~Edited lightly. Will come tomorrow and polish. I know you guys were waiting too long for an update!~
Sayumi sat in her carriage ready to depart to the castle of the man that did not love her. Her father's further brooding behavior made her realize that things will never return back to the way they were decades ago; when her mother and sisters were still alive. She was glad to leave here. At least in Castle West, things seemed livelier than here. The subjects of the neighboring towns rarely came to the castle to visit.
"What's taking so long?" She asked annoyed peeking from the cross-hatched window, her eyes narrowed when she caught sight of the tiger general walking down the steps. She pushed the door open. "Where are you going?!"
"With you, princess," he said with a sly smile that showed off one of his protruding fangs a bit more.
"What?" She breathed confused. Footmen began arranging his trunks atop of her belongings swaying the carriage. He came towards her and swiftly jumped inside pushing her further down the seating with his strong body. She felt the entire carriage sink on its wheels. Sayumi pulled her over kimono in which his booted feet stepped on and tried to put some distance between them. "You have some nerve, Akimasa," she sulked.
Only he had the power to make her forget her ladylike manners. He was always this rude and blunt since they were young.
"I am so sorry, Princess," he said with no apology in his voice. "Are we ready, Kiyo?!" He asked his coachman. The carriage moved giving him the answer.
It wasn't until they were leaving the castle behind that Sayumi turned to him. His head was propped against the door, his eyes closed, his thick orange mane curved over his neck. His sleeveless kimono top allowed her to see the vertical markings that decorated the entirety of his golden skin. She swatted him hard on the arm with her fan causing him to grunt and jolt, hitting himself on the top of his head.
"Why did my father send you with me to the West and not my regular guards?" she fanned herself. Being in this carriage with such large men always made the air constricting.
Akimasa straightened. Because he took Kiyo with him, a man he trusted, he felt free to speak.
"Your father has relieved me of my duties, Sayumi."
Her emerald eyes widened. "But you have trained his best warriors."
"I wasn't relieved because I did something wrong. He is replacing me with someone with more experience. He wants me to marry."
From the looks of his forest green eyes, he found that strange as well. He was being replaced by a trainer Atsuya had chosen. The seriousness his face had taken scared Sayumi. And the idea of her childhood friend mating made her heart pound strangely.
"Akimasa do you trust my father?"
He stiffened. He was starting to have suspicions about the mental stability of the northern Emperor, but he didn't know enough for him to make a decision on that matter or to raise his concern to the other ministers of the north.
"I am not sure, Sayumi." He felt guilty at just the answer. They were talking about the Emperor that had taken him in when his clan was slaughtered by bandits. "Do you believe your mating with Lord Sesshomaru will restore our kingdom and our Emperor?"
Sayumi fisted her fan and shook her head, her platinum hair covering her profile. Akimasa combed it behind her slightly pointed ears and her tears slid down her cheeks. "No. I don't." She turned to him then, her tears running freely, "But I do hope that my father will return to me once again. I can't bear to lose him too."
Rin had finished visiting the last of the human villages with Yuna and waited outside Shina's home. It was extra windy with the clouds beginning to darken. A-Un stared up at the sky but continued to graze on the patch of grass next to Shina's house.
"What are you going to say when Lord Sesshomaru asks you to mate him?" Yuna asked whispery into her ear.
Rin held the basket of fruit tighter in her hand. "He will not ask that of me." She felt slightly embarrassed for how much she wanted just that, but her thoughts returned to Sayumi. She hoped the princess would take it well.
"He needs an heir. What better mate than you, Rin? You care so much about his people. You would be perfect to rule beside him." Yuna leaned into her friend's ear and stole a pear from her fruit basket before she slapped her hand away. "Plus, he has already said he loved you."
Rin frowned at her. "I don't remember you being so supportive of Lord Sesshomaru."
She bit into the juicy fruit cupping the juices with her free hand. She chewed and then said, "I only want what is best for you. Lord Sesshomaru is cold and I still don't understand how someone as sweet as you fell in love with that scary man, but he is devoted to you." She was able to see that even when Rin wasn't here. He always made sure fresh fruit was sent to her. "I just don't want you to end up unhappy like me."
The sadness in Yuna's eyes reached her. She was about to say something when they glanced at the lady that walked towards them. Her eyes darted shyly away from Rin when she stood in front of her.
"It is very nice to meet you, my lady. I think we might be getting some rain."
Rin nodded and handed her the basket. Shina was around Rin's age with hair as dark as hers, but slightly taller. She took the basket from her appreciatively.
"Thank you for hard work, Shina. I hope we can get along."
