Author's Note: Merry Christmas everyone! Here is a little something that I thought everyone might enjoy involving pretty much the entire Slayers cast! This is technically a sequel to my earlier piece- Slayers Reconcile- although it can easily be read by itself. This is a one shot, but as you can tell, I am horrible at keeping short stories shortm so I apologize to everyone for the great length. Yule is a holiday of Germanic origin that celebrates the Winter Solstice which was integrated with the Christian Christmas celebration, and the combining of Yule with Christmas by the Romans is why we have trees and gift exchange so closely tied with Christmas, although Yule itself is still celebrated as a seperate holiday in some countries. Since there is no Jesus in the Slayers World, I decided that the best holiday replacement would be Yule. Thank you all for reading this, please enjoy, and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.

Disclaimer- Come on, L-Sama! Its Christmas! *bong* Owch! Fine! Alright, I'll do it! *clears throat* Sniff, sob, no, I don't own Slayers, sob, and that makes me very sad.

Slayers Celebrate

Part 1: The Feast!

Twas the night before Yule Day, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a …

"Gourry, out of my way!"

POW!

…Never mind.

"Why, Lina?" Gourry Gabriev groaned as he slid down the wall that he had just been violently slammed into.

Lina Inverse sped down the hallway of Seyruun Castle. The gong that announced that the Yule's Eve feast was ready had been rung, and the young sorceress was not going to let anything- be it dark lords, loved ones, or the Lord of Nightmares herself- get in her way.

Upon coming to the staircase that led down to the floor that the dining room was on, Lina skidded to a stop. Grabbing a hold of the rope of holly that was wrapped around the banister, she tore off a large length of the decorative plant, leapt upon the rail, and slid down, laughing like a small child going down a hill of fresh snow on a brand new sled.

As the giggling, giddy sorceress slid down the polished banister, she used her outstretched hands to push new bands of holly aside. As she passed the landing directly below her own floor, the sorceress barely managed to avoid taking out two figures with her wide spread legs.

"Whoops! Sorry Zel!" Lina called over her shoulder. "Sorry Amelia!"

"I hate how she gets all hyper like this during the holidays," Zelgadis Graywords complained as he helped his female companion back to her feet.

"She just loves the holidays, Mr. Zelgadis, that's all," Amelia Wil Tesla Seyruun replied as she made sure that the colorful holiday ribbons that she had put into her hair earlier were still in place.

"Yes, but would it kill her to have just a little bit of dignity?"

"Remember that Yule we celebrated in the Outer Lands?" Amelia giggled, changing the subject.

"Ugh, don't remind me," the chimera groaned. "Filia almost had a heart attack when Lina broke that dragon-crafted vase from before the Koma War."

"Yeah, and let loose that curse that made everyone sing horribly off-key whenever someone tried to talk," the princess laughed.

"And Xellos was the only one unaffected by it, and spent nearly the entire time that the curse was active laughing at us," Zelgadis bristled.

"Well, you have to admit, it was pretty funny at first, and after the curse finally evaporated."

"If you say so."

As the two friends talked, Gourry slowly came down the stairs towards them, supported by a tall, yet shy-looking girl with indigo hair and a cape.

"Has Ms. Lina already been through here?" Sylphiel Nels Lahda of Sairaag asked.

"Yeah, she just went past us while sliding down the guard rail," Amelia replied to her fellow priestess.

"Oh, dear! And I was going to ask her to apologize for running over Dear Gourry."

"We'll see her in a couple of minutes," Zelgadis assured. "Now let's hurry before she eats all of the food."

"Don't worry about me, Sylphiel," Gourry said kindly as Zelgadis relieved the young priestess of her burden. "I'm made of tougher stuff than that. I have to be. She does that all the time!"

"Oh, Gourry, Dear," the infatuated priestess sighed as she listened to her beloved swordsman laugh it off.

The four friends quickly made their way down the steps, and through the brightly decorated castle. Everywhere they went, servants hustled and bustled about, either to add some finishing touch to the castle's ornamentation, or to help with the soon-to-be served feast. Various Yule carols could be heard wafting through the air at all times.

At last, they arrived at the entrance to the grand dining hall, where they were greeted by the huge Crown Prince Philionel de Seyruun himself.

