He awoke to a bare foot roughly nudging his side. Blinking his eyes against the sun overhead, Shippo covered his face with his arm and groaned at his stiff legs.

"Found someone to help you take care of it, huh runt?"

Shippo's nose wrinkled at Inuyasha's tone. He thought back to what conversation Inuyasha could be picking back up at this hour and failed to come up with one. He tried to stretch his sore shoulder out to shake the stiffness off, but his motion was stopped by someone else's hand in his. He pulled off his arm draped over his eyes and blinked again through the filter of his lashes. He turned his head and saw deep red hair pooling out from under his own haori. Shippo jumped back, remembering the night before. He pulled his hand free and sat up on his butt and looked at the lump beneath the blue fabric. The only sign the girl was naked beneath it was her long thin dark legs sticking out the bottom from the mid thigh down. Shippo gulped and looked at the dog above him.

Inuyasha stood with his arms crossed and rolled his eyes. He sniffed at the air and his eyes softened. "No…guess you didn't. Mind telling me what you're doing half naked with a strange female under your clothes?"

Shippo glanced to the bundle which groaned and rolled away from the two males, exposing a thin clawed arm in the process. "Uh…she was hungry?"

Inuyasha held his stern gaze over the younger boy before his face broke and he snickered at the implications. "Was she now?"

Shippo nodded.

The silver haired hanyou sniffed again. "What is she?"

He looked to the red hair trailing out along the grass beneath them and then to her long black claws. "I have no idea. She can't seem to understand me—but look." The boy moved the haori back to reveal a nude shoulder and upper back. You could clearly make out her shoulder blade jutting from her flesh and a short line of carved vertebrae. It was obvious she was severely underweight. Even more so than from the night before in the dark.

"Shit." Inuyasha stepped back and dropped his arms at his sides. "She's practically a skeleton."

Shippo nodded and covered the girl sleeping on her stomach. "I fed her the remains of dinner and she nearly inhaled them. Then I brought her here."

"And she can't understand you?"

"Not my words."

He looked over the mound of cloth. "Is is smart like us?"

"I think so." He let his hand reach out and stroke her covered back. "I saw her yesterday too."

The young man grunted. "Why didn't you tell me?"

He sighed, not really sure how to answer. He gave it a shot. "Well, I guess because she wasn't humanoid then."

"She was in her animal form."

Shippo nodded. "Yeah, but she could understand me in that form. Then I dreamed about her last night in this form." He waved his hand over her long body lying beside him. "But she wasn't starved and she could understand me. Then after—when you woke me—" He felt himself blush. "I came out and tried to collect my mushrooms, which I had put out for her in case she needed to find a safe place. I smelled her and was surprised to see it was the girl, rather than the furry animal."

Inuyasha crouched beside his young friend and clicked his throat. "So she's what you were dreaming about last night."

Shippo winced. He was going to hear about this for months. Inuyasha chuckled.

"Well, let's get her back to the hut. Think we can wake her?"

He shrugged, unsure of how deep she slept. He slid his hand over her shoulder and began to shake it. "Hey…wake up."

With an airy growl, she flipped completely over onto her back, taking the haori with her. Suddenly she was fully exposed and Shippo, who hadn't pulled his hand back at the quick movement, was now cupping her right breast. He grew totally red in a snap and thrust his arm away from the young woman, utterly embarrassed by what he just felt. Beside him, Shippo could smell a faint spike of arousal from the older male, then that quickly died when he gained control. Shippo glanced at him. Inuyasha's cheeks burned as red as his fire rat robes.

"Cover her up cover her up!" Inuyasha leapt up behind Shippo and turned his back to the scene.

Shippo wrapped her quickly and gathered her into him, hooking his arm under her knees and the other under her shoulders. She was heavy as he lifted, solid, but still very light for her build.

He turned and walked to the long white hair in front of him. "I have her. Let's just get back to Kaede's."

Inuyasha nodded quickly and they both quickly made their way back before another incident could occur.

