Chapter Thirteen- Where on Earth...?

~*~

Chichiri popped out of his hat and held it out in front of himself. Then the Bishonen proceeded to shake the hat up and down. "We're here, no da! Time to come on out, no da!" he said cheerfully.

Thud!

Heero landed on the ground on his head. A moment later a small bump appeared where he'd landed, and he rubbed it ruefully. Then the Bishonen moved out of the way and started to look around at his new surroundings.

Thud!

"ITAI!"

Anya landed next, though she landed on her rump instead of her head. "Jeez, 'Chiri, be more careful will ya?" she muttered. "I rather like being able to sit when I get the chance- eh?" She stood up and peered around herself as Chichiri ignored her and continued to shake Sano and Kenshin out of his hat as well.

Thud! Thud!

"Wow! We'll do that again soon, that we will. Right?" Kenshin asked hopefully. He was the only one who'd landed on his feet (save Chichiri) and was bouncing up and down in excitement, oblivious to what was going on around him.

Sanosuke, however, had also landed on his head, a lot more forcefully than Heero had. He lay there for a moment, twitching, as a huge bump appeared on his head. Then he managed to get up into a sitting position and glance around as well.

There was a long silence.

"Chichiri?"

The Bishonen turned to look at his trainer. "Yes, Anya-dono no da?"

"Can you explain something to me?"

"Of course, no da."

"Then please, explain...." Anya then stomped her foot. "WHY ARE WE IN THE MIDDLE OF ANOTHER FOREST?!"

"DA?!" Chichiri turned SD and hid behind his hat. "I tried to take a shortcut but I wasn't exactly sure which way to go no da?" he asked timidly.

"Was that an explanation or a question?" she asked.

"I'm not sure no da!"

Heero sighed and pulled out his laptop. This was probably going to take a while.

Kenshin, sensing the same thing, spotted Heero and wandered over to admire the screen and Heero's typing skills. After all, he found it a lot more interesting and a lot less confusing than hearing the others yelling at each other.

Anya hung her head and sighed. "Chichiri, when did you evolve into a full-grown Bishonen?" she asked quietly.

"Ano... only a while ago, no da. Why no da?" Chichiri peeked over the rim of his hat.

"Because that would explain why your landing was off. Well, let's hope we landed somewhere near town. Let's see..." Anya sat down and pulled off her backpack. Then she pulled out the map. Chichiri wandered over and sat next to her, still holding up the hat so he could use it as a shield. "Are there any forests really close to Eutriv City...?" Anya wondered aloud as she tried to find said city.

"I didn't see any, that I did not," Kenshin volunteered.

"Great," Anya muttered. Then, "Ah! Here we go!" She pointed at the map. "There's Eutriv City. Here's the path we took to take you back to your territories, Chichiri..." She ran a finger along one of the dark lines on the map. "And since we only got about a third of the way there... we WERE about here." She tapped her finger on one part of the map, where a small cluster of trees was drawn. "How long were we flying around in your hat, 'Chiri?"

"About a half-hour no da," Chichiri said. He finally changed back into normal and was peering at the map curiously.

"How far can you travel in your hat in a half-hour, Chichiri?"

"I'm not sure. Depends on the wind patterns no da... but today, I'd guess we traveled at least ten miles no da."

"Ten miles..." Anya frowned slightly. "And we traveled... hey, Sano!" She threw a nearby rock at Sano, who had been sitting where he'd fallen for the past few minutes. "You still with us?"

The rock hit him in the face, adding to the size of the bump on his head, and he yelped in pain. "Damn it, Missie, what was that for?!"

"I asked you a question, and you looked like you were either on crack or just staring into space. I figured a rock would snap you out of either one."

"The hell ARE we?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out," Anya said. "If you don't mind... how far would you say we walked yesterday?"

"I'm supposed to know that?! Well..." Sano frowned slightly. "I would guess at least seven or eight miles."

"Hmm. hey, wait! There's a forest a few miles north of Eutriv! Maybe you just overshot your landing point a bit, 'Chiri!" Anya said cheerfully, pointing at the map. "If we find the road and head south on it, maybe we'll run into Eutriv City!"

"And if not," Heero observed from his computer, "we can just follow the road anyway. Roads are bound to lead you to one city or another."

"True," Anya agreed. Then she peered over at his computer. "Say, you wouldn't happen to have a tracking device or something on there, would you?"

"..."

"Never mind. I kinda doubted you'd share." Anya sighed and stretched a little. "Okay. Let's start looking for some sign of civilization- a road, a house, whatever. Then we can get our bearings. No offence, Chichiri, but maybe we shouldn't use your hat for a while."

