The curse
By Catina & Mistress of Magic
Disclaimer: No I do not own Slayers but I did create Keisha Crystal. Cool name, ne?
The day had not started out well for poor Keisha. Still only eighteen and she was not promised to anyone. Well…she was promised to someone but that person is now dead. Her whole village is dead. The only survivor was poor Keisha. Her village had been attacked by lower level mazoku and she still has no idea how she survived.
Her mother must have known that they were going to attack because she told Keisha to go out and pick some mushrooms in the big forest, and gave her the family crystal since it was her sixteenth birthday. Now in order to pick these mushrooms you had to go very deep into the forest. But that was now two years past. The present wasn't very nice either for Keisha has been living in the forest the entire time.
"I think it is time that I go adventuring," Keisha said, "Don't you think so too, little one?" Of course Keisha wasn't nuts enough to start talking to herself. She was addressing the puppy that she had picked up wandering through the woods. If she had been a sorceress she would have noticed the curse that had been placed on the poor puppy that had transferred over to Keisha, but since she was not a sorceress she, of course, didn't notice.
"Come, puppy, let us go forth and have an adventure!" Keisha posed and pointed toward the sky acting too much like Amelia to be healthy. The puppy and Keisha sweatdropped and Keisha said, "I guess that honey I found went to my head. Sorry about that." So saying she gathered all their belongings (which wasn't much) and set forth on her new life on the road. Not knowing of what kind of havoc she will create with the curse she had now acquired.
Meanwhile, the Slayers gang was about to enter the same forest that Keisha was in. Except they were many miles from where she was.
"What are we doing in this forest again?" Gourry the jellyfish for brains asked Lina for the millionth time for that day.
Lina sighed than said, "Zel I'll let you take this one."
Zelgadis the chimera also sighed and said, "We are looking for a village that was rumored to possess a special crystal which granted any wish as long as the owner deemed it worthy." To himself Zel thought 'I may finally get rid of this curse.'
Zelgadis waited for five minutes and than the infernal question came, "Is it like a pickle?" Lina smacked him over the head and yelled, "NO IT IS NOT LIKE A PICKLE!" Then she proceeded to beat the living daylights out of him.
"We might as well stop here for a break," Zelgadis said but the other two didn't hear him since they were caught up in a fight.
"I'm going to take a walk. I'll be back in a few hours." Zelgadis left the clearing that the two combatants were making larger. (Catina: No, Amelia is not there. I just can't stand her. _)
Zelgadis is not an ordinary person to just walk slowly and admire the scenery. He was in major think mode and he started to run to keep up with his thinking of the usual: how to find his cure, and whether this lead will be fruitful. He didn't realize that he had ran deeper into the forest than he had meant to when his thoughts were shattered by a terrified shriek.
Thinking that since Lina would never shriek Zel put up his mask, and ran toward the shriek. But before he could get there he saw a blue blur speed by faster than he has ever gone. He blinked than saw a golden blur zoom after the blue blur. He shook his head to clear it of surprise and started to run (with demon speed) after them.
Meanwhile at the camp Lina had finished beating up Gourry and was now setting up the rest of the camp. 'I wonder where Zel is at,' Lina thought. No sooner had she thought this when she saw a speeding blue blur heading directly toward her. The next thing she saw were chibi dragons circling her head.
All Gourry saw was a little girl…no…young woman crash into Lina and then collapse into a heap on the forest floor a few feet away from Lina, who was currently seeing chibi dragons flying about her head. He pulled out his sword and walked slowly toward the person who had just burst into their midst. Once he had gotten a good look at her face, which was half covered by straight silver hair, little heart bubbles started floating around his head.
At that very moment, Zelgadis burst out of the trees. Once he had seen where Gourry was, he immediately noticed the fat pink hearts encircling his head doing the hokey pokey, he sweatdropped.
Lina after recovering from the crash decided to kindly ask the person who crashed into her to tell her who she is, "ALL RIGHT!! WHO ARE YOU AND WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?" The girl was picked up forcefully from the ground and started to be shaken, when suddenly she and Lina were both knocked over by a furiously barking puppy. Said puppy snapped at Lina until she was at a distance that satisfied him and got into a position to guard the unknown girl while still growling fiercely. During this entire time the girl had stayed unconscious.
Lina tries again and again to get past the protective pooch but all to nothing. Finally Zelgadis volunteered to get past the dog. When he got close to the dog it started growling but stopped when it saw its master move. It looked from Zel to the girl until finally it licked Zelgadis's extended hand. Zelgadis kneeled next to the crumpled body and started to shake it lightly so as to wake it up.
