"All this is Lord Sesshoumaru's? For how far, Lord Jaken?"

"For farther than the eye can see," he answered. "It goes for miles and miles in every direction!"

"Wow, Lord Sesshoumaru!"

He said nothing, and he seemed to be thinking about something. He was also looking at the meadows before them, though he was almost looking past them, as if he could see something that she couldn't.

"Lord Sesshoumaru?" she asked.

"Let's go," he answered.

He began to walk, and Rin jumped off of the rock to follow. He had told her to stay close, and she had readily agreed. There seemed to be lots of things in the places that they had been in during the last few days. She hurried to catch up to him.

"Rin," he suddenly said. "You can run around today."

"Really, Lord Sesshoumaru?"

"Yes."

"There's no other demons?"

"No."

She went ahead, running through the grass, but soon returned. She went over to Lord Jaken, who was walking with Ah and Un behind Lord Sesshoumaru.

"I'm glad there's no other demons around. Hey, Lord Jaken, why is that?"

"Because we're in Lord Sesshoumaru's lands. They keep out because of him. Naturally there's more lower demons hanging around the borders."

"Oh."

Lord Jaken kept talking about Lord Sesshoumaru's lands. Did demons do that like people did? Have land? Apparently they did. Though something seemed different about it. At any rate, Lord Sesshoumaru seemed to have a lot of land. They walked all day, and Lord Jaken still said that there was more, more than she could ever see. Rin didn't intend to leave Lord Sesshoumaru, so she thought that she would see all of it eventually, but she decided not to tell Lord Jaken that.

At sunset, Lord Sesshoumaru stopped under some trees.

"Rin, there's a stream in that direction," he said, pointing slightly. "Go get some fish for your dinner."

Rin ran off, and found the stream, just like he had said. It was a really big stream. Parts of it looked too deep for her to even stand in without the water going over her head. She put her foot in at the edge of the bank, but pulled it out and jumped back as a big fish suddenly came partway up out of the water at her. But the fish was different. It had bigger eyes and lips, and looked...smarter.

"Human," it said.

Rin was surprised, but the fish didn't look particularly dangerous. She just nodded, but didn't move any closer to the water.

Then another fish like the first one came up to the surface. "Human wants?"

"I just wanted some fish," Rin said.

"Let her fish?" the first one said.

"Let her fish or not?" the second echoed.

"Humans always taking."

"Humans always--the white dog."

"Here?"

"Near."

"The white dog?" Rin asked.

The fish nodded in unison.

"Land of the white dog," the first said.

"Human of the white dog!"

"Is she?"

"Must be."

"Fish she can have, then."

"Give her fish."

The first fish waved its tail, and suddenly two normal fish jumped out of the water and landed on the bank beside her. "You're giving me fish?" she asked.

"Because of the white dog."

"Because of the white dog."

"What's the white dog?" Rin asked, but the two fish had already gone under the water. She was a bit confused, but she wasn't going to leave the two fish that were still flopping around on the ground. She picked them up, and went back to where Lord Sesshoumaru was. She gave the fish to Lord Jaken, and then went among the trees to get some wood for a fire.

"You must be getting better at fishing," Lord Jaken said when she came back.

"Nope, Lord Jaken. The fish gave me the fish."

"The fish gave you the fish?" He sounded doubtful.

She nodded. "Mm-hm. 'Because of the white dog.' What's the white dog?"

"Lord Sesshoumaru is the white dog."

"Really, Lord Sesshoumaru?" she asked. "What's that mean?"

"It's just a title, Rin," he said.

He turned around, and Rin arranged the sticks for the fire. It didn't surprise her that Lord Sesshoumaru had a title. Everyone always treated him like he was very important. And they were always giving him things. Well, they gave her things because she was with him. The men gave her food, the lady gave her clothes, and the fish had given her fish. And Lord Sesshoumaru also had land. Lots of it. Rin was beginning to think that maybe important demons were treated more importantly that important humans. He also seemed always busy; he always had somewhere to go or something to do. She suddenly wondered where he was going now, so she asked him.

"To talk to someone about a sword," he said.

He did that a lot. He was very interested in swords, it seemed.

Lord Jaken finished the fish, and Rin went to sit next to Lord Sesshoumaru. She finished her dinner, and sat there as it got dark. It also got colder, but it wasn't that cold. Not really, really cold. And she was fine here.

"Why don't you go sit by the fire?" he asked her after she shivered a bit.

"I want to sit next to you."

He then got up and sat down in front of the fire. She hadn't asked him to, but he did. Rin immediately moved as well, again sitting next to him. She had noticed before that he usually sat away from the fire.

"Why do you never sit next to the fire?" she asked.

"I am sitting next to the fire."

"But not before," she said.

"I don't need the fire. I don't get cold."

Demons must not get cold. It would be nice not to get cold. And Rin remembered when he had said that demons could see in the dark.

"Is being a demon fun, Lord Sesshoumaru?"

"I suppose."

Rin wished that she could do some of the things that Lord Sesshoumaru could do, but she liked being human, she thought. Besides, it didn't matter as long as she had him to take care of her.

The next thing Rin knew, it was much darker, she was lying on the ground, the fire was almost out, and Lord Sesshoumaru was gone. She must have fallen asleep. She wondered why she had woken up, and remembered the vague impression of a dream that she couldn't recall. Rin sat up and looked around. She guessed that Lord Jaken was also asleep, but she couldn't see him; she thought she could see Ah and Un, but she wasn't sure. But where was Lord Sesshoumaru? She couldn't find him anywhere. So she sat by the remains of the fire, waiting. It was colder now than it had been. Rin pulled her knees close to her and sat that way, since it was too dark to look for more sticks.

The night was incredibly quiet. She sat for a very long time, it seemed, before she heard any noise at all. It was only a small sound, but it was almost loud in the night. Rin looked behind her.

"Lord Sesshoumaru!" she said. "Where did you go?"

He came up. "Walking."

"Don't you sleep?"

"Not usually." He sat down. "Why aren't you sleeping?"

"Rin had a dream. And then you weren't here." Rin went over to sit next to him. She guessed that maybe demons didn't need that much sleep. Rin suddenly wondered if he left a lot at night. So she asked him; he said that he sometimes did. Rin wasn't sure how she felt about that, she always thought that he was near at night. But he always came back, so she decided that it wasn't that important.

Rin realized that she was cold. It had been cold before, but now it felt really cold. She hadn't noticed it as much before, because she had been busy wondering where he had gone. But suddenly she shivered.

"Lord Sesshoumaru?"

"What?"

"I'm cold. Can I sit next to you?"

After a moment, he gave her a barely noticeable nod. "Fine."

Rin smiled and scooted closer, lying down next to him. He was still wearing that armor, but she could get close enough to be warm.

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Note: As for the fish that Rin sees, think something similar to the fish that were in the Water God episode.