Chapter 3

Friday Night

(Whispers)

Titania!

It is Titania!

She has returned to us.

She is younger, so youthful.

Full of life and ready to lead us again!

Titania...wake up!

Rin jolted up out of her sleep. She was sweating and breathing heavily. She clutched her chest willing her racing heart to slow. The dreams were becoming more frequent. As soon as she moved into the forest, she started having this strange dream. It was always the same. She was in a clearing in the middle of the forest surrounded by some of the largest, most ancient looking trees she had ever seen. The trees enclosed her in a circle. The branches were long and seemed to sway rhythmically with a gentle breeze. The stars were extremely bright and the sky was a hazy, purplish hue. She could always hear the voices whispering excitedly, calling out for Titania desperately. Every time they called out, she could feel herself being pulled in multiple directions.

Rin had no idea who or what Titania was. She did not understand why she was having these dreams that were now occurring at least once a week. She did not know why her body reacted so frantically. She hated waking up that way in the middle of the night. It was terrifying. Frowning, she lay back down in her dark bedroom and closed her eyes.

Please just let me go back to sleep peacefully, Rin begged.

It was Saturday morning and the dream was still on Rin's mind when she woke up. She did her best not to think about it but she really needed to figure out who or what Titania was. She decided she would utilize the university's library when she returned to classes on Monday. To ease her nerves Rin went outside to tend to the little vegetable garden she dug up behind her cabin. Rin had a "green thumb," everything she planted grew quickly and robustly. Most of her diet was plant based. After discovering she was able to talk to animals, she could no longer bring herself to eat them. She was not able to entirely live off the land though. At least twice a month she had to go into town to purchase a few groceries, toiletries and other items.

Out of all the things Rin had to worry about living on her own, fortunately money was not one of them. She inherited a descent sum of money from her parents along with their life insurance benefits. After being released from foster care at the age of 18 she was able to access the funds. However, Rin was very careful about spending. She realized she couldn't afford to pay rent which was why she felt it was cheaper to just purchase materials to build a cabin. She had no income so she needed to make the money stretch for a while, at least until she finished her studies. She thanked her parents for trying to ensure if anything ever happened to them, she would be okay. But in all honesty, she would trade everything they left her just to have them back.

Thinking of her parents brought bad memories to the forefront of her mind. The fire and screaming from that night intruded Rin's thoughts, knocking the air out of her. She fell to her knees, squeezing her eyes shut and shaking her head trying to force the thought from her mind. Think about something else Rin, she told herself. She clutched her chest as if physically trying to still her racing heart. She took deep breaths to calm herself.

Don't think about it!

"Rin!" Jaken called, hopping over to her side. "What's wrong?" He asked worriedly.

She didn't answer him instead focusing on her breathing.

Jaken did not mind her lack of response. He knew she was trying to calm herself. He hated watching her suffer through one of her panic attacks. He first observed an attack about a week after she built her cabin. It scared him greatly. Rin mentioned that she began having panic attacks after losing her parents but she never went into further detail about them. She never told him what happened to them. This girl held many secrets; he hoped one day she would open up about them. He wished that there was more that he could do to help her.

Wait! Maybe there was, he just thought of a brilliant idea.

"I'm okay now." Rin said suddenly. Her breathing slowly returned to normal.

"Good, be strong Rin!" Jaken said trying to pretend he wasn't worried sick.

Rin smiled at him, instantly relieving his worry.

"Ahem, I have something to show you." Jaken announced, abruptly turning from her. In the weeks he had known her, Rin quickly became like a daughter to him. Jaken had no family of his own, unable to successfully mate with any female toads. He did not openly show it but Rin had become important to him, she was family.

"Follow me" Jaken called as he leapt away.

Rin dusted the dirt off her gardening jeans and hastily got up to follow her favorite, green friend. She hopped over the small creek behind her cabin following Jaken. Walking through the tall trees, twigs cracking beneath her feet, she thought about the group that now called her a friend. She could not believe that a group of awesome people like that would simply let her in so easily. Kagome, Shippo, Miroku, Sango and even Inuyasha...they all spent time with her every day of the week during lunch hour and of course Sesshomaru's class that they had together. Well, professor Taisho, Rin corrected herself in thought. She became accustomed to calling him by his first name because that's what Inuyasha and the others called him. They also called him "ice prick" but Rin was not brave enough to do that. She groaned as she thought about how challenging his class was. At least her new friends were there to make it better. Why was he making it so difficult? Rin was able to develop a rapport with all of her professors except him. He did not even bother to greet his class when he came in late every morning.

