A/N: All Inuyasha characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi! .

The Long Awaited Adventure

By Ivaliny

Chapter 4

"Stoic Company"

Frednicio flew as fast as he could with the extra added weight, but they eventually arrived in the Mondlicht countryside, ruled by the cold-hearted dog demon, Sesshoumaru. For centuries this country was one of the most powerful, and when Sesshoumaru took over it became even more powerful, famous for it's ruthless and more than horrifying leader. Only fools considered attacking Mondlicht, Miroku had explained to Rin on their way to the kingdom while Inuyasha snorted his disgust towards his brother and his kingdom, leaving Rin with an unsettling fear of what is ahead of them.

"Lord Sesshoumaru hates humans, and wants only to destroy them, seeing them as an infectious, weakening disease," Miroku further explained. "He's blood thirsty for human blood and power."

Glaring, Rin interrupted him,"Why are you telling me this? Are you trying to frighten me?"

He shrugged,"I'm just informing you for the future. I just want you to beware of his nature."

"The future? Speaking of the future, aren't I supposed to be learning some tricks or something?" she asked with irritation. "But I still don't see how or why you picked me to be your apprentice."

"Did I not tell you that already?" She shook her head.

"It must have slipped my mind." He shrugged it off and cleared his throat. She found he did that often before and during a story. "I remember the first time I saw you. You were about five or six, and you came giggling and running inside the store with money in your hand and Artemis attached to the other. You were both giggling and excited about purchasing a package of gum with your own money."

Rin smiled,"Yeah! I remember that! You gave us free lollipops." She laughed at the memory,"And Artemis ask you for more."

Miroku chuckled,"Yes. When I first saw you try to open the heavy door, I was swept back by and illuminating, energetic force coming from you. You were so small, filled with hope, compassion, and determination. I knew you were the one. You were immature and young at the time, so I decided to wait until you were older. To my surprise, however, you seemed to have found your destiny on your own, and I knew you were the one when I saw you wandering, a bit confused, through Efeu."

Frowning, she gave a teasing sigh,"Alright, I guess I'll accept that, but I think you have the wrong person. But you don't have to worry, though, I'll play along with this story for the time being."

"Excellent! That's all I ask."

They were silent for a while, watching the sunk sink slowly into it's nightly slumber. It was truly beautiful. Rin loved watching the sun set and was immediately reminded of the painting of Efeu that had brought her to this place. She wondered if the painting was setting the sun at that moment, but Frednicio interrupted her pleasant thoughts.

"We're close to the castle," he informed. Rin was amazed and wondered how he knew that. It was dark and only silhouettes were marking a path below them. But faintly up ahead, she saw tiny flickers of orange light surrounding a large, dark splotch in the distance. Soon the tiny flickers became large flames, lighting up the castle. She could feel Frednicio slow down and soon they were diving towards the ground. The rush of the decent sent adrenaline cascading over her body. This was her favorite part about flying with Frednicio, reminding her of roller coasters at Six Flags.

They landed clumsily, with several large thuds from Frednicio's massive feet, and a jarring jerk right in front of the castle gates. Gaurds armed with swords came shouting at them.

"What business do you have with Lord Sesshoumaru?" asked a guard rather forcefully, while Rin, Miroku, and Inuyasha piled off of the large dragon. Inuyasha pushed his way to the guards.

"Get out of my way. My business is my business," Inuyasha replied hotly, but the guard wouldn't let him pass, pushing him in the chest.

"Half demons have no business here," the guard snarled.

Inuyasha's hands twitched, aching for a fight. "If you want it that way, fine, because I don't mind killing a few demons." But before Inuyasha could charge, Miroku intervened.

"Do you really want to kill all of his guards when you're about to beg for his help?" he asked logically.

Inuyasha growled," I'm not going to beg!" He looked at the guards, lustful for their dead flesh in his claws. To Rin, Miroku had brought up a good point. Killing Sesshoumaru's guards would only provoke more trouble worth than having, she just hoped Inuyasha would listen.

In his battle stance, Inuyasha gave a pained, unwilling sigh, and slumped his shoulders, backing down from the fight. "I'm not doing this for you, Miroku, even though I would enjoy killing those bastards, I'll do it for Kagome," he said through gritted teeth.

