Chapter 2

Forgot to do this last time…Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any other related characters  yay

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sniff sniff…sniff "What is that?" Kagome thought sleepily. sniff "What the, it sounds like..Inuyasha!!" the girl almost screams, sending the curious half-demon flying. "What do you think you were doing, sniffing me like that?"

"Relax! You were twitching in your sleep and I was trying to figure out why! Geeze!" Inuyasha barks back, embarrassed. He stalked out of the hut mumbling something about hair smelling good while Kagome tried to relax and remember her dream. "Oh ya," she thought as she started to remember, a slight blush creeping into her face.

"Of course not Kagome! I would never give my ears to Kikyo! My ears will always belong to you and only you." the hanyou said, as he took the miko's small hands in his own.

"That's when he started to sniff me", Kagome thought to herself, giggling a little. "What's so funny, Kagome?" Shippo said as he entered the small hut, carrying a small pouch full of herbs for Kagome. "Oh, nothing much," the girl responded. Just then the rest of the group entered, followed closely by Kaede.

"Oh great, you're awake, Kagome. We're all ready to go, wanna head out?" Sango asked.

"Yeah, sure. I'll just roll up my sleeping bag and I'll meet you out there." replied Kagome.

The group walked out of the village and to the west, to see if the rumors of a large demon bear were true. If the stories were true, Kagome may be able to see a shard of the jewel located somewhere in the demon.

"How much farther do you think it is, Miroku?"

"I'm not sure, Shippo. Probably not too much longer. If I am correct, we should be there in about half an hour."

"Good, my feet are killing me!" the kitsune groaned.

"What are you whining about you little brat—you've been riding on my back for the last two hours!" said Inuyasha, as he gave the child a small kick to his backside.

"Owww... Kagome!!"

"Inuyasha, be nice."

"See those mountains, Kagome?" asked Miroku. "Yeah, what about them?" replied the priestess.

"Well the village we're headed to is at the bottom of those mountains." "Yeah I can sense a jewel shard down there!" "Great, let's go", Inuyasha says as he puts Kagome on his back and bounds off towards the village. Miroku and Sango exchange glances. "I can't believe he is still thinks about Kikyo when he obviously likes Kagome," Miroku told the slayer. "Yes I know what you mean, he could have just left her here with us and took off like that, but instead he took her. Come on Kirara let's catch up!" Sango tells her two-tailed cat. Kirara transforms so the two humans and fox demon can hop on; soon they are right behind Inuyasha and Kagome, only minutes away from the large village now.

The sight they see as the walk into the village is devastating: entire crops are destroy, with what looks like giant claw marks raked through them, houses have been leveled and all around villagers were cleaning, crying and talking about what should be done.

As they walk towards the center of the village, they can't help but hear snatches of conversation…

"The bear demon needs to be stopped; we will starve when winter comes around if this continues…"

"How can we live in this village with a demon attacking every night?.."

"Maybe we can offer prayers.."

"Excuse me, can you tell us what's been going on here recently?" the monk politely breaks into a conversation.

"A huge bear demon comes down off of that mountain every night, destroys part of our village, and steals one of the young maidens. We have tried everything we can, but our efforts are fruitless against the beast. The attacks began very recently, shortly after the fire that destroyed a large part of the forest that grew on the mountain." a short man with a mostly grey ponytail tells the travelers.

"Young maidens, eh?" the monk inquires, slyly.

"Yes, we aren't sure why." man tells him.

"Well I'm sure we can help", Miroku tells the man, with a little more than a hint of a grin on his face.

"Yes, we've handled this kind of situation before," Sango assures the man, before she jabbed the monk with an accusing finger, glaring at him when he turns to look at her.

"If you ask me, it sounds like someone just needs to be put in their place; some demons think that they can just take whatever they want." Inuyasha states

"Oh yeah, some demons..", Kagome teases, as she rolls her eyes and starts walking towards the mountain.

"What's that supposed to mean?" the hanyou playfully demands, gently shoving Kagome as to not knock her over.

"Nothing..", she giggles and shoves him back, but not gently. Kagome and the rest of her friends burst out in laughter when Inuyasha looses his balance and tumbles to the ground.

Kagome breaks into a run when she sees Inuyasha get up with a mischievous look in his eyes.

"We'll meet you two up on the mountain!" Sango calls after the two teens.

"What's gotten into them?" Shippo asks, scratching his head

"You're pretty fast Kagome," Inuyasha tells the girl before tackling her

The couple rolls off the path, and into some bushes, laughing the whole time. As they stop rolling, Inuyasha manages to pin Kagome down, and begins to sniff her hair.

"What are you doing, you freak?" she giggles.

"Your hair smells… like food", the boy tells her and begins snuffling around her ears, causing Kagome to squeal with laughter.

"Get off me!" she yells playfully and struggles to stand up, the demon still smelling her hair. "I had no idea dog demons liked strawberries", she said as she began to smooth out her hair. "Is that what your hair smells like? We should look for some of those later." Inuyasha tells her, while he straighten out his robes which had gotten all twisted as the two rolled.

"Do you think we should wait for the others?" the miko asks, looking down the path where they were a good 30 minutes away from the village. " Nah, they have Kirara. They'll catch up in no time, besides, Miroku will probably want to interview the rest of the "fair maidens"", Inuyasha informs her. "Yeah, you're probably right." Kagome agreed. "Poor Sango. She hates it when Miroku talks to other girls. He's such a skeeze.", the girl thought to herself.

The two rounded a corner of the steep mountain, the path had been getting more and more narrow as they continued on.

"I can feel a jewel shard a little further up the mount…..", but Kagome couldn't finish her sentence. As they walked, the crumbling path had finally giving way and the ground under Kagome, and the girl broke from the mountain and slid down, leaving just a cloud of dust where the miko had been standing.

Oh no…Inuyasha thought desperately, "KAGOME!!"

I know... still a little slow... but I'll figure it out... please keep reading everyone! 