A/N: Okay so this is my first fanfiction so I hope that you all like it. I've never posted anything on here before so it might take me a while to figure out how the format works , so sorry about that. I'm a fan of Inuyasha but I haven't read all of the manga or watched all the anime so if any of the characters are OOC I apologize. Also grammar is not my strong point so if you see any errors and want to correct me please go ahead. :) I guess that's it… please enjoy :)

I don't own Inuyasha.

Chapter One

"Uhhhh…." I winced as I opened my eyes which I quickly closed again due to the assaulting sunlight that was outside the safety of my eyelids. "Uhhhhh," my head hurts really badly and even with my eyes closed it wouldn't stop spinning. Slowly I opened my eyes once more. This had to be a dream. A really weird dream, and with the way it was starting out it was probably going to turn into a nightmare.

I calmly looked around me. Yeah, it was official; this had to be a dream. I was in a forest of some sort, there were trees all around me and everything was just so-so… green. Frankly it was beautiful. I could hear the birds and insects chirping together as all the animals went on with their usual days. This was the kind of place I always dreamed of as a kid. The part of me that wasn't freaking out took a moment to appreciate that there were still places like this in the world. Places that hadn't been demolished to build houses and highways that no one really needed. After taking in my surroundings I turned my attention back to myself. My head was still throbbing but the pain was bearable. No broken bones just sore muscles. I sighed in relief as I spotted my bag not too far away.

Carefully I tried to stand up but my stomach pitched and soon I was on my hands and knees throwing up whatever I had had to eat last. Man this dream really sucks. Once I stopped dry heaving I sat for a couple more minutes just to make sure my stomach was going to stay in place this time. Finally I was able to walk around without getting too dizzy and with my stomach threatening to explode out of my mouth. I made my way over to my bag and started taking inventory. My luck this dream would turn into one of those 'stranded out in the woods with no food or water until I slowly starve to death and then my carcass gets eaten by a wild animal' kind of dreams. Luckily, though, my bag seemed to have some stuff. The first thing I noticed was that I had a change of clothes, I must have been packing for the annual summer road trip when I fell asleep. I also had two bottles of Gatorade, snacks, along with my toothbrush and toothpaste, my hairbrush and other toiletries. Not too shabby. It wouldn't last me forever but hopefully it would last me until I woke up from this dream.

I packed everything back into the backpack and sat down. I didn't have any idea what the best course of action was for this situation. I could go try to find some help and risk the possibility of getting lost and eaten by a wild animal. Or I could stay here and not get lost and still possibly get eaten by a wild animal. Hmmmmm… If I go explore I'd probably use up my food rations faster since I would be exercising more, meaning I would need more energy which I would have to get from the food. Maybe staying put would be best, maybe I'll even wake up faster if I get bored. Deciding to do just that I scooted back against a tree trunk and made myself comfortable for the wait.

In my opinion, not that I'm train in outdoors survival or telling the position of the sun, it was probably early afternoon when it happened. At first all I heard were loud noises, just really loud noises. But then I could feel the ground start to tremble like something was coming this way. A big something. Being the scardy-cat I am I was already borderline hyperventilating by the time she popped out of the darkness.

She was just a little girl, she couldn't have been more than eight by the looks of her. She stopped as she entered the clearing, I could see her chest pumping up and down from how hard she was panting. She noticed me and ran up to me, "Please help me!" she begged and grabbed my arm so hard it hurt. It was almost like she was hanging onto me for dear life. "Please! He's it's chasing me!"

What could have a little girl running for her life like this? "What's chasing you?"

"A bear demon!"

"A bear demon?" I didn't have the faintest idea what a bear demon was but I'm guessing that I didn't want to find out. I gripped the little girl's hand, "Come on, let's hide" and with that we took off running.

"We- we can't- huff huff- we can't hide!"

"What do you mean we can't hide?!"

"It tracks- hah hah- by smell."

