15
Hana: Hey Ichego, are you still working on those technical difficulties with the last shot?
Ichigo: *sigh* Sadly yes. I have no idea what happened, all I know is that nothing works out as it was planned.
Hana: Same here. Your Internet seems to have infected mine. It didn't work at all yesterday. *sigh*
Ichigo: I'm sorry… Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?
Hana: Nah, just glad it finally works again. So, what are we up to today?
Ichigo: Let's see. We have quite a lot to make up. How about a new story including the Inuyasha-Gang?
Hana: Oh great! *hops up and down* I always wondered, how Rin and Sesshomaru got along with him talking so much *coughs*
Ichigo: He's talking like a waterfall - a frozen one.
Hana: Nice simile. Sesshomaru is as quiet as a frozen river. Well, let's see… I don't own Inuyasha and I would like to say, that today's riddle is extraordinarily hard.
Ichigo: Well, I guess I'm lucky that I don't have to solve it ^^ Have fun reading and if you know the solution to Hana's riddle, send us a PM so no one can cheat.
Hn
Rin opened her doe eyes to the light of a new day. It was her eleventh birthday. Three summers had passed by since the defeat of Naraku and her Lord had left her in the human village to live among them in peace. Three years of learning everything about herbs and healing from Kaede. Three years of sparring with Inuyasha and Sango, so Rin was able to defend herself against attackers.
Rin stretched: I wonder, if Sesshomaru-sama will remember my birthday… He is so busy with keeping his lands save. The girl smiled at herself. "Stupid Rin, of course he will remember it. He never missed your birthday before." Actually it wasn't Rin's day of birth, but the day Sesshomaru had saved her life with his sword Tenseiga – so to speak her second birth. If you kept that on, the girl could celebrate her birthday three times a year, if she remembered her first date of birth. Her second was the day Sesshomaru saved her and the third as Sesshomaru's mother had resurrected her after she had sent her to hell.
Rin shook her head. Away with these thoughts! Today is a day of joy and not a day to remember all the times you nearly died or returned from the dead. She decided to finally get up, after she had stared at the far wall of the small hut for some time. Rin tamed her hair into her usual side ponytail.
"Rin?", a raspy voice asked mere seconds before Kaede came into the second small room of her hut. "Ah, you're already awake child."
"Yes, yes.", Rin chanted. "Do you know what today is Kaede-baa-chan?" The old woman scratched her chin in thought. "Today? Oh I know: Today you wanted to help me with the dried herbs and promised to look after Haku. He'll be glad you remembered him and his bad leg. Don't be late."
And with that the elderly woman left the room. Rin blinked in shock. Did Kaede-baa-chan honestly forget my birthday? But we talked about it only yesterday… She isn't that old to be forgetting things within a nights sleep! Quickly Rin ran after her adoptive grand mother.
Everyone in the village seemed to have forgotten her birthday, as they didn't say anything about it, merely greeting her and wishing her a good morning. How could they all have forgotten? They never forgot anyone's birthday… Never ever. Rin nearly cried until she recalled, that she was now eleven summers old and wasn't supposed to cry about trivial things as this. I have to be strong. Sure Miroku and Sango will remember. At last Sango and Miroku will remember, right. Right?
Rin jogged along towards the hut of the demon slayer and monk. On the way Rin suddenly found herself locked into a set of strong arms. "Surprise", a familiar voice purred close to her ear. "How do you escape this?"
"Inuyasha", Rin whined. "It's too early to be sparring."
"It's never too early for an attacker to surprise you."
"You do realize a surprise is only a surprise, if your opponent doesn't know you're about to attack. And I do know you try to fight me every waking hour."
Inuyasha clucked his tongue. Rin could see his white puppy ears twitching about in his mass of silver hair that was similar to his half brother's Sesshomaru. "Don't you think, you're overestimating yourself a bit there? After all you are a mere mortal and I am a half demon."
"Kagome was able to tame you and Sesshomaru-sama is able to defeat you. Why shouldn't I be able to escape your claws?", Rin questioned him. The half demon growled in the back of his throat. Rin had learned to interpret these animalistic sounds over the last three years. By now she was able to distinguish between menacingly and show off ones. And this was one for the show. He didn't mean it at all. Nevertheless: How do I escape his grasp?, Rin asked herself in wonder. Irritate your enemy and he will loose focus. Then you are sure to win., Sango's voice echoed in her head. The demon slayer had been persistent about that lesson, as Rin still was a child and the demons thought of her as prey.
"Please spare my life, Inuyasha", Rin faked a sob. "I am only a little human girl. I promise to pay you more respect…" She hiccupped very authentically. Instantly she felt the hanyo backing up, still being uneasy around crying females. Rin seized her chance. Diving out of Inuyasha's arms, she spun around, pulling her dagger in the process and held it against his throat. With a flicker of her wrist the weapon cut the air inches from his flesh. "You're dead", Rin told him. "You cheated!", Inuyasha accused her. However Rin changed back from warrior mode to the innocent girl. "Cheat? Me?", she gave him a sweet smile. "You know, I'd never do this. I am incapable of it."
