It was a normal day on the
Western Plains. It was in the late afternoon when the demon Lord Sesshomaru was making his last round in the southern tip of
his territory.
Sesshomaru
was walking in a small, open field, completely surrounded by trees, the rose
bed nearby clouding his scent a little, but not enough to keep him from
smelling – and hearing – a rabbit scurry to its hole a good 50 meters off. A
tiny pond, no bigger than Rin herself was at the edge
of the clearing, right next to the roses, which were blooming beautifully here
in the middle of spring.
Rin
and Jaken came through the line of trees behind him,
looking around as he merely stood there, using all of his senses to scout the
area around them.
“We will camp here for the
night,” he explained.
“Yes, my lord,” Jaken said and began collecting sticks and other small
pieces of wood that were nearby. “Come Rin, help
gather wood!” he yelled at her.
Rin
was now about 10 years old, not much bigger than when Sesshomaru
resurrected her, only an inch or two taller, hair a little longer as well. She
was wearing a new, dark green and blue-checkered kimono, light purple flowers
scattered on the design, which Jaken got for her last
time he went to a nearby village.
She lazily walked around the
clearing, her feet skidding across the dirt as she went.
Sesshomaru
looked over, noticing her odd pacing. She looked as if she were in a daze, her
arms folded tightly across her chest. She bent over slowly and picked up a few
long twigs she found, and began looking around for more, her eyes clear of any
real expression. We’ve been traveling all day, she must be exhausted.
Sesshomaru
began walking towards the edge of the trees and vanished within the darkness
that grew as the sun began setting faster and faster.
Sesshomaru
was a good 100 yards away from the camp. He had stalked through the forest in
complete silence, following a sound that he didn’t quite recognize.
Having never heard it before,
considering it was in his domain, he knew it should be investigated.
He slowed to a halt as he could
tell it was very close. There were no other sounds, just this weird... fizzing
sound. And such bubbling noises weren’t common in the middle of a forest. He
tried to sniff the air, but the object was downwind of him, forbidding him to
smell anything in the direction sufficiently.
His ears twitched as he could
hear the starting of the fire back where Jaken and Rin were.
He snuck up to a large tree
where he peered around the edge, his eyes scanning for the object that made the
uncommon sound. His nose then caught a whiff of human flesh as he saw a small
abandoned barrel of some sort, leaning against a tree.
Humans?
In my territory? But for how long?
... How much longer will they have their lives to continue to roam...?
He stepped forward, unable to sense anyone nearby, and
approached the barrel in which the bubbling came from. A foul stench filled his
lungs, as the liquor was amazingly strong. And of bad taste as well.
Not being able to sense the
humans anywhere nearby, and knowing Jaken and Rin would be expecting him back soon, he stared down at the
barrel with his usual expressionless face.
He took his foot and smashed the
barrel into pieces, shards of wood flying all over the place, the small amount
of liquor left, soaked into the dry earth, being absorbed like water. There
hadn’t been much rain lately, so most of the area was quite dry.
Being in the middle of a forest,
doesn’t allow much wind, but it still travels. And it seemed the wind had
changed directions, allowing him to catch the smell of the humans who were
trespassing, but it was very feint, meaning they were far away to the south and
well out of his lands.
“Next time I won’t be so
lenient...” he said. For some reason, he just didn’t feel up for hunting down a
couple of worthless lives that had trespassed – and reeked with the foul stench
of the horrible liquor no less.
Sesshomaru
had drank wine before, hell he had his own small winery back at the mansion,
but wine has a much finer taste – and smell – then the disgusting shit that was
leaving a puddle at his feet.
By the time he had arrived back
at the clearing, Jaken had already prepared their
meal and were eating... What had he called it? Broth?
Oh well, nothing he had to worry about.
Sesshomaru
came over and sat by the fire. He ignored them completely, merely staring into
the fire, watching its every flicker, its very element
of uncertainty and wildness. It seemed to captivate him, draw him into its
silent spell of destruction, hidden by its beauty and grace.