"Hey, young woman, wake up," he said. He shook her harder when suddenly he was knocked over, seized by his shoulders, and thrown to Lina's feet. Once he got up he immediately turned toward where the girl was and was immediately struck by how beautiful she was. The young woman had tanned skin, snow-white hair, and her eyes were the weirdest shape! Zelgadis thought, inspecting her more closely. The eyes were tilted…and…a molten silver. She also had silver-white wings and a silver-white tail that were now twitching to rid itself of the dirt it had acquired.
Cool! Thought the love struck Zelgadis.
By now, the young woman had opened these eyes, and was throwing off a threatening, yet beautiful glare at all of them present. In a moment, she had stood up, and was brushing the dirt off her midnight-blue cloak she wore stopping at mid-calf. "You didn't need to shake me so hard," she said chastening him.
The unknown girl continued to shake the dirt off her cloak when suddenly Zelgadis glomped her. Doing that woke Gourry from his love-stupor. He pulled out his sword and yelled, "I can't let you have her, Zeldigas! She is mine!" After saying that he charged Zel. Zelgadis heard that, took out his own sword, and replied, "You already have a girl, and my name is pronounced: Zelgadis!" With that the two men crossed swords and started their fight over an unknown girl whom they don't even know her name. Said girl looked on in bemusement until she was smacked from behind from Lina.
"What did you do that for?" she asked rubbing her head.
"I have never been fought over in my life. Why is it that they think that you are that special to be fought over?"
"Why, it is because she has a curse on her," said an all too familiar voice from above their heads.
"Xellos!" everyone yelled in the clearing, including the fighting men who had paused enough to only yell that. "What did you say? Curse?" said Zelgadis, helping the aforesaid girl brush off her shirt and face. Lina giggled and thought, you really brought this upon yourself, I hope you know, when she came up and slapped him as hard as she could. Yes, thought Lina again, that girl is definitely getting more and more agitated by the moment…just like a little cat I met once. A mouse had startled her from behind! I bet that really destroyed her pride.
"What sort of curse, you may ask?" said Xellos, bending forward some and putting a finger against his lips. "It is one in which when ever any male sets it eyes on you they fall instantly and madly in love."
The girl grabs him from his collar and asks calmly, "How do you get rid of this curse?" She raised her eyebrow when he stated, "Now that…is a secret." To create the illusion of winking he opened one eye, then he opened them both wide, and then he covered them and blushed.
The still unknown girl chuckled, and said with false pity, "Oh my, it seems you have fallen under the curse too." Xellos blushed two shades closer to tomato. "Now," she shook him, "tell me how to get rid of the curse."
"T-to m-make t-t-the m-m-men," Xellos stuttered.
Lina took the girl's hand and said matter-of-factly, "If you keep shaking him, we won't understand him." The unknown girl nodded and put him down as gently as she could. Which meant slamming him to the ground hard enough to make a hole.
Xellos calmly climbed out, fixed his collar than continued, "To make the men not love you anymore under the curse you must kiss them each once…that is the easy way. That will keep them from falling in love with you ever again under the same curse." He looked up hopefully at her and started to get his lips puckered up.
The girl looked down and gave him a peck on the side of his lips. He started to get closer then she liked and she knocked him over a few feet. "Only once you told me. So only one you shall get." Her tail whipped agitatedly behind her.
Gourry and Zelgadis immediately ran towards her, both their lips puckered tightly. The girl winced, and accidentally chose the perfectly obnoxious Gourry first when he bumped the poor, distraught Zelgadis back and got in her face. She ended up just touching her lips to his cheek, then spat on the ground at Gourry's boots; and even then, could not resist pushing him down.
Now for the chimera, as the girl thought, preparing herself for Zelgadis. I do hope that he is not as stupid as that blonde idiot, she thought. I wish I had seen his face better…
Zelgadis stood still, stupidly pursing his lips. But even so, our girl Keisha Crystal got a good look at his face, and liked what she saw.
Sure, he was a third golem, and some demon, but he was part human too. Keisha just stood there, almost completely love struck…
"Come on," offered Xellos, who was now free of the curse. "Either kiss him, or give away that wolf-dog. He is really the cursed one; he transferred the curse to you. Now get it done with—and—let me kiss you again! That was great!"
