Sesshomaru almost frowned at the sents. A human and a horse. A male human most likely. His pace quickened slightly, with a male human in the area he wanted to return to Rin and Jaken quickly.
To his terror the smells grew stronger as he approached thier camp. Oh Kami, if anything happened to them... Esspecially his little girl...
'No need to worry.' He told himself. 'You did teach Rin to defend herself. And she is quite skilled with a dagger. Between her and Jaken a human should be no problem.'
But a thousand scenarios ran through the youkai's head. What if either of them had been resting? What if the human took them each by surprise? What if Rin was bathing so did not have her dagger with in easy reach?
Oh Kami not that! Anything but that! If she were surprise bathing she would be naked! If she couldn't get her dagger, and were taken by surprise...
He was running when he came upon Jaken's unconcious form. He stopped dead in his tracks. Then he saw the inmprint on Jaken's head of a tiny foot. He had taught Rin well.
He almost smiled as a great weight lifted. Rin would not have rendered the toad unconcious had she felt she were in any danger. But this still left her unsupervised with a human in the area. And his sent was extremely strong now, he was far to close! He immediately picked up Rin's sent and went to find her. He had no time to deal with Jaken untill his daughter was safe beside him.
Then her realized that as Rin's scent got stronger so did the other humans. He broke into a run, they were together... He stopped when he saw the two, she was safe! Oh thank the kami and all that was holy, she was safe!
The young human said something causing Rin to giggle. The human then also chuckled. A secret horror that he had never had the courage to acknowledge made it's self known. What if his little girl liked this human!
Now what? Rin had obviously befriended this young man so he couldn't just slay him. She would never forgive him if he knowingly hurt a friend of hers. And it was obvious from the sound of her laughter that this boy was a friend.
While the Youkai lord stood contemplating his choices the young human yawned and stretched his arms over his head. When he let his arms back down the left one landed around Rin's shoulders. Sesshomaru growled silently and drew Hoshi. He was putting an end to this now!
Kenji was enjoying just being in this girls company and listening to her chatter on about this and that. It was a refreshing change, his father and brother weren't real big talkers. Sometimes he just started talking to break the silence and wondered if Rin didn't do the same. He got the idea that her father was not the talkative type either.
Kenji didn't talk as much as Rin, but when he did he told the most fascinating stories and funniest jokes. Rin found herself leaning towards him and hanging on every word. At the moment he was telling her about what he called The Sake Incident. When he was 11 and his brother Makoto 14, His brother had found a flask of Sake and decided he was old enough to drink it.
He was about half way through his story and both he and Rin were laughing when the dull side of a metal object collided with the back of his skull with a loud thunk. Kenji hissed in pain and grabbed the back of his head with his right hand. His left arm remained around Rin's shoulders. Both teeens looked back to see a tall pale youkai behind them staring down with cold, angrey eyes.
"Uh, hi Daddy. Welcome back." Rin replied nervously. Her father did not look to pleased. And that was a bad thing.
Kenji gaped at the young woman. "That's your father?" He asked in a choked voice.
Rin glanced at kenji and nodded. "Uh huh." She replied with big eyes.
Sesshomaru glared at Kenji with narrowed eyes. "Your arm."
"Huh?"
"Remove it at once or I will remove it."
The young boy immediatly dropped his arm and got to his feet standing before the youkai.
"Rin, go wait at the top of the hill."
"Please don't hurt Kenji, Daddy. He's my friend." The girl pleaded with her big puppy eyes. "Please, we were just talking."
"Do as I told you Rin. I will be there in just a moment." He looked into those big brown eyes. "Do as I say. If you both tell me the truth I might let him live." He told the panicked girl. He wanted nothing more than to insure this boy would never have a family but those eyes...
The girl gave him a quick bow. "Yes Daddy." She replied then obediently scampered up the hill and watch anxiously.
"Who are you and what are you doing with my daughter?" Sesshomaru asked giving the boy a look to freeze blood.
"N-nothing Sir, I swear we were just talking. I wouldn't do anything bad to a woman, I swear. My own father would kill me if I hurt a woman. M-my name Is Kenji Yomato"
"What are you doing here?"
"I was just scouting ahead sir. My father and brother are not to far from her. I saw Rin and she appeared alone so I thought it best to keep her company untill you arrived. These are wild lands,"
Sesshomaru studied the boy's armour. He was dressed as a samurai, though he didn't look old enough to be one. One of the tenents of Bushido was honesty. "Wait here."
He climbed the hill to where Rin stood. "Did he touch you?"
Rin looked up at her father "Touch me?" She asked in confusion. "No, of course not."
Sesshomaru stared at her for another minute. She was telling the truth. She had never been able to lie to him and had learned a long time agon to always just tell the truth, even when she'd been bad. Lying just made thing worse. Actually he tended to go rather easy on her if she was completely honest.
He turned and gave Kenji another icey glare then walked started to walk away.
"Wait sir..." Kenji called after the youkai. Sesshomaru turned to see the young man approaching him and Rin. The boy was either stupid or very brave. "Might I ask your name?" The boy asked stopping just a couple of yards from them.
"I am known as Sesshomaru."
"Sesshomaru-sama, I am truely sorry about this misunderstanding. I assure you I ment no harm. If there is ever anything you or Rin need you have but ask. I am afraid I can not give you any specific advise on where to find me, but I doubt you would need it."
Rin stared at the young man in awe. He was absolutly the bravest man she'd ever met aside from her father. Sesshomaru just regarded him with his emotionless expression. This kid had spirit. He was impressed, he'd never admit it, but he was. Of course that didn't mean he trusted the brat around Rin.
Sesshomaru turned and led Rin back to where they had left Jaken. He heard Kenji behind them. That made sense, his horse was somewhere on the other side of the field. When they reched Jaken they stopped. Kenji handed Rin a flower he'd picked as he walked past and smiled at her. He knew their paths would cross again. But he heard Sesshomaru growl and so didn't stop.
Both Rin and Sesshomaru watched until Kenji was out of side then Sesshomaru kicked Jaken awake. The toad awoke and stammered a greeting then started begging for forgiveness for being knocked out.
"Jaken," Sesshomaru didn't bother even looking at the toad but rather his eyes gazed out into space. "Did you disobey a direct order by Rin?"
"Uh, I'm sorry my lord but there was a human male..."
"Jaken, did he seem dangerous to you?"
"All humans could be dangerous to Rin..."
"Jaken! Did his demeanor seem menacing?"
"N-no M-milord."
A well aimed kick sent the imp tumbling into the boulder he'd been resting against earlier.
"Jaken. Come."
The toad stood up and meekly made his way back to his lord.
"Were you rude to Rin's guest?"
Before the toad could respond Sesshomaru once again sent him flying into the boulder and called him back a third time.
"You owe Rin and appology. She is your princess and you will obey her unless it is a life or death situation." The third kick sent him roughly in Rin's direction.
Rin was sitting on her knees watching the whole thing. He father met her eyes and she knew she was meant to punish the toad as well. He would not learn to respect her otherwise. Jaken waddled over and appologized profusely.
Rin really hated to be violent but she really had no choice. Her father expected her to be a lady, and part of that meant not taking any crap from the servants. She stared down at Jaken with that glare learned from Daddy as he made his appologies.
"Don't let it happen again." She told the toad as she back handed him.