InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Opposites Attract ❯ Chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

A/N: The “blue dawn flower” is a type of mourning-glory. If is also known as the ocean-blue morning-glory and blue morning-glory. Its scientific name is Ipomoea Indica. Not exactly native to Japan but oh well. I do NOT own this flower, obviously. I also don’t own the song “I Like the Flowers”. It is a song that I learned while in the Girl Guides of Canada (also don’t own!) while I was a little girl. I don’t know who originally made it up but it wasn’t me. I got the lyrics for both from my boss’ website, www. dragon. sleepdeprived. ca (minus the spaces).

Rin skipped happily through the forest with none of the fear that most kids her age should have felt when alone in the forest in the Feudal Era. She knew that her Lord was nearby and, though that thought would have done nothing to reassure anyone else, she felt perfectly at ease.

I like the flowers, I like the daffodils,

Rin’s voice rose up as she began to sing. Her voice was sweet for one so young. She sang the song that she had heard a woman singing to her little girl in one of the few villages that Lord Sesshomaru had allowed her to visit. She didn’t mind though. She trusted her Lord to do the best thing for her.

I like the mountains; I like the rolling hills,

She remembered the numerous rolling hills that they had flown or walked over and the mountain that she had watched Lord Sesshomaru fly off towards in one of his efforts to take down the hanyou, Naraku.

I like the campfire, when all the lights are low…

Jaken had probably prepared a campfire for her to return to when she came back from her current mission of picking a new bunch of flowers. Well, he better had if he didn’t want to displease her Lord. It was funny when Lord Sesshomaru punished Jaken by kicking him, letting Ah-Un walk over him, or throwing anything within reach at him. It was even funnier when the toad demon fell unconscious and was left behind to catch up the next day.

Humming now, she entered the field that Lord Sesshomaru had told her was there before she had left him and Jaken at their camp for the night. The flowers swayed in the slight breeze creating a moving sea of blue, red, violet, and yellow. The flowers she had in mind though were blue with a tinge of pink on their stems. The villagers had called them blue dawn flowers.

Spotting a patch of them near the center of clearing, Rin skipped happily over, not noticing the narrow but deep hole just a few feet in front of her. She yelped as her foot caught in the hole and twisted as she fell. She landed on her hands and knees with only a few scratches on them but her foot hurt a lot.

“Rin hurt her foot,” she murmured to herself. The young girl attempted to stand up but pain immediately shot through her leg the second she put any pressure on it and she was forced back to the ground.

Tears welling up in her eyes from the pain, she slowly crawled toward the blue flowers she had seen earlier. If she was going to do anything it was to get the flowers for Lord Sesshomaru.

Maybe if Rin gets the pretty flowers, my Lord will not be mad at Rin for hurting herself.

As she neared her destination, she noticed that there seemed to be a shape in the grass. It was moving slightly and looked to be the colour white. Curious, she continued forward and soon realized that she was looking at a young woman. She was wearing a strange white outfit which was why Rin had thought she was all white before. She had light brownish hair and pale skin that seemed to glow slightly in the fading sunlight.

The movement was the rise and fall of the woman’s chest as she breathed evenly in her sleep. Curious, Rin shifted closer so that she could see her face which was facing away from her. Before she could move around the woman’s head, limited as she was by her ankle, the woman shifted. The unexpected movement startled the little girl and she fell back on butt in her surprise.

Wide eyed, Rin watched as the woman abruptly sat up.

Slowly floating up from unconsciousness, Edana’s mind was clouded in a relaxing haze. Sensations came in series and she just let them flow over her.

Sound came first, seeping into the haze. Leaves were rustling. A twig cracked.

Smell came next and the scent of flowers and nature filled her nose.

Lastly was touch. Cool grass was pressed against her left side, the grass leaving indentations on her skin as it always does. The breeze that blew was brisk and left a chill on any exposed skin. She felt amazingly refreshed though she couldn’t remember why.

Then coherent thought returned to her. Edana’s eyes shot open and, as she bolted up from her lying position, what she now saw was a field of flowers. It was the clearing from before she fainted.

There was a patch of tiny yellow buttercups in front of her, a delicate looking blue and pinkish flower to her left and those hanging purple flowers that she liked but could never remember the name of to her right. Looking around, most of these flowers and the trees behind them were ones that she recognized so she knew she couldn’t have left Japan.