Keisha practically fell in love with Zelgadis' soft-looking purple hair… This was definitely more love than she had felt in years, ever since she had come home from picking mushrooms only to find her beloved village in burning ruins. Tenderly, Keisha kissed Zelgadis, and felt a stream of warmth fall and flow through her.
"Hey," Gourry said in a really whinny voice. "Now, how come he gets it on the lips? She nearly killed me, like she didn't like me around or something!"
Xellos looked as though he was about to cry, with his many hopes taken away from him so forcefully like that.
After they stopped kissing so as to breath they both blushed and so as to relieve the tension Keisha pulled back and said to Gourry and Xellos: "Are you big strong men still under that damn curse? Or do you want me to come over there and bite your stupid tongues off?" jokingly serious, she acted as if she would really do it, too. Xellos and Gourry sweatdropped, and backed away to where Lina was.
"What is your name?" Lina wondered of the girl. "You have spice. I really like what you did for my idiotic friend Gourry. He needed that…!" and her sentence was dissolved into laughter.
"My name is Keisha. Keisha Crystal," Keisha said to Lina Inverse, and then turned towards Xellos. "And there is no way I am giving this dog away!"
"You don't have to give the dog away. You could sell it. You know, for money."
"No!" Keisha said, running to the little wolf dog, and putting her arms around his neck. She clearly loved him, even though she had not given him a name. Then she quickly added, "I have no real need for money. And I don't care about the stupid curse. I will kiss a thousand men if I have to—so—I am keeping my dog!" the gray puppy whimpered; he loved the girl, too, even though she was evidently squeezing him too hard.
"So…Where did you come from, Keisha Crystal?" Lina asked Keisha.
Suddenly, Keisha looked distressed, as if it would be a painful experience to tell about anything.
"Keisha…?" Lina questioned, looking her in her silvery eyes earnestly. "Are you alright? What's wrong?"
And Keisha replied, "The village I was born in was raided. Everyone was killed, raped, or was taken away to be sold as slaves…my mother was killed. They missed me; I was out in the forest to pick mushrooms. That was two years ago."
Lina's red eyes quickly filled with tears as she remembered all the ruined villages she had seen in her day, burned and plundered…Ghost towns now, inhabited by nothing but angry spirits. "I'm sorry," Lina said thickly.
"It's okay," Keisha replied, "It's in the past." She turned to Xellos. "Now," she said menacingly, "you are either going to tell me how to get rid of this curse nicely or I'll make you tell." Lina and Zelgadis both stood behind Keisha to enforce her words.
Xellos sweatdropped and said, "Umm…I gotta go now." He started to fade out but Keisha grabbed him by his ankle and kept him in this dimension.
"Oh, you're not goin' anywhere until you tell me how to rid me of this curse." Lina, and Zelgadis had dropped their jaws when they saw her grab him in the middle of a teleport…and stop him. Meanwhile, Xellos looked so surprised that he stuttered out, "Y-you have to go to Unicorn Meadows and ask the head stallion for a cure. T-that is all I know." He shuddered as he realized that he had told a secret.
Keisha, when Xellos had mentioned the Unicorn Meadows, had paled visibly and shrieked, "UNICORN MEADOWS!" Everyone looked at her scared thinking that she was going to explode, but instead she calmed down and asked everyone, "Does anyone know what the Unicorn Meadows is?" Everyone shook his or her heads, including the all-knowing Lina.
"Well, from what I know the Unicorn Meadows are very dangerous to get to, you see," said Keisha. "And, a fairy tale must be found. And then…."
"A fairy tale? A fairy tale?" Lina gave Keisha a look of pure venom, and said stonily, "Now why in the world would we have to get a fairy tale? Huh?" she raised an eyebrow.
"We have to get a fairy tale because else the unicorns living there will not accept us into their tribe."
"Tribe?" Zelgadis asked Keisha. "Unicorns have tribes?"
"Very large ones."
"Oh, we're gonna die. The unicorn's will gouge us out with their horns…we're gonna die…" Gourry began to cry, being the dumb butt that he is, and walked towards Lina. He slumped down, and grabbed hold of her leg. " Save us, Lina," he pleaded in a dead voice. Lina paused only to sweatdrop, and then smacked him hard on the head, saying, "Gourry, you idiot, we are not going to die! No! Now, kindly get up, and don't touch me for the rest of the day to come. And no whining from you!" to make her point, she smacked Gourry off again, and began to beat him for the second time that day repeatedly.
