This is my second fanfiction – technically. I'm also working on a Super Smash Bros. Fic called "Super Smash Bros. Rumble". If you play the SSB games, you should read it. Right now, I have 7 chapters up. Anyways, this Slayers fic will be a bit more on the dramatic side than the actual series. There will be new spells and other stuff, too. I'm trying, so please, constructive criticism only. Now, I'll quit annoying you and start the fic.
Chapter 1 – Reunion
"Geez, Lina," Gourry whined, "wasn't that a little bit too much?"
"Nah," the sorceress replied nonchalantly, "they got what they deserved."
"B-but they just-"
"Gourry. They. Captured. Us. They got what they deserved."
The pair turned from the smoldering ashes which used to be a regal castle fortress, and headed off for the nearest sign of civilization.
As they walked into town, a muffled grumbling sound could be heard.
"Hey, Gourry! I'm gonna go get some food – wanna come?"
"No thanks. I'm going to go to sell off this stuff we found at that place back there.
"Yeah, they had some nice stuff there."
"Okay, see ya later, Lina. Let's meet up at the port, later on."
"A'right. See ya!"
Lina stepped into the nearest tavern.
Restaurante de Oro...huh?
"Hey!" she hollered after seating herself at a booth near the window, "I'd like to place an order!"
A tanned waiter with a strong foreign accent came to take it.
"Good afternoon," he greeted, with a smile, "what would you like to drink, young lady?"
"Oh, I can make my food order too, now, if that's okay with you."
"Ah, a customer who can make up her mind the second she enters the door? Wonderful! Let's have it."
"Okay...I'll have some water to drink...and one order of everything ya got!"
The waiter seemed to be quite surprised, at first. However, Lina soon convinced the waiter that she was perfectly serious.
"Hm. Wonderful – I'll tell the chef, right away!"
The waiter quickly shuffled off in the direction of the kitchen. Lina stared outside of the window.
"Hm. I wonder how Amelia and Zel are doing. I'm sure they're busy; they always are."
She sighed and brushed her red-orange hair out of her eyes. It had been two whole years since she had seen either the princess or the chimaera. They had last seen each other during the ghost Shabranigdo incident – they had helped prince Pokota save his kingdom, and since then, the prince had been wandering in search of a way to help more, and the group hadn't seen each other since the day they decided to part ways.
The next customer walked in. Normally, Lina would not have noticed something so trivial. However, there was a strange aura about him. Something menacing, but not necessarily evil. She flinched a little when he sat down at a table only a few feet away from her. He wore a black hooded robe, which concealed any of his facial features. His hands were in black gloves. The only thing that Lina could tell about him was that he was definitely not a girl.
She sighed. I have a bad feeling about this.
The waiter brought Lina's water out, setting it down on the table. He then turned to the hooded man.
"Good afternoon, sir. What will you be having this fine evening?"
"I assume you have fish?"
The hooded figure didn't sound much younger than Lina. He was probably eighteen or nineteen years old.
"Of course. Bejewld is a port town, after all. We have salmon, tuna-"
"I'll have snapper, if you have it."
"Of course. And to drink?"
"Just water."
"All right then, I'll go get it for you."
The waiter turned on his heel and walked into the kitchen again, leaving Lina alone with the new customer.
It had been ten minutes since the waiter had delivered the hooded figure's water and refilled Lina's.
"Hey," she yelled towards the kitchen, "it's been forever since I made my order, hurry it up! I'm starving."
She heard a chuckle and turned to see that the hooded figure was the source.
"Just chill," he said, "they're bringing it out right now."
"How can you-"
She was interrupted by a clanging sound, signifying that someone was moving plates. In a few moments, her table was covered in lobsters and fish, along with assorted meats and the occasional salad.
"Mm...lobster..."
Lina ripped apart the crustacean bit by bit, only stopping to eat the meat, which for her, didn't take too long. Just as the waiter said, Bejewld was a port town, and a good one too. It had thousands of fisherman working in Sapphire Bay, looking for rare new fish to eat. The town wasn't well known, but it was sure as hell big. The only problem was the occasional sea monster.
As if by cue, the door was broken down, the glass windowpane shattering into a billion pieces. The bell on the top of the door rang out a cacophonous note. In the door was a very large blue lobster-like creature, except its head was a lot like a human's with an elongated skull. Its fiery red eyes seemed to enhance the already horrifying atmosphere.
Employees started running out of the kitchen, flailing forks and knives and pots and pans. The lobster thing began to crush nearby tables, slowly making its way towards the less occupied section of the restaurant. Showing no worry about then creature just a few yards away and advancing, Lina kept eating her food. The blue behemoth walked on all of its legs to the stranger's table.
Its biggest mistake.
It flipped over the table, spilling snapper and ice water everywhere.
"Excuse me, I was eating." he said, obviously angry at the creature.