"By smell?" I didn't get much time to think about it though because something came crashing out of the trees, sending some of them flying. The little girl screaming and I'm guessing that that thing is the bear demon. It was terrible. It's eyes were red and it was foaming at the mouth. And it looked… hungry. It was the most horrifying thing I had ever seen. I wanted to scream but it stuck in my throat.

We picked up speed as much as could now that it was closer behind us; but I knew my energy wouldn't last forever and the little girl had been running longer than I had. There's no way we would out last that thing. I had to think of something quick. I remember hearing that when dogs track you that you are supposed to get into a river or some body of water to mask your scent. It was a good plan in theory but with this thing so close behind us, it would just follow us to the water. And I'm pretty sure bears can swim. We needed something to mask our scent before we got to the water so hopefully it couldn't track us there, but it had to slow the demon down at the same time. Come on, think! Think. Think. Think. Think! That's it!

"Stay close to me," I yelled to the little girl, who just nodded the best she could and kept running. I took my hand from the little girl and swung my bag to the front of me. Luckily the perfume was on the top. Taking it out I took the cap off and prayed that this would work. Running sideways I reached my arm back and then flung the bottle at the bear. It hit it in the muzzle and splashed all over its face. I had never been so happy I played softball in all my life than I was at that moment. The animal let out a yowl and stopped running after us in favor to shake its head and paw at its nose. It looked like it was in pain, and I almost felt sorry for it. Almost.

If it weren't for the fact that we were still running I would have sighed in relief. I grabbed the girl's hand back and headed in the direction that would hopefully bring us to water.

We found water alright. Right off the side of a cliff. We came to a screeching halt both of us doubling over in efforts to get our breath back. Breathing deeply I glanced over the edge of the cliff. Sure enough there was a lake down there. It looked like it was fairly deep and it was decent size and I could see land on all sides, so if need be it wouldn't be too difficult to get to the edge. But how do we get there from here? Oh.

I looked at the little girl, she was still huffing and puffing but she was doing a better job at getting her breath back than me. I had to decide what to do; we certainly couldn't stay here, sooner or later my perfume would wear off and that demon would be coming for us again. We could go look for another source of water but what if we didn't find one. Nodding I knew what I had to do. Nervous, I looked over the edge again, I wanted to talk myself out of it; convince myself there was another way. There could be rocks at the bottom, I told myself. Sharp, jagged rocks. Or piranhas. Or alligators. Or…or… Unfortunately I didn't talk myself out of it. Nope just succeeded in terrifying myself. Whether I wanted to or not it was this… or wait for the bear to come finish the job. I waited until we both had our breaths back and then scooped the little girl up in my arms.

She squeaked in surprise, "What are you doing?"

"Just trust me, okay?" She hesitated, not that I blame her; here I am, a complete and total stranger asking her to entrust her life to me. Despite that she nodded. "Close your eyes." She did and I took a deep breath, I didn't want her to see me scared because that would just freak her out more. But in truth, I was terrified. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I really don't want to do this. This is a dream and in a dream you always wake up before you hit the ground right? Right?

I tucked her head against me and held on tight in what I hoped was a protective and safe embrace. Okay, one… two… two and a half…three! I flung our bodies as far away from the cliff as I could. The last thing I needed was the wind blowing us into the cliff as we fell. That would cause more harm than the landing. The girl didn't make a sound but her grip on my shirt tightened to the point it was almost painful. Not that I blame her for that either. I felt the air rush out of me and my eyes water as I tried to watch what was happening.

Wake up, wake up, wake up, wakeupwakeupwakeup! Okay so I wasn't waking up, if we were really going to hit we needed to change positions. I twisted us so that I was on the bottom, that way I would take most of the initial impact. I made myself take deep breaths, instead of hyperventilating like I wanted to do, that way hopefully I would have enough air when we landed. And then I just shut my eyes and fell.

