A/N: Okay, before I start with this long, arduous chapter, I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed and followed this story! I honestly hadn't expected this story to get the amount of attention that it did. I was having a bit of trouble typing up this chapter (I always have a hard time with first chapter and character introductions, sue me), but your kind reviews gave me strength.

Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: Naturally, these characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi! With the exception of the OCs that appear in this story (Sachiko, Miwa, and Kaito), I own nothing!

**Edited on 12/20/16.

UNDER THE PALE MOON

one

Rin awoke from her slumber with a start, her breathing heavy and her forehead drenched in a thin layer of sweat. The air smelled damp, a result of the first rain in weeks. The very first rays of the morning filtered through the small window above her, casting a hazy glow on the small room. Through the dreamy red light, her tired eyes managed to make out the hunched form of Mistress Kaede. The old woman's knowing eyes gazed down at her ward with pity.

"Another nightmare, girl?" Kaede asked, though she already knew the answer.

Rin gave her a wordless nod, let out a deep breath, and covered her face with her petite hands. Mistress Kaede wrung out the wet washcloth that had been soaking in a nearby basin and gently began to dab with sweat away from Rin's forehead. This had become a commonplace scene for the two women now: Rin violently waking up from her nightmares, Mistress Kaede easing her with a wet cloth.

She had been having the same nightmare for eight years, ever since the night her family was slaughtered by the bandits. It always consisted of the same images, too: her father's blood splattered onto the walls of their home; the hollow, lifeless eyes of her brothers; the terror in her mother's beautiful voice as she begged Rin to run far, despite the little girl's fear. The nightmares had stopped for a while, much to Rin and Mistress Kaede's pleasure; however, in recent nights, they had returned with a fierceness. Rin only wished she could say that she was used to the pain the nightmares brought after all this time. But, she could not.

Rin sat up from her messy futon as Mistress Kaede turned away to dip the cloth back into the wooden basin. Slowly she stretched her petite limbs as far as they could go across the wooden floor. Then, she crawled away from the futon to kneel next to Mistress Kaede.

"I'm alright now, "Kaede-baa-san," Rin spoke gently, her voice still a bit groggy from the few hours of peaceful sleep she had received in spite of the nightmares. She rested her head on Kaede's shoulders. "You don't have to do that anymore."

Kaede merely looked at her in response. Much to Rin's relief, the old woman did not press on.

With Rin's family dead, there was no one to take care of the young girl besides Kaede. Her father's family had long since died from sickness, whilst her mom had been bought from traders and thus did not have blood ties to anyone on the estate. None of the other shinuhi stepped forward to care for the haunted and then mute child. Rin had lingered in that ruined hut for weeks after their burials before she was finally dragged out by the villagers, kicking and screaming, at Kaede's behest. It was Mistress Kaede who was there to watch the little orphan girl regain her strength over the years, who watched her grow into the young woman sitting before her. Of course, no matter how chipper Rin seemed to be on the outside, she still possessed deep internal wounds from the incident.

"You have a long day ahead of you, child." Mistress Kaede said, motioning for Rin to turn her back to her. "Today, there are no clouds –– it will be hot."

Rin did not complain as the Mistress tied her hair back in preparation for the day's work. By now, Rin was as used to waking up at the crack of dawn for a hard day of labor as she was to the nightmares. She had to be. She would be doing this for the remainder of her life –– the crescent moon branded onto the nape of her neck was a reminder of that. This harsh fact did not discourage her, however. Despite her seemingly immutable status in this world, she chose to look on the bright side of things in lieu of falling into despair. It was her own personal method of survival.

Mistress Kaede tied Rin's hair back so neatly that the young girl felt bad knowing it would be messy when she saw her next. When the old woman's skillful fingers were out of her hair, Rin stood up, adjusted her plain colored yukata, and helped her caretaker to her feet.

"Do not forget to eat," Mistress Kaede warned before Rin could exit. "We can't have you exhausted before the real work starts."

Rin never had much of an appetite after a nightmare. However, she smiled and nodded. "I won't, obaa-san."

