CHAPTER 3:

I woke with a start. Someone was trying to wake me, so I lunged forward, knocked whoever it was onto the ground and held the knife to their throat. Before I could make one more move they knocked me to the ground and pinned me there, knocking the knife out of my hands. I struggled against their grip until I heard that familiar feminine voice.

"Get a hold of yourself! It's just me, Kagome! It's Sango!" I stopped struggling. I stared up at her for a moment. That cold, icy glare she gaze when she was agitated. The strength she has when faced with a threat. Yup, definitely Sango. I thought. I mumbled my apologies and pushed her off me.

She sighed. "I just wanted to wake you up for Breakfast. Then we should head out again. He's hiding somewhere in this forest, I just know it." Sango declared.

"Well, I just hope we get to him before the moon turns round." I inquired. We quickly ate our food, wanting to find the beast before its power reached its peak.

We set off in different directions than yesterday.

Pretty soon, I came across a tree… with claw marks embedded into it. Alongside it, I spotted wolf tracks... large wolf tracks. I hastily chased after them. Pretty soon I came across smaller tracks . They looked like a foxes.

Good, it'll be too busy eating to notice me. I thought. I kept following both pairs of tracks. I noticed that the wolf tracks soon turned into human tracks, but the fox was still beside it. Well, so much for that. I thought solemnly. But what was a fox doing tracking this person?

I couldn't answer that for myself however, because I heard crying from the direction the fox tracks were and the human ones had suddenly vanished. I followed the fox tracks to find a young child with a bushy fox tail and little fox paws.

I noticed that the little weeps were coming from him so I walked up behind him.

"Hey, kid, you all right?" I asked, trying to maintain my strong composure. Once he turned around with a hopeful gleam in his eyes, only to suddenly fade, my composure immediately faltered. His eyes, already flooding with tears, just poured so much more.

"Hey, what's wrong?" I asked, very concerned. He looked like he was about to say something but then his eyes fell on my belt, or more specifically, the weapons I was carrying. "Don't worry, I won't hurt you." I tried taking another step towards him but he jumped to his feet, looking heartrenchingly terrified.

"Okay, I'll put my weapons down." I said, unclipping them and throwing them out of arms reach. The boy looked a little more settled. "Better?" I asked, opening my arms in reassurance. He looked at me skeptically.

"Look, I won't hurt you; I just want to talk, okay?" I asked. He still looked skeptical but nodded his head. "Why are you crying?" I asked as tenderly as I could.

"I-I lost him…" The boy squeaked.

"Lost who?" I asked.

"M-my brother… I can't find him…" He repeated. "I-I'm scared… I-I want to see him again…" The boy began to cry again.

"Oh… you poor thing… May I…?" I asked, gesturing to get closer. He said nothing, so I scooted closer, warily, not wanting to scare him away.

I got close enough to pat his head comfortingly. He struggled to hold his tears in, but we both knew he couldn't. He slammed his body into mine, staining my vest with his tears. I hugged him closer, doing whatever I could to comfort the child.

"Where is he! I wanna see him again, where is that Baka!" He howled, and my heart was breaking with his. His body trembled with sobs.

I looked up. The sun was at its peak again. When did that happen? I looked at the small child in my arms and shook him a little. He looked up at me.

"Would you mind if you came to our camp? Just for tonight, and if I can convince my friend, we'll go looking for your brother in the morning?" I asked. He smiled and nodded eagerly. He jumped onto my shoulder and I stood up, dashing through the forest to get back to camp as soon as possible.

Night was falling by the time we got back and Sango was already cooking dinner.

"Sango, you'll have to cook for two and a half stomachs tonight. We got a little wanderer." I said indicating the nervous kitsune.

"Oh, and what's this extra stomachs name?" Sango asked playfully.

"M-my name's Sh-Shippo…" He said.

"Well then, Shippo, sit tight and I'll get you something to eat." Sango said, cheerfully. I sat down beside Shippo.

"So, any luck today?" I asked.

"No, not a single track. You?" She responded.

"Well, I found some, along with Shippo's. But they disappeared as soon as I heard him crying." I explained, oblivious to the curiosity on the young kits face.

"How do you know they were his?" Sango asked.

"Stop assuming it's a he! And besides, they were definitely theirs. I watched the tracks go from wolf to human." I explained, still oblivious to the child's reactions.

"Oi… I'm starting to think that the bounty was priced appropriately." Sango sighed.

"Yeah… 200,000 gold for one life… their harder to find than a frog! I still feel bad though. For all we know, they don't even know what they're doing. I really don't want to kill a half innocent person." I said. Then I looked over at Shippo and noticed the look of horror plastered on his face. "Hey, what's wrong?"

I watched his lip tremble. Was he scared of us?

"…I… INUYASHA! RUN!" He suddenly shouted. Before I could ask, a huge wolf jumped out of the darkness. It's silver main shimmered in the partial moonlight, golden eyes locked with mine, daring me to do something.

The wolf had come right to us, and I didn't even know why. But I didn't care. I reached for my crossbow, only to discover it gone, along with my other weapons. Damn it.

I left them in the forest, back where I ran into Shippo. Perfect. I was facing a werewolf, on a half moon, completely unarmed and wide open for the killing. This was not my day.

"What's wrong? Forgot something?" The wolf mocked with a husky voice(No pun intended). It was definitely aware of what it was doing. "Poor little red, defenseless. How will you get out of this one?" He was right, how would I? In his eyes, I was meat… dead meat.

A/N: I'm so sorry, I didn't get to the Halloween fic this year! There's always next year. Hope you guys enjoyed it! R & R Please! I want to know how I did!