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Rin woke up the next morning long after the dawn. The sunlight was sifting through the leaves above, its pattern on the forest floor always changing as the slight breeze blew. She looked up at Sesshoumaru-sama, but he did nothing. She touched his arm, which was next to her. Then she sat up. She was still curious about him. She started to move, but noticed his hand first. Rin had been so intent in looking at his face when he was close that she had only just noticed that his hands were different as well. She picked up his hand and looked at it, holding one of hers up to his. His were larger, of course, but the difference she noticed were the nails. Instead of being short and smooth like everyone else's, his were pointed and hard and didn't bend when you touched one. They looked like they might hurt if they scratched you. She turned his hand over and looked at the other side of the nails.
"Those are sharp."
Rin took the warning and left them alone then, and was about to put his hand down, when she saw that his arm had markings like his face did. She pulled up his sleeve a little, and traced over the marks on his wrist. Two dark stripes, just like the ones on each side of his face. She rubbed at one, applying a little pressure, wondering if the mark would wipe off. But it seemed permanent, like part of his skin, and natural for it to be there. She moved to look up at him, and drew her finger over the lines on the side of his face. Then she looked at his eyes. He was watching her--watching her look at him. But he still did nothing, so she only continued to stare at his eyes. They were golden and deep, almost unnaturally so. Rin finally decided that they reminded her of the color of an animal's eyes. They were also inexplicably hard to look into for very long. Every other time she had looked into his eyes, he had turned away after only a few seconds. But now that he returned her stare with his own silent gaze, Rin found herself wanting to look away, feeling like she was under examination. But still, his eyes were plain, with no trace of the red that had been there the night before. A small part of her wondered if it had ever even happened. It didn't seem possible for the eyes that she looked into now to have ever been like that.
She then looked at the marks on the other side of his face and his forehead before quickly deciding that they were no different from the ones that she had already inspected. Then Rin paused, before she made up her mind to reach for his sleeve. It wasn't one of the things that made him different, but it was curious nonetheless. She had seen it blowing in the wind several times, and now that she thought about it, she had never actually seen him use that arm. She tugged at the sleeve, pulling it to her without any resistance at all. He was missing an arm. Rin had seen village men uncertainly hobbling about without an arm or leg before, regaling anyone who would listen with stories of how it was lost. She wondered how Sesshoumaru-sama lost his arm. At any rate, he didn't seem bothered or inconvenienced by it, and hadn't even tied off his sleeve as many others did.
Rin then stood up, making his head almost level with hers. He was still watching her without moving, but she continued, reaching for the thing that made him immediately stand out above all else. She touched his hair, pulling a piece of it forward. It glistened as she moved it, and she held up a strand of her own hair to his, noticing how dull her newly shiny hair suddenly seemed in comparison. Then she dropped the hair, and ran her eyes over him once more. He did look different, and she had been curious about that by itself once she had noticed. Now she decided that Sesshoumaru-sama just looked different and that was simply all there was to it. Everyone looked a little different, him just more so than others. Though something else made him different. But it didn't matter. It didn't matter to Rin if she ever figured out why he seemed different. He was different, but he was the same. Sesshoumaru-sama was Sesshoumaru-sama, the person who had been nice to her. She then dropped her hands and looked at him, waiting for whatever came next.
He looked at her again, perhaps trying to decide if she was really done. Then he gave her the bag with the food in it. "Pick one thing. Save the rest." Rin did as he said, and he watched her eat. She wondered why he never seemed to eat anything. But before she could give it further thought, he stood up. "Let's go." Rin walked with him through the woods, jumping around with newfound energy and happiness. She hardly paid attention to where they were going, until he stopped in the afternoon and sat down. They were at the forest's edge now, where the trees suddenly stopped except for a few sparse ones that lingered on the land before it turned into rolling meadows.
Rin sat down next to him, enjoying the afternoon sun on her face. She wondered why they were stopping. She realized that she wondered a lot of things. Sesshoumaru-sama rarely spoke to her, and never explained where they were going or what they were doing when he did. It was always only a simple command. She wondered why he didn't speak more to her. Was it because she didn't speak back? He had wanted to talk to her when she had first met him, and was in fact the only one to do so for as long as she could remember. A small part of Rin wondered if she should speak to him. But she couldn't. Something wouldn't let her. Not yet.