"I would love that, Lady Rin."
"Shall we go together to Shiori's banquet?" Yuna asked
Both turned to Shina to wait for her response. When she said yes, the three girls departed together.
"I thought you said this was a shortcut!" Akimasa screamed through the rain. He shielded himself with an arm over his face as Kiyo his coachman got off the carriage to meet him halfway.
"I sensed the storm an hour or so away, but it is coming now. Forgive me, Commander." His conical hat, that dripped with the rain, hid how worried he was beginning to get.
"We are in a damned cliff! Get us out of here now!" Or else he would have to leave the carriage behind and have Sayumi ride on his back. He looked up just as the lightning sparkled the sky. It was only a second when the earth rumbled and an enormous chunk of earth was falling right towards them.
Akimasa acted on instinct and burst through the carriage door to capture the princess's wrist and pulled her out just as the landslide covered them and took the carriage down with it to the forest below.
"Miss Rin!" Jin, the child bat-demon, yelled the moment he sensed her through the crowd of people at Shiori's home. He wrapped his arms around her and then smiled handing her a decanter. "My mom and I made this jelly for you."
Rin smiled and took it squatting to meet his eyes. "Thank you very much. I am sure it is yummy."
"Are you going to be my teacher?" He asked shyly, his charcoal bangs covering his eyes as he lowered his head.
"I will," she said poking his tummy playfully. "Treat me nicely."
He jumped on his feet and nodded excitedly.
Shiori's spacious home was filled with chattering and laughter after everyone's belly was stuffed. As the night wore on, Yuna and Rin watched the people dance under the overcast sun. The moist air reminding them that the rain would fall soon. Her lips stretched amused when Shina accidentally stepped on Kaage's toes. Like her, Shina was clueless about pair dancing, a tradition Rin had learned only in the West.
"Okay, young lady, up you go." Tsukuyomaru guided a little girl back to the deck where Rin and Yuna sat. He then outstretched his hand to Lady Rin with that pearly smile that she remembered well. "How about you, Lady Rin? Would you grant me a dance?"
Rin nodded and placed her hand in his.
They both danced together, quietly and in sync. She had perfected dance at school and Tsukuyomaru noticed the ease in which now moved. His heart drummed with her so close to him. Her red cloak and the mass of her black hair making his throat dry.
"Can we speak in private? There is something I wish to show you," He said, involuntarily squeezing her hand.
Rin knew that a talk in private was coming. He wanted an answer to what he had proposed her before she left. She was so busy the last couple of days with preparations for her presentation and the human villages, that she hadn't had a chance to visit with him.
"Yes. After this dance," she said with a smile.
He gave her a short nod and spun around with her.
Rin followed Tsukuyomaru on A-Un and started noticing the path he was taking. She landed right after he did at the shrine she had found when wandering in the forest. When she got off A-Un her eyes immediately widened in surprise. The shrine was entirely rebuilt. The tattered roofing of the awning was fixed, the wood polished and painted. She walked towards it passing by Tsukuyomaru who stared at her with joy in his eyes.
"I rebuilt it for you Rin," he confessed, trailing behind her quietly. She didn't respond as she walked up the three steps and clapped her hands together. The smell of incense mixing with the scent of wet earth. She turned to him with a pleased beam.
"I was the only one who cared for this place before you stumbled across it. It was initially going to be demolished, it is too deep into the forest as you know. People have forgotten it's here, but I decided to keep it. There are no servants who look after it and when I have time I come here to relax and clean it up a bit." The thought of the tall bat general using a broom put an amused smile on her lips. "When Inu No Taisho brought me in, I spend a lot of time here with baby Shiori. She used to cry so much without her mother. Here in the deepness of the forest, I thought no one would hear her and the quietness always calmed her down." He looked away, the wind pulling his silver strands. He walked to her earnest and love shining in his eyes. "I want this humble shrine, you continue to come to, to always be welcoming for you."
Rin uttered his name, touched by his kind gesture. "I don't know what to say."
"You don't have to say anything. I know you have come to a decision. I know that it is not to be by my side"
She frowned lightly in her confusion. He then laughed and tightened his arms to his side fighting the urge to brush her hair from her face as she looked up at him.
She gripped the lapels of her scarlet cloak. "You deserve someone that will reciprocate your love, Tsukuyomaru. You are such a kind man and I will never be able to repay your kindness."
"You can repay it," he said, the honesty in her words making his heart ache. He would always love her. He would always protect her. "You can repay it by allowing me to be your side. I pledge my loyalty to you before Lord Sesshomaru. Wherever your path may lead, allow me to follow you."
