What Matters Most – Chapter Two
Lina woke the next morning feeling like she had shoved her head through the grinder, beaten the mush with a mallet, and fed the pieces to the fish. At least, that would have explained the dizzy floating-on-the-surface-of-the-ocean feeling she had as she stumbled her way across the floor and vomited into the washing bowl. Definitely not the way she wanted to start her day.
She relaxed as the nausea finally subsided. She swiped her hand across her forehead, wiping away the cold perspiration that made her shiver, and rubbed the tears out of her eyes. Then she pulled the vase of water over and poured out some of the cool water into her hand before splashing it on her face. It was a welcome relief.
She didn't bother drying her face off—the coolness of the water felt fresh on her skin. She leaned back against her bed and allowed her head to fall back, throwing an arm over her eyes for comfort. Thinking back to the events of last night, she realized that she was definitely hung over, and that it was an experience she would make note of never to repeat again.
A chill ran up her spine and her whole body shuddered in response. She vaguely remembered eating dinner with Zelgadiss and little tidbits of their conversation before the drinking, but she could not remember anything that had come after the glasses of wine she had. And the harder she tried to recollect those memories, the more her head hurt.
There was a knock at the door. Thinking it was her companion, she called back, "Yeah? Come in!"
She jumped a little in surprise when the inn owner—that creepy man—walked in. "Breakfast is ready," he said as he inspected her. Smelling the foul odor of vomit, he pinched his nose and added, "Rough night?"
Lina felt slightly irritated by the comment--and the fact that he was still being too liberal with his eyes. "Yes. And thank you for the message," she said, giving off the vibe that she wanted him gone. He caught the hint and promptly vanished from view, pulling the door shut behind him. As she was about to slip out of her pajamas, though, another knock came at the door.
"What!" she growled.
There was a pause. "Lina?"
Her cheeks turned a little pink as she responded, "Oh. Come in, Zel."
He opened the door just a crack. "How are you feeling?" he asked, afraid of intruding further on her space. It was like crossing into a lioness's territory.
"Awful."
"Do you need me to get you anything?"
"No," she replied slowly as she rubbed the back of her head. The thought of Zelgadiss acting strangely concerned about her today occurred to her, but she didn't pay it much attention. The boy rarely acted out of compassion, so she wasn't going to ruin it by teasing him about it. "On second thought, could you go ahead and put in two orders of everything on the menu for me?" she asked.
"Your stomach can handle it?"
"Of course. I need to make up for what was lost, too."
He sighed—an audible one that she could hear. "Alright. I'll be waiting for you downstairs."
o o o o o
She waited for the door to close before she clasped her hand over her mouth again. The nausea had come back tenfold. She bent over the bowl and held her breath in anticipation for the waves. Zelgadiss might have to wait longer than she had originally intended him to.
Zelgadiss watched Lina come down the stairs into the downstairs lobby with a hand on the railing and her other clutching her stomach. Her face still looked pale and tinted various shades of green. He contemplated getting up to help her, but the forced smile she put on her face kept him in his seat. She always was the type to grin and bear it, and he respected that, at least for the moment.
Lina took her seat next to him at the round table. She took a long, deliberate breath and exhaled slowly, then excitedly asked, "So what's on the menu?" After her eyes swept the table, she added, "Ah, what does it matter? Let's eat!"
He calmly refilled his cup of coffee as she began to dig in, then poured another cup and slid it over to her. When she gave him an odd look (which, in fact, could be interpreted as odd on her part because she was chewing a mouthful of food), he responded, "I find that coffee soothes my hangovers."
She swallowed and rolled her eyes at him. "Zel, coffee soothes your anything." He shrugged at her and drank his cup, and then she picked up her own cup and sipped at it. He was right, though, for the hotness of the liquid at least put her tense stomach muscles to ease. When she made quick work of that cup, she slid the cup back over to him for a refill.
"Starting to understand the wonders of coffee?" he asked with a small smug grin on his face as he poured her another cup.
"Absolutely," she replied with a snort. As she took the cup from him, she added, "Soon I'll be just like you. Can't function without it."
