The Weepless Spiral
Chapter 1: Sudden Meeting
Rin plucked at her burning fish. Three days had they traveled without their beast Oni and three days they lacked the company of Jaken, the frog like demon. She turned her head to look into the darkness behind her. The constant, comforting gaze of Sessho-maru warmed her back. He did not show any outward signs of grief from the loss. So neither would she. Instead, she kept playing to herself, with bugs and mice. Ignoring the pull at her lips and the knot in her throat.
"Rin, your sleeve is on fire." His voice seemed to boom in her ears. She slapped her arm to the ground and without much incident the fire was snuffed out. She looked to him, he was neither angry or upset. He stood from his place and stooped beside her and examined the blackened silk of her kimono. He pushed up the sleeve and once satisfied that she had not been burned he pulled the stick, on which her fish had been cooking, from the ground. Under his scrutiny she carefully took the stick from his hand, blowing at the hot meat of the fish.
"I've burnt it." She said, picking out the rib bones with her chubby little fingers, "But it tastes good this way." She stuffed the fluffy white meat into her mouth. All the while smiling up at him as he kneeled beside her.
Sessho-maru's head jerked up, his nose had alerted him to a new scent that ventured nearby their quiet little campfire. He felt his ears twitch when the forest around them grew quiet. He stood, his golden gaze attempted to pierce the flickering darkness. Rin seemed unaware of his alarm as she stuffed another wad of fish into her smiling mouth.
As irritating Jaken had been, he was always the secondary caretaker for Rin when Sessho-maru needed to take his leave. But now, he had nowhere to place her, except with him. His eyes scanned but found nothing. Then he saw it. The sudden trembling of the brush that ringed the trunks of the thick trees. It looked as though something had disturbed the stillness of the branch that had now ceased its quaking. His eyes widened. His ears strained for any sound and he inhaled deeply, hoping to catch a scent.
Nothing.
Until he looked at Rin. No longer was she eating at her fish. In fact it had fell from her hands and into the dust of the ground. Her eyes were wide and reflections of light not belonging to the fire were dancing on them. Two little twinkles of light glittered and she behaved as though she could see nothing else. Sessho-maru lowered his head to match the level of her stare.
"Do you see it?" He demanded quickly.
"Yes..." When she nodded it was slow as if she were in a trance and when she attempted to look at him, he saw that her eyes were glazed. Not really seeing. Rin lifted her plump arm and stretched her hand toward the point of her visual fixation. Then a clouded form began to take shape. The more he stared he saw only what looked like fog, but he could see a definite outline of a body. Moving steadily toward Rin and her reaching fingers. He slapped her hand down and pulled her into his hold.
Never had he faced an enemy he couldn't see. Whatever it was, it nearly had Rin in its grasp and the thought of her impending demise brought a rush of anger toward the unfaced foe. Naraku had been killed. And Sessho-maru was known to the world of demons. What manner of creature was it that felt inclined to challenge him?
He was distracted when he felt Rin squirming to release herself from his one armed grip. When she could not break free, she reached out with a grunt. Reached out to the fog that had been taking shape. He backed quickly away, confused by the conforming cloud. He could not release her, she was hypnotized and bound to run straight into it. What ever IT was. Suddenly, he felt warmth from his father's sword and in an instant he saw the apparition that had ensnared Rin.
Surrounded by an inner luminescence a woman walked toward them, her pose non threatening and a kind, gentle smile upon her face. Then he could hear her voice. It sounded like a mix of all the voices nature provided. Even he felt the tug behind his mind. He could hear hushed whispers of a hundred lips humming in his ears, or was it his mind? The closer she came, he realized he had not made a move. He blinked his eyes and backed farther away. Rin had begun pleading with him to release her, and her voice had rose to that of a scream. Keeping an eye on the woman, he dropped Rin to her feet and stepped on her sash. He drew his sword.
"Come no closer, woman." Her eyes widened in terror. Her steps halted as he requested. Her pose, though tense and ready to flee, relaxed.
"You can see me." She stated as she let her arms fall to her sides. She arched a stubborn eye brow. "But you are a demon."
"Who are you? Why are you after the girl?" He felt the tug disappear in his mind and Rin ceased in her struggles as she sat on her bottom. She regarded the woman with confusion now.
"Demon! Give the child to me. She has no business with the likes of you!" The brilliant light had faded from her body. The dreamlike quality had also gone away. Now she only looked like an angry woman. Her golden-white hair flailing about as she spoke angrily to Sessho-maru. Her dark brown eyes penetrated his emotionless barrier.
"She is my charge, and I take orders from no one. Leave and I will spare you." He could not sense a demon aura from her, nor any negative intent. However, she was not human.
"Do not make me take her by force."
"Tsk" Sessho-maru scoffed at her threat.
