Hi everyone! I hope you are doing well.

This is the short story I've been working on for some time. I was planning on posting it all at once, but I've learned that I get too exhausted trying to work on it as one big chunk. So, here is Part One!

This story is influenced by the book Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt. It is of course not the same story, but there are some elements that are the same (the idea of Lord Death saving a girl). Other than that, most elements are pretty different. I highly recommend that you read the book if you get a chance! It's a great fairytale-style story. However, if you do read it, do know that I don't plan on necessarily ending it the same way ;P

I'm not sure if this will be a weekly update or not since I'm working on Paper Cranes at the same time. We'll just see how it goes for now :) Future parts will most likely be a lot longer than this. However, I still intend for this to e just a short story.

Enjoy!

(¯`*•.¸,¤°´ Once upon a time… `°¤,¸.•*´¯)

…there was a little girl named Rin. She was an adorable child with raven-black hair that all the women in the village loved to braid and brush for her. Rin was raised by love. Yet, for all the love the others gave to her, she was indisputably an orphan at no more than seven years of age. It was her grandmother, Kaede, who raised the child from her broken family; a father killed in war and a mother and two brothers dead of a plague, there was no one left in this world to love her except her grandmother.

The child was a favorite of everyone in the small village. She had an infectious smile that even softened the stern expression of the old hermit, though the scowl never departed from his mouth. There were many in the village who took pity upon her condition with a fondness rather greater than sympathy, offering her a bronze coin to run a menial task not worth the price they paid her. Every time, she graced them with a wide grin and ran off in haste, eager to fulfill the task she had been given.

One day, the old widow Kanami offered to give Rin some of her famous homemade mochi for the New Year if she would run down to the forest to gather some fresh berries for her. Rin's mouth watered at the thought, and immediately she nodded vigorously. Kanami's mochi were notorious, and with the New Year's celebration so near, she couldn't resist the temptation of such a delightful treat. Without a second glance back, Rin darted into the forest with a small basket in hand.

Most of the time, the berries everyone liked to eat in the village were found on the outskirts of the tree line; so, when she searched her usual bushes and could find none, Rin became confused. Although Kaede had cautioned her many times to stay out of the forest, warning of the evils that lay beyond, Rin was sure she could find the berries if she went just a little further in.

Soon, however, she had become lost in the woods. Her heart began to thump rapidly in her chest, and she felt like crying. Sniffling back tears, Rin curled up into a little ball and began to look around the dark, lonely woods, feeling terrified. The woods this far in were a lightless, soundless, terrifying prospect. The musty smell of the damp leaves usually comforted her, but now it felt suffocating.

Looking to her right through tear-filled eyes, Rin saw a beautiful yellow flower. She plucked it by its root, spinning the stem between two fingers. Her silent sobs abated for a moment as the bright flash of yellow spun into a wheel as its petals flew around. A smile returned to her face as she tucked it behind one ear. She stood up and brushed the dirt from her orange and yellow yukata, a determined look settling on her face as she wiped the tears from her eyes with her sleeve. I am going to find my way out of here! Rin can do it! She thrust a fist into the air, drawing a punch of courage as she did so.

The next five minutes felt like an hour as she wandered hopelessly. She knew to look for a well-worn path or a break of light through the dense tree branches, but no matter how many foot prints she thought she saw in the dirt, they all died out within a handful of paces. Rin's heart sank in her chest as the rediscovered hope she found with the flower began to fade.

Suddenly, she heard the crack and snap of branches from behind her and she whipped around, her small heart fluttering with fear.

A doe with large, unblinking black orbs stared at her, seeming to assess the small human girl which stood before her, its body rigid with fear. Deeming Rin as nothing close to a threat, its muscles relaxed. Rin, entranced by the beautiful creature in front of her took a step forward. Immediately, however, the doe retreated. Rin frowned in consternation. The doe was so beautiful with its dark golden fur tinged with black, and it looked so, so soft. Remembering what Kaede had taught her, that animals such as deer were simply scared of you, she extended her tiny hand towards the doe. The deer contemplated her hand for a moment before leaning into it, sniffing it for food. Rin giggled at the tickling sensation as the deer rubbed her palm and even licked it once or twice. The doe's fur was silky smooth and she looked young. Rin could even count the white spots which adorned her back like fallen snow.

