Disclaimer: I do not own Inu Yasha and all them. And Inu Yasha doesn't like Mel. Sad.
The group reached a village soon before the sun set and found an inn. Kaze, Mel, and Kiara helped out around the inn to pay for the night and for three horses before dropping off to sleep in their room.
The next morning Kaze woke up, still shaking in anger from her dream: her best friend refused to listen to her and had instead trapped her and her team in a cave. Without realizing it, Kaze had snapped the wooden room divider she'd grabbed to help her stand, successfully waking everyone else.
"Um, I guess since we're all awake we should keep going," Mel said warily, eyeing the divider. "Where is the village we're heading to?"
"Priestess Rin said to keep going north," Kiara answered, shooing the boys out of the room before the three girls changed into clean clothes.
"I think we have to go through one more village before we reach it," Kaze said, pulling her makeshift map out. "We have a few horses now, so it should be easier to get there." The three girls joined the others outside after thanking the inn owners again.
Kiara, Mel, and Kaze each took a horse and led them out of the village. Mel suggested they urge the horses faster and Sho jumped, kitten-form, into Kaze's lap and Koga climbed up onto Kiara's horse, facing backwards to lean against her.
"C'mon, Inu Yasha," Mel said, patting behind her on her horse. "Looks like you're riding with me!"
Inu Yasha eyed her warily, remembering that she landed on him, before jumping up behind Kaze. "That's not very nice, Inu Yasha," Kiara said, trying not to laugh.
"She nearly broke my back!" Inu Yasha complained, sitting cross-legged behind Kaze.
"You would have healed," Kaze retorted, nudging her horse forward at a pace that forced Inu Yasha to grab onto her waist to keep from falling.
"It still hurt," Inu Yasha muttered into her braided hair, trying not to fall off. Kaze ignored him and looked over at Kiara and Mel to make sure they were following at the same pace. Koga had managed to turn around on the horse and had grabbed onto Kiara's waist also, looking decidedly green.
By the time the next town came into view, the sun was setting again. As soon as the horses stopped, Koga jumped to the ground, slightly unsteady, and Kaze nudged Inu Yasha awake, who had dropped his head on to her shoulder when he fell asleep. He jumped down and stretched, followed by Sho, before he turned back to Kaze.
Mel and Kiara managed to get down with no trouble and had already begun to lead their horses away, but Kaze had somehow managed to get her foot tangled in one of the bags and ungracefully fell off her horse and into Inu Yasha's arms, who'd just managed to reach out and catch her.
"Be careful, girl," Inu Yasha snapped, setting her gently down on her feet. "Mira never would have looked so ungraceful." Kaze stuck her tongue out childishly before leading her horse in the direction the others went.
Kiara and Mel went inside an inn, having tied their horses up outside, and Kaze followed suit, followed by the three demons.
"We can work, we just need a room for one night," Mel was saying to the owners.
"I'm sorry, miss," the older woman sighed. "We would love to give you a room, but we have some demons staying here. If we let anyone else stay, they've threatened to eat us all."
"If there was a way to make them leave, we would let you stay," the man continued regretfully. "But we have no way of fighting them."
"We've called for the demon exterminators, but they're in such high demand that we have to wait," the woman continued.
"What if we took care of your demon infestation?" Kiara asked, indicating Mel, Kaze, and herself.
"We would gladly give you a room," the man said. "You'd be welcome here for free any time."
"But we couldn't send you in there," the woman continued carefully. "The demons are very big."
"Don't worry," Kaze said, waving the woman's worries off. "We'll be right back." With that, Kaze pulled her bow off her arm and notched an arrow as Kiara put on padded gloves and Mel unsheathed her sword. The three of them stepped carefully to the door the older couple indicated and peeked through.
Six ogre demons were lounging around the room, eating roasted animal. Kaze rolled her eyes at the other two and the three of them entered the room, startling the ogre demons.
Before any demons moved, Mel managed to chop off two heads, Kaze shot through the hearts of two more, and Kiara punched through the last two's chests.
"That was annoyingly easy," Kaze muttered, following the other two farther into the room.
"Kaze!" Inu Yasha shouted from the other room, running into the closed door behind the older couple.
"That was very impressive, for humans," the woman cackled, slowly changing into a large mantis. The man crumpled to the ground, an empty shell. Before Kaze could notch an arrow, the bow was knocked out of her hands and she was lifted off her feet. The mantis held Kaze as a shield against the other two girls, forcing them to refrain from attacking. Kaze pulled at the limb holding her, refusing to scream, even as Inu Yasha, Koga, and Sho attacked the other side of the door, Inu Yasha yelling her name every now and them.
The bangs against the door paused and Kaze panicked for a moment, thinking the boys had left, until the door was sliced open, revealing Inu Yasha standing in the doorway with a large sword on his shoulder.
"Whoa," Mel muttered. "He's got sword skills."
"You're such a nerd," Kiara chuckled, unable to resist even in the present danger. Kaze glared at her angrily until she was swung around violently to face Inu Yasha.
"You wouldn't hurt your mate," the mantis taunted, waving Kaze around.
"Let go," Inu Yasha growled. When the mantis only swung Kaze around more, Inu Yasha ran at it, ducking under Kaze, slicing under Kaze, slicing through the limb, and catching her. "Go on, mangy wolf," Inu Yasha conceded, stepping aside to allow Koga access to the wailing mantic.
Within minutes, the mantis lay in pieces outside and the real owners were found safely. Even before they agreed to let the group have a room for the night, Inu Yasha was already carrying Kaze upstairs.
"Inu-san, please put me down," Kaze groaned, still feeling ill from being swung around by the mantis. Inu Yasha gently set Kaze down on a blanket and scooted away to lean against the wall near her head. He had the rusty sword back on his hip and Kaze studied it for a moment.
"What happened to the big sword?" Kaze finally asked, watching his face as she spoke.
"It's the same one," Inu Yasha replied, indicating the rusted sword at his side.
"I thought you said it was useless," Kaze ventured, still laying on her back.
"I had lost my reason to use it," Inu Yasha muttered, not meeting Kaze's eyes. "I just found a better one now." Kaze tilted her head in confusion, which ended up looking pretty awkward and almost made Inu Yasha smile. "Go to sleep, it's dark," Inu Yasha ordered as the other came in.