InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Lost World ❯ Chapter Thirteen ( Chapter 13 )

Lost World

 

By: OtakuSailorV

 

Chapter Thirteen - Festivities

 

“Rin you look wonderful,” Koto beamed as her human friend blushed and shied away from so much attention.

 

She had never considered herself much of a beauty and all of this attention focused on her was making her skittish. Were they serious? She looked lovely? She looked at herself in a funny mirror hanging on the wall and saw only her regular old self, standing there and staring back. There was nothing in the least bit `beautiful' about her, and this outfit was so flashy too. She'd surely stick out in the crowd of youkai more than ever now…

 

“T-thank you…” Rin replied sheepishly, her face was a whole new shade of red now.

 

The tanuki women giggled at their work, very pleased with themselves.

 

“You are sure to impress the prince tonight,” Hana giggled like a schoolgirl.

 

Rin's eyes widened and she lowered her eyes to the ground; all three of the youkai women laughed then, their mirth only grew when Jaken whirled about, fuming at them for saying `such indecent things.'

 

“…” Rin bit on her bottom lip, feeling her heart pound in her chest, pumping more and more blood into her face. It was good that her youkai companions were all busy arguing playfully with the flabbergasted Jaken or else she might very well have been even further embarrassed.

 

“Hoo hoo, well now, enough of that, time to get along,” Hana said, taking deep breaths to calm herself down. Jaken was fuming.

 

“Yes yes, there is much to be done and little time left to do it in,” Keiko agreed with a nod and both of them helped Rin out of their room, making sure that not one part of the kimono snagged or that one hair fell out of place.

 

Koto walked ahead of them, stepping backwards so that she could face Rin with a bright smile. “I'm so excited for you, Rin, I wish I could go with you.”

 

Rin raised one eyebrow, feeling troubled as she again realized that she would not be able to have Koto by her side. She'd feel much more comfortable if Koto could come along, at least it would give her someone to talk to…The enigmatic prince surely wouldn't say a word to her…

 

“Why can't you come?” Rin knew there must be some kind of class difference that did not allow Koto to attend, but she couldn't believe that Inutaishou would enforce such a thing.

 

Koto gave her a bewildered look and Keiko and Hana exchanged unsure glances. “Well, uh, I,” Koto stumbled for the right words. She was used to this sort of thing, but obviously Rin did not understand at all how their world worked. How could she explain it to the foreigner?

 

“She can't come because she's a filthy servant and her presence would dirty the image of the honorable Inutaishou-sama,” Jaken squawked, looking quite agitated still.

 

“You're not allowed to attend either, ugly toad,” Koto snapped back, sniffing at him in disdain.

 

Rin felt a pang of guilt, she hadn't meant to bring up such a subject. It didn't seem right, not allowing Koto or Jaken to come for such a silly, old-fashioned reason. Was it really Inutaishou enforcing such a thing, or was this another of Jaken's interpretations of things? Whatever it was Rin felt guilty for bringing up the subject and hastily gave Koto an apologetic gaze. Koto rolled her eyes in return, giving a shrug to show that she didn't care.

 

“Hmph,” Jaken sniffed, turning his beak up at the kitsune child. “Come on, human, Inutaishou-sama and Sesshoumaru-sama will be waiting.”

 

Rin became instantly flustered and gave a wild look around at her three attendants in hopes that one of them would come along as well, but they simply smiled at her. “B-but I thought, isn't there more I have to do to get ready before we leave?” she spluttered, confused by the tanuki's rush to `finish things up' just a few seconds earlier.

 

“Of course not you silly human, now come on, we don't want to make Inutaishou-sama wait,” Jaken barked and began to waddle away.

 

Rin cast another wide-eyed glance at her three friends, confused by the suddenness of all of this, but they continued to smile. Koto shrugged again, glaring meaningfully at Jaken's back, signifying that Jaken had taken it upon himself to declare their escapade over with before everything was finished. Then with a roll of her eyes at Rin's helpless, nearly pleading demeanor, she shooed her off without a word. Taking a deep breath, Rin turned and before Jaken had even gone five feet had caught up with him, looking back over her shoulder every now and again at Koto and the tanuki.

 

* * *

 

“You fidget too much, stay still,” Jaken ordered, looking over his bony shoulder at Rin to see her hands twisted together in anxiety.

 

“Uh, oh,” Rin's eyes had been glazed in thought and she quickly snapped out of it, unclasping her hands and forcing them to stay straight at her side. “Yes, sorry.”

 

“Hmph,” Jaken turned back around, leading them at his short waddled pace toward the place where Inutaishou's entourage would be leaving from soon.

