Clash of Alphas by sarhea

Riku Ryuu's Prompt - Fire

~ooO Fire Ooo~

The fog had burnt off by the time they returned to camp. Kagome blushed bright red seeing most of the others were already up and about. Rin was standing next to Sango who was tending a fire heating a small pot of water. The taijija smiled knowingly but said nothing.

“How did you get the fire going? It was pretty foggy and damp early in the morning,” Kagome asked curious.

Sango jerked a thumb at Jaken. The imp was sulkily rubbing oil into Ah-Un’s leather harness.

“The imp used his staff to start the fire,” she said.

“What are you making?” she asked Sango.

And she was surprised when Rin answered. “Cream of Wheat,” Rin said slowly, separating the syllables to pronounce the name of the foreign food item carefully. “Shippo-chan is collecting berries for sweetening.”

Kagome turned to see the little girl running her fingers over the characters describing the preparation method. “Rin-chan, can you read?” she asked surprised. Literacy was low in the Feudal Era, even lower among women.

Rin grinned. “Rin can read. Momoshi-sensei teaches Rin when Rin is in the shiro.”

“Can you write?”

Rin wrinkled her nose. “Rin is terrible at writing kanji. Momoshi-sensei says so.”

Kagome nodded firmly. “You need to practice.”

Rin looked at the miko perplexed. “Rin does not have any paper or brushes or sumi stones,” she said doubtfully. “How can Rin practice?”

Kagome frowned as she tried to work out a way for Rin to practice writing her letters. She had practiced using chalk and a slate-board when she first began learning her letters.

“Do you have any spare books?” Sango suggested tossing a stick into the fire and poking at it with a green twig, stirring the flames to jump higher.

“I do,” Kagome admitted.

Kagome leaned across and grabbed her backpack sitting beside Sango. Then she began digging through the contents for something. As she did that Sango tended to the fire and watched as Rin measured out three scoops of the granules and poured them into the hot water. Then she covered the pot with a lid and waited, watching carefully to ensure the water did not boil over and put out the fire.

She was surprised when the imp edged into her line of sight holding the Two-Headed staff, before using the magical device to stoke the flames hotter.

“Thank you Jaken-san,” she said to the imp who mumbled something indistinct before retreating to his stone-seat and resuming his previous activities – polishing Ah-Un’s harness.

TBC...