It was cold; freezing would not even be close to over exaggerating. Dew drops iced over ever living plant in the lands and animals ran for shelter. The skies were dark and no moon or star light shown through the thick black clouds. The night was truly one from a horrible nightmare, though, not everyone found this night to be scary.
"One, two, three, four, skipping steps on the floor. We are walking in a line, Jaken, me, and then my Lord!" a gleeful voice sang. Rin hopped from one foot to the other as she followed right behind Jaken and a few feet in front of Sesshomaru. With every step the young child started to hum a new tune joyously, while Jaken slowly started to get annoyed. But, being such a sweet young girl, Rin did not notice Jaken's discomfort and just kept up with her song.
Rin's singing slowed more after every moment now and she slowly started to shiver as she became tired. Jaken gave the slightest of twitches as the child started to chatter her teeth, her human body attempting to keep her from freezing. Sesshomaru's ear twitched ever so slightly and he looked to little Rin. "Jaken," Sesshomaru said sternly. "Set up a fire, I wish to rest here." Without a moments hesitation Jaken picked up braches and twigs, and using his staff created a warm and lovely fire. "Rin," Sesshomaru then said as he took off his fluff and placed it on the ground for her to keep warm in.
Relaxing himself against a tree, Sesshomaru let out a sigh and looked over to his sleeping ward then to Jaken. Every breath came another puff of steam from the demons mouth. The iciness of the night did not bother the great dog demon lord in the least, but it seemed to relax him more. Though he would never let himself to fully relax, at least not with the distinct smell of Naraku in the air. Sleep was useless to him at the moment. It was not like he really needed to sleep everyday. So, he sat there, awake all night, waiting for the sun to rise so that they could once again start on their journey.
Rin woke right on cue. The sun was just peaking its way over the mountains, melting all the frost from the night before. She smiled brightly as the warm sun touched her face; this gave her the energy she needed to pop right on up and start singing and skipping around again. Jaken, who was still half asleep, was already annoyed by the child's song. It was not that she had a bad voice, because she sung with the cutest voice known to demon and man, but it was the fact that she almost never stopped singing unless Sesshomaru asked her too. "Good morning My Lord," she said sweetly to Sesshomaru then turned her gaze to Jaken and ran over. "Good morning to you Lord Jaken!"
This made Jaken smile and forget his annoyance with her. She was sweet and he knew it. So he smiled wearily and spoke to her, "Good morning Rin. Ready to start our journey?" Rin just gave an over exaggerated nod of the head then looked back up to Sesshomaru once more.
"Lord Sesshomaru may Jaken and I go and get some food?" she asked. Sesshomaru did not speak but gave her the nod that met 'Okay but hurry.' Rin quickly ran over and pulled Jaken off disappearing from Sesshomaru's sight.
Jaken and Rin found themselves at a river. Rin almost instantly jumped in and started fishing with her hands. Jaken, on the other hand, sat off to the side looking away and into the forests. The wind began to pick up slightly, alerting Jaken. He stood, holding his staff at the ready, as if he knew someone was about to attack. But after several moments he sat back down, nothing was going to happen, right?
"Lord Jaken! I've caught one!" Rin yelled happily as she pulled a fish from the water and held it up in the air. Jaken only rolled his eyes and looked away from her. A gust of wind almost threw him forward as Rin let out a small yelp. Kagura, the wind witch, had Rin tightly held down on her giant white feather. She gave an evil laugh, "Naraku will love this gift I've gotten for him." With that the laughing witch flew off with Rin, leaving Jaken racing back to Sesshomaru to tell him how he had lost the girl, once again.
