A Paradoxal Mistake
A/N: Yay, I love reviews. Keep 'em coming! Sorry it took me so long to update. I'm lousy with my muse sometimes.
Chapter Two: Foreign Territory.
One bare foot after the other stepped on to dry earth, upon a sun-dappled pathway deep within the woods nearest to Edo, Inuyasha's Forest. A twirl, skip and hop later and the young barefoot girl collided with a stone and immediately drew blood from her knee. "Clumsy human," scoffed a green toad not far from her right, shaking his head and wiping his left hand upon his ragged servant's kimono. He pulled a scrap piece of cloth from inside of his outfit, reaching forward to hand it to the girl who was now sitting up with tears caught up in her bottom eyelashes. "Sesshoumaru-sama would not be pleased to see tears. You're a big girl, wipe your knee and let us continue on." The kappa was generally not this kind with Rin though lately Sesshoumaru had been beating him for his sass at the girl. He was sure to be in trouble for returning her with a wound on her knee now, too.
"Arigato, Jakken-dono." Said the girl politely, taking the cloth and pressing it to her knee before sniffling and wiping her eyes. She handed the cloth back rather stiffly before carefully picking herself up off of the ground and wiping her dirty hands across her yellow and orange checkered kimono. It was growing too short for her; the small girl frowned as she examined the length. It was nearly time to ask Sesshoumaru for a new traveling kimono to wear.
"Don't mention it." Jakken said with a glare, folding his arms around the Staff of Two Heads and shuffling forward. "Ah-Un! Come on now, Sesshoumaru-sama will beat us all for tardiness." Rin only laughed at Jakken playfully and scampered ahead again, forgetting already about the scrape on her knee. Ah-Un, a giant two-headed dragon equipped with a saddle, reigns and muzzles trod forward with both heads lowered obediently. They were an odd threesome: a toad, a two headed dragon and an eight-year-old human girl.
"Jakken-dono, where is Sesshoumaru-sama?" Rin asked bluntly as they walked. "Is there a place he intended for us to meet him?"
"Until you decided to inconvenience us with your hunger we would have still been with him! He walked on because I had to feed you. We're in Inuyasha's region, as he seeks his half-brother." The toad explained unhappily, marching forward along the pathway.
"Why does he seek Inuyasha?"
"Will you stop pestering me?"
"But Jakken! They always fight!"
"Perhaps then, he will kill Inuyasha. I do not know of his intention!"
"He does not seek Tetsusaiga anymore, does he?"
"Rin! Shut up!"
"Maybe I will see Kohaku. Or Shippou." The girl huffed and folded his arms across her chest, walking forward and carefully making sure to 'accidentally' bump Jakken down onto his face as she walked by him. The two headed dragon only tilted one head down to sniff the toad as he walked forward, following closely after the young girl. "Ah-Un, you will pick flowers with me later, okay?" She babbled on uselessly, content with only the one head that seemed to be paying any attention to what she had to say about flower necklaces, hats and braiding.
Not much longer later the group emerged from the forest path into a sunlit meadow. The grass was very long and swayed tenderly with the soft breeze. Nearer to the middle stood Sesshoumaru as rigid as ever, bearing the same clothing as usual – white hakama, a white haori with many silk layers and a blue honeycomb design upon the right shoulder and wide sleeve, a yellow and blue obi was tied skillfully around his waist with black spiked armor finishing the outfit. Two swords hung at his hip, a slender and useless one by the name of Tenseiga, and a powerful demon blade called Tokijin. Tilting his head slightly he turned, narrowing his honey eyes and cocking a slender brown in the direction of the trio skipping his way at an increasing speed.
"Sesssssshoumaru-saaaama!" Rin sang, skipping more quickly to reach her lord faster. "We have found you!"
Word Count: 674.