Hey, let the stars be our guide,
Promise?
... You promised me,
-"When we meet again, we shall exchange our smile"-
--
"Sniff. I hate Onee-sama... I am never going back there again!" A little girl walks aimlessly in the dark forest, crying and sobbing.
The night was cold and dark. Faint sounds of wild wolves hallowing under the moonlight can be heard throughout the woods. The little girl continues to walk without any fear. She walks and walks until finally, the chilly wind and the soreness of her foot forces her to stop. She arrives under a large tree, leans against the trunk, and immediately falls asleep.
--
"A human! A human!"
"…How could a human be here?"
"What should we do?"
"Let's just bring her to Priest-sama, he'll know what to do… I think."
The little girl hears faint husky voices while she is sleeping, but she is too tired from walking, so she ignores the noises and keeps her eyes shut. Suddenly she felt a pair of cold hands picking her up, and then she is put down again gently.
"Eh? How come there's a human here?" A kind voice is heard, the little girl felt a cold hand against her cheek.
"Wake up little princess, sleeping in the forest is a dangerous thing to do!"
The little girl opens her ruby eyes slowly and unwillingly, and sees a young man with purple hair kneeling besides her. She realizes that she was lying in some sort of tea table. Behind the young man lays a few monsters staring at her hungrily. She comes to a realization that besides her and the young man, every creature surrounding her is not human, and they're all dancing, feasting, and singing strange melodies.
The young man smiles at her gently and asks, "What's your name, little princess?"
"I'm not 'little princess', I'm Lina." Lina sits up with caution, eyeing the young man and the monsters behind him, "What is this place?"
"Seeing so many mazokus around and still not afraid, Lina-chan is pretty brave!" The young man smiles at Lina again.
"Beast-priest-Sama, let's eat her!" one mazoku says.
"Yeah! A child's fear provides the most delicious negative energy!!" agrees another mazoku.
"No no no," the young man lifts a finger and waves, "we can't treat our little guest like that! Besides, being a human and having the ability to step foot on this island is not an easy task to do! We should salute to our little guest instead. I'll take care of this girl, you guys continue your party " The two mozokus have no choice but to return to their feast, disappointed.
The young man picks up Lina and holds her in his arms, and walks back to his seat. He sits upon the chair on top of the stair that overlooks the forest, but Lina notices a chair that's larger and more elegant right next to it.
"Lina-chan's eyes are all red, what's wrong?"
"..None of your bussiness!" Lina attempts to struggle out of the young man's arms, "Let go of me!"
"I cannot do that, if I let go of you, those crazy mazokus will eat you. They drank too much today so it's more difficult to control them. If Zellas-Sama knows about this, I'm doomed "
"I'm not scared of those mozoku! Onee-sama's so much stronger!" Lina raises her head with pride, eyes glowing, but soon lowers her head again, "But I hate Onee-sama.."
"Oh? So you had a fight with her?"
"She's always picking on me.."
"Really, well, I don't have any brothers or sisters, I don't know how it feels to have a sister. But I think having siblings is a great thing. At least, my jobs would be so much easier if there's a helper" the young man sighs.
"Then, let me be your big sister!" Lina stares into the young man's eyes with excitement.
"Be my.. big sister?" The young man bursts out a chuckle. "I am a lot older than you are, you can be my little sister instead"
"I don't want to be the younger one Besides, little sisters always gets picked on. If you're my little brother, I could pick on you "
"I see..." the young man thought to himself how very interesting the little girl was, smiles, and asks, "Do you know my name is at least?"
"I heard those people call you the 'Beast-Priest...?'" Lina tilts her head.
"'People'... " young man chuckles again, "My name is not 'Beast-Priest', that is my job title. My name is Xellos"
"Then Xellos-chan, from today on, you will be my little brother!" Lina grins.
--
A strange noise can be heard. It was a loud and desiring sound, and Lina's face grew red as an apple.
"Heh, Lina-Onee-Sama, are you hungry?" Xellos smiles.
"Yes! I am very very hungry! I want food now!!"