"I'm lost, Miss Deer. Do you think you could lead me home? I just want to go home now…"

Rin looked up past the doe which was still nuzzling her hand. Back beyond the trees, she saw a tall, shadowy figure in heavy robes, traces of sunlight illuminating silver strands. Her eyes widened in fear and curiosity before suddenly something punched her in the ribs. A cough of blood and spittle mixed with surprise flew from her as she stumbled backwards and fell to the ground. Rin looked down to see an arrow protruding from her chest. Suddenly, the silence of the forest evaporated. The deer darted from her side, leaving her on the ground, alone. A rushing crunching of leaves filled her ears as someone approached.

"Oh gods! I didn't see you. What am I to do, what am I to do?" A frantic voice floated above her. She turned her head to see a villager whose name she couldn't remember hovering over her, his eyes misted with fear.

"I saw the deer and I didn't see you. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry, sorry, sorry…" he continued to mumble frantically. He bent over, picking her up, but at Rin's choking gasp of pain, he set her back down. "Oh God, what have I done? I'm going to get help, I swear!"

Rin stared up at him, her eyesight beginning to blur. It hurt to breathe, like when you ran too fast for too long, and suddenly your lungs hurt. Or maybe it was like you were underwater and didn't take a breath for a long time. Yes, she decided. This is what this kind of hurt it felt like. A young boy in the village last year had drowned in an accident. Was this what drowning felt like? She nodded, but she wasn't sure in response to what. The sound of crunching leaves faded as the villager's footsteps grew farther and farther away, the silence of the forest engulfing her final breaths.

She opened her eyes, struggling to keep her lids from falling closed. Something inside of her begged her to stay awake, but right now, nothing sounded better than a little afternoon nap. She let her head fall to the side, exhausted by the energy it took to keep it up. Before her were the dark black robes she had seen in the distance, black boots protruding from where the robe ended. Rin wanted to reach out, to touch the cloth. It looked warm, and she was feeling rather cold right now. How could this person have appeared at her side without making a sound? Maybe he can fly… the thought drifted lazily across her hazy brain.

The figure squatted next to her, and she saw what had caused the flicker of silver. It was a man, older than she by several years, but despite his beautiful silver hair, he still looked quite young; perhaps three or four years older than her eldest brother would have been had he lived. Even at this young age, Rin realized that there was something otherworldly about him, something that didn't quite belong in these last moments. She could not yet see the details of his face, simply smooth, pale skin, the hood of the robe still concealing his eyes. A tress of hair fell from beneath his robes, and she reached one hand feebly to touch it, finding it played across her hands like silk.

A long-clawed hand emerged from a black sleeve of the robe, sliding the hood from his head. Rin stared up at the golden eyes that met hers, their irises almost the color of the deer's fur, but somehow lighter and colder. Bright magenta marks ran jaggedly across the pale skin, and on his forehead hung a violet crescent moon. His mouth opened, and she caught a glimpse of sharp canines before he began to speak.

"You know that you are dying."

Perhaps it was meant to sound like a question, but it came as a statement. Normally, everything about this inhuman man might have scared Rin, but somehow, she felt at peace. He didn't seem to want to hurt her. If these were the "evils" that Kaede always talked about, she couldn't see how they were all that bad. She nodded feebly in answer to his question. She didn't know what death or dying was supposed to be like, but she guessed that it was something like this.

"Who… who are you?" She hadn't expected to hear her voice escape like a whisper, half-gargled in blood, but there it was. She felt something warm begin to trickle down her cheek.

"I am Lord Death."

Rin stared at him for a moment longer, seeming to take it all in. "I see," she murmured in an almost grown-up fashion. She wanted to giggle at her own silly imitation of an adult, despite how absurd it would be in this moment, but all she could manage was a half-smile. If only she could take a deep, full breath…

Her smile seemed to confuse him. Usually, the young were less afraid of his presence than the old, often too confused by their life's departure to give him too much notice, but never did they continue to smile when he held the string of their lives in his hands.

Rin saw lying on the black, damp forest dirt the yellow flower which she had tucked into her dark brown hair. Already the flower had begun to droop, its life leaving as did its owner's. She reached out for it, wanting to take it into her hand, but her fingers wouldn't respond properly. Lord Death continued to watch the girl in her final moments. "Are you not scared?"

"Scared of what?" Her voice came in short gasps, even softer than before.

"Of death. Of me."