For all her mother's beauteousness, Rin grew up to be a rather plain girl, much to everyone's dismay. While her brothers had begun to inherit their mother's looks, she had started to take more after their father –– thick brows, mud-colored eyes, and lightly tanned skin. Compared to the other girls her age, she was quite average: at fifteen, she was still as petite as she had been at twelve, no matter what Mistress Kaede fed her; her long, black hair always managed to end up a bit raveled, no matter what Mistress Kaede did to keep it tied down and tamed; and she did not possess the gentility that a girl her age should have, no matter how many times Mistress Kaede tried to correct her.

No –– Rin was a plain girl, and strikingly so. She didn't mind much. There was no need to be in a rush for marriage or children –– all that would be decided for her, after all. No one else seemed to mind, either. Everyone in the village still loved her for her amicable spirit and gentle heart. What her looks lacked, her personality dramatically made up for.

One thing that Rin did inherit from her mother was her voice, which was a sharp contrast to her appearance. It was as cheery and sweet as her disposition, lovelier than even her mother's. Rin sang because she was joyful, and when Rin sang, everyone was at peace, even if just for a moment. Rin's presence added a little bit of light to everyone's darkness.

Rin sang that day as she pulled up weeds in the fields, her voice carrying in the late-summer breeze. Sachiko, one of Rin's dearest friends, worked close by her in the shade, a storm brewing on her face. Other bondsmen close to her listened through their low murmur of speech. The sun was hot, and though it wasn't even noontime, everybody was far too exhausted to do much else besides whisper and listen to Rin's tranquil tune.

It wasn't like they could do much else. They were being watched.

Standing many meters away from the pair was a small section of the stone wall that surrounded the village and the fills. They were large enough to keep the humans inside, but not large enough to necessarily protect them, as the walls surrounding the main house further up the mountain were. Atop the wall was a yagura, which served the girl well by blocking out the sun. Inside that small fortress were two yokai, one an inuyokai soldier and the other a lesser yokai. With keen senses, they both protected the estate and kept a glaring watch of the bondsmen below. They made sure they worked from dawn to dusk, as they were supposed to. Even the softest whisper could not escape them. For humans such as Rin, privacy outside one's personal shelter was an impossibility.

Rin stopped singing for a moment to take a deep breath. The force required to uproot the weeds was rubbing her hands red and raw.

In response to Rin's sudden withdrawal, Sachiko looked over. "Rin?"

"I'm fine." Rin replied, her eyes still focused on her weary hands. "These roots are tougher than usual, that's all."

They stood gazing at the plant in question. A little rut had been formed around the base of the plant, where Rin had twisted and turned it in a futile effort to get it out of the ground. The muddy earth did not help much either –– it made her footing unsteady and the dirt heavier than usual.

Rin rubbed her hands on the yukata and prepared to try again.

"Perhaps if you wore shoes," Sachiko started, staring at Rin's bare feet. "It would be easier for you to get a better hold."

Rin's toes wriggled in the moist earth. It was a long-suffering habit of hers, a peculiar, childish one that Mistress Kaede absolutely could not stand –– Rin preferred to walk around barefoot. When she was still a child, it was rare to see her wearing geta or even waraji. In the mornings, she would leave Kaede's careful watch with something on her feet, then return with the earth caked between her toes.

"You're going to step on something awfully sharp one day," Sachiko added simply.

Rin stuck out her tongue and went to work on the weed. It took a few more tries, but when Rin finally tugged it up and out of the earth, she tossed it to the side, beaming in triumph.

"I could've done that with my eyes closed." Sachiko insisted haughtily.

"But you did not." Rin responded simply. Sachiko rolled her eyes, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

Throughout their moment of livelihood and friendly jests, they couldn't help but notice the absence of the third member of their trio. Miwa, the most responsible of the group as well as the eldest by three years, had not worked beside them in weeks, yet they were still not used to the lack of motherly quips she would have provided. Miwa was the only one of the three who was married, the only one with a child and another on the way.

"You've talked to Miwa recently, surely," Sachiko started. "Is she well?"

Rin nodded. When she wasn't working, she was often with Kaede, tending to the needs of the other nuhi. "She's fine. The baby could come at any second, now." Mistress Kaede was probably with Miwa as they spoke.

