Preliminary author's note: This is my first fanfic, and I've really been driving myself crazy trying to fit my plotline around all the little technicalities of the series. Just lemme know if anything is really confusing or completely wrong in it, other than what's meant to be confusing and wrong. Enjoy, and review!
Chapter One - Reunion
A wolf's howl pierced the quiet afternoon, shaking Maina from the fantasy world of the scroll she was reading. Rolling it up, she returned it to its shelf, which was filled with other scrolls concerning fantastical stories, for she had no reason to read the more commonly collected historical scrolls. Another howl was sounded, and then another and another, by her numerous wolf messengers, some patrolling the boundaries of the forest, some within it, relaying the message. She smiled to herself - even the wolves had begun to take joy in his visits, it seemed. Of course, they were under orders to give a special howl to distinguish his arrival from that of other travelers, but they seemed to give that howl a happier tone each time he came. Perhaps they simply sensed his similar kinship and had begun to accept him as one of their own over the years, but she preferred to think they'd taken a liking to him.
She hurried out of her modestly sized castle and half walked, half jogged along the densely shaded path to the edge of the forest. He was still a hundred feet or so from the forest edge as she emerged to greet him. Two wolves stood at the end of the path, their sleek black fur shining in the sunlight. They each took to one side of the path, bowing their heads respectfully as she stepped out of the invisible barrier. Her long, dark brown hair shone a fiery red and gold, that quintessential red and gold of autumn, as she stepped out from the shade of the trees and finally allowed the sun to reach her. The sun brought to her skin a faint, golden glow, and even the red and white miko robes she wore seemed to become more magnificent. Even her eyes, also reminiscent of the forest with their unique blend of light blue, green, and silver, seemed to become brighter and more animated in the warm sunlight.
The new arrival smiled internally as he watched the sun bathe her, and he thought to himself, as he did nearly every time she came to greet him thus, 'She truly is a goddess of the forest..'
He took his time in coming up to her, keeping up his eternal air of nonchalance, though he could have easily crossed the distance in a split second. It was an understood and often repeated act between the two of them, and she thus patiently waited for him to walk up to her. She took the time to admire him, as she often did; his silver, silken hair, nearly as long as her own, swaying as he walked; the white pelt, which was forever draped upon his right shoulder, also moving in time with his feet; the harsh, spiked armor contrasting with his fine white silks, which were accented with a red flower design. And then, there was his face, perfectly molded with piercing golden eyes, accented by magenta stripes on his cheeks and a blue crescent moon on his forehead. Yes, she had to admit, his face was quite effeminate, but the lithe, muscular body beneath his concealing attire certainly made up for that. She smiled to herself as that thought crossed her mind.
The little toad youkai, Jaken, walked, or, more specifically, waddled, alongside him as usual, carrying the staff of heads, which was easily twice his height. She had never really liked the imp, but it didn't matter - she always managed to find a nice, tedious activity to occupy his time in some far corner of her castle during his master's visits. Ah-Uhn, the two-headed dragon, had come along as well, and his reigns hung loose, for he followed obediently without being led by them.
"Lady Maina," said the visitor, having stopped only about a foot from her, and nearly towering her at that, "you really should show your true self more often. The humans will never give you the reverence you deserve if you continue to parade about as a simple miko."
"Weren't you the one who told me that mere mortals were not worthy of seeing the 'true glory' of a being such as I, Sesshoumaru?" she replied with a sly grin up at him. Sesshoumaru smirked, which was the closest he ever really came to smiling, reliving in his mind the conversation of which she spoke. Jaken simply stood there, having altogether missed out on this apparently private joke.
"Lord Jaken," a small girl whispered, leaning outward from behind Sesshoumaru's legs, where she had been hidden from Maina's view during the group's approach, "she didn't call Lord Sesshoumaru by his title.."
Sesshoumaru gracefully turned his head and addressed his young charge directly. "Lady Maina is a much higher-ranking creature than I, Rin. She is allowed to speak to me without the use of my title."
"I am not that much higher in rank than you. I may be a goddess, but you, my dear inuyoukai, are truly a god among your own kind," Maina said with a smile. 'Yes, a god among youkai, both on and off the battlefield..,' she silently mused. "But enough small talk, you simply must tell me how you came to have a little human girl in your troupe!"
"It's a bit of a long story," he told her flatly.
"Yes, it must be quite a long one. After all, it goes completely against your personality!" she remarked, laughing good-heartedly. "Either that, or else it has been so long since your last visit that you have begun to evolve into someone else without my knowledge…"
He said nothing to her, but instead replied with a facial expression, something, needless to say, quite rare on his part. Maina thought she might faint when she saw it.