"Don't think so," he answered. "I'm only feeling nice enough to share today because of what you said last night."
She paused just as the edge of the cup touched her lips. The sound of him sipping at his own cup of coffee was the only noise that existed between them for a moment. Then she set the cup down and warily approached the subject. "W-what did I say?"
He grinned behind the safety of his cup. "You made me promise not to tell anyone, including you."
She glared at him. "Zel…"
"Okay, okay. It was about Gourry…"
Her face flushed, and she immediately turned away. "Uhm…what did I say about him?"
"Oh nothing much. Just the usual complaint." When he saw her heave a sigh of relief, he threw in another catch, "You did say something interesting about me, though." He was enjoying this, and it was a way for him to get back at her for the unnecessary teasing she gave him the day before.
This comment elicited a more obvious reaction from her. "No way! You're making that up!" she protested hotly. Zelgadiss noted how her face grew even redder with this reaction, and he was both surprised and curious to know why she reacted strongly to his comment.
"I'm actually not," he responded, blinking at her. She was staring at him with large eyes, slightly panicked. Then, as though reason reclaimed her, she covered her face with a hand and sank into her seat again, turning her attention back to the food in front of her, the cup of coffee now neglected. She silently continued to shovel food into her mouth and eventually worked off the awkward atmosphere after a number of plates, after which she ordered triple extra portions of three dishes she particularly liked. When she finished those and leaned back in her chair with a satisfied sigh, Zelgadiss spoke up again. "Feeling better?"
"Much," she answered, picking at the residues left between her teeth with a bone. "And I'm ready to get out of here. Hey sir! Would you hand this guy the check?"
It was Zel's turn to offer a hotheaded retort. "Hey, Lina--"
"Oh, come on Zel. It's been years since we've seen each other. Treat me just this once pleeeeeeease?" she asked him in a high-pitched voice, attempting to pull the cute act she knew he had a hard time resisting.
Apparently she got him at the wrong angle, though, for he showed no sign of falling. With a sigh, she picked up the check and pulled out the correct amount of change. "You know, we've got to work on the gentlemanly part of you one of these days."
"Only if we get to work on the womanly part of you, too…h-hold on a second, Lina!"
"What was that?"
"A joke! It was a joke!"
The fireball flickered ominously in her hand.
"Aha! It was so funny I forgot to laugh!" she said. And then there was an explosion.
o o o o o
"Mmm it feels great outside!" Lina exclaimed as she stretched her arms over her head, pulling out the aches of her back. "I can't wait to check out the local eateries," she added cheerily.
"If they're still open. I think you scared most of the civilians into hiding," he said, pointing out how doors and windows were being closed hurriedly. "It looks like your usual feasting will have to wait," he said, and continued to fiddle with his mask, attempting to pull it back into the proper position.
Lina regarded him curiously, then noticed the closed windows and silent streets. Her ears picked up the acute sounds of scuffling feet following from behind her. "Seems that way, doesn't it," she stated softly. Her hand prepared a spell as Zelgadiss fell into formation behind her, prepared for any disturbances from behind.
"I would say there are four of them, and from what I can tell, they seem to be a mix of troll and berserker," Zelgadiss said, finally dropping his mask and hood that seemed to be more of a hassle than it was a convenience. And then he added, "The last part is lost to me."
Lina sighed. "Those two are trouble enough." Trolls were tough to take down on their own, and berserkers were persistent little buggers. A combination of the two did not bode well. "But what are they doing here in town?" Zelgadiss asked. They did not commonly invade human territory.
"Obviously a gift to us from Ashevine," Lina replied. She readied the spell she had specifically to counter a troll's quick healing abilities, and it glowed green at the end of her fingertip. Hopefully they were still troll enough for it to be effective.
There was a sudden unified roaring, and the shadows began to emerge from hiding. One particular one leapt through the air towards Zelgadiss and Lina, and they dodged in separate directions to avoid the attack. As Lina spun around to face the attacker, she saw that it had closed the distance between them before she had fully reacted.
