"Remember, gather the mushrooms and avoid the toadstools. You remember how I taught you the difference?"

Shippo nodded to the old priestess as he stood outside her hut with a fury Sumi tucked under his arm. "Yes Lady Kaede, I remember."

She nodded. "Good, now be quick, dinner will be finished soon and I want those ready for tomorrow's stew."

Shippo didn't need anymore encouragement. He turned and scampered toward the forest with the red furred creature. She had napped and when she finished dozing, the animal seemed even more annoyed than before. It was something about her eyes and the way she'd snort so often. He was sure she wasn't annoyed with him, but with the fact that she had no control over her beast.

He soon came upon a patch of mushrooms. He looked at Sumi and placed her down to the ground gently. He plucked a mushroom and held it up to her nose.

"Looks like you have pretty agile hands in this form, so you can help me look for these. We need them for more food tomorrow."

She looked at him for a moment, taking in the situation, then grasped the small fungus in her front paws.

The fox nodded in approval. "There now you see? We'll be looking for those."

She glanced at him and placed the mushroom down then ran off.

"Hey!" Shippo called out.

She paused and looked back at him, sitting back on her haunches. She then plucked a small mushroom from beside her and held it up into his view.

"Oh," he breathed. "Just don't wander off."

She turned back to her task and Shippo did the same, all the while thinking on the turns his life had taken in the last two days.

"You like purple." The young woman handed the monk a stack of shirts with the hangers still on them.

He took them into his already too full arms, the cloth draped across his elbows so that the metal of the hangers clacked together. "But, Kagome!" He fought with the pile to keep it balanced. "I do like other colors just as well."

Inuyasha stood behind the two smirking, wearing his Kagome-time jeans and tee shirt with a ball cap. He had his arms crossed over his chest with a fang showing through his crooked smile.

"Oi, Kagome?"

She stopped fingering a helpless polo shirt and turned to face the hanyou. "Yes?"

He smiled more evenly, losing the toothy grin. "Why don't you just let him look around and see what he likes?"

Kagome shook her head. "No, he'll pick dresses or something."

Miroku sighed from behind the tower of fabric. Inuyasha took the girl's hand into his and pulled her gently away.

"Kagome, didn't you want to…" he felt himself blush.

"Shop for you?"

He nodded. "Yes."

She seemed to consider this for a moment. "Alright, I think Miroku has better taste than you anyway. He could probably handle himself."

The silver-haired wrinkled his nose. "Hey—"

"Miroku, you feel alright to look by yourself?"

The monk nodded desperately. "I shall meet you at the fitting rooms you showed me."

She smiled and turned back to the other male, taking her hand in his. "You…really would like to shopping?"

He rolled his eyes. "Not like I care what I look like."

"Oh."

He looked back at her and thought he saw the beginning of a pout. "Ah, but…eh I do want our 'date' to go well, after all."

She nearly beamed at him.

"Heh." He felt his face redden. "So, what's good looking for a date?"

She smiled wide and began to drag him to another section of the store.

Shippo knew that something was wrong. He knew that he should have been in Inuyasha's Forest. He knew that he should have been able to smell Kaede's villiage. He couldn't smell it, and he wasn't in the forest. He could still smell her, though, and the mushrooms she had on her person. She was very close.

The young fox youkai opened his eyes slowly. He could see a wall through the darkness directly in front of his face. He was sitting up, rather than lying back, and he was leaning on something damp and hard. He turned his face to look behind him to an identical wall with mildew growing. He wrinkled his nose and wondered how he didn't notice that before. Craning his neck, he swept his eyes over the rest of the cell—it was a cell after all what else had three four solid stone walls with a small locked door with barred windows? There weren't even windows to the outside, and the hallway the one on the door must have looked into was as dark as his cell.

There was movement from the far corner and he tried to see what it came from. It was even too dark for him to seen in the small, dank room. He sniffed again—he could smell Sumi lightly, but she couldn't be in the room with him from how faded that scent was. He couldn't smell the intruder.

"Wh-who are you?" He felt himself push back against the wall as the lump of shadow shifted. It looked as if it were coming closer. In this light, he couldn't even tell what size the creature was. Or if it was humanoid. The shadow moved forward again with a soft sloshing sound.

"Stop!" Shippo shut his eyes. Never had he been this utterly horrified before. He'd never admit this to anyone—not even Kagome—but he was still slightly afraid of the dark. His mind was too active and shadows often crept into strange forms when it was too dark. It was surely too dark.

The movements had stopped at his command, and Shippo could now vaguely tell that it was in fact humanoid in body form. Shippo decided to shed some light on the situation. He reached into his satchel he kept on his belt, but felt nothing but tiny stones inside it. He growled under his breath. Everything he owned he kept at his belt with fox magic. Someone had taken everything out of his sack and left him there without his devices. He pulled his eyebrows together. Well, why wouldn't the thief simply take the sack. It would have been much simpler than cleaning out all his worldly goods.

He shook his hand amongst the pebbles. He hadn't remembered putting those in there either.

He wanted his flashlight Kagome had bought him so badly.

Whatever was sharing his cell with him had remained quiet and respectful. Shippo felt himself sigh at that, and he relaxed back into the wall a bit more. He'd hate to sniff his hair after he got out. He smiled softly and held back a laugh. After all he'd been through with his friends, he would always just assume he'd get out of everything.

Looking down, he realized he hadn't removed is hand from his sack. He went ahead and did that.

"Shippo?"

He jerked back and looked at the shadow. The voice was raspy and controlled, be he knew who it belonged to.

With a sigh, he relaxed his shoulders and spoke. "Oh thank you. Sumi."