But Rin
came to his rescue.
Sesshomaru
heard her approach, bringing him back to reality. He stared at her as she
brought two roses she had collected from the patch over to him.
“Here, Lord Sesshomaru.
I picked these for you while you were gone,” she said sweet and innocently. She
smiled up at him, but he only stared back. But she didn’t take this personally.
She was used to just getting stared down whenever she did something like this.
She set the roses down next to him where she knew they would be safe.
As soon as she popped back up,
smile still on her face, it quickly faded, an odd expression overcoming her
face. Her eyes shut tight and she covered her mouth, unable to help but throw
her head down quickly, letting out an odd sound, “Achoo!”
She wiped her nose with her kimono sleeve. “Excuse me...”
“You stupid
girl!! You sneezed on Lord Sesshomaru! You’re
getting your human germs all over him!!”
Rin
turned to Jaken angrily, “I am NOT!! I covered my
mouth!”
Sesshomaru
ignored their bickering, like usual, and then caught a scent he was very
familiar with while looking down at the roses. He noticed something on one of
them before smelling the strange aroma elsewhere.
“Don’t give me that! I saw you
sneeze on him like he was the tissue!”
“I did NOT!!” she yelled back.
To Rin’s
surprise, Sesshomaru took her left hand. She watched
in bewilderment as he flipped her hand over. Jaken,
too, was boggled as to why he was touching ‘it’. Rin
looked down at her hand and saw a small scratch on her hand where fresh blood
was seeping through.
“The thorns on the roses were
sharp...” she explained. She took a few steps back, “I’ll go wash it off...”
she said, looking at Sesshomaru shyly, as if she were
embarrassed to have been cut on the thorns.
She turned and began walking
over to the pond.
Sesshomaru’s
gaze turned back to the fire, the scent of blood fading except for the small
drop of blood on the rose’s thorn.
“Figures, first she gives him
roses with thorns then sneezes on him! How disrespectful!”
Jaken mumbled under his breath, but due to his dog
side, Sesshomaru was able to hear it very clearly.
Later that night, Rin was already settled in and fast asleep. Sesshomaru was still sitting on the log, staring off into
the fire, but keeping all of his senses alert for even
the slightest notion of something other than a normal animal being nearby.
Jaken
was coming back from behind a tree. Rin had rolled
over and kicked him in the head, waking him up. Since he was up, he went behind
some trees to answer nature’s call.
“Jaken,”
Sesshomaru called.
Jaken
waddled over at his call, “Yes, me Lord?”
“Have you noticed anything
strange about Rin?”
“What do you mean?”
“... She acts strangely. There’s
something odd about her...”
“It’s probably just another
human fault,”
“Maybe... Make sure she’s taken
care of,”
“Uh, of course my Lord,” he
said, bowing his head. He began waddling back then thought of something, “May I
ask – huh?” He had turned around to find Sesshomaru
completely gone. “... Why...”
Sesshomaru
was sitting atop a high branch, overlooking the entire clearing. When he stood
up, he could see over the tops of surrounding trees. He remained upon this high
branch well into the night.
At one point he looked down at
the two loyal followers: Jaken was getting kicked by Rin again, so he was cursing about the “stupid human girl”
like usual. Rin seemed to be having a peaceful dream
though – even if she was kicking around. Perhaps she was dreaming of
kicking Jaken?
She actually liked Jaken, but she hated it when he would suddenly look down on
her like he did just because she was human. But ever since she’d first joined
them, she managed to hide it quite well.
He looked at the two roses in
his claws, both in full bloom, which seemed to radiate in the light of the full
moon. He never really cared for the smell of roses. Aphrodisiac
my ass. He switched the roses over to his left hand and felt several
small pinpricks against his palm and claws.
He looked at his hand to see the
rose thorns had pierced his skin slightly, the dark red color starting to
surface, but his body healed the wound up before it could get there. He held
the roses out, grasping them with his fingers, avoiding the thorns even though
they didn’t matter.