Fast! She gritted her teeth as she drew her sword to parry an attack and skidded backwards on her feet. And strong, she noted, and bit her lip. They were going to be tougher to handle than she had initially expected. It was unmistakeably one of Ashevine's creations—only she would be able to provide the perfect mix for a killing machine.
The spell before dissipated from her finger with a small pop, and she instead conjured up a fireball in its place. She threw the spell in the face of her attacker as it leapt once more towards her, shouting, "Fireball!" Then she dodged left, missing an attack from another chimera coming from the right. She flipped her sword over, pointing the blade in the opposite direction, and began to charge it with electricity. This she drove into the chimera, shouting, "Digger Bolt!"
She paused for a moment to check the whereabouts of Zelgadiss. He was distanced from her and handling another mob, but with his enchanted sword the task was much easier. "If only Gourry were here," Lina found herself thinking with a small frown, but wishing for his help would not get them out of this little predicament. She heard another growl from her left and dodged it, readying another fireball, but carelessly rolled into the oncoming path of another chimera. She was about to cast the spell in its direction, but it was already too close to her, and she could not throw up a protection spell in time to cushion the explosion.
As her mind sorted through options, however, a gleam of red cut through the eyes of the creature, and it fell backward, clinging to its eyes as they bled with black ooze. Lina glanced up to see Zelgadiss extending himself over her. Then he turned in the other direction and aimed a fireball at the mob that followed him. "Don't be so careless. I can't always be at your side like Gourry," he chided.
"Hmph! I would've been fine," she grouched back at him, losing whatever part of her that initially would have thanked him. As she steadied herself back up on her feet, she asked him, "So what do you think? They're too fast and coordinated for me to get a proper distance for spell casting." As much as she hated to admit it, it was the truth. She didn't realize how badly she had crippled herself by depending on Gourry to handle swordsmanship—she had abandoned her own subpar abilities in the art after teaming up with him.
Lina realized that Zelgadiss was whispering an incantation and leaned in a bit to hear what he had in mind.
Infinite earth, mother who nurtures all life,
"Eh? Dug haut?" she exclaimed in sudden panic.
Obey my will—
"Wait wait wait wait!" she exclaimed and jumped on him from behind, sealing his hands. He struggled against her. "What are you doing, Lina!"
"Do you want to bring all the buildings down on top of us?"
A loud roar interrupted their argument. "Close your eyes," she whispered into his ear. Then she shouted, "Lighting!"
The brilliant light exploded over a matter of seconds, blinding all of their pursuers briefly as they hastily made an exit, taking refuge inside of an empty building full of crates and boxes.
She beat him over the head with an iron pipe.
"Ow."
"Do I matter to you at all?" she screeched at him, waving the pipe angrily at him.
"Why do I feel like I've heard this before?" She hit him again for that one. "Ow."
"Because you have." A vein popped out on her forehead as she recalled the time he had buried her under a pile of rubble, all in exchange for a few pages of the Claire Bible. She wasn't quite done with him, but there was a roar just outside the building, and they both ducked down behind a stack of crates. "Listen," she began, "we need to get them out of the town first. I'll head out first by rooftop, and you take the ground after me. Got it? Levitation!"
She was out of the building as soon as the left wall crashed in, and Zelgadiss took a dive over the boxes and out the front door. He took two strides and then stopped, since two of the chimeras were there waiting for him, and the one that had taken the building down was now behind him. He grinned slyly. "Oh? Lina will be disappointed."
The chimera in front cried out and lashed forward at him, but he dodged the attack and countered by removing one of its appendages with his red sword. Using the chimera for cover, he threw a spell at the other as the third crashed into the first. "Blam Blazer!" As he rolled out of the way of impact, he grinned. All three chimera were finally in range. He pressed his hand to the ground, and called out, "Dug--"
"Zel! Look out!"
o o o o o
At first, he regained sensation in his legs, and then it spread to the rest of his body and finally to the rest of his senses. As his vision cleared, he became aware of the person standing before him, and then of the fact that it was Lina, and finally, of the fact that she was severely wounded.
"Lina!" A twinge of pain shot through the left half of his body, and he pressed a hand to his side. "Are you alright?"