"Then let me show you the way to the temple. Zellas-sama have just returned, let's go meet her and I'll get you some food there" Xellos says as he places Lina back down the ground.
"Aren't you guys having a party here? A part with out food..?" Lina widen her eyes and asks.
"Today is the annual party which Zellas-sama held. The food that they're eating.. Well, I don't think you would be interested." Xellos laughs. "Stay here, Lina-Onee-Sama, I'll be right back" Xellos assures her and walks away towards one of the mazoku by the fire.
Lina looks around and sees a glass that is half full containing a purplish-red liquid that gave out an irresistible scent placed the chair above Xellos'. She walks up the stairs and takes the glass, sniffs it and drinks it. A heavy taste rolls down her throat. Strange feelings spread through her body. She wobbles down the steps without thinking. Some lower mazokus sees her, their eyes hungry.
When Xellos finished talking and returns, he realizes that Lina is not on top of the steps like he had told her but instead she's on the very bottom and a few makokus are about to attack her.
"Lina!" Xellos shouts out nervously.
Just when Xellos thought that he was too late to save the little princess, a ray of light bursts out of Lina's hand, "FIRE BALL!" After the light subsides, one of the lower mazoku can be seen fallen on the ground in defeat. Lina steps on the mazoku's head and shouts "Want to eat me, Lina Inverse? HA! In a million years!"
"'Inverse' …." Xellos claps and walks towards Lina, "I guess we all underestimated Lina-chan 3"
"Lina-Onee-Sama" Lina corrects him. She runs over to him happily and holds on to his hand. "Let's go eat!"
Xellos kneels down and looks at Lina's face, "Why is your face is so red?" Worried. He glances around and sees the wine glass that was on his master's chair, and it was all gone. "Little girls shouldn't drink alcohol!" He lectures and picks up Lina to hold her in his arms again.
Lina feels sleep consume her slowly in the comfort of Xellos' arms, and shuts her eyes once again..
--
"Xelly-chann, what was that presence that I felt earlier?" A beautiful woman with wavy and long blonde hair asks. She wears a revealing white dress that shows her cleavage and most of her legs. The temple is spacious but empty. The only decorations are two hideous vases that are place near either side of the walls. Must be something to do the residence's taste. In the center there is an elegant silver chair. The woman walks out of a door behind the large chair.
"...Zellas-Sama.. This girl.." Before Xellos can finish, Zellas notices the little girl in Xellos' arms and dashes over. She snatches Lina from Xellos' arms and hugs her tightly.
"Kawaii..KAWAII!!" Zellas squeezes Lina's body tighter with her own, and presses her cheeks against Lina's. "I can finally be a grandmother! Xelly-chann Good job! Where did you find her?"
"Er..." Xellos begins to worry that his master might choke Lina to death. "She is the Ceiphied Knight, Luna Inverse's sister"
"I do not have an evil sisters like HER!" Lina shouts as she opens her eyes.
"Ah, what lovely crimson eyes you have. Just like our lord, Shabranigdo-Sama!" Zellas says as she gazes into Lina's eyes with satisfaction. "You don't want to go back home?"
"N-O-P-E" Lina screams.
"Then, why don't you stay here and marry Xellos? Then you can give birth to more kawaii kids like you!" Zellas starts to hugs (choke) Lina once again.
"...Zellas-Sama!!" Xellos feels lightheaded as his master proposes the statement.
"But Xellos is my brother." Lina said innocently.
"Brother..? This could be a forbidden love!" Zellas smiles as she drags Lina into the living room (?).
"Ze..Zellas-Sama.. Lina-Onee... I mean Lina-Chan is hungry and I was about to take her to the kitchen (?)" Said Xellos, who hopes that, would distract Zella save Lina and himself from Zellas' "evil" plan.
"Lina-chan's hungry?" It worked!
Zellas lets go of Lina's arms with and asks a serious face, "If I treat you to eat anything you like, will you be Xelly-chan's bride?" …Backfired!
"Anything?" It seems that Lina hasn't have a clue of what's going on.
"Anything!"