He stared at the flowers, which
he admitted were quite lovely, but ever since he was young, he had for some
reason disliked all sorts of flowers. There was only one kind of flower he had
seen that had survived his wrath, but has never seen it since he was 21, still
young and ignorant.
His right hand hovered over both
roses, the moon right behind them from his view. He hesitated a moment, and
then his hand became a fist, crushing the petals within his grip.
Sesshomaru’s
eyes flashed down in the clearing, distracted by Rin’s
coughing. He stared down at her, as it got worse, and she began coughing
violently. She sat up, wide awake, choking on air, unable to stop. She got to
her feet clumsily and walked over to the small pond where she began drinking
handfuls of water, calming her cough.
She walked over, behind some
trees, where she also answered nature’s call. She returned to her bed in no
time at all, falling asleep almost instantly.
Only after she was back to
kicking Jaken did Sesshomaru
return his attention back to the roses and the task at hand. He lifted his hand
up, all the rose petals within his grasp. As if on cue, a strong wind started
up. He turned his hand over and slowly opened it, letting the wind wisp the
petals right out and fly in the air beyond even Sesshomaru’s
sight.
The wind died down again, just
before the last two petals could leave his hand. Just as he was about to move
the stems around, one of the petals fell off. He watched it float to the ground
where it landed not far from the fire, making the petal look like fire itself.
He tossed the stems off to the
side, and held up the last, single petal by the tip of his index and middle
finger claws, examining it.
Just like when the roses were
full, the moon cast a sort of aura upon the petal, making it glow like a tiny
white flame, with a red center.
Sesshomaru
wasn’t the superstitious type, but for some reason, this single petal felt
forewarning, almost ominous to him. It was very rare when he got a feeling that
Lady Luck was watching over him, but when he did, he was not one to jinx her
power, even against his own.
Upon making his decision, he
closed his hand again, keeping the petal safe as the wind began to pick up
again. He took the petal and tucked it into his sash, retightening it to make
sure it didn’t go anywhere.
Sesshomaru
stayed awake the rest of the night, keeping watch over the area, constantly
listening to Jaken curse at Rin
for being so restless in her sleep. A few times did he hear her start to cough,
but she was able to keep it under control without having to wake up.
After making a quick patrol
around the area, the sun rising over the forest, he returned to find Jaken awake and starting to clean up camp, while Rin still snoozed away.
As Sesshomaru
approached, he reminded Jaken to see into Rin’s sickness.
As if upon hearing his voice, Rin popped up awake, rubbed her eyes, and beamed up at him.
“Good morning Lord Sesshomaru!”
Of course, Sesshomaru
did not reply so warmly. “We leave soon.”
“All right,” She stood up and
stretched her arms out, coughed a couple of times, then turned to Jaken like she never coughed, “What’s for breakfast?”
“You can eat later, first we
must continue on,” Sesshomaru explained as he began
walking slowly towards the forest.
Rin
and Jaken gathered what little they had and joined
up, Rin taking a quick drink from the pond and
rinsing her hands and face off, a few coughs now and then.
It was now about an hour later. Sesshomaru had continued to head south and cover the border
of his territory, following the scents of the humans that had entered.
He had found where they made a
small gathering and lingered for maybe half an hour. There were about 10 of
them, each having their own distinct scents: three of them heavy with alcohol,
one drunk beyond belief. One had no alcohol, and the other three were... females
he guessed, due to the flowery scents they gave off. One was semi-old, probably
around her thirties, one about half her age, and the other was about half her
age. None of them had anything to drink. As for the men... they were all about
20-30, while one was also old, 40-50 he was guessing.
Ah, the power of scents.
Though their scents were
semi-strong, he could tell they were well out of his domain by now. He heard a
grumbling noise, almost like a growl, but he turned around only to see it was Rin’s stomach growling of hunger. She wrapped her arms
around her stomach and giggled at her tummy, even though she tried to act as
though it wasn’t her. She didn’t want her Lord to be concerned for her if it
was indeed possible.
