have to rush about the breakfast and such." Then Kimie became thoughtful. "Speaking of breakfast, what can we actually eat?"
Rin pointed into the forest. "There are sure to be a lot of berries and fruits. We just have to collect them."
Somehow Kimie liked the idea. That was something different and was sure to be fun. Rin seemed to be able to read her mind because she took the girl by the hand. "Shall we go look for some fruit, Kimie-san?"
Kimie nodded in agreement. "Sure!" But before she went into the forest with Rin, she added in a whisper: "But can we just go like that? I mean, isn't Sesshoumaru then ...?"
"You may.", The Youkai's voice reached the ears of the two girls. Kimie stared in his direction, in great surprise. > Did that hear me? My goodness ... <
In fact, Sesshoumaru was standing a few meters away from the two of them and a normal person would certainly not have heard Kimie's statement.Well, Sesshoumaru wasn't human. Rin didn't seem to worry about it at all, but just ran happily into the forest, with Kimie in tow. Both passed Jaken, whereupon Kimie stopped briefly. Somehow the toad demon looked battered, as if it had gotten into a fight.
"What happened to you?", She asked Jaken, who immediately glared at her because he knew exactly what she meant. "That was you!" He scolded angrily. "You hit me in my sleep when I wanted to wake you!"
"Oops! I'm sorry.", Kimie replied, although it didn't sound really sympathetic. Then she remembered, very faintly, that she had the feeling that she had pricked something over and over in her sleep. Her gaze fell on the head staff and she raised an eyebrow skeptically. > If my assumption is correct, then I am a lot less sorry now. she thought with a touch of glee.
"Kimie-san! Come on!", Rin yelled, pulled on the girl's hand. Kimie followed her immediately, as did Inuki, who almost never left his mistress' s side.
Sesshoumaru followed the dog, who was now disappearing behind a bush, with a scrutinizing look.

In this forest there were really a lot of berries and fruits that tasted really good, as Kimie discovered when she tasted some. After a while, the two girls had already collected a lot when Kimie suddenly heard Rin's voice calling out, "Kimie-san! Here's a hot spring!"
Kimie listened up and came up to Rin, who was now a bit out of sight. After struggling through the bushes, Kimie discovered the little girl who was standing at a hot spring.
"Wow! That's really great!" Somehow, Kimie now felt the urge to take a bath. That really wouldn't have been bad now. And again Rin seemed to have rummaged through her mind, because she said exactly what Kimie was thinking: "I'll ask Sesshoumaru-sama afterwards if we can take a bath.Do you feel like it, Kimie-san? "
"Sure! Do you think he'll allow it?"
"I think so. Come on! We're going back. What we've collected should be enough for now."
And with that, Kimie followed Rin back to camp. However, Rin did not immediately ask Sesshoumaru about the hot spring; first she and Kimie ate the fruits they had brought with them. Rin handed some to Ah-Un. Kimie inevitably thought of Sesshoumaru. Did he never eat anything? It only occurred to her now that she had seen him eat something until now. But she didn't think about it for long. Sesshoumaru wouldn’t wait for someone to put a bowl down for him. But this thought made Kimie smile for a moment.
When both Rin and Kimie had their makeshift breakfast and Inuki had received some of the fruits from Kimie, Rin turned to Sesshoumaru: "Sesshoumaru-sama, Kimie-san and I can go to the hot spring that we have discovered earlier? "The youkai just nodded silently and shortly afterwards Kimie and Rin were gone again. Inuki, of course, immediately made arrangements to accompany the girls.
"You!"
Inuki stopped immediately and turned to Sesshoumaru. The half-breed knew perfectly well that the youkai had just spoken to him. "Nothing against your unconditional loyalty to your human being, but you should be more careful in the future.", Sesshoumaru said to the dog with a warning undertone. “Do not imagine that I would have any inhibitions to get you out of the way quickly and easily.” Inuki met an ice-cold look, but he looked unimpressed, although he seemed to know exactly what Sesshoumaru had said to him. The dog gave a short growl and with one last suspicious look he followed Rin and Kimie, who had already gone ahead, into the forest. Sesshoumaru looked after him carefully.
> Strange dog. He's not like others, that's for sure. <
"The only question is why he is like this.""Hm? What did you say, sir?" Jaken immediately approached Sesshoumaru and looked at him questioningly. But he just replied coolly and without looking at the toad demon: "Nothing, I was just thinking out loud."
Jaken cocked his head a bit, but didn't ask any further questions.

