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Author's notes: This was/still is my longest finished fanfic; This chapter is Slayers Special, the rest of it is standard Slayers (NEXT era).
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"You know, Naga, it usually takes one week to make this trip. We've been on your 'shortcut' for a week and a half already, and we're not there yet. Is there something wrong with this picture, or is it just me?"
Naga stopped just ahead of Lina, so the younger sorceress couldn't see the frustrated look on her face. Gathering her wits, she retorted, "Ah, my diminuitive companion, you miss my true purpose! There will doubtless be many bandits and mercenaries out to intercept this message, and by going around the usual route, we'll avoid them completely!" Naga then let loose with her infamous laugh, a high-pitched sound that echoed across the forest and terrified countless birds and animals.
"Right. Whatever you say, Naga." It was clear that Lina was just humoring her rival and ersatz partner. "Just tell me we're close to a town where we can get some decent food, and I'll stop complaining." She glared sharply at Naga.
Naga froze again; she realized she had no idea where the next town was. In fact, the road had stopped looking familiar two days ago…not that she would ever admit it.
"Of course we're close to a town! The next town is right over that next hill. Did you really think I was lost?"
Lina muttered, "Actually, yes." Naga turned slightly and asked, "What was that?"
"Nothing, Naga. Nobody as intelligent as you would ever be lost, so I would never think such a thing." Naga noticed the heavy sarcasm, but knew it was the best she would ever get out of Lina.
They continued on in silence until they crested the next hill and saw a small town with a wooden wall around it. Naga said, "See? There's the town, just as I said! And to think you ever doubted me!", and then laughed again. The guard in the town's watch tower had a short panic attack.
The pair followed the path down to the gate of the town. The guard challenged them for their names and business.
"I am the great Naga the Serpent, carrying a message for the Lord of Whitesel…and this is my junior partner, Lina." Lina growled and bit her tongue, glaring at Naga.
"Whitesel? That's over fifty miles to the southwest…you're quite aways off the path."
"Naga? Grellis, where the message is FROM, is WEST and SOUTH of Whitesel-what are we doing northeast of Whitesel?"
"Oh, hush, I know what I'm doing."
The guard looked down at them, slightly worried. "I've never heard of any Naga…but it's not safe for two ladies alone. Open the gate!"
There were several ragged, armed guards just inside the gate. Only a few people were out in the street, and the spring sun illuminated weeds growing in unkempt flowerbeds. Many of the shops and taverns had closed signs, and it took Lina and Naga a while to find an open inn.
Not much later, the table was spread out in a manner anyone familiar with them would've identified as "Lina and Naga's table"-two large stacks of empty, used plates, the taller stack by Lina; and an ale mug the size of a horse's feedbag in Naga's hand. The inn was empty except for Lina, Naga, and a couple of town drunks off in the corner.
"So Naga, you still haven't explained why we passed Whitesel completely."
"My dear Lina Inverse, it's perfectly logical!" Neither of them noticed the innkeeper surreptitiously sneaking out on hearing her name. "I took the 'shortcut' to avoid all the lowlifes waiting to ambush us. If we had come in through the front gate, we would've been jumped there. This way, we can circle around to the back, and they'll never be the wiser."
"You're making excuses."
"You're just too small-minded to comprehend my wonderful plan."
"Sure, Naga." Lina rolled her eyes. Arguing with Naga got you nowhere, or Lina would've told the older sorceress exactly what she thought.
As she was picking at the last plate of food, Lina noticed that they were being watched. The man was better dressed than many of the other townsfolk, but he twitched and glanced around nervously, like he was expecting something terrible any second. Streaks of grey were beginning to show in his brown hair, and the wrinkles in his skin held tight to his bones.
"Are you Lina Inverse?"
"Yes….why?"
"The Bandit Killer and Dragon Spooker?" He was trying to reconcile the twiggishly built red-headed teenager, who couldn't have been taller than five foot four, or older than fourteen, with the formidable reputation attached to the name. She didn't even have any weapons that he could see, aside from the knife at her belt-it was either a really long dagger, or a really short sword, depending on how you looked at it.
Lina glowered and snarled, "Not the Dragon Spooker thing again..." The nervous man cringed and stepped back. "So sorry. I'm the mayor of Hickory, and I would like to ask for your help, if you have time…"; he saw their interest waning, and started talking faster. "A large group of brigands moved in eight years ago. At the time, they weren't much of a problem, but since then, they've grown in numbers, power, and audacity. Soon, they will raze Hickory and start spreading. I beg you to stop them before they spread any further." Lina thought it over; they hadn't seen any sign of bandits on the road, and since Lina and Naga didn't look that impressive at first glance-but they did have some valuables in clear sight-they were usually harassed by any bandits or scoundrels.
"I dunno…this message we're carrying from Grellis to Whitesel is supposed to be important, and we're already three days late…" Lina poked at her food, and went back to eating, basically ignoring the mayor.
"I could pay you-we have five thousand gold we've been collecting to get help."
Lina nearly swallowed her fork, and Naga fought to avoid choking on the ale.
"Excuse me, I have to discuss this with my partner." Lina yanked Naga out of her chair and drug her off to the side, speaking in a hoarse whisper.
