A/N: O hai guise!

Hahaha. Look, I'm really sorry I haven't written anything for this story in so long... but truth be told, I was totally stumped on what to do next. I lost my inspiration. BUT! I'm re-reading the stories that inspired me to write this, and it's prequel- they're the Stephanie Plum novelsby Janet Evanovitch! The first one is "One for the Money". If you love comedy, romance, and of course, down-to-earth characters, I highly reccomend it! And if you don't, I reccomend it anyways! These stories actually made me laugh out loud.

But anyways... on with the story, yeah? You've waited long enough for it, I suppose...

Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha. In case you were curious.

Summary: Sequel to Beneath the Boughs of Goshinboku Kagome has a primal fear of the dark, and soon finds herself in an interesting situation. However, things start to look up when she comes upon a giant beacon in the dark, in the form of a fluffy white dog.

Beacon in the Darkness

Part Four

By ancient-relic

Sequel to Beneath the Boughs of Goshinboku

"Heh," I said, falling stiffly backwards. A sharp pain stung my hand.

Great. Blood to egg the demon on.

"Y'know, in my defense," I scooted backwards. "I'm friendly. I don't mean any trouble, and I really…"

A deep rumbling interrupted my apology. How rude. But oh- a growl. He was growling. Growling. Growling. Growling. Ohshit…

Clambering to my feet as quickly as I could, I prepared to high-tail it right outta there. However, an ominous creaking sound caught my attention, and before I could react, I ran into a big, fluffy, white wall.

"OOF!"

My butt was again acquainted with the ground.

"Goddamnit, this is going to bruise, and I'm getting all dirty and I just had a bath… InuYasha's gonna have a cow and…" my dark mutterings were cut off by more growling.

Looking up, more furious red eyes staring down at me were all that I could really see. Besides white, anyways. "What…" I turned to look over my shoulder. Two? No… one fast one.

"Okay, look." I said, rising to my feet, inching backwards, palm up. "I'm not packing- I've got nothing to hurt you with. Besides, I just gave you back a limb."

The dog snorted. At least he was listening. I took it as a sign of intelligence, and continued stating my case (not unlike those fun law shows on TV at home…).

"So I think, if we're going to be perfectly fair, you should let me go. You see, I was lost in the dark- I really hate it you know- and I just wanted to find my way back to camp. I didn't realize there was a barrier until I walked through it," A reeeeally white lie… bordering on black. But I didn't suppose the dog realized.

"And then I did you the favour of giving you a limb. I think that's enough for my life, don't you? I might have inadvertently saved yours, by making sure you had four and, well," I paused. "Yeah."

The dog looked at me some more, sitting on his haunches and flexing his claws into the dirt, tearing up the grass and earth. The aroma was pleasant, but not enough to make me relax- not in the slightest. He didn't seem inclined to respond, so while he was… distracted, I slowly started creeping backwards.

He noticed immediately, and slapped a paw down, rumbling ferociously. I surreptitiously checked for accidents, before throwing up my hands. "Okay, okay. I won't. Would you let me leave if I scratched behind your ears?"

At this, I thought I saw his head cock in confusion, but his bloody eyes were still glaring, so maybe he found it offensive. "Fine." I harrumphed, sitting on the ground. "See if I care. InuYasha will come for me any minute now, and you'll be in trouble then."

The thing seemed smart at first, but hadn't shown any inclination for killing me, so I figured at the moment, I was safe enough. Besides. Who would bother me with this thing sitting behind me? And maybe I could summon my power again… enough to get me out of this… predicament. A small earth quake drew my attention. The dog had flumped down in front of me, and was still glaring.

And then he growled. It was like a warning, reprimanding-type thing. "What?" I asked, feeling every bit like a stubborn child. He glared some more, and his ear twitched.

I think he was trying to tell me something.

He growled some more, and his ear twitched. Again.

"What?" I was a little exasperated, I must admit.

He twitched his ear again. And again. And once more- I figure to get his point across clearly. It didn't work.

"Is this like charades? Sounds like…?" he growled. Nope. "You hear someone coming? Maybe InuYasha?" He growled again. Nada. "What then?"

He scooched forwards, and I crawled backwards in response, but I must tell you that one scooch of his was much, much larger than any distance I was capable of covering with the crab-walk. Pretty soon I was stuck between two big fluffy white barricades- either front paw.

The corner of his lip lifted in the slightest snarl, and he stared down his nose at me very condescendingly. And then something struck me. I'd seen that condescending look before. On a certain white haired, condescending idiot dog… "InuYasha…" I growled.

The dog stared at me a moment, before lifting that upraised lip close enough for me to touch up his great big pearly-whites. "Wait a moment, now… I'm too scrawny to eat- I'll give you indigestion, I swear!! I-" My words were cut off by my stomach doing a summersault as I flew a short distance through the air, and landed on a furry cushion-ish thing. It didn't take me long to realize I'd been tossed up on the dog's back.

Rather, his neck. "You've got great aim, didja know?" I hollered, and his massive ear twitched again, close enough to send a breeze ruffling through my clothes and hair.

"Oops," I whispered.

Yet as the ear twitched again, I finally realized what he was trying to tell me. "You want me to scratch your ears?" I asked incredulously. An approving rumble rippled under me, and he settled his head on his paws expectantly.

Pulling myself through all that fur was not an easy feat, let me tell you. It was nice and long and luxurious, sure. But let me tell you- a secret, mind you- all that work made me start to sweat. Mind you, his ear wasn't that far from where he had deposited me…

Finding the edge of his ear was a little bit of trouble too, but I found it soon enough. Using it as a guide, I found that special spot behind the flap of his ear that doggies love to have scratched. Rolling up my sleeves and cracking my knuckles, I immersed my hands into his satiny fur and began the long up and down motion of scratching.

To Be Continued…

A/N: I'm not going to lie... this looked longer in the word document. But at least you know that I've been re-inspired... so it won't be nearly as long until the next update. I PROMISE. (I don't suppose that means all that much anymore... ohnoes.)

Anywhooooo... please review! That inspires me toooooo!!

ancient-relic