"Sure you aren't", a new voice laughed. "My dear little Rin is too innocent for that." Inuyasha and Rin turned towards the new voice. It was a woman around nineteen. She had twin girls on each side of her and the kimono only barely covered her bloated stomach. The brown hair was held in a high ponytail with a pink ribbon. "Sango", Rin skipped towards her adoptive mother. "Do you know, what today is?"
Sango tilted her head in thought, chewing on her lower lip, as if it helped her to concentrate. "I don't know… I think it could be the day, Inuyasha and Miroku are bound to do another exorcism and shouldn't be too late" Sango yelled the last part over her shoulder back into the hut. A muffled groan was the only answer they could hear from Miroku. "Better prepare for a long run, Inuyasha", Sango petted her friend's shoulder. "He isn't going to come out on his own anytime soon."
The half demon huffed and entered the hut with as much noise as possible. Rin giggled. Inuyasha is always so… I don't know how to put it. He's so different from my Lord. Sesshomaru-sama is always calm and collected, while Inuyasha shouts and fights with the ones he cares about – oh right! Rin lunged forward to catch up to Sango. The older woman looked down at her with a warm smile. "Do you need anything Rin?"
"Do you really don't remember, what today is?"
Sango watched Rin for a second, before she answered. "You have grown so much during the past three years" It took the young girl a moment to realise, what that meant. As it finally clicked in her head, Rin jumped up and down in excitement: "So you did know!"
"How could any of us forget your birthday? You reminded us every day.", Rin pouted, "Besides, we would have known anyway. Who could forget the day the cold demon Lord found out he had a heart?" The twins hopped alongside Rin, laughing in childish joy with the girl they saw as their older sister. "Can we show Rin her present, Okaa-san?", one of them asked, causing the other to echo: "Can we, can we?"
Sango laughed at her two little girls. They may look like her but their character was sure to be Miroku's in some ways. Shippo already had to beware of those girls wandering hands on his ears and tail. Although their father of course said, they hadn't got that from him. Yeah right, and cows could fly.
Sango eventually allowed the twins to lead Rin towards her present. The two and a half year olds each grabbed one of Rin's hands and guided her through the village with Sango trailing behind them. "We found it few days ago. Okaa-san took out to play in woods, while collected wood.", the twin on Rin's right side explained excitedly. "We thought would be a good present for Rin-chan.", the left twin added proudly. I wonder, if I was the same, when I was their age…, Rin thought to herself. Probably not. I always was a strange child, being all quiet and introverted. I still am different from the others due to my travels with my Lord.
Suddenly the twins shoved the older girl in front of them. Rin staggered a bit, as she hadn't been paying attention to where they were walking, but she didn't fall. Instead the girl gasped at the sight in front of her. It was a clearing in the middle of the wild forest covered in flowers of every colour you could imagine. "Amazing", Rin whispered. The twins giggled, accepting the thank you and praise in one word easily. "Come on girls, let's go get some fire wood and let Rin enjoy her present.", Sango stretched one of her hands out towards the girls. Both of them hopped over to their mother, grabbing her hand. "We'll pick you up on the way back, okay Rin?" However Rin was too focused on waving her way through the field of flowers and braiding crowns to answer Sango. The woman chuckled, ushering her children on to leave Rin in peace to braid.
Rin lost track of time, as she sat in the middle of the clearing and braided flower crown after flower crown. "One for Inuyasha, one for Miroku, one for Shippo, one for Sango, one for each of the twins, one for me", Rin counted. "The last one is for Lord Sesshomaru."
"Rin", a male voice said. The girl looked up to see a man with long silver hair standing between the trees. His indifferent golden eyes stared at her – and right into her soul it seemed. "Lord Sesshomaru!", Rin exclaimed happily. "You did remember after all!"
"Hn"
Rin giggled. It was his standard answer to any question the dog demon didn't want to respond to directly or if he thought, his answer was unnecessarily clear. Rin was an expert when it came to Sesshomaru's ways of communication with a minimum of words. She was most likely the only person alive, who was able to read his answers out of this single word and his body language. Currently he was expressing, how he never would forget Rin's birthday. It made Rin so happy, she could have cried, but refrained from it, as she was a big girl now.
And so Rin sat in the middle of the flower field and told Sesshomaru the story of how they had met until the sunlight faded and Sango came looking for her to come back into the village.
Riddle: What is not certain?
Hint 1: The solution can be found in a book with a vampire lizard. (I don't own this book)
Hint 2: It's neither Shakespeare nor Goethe or Schiller, but the answer has to be given in German.
Hint 3: The riddle is about someone named Hans.
Please solve the riddle via a PM so no one can cheat.
Also check out the other short stories we have uploaded so far. In order:
1 The Lord of the kitchen
2 The tale of the handsome commander
3 Miroku's wish list
4 Dream beaches
5 How to not freeze to death
6 Surprise surprise
7 I'm going into town, Tomoe
8 No one ever calls me to simply drink coffee
9 Tigers and Badminton
10 Geography with Myoga
11 Preparations
12 The other way to fight
13 Meeting Tomoe
14 That's not an emergency, Foaly