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Early before the dawn, Sesshoumaru was standing a slight distance away from his sleeping companions. The night was quiet and still, boring almost, making his mind turn to itself for entertainment. He wondered how long it would take to reach the southern forests, and if this Kaijinbou would be as hard to persuade to make a sword as Toutousai had been. It seemed to Sesshoumaru that he was doomed never to have a useful weapon.
A slight gust of wind suddenly brought a new scent drifting to Sesshoumaru. New to the vicinity, at least, but annoyingly familiar to him. Inuyasha was in the area. He didn't particularly care to see Inuyasha at the moment, but it didn't really matter, as Inuyasha was quite far off. Probably too far for Inuyasha to smell him, at any rate. The hanyou's sense of smell was good, of course, but still not a match for his own. Not only were Sesshoumaru's senses much better than a human's, but they were much better than a dog's, or those of any other animal. Youkai were superior to everything else.
At any rate, he didn't care what Inuyasha was doing, and it was unlikely that they would encounter each other. It was doubtful that Inuyasha would seek him out, and he had no plans of going in the hanyou's direction. He had no reason, as well as more pressing matters that needed attending to.
Sesshoumaru waited until shortly after daylight to wake Jaken and Rin up. He jabbed Jaken several times with his foot, and then knelt to shake Rin. She woke up immediately, eyes flying open worriedly as she swiftly sat up. "Rin's sorry! Rin's leaving!" she blurted out, before her eyes caught sight of him. Then she looked around, as if suddenly noticing her surroundings. After that, her eyes grew bright and a huge smile appeared on her face. "Sesshoumaru-sama!"
"What?" he asked, not sure if she wanted to say something, or if she was simply saying good morning.
She grinned again. "Rin's happy!"
Then she got up, and ran to where "Ahun" was standing. He wondered at her odd behavior for a moment, before he finally decided that she must have been having one of those human dreams. Well, dreams weren't limited to humans, he corrected himself, but youkai didn't get them as much because they slept less often. But whatever she had been dreaming about, it had disappeared the moment that she had laid eyes on him. Seeing a youkai leaning over you first thing in the morning should not be a comforting thing, he thought. But to her, it was. All traces of whatever she had been dreaming about had instantly vanished when she saw him.
Anyway, it didn't matter. He had stopped pondering about her, as there was seemingly nothing left to ponder. She had freely gone with a youkai in the beginning because she had had no idea. Now she knew everything, but still looked at him as if he were her entire world. Sesshoumaru had never meant to acquire something like her, it had just sort of happened. All because he had been curious. He had been distantly interested in her at first, but now he was getting used to her constant presence. It was not supposed to be like this in the beginning, but now it seemed almost natural to have her around. Sesshoumaru wondered at exactly what point he had lost control of the situation.
He walked over to where she was standing by the dragon, and noticed Jaken's absence. Then he saw that Jaken was still where he had seen him last, lying in some tall grasses--asleep. Sesshoumaru frowned. Jaken should have awakened immediately.
"Jaken." he said loudly.
He got no response. He started to walk in Jaken's direction, but Rin spoke first.
"Sesshoumaru-sama?"
He turned his attention to her for the moment; perhaps he would make Jaken pay for the delay later. If he wasn't still asleep, they could at least be walking while she talked. She had now crawled up on top of the dragon, and was eating the rest of whatever she had gotten at the village. In between bites, she began talking about what he had expected the night before--everything that she had seen and done at the festival. She actually talked for a much shorter time about it than he thought that she would. But that was good, at least she didn't ramble on and on. She abruptly stopped, apparently finished. Then her face lit up as she remembered something else.
"And look what else Rin got with her coin!" she exclaimed happily, pulling a small comb out of her clothes. "Now Rin's hair will stay nice! Rin bought food and a comb of her own with the coin! And Jaken-sama's sake with his coin, too. Now maybe he'll like Rin more!" Then she began to comb her hair.
Suddenly it dawned on Sesshoumaru. Jaken was asleep because he was still under the influence of that human drink. What a pathetic youkai--he should have been able to handle it. Sesshoumaru walked back to where Jaken was lying on the ground.
"Jaken!"
Jaken didn't move. This was getting annoying. He picked Jaken up. Then Sesshoumaru raised his arm out straight before him, still dangling a sleeping Jaken from it. He released his grasp, and let Jaken fall unceremoniously to the ground.
Jaken jumped up, tottering a bit. "Who...what, what? Oh! Sesshoumaru-sama!" he said, looking up.
Acting as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened, Sesshoumaru turned and walked away. "We're leaving." He heard Jaken fall down again behind him, before he was quickly following.
"Sesshoumaru-sama! Can Rin ride on Ah and Un, or does Rin have to walk?"
"Ride if you want," he said as he walked past her, pulling the reins after him. Her small weight wouldn't be a bother to the dragon in the least.
"Hurry up, Jaken-sama!" Rin called loudly to Jaken, who was still behind.
"Can't you be quieter?" Jaken mumbled as he moved to catch up.
They walked through the grasslands in silence, except for Rin's intermittent humming, until Jaken finally spoke in the afternoon.
"You that think this sword maker can really make the sword that you desire, Sesshoumaru-sama?"
"Possibly."
"Why not try to get Tetsusaiga again, Sesshoumaru-sama? It is surely a superior sword."
"Fool. What use do I have for a sword that I cannot hold?"