Not possessing advanced vocal chords, the creature emitted a deep booming sound.
"You know, I don't appreciate being disturbed-"
He lifted his hand up in the direction of the monster.
"-while I'm eating! Fireball!"
A burst of red flame launched from his hand, exploding onto the lobster.
The lobster danced around in the flames, its shell sizzling and making cracking sounds. And all the while, Lina sat there, occasionally picking up more fish to inhale.
"Aw! It's cold now!"
She held the cold bluegill up to the boiling lobster, quickly heating it up and making it edible again. However, the flames quickly died out, leaving only a charred thing on the floor. The fire hadn't spread much, but a few chairs had black legs, and one was a pile of ashes now. Employees began to crowd around the lobster. Eventually, one of them poked it with the leg of a chair. Its only response was leaning over to the side.
The employees quietly dragged the giant crustacean to the kitchen, menacingly brandishing knives.
"Damn," the hooded stranger muttered, "I overdid it a little. I guess that means I'll have to leave...soon."
He put a bag of coins on the table and turned to Lina.
"Hey, could you tell the people here that this is for the damages?"
"How much is that?"
"Oh, just like...three thousand gold pieces, I guess?"
"What?"
What? Three thousand? That's more than I make in a week! And he...he just...put it there, with no regards. This guy much be rich or something! And he's certainly got some magic skills...maybe I could work some profit off of-
"Uh, excuse me, are you still alive over there?"
"Er, yeah. I was just wondering, are you like, royalty or something?"
"Royalty? God, no. What makes you think that?"
"Well, you kind of have a lot of money. Lots."
"Oh, I'm sorry. What would a normal person pay for a few more chairs and a table or two?"
"Eh...two hundred silver. You don't seem to be too familiar with the economy."
"Oh," he said, switching the first bag with a much smaller one, "call it a sheltered life."
Aw, hell, he's leaving! I have to think of something, quick! My wallet's just jumping for that gold!
"Hey!" she exclaimed, jumping from her seat, "Are you going anywhere in particular?"
"No, not really. Me and my...partner? We're just wandering around, looking for something. Why?"
"Well, me and my 'partner' are doing the exact same thing! You wouldn't mind if we tagged along, would you?"
"Sure, but the journey is kind of dangerous. We can't protect too many people."
"We can handle ourselves! But...we'll need a little bit of money to start us out..."
"Meh – if you're really coming with us, then what's ours is yours, I guess."
Yes! Awesome! If I'm right, Gourry won't mind coming too. Hell, we might meet up with the others again!
"Great! Now, I'll go get him, and you can get your friend! Meet up with us at the Garnet Cave. That's the inn a few blocks from here. See ya soon!"
Lina bolted out of the Restaurante de Oro, leaving the stranger behind.
"Hm." the hooded stranger thought aloud, "I guess the people in this time period are a little different from the ones in modern day. Oh, well. Might as well go find her."
Lina saw Gourry pretty quickly, since he was just sitting there by himself, in front of the nearest antique shop.
"Gourry, why do you look so confused?"
"Oh! Lina! Well, the people in the shop looked sort of familiar. And they knew me. It was weird..."
"Oh, Gourry, you're just imagining things, I'm sure. So, how much did you get?"
"Well, I got about nine hundred and fifty gold pieces, but most of the stuff is still getting 'appraised' by the lady in there. She said to come back tomorrow."
"All right, then we'll just have to come back then, won't we?"
Peeking at the shop's name, she couldn't help but feel a little nostalgic.
The Golden Dragon? That does sound a little familiar...and an antique shop? Oh well.
Noticing the sun setting, Lina pulled Gourry along with her, walking back the direction she came from.
"Lina, what's this about?"
"We're going to stay at the inn here. I smell money, and my sixth sense never lies."
"You mean your Lina Sense is tingling?"
"Shut up and walk, you idiot!"
The pair began to notice that there weren't any boats out right now. That was sort of weird, considering that this was a busy port town. Lina couldn't help but think back to just an hour or two ago. That monster that attacked the restaurant wasn't much, so she wondered why sea monsters were such a problem in Bejewld. It was probably because of their sheer number, or because the town relied completely on its naval force for protection. After all, warships can't do much to monsters on land.
By the time the sun was just barely peeking out over the horizon, Gourry and Lina had finally reached a remote corner of town. Why nobody ever visited the inn, Lina couldn't be sure. Outside were a pair just as strange as Lina and Gourry.
The male of the group had a good build, tall, with broad shoulders, and had hair that wasn't short, but not quite long, either. It hung down in chestnut semi-triangular bangs, and hardly reached his eyebrows. Underneath those were azure-blue eyes, twinkling with something. Curiosity, maybe? Excitement, perhaps? He was wearing strange clothing, sort of like a hooded white cloak, with drawstrings down from his neck to about half a foot down. The sleeves were a little too big, with just the tips of his fingers poking through. He wore grayish pants under that, which appeared to be made of something other than wool or cotton. Maybe a mixture of the both?
