Shippo woke up a little disoriented. He wasn't able to get enough sleep because he couldn't seem to get comfortable. He yawned and crawled out of Kagome's backpack. Shippo froze when he saw his surroundings. He seemed to be in a huge mansion of sorts. Shippo slowly poked his head over the backpack and looked around. After glancing around for a bit, he noticed a few figures in the corner of the large room. He saw three people talking about something, probably something very important from the looks on their faces. He could tell that one of them was a raccoon demon and Kagome was there too. She appeared to be standing behind. Sesshomaru?

'Why would Kagome be talking to Sesshomaru? Why is he here?' He wondered. 'Where is here, anyways?'

Shippo looked around some more and saw a door across from where the adults were talking.

'I should look and see where that door goes. We might need to get out of here fast!'
Shippo glanced back at Kagome one more time.

'Kagome, I'll be right back.'

Shippo crouched low and then sprinted into the doorway. There were two pathways. One went left, the other went right. He looked both ways before dashing off to the left. The hallway was very long, and there wasn't very much difference on either side of the hall. The floor was a light brown and the walls and ceiling were white. There were a lot of dark brown doors, eight feet apart each, which went down each side of the hall as far as Shippo could see. In between each door was a leafy green plant. Talk about original decorating.

Shippo walked down the hall for a while before stopping at a door. This door looked the same as all the other doors, except that this door had one fist sized white spot near the top of it. Shippo reached up to the doorknob and hesitated.

'It would be rude to enter a room without asking first. That's what Kagome says.'
He pushed away the fact that he was already intruding in someone's house before lightly knocking on the door. He didn't get an answer so he entered to room.

He was in a kitchen. It was huge like the rest of the house and very clean. He didn't see any pots, pans, knives, or any other of those kitchen things. He suddenly heard two pots lightly tap together behind him. He spun around, trying to find the noise. He heard it again. It was coming from one of the cabinets. Shippo cautiously made his way over to it. He was about to open it when it burst open on its own! Shippo screamed and jumped back. He felt a small weight slam into him and cover his mouth. Shippo looked up and saw a little girl holding one of her hands over his mouth and the other was pushed to her lips in a signal to be quiet. She looked down at him and said,

"You got to be quiet otherwise Jaken will find Rin!"

The little girl seemed to be waiting for an answer so Shippo nodded. The girl smiled and removed her hand from his mouth. She got to her feet and helped Shippo up.

"Rin's name Is Rin." She said.

"I'm Shippo." Shippo answered. "Who were you hiding from?"

"Oh no! Rin forgot! Rin was hiding from Jaken because Jaken said mean things to Rin!"

"Who's Jaken?" Shippo asked. 'That name sounds familiar.'

"Jaken is supposed to watch Rin while Lord Sesshomaru is gone. Rin likes to take his staff and watch him make funny faces." She giggled.

Shippo's eyes widened. He remembered who Jaken was now! He was that loud, green thing that always followed Sesshomaru around. Jaken was never far away from Sesshomaru.

"Hey Rin, where are we?" He asked, remembering his first question.

"Were in the kitchen!"

"No, whose home are we in?"

"Oh, were in Lord Sesshomaru's house."

'His house! More like his castle. What would Kagome be doing here?' Shippo thought.
He was interrupted from his thoughts when he heard a loud screech echo through the kitchen.

"Rin!" The voice yelled.

Shippo looked over at Rin and saw her looking towards the door nervously. 'Hey, that's Jaken's voice!'

"You get out here you horrible child! Lord Sesshomaru will have my head if I loose you. Rin, Rin!" Jaken screeched from somewhere out in the halls.

"Come on Shippo!" Rin said pulling on his hand. "We have to go before Jaken finds us. He won't be happy to find you here."

Shippo let Rin lead him through a door in the back of the kitchen. They were now in a very large dining room. There was a long oak table with a lot of chairs around it. Shippo didn't get a very good look at the room because Rin pulled him into another hallway that was identical to the first.
'How does she know where she's going?' He thought.

They ran in silence for a little while before Rin stopped in the middle of a doorway, panting.
She turned to Shippo and said, "Rin doesn't think that Jaken will be able to catch us. He runs really slowly. Jaken wouldn't be happy if he found you with Rin." She paused for a second to regain her breath then continued, "Jaken would yell at us and we would have to run all over again. Why are you in Lord Sesshomaru's home?"

Shippo suddenly remembered what he had set out to do. 'I need to go back to the first room and see if Kagome is still there. I don't think I have enough time to find an exit. Kagome could need my help right now!'

"Rin, do you know how to get to that one room that Sesshomaru was talking in?" He asked her.

"You mean the one with Zerin and nice Lady Kagome?"

Shippo nodded his head. 'Zerin must be that raccoon demon.' He thought briefly.

"Rin can take you there!" She said nodding and looking around. She seemed to find what she was looking for and began to pull him through another series of doors and hallways. Shippo soon found himself in the room he was first in. There was one problem though. Kagome wasn't in the room any more.

'Sesshomaru and Kagome are gone!' He thought looking around frantically. He noticed the raccoon demon, Zerin, about to walk up a set of spiraling stairs.

"Wait!" Shippo shouted, running up to Zerin.

Zerin looked down at Shippo with surprise. 'I don't remember there being any fox kits in the castle.' He thought. He shrugged it off and bent down to the kits level.

"Are you looking for something kit?" Zerin asked.

Shippo looked up at him sniffling. "Yes, I'm looking for Kagome. Do you know where she is?"

"Kagome just went off with Sesshomaru to look for something very important. I don't know when they'll be back."

"Waaaaaa!" Shippo wailed "I knew I shouldn't have taken so long! Now Kagome's gone and could be in danger and I missed her!"

Zerin picked up the kit unsteadily and attempted to sooth him. Zerin looked at the sobbing kit in his arms and Rin who had come over to him and was holding his pant leg and got an idea.

"It wasn't fair that we all got left behind was it?" He asked.

The kit and Rin both shook their heads.

"I'm sure they will soon both be lost and afraid with out us."

Rin nodded and the kit sniffled some more.

"Now kit,"

"My name's Shippo." Shippo said.

Zerin smiled down at Shippo. "Right. Now Shippo don't you think that Kagome and Sesshomaru would feel a lot better if we were there to guard them?"

The two children smiled and nodded.

"It's settled than. We'll go out, find Kagome and Sesshomaru, and keep them safe. What do you think about that?"

"What about Jaken?" Rin asked. "Rin knows he'll be mad at Rin if he finds out."

"We'll be back before he notices. So who wants to come?"

Shippo and Rin both raised their hands, each grinning eagerly.

"Let's go!" Shippo exclaimed.

Zerin put Shippo down and led the two out the door.

"How are we going to catch them? Sesshomaru can fly." Shippo asked.

"Hmmmmm," Zerin said thinking "We'll just have to find a way."

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >

Jaken wandered the halls looking for Rin.
"Where could that little monster have run off to?"
He peered into a random doorway.

"Rin, Rin! Come out you little beast! Lord Sesshomaru will be very angry if he finds you missing!"
Jaken listened to his call echo through the hall way and ground his teeth in frustration at the devilish little mortal child.

"I'll find you Rin! You can't be far!"