Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha nor its characters..

DIVINE INTERVENTION

Chapter 4 – The Living Spirit

Erin woke from her slumber with a groan, lifting a heavy hand to the wound at her forehead. Her last memory was the horse's hooves nearing her face before everything went black. She had no memory of anything else. Always a pious woman, she said a quick prayer and kissed the small cross at her neck before she finally sat up and surveyed her surroundings. She frowned, looking down she realized that she was resting beside Anora. Erin gasped and jumped from the bed, she must have been sleep walking for she and the child had no relationship whatsoever that she would ever see the need to sleep beside her.

Biting her lip, the woman clutched at the wall, using unsteady legs to help find her way from the room she assumed was her husband's before he caught her alone with the child and figured she had tried to hurt the child in some way. She wondered how she had come beside the child, she had never truly liked children as much as she had tried and every time she had told herself she would try to form a bond with the girl, she had not been able to. She knew one of the reasons for her marriage was Anora to get a mother, but then, she had never wanted a husband anyway.

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Rin rose with a deep breath, as though she it was the first breath she had taken in a long while. She had no recollection of what had happened but it was as though she had just awoken from a long sleep. She stretched, feeling a sudden weakness and it was then it came to her that she was no longer within Erin's body but had resumed her own ghostly form. She smiled softly; it had been a beautiful experience to be alive again. She wished she had been able to feel the sun just once more before she returned to her inevitable state.

Confused, the ghost tried to will herself to float, to fade into the Castle and frowned when she realized she could not. Rin bit her lip and decided to walk the distance from the garden into the Castle. Feeling her strength returning with every step, as though her time in Erin's body had depleted her strength. Still, she felt weighted as though her spirit was no longer trapped in that time but held down by something, unable to freely move as she had once been able to and she figured that it was as a result of what had happened. Something told her that she would return to Erin's body a lot sooner than she thought.

Wandering through room after room in search of Anora, Rin came to a halt when she saw a flash of silver and if the beautiful ghost could blush, she would have. Sesshomaru rose from the steaming water with elegant grace, his silver hair cascading down the firm ridges of his body. He was tall and though he had a thin frame, he was quite muscular, lines upon smooth lines of defined ridges of flesh, no surplus of flesh. Rin's lids lowered, her brown eyes travelling over the smooth planes of his abdominal muscles, the thick muscles of his sides that sloped down to his…

…the girl gasped, feeling the steady beat of her pulse in her ears. She lifted a hand to her chest, feeling an almost resonating pounding of her heart. She looked up again to look at Sesshomaru, her eyes returning to the large, yet limp member between his legs surrounded by short, silk-like hair.

She lifted her head to look at his face, her eyes widening when they gazed upon golden orbs. Rin felt her heart racing and trembled with the feeling, for one who had felt nothing for centuries then to be ensconced in emotions, it was a frightful feeling and she bit her lip wondering if he could see her. Then she heard the soft voice of Anora.

She lifted to her hand and her eyes widened, she was beginning to fade again. If anyone could see the ghost they would see her eyes roll to the back of her head and she began to fall as though in a dead faint however, her ghostly form dissipated as though she had never been.

It was the soft knock of the door that had still Sesshomaru from drying his body. Once his steward had been tasked with such things, however when he had gone to war he had learned to live an act as a regular man, and he had never forgotten the lessons he had learnt there. Lessons of life and death.

"Papa, I can't find Rin!" came the little girl's voice.

Sesshomaru frowned, "Do you mean Erin?" he asked through the door, but his question was met with resonating silence.

"Yes papa, I mean Erin…" came the small voice a few moments later. Sesshomaru frowned even deeper, not quite understanding the newfound relationship Anora seemed to be trying to forge with his estranged wife.

"Perhaps she is in her room, my lady…" came Jaken's voice from outside the door, soon afterwards Sesshomaru heard the scampering of tiny shoe clad feet. Sesshomaru clenched his jaw and quickly dried his body in order to follow his daughter.

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Anora pushed into the chambers Erin, her initial displeasure and reluctance to enter the woman's chambers dispelled by the notion that if was Rin she would be seeing. She froze upon seeing the woman in a heap of cloth upon the floor, her long brown hair surrounding her and covering her face.

"Rin…" the little girl whispered and a pale arm came to brush the hair covering the figure's face to reveal laughing brown eyes and a ready smile, despite the bandage on her forehead.

"Rin!" Anora screamed and ran into her, both rolling and laughing amidst a mass of cloths.

A little later, Rin stood before the mirror of the Dressing table with the little girl seated atop it. Anora had just helped her to brush the mass into smooth silken waves and clipping them into a straight line that brushed her waistline.