Chichiri gave a sheepish smile. "Gomen, no da," he said.

"Don't worry about it. I'm not that surprised, actually...."

Sano snorted. "Go figure we'd get lost. Maybe next time you should try following the road, Chichiri."

The monk gave a little shrug.

"Sano, be nice," Anya told him. "I'd like to see you try and control a flying hat."

"I don't deal in witchcraft," Sano sniffed.

"Funny, I thought I saw you going into that hat rather quickly this morning," Anya observed.

"That was because YOU shoved me IN there."

"Uh-huh, right. Don't let your imagination get too overworked, Sanosuke," she said innocently. Then she stood and looked around. "Let's see... um..." she sweat-dropped. "Anyone wanna guess which way we should go to find the road?"

The group looked around for a moment.

"Let's see," Sano said. He pulled out his simple compass and held it out in front of him, watching it carefully.

Anya rolled her eyes.

After a few quiet moments, Sano jumped to his feet. "HA! South is THAT way!" he announced, pointing to their right.

Anya looked at the rest of her Bishonen. They all nodded, stood, and started off in the opposite direction.

"What the- HEY! What's the big idea?!" Sanosuke demanded, hurrying after them.

~*~

"Okay, I give up," Anya said, dropping her backpack and sliding down a tree into a sitting position. "Chichiri, where did you take us?"

"I could have sworn I knew where I was going no da," he said. He shrugged helplessly.

"Looks like we're in for a long trip after all," Anya said to herself.

"Told ya, you should have gone in the direction I said we should go," Sano said smugly.

"Shut up," the rest of the group told him.

Anya pulled out the refrigerator capsule and opened it. Then she got a soda, took a big gulp, and sighed. "That's better," she said.

Kenshin wandered over, got three, and headed back to where he, Heero and Chichiri were sitting around Heero's laptop. He handed the other two sodas to the older Bishonen and sat down to Heero's right, watching the Bishonen type on the computer. Chichiri took his soda absently, also staring at the screen. Heero, meanwhile, was doing his best to ignore the two that were watching him, continuing to type who-knew-what into the laptop.

"Okay..." Anya said finally into the silence. Her Bishonen turned to look at her. "Okay," she repeated. "This is what we're gonna do. Chichiri? I need you to use your magic."

"What for no da?" he asked.

"You should go up and take a look around above the treetops. You ought to be able to see a road or something if you go high enough. You come back down and tell us which direction it's in, and we head in that direction. When we get to it, we'll decide which way to go and continue on from there."

"Makes sense no da."

"You can fly on your own too, that you can?" Kenshin asked, excited. "Can I come up with you, Chichiri, that is?"

Chichiri gave Anya a questioning look. Anya shrugged and smiled. "Fine with me."

The Bishonen smiled and scooped up Chibi Kenshin in his arms before muttering an incantation. A moment later he was slowly floating up into the sky.

"Show off," Sano muttered. "I could have climbed up a nearby tree and it would take only a minute. He's taking five to get up there."

"He'd be a lot faster if he wasn't taking Kenshin with him," Anya explained. "He wants to make sure he doesn't drop Kenshin and split his head open. Unless of course you WANT that to happen-"

"Just shut up," Sanosuke said.

Heero breathed a sigh of relief, enjoying the short break he had from having two Bishonen peering over his shoulder at everything he did.

"..."

Snap!

Anya glanced up at the sound. "Are they back down so soon?" she asked, slowly getting to her feet. "That was-"

"Get back!" Sano jumped up and stood in front of her, in a fighting stance. Heero quickly closed his laptop, made it disappear to wherever he kept it, and also stood in front of her, his hand on his gun.

"What's going on-"

"FLARE ARROW!"

Anya ducked behind her Bishonen as a nearby tree caught on fire from the magical spell. When she looked up again, her eyes widened.

"You-"

"Move and you will be attacked, perhaps killed," said a cold voice.

"What on-"

"SLEEPING!"

Anya felt a heavy weight suddenly settle on her shoulders and her eyelids. Gently, the weight pushed her back into the tree, and slid her down onto the ground behind her two fallen Bishonen. There, the weight continued to push on her until her eyes closed, and everything went black...

~*~

"We're so high, that we are!" Kenshin cheered. "Look at us!"

Chichiri couldn't help but smile at the Chibi's excited antics. "We are quite high na no da," he agreed.

"I'm a bird, that I am! Look, I'm a bird that I am that I am!" Kenshin shouted, waving his arms around a little.