Rin boredly played with some flowers next to her, for there was little else to do. Several times throughout the day, people went by at the bottom of the hill. Rin waved to any when they saw her, but few waved back, which puzzled her. In fact, once they noticed her, they seemed even more hurried to move on.
"You know how to fish, do you not?" Sesshoumaru-sama suddenly asked her. "Go to that stream and get some if you are hungry."
Rin smiled and jumped up, happy to do what he asked, and also happy because she was hungry. She waded into the cool stream, tucked her nice clothes up so that the water wouldn't stain them, and waited for any fish to swim by. Many did, but she didn't catch any of them. She moved after the fish, walking in the direction that they swam. She looked back at Sesshoumaru-sama, who still sat by the trees. Then she turned her attention to the fish again. Rin had never really been good at fishing, never having had anyone show her how to do it. Whatever she did manage to catch was usually do to luck and long hours. Another fish swam around her legs. She made a grab for it, but missed. It moved only a short distance away, and she followed it. She tried to catch it again, but it swam out of her fingers. Rin stood up straight and pushed the hair out of her eyes.
It was then that she noticed something else in the sky besides the sun. Just over the trees and to the left of the lowering sun was a blue ball of light. Rin watched it, fascinated. It grew bigger, and she realized that it was coming closer. She forgot about the fish and watched as the ball of light did indeed come closer, finally hovering only a few feet from the opposite bank of the stream. Rin stared at it, fascinated by its odd beauty. It didn't occur to her to be afraid until the ball grew and distorted, its light disappearing. A sudden wind blew, and the ball shifted into the shape of a very large dog. It looked at her.
The whole event happened in mere seconds, though it seemed like agonizing hours to Rin. The thoughts flew through her head so quickly that she barely had enough time to register them all. Her eyes grew wide, and she backed up, jumping out of the stream and looking around for anyone, anything. Sesshoumaru-sama. Where was he? He had just been on the hill. He hadn't left, she knew, but she had lost him. She couldn't see him anymore, but she knew that he was still close. If she called to him, she knew that he would come. But she had been silent for so long. She had been quiet the day that she hadn't been killed. That idea had become almost a part of her, so lost in her mind that she didn't even think about it anymore. But being quiet wouldn't help her now. The only way not to be killed was to do something. Rin opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Had it been so long that she had forgotten how to speak?
Rin tried again. "...se..."
The dog took a step closer.
"Se...sho..." the sounds came out in a small voice. Rin was frozen, her eyes glued to the big dog. Some part of her knew that even if she could get her feet to move, she would not get far before it was on her. The dog moved into a crouching stance, and opened its mouth slightly.
Rin swallowed hard, then opening her mouth and forcing it to move against the part of her will that had held it still for so long. All she had to do was say it. If she didn't, she would die.
"Sesshoumaru-saamaaaaaaa!"
The words finally escaped her lips--she had done it. Now where was he? Rin looked around, but only saw the dog. She thought it was her imagination, but the dog actually looked to have stopped coming closer, and taken a step back. And now it was doing nothing, almost as if considering something. Suddenly, Sesshoumaru-sama was next to her. How he appeared so quickly Rin didn't know, but she immediately jumped behind his leg, putting him between herself and the dog. She knew that she would be safe now.
The dog suddenly glowed again, and it shrank, becoming a man. The dog man spoke to Sesshoumaru-sama, and Sesshoumaru-sama answered back. Then Sesshoumaru-sama began to walk back to the hill and the dog man came with him. Rin didn't want him to come with them; she wanted him to go away. The dog man gave Rin a scary looking grin as he walked, and she moved to Sesshoumaru-sama's other side. Sesshoumaru-sama hadn't given any indication that he had even noticed her yet, so she grabbed at his clothes, making sure he knew that she was still there. Once back on the hill, the dog man sat across from Sesshoumaru-sama, who Rin sat behind, occasionally looking over his shoulder to make sure the dog man wasn't doing anything else.
But the dog man never even glanced in her direction. Instead, he talked to Sesshoumaru-sama, and it almost seemed that they knew each other. But Rin was still too scared to pay attention to what they said, and she was also lost in her own thoughts. The man across from her looked perfectly normal, but just a few minutes ago, he had been a giant brown dog. She didn't understand how, but he had changed, right in front of her eyes. Suddenly, he stood up, and looked at her again. She shrank back under his gaze. Then he looked at Sesshoumaru-sama. Rin was paying attention to what they were saying now because she heard the dog man say that he was leaving. He turned to go, but spun back around, switching his gaze between herself and Sesshoumaru-sama.
