Disclaimer: Not my charactes blah, blah. Hey guys I love the story alerts, favs, etc but please review too. I am a fulltime writer, currently using fanfiction as practice, so I'd really love to hear what you think. No matter how brutally honest your critiquie, in fact brutally honest is the best. Thanks!
Beyond the Trees
Chapter 4
Rin woke up to the smell of rotten onions, which she soon realized was the body odor of the man holding her over his shoulder. She tried to move but her hands were tied behind her back and her feet were secured together. She didn't give up and start to throw a fit of squirming. Rin felt a thwack on her head from a blunt object and looked up to see who had delivered the blow. It was the man in front of her. He was lifting the bottom of his spear at Rin as if to say 'if you try anything I'll bludgeon you.' His look was sinister enough to know that he meant it but that didn't stop Rin from giving him a dirty look.
Beyond him was a line of men following behind, all looking as filthy if not filthier than the next. She noticed the dirty bandit from the road. He was grabbing a bounded woman's face and pulling it to his long outstretched tongue. The girl let out a disgusted scream as his saliva journeyed up her cheek and he let out a devilish chortle of delight. There were many women bounded and being pushed forward in bonds. Many were looking down, dejected and most likely trying not to think of the horrors to come. Rin tried not to think of them either and looked back to better times, but even that did not comfort her. Instead it made her feel guilty for selfishly leaving her safe home, her family and friends to end up in this situation.
They were walking for a while before the men began announcing that camp was near. Rin tried to look forward but was immediately hit. Instead Rin looked around at the trees for some sort of hope. There was no way Sesshomaru would allow her to be taken like this. If he knew she was in danger he'd come speeding out of these woods and kill each one of these bandits. She looked at the man behind her as if to say 'there's something bad coming for you'. He scoffed at her and then moments later looked towards the woods. Rin smiled at her success in scaring him but no matter how hard she willed Sesshomaru to come, she didn't see a glint of white in the distance as she expected. Before she knew it she was being thrown to the ground in a fenced bandit settlement and looking into the eyes of a sharp eyed bandit, who she took to be the leader.
"So this is the demon exterminationer you mentioned Taku" The man said looking down at Rin. She tried to pick herself up but the man quckily and forcifully kicked her in the chest, knocking the wind out of her. "I really hate exterminators, they're like roaches. You think they're all dead, but when you lift up your feet, there they are, scurrying away." He looked down at Rin, disgusted, then kicked her before saying, "Take her to my chambers; I'll deal with her later. Show me the others." Rin was pulled up by her hair by the man who hit her with the spear earlier and she was pushed to a large tent. The man pushed her to the floor in the man's chambers and said,
"Don't try anything or else," then slid his finger across his throat. Rin looked away angrily and just sat where she was. She sat there for a while, planning her escape and listeing to the men outside. They were speaking loudly and it sounded like they were assembling to do something. She couldn't figure out what. She heard a woman crying and then a man's voice castigating her. It was undeniably the man whose chamber she was in. Her guard looked in to check on her in what seemed like every 30 seconds and when he noticed she hadn't budged he checked less frequently than more often just in case she was getting any ideas. He'd just looked in and Rin decided now was the time to set her plan in motion.
One of the first things she did upon entering was have a look around the room. There was nothing substantial to use, no weapons, no ink which she thought she could splash in the guard's face, but there was something substantial, a stick. She decided this would suffice to render the guard senseless or at least stun him. 'I'll teach him a lesson' she thought and wore an expression of cunning on her face. She lay down on her back and lifted her back off the ground with her legs stretched up in the air. Then she moved her bounded arms under her butt and bent her legs pulling her arms up and over them. She got to work untying the knots of the rope on her legs and then walked as hastily and quietly as she could over to the stick which she grabbed. She stood next to the door, breathing lightly waiting for the guard to stick his head in to check on her. She had her still bounded hands tightly grasping the stick and raised above her head.
Her heart was beating fast as she anticipated his entrance, just when she thought to give her arms a rest he peaked his head in. His face twisted in a look of confusion and before he could turn to see where she went, he felt a stick crack on his skull. He felt a tug on his waist as he tried to orient himself. When his senses cleared he realized his spear was gone, the prisoner had escaped. He ran out and yelled with all his might.
"The exterminator has escaped!" Rin was running as fast as she could to the back of the camp. She heard the thrashing of men's feet on the ground. She had a better weapon now, a spear instead of a mere stick. But she had no idea where to go, the encampment was fenced in, the only entrance was in the front and she was definitely not going there. She stared at the height of the fence and suddenly had an idea. She ran to the west wall which was the closest. Rin pulled back the spear with the most force she could muster and stabbed it into the fence at about the height of her stomach. The men were closing in. She put a hand on the fence and took a giant step on the spear, then put her other foot on as fast as she could. She felt wobbly, but held her balance for enough time to jump up and grab the pointed part of the fence with both hands and push herself up. She felt hands reaching for her and swords slashing as she used her feet to scamper up the fence. Her hands were bleeding and her chest, waist and torso were being torn up by the fence. She didn't mind the wounds and squirmed as fast as she could over the fence.
When she was got over the fence she fell almost face first but she managed to fall on her side, hurting her leg on the way. She saw arrows descending down like rain and put her back to the fence to avoid them. She heard an angry man's voice yell,
"Don't kill her! I want her back alive. But bring her in by wringng her neck if you have to, so she'll never think of escaping the gates." She heard the sound of the men rushing to the entrance and ran as fast as she could to the woods. But it was not fast enough. Rin was bleeding from all corners of her body. Her run was more of hop because of the pain in the right leg from the fall. Still she pressed on despite the pain. If there was any time she needed Sesshomaru to rescue her it was now. She wanted to cry out his name even though she knew it would give away her location. She tried to hold in the urge but tears emerged and with a hoarse cry she yelled,
"Sesshomaru!" But there was no rustle in the grass. No rush of the wind as he ran with haste. The blood loss was taking a toll on her and Rin fell to the ground. She tried to crawl away but it was no use, the grass before her was becoming blurry. She flipped herself on her back and listend to the bandits' coarse tongues surrounding her.
"I see her! On the ground over there." A voice yelled. Rin told her body to move and tried to grip the grass to pick herself up but she couldn't. The wolves were after again she thought.
"Sesshomaru" she whispered. She looked at blurry clouds pass slowly by. Everything was blending together, the blue of the sky meshing with the green of the leaves. The brown of the trunks and the black of the darkness beyond were becoming indistinguishable but still no white flicker beyond. The feet were growing closer to her. Soon she would feel the hardness of bone hitting her flesh; she hoped to pass out before that came. She couldn't bear anymore pain. Rin closed her eyes and was ready to give herself over to unconsciousness when she heard a whisper. Her eyes shot back open. The men were letting out shrieks and groans of pain. There was twang of a weapon as it was being reeled back in, then whipped out. It was not a whisper that she heard but the sound of the weapon as it flew in the air as smooth as a summer breeze cutting through the air. Rin could not see who it was or if there was a person at all. It might be her imagination playing a dying girl's wish. The pain was too much and though she mustered all her strength, she closed her eyes to a symphony of her pumping heart beat, men's death cries and the sound of a chain swinging through the air, a blade slicing the wind.