"The unicorns will not accept us—they'll kill us, probably—if we don't bring them a fantasy novel or something. They think that we humans" -- Keisha nodded towards Zelgadis—"And chimeras" –she nodded towards a still- crying Gourry—"And jack asses like him are forgetting all things that are elements of a fantasy story, like the unicorns, and dragons and such. So, they want a story from us. Hey, even unicorns like to read once in a while at night to their foals." Keisha smiled lightly, and then giggled a little. Her laugh sounded like high-pitched wind chimes to Zelgadis and Xellos, and hearts appeared in their eyes again. This made Keisha raise her eyebrows at them because the spell no longer worked after being kissed. They looked away ashamed but Zelgadis looked back to see her blush at him. He blushed also, that seemed to make Xellos smolder but you couldn't really tell behind his closed eyes.
Lina had finally finished trying to kill Gourry, and he lay in a sobbing heap on the ground. Keisha strode over to him, and gave one swift kick into his ribs, saying: "Gourry, do as Mistress Lina tells you and get up. You do not need to be lying in a puddle on sorrow because you're stupid all day long." Gourry peeped up at Keisha, and got up.
Lina grinned. She was finally beginning to like this Keisha Crystal more. Mistress Lina!!
"Yes, they do live in tribes," Keisha told Zelgadis and Xellos. "They do that because they like to protect each other in case of any enemies, like we might be if the unicorns are having a bad day."
"I've heard a little bit about unicorns," Lina piped in. "When I was a little girl in wizard school, my teacher told us once that unicorns read to their young."
"You are still a little girl," Xellos whispered, his hand over his mouth. To cover up that rude little remark up further, he pretended to cough. But Lina still heard it very clearly. She said to him, "Shut up, Xellos! I am a woman! Shut up before I cause you to turn out like Gourry." She sniffed once, twice.
Keisha stared in utter disbelief at all of them, fighting and carrying on like they were. 'This is going too slowly!' She thought silently. 'I want to get to those unicorns real quick. Hey, maybe they can rid me of this damn curse…!' Now, that seemed like a good idea to Keisha. Maybe, just maybe, the unicorns would rid her of the awful curse. Would they, though? They could, Keisha knew that. And when she told them that her last name was Crystal, and then they might let her through without a storybook. All unicorns were drawn to crystals of any variety. But the unicorns were drawn to crystals but what about girls named Crystal?
This might make them want to follow her. Oh, Goddess! Would one of their kind fall under my curse? Thought Keisha. 'If that happens, them we will all be in big trouble.'
So Keisha said, "Let's go, people. I would like to get there before night falls. It's not that far, you know. Does anyone have a story book with them?"
"No," grumped Xellos who was still angry about that wink.
"No," blushed Zelgadis thinking that she wouldn't like him anymore because of that.
"No," said Lina for both Gourry and herself.
"Arf," commented the puppy.
"Okay…one of us will then tell them one really quick, then, and maybe they'll let us through."
"T-tell them one?" repeated Gourry. "But," he whined, and he noticed Lina throw at him a sharp look, a mean sharp one. So he returned to a normal voice, saying, "I am not very good at telling stories." He glanced at Lina again, and she was looking quite happy, hearing the songbirds sing.
"Yeah, we'll tell them one," Keisha said looking around at the group she doubted that they knew one. "Or I'll tell them one if you will not." She winked at Zelgadis again, who blushed, which made Xellos angrier.
I can't let that stone-boy have her. She's not worthy at his level.
Keisha glared at him as if she heard that thought, then stated happily, "Well, let's go ahead and go to the meadow." Before everyone shouldered their packs, and started to follow Keisha down the road Lina asked, "By the way, I wanted to ask this: What made you scream and run this way so quickly?"
Keisha paled and stammered, "I-I s-saw a giant sp-spider," she shuddered. "I hate spiders." As she said that she started to walk quickly down the road. "C'mon the unicorns won't wait for us."
Everyone got out of their stupor and started to follow her at a run, all except for Xellos who floated, of course.
A shadow drifted along near the edge of the woods, its nearly unseen eyes watched them all and especially Keisha. I will you get you this time, and your little puppy, too.
Catina: So guys what did you think. Are you interested enough to continue coming back to wait for the second chapter? *waits for answer which doesn't come or does it? ^_~* Of course you are! It may take awhile but it will eventually come.
Mistress: Don't I have a say in this? *glares*
Catina: *thinks*…no. Bye everyone! *waves*
Mistress: Hey!