Rin thought for a moment. It was getting harder to focus on his face now. "A little. Not of you." Her whole family was dead. Maybe she could see them one last time before she was reincarnated. That didn't seem like such a scary thought.

Lord Death's eyes narrowed. He was intrigued. "Do you not wish to live any longer?" He looked to the arrow, which remaining in her chest prolonged her life, yet it wouldn't last. He was in the oddest way relived that the idiotic village had not tried to pull it from her ribcage. He would have never been able to talk to her, to get to know the girl in these last moments if he had. He already knew that her moments were now few.

"I think… everyone wants to live longer… Rin has a grandmother. She'll be sad if Rin goes…" her voice trailed off, each breath becoming shorter and shallower. "Wouldn't everyone want to keep living? So many pretty things…" she trailed off, reaching once more for the flower. Lord Death saw her struggles and picked it up delicately by the stem, placing it in her outstretched hand. He wanted to explain to her that the world was not beautiful, that many parts of it were ugly, dark, and twisted, that he was the ultimate culmination of everything terrible, but he would not rob her of her final hopes to believe the world was this way.

Rin nodded as emphatically as she could muster which was barely a movement at all. Her eyes were now half-closed. She seemed to be struggling to stay awake. "Look at what the gods send me before I see my parents again. An angel with moonlight hair…"

Her last response was an upturn of blood-soaked lips and a hand reaching for his long hair which fell on her chest. Weakly, fingers trembling with effort, she placed the dying yellow flower into it, tangling its stem in the silver tresses in order to make it stay. Her hand reached one last time towards him before falling limp back to her chest. Her eyes were open, but there was no life behind the dark brown irises. She was dead.

Lord Death hovered for several moments after she went still. Slowly, he disentangled the flower from his hair, spinning it by the stem between forefinger and thumb before tucking it behind the girl's ear where it belonged. She had been truly unafraid to go. This girl had already known so much death in her life; perhaps that was why. He had been the one to watch her face as he lifted the spirits of her mother, father, and two brothers from their bodies to carry them to the other world. Now, here he was to do the same for her, yet this time, nobody was watching, for there was almost no one left in her life to see her die. "An angel," she had called him.

Unbidden, a feeling, nostalgic of one he hadn't felt for centuries, washed over him. Puzzled, he looked inside the folds of his cloak to where two swords rested on his hip: one for severing the soul, and one for saving it. The latter, Tenseiga, he had only touched once before. Now, however, it hummed, brimming at his side, seeming to be pleading to be used. He drew the blade from its sheath, perplexed by its sudden call. The moment he touched the hilt, he felt a foreign power pulse through his veins. He saw the seams of her soul pulling from her body, the demons of hell hungering after it. He brought the sword down in a swift arc, destroying the creatures. Her soul fell back into place, and he heard her breathing resume in short, small gasps.

Lord Death had only one moment to comprehend the meaning of Tenseiga, the healing blade, before thousands of white-hot knives pierced every inch of his body, crippling him in pain. He doubled over, roaring in agony, the forest trembling with his pain. Panicked cries drew nearer, the frightened words of several humans pulling closer and closer by the minute. Lord Death attempted to rise to his feet, but the pain was too great. Slowly, he pulled himself against a distant tree, drawing his cloak around him for protection from wandering human eyes.

The villagers were there, by the girl's side immediately. An old woman with long, grey hair approached the body, the color draining from her face at the sight. "Rin," she called to her grandchild in hushed tones. The old woman pressed her wrinkled fingers to the girl's throat, feeling for a pulse. "Her heart still beats," she called into the crowd. "Hurry! We must act quickly."

At her words, the others pulled from a leather satchel several pots of herbs and bandages. Rin's eyes fluttered open slowly. She looked around for Lord Death, but she couldn't find him immediately.

"W-where–" Her words were cut off by sharp hushing sounds from her grandmother. "'Tis time you be the bravest you have ever been, Rin-chan. Now, now, don't speak."

Her gaze flitted around the small clearing, hunting for the black robe. Finally, at the edge of the roots of a tree, she saw a small touch of black cloth, barely distinguishable from the dark soil. Her eyes roamed the tree, catching only a flash of silver and a glint of gold before the sea of unconscious swept her under once more.

I hope you enjoyed part one! I think there will be about five parts in total (or, at least that's around where I'm aiming for). If you have the time, please leave a review! I love to hear anything and everything you guys have to say.