"How much is Whitesel going to pay us for being glorified carrier pigeons?"
"Eight hundred gold."
"Why are we even discussing this?"
"You're right." Naga turned and started speaking before Lina could think. "Of course the great Naga the Serpent (assisted by my Junior, partner, Lina) will help your town in its time of need!" Lina muttered, "What did you just call me?", but before she could start threatening Naga, the mayor cut in.
"Oh, thank you!" The mayor looked ready to go on his knees in gratitude. "I'll get one of the local hunters, he'll fill you in on the details as soon as you get up in the morning!" He ran out of the tavern.
They settled back down to finish their meal. Lina picked at what was left on her plate, but wasn't really eating.
"One thing bothers me, Naga. Why would a dinky, middle-of-nowhere town like this be willing to pay five thousand gold just to get rid of some bandits?"
Naga was relaxing, her feet up on the table, leaning back with her ale. "I wouldn't worry about it. They can't be as bad as that black knight and his army of ogres."
"I hope not..the only reason we defeated Goldar was that he ticked off Lady Josephine!" Lina realized she had said the forbidden name, but it was too late, and they both had to supress a shudder at the memory of Lady Josephine. Even though Lina had never sensed any power from the noblewoman, she was more terrifying than any demon the pair had ever faced.
Lina recovered fairly quickly. "At any rate, we'll hear more in the morning, so it's not worth worrying about that much."
The next morning, sharp at sunrise, Lina was awakened by a loud and persistent knock at her door. Whenever the knocking paused, it was replaced by a young man's voice calling, "Miss Lina? Are you there?" The boy couldn't have been more than 17 or 18.
At first, Lina muttered, "It's too early for this..." and smashed the pillow over her head; she had just been sleeping soundly, and hadn't been planning on getting up at sunrise. The kid just wouldn't go away, however, so finally she yelled, "Alright, alright, I'm getting up. I'll be right out." It didn't take Lina that long to get going, and before the sun was completely over the horizon, she was in the hall.
The boy was as much of a beanpole as Lina was-and Lina was constantly the target of Naga's teasing over her figure and bulk(lack thereof, on both...). He was constantly glancing around and fidgeting; he seemed uncomfortable indoors.
"And you are?"
"Oh, sorry-Feris. I live around here, and I spend a lot of time in the woods. I know where the bandit's base is."
Lina shrugged drowsily. "Alright. Let's get Naga, and then we can hit the road." She added, muttering, "As much as I'd like to leave her here, she'd probably just follow us as soon as she woke up."
Lina poked her head into Naga's room and shouted, "Rise and shine, Naga, we're moving out." Before there was any response from Naga, Lina shut the door and leaned against the wall in the hallway, still not quite awake. Within minutes, Naga emerged, and Feris looked like he had been hit on the back of the head with a board. Lina had grown so used to Naga's style of dress that, aside from the occasional wisecrack, she didn't even notice; she hadn't even thought of Feris's reaction, especially since he hadn't been warned. With the exception of Naga's purple-lined black cloak, Lina's undergarments covered more than Naga's entire black leather outfit. Naga didn't exactly have nothing to hide, to boot. It was a style Lina had once dubbed "The Bondage Queen of Darkness". Naga gave Feris one good, long, look.
"So I take it this is our guide?" She stared down at him, unimpressed.
"Yep. His name is Feris." Lina grabbed Feris's arm and started dragging him toward the stairs. "Come on, Feris, let's get going." Naga followed just behind. Feris didn't recover his wits until they were out of the inn; Lina finally relinquished her grip on his arm and asked, "The mayor said you'd fill us in on the details-so what's going on here?"
"Uh, yeah, right, there was this old woodsman, had a stone house out in the woods a ways. Nobody really went out into that forest, there were a lot of creepy legends about it. He just lived out there, alone with his family, only came into town when he absolutely needed to. I used to go out there pretty often; I knew his son. Eight years ago, this group of bandits looking for a base moved in, killed the woodsman and his family, and turned their old stone house into a fortress. The townsfolk didn't even know they were there until they made their first raid, since they were so used to not seeing the woodsman or his family. After that, things went downhill. The bandits attracted more members and started getting bolder, attacking larger and more inhabited areas. Hickory was a rough-and-tumble town back then, and the townsfolk weren't exactly defenseless, so the town could fight back. As time went on, the bandits whittled away at us, until we didn't have that much left in the way of defense besides that wall. They've been building up, and we haven't been able to replace the people who could fight."
Lina nodded. "What races are they, and do they have any mages with them?" "Mostly human, although there's a handful of werewolves who make up the worst of the bandits. As for magic, I haven't seen even a Flare Arrow spell from them, and I haven't seen any sign of any mages in all the years I've been watching them. Hickory is a backwater hick town, and you two are the first sorcerors of any kind to come out here since Dirus." That meant about twenty years. Mount Cocytus, to the north of Hickory through the forest, was on the very tail-end of the Kataart range; although it was pretty far from Kataart itself, it was close enough that Mazoku were an accepted part of life instead of a rare and incredibly unusual disaster. People around that mountain range were a paradox; they often had to put up with the occasional brass demon, so they were pretty tough, but on the flip side, the story of King Dirus II's fall two decades before was common knowledge, and nobody wanted to attract the attention of the more powerful Mazoku in the mountains. With a very cranky fragment of Ruby Eye Shabranigdu, the demon king of the entire Mazoku race, living in the northern part of the range, only the bravest and most powerful of mages-or the most suicidal and foolish-would go near the mountain. Of course, Lina and Naga had been trying to avoid the mountains, but they were here now...
