Note: This chapter was re-edited on November 22nd 2006

CHAPTER 4

"Are you sure you want me to get you up there?" the lift operator asked Botan an hour later. He glanced up at the sky worriedly. "It looks like a storm's rolling in."

Not this guy too, the onna thought, rolling her eyes. "Yes," she replied, throwing her skis over her shoulder. "Now would you please get me up there?"

"Okay," the man said heading inside to start the lift. "Crazy teenagers. They'll do anything for a thrill."

Luckily Botan hadn't heard him. She was too busy thinking about skiing. When the lift started moving she hopped on and rode it to the top of the mountain. Once it got there she hopped off and headed for a black diamond trail. By then the wind had picked up but she paid little attention to it as she put on her skis. She thought it was only windy like that because she was so high up. When she was done with her skis and had reached the top of the slope she looked down at the slope then, taking a deep breath of fresh mountain air, pulled her ski goggles over her eyes and pushed forward with her poles. She instantly shot down the slope with her blue hair flying behind her like a banner.

"Woooowhoo!" she squealed as she excellerated. This is so perfect! Too bad Keiko decided to stay at the lodge. She would have loved this!

Little did Botan know was that it was starting to snow harder and the wind was blowing more than before. Before she knew what was happening she was blinded by a huge wall of white!

Botan screamed and instinctly covered her face with her hands, dropping her ski poles in the process. She hadn't expected to be snow blinded! When she lowered her hands she suddenly realized she wasn't on the slope anymore.

She's skied off a cliff!

Oh my god! I'm gonna die! she thought in panic.

Her eyes snapped shut out of reflex and she braced herself for the end which she knew was coming. She started to beat herself up and down her mind. I should have listened to Keiko! How could I have been so stupid? The weather was a dead give away! STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!

A few seconds later she realized she was still falling. How high is this mountain? Cautiously, she opened her eyes. The ground was still coming at her but at a much slower rate. What in the world?

Suddenly she felt a warmth at her side. She slowly turned her head to find out what it was. Black cloth and a white scarf. She looked up and took in blood ed eyes, a slightly pale face, and raven black hair. Hiei.

She gasped. Hiei! Hiei saved me?

The fire demon heard her gasp and looked down at her. His face held a lecture in itself and she started to wonder what she had done wrong. "What did I do?" she asked out loud.

"Hn!" they landed on a thick tree branch. Hiei didn't put her down though. If he did she'd just fall. "Stupid onna!"

"What?" she asked again.

Before he could answer, the wind picked up and the tree branch he was standing on began to sway dangerously. Hiei looked into the sky at the thick snow clouds. "There's a blizzard blowing in," he told her. "How could you be so dumb as to want to ski in this?"

Any answer she would have given him was drowned out by a loud rumbling sound.

"What's that?" she called over it as she looked around for the cause of the sound.

Hiei looked over his shoulder at the mountain behind them then started to jump quickly from tree to tree. "Avalanche," he said rather calmly as they went.

Botan peeked around his body. She saw a huge wall of snow coming at them at a rapid pace. How are we going to get away from that? she asked herself, instinctly grabbed onto Hiei's shoulders.

If Hiei noticed he didn't show it, he just continued his course down the mountain. He didn't seem the least bit worried that at any moment they could be buried by a wall of snow. Suddenly the branch Hiei landed on snapped. Hiei tried to regain his balance at the sudden surprise but couldn't. Almost instantly they were falling. Botan screamed and without thinking wrapped her arms around Hiei's neck and buried her face in his chest.

I'm gonna die! she thought as she felt their bodies falling. We're gonna die!

Air rushed against her back and all she heard was a roar. Cold, ice like pressure held her in place and she started praying the end would come quickly. She would have hated a slow death. She didn't want a slow death! Why prolong dying anyway? Who had even come up with such a horrible idea in the first place? Botan started to feel angy toward the person who had invented choking. No good son of a-

"Onna," a voice said to her just then. "Botan."

Eh?

"Would you stop brusing me?!" the voice said again.

Botan opened her eyes and moved her face away from Hiei's chest. She looked around herself, surprised when she saw their location. They were in the forest and what seemed like a pretty good distance away from the mountain where she'd been skiing a few minutes ago. She looked toward the mountain. Yeah it was pretty far away even though she could only see it's shadow through the wall of white.

"Where are we?" she asked, looking up at the fire demon.

"Hn," he replied, looking away from her. "How am I suppost to know?"

She said nothing. He didn't have to be so rude. He could have just said, "I don't know."