He began walking northwest of the
human’s scent, knowing there was another small opening nearby where they could
stop and eat, a large creek flowing close as well, if Rin
wanted to get cleaned up.
Everyday she at least got
cleaned up once during a stop, yesterday’s was during lunch. “But I like to get
cleaned up in the morning so I’ll look clean all day!” he had heard her yell at
Jaken one time when he complained that she took too
many baths. Sesshomaru didn’t really care what they
did during the breaks. As long as she didn’t start building up a disgusting
stench, baths were fine. Now if only Jaken would take
a few more baths himself...
They approached the clearing,
which they had stopped at a week or two ago, which was actually a normal stop
for them. Upon entering, Rin began running to the
spot she always sat in, Jaken waddling behind her.
Sesshomaru
stayed at the edge, watching them as they set up for breakfast, scanning the
area for any demons or other dangers. He detected none.
Jaken,
obviously just as hungry, sat down and whipped breakfast out of his bag very
quickly. They ate another type of noodles, but wasn’t sure what kind these
were. Sesshomaru turned back into the forest, and
began scouting the area surrounding the clearing, unsure of what to make of an
odd feeling he was getting. After a while, he came to determine that the
further he got away from the clearing, the smaller the feeling got.
After covering the area twice,
he returned in time to see Jaken cleaning up
breakfast, Rin nowhere near, assuming she went to
take her bath.
He walked up to Jaken, silent as usual. “Jaken,”
“Ahh!”
he squealed, turning around quickly to see it was only his lord, but so quick
it made him lose his balance and fall on his bum.
Sesshomaru
just stared as Jaken did this, “Have you spoken to Rin?”
“Yes, me Lord, while you were
out. She claims it’s just a common cold, so I gave her an herb that will calm
her coughing. She’ll need to take this medicine twice everyday until the cough
goes away,”
“Keep an eye on her, it might be something more than a cold.”
“Yes, my Lord...” he bowed and
continued to clean up breakfast, curious as to what his lord meant by that.
Not long afterwards, Rin returned to the clearing, hair damp, different kimono.
This one was pale yellow with pink flowers and small blue birds. “Welcome back,
Lord Sesshomaru!” she greeted cheerfully.
What gave him an uneasy feeling
now was that the strange sense he was getting earlier, vanished
instantly as she ran towards him. “Let’s start heading home,” he said, and
began walking straight north, trying to figure out what could have happened to
that sense he got a moment ago.
It didn’t feel dangerous or
deathly, but he didn’t feel safe about it either. It was just… there. Yet as
soon as young Rin came forth, it disappeared without a
trace.
Jaken
and Rin exchanged confused glances, wondering why he
wanted to head home so early, he had only begun the
local patrol the morning before yesterday. Rin smiled
with glee and began following him without any worries. Jaken
was still confused, but he wouldn’t dare question his master. It’s just that...
their patrols normally don’t lead them home until at least four days
after leaving the mansion. Oh well, he wouldn’t mind going home himself.
Elsewhere...
“That was some party, eh girls?”
a man, presumably in his late forties, asked the three women before him; one
was his wife, who was 39 herself, a young woman around 16, and an even younger
girl about nine.
His wife was smiling brightly,
“It was a wonderful party,” she told him.
But the teen only glared at him,
and the child stayed at her side, gripping the bottom of her kimono, halfway
hidden behind it with an intimidated look upon her face. Both wore plain tan
kimonos that were faded and old.
The lord and his mistress then
began flirting with each other, the stench of the alcohol still strong on his
breath. The mistress often got him all drunk up like this, knowing it was the
only way he’d still sleep with her since he’d been getting into the younger
girls of the manor lately, even though she still looked rather young herself.
She turned to the two younger
girls as he began kissing on her neck, “You may leave, now,” she said sternly.