"Doesn't surprise me. We weren't even planning on coming this close to the Kataart Range, and we're not exactly weaklings. Do the bandits keep much of an eye on this town?"
"Oh yeah. They keep watch on us all the time. They're always trying to catch me, too. That's why I never go out the front gate; there's a secret tunnel under the wall that comes up in the forest not far from their fortress."
"Sounds good. Well, Naga, we should get moving. We wouldn't want to waste too much time here, or we'll never get to Whitesel."
The tunnel Feris referred to was barely big enough for him. Lina had no real problem with it, since she was slightly shorter than he was, but Naga had to duck to go through it. It was close and rough-carved right out of the soft blackish-brown earth.
While Naga was muttering behind her, Lina asked, "Y'know, Feris, I heard there was some wierd stuff at Mount Cocytus-some kind of a legend. What was it?"
"Before the War of Monster's Resurrection, there were supposedly dragons living there. The Mazoku attacked here in one of their early raids, and wiped out the dragons. But the dragons had some pact with the spirits of the mountain, and when the Mazoku tried to move into the mountain, it started spitting fire. They say that to this day the mountain burns with anger at the slaughter of the dragons."
"Any truth to it?"
"I dunno. It's an old volcano, I know that; I went up there once, and there was lava all over the sides. There's all kinds of strange caves through it, and it is a pretty strange place, so I guess there could've been dragons there." Lina wasn't sure about it either; the whole thing about the dragons and Mazoku, and the pact with the earth and fire spirits, was plausible enough. The problem was that, while lava would deter the weakest Mazoku- brass demons and lesser demons- anything stronger than that would laugh it off. Most Mazoku were impossible to hurt, short of powerful magic or some artifacts.
The tunnel came up by a deer path. Feris led them off of the path, into a thicker part of the forest. Feris moved through the forest without a thought, or a trail; he would've been near-impossible to track. Lina didn't have a problem squirming through the worse patches of thicket, apart from unhooking her cloak from some persistent branches, but she could hear Naga muttering and snarling at the thorn bushes.
Feris led them into a small "tunnel" of thorns, at the end of which was a pocket in the bramble thicket-almost a small, enclosed room. Even Lina had to crawl to get into it, and there wasn't room for her to stand. Feris stretched against the wall; he was comfortable enough in the cramped space. While waiting for Naga, Lina started picking thorns, burrs, and bits of branch out of her hair and clothes. When Naga finally came into the thicket clearing, she was scratched all over, with bits of plant and bramble all through her black hair and cloak.
"See, Naga? Sometimes it's good to wear clothes."
"Oh shut up. I don't need your sympathy, or your advice."
Feris chuckled. "This place didn't seem so small nine years ago. Me and Darius-the woodsman's son-made this little clearing to have a place to hide out." Feris paused, with an odd, pained look; he buried it quickly, then pushed aside an area of the thicket "wall", and motioned for silence, whispering, "You can see the fortress through here. This is where I usually hide to spy on them." Lina and Naga crept closer, so they could see through the "window".
The window looked down a short, very steep hill on a large clearing in the woods. There had clearly been a fortress there, at one time, but it was razed and levelled. A few walls and a tower were all that remained. Judging from the overgrowth, it had been that way for months, at least; vines and roots covered everything, and ivy crept up the remaining walls of the tower. There was no sign of any of the bandits.
Lina said, "Feris...are you sure this is the place?"
"Yeah! It wasn't like this a week ago..." He seemed just as confused as they were, if not more, and a touch frightened. Lina pushed the window open further, and jumped out. She half-slid, half-ran down the slope to the clearing. Naga and Feris followed soon after.
Now that she was on the ground, Lina found a few chilling reminders of the bandit's presence-a skull, scathed clean of flesh; a partially skeletal hand reaching out of a large clump of vines and roots.
The trio spread out across the clearing. Lina moved towards the tower, checking for signs of anything that could've caused the destruction and sudden overgrowth. She paused and leaned on the tower, then blinked as she felt melting ice dampening the glove on her hand.
"Hey, Naga, come look at this."
Naga came running over and examined the tower. "Ice-in this warm weather?"
"Uh-huh. Magic. Looks like it was a large area, too."
Naga stared closely at the ice and the area it covered. "Demona Crystal or Dynast Breath." She scanned the area, and continued, " There's no shards of wood or stone from a shattering effect, which rules out Dynast Breath."
There was a very slight whimpering coming from the dilapidated "room" that had been in the tower. Lina Levitated up to the hole in the wall and landed lightly on the edge of the broken floor. Huddled in the corner was a werewolf in his beast form, his back to Lina. There was blood matted in his fur, his clothing was torn, and he was clutching a broken axe handle.