"How far from the lodge are we?" she asked.

"How should I know?" he demanded.

Botan frowned. "Well you could use your Jagan and find out," she said, annoyed.

"Hn," he set her down and wordlessly followed her advice. His took of the bandanda covering his forehead and closed his eyes as the third opened. She watched him from her position on the ground. I wonder how far away we are? she thought, watching his expression. It must be pretty far if he's taking so long.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity to Botan, Hiei opened his eyes and looked down at her. "I can't see anything," he said. "There are too many trees." he looked toward the sky. "I'm going to have to get higher up."

"Wait!" Botan gasped, grabbing his arm. "What about me?"

He looked at her face questioningly. "What about you?" he asked.

"You can't just leave me!" she exclaimed, looking close to tears. "I don't want to be left alone!"

"I'm not going to leave you alone, onna," he told her, shaking his arm free. "I'm just going to get a better perspective of where we are and how far away that stupid lodge is."

"But-" she began.

He glared at her. "I'll be right back," he informed her.

Then, before she could protest anymore or try to stop him, he jumped up toward the top of the trees, looking like a black blurr as he went from branch to branch. Botan watched him do this, biting her nails and worrying. Please don't leave me, she thought anxiously. She knew it wasn't beyond him to leave her alone, this was Hiei we're talking about, but then again maybe he wouldn't. Maybe it was against his weird code of honor...

Hiei reached the top branch of the tree and let his Jagan take another look around. He felt slightly stupid for doing it before on the ground. He'd never see anything that way, then again he'd only done it because Botan was getting on his nerves... Oh c'mon, Hiei, don't blame her for not thinking straight. You're the one with the problems going on in your body... he shook his head to remove the thought. He could deal with his problems and he knew she was to blame. Problems or no problems.

After a minute his eye focused on the lodge and he opened his real eyes after he realized something about the distance. He growled and clenched his fists. Not close enough! Not close enough! Well there was nothing he could do about that. He'd been the one who got them this far from the lodge. He'd just have to get them back. Hopefully they wouldn't have to stop anywhere for the night...

He covered his Jagan with his bandana and jumped back down where the onna was waiting. When he landed in front of her, she was ready to ask. "So how far away is it?" she looked like she was hoping he'd say, "Not far."

He couldn't lie to her. Not that he cared about her feelings anyway, he just knew she'd be disappointed. "Pretty far," he said directly. "The avalanche took us further away than I thought it had."

"How far would that be?" she asked.

He closed his eyes, put his hands in his pockets, turned away from her, and shrugged. "Pretty far," he said again. "So we'd better start walking."

This was defiantly not what Botan wanted to hear."But, but, but," she stammered. "That means we'll be walking for hours."

"So?" he asked, eyeing her up and down. "A little walking would do you good. You look like you've put on a few pounds."

"What?" her face turned red. "I beg your pardon! I am not fat!"

"Hn," he turned from her. "Whatever. If that's what you want to think..."

"How dare you!" Botan shouted, clenching her fists. "I am not getting fat, Hiei! I weigh the same as I did two years ago!"

"Like I care," he retorted.

"You're so rude!" Botan grumbled, looking away from him.

He decided to ignore that remark. Like he didn't know he was rude. And, thanks to her remark, he was not about to tell her something else he knew. He wasn't exactly sure about the distance. It was hard for him to calculate the distance because there had been so much snow blowing around. Even with his Jagan, it still made things complicated. But he wasn't about to tell her that. Instead he ignored her royal fit and started walking away.

Botan watched Hiei walk away. She suddenly realized she couldn't just stand there glaring at him for calling her fat. Otherwise he'd just leave her there alone. She didn't want to be left alone. Not in the middle of the woods in a blizzard. "Wait!" she exclaimed, grabbing her skis off the ground and running after him. "Hiei, wait for me!"

He stopped long enough for her to catch up then continued walking without a word. A thought crossed her mind, though. Are you ready to stop acting like a baby now? Hiei had talked to her through telepathy

She knew what he ment and was offended. She wanted to say something, tell him off, but chose not to. There was no way she'd win a fight with him anyway. Silently, she followed him out of the clearing and into the woods.

A/N

I think this chapter came out pretty well. I don't know much about skiing because I've never been but I do know some stuff from books and movies. All well. The reason Botan went skiing was because she didn't think it was really going to blizzard that day. Sorry if they were a bit OOC if they were. I tried to keep them in character but I haven't been able to see any episodes lately. Sorry.