Hello there all. Chapter three is up and running. Yay.

Well, I know I've been updating these chapters pretty quickly, but this will be the last one for at least a week. You see, I've had the first few chapters mostly written, but the rest are far from finished.

Enjoy this one, guys.

I own nothing.

Chapter Three

Discovery

Each morning after their nights together, Rin awoke to her face nuzzled into a puff of white fur, the dimming firelight flickering on her skin, and the smell of burnt wood. She could always feel when Sesshomaru slid away from her and she knew where he went. He had never stayed long, no matter how she coaxed with her fingers or laid with her head on his chest. She sat up, the fur around her, and looked to the cave entrance. There her Lord sat, dressed in his white under robe, his back leaning against the stony wall as he stared blankly out into the forest.

Rin often wondered what the great demon thought of in his numerous moments of silence. Did he think of his family, of his father and the many sombre memories of his home? Did he relive all the battles he had ever fought, regretting them, or perhaps wondering what he could have done to increase the number of deaths? And what of his arm? Did he begrudge his brother, Inuyasha, for its loss? In his thoughts, did he feel sadness? Fear? Loneliness?

After a long moment, Sesshomaru put his hand on his knee and stood slowly, walking soundlessly to where his clothes lay scattered across the ground. Quietly and efficiently, he dressed in layer after layer, the fabric rustling echoing in the cave. He was tying his colourful sash when he noticed two deep brown eyes watching him.

"I have matters to attend to," he stated.

She pushed back a scowl that plagued her lips and sadly let go of the fur so it fell around her hips. "When will you return?"

"Before nightfall."

As Rin wrapped her kimono around her body, she tried not to look upset, for she knew it displeased him, but she truly hated it when he was gone. It left her too much time alone to do nothing but wonder when he would be back. An aching filled her heart when she thought of the hours ahead, worrying about his safety, and she sighed.

Sesshomaru knelt in front of her. He moved to grab the fur that curled around her, however his clawed fingers brushed along her left arm in such a subtle way that, if Rin had not been looking, she would have excused it as an accident. Sesshomaru did not do anything by accident. A small, knowing smile brightened her temperament – he was comforting her. These were the few moments, when they were alone and when he sensed her unhappiness, that he allowed her touch. She reached up to cup her palms around his face, smoothing her fingers over the odd markings along his cheek bones.

"May I come with you?" she asked softly.

Removing her hands from his face, Sesshomaru slid his fur over his right shoulder. "No, Rin."

"Please, Lord Sesshomaru?"

"No." His yellow eyes regarded her coolly. He did not like it when she begged – it was a demeaning action she hardly performed, and when she did, it bothered him.

There was no use in arguing – Rin knew that very well. Sesshomaru had been leaving her behind a great deal more than usual and it confused her as to why.

"I will be back before nightfall," he repeated. Then, snatching up his two swords, Sesshomaru walked out of the cave. The last she saw of him was his streak of silver hair as he vanished into the forest.

She did not ask why he had bitten her.

After Sesshomaru had left, Jaken had wandered off, muttering something about a lake nearby. And so Rin was left completely to herself. As she did each day, she set to work on folding the sheets they slept on every night and placing them aside with other things to be washed. Then she searched for the nearest stream to wash herself, combing out her deep brown hair and pleating it into a long braid down her back so that it could be kept out of her way. The sun rose steadily into the sky and as the morning set in, so did a churning sensation in her stomach.

Rin ignored it, brushing it off as worry for her lord's safety. She could not count the many times pure anxiousness for him had caused her guts to squeeze and a sharp ache to pierce her heart. She no longer believed that he was indestructible, perfect, and unable to die. There had been instances that he had come disturbingly close to death at the hands of a powerful demon. No, the beliefs of her childhood had gone, replaced by an undeniable concern.