By Catina & Mistress of Magic
Disclaimer: No I do not own Slayers but I did create Keisha Crystal. Cool name, ne?
The day had not started out well for poor Keisha. Still only eighteen and she was not promised to anyone. Well…she was promised to someone but that person is now dead. Her whole village is dead. The only survivor was poor Keisha. Her village had been attacked by lower level mazoku and she still has no idea how she survived.
Her mother must have known that they were going to attack because she told Keisha to go out and pick some mushrooms in the big forest, and gave her the family crystal since it was her sixteenth birthday. Now in order to pick these mushrooms you had to go very deep into the forest. But that was now two years past. The present wasn't very nice either for Keisha has been living in the forest the entire time.
"I think it is time that I go adventuring," Keisha said, "Don't you think so too, little one?" Of course Keisha wasn't nuts enough to start talking to herself. She was addressing the puppy that she had picked up wandering through the woods. If she had been a sorceress she would have noticed the curse that had been placed on the poor puppy that had transferred over to Keisha, but since she was not a sorceress she, of course, didn't notice.
"Come, puppy, let us go forth and have an adventure!" Keisha posed and pointed toward the sky acting too much like Amelia to be healthy. The puppy and Keisha sweatdropped and Keisha said, "I guess that honey I found went to my head. Sorry about that." So saying she gathered all their belongings (which wasn't much) and set forth on her new life on the road. Not knowing of what kind of havoc she will create with the curse she had now acquired.
Meanwhile, the Slayers gang was about to enter the same forest that Keisha was in. Except they were many miles from where she was.
"What are we doing in this forest again?" Gourry the jellyfish for brains asked Lina for the millionth time for that day.
Lina sighed than said, "Zel I'll let you take this one."
Zelgadis the chimera also sighed and said, "We are looking for a village that was rumored to possess a special crystal which granted any wish as long as the owner deemed it worthy." To himself Zel thought 'I may finally get rid of this curse.'
Zelgadis waited for five minutes and than the infernal question came, "Is it like a pickle?" Lina smacked him over the head and yelled, "NO IT IS NOT LIKE A PICKLE!" Then she proceeded to beat the living daylights out of him.
"We might as well stop here for a break," Zelgadis said but the other two didn't hear him since they were caught up in a fight.
"I'm going to take a walk. I'll be back in a few hours." Zelgadis left the clearing that the two combatants were making larger. (Catina: No, Amelia is not there. I just can't stand her. _)
Zelgadis is not an ordinary person to just walk slowly and admire the scenery. He was in major think mode and he started to run to keep up with his thinking of the usual: how to find his cure, and whether this lead will be fruitful. He didn't realize that he had ran deeper into the forest than he had meant to when his thoughts were shattered by a terrified shriek.
Thinking that since Lina would never shriek Zel put up his mask, and ran toward the shriek. But before he could get there he saw a blue blur speed by faster than he has ever gone. He blinked than saw a golden blur zoom after the blue blur. He shook his head to clear it of surprise and started to run (with demon speed) after them.
Meanwhile at the camp Lina had finished beating up Gourry and was now setting up the rest of the camp. 'I wonder where Zel is at,' Lina thought. No sooner had she thought this when she saw a speeding blue blur heading directly toward her. The next thing she saw were chibi dragons circling her head.
All Gourry saw was a little girl…no…young woman crash into Lina and then collapse into a heap on the forest floor a few feet away from Lina, who was currently seeing chibi dragons flying about her head. He pulled out his sword and walked slowly toward the person who had just burst into their midst. Once he had gotten a good look at her face, which was half covered by straight silver hair, little heart bubbles started floating around his head.
At that very moment, Zelgadis burst out of the trees. Once he had seen where Gourry was, he immediately noticed the fat pink hearts encircling his head doing the hokey pokey, he sweatdropped.
Lina after recovering from the crash decided to kindly ask the person who crashed into her to tell her who she is, "ALL RIGHT!! WHO ARE YOU AND WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?" The girl was picked up forcefully from the ground and started to be shaken, when suddenly she and Lina were both knocked over by a furiously barking puppy. Said puppy snapped at Lina until she was at a distance that satisfied him and got into a position to guard the unknown girl while still growling fiercely. During this entire time the girl had stayed unconscious.
Lina tries again and again to get past the protective pooch but all to nothing. Finally Zelgadis volunteered to get past the dog. When he got close to the dog it started growling but stopped when it saw its master move. It looked from Zel to the girl until finally it licked Zelgadis's extended hand. Zelgadis kneeled next to the crumpled body and started to shake it lightly so as to wake it up.