A low rumbling sound came from the wall, capturing the girls' attention. The large wooden gates in the center of the wall opened slowly, giving Rin a clear view of the valley beyond it. A wooden cart drawn by two horses and driven by a type of yokai unfamiliar to the girls entered the yard, kicking up dust on the path between the two fields where the girls worked. Behind the cart, about a dozen humans trotted along, their wrists bound by thick ropes. Their expressions were worn by both the travel they had to endure and their unfortunate life.

While Rin's curious eyes followed the clumsy cart, Sachiko continued to stare longingly at the open valley.

"I overheard Kaede-baa-san say we were getting new nuhi." Rin said. New faces were an unfamiliar site in their small village –– the last time new nuhi had arrived, Rin's mother was among them.

Sachiko pursed her lips and whispered. "Don't you ever wonder what life is like beyond these walls, Rin?"

Rin looked up at the guards, a flash of fear in her eyes. The two yokai paid them no mind –– either Sachiko's words escaped their excellent hearing, or they simply chose to ignore it. Sachiko was lucky.

Sachiko looked at her with knowing eyes. She knew that Rin did, too –– she's wondered a thousand times. The question seemed sudden, almost random, yet it was something that Rin was expecting. Sachiko has asked her this a thousand times before, each time they heard of a nuhi punished for attempting to escape, or even hinting towards it with words like these.

Even Rin, for all her light-hearted, innocent ways, knew not to say something like that so...openly. Rin couldn't imagine what would happen to Sachiko if any yokai heard this, and quite frankly, she didn't want to.

Sachiko fell silent, her eyes returning to the gates. The two yokai guarding on the ground beyond the gates had already begun to close them: only a sliver of the open field was visible now, most of it obscured by wood.

Rin ate her lunch surrounded by children only a few years younger than herself, on the cusp of adolescence. Their meals were nothing much –– merely a bowl of rice with vegetables –– but it would be enough to last her until nightfall.

The sun still hung proudly in the baby blue sky, bearing down on her and her companions with a fervor. She was breaking a sweat just by sitting under the shade.

Rin scooped more rice into her mouth as she watched the children. A few had already finished their meal and were now focused on bothering some poor insect that had crawled into their line of vision. The other kids merely gazed on, too engrossed in their meal to do much else.

Right next to her, a boy was twittering about his first day beyond the walls, his first day of another duty besides the fields. At thirteen, he was a small boy –– like Rin, he could easily be described as a 'runt'. He was somewhat of a sickly boy as well, and he had been for most of his life. Rin could remember the nights of her youth spent in his house while Mistress Kaede tended to him. She was happy to see him happy.

"The forest goes on for miles and miles, Rin-chan!" The boy Kaito gushed, giving Rin the toothiest grin he could muster. "The trees were so high that if you climbed them, you could probably see the entire country!"

Rin could remember asking her brothers and father many questions about the forest beyond the wall when they were still alive. Her father had answered each one with mirth, smiling at her endless curiosity. To some degree, she was still as curious about the outside world as she was then.

"Did you get to climb any?" Another child, a girl, asked.

Kaito's mouth bent into a frown. "No," he said. "I wasn't allowed. Besides, I had to collect wood. That's my new duty now." His eyes brightened once more. Turning to Rin, he asked, "Can you climb trees, Rin-chan?"

Before Rin could open her mouth to answer, another child spoke up. "Of course she can't. She's about as small as us. On top of that, she's a girl."

Rin scoffed playfully. "I could climb trees just as well as the rest of you, if there were any."

There weren't many trees in the village, and the ones that were there were far too weak to be climbed.

A ball rolled into view, and the children, by now finished with their meager meals, ran after it, leaving their empty bowls behind.

Rin let out a deep, drawn-out sigh. She loved the children, truly –– but whenever they were with her, they always managed to leave behind a huge mess. Starting with her own empty dish, she began to collect the wooden bowls that were now scattered across the dusty earth.

"Rin?"

Her name, and an unfamiliar voice. Rin turned. A boy of average height and build stood just a few feet away from her. He was handsome, perhaps a few years older than herself, with black hair and kind eyes. His hair was short and tied back. Rin had never seen him around the village before; he must've been one of the new bondsmen, someone who came in with the carts. Staring down at her crouched form, he spoke again.

