Title: Learning to Trust
Genre: General
Pairings: None
Rating: PG
Summary: While Amara is out hunting, she befriends a girl in the woods. What happens when Rin discovers her rescuer is a wolf demon?
Amara shot ahead of Ginta and Hakkaku. Ever since the whole ordeal with the Birds of Paradise, Kouga had ordered that someone always accompany Amara wherever she went. Not that she minded though, since most of the time it was Ginta or Hakkaku that would come along. She liked both of them, and she could tell Kouga had pretty much planned it from the start to always have one, or both, of them in her presence. Today, both of them had volunteered to help Amara with her hunting skills. Keeping up with her, though, was an entirely different matter. Running along with them were some of the wolves.
"Amara-chan," Hakkaku panted when he and Ginta finally caught up to her, "why do you have to go so fast? You know Ginta and I can't keep up." Earlier, Amara had tried to explain how she could run fast like Kouga, but gave up since the pack didn't know much about science. They just accepted the fact that since she was a descendant of Kouga and Ayame, she had inherited his speed. She still wasn't totally over her injuries from a few weeks ago, but she could still keep up with Kouga.
She had come to Sengoku Jidai by herself this time. Kagome had a test she really needed to study for, so she told Amara to tell InuYasha and the others she would be back right after the test. Unfortunately for them, Kagome's test was still a couple of days away. When Amara told this to InuYasha, he got all huffy and said "Keh, she's slowing us down on purpose. Just because we got into a fight, she's gotta drag it out." Amara had simply rolled her eyes and then made her way towards the mountains where Kouga and Ayame's pack lived. She noted that she spent more time with the wolf pack than Kagome and the others. When she had tried apologizing to Kagome, the younger girl told her not to worry. Now, here she was, hunting with Ginta and Hakkaku. She had to admit, dressed in her fur loincloth and armor, she felt almost like she belonged in the past.
"Should we take you back?"
"Are you hurt?"
"Should we carry you?"
"Kouga's going to kill us."
She rolled over on her stomach and grinned at them. "I'm fine, just worn out a little. I've got to pace myself until I'm better." She stopped suddenly and sniffed the air. Something was wrong. Suddenly, there was a yell from a girl. Like a shot, she ran towards the scream, Ginta and Hakkaku yelling for her to stop. She skidded to a halt just at the edge of a small clearing. There were five bandits, and one of them held up a small girl. She had long dark hair and her yukata was checkered with orange and white and she wore a green obi around her waist.
"Well now, aren't you just a cute little thing. Shame somebody left you all by yourself out here in the woods where anyone could just find you." The leader was the one who said this. Bigger than his comrades, he held the girl up off the ground by her obi. The girl kicked and fought, but the man held her at arms length. Amara growled. She felt something spark inside her. Some of the wolves that had followed her growled as well. As the men continued to joke about the small girl, she piped up.
"You had better let me go," she said very matter of factly, "or else Sesshoumaru-sama will be angry."
"Oh yeah," the leader replied. "What's he gonna do? Some lord won't do anything to us, especially one we've never heard of."
Amara thought it odd that this little girl was referring to Sesshoumaru, the same demon that InuYasha had said was his brother. Although, come to think of it, they had mentioned a small girl that he took care of. Feeling the need to do something, she popped up from her hiding place. Startled, the men backed away.
"Listen demon," their leader said, still holding the girl, "don't make us kill you. All we want is the girl. We've got no quarrel with you."
"You're right, of course, what you do to the girl is really none of my business. Sadly though, I don't really think she likes being handled by you, so why don't you just let her go."
She started toward them, her wolves by her side, growling at the men. The men took a few steps back, but the leader refused to let go of the girl. Amara was getting impatient. Finally, she lunged at them and pounced on the leader. This caused the girl and the men to scream in unison. The leader dropped the girl and he and his men ran off. The girl curled up into a ball, and was shaking very hard.
Amara approached the girl carefully. Curled up like she was, Amara couldn't get a good look at her. She was shaking really hard too, whimpering over and over, "Not wolves. Oh no, no, no, no, no."
"Hey, it's okay. Those guys are gone, and I won't hurt you." The girl looked up at Amara, fear in her eyes. Amara guessed because she was a demon, but on closer inspection, she could sense it was something else.
"My name is Amara. Please don't be afraid."
"Are you a wolf demon?"
"Yes, but I don't eat humans or anything like that. Besides, our leader told us not to. My wolves won't hurt you either," here she kicked at one of the wolves that had gotten too close to the girl. "If they eat a human, I'll have a new outfit or blanket." The girl smiled. "Thank you for saving me. My name is Rin."