"Hey, young woman, wake up," he said. He shook her harder when suddenly he was knocked over, seized by his shoulders, and thrown to Lina's feet. Once he got up he immediately turned toward where the girl was and was immediately struck by how beautiful she was. The young woman had tanned skin, snow-white hair, and her eyes were the weirdest shape! Zelgadis thought, inspecting her more closely. The eyes were tilted…and…a molten silver. She also had silver-white wings and a silver-white tail that were now twitching to rid itself of the dirt it had acquired.
Cool! Thought the love struck Zelgadis.
By now, the young woman had opened these eyes, and was throwing off a threatening, yet beautiful glare at all of them present. In a moment, she had stood up, and was brushing the dirt off her midnight-blue cloak she wore stopping at mid-calf. "You didn't need to shake me so hard," she said chastening him.
The unknown girl continued to shake the dirt off her cloak when suddenly Zelgadis glomped her. Doing that woke Gourry from his love-stupor. He pulled out his sword and yelled, "I can't let you have her, Zeldigas! She is mine!" After saying that he charged Zel. Zelgadis heard that, took out his own sword, and replied, "You already have a girl, and my name is pronounced: Zelgadis!" With that the two men crossed swords and started their fight over an unknown girl whom they don't even know her name. Said girl looked on in bemusement until she was smacked from behind from Lina.
"What did you do that for?" she asked rubbing her head.
"I have never been fought over in my life. Why is it that they think that you are that special to be fought over?"
"Why, it is because she has a curse on her," said an all too familiar voice from above their heads.
"Xellos!" everyone yelled in the clearing, including the fighting men who had paused enough to only yell that. "What did you say? Curse?" said Zelgadis, helping the aforesaid girl brush off her shirt and face. Lina giggled and thought, you really brought this upon yourself, I hope you know, when she came up and slapped him as hard as she could. Yes, thought Lina again, that girl is definitely getting more and more agitated by the moment…just like a little cat I met once. A mouse had startled her from behind! I bet that really destroyed her pride.
"What sort of curse, you may ask?" said Xellos, bending forward some and putting a finger against his lips. "It is one in which when ever any male sets it eyes on you they fall instantly and madly in love."
The girl grabs him from his collar and asks calmly, "How do you get rid of this curse?" She raised her eyebrow when he stated, "Now that…is a secret." To create the illusion of winking he opened one eye, then he opened them both wide, and then he covered them and blushed.
The still unknown girl chuckled, and said with false pity, "Oh my, it seems you have fallen under the curse too." Xellos blushed two shades closer to tomato. "Now," she shook him, "tell me how to get rid of the curse."
"T-to m-make t-t-the m-m-men," Xellos stuttered.
Lina took the girl's hand and said matter-of-factly, "If you keep shaking him, we won't understand him." The unknown girl nodded and put him down as gently as she could. Which meant slamming him to the ground hard enough to make a hole.
Xellos calmly climbed out, fixed his collar than continued, "To make the men not love you anymore under the curse you must kiss them each once…that is the easy way. That will keep them from falling in love with you ever again under the same curse." He looked up hopefully at her and started to get his lips puckered up.
The girl looked down and gave him a peck on the side of his lips. He started to get closer then she liked and she knocked him over a few feet. "Only once you told me. So only one you shall get." Her tail whipped agitatedly behind her.
Gourry and Zelgadis immediately ran towards her, both their lips puckered tightly. The girl winced, and accidentally chose the perfectly obnoxious Gourry first when he bumped the poor, distraught Zelgadis back and got in her face. She ended up just touching her lips to his cheek, then spat on the ground at Gourry's boots; and even then, could not resist pushing him down.
Now for the chimera, as the girl thought, preparing herself for Zelgadis. I do hope that he is not as stupid as that blonde idiot, she thought. I wish I had seen his face better…
Zelgadis stood still, stupidly pursing his lips. But even so, our girl Keisha Crystal got a good look at his face, and liked what she saw.
Sure, he was a third golem, and some demon, but he was part human too. Keisha just stood there, almost completely love struck…
"Come on," offered Xellos, who was now free of the curse. "Either kiss him, or give away that wolf-dog. He is really the cursed one; he transferred the curse to you. Now get it done with—and—let me kiss you again! That was great!"