Rin departed on A-Un beside Yuna after accompanying Shina to her home. She thought about the drastic turn of events her life had taken since meeting Lord Sesshomaru. It was the first time anyone had ever pledged their loyalty to her. It was the first time a village girl becomes a lady, too.
"What are you thinking about, Rin?" Yuna pondered hovering beside her in the air. It was raining lightly, but her hood didn't hide her meditating aura.
Rin looked at her with a short laugh. "You never miss a thing, Yuna. I am thinking about a lot of things-"
A scream from the forest below caught Yuna's attention as Rin continued. It was faint. A scream only a demon could hear.
"Mika!" Yuna yelped, heading quickly to the forest floor.
Rin followed after her on A-Un. The moment they landed, Rin jumped off. Her hakama gave her the freedom to move with ease. She unclasped her tiny kusarigama chained to her side and jerked her wrist, the blades curving to their large proportion.
"Where is she?" Rin asked Yuna desperately.
Yuna sniffed the air. "Her scent has been hidden out of fear. I can't smell anything anymore."
"Find her before it gets dark!" Rin ordered, running through the forest the opposite direction in which Yuna turned.
"Rin! Don't go off by yourself!"
"I can protect myself," Rin said assertively before disappearing through the tall trees.
She had a bad feeling about this. The stream was around here, she was sure, Mika usually ran errands there. She will be there. Rin told herself unconvincingly, but the moment she reached it and met eyes with Mika's terrified stare she wished she had been wrong. The hog-demon in his fancy robes loomed over her with his claws tight around her neck. Mika's ripped kimono was in tatters in a pull of blood on the ground. The blood was his.
He was so intent in his actions that he hadn't scented her.
"You attack me you wench?!" He seethed. The tusks that protruded from his mouth making him sound as he was speaking through clenched teeth. "Deny me? The great hog-demon?!I will not be denied by a lowly maid!"
He was going to say something else, but he was swiftly wrapped by heavy chains, blades so close to cutting against his neck. Mika kicked him to the floor. Mika could've killed him, but she was afraid. Afraid that his status would get her in trouble.
"Who the hell are you?!" He asked the tiny woman behind him. He tried to stretch his neck as far away as he could from the blades. Rin's eyes were blazing with anger.
"I am Lady Rin, High Lord Sesshomaru's human ward. You are here early for my presentation."
His eyes widened. "It is a misunderstanding. Half-demon!" He called to Yuna who was already standing beside Rin. "Take your blades off me. Let me explain please, Lady Rin."
"Those blades are mine," Rin said clenching her hand, her kusarigama tightening around his neck. "And there is no excuse for what you have done."
"Wait, please. Lady Rin!" The hog demon begged.
"Lady Rin something wrong?!" A guard asked, landing next to her. Others landed by where Mika and the hog demon stood ready to attack.
"It took you long enough," Yuna scolded, her claws twitching to get a piece of the hog too.
Rin called her blades instantly, shrinking them and clasping them to her side. She faced the guard as the hog demon stumbled up to a standing position only to be kicked back down by Mika that covered herself with a cape a bat-guard offered.
"He hurt my friend. I want him removed from castle grounds. He is not allowed here again."
"You don't have the power to do that! I demand to see Lady Chiyoko!" He snapped angrily stepping towards her, the guards touched the hilts of their swords protectively as he stepped back.
Rin spun on her feet to face him. "It is either that or telling Lord Sesshomaru that you intended to force yourself on me." His bulging eyes widened even more. "I can assure you that my decision is the most merciful one there is. If you ever decide to return to this kingdom, rest assured that Lord Sesshomaru will kill you."
With her order, the guards dragged the hog-demon away.
Rin and Yuna entered Mika's chamber, Mikazuki swiftly gathering her trembling sister in her arms. She didn't have to tell her to know what happened. She was just glad that her younger sister was okay.
"I am sorry, Mika. That hog demon will never get near you again," Rin said, her body still trembling in her fury. Mika ripped from her sister's comforting embrace and gripped the black cape closed by where her breasts were.
She dropped to her knees catching Rin by surprise. "I will serve you for the rest of my life, my lady," Mika said, wiping a tear with a knuckle. Grateful they found her in time.
"As will I," Mikazuki said bowing deeply next to her sister.
"Don't forget me," Yuna added, facing Rin with a smile. "I will serve you until the day I die, Rin."
Rin was completely speechless. Oh, how things had changed...
Sesshomaru and Rin's reunion in the next chapter. I hope you enjoyed this one.