Well hello again, here's the second installment of my story; I hope that you enjoy this as well. Please be patient as I know the story is going a bit slow and not much excitement as of yet, it will pick up once I have established a few things. Thank you so much for your review Summer, I'm glad that you liked it. Dark sends candies and cookies to Summer for being her first reviewer Thank you, Thank you!

Disclaimer: The same as the last one, I no own nuthin'! POUT>

My peace and a Childs savior

Last time: She almost fainted from the instant loss of heat, and everything else that was flowing through her body right now. Reaching up, she touched her neck and began to walk not even bothering to look back or to see where he'd gone to again. Not sure that she wanted to see him for awhile.

'Oh my god what was he thinking? What was he doing? He's never done anything like that before.' And a million other thoughts flew through her mind while tripping back towards camp. So lost in her thoughts, she hadn't noticed when she stumbled back into the company of her other friends.

Dark>

Noticing her strange behavior Sango couldn't help but worry

"Are you alright Kagome?" she asked lightly as to not scare her,

"Hmm, what?" Kagome asked coming out of her reverie with a slight frown,

"Are you alright Kagome?" Sango repeated now even more concerned,

"Oh yes, I'm fine, I didn't mean to float off like that."

Kagome busied herself the rest of the time by helping Sango finish the dinner and

and rolling everyone's bed rolls out.

Soon though the hanyou returned to the small camp and everyone could see the visual stiffening of Kagome's back when he entered the fire light, there were no words exchanged, Inuyasha simply grabbed his portion of the meal and leaped into a

Tree near by to enjoy his meal.

Miroku and Sango being the intelligent and knowing sort could plainly see that something had transpired between there friends, as their behavior was stranger than usual.

Inuyasha sat staring at Kagome, while she only stared at her food and an extremely

interesting blade of grass beside her foot. Soon everyone had finished their meals and

Sango and Kagome cleaned the dinner mess and headed for a near by spring.

Over the past three years of Shard hunting the band of three had noticed that

Inuyasha did not allow them to stop unless they were near a spring of some kind.

When it was colder it was always a hot spring and when it was warmer it was a lake or river, Sango and Miroku were quite surprised by Inuyashas apparent concern for Kagome and her unusual bathing rituals.

Upon the decent into the refreshing water, the two girls settled into a comfortable position to relax and work out tired muscles, soon though Sango couldn't hold back the question any longer and asked,

"Kagome, did something happen when you went to speak to Inuyasha?"

Stiffening of shoulders and a slight blush, Sango was replied to with a lie,

"No, we just talked."

Sango seeing her friends' reaction knew all too well that something had happened, but let it lie for now, as she new Kagome did not want to talk about it.

"How did it go, talking to Inuyasha?"

Kagome relieved that she didn't dig any further into her previous question sighed and answered her with a light smile.

"Actually it went quite well, he already gave me his consent earlier, the only problem that he seems to have is of me being in danger by participating in the battles, but he'll have to get it over it, because I'm not backing down from this."

Sango listened closely to see if she could pick up anything in her answer, but found nothing, resigning herself to failure she smiled at her friend in true admiration.

'Kagome has come so far since we first met, I can't imagine how hard it must have been for her to go through all the changes in this era, she is one of the strongest people I know and I was very proud of the way that she exerted herself earlier in her want of training to become stronger, only so that she could pull her own weight in the group during the battles we enter almost daily.'

Dark

The next morning was absolutely beautiful, the sun was out, there was a wonderful cool breeze, the birds sang their pretty songs to the travelers while they picked up camp and began their journey back to Kaede's village, and everyone seemed to be in wonderful spirits, even Inuyasha was joking and playing with Shippou. Kagome couldn't have thought of anything more perfect than that day, but alas it wasn't to last.

By mid morning they had been traveling for about three hours when some very ugly rain clouds appeared almost out of no where, the rest of the day was spent trudging through mud puddles and rain soaked foliage. To say the least, the wonderful mood that had been set earlier in the day was no longer existent.

They finally stopped for a break about mid afternoon, when they found a small cave that would give them shelter from the elements. Kagome being the ever thoughtful one always carried some small things of firewood in her back pack just in case, so she set about making a fire.

She made them all Ramen for lunch, "Something nice and warm in our bellies will be good for the journey." She said as she watched over the small pot like object that held the boiling water. Thirty minutes later found everyone warm, dry, full and lethargic, before they had known it Inuyasha, Shippou and Miroku had fallen asleep.

Kagome couldn't help but feel restless, the rain always made her feel that way, alive and primal. Sango knew this and made a noise to get her attention.

Kagome turned her head towards her friend

"Go on" Sango whispered to her, "I'll cover for you."

They both smiled and Kagome got up from the small boulder she was sitting on and tip toed outside.

Slipping around the side of the cave and into the forest, Kagome opened her arms and let her head fall back feeling the rain on her face, she sighed, 'What peace this is, thanks Sango.'

She thought to herself, and then took off deeper into the forest at a high speed sprint.

Kagome ran and ran until she couldn't run anymore; she hadn't been able to run like this in so long she just wanted to enjoy every bit of it. After she had finally stopped running due to the burning in her legs, she sat beneath a large cherry blossom tree to rest.