Although Rin told Amara she had been left on her own plenty of times before, Amara refused. "I'll leave when your Sesshoumaru-sama comes back." The two of them sat together for a while. Rin asked about Amara and why she didn't eat humans. "Well, I was raised with humans. They're my friends and no matter how bad a human is, I won't eat one. It would be too odd." Rin was satisfied with the answer, and she sat quietly most of the time. Once, when Amara looked down, she noticed Rin had fallen asleep, her head propped up against Amara's shoulder. Amara shifted a bit to allow Rin more comfort, and she ended up dosing off herself.
The sun was beginning to set when Amara awoke. Rin was still sound asleep, so as carefully as she could, she laid the girl down on the soft grass. Stretching, Amara noticed a huged demon flying in the sky, looking as if it was getting ready to land. When she realized it intended on landing where she was standing, she backed up closer to Rin, and crouched down beside her, ready to defend the small girl. The demon resembled a dragon, and had two heads. "That must be Ah-Un." A white haired man got off, followed by another, smaller demon that represented a toad."And that must be her Sesshoumaru-sama and Jaken-sama." She noticed that they both seemed to sniff out her scent. "My Lord," the toad demon said, "it's a wolf demon." Here, the smaller creature noticed Rin lying beside Amara. "She's killed Rin!!" Jaken screeched. Sesshoumaru looked calm, but Amara didn't like the cold look in his eyes. "Jaken, be quiet. Do you smell any blood?" Jaken was quiet. "No, my Lord." "Well then, Rin isn't dead." His eyes swept over Amara, and she noticed his hand didn't leave the hilt of his sword, just in case he needed to use it.
"I mean no harm to Rin. Some bandits came by earlier and I heard her scream. I scared them off and I was just sitting with her until you came back." Here she looked at Sesshoumaru. "You must be Lord Sesshoumaru. I'm Amara of the wolf youkai pack."
Sesshoumaru didn't drop his guard, but simply thanked Amara for her concern. "She's afraid of wolves and wolf youkai, isn't she?" Amara asked after a few moments of silence passed between the two demons. "Yes," Sesshoumaru answered, "wolves from your pack killed her. Your leader was in charge of them and allowed them to slaughter an entire village. Rin tried to run from them, but they attacked and killed her. I revieved her with my sword." He touched his second sword. "The only reason I did it was because she showed no fear towards me when I was wounded. She showed concern." For a moment, Amara could have sworn she saw a small amount of tenderness in his eyes, but she wasn't entirely sure. "I'm sorry that happened. We no longer kill humans, Kouga commanded as such." She smiled and added, "Rin seems to be doing well with you though. She's very brave for such a young girl."
The two youkai were quiet for a moment as they both watched Rin. As if the girl knew she was being watched, her eyes opened, she stretched and gave a very loud yawn. Seeing Sesshoumaru next to Amara, Rin hopped up.
"Sesshoumaru-sama, you're back! This is Amara, she's a wolf demon and very nice."
Sesshoumaru smiled slightly at Rin's explaination. As Rin chattered away about the day she and Amara had, he noticed two other demons come towards them. Amara noticed his tense expression and followed his gaze.
"Amara-chan! We've been looking all over for you. We thought something had happened..." Ginta's voice trailed off as he saw who stood beside Amara. Both he and Hakkaku took a step back, eyes wide with fear. Amara noticed then that it was almost nightfall and she needed to get back to the den. "It's alright, Ginta. I'm ready to head home." She bent down to Rin's level. "Be a good girl okay? I'll try to come visit you if it's alright with Sesshoumaru-sama." Rin smiled and looked up at Sesshoumaru. "Please, Sesshoumaru-sama? Can Amara-chan come visit us?" Sesshoumaru looked down at Rin, the barest movement of his head confrimed his answer, "I don't see why not."
Rin turned suddenly and hugged Amara fiercely, "Thank you for rescuing me, Amara-chan. You are the best wolf demon ever." Giving Rin a hug back, she stood and bowed slightly to Sesshoumaru. "Thank you, Lord Sesshoumaru, for allowing us to become friends." Turning towards Ginta and Hakkaku, she grinned and added, "You're not as bad as InuYasha makes you out to be." With a final wave to Rin, she took off, followed by Hakkaku and Ginta.
With a baffled look on his face, he looked down at his small compainion. "Rin, who was that girl?"
"Oh, just a new friend, Sesshoumaru-sama."