Keisha practically fell in love with Zelgadis' soft-looking purple hair… This was definitely more love than she had felt in years, ever since she had come home from picking mushrooms only to find her beloved village in burning ruins. Tenderly, Keisha kissed Zelgadis, and felt a stream of warmth fall and flow through her.
"Hey," Gourry said in a really whinny voice. "Now, how come he gets it on the lips? She nearly killed me, like she didn't like me around or something!"
Xellos looked as though he was about to cry, with his many hopes taken away from him so forcefully like that.
After they stopped kissing so as to breath they both blushed and so as to relieve the tension Keisha pulled back and said to Gourry and Xellos: "Are you big strong men still under that damn curse? Or do you want me to come over there and bite your stupid tongues off?" jokingly serious, she acted as if she would really do it, too. Xellos and Gourry sweatdropped, and backed away to where Lina was.
"What is your name?" Lina wondered of the girl. "You have spice. I really like what you did for my idiotic friend Gourry. He needed that…!" and her sentence was dissolved into laughter.
"My name is Keisha. Keisha Crystal," Keisha said to Lina Inverse, and then turned towards Xellos. "And there is no way I am giving this dog away!"
"You don't have to give the dog away. You could sell it. You know, for money."
"No!" Keisha said, running to the little wolf dog, and putting her arms around his neck. She clearly loved him, even though she had not given him a name. Then she quickly added, "I have no real need for money. And I don't care about the stupid curse. I will kiss a thousand men if I have to—so—I am keeping my dog!" the gray puppy whimpered; he loved the girl, too, even though she was evidently squeezing him too hard.
"So…Where did you come from, Keisha Crystal?" Lina asked Keisha.
Suddenly, Keisha looked distressed, as if it would be a painful experience to tell about anything.
"Keisha…?" Lina questioned, looking her in her silvery eyes earnestly. "Are you alright? What's wrong?"
And Keisha replied, "The village I was born in was raided. Everyone was killed, raped, or was taken away to be sold as slaves…my mother was killed. They missed me; I was out in the forest to pick mushrooms. That was two years ago."
Lina's red eyes quickly filled with tears as she remembered all the ruined villages she had seen in her day, burned and plundered…Ghost towns now, inhabited by nothing but angry spirits. "I'm sorry," Lina said thickly.
"It's okay," Keisha replied, "It's in the past." She turned to Xellos. "Now," she said menacingly, "you are either going to tell me how to get rid of this curse nicely or I'll make you tell." Lina and Zelgadis both stood behind Keisha to enforce her words.
Xellos sweatdropped and said, "Umm…I gotta go now." He started to fade out but Keisha grabbed him by his ankle and kept him in this dimension.
"Oh, you're not goin' anywhere until you tell me how to rid me of this curse." Lina, and Zelgadis had dropped their jaws when they saw her grab him in the middle of a teleport…and stop him. Meanwhile, Xellos looked so surprised that he stuttered out, "Y-you have to go to Unicorn Meadows and ask the head stallion for a cure. T-that is all I know." He shuddered as he realized that he had told a secret.
Keisha, when Xellos had mentioned the Unicorn Meadows, had paled visibly and shrieked, "UNICORN MEADOWS!" Everyone looked at her scared thinking that she was going to explode, but instead she calmed down and asked everyone, "Does anyone know what the Unicorn Meadows is?" Everyone shook his or her heads, including the all-knowing Lina.
"Well, from what I know the Unicorn Meadows are very dangerous to get to, you see," said Keisha. "And, a fairy tale must be found. And then…."
"A fairy tale? A fairy tale?" Lina gave Keisha a look of pure venom, and said stonily, "Now why in the world would we have to get a fairy tale? Huh?" she raised an eyebrow.
"We have to get a fairy tale because else the unicorns living there will not accept us into their tribe."
"Tribe?" Zelgadis asked Keisha. "Unicorns have tribes?"
"Very large ones."
"Oh, we're gonna die. The unicorn's will gouge us out with their horns…we're gonna die…" Gourry began to cry, being the dumb butt that he is, and walked towards Lina. He slumped down, and grabbed hold of her leg. " Save us, Lina," he pleaded in a dead voice. Lina paused only to sweatdrop, and then smacked him hard on the head, saying, "Gourry, you idiot, we are not going to die! No! Now, kindly get up, and don't touch me for the rest of the day to come. And no whining from you!" to make her point, she smacked Gourry off again, and began to beat him for the second time that day repeatedly.