Shippo nearly dumped the young woman on the floor when Inuyasha and he entered the home. He managed to gently place her in a corner of the room, rather than simply flinging her nude form away from him. He felt like a pervert, and he knew he was too young to feel so dirty about such things, but he felt it was cheating when he saw her body while she was asleep. He shook his head as he stood back up. He wasn't a pervert, he was moral. The strain on his mind lessened considerably.

The monk, who had been leaning against the wall opposite of the door while reading over a book from Kagome's time, nearly jumped out of his skin from the sudden onslaught of stomping noises and an obviously nude female—save for Shippo's haori—hauled into the structure. He pressed a hand to his chest and let out a soft puff. Shippo caught the motion as he backed away from the woman in the corner, and noted that Inuyasha seemed to be studying his friend critically.

"Your heart?"

Miroku looked at his adult friend and nodded, still catching his breath. Shippo remembered when these episodes first started a year ago. Inuyasha probably was thinking the same thing as he. They were getting worse.

The silver haired man walked over to his friend and rubbed his left shoulder softly. "Arm hurtin'?"

Miroku shook his head slowly and placed a hand over Inuyasha's. "Alright now. I've got it under control." He was still breathy, but his voice was regaining its normal calm strength.

"Did Kagome go home today?" Shippo found himself asking without meaning to.

Inuyasha turned his head to the younger youkai. "Yeah…she said she needed to buy her books today."

Shippo shivered. "I wish you could go through the well, Miroku."

Miroku nodded his face still a bit pale. They all knew that Miroku could go on like this for years and be fine, but they also knew that he could be gone in a year if his heart kept weakening as it seemed to be. Shippo felt himself swallow down a large lump. Kagome's doctors would be able to heal him. It seemed too unfair that just when Miroku regained his life expectancy from Naraku's death, he began having normal human problems with his heart. The carrot top had known that Sango, Miroku, and even Kagome would quickly succumb to mortality and he would lose them long before he ever grew to middle age, but it seemed too cruel to lose Miroku even sooner. He felt himself glance to Inuyasha. Even he would surely die before Shippo. Shippo felt himself vowing for the hundredth time that he would never mate with a human. He couldn't take his mate being gone within the blink of an eye to him.

Inuyasha interrupted Shippo's tangent. "Have you ever tried going through the well with the jewel or Kagome?"

Miroku looked down at his still clothed right hand—he would probably always wear the thing—and shook his dark head. "No…maybe I should before this—" he motioned to his chest "—gets worse."

Inuyasha nodded. "We'll try when she gets back. I'll hold one arm, she'll hold the other, and you'll wear the jewel around your neck, okay?"

"Who is our guest?" Miroku was already off the subject and onto the new woman in the room.

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "Shippo's mate."

The young youkai felt himself jerk back as blood filled his cheeks. "N-no! She's just someone who is lost!"

"What odd colored hair…" the monk murmured as he stepped closer to the woman, who had a few long strands trickling out from under her covering. It was only now that Shippo noticed the deep red faded softly darker until it was black at the ends. "And her skin, is she from Japan?"

Shippo shook his head and Inuyasha answered. "She doesn't smell like she's from around here, but she also doesn't smell like the youkai we've met from the mainland either."

Miroku stooped to get a closer look at her exposed arm and hair. "A whole new continent perhaps?"

"She isn't human—that's for sure." Shippo found himself looking over the beauty.

"She doesn't even quite smell right." Inuyasha wrinkled his nose.

The monk looked back to the young man. "Is she sick?"

Inuyasha shifted from foot to foot. "No…really thin, but not sick. I meant that she smells like youkai, but not quite the same. Probably a really similar race to youkai, but not."

Shippo inhaled. "And no human blood, so she isn't like a quarter human and throwing the scent off."

Inuyasha agreed.

Miroku turned back to the woman with a soft grunt. He gently reached out and plucked up her hand and placed his first two fingers on her wrist. "Pulse is strong."

