DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fanfiction produced for entertainment purposes only. Inu-Yasha - A Feudal Fairytale and all related characters are the creations of Rumiko Takahashi.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: The flute and flute-player mentioned in this chapter appear in episodes 133 & 134 of the Inu-Yasha anime, otherwise known as the Autumn Special, 'The Woman Who Loved Sesshoumaru'. At the end of it, Sesshoumaru told Sara to keep playing her flute for him.

 

Sesshoumaru's Heart
Chapter 2: Stolen Away
By Shadow's Mirror

 

"Jaken-sama, what did that lady mean? Who doesn't have a heart?" Rin looked down at the small youkai leading the massive two-headed beast that she was riding on, as their group walked along the rocky path meandering along the bottom of a small ravine.

Jaken scowled. "Why must you always ask such foolish questions?" He didn't know the answer, but there was no way that he was going to admit it!

Rin smiled. "Because Rin want to know the answers!"

"Well I… Oof!" Jaken's reply was cut off as he walked into something and crashed to the ground. Blinking to clear his suddenly doubled vision, he looked up. "Huh? Sesshoumaru-sama? Is something wrong?" Sesshoumaru had paused in the middle of the trail, his head raised and tilted slightly, as though he was listening to something in the distance.

"Are we stopping here?" Jaken looked around in confusion, wondering why his lord had decided to stop so suddenly. It didn't look like a very good resting place to him and besides, they'd only stopped about an hour earlier. True, their break had been interrupted by Kagura's annoying visit, but still… With Rin riding on Ah-Un, they wouldn't need to stop again until nightfall, which was still an hour or so away.

Sesshoumaru ignored his minion's prattling, his attention on a sound so faint that he wasn't even sure that he was hearing it. Perhaps he wasn't. Perhaps it was just in his mind. He'd almost convinced himself of that when the wind shifted slightly and the sound came more clearly for just a moment. Sesshoumaru frowned slightly. That was definitely the sound of a flute.

The youkai lord tensed. The sound brought back memories, but that wasn't the problem. He heard the sweet song of a flute on the wind more frequently than he cared to admit. But he knew the song that particular flute played… and this was definitely not the same song, or the same flute. He'd heard it a few times before, and he was starting to suspect that someone was following him. Someone who was taunting him with one of the few sounds that he genuinely enjoyed hearing.

"Jaken, stay here with Rin." Before the smaller youkai could respond, Sesshoumaru turned into a ball of bluish-white light and shot off to find the source of the irritating sound.

"Bye Sesshoumaru-sama! Come back soon!" Rin waved at the rapidly disappearing ball of light as Jaken sighed and started muttering to himself.

"He left me… again… If it weren't for this girl… Why does my lord Sesshoumaru-sama insist on keeping her? I'm not saying we should abandon her in a forest or anywhere dangerous. We could just leave her at a village or… huh? What's this? Mist? In the middle of the afternoon?"

Jaken blinked at the light mist that had begun to cover the area. He frowned, suddenly uneasy. "Rin… come here, quickly!" By the time the little girl had slipped off Ah-Un's back and was standing beside him, Jaken knew he wasn't imagining things. The mist was definitely becoming thicker. "This… isn't normal mist…" he muttered to himself.

Rin looked around anxiously, not liking the damp grey fog in the slightest. "Jaken-sama… Rin scared." She clutched at his sleeve. The mist was now so thick they couldn't even see each other.

Jaken planted the end of his staff firmly in the ground. "I'll…" He was about to say 'burn it off' when something, or someone, suddenly yanked the staff out of his hand! Jaken gasped and tensed, instinctively grabbing Rin to make sure that he didn't lose her too. If he did… Sesshoumaru-sama would kill him!

The thought had just run through his mind when Jaken smelled something that definitely wasn't mist. It smelled like some sort of incense. He sniffed and immediately knew it had been a mistake. He swayed dizzily, only vaguely aware of Rin as she slipped out of his weakened grasp. He heard her fall to the ground beside him. It was the last thing he heard before everything went dark.

* * *

Sesshoumaru was not a happy youkai. He'd followed the sound of the flute all over the ravine but the flute, and whoever was playing it, had proven frustratingly elusive. Every time he'd thought he'd caught up to the player, the sound had stopped and then started again, so far away that he'd had to strain his ears to hear! He had refused to give up, but in the end he hadn't had any choice. The music had stopped as suddenly as it had begun. Tilting his head to listen one last time, he sighed and resumed his ball of light form to return to Jaken and Rin.

The first sign that something was wrong was the faint mist hanging over the part of the ravine where he had left them. When he saw Ah-Un lying unconscious on the path with no sign of Rin or Jaken anywhere, Sesshoumaru knew that he had been tricked. The flute had merely been a lure to entice him away so someone could kidnap Rin! Although… why anyone would want to kidnap Jaken as well was a complete mystery to him.

He'd only been traveling with Rin a short time, but she'd been targeted for kidnapping more times than he cared to recall. Jaken on the other hand… It had been over a hundred years since Jaken had joined him, and in all that time he'd never been kidnapped even once before now!

Sesshoumaru's golden eyes glinted as they turned hard and cold. He began to sniff at the air, noting with distaste the incense that was still lingering over the area. He recognised it immediately. It was a plant that, when burnt, produced a smell powerful enough to knock out a fair-sized youkai, like Ah-Un. Jaken and Rin… especially Rin… wouldn't have stood a chance against it. But there was another scent on the breeze and Sesshoumaru grew still as satisfaction, and something that felt very much like relief, flooded through him.

The kidnapper had left a trail. All he needed to do was follow it and he would find Rin and Jaken.

It was a trap, of course. Sesshoumaru knew that. Probably one of Naraku's evil schemes, although the kidnapper's scent wasn't his, or any other scent that Sesshoumaru recognised for that matter. It made no difference though. Trap or not, he would follow the trail to wherever it took him.

As he took off after the scent, Sesshoumaru told himself that he wasn't going with the intention of rescuing Rin and Jaken. He didn't care in the least what happened to them. But he didn't like being tricked. Also, knowing that he'd fallen for such a simple distraction was something that Sesshoumaru was extremely annoyed with himself over. He was determined to take out that annoyance on someone. Preferably the one who had tricked him in the first place. If he happened to come across Rin and Jaken along the way, he might retrieve them. It depended on what kind of trouble they'd managed to get themselves into. One thing was certain though.

No one made a fool of Sesshoumaru, so whoever had done this would pay dearly.

 

To be continued…