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The birds were up before the sun, chirping merrily to wake the day.
The day must have groaned as loudly as Jaken. His eyes cracked open and he glared up at the trees, cursing the invisible song birds.
And then he remembered where he was.
“Ahhhh!” he jumped off the ground, awakening A-Un who he’d been resting against. “That’s right!” He exclaimed to the invisible birds. “Sesshomaru-sama sent me to look for the cursed spring at the foot of the mountain! My long search must have exhausted me and made me fall asleep!”
Behind him, A lifted his head and blinked at him. Un stayed asleep.
“Quick, you beast!” Jaken screeched, hopping up and down as if that would rouse the two-headed dragon. “We need to find the spring and get back to Sesshomaru-sama before he comes looking for us,” Jaken shuddered to think of his lord’s displeasure had he been found sleeping on the job.
It took another few minutes to rouse A-Un but then they were flying. For once, luck was with Jaken, for it so happened that the cursed spring gave off an eerie glow right before dawn and the sun had not yet risen to dissipate it. Quicker than he would have thought possible, they had landed next to the spring. A rough-cut stone statue eyed him from an overhang in the mountain. “I wonder why Sesshomaru-sama wanted me to find this place?” he said aloud.
The statue didn’t answer.
Having located the strange spring, he put it to memory and headed back to the camp where he'd left Sesshomaru-sama and Rin. Jaken smiled to himself. It was good to have Rin traveling with them again. The years passed differently for a great demon like himself than they did for a mere mortal, and yet the deep quiet after Sesshomaru-sama left Rin with the old miko had gone on and on. He had tried to maintain his dignity when his master had returned with Rin in tow, but Jaken believed that the girl had felt his satisfaction, just as they both could sense their lord’s.
It had been a good year since then, full of traveling and fighting, just like the old days. “Ah, isn’t this nice, A-Un?” he mused, “Going home to Rin and Sesshomaru-sama? It’s almost like those ten years didn’t happen. Besides Naraku being dead and Rin getting taller, nothing’s changed at all.”
A-Un didn’t answer, of course, but the side-long look the heads gave each other surely meant that he agreed.
The spring was at the foot of the west side of the mountain. Their camp was high on the east side. As the dragon flew around the mountain, the sun was just beginning to rise, slipping bright and brilliant over the tops of the trees. The birds began to sing in earnest and in the valleys the thick white mist began to burn away. A-Un sank down into the trees and landed several yards from their camp, groaning at the impact. Jaken scrambled off his back and raced through the remaining forest, crying “Sesshomaru-sama!” so loudly that it scared the morning songbirds from their roosts. “I have found the cursed spring! Sesshomaru—” the words choked off and the little green imp stumbled to a halt.
There, before him, at the base of a large tree, was a pile of silvery fur, twice as deep and a little longer than a sleeping figure. As he was still squawking, he saw a small foot peep out of the base of the fur and then two small, tanned hands, first one, then another, reach above it, stretching.
Jaken stared, blinking his round yellow eyes in bewilderment, his beak falling open. It hung wider when a dark head popped up, and a chipper “Good morning, Jaken-sama!” echoed off the trees.
“Ahhhh,” Jaken couldn’t seem to articulate any actual words. He stared at Rin’s beaming face and then her bare shoulders that poked above the soft fur, his mind stalling, unable to comprehend what he was seeing. It worsened when his eyes zeroed in on the bright red mark at the curve of her neck. It was turning dark around the edges, already forming a bruise beneath her weak human skin. That was . . . that was . . .
“Jaken,”
The deep voice shook Jaken out of his daze. Though he didn’t see his lord, he knew that he too, was buried in the pile of silvery fur, from all appearances laying alongside Rin’s nude human body.
“Ye—yes, Sesshomaru-sama?”
“Leave us,”
“Yes!” Jaken exclaimed, so relieved to get out of there that he stumbled over his own feet and fell on his face, his staff of two heads rolling away. Immediately, he was up and going again, grabbing A-Un’s reins as he went, pulling him into the woods.
“Poor Jaken-sama,” Rin said, watching him disappear into the trees. “He seems shaken.”
“He’ll live,” Sesshomaru said. He’d come up behind her after Jaken had disappeared, and leaned close, his arms and chest bracketing her body. He bent his head and nuzzled his mark on her, making her shiver.
“You’re right,” she murmured, closing her eyes as she felt his lips against her neck, his tongue gently lapping at the wound. She reached behind her and stole her fingers into his hair, gently clutching at the strands.
“Are you ready for more?” he asked, winding his arm around her waist, tugging her back against his chest. “I want to have you in the daylight.”
Rin giggled and snuggled closer.