It had been four days now since Rin and Shippo had come across the caravan, and while they drew closer to Totosai's forge, supplies were beginning to run low. No matter how they looked at it, they were going to have to stop in a village to barter for more. It wasn't an idea they liked. Visiting a village other than Edo meant risking a fight with paranoid or superstitious villagers, a prospect made only a little less likely by Rin's status as a priestess. Shippo knew his heritage was plain as day, but he also didn't want to let Rin go in alone, and so they went together into the next village they came across, just a few hours into the sixth day of their trek.

The village was a small place, more likely than not without a name, a collection of maybe six farming families living and working together in relative peace, too small for bandits or lords to be bothered harassing but still with enough people to get by even when some were too sick or hurt to work. However, in spite of the sun in the sky and fine weather, nobody seemed to be working the fields, which struck them as odd- fields needed tending to produce a good crop yield, and would wither without attention. Concerned, they went to find the largest of the small homes there, the likely home of the headman, and Rin called out.

"Hello? Is anyone here?"

"Go away!" a voice responded. "We've no need of further demons here! My people saw you before you came in, I know there's a fox with you."

Shippo gave an exasperated sigh. He knew this would happen. But a word caught his attention, and he decided to question it. "Further demons? You mean there's one already here?"

"Yes, and it's keeping us from our fields! If this goes on our crop will be ruined and we'll starve! We have troubles enough already, now leave us alone!"

"We could exorcise it for you," Rin offered. "I'm a priestess, I can help you. Please tell me about the demon in your fields."

At that, the headman- a small fellow, likely no more than twenty years of age- poked his head out from under the curtain serving as his door. "You wear a priestess' clothes, but traveling with a demon tells another story!"

"I'm not here to hurt anyone," Shippo assured the headman. "I'm a traveler the same as anyone else."

"Sorry if I don't take your word for it, fox."

"What can we do to earn your trust?" Rin asked. "We only came to town to barter for supplies."

"A demon wants to barter," the headman snorted. "Imagine that. Why don't we kill two birds with one stone? You get rid of the demon in our fields and I'll believe you about being a priestess, and you can take three days' rice from our stores. More than a fair price to get back into our fields so we don't starve."

"There," Rin said, flashing her patented smile. "We came to an agreement. Now, tell us about this demon."

"Well, it's a pretty big one. Real nasty bastard, a giant snake. It's already eaten two of us and just plain killed one more. Normally, we'd call in demonslayers, but nobody's been able to contact them in nearly a decade. Too bad. They'd probably have made short work of the damn thing. Best be careful- it's sneaky, and the bites'll rot the flesh right off your bones. The thing attacks just about whatever wanders into the fields, laying low in the grass, trying to catch its prey unaware."

Shippo rubbed his chin, deep in thought for a few moments. "I think I have an idea," he said. "Let's go, Rin. This'll be over before it starts."

MUQFF

But a few minutes later, they were at the edges of the fields. Shippo pulled an acorn from his vest and tossed it, using his fox magic to form a clone. "Get an arrow ready, Rin," he said, directing the replica Shippo into the fields to wander. It didn't take long at all for the snake to burst up from the rice fields, rearing its ugly head, which might have been as big as most of the huts in the village all on its own. "Loose your arrow!"

Rin let her arrow fly, and it flew true, striking the snake in the eye, but she and Shippo had forgotten to account for something important- she was not as powerful as the priestesses who'd trained her, not even close. She'd certainly done her damage, leaving the snake hissing in pain, but her arrow had failed to destroy it, giving the injured demon the chance to dive down on them while Rin drew another arrow from her quiver. While it missed her, it still came down before she could fully draw her bow, knocking her over and sending the arrow flying weak and wild, while the snake turned its attention to Shippo, who fell on his rear, panicked, and resorted to the most basic magic he knew. From his hands came the blue foxfire, hotter by far than it had been when he was a child, though still not very strong an attack. Even so, it was enough to turn the snake away and buy himself a few moments to remove several pebbles from his vest, and toss them in the air. It was time to try that new spell. As they fell, the rocks grew and grew, until they were massive boulders. His illusion was more than real enough for the snake, which fell under their imaginary weight hissing and writhing, pinned to the earth by his magic. "Quick, Rin!" he shouted. "Shoot it! I don't know how long I can hold this!"

Rin nodded and began drawing and loosing her sacred arrows just as fast as she could, leaving the thrashing creature in more and more pain until it could feel no more. Her fingers bleeding and her quiver empty, she sank to her knees as Shippo's illusion gave out and the snake twitched the last of its death throes, the two heroes panting, exhausted but victorious. Rin wasn't quite used to fighting yet- Edo was relatively peaceful, and Sesshomaru had done most of the fighting when they traveled together. The adrenaline had her shaking like a leaf.

A few minutes later, they could stand again, and Rin began picking up any arrows she could reuse, with Shippo's help. "We should be glad we're not hurt," the fox demon said. "That thing was stronger than I thought."

"I know," Rin said. "Lord Sesshomaru always made it seem so easy when he fought."

"For him, it is easy. He's a powerful demon. But I'm not that strong at all, and you're a regular human. Maybe it was a mistake to think this'd be as easy for us as Inu-Yasha would find it."

"But we still beat it!" Rin exclaimed. "Now these people can go back into the fields without worrying and we have enough supplies to get to the forge. Everything worked out alright in the end."

MUQFF

When they showed the headman the snake, he was astonished, apologizing in shock for his doubts. As agreed, they took their payment in rice and went along their way with a goodbye much warmer than the greeting had been.

"I'm glad we decided to help those people," Rin said.

"So am I," Shippo replied. "I'm a little sore, but I feel good about it. It feels good to do good. Or, that's how Miroku used to put it when he was actually helping people and not just pretending their houses were haunted so he could get free housing out of them."

"Miroku really did that?!"

"All the time. Still, the rest of us don't get to be mad about it. We let him do it and we weren't exactly missing out on the benefits. It probably saved our butts more than a few times, too."

Rin nodded. "Sometimes, we have to do things we don't like to get by."

"I wouldn't call it getting by. It was too good for those words. Miroku's cons were practically an art. He turned over a new leaf when he settled down with Sango, big time. He's still a big pervert, but only for her now."

Rin suddenly burst out laughing, a deep laugh that came right from the belly. It proved contagious, rapidly spreading to Shippo as they walked down the road to Totosai's forge, and lasted them for some time as the fox prolonged it by telling tales of Miroku's ever wilder schemes, plots and scams, both the times they went right and those that went wrong.

When they were done laughing, they found that they were no longer quite as tired or as sore as they'd been before, though they still leaned on one another a little for support by the end of the day's walk. The day had ended well- progress made, supplies replenished, and a battle won. It was a good day to be alive, Shippo decided. A good day to be alive.