"Hi, Daddy!" Amelia greeted cheerily.

"Hello Amelia, Mr. Zelgadis, Ms. Sylphiel, Mr. Gourry," replied to each of them in turn.

"Is Ms. Lina already here, Daddy?" Amelia asked, already guessing the answer.

"Oh, err, no," the heavily mustachioed crown prince replied, somewhat embarrassed. "You see, the Grand Dining Hall needs to be used tonight for all of the dignitaries who have come over for Yule, so I'm afraid that you and your group will have to make do with the secondary dining hall. I've already sent Miss Lina there."

"Oh, yeah, that's right. I forgot," replied Amelia.

"It's nothing personal," Prince Phil explained apologetically to the others. "Most of you would all be quiet welcome at the State Yule's Eve Feast; but I just assumed that you kids would all prefer to eat together by yourselves rather than listen to a bunch of old farts trying to impress each other and talk politics. And, um, some of your guests are rather…"

"It's no problem, Your Highness," Zelgadis answered, "We understand perfectly. Several in our group shouldn't be seen associating with the Crown Prince of Seyruun by snooty politicians… And in some cases, not by anyone for that matter."

The big man gave a much-relieved laugh.

"Thank you so very much for understanding! You kids have fun! See you later!"

"Bye, Daddy!" Amelia called as her father returned to the Grand Dining Hall to attend to his guests.

The group turned about and, while following Amelia, made their way to the secondary dining hall.

A few minutes later they entered into a grand hall of marble pillars, brilliantly colored stained glass windows, and a high-vaulted ceiling. In each corner of the room was an enormous Yule tree covered in gold, silver, and crystal ornaments, and topped with a sapphire star.

"I hope that no one minds that we have to eat in the casual dining room," apologized Amelia.

"This is the casual dining room!?" exclaimed Gourry and Sylphiel.

"Casual for large groups," Zelgadis explained, as he had visited the Seyruun Royal Palace more often than Gourry, or even Sylphiel, who lived in Seyruun City.

"Yes, but still…" Sylphiel commented as she continued to stare at the lavish room.

"Who cares? Let's go eat!" Gourry declared, having spotted Lina.

The center of the banquet hall was occupied by a huge, ornately carved mahogany table with matching chairs. This table was covered with silver platters, plates, and bowels of appetizers and soups. The appetizers ranged from shrimp cocktail and oyster soup to spiced Elmekian Bread- an expensive and very hard to make gourmet bread from Gourry's homeland of the Elmekian Empire (any relation to Amelia's signature astral attack is unknown) - and Sairaag-style Venison Stew- a famous dish which uses a specially prepared secret spice made from the autumn leaves of the holy tree Flagoon (said leaves now being a vanishing and valuable commodity). In fact, this particular version of the soup was a secret recipe from Sylphiel's mother's family, and this batch had been made by the young priestess herself.

Gathered around the table for the Yule's Eve Feast was an eclectic group of individuals, consisting of: One redheaded sorcery genius and her stupid, but well-meaning swordsman protector, an orphaned priestess with an unrequited crush for said swordsman, a sorcerer/swordsman chimera, a justice obsessed princess, a former princess turned sluttily dressed sorceress, a dimwitted green haired queen and her former mercenary swordsman husband, a former golden dragon priestess and her adopted ancient dragon son, and a one eyed fox beastman and one eyed ogre who were employees of said golden dragon.

At the head of the table sat the feast's host: Amelia. To Amelia's left sat her sister Naga, who was alternating between handfuls of shrimp and draughts of brandy. Next to Naga sat the mercenary-turned King of Zoana, Zangulus, who was trying very hard to ignore the incessant bickering going on between his wife Martina and the golden dragon Filia.

"Miss Martina!" the former priestess scolded as she pointed at the small bulge in the human girl's stomach. "You shouldn't drink while you're pregnant!"

"Ah, go shove it, Miss Yellow Lizard," Martina replied as she polished off another goblet of wine.

Then with a flip of her curly, green locks, the queen of Zoana added, "It's my body, and I can do whatever I want with it!"

"It's not just your body! It's also the baby's home and development center!" Filia yelled angrily. "And don't call me a yellow lizard! I am a golden dragon!"