"The unicorns will not accept us—they'll kill us, probably—if we don't bring them a fantasy novel or something. They think that we humans" -- Keisha nodded towards Zelgadis—"And chimeras" –she nodded towards a still- crying Gourry—"And jack asses like him are forgetting all things that are elements of a fantasy story, like the unicorns, and dragons and such. So, they want a story from us. Hey, even unicorns like to read once in a while at night to their foals." Keisha smiled lightly, and then giggled a little. Her laugh sounded like high-pitched wind chimes to Zelgadis and Xellos, and hearts appeared in their eyes again. This made Keisha raise her eyebrows at them because the spell no longer worked after being kissed. They looked away ashamed but Zelgadis looked back to see her blush at him. He blushed also, that seemed to make Xellos smolder but you couldn't really tell behind his closed eyes.
Lina had finally finished trying to kill Gourry, and he lay in a sobbing heap on the ground. Keisha strode over to him, and gave one swift kick into his ribs, saying: "Gourry, do as Mistress Lina tells you and get up. You do not need to be lying in a puddle on sorrow because you're stupid all day long." Gourry peeped up at Keisha, and got up.
Lina grinned. She was finally beginning to like this Keisha Crystal more. Mistress Lina!!
"Yes, they do live in tribes," Keisha told Zelgadis and Xellos. "They do that because they like to protect each other in case of any enemies, like we might be if the unicorns are having a bad day."
"I've heard a little bit about unicorns," Lina piped in. "When I was a little girl in wizard school, my teacher told us once that unicorns read to their young."
"You are still a little girl," Xellos whispered, his hand over his mouth. To cover up that rude little remark up further, he pretended to cough. But Lina still heard it very clearly. She said to him, "Shut up, Xellos! I am a woman! Shut up before I cause you to turn out like Gourry." She sniffed once, twice.
Keisha stared in utter disbelief at all of them, fighting and carrying on like they were. 'This is going too slowly!' She thought silently. 'I want to get to those unicorns real quick. Hey, maybe they can rid me of this damn curse…!' Now, that seemed like a good idea to Keisha. Maybe, just maybe, the unicorns would rid her of the awful curse. Would they, though? They could, Keisha knew that. And when she told them that her last name was Crystal, and then they might let her through without a storybook. All unicorns were drawn to crystals of any variety. But the unicorns were drawn to crystals but what about girls named Crystal?
This might make them want to follow her. Oh, Goddess! Would one of their kind fall under my curse? Thought Keisha. 'If that happens, them we will all be in big trouble.'
So Keisha said, "Let's go, people. I would like to get there before night falls. It's not that far, you know. Does anyone have a story book with them?"
"No," grumped Xellos who was still angry about that wink.
"No," blushed Zelgadis thinking that she wouldn't like him anymore because of that.
"No," said Lina for both Gourry and herself.
"Arf," commented the puppy.
"Okay…one of us will then tell them one really quick, then, and maybe they'll let us through."
"T-tell them one?" repeated Gourry. "But," he whined, and he noticed Lina throw at him a sharp look, a mean sharp one. So he returned to a normal voice, saying, "I am not very good at telling stories." He glanced at Lina again, and she was looking quite happy, hearing the songbirds sing.
"Yeah, we'll tell them one," Keisha said looking around at the group she doubted that they knew one. "Or I'll tell them one if you will not." She winked at Zelgadis again, who blushed, which made Xellos angrier.
I can't let that stone-boy have her. She's not worthy at his level.
Keisha glared at him as if she heard that thought, then stated happily, "Well, let's go ahead and go to the meadow." Before everyone shouldered their packs, and started to follow Keisha down the road Lina asked, "By the way, I wanted to ask this: What made you scream and run this way so quickly?"
Keisha paled and stammered, "I-I s-saw a giant sp-spider," she shuddered. "I hate spiders." As she said that she started to walk quickly down the road. "C'mon the unicorns won't wait for us."
Everyone got out of their stupor and started to follow her at a run, all except for Xellos who floated, of course.
A shadow drifted along near the edge of the woods, its nearly unseen eyes watched them all and especially Keisha. I will you get you this time, and your little puppy, too.
Catina: So guys what did you think. Are you interested enough to continue coming back to wait for the second chapter? *waits for answer which doesn't come or does it? ^_~* Of course you are! It may take awhile but it will eventually come.
Mistress: Don't I have a say in this? *glares*
Catina: *thinks*…no. Bye everyone! *waves*
Mistress: Hey!