"You're Rin, correct?"

Rin nodded in response. "...yes?"

"Kaede-san is asking for you. A girl is giving birth." He explained, gesturing in the direction of Miwa's home.

Rin's eyes widened, flashing to and fro from the litter of bowls to the direction that the boy had come from.

"You might want to hurry." The stranger said, a boyish smile dawning on his face. "I can collect the bowls for you."

"Thank you!" Rin nodded once more, bowed quickly, and hurried down the path.

Mistress Kaede's days were spent running around the village, visiting the homes of the sick, the injured, and those with child. Kaede thought it necessary that Rin learn how to properly tend to the needs of others.

Despite the fact that the old woman was inside for most of the day, Kaede's duties were strenuous –– Rin knew that firsthand. She wondered how Mistress Kaede still had the strength to tend to her and her nightmares at the end of the day.

Miwa was in labor for a long time, from noon to nightfall. She was surprisingly calm and quiet, and Rin decided that this was because of her previous experience with childbirth. While Rin sat at Miwa's right side, Miwa's mother was on the left. Mistress Kaede, naturally, was the most experienced person in the room; therefore, she was the one to deliver the child. Rin could hear the cries of Miwa's first child outside.

At the end of the whole ordeal, Miwa delivered a healthy and chubby baby girl. Rin grimaced as the baby was pulled out, all blood and wrinkles, and she was especially disgusted as Mistress Kaede cut the pale, fleshy life-cord that connected the child to its mother. This wasn't the first birth that Rin had been present for, but the young girl couldn't help but pale at the sight of it.

Miwa noticed this pallor and laughed. "How will you ever deliver children in the future if you can't stand the sight of a little blood, Rin-chan? How will you ever have your own children?"

Rin flushed. Her own nonexistent children were the last thing on her mind now, and she had already decided that the birthing process was so gruesome that she didn't want any. But Miwa had a point –– Kaede was training her and only her to take on this role, and if she wanted to help people as she desired, she needed to ignore her gut.

After staying with Miwa and her newborn for an hour or so after the birth, Rin retired for the night. Sachiko was standing outside, awaiting her chance to visit her friend. Rin could tell she was exhausted by the way she held herself. Sachiko looked up at her with knowing eyes.

"A boy." Rin replied to the silent question with a smile. Sachiko nodded. "That's good. Is Miwa all right?"

"As healthy as ever. And happy, too!"

Sachiko looked past Rin at the curtain that blocked the entryway to Miwa's home. "I couldn't have children. Not here, not like this."

Rin looked around. Many people were turning in for the night, makeshift lanterns in hand. In the distance, Rin could see the torch-lit walls that trapped them, and the demons that stood atop of it, always watching, always listening.

Deep down, Rin agreed.

Rin returned to the hut alone. Due to Miwa's lengthy labor, Mistress Kaede was unable to do the other duties she would usually perform during the day. The young girl did not like the idea of being alone during the night, but she did not complain. She knew that Kaede would be punished if she didn't complete her duties for the day.

Exhausted, Rin hurried through her dinner of veggies and rice. When she finally laid down on her futon, she was able to relax and take in the cool relief that the night's darkness brought after a long summer's day. She needed as much rest as she could possibly get –– she would have to work extra the next day to make up for the time missed in the fields.

Rin closed her eyes in preparation for nightmares.

Somewhere outside, far beyond the walls, there was a mighty howl.

terminology

yagura: "tower" or "keep"; usually watch towers.

geta: a traditional form of japanese footwear that resemble both clogs and flip-flops.

waraji: Sandals made from straw rope that in the past were the standard footwear of common people in japan.

A/N: And there you have it! I know this chapter is boring, and I apologize for that! This mostly serves as an introductory chapter, as well as a glimpse into Rin's life. At the moment, I'm simply trying to set up the ambiance of the story.

As mentioned before, Sachiko, Kaito, and Miwa are all characters of my own creation. The honestly won't have major roles (I know a lot of people don't like OCs with major roles in the story), but they're simply going to act as people who will later influence some of Rin's decisions later on in the story.

Thanks for reading!