"Insolent Samedline. You will remember your place." With that she smirked and begun moving her lips, chanting. No, speaking in another language. And to his surprise, the trees behind him seemed to stretch outward with their branches and easily slung him to the ground. Pressing his proud face into the grimy dirt. He couldn't even feel the oncoming attack and now he could not move against the handlike branches that held his body from moving. He could not see Rin's whereabouts. But he could see the glow return and hear the chanting voices and felt the tug in the back of him mind. Incredulously, he wanted to go to her as well.
"Come little one." They all seemed to say.
Rin's steps reverberated through the ground and into Sessho-maru's ears. His eyes sprang open, red as blood and his body began its transformation. The sharp snap of wood startled the woman and he heard her sharp intake of breath. He was free of the tree's hold but he continued his change. Thick white hair covered his growing body and his face lengthened into that of his beastly form. His human clothes fell away, but he wasted no time coming between Rin and the white woman.
She saw him make show of his elongated teeth, his snarl was rank of poison and with his tail he swept the child atop his broad back, within his thick fur. Then he challenged the white woman, standing on his three legs. His growl vibrating the air around them. She huffed indignantly as she looked up at his menacing new form.
He lowered into a crouched position, almost begging her to think better of this insanity and leave unscathed. She refused and held her ground, however, she began to disrobe. Pulling the simple silver kimono off of her shoulders. Light pulsed throughout her being. Her body begin to change shape.
Instead of charging, Sessho-maru waited curiously for her change to complete. A demon who had both a human form and a complete beast form was a rarity. Something akin to respect swelled within him. Many ages had passed since he had done battle with a beast demon.
Her body grew taller and taller. Her back bent over as she stood on all fours. Her neck and face lengthened to that of a horse. Silky white fur covered her skin her ears moved to the top of her skull. There they lengthened as well. Her legs became knotted and bent in the proper places. Her hands and feet became golden hooves. Finally, towering over his large body, her body shadowed his. He leapt up but halted his attack when he saw what protruded from her forehead.
A horn.
Folded on itself, looking as would a winding case of stairs.
His battle blood cooled almost instantly. There would be no battle with her. However, there would be none of her threats either. Nor would she be taking Rin. The moment his feet touched the earth again, he placed Rin on the ground and reversed his transformation, maintaining his blood red eyes. Using his pelt to cover his nakedness he reached down and retrieved Tensiga.
"I knew I recognized your scent, Spiral." His oversized canines caused his speech to vary. The child attempted to run to him again, "Stand away." Rin stopped in her tracks and looked to the horselike beast that towered over them. "I will make a fine weapon of your horn if you attack again."
The white horse regarded his threat, and it was not empty by any means of the imagination. Still, she charged. If only to fake him or save pride. She gained speed as the ground trembled from her wake.
Then as she approached his form, it vanished from her sight. Before she could halt her assault, he suddenly seemed to float not a few feet from her broad forehead, sword ready to swipe.
The blow of his sword meeting with her horn rattled his arm. Her horse like voice shouted in ultimate pain. He realized his sword had implanted itself halfway into her horn. He had put enough strength behind the blow to take the horn off in a marvelous display of skill. He quickly pulled the sword free of her stubborn horn and landed soundlessly on the ground.
Out of fright or perhaps extreme pain, she quickly reversed her transformation, faster than ever, faster than she should. So quickly did she change that her human body was left high in the air, falling to the earth. Sessho-maru watched almost passively until Rin came running toward the falling woman.
"NO!" The thin voice of the child filled him with urgency and his body simply...reacted.
He heard the wind being knocked from her lungs by his strong grip about her waist. He stopped her from crashing to the ground but carelessly dropped her limp body the rest of the way. He watched her sputter the gritty sand from her mouth. Her horn looked nearly ridiculous protruding from her human forehead. But he could see where he had gouged a near perfect wedge from the side of it. With Tensiega he knew he should have been able to cut through the purity of her defenses, apparently there was more to learn of the Spiral.
By the time he was pulling his kimono over his shoulders she had come to consciousness and her horn vanished into her skull. He motioned to a very frightened Rin to fetch the woman's discarded clothes.
"Do not touch her, nor look at her directly." He commanded the child. He knew what she was, but vaguely knew of her abilities.
"Spirals are extinct but I see you escaped the slaughter." He treated the fallen woman with a certain amount of reverence as he pulled the cloth about her body. "Your abilities were much needed during the last days of my father.." His voice was neither kind or harsh, but he was sure she could feel the hint of sarcasm directed towards her. She sat up, pulling the ends of silver kimono around her.
She shuttered and blinked blankly at him.
"You do not remember me. Or perhaps you do not recognize my scent as it is now." He remembered her vaguely. Only by her face and what she was. As a very young child he stayed among her race and among her company.
