Slayers Loss
"Thank God!" exclaimed the young sorceress, as the lights of the town came into view. "I didn't wanna camp out again!"
"What town is this again?" Gourry asked.
"For the fourteenth time, it's Barata. BA-RA-TA. Can you remember it this time?"
"Remember what?"
Lina remembered to pound Gourry into the ground before entering the town. No sense in alarming the 'civvies,' after all.
Over the evening melee - MEAL! (sorry about that) Lina commented, "It'll be interesting to see how much New Sairaag's been restored. We've been gone a long time."
Indeed they had. After the fall of the Great Barrier, Lina and Co. managed to be the first to venture to previously unexplored regions. During their travels, they met new people, took advantage of them, killed new monsters, and ultimately saved the world once again, this time from Valgaav and Darkstar. Naturally, after an adventure like this, it was time to return home. To brag, of course.
"Yeah, but it doesn't seem like it's been that long," Gourry replied through a chicken leg. "Everything seemed to happen so quickly, my memories of it are kinda blurry."
"But Gourry,"' Lina started sweetly, "aren't all your memories blurry?"
"Oh, yeah. I guess you're right," he replied, as his traveling companion face-faulted to the floor.
After her eyes cleared the edge of the table, Lina came to a great decision. "I'm going to bed," she announced.
"OK, I'm gonna go for a walk before turning in." Gourry had also come to a decision.
"Suit yourself. 'Night." Lina ascended the stairs to the rooms.
"What a nice town."
Barata appeared to be a quaint little village, similar to the small town Gourry called home so many years ago. The local economy seemed to be based around grain, much as grapes were to Zephillia. Gourry looked in one of the shop windows. Nothing special, just bread. No wonder Lina went to bed so early.
The sun began to set, making window-shopping impossible, so Gourry was naturally drawn to a well-lit building marked 'Pub.'
"Hmm," Gourry concluded, and went inside.
Gourry had been in bars before, but it was usually to help Lina beat someone up, usually by watching, but this bar seemed...different. In addition to the usual fellow behind the bar, a young woman in a form-fitting bodysuit moved about the tables, taking orders, cleaning them, and bending over deeply as often as possible.
She came to his table and placed a glass of water in front of him while presenting a generous amount of cleavage. Gourry noticed that she kept her face hidden by her long, dark hair.
"I'll be back to take your order in a couple of minutes, sir," the young woman said, her voice barely above a whisper.
Gourry could only watch as she walked away to help another customer.
'…'
Gourry started. She seemed...familiar somehow, but as usual, memories were drawn to him like cats to water.
After a few minutes the young woman returned and, although he still couldn't see her face, her bodysuit allowed him to see the rest of her just fine. She had long, well-toned legs, delicate hands, long silky dark hair that he could run his fingers through for days, a perfect hourglass figure... "What can I get for you, sir?"
Gourry figured he wasn't getting anywhere in the memory department, so he ordered. "I'd like an orange juice, if you have it."
The young woman flinched in apparent surprise and finally looked up to his face. Her skin was like that of the finest porcelain, with large emerald eyes…EMERALD EYES?!
Gourry bolted upright from his chair, shouting "SYLPHIEL!?"
The young woman's eyes locked on his, then she put her hands to her face and cried, "GOURRY-SAMA!" and turned and ran through the bar into the back room.
Gourry charged the counter, knocking aside the bartender's attempt to stop him, leapt over the counter and disappeared through the door.
The bartender was just picking himself off of the floor when one of the less sober patrons staggered up and asked, "Think he knows her?" before receiving a punch to the nose.
"Sylphiel, what were you doing out there?!" Gourry shouted.
The shrine-maiden-turned-barmaid sat on a chair, held her face in her hands and refused to let go as she moisturized her hands with tears. "I was on my way to New Sairaag when I was robbed," came her muffled voice. "When I got here, I had no way to pay for the inn, but I couldn't camp outside the town." She removed her hands from her face, looked at Gourry, and then decided that the floor was easier to look at.
Gourry waited for her to finish her story, a look of concern on his face.
"The innkeeper said that he would pay if I would perform a few tasks around his bar." The priestess began to cry again, and Gourry knelt down so he could hold her, try to console her. She pressed the side of her face to his chest, wrapped her arms around him, and calmed enough to continue. "I thought I would just wait tables for a couple of days, Gourry-sama! I had no idea, but by the time I realized what the owner had in mind it was too late!"
Gourry rose to his feet as Sylphiel began weeping for the third time, her tears of shame fueling the fire, the anger, in Gourry's noble heart. He walked with determination toward the door to the main room.
"Gourry-sama, where are you going?" Sylphiel sniffed.
Gourry stopped, turned slowly, pointed to a door that led outside, and said with an iron voice, "You'd better get dressed and get out of here, Sylphiel."
"I don't understand," the priestess replied, wiping tears from her face and getting her uniform.
"It's about to get real ugly in here," Gourry said. "And I don't want you here to see it."
After kicking everyone out of the bar via the various doors and windows, Gourry joined Sylphiel at the side of the road, who promptly latched on to him, her hands and face resting on his chest.
"Oh, Gourry-sama, somehow I knew you'd rescue me!" She was all smiles again, as if nothing had happened.
"Uh...thanks, Sylphiel."
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE!" a voice laced with red hair growled in the distance. At the sound of that hateful voice, Sylphiel glowered as she pressed herself closer to Gourry, if that were possible, and waited to see what would happen.
Lina repeated her question at a lowered decibel when she reached the pair.
Gourry fumbled around for the honorable answer, one that would preserve the shrine maiden's dignity, but said maiden cut to the chase and told Lina everything that happened, making sure to point out how "gallant" and "heroic" he was. Gourry suddenly developed an itch on the back of his neck, so he scratched it while looking at the sky.
After Sylphiel finished gushing, Lina responded with a joyful 'Whatever,' and mumbled that she was going back to bed. Noticing the crowd that had gathered, she growled, "What are you looking at, there's nothing here to see," and low-charged a Fireball. Common sense won the day, as the townspeople returned to their homes.
Lina returned to the inn, leaving Gourry and Sylphiel alone again. "Where are you headed?" she asked quietly.
"Actually, Lina and I are headed for New Sairaag, to see how much it's grown, and also to see you," replied the blond swordsman.
"Oh wonderful, I can come with you, then!" exclaimed the priestess, clasping her hands together. Then, her face fell. "But what about the fee for the inn?"
"It's taken care of," Gourry said. "I...explained... the situation to the owner shortly before taking care of his bar, and he said that he'd be happy to help a priestess in need." Gourry let the twinkle in his eyes tell her the rest of the story, and she giggled.
"Oh, Gourry-sama," she sighed as they made their way to the inn. "What am I to do with you?"