully at the centre of the circle of wolves.

"No!" Kagome screamed, leaping to her feet and trying to get to the wolves. Kouga stopped her with his body. "Let me go! Don't hurt Shippou!"

"And if I save him?" Kouga asked smugly.

Kagome conceded reluctantly. "Fine, I'll exterminate the moths! Whatever you want! Now let Shippou go!"

Kouga turned and shuffled through the wolves. "Alright, look out, move it. Sorry, guys, no snack right now." He snatched Shippou up by the tail and smoothed the little kitsune's hair out as he turned back to Kagome. "Here you go, good as new. Just a bit of dirt in his hair, no worries."

He gave Shippou an ungracious toss into Kagome's arms, who caught him and checked over him worriedly. She shot a venomous glare at the back of Kouga's head.

"Here you go, miss," the other shaman said, handing Kagome the Shikon Staff.

"Uh, thanks," Kagome replied. She took the staff and let Shippou up onto her shoulder. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I guess so..." Shippou whimpered.

A thought suddenly dawned on Kagome. "Wait a second... If you're here, where's Inuyasha?"

"I don't know," Shippou admitted. "Last I saw, he was still fighting the shamans. When I noticed Kouga taking you away, and grabbed a hold of his tail."

"Come on, now," Kouga called, nearer to the cave's entrance. "I'll take you to the moths."

Kagome pursued Kouga and the other shaman out of the cave. She shifted her gaze over to the kitsune on her shoulder. "So either Inuyasha's gone out looking for us...or he's gone off on his own... Why do I get the feeling something horrible is going to happen?"

Kouga, Kagome and several shamans were gathered at the crest of a hill, overlooking the main part of the forest. As Kagome looked down over the trees, she hoped that Inuyasha was still down there somewhere, and not off terrorizing the citizens of nearby villages.

"They'll be along shortly," Kouga informed the acolyte. "If you need any help, we're all here."

"Thanks, but I should be able to handle this pretty quickly," Kagome assured him. She began to wonder what the big deal was. How much harm could a bunch of moths do? Certainly their dust was deadly, especially when there was a great deal of them; that was a given. But if someone was not standing directly beneath the poison... That was just it though, Kagome realized as she looked around at all the shamans. Most of their weapons were most effective at close range, and it was not healthy to be in close range of poisonous moths.

"So, once I help you," Kagome said, "You'll be able to go back to your old home, right?"

Kouga shot her a wry glance. "You sure are eager to get rid of us."

"Well, er, it's not that," Kagome said quickly. "It's just that...you do want to go home, right?"

Kouga's ever-present gaze shifted up and down a bit. "Only if you come with me."

"Wh-what?!"

"The moths! They're here!"

The shaman's exclamation returned Kagome's attentions to the sky. She was shocked to see that Kouga's description of the moths did them no justice. They were a giant blue-gray cloud against the pale blue of the sky. The sun was just beginning to rise, illuminating the dust that was scattered beneath the cloud of moths.

"There are so many..." Kagome gasped.

"Not having second thoughts, are you?" Kouga asked.

"I'll do it," Kagome assured him. She squared her shoulders and pointed the Shikon Staff directly at the heart of the moths. With her other hand perpendicular to her lips, she quietly chanted a string of incantations. The wind picked up around her feet. The shamans were in awe of what they saw.

The acolyte's eyes opened wide, and a shining barrier grew from the Shikon Jewel. The cloud of moths collided with the wall of light and turned bright crimson before shattering to the ground, each individual moth aflame.

A cheer erupted from the shamans behind her.

"You did it!" Kouga exclaimed.

"Wait!" Shippou cried. "Wh-what's that?!"

Kagome's gaze followed where the little kitsune was pointing. From out of the dissipating cloud of moths came a creature of enormous size. It, too, appeared to be a moth, but of a much different sort.

"That demon moth is huge!" Kagome said to Kouga.

"It must have been what was controlling the other moths," Kouga deduced. He turned to his fellow shamans. "Ready your weapons, men! We may have more of a fight on our hands than we thought!" He turned back to Kagome. "Do you think this moth with succumb to the barrier, as well?"

"Um... I hope so," Kagome conceded. While the demon was formidable, bigger was not always better. She held the Shikon Staff out before her. "I've just got to concentrate harder...!"