"Ahh much better!" she sighed, looking at the bang she had made to cover the ghastly bandage on forehead.

"Do you like it Anora?" she asked with a smile.

"O yes, I do! I wish my hair could look like that!" she said, her eyes holding a hint of longing.

"Well, why don't I do something about that then…?" asked Rin with a smile and both girls giggled.

Sesshomaru opened the door in time to see Rin flash the scissors across Anora's face. His vision clouded in an instant, slamming the smaller woman into the wall, who gasped in surprise and then pain as she forcibly pried the object from her fingers, looking down into unrecognizable brown eyes. For a moment he was astounded by the innocence, fear and pain he saw their….as well as the colour. Had Erin's eyes always been that colour?

"Papa what are you doing?" cried Anora, holding onto her father's arm.

"You're hurting me…" Rin whispered, which puzzled Sesshomaru even more. Erin never spoke as softly or looked at him with anything other than vehemence, anger and disdain. Her brown eyes were so beguiling, so innocent she seemed. Still, he steeled himself against her wiles.

"What did you intend to do to my daughter?" he demanded.

"Papa!" Anora cried out, demanding his attention which she received.

"Rin was only cutting my hair…see? So it can look like hers!" said the girl showing him the sharp edges of her incomplete bang.

Sesshomaru frowned, looking back to Erin and noting her hair for the first time. He pulled away.

"I assumed…" he started and stopped, apology was not something he was ever comfortable with…he could only remember doing it once, and it was to his deceased wife.

"You assumed that I was hurting her." Rin finished for him with a sad look and a disappointed tone. Sesshomaru stiffened; he didn't understand why her words would affect him at all. He had never cared what Erin thought before.

"I won't hurt her, you have my word on that. I just want to be her friend." She whispered softly. Sesshomaru clenched his jaw.

"Ever since we moved into this house, ever since you had your accident, you haven't been the same Erin!" Sesshomaru pointed out.

"Will you please call me Rin?" she begged, her voice low, soft.

"I will summon the Physician at once!" he stated and marched from the room. Rin and Anora watched him leave with frowns upon their faces.

"What if the Doctor sends you away forever?" Anora whispered, but Rin smiled and hugged the girl to her chest.

"Do not worry Anora…" She whispered. She would enjoy all the time she had in Erin's body, for chances as such did not occur often.

Sesshomaru stalked along the halls towards his room. He could understand the woman his wife was becoming, nor the confusion, the turmoil she had begun to create within him. With a sigh he stopped, suddenly looking up, his eyes connecting with a painting that had been done of Erin almost a year ago and everything within him froze.

Erin's eyes in the portrait were unmistakably green. Not hazel, green, without any tint of another colour.

However when he had just looked at her, her eyes were brown without question. He turned his golden gaze down the hall to the room he had left.

"A kick to the head can't change the colour of a person's eyes…" he thought outloud to himself.

What in God's name could explain that? And then his mind drifted to the day of the accident, moments before Erin had been hurt when Anora had spoken.

"Anora what are you doing?" he asked and the little girl frowned and shot a sad gaze to her father.

"I'm talking to Rin." She revealed his eyes had widened.

It had been so long since he had heard his daughter speak that he did not care for the reason, he was much too happy to care. When he finally pulled away, his eyes were filled with tears and it seemed to stun Anora.

"Papa?" she whispered, using small hands to wipe away his cheek. He smiled at her, "I'm fine Anora. You have made your father very happy, by speaking. I should have moved to the country much sooner, if this is the result on the very first day!" he said with a smile and the little girl blushed. Then he seemed to sober, "Who is Rin, Anora?" he asked and she flushed even deeper.

"Can't you see her papa? She's my friend." said the child, pointing at a spot on the ground before her. Sesshomaru looked to the spot where his daughter pointed and saw nothing. He looked back to his daughter and frowned.

"Do you have an imaginary friend Anora?" he asked and the little girl shook her head. She was about to explain when the sound of hooves were heard approaching at break neck speak. They turned to see Erin had returned with her stead, Sesshomaru rose without Anora. Angry that Erin had ruined a moment he had waited for so long to have with his daughter.

Frowning the man's mind quickly calculated the developments since the accident, such as Anora and Erin's bond and the sudden change in Erin's behaviour and even moments ago, her tentative plea.

"Will you please call me Rin…"

Sesshomaru's eyes widened. "Dear God..."

AN: I haven't updated this story in so long. I'm so sorry. I plan to complete it though not to worry. Thanks for all the reviews, it helps propel me to complete it. Happy Holidays.

Love Temari.