Disclaimers Notice: No, nay, nope, nuh-uh, no way.

Authors Beginning Note: Have you ever wondered where Sesshoumaru lived? Or what his servants were like? Or even what his house was like?

Shout it outs!

Rayame325- Yes, the tribe is a bit blind, ne? Ya, I'm afraid I don't have enough Sango/Miroku in my story (sigh), I'm hoping to get them in more often. I'm glad you liked my chapter though!

Animefreak808-Dang...Predictable? Not what I was hoping for (I must be loosing my touch)

(:-P)

Draechaeli- Predictable again? Hmmm...well...wait until you read my next few chapters...I'll have something new for sure then.

Chapter 48

Sesshoumaru's home

"Oh wow! Rin has never been here before. Is this Lord Sesshoumaru's home?" Rin asked, going in circles, soaking the sight all in. She stood in a grand entryway, with Ah and Un carrying the boy Kohaku, Jakan, and Sesshoumaru. Jakan too, was intrigued by his masters obvious wealth and grand taste.

Sesshoumaru however, stood there, indifferent to his surroundings.

"Hosomi." Sesshoumaru barked. Rin stopped her twirling and looked on curiously. A subtle and hardly noticeable breeze flew into the room until it gathered into a deformed tornado in front of Sesshoumaru. Water and lighting seemed to mix with the swirling air and when it dissipitated, a lone figure was kneeling low.

"Get up." He commanded, and the shape did. A figure of a woman; tall, slender, feminine, and strong, lean and masculine. Her hair, as bloody red as a glowing sunset teemed down her back and to her knees in silken locks. Her bangs; slivers of moonlight; shaped her face down to her chin. Her dress of strange white material frilled down in a downward 'v' at the front of her knees, while her shoulders were left bare. A deadly sword of crystal adorned her hip. The hilt embedded with only a few stones of Scarlet, Cerulean, Gold, Emerald, and one jewel that swirled with all four colors.

Rin looked up at the lovely woman's kind and knowing face. Her purple eyes gleaming, and peach lips turned in a forever smile.

"Lord Sesshoumaru, it's good to see you finally back. Forgive the other servants and I for not being here to serve you and your companions upon arrival, if we had known you to be here, we would have better prepared for your comings." The woman said in a lilting, but not in an unearthly beautiful voice. Form her mannerisms and such; one would expect her to either be from high lineage herself, or of a respectable position.

Rin noticed something behind the woman. A strange shimmering, almost a trick of the light. So, as curious as the little girl was, she walked in front of Sesshoumaru who watched the girls wide eye curiosity take into action, as Hosomi talked. And she tugged the shimmering thing.

"Ouch!" Hosomi cried. Rin, startled jumped back, letting go of the shimmering thing. Tears shimmered in her eyes. Hosomi seeing this, kneeled down and patted the little girl.

"It's all right. I didn't mean to startle you."

"Rin is sorry. Rin did not know you would get hurt." Rin said bowing. Hosomi smiled brightly.

"My, you're well mannered. No offense taken. Now I suppose you want to know what it was you tugged on." Rin's tears were completely gone, and all interest was put into paying attention to the woman.

"My wings."

"Really! Can you fly to?" Hosomi laughed.

"With your permeation?" Hosomi looked at Sesshoumaru. He almost unnoticeably nodded.

"Okay Rin. Don't blink, or you'll miss it." Rin nodded and watched with fascination. Hosomi stepped back a few steps. The shimmering things grew twice her body size on each side of her. She closed her eyes; her brows furrowed in concentration, and slowly, the shimmering wings turned into a more solid and visible pair. When Hosomi opened her eyes, two feathered and pale violet wings were stretched out to full capacity.

"Wow!" Rin said in delight.

"Can you teach me how to do that? Rin wants a pair of wings to!"

"I'm sorry, but I don't think that's possible, but if you want, I could take you flying sometime." Rin jumped.

"Whoopee! Rin gets to go flying!" Rin jumped up and down in joy. She turned to Sesshoumaru.

"Did you hear that lord Sesshoumaru? She said Rin could go flying." Sesshoumaru nodded, and looked up to Hosomi who nodded. Her wings disappeared into an iridescent shimmer.

