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It was a silent journey for Kotone and Hiei through the difficult. She hated it, the rough, steep, rocky, and uneven terrain. At one point Hiei told her to just close her eyes and trust the hippogriff she was on. The idea of trusting someone or something, even this stead, frightened her to no end. She wanted to rely on herself, only herself. She did not want to trust anyone or anything around her. She had once trusted her sisters, and they turned merciless the sign of her faltering. They imprisoned her and hunted her, came after her, her son, and those who bullied their way into helping her. She would have to figure out soon how to separate from them and go her own. Only after Maeshu was dead. She tried to kill Izo, who saved her life and her son's life. The least she could do was kill the woman who tried to have him killed.
She looked up around her hippogriff's neck, leaning over so she could see the deep downgraded path ahead of it. Hiei was behind her on his own beast. The narrow path looked almost impossible for the beast to go down. It was taking the steps cautiously, but would not respond to her tugging on the reins. She was getting frustrated with it. She pulled sharply up on the reins. The hippogriff underneath tugged back, neighing at her in annoyance. It jumped its front claws off the ground and bristled its wings behind her legs. She gave a shriek of fright, scared it was going thrown her off. She pulled harder on the reins, trying to get the hippogriff under her command once more. It shook its head defiantly, raising its front claws up once more and brought them down on the ground. One of its claws rolled underneath it, making it tip in a way that nearly made her fall off. It flared its wings, bumping her legs. It was going to either drop her or fly off and then drop her. She could not regain control of the beast. It felt like she could never control anything that happened to her.
Then, in a flash, Hiei was in front of her hippogriff, its reins somehow out of her hands and in his hands. His third eye underneath his headband glowed light purple. The beast pulled and tried to rear with him, but he stared the beast down, refusing to let the reins leave his hand or for his arm to move at all from where he held it. The hippogriff calmed down, wings tucked once more against its back. Kotone bulked when the beast knelt its upper body down, bowing to Hiei.
Kotone watched as Hiei bowed his head, neck, and shoulders to the hippogriff in turn. Then he came over to Kotone, passing her the reins back. "She insists you let her lead. She's been on this path before. You do that again, and she will throw you off and fly away."
Kotone nodded her head, but then shook her head. 'It's too steep,' she signed and thought.
"It's manageable. That's why we have to go in pairs. Few enough to navigate without bottle necking the path but without going it alone either," Hiei told her. "Close your eyes if you don't think it's doable. Trust Bramble." He left her, mounting his own stead. "You two have to go first. My hippogriff has never taken this path before."
Kotone shifted in her seat. She reached forward to stroke the hippogriff's neck, Bramble's neck, to show her apology. Bramble ruffled her neck, making a grunt. The rest of the journey, Kotone kept a white knuckle grip on the reins, but would not let them up off her lap. When the path looked impossible, she closed her eyes tight, breathing hard and fast, as she trusted the hippogriff beneath her not to stumble off the beaten path. At one point Bramble took flight for a few heart stopping seconds, but Kotone refused to open her eyes or even breathe. When they came back in contact with the ground, she whimpered out a sigh of relief. She absolutely hated the path, but she began to trust Bramble beneath her, mainly because she had no choice otherwise.
Once they reached the camp that Hikari and Izo had started to set up, she was overly relieved. Izo saw them first, having set up the tent he shared with Haru and Touya. He set the tent hammer down hastily, jogging over to her. She jumped down from Bramble on her own, with him quite near her. She noticed him, but took the second to hug Bramble around the neck, overly thankful for the beast and how she handled the trail. Much to her surprise, the beast nuzzled her back, making an affectionate sounding noise that almost sounded like, 'I told you so.'
She let go of Bramble, taking the reins over her head to lead her to Izo and Hikari's hippogriffs to get brushed down and fed after their journey. Izo came up next to her. 'How was the trip?' he signed. 'Can I help you?'
She looked up at him, knowing fully well she could do her chores on her own. That even Hiei and Touya expected it of her. She looked over to where Hiei was, taking his own stead by the others to be brushed down. She almost said no when Bramble went over to Izo, butting against him affectionately with her beak. He stumbled back, laughing at the beast's teasing. Bramble grunted playfully at him.
'If she'll let you,' Kotone permitted.
'She'll let me, I have worked with her before,' he signed back. 'Mother and I had a hand in rearing Bramble since the day she was born in our stables.'