“Um, excuse me, miss?” said a voice immediately behind her.

“Eep!” Edana exclaimed, spinning around to face the mysterious speaker. It was a little girl.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

The girl had long brown hair that reached to her waist and chocolate brown eyes that were large and round, and staring up at her in curiosity.

Edana blinked.

“Um, yeah. I’m fine, I guess,” she started, moving her hand behind her head in the embarrassment that she would have to ask a kid for directions.

“Um, do you happen to know where we are?”

The girl looked thoughtful for a moment and Edana began to wonder if the little girl even knew. Of course, her house would have to be nearby for her to be out in the woods alone.

Then the girl smiled.

“We’re near the border between the Western lands and the Eastern lands.”

Dumbfounded, Edana just stared at the girl.

“Excuse me?” Edana asked, not believing the girl’s answer. There was no place she had heard of called the ‘Western lands’ or ‘Eastern lands’ except in her history textbook.

The girl looked up at her, confused.

“Rin’s sorry,” she said. “But Rin does not know what you are referring to.”

…

Her eyebrow twitched.

Stay. Calm. Stay. Calm. Stay. Calm.

“Okay, then. Can you take me to your parents instead?”

“Rin’s parents are dead.”

…

“Nani?”

The girl, now know as Rin, just kept looking up at her with an oblivious look on her face.

“Rin’s parents are dead,” the girl repeated, and then she smiled softly. “Rin lives with Sesshomaru-sama now.”

Edana leaned her head to the side in confusion and scepticism.

“Sesshomaru-sama?”

Before Rin could answer, a loud growl was heard coming from the bushes behind her. Turning, Rin watched in horror as three large wolves emerged from the foliage that had been concealing them before they moved on their target.

Edana bolted up and moved in front of Rin who hadn’t moved an inch since the wolves had shown themselves.

“Get out of here!” she yelled at the approaching pack, waving her hands in an attempt to scare them off.

It didn’t work and they just moved ever closer. Rin started trembling in fear, not making a sound. Edana looked around for an escape; anything that would help them get away from the wolves.

As they drew nearer, Rin cowered even more behind her. It seemed the girl had a fear of wolves; of course, so would any normal child of that age.

There were no large branches on the ground around them, there was no cover of trees close enough that they could dash to, and there was no hope of out running the wolves across a clearing with Rin in tow. Even without Rin, Edana doubted she would make it and she would never have left the child anyways even if she could.

Fierce protectiveness: that was what mothers felt for their young and that was the look on Edana’s face when four more wolves stepped into the clearing.

Growling, they bared their fangs as they moved toward their prey. Fear coursed through Edana’s body but she didn’t shake or shiver. She wouldn’t let her fear show in front of Rin; who was clutching her leg now, withdrawn into her own fear.

She looks traumatized, Edana mused, wondering what had happened to instil that sense of fear into such a young girl.

Turning her attention to the wolves slinking ever closer, she realized that she would have to fight them off herself. Hopefully, if she could distract all of them long enough, Rin could make a break for it. She hadn’t realized that Rin had injured her ankle.

They were about two feet away now, the front one crouching and ready to spring. The low growling in their throats was a constant sound now and it became a background roar in Edana’s ears. Her senses focused on the danger before her, tuning out all else. The child behind her all but disappeared from her mind and any surroundings were merely taken into account before being pushed to the back of her mind.

She would not let them get Rin.

Squashing her fear and replacing it with anger and determination, Edana growled in her own throat and stepped forwards, challenging the wolves who dared to threaten her and the child she now protected.

The growling of the wolves ceased briefly before taking on a new tone of anger and challenged Edana to respond. Edana growled back louder than before and moved forward again.

The wolves, not used to being defied by their prey, stepped back. They were used to the submissive beings they usually fed on.

Realizing that what she was doing was having an effect, Edana looked the leader of the wolf pack in the eye and growled menacingly, baring her teeth at the alpha male. Amethyst eyes sparked and the alpha took another step back, giving up ground.

Unbeknownst to Edana, a violet aura had surrounded her much the same as the one that had brought her to this strange scene in the first place. The wolves sensed the spike in energy and, realizing that their prey was too much for them to handle, they turn and fled back into the woods.

