She'd thought she'd heard a shriek of fury as the clouds dissipated, but Kagome was more concerned that everything felt solid again. She blinked in surprise, looking around the inside of her hut.

Had it actually been a dream?

Pulling her blankets off, she grimaced as she stared down at her red miko robes. Everyone knew she preferred the blue ones. There was no way she'd put these on herself. Testing her legs and finding them in perfect working order, she pushed off the ground, interrupting the mumbling from the next room.

Kaede and Inuyasha looked up in surprise as she steadied herself against the doorway, and the elder miko smacked Inuyasha's knee with her cane. "Ye could have told me the spell was already broken."

Inuyasha flushed, holding up both hands. "It wasn't me!"

Kaede shook her head. "There is no need to embellish a story that has already found its ending," she said, shuffling over to Kagome. She inspected her face, using her cane to turn it this way and that before checking her pulse. "It's good to see ye up and about after such a nasty encounter."

Kagome met Inuyasha's gaze. "I was brought back from the forest?" she asked.

"We were quite worried when you didn't return right away, but your knight in shining armour was there to rescue you." Kaede looked quite smug. "Though he claimed not to have the cure for the curse she put on you."

Inuyasha's ears flattened against his head, hands stuffed into his sleeves. "I told ya, I didn't have anything to do with it!" He ducked Kaede's cane.

"It isn't nice to lie to your elders," she snapped, putting in a few more jabs until Inuyasha was cowering behind his chair. She sniffed, then shifted toward the door. "I'll leave you two lovebirds alone. I'm sure ye have much to discuss." The flap slid closed behind her, and Kagome cast a questioning brow at her friend.

He flushed darker, crossing his arms. "Old bat doesn't know what she's talking about."

"Care to enlighten me?" Kagome said, slumping down into a chair across from him. She wasn't dizzy or out of sorts, but she still felt like she'd been hit by a bus.

Golden eyes darted between her and the floor, and she started tapping her foot expectantly. "Keh, after you went and got yerself cursed, it took us a bit to figure out how to bring you out of it."

"Define 'us'," she said.

Inuyasha leaned back in his chair. "Me, Kaede, Miroku, Sango, and the squirt," he replied. "Sango brought in some strong-smelling herbs that she uses when the other slayers are knocked out, but we knew it was something more powerful than that. You can thank Rin for figuring it out." Kagome's brows shot up. Rin had refused Kaede's offer to become her pupil, deciding instead to train with Kohaku to become a slayer. Her knowledge of curses would be limited as the next villager. "We wrote it off at first, especially since it came from one of your books, but she was adamant, and the toad actually backed her up."

"Jaken?" Now she was questioning whether she was still dreaming. "Why would he help?"

"To defend Rin," Inuyasha replied, as if the answer was obvious. "He didn't like us laughing at her."

"I'm sure he didn't."

"Hey! You would've too if you'd heard her answer!" he argued. "How were we to know yer stupid fairy tales were based off youkai legends?"

Apprehension made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, and she swallowed slowly. "What was the remedy she suggested?" she asked quietly.

"True love's kiss."