In the Eyes of a Child
Lina and Zel woke up in bed together. "Oh, my God!" Lina looked over to one side and saw Zel sleeping beside her. Both of them very naked.
"Gods, my head feels as if it was hit by one of Lina's Dragon Slave's." Zel held his head as he sat up, then fell off the bed as he noticed Lina sitting there wearing only a sheet.
"Zel, what happened?" Lina squeeked, eyes as wide as sausers.
"I... don't know... the last thing I remember was sitting around drinking the stuff that Mazoku......." Both of them realized what had happened at the same time. "I have to go!" Zelgadis threw his clothes on in record time, and cast Raywing and jumped out the window, and that was the last Zelgadis ever saw of Lina Inverse.
"Zel... but... I love you..." Lina murmured as she watched the spot Zel had disapeared to, begging her heart and soul he would come back around. But he never did.
***
Eight years later...
Zel, hardly changed since he had left the group, studied over again the latest parchment of a clue to his curse. This tryle had taken the chimera all over the planet, and even once inside of it, in an endless puzzle... a scavenger hunt for where to look next. This latest clue was his most chalenging yet. The paper read: Because she was never taught to hate, Hate does not exist to her. Because she was never taught fear, Fear never enters her heart. In her eyes, The straingest sight, Like a ghoastly memory From a long faided light. In the eyes of a child, Unconditional, Undieing love. Love.
That was the best translation he could get out of it! It made no sence! 'Unconditional', yeah right! Nothing was THAT nice!
***
Not all so far away, a few days later...
"LEAVE ME ALONE!!" a young girl with rather long royal blue hair called over he shoulder. She was being prosued by a group of older boys, all seemingly teasing the girl for no reason. Her eyes were squeezed tight and tears were on the edges of them.
"IN YOUR DREAMS INVERSE!! YOU ARE SO GOING TO PAY FOR THAT STUNT YOU PULLED!!" one of the boys called out. They had almost reached her when she ran head on into a man in all brown and black. She tumbled backwards into the first of them, suprized and worried ruby-shaded eyes met those of the one she colided with.
That was the only feature that was posible to be seen. He wore a brown long sleaved turtleneck shirt, the neck of the shirt pulled up so one could not see over half of the man's face. The rest of his face was hid compleatly by the shadows of his blak hood attatched to a cape of the same hue. The cape was clasped around his sholders and slightly to one side by a beautiful red gem-stone clasp. Midnight gloves that were slightly warn covered his hands compleatly, so he had no skin showing. That's because he wore ivory colored pants and a pair of dark brown boots that came up to his knees.
The young girl waisted no time in duking behind the strainger to hide from the boys. The man looked at the girl oddly for a moment before turning back to her young attackers. "Why are you harasing this little kid?" he asked in a smoth deep voice.
"She Fireballed us!"
"How should I have known you would be stupid enough to play where I chose to practice?!?" the little girl called out in her own defence from around the strainger's leg.
"You only desiced to 'practice' there because that's where we were! We were there first, we were!" the formost of the boys called at her, he appeared to be the leader.
"Not true! And I'll Fireball you for good this time if you don't stop lying, Torc Jamison!" the girl sneered.
"Hmm... I sugest if you know what is good for you, to leave this munchkin alone." he told them.
The boys senced something odd coming from the man. "Come on you guys, we can get even with Hope when she doesn't have some wierd guy with her." one of the boys said, they all started to walk away. "You atract some freakish company, you do know that, right Hope?"
The little girl, apperantly named Hope, stuck her toung out at the boys, hugging even tighter to the man's leg. Then, little Hope, who came no higher than the mans waist, proseeded to walk around him and stare him down in the eye... being that was the only part that she could actually see of the real him.
A soft chuckle excaped the man's mouth in an almost bitter-irony. He knelt down so the girl could look him evenly in the eye and not hurt her neck from cranking it back so far. "So, Hope is it? Were they really playing in your training grouds?"
Hope blushed a little. "Weeeeellll... not exactly... you see... they were playing in the lake just outside of the area I was practicing in, they started to bug me about never being able to cast a spell as strong as my mommy was supose to be able to. I told them if they didn't leave me be, I would Flare Arrow them, they left, but they didn't stop, just continued to call me names. So, I Fireballed them!" she recalled the story, acting it out like a play. "Oh, and Hope is just what everyone calls me... my real name is Mirical-Hope Inverse."
"INVERSE?!?" the man took a closer look at the girl. She had large red eyes and long blue hair. She had her hair up in a ponytail with a very familiar black headband under all her hair, then the peices of the head band that hung loose were tied around her hair to keep the blue waves out of her delicate pail face. "As in... Lina Inverse?"
She gave the man a smile he had at one time often seen in his own reflection. "She was my mother! Did you know her?"