"That's what I call life," Kimie said happily.
Meanwhile, half an hour had passed since she and Rin went to the hot spring. While Kimie used the time and relaxed, Rin splashed happily in the water. At some point, however, she hopped out, grabbed one of the two towels she had brought and then slipped into her kimono.
"May I play a little with Inuki?", She finally asked and looked at Kimie pleadingly. She nodded with a smile. "Of course. I'll stay here a little while longer."
Shortly afterwards Rin had already disappeared with Inuki, who had been waiting under a tree the whole time, but Kimie could still hear the little girl's laughter.Satisfied, she closed her eyes and let herself slide further into the water. "I haven't been as relaxed as I am now for a long time. You could forget all anger and stress," she mumbled. But soon it occurred to her that she and Rin had to go back again. At the end she dipped completely into the water and swam, if that was possible with the low water level, to the other side of the spring. There she reappeared and ran her hands over her hair. She had still closed her eyes, but when she opened them now she was breathless.

A loud scream rang out and caught the attention of Rin and Inuki, who were still nearby. "That was Kimie-san!", Rin stated and Inuki immediately ran back to the hot spring. Rin followed him, but when she caught up with him, the dog was a bit haphazardly around. The little girl followed his gaze and saw Kimie standing in the spring, holding the remaining towel in front of her body and clutching a fist-sized stone with her other hand.Right in front of her on the floor was a rather battered Jaken. On his head was a big bump and right next to him was a stone similar to the one Kimie was holding in her hand at the moment.
"Kimie-san! What ...?" But before Rin could put the question to the end, another voice rang out: "What's going on here?"
Kimie reflexively turned around and hurled the remaining stone in the direction from which the voice came. In the next moment she would have liked to curse herself out loud for it.
"You dare to throw a stone at me?" Asked Sesshoumaru, who was standing on one of the rocks standing around, coolly, holding the thrown stone in his hand. The youkai squeezed briefly, then the stone was just a pile of gravel.
Kimie was now up to her neck in the water when, after the brief shock, she found that she had just stood in the spring and that only with the towel in front of her body.
"It's your own fault! Tell me, is it open house today, or what ?!", she snapped angrily. Now she didn't really care how Sesshoumaru would react. Although she expected at any moment that he would cut her head immediately on the spot, he refrained from doing so to her astonishment. Perhaps it was because Rin was there.
"Get dressed! We'll travel on.", Sesshoumaru said shortly and then disappeared as quickly as he had appeared. The whole time Rin had stood at the source, a little confused, and observed the situation in silence. "Why were you just so angry and hiding in the water?" She asked Kimie. But she just shook her head slightly and sighed. How should Rin be able to understand something like that? After all, she was still a child.

Kimie avoided renewed eye contact with Sesshoumaru during the rest of the way and the rest of the day, as far as she was able to. But that wasn't difficult either, because on the way she always ran a few meters behind him and he never turned around.In the meantime Sesshoumaru had led the group back into the forest and Kimie still didn't know where to go.
Jaken kept rubbing his big lump on his head that he owed Kimie. Sesshoumaru had only instructed him to look after the two girls and then this human woman really had to throw a stone at his head! He had held that against Kimie for a long time until she had stopped listening. Instead she gazed dreamily and thoughtfully at the sky, if that was possible, since the foliage of the trees revealed little of it. Of course, she didn't pay attention to her way, which she only noticed when she promptly ran into Sesshoumaru's back.
"Hatschi !!" Kimie's nose tickled terribly, because she had come face to face with Sesshoumaru's fur. The youkai turned slightly to face Kimie. She could not really interpret the look of her counterpart and raised her hands defensively."Hey, sorry! That was an accident!"
Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow examining it. "Sorry?"
"I mean 'sorry'", Kimie explained shortly. "What's going on? Why are we stopping?", She then asked.
"Open your eyes, then you will see it!" Jaken grumbled and acted like an omniscient genius. Kimie slowly raised her fist. "You little ..." She swallowed the insult that was on the tip of her tongue and instead turned her gaze to the front. "Influence?"
In fact, there was now a slightly wider river stretching in front of the group, which didn't really look flat either. If you wanted to come across, you either needed a bridge or you had to swim. Kimie let her gaze wander, searching. "There isn't a bridge here, does it?"
"We don't need a