It was mid-spring in the village, and the time was soon approaching for the wild flowers to come into bloom. Rin knew this, it was something that lady Kaede had taught her before she passed away, and it was the time of the year she was most looking forward to. It used to be that spring was the time that she was most useful to the old lady, plus it made her happy to put to use all she had learned. For her, the time passed slowly as she waited for spring.
The sun had just shone its face over the horizon when Rin walked from her hut. Her feet stood bare in the morning dew that had yet to evaporate from the grass. A lot had happened in the last 5 years, and little remained of a time gone by. She was just 8 when she first started to spend nights in the village. As the days grew colder it was less and less the time she could spend outside. Until one day she just never went back. She spent her days with the people of the village, and with Kagome. The two of them were always together learning new ways to help the sick, as Kagome was to take the place of priestess when Kaede's time ended. As much as Rin wanted to become priestess, she never once voiced her opinion as she knew it wasn't meant to be. It was just a job Kagome was born to do.
She stepped over the mud puddles that had accumulated at the bottom of the hill. This was a path that she had taken hundreds of times over the years, so much so that the grass on this trail had begun to wither and die from the constant trampling. The sun glowed directly in front of her as she reached the peak. Looking out she could see the criss crossed pattern of the rice paddies that were lain out over the fields, and she could see the villagers who woke early in the morning to finish planting them. She held her basket tighter as a gust of wind blew past, sending her scarf dancing into the breeze and landing in a pool of water in the distance.
After a few moments she came upon the old tree. It stood triumphant over the rest of the forest. It was the very same tree she would come to when she felt sad. She would spend hours at a time trying to remember a face that she had long forgotten. The figure that stood over her when she was smaller, brave and seemingly emotionless. She used to think about him constantly, getting reminded whenever she happened to come across Inuyasha. She would pray for him at night before she went to sleep, and call for him whenever the tears were too much for her to bear. For a time he did come, every so often with a small gift he'd picked up for her on his travels. Once he even presented her with a priceless kimono fit for a princess. She wore it just once then it went into storage. But after a while he would stopped showing up, and the times between their meetings grew longer and longer, and she slowly forgot about him.
As she walked on she reached the range Inuyasha had built for her and Kagome to practice archery with. While Kagome had already mastered the art, she still spent time showing Rin how to align the arrow with the bowstring and exert the right amount of force needed to pull it back. She ran her hands across the holes left in the wood and remembered how frustrated she used to get every time she would miss. But a grin came to her face when she remembered the times she did hit the mark, and how the excitement would always get the best of her. She giggled as she pictured herself running around the bull's eye as a child.
Because she had been walking for so long she decided to take a short
rest. She placed the basket down and spread out the bright red cover that Kagome had made for her. She couldn't help but remember the day Kagome and Inuyasha came back to the village after a long trip. How she was told to close her eyes and hold out her hands, and how she bawled in tears when Kagome placed the cover in her palms. It was made out of the same material as Inuyasha's kimono, a gift Kagome had gotten for ridding a castle of a pestering demon. Rin looked into the sky and closed her eyes like she did on that day. Memories flooded her mind of how Kagome soon became too busy to spend hours with her as she used to. She and Inuyasha spent more and more time away from the village, and after a while Rin became tired of waiting for them to come back. She had never really been close to Sango and Miroku, plus she didn't really like the amount of noise their children would constantly be making. Then a few years back they packed up and left, returning to the place that Sango had grew up. She would spend her free time playing with Shippou, but after he graduated from the fox demon school she stopped seeing much of him. Rin soon became quite bored, and immersed herself in daily chores and civil work to keep her mind from wondering too far.
But it didn't take long for boredom to become lonesome. She spent greater amounts of time each day by herself, either sitting under the big tree or staring at it, trying to piece together the image of the man she once looked up to. The only thing she really had to remember him by was his golden eyes, and how she used to stare into them. Something about his eyes always made her feel safe. She remembered how they were the first things she actually ever knew as beautiful, and how she had fallen in love with them. She felt the back of her throat swell up and tried to squeeze back the tears that were forming in her eyes. Why couldn't she remember him? Why couldn't she recall a single thing about him? And why couldn't she remember his name? She pondered these questions as she folded the cover back and headed down the beaten path.
About another half hour of walking and she reached her final destination; a clearing that housed the wildflowers needed to make medicine. It was hidden in the middle of a patch of woods, the only entrance obstructed by a batch of thick vines. She reached into her basket, pulled out a knife, and started to work. She had found this place not long ago after wondering how far she could go past her usual path before she got lost. The batch of vines was a few meters thick and took her a while to conquer. Dust and debris clouded her vision and she rubbed her eyes and winced as they adjusted to the light, and there, standing in front of her, stood a vaguely familiar figure. A man who stood perfectly proportional in every aspect, a head of shining silver hair that reached far below the waist, and a cloak of silver fur that wrapped around his body like a tail. She dropped her basket and clapped her hands over her mouth, watching in amazement as the beautiful figure turned around. She was transfixed by his deep golden eyes, drawing her in like a lasso tugging at her soul. Like a tsunami a wave of memories came rushing back to her, how this man had saved her after being killed by a pack of wolves, how he protected her against any and everything, and how she had asked him not to ever forget her. She held her breath as she slowly moved her fingers away from her lips and silently whispered the name," Sesshoumaru- Sama!"