"Hey, you, Wolf Boy." The werewolf scrambled around, panicking like a cornered mouse.
"Who are you?"
"Lina Inverse." She wasn't sure if she'd get a reaction or not, but if she could intimidate him right off the bat, it would make things easier for her.
He gave a strangled, frightened cry. "LINA INVERSE!?! The Gods are destroying us, first the forest, now YOU! Please don't kill me, please don't kill me..." He descended into blubbering ans whimpering. Lina was getting really annoyed. She snapped, "Shut up, take a deep breath, and answer my questions before I Fireball you." He whimpered for a couple more seconds, took a few deep, whining breaths, and then held his breath until he calmed down enough to talk.
Lina was still glaring down at the werewolf, as much as she could. "Now, what happened here and how long ago?" The werewolf opened his mouth, started to whine again, and clamped his muzzle shut until it stopped; then said, "Yesterday, early. The forest attacked us."
"Uh-huh. The forest attacked you." Lina was very skeptical. To her knowledge, there was no magic that could cause plants to attack people. There had been some crazy theories, that if there were people with affinities for animals, there should be people with affinities for plants, but Lina had never seen or heard of any proof of that. Besides, simple affinity was the ability to communicate with the creature on a fairly low level, not change its entire nature and behavior to accomplish something it normally couldn't do-hence, why Naga rarely mentioned her affinity with inchworms and jellyfish-and plants didn't normally rise up and attack people.
"Yes! The forest! Tree roots, vines, branches, grass, and those plant monsters..." He trailed off, staring around in fear. Ordinarily, Lina would never have considered believing his story, but he seemed a bit too scared to be lying. "Plant monsters? What kind of plant monsters?" If there was some kind of Mazoku or monster behind the attack, that would clear everything up nicely. They often had powers strange and alien to humans.
"Big, hulking things, with claws as big as my arm and glowing green eyes! They had vines and thorns everywhere, and they chased down everybody the forest didn't get!"
Lina glanced over her shoulder at Naga and Feris. "You two hear all that?" They nodded. She turned back to the werewolf. "You can get down from here, right?" The wolf nodded. "So get lost." He jumped down and started running, but before he was even halfway across the clearing, Lina yelled, "Wait."
He froze at the edge of the clearing.
"On second thought...you're coming with us." Feris stared at her in shock and said, "Why? He's one of the bandits!"
"For one, he's an eyewitness to what happened here. Second, he's the only proof we have for the mayor that the bandits were wiped out. And third, whatever hit this place might come back for him when it realizes it didn't finish the job!"
"I'm bait?", the werewolf whimpered.
"That's right, furface. Now why don't we try to get a better idea of what happened here."
They built camp right in the middle of the ruined fortress. Lina stuck close by the werewolf. As night fell, they built a campfire and settled down to watch. Lina was still keeping a close eye on the werewolf.
"You got a name, Wolf Boy?"
"Grrrr- Gareth. Do...do you really think the forest is gonna come back?" He was watching the trees around them, looking terrified. Naga decided it was time to quit sitting there and listening.
"The forest never left! I can't believe you're buying this story, Lina. 'The forest attacked us', really!" Naga laughed. It was the first time Gareth and Feris had ever heard Naga laugh. The campfire grew silent as they both stared at Naga, dumbfounded that such a sound could've come from a human. They both moved closer to Lina, on the other side of the fire. Naga didn't even notice.
"If the forest were going to attack, then why doesn't it attack us already?" She laughed again. Behind her, in the shadows between the trees, a pair of glowing green points appeared. Gareth scrambled to cower behind Lina, which was pretty hard, since Lina was barely a little over half his size.
Naga noticed, and leaned over slightly, ranting at the wolf. "Don't tell me you're afraid that the big, bad forest is gonna get mad at me? Honestly, a grown werewolf like you!" Three more pairs of green lights appeared behind her. Lina was starting to get worried and said, "Uh, Naga, you might want to stop talking that loud..."
"Oh, don't tell me you're getting afraid of 'the forest' too!"
Five more pairs of green lights appeared, and the ones that had appeared earlier started to move out of the woods; they were big, hulking shapes that shambled slowly out of the forest.
"Actually, Naga, I think I am." Naga opened her mouth to laugh, but a root shot up and wrapped tightly around her leg. Gareth was clinging to Lina's cloak, cowering and whining. If there was any hope of coaxing him out of his beast form, it was long gone. Feris was on his feet, a dagger in each hand; the daggers seemed to have come from nowhere. Lina cast a Flare Arrow to free Naga's leg. Naga turned to face the shapes shuffling out of the darkness. 
As the things came into the firelight, the group got their first good look at the plant-monsters. They were as tall at the shoulder as Feris. They crept on all fours, with two long front limbs, shorter hind limbs, and a small, amorphous "head" and "neck". They weren't animals, but rather walking masses of vines, loam, plants and fungus. The claws on the front limbs were made of sharp edged thorns almost a foot long. The only part of the creatures that wasn't plant matter was the eyes, two orbs in the shapeless head that were made of glowing green crystal. What they lacked in height, they made up in bulk; they were built low to the ground. Eight were coming out of the forest where they had first been spotted, and Feris pointed out two more coming from behind Lina.
