Chapter 7

"If you are hungry you need to find food yourself." Sesshomaru announced after my stomach let out a very loud growl.

"Oh, okay," I mumbled in response.

" I know how to catch some fish," Rin said, grabbing my hand and leading me away.

I found it odd that he would let her go off on her own, but Rin knew not to stray too far from Sesshomaru. Jaken squawked behind us, and then I realized he was meant to keep danger away.

I smiled slightly, they had an odd yet cute family dynamic. Both demons cared deeply for Rin, even though neither one of them would say it and Rin knew they both cared for her.

Jaken and Rin had fallen asleep. Sesshomaru sat leaned against a tree, eyes closed but not asleep. I was tossing on the ground. I was comfortable with Kagome, InuYasha, and everyone else. I was now traveling with strangers. I could not sleep while anxious.

I sat up sighing and grabbed my turned off phone, and some headphones. Sesshomaru opened his eyes and my movement, and watched me closely.

I pushed the button to turn on my phone hoping it wasn't dead, and luckily it wasn't. I quickly put in my headphones and turned on some music to distract my thoughts.

I heard Sesshomaru's muffled voice and removed an earbud, "what?" I said, sitting up.

"What are you doing?"

"Listening to music." I replied.

"I hear no music."

I tried not to laugh a little, but the look he was giving me was hilarious since he clearly thought I was crazy.

"It's through this," I said while holding up my phone and pointing to my earbuds.

He looked curious and moved closer to me. So things from the future interest you, I mused.

"What is this?"

I put the phone in his hand. "It's called a phone. Almost everyone has one in my time."

"And people use this to listen to music? Are tiny creatures who can play instruments in it?"

I laughed and he shot daggers at me, unamused by my enjoyment out of his question.

"No, it's hard to explain but we have the technology to record sounds and it can be sold and played through devices like this one. But this can do more than just allow you to listen to music." I took the phone from his hand and opened up the camera. I positioned it to take a selfie and took one with him.

"It can take pictures," I showed him the selfie we had just taken together.

It was the first time I had seen curiosity and joy light up in his eyes.

"This is amazing," he said, his voice showing slight enjoyment. "What else can it do?"

I was shocked but I smiled at him, and spent the rest of the night showing him as much as my phone could do with no service. It was odd seeing him show interest in something, he was still short and somewhat cold, but he had warmed up as much as I think he could with me for now.

I had woken up to him moving beside me, the sun barely rising. I was surprised he had let me fall asleep next to him, and surprised at myself for doing so.

"We will arrive by nightfall," he spoke to me but didn't look in my direction. He began to walk away and I took that as my cue to get up and get going. Rin and Jaken rushing to get up and follow as well.

After a long day of walking we made it to a weird mist. I was about to express my concern, but Sesshomaru spoke before, "stay close to me."

He continued to walk and within the mist a large formation began to show. As we got closer, I realized it was a large—no, massive building. I was in awe as it became more into view and I could see the intricate forms on the building. It was ancient and beautiful, yet terrifying. Much like Sesshomaru himself.

Suddenly, loud banging began to echo throughout the area.

"He's home!" I began to hear. And then suddenly, the fog was gone.

"Lord Sesshomaru!" A man, dressed in armor appeared. "Welcome home."

Everything else happened in a blur, we were rushed inside. People shocked he had not one, but two humans with him. He threatened them, making it clear that if anything happened to Rin or myself they'd pay a hefty price. Then we were prepared a large feast and I was sitting at a table. Rin was sitting beside me, lost in her own world as Jaken kept ordering her to pay attention.

I turned my direction toward Sesshomaru, and I just began to realize he was royalty. This was a court. I was in trouble.

I've seen enough movies and tv shows to understand that being royalty or even closely involved was difficult. Although the movies may not have been accurate being apart of court was still an intricate delicate game that people wanted to master. As soon as I had arrived I could tell I was unwanted here, by the men and the women. I was losing this game and I hadn't even realized I was playing. Sesshomaru was basically the king, and everyone else wanted to be close to him.

Which led me to wonder why he off traveling and not enjoying his time in his kingdom? If you could call it that. Perhaps he got tired of court. Everyone pretending to be this or that to gain his favor could be tiresome. He probably just wanted some space, freedom to travel. He didn't even seem to be the kind to want to surround himself with people.

I doubted he wanted to be here.

I looked at him from across the table, and although I was way way down the table, I could see the distaste on his face. I felt bad for him, and wondered why he would come back here if it was just to help me. There had to be other reasons why he came back, right?

A man stood up, pulling me from my thoughts. He was older with gray hair pulled up into a topknot. I couldn't tell what kind of demon he was, but he was massive in height and muscle and he just looked mean. Like the type of person who would immediately hurt you for disagreeing with him.

"My lord," he spoke, "we have long awaited your return home. We didn't expect you to be bringing some odd creatures with you," he looked at me and quickly glared, but laughed just as quickly.

I looked around the room to see if anyone else had noticed or even cared, but everyone just laughed with him. I already hated it here.

"We are ready for our next conquest, we are ready to serve you, we are ready my lord!" The man continued, going on and on about the great battles he had aided Sesshomaru in. I began to tune him out, growing bored of how great he thought himself to be. Is this a toast or a boast? I thought to my self, while growing more annoyed.

Rin scooted closer to me, and whispered, "I don't think I like it here."

"Me either." I whispered back, "do you want me to get you something?"

"Yes please, some of that," she pointed across the table to a pile of sweets.

I would have to get up from the table or ask someone to pass it down to me and I didn't think anyone would be kind enough to do it. "Okay, let me get some for you." I stood up, and began to walk to get the food.

I grabbed the sweets for Rin, and some for me too and looked up to realize I had forgotten this man was giving a speech, and now all eyes were on me.

"Do you have something to say?" He eyed me.

I had two options here, either apologize and let everyone know I am an obedient woman, or stay silent and let everyone know I was weak woman. So I opted for a third option which was to take bite of the sweets, nod my head and say, "oh sorry, continue explaining how great you are."

I walked back to my seat and handed Rin her sweets.

The old demon just stared at me, anger in his eyes.

No one said anything.

I looked at Sesshomaru who had a very light twinkle of amusement in his eyes, he wanted to see what would happen next.

"What?" I said to the man, boldness and annoyance taking over. "You're supposed to be giving a speech about Sesshomaru—sorry—Lord Sesshomaru, and all I'm hearing about is how great you are. I'm surprised he hasn't shut you up yet."

Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. You're not helping yourself here. You're already on thin ice. My head kept screaming but my mouth betrayed me.

He didn't say anything, he stood there frozen. His eyes were wide and shocked at my boldness. The rest of the room glanced between me and him, wondering what would happen next.

I rolled my eyes, grabbed my glass of wine, stood up and said, "To Lord Sesshomaru," making sure I made a smile at the man before taking a drink.

The rest of the room followed, "TO LORD SESSHOMARU!"

I sat back down, and looked across at Sesshomaru again. He had a slight smirk, but it was gone before anyone else could notice.

Maybe I could win this game after all.