I guess I'll be putting the second chappy up now! And, because someone asked me, Rin isn't travelling with Sesshomaru's group at the moment. This'll be a shorter chapter than the first, but most of the chapters won't be as long. On with the story!

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She should have known. Should've anticipated it. But the thrill of the moment, or of the last three weeks, had cleared her mind of everything but the present. She was normal. She was human.

- A Slight Problem -

"Mmm…" a sleepy Rubi murmured as a ray of sunlight fell upon her face, waking her up. She looked around; noticing everyone (who consisted of the toad-demon Jaken and the Demon Lord Sesshomaru) was still asleep. No need to wake them up. Rubi crept out of the forest clearing, noticing that she couldn't put her feet down as lightly as usual. Still sleepy.

Rubi Tamasho was into her third week of traveling, give or take a few days. She loved it for the most part, though it did get awkward at times. Jaken was fun to talk to/tease, usually holding his own for a good hour until he had to give in to her incessant questioning, trying to get a conversation started.

Lord Sesshomaru was another topic altogether. He seemed cold, uncaring and downright mysterious, but talked sometimes, and seemed to be very used to traveling in the wild. Rubi had often wondered how old he actually was, since he looked around nineteen, but had never worked up the courage to ask. He made her feel…so different. She felt like his eyes could stare right through her, but obviously didn't know everything about her since he still didn't know her half-demon secret.

Rubi searched through her small bag for her red cloth, which she used to wash her face, and headed towards the river they were camped near. She looked in the never-still water to see how bad she looked from a night of sleeping on her side, and just held herself back from screaming.

She should have known. Should've anticipated it. But the thrill of the moment, or of the last three weeks, had cleared her mind of everything but the present. She was normal. She was human.

For one full day, once every month, all half-demons turn completely human. She couldn't use any of her powers. No controlling fire, no using her staff, except for hand-to-hand combat. Not even super-human strength and speed. And she had to keep it a complete secret. But the worst part of the whole situation was that Rubi Tamasho's appearance was human too. Red streaks, pointed ears, pointed teeth and pointed fingernails were gone.

The used-to-be-fire-demoness picked up a stone and threw it as far as she could. This totaled to halfway across the river. In her normal state, she could have easily cleared the river and beyond with only a flick of her wrist. Rubi sighed heavily. What would she do? Take an all-day walk in the forest; come back at past-twelve? Much too suspicious. She picked a plump red berry off the bush and rolled it between her two forefingers, thinking. The berry split, spraying blood-red juice all over her leg.

Rubi swore, even though her pant leg was red already, annoyed at the world.

Urgh, now I have to wash the traveling suit. The stain is the same colour as my hair… wait a minute! If the dye stained her clothes, wouldn't it stain her hair just as well? She could only try.

In just a few minutes, Rubi knew her reasoning was correct. Yes, the streaks were in different places, but who would memorize her hair like that, just so they could check? She wouldn't put it past Jaken. But when she was finished, and admiring herself in the river, Rubi knew her hair at least would fool them. Now, just to hide her fingernails and ears, not to mention her powers for a day, and she'd be fine… or as close to fine as she'd ever get.

"Where is the breakfast?"

"Get it yourself, lazy sod!" Rubi replied carefully as she entered the clearing. Not wanting to admit her human body was starved on the point of passing out. But hopefully Jaken would get some food soon, and save her the time of thinking up an explanation for randomly falling unconscious.

She moved around as quickly as she could, which looked just a tad slow of her usual demon walking. Finally getting dizzy, she gave up.

"Fine, I'll get it, just know that you owe me one, toad!" she threatened as she half-stumbled off into the bushes to look for a walking meal. Rubi wondered if her voice sounded different human. If it did, she'd be in huge trouble.

She threw her staff spiky-end-forward at the first animal she saw. Hunting wildlife had become a regular part of her 24-hour schedule since she or Jaken were the ones who usually did it. No animal could escape her fire-staff hurled at a speed so great you couldn't even see it.

But of course, she was human, and the staff fell to the ground shortly after the mammal had bolted for safety.

"Damn it!" she vehemently whispered under her breath as her vision swayed before her. Just then, a rabbit hopped up, totally oblivious to her presence.

"You will not escape me!" she yelled and stabbed her staff at it. Fortunately, it fell over as the life ebbed out of its tiny body. Rubi smiled grimly in satisfaction.

"Now, to roast you… but I can't light a fire. Gr-eat."

"What are you waiting for? Light the fire, Rubi," Sesshomaru said as he watched her with minimal interest. His silvery-white hair was still damp from the river-bath he had taken earlier. Rubi tried to imagine him without his white kimono, and then questioned her own sanity. She was brought back to the present by his words.

"Right then, I'll be on it!" she spoke trying to keep her voice level. How was she going to pull this off?

His attention was diverted for a second by Jaken poking a slug with a stick. The slug then exploded, covering everything in a one-meter radius (everything including the Demon Lord) in slug goo and causing the toad-demon to scream rather loudly. Rubi stifled a giggle and quickly grabbed two sticks, rubbing them together as fast as she could.

"I am going to have to take another bath now," Sesshomaru stated dryly, standing up, first kicking his goo-covered vassal and then walking off into the forest. Rubi inwardly danced.

While Jaken picked the slime off himself, Rubi, to her immediate surprise, got a nice, healthy fire going. He held up a huge gob of it and stated,

"This looks like vomit!"

She made a face. "I think I'm going to barf now!"

They were off again, Sesshomaru regarding his servant rather coldly, and Rubi randomly bursting out into fits of laughter. During one of her fits, a huge shadow loomed over the group, and Rubi's laughter stopped immediately. A short-ish cliff (but still a lot higher than a hill) stood in front of them. And Rubi knew that when an obstacle was in the way, you jump over it. She also knew it took demonic strength to perform that feat. Unfortunately, that was one thing she was sorely lacking today.

Just as the Demon Lord was picking up Jaken and preparing to jump, Rubi's lightning-fast mind kicked in and she fell to the ground with a little moan. Everyone stopped and looked at her.

"It was a huge rock, I think I just twisted my ankle," she squeezed her eyes shut and took in a sharp breath of air for good measure. She thought she looked pretty convincing.

"What is the matter with my servants today?" she could just here Sesshomaru muttering under his breath as he moved closer towards her. He bent down and, much to Rubi's surprise; he picked her up in both arms and jumped, carrying her with a miniscule amount of effort. He could probably carry hundreds of times her weight without even blinking.

Rubi felt warmness creeping up onto her cheeks. Why in the world was she blushing? Maybe because she had never been this close to him before, his armored chest pressing against her side? Or because she was utterly insane, as her thoughts this morning had already proven? Yep. Definitely the second one.

The usual night sounds were counting down the minutes. It can't be that much longer, Rubi thought as she lay upon her makeshift blanket-bed, listening. Three… two… one…

She felt a warm sensation start at her head, then rush down her neck, and before long it was felt in every one of her veins. It only lasted for a second or two, and when it had taken it's leave, Rubi reached over and grabbed a branch the thickness of her leg. She broke it clean in half with little effort.

"I'm back to normal."

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