Kagome easily found the gang sitting around the fire at their normal camp. Shippo is the first to see her. He gets up and runs over to her to give her a big hug. "Your back YAY and happy birthday. We did not think you were going to come back till tomorrow."

Kagome laughs as she hugs him back. "My mom suggested I bring you all some of the food from the party. I am only going to stay for a little while. I still have to go back and get changed and pack up for the next trip."

Shippo let go of her at the word food and started to look eagerly at her bag. "More of those potato things?"

"Sorry, no but I will make sure to bring some for our trip."

As Kagome sat down and started to pull out all of the food her mother had packed for them Sango asked "Was that one of your birthday presents?" as she pointed to Kagome's new comb.

Kagome reached up and gently toughed Hojo's gift as she nodded and replied "Yes a friend from school gave it to me tonight."

Inuyasha looked up from the food he was sniffing with suspicion in his eyes "Friend? What friend?"

Kagome answered quickly "Oh it was Hojo" as she reached in the bag to pull the last thing out, a big chunk of her birthday cake. The others immediately got to work on eating all of the food, but Inuyasha sat eyeing the comb and scowling. Kagome noticed this and offered him some of her mother's food to keep his mind off of Hojo. He reluctantly accepted the food and started to eat.

Sango looked over to Kagome who was sitting silently watching all of them and asked "What you don't want any of your food?"

"No I am still stuffed from when I ate it earlier this is all for you guys."

That was all the encouragement the boys needed to finish off the remaining food and cake. As Shippo and Inuyasha fought over the last piece of cake Sango reached into her own pack to pull out a white shawl and handed it to Kagome. "Since you are here now you can have your birthday gift. I was going to give it to you tomorrow, but why wait."

Kagome unfolded the shawl and lovingly ran her fingers over the fabric. "Oh Sango you shouldn't have I was not expecting any gifts from you." She tried to give it back to Sango who just shook her head and gave it back. "Thank you it is lovely."

The boys had stopped eating now and Inuyasha was now scowling again. Shippo reached into his pocket and pulled out a picture he had drawn for Kagome. He smoothed it out before he handed it to her. "Here is my present to you. It is you and me on your bike riding." He pointed to a red lump in the background and said "That is Inuyasha after you made him sit because he was being mean to me again."

Everyone laughed as Inuyasha exclaimed "WHAT?"

Kagome seeing a fight about to happen said loudly "Thank you Shippo I will hang this in my room so I can think of you when I am over there and missing you all."

Miroku handed Kagome a small silk bag. As she opens it and dumps the contents into her hand he too explains his gift. "It is a bracelet with magical stones that are supposed to give you good health. You are supposed to wear it when you are sick or hurt and it will help you to heal. I figured after that bad cold you had we should try to keep you as healthy as we can."

Kagome slid the bracelet on. She admired the different shades of green in the stone before she pulled it back off and slide it into the pouch. "Thank you; it is a very thoughtful gift." She glanced at Inuyasha wondering if he too had a gift for her, but trying desperately not to get her hopes up too high. He looked even more unhappy than before and glared at her in an angry defiant way almost daring her to ask him if he got her a gift too. Kagome was not going to do that though. Instead she turned back to the others and thanked them all once again. Shippo started to say something to Inuyasha, but before Kagome noticed Inuyasha bopped him in the head.

Kagome packed up all of her things, gently laying all of her gifts in the top of her book bag. She stood and said "Well I had better head home now I still wanted to get some packing done tonight and get a good nights sleep in my bed. Seeing how I wont be seeing it for a while."

Inuyasha stood up with her and gently grabbed her arm as she turned to leave. "Do you want me to walk you back to the well?"

Kagome stared at him trying to figure him out. She did not know if he simply did not get anyone birthday gifts or if he did not think she was important enough. She squared her shoulders, trying to hide the hurt, shook her head, and said "No I will be fine I need some time alone."

Inuyasha saw it and got even angrier at the whole thing but mainly at himself. "Time alone what does that mean? You should let me walk you to the well!"

"I said I will be fine if I want anything from you I will just ask" Kagome yelled back as she pulled her arm free and left.

Shippo muttered more to himself than anyone else "Geesh you would think that he would not yell at her for her birthday." Unfortunately for Shippo Inuyasha heard him and knocked Shippo on his head as he stormed off in the opposite direction of Kagome.

As Inuyasha walked to a clearing he started to mutter to himself. "Hojo got her a comb, and she is still wearing it. Grrrrr. Stupid Shippo telling me flowers would be a great gift. What was I thinking?"

He thought back to the conversation he and Shippo had the day before. Inuyasha asked Shippo what to get Kagome for her birthday. Shippo had suggested flowers because girls always like to get them. Inuyasha had spent the whole day going around and gathering different flowers from all over the country.

Behind a tree in the clearing was the bouquet of flowers. Inuyasha stormed over to them and started to rip the flowers apart in anger all the while muttering to himself. "How am I supposed to give her flowers they just die? Stupid Hojo and his stupid comb, they just make my present look stupid. It will be the last time that I ask Shippo for help."

Kagome walked through the woods quietly thinking to herself. She was trying to figure out why she always thought of Inuyasha when she was with Hojo, and why she never thought of Hojo when she was with Inuyasha. Hojo was the type of guy she should be attracted to. He was kind, sweet, thoughtful, and honest. All the things Inuyasha was not and yet here she was with a great gift from Hojo and all she could think about was Inuyasha's lack of a gift.

Kagome was almost to the well when she heard a noise from off to the side of her. She stopped in her tracks and turned to listen for it to come again. Deep down she was hoping that it was Inuyasha coming to say good bye to her. Kagome tried to lie to herself and say she did not want it to be Inuyasha but she knew it was a lie. She called out softly "Inuyasha is that you?" No one answered her but she heard movement again. Kagome was getting a little scared and annoyed at the same time, so this time she "Yelled alright who is there. I am not in the mood for games so if you want to talk to me come do it. Otherwise I am going home." There was no answer again, which frightened Kagome even more. She pulled her pack a little higher up on her back and started to walk again. She desperately wanted to run but she did not want to act so scared.

As she started to move away she felt it. There was jewel shard close by, in the woods where the noise was coming from, but it was moving fast towards her. Before she had time to react she was tackled to the ground by a demon that looked like a huge dragon.

As the demon tackled her he said "You have more of the sacred jewel I can feel it. Give it to me and I will kill you quickly, instead of eating you slowly bit by bit."