"KAGOMEEEE!!!!"

The acolyte turned around, startled, at the shouting of her name. The other shamans all appeared puzzled, so it clearly had not been one of them. Then, over the crest of uneven incline bounded the mare that had been pulling their carriage the night before. Riding bareback with the cloak still clasped around his shoulders was Inuyasha.

"Finally! I found you!" Inuyasha shouted. "Get away from there! Come on!"

"Just wait!" Kagome shouted back. "I need to do something first!"

"Forget it!" Inuyasha challenged. He leapt off the mare's back and ran for Kagome.

Kouga stepped in front of him before he could reach her. "You heard the lady, she's in the middle of something! So why don't you just sit here like a good boy and wait your turn, mutt-face!"

"M-mutt-face?!" Inuyasha repeated incredulously. "Why, you—!"

Kagome screamed. "The demon's aura... It's too strong! It's going to break the barrier!"

The wall of light buckled as the giant demon moth drew nearer, and finally shattered to a thousand tiny pieces. There was a great gust of wind, which sent almost everyone into a fit of coughing.

"Damn you!" Inuyasha cried. He blazed past everyone and leapt off the sharp incline of the hill, straight towards the moth. He pulled back his arm, and slashed at the demon with all his might. His claws sliced through the air in golden streaks.

"Iron Reaver Soul Stealer!"

The slash cut through the moth's mid-section, and it screamed. The horrible sound was so high-pitched, it made the poisonous dust seem pleasant. Set aflame like all its kin, the giant demon moth plummeted into the forest and landed in the trees with an enormous thud. It could no longer be seen from the crest of the hill.

Kagome lifted the Shikon Staff above her head. An orb of light extended from the jewel, clearing the air of all poison. As the air purified, Kagome watched in awe as Inuyasha came back to rest on the hill with a liquid grace that did not seem to match his harsh demeanor.

She saw as he studied his hands curiously.

"That's never happened before..." he mumbled. "How...did I do that?"

"You're not hurt, are you, Kagome?" Kouga inquired smoothly.

"Uh, I'm fine," she replied, suddenly shy and fidgety.

"HEY!" Inuyasha shrieked. He shoved Kouga away from Kagome and got in his face. "What the hell you think yer doin', acting all concerned for her? You knocked her out and kidnapped her, you asshole! And now you want to know if she's hurt?! How 'bout I hurt you, buddy, huh?!"

"Inuyasha, take it easy!" Kagome warned. "He was just asking if I'm okay!"

Inuyasha turned and glared. "Unbelievable! What are you, some kind of masochist? Or did he brainwash you?" He whirled around to face Kouga again. "Okay, that's it, you're going down!"

"Inuyasha..." Kagome gritted, focusing her thoughts on the prayers beads around the demon's neck. "SIT!!!"

The rosary around Inuyasha's neck glowed with the activation of the word of subjugation.

The punch he was about to throw was cut short as he was slammed to the ground.

The shamans stared.

"Effective..." Kouga commented, stroking his chin approvingly.

Inuyasha lifted his head out of the crater it had formed. "What the hell was that?!"

"I think we should probably be leaving now," Kagome said to Kouga tolerably.

"You have done us a great favour," Kouga acknowledged. "We are now free to return to our old home, now that you've vanquished the moths. If ever you are in the mountains, the Wolf Tribe will be there to aid you in any way possible. If you're on your way to the village, go down the hill and south to a trail; it's a shortcut out of the woods and back onto the road."

"I was glad to be of some assistance," Kagome admitted, "Even though the circumstances of acquiring my help could have been a little less...forceful. Good-bye!"

"Farewell," Kouga said a little wistfully. The Wolf Tribe gave another cheer as she made her way off the hill.

Then she remembered.

"Whoops! I almost forgot Inuyasha! Hey! You can get up now, you know!"

Inuyasha sprung to his feet and pointed a clawed finger into her face. "Don't you ever do that again!!"

Kagome placed her hands on her hips defiantly. "And what exactly do you plan to do to stop me?"

"I'll make you pay!" he growled dangerously, curling his fingers into a fist.

She stared at him boredly for a moment, and blinked. "Sit."

THUD!