The next day, Koga came up to me after he had finished hunting.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey,” I said. I stood up. “would you mind explaining to me why you brought me here?”

“Oh yeah. Well you see there is a clan of demon birds who call themselves the Birds of Paradise. They also live in this mountain and they are our enemies. They attack our pack, carry off our comrades and eat them. One of them has a sacred jewel shard and I need you to tell me which one it is so I can kill it.”

“They’re killing you.” I repeated, my eyes wide. Koga nodded. His eyes were filled with pain. I hate to see people suffer. But I could do something about it. I placed my hand on Koga’s shoulder.

“I will help you,” I said, smiling gentle. His head snapped up.

“Really! You truly will!” His face shown with joy. He stood up and addressed the whole clan. “We will strike this afternoon. Today we will kill the Birds of Paradise!” The pack roared with excitement. Koga turned to face me. “And you will be my woman.” I glared at him.

“Not a chance.”

Koga and the pack were ready to go. Koga held out his hand to me. I took it hesitantly. Koga swung me onto his back and started to run. A tornado of dust, leaves, and twigs appeared around us. I closed my eyes and held on tight. Suddenly, I felt us jerk to a stop. Slowly I opened my eyes to see a giant pointed rock with, what I would guess to be, the Birds of Paradise flying around it. Koga set me on the ground.

“Now, Kyoko,” he looked at me with much intensity. “Which bird has the shard?” I looked up at the rock. None of the birds I could see had a shard. I heard the footsteps of the other wolf tribe members as they caught up to us.

“I don’t see…” I started to say. Just then I felt the sacred jewel shard coming fast from behind me. I turned to see two large talons heading straight for me. I screamed and tried to run. The talons grabbed my shoulders. I felt one of them pierce my skin.

“Oh my gosh!!!!! Koga this one has the jewel,” I yelled. The bird took me higher and higher. I looked down to see the pack. They were all ants. One person started to climb the rock. That’s probably Koga, I thought. He’ll never be here in time. I decided to take matters into my own hands. I pulled out my sword with my left hand and stabbed the bird in the leg. The bird slammed against the rock, sending tons of boulders and me falling towards the ground.

“Bad idea! Bad idea! Bad idea!” I screamed as I fell. I closed my eyes, so I would not see the ground coming. Suddenly, impact. The ground was much softer than I expected. I opened my eyes to find myself on the back of InuYasha.

“InuYasha!” I exclaimed. “You came for me.” I wrapped my arms around his neck.

“Of course I did.” I could see him blushing.

“InuYasha. That giant bird has a sacred jewel shard. Koga only captured me so he could find this bird and kill it because it was eating his pack members.” I said, trying to prevent him from starting a fight with yet another demon.

“Hm.” He said, climbing the rock where the giant bird was. We arrived at the top of the rock to see the giant bird grab Koga’s right arm. The shard flew through the air. The bird threw Koga against the rock and then caught the jewel shard in his mouth. I gasped as Koga started to fall to the ground.

“InuYasha, please catch him,” I yelled.

“Fine.” He pushed off the rock. I caught Koga in midair. “Hey Shippo, catch them.” InuYasha dropped Koga and I.

“InuYasha!” I screamed as I dropped for the second time that day. Shippo transformed into his flying form and stopped us from hitting the ground. I looked up to see InuYasha jump at the monster. Please be careful, InuYasha, I thought. I turned towards Koga. His leg was bleeding heavily.

“Sango, I need my first aid kit,” I said.

“Right.”

I started to patch up Koga.