"But you could hold it, with that human arm," Jaken said. "Perhaps we could get another shard of that jewel."
"I do not care to become involved in the whole Shikon affair. And wearing a human arm is degrading."
"Yes, Sesshoumaru-sama."
Then Rin spoke up, and asked him about his arm, before she announced that she was hungry. Upon questioning her, he discovered that she could find food on her own, if given the opportunity and land with sufficient resources. Sesshoumaru had suspected as much, since she seemed to be more or less taking care of herself before she went with him.
They stopped at a stream, at which point she got a drink, and then ran off among the trees lining its banks to find something to eat. She came back quickly, with a few mushrooms in her hands. Sesshoumaru appraised her skeptically. He wasn't around humans that much, and had never paid great attention to their eating habits when he was. He wondered if several mushrooms were all that she needed to fill her up.
"Rin found mushrooms," she announced sullenly, her voice sounding as if there was something else that she wanted to say.
"And?" Sesshoumaru prompted, not completely sure why he wanted to know.
She looked up at him with sulky eyes. "And Rin found a tree with really good fruit on it. But there aren't any branches to climb, and what's on the ground is bad. Stupid tree!"
She obviously saw nothing to do about, but wanted to tell her problems to someone. After she had done so, she walked back over to the stream to get another drink, and ate her mushrooms. She tried to talk to Jaken, but he was sitting on the back of the dragon and told her to go away. Finally, she ended up back in front of him.
"Sesshoumaru-sama?"
"What?"
"Rin's still hungry," she said somewhat apologetically.
Apparently the mushrooms weren't enough. He wasn't sure if she just wanted to tell him, or if she expected that he could do something about it. He could, though, and he had made the effort to get her food before, so why not now?
"Where's this tree?" he asked.
"The fruit's too high," she said.
But she led him the short distance without question, stopping and pointing at a tree. It was tall, its branches probably fifteen feet in the air. Yellow fruit could be seen dangling among the leaves.
Sesshoumaru wordlessly jumped up, hit a large branch forcefully, and landed as the fruit fell like rain around him. She squealed and ran over, picking up as much of the fruit as she could carry.
"Thank you, Sesshoumaru-sama!" Then she paused. "Sesshoumaru-sama can jump higher than Rin. How come?"
"Youkai."
"Oh," she said slowly, as if that one word explained everything, which he supposed that it more or less did.
They went back to where Jaken and the dragon were, and were soon on the move again, walking until he deemed it time to stop. All things considered, Sesshoumaru thought that they were making good time. They were at the very edge of the southern forests now, and would probably walk along the tree line much of the next day. An unexpected wind suddenly blew over the meadow, once more distantly reminding him of Inuaysha's presence.
"Sesshoumaru-sama, Rin is cold."
He looked at her. The night was colder than others, he supposed, but he hadn't really been paying attention. Temperature didn't affect him much. But humans were susceptible to it--just as they were to everything else, he remembered. It was amazing that they managed to survive at all.
"Get some firewood, then," he finally said.
"But...Rin can't..." she trailed off.
"Can you not see?" he asked.
"No."
He would have thought that there was enough light; she had been walking not too long ago. But walking and looking for something on the ground was different, he supposed.
"Jaken, get some firewood."
"Me, Sesshoumaru-sama?"
"She can't see. Are you suggesting that I do it?"
"Of c-course not, Sesshoumaru-sama!"
With that, Jaken walked off, returning a few moments later with a small armful of sticks, which he dumped in front of Rin. Seeing that it wasn't going to be enough, he went off again without being told to, and brought back some more. Sesshoumaru looked at Rin, who had already started sorting the sticks out by size, and was now arranging them into a small pile. He was slightly surprised that she knew how to do this. She added the rest of the sticks to the pile, and then looked at Jaken.
"Rin's not good at lighting fires," she said. "Does Jaken-sama know how?"
"I have this," Jaken said importantly, holding up the Nintoujou and pointing it at the sticks. One small stream of flame erupted from the staff, instantly lighting the fire ablaze.
"Wow, Jaken-sama!" she exclaimed, before settling down in front of the flames. Jaken's ego was obviously somewhat boosted from the small praise, but when she said no more, he went off to go to sleep.
Sesshoumaru watched Rin, who sat by the fire. He didn't like fire, personally--he didn't have a use for its light or warmth. And it was too obvious, like broadcasting his presence over the entire area. Though he realized that his presence alone was enough to broadcast his presence to any youkai, and that the only thing that a fire might bring would be humans. Still, he preferred the darkness.
Obviously warm enough, Rin suddenly moved over to his side, and was asleep in no time. He knew that she wouldn't know any different, so he got up and wandered the area a bit, but felt oddly uneasy about doing so. This place wasn't completely devoid of youki, as the last few places that they had rested at night had been. He hadn't had a problem leaving the small camp where had they slept then. He had never had problems before, even in places where the youki was abundant. If Jaken got eaten, then Jaken got eaten. If his youkai senses weren't enough to warn him of approaching danger, then that was that. It wasn't Sesshoumaru's job to keep watch while Jaken slept. So what was bothering him?
Rin, the answer came. She didn't have youkai senses. She was oblivious to everything around her when she was asleep. Sesshoumaru turned and slowly made his way back to the distant fire, absently picking up two large sticks as he did so. He then sat down next to the sleeping girl, and threw the sticks into the fire, watching them burn.
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