Author's Note - My first attempt at a fanfic. I'm not incredibly fond of it. Maybe I should stick to just reading instead of writing as well...

Just in case you can't figure it out, this is from the point of view of my favorite character, Shippo. It takes place not too long after the Thunder Brothers were defeated.

I can't decide whether to continue it or not. I know it's very short, but... it seemed to need to end where it does. I have a few ideas, but they'll need a lot of work. If enough people review, I promise I'll add on to it. Which reminds me... reviews (especially ones containing constructive criticism) begged. Anyway... I'll stop boring you now.

Disclaimer - I do not own Inuyasha or any characters from Inuyasha.

Warmth. Softness.

Where was I? What was this feeling of... security?

I could hear voices, distantly, as though from a mile away. I strained my ears. I longed to catch their words, to drown myself in their voices. They grew even more far-off and indistinct. I shook my head, trying in what I hoped was not vain to clear it. My eyelashes fluttered.

I couldn't open my eyes. Panicking, I struggled to rise, but my legs were pinned down. The voices faded, strangely familiar in soft conversation, into the distance. They were leaving me... I was alone. Desperately, pointlessly, I tried to stand again but failed.

I could smell water, and a sweet, sharp scent - salt. Dimly I was aware that my eyes stung and my cheeks were streaked with twin trickles of wetness. Why? Why was I crying? Whose voices did I want to hear so much?

I was no longer warm. I could sense nothing near me. The security was gone. What had once been warmth and softness was now bone-chillingly cold and utterly, despairingly, empty. I struggled to recall the sensation of warmth - what had caused it, and why was I now so cold?

It was difficult to think. The emptiness was not only around me, but filled my body. I was void, my heart, mind, and soul blank, empty, perhaps non-existent - I couldn't tell. Only emotion existed within me, but that too would soon fall into the chasm - fear, loneliness, sorrow, longing, desperation, confusion...

I had it. It had been fur.

I shivered, partly from cold, partly from realization. Whose voices did I want to hear?

My eyes opened.

Father... and... Mother?