I had been right the water was pretty deep but not deep enough I noticed as I soon discovered I was also right about the rocks. The pain was so intense when we hit the bottom that all the air I had carefully storied left me in one big whoosh, and then my head snapped back and slammed into the ground hard and I let go of the girl. I might have blacked out for a second after that because the next thing I knew I was spitting and coughing above the water's surface. Once I had all of the water out of my lungs I looked around for the girl. Panic filled me for a moment, what if I had let her drown? But my panic halted when I saw her already on land looking at me with a worried expression. Feew that was close. I moved my arm to swim to shore but stopped short and cried out as pain shot through my side and back.

"Are you okay?" the girl called from where she was standing. I could tell she was nervous from the way she was bouncing on the balls of her feet. She really is a sweet girl.

Panting from the throbbing that now inhabited my body I answered, "I'm fine, just a little sore that's all." Wincing I forced myself to swim slowly to land. By the time I had drug myself onto dry land my teeth were clenched tight and I was breath more heavily than the entire time we had been running.

The girl rushed over to my side and helped me sit up, when I hissed it pain she jumped back like I had bit her. "You're-you're bleeding!"

"I'm-" I stopped and clenched my teeth against the pain that left me panting, "I'm fine kid."

"No you're not!" she stamped her foot and crossed her arms looking exactly like the child she was. If I wasn't it so much pain I might have found it adorable.

I didn't say anything else because she was right, at this moment I wasn't fine. Far from it. I hurt everywhere. My eyes felt like they were going to explode and I had an intense urge to vomit. That's not good. The fact that I had hit my head so hard and that now I feel nauseated were good signs that I had a concussion. Now I wish I had listened to my mom more, she was a nurse and she would know exactly what to do. All I know about concussions was what I saw on TV where the doctor shines a light in the patient's eyes and tells them not to fall asleep. I didn't know to fix this. I just wish I would wake up from this god awful dream so the pain would stop. I gritted my teeth together as I move myself to sit with my back against a rock.

"Be careful! You're going to hurt yourself more," the girl chided me.

I closed eyes and held my breath against the pain and nodded at her. I tried to concentrate on something else, anything else besides the pain. I looked out at the lake and I noticed something floating near us. My bag! I must have dropped it while we were falling.

"Hey can you get that?"

The little girl looked over to where I was pointing and hurried to the collect the bag. "Here you go," she smiled.

I smiled back. "Thanks kid," I said as I took my bag from her. It really was soaked.

"Rin."

I looked up at her and cocked an eyebrow, "What?"

"My name's Rin," she smiled again.

I chuckled and then wish I hadn't. Ouch. "Thanks Rin. My name is Nicole."

"Nicole? That's a pretty name."

"Thank you."

"I don't think I've ever heard it before."

I rummaged through my bag as I listened to Rin talk. The food was still dry inside the bags. Thank you packaging companies for making everything impossible to get into. My extra clothes were really soaked along with everything else. "Really?" I asked, "It's a pretty common name." I took the clothes out of the bag and laid them out to dry.

"Nope," Rin said after a moment, "I've never heard it before."

"Huh," I unpacked the rest of the bag, "Do you want some food?"

Rin nodded eagerly, "Yes, please."

I handed her my bag of beef jerky, "Here you go."

"Thanks!" she took the bag from and then paused, "What's this?"

I cocked my head to the side in confusion, "What do you mean? It's beef jerky."

"Beef jerky?"

I rolled my eyes, "It's good. Just eat it."

She slowly took a bite and chewed thoughtfully, "This is wonderful!"

I smiled at her, "Told you so." She giggled and I continued to smile as I watched her gobble up the food. Suddenly a wave of pain through my arm, "Shit!" I really was bleeding. Quite a bit.

"What?" Rin asked alarmed.

"I'm bleeding."

Rin smiled for a second, "I told you so." But the smile quickly faded into a look of concern as I examined the wound.

I looked up at her, "Am I bleeding anywhere else?"

Rin stood up and started inspecting me for more injuries. She asked me to lift up my shirt so that she could look at my back. "You know you have funny clothes like this one girl I know, Kagome."

"My clothes aren't funny," I pouted.

Rin said nothing as she finished inspecting my back. Finally she came and stood in front of me, "Your back's bleeding and so is the back of your head."