Lina yelled, "Naga, duck!" and incinerated two of them with a Fireball, Gareth still clinging to her cloak. Naga stood up again and cast a Freeze Lance, the spear of ice going easily over Lina's head and freezing a third solid. The emerald eyes of the two Lina had "killed" were lifted up in a knot of roots, and the creatures quickly reformed out of the forest floor. The creatures kept moving, and the roots beneath Naga stepped up their attack. Naga stumbled closer to the campfire and pulled out a burning piece of wood, warding off the vines with it. Lina caught this and called Feris closer to the campfire; none of the plants were coming within five feet of it. As Naga was peeling the last of the roots off her leg, she commented, "There's definitely a mage behind this. First, the ice, and now those golems..."
Lina and Feris blinked; Lina said, "Golems? What golems?"
"The plant monsters! Some twerp of a mage is hiding out there somewhere, using those green crystals as a focus to turn the forest debris into golems."
Lina was impressed; usually, Naga didn't notice details that easily. "Wow. How'd you figure that out?"
"You should know, Lina. I work constantly to create new and unusual golem spells, so of course I'd recognize one in action."
"I just wish your new golem spells could work as well as this one does."
"Oh hush. A couple mistakes, and you never let me forget it."
Lina decided to change the subject. "So the crystals are the spell's focus, and all we have to do is destroy the crystals, right?" Naga nodded. "Right."
A ball of ice hit the campfire from the forest, and in an instant the campfire was a spire of ice. It was a clear, moonless night, and the only real light came from the ring of crystal eyes. Lina called out a Lighting spell just as something burrowed out of the ground in the middle of the camp, shattering through the ice where the campfire had been. It superficially resembled a venus fly trap. The jaws were razor-sharp, rigid pieces, and vines ringed the base of the plant.
Once everyone's attention had turned to the mantrap that had appeared in the center of camp, one of the golems jumped and pinned Naga under it. Lina caught it with a Fireball, and Naga scrambled away before it could reform. The mantrap caught Lina in its vines, and Gareth snatched one of the swordlike thorns from the reforming golem and started hacking at the vines. In the chaos, nobody noticed Feris running out of the clearing, being ignored by the golems and the forest alike.
After freeing Lina, the trio retreated, and was soon cornered in the remnants of the wall by the tower. Lina said, "We need some breathing room...Explosion Array!" The ground under the clump of golems exploded upard, and Naga cast a hasty Raywing, lifting all three of them into the ruined tower. The golems were back on their feet quickly.
Naga picked out a nice group of three golems and smiled. If this mage wanted to play with ice magic, she'd show him ice magic. "Supreme king of the frozen soul, grant me the power of your icy rage-Dynast Breath!" A spire of ice materialized around the golems, freezing them solid. The whole frozen spire then shattered, golems and all. On the plus side, it destroyed the crystals. On the down side, the trio had to duck and cover to avoid the ice shrapnel, and the force of the blast demolished the tower, dropping them on the ground.
Lina yelled, "Naga! Why'd you cast that so close to us?!", but Naga didn't even answer.
The golems made a quick and hasty retreat to the area around the mantrap. Gareth tried to sneak off, but Lina stomped on one paw and grabbed his sleeve.
"Not so fast, Wolf Boy. Do you have any idea who's behind this?"
"I just joined this group, I know nothing."
"Something tells me you're lying." Her interrogation was briefly interrupted by Naga cackling and mocking the golems.
"Ignore her and tell me the truth!"
"Hrrrrr...there was this rumor around the camp that the old man that used to live here had a son, a real creepy kid."
"Darius. Tell me something I don't know."
"Well, after the band settled in here, wierd stuff started happening, and the people started whispering that the kid was haunting the place!"
"Okay, now I think I understand." She looked up; the golems were starting to regroup. "Don't try anything funny, like running away." She walked out in front of Naga, facing down the plants. Hickory was somewhere behind her, so she didn't have to worry about collateral damage-not that it had ever bothered her before.
"Heed me now, thou which is darker than dusk, heed, that which is more red than blood; in the name of that which has been buried in the bottomless abyss of time eternal, I summon thee, Master of the Ultimate Darkness; have no pity on the fools who stand in our way;" Two of the golems started moving towards her. Floating between her hands was an orb of flames and light, and ribbons of energy danced in the air around her. A sudden breeze had come up in the clearing. Naga backed away from Lina, knowing what was coming. "Infuse me with power, let your strength become mine; to wipe them from the face of this earth, to deliver unto them the ultimate doom-" One of the golems leapt at her. "Dragon Slave!" The ball of flames exploded forward into a blast that swept out past the edge of the clearing, off into the woods. The golem was incinerated in mid-leap. When the light and smoke cleared, there was a deep furrow cut into the land by the blast. There weren't even ashes of the mantrap or the golems.
A blast of cold air enveloped Lina and Gareth from behind. Before the spell took effect, Lina only had time to hiss, "Shoot!", between her teeth. Demona Crystal was difficult to dodge when you were expecting it, and neither of them had been expecting it. The cold air swiftly crystallized, encasing both of them-still alive-in ice.