Edana watched them go in surprise as the violet aura faded. As her senses receded back to normal, she noticed that Rin was still in the same position as before and was trembling violently.

Kneeling down to the frightened girl’s level, Edana looked into Rin’s unseeing eyes. The chocolate orbs were blank with fear and her hands were cold and clammy when Edana took one in her own hand.

“Rin…” she called softly. “Rin, its okay, you’re safe now. The wolves are gone.”

The girl remained unresponsive.

Edana ran a hand through her own hair, auburn locks falling into her eyes. Brushing them away, she sighed.

“I guess I’ll just have to carry you around and hope I can find your family, or whoever’s taking care of you,” she mumbled more to herself than Rin.

“That won’t be necessary,” a rich tenor voice spoke.

Startled, Edana spun around and came face to face with the demon lord.

Long silver hair shimmered like moonshine with every movement. Golden suns were held captive in his eyes. Magenta markings ran down aristocratic cheeks and a blue crescent moon adorned his forehead. Claws and pointed ears identified him as something other than human. What he was, Edana had no idea.

His only flaw was that he had only one arm. The other seemed to be missing starting slightly below the shoulder.

A cry of joy behind her brought her back from her ogling.

“Sesshomaru-sama!” Rin exclaimed, sighting the man, who was evidently the guardian she had mentioned.

Edana stood stock still as the young child darted out from behind her and attempted to sprint the ten steps to the edge of the clearing where the strange man had stepped out.

With each step, Rin winced, favouring her injured leg by limping slightly.

Sesshomaru noticed, of course, but his eyes never left Edana’s, piercing and threatening. And yet, there was surprise in those golden orbs as well.

Edana swallowed in sudden, unexplainable fear. Her instincts screamed that this man – Alien? Creature? – was dangerous and her mind was inclined to agree.

Rin wrapped herself around Sesshomaru’s leg the second she was within reaching distance.

A brief glare latter, he lifted the child using his one arm, turned, and walked off, back into the forest. At the last second, Rin called back, “Thank you very much!”

Edana stared at the strange man’s retreating back.

“Wait!”

It could have only been self-preservation, or the fear of being left alone in the woods once again, that overrode her fear of the bizarre man and made Edana call out after the odd pair.

Rin turned her head at Edana’s plea, but the silver-haired man didn’t even pause.

Edana ran to catch up with the girl and her guardian. She wasn’t about to let her ticket back to civilization just walk away.

“Can you at least tell me where I am?” the woman begged.

Sesshomaru refused to stop, no matter how much he wanted to. It took every ounce of his control not to just stare in shock at the woman from his dreams. The woman who was walking right behind him.

Rin tilted her head at the woman, “I told you: we’re near the border between the Western lands and the Eastern lands.”

“Right, Lord Sesshomaru?” she questioned, looking back at him.

“That is correct,” he replied. The woman was lost? Was she from the Eastern lands and had accidently wandered into his territory?

“And could you tell me exactly what country these ‘western and eastern lands’ are in? Because they aren’t any place I know of in Japan.” she said, a sarcastic note in her voice.

The woman’s reply had Sesshomaru finally stopping. Evidently, she was very lost.

“You are in Japan,” he said. Then he gave into his curiosity. “Where are you from?”

The expression on the woman’s familiar face was one of extreme confusion.

“Japan,” she answered. “Tokyo, to be precise.”

“I have never heard of such a place.”

The woman’s eyes widened in shock.

“How... How have you never heard of Tokyo?” she stuttered. “That’s just not possible.”

Sesshomaru’s confusion was steadily growing.

“We are near the village of Edo.”

He hesitated.

“I will take you there and the villagers will assist you,” he offered.

But the woman wasn’t about to reply any time soon. She had raised her hands to her mouth in shock and was babbling.

“Edo? EDO! How is that even... How did I... Oh god, I think I’m going to faint.”

She swayed slightly, but managed to sit on the grass, her head between her knees.

A familiar surge of protectiveness over this small woman had Sesshomaru reeling back. He barely knew this woman, despite seeing her in his dreams. He had no reason to be protective of her.

She had behaved very differently in front of the wolves that had tried to attack her and his ward. In fact, she had protected Rin with such fierceness that he had briefly wondered if she was a youkai herself. But the violet aura which she had given off was one that he had never seen before in all of his travels. It was not the aura of a youkai, but neither was it that of a miko.