"Shit." I looked over at my clothes, thanks to the sun and the heat they looked almost dry, and I remembered something. "Hey, Rin, can you go get me moss? Lots of moss?"

She brightened up, "Sure!" and off she went. I sat back and tried to relax as I waited and soon Rin had returned with arms full of moss. She set it all down next to me.

"Thanks. Now I need you to get me that shirt. Not the shirt. Yeah that one. Awesome, thank you." I took the shirt from her. Thankfully the shirt was almost dry because it was practically impossible to rip wet cloth.

"What do you need the moss for?" Rin asked as she stood watching me while rocking on her feet.

"I read somewhere once that moss was good for packing wounds, so I'm hoping it also makes a good bandage." Once I ripped a long strip of cloth I put the moss over the cut on my arm. "Here can you wrap this?"

"Uh huh," Rin smiled and quickly went to work helping me dress my wounds.

After all my wounds were wrapped Rin and I went to find shelter for the night. We wanted it to be close to our only source of water in case we ran out of Gatorade. But I didn't want it too close because I don't think we are the only animals using it for water. Eventually we found a place that would have to do and now we were both lying on the grass, Rin was already huddled into my side asleep. Since the first time we met I took my first good look at the girl. She had long chocolate brown hair that was messy from the day's events. She was tan like she is always in the sun a lot and she was barefoot. And even when she's asleep she smiles. I had only known her a day and I could tell she was a great kid. She was so enthusiastic and happy. But what was she doing alone? Where were her parents? I could feel my big sister instincts starting to kick in. I had to get her back to her family and until then I had to keep her safe.

Sighing I felt my eyes slip closed , so what if I wasn't supposed to sleep with a concussion, a few minutes couldn't hurt right? My last thought before I fell into my slumber was what if this isn't a dream.

I shot up into sitting position and gasped as I aggravated my injuries. It took me a minute to catch my breath and I used that minute to scan the surrounding area. Something was watching us, I could feel it. What if the bear demon found us? I watched for movement but I couldn't find anything out of place. I glanced down at Rin. She was still sleeping peacefully. I used the tree to help me to stand, even that small amount of exercise left me panting. I looked around again. Maybe I imagined it. That thought was shot down as someone stepped out of the darkness. The man looked odd. His hair was white and down to his ankles. The only reason I could even see his hair was because the moonlight itself seemed attracted to it, it caressed his hair and made it glow. He also had strange markings on his face. Is that a crescent moon on his forehead? And he had a spiky thing on one shoulder and a fluffy thing on the other. Frankly the whole outfit looked like some crazy Halloween costume. That was until I noticed the swords resting against his hip. He didn't so any emotion but I could tell he was powerful. He was powerful and he was meant to be feared.

I positioned myself in front of Rin guarding her from the intruder. I stared at the man; I wasn't going to let him hurt Rin. And he started at me, his face never betraying what he was thinking.

"Move." It was a simple word. A command. I could feel my anger rising, I never did like taking orders. Who the hell does he think he is?

"No."

The man's face remained emotionless but he seemed momentarily taken aback.

"The girl is mine."

"I'm not letting you take her."

His eyes seemed to grow colder and the atmosphere changed, it sent a chill up my spine but I wasn't going to back down. "You, a pathetic, worthless, disgusting human, dare to disobey this Sesshomaru?"

I scoffed, "Really 'this Sesshomaru'?" I was letting my anger control over my rational mind, a bad habit of mine. "Yes, I dare disobey 'this Sesshomaru' because I am not letting you take her."

His face never changed and I never saw him move but the next thing I knew my head was slamming back into the tree trunk and my throat was pinned. I cried out at having my head slammed into the second hard surface of the day. Apparently I must have woken Rin up because I could hear her. I just couldn't make out what she was saying over the ringing in my ears. I cried out a second time as I felt the skin of my neck begin to sizzle under this man's hand. The last thing I heard before my world was overcome by darkness was:

"Please Lord Sesshomaru don't hurt her! She saved me!"