Naga turned to face the caster. Perched on the remnants of the wall was a boy, maybe Lina's age, dressed in haphazard and ragged clothes. The boy jumped to the ground in front of the wall. The kid was good; he had taken Lina completely by surprise. Naga wasn't about to let him catch her off guard.
"You're clever, and quick, but I don't think you can dodge this- Freeze Rain!"
A sphere of ice appeared in the air, above and between the boy and Naga. Razor-sharp lances of ice began spraying out in all directions from the orb. Naga dove into the pit carved by Lina's Dragon Slave, but the boy had nowhere to run, trapped between the crumbled wall and the sphere. The lances chipped at the Demona Crystal until it shattered; before the ice dust had cleared, Lina drug Gareth into the crevice with Naga. The Freeze Rain's target was no longer a threat; trapped the way he was, it quickly left him crumpled in a heap on the other side of the globe...which wasn't going away.
Gareth stared, wide-eyed, and asked, "What kind of a spell was that?"
"One Naga created." Lina was used to Naga's failures by now, and didn't even show much of a reaction beyond a dull annoyance.
The werewolf whimpered, "When's it gonna stop?"
Lina glared at her partner. "Yeah, Naga, when's it gonna stop? Don't tell me you haven't fixed that spell yet..."
Naga acted like it was all planned from the beginning. "Well, I still haven't changed its incredibly long duration..."
"It's not fixed yet?!", Lina yelled.
Gareth was looking clueless. "So...when's it gonna stop?"
Lina was getting really ticked off. "Never, unless someone destroys that ball of ice!" She peeked out of the crevice long enough to send a haphazard Fireball at it, breaking off a chunk. In the end, it took three fireballs to destroy the sphere of ice.
When the rain of ice lances stopped, everyone held their breath, and made sure it was really gone before coming out of the crevice.
Lina scanned the now even more ruined ruins. The Dragon Slave had left a large scar on the land, Naga's Dynast Breath had leveled most of the remaining wall, their attacker was in a bloody, unconscious heap among the rubble of the wall, icicle lances from the Freeze Rain were in pieces everywhere, and Gareth was trying to sneak away. Lina dissuaded him by targetting a Fireball at the ground in front of him.
"Going somewhere, Gareth?" She smiled innocently.
"Grrrrr nope! Nowhere at all!"
"That's good. If I though you were trying to sneak away, I might have to do something drastic like Explosion Array!" Lina made the threat with a bouncy, bright, cheerful tone that somehow made it all the more believable. Gareth's ears went flat against his skull and a whine escaped unconsciously.
"Good boy. Now come back by the rest of us like a good little werewolf." Gareth slunk back to the middle of the clearing.
Naga was also surveying the area. "He's not the only one who split."
"What do you - Where's Feris?"
"I don't know. I haven't seen him since that golem jumped me."
"Aw, great, now where'd he get to...uh-oh..." Lina stared nervously at the blasted area from the Dragon Slave.
"Rr, I think I saw him running away...but then I had to cut you out of that mantrap's vines."
Naga said, "So, he ran away. We'll take it up with the mayor when we get back." She turned and started to head back for Hickory, until she realized that Lina hadn't moved.
"Lina? Aren't we going to go collect our reward?"
"Later. Something funny is going on here. I've never heard of mantraps this close to a town, and Feris didn't strike me as the type to run away like that. Besides, how'd he get past all those golems and the plants in the forest?"
"You don't plan on traipsing through the woods at night looking for him?"
"Yeah, people disappear all the time, especially people that go out alone!" Lina and Naga were staring at Gareth in an instant; Lina commented, "Gee, Gareth, I thought you didn't know anything about this area!", in that sugar-sweet, "I bet you think that just because I'm younger than you, I'm dumb, don't you?" tone she often used for threats and interrogation. Gareth's ears when flat again, and he cringed as he realized his mistake.
Lina walked right up to Gareth. To an observer, she would've seemed a lot more threatening if she didn't have to stare up at the werewolf, but Gareth was terrified all the same. "So what else did you forget, Wolf-boy?"
"Uh, rrrrr, well, uh..." Gareth was fidgeting, trying to find some way out.
"Start from the beginning."
"When we moved in here, we were looking for a place nobody would go, to make a base. We heard about this forest, an' how lots of people had vanished an' nobody would go in. Well, we moved in, and pretty soon we were disappearing out there. We sent out a bunch of scout parties into the areas where people had disappeared, and only a couple of the scouts came back. They said there was a whole colony of mantraps out there, an' it was spreading, like some big termite colony. We started trying to kill them off, since they were a problem. At first, it went okay, but then the wierd stuff started happening. After that, it wasn't just the mantraps attacking people, but the whole forest! Pretty soon we were in an all-out war with the forest, an' we were losing. We holed up here, kinda under siege. For a week, things got real quiet, and then that attack yesterday hit out of the blue."
Lina nodded. "So there's a whole colony of mantraps in that forest."
"Hickory didn't hole up behind that wall just because of us."
