The days continued in a similar fashion, eating and chatting the days away as the snow was slowly beginning to ease up. Eventually Leon looked across the land and saw that the snow was already thawing. A chill breeze was still in the air but the scent of spring was eagerly waiting to spring up. Walking back into the small cottage Leon saw Rin was already filling her pack. She had found a small stash of ingredients that he had hid away a while back and said it would be good on the long journey.
"If you had truly wanted to know when it was the new season you could just ask" Rin had said annoyingly. Over several days Leon had continued to refuse letting Rin outside in fear of the snowfall. The whole time Leon had pondered if Rin truly couldn't see when he was moving around the room and yet many times it had left the hair on his neck raised as it seemed Rin had eyes on the back of her head. Heading outside Leon brought Rin out into the sun, small piles of snow were still around but the grass had burst through with a struggling green to signal the coming of spring. Rin taking her pack with her set off in a direction which Leon had to quickly change direction.
"We'll be heading to the nearest town, it will be a big change to the life you are used to. Keep quiet and listen for a while when you are there and you should begin to understand what you should do while there." Leon said. Rin stared at him for a short while and nodded her head in agreement. Moving along the trail both of them spotted a number of animals moving around, Rin however noted some herbs along the way and picked them to be used later. They had travelled a distance but Leon had informed Rin that it would still be a number of days before they would get close to the outskirts of the town. Setting up a campfire and laying out the packs, night had fallen quickly. Although it was spring there was there ever present chill left behind by winter. Rin however walked around the campsite, looking at something that was not quite in view for Leon. For now he had gotten used to some of Rin's strange quirks but he felt that he was gazing at the shallow part of a deep lake the more he saw. Rin turned back to him, her eyes looking through him.
"I'll be back, there's something I have to do" Rin said, walking off in a direction further into the trees that were keeping warm under. Leon's natural curiousity had perked up, as after Rin had disappeared from sight he stood and followed quietly. He knew that Rin had been pretty sensitive to what's around her but Leon still believed a hunter was better at concealing his presence. Keeping an eye on Rin's footprints he followed the tracks further in, the noise of movement halted Leon's steps as he hid and waited for anymore sounds. Unexpectedly he heard the sounds of talking, most definitely a woman. This could only be Rin. Peeking around he spotted the girl as she had a bird perched on its hand. Leon could see Rin's mouth moving as the bird cocked its head side to side letting out an intermittent chirp. Leon felt puzzled at Rin spending time with the bird, after a while it flew off and Rin looked at it in the distance.
"Did you enjoy watching?" Rin said loudly, swivelling her head to where Leon was. Leon had small heart attack at Rin calling him out. Sighing Leon came out from hiding and walk towards Rin. Someday he wished at the very least he could get the jump on her just once.
"I was curious since you were gone for a while" Leon said walking over.
"Better be careful or you might get more than you wished for" Rin said snidely. Despite her fierce words Rin had let the corners of her mouth twitched.
"Hah, fine I'll just have to accept some of the weirder things you do. But I need to know just what you are doing. It'll save the questions for you later" Leon said crossing his arms. Rin rolled her eyes in response but relented.
"It appears there were some problems on the road ahead, a landslide happened and I was asking around" Rin said casually. Leon had frozen at the information, getting Rin's attention.
"Aye, if you can't bother to pay attention when I'm talking then what's the point of telling you" Rin said in an irritated tone. Leon brought himself back and looked at Rin for a moment.
"You can talk to birds?" Leon asked.
"Of course, I thought you could at least put that together. What is your head filled with water?" Rin said as she started to walk back to the campsite. Leon kept pace with her, his anger starting to grow at Rin.
"If you can tell me before hand at the very least I won't have to worry about my health. Everytime you do something it is definitely shocking. If you are going to live with humans than I'm going to have teach you from the ground up so your common sense won't trip you up when we meet more people" Leon said trying to think through his head, where would he even start.
"What common sense? This is perfectly normal, you seem to lack a lot of knowing when it comes to living out in the land" Rin said in a huff. Although she seemed mature to Leon from her actions she still was a young girl.
"This is serious, normal people won't treat this lightly. At best they would make it painful to be around others, at worst they would torch you and your home together." Leon tried to explain as they reached the campsite. Rin stopped with those words, as she sat down she stared off into space somewhere.
"Would I truly not fit in?" Rin said quietly not looking at Leon directly. Leon could feel a light pang in his chest but he ignored it.
"I will help you but you must make the effort on your own. Sooner or later if you trip up the consequences will not be light" Leon said in a heavy tone. Rin had her eat slightly cocked towards what Leon was saying as she slowly nodded. They had already unfurled their blankets and Rin laid down and turned herself away from Leon. Leon sighed at the difficulties he could predict down the road, lying down a bit further on his blankets and tried to stay warm out in the open.
"Will you abandon me too?" Rin said in a voice barely above a whisper. Leon turned in response and looked at Rin while thinking deeply.
"Although I was forced to do this, as much as I want things to be the way they were I could never abandon a friend. Fate is a funny thing and you never know what it has in store for us" Leon replied.
"Thank you" Rin said. Staying still, the rising and falling of her breaths became steady as Leon reliased she had fallen asleep. Out of the view from Leon's eyes, Rin had several tears that had fallen down her face and yet she felt more comfortable than she had been in the last couple of days.