He smiled.
It was the subtlest of smiles, one a passerby wouldn't have noticed in the least. It didn't stretch even halfway across his fine face, and his mouth did not open the slightest bit - she could detect not a hint of his ever-perfect, gleaming white fangs - but it was a smile nevertheless. And then, as if this was not enough, he let escape an amused, almost joyful, dare she think it chuckle. Well, more of a breathy 'humph' than a chuckle, but it was uncharacteristic all the same. How many years had it been since she'd seen such an expression on his face - or had she ever?
"Come, Lady Maina, I can relate it all to you as we take our usual tour around the forest," he said, walking past her and quickly disappearing onto the shaded forest pathway. Maina stood there for just a second in disbelief before collecting her wits and following.
Jaken watched the goddess of the forest walk off after Lord Sesshoumaru, noticing that she'd taken just a second or two longer than she should have. Once again, he had managed to miss the whole episode, having looked away at that choice moment, and was left to wonder just what Lady Maina had seen that was so strange as to delay her…
"Lord Jaken! Are you coming?" Rin called from up ahead, leading Ah-Uhn with her. Lady Maina was already several feet ahead of them. How in the world had they managed to get past him? He'd only stood there pondering for.. Well, it wasn't a very long time, at any rate.
"Coming!" he screeched, scurrying along after them.
Maina, looking human once more under the shade of the trees, soon caught up to Sesshoumaru and walked beside him the rest of the way down the path. Rin had climbed up onto Ah-Uhn's back shortly after passing through the forest's protective barrier, and Jaken scuttled along behind the dragon. Sesshoumaru fell back into his usual quiet manner as they walked, but, as Maina was well used to his behavior, his austere silence did not dampen her mood. She glanced around at the wolves accompanying them, wondering if she was only imagining that they seemed as happy as she.
As they came upon Maina's castle, Rin broke the silence with a little gasp of awe. Jaken simply rolled his eyes - it was by no means a large castle, after all, and a good half of it served as a shrine. Nevertheless, Rin jumped off the dragon's back and ran ahead of her lord and the forest goddess and up the three stairs onto the castle terrace. She stood before one of the thick beams which upheld its roof, tracing with her small fingers the intricate designs carved into the wood - images of ferocious creatures of the kind seen in artists' portrayals of Hell intermingled with fair beings of benign appearance, and all were bound together, twisted into the engraved vines.
She raised her head and gazed wondrously at the golden trim of the veranda's roof, which was carved into intricate, leafy vines which matched those of the support beams. Looking further, she saw that the magnificent gold trimmed the roof of the main part of the castle as well as the roofs of the open shrine portions.
Maina smiled to herself. It had been a long time since a child had visited her castle - she had almost forgotten how it felt to witness the great pleasure children seemed to take in things the adult world overlooked. Already, she decided, she liked the girl.
"Do you live here, Lady Maina?" Rin asked, her large, sparkling eyes now turned to the goddess.
"Yes, I do, and for as long as your lord remains here, so will you," Maina replied, a wide smile stretching across her face. She simply couldn't contain the joy that seemed to reflect from the girl to herself. The girl's eyes lit up even more, if that were possible. "Come now, I'll show you and Jaken to your rooms, and then you can explore the entire castle if you like," she continued, stepping up onto the veranda herself.
"Really?" Rin gasped. "Rin can explore the whole thing? Every room?"
"Every nook and cranny, little one," she promised. Rin rushed inside to get a bit of a sneak peek before she was shown to her room. Maina laughed lightly and turned to one of her messenger wolves.
"Take Ah-Uhn to the stable. See that he is well fed and watered," she ordered. The wolf went up the dragon and, giving him a little nudge and taking his reigns in his mouth, led him towards the stable, which was hidden from view by the castle's westernmost wing. Maina then turned and entered the castle, Jaken following. Sesshoumaru remained where he was, standing near the stairs of the veranda, with an emotionless expression on his face, waiting for Maina to emerge from the castle again.
"You'll have your usual room if you prefer, Jaken. I trust you remember the way?" he heard her ask the imp as they disappeared inside.
A/N: Hehe, nothing's happened yet, I know, but as you can see, it got pretty long and i had to split it up. Chapter 2 goes up sometime this weekend or perhaps earlier - that's when things start to happen, and when everyone will probably be wondering wtf is going on.. It won't seem like it for, um, quite a while, but I am trying to stay true to the characters' personalities as much as possible, so just bear with me until later on when things begin to be explained. Ki? Ki.