"Once... along time ago... but I was unawair that she was ever married and with children..."
"Mom never did get married, Auntie Luna told me once that she was still waiting for my father to come back to her."
"Your father? Who is he?" the man in the mask asked, conseren tinged his voice as well as curiosity.
"Donno. Auntie never did get a name from Mommy... everytime anyone asked about him, she would just start crying." Hope replied innocently, scratching her leg as she spoke.
"Pardon my asking... but you keep talking of your mother in pass tence..."
"Oh... she died from de-di-da... cause she was sad a lot. I was only four... its been three years since then! I miss Mommy a lot, but I have Auntie Luna to take care of me, so everything is fine."
"Tell me something Hope... Do you hate your father?"
"Hate him? Why should I do a silly thing like that?" she asked, as if it were the silliest question to ask in the world.
"He is most likely the reason your mother died... I would hate him if I were in your place."
"No... why waist your life over something you can't change? I don't know my father, so what good would it do to hate him?" she asked truthfully.
The man (if you have yet to figure out who, your in trouble) gave a snort. "I hear my old 'friend' Lina talking through her daughter's mouth."
"Wha...? Oh never mind. Say, mister? Why do you have your face all covered up like that?" Hope asked as the man got up and begain to walk away.
"Because, little one, I am a hidious monster that deserves no love."
"Oh... ... Hey mister? What's a monster?"
The man stopped dead in his tracks, he stood there for a long time unmoving before asking "Do you really NOT know?"
"Un-unh." she replied shaking her little seven-year-old head so out of control that her long blue locks hit herself in the face.
"This..." he replied. As he turned back, he found a miniture vertion of Lina sitting there on the ground looking up at him. Zel pulled the hood back and the face peice down.
The girl looked at him for a long time in wonder and curiosity. She finally got up courage to approach. The hooded man knelt for the girl to fet a good look at him in the face. One small, gentle hand hestiantly reached out and ran her small fingers couriously across his smoth stone face. She gave a babyish smile as she stumbled back a step or two, "That isn't SO bad." she smiled up at him before turning and running into a near-by house. "Bye-bye Mister!" she called chearfully over her shoulder.
"Good-bye Hope..." the man said, pulling the hood over his head again. "... Perhaps... Perhaps I will one day meet you again... my daughter." and the clocked strainger walked off into the trees.
Little did he notice that where her hands had touched smoothed out and softened, the scattered pebbles sunk and the stone melted away to normal flesh.
The end
Lina and Zel woke up in bed together. "Oh, my God!" Lina looked over to one side and saw Zel sleeping beside her. Both of them very naked.
"Gods, my head feels as if it was hit by one of Lina's Dragon Slave's." Zel held his head as he sat up, then fell off the bed as he noticed Lina sitting there wearing only a sheet.
"Zel, what happened?" Lina squeeked, eyes as wide as sausers.
"I... don't know... the last thing I remember was sitting around drinking the stuff that Mazoku......." Both of them realized what had happened at the same time. "I have to go!" Zelgadis threw his clothes on in record time, and cast Raywing and jumped out the window, and that was the last Zelgadis ever saw of Lina Inverse.
"Zel... but... I love you..." Lina murmured as she watched the spot Zel had disapeared to, begging her heart and soul he would come back around. But he never did.
***
Eight years later...
Zel, hardly changed since he had left the group, studied over again the latest parchment of a clue to his curse. This tryle had taken the chimera all over the planet, and even once inside of it, in an endless puzzle... a scavenger hunt for where to look next. This latest clue was his most chalenging yet. The paper read: Because she was never taught to hate, Hate does not exist to her. Because she was never taught fear, Fear never enters her heart. In her eyes, The straingest sight, Like a ghoastly memory From a long faided light. In the eyes of a child, Unconditional, Undieing love. Love.
That was the best translation he could get out of it! It made no sence! 'Unconditional', yeah right! Nothing was THAT nice!
***
Not all so far away, a few days later...
"LEAVE ME ALONE!!" a young girl with rather long royal blue hair called over he shoulder. She was being prosued by a group of older boys, all seemingly teasing the girl for no reason. Her eyes were squeezed tight and tears were on the edges of them.
"IN YOUR DREAMS INVERSE!! YOU ARE SO GOING TO PAY FOR THAT STUNT YOU PULLED!!" one of the boys called out. They had almost reached her when she ran head on into a man in all brown and black. She tumbled backwards into the first of them, suprized and worried ruby-shaded eyes met those of the one she colided with.
That was the only feature that was posible to be seen. He wore a brown long sleaved turtleneck shirt, the neck of the shirt pulled up so one could not see over half of the man's face. The rest of his face was hid compleatly by the shadows of his blak hood attatched to a cape of the same hue. The cape was clasped around his sholders and slightly to one side by a beautiful red gem-stone clasp. Midnight gloves that were slightly warn covered his hands compleatly, so he had no skin showing. That's because he wore ivory colored pants and a pair of dark brown boots that came up to his knees.