Then the topic of conversation turned to her. The dog man asked Sesshoumaru-sama about her. Rin listened, but Sesshoumaru-sama didn't say much. All she figured out was that Sesshoumaru-sama wasn't going to let anything happen to her, which for some reason, the dog man seemed to expect. He didn't seem to be satisfied with Sesshoumaru-sama's answers, either, and suddenly left in the same blue light that he came in. Rin looked on uncertainly, wondering if he might unexpectedly reappear again. But then Sesshoumaru-sama suddenly grabbed her and pulled her in front of him. He looked at her curiously for a moment, before he frowned slightly.
"So you can speak."
Rin looked at him.
"I just heard you."
She had just spoken, hadn't she? For the first time, she had spoken. But she had had to.
"Say something."
He wanted her to speak again. She had just uttered her first word in years. She didn't know what else to say, what she could say, or what she should say. So she said what she already had.
"Sesshoumaru-sama."
"Yes, that is my name. Do you have one?"
She nodded at him.
"What is it?"
Rin paused. Yes, she could say her name as well.
"Rin."
"Why are you following me, Rin?" he asked.
Suddenly unsure of what to do, she only said what she had said before.
"Sesshoumaru-sama!"
An annoyed look crossed his face before it was replaced by a curious one. Then he spoke again.
"Why don't you try fishing again?"
He walked back to the stream with her, and sat down by the bank. Rin watched him as she stood in the water. He was good at catching fish, much better than her. But she finally caught one, and he gave her two that he had caught. He told her to get some firewood, which she did a bit reluctantly at first, in case the dog man suddenly reappeared. But she soon decided that he wasn't coming back and that she would be safe from anything else as long as Sesshoumaru-sama was near. So she ran around the trees, gathering sticks and quickly bringing them back to him. He cooked the fish for her, and she hungrily ate all of it, but again wondered why she never saw him eating. He had never eaten the food that she had brought him in the woods, either--even telling her that he didn't need it. She didn't understand, but didn't care to think about it more. Soon it was dark, and they sat in silence until he broke it.
"Rin." She looked at him. "Why did you suddenly start speaking?"
She spoke because of him. "Sesshoumaru-sama."
"Yes, what about me?"
"Rin needed Sesshoumaru-sama," she said slowly, listening to the words as they came out of her mouth. It was good to talk again, she realized.
"And I need you to speak from now on," he told her. "Can you do that?"
Rin nodded. She had wanted to speak before, but wasn't sure that she could. And he wanted her to speak. Now that she finally had, she couldn't go backwards. But Rin found that she didn't want to. She would talk from now on.
He asked her about her family, and she told him that they were dead. Then he asked her about why she was following him again. Rin frowned. She would go with him, it was as simple as that. So she told him. He didn't answer back or ask her anything else, but told her to go to sleep.
She immediately moved over to him, without even considering the possibility that she should sleep any other way. He had let her the previous night, and it seemed natural to her. She lay down at his side, and her mind ran back over all the things that had happened to her. In a few short days, everything in her life had changed. All because of him.
"Thank you, Sesshoumaru-sama," she said quietly. He made no response, but she knew that he had heard her. He noticed everything. She watched the remains of the coals peacefully flicker, and then abruptly be reddened by a sudden gust of wind. It reminded her of the strange wind that happened when the dog man came. She looked at Sesshoumaru-sama.
"Are there youkai?"
"Youkai?"
"Close ones?" she asked.
"Probably."
Rin moved a bit closer to him, and then closed her eyes. She had never actually seen youkai until she had left the village, but they seemed to be abundant here. There were the things in the woods that sounded like what a youkai was and then there was the dog man that afternoon. She was sure that he was a youkai. He was scary, even when he looked like a man. But Sesshoumaru-sama hadn't been afraid of him. She wondered about that. Anyone should be afraid of youkai unless they were one themselves. But Sesshoumaru-sama couldn't be a youkai. He wasn't scary, he was nice. A youkai wouldn't be nice to her. Still, she couldn't imagine anyone not being afraid of a youkai, unless they knew something that she didn't. Rin didn't understand, but she didn't care that she couldn't figure it out. It didn't matter as long as she was with him. She stopped thinking about it, and quickly fell asleep.