"Stop Rin." Jaken said abruptly.

"What's wrong Jaken?" Rin said snapping out of her musings.

"Take a look." Jaken replied.

Rin looked ahead of her, about twenty feet away there was a small clearing and was that a hot spring? She could see the steam rising from the small body of water partially surrounded by tall grass. Another part of the hot spring appeared to go into a small cave.

Whoa...

Her breath hitched when she saw who was currently occupying the spring. She knew that long, whitish hair and those unique majestic markings from anywhere. It was the difficult professor she was just thinking about, Sesshomaru. He was leaning on the bank of the spring with his head back and eyes closed. The lower region of his body was underwater while his torso and chest were bare. Rin had never seen a man like this before in person, so exposed. She guessed he was most likely naked in there; she blushed furiously at the thought. Despite every nerve in her body telling her to turn around, curiosity got the better of her and she could not look away. He looked so relaxed, completely opposite from how stiff and annoyed he always looked in class. It was like he was in his element, comfortable without a care in the world. His wet, porcelain skin glistened in the sunlight calling attention to his incredibly defined abs, strong chest and well-toned arms. Rin could not stop her own body from physically responding to the sight of him. Her cheeks heated, her heart rate quickened, palms of her hands became moist, and she felt giddy all of a sudden. Rin was having trouble processing how her body was reacting to him. What was she feeling?

"RIN!" Jaken whispered harshly.

"Huh?" The distracted young woman asked, peeling her eyes away from the beautiful demon to stare down at the toad.

He noticed she had a dazed look in her eyes but now was not the time to question her about it.

"We have to go! I just wanted to show you where the hot spring was. I think a relaxing bath in the hot spring will help with your panic attacks but when he's here, don't go near it! That is a demon and a powerful one at that. Demons who take human forms are the most dangerous. He does not look like a wild demon but still, stay away when he's there." Jaken whispered seriously while turning to leave. He beckoned her to come along.

Rin rolled her eyes internally. She already knew he was a demon but Jaken acted like he was going to eat her or something. Sesshomaru was not that type of demon being that he was a professor/graduate student at her school. Jaken would probably flip if he knew how many other demons attended Shikon University.

Rin took one final look at Sesshomaru's languid physique. His head was up now but thankfully he was not looking her way. Surprisingly, he appeared to be fiddling with some flowers on the water's edge. He even made that look like the most elegant thing.

"Rin!"

"Coming Jaken!" Rin called softly as she turned around and ran after the toad not realizing a set of amber eyes were watching her retreating silhouette.

The following morning, Rin went about her usual frenzied morning routine so she could get to class on time despite how tired she was. She gave Jaken a weak smile before she left. She was grateful the toad was always near. He came by every morning to check on her and was always there waiting when she returned.

Sleep did not come easy this weekend. The days following the nights when she had that dream were always exhausting. It was as if her energy was being zapped from her those nights. Classes were a blur; she was sure she would not retain any of the information taught today. Hopefully, all of the information could be found in the textbooks. Luckily, there was one class she did not have to worry about. Professor Taisho did not show up for class today and did not even bother to let his class know he would be absent but Rin did not mind at all. How in the world was she going to focus on his lesson after seeing him half-naked in the woods? She would have been a nervous wreck in class. She was unable to confide in Kagome about it because she still was not ready to let them know she lived in the Bone Eater Forest. She would not be able to explain what she was doing out there.

Rin declined Kagome's invitation to meet in the training room again for lunch. She could not focus on being social today. She promised she would meet with them tomorrow. Instead, the petite raven haired girl determinedly made her way to the university library. She wanted to go to the library her first week but never got the opportunity due to spending her free time with the crew. She felt she had to go today after having that dream again. She hoped there was a book there that had information about Titania.

Rin audibly gasped after opening the heavy, wooden doors of the library. It was enormous. The smell of oak and old leather permeated the air. Book shelves filled with books as far as the eye could see towered above her like sky scrapers. Rin guessed there had to be a million books in this library. Rin looked up to see that there was a transparent ceiling just like in the training rooms allowing natural sunlight to illuminate the space. There were vines running across the cracked, painted concrete of the walls. Rin learned during orientation that this library was one of the oldest in existence containing many rare books on magic, demons, spells and all things supernatural. If there was any information about the name in her dreams, it should be here.

She made her way to the front desk of the massive library.

"Hi, do you have any books about Titania?" Rin asked.

"Hmmm...let me check the catalog." A pale, middle aged woman answered without looking up. She entered the name into the computer and waited.