Still getting soaked she laid her head against the tree for support and thanked Mother Nature for its beauty and tranquility.

A few moments passed when she thought she heard something a little deeper in, a few more minutes and she had heard it again; being curious she got up and followed the sound to investigate.

Looking back in the direction she had come from, she realized she'd walked quite far,

'I must have walked a lot farther than I thought; I can't even see the tree I was sitting under.' She was thinking to herself when she heard a sharp cry just to the right of her.

Suddenly realizing that it sounded like a young child in distress, she ran full force until she reached a large bush. Peaking through the branches, she was surprised to find the little girl Rin that followed Sesshoumaru around about to be attacked by a very hungry looking snake youkai.

'What is she doing out here alone, he usually guards her fiercely.'

Pulling her bow from her shoulder and notching an arrow from the quiver on her back, Kagome took aim at the snakes head and let her arrow fly. It hit its mark as the ashes from the beast flew away on the breeze.

Kagome ran to Rin and before she could even reach the child's side, the girl had jumped up and run to her.

"Oh thank you so much Kagome-chan for saving Rin, I was so scared and lost and I didn't think anyone would hear me way out here"

Kagome recovered quickly from the attack of small appendages and body weight that had flown at her middle, and put her arms around the young girl.

"It's ok Rin-chan, but where are your guardians? Sesshoumaru and Toadi."

Kagome asked the girl as she walked her to a large tree with low branches that made a great shelter from the rain.

Rin looked up to her when they reached their destination under the tree and frowned, "Toadi?" she asked naively. Kagome giggled a little and replied "I'm sorry the green youkai that follows you."

"Oh, that's Jaken, but that's a good name for him Kagome-chan." They both shared a giggle and sat down.

"You should not call Lord Sesshoumaru by just his given name though, he gets angry." Rin informed Kagome with a toothy smile,

Kagome couldn't help but laugh at that, the thought of this tiny girl enforcing the pompous Taiyoukai's rules, "Oh okay Rin, I'll remember that next time, thank you for warning me." She told her with a smirk.

"Rin went to find some mushrooms that Kira said that she could eat in the woods and got lost; Lord Sesshoumaru went off somewhere and told Master Jaken to watch me." The girl finally answered Kagome's earlier question.

"Hmm, well I guess you'll just have to come back to camp with me, until we can find your Sesh- I mean Lord Sesshoumaru, ok sweetie?"

Rin nodded her consent and then promptly sneezed in Kagome's face, "I'm so sorry Kagome-chan, I didn't mean to." She whimpered.

Kagome had gotten worried when the child sneezed, 'How long has the poor girl been out here, some guardian, he can't even take care of a small child, the pompous windbag.'

"It's ok Rin-chan, but let's hurry up and get you back to camp so that we can get you warmed up and some dry clothes for you."

Rin just nodded her head, as Kagome picked the girl up bridal style and carried her back in the direction she memorized on her way out here.

When they arrived back at the cave, Inuyasha was gone and Kagome visibly paled, 'Dammit' she thought, looking to Sango, she knew that she'd been busted, by the apologetic look Sango sent her.

When Sango spotted the package Kagome had she leapt off her perch and went to her, "Is this not the child that follows Inuyasha's brother?"

"Yes, this is Rin, I found her about to be attacked by a Snake youkai, and she got lost looking for something to eat while Jaken was guarding her, so I brought her back here."

Sango rushed to help Kagome with her back pack, "Oh the poor thing is soaked to the bone, how long was she out there?"

Kagome shrugged as she had a t-shirt in her mouth and was rummaging through her bag for some more articles of clothing. "Aaha, found them." She exclaimed when she pulled a pair of pink sleeping like pants out of her bag.

The girls quickly undressed, dried, and dressed the girl in the clothes that Kagome had supplied. The t-shirt was like a dress and the waistband of the pants had to be rolled down so that the child didn't trip on them, but they worked and she was warm. They both sat back smiling and looked at their handy work.

"Feel Better Rin-chan?" Kagome asked her while she hunted for some ramen to make her,

Rin only nodded, she was a little shy with the Taijiya there,

"Shippou," Kagome called to the young fox that was enthralled with the child so close to his own age, "Why don't you pull out your coloring book and crayons and show Rin how to do it." Shippou excitedly bounded over to Kagome's bag and pulled his supplies out, "Ok Kagome, Come on Rin and I'll show you." Sango and Kagome shared a small smile at the adorable sight the two made as Shippou ran up to Rin "Hi, my name is Shippou." Shyly Rin replied "Rin's name is Rin." The children were soon settled down and coloring quietly.

"What will you do with her?" whispered Sango

Kagome only shrugged and replied "I guess I'll keep her until we find Sesshoumaru, I'm sure it won't be long until he finds us. I'm quite certain he knows that she has gone missing by now, all we can do is wait." She said with a sigh. "Well I just hope that Inuyasha doesn't make a big deal out of it." Sango said off handedly as they went back to preparing the girl child something to eat.

"What the hell is going on here!" An all too familiar voice yelled and echoed through the cave.

DARK>

Well there ya go, I'm not the happiest with it, but I guess I'll have to see what everyone else thinks. Please review!