“Woman,” he called.

She didn’t reply, only continued muttering to herself.

Sesshomaru knelt down in front of her, placing Rin on the ground beside him.

Edana felt cold all over. She was in the past! Somehow she had managed to jump into the past before Edo had developed into her Tokyo.

Suddenly, she felt warm fingers under her chin, gently but relentlessly forcing her to raise her head.

The gorgeous man was right in front of her.

“Come with me,” he said. At this proximity, she was able to catch a glimpse of unusually long and unusually sharp canine teeth when he spoke.

What the hell, she told herself. What else can I do anyway?

She reached out her hand. He hesitated for a moment, but then grasped it in his own. His palm was warm against hers.

He stood and used their grip to pull her up with him. Without letting go, he led her between the dense trees.

“Rin,” he told the girl. “Go and tell Jaken to make Ah-Un ready to leave.”

“Ok,” she said, and limped slightly away, disappearing quickly amongst the dense foliage.

It was only a short walk before they reached a campsite. There was a small fire pit whose ashes were still smouldering and the grass around it was depressed from multiple passages.

It was what was off in the corner of the clearing that drew Edana’s attention: a two-headed beast and a little green thing.

The green thing was attempting to strap a large bag onto the beast’s saddle while Rin laughed.

Edana froze. The silver-haired man – Sesshomaru, she reminded herself – continued forward. In one swift movement, he snatched the bag from the green thing, and then deftly secured it one-handed to the beast.

“My Lord!” it said. The green thing could speak!

Noticing Edana, Rin introduced her friends.

She pointed to the beast. “This is Ah-Un,” she said.

The green thing was claimed as Jaken.

“What are they?” Edana asked.

Rin looked confused.

“I’m an imp youkai, you filthy human!” the green thing replied for her.

“And Ah-Un is a dragon youkai!” Rin supplied.

Youkai? Edana thought. Oh boy.

And this time, she really did faint.

Sesshomaru turned just in time to see the woman falling. Moving almost instantaneously, he caught her unconscious form in his arm.

He took a brief moment to examine her features close-up. Even at this proximity she looked exactly like the woman in his dream. There was no mistake, it had to be her.

Easily moving the female with his one arm, he noticed how light she was. He had known human females tended to be on the smaller side, but without any armour or weapons she was as light as a feather to him.

Wandering alone and unarmed in the forest was dangerous, especially for a woman, and especially if that woman was lost.

Quickly depositing her face down on the two-headed dragon, he moved back to prepare to fly himself.

Once Rin was settled on Ah-Un, they took off, moving steadily East towards Edo.

Despite his desire to learn more about this mysterious woman who somehow had managed to appear in his dreams before having met, he was wary of what might happen if he did. This woman affected him profoundly while he slept and he most certainly did not want her affecting him every other hour of the day as well.

So to that end, he would only assist her as long as was absolutely necessary and after that she was on her own.

Maybe, if he felt like it, he would make sure that she met up with his half-brother who could help her get wherever she was going.

It had all simply been too much for one day and her mind had just given up trying to deal with it all. Between the loss of her parents – who apparently weren’t even her real parents – and being magically transported back in time, Edana had no idea how she was going to cope.

A few minutes of blessed darkness were not enough to recover from a world shattering discovery. This is especially when the person experiencing this world shattering discovery was forced awake through near drowning.

It was very disconcerting to wake up to a green, toad-like thing staring down at you as it tried to shove a spoonful of water down your throat, effectively choking you until your eyes watered.

Damn toad.

As Rin scolded the creature known as Jaken, who was still holding the offending spoon and a flask, Edana took the opportunity to inspect the surrounds which she had awoken to this time.

She was seated on the Ah-Un creature. Rin and Jaken were seated beside her on its back. She looked further.

Clouds. Birds. More clouds. Another bird. The silver-haired man on a cloud...

Wait... What? And where was the ground?

…

Oh, there it was.

…

Her scream shattered the calm silence that had enveloped the small party but a few moments before.

And then she fainted. Again.

After ignoring the piercing screech of the human woman, it was Rin’s shriek that alerted the demon lord that something was wrong with the female whom he had purposefully been avoiding as she had awoken.

Evidently the human had fallen off of Ah-Un.