It was then that the arm twitched and the claws extended slightly. Miroku, who knew youkai, human, and animal mannerisms well enough, lowered the girl's hand to the ground and stepped back in case she chose to lash out when she woke. The claws did retract and the girl, rather than leaping forward or striking at the males surrounding her, gently pulled the fabric from her face and opened her eyes halfway. She jerked back at the sight of two strange males and looked fit to run until Shippo made his presence known by sitting quickly in front of her and touching her hand. She was visibly soothed at the familiar face.

"Hey there," Shippo soothed.

She looked at him and glanced back and forth between Miroku and Inuyasha, eyeing them slowly. She inhaled, flaring her nostrils slightly, and studied the two men. She began with Miroku, sniffing at him casually as if she had smelled his type many times before, which made sense to Shippo since no matter where she might be from, there were bound to be humans around. Once finished with the monk, the young woman turned to Inuyasha and inhaled deeply. She quirked one eyebrow up and considered what her nose was sensing. She dipped her head back toward the dark haired man and sniffed, but kept her eyes on the hanyou.

"Heh," Inuyasha breathed beside Shippo. "Think she's registering the human blood now?"

"I'd say," Miroku nodded and folded his arms into his robes.

The female looked back to the dog and sniffed again before relaxing her body and sitting back on her bottom. She clawed at the cloth around her and drew it closer, covering her upper body with had begun to show itself in her effort to understand the new beings around her. Shippo noted that she did have a sense of modesty.

He scooted forward on the floor and pressed his hand to his chest as he caught her gaze. "Shippo." He tapped his chest again and repeated his name. "Shippo."

The girl blinked at him and nodded slowly.

Miroku placed a hand on his chest. "Miroku. Miroku."

Inuyasha followed suit. The dark skinned female looked at each motion and listened to each name being said, then nodded again and attempted to repeat. "Shhip-oh."

The young youkai smiled at her and clasped his hands. The girl pointed a clawed finger out to him and again said "Shhipp-oh."

"Mirr-oku," she tilted her head and looked at the monk. "Mir-oh-ku." He smiled brightly and nodded at her words.

Then the girl turned to Inuyasha. She seemed to take a moment to think on his identity and how to say it. Then pointed her finger at him and said "Inyash."

Shippo looked to his older friend and saw him crack a small smile, then corrected her quickly. "Inuyasha. Inu-yah-shah."

She squinted and repeated. "Inu-yah-shah."

He smiled and nodded. "Good."

Shippo reached out and touched a hand to her collarbone. At first, she pulled back just slightly, then breathed out and shook her head. Shippo's hand dropped slightly. Didn't she understand? He was sure she had grasped the concept of their names, but perhaps he had been wrong. She looked at him in the eye and shook her head. Tapped her chest and shook her head once more.

"She doesn't have a name?" Inuyasha crossed his arms over his chest and sighed.

Miroku spoke up from behind Shippo. "Either that or she doesn't want you to know her name."

Shippo felt his eyebrows draw together. Why would she hide her name?

"How about 'Inky' for now?"

The fox and the monk turned to the half breed and held a similar expression of confusion. Inuyasha shrugged and flipped his hair back over his shoulder. "Her face is marked with ink, so Inky."

"That's horrible." Miroku scolded. "She's not our pet."

Looking back at the deep eyes before him, Shippo spoke. "It's a terrible name, but she needs to be called something for now."

The three men puzzled for a moment and Inuyasha spoke again. "Kagome Jr.?"

"No," Shippo and Miroku answered in unison.

"What about—"

"No!" Both men turned and forcefully denied Inuyasha another chance with their eyes.

The hanyou stepped back and put his hands up. "Hey, I don't know a lot of girl names sorry."

Shippo rolled his eyes and Miroku scoffed.

The orange haired youkai rubbed his chin and inspected the young woman who seemed to be watching him just as intently. Inuyasha had a point about her facial markings. The boy hadn't really thought of them in depth because while they were complex in design, they were not placed in a formation that took away from her features. And, the fox demon had found that it was very difficult for him to look away from her eyes.

"Sumi."