The older one bowed, “My
Lady...” she stood straight up and put an arm behind the child’s head, leading
her out of the room. She shut the door behind her and began walking through the
crowd of men in the room, ignoring them and their drunken manner, pushing the
girl through so that they could get past as fast as possible. Many of the
guests were passed out…
As soon as they cleared the
crowd in the front room, the older woman led them down the inside hall that led
to the bedrooms.
“Wait! Lenezma!”
The two girls stopped. The older
one took a deep sigh, rolled her eyes and turned around, half smile on her
face, “Yes, Dolce?”
A young man around Lenezma’s age approached. He was a short man with short,
wild black hair and dark brown eyes. “Please stick around for the party a
little longer?”
“I’m sorry,” she replied, “But Taire and I are rather tired.
We’ll be heading to bed now,”
“Well… All
right. Good night then,” he said, not once taking his eyes off her
cerulean beauties.
Lenezma
bowed politely and continued walking down the hall, Taire
still beside her. As soon as she turned her back to him, her smile died back
down to the expressionless face.
They entered a room with two
beds in it, one on each side. She closed the door behind her and sighed heavily
again.
Taire
was a very small child, coming up just past Lenezma’s
waist. She had hazel eyes and straight, shoulder length black hair. She ran
over to her bed on the right side of the room and collapsed on it, smile on her
face as she hugged the sheets, ready for bed. She sat up and looked at her half
sister as she heard her pacing back and forth in front of her bed. “Leny?”
“I can’t believe he did that...
He put our lives in jeopardy by taking us into that forest!! I told him I had a
bad feeling, but does he listen to us servants? No, that’s the wrong question
to ask. Does he listen to me? Noooo, that’d be too much
to ask!”
“Lenezma?”
she asked again, a little louder than before.
She stopped pacing when she
heard the tiny voice. She heard it earlier, but ignored it as she was too
infuriated about last night. Hell, she didn’t even know how the party was still
going on, a good ten hours later, or how Taire was
still awake.
She sat down on the bed,
releasing another deep sigh. She took the tie out of her hair, letting her dark
brown, almost black, hair fall to her back like water.
Taire
stood up and walked over to her sister, sat down next to her, and leaned
against her lovingly.
Len, which was her short name,
wrapped her arms around Taire lovingly, stroking her
hair softly. Taire was the only person that could
calm her when she was angry – or hysterical. No one knew about if it was the
same when she was sad, no one’s ever seen her sad, she’s always glaring at
people, or so it seems.
“What’s the matter Leny? What was wrong with the forest?”
“I could feel the presence of a
very strong demon nearby... We were in the territory of a demon that should
have hunted us all down and struck us down like mice! ... But we were lucky,
and he did not show his face.”
“A strong
demon? More powerful than you?”
“He was full demon, I’m sure of
it.”
“Oh...” she said, her eyes cast
to the floor.
Len could sense her fear. Taire didn’t know much about Len’s powers, but she did know
that full demons – depending – were stronger than her. Hearing that one was
nearby, she felt fear of her life.
Len knew she had to calm her
before she started to freak out as well. She smiled and hugged her tightly,
protecting her, “It’s okay... It won’t come after us,
I promise. We are out of his territory and it’s very rare that demons will
track down trespassers once they’ve passed. But if it should come here, don’t
worry. I’ll die before he can reach you... Now come on, it’s time for bed,”
She stood up, getting Taire to her feet. She gave her a light shove towards the
dressing screen, then grabbed her nightclothes out of
the closet. Len handed them to Taire where she walked
behind the screen and changed.
A minute later, she came out,
sleep overcoming her.
Len picked her up and carried
her over to her bed. Not even halfway there, she was fast asleep in her arms –
and it’s a pretty small room.
She carefully held Taire in one arm while pulling the sheets down with the
other. She set Taire down on the bed and covered her
up. She pulled some hair out of her face and watched her roll over on her side.