"All I smell is death and blood." She spat back at him.
"Very true." He said with a tinge of pride as he stood, retrieving his scabbards and began to walk away. Rin followed him all the while keeping her innocent eyes on the woman's human form. He could feel her heated glare at his back.
This was far from over it seemed.
"What are you doing with a child, demon!?" Her shout caused the wind to flutter about, matching her rising anger. He stopped. Why did she speak as though he was beneath him. He normally would not have paid attention to a single word she uttered, but she had called him something.
Samedline.
"Is that why you attacked?" He stopped, without turning to face her.
"Answer me!" Her voice was no longer sweet and gentle.
"Think it better she be with you, Spiral?" He knew what she was ultimately after. The child's innocence.
"How dare you mock me with righteousness! You endanger her very life having her with you!" The smartest thing she said since he encountered her. He knew the apparent danger Rin was in, yet this she demon knew nothing of his skills, even after experiencing them first hand. Determined she was, to the point of ignorance.
He had to stop this.
He turned his cool gaze to her and walked with graceful steps. Just as he thought, her ignorance would keep her from submitting her eyes. Even after he had closed the gap between them and his breath was pushing at her face. Her eyes never wavered. Albeit they screamed in pain. Pain caused by the wound on her horn no doubt.
"There are worse things for children than the company of demons." He evaded her question on purpose. By this point his gaze had become dark. He made sure to speak clearly, slowly, to be sure she understood. "She is in my charge, that is all you need know, Spiral."
"My name is Uana, demon, and you will show proper respect to your superior." His eyes widened in disbelief. No one had ever spoke to him with such reckless disrespect. No one except his ingrate of a half brother, Inuyasha. Before he could retort Rin had crept up behind him and made her presence known with a rush of introduction.
"He is Lord Sessho-maru, Lady Uana, and I am Rin." She pointed to herself. The woman who called herself Uana softened her stern features and smiled at Rin's timely inclusion. "There used to be Jaken and our Oni, but they got killed before Lord Sessh..." Sessho-maru pushed a hand over Rin's mouth as he pushed her back behind him.
"Quiet." He kept his voice cold, but when he directed it to Rin, the intense hate he used with everyone else was abolished. Just as he knew she would, Rin smiled up at him and stepped back a few steps and was soon running after the fireflies that had come out for the night.
"Lord is it? Well then, Lord Sessho-maru, I implore you to honor the old oaths and protect me while I heal from the injury inflicted by your hand." He couldn't help but scoff at her insolence. She truly had no idea who he was. She continued flap her trap. "It will not be without reward."
"I serve no one Spiral. The old oaths are as dead as the demon heraldry." He took a small amount of pleasure at the dismay she failed to conceal after hearing his easy dismissal of her plea. She should be grateful he left her horn intact. He nearly slapped her, wanted to knock some sense into her when he saw she was about to speak again.
"Then do not serve me, help me instead. Protect me until I find another source of purity and I will lend you my skill for any task you ask of me." She reached as if to desperately cling to his sleeve, but thought better of it when he moved out of reach. However, he took in the words she had said.
Source of purity. Seemed that Rin had been a rare mark of purity. Otherwise the she-beast would not have tried so desperately to take her away from him. He wasn't sure how Spiral's used the purity, or what happened to the host that supplied them, only that he did not want Rin to have any part in it.
"The chaos of the old demon wars are over. There is no task to ask of you." Even as he said no, he wondered perhaps there were some answers she could give him.
"There is nothing?" The rough fight ebbed from her being as her pose slackened and her face contorted in defeat. A part of him felt relief, hopefully, she would abandon entertaining ideas of his involvement and leave him alone. He shook his head no, ignoring the questions in his mind.
"There is!" Her head snapped up as her eyes widened. "When my horn heals and I am joined with purity I will remake your arm!" Desperation was truly a pitiful sight. But he respected the fact she refused to give up. Without answering her, he pulled his heated gaze away from her pathetic sight and began to walk away.
With his hand he pushed at Rin's back as she continued to stare open mouthed, at the beautiful woman. He could see the curiosity she had toward the woman. She liked her and was upset to see that he refused her company. Her face changed suddenly and she looked up at him.
"Lord Sessho-maru, she is following us." He almost rolled his eyes. Yet if there was one thing he knew about Spirals, deceit was unknown to them, just as manipulation, or death of any kind. As long as she was allowed to travel with them, she would not attempt to take Rin. It would be an unspoken truce, or agreement. Otherwise he knew he would be fending Lady Uana off nearly every moment.
"I care not." He cringed inwardly when he felt her make a small jump of happiness. "Just don't look at her." He chided, and Rin quickly turned her head, but every moment she thought he was not looking she peeked behind her, over her shoulder.
To his dismay, he had acquired yet another tag-a-long trailing after him.