Now Chichiri was laughing. "Stop moving so much or I can't hold onto you no da!" he chided gently. "And you don't want me to let go of you at this height, na no da!"

Reluctantly, the Chibi stopped and contented himself with looking around at the scenery. "Wow, we're in the middle of nowhere, that we are!"

Chichiri sweat-dropped. "I was sorta afraid of that no da..." He looked around, then frowned slightly. "Wait a minute... we're high enough to see for miles. If we can't even spot a road..." He snapped his mask off and shoved it into his pocket. "This isn't good!"

Surprised at his friend's lack of 'no da's,' Kenshin gave Chichiri a confused look. "What's wrong Chichiri, that is?"

"We're in the middle of someone's territory! We have to get back down there and get Anya out of here!" Chichiri began to mutter another incantation when a shout was heard from below.

"FLARE ARROW! SLEEPING!"

"DAMN!" Chichiri swore, and quickly finished his spell. In moments he and Kenshin were dropping swiftly to the ground, almost falling. Kenshin whimpered and held onto his friend and his wooden sword, wondering what was wrong.

However, as Chichiri and Kenshin landed softly in the clearing, there was no one in sight. "Da." Chichiri looked around uneasily. "Anya-dono? Sanosuke? Heero? Anyone out there, no da?" he asked softly. Then, louder, "Let our friends go no da!"

There was no answer.

Chichiri swore again, in a much more colorful language this time. Used to such words, Chibi Kenshin merely slid out of the older Bishonen's arms and looked around, wondering where his trainer went.

When Chichiri couldn't think of any more words that would appropriately describe the current situation, he leaned against a nearby tree for a moment and sighed. "Well, Kenshin, it seems we have to go looking for our trainer no da."

"What? Why?" Kenshin asked.

"Because if I'm guessing right, the Bishonen and Bishoujo of this territory are not very happy at having a trainer trespass right into the heart of their hidden homes no da." Chichiri's expression hardened. "And making a lot of grown Bishonen unhappy about that sort of thing... is probably not a good idea."

"So what do we do to look for her?" Kenshin asked.

Chichiri glanced around, then nodded towards some bushes nearby. "They left an easy trail for me to follow, fortunately no da. We should be able to follow and get back the others without too much trouble no da. But... we'll have to be careful, and we have to be quick and quiet no da. Do you understand, na no da?"

Kenshin looked up at his friend's serious expression for a moment, then pulled out his wooden sword and gave it a swing. "Why else did I ask Annie-dono to buy me a sword, if not to protect her, that is?" he asked.

The older Bishonen smiled and ruffled Kenshin's hair. "Good no da. Let's hurry after them, no da."

~*~

"Ugh..." Anya reached up to rub her eyes. "What happened...?" she murmured.

When no answer came, her eyes opened and she looked around for her Bishonen. "Sano? Chichiri? Heero-" she stopped. And blinked. "What on earth?"

She was lying on a cot in a small room with only a small window to let in any light. The room was barely big enough to call it a room, having a low ceiling and very little floor space.

Anya sat up and peered around for the second time. "Where the hell am I? What happened...?"

"Ah, I see you're awake now," said a familiar voice from outside.

Anya looked up at the door of the room to see that it had a small window at the top of it, big enough to pass things through and to see someone face to face. And at that window was...

"A Xellos?" she asked, amazed.

"How observant of you," he said cheerfully, and opened the door. "I trust you won't try and escape, will you? There's a smart girl." He looked around. "Sorry about the horrid room, but it's the best we have on short notice, especially for uninvited humans."

"What? Uninvited... what happened out there? Where am I anyway?" Anya demanded.

Xellos raised an eyebrow. "You mean you don't know? How interesting. You know, your Bishonen said the same thing. I suppose you were smart enough to make up a story with them. Something about being lost, I imagine."

"We ARE lost!" she said, quickly losing her composure. "Where're Sano and Heero?"

"In another room. If it's any comfort, their room isn't much better than yours is."

"Why are we being treated like this? What did we do?"

"I'll be asking questions for now," he said, raising a finger and wagging it at her. "Now, if you're honest, we may let you go without too much trouble. Though of course, that depends on what your oh-so-truthful answers ARE."

"Answers to what?" Anya asked. She shifted a little on the cot.

"Oh we don't want to know too much from you. Just one question, really. What are you, a human trainer, doing in the middle of our private territory, and not on the designated roads where humans are supposed to be?"

Anya blinked. "I'm WHERE?!"