By the next few hours, she was feeling increasingly faint and the nausea had grown worse by leagues. Since Jaken was not around, she was able to rest without him pestering her about laziness. The respite did not still the sick feeling for long and soon it was back, sitting heavily in the pit of her belly. Still, she worked. There was fruit that needed to be dried, bread that she had to pound and bake while the sun was still risen. Though Jaken occasionally brought her berries he found or nuts he had picked off of the side of the road, Sesshomaru refused human food, and so it had been made clear early in her life that she must provide mainly for herself on this subject.

"Miss Rin!" a cheerful voice called unsurely from outside the cave.

Surprised, Rin sat up from her task and leaned towards the direction of the noise. She half expected it to be Jaken, but he had never called her "miss" in all her life. Also, at the best of times, Jaken was not the cheerful sort.

It was Mahako, a raccoon demon pup. She had a striped grey and black bush of a tail that bounced whenever Mahako ran, which was almost constant since she ran everywhere. Her grey eyes made her hair look even darker and her pointed black ears perked at whatever noise they could possibly pick up. Mahako was an uncanny thing to look at, sometimes even more so than Jaken, however these were not the only aspects that caught Rin's attention. It fascinated her how Mahako was so adept at finding things, even items that had been lost for years, but she supposed that was because raccoons were known scavengers.

Jaken did not like the girl. He murmured how she was unruly and without manners – Rin suspected that he was simply jealous that she had found another demon other than him to spend her time with, though she never said so. Any comment of the sort would have sent Jaken into a gasping rage of denial. Sesshomaru, on the other hand, tolerated Mahako wordlessly at times and ignored her completely at others. As long as the child stayed out of his way and visited mostly when he was gone, he did not care what she did.

As she stepped into the outside light, Rin saw the little girl, barely seven years old, standing uncertainly by a large rock. Immediately, the girl's face broke out into a large smile and she cried, "Miss Rin! It's good to see ya!"

Mahako's happiness always lifted Rin's spirits. The demon girl bounced around and chattered about her simple demon family living outside of the village, of how her father traded with humans, of her mother's garden behind their home. Normally, Rin listened with unrivalled interest, eager to hear tales of other demons than the few she knew. However, today was decidedly different. Today Mahako's stories simply annoyed and the observations that Rin would have found funny were only giving her a pounding headache.

After a few snapping comments, Mahako slipped into a brooding silence and concentrated on folding the clothes over a rock to dry in the sun. Beside her, Rin washed out the kimono she had worn the night before. The steady rhythm of slapping the cloth against a rock and dipping it back into the water distracted her. Smack. Dip. Smack. Dip. It was comforting and took her mind off of the nausea she had been feeling for hours.

"Miss Rin," Mahako whispered, "are ya all right? Yer turnin' greener than Jaken."

"I'm not feeling well today." Rin leaned her hand against her forehead, wiping the sweat on her brow. "I think I've caught a sickness."

"Have ya gone to the village to see a doctor? They'll treat ya even if ya reek of demon. Humans can't smell like we can. If yer human, like them, they'll help."

Just as she said the words, the bushes behind them rustled and parted. A two-headed staff shot abruptly out of the thick brush, pushing the leaves roughly aside so that its wielder could step through. Jaken wandered out to them, looking quite satisfied with himself – this time his favourite robe had survived his small journey without a single tear. However, that look quickly faded when he thought over what the raccoon demon had said.

"A doctor?" His slit eyes narrowed. "Who's sick?"

"Miss Rin."

Jaken leaned closer to Rin, inches from her face, and peered carefully at her. His eyes were not as they had been – even if he was a demon – and he needed to be twice as close to see anything half as well.

"You don't look sick to me," he observed coldly.

Mahako glared. "Miss Rin, ya should go to a doctor."

Jaken huffed at the ridiculousness, waving off Mahako's worries. Suddenly, he lifted up a fish, his green fingers holding it by its scaly back fin. "Here, eat something. Lord Sesshomaru will kill me if you starve."

Rin knew he was simply showing concern in his own way, but his act of brusque kindness made her queasiness multiply. Pools of dried blood peppered around a gaping wound on the fish's stomach and she could almost swear the animal was still wriggling, though her eyes were throbbing enough that she could not tell.