"Have one of the servants prepare a room for Rin and Jakan. Ah and Un should also have a place for themselves." Hosomi nodded.

"And the boy?" Sesshoumaru was silent for a moment, thinking it over.

"Give him a room as well, but post two guards inside, two out, and have someone tend to his wounds." Hosomi nodded, curious but satisfied with her lords generosity and close surveillance on the boy. He was someone new, probably spared of something or another, why Sesshoumaru decided to bring him here is a question without an answer.

"Lady Neelah." Hosomi whispered into a small wisp of wind that disappeared. In seconds a young looking girl bobbed in. Her blond hair stripped with red cut short that served to accentuate her slender pointed ears. Everything about her spoke of cheer and clumsiness.

"Oh my! Lord Sesshoumaru! Forgive me. I did not know you were here, or I would have presented myself better." The girl curtsied, only to fall over. She quickly stood back up, her face a dark crimson, and bowed instead. Hosomi shook her head in exasperation, but smiled at the girl's efforts.

"Lady Neelah."

"Yes Lady Hosomi?" The girl stood up and turned to the other girl.

"I want you to take the girl, Rin, and show her to her room."

"What room would that be again?"

"The balcony side." She blinked, once, twice.

"The one facing all of the Heart-leaved Bergenias and Blue Cupflowers."

"Oh!" She looked at Rin and smiled.

"You're going to love that room." Rin smiled at the friendly girl and began to follow her up the stairs.

"Eh, hem. Lady Neelah. Are you forgetting something?" The girl stopped, and looked confused before she turned pale and rushed in front of Sesshoumaru.

"So very sorry Milord! It won't happen again. Forgive my poor manners." The girl said and began running.

"Walk!" Hosomi yelled, but not unkindly. Rin followed at Lady Neelah's fast paced walking heel, until she turned the corner.

"I'll race yah." She said whispered, but being as both Hosomi and Sesshoumaru are Yukai, it might as well have been yelled. Rin must have agreed, because two sets of pounding feet could be heard fading.

"I do not recall her ever being here."

"She's new, and quite impossible to train I'm afraid. My little cousin Neelah. My uncle and Aunt were killed by one of Naraku's followers and instead of sending her to my parents over on the Okinawa Island, I decided to keep her here with me."

"You may come to regret your decision."

"Why may that be? She may be a handful and all, but she's a nice kid and..."

"Naraku may be having a war, but he has many demons elsewhere as well. He intends to attack here while I am away, as well as many other places. " Hosomi's face became grave.

"Then we have much in such serious matters to discuss I assume. One of which on how he has come to have such great numbers and gone unnoticed none the less." Sesshoumaru nodded. He strolled past her, and she followed three steps behind down through the twisting hallways and stairs.

"Lord Sesshoumaru, might'nt, you want to change first before the meeting, no insult intended of course, but you have traveled for a long time, and I'm sure such accommodations have not been too plentiful." Sesshoumaru didn't even acknowledge she had said anything.

"I apologize. How foolish of me. Of course such matters are more important than a few luxuries."

Not even a breath after she had finished, they were standing in front of two huge doors with a large iron lock to match. Hosomi pulled out a ring of keys, which had been concealed on her thigh, having been placed in a leather strapped pouch, and handed him the keys. He took them and unlocked the room, pushing the great doors open. Hosomi quickly went around the room, lowering each candle chandelier and lit the room with the thousands of candles that burned brightly.

The room was rather large, but never echoed. In its center, a huge table with many well-upholstered chairs surrounded it, a larger one that looked quite uncomfortable at the head. The walls had fake windows that seemed to reflect the current view outside; this of course was to throw off any uninformed thief or enemy that wished to escape through this room.

Racks on one wall contained thousands of maps. Some detailed with towns, detailed with current topography, average temperature for different places in different seasons, some of Japan, some of China, and still others of the world as recorded. All in all, the room looked like a place where talk of war was conducted. Everything needed to plan, discuss, or to record was placed in this room in a specific order.

Sesshoumaru began taking down a few map scrolls, unrolling it, looking at it, and either setting them into a pile on his left on the table, or placing them back.