Miroku nodded and turned towards the alert, defensive demons. "We're here to see Lord Sesshoumaru. His servant summoned us."

"What servant?" a guard asked.

He looked back at Rin for help in remembering what the small demon looked like and shrugged."A toad of some kind."

"Ah, Master Jaken," a guard murmured to another and looked at the three. "We were informed of your arrival, but weren't expecting your for a few more days."

"You wouldn't," growled Inuyasha under his breath.

"Milord is waiting. You can go in."

Miroku bowed and walked past the guards with Rin and Inuyasha following behind. Rin's heart was racing with anticipation as they walked into the front courtyard. She imagined just how nervous Inuyasha must have been feeling and saw that he wore a bored, unimpressed expression with his arms crossed, which surprised her.

A servant met them in the courtyard and began to lead the three to Sesshoumaru. His castle was impressive, and very clean. For some reason, Rin concentrated on the fact that the castle was very clean. They were led to what appeared to be a study. Books and important documents were strewn about in an organized mess. Their wasn't waiting for them in the room, which was making her a bit nervous. The servant glared at the three before he left the room.

Miroku walked around the room, nosing about the papers on the desk, reading letters, and touching his stuff curiously, while Inuyasha stood impatient and annoyed. Rin watched as his eyebrows furrowed and his ears twitched. She couldn't put a finger on it, but she grew even more nervous by the second. Why wouldn't she? From all she had heard from Miroku, she should be peeing on herself right then. Only hoping her nerves weren't showing, she gave a deep and heavy sigh, which shook her whole body.

"Nervous?" Miroku asked, glancing up from a book from across the room.

Rin shook her head in a lie, giving a quiet chuckle to release the tension pressured up in her body. Suddenly a tall, glaring man opened the door and slammed it shut behind him.

"Inuyasha, I wasn't expecting you so soon,"he spat in mockery.

"Shut up!"

Sesshoumaru looked at Miroku and Rin with cold, narrowed eyes. "I see you already broke our agreement. Too bad."

"I didn't tell them anything," Inuyasha yelled defensively," your stupid toad blurted out that you wanted to see me in front of them!"

The tall man sat down at his dark mahogany desk, leaned over and rubbed his temples."So those humans just decided to follow you?" He growled, sharp, golden eyes glaring,"Now the whole house is in gossip mode about humans in the castle. Do you know how disgusting, and terribly difficult this will be to clean up this mess?"

Rin made a slight "eep" sound, putting her hands on her hips defensively. "We're here to help!"

Sesshoumaru shot a deadly glare at Rin, and with a controlled, but obviously annoyed and angered voice, he spoke slowly with irritation towards her. "I am Sesshoumaru, Lord of Mondlicht, and I do not need help from a scrawny, human girl."

Rin glared at the demon in front of her. Scrawny? I'm not scrawny! That jerk is going to pay!

Miroku made a nervous chuckle and stood between Rin and Sesshoumaru, seeing the potential fight in front of him. "Please forgive her, milord," he said mustering up all of his sucking up powers, which made Rin stare at him in disgust. "Just listen to what I have to say first before you rip her apart," Rin huffed, not pleased with his words. "Please, milord."

Sesshoumaru's face returned to a bored, unimpressed expression, which Rin could see a family resemblance between the two brothers. He slightly narrowed his eyes at the black haired man. "Speak."

"I am Miroku, and this is my apprentice, Rin. We're sorcerers from Efeu," he paused to see if there was any reaction in the demon's face, but there wasn't, "We know Inuyasha will fight Warrik, but there are things that swords cannot accomplish alone, so we are accompanying him to help him on his journey."

"I do not travel with humans," he simply stated.

Inuyasha jumped into the coversation,"Well you'll have to!"

"Did I say I was going to accompany you?"

His little brother's jaw dropped, but tightened quickly in anger,"Then why the hell did you make us come here?"

"To see you suffer."

Inuyasha growled deep in his chest, trying to figure out the best way to tear his snobbish brother to pieces. Rin wanted to join in on the tearing apart of the older demon, loathing his arrogance.

"If I were to go, I'd want to know where exactly the swords are, otherwise I'll let you sniff out the castle on your own," he smirked.

