Lina gazed fearfully out at the night, huddling just a little bit closer to the fire. A gleam of red caught her eye, and she looked to see Zel tending to the fire, the flames dancing playfully about the wood he added.
"It feels strange, doesn't it?" Zel spoke softly, his hands falling to rest in his lap. "Them not being here?"
Firia, on the other side of the fire from Zel, nodded slowly, her face still stained with the tears she had shed. "By now, both Amelia and Gourry would be asleep and snoring fit to wake the ... dead."
Lina could feel tears slowly trickling down her nose and chin. Not even the food brought to them by Kurama cheered her up.
Xeros frowned, his mouth half-open to taste the currents of emotion on the air. This human form was so ... limiting ... in so many respects versus the form his master had taught him to take. But as it was the best one to interact with humans and, for that matter, dragons, it was most useful. Later, tonight, he might go hunt the demon-things that skulked around the mesas, trying to find a way up.
It was strange, that he could feel so ... at home, here. Despite the grief in the air, and his own sorrow at the loss of friends. And deep within him, something that had hidden itself for a long time began to relax it's defenses.
Hiei scowled, his expression a dark mirror of the one on the one he watched. He didn't trust the being who had brought them here ... and yet, without that dark one's intervention, there was a good chance Yukina would have died last night. He would watch, and he would wait. Time would show if this 'Xeros' was friend or foe.
Mink, Lufa, and Pia huddled up close next to the fire the others had set for them. Their tears had run dry, but something deep within their hearts still ached as much as it had before. The others at their camp passed by, unnoticed by the three girls.
Until the smallest, a little boy no bigger than Pia, tentatively offered a bowl of fish stew to her. His eyes were puffy and swollen from crying, but his expression was concerned, his brown eyes concerned as he watched the three of them.
"Are you hungry?" His voice was soft, sweetly high in the way that only little boys can be. "I know you probably don't feel hungry, but it may help you feel better."
Pia smiled timidly at the boy, reaching out to take the bowl of stew.
Yuusuke landed with a soft thunk, his wiry frame easily handling his impact with the ground. With quick, agressive steps, he soon was standing next to Kurama, who was speaking with a rather strange-looking young man blue skin, a large grey werewolf, and another, even younger man with glasses that looked thick enough to safely cook eggs in. "Hey, Kurama. We've got a monster of a storm heading in."
Kurama quickly caught on to Yuusuke's concerns. "And this place is not very sheltered, despite the trees. Any idea of what type of storm?"
"From the way the wind's picking up, it's going to be a doozy. The full raging elements treatment."
"I see ... Can you three help us prepare for this?" Kurama looked towards the other conversationalists hopefully. The young man with the glasses nodded first, then spoke. "Exactly how are we going to help deal with this storm?"
Deciding it would be more helpful to show than to just tell them, Kurama held a single twig of bamboo out on his palm. In less than ten seconds, Kurama was leaning on the ten-foot tall bamboo stalk that he had caused to grow from that single twig.
"I've got a Makai vine that grows very large leaves and is used to extremely stormy weather. If we set it up around the camp, weaving it in the trees, it'll make an extremely good windbreak."