01-25-2010, 01:23 AM
Rin gasped with equal parts relief and exhaustion as he stumbled into the small clearing that contained his goal. The wolf hanyou hadn't heard the sounds of his pursuit for some time, but he had forced himself to continue. No way was he sleeping out in the snow and risking discovery when there was a perfectly good building that he could skulk about in. The rumors that the place was haunted didn't worry him all too much. After the many times he had been beaten, stabbed, cut, and outright abused throughout his life he was much more worried about physical threats than spiritual ones. Rin didn't have nearly as much of the miraculous healing ability so many demons demonstrated, as his vast multitude of scars attested to.
The boy slowed his headlong rush as he approached the castle, attempting to both catch his breath and find a way over the huge wall presented before him. His eyes flitted from the wall, to the boulders strewn haphazardly about, to the trees and then back to the wall again. "I can probably climb it..." he muttered, his voice a surprisingly light tenor. "This will be one of the few times I'll be glad of being scrawny." Rin had a habit of talking to himself... when he wasn't running for his life.
The young hanyou clambered atop his chosen boulder and then launched himself into the air, his hands grasping the tree branch as he used his momentum to hurl himself up the tree. He was good at tree climbing, it was one of the things that he'd had to learn for survival that he actually liked doing. Using his claws when needed, Rin scaled the tree until he reached the point that the tree wouldn't hold even his meager weight if he attempted to go higher. The boy cursed as he examined the wall, one arm wrapped around the tree trunk for stability. "Damned small tree..." he grumbled. The tree had helped immensely in his quest to get into the castle, but unfortunately there was still quite a bit of wall left that he would have to heave himself up before he reached the top. Rin inched around the tree until he reached a branch that was oh so conveniently placed right up against said wall and he started to climb, shoving his fingers and toes into the gaps in the mortar. He slipped a couple of times as he tried to get toeholds, but he kept his boots on. No doubt he could get a better grip without his boots, but seeing as Rin shivered each and every time his hands encountered the cold stone, no way was the boy taking of his boots.
When he finally - Finally! - reached the top, Rin let himself lie there for a moment, shivering again as a strong wind tried to knock him off his precarious perch. He only let himself rest for a moment before he stood up and made his way along the castle wall, looking for a good place to clamber down. He finally found one in the shape of another tree when he reached a courtyard near the back. He launched himself into the tree and made his way down until he was on the last branch. It was still a good ten feet to the ground, but that didn't bother Rin. He jumped and had almost reached the ground when the smell hit his over sensitized nose. What would have been a graceful landing turned into an undignified sprawl that sent the wolf hanyou face first into the snow. He quickly leapt to his feet, and spent several moments sneezing as he tried to get the snow, and the overriding smell of kitsune out of his poor nose.
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