"More…cough…or less." She had cuts all over her body, and from the looks of it, a broken rib or two. Behind him he found two chimera carcasses. The other two were still on their feet, though one was still blinded by his wound to its eyes. The other, though, seemed to be the one that had gotten the best of Lina, as it was carefully contemplating its next move. Clearly, that one had been the leader all along.
He was distracted when Lina suddenly fell down on one knee. He was immediately at her side. "Lina! Don't move. You're hurt badly."
"It's not as bad as it looks," she protested, though it was clear to him that it actually was as bad as it looked. He reached out to cast a healing spell on her, but then instead slipped an arm around her and dodged the oncoming attack. She coughed again—a disgruntled sputter of a cough—and he faltered a bit, concerned that his movements were hurting her. "Don't worry about me," she told him, "I'll cast my own healing spell. You focus on that thing."
He used his sword to deflect a few attacks, but the troll blood was effectively healing each wound. It was hard to maneuver while carrying Lina around, and the chimera itself was fast. He suddenly felt a soft thud against his chest, and looked down to see her head had fallen against him.
"Lina?"
"Put me down. You can't keep this up forever."
He went silent. After she had saved him—protected him to the point of injury—this was all he could do for her in return? He swallowed a hard lump that had formed in his throat. "But you--"
She pushed him away suddenly and extended her hand. "Fireball!"
Zelgadiss glanced over his shoulder to see the chimera go crashing to the ground in flames. Then he felt a hand against the side of his face, and it pulled his eyes to her. He saw ribbons of blood dripping down the side of her face, but despite it, she still did her best to smile at him. It made him feel helpless. "Zel, I'll be fine," she reassured him.
What could he do but obey? Swallowing the feeling of discomfort that squeezed his throat, he lowered her gently to the ground. She groaned a little bit, and he turned his eyes away. He couldn't face her now—not like this.
"Sorry. Looks like you'll have to heal yourself."
She gave him a languid smile. "Since when have I become so helpless to you?"
He glanced down at his hands. The feel of her battered bones was still warm on his fingers. "You haven't," he said. "So take care of yourself."
She closed her eyes. "Yeah, yeah."
He drew his sword and approached the monster. It had begun terrorizing the surroundings, shaking the ground and buildings alike. Its friend had finally regenerated, and was clearly itching for revenge. The antennae on its forehead were wriggling with anticipation. He raised his sword.
"Let's go."
o o o o o
"Oi, Lina! Pull yourself together!"
She stirred a bit. Her body still ached from head to toe, and it refused to move when she told it to. "Can't we stay here just a bit longer?" she pleaded. Her body felt hot—the chimera probably had poison on its claws. Zelgadiss didn't have the same problem. His rock-hard skin couldn't be penetrated.
"It'd be better to rest in the next town over," he said, and she opened her eyes. His bangs were hiding his eyes, and when she looked down, she saw his hand hovering over her wounded ribs. Then there was a soft light in that small space between them, transmitting magical energy from his fingers into her body. Her eyes wandered up his arm back to his face, and he glanced up at her for a second. But then he withdrew back into his shell, and once again there was silence.
"Are there any more?" she asked.
"No. That was the last of them."
A tired sigh escaped her lips. The sky overhead was still beautiful, and the warmth of the sun's rays felt good on her sore body. She giggled. "Hope I'm not missing out on any good food here."
"Let's get moving. You can stand now, right?"
Lina sighed. "Yeah," she answered, and pushed herself up.
He turned his head slightly, but still kept his eyes out of sight. "Let's go."
She sighed again. It felt like the distance between them had been improving lately, but now it felt as though she had just met him again. She remembered the look he had given her that day he had released her, and how he had been so rough with her during their escape. She put a hand over her healed wound and felt the remnants of his magic power. That space between them—though warm and gentle—she wondered if it would ever go away.
Author's Note: As whimsical as the last one, I suppose. I had forgotten that Lina had a high alcohol tolerance (thanks to whomever pointed that out), so forgive my transgression from the series. Thanks for reading, and please do leave your thoughts in a review!