"To find something."

"What?"

"Something dead."

Rin wondered why he would want to find something dead, but she was silent. Later he stopped. "It's there," he said.

"Yes, Lord Sesshoumaru!" Lord Jaken said, as he quickly took off in the direction that Lord Sesshoumaru indicated. Rin chased after Lord Jaken as well, and soon passed him, stopping when she saw something ahead of her.

"I won!" she cried.

He said that they weren't racing, but Rin was already looking at what she had found. There was a dead thing, just like Lord Sesshoumaru had said! She wondered how he knew where it was. Then Rin moved a little away from the thing, not especially liking the looks of it.

Then Lord Sesshoumaru came up and took the things's head, slinging it over his shoulder. Which was Rin's limit. She cried out and looked away.

"We're not taking that with us, are we, Lord Sesshoumaru?" Apparently Lord Jaken didn't like the thing, either.

"Quiet, Rin," Lord Sesshoumaru said. He didn't answer Lord Jaken.

"Yes!" Rin said, moving to follow him. She quickly caught up, but walked next to his other side, so she wouldn't have to look at the thing.

They walked for a while more, until Lord Sesshoumaru stopped and turned to face her.

"Rin, you stay here."

Rin panicked for a moment. Surely he wasn't leaving her? "Why?"

"We're going someplace unsuitable for humans."

"I'll be good if you let me go," she promised.

"It's better for you here," he said.

"I want to go with you!"

"Stay here."

"Do as Lord Sesshoumaru says!" Lord Jaken told her.

Rin looked up at Lord Sesshoumaru, who was frowning slightly. "I'll stay here," she said quietly.

She watched as they walked and started to disappear from view. "Hurry Lord Sesshoumaru! Come back soon?" she called.

Then Rin sat down on the ground, with nothing to do but wait for him. He had told her to wait here, and she would wait here, not wanting to miss him when he returned. After a while she got bored and lay down on the ground. Rin wished that Lord Sesshoumaru would come back.

Whatever Lord Sesshoumaru did without her, it didn't take him long. Soon she spotted him and Lord Jaken again, slowly making their way toward her. He told her to come along, but they didn't go far. He said that he still had to go back later. Rin didn't want him to go again, but later he did, once again leaving her and telling her to wait. She did, but it seemed to take him a lot longer than last time.

Rin played with some flowers at her feet, and she noticed that she was hungry. She wondered if she should go look for something to eat, but he had told her to stay there, so she did. Suddenly she heard a howl in the distance, and she sat straight up, looking around. There was nothing that Rin could see, but the wolf's cry had sent a shiver down her spine. She had seen lots of scary things since then, but none scared her as much as the thought of wolves. She hadn't forgotten the time that they chased her...but there was something more, something else that she couldn't quite remember. Whatever it was, she didn't like it, and she didn't want to see any more wolves ever again. It seemed like forever until Lord Sesshoumaru appeared again. When Rin saw him coming, she jumped up.

"Lord Sesshoumaru!"

He suddenly paused and looked past her. "Rin. Don't move."

Rin froze as Lord Sesshoumaru jumped overhead. There was a noise like a tree falling, and then she could hear him talking with someone. Rin looked over her shoulder for an instant. There was a woman talking with him, but she left quickly, disappearing into the sky. The woman must be a demon, too, Rin thought, since people couldn't fly. She wondered why the woman wanted to talk to Lord Sesshoumaru, and she wondered if she could move. The demon lady was gone now, but Lord Sesshoumaru still hadn't spoken to her. But then he told her that she could move again, and she did, twirling around and then running over to his side. Rin didn't care if she heard the wolves again now.

Later, they left that place. He didn't seem to want to stay at all for some reason. As they walked, she sat on the back of Ah and Un, which Lord Jaken was leading. Lord Sesshoumaru walked ahead and Rin noticed that he had a new sword with him. He must have had it made when he had left.

Rin looked down at Lord Jaken. "I wish that I could go where you and Lord Sesshoumaru do." Lord Jaken told her that she shouldn't be stupid, and that she would have been killed. She asked him if it was really that scary. Waiting by herself and hearing the wolves was bad enough.

"Not for demons!" he said. "Still, I wouldn't want to hang around there for very long! Lots of weirdos in that swamp. Even I nearly died! I would have, too, if it hadn't been for Lord Sesshoumaru."

"Really?" Rin asked. "What happened, Lord Jaken?"

"Why that treacherous sword maker cut me right through! But then Lord Sesshoumaru used his sword."

"The one he just got?" she asked.

"No, of course not, girl," Lord Jaken said. "The one that doesn't kill--the one that can bring back the dead. He's used it on you, too."

"Really? When?"

"After the wolves, of course."

Rin was quiet. Lord Jaken said that Lord Sesshoumaru's other sword could bring back the dead. And he had used it on her. She had died? After the wolves? Rin suddenly thought back to how she couldn't remember what had happened after she ran from the wolves. They had been chasing her, but after that there was nothing. The next thing she could remember was Lord Sesshoumaru being there. And there was the blood on her clothes afterwards, and how much the howl in the distance had scared her earlier. It must have happened.

"Lord Sesshoumaru?" she asked. "I died?"

He turned to look at her. "Yes, you did."

"The wolves really did kill me?"

"Yes."

"And you did that? Brought me back to life?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Why not?"

Rin looked down, and Lord Sesshoumaru turned back around. It had happened, then. She really had died, and he had brought her back. She didn't know that anyone could do things like that. Rin remembered when he had said that his sword was broken. The sword "that doesn't kill," Lord Jaken had said. Was that why he had said that it was broken and why he wanted another sword? Rin didn't really understand. But she had never dreamed that anything like that could exist, something that could stop you from dying. And Lord Sesshoumaru had saved her with it. But why? And why wouldn't he say?

She wondered why he had done it. Because she had brought him food? Because she had tried to help him? Because he had just wanted to? She had never figured out why he wanted to be nice to her, either. But if he hadn't been, she would be dead now. Rin was a bit disappointed that Lord Sesshoumaru wouldn't say why he did it, but she decided that it didn't matter.

She jumped off of Ah and Un, and went to catch up with him. He didn't look at her, so she moved in front of him but kept walking, looking up at his face. Finally, he looked down at her. No, she decided, it didn't matter why he did it, only that he had. That was enough for her, and it was so much more than anyone else had done, or ever could do.

"You don't have to say why if you doen't want to," she said.

He stared at her for a moment, and she smiled, still walking backward to look up at him. Lord Sesshoumaru didn't respond to her statement, as she had known that he wouldn't. But she had still had to say it.

"It's almost dark," he finally said. "You must be hungry."

"Yes, Lord Sesshoumaru!" she said, as she turned and ran ahead through the field.

She twirled around as she ran, and saw him watching her, as he always seemed to be. He would always be there, just behind her or just ahead of her. It was amazing how fast everything had changed for her since the village. She had never even dreamed that life could be this way. Rin decided that she would stop thinking about the village. It was past, and she was here now. Everything suddenly seemed so perfectly right to her. She hoped that she could stay with Lord Sesshoumaru forever.