"Hmph. That wall isn't going to do them much good; the mantraps will just burrow right under it.", Naga commented.
"And if one of them came this close to the town...", Lina hinted; Naga continued, "...then soon they'll be coming up in town."
A vague, evil smile crossed Lina's face. "Y'know, Naga, I heard these things are least active at night."
Naga nodded, getting the same kind of smile. "Then we should get going."
Gareth whined. "You mean you're going out there at this time of night?"
"Yep, we're going to do something about those plants.", Lina replied cheerfully.
"You're crazy! I'm leaving."
"You're coming with us.", they said in unison.
Gareth debated which was worse-staying with them and being eaten, or running and ticking them off. He decided ticking off the Bandit Killer and her partner was worse, and meekly followed as they went into the forest.
Feris gave them a couple minutes to leave before he dropped out of a tree on the edge of the clearing. He dashed over to Darius, checked for a pulse, then breathed a sigh of relief when he found one. He did the best he could, using a mixture of simple bandages and a few weak healing spells to take the edge off of Darius's wounds. He wasn't much with magic, and it took a lot out of him, but he managed to take care of the worst of the damage; it wasn't like he had studied. The healing spells were the strongest magic he could manage.
It took Darius a couple hours to come around, and Feris stood over him the whole time. The second Feris noticed he was awake, Feris started, "What's gotten into you all of a sudden? Attacking the bandits, I can see, but you could've just left it at that. You didn't have to go after those two."
Darius groaned weakly. "No, don't pass out again, don't pass out! I'm just trying to help you-so why did you attack them?"
"Weren't going away...would've found the colony."
"Probably so, but a direct assault like that wasn't the wisest approach; you could've waited, and started harassing them-nothing too threatening, just enough to get them frustrated enough to leave! It isn't like the mantraps couldn't move out of the way if they came too close."
"They didn't look like much..."
"The mayor wouldn't have hired them to take on the bandits if they weren't fairly powerful-and besides, I thought you'd know better than to attack the Dragon Spooker!"
Darius looked blank at the title, and sat up a little. "Who?"
"Lina Inverse!"
"Never heard of her..." He slumped back down onto the damp grass.
"Wha? Oh, right, bookworm. That's what I've always been saying-you learn everything from books, and you miss little stuff like that. Tell me, how much do you know of events after Dirus's attack on Kataart?"
Darius didn't respond; he had one arm draped over his face, so Feris couldn't even tell if he was still awake. Feris sat down near him. "Oh well...just be more careful next time, and maybe not so destructive."
"Where...are they now?"
Feris fidgeted. "Uh, well, they went further into the forest." He knew what Darius was worried about, and didn't want to tell him the whole truth; he was afraid of what Darius would do. If Darius went after them again, they'd probably try to make sure they finished him off this time.
"Why did they head for the forest?" Darius pulled himself up so he was sitting, leaning against a piece of rubble. He was recovering fairly quickly, although he was trying to hide how badly he was really hurt.
"I'm not sure. I think the werewolf said something about people disappearing, and they decided to investigate." He was intentionally feigning ignorance.
"What! Then they'll find..." Darius scrambled haphazardly to his feet and stumbled toward the forest, using the ruins and various trees for support.
"Darius, no! You're in no condition to face them, and even if you were, you'd be no match for them!"
"They'll find...colony..." Darius kept going. Feris caught up with him quickly.
"No you don't! You need to rest and recover. The colony can take care of itself." He caught Darius's arm and tried to stop him; Darius pulled loose and continued. Before Feris could catch him again, roots from the ground wrapped around his feet, holding him to the spot. They continued to hold him until long after Darius had vanished into the forest. He raced off after Darius, hoping he could track the young mage down fast enough to stop him.
At the same time, deeper in the forest, Lina, Naga, and Gareth were sidling slowly past a trio of mantraps. They were trying to avoid any conflict until they found the main colony. The plants detected movement and sound, so as long as they kept quiet and moved slowly, the plants wouldn't notice them.
Lina was almost past the last plant when it changed position. They all froze, waiting for it to settle down, backs against the trees. While the plant was settling, Lina felt something small and damp creep onto the outside of her glove. It was probably a slug-and at that thought, panic started coming up. Lina started concentrating, trying to think of what it could be besides a slug-it could be a snail!...which was just a slug with a shell. She decided not to look. She refused to look. It moved up her glove slowly, coming through the fur ruff around her wrist. She clamped her eyes shut. The plant had settled down, and Naga was trying to think of a way to ask Lina to get moving without disturbing it. Lina held her breath. The little damp thing came out of the ruff and onto her arm. She cracked an eyelid and glanced down. On her wrist was a small, slimy gray shape, a little over half an inch long. It glistened slightly in the starlight.
Lina shrieked and panicked, dancing away from the mantraps, which went absolutely nuts. Naga and Gareth dove out past Lina, but one of the vines caught Naga. Lina was still screaming and yelling, "Getitoffmegetitoffme!" Naga was struggling with the vine as the mantrap pulled her closer to its jaws. Gareth glanced back and forth between Lina and Naga, finally grabbing the vine and biting through it. The mantrap shot out a few more vines; Naga flattened against the trees ten feet away, and Gareth pressed against a curtain of vines at the end of the path. It took Lina a few minutes to calm down, at which point Naga yelled, "What was that all about? You nearly got us killed!"