The female looked rather strange as well. It wasn't that she had purple hair, of all colors, which was tied back into two pony tails from the top of her head. It wasn't her glassy eyes, which had gray-blue irises so faint that you could hardly differentiate them from the whites of her eyes. It wasn't even her clothing, a blue jacket of sorts which seemed to be made of some new synthetic material, or her pants, made of white denim. It was probably the enormous suitcase attached to her back, which was about half a foot wide and six and a half tall. That and she was extremely well-endowed, automatically gaining jealousy from Lina. The two seemed about the same age.
"Hey!" the male called, attracting Lina's attention.
"I guess you're the one who was in the restaurant, earlier? By the way, you did a great job with the monster." she responded when she was close enough.
"Thanks. I don't think we've been introduced, yet. I'm Cecil – it's pronounced seh-sill, but spelled C-e-c-i-l – and this is Henrietta. Henrietta, say hi."
"H-h-hi..." the girl stammered.
"Aw..." Lina cooed, "what an adorable stutter! I'm Lina Inverse, this is Gourry Gabriev. We're kind of well-known in this part of the world."
"Sorry," Cecil said indifferently with a shrug, "can't say I've heard of you. Then again, I guess we aren't really from this side of town, if you know what I mean."
"Yeah, whatever!" Lina exclaimed, "let's just go get our room."
"M-me and Cecil already had a room reserved...I-I-I h-hope that that's all right..."
"That's great! Let's go, then!"
Lina ran towards the door, opening and shutting it as she bolted inside.
"You know," Gourry mumbled, "things will go a lot easier if you two just do what she says on this journey, okay?"
"I guess she explained this all to you?" Cecil asked, ignoring Henrietta's giggle fit.
"Yeah. Let's go, all right?"
With a nod, the rest of the group quickly followed after Lina. The inn didn't seem like anything special. On the outside, it was old and a little decrepit, and on the inside, it was small. There was a small desk for the clerk to sit behind, and a staircase to their right, which they promptly went up. There was a hallway at the top, leading to three or four doors. One of them closed just as the trio arrived, so they guessed that she went in there. Suddenly, they heard a small yelp from the sorceress. Gourry ruched into the room, Cecil and Henrietta behind him. They saw Lina on the floor, beside a bed.
"What's wrong, Lina?" Gourry asked, obviously as confused as the other two.
"There's...only one bed! One bed, king size. This is just too much!"
"What's wrong with that? We can all just—"
"No, Gourry! It's not okay. By the look on those twos' faces, it's not okay with them either."
"Well," Cecil interjected, "me and Henrietta can sleep on the floor, and you two can-"
"Not happening, Cessy!"
"So you two aren't...?"
"Hell, no! Why would you think that?"
"Well, you're about twenty, twenty-one, together on a trip to nowhere, and above all else, you are a man and a woman."
"Actually," Gourry corrected, "Lina's more like a girl then a woman."
Lina started to growl.
"You know," she said, "I have a good amount of spells in my arsenal. For example...darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond-"
Catching Lina's wrist, Cecil exclaimed, "Okay, we get it! You and Henrietta sleep on the bed, I'll sleep by the window, Gourry sleeps by the door. Does that work?"
The blond warrior complained, "But what if someone opens up the door and steps on me?"
"Then you yell and wake us up, me and Lina throw Fireballs, and Henrietta just-"
"C-can we go to sleep now, Cecil? It's g-getting l-late."
"Oh, sure. There are three blankets, so I guess the girls will share one."
As everyone slipped into bed, Lina couldn't help but ask some things that had been bothering her for quite a while.
"Hey, Cecil? Henrietta?"
"Yeah?"
"Y-yes?"
"How come Cecil was wearing that funny robe in the restaurant? Did you wear it too, Henrietta? Why? And what's in that suitcase of yours?"
"First," Cecil responded, "we're trying not to attract attention, so I wore darker clothes. The monster didn't help though."
"I-I didn't have to wear the hoodie...I stayed in a shop downtown for a long time. The people there were really nice. Especially the one that showed me – no, led me around. His hand felt kind of weird, though. And, the suitcase...? I can't really tell you, yet. You'll see..." she sort of giggled a little after that.
Okay...? That was slightly weird. I wonder where these guys came from to have to try to avoid attention. If they are, they sure are traveling with the wrong bunch.
Lina smiled to herself as she felt exhaustion take over. After running around for hours, it was a little hard not to. Surrendering to the power of the abyssal night.
END~
I originally started this fic just because I was bored, just like with Super Smash Bros Rumble. However, I think I'll be pretty active on this fic. I really liked how this story just flowed out of my fingers, so I think I'll post chapter 2 while I'm inspired. So, see ya soon!