"Yellow lizard! Yellow lizard!" Martina taunted as she stuck her tongue out and pulled down an eyelid.

"Oh! You are so selfish, and immature, and…., grrrr!" Filia raged, her hands itching to pull out the mace hidden underneath her skirts and klonk the spoiled brat upside the head.

"Boss!" Jilas, the one-eyed foxman, said as he skillfully tossed the giggling baby Val up and down, "Your tail's sticking out again!"

"Oh, dear!" Filia groaned with an embarrassed blush as she shoved her upraised tail back underneath her pink dress.

Martina laughed with her high-pitched, girly cackle, which was soon answered by a loud, long laugh like that of a howler monkey.

"What a pathetic attempt at arrogant, self-confident laughter!" declared Naga.

"Oh, really?" Martina asked as her eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Really! Hoh-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho!"

"Hyah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

"Hoh-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho!"

"Hyah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

"Hoh-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho!"

"Hyah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

"Hoh-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho!"

"ENOUGH!!" Zangulus screamed.

This caused young Val to start crying.

"Zangulus!" scolded Martina.

"Jerk!" accused Naga.

Jilas and Filia (with the latter now holding Val) got out of their chairs, walked over, and smacked the black haired swordsman upside the head.

Meanwhile, Zelgadis, Lina, Gourry, Sylphiel, and Jilas' ogre partner Gravos (who were sitting across from Naga, Zangulus, Martina, Filia, and Jilas respectively), and Amelia looked on with mild interest.

"Why didn't baby Val start crying earlier, during that awful laughing contest?" Sylphiel wondered aloud to no one in particular.

"Who knows?" was Lina's only reply.

At that moment, a man in a chef's outfit with a curly, black mustache, and a thick accent entered the dining hall from the adjacent kitchen.

"Prin-cess Amelia," the chef said with a bow, "Ze din-ner is ready to be served. Shall I-,"

"Yes! Yes! Bring it in! Bring it in!" Lina interrupted, banging her silverware on the table.

The chef stared darkly at the sorceress for a moment before turning back to his princess.

Amelia nodded.

The chef bowed once again and returned to the kitchen.

While they were waiting for the food to arrive, Filia was suddenly overcome by a fit of shivers.

"What is it, Ms. Filia?" asked Sylphiel.

"I've just had a feeling. A feeling as if some powerful evil has just appeared within this castle," the shaken dragon replied slowly.

"Is it a mazoku?" asked Amelia.

"I think so," Filia nodded.

The group remained absolutely still, as if they too were trying to sense what Filia had felt. Even Val seemed to understand the situation and had ceased his squirming.

"Din-ner iz served!" the head chef called out suddenly, causing everyone to jump.

The suddenness of Filia's movements spooked Val, causing the infant dragon to begin crying again.

"Bon appetite!" the chef invited with a flourishing bow. At this signal, dozens of cooks with covered platters began to pour into the dining hall.

"Alright! Let's eat!" Lina declared as she shot a triumphant, fork-wielding fist into the air.

"But Miss Lina, shouldn't we do something about the mazoku?" Sylphiel asked as the servant began to remove the soups and other appetizers.

"It can wait," Lina answered as she greedily eyed the new platters being laid down in front of her.

"But Miss Lina!" objected Amelia.

"It can wait!" the red head snapped with finality.

The princess gave a defeated, whine-like whimper.

"Well, I think that Lina's right!" Martina put in suddenly.

Zangulus, Lina, Gourry, Amelia, and Zelgadis all looked on in shock.

"Don't look so surprised," Martina replied with a mean-spirited grin. "After all, its common knowledge that flat-chested red heads have to be given ample time to stuff their faces before they can be expected to do anything!"

Zangulus groaned tiredly while everyone else (with the exception of Val and Naga) cringed and looked at Lina nervously.

"Gee, thanks, Martina," Lina replied with a painful-looking grimace- the grip of her curled fists easily bending her spoon and fork. "You're such a pleasant person to have around during the holidays."

The queen of Zoana merely gave a self-satisfied chuckle and stuck out the tip of her tongue.

Lina responded in kind.

