Disclaimer: The show and manga 'InuYasha' and all its characters belong to R. Takahashi and Sunrise. I own nothing.
A/N 1: This fanfic is a stand-alone, but it is still part of the 'UNEXPECTED TURN-UNIVERSE'. This is the first of some short side stories to the main plot of the 'UNEXPECTED TURN-UNIVERSE'. If you are looking for the main fanfic 'UNEXPECTED TURN' then you are looking in vain, yet, cos it isn't written yet. (but soon I hope)
A/N 2: Please review. Flames are allowed, but please consider that English is my second language and I wrote this within an hour at 11PM. And tenses never were my favourites in English grammar.
Vocabulary:
inu = dog
youkai = demon
hai = yes
arigato = thanks
The sunrays melted away the last evidences from the long cold winter that just had found its end a few days ago. For the first time in sixty years the Lord of the Western Lands had spend a whole winter in his castle's shelter. It wasn't because of him. He was a full Inu-youkai, who didn't need protection from the freezing cold. It was because of his little human ward.
It's more than a half a year ago when Sesshoumaru was found wounded by the little human girl, called Rin. She hadn't feared him then and she always showed respect towards him and listened to his every word. Every time he left the girl, she waited for him no matter how long he'd have been gone. She would cheerfully run towards him, hugging his leg and telling him how much she had missed him. The child was loud but not annoying and he liked her company.
The brown-haired girl was a few meters in front of her lord and his servant Jaken, happily binding the final flowers together to her first chain that she'd made in this new year. She inspected her handmade work and threw it in the air, watching the white blooms glitter in the sunlight. When she caught it a strange thing out of wood fell into her eyes. Rin went closer to it studying the black symbols on a wooden ground that was put up into the air by a wooden bar.
Curious she turned around facing her lord. "Huh, what's that?" She pointed her index-finger to the wooden construction.
Jaken approached the girl and answered her in a really annoyed voice: "That's a sign."
The eight-year old wasn't satisfied by the toad's respond. "What's a sign for, Jaken-sama?"
"A sign tells you where to go." Told Jaken while rolling his big eyes.
"How can wood talk?" Now Rin was confused. Never could the little green demon explain something to her without being boring and in a way she didn't get what he was saying; but Sesshoumaru-sama could explain everything to her. "Rin doesn't hear anything."
"Not the wood, you stupid human!" Jaken screamed at the child, but earned Sesshoumaru's cold glare. 'Oh, no. My life's going to be shorter and shorter.'
The Lord of the Western Lands stood next to his young ward. "Rin, you see the symbols on the wood?" The girl nodded understanding and her lord continued. "These are letters. You can write every spoken word with letters. So you can 'tell' someone else something without really speaking to him."
Rin's eyes widened when she understood the importance of these weird drawings. "And what do these letters tell us?"
"They 'say' that the castle of Lord Takeshi is in that direction."
"Oh." After a moment she inquired more information. "How do you know that, Sesshoumaru-sama?"
"I read the letters on this sign." His emotionless gaze fell upon the girl.
She looked up at him directly in his eyes, not fearing anything. "Can Rin learn to read letters, too?"
That was enough. Jaken couldn't understand why the mighty Sesshoumaru wasted his precious time with explaining simple stuff to a stupid worthless human child. "Of course not! You are a girl! Girls don't have to learn to read!"
"Jaken!" growled Sesshoumaru angry shushing his servant with another glare.
The lord looked to Rin then back to Jaken, deciding what to do. "I have business to take care of. Jaken, while I'm gone, I want you to teach Rin how to write and to read."
"But, me lord?"
"Understood?!" asked Sesshoumaru quiet, awaiting obedience by his servant.
With a deep sigh the little toad-demon gave in. "Hai, me lord." Hearing that, a cheerful yelp escaped from Rin's lips and she threw her little arms around the servant's neck. Jaken immediately tried to push the child away. "Stop it!"
"Arigato, Sesshoumaru-sama! Arigato, Jaken-sama!" Delight appeared all over the child's face.
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TBC…
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PLEASE REVIEW