Rin - Taking Off


As they came over the hill, Rin saw the towering trees ahead. It was a forest that came out of nowhere and seemed to stretch forever. The sun was setting behind it, and was soon lost from view as it disappeared into the branches. Lord Sesshoumaru continued towards the forest, and Rin wondered if they were going to go into it. She used to like forests, but some of the ones that they had seen seemed to have a lot of scary things in them. Though she hadn't seen any things in the days since they had entered Lord Sesshoumaru's land, however far that was. Rin wondered if they were still in his land. She guessed that they were. Maybe Lord Jaken was right about there being too much of it to see.

They did go into the forest, and Rin didn't see any scary things, but by the time they got there it was almost too dark to see. They didn't walk that far into the trees before they stopped to sleep. Lord Sesshoumaru woke her up the next morning, and soon they were walking again.

Rin sometimes walked and sometimes rode on Ah and Un. The first part of the morning she excitedly looked at everything in the forest. She could see so much more of it than she had been able to when they had entered it last night. It was a lot different than the woods that she had been in before. They were plain compared to this. Everything was so green here, there was even green moss on lots of the trees' trunks. The trees went on in every direction, and stretched up to the sky, which she could barely see because of the roof of leaves overhead.

"Is this all Lord Sesshoumaru's, too, Lord Jaken?" she asked.

"Of course!"

"Wow! I've never seen trees like these. They're really, really tall! And look at that tree, Lord Jaken! It's really big around!"

Lord Jaken didn't really seem too impressed, but Rin didn't care.

They kept going into the forest, finally ending up on an old path of some sort. They stayed on that until Lord Sesshoumaru stopped to talk to a tree. Rin had never seen a talking tree before. Lord Sesshoumaru and the tree man talked about swords, and about someone named Inuyasha. After they were done, Lord Sesshoumaru turned in another direction, leaving the forest's path. It wasn't that much longer before they were out of the trees and back to the meadows.

Rin was sort of sad to leave the tall trees so soon. She lingered by the edge a little while as Lord Sesshoumaru and Lord Jaken talked ahead of her. Suddenly, Lord Sesshoumaru called to her.

"Come on, Rin."

Rin turned around and saw that both Lord Sesshoumaru and Lord Jaken were sitting on Ah and Un. She ran over and got on Ah and Un in front of Lord Sesshoumaru.

"You're riding on Ah and Un, too?" she asked, turning to look at him.

He nodded at her. "Hold on, Rin."

Rin wondered why she would need to hold on; she rode on Ah and Un all the time. Still, she braced herself a little, wondering if something different was going to happen this time. It did. Ah and Un suddenly moved, jumping up into the air. Rin gasped and leaned back against Lord Sesshoumaru. Ah and Un kept going up, and Rin saw the ground far below.

"Wow! Ah and Un can fly!" she exclaimed after a moment.

Rin leaned up, and looked down. Everything was so faraway, and being up high made it all look so different. Her hair blew around her face, and it almost felt as if she were the one flying. She looked to one side and then the other, leaning so she could see as much as she could. Once as she was leaning, she felt Lord Sesshoumaru's hand on her shoulder, pulling her back a bit. She looked back at him, and he gave her a barely noticeable shake of his head. Rin decided that maybe leaning out wasn't such a good idea. After that, she only sat and saw what she could without leaning.

"I've never been flying before," she told him, looking behind her.

He didn't say anything, but later he told Lord Jaken to turn toward the left.

"Is he that way, Lord Sesshoumaru?" Lord Jaken asked.

"Yes."

"Is who that way, Lord Sesshoumaru?" Rin asked.

"Inuyasha."

"Who's Inuyasha?"

"My halfbreed half-brother."

"Oh," Rin said. He didn't really seem to want to talk about it. So she just looked at the ground beneath them again.

A little later, Lord Jaken brought An and Un down above some woods, and landed in a clearing. Then Lord Jaken took Ah and Un a little bit away.

"Rin," Lord Sesshoumaru suddenly told her, "you stay here."

"Where are you going?"

"You stay here."

Rin looked down, but nodded. She remembered the last time that Lord Sesshoumaru had gone somewhere. He had said that it wasn't a good place for her to go.

"Lord Sesshoumaru!" she called as he started to walk away. "You're coming back soon, right?"

He turned to look at her for a moment, before he said, "Yes."

"You promise? Soon?"

"Soon." Then he turned again and walked away.

In a few minutes, Lord Jaken came back with Ah and Un. "Lord Sesshoumaru?"

"He left, Lord Jaken."

Lord Jaken frowned. "Lord Sesshoumaru left? Did he go alone to where Inuyasha was?"

"I don't know. But he said he'd come back soon," she added brightly. Lord Jaken didn't look any less annoyed. "Hey Lord Jaken, who's Inuyasha?"

Then Lord Jaken talked for a really long time. But Rin got out of it that Inuyasha was Lord Sesshoumaru's younger brother, and that they didn't really get along. Also, Lord Jaken didn't seem to like Inuyasha much.

"Do you think that Lord Sesshoumaru went to fight with Inuyasha, Lord Jaken?"

"Probably."

"Does he fight a lot?"

He shrugged. "I suppose."

"I hope that Lord Sesshoumaru doesn't get hurt."

"Silly girl! Lord Sesshoumaru is much to strong to ever be hurt!"

Rin decided that she still didn't like the idea of him fighting. He seemed very strong, but something had hurt him before. Something had been strong enough to cut his arm off, and he had been hurt when she had found him. Rin wondered if maybe Lord Jaken had forgetten these things.

But she turned her attention to combing her hair, which had gotten tangled while flying. Then she played with some flowers, but decided not to pick any since there weren't very many there and someone else might want some. She found some grass for Ah and Un to eat, and then just sat, waiting for Lord Sesshoumaru. It didn't seem like very much time had passed before she saw him walking back through the trees.

"Lord Sesshoumaru!" she cried, running over.

He didn't say much, and didn't answer Lord Jaken's questions, only turning and saying, "We're leaving."

Lord Jaken grabbed Ah and Un's reins, and Rin walked beside Lord Sesshoumaru.

"Did you go fight?" she asked him.

"More or less," he said.

"With Inuyasha?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

He didn't say anything.

"I don't like it when you fight," she added. "You might get hurt. Then I might be all alone."

"I wouldn't be hurt," he said.

"You promise? Lord Sesshoumaru?"

"Yes, fine."

"Thank you, Lord Sesshoumaru!"

Rin hoped that he wouldn't get hurt again, since he had promised. Then she would always have him.

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