"A slug...a slug crawled on my hand..." Lina was panting, staring back at the trees with a terrified look.
"A slug? You attract those plants because of a stupid SLUG?!? You and your moronic phobia..." Gareth stared in shock, and said, "Lina Inverse...is afraid of slugs?'
"Yeah, Furface, I have a problem with slugs. Say one word about it, and you're toast." Lina was back to her usual, nitro-glycerin tempered self.
"Urp-right...." The plants were still agitated; Gareth scrunched up against the vines a little closer.
"What're you afraid of, Wolf Boy? It's not like they could reach us now, and they won't burrow to get something this close to them." Lina waved a hand past one of the vines playfully; it twisted and contorted to catch her, unsuccessfully. "And if you think this little clump is bad, wait 'till you see the main colony! It's going to have a whole bunch of mantraps that have gone to seed, and a main plant the size of a small building!"
Gareth's eyes grew wide, and he grasped at the vines tighter. They tore out, dropping Gareth past the curtain. He fell down into a large clearing; he was right in the middle of a ring of mantraps. More mantraps filled most of the clearing. Some had yellow brushes sprouting just above the leaves around the base, others had dull, dark brown pods in place of the yellow brushes. In the center of the clearing there was a huge plant, round and low, with a spray of leaves and vines ringing the bottom of a bulbous green body. All told, the clearing held maybe fourty mantraps.
When Gareth fell into the clearing, seven of the plants snapped their jaws around to face him. Gareth froze, barely even breathing. Lina leaned through the hole in the curtain of vines and yelled, "Way to go, Gareth! You found the main colony!", in a tone Gareth found entirely too cheerful and flippant. "Hold still for a sec.", she continued, and aimed a fireball at the ground near him. As it exploded, it killed most of the plants that were threatening him, seriously damaged the two survivors, and singed Gareth. Gareth began to wonder which was more dangerous-the mantraps, or Lina's "help".
She kept yelling down at him. "That big thing in the middle is the central plant. It can control all the plants in this area, to some extent, and keeps them from competing for space and food. It also moves all the plants that are going to seed to a safe place like this. It's like an ant colony." Gareth stared at the huge green bulb in the middle of the clearing and muttered, "Right. Ants."
"Oh, and Gareth-I'm going to clear out this place with a Dragon Slave, so you probably want to move." Gareth panicked and scrambled back up the short slope. As Lina began the incantation, Naga and Gareth found places behind her where they would be out of the way of the three mantraps back on the path. The wind and light agitated the plants, which tried to grasp and snap at the energy ribbons.
When the explosion came, it seemed almost anticlimactic. After they had gone to seed, mantraps couldn't burrow, and the three behind them were more concerned with snatching at the energy created by the spell. As the dust cleared the clearing was empty. The flames had cleanly incinerated all of the plants.
Lina stepped back a few feet and slumped against a tree. Naga had been expecting this; Lina didn't often use the Dragon Slave twice in one night like this, and spells that powerful took a lot of energy from the caster. Gareth actually looked worried.
"Hrrr-is this normal?"
"Yeah, I don't usually cast that spell twice in a night like that." She glared up at him, suddenly threatening. "But don't get any ideas, I can still blast you into next week."
Naga walked out into the center of the path, barely out of reach of the three mantraps. "I don't know about you, but I don't feel like sneaking past these plants again."
"Give me a minute and I'll fireball them."
"No need-Freeze Cutter!" A blade of ice spun through the air ahead of Naga, neatly cutting the stalks of all three plants. "Well, Lina? Ready to head back to town and collect our reward?"
"You read my mind. Let's get going. And Gareth-" Lina didn't even turn, just held up one hand, conjuring a fireball. The werewolf was trying to slip off into the forest while their backs were turned. "Don't even think about it."
Barely an hour before sunrise, the trio drug out of the forest into sight of Hickory. Lina was looking forward to a good meal and a real night's sleep as she scanned the wall. She almost didn't recognize the drawn bows in time-almost.
"Look out!", she yelled, and the trio hit the dirt as arrows rained off the wall, almost at random. Moments later, Lina was on her feet.
"What's the big idea?! First you hire us to get rid of the bandits, now you're shooting at us? What gives?"
The mayor leaned over the wall, just far enough that they could see him. "You're not fooling us any more with your act, missy-I don't know what those bandits are paying you, but you won't get away with it!"
"Wha- act? You think we're working for the bandits? Where the heck would you get an idea like-" She noticed that Feris was standing right next to the mayor, and all the pieces fell together. "You little twerp! Double-crossing sneak! You just don't want anybody to know what happened out there!"
"Enough of this, young lady. If you leave now, and never return, we'll let you go peacefully." Lina snarled, both hands clenched into fists, then turned harshly to Naga. Gareth was running off into the woods at a dead sprint.
"Come on, Naga. These idiots aren't even worth the trouble of blowing up." The two sorceresses picked up and left, back to the main road to finish their original mission.