And the smell.

The smell!

Her vision blurred and her stomach gurgled. Rin tossed the fish into the dirt somewhere, anywhere, as long as it and its overwhelming odour was far away from her. She bolted towards the trees, emitting a loud moaning that spurred from the nausea in her stomach. As Rin rounded a tree, she could faintly hear Jaken exclaim, "Ungrateful girl!" and the frustrated smack of the end of a staff hitting a boulder.

Rin sprinted through the trees, a hand clapped over her mouth to desperately keep in her stomach's contents. She made it to a bush in time to retch up what little she had eaten for dinner yesterday. Clutching onto the grass, she threw up twice more until she was gurgling nothing but slimy spit and her pulse slammed against her eyelids.

She coughed, swept her long hair from her face, and stood. She looked down at herself, angered to find that her clean kimono had been ruined.

After awhile, Mahako went into the forest to look for Rin. She found her friend lying on the ground, her face pressed against a cold rock to dull the throbbing in her head. Mahako watched her, studying her thoughtfully, and was able from this angle to notice the recent swelling in her breasts and, though mostly hidden by thick fabric, the small bump on her stomach. Though young, Mahako had spent her life around adults and a sharp realization hit her.

"Miss Rin," Mahako gasped in awe. "Yer havin' a baby."

Rin's eyes widened in shock and she opened her mouth to set the child straight but found herself speechless, words failing her. Somehow, deep inside of herself, she knew that Mahako was correct. She could not ignore the changes that had been happening to her body, and had been happening for a long time. She had simply ignored them.

Rin knew what had afflicted her and it was certainly no illness.

"Miss Rin!" the little demon cheered, clapping her hands as she jumped up and down. "Yer havin' a baby!"

Snapping out of her thoughts, Rin grabbed the little girl and shook her roughly by the shoulders. "Be quiet, Mahako!"

Mahako quickly stilled her jumping, her jaw clamping shut as her grey eyes filled with tears. They listened, Rin straining to hear if a certain frog demon had managed to follow them without their knowledge. There was nothing but the normal forest noises; a strange bird called somewhere off in the distance. A bigger animal chased a smaller one up a tree a few feet away, causing branches to snap and leaves to tumble down. The creaking wheel of a cart could be heard close by, however it was clearly a merchant and he served no threat.

No sign of Jaken.

Mahako dug her shoe into the ground and unearthed a pebble, looking sheepish. "Sorry, Miss Rin."

Rin sighed. She let go of the girl, shame building up inside her. "No," she whispered. "I'm sorry. But, please, don't tell anyone. Please keep this secret."

Mahako nodded her agreement and they began a slow, anxious walk back to where their washing lay unfinished, abandoned in the confusion. Rin's head spun, her thoughts chasing after each other like beasts, her bewildered mind trying to sort through all that lay inside of her. Her thoughts naturally went to Inuyasha, a child born of the love between a demon and human. As quickly as she had thought of it, she wished she had not. Sesshomaru had hated Inuyasha, his own blood-relative, for as long as Rin could remember. All of his anger, his distasteful glares, and his pure resentment towards half demons came back to her, almost knocking her over.

The little girl looked up at Rin. Suddenly, she asked, "Will ya tell Lord Sesshomaru?"

Rin stared down at Mahako, her stomach roiling although her head told her that she was finished throwing up. This once, she was certain that it was not the pregnancy, but the thought of speaking to her lord that was making her sick.

All she could hear was the roaring of blood.

All she could see was a green blur of trees.

They barely made their way back to the river before Rin could hold on no longer. Her legs shuddered once and she stumbled forward. That was when they failed to support her weight any longer.

"Jaken!" Mahako shouted out in alarm, diving forward. "She's going to f –"

Her words were swiftly cut off as Rin felt the hold on her senses give way, breaking apart. A black foam covered her eyes and she heard nothing more.