"Ok!" Lina's eyes sparkled. "I want chocolate cake, strawberry ice cream, oh oh, lobster for dinner, I love sea food! and.." Lina counts. And Zellas listens as the smile on her face broadens.
"Zellas!" A woman's voice can be heard from a distance.
"DOLPHIN-SAMA!!" Xellos calls out in relief, with an almost tearing face.
Dolphin sees Xellos' expression and Zellas' weird gaze upon the unfamiliar little girl. She shakes her head and puts her hand over her forehead, "Zellas, at least tell us where you're going! We're in a middle of the card game you know, and it's YOUR TURN!"
"Dolphin, Dolphin! Look! My daughter-in-law!!" Zellas points, ecstatic.
Dolphin finally understands why Xellos' face was in tears. "Congrats, how did she get here?"
"It seemed that she and Luna Inverse had a fight, oh yeah, Luna is her sister." Xellos explains.
"I don't think Luna would just leave her sister here like that. We'd better give her back before she..."
"NOO! She's MY daughter-in-law!! No one is taking her away from me!!" Zellas whines.
"Ok, ok, well, just get back to the game we're playing, Dynast and Philibizzo are all waiting for you" Dolphin reminds, "If she's your daughter-in-law, shouldn't Xellos spent more time with her instead of you?"
Zellas glances at Lina, then death glares at Xellos, then finally lets go of Lina and speaks in very serious tone, "Xellos, you'd BETTER take good care of her. Give her all the human food you can find in this temple. If she gets hurt in ANY way.. you know what'll happen to you..."
"Yes master." Xellos sighs. "Oh well, at least Dolphin stopped Zellas-Sama from choking Lina to death." He thought.
After Dolphin and Zellas left, Xellos too a deep sigh. Lina walks over to him and asks, "Xellos-chan, who're those two beautiful big sister?"
"Big sister..." Xellos chuckles and kneels down, "the one with golden hair is my mother, and the one who has black hair... I guess you can call her my aunt."
"I'm Xellos-chan's bride, what should I call them?" Lina tilts her head.
"Ehhh?? You knew what 'bride' meant?" Xellos stares at Lina surprisingly. He thought that Lina doesn't know what it means and that was why she agreed with the Zellas' 'marriage' plans.
"Humph, OF COURSE I do! Just because I'm a kid, doesn't mean that I don't know anything!" Lina made a face at Xellos.
"Then why did you agree?" If Lina hadn't agreed with her, Zellas wouldn't be so overwhelmed and her crazy self would remain masked.
"Because I like Xellos-Chan" Lina gives Xellos a cute smile, "Onee-sama told me that marriage is being with the person you like forever!"
"..."
Xellos kneels and gives Lina a kiss on the forehead and smiles, "Let's go eat now, shall we?"
"YAY Xellos-Chan is the best" Lina shouts excitedly and puts her little hand around Xellos' neck. "I like Xellos sooo much"
--
"It is a good thing that Zellas-sama invited a lot of different mazokus, I think we have a lot of human snacks left… you don't need to eat so fast." Xellos says as he watches Lina stuff whatever food she could get her hands on into her mouth. It is hard to believe that this little girl is only ten judging by the amount she eats. Xellos and Lina are now in a beautiful room with cutey decorations, a room who Zellas had prepared a long ago for her guests.
"Hey, Xellos-chan," Lina pats her now full belly, lying lazily on the heart shaped bed, "Do you really think that having a sister is a good thing?"
"Hmmm, I don't know, Like I said before, I think that it'll make my job easier." Xellos says and sits down on the bed, "But actually, besides the fact that I have no siblings, I do have a lot of 'relatives'."
"A lot? Like stars?" Lina stares in the night sky through the window.
"Maybe even more than stars! It's like that it doesn't even matter if a few die along the way..." Xellos chuckles to himself, "So I don't really know how it would feel. To have an one and only sister… To me, Lina-Onee-Sama is very... eh?" Xellos realizes that Lina's already asleep. "Goodnight Lina-chan."
To Be Continued...