The Dangers of Embroidery
or
How to Wake a Sleeping Princess
Lina hummed softly to herself as her needle flickered in and out of the fabric.
Gourry leaned in the door. "What are you doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm embroidering."
Zelgadis joined Gourry in the doorway. "Since when can you embroider?"
"Since I was a little girl. Who did you think sewed the magical symbols on my costume?"
"I thought it came that way," Gourry said.
"What? You think a mere tailor could achieve this kind of quality?"
Gourry's undoubtedly tactless answer was fortunately forestalled by Amelia's arrival. "Let me into my room," the dark-haired girl requested.
The men quickly obeyed, vanishing across the hallway into their own room.
"What are you doing, Miss Lina?" the younger girl asked, shutting the door behind her.
"I'm embroidering," Lina replied for the second time that evening.
Amelia's reaction was rather different than the men's had been. She sat down on the bed beside Lina so she could look over her shoulder. "Wow, that's really good!"
Lina lit up at the praise. "You probably see a lot of embroidery, being a princess and all," she said diffidently.
"Not really. I've never done any embroidery."
Lina stared at her in surprise. "Never?"
Amelia shook her head. "I guess Daddy thought it was more important for me to learn how to fight for Justice."
"Would you like to try it?" Lina shoved the hoop-bound piece of fabric into Amelia's hands before she could reply. "It's simple. You just push the needle out over here and in over here on the other side of the letter."
"But..."
"Don't worry. It isn't anything important. I was just practicing my embroidery so I don't forget how to do it. Go ahead and try it. I'm going to grab a snack from downstairs."
Amelia found herself alone in the room, holding the embroidery hoop. She walked over to her bed, still gazing uncertainly at the piece of cloth in her hands.
"Why not?" she decided. How hard could it be to poke a needle through a piece of fabric? Harder than it looked, she realized, sucking on a pierced finger. Maybe this was another art, like black magic and bartering, which she would leave to Lina.
Feeling suddenly tired, Amelia had barely enough energy to put down the embroidery, pull off her boots and stretch out on the bed before she was fast asleep.
Lina came back to the room awhile later, still munching on a piece of toast. "I guess she was more tired than she looked." Lina tossed a blanket over her friend before going to bed herself.
Lina was not surprised when she woke before Amelia. The perky little princess was the earlier riser more often than not, but it was certainly not uncommon for her to outsleep Lina. However, when Lina had finished her morning battle with Gourry over breakfast and Amelia still hadn't shown up, the sorceress began to get a little worried.
"C'mon, Amelia, rise and shine." Lina shook the sleeping girl's shoulder.
Amelia muttered and twitched in her sleep but did not wake up.
Lina waved a plate of buttered biscuits under Amelia's nose. Amelia smiled in her sleep but did not wake up.
"I don't get it," Lina said. "I know she was tired last night, but she's never this hard to wake up."
Gourry and Zelgadis tried shaking her too, but to no avail.
"Oh my, can it be that curse actually worked?" Xellos popped into sight out of nowhere.
"What curse?" Zelgadis snapped.
"A woman at Miss Amelia's baby shower - the widow of some would-be pretender to the throne, I believe - tried to put that old fairytale curse on her."
Lina gulped and looked guiltily at her embroidery. "You mean the one about pricking her finger and sleeping for a hundred years?"
Xellos smiled approvingly. "That's the one." His expression turned thoughtful. "By all accounts, though, the woman was not a sorceress."
"Sounds like Martina," Gourry commented.
The others stared at him in surprise. "Yes," Zelgadis said thoughtfully. "She was able to cast curses without any magical training, but I doubt even she could cast a curse that would last this long."
"She must have been really angry," Gourry said.
Lina grabbed a biscuit from the plate and started pacing. "Okay, let's think about this logically. In the fairytale, the princess pricks her finger on a spinning wheel. I guess my embroidery needle was close enough."
"But she's pricked her fingers on thorns and splinters many times without falling asleep," Zelgadis pointed out.
"Maybe it has to be related to sewing." Lina waved that triviality aside.
"The curse is supposed to take effect before her sixteenth birthday," Xellos observed.
" How old is she now?" Zelgadis asked.
"Fifteen and a half, I think," Lina replied. "Then the princess sleeps for a hundred years in a palace surrounded by thorns..."
Gourry stuck his head out the window. "There are rose bushes in the front yard," he volunteered helpfully.
"...until awakened by true love's kiss," Lina finished. She smacked her fist into her hand. "That's it! Zel, kiss her."
"Wh-why me?" the chimera protested.
"The fairytale says 'true love'. Obviously that isn't me or Xellos. That leaves you and Gourry."
"Why am I disqualified?" Xellos pouted.
"You aren't human. Okay, fine. That leaves Zel, Xellos and Gourry. We'll vote on who gets to do it. I vote for Zel."
"I vote for Gourry," Zelgadis said defiantly.
"Zel."
Xellos considered for a long moment, chin in hand. Then he smiled cheerfully. "Zelgadis."
"Sorry, Zel, you've been outvoted," Lina smirked.
"Wait a-" Lina's kick cut off Zelgadis' protests and sent him flying at the bed. He landed half on top of the sleeping princess. "...min-owww...," he moaned as he slid off the side of the bed.
"Ow," Amelia echoed, sitting up drowsily. She rubbed her bruised mouth and scratched cheek. "What happened?"
"We broke the sleeping curse on you," Lina replied proudly.
"What curse? I was just tired."
"We woke you up with 'true love's kiss'," Lina replied stubbornly.
Amelia looked down at Zelgadis and turned rather red. "Miss Lina, anyone would wake up if you dropped a chimera on them!"
Zelgadis sat up warily. "You call that a kiss?" he muttered.
Lina caught sight of the object attached to the side of his head. "My embroidery!" she cried. She ran over and started trying to untangle it from his wire hair.
Zelgadis buried his face in his hands. "The next time this happens, let's just let her sleep in."