Inuyasha said nothing for a long moment. "You want to know exactly where it's located?"

"I want the sword! No sword, no deal, remember?"

In hopeless defeat he yelled,"I don't know where the damn swords are!"

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed," I knew you were lying, disgusting half-breed."

"Who cares about those stupid swords anyways, you have plenty!" He gave a sigh which shook his whole body in defeated agony," but, if you want them so much, I'll find them after I get Kagome, and Efeu is safe."

Rin's heart broke for Inuyasha. "Efeu will never be safe. No sword, no deal," he gave a low grumble and looked at a pile of papers on his desk. "Now get out, you've wasted my time."

"Wait!" Miroku yelled,"I know where the sword is!"

"Shut up, Miroku! I don't need Sesshoumaru's help anyways. I don't even know why I asked him for his help in the first place."

Sesshoumaru watched in mild interest at the human. "I remember where it's at. That's one thing I'm sure of, because I need them as well."

Inuyasha glared at Miroku," What? You knew where the sword was and you never told me!"

He shrugged," You never asked. Actually, we need the swords, which is whole reason I need to find the castle."

Inuyasha exploded,"The sword is in the castle? Then why hell is Warrik attacking Efeu if it's in the castle!"

"Guess he hasn't found it yet," he shrugged the chuckled to himself. "It's kind of funny, actually, the sword is right out in the open."

Rin stared at the two in utter confusion. What sword? What's the big deal about a sword? She asked herself and decided to ask Miroku about it later as not look like an idiot infront of them. Sesshoumaru looked at the two in bored annoyance.

"So where is the sword?" he asked.

"In Tenoh's castle," Miroku stated.

The corners of Sesshoumaru's mouth turned into a jeer,"Tenoh? That stupid sorcerer? How do you know?"

"Let's just say I knew him."

Sesshoumaru sighed in frustration,"Where is the castle?"

Miroku huffed out a sigh of frustration as well,"If I knew that, then I would already have it."

"You lie," he glared.

Miroku was offended. "I would never!"

"I don't trust humans."

Inuyasha growled again and slammed his fist down on his brother's desk in anger. "Well you'll have to, if you want the sword!" Sesshoumaru was silent, staring at the print his brother's fist had made. Rin shifted nervously, not know what to expect next, but she was sure it had something to do with pain.

"Warrik is rumored to have his fortress way up north in the mountains of Augapfel," Sesshoumaru informed them with an expressionless face, which was hard to understand what he was getting at.

"Possibly where Tenoh's castle is,"Miroku added. Sesshoumaru said nothing for a while, leaving an unpleasant silence before them, and stood up.

"We leave before dawn tomorrow on foot," he stated, but Inuyasha quickly interjected.

"What? On foot! That'll take at least a month, maybe even more in the mountains! If we take the dragons, we can make it in half the time."

"You fool,"Sesshoumaru snapped,"Do you want Warrik to know we're coming? It's easier to fight his armies on the ground than in the air."

Rin heard the word fight, making her stomach curl in worry. She knew nothing about fighting, and still wondered if Miroku's assessment of her being his apprentice was true, and not just out of desperation. Plus, the fact that she had to travel on foot already made her tired.

"I will have rooms arranged for you, so I suggest you get plenty of rest," he slightly growled and left the room. Soon a servant came in and showed them where they were to sleep. Rin saw her room and noticed the simple bed and immediately felt exhausted. She didn't care if her room had no bed at all, all she wanted to do was sleep. Before she climbed in underneath the blankets, Miroku came in and wished her a good night. She smiled and thanked him. The stress of what lay before her hit her like a thousand bricks, and she began to cry before her mind nodded off into dreamland.

A/N: Okay yeah, I'm "wooting" because Sesshoumaru is NOW in the story, hopefully full time! Please send your reviews! Like always, I want to know what you all thought of this chapter, and how the story is going. Thank you so much for reading! Chapter 5 is now being typed up! (Chapter 5 is so far my favorite chapter! Hehe!) I'll just tell you what Chapter 5's title is: "Flying Sticks of Possible Disembowlment" BWAHAHA! Okay now seriously, send reviews! Love yas!