Hiei stopped a while later and motioned for her to stop as well.

"Hold still and stay quiet," he murmured to her, eyes scanning the area.

Winter nodded once and stopped walking. She hardly breathed as she glanced around.

Hiei crept forward, finding the threat and assessing it before neutralizing the three lower-level demons. With prejudice. Finally, something uncomplicated again. Much better.

Winter blinked.

"Well, that was--" She swallowed a bit. "I can't say that was unexpected."

"Not the last we'll run into lower level demons," Hiei said, partially as warning. He cleaned his blade and sheathed it again.

"I'm sure," Winter said. She carefully didn't look at the corpses. "I bet they can smell a human from a mile away."

"Some can," Hiei agreed. "We'll try to avoid those. Or remove them."

"Good plan," Winter said. "And I'm betting we should leave before this attracts anything worse."

Hiei nodded and started walking again, making sure she was following still.

Winter hurried to keep up with him. She still carefully avoided the dead low-level demons.

Hiei kept going until he found an appropriate spot to stop for the night. It had gotten fairly dark, and he'd had to slow his pace a little so he wouldn't lose Winter. But, all in all, he was rather pleased with their progress so far.

Winter could barely see him ahead of her by the time he decided to stop for the night. All she could really make out anymore was his white scarf. So she was grateful when they finally stopped.

"We're fine here for the night," Hiei told her. "Get some rest." He settled down, though he was still awake and clearly planning to keep watch.

Winter nodded and settled down as well. She found as comfortable a spot as she could and tried to get some sleep. Sleep was slow in coming.

Hiei woke her after the sun was up and trying to rouse her anyway, giving her time to actually wake up and be more than a moving zombie.

Winter had slept rather badly all night, not used to sleeping outside at all. So she woke rather quickly and just gave a resigned sigh and got up.

Hiei took it rather easy that day too. He found he didn't necessarily mind the slower pace, and it was easier on her. Which was another thing he'd have to think about. Eventually. Sometime.

That was the typical pattern of things for a while. They roamed pretty far, following rumors of the soul cutting sword. Winter didn't, however, expect to run into Yukina out in the middle of nowhere.

Hiei blinked when he saw Yukina, and he walked over to her. "What are you doing down here?" he asked quietly.

Yukina blinked.

"I could ask you the same thing," she replied. "I'm on my way back to Genkai's temple. I was visiting the island."

Hiei nodded. "We're searching for a sword." He'd give her more details if she wanted, but that would at least satisfy her immediate curiosity.

"There have been rumors about one, recently," Yukina said, looking at him. "Perhaps the same one? The rumors were rather disturbing."

Hiei nodded. "Probably the same," he agreed.

"I see," Yukina said. She glanced behind him. "You brought Winter along?"

Hiei shrugged. "She teleports." Which is essentially what it was, after all.