"Yes, Aisle 37, Row 14, Section T." The woman said curtly.

"Ok, thanks." Rin mumbled before heading off toward the soaring book shelves. She felt overwhelmed with how tall the shelves were. How was she supposed to reach the books at the top? As she got closer she noticed there were rolling ladders in each aisle.

She made it to aisle 37 and realized that row 14 was definitely too high for her to reach. She would have to use the ladder. Rin sat her bag on the floor and pushed the wooden ladder to section T. She carefully began to climb it to reach row 14. When she finally made it to her destination she let out a breath that she didn't know she was holding. Section T was larger than she hoped it would be. She scanned the names of each book as quickly as she could not wanting to remain on the ladder for too long.

Bingo!

Rin was excited to spot a book named The Legend of Titania: The Fairy Queen. She hoped this book would help her understand the strange dream she had been having. Rin's joy soon turned to dismay as she realized she couldn't horizontally reach the book from where she was. She stretched out her arm as far right as she could but no luck. She could've just climbed down the ladder and moved it over but she did not want to climb it up again. So instead, she made the risky decision to move her body as far right as she could to reach it. It was not the best idea.

Ah ha! While she was able to grab the book she was not able to maintain her balance; she lost her footing on the ladder. It happened so quickly Rin did not even have time to scream as she slipped from at least ten feet high. She squeezed her eyes shut and clutched the book to her chest hoping her injuries would not be too bad after hitting the ground. However; instead of the concrete library floor, Rin's body fell into what felt like someone's arms. Shaken by what just happened her body began to tremble, she instinctually grabbed onto the person who caught her. If it was not for this person she could have been seriously hurt. She chided herself internally for making such a rash decision. Finally opening her eyes, she surveyed her surroundings. Whoever caught her was tall, the person had clawed hands and whitish, silver hair. She slowly turned her head toward the face of the person whose arms her body was currently occupying. Amber colored eyes clashed with her big brown ones.

"S-Sessho-, I mean professor Taisho!" Rin exclaimed while jumping out of his arms.

He stared at her, stoic expression on his face.

"Th-thank you for catching me! I was trying to get a book and over extended myself. That was idiotic of me, sorry if I caused you any trouble." Rin's trembling caused her to stutter a little as she explained herself.

"Be more careful next time." He cautioned. If he had not been there at the time he was she would have definitely hurt herself.

Hearing his baritone voice in such close proximity was a different experience than when she heard it in class. His voice alone was enough to set anyone on edge; it had such authority to it. All the hairs on her body stood at attention.

"I-I will. Thank you again. I'm so thankful you were there." Rin bowed to show how appreciative she was. When she looked up, he was still staring at her with that stoic expression. He had not moved from where he stood. She wondered what she should do. She didn't know what else she could say to him. His silence was starting to make her feel awkward.

"Rin."

She jumped at hearing him say her name. She was surprised he even knew her name. Yes, he was her professor, he should know her name but he never said it before in class. Actually, he never said anyone's name in class. When he wanted someone to answer a question, he typically just pointed at them.

She timidly met his gaze, looking up at him questioningly.

"Stay out of the Bone Eater Forest. It's dangerous for humans." The tall demon stated plainly.

"Huh?" Rin answered naively. Then realization hit her like a ton of bricks. He saw me! He saw me looking at him in the hot spring! How else could he know I was in the forest!? Rin's face turned hot with embarrassment.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to...I have to get going!" She stammered backing away from him. Rin abruptly turned around, picked up her bag and quickly walked the other way without looking back. She could not face him anymore; the overwhelming feeling of mortification was too much.

"Rin?" It was Shippo. He went looking for her after Kagome said Rin went to the library. He was hoping to get some study time in with her. He would jump on any excuse to spend some alone time with her. It was difficult to do so when they were always around his other friends. He followed her scent to aisle 37 and was surprised by what he saw. What was she doing talking to Inuyasha's older brother?

"Shippo!" Rin made a bee line for him. Grabbing the fox demon's hand, she practically dragged him out of the library before he could even say another word.

Sesshomaru watched her go in mild amusement. He smirked. She didn't seem to have a problem with staring at him when she thought he didn't notice. Humans were such odd creatures, he thought. But in all seriousness, she really did need to stay out of that forest. He was curious as to what she was doing there.

Hnnn.

Author's Note:

Once again, thanks for reviewing, following and favoring! I enjoyed reading the guesses about Rin's quirk. Someone got it right! Can't wait for you all to read how it all unfolds. Until next time, I'll be writing!