Martina leaned towards her rival and stuck her tongue out farther.

Lina leaned forward and stuck her tongue out farther as well.

Martina leaned even closer and stuck her tongue out even farther.

Lina leaned in even closer and stuck her tongue out even farther as well.

This continued until both girls were sprawled diagonally across the table, and with their tongues mere centimeters apart.

"Humph, you two are such immature little babies!" Naga said snidely.

In perfect unison, both red haired sorceress and green haired noble turned towards Naga and blew a raspberry.

"Does it ever disturb you how much those two are alike?" Gravos asked, turning to Sylphiel.

"Yes, but we don't ever talk about it," the priestess replied, trying very hard not to stare at the ogre's scarlet glass eye.

At that point, the servants brought in an enormous platter that was over five feet long, three feet wide, and so heavy that it took six men to carry it.

While nearly everyone else simply stared at the enormous covered dish, Lina, Naga, and Gourry took it a step further and stared with a lust-like longing with their tongues hanging out.

Meanwhile, Amelia grinned in a highly pleased manner.

It had taken Seyruun's best hunters nearly three months to find even this one specimen of the elusive Monstrous Sand Turkey, which could only be found in the northern-most edge of the Desert of Destruction.

The princess had briefly considered hiring an experienced chef like Mr. Ashford to prepare a dragon cuisine feast, especially considering how much Miss Lina had been looking forward to it the last time they had gotten close to getting one. However, that plan had been quickly squashed upon remembering that: 1.) It takes half a year to prepare a full-course dragon feast, and 2.) Miss Filia and Val would be coming, and were dragons, and thus it would probably be considered cannibalism to feed them dragon, even if the meat did not come from that of the ryuzoku (intelligent dragon races). In fact, it would probably be highly offensive to them to even be in the same room as people who were dining on a distant cousin. Thus, Amelia had settled upon serving a slightly less rare and much simpler main course for this Yule Feast.

The princess had also decided that it would probably be in her best interest not to tell Miss Lina about having rejected the idea of serving dragon cuisine.

At last, the giant covered platter was gotten over everyone's head, and onto the table.

The head chef jumped onto the table, placed a hand upon the handle of the dish's covering, and said, "Ladies and gentlemen! It iz my proud hon-or to pre-sent to you zis night, one of ze world's most exquis-ite dishes! Behold! For to-night's dining pleas-ure: Ze rare and delicious Monstrous Sand Tur-key! Enjoy!"

With that, the proud chef tugged the great covering off with surprising ease, and jumped to the ground.

Everyone looked on with expectant awe. This was replaced a moment later with either confusion or devastated shock.

The enormous turkey was gone!

"W-what iz zis!?"

"What happened?"

"Sis, is this some kind of bad joke?"

"N-no! Of course not, Gracia!"

"Oh, my!"

"Humph, it seems that Seyruun is rather lacking in courtesy!"

None were more devastated than Lina Inverse, however.

"W-w-what…uh…," the sorceress whimpered with tear-filled eyes.

Literally everyone in the room was now staring at the empty platter. The servants who had been carrying it were especially confused, as they had felt the enormous bird's weight inside as they had carried it. This staring continued for several minutes, with no sounds being made besides Lina's sobbing.

A scream and a crash from the kitchens caused everyone to jump once more, causing the green haired baby to burst into tears again.

Another chef soon burst into the hall, this one's apron covered in splattered pastry.

"Chef Francoise! Chef Francoise!" the poor, disheveled young cook wailed just before collapsing at the head chef's feet. "I was getting the Seyruun-Style Apple Pie and your Chef's Special Family Peach Cobbler out of the oven when I… when I…! Oh, I'm so sorry, Chef!"

"What!?" the head chef demanded, noting the mess on the other man's apron and quickly becoming enraged. "You dropped my pies!? My Seyruun-Style Apple Pie and special family peach cobbler!? You fool! How dare you show your face to me! I should-!"

"B-but it wasn't my fault, sir!" the unfortunate man whimpered. "Just as I was pulling them out from the oven, a tiny creature with huge wings on its head- or maybe those were its ears, I don't know- anyway, it appeared out of nowhere, jumped on my face from the rafters, threw me to the ground, and disappeared. By the time I could see again, it was too late!"

