Chapter Text
“Master Jaken, do you smell smoke?”
Rin sat against A-Un’s belly, feet stretched in front of her, her nose scrunched toward the lightening sky. Closer to the cold ashes of last night’s fire, Jaken poked his head up.
“Smoke?” The imp's yellow eyes glided from the sky to the dark tree line beyond their campsite in the glade. “Nonsense.” He nestled back down into the folds of his robe. “Go back to sleep, Rin….”
“But it’s almost morning.” Rin reached a foot over to poke the groggy imp. “C’mon, Master Jaken.”
“Stop touching me,” he grumbled. “If you’re so awake already, go make yourself useful and get us some breakfast.”
“Aw, you’re no fun,” Rin sighed. Still, she rose from her position against A-Un and stretched her arms to the pale morning sky. “When’s Lord Sesshomaru coming back?”
“Lord Sesshomaru will return when Lord Sesshomaru is finished with his business.” Jaken’s annoyed yellow eyes snapped open to glare at Rin. “Now be quiet, you exhausting girl, and go fetch us some food!”
Rin rolled her eyes, but headed off into the forest anyway. A-Un shifted as he watched her disappear into the shade of the trees.
Jaken’s insults never packed any punch – though they were starting to grow old. Ever since Rin had rejoined him and Lord Sesshomaru after living for years in the village with Kaede, she felt like something was amiss between the three of them. But she wasn’t quite sure what that was yet.
“If I'm an exhausting girl, Jaken, you're an exhausting imp,” Rin mumbled under breath as she wandered around the trees. “Ah!” She caught sight of the brook they had passed the evening before, the waters sparkling from the dappled sunlight that poked through the leaves. Sure enough, a few plump fish swam against the current, waggling around in the stream.
As she knelt by the brook, she felt a nudge at her back. The hot breath of her dragon companion puffed onto her neck.
“A-Un, you followed me!” Rin laughed as she turned and nuzzled one of the dragon’s heads. “Want to help me catch some fish?”
Instead of his usual warm willingness to go along with her plans, A-Un only rubbed his head against Rin’s shoulders and shifted from foot to foot.
“What is it?” she asked. A-Un nudged her a little harder, sending her stumbling into the brook behind her. She gasped at the cold water against her skin, though it was a little welcoming in the warming summer air.
“Just give me a little more time to catch a fish,” she said. “Then we’ll go back, I promise.”
Rin bent down into the stream and trained her big brown eyes on a fat fish swimming around her feet. She readied her hands, wiggled her fingers, took a breath, and pounced into the cold water. When she poked her head above the surface again, her hands came up empty, and she let out an exasperated laugh.
“Next try, I guess,” she said.
“Rin.”
That familiar deep voice pulled her attention from the brook to the bank in one swift whip of her head, her wet hair flying in clumps around her face.
“Lord Sesshomaru!”
Like usual, the dog demon’s regal expression remained unmoving on his face, but Rin caught a hint of amusement flicker in his golden eyes at her display in the brook.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Catching some breakfast.” She slogged back over to the bank and wrung out her kimono. “Well, I’m trying to. I was never very good at this in the village.”
“We must leave here,” Lord Sesshomaru said.
“Why.”
“An inferno is approaching.”
“I knew I smelled smoke this morning!” Rin shook out her wrinkled kimono and stumbled toward A-Un as Sesshomaru made a move to leave the brook, his dragon behind him. “Master Jaken was denying he smelled anything. I guess I'm just smarter than him now.”
Sesshomaru glanced back for a moment at Rin’s wry, grinning face. “Naturally.”
Rin laughed at his not-so-subtle jab at his vassal. Then her face fell just as quickly.
“Master Jaken!” she exclaimed. “He’s still asleep!”
“He will find his way.” Sesshomaru was already turning back around.
“We have to save him, Lord Sesshomaru!” Rin cried. “What if he doesn’t wake up in time?”
“You are not responsible for Jaken’s behavior.”
“But Lord Sessho—”
Rin cut off her words and ran to catch up with Sesshomaru, who now had Ah-Un’s reigns in his grasp.
“Climb on,” he commanded. Rin obeyed. “A-Un will carry you to safety.”
As the dragon rose into the sky, Rin started to behold the extent of the damage the fire was causing. Pillars of smoke rose into the otherwise bright-blue sky, and, creeping steadily forward, Rin could see it: A blinding orange blaze licking the trees, chasing the birds from the trees, roaring in the shrinking distance. The sight of it made her swallow a growing lump in her throat.
And then her eyes landed on the spot she had been lounging in earlier with A-Un and Jaken. Her stomach clenched. With the growing haze, it was hard to spot anything in that glade. Was Master Jaken still there?
Sesshomaru was higher above her now, a flash of red and a puff of white. If she and A-Un went any higher, she wouldn’t be able to do what she was thinking of right now.
It wasn’t the smartest move, she knew. It wasn’t what Sesshomaru had told her to do. But she also remembered something else he had told her in the past, something that she had never dared take advantage of at the expense of what her lord had instructed her to do. Why now, she wasn’t quite sure. Perhaps she’d know later once she saved her beloved friend.
“Lord Sesshomaru.”
Her lord looked down at her, and she steeled her eyes.
“I’m going after Master Jaken.”
She could almost see Sesshomaru’s golden eyes flash at her before she jumped out of the saddle and into the closest treetops she could find. Branches scratched her flesh as she tumbled downward in a controlled fall. When she finally smacked the ground, she had to cover her mouth. The approaching smoke from the blaze was close enough to choke out almost all the clean air.
But Rin pressed on. Without looking back, she ducked her head and plowed forward, retracing her steps back to the glade. With each step, the smoke grew thicker and harder to breathe in.
The trees thinned, and the tall grass was in sight. Rin left out a ragged sigh of relief. But then her eyes widened at the scene in front of her. Through the rapidly thickening smoke, she could see the heart-stopping orange flames, almost at the threshold of the clearing from the other side.
She had to find Jaken immediately. And then Lord Sesshomaru would find her. And then everything would be all right.
“Master Jaken!” she screamed into the smoke. “Master—”
Rin fell onto her knees gasping for air. The smoke had all but wrung out her lungs. But through her squinting eyes, she caught site of a small lump in the grass.
“Master- Jaken—” Rin crawled toward the imp, and as the smoke disappeared between them, she discovered that Jaken had collapsed face-down, his staff on the ground next to his limp hand. She tried to work her arms underneath his body to lift him, but fell to her knees in the process. The smoke and the heat were growing unbearable.
In the next moment, a strong arm encircled her, and the wind whipped around her as Lord Sesshomaru carried her into the air, away from the fire’s suffocating grip. Rin gulped in the fresh air as they ascended and blinked away the stinging smoke from her eyes. She caught sight of Jaken and his staff dangling from Sesshomaru’s other hand.
“Thank you, my lord.”
As she turned her eyes to his, her stomach twisted into a knot. Sesshomaru’s eyes blazed with an emotion that was normally reserved for Jaken.
“Foolish girl.”
Those two words made the knot in her stomach twist even harder.
With that, Sesshomaru broke gaze with her and flew away from the fire. Rin didn’t speak up the rest of the journey.