"I take my leave for the moment. I will see to it that the others arrive soon." Hosomi bowed and disappeared with a small poof of wind, not waiting for her master to say anything to her leave, for if she had, she might be waiting for a long time.

"Oh my." Keade said as she looked out of her doorway. In the clearing of the woods, to dripping, soggy, figures were making their way to her hut, one riding on the others back.

"I smell Kouga!"

"Yay! Kouga's back!" Hakaku and Ginta jumped up and down in glee as they saw their leader. They would have smelled him earlier, but the rain made such tasks difficult. They waited patiently in the warm dryness of the hut until the two finally came.

"Kouga! We're so glad to see you!" Hakkaku yelled.

"Shut up! Can't you see she's sleepin?" Kouga yelled. Instantly the two wolves became deflated in their elated joy.

"What's Ayame doin on your back boss?" Ginta said considerably more quietly.

"Keade, do you know where I can lay her down to rest?" Keade thought about it.

"I suppose, you could lay her down in the next room, where Kagome and Sango slept." Kouga nodded and proceeded to do so. She was wet, her fur and armor soggy. Without hesitation, Kouga took off her white cape, leggings, and her sword. He leaned the sword against the wall and carried her white furs to the fire. Keade had already anticipated the needed dryings of such cloths and set them up on an inside line besides the fire (idea of Kagome's) and let them drip down and dry.

Kouga did likewise with his removable furs and breastplate, leaving him with nothing but his lower wolf cloths. He sat cross-legged at the fire, with Hakkaku and Ginta across from him. Keade quickly warmed up the soup made earlier that evening. She served him a bowl and a half loaf of bread.

"Here. While I tend to the she wolf-Ayame, you may dress in this and let the rest of your clothes dry. You may need to make a hole for your tail how ever." Keade said handing him a pair or dry pants. He took them gratefully and nodded as she went into the other room.

Hakkaku and Ginta respectfully turned around as Kouga changed.

Kouga stood up, completely covered in human pants and scowled.

And humans actually wear these...pity them...stupid humans...

"So boss, what's up? You haven't been your usual self."

"I'm no longer your boss."

"What?!" Kouga sat back down and sighed. His tail was limp, and he stared in his bowl of rabbit stew.

"Boss, what do you mean you're not our boss? You're the tribe leader..."

"Not any more."

"What do you mean!"? Kouga looked up into the confused faces of his most loyal comrades.

"I mean, I quite. Our tribe wouldn't fight." Hakkaku and Ginta looked uneasily at each other, and Kouga began to explain the current situation. When he was done, Keade came out carrying Ayame's clothes and hung the rest of the furs on the line.

"Those cowards!" Ginta stood up angrily.

"Yah!" Hakkaku stood up too, Kouga showed no enthusiasm.

"You don't need to worry about us boss! We'll fight with you to the very end!"

"You bet we will!" Kouga looked shocked at their statement, then smiled.

"There's someone coming." Kouga said looking at the door.

"Really, I do not expect any more guests. I wonder who it could be." Then the bamboo-matted door flew open and two figures stepped in, their whirlwinds subsiding. They stood therr and shook themselves dry like dogs, getting much wet.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey!" Kouga growled. He had been almost dry and then these two showed up.

"We decided to come and fight in the war after all!"

"Yah! Besides, we couldn't leaver her alone with you Kouga."

"Not telling what you would do." Natsuko and Mariko chimed together. Then their gazes wandered past him and hit Hakkaku and Ginta. Blushes covered their faces and they were quiet.

"Natsuko! Mariko! You came!" Ayame squealed, awaken from all of the commotion. Mariko and Natsuko ran to her and gave her a big hug.

"Of course we did!"

"We're your best friends. We couldn't ever abandon you completely." Ayame smiled. Keade grinned and shook her head, preparing a meal for the others.

"Why do girls have to make such a big fuss like that."? Hakkaku said.

"Who knows." Ginta shrugged. "But they sure are cute." He whispered quietly so as not to be heard.

Authors Ending Notes: I hope you enjoyed! And if there is anything in particular you peoples would like me to write (like ideas, or if you think I should put more of someone in, ect.), I'm open to suggestions.