"Protected..?"  She scoffed, her mouth hanging off.  "I am perfectly capable of protecting myself, thank you.  If anything, I'm coming along to protect [i]you,[/i]" Her observation was met with a remark about her sword.  "That goes to show you just how much Mr. Avatar here knows about swordplay.  I'm not a killer, Katsu, and I don't use my dao that way.  But what if we were attacked by people with weapons?  If they get too close, it's nice to have an alternative.  Not to mention, it'll only scare away the kind of people we don't want around anyway."

The small group was off and heading on down the road.  Going by foot was not something a lot of people did anymore, but it wasn't entirely unheard of either.  Lots of people traveled traditionally if only for the pilgrimage nowadays.  Leaving at this strange hour, with only the sleep from the night before, the three were already rubbing their eyes and yawning after only a few minutes.  Siku sighed, "How far do you think we should go before setting up camp?"  She asked, adjusting the pack on her shoulders and yawning for what felt like the millionth time.  The sun was already moving up and Siku was just glad that they were westbound, keeping it out of their eyes.  "We could take a quick four-hour nap up here, the road had enough little twists in it that I can only see a couple of the tops of buildings...  We could get past the treeline here and set up camp, sleep for a couple of hours, and then get back on the move for a while until we can get a good rest.  We can take a look at the map I brought too, figure out where we want to stop for the night...  Plan it all out, so we can relax for a minute."

There was little enthusiasm left in the group as they stepped from the road and pushed past the trees, moving deeper into the woods for a few minutes.  She dropped her pack to the ground and rolled out the bedroll from it.  She didn't pack a tent, but she didn't see any need for one, at least not yet.  "Alright, here's as good as anywhere else, right?  Night... Morning...  Whatever," She mumbled, sitting on the bedroll and laying back.  She placed her sheath and sword by her side and put the pillow over her eyes.  It didn't take long for her to fall asleep.  She hadn't had much rest at all since waking up the day before.  Between practice and dinner and then... everything between, she was exhausted.

A few hours later, the watch on her wrist began to beep and she rubbed her eyes.  "Ugh...  Please, just six more hours..."  She mumbled, sitting up and looking at the time.  Yup, they had to wake up now.  She groggily reached for her bag and pulled out a map, "Hey, wake up you two," She ordered, clearing her throat and still trying to wake up fully.  "Alright...  Alright, c'mon over, let's look at this."  The girl ushered the other two toward her and pointed to Republic City on the map, "So, we started here and left...  West, right?  yeah," She decided having to think for a moment to recall the day so far.  "So...  If we spend a few more hours walking, we can probably make it...  Hm...  It might be night time, but we could get to Gung-Li...  And then either see if there's any kind of ride to Iwa from there.  Or get a little boat and get ourselves there...  It's open water, so we'll have to be careful if we don't charter it.  Gung-Li might have something, but going farther would yield better results for options, I think..."