After Len changed into her
nightclothes, she walked over to a small bucket that was filled with water,
used for quick rinsing of the hands or face, but Lenezma
used it for other purposes.
She knelt down and filled her
hand up in water and rinsed off her face, then began dripping water off her
fingers and into her eyes.
She grabbed a cloth nearby,
dried her hands and face, and then peered into the mirror right next to Taire’s bed. She turned her head slightly and grabbed her
ears, pulling them off.
As she removed the fake human
ears, two new ears popped out about half an inch longer, cat like and covered
in silver fur; they flickered in freedom when she straightened them out with
her fingers. She got closer to the mirror and blinked her eyes constantly,
watching the blue shade begin to glow, and her pupils grow thin: cat slits.
Lenezma
was part cat demon. Her mother had shown her how to hide her demonic features,
but if left on too long, they would irritate her skin and her eyes would start
to burn.
She turned ready to head for her
bed, when she noticed Taire was sitting up in bed,
watching her. Len tried to avoid letting Taire see
her true look, mainly because she could always hear Taire’s
heart beat hasten when she saw her like this. And that it did.
Lenezma
was disguised as a human 99% of the time, so for Taire
to become uncomfortable with her strange appearance was no big surprise.
“Go back to bed,” she spoke
softly to Taire, Taire’s
eyes wide at the sight. Taire didn’t reply, but Len
could hear her heart beat returning to normal.
She held out her arms for her,
hoping for a hug goodnight, even though it was a few hours off before
Len smiled at her and walked
over, put one knee on the bed, leaned forward and hugged her. She let go as Taire began crawling back under the covers, “Go back to
sleep...” she tucked the covers in around her.
“Wait Leny! Sleep with me tonight, please!”
“But Taire…”
“Please!”
“… All right,” she lay down on
the bed and covered up, snuggling up next to Taire in
the small bed, falling asleep just as instantly as Taire
did.
Sesshomaru,
Jaken, and Rin reached the
mansion well before the sun would be setting behind the trees. The first place Sesshomaru headed was his bedroom, which was normal when
they returned from patrols. Jaken headed straight for
the kitchen while Rin ran to her own room, right
behind Sesshomaru.
Rin
ran into her room, grabbed a small satchel full of deformed marbles and beads
of all different colors, then ran over to her Lord’s
quarters. She knocked lightly on the door, always feeling a bit shaky when coming
into his room.
“Come in, Rin,”
he said. This was also normal. Rin found it amazing
and a wonderful gift that he could tell it was she every time. She knew about
most of his abilities, but still couldn’t get over them.
She opened the door and peeked
inside, Sesshomaru was standing at the window, body
turned slightly to look at her. She held up the bag, “Wanna
play...... uh... what’s it called...” she began whispering
under her breath, trying to remember the name. “What had Jaken called it?”
“Diume?” Sesshomaru
guessed, having heard them discuss it on several occasions.
“Yeah, that’s it! Wanna play Diume?”
“Perhaps Jaken
wants to play,”
“All right, but you don’t know
the fun you’re missing! If you decide to join us, three people can play!” she
said cheerfully, and closed the door as she left.
He still found it slightly
amazing that he could reject or even insult Rin right
in front of her and she would think nothing of it, just go on merrily.
He turned back to the window and
stared out, overlooking the western half of his domain, left to him by his
‘dear’ father. It had a great view though: the sunset was always a sight to see
and very often the moon would shine right in, lighting the room up with its
white glow.
He opened the window about half
an hour after Rin stopped by. He often caught himself
staring off at the sun (or the moon) and would lose track of time, being drawn
in by its silent aura, just like with the fire the other night.
He stepped out onto the balcony,
watching the sun quickly set behind the trees, filling his lungs with the fresh
scent of the air and the trees all around him. But... wait... Sesshomaru started sniffing the air, catching a whiff of
something…
“Humans.”
These little side notes will be placed about the story where needed to help clear up a few things that you (and probably I) are confused about.