She looked at his hands, focusing intently. He knew more words in sign language than she did, yet they had studied mainly together. Some of the words he signed she had to guess from context. 'You trained her?' she asked.
He cocked his head and kind of nodded. 'A bit. With Mother. And the stable master, and other stable workers.'
She took the reins of the stead, leading her over to the other two, and began to remove her saddle. Izo helped her, but stayed out of her way and did not touch her intentionally. She liked that about him. He was willing enough to respect her boundaries. Bramble seemed to like him.
After the stead was done, he helped her with her other chores and in turn she insisted to help him with his. She could tell Hiei was watching them, making her nervous. Hikari was watching them as well. She was also watching her father, a deep thinking look on her face. She went over to Izo with two large buckets once they were done with Izo's last chore. By that time, Touya and Airi had arrived at the camp site and were busy tending to their hippogriffs.
"More water," she demanded. Izo took the buckets from her. Izo took the buckets and started walking off down a sharp incline towards the nearby river. "Don't go alone," she rushed out.
"Then go with me so I can push you in the river," he half argued back, holding the buckets up.
"I'm not going near that water," she insisted. "Take Kotone. She's not doing anything right now."
Izo shrugged, walking off without another word. Kotone frowned at the exchange between the two siblings in puzzlement. Hikari winked at her, nodding her head just slightly. Kotone rushed off after Izo. He was making his way slowly down to the river bed. She made her way down, waiting to catch up with him. Her hurrying made her stumble, slipping onto her legs and sliding down on the ground for part of the way. He turn back, dropping the buckets, and stopping her from sliding any further. His hands came to her forelegs to halt her. She felt heat stirring up within herself just from his touch there alone. She pulled her legs away and stood up.
'Are you okay?' he signed to her.
She nodded. 'Let's go," she signed. She picked up one of the buckets and carefully walked down the path in front of him the rest of the way. One of her legs smarted, but she ignored it. She reached the bank of the river, drawing her bucket into it to scoop up some water. It was going to take some time to get the water back up to the camp without spilling any of it. She wondered vaguely if Izo could just fly it up by himself.
He came next to her, scooping up water in his own bucket. He sniffed the air. "Are-" he said, halting his voice. 'Are you bleeding?' he asked.
She hesitated to answer. She pulled her pant leg up, looking it over. She did have noticeable scrapes along her right knee. Some of the scrapes were starting to bleed. She nodded, sighing. He reached his hand over, but then retracted it. 'Can you?' she asked.
He seemed a little too excited by that, which made her feel flushed and nervous. She sat herself down on the ground, turning her right leg towards him. He placed his hand on her knee, healing the minor injury with no trouble. When he pulled his hand away, she wished he had taken a little longer to heal it.
He rose up then, picking up his own bucket and started walking towards the hill that led to the camp. The problem with it was she was not quite ready to go up yet. She stayed sitting, looking up at him. It took him longer than she liked for him to realize she was not following him. He looked back at her expectantly. He halted. 'Are you okay?' he signed.
She nodded, feeling disappointed. She stood up and grabbed her bucket. Now it felt rather heavy, but manageable on her own. She walked over to him, sitting her bucket down in front of him. They might not get a chance like this again on the trip. He matched her, sitting his own bucket down on flat land. He looked at her expectantly. She looked at him with equal expectancy, feeling herself grow impatient. He seemed as calm and patient. She huffed, turning to him and kissing him on his lips. He gasped at that, but kissed her back. She felt a rush of fear and attraction dance through her to the beat of her racing heart. He cautiously wrapped his arms around her, as if testing to see if each moved he made was approved by her. His mouth snaked down to her neck, kissing her there in a way that sent pleasant shivers down her spine. "Kotone," he whispered in her ear. "I-"
"Oy, would you hurry it up down there!" they heard Airi's voice call out before they could see her come down the path as well. Kotone pulled away from Izo in a rush, feeling unpleasantly cold all of a sudden. She looked up, seeing Airi now coming down the path, looking flustered.
"We were just about to head up," Izo said, trying to look nonchalant.
"Good, because your da was about to come down for you, even if he hates bodies of water just as much as your sister does," Airi warned. She grabbed up Izo's bucket, hauling it back up the trail behind her. "Hurry up with that," she half sang back at them.
Kotone nodded, turning away from Izo and picked up her own bucket. Izo went to take it from her. She pulled it away, causing a few drops of water to spill. 'I can,' she insisted. She turned back, hiking her own way up the trail after Airi, wondering, but too scared to turn around and ask Izo what he almost said.