 

Rin was aware that Jaken was treating her coldly, and she resented him for it, though she did not have the gull to yell at him like Koto did. She envied Koto for that, for being able to pluck up the courage to stand up for herself and others in the face of someone of higher rank. If Jaken wanted, he could probably get her in a lot of trouble for harassing him so much. Rin didn't like causing a commotion. Though she did like talking a lot, she didn't like being the center of attention at all and this caused her often to not fight with people unless they were close family. She only truly argued loudly with her family and no one else. She didn't want to cause trouble, if she yelled at Jaken for treating her like he did, the argument might reach Inutaishou and despite her anger at Jaken, she did not wish the wrath of Inutaishou upon him.

 

Sighing, she noticed with a start that in her musings her hands had clasped together again and she swiftly pulled them apart, tucking them behind her back.

 

“Inutaishou-sama,” Jaken annoying squawk reached her ears. They had just rounded a corner and come upon one of the open gardens that Rin had discovered before, only this one was not enclosed within the castle.

 

A large patch of grass and flowers could be seen extending away from the castle fifty yards or so, with the forest fringing in around, almost like a barrier. Rin felt a cold shiver rush over as she realized that they were in a very secluded place. The eerie silence of which permeated throughout her body, at once she thought she felt the call of the trees. The branches rustled and seemed to stretch out their arms toward her, calling…whispering…What were they saying? Her heart beat grew faint and her breath shallow as she strained to listen, her eyes half closed in a trance. She couldn't hear their words…

 

“-chan…Rin-chan,” Inutaishou was looking at her peculiarly as he called.

 

Rin flinched, feeling almost as if she had just woken up as she turned to face Inutaishou. Her cheeks grew pink as she realized that she had been daydreaming again. How embarrassing! How could she have allowed herself to get absorbed in some silly thought right in front of them all like this? Sesshoumaru's enigmatic stare only made her feel worse. What did he think of her?

 

“G-gomen nasai, Inutaishou-sama,” Rin replied, hurrying over to him and bowing low in respect. “I got distracted, I'm sorry.”

 

He smiled warmly at her, laughing at how easily she became embarrassed by things. “It's fine, I didn't mean to interrupt you, you looked like you were in deep thought.”

 

“O-oh no,” Rin assured, realizing as she said this that she was cutting him off. Ugh, she was so rude sometimes! “No, it wasn't anything at all. I just got distracted. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you either.”

 

Inutaishou laughed again. “It's fine, Rin-chan. I've told you, there is no need for you to apologize so much.” He patted her on the head gently, making sure not to mess up her hair.

 

He smiled again and Rin gave him an apologetic smile back before he turned to what appeared to be a large white Chinese dragon with long, flowing whiskers. Its sea-green eyes were fixed on Rin, staring at her as she drew closer. Her heart was pounding again. A dragon! A real one! She wanted to reach out and stroke him, to feel his scaly skin to assure herself that she was not dreaming, but she held back, not wanting to appear too childish.

 

The dragon moved, almost obligingly toward her, his white scales rippling silver at his fluid motions. Rin was in awe and her fingers twitched on her right hand as she felt compelled to pet him again. A low rumble that caused the ground beneath her feet to shiver was heard before the dragon turned its massive head away from her again, facing forward, his nose pointed to the sky.

 

“He approves of you,” Inutaishou informed her as he helped the young human up into the small wooden structure that had been lashed to the dragon's back. She had seen pictures of contraptions like these in books on India and elephants, but she'd never ridden in one before. She had thought them to be unstable, considering how awkward they looked sitting atop a large creature's backbone, but to her surprise it was quite steady beneath her feet.

 

Inutaishou climbed gracefully in after her, smiling at her reaction. Sesshoumaru was last inside; Rin watched him out of the corner of her eyes, but he remained impassive and cold. Maybe she'd find some way to break the ice with him tonight, to talk to him without feeling awkward at last…

 

“Hold on tight, Rin-chan,” Inutaishou advised before he turned toward the dragon. Its great white head was turned toward them expectantly and at a single nod from Inutaishou, it crouched and shot up into the air in a single leap that made Rin's breath catch in her throat.

 

* * *

 

They had been in the air for thirty minutes and the sun had set already. The wind that seemed to rush right through her was chill and Rin stood close to one of the sides, gripping the wooden frame tightly in her frozen fingers as she forced herself not to shiver, though it was hard. Her muscles were sore from keeping her jittering still so long and she felt numb all over. Hopefully they'd arrive soon…

 

“Ah, here we are,” Inutaishou said, sounding a little bit as if he were not anticipating their arrival.

 

“It would appear as if Naraku has arrived before us for once,” Sesshoumaru observed, looking at the ground below with a bit of a glare.

 

Rin was shocked that he had spoken, he had never shown any emotion in his tone before but as she looked at him now, she could have sworn that she saw some traces of irritability on his face. Was his mask cracking?

 

The dragon swerved, descending in a wide circle to the ground and roaring loudly, heralding the arrival of the mighty Lord Inutaishou, his esteemed son, the Prince Sesshoumaru and the human girl, Higurashi Rin.

 

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