Kagome climbed out of the well, tears of anger and pain streaming down her somewhat pale face. She left the well house, ran through the rain to her home, and then to her room where she proceeded to collapse onto her bed and cry herself to sleep.

She awoke the next day to the rain pounding on her window, Buyo's light purr/snore in her left ear, and her alarm blaring angrily in her right. She opened her burning, blurry eyes to check the time and glare at the alarm.

Seeing the neon-green numbers flash 6:53, AM, she deemed it too early to be up and pounded the snooze button. 'Mama will wake me up if I sleep too long...' she thought, going back to sleep.

After a few hours of snoozing, she woke up again.

"Kyaaaa!!" She shreiked, looking at her alarm clock. "I'm WAY late!" With that, she raced around her room getting ready for school. When she was done, she ran down the stairs to grab some food and be on her way.

"Kagome-chan, there--" her mother started.

"I don't have time Mama! I'm way late! Bai!" Kagome interrupted. With that she was out of the house and into the still-pouring rain.

She ran all the way to her school in the rain. And in her rush to get out of the house, she forgot to grab an umbrella. 'Baka!'She screached in her mind, 'how could I forget my umbrella?! I just know I'm ganna get sick! I can feel it!'

When she arrived at the front of her school, she found it to be closed. Coming out of her stupor, she tried to collect herself.

Ohhh, but she failed miserably.

"No... school..." She murmured to herself. Then, she dropped to her knees and wailed, "nooooooo! I ran all this way... and... there's no school!!"

Figuring it would do her no good to sit around in front of her school, she picked herself up and began on her way home.

"Chu!" She sneezed and narrowed her eyes. "I knew I was ganna catch a cold." She grumbled. She kept walking for a while. About half way back home, to the shrine, she tripped.

She rolled her eyes, "this is SO not my day," she moaned. "It can't get any worse than this..." She groaned. 'Kuso!'She thought, "I just jynxed myself, didn't I...?"

And, oh boy did she!

Right then, a car came flying by, straight through one of those over- sized puddles. Y'know, the BIG ones on the sides of the roads that extend all the way to the middle of the street? The ones which, if you tried to cross through, would soak you up to the top of your socks? The ones you always tried to get your parents to splash innocent pedestrians with?

Yeah, it was one of those. The car sped through it, sending a tidal wave of muddy, mucky water at, and over, Kagome, then crashing down on her.

"Mou~~!" She cried, giving up on trying to salvage what was left of this day to look forward to. "This day sucks! I should just go home, get back in bed, and hide myself from the world until the day is over!"

Yeah, now that sounded like a plan.

She picked herself up off the sidewalk and chose to take a different way home. Changing directions, she headed off to the park. She'd cut through there and make her way home, slightly sheilded from the rain by the trees.

When Kagome saw the benches, a small ways away, she quickened her pace.

Reaching said benches, she plopped down, not caring that the bench was covered with large beads of water, she was already wet, why should that matter anymore?

Besides, she was tired! School wasn't exactly close to her home, and the path through the park wasn't exactly a shortcut.

She sneezed again.

Oh, yes. How could she forget. On top of all else, she had become ill.

She stood once again, shakily , figuring she'd had enough time to rest and hoping to get home soon for that day off hiding in her bed - which, by the way, was looking better and better by the second.

Almost out of the park, Kagome cut across the grass, not noticing the roots protruding from the grass-covered, muddied earth. And being the ever- observant and graceful girl she was, she tripped over them. (^.^;)

She landed on her stomach, wincing, next to a somewhat hollowed-out tree, which she had yet to notice.

She opened her eyes, half wondering if she should even bother removing herself from the ground. Gravity seemed determined to have her there today...

Groaning and rolling onto her side to make it easier for her to get up, she finally noticed the tree. She didn't pay it much mind though, and again, set upon the task of standing.

And she would have continued, had her ears not picked up some sort of noise. Forgetting about all else, she listened closely, out of habit, for any kind of oncoming threat. Hearing nothing more of the noise, she shrugged it off as paranoia from being in the Sengoku Jidai and made to move again.

As she did this, she heard the noise again, quickely identifying it as a whimper from a small animal.

Not liking the idea of something being in pain, she began to search for the source of the yipping whimpers.

As she strained her hearing to make the distressed creature easier to find, then noticing the cries and whimpers had seemed to be coming more frequently than she had previously thought.

She slowly turned her head to each side, trying to get a feel as to where the cries had originated from.

She returned her attention to the tree she had fallen next to a moment ago. 'It's in there...'

She figured there had to be some sort of hollow in the trunk of the tree, or perhaps a small burrow in the ground leading up into the tree

Making her way up to the tree on her hands and knees, she hoped it to be the former. The idea of sticking her hand into a hole which sheltered a wild(, possibly dangerous and rabies-infected)animal did not appeal much to her.

Circling the tree, she found a spot where the tree's roots were raised up above the ground, with plenty of room for her body to pass through.

She peeked into the opening, immediately seeing the kitsune. It must have been pretty sick, for it had yet to notice her.

She reached in to grab the fox.

It, just realizing she was there, and moreover, trying to touch it, tried to squirm away from the grabby human's hands. But otherwise, put up no struggle

Securing her hold on the kitsune, Kagome carefully brought it out of the hole and cradled it to her, trying to keep it warm, and feeling somewhat safe.

The kitsune relaxed a bit, realizing the human girl was not going to harm it, and snuggled into her bosom for added warmth and comfort.

Seeing no other reson to stay in the park, Kagome set for home again with the determination to get the kitsune all fixed up.

~*~