Chapter 3

As the sun illuminates the sky with its brilliant colors of red, orange, purple, and blue five figures ride west. Four of them, happy at having such a plentiful day, the other, lost in thoughts about a young woman who he met. He could not shake the image of her innocent round dove like eyes, her soft pinkish lips nor the way her eyes reflected sadness when he had ridden off with his companions. His thoughts were interrupted when they arrived at their destination, a large cave that they had found when they first arrived in California. The cave was large enough to hide their horses and give them living space. It was a perfect hiding place because it was far enough from any town and the feds would never find it because there were no roads leading by. Once inside, they dismounted their horses and fed them. They had to get rid of the jewels; they had to sell them as soon as possible so that they didn't give the feds time to report them.

"Inuyasha, see what the bags contain," ordered Sesshomaru. "Sell the valuables; keep about ten percent of the profit. Then, give the rest to the villagers. They'll need it."

Inuyasha turned to see his brother and nodded, "Alright. Miss Miko, will you accompany? It is a long lonely ride."

She only grinned wide and nodded.

Sesshomaru had envied his brother for some time now. Inuyasha had found a great mate and he was much younger than him. He remembers the day they came upon her like if it was yesterday. His brother had fallen for her at first sight. But stubborn as he was, he had denied it for a couple of years.

Flashback

They had been traveling for a few days, going from town to town looking for a job so that they could feed themselves, but found no luck. They had stopped in the town square to rest before moving to the next town. When a local merchant started screaming,

"Thief! Thief! You little bitch; you're going to pay for that, one way or another." By the time the two brothers had reached the commotion a crowed had gathered, and it was difficult to get through to where the action was happening. After, a few minutes of pushing and shoving both brothers had a front seat view. What they saw was not what they were expecting. There, in the middle of the crowd, stood a man of about 6'2 and 300 pounds holding firmly the wrist of a young girl, no older than sixteen trying to run the opposite direction.

The merchant smirked at the crowd, "She tried to steel some beef and now she must pay."

The crowd cheered when the man grabbed his leather whip and a rope. He tied the girl's arms together to a wooden pole holding his booth together. The girl had not spoken and her face had been covered by the curtain of hair that hung loosely and greasily from her face. Finally, after the crowd had quieted, the girl's raspy voice was heard,

"Please, don't beat me. I haven't eaten for days. My family . . ." but that was all she was able to finish because she broke out into sobbing. The merchant laughed loudly and told the crowd that it wasn't a good enough of a reason. At the merchants laugh, the young desperate girl turned her head towards the crowd for someone to help. First, she looked right, but no one would meet her eyes. Then, she turned left and scanned the crowds until she looked to the people right in front of her. An angel stared at her. His eyes the color of the sun and his hair glowed around his godly features, but wait there next to him was another angel except this angel was taller and looking at the merchant.

'Would they help her? Would she be saved or were they angels of death taking her to a better place than this hell hole?'

Inuyasha did not know why no one would help the young girl, but once he had met her eyes something inside of him felt differently. 'I have to help her, no matter what' he thought.

Unknowingly to Sesshomaru, his younger brother had been slowly becoming more irritated with the situation especially when the merchant started to describe to the girl what he was going to do to her. The gasp that was emitted from the girl after the merchant had kicked her in the ribs was all it took for Inuyasha to snap. His eyes were turning red and his aura started to change. Sesshomaru senses were starting to go wild. His brother was changing into full youkai; he needed to do something fast. Sesshomaru hit the merchant in the ribs with his fist; then, kicked him in the chest. He turned around to his brother.

"Inuyasha, cool down, grab your lady friend here and let's go, now!"

Inuyasha was trying to control his demon blood when he heard a moan from below him. The girl had passed out still tied to the post. Inuyasha did not think about anything else but the girl. He used his claws to cut the ropes and lifted the girl into his arms. He noticed that she hung limply and was hardly breathing. He looked towards Sesshomaru and gave him a worried look

"Sess, I don't thing she'll make it."

"Don't worry Inu, now let's get out of here."

End of Flashback

Sesshomaru grinned at the memory. 'Yes, Inu, had fallen in love when she had looked at him in the eyes'

They had run with the young girl into the forest outside the village and traveled until dark. Sesshomaru had gone to hunt because his brother did not want to put the silly girl down. It had taken a couple of weeks, but Inuyasha's persistence paid of and the girl had gotten healthy again. They later found out that she had lost her parents a few months before they had rescued her, and had been wondering aimlessly, hungry, thirsty, and scared. Since that day Kagome had join them.

Sesshomaru was not pleased that she had tagged along, but after seeing how she and Inuyasha could get into heated arguments and most of the time she would win, he decided that she wasn't that bad. Since, Sesshomaru has enjoyed the way the petite girl could make his brother nervous and act like a fool. Inuyasha mated with Kagome when she was eighteen and he nineteen. Since that day they've have been fewer arguments between the two, and have been very happy loving each other.

Smack

'Now those two are something else' bemused Sesshomaru.

"Miroku, stop grabbing Sango in inappropriate places, and give the horses some water. Sango you can start making something to eat and I'll start the fire."

It was a few hours later that both Inuyasha and Kagome returned with a few gold coins and grins spread across their faces. "Hey Sess, the villagers said they were thankful for the money we gave them, and that if we ever needed help, to go to them and they would do what they could."

A/N: I'll give you some background information of the other members in later chapters.