"How dare you!?" the head chef snarled. "Do you take me for a fool!? I will bile you in cook-ing oil, and zen I'll-!"

"Please, wait a moment!" Sylphiel objected, her soft voice somehow catching the enraged chef's attention. "Ms. Filia, didn't you say that you had felt a mazoku materialize a couple of minutes ago?"

"Yes," Filia began, not quite sure at what the human girl was getting at. Then it hit her, and she asked, "Can you sense it too?"

"Yes, I can feel its presence. It's very close, and it seems to be watching us from somewhere nearby."

"Me too!" Amelia declared, standing up in her seat. "I can sense it too! That must be what attacked Jeff!"

"It hardly sounded like an attack…" Zelgadis began.

"You weren't there!" the young man objected.

"…And from the vague description that we did get, it sounds an awful lot like..."

"Cut the chatter, Zel!" Lina declared, her eyes burning with righteous rage. "This nasty little mazoku already stole the main course, and now it's gone and destroyed our dessert! Well, I say that we should go and repay him in kind!"

"Lina, I really don't think that that was a mazoku…"

"Shut up, Zel! Okay, everyone! Let's split up, and search the whole castle for this little creep! Let's go!"

With that, Lina dashed off towards the kitchen to initiate the investigation.

"Don't think that you can hog all of the glory and food for yourself, Lina!" Naga yelled as she gave chase, grabbing a random person and carrying them off to help.

"Zan-gu-lus! Help!" Martina screamed as the laughing Naga dragged her along by the scruff of the neck.

"Mr. Zelgadis!" Amelia began, now totally in Justice Mode. "Let's…"

"No."

"But…"

"I said, 'No!'"

"Humph, fine!" Amelia huffed. "Mr. Gourry, Ms. Sylphiel, follow me! We'll go and check on the upper floors!"

With that, the princess grabbed her two older friends by the arm, and half-dragged them away with her.

By now Lina, Naga, and Amelia's gung-ho attitudes had triggered Zangulus' old hunting instincts, and the former bounty hunter was now eager to chase the mysterious creature himself. First, though, he was even more eager to…

"Yeah! Now I can finally get out of these stupid clothes!" the ex-mercenary crowed as her cheerfully tore off his royal robes.

Beneath the robes were his old mercenary swordsman clothes, consisting of: A worn pair of colorless baggy pants, a faded yellow, long-sleeved shirt, a worn vest of the same material and color as the pants, and a long, poncho-like enshroudment cloak*. Attached to his waist was an enchanted longsword with an x-shaped crossguard with a green gem embedded in the center on both side: The Howling Sword II. To complete the image, Zangulus withdrew a grungy, pointed hat that matched his cloak, vest and pants from a hidden pocket within said cloak, and plopped it onto his head.

"Aaah!" the swordsman sighed happily. "Now I finally feel like my old self again! It's been way too long!

"I'll take the basement. You want to come along, Zelgadis?"

"No, thank you."

"Fine, whatever," Zangulus shrugged. "Hey, beastman! Ogre! You two want to come?"

Jilas and Gravos looked over towards Filia. Upon receiving a nod of approval, the two gave a whoop, and followed the rugged swordsman out of the dining hall.

Zelgadis gave a deep sigh.

"I hate it when everyone gets all hyper like this," the chimera complained.

"Why didn't you want to go with Ms. Amelia?" Filia teased as she tickled her baby, causing Val to giggle hysterically.

"Its not that I didn't want to be with her," Zelgadis replied with a small blush. "Its just that she gets unreasonable whenever she gets excited like this."

"I take it that you mean that you have a better plan for catching the creature than running around the palace like a chicken with its head cut off?"

"And to lure out the mazoku," Zelgadis nodded. "We wait here, and allow them to choose the time to show themselves."

"I see."

The forgotten servants and cooks, deciding that they were no longer needed, went off to do whatever.

End Part 1

*Enshroudment cloak- or 'shroud cloak for short- is a term of my own invention** referring to those awsome capes that anime characters wear alot that wrap around their whole body. For some reason, I hope that this term gets into mainstream usage someday.

**As far as I know, no one else has used it before me. If so, then I apologize.