The young girl waisted no time in duking behind the strainger to hide from the boys. The man looked at the girl oddly for a moment before turning back to her young attackers. "Why are you harasing this little kid?" he asked in a smoth deep voice.
"She Fireballed us!"
"How should I have known you would be stupid enough to play where I chose to practice?!?" the little girl called out in her own defence from around the strainger's leg.
"You only desiced to 'practice' there because that's where we were! We were there first, we were!" the formost of the boys called at her, he appeared to be the leader.
"Not true! And I'll Fireball you for good this time if you don't stop lying, Torc Jamison!" the girl sneered.
"Hmm... I sugest if you know what is good for you, to leave this munchkin alone." he told them.
The boys senced something odd coming from the man. "Come on you guys, we can get even with Hope when she doesn't have some wierd guy with her." one of the boys said, they all started to walk away. "You atract some freakish company, you do know that, right Hope?"
The little girl, apperantly named Hope, stuck her toung out at the boys, hugging even tighter to the man's leg. Then, little Hope, who came no higher than the mans waist, proseeded to walk around him and stare him down in the eye... being that was the only part that she could actually see of the real him.
A soft chuckle excaped the man's mouth in an almost bitter-irony. He knelt down so the girl could look him evenly in the eye and not hurt her neck from cranking it back so far. "So, Hope is it? Were they really playing in your training grouds?"
Hope blushed a little. "Weeeeellll... not exactly... you see... they were playing in the lake just outside of the area I was practicing in, they started to bug me about never being able to cast a spell as strong as my mommy was supose to be able to. I told them if they didn't leave me be, I would Flare Arrow them, they left, but they didn't stop, just continued to call me names. So, I Fireballed them!" she recalled the story, acting it out like a play. "Oh, and Hope is just what everyone calls me... my real name is Mirical-Hope Inverse."
"INVERSE?!?" the man took a closer look at the girl. She had large red eyes and long blue hair. She had her hair up in a ponytail with a very familiar black headband under all her hair, then the peices of the head band that hung loose were tied around her hair to keep the blue waves out of her delicate pail face. "As in... Lina Inverse?"
She gave the man a smile he had at one time often seen in his own reflection. "She was my mother! Did you know her?"
"Once... along time ago... but I was unawair that she was ever married and with children..."
"Mom never did get married, Auntie Luna told me once that she was still waiting for my father to come back to her."
"Your father? Who is he?" the man in the mask asked, conseren tinged his voice as well as curiosity.
"Donno. Auntie never did get a name from Mommy... everytime anyone asked about him, she would just start crying." Hope replied innocently, scratching her leg as she spoke.
"Pardon my asking... but you keep talking of your mother in pass tence..."
"Oh... she died from de-di-da... cause she was sad a lot. I was only four... its been three years since then! I miss Mommy a lot, but I have Auntie Luna to take care of me, so everything is fine."
"Tell me something Hope... Do you hate your father?"
"Hate him? Why should I do a silly thing like that?" she asked, as if it were the silliest question to ask in the world.
"He is most likely the reason your mother died... I would hate him if I were in your place."
"No... why waist your life over something you can't change? I don't know my father, so what good would it do to hate him?" she asked truthfully.
The man (if you have yet to figure out who, your in trouble) gave a snort. "I hear my old 'friend' Lina talking through her daughter's mouth."
"Wha...? Oh never mind. Say, mister? Why do you have your face all covered up like that?" Hope asked as the man got up and begain to walk away.
"Because, little one, I am a hidious monster that deserves no love."
"Oh... ... Hey mister? What's a monster?"
The man stopped dead in his tracks, he stood there for a long time unmoving before asking "Do you really NOT know?"
"Un-unh." she replied shaking her little seven-year-old head so out of control that her long blue locks hit herself in the face.
"This..." he replied. As he turned back, he found a miniture vertion of Lina sitting there on the ground looking up at him. Zel pulled the hood back and the face peice down.
The girl looked at him for a long time in wonder and curiosity. She finally got up courage to approach. The hooded man knelt for the girl to fet a good look at him in the face. One small, gentle hand hestiantly reached out and ran her small fingers couriously across his smoth stone face. She gave a babyish smile as she stumbled back a step or two, "That isn't SO bad." she smiled up at him before turning and running into a near-by house. "Bye-bye Mister!" she called chearfully over her shoulder.
"Good-bye Hope..." the man said, pulling the hood over his head again. "... Perhaps... Perhaps I will one day meet you again... my daughter." and the clocked strainger walked off into the trees.
Little did he notice that where her hands had touched smoothed out and softened, the scattered pebbles sunk and the stone melted away to normal flesh.
The end