Disclaimer: I do not own any of the ideas seen in the REAL Protector of the small quartet...I DID make up the Leku and Yuki's Horse along with the plot of this story

AN: Hey my wonderful readers/reviewers! Love you guys!!!! Sorry i didn't get this out yesterday like was planning...and that its kind of short, but I PROMISE the next chapter will be longer. Speaking of my next chapter PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE read the bottom Author's Note(AN) and respond via review or PM! Thanks!

~Ori Lee

Chapter 4: The Trip

Kel woke up as Tobe was leaving to get the horses ready for the ride. "Sorry!" Tobe apologized for waking her up.

"That's okay," Kel replied tiredly. "I needed to get up. I'll be out soon."

She bathed, dressed and finished packing quickly after he left, then hurried outside to visit with Hoshi before Neal and Yuki came.

"How are you doing this morning?" Kel, now fully awake, asked Hoshi. Hoshi nudged Kel's arm in response, so Kel handed over the apple in her hand. "Okay, girl, I just have to put my stuff in your saddle bag and then we'll be all ready to go."

Just as Kel finished putting all her stuff inside Hoshi's saddle bag, Yuki came bouncing up the path to pack her stuff in Cocoa's new saddle bag. "Good morning, Kel." Yuki said cheerfully. "Neal will be out shortly…He's being a little sleepy head."

"Ok." Kel smiled at Yuki who, like her, still generally kept to the Yamani schedule of early morning training. In fact, while they waited they each did their morning training…Yuki with her shukusen and Kel with her glaive.

Soon, Neal came out and they got on their horses. Yuki was elated to finally be on her way to New Hope…

It was dusk when Yuki asked for the fifth time. "Can we stop here?"

"Not yet, sweetie," Neal replied once again then added. "But we'll be to the place we're stopping at soon, so don't worry."

Yuki felt relieved at this addition to his normal answer. Yes, Finally! Yuki thought. Riding a horse all day is not as easy as I expected.

Kel, Neal, and Yuki made it to the clearing they were planning to stay in just before it got dark. Kel and Neal quickly set up camp for the night and before Yuki understood what was going on they were all ready to eat the food they'd brought with them.

"Um…what is that?" Yuki asked as Neal cooked a hunk of "mystery meat" over the campfire.

Kel laughed. "It's Leku meat." Leku was a new kind of animal that had showed up a few weeks before. They were easy to kill, so there was already an abundance of their meat.

"Oh." Yuki said quietly. They were so tired that they didn't say anything else until they went to sleep. Even then, they only said goodnight.

The next morning, they all woke up a little late, but still early enough to make it to New Hope well before dark. They started out soon after waking and didn't stop again till four or five sparrows came at them from the direction of New Hope chirping the enemy signal.

"That's not good." Kel muttered as the three of them stopped their horses.

"Why? What's wrong?" Yuki, who hadn't learned the sparrows' different chirps yet, asked.

"That's the enemy chirp." Neal said grimly. "You go, Kel, I'll stay here with Yuki."

"No." Kel said in a definite tone. "Your BOTH coming with me….Yuki is fully capable of protecting herself should she need to."

"How can she do that?" He asked knowing that his argument was probably futile.

"With my shukusen" Yuki replied stopping the argument in its tracks.

"Fine…" Neal mumbled. Then added sternly, "But you will NOT go out of my sight." Yuki thought about arguing but decided it wasn't worth.

Then they all rode quietly towards New Hope and at least one enemy.

DUN DUN DUN, AN ENEMY!!!! Lolz ok thats my question for ya'll... Should the enemy be a Giant or a few scanrans with one of the last remaining killing devices or thousands of Leku joined together to fight in protest of being eaten (Thanks to my beta, Jwayk016, for inspiring that idea!) or something else. I will accept and seriously think about any ideas, so review or pm please!

love,

Ori Lee