Goodnight Kisses

Part Seven, Healing

By Relm

To get to the white magic convention it would take another couple more days worth of travel. And between where the two groups were and where they wanted to go there was only one more town they could stop off in. However this town was more like a city as it was a little more urbanized and closer to where the convention was taking place. Given the time frame they had it didn't make sense to push forward to get to the city before dark rather than just camp out. The likelihood of getting to the city before it was a normal time to turn in was very slim. But both groups had their own set of challenges to deal with that pressed them on further.

Sylphiel and Pokota were trying to get to the next town because of Sylphiel's recent resurgence of sleepwalking. There were many factors to consider when determining the cause of the sleeping condition and Pokota and Sylphiel were trying to eliminate one. If they got Sylphiel to a nice proper bed then perhaps she wouldn't go on a night walk. If she still was sleepwalking however then there was something else that was causing the problem.

During their walk Pokota and Sylphiel did talk about other issues that could be causing Sylphiel's sleepwalking. One thing that did pop up was perhaps Sylphiel was anxious about being away from New Siaraag. Having her home destroyed and rebuilt so many times made Sylphiel leery about leaving for fear something bad might happen while she was gone.

Besides thinking about the cause of the sleepwalking another topic relating to it was discussed. That topic? What was Sylphiel doing while she was sleepwalking? Sylphiel told Pokota about the many times Sylphiel's father had found Sylphiel sleepwalking when she was a child. Most of things she ended up doing where very mundane simple things. Like for instances Sylphiel often found herself wandering into the kitchen and preparing foods. However given her sleepy state what Sylphiel tried to make just didn't work. Either she didn't have the ingredients or utensils or she flat out was in the wrong area. What had worried Sylphiel's father was that Sylphiel could have accidently started a fire while trying to cook something.

But what would Sylphiel be trying to do in the woods? Was she trying to bake a pie with pinecones and tree branches? Or make cupcakes out of rocks and leaves? Given that there was no appliances in the woods the only way she could start a fire would be to use magic. So the risk to others wasn't all that high. What was concerning was that Sylphiel could accidently hurt herself by tripping or falling down off a cliff or into a ravine.

With those thoughts in mind Pokota and Sylphiel were very determined to get to the next city as quick as possible. But they were much further behind than the group ahead of them and wasn't as likely to get to the city at a decent hour.

Even though they were further ahead and closer to the next city things weren't all that rosy with Lina and company.

Despite forcing him to eat more food, drink more water and take more breaks Gourry just didn't seem to be getting any better. True he wasn't getting worse but the lack of improvement was concerning. At this point they were doing all they could be doing except for just stopping all together and letting Gourry rest for a couple days. Yes they did have some wiggle room as they were sure to get to the convention at least a day before it was set to start but they didn't have the extra time to let Gourry sleep and rest for days. And furthermore resting would be easier if Gourry had a bed to sleep in and not a bedroll on hard ground.

One option that was being tossed around was that maybe Gourry should stay in the next town while the rest of them continued on to the convention. And then Gourry could get the rest he needed and the rest of them could just pick him up on the way back.

This seemed like a perfect solution if not for two problems. One of those was that if Gourry stayed behind he would be doing so alone. If he happened to get worse staying in his inn room no one would be aware of it. At the very least if he stayed with the others then they could at least take care of him if things did take a turn for the worse.

The second problem was Gourry himself. Despite looking like crap Gourry kept insisting he was fine. All he was was tired and that's all. He had no interest in staying all alone in an inn room sleeping while the others went on without him. And Gourry was being quite firm on the subject too. He was going and that was final.

The others assumed he was just being stubborn but there was actually more to it than that. Since that strange 'dream' of Sylphiel kissing him he hadn't been able to get her out of his head. And the more he thought about it the more likely it seemed that Sylphiel would be also going to the convention too. In reality Gourry had no way of knowing it to be but he was sure of it just the same. He wanted to see Sylphiel again, badly.

So onwards both groups pressed on with the goal of getting to a nice cozy bed.

Xellos being the monster he was took this traveling time to muse over recent events and observe both parties. Pokota and Sylphiel had no idea Xellos was around. While Lina and company were aware that Xellos was lurking though they made no effort to try and talk to him or call him out. They treated Xellos like he wasn't even there. The best way to make something go away was to ignore it right? So ignore away they did. This suited Xellos just fine as he rather be sneaky and stealthy.

Listening to the problems facing Lina's group were interesting though it wasn't enough to completely capture Xellos' attention. This was partly because he didn't think Gourry was sick at all. In his mind the reason why the former swordsman of light was so drained wasn't because of a sickness but his nightly visitor.

Hearing Pokota and Sylphiel talk about Sylphiel's sleepwalking problem explained some of Xellos' questions. If the former shrine maiden was sleepwalking then that could be why she came into the camp to seduce Gourry. She wouldn't be in her right mind doing something that she would regret because she wouldn't even know that she's doing it. And it also explained why Gourry was so tired. Sylphiel might have been using a strange spell in her sleep that zapped Gourry of his energy.

Yes it wrapped up the mystery quite nicely but still it left Xellos thirsty for more. Things still seemed strange and had Xellos wondering. Like for instances what could be this spell that Sylphiel was using that was draining Gourry? Xellos had no idea what it could be. And another thing why was Gourry keep this all a secret? Did he really think he dreamed it all up? Or was he enjoying keeping this little rendezvous a secret? It made Xellos wonder if this was the first time Sylphiel had paid Gourry a nightly visit.

This left Xellos wanting to observe some more. Perhaps he would treated to another little show that night.

...

Lunch time came and went and both groups packed up and continued to head towards the next town. Even though the trail they were traveling was originally very rough it was getting more and more cleared and even as they walked on. A good sign they were getting closer to their destination.

"Gourry I still don't understand why you want to go to the convention so badly for." Lina said with a huff as they travelled. "It's not like you know any magic or anything."

"Maybe he's just afraid of being left behind." Amelia suggested. "No one really wants to be alone when they aren't feeling well."

"I'm not sick I feel fine!" Gourry insisted. "I'm just a little tired is all."

"Though if you think about it bringing Gourry to a white magic convention is actually a smart idea." Zelgadis mused while tapping his chin in thought.

"How do you figure that?"

"I'm sure there's going to be more people there than just white magic practitioners. There will probably be medicinal healers there too. If there's a special treatment for Gourry's ailment I'm sure we'd find it there."

"Mister Zelgadis is right!" Filia agreed. "Though it would be better if Mister Gourry didn't have to walk the entire way to the next town. If only I could teleport..."

"How about we fly him there using a spell?" Amelia suggested.

"Nah it's a waste of energy." Lina waved off that idea. "He's too heavy to carry around."

"But we'd get to the town faster!" Amelia protested.

"And be dead tired when we get there making getting an early start the next day that much harder." Lina rationalized.

"But Mister Gourry is sick! Shouldn't we do anything we can to help him?!"

"I told you I'm fine!" Gourry insisted once again. "Would you guys all stop putting up such a fuss?!"

"See? He's fine let's just keep walking and stop talking about it." Lina declared.

...

"Maybe it would be a good thing to fly to the next town." Pokota mused looking up at the sky. It was still midday but it would start getting darker in a couple hours.

Sylphiel looked up and frowned. "It's still pretty light out but I see your point. It might take us a while to get to the next town on foot."

"Do you know the name of the town?"

Sylphiel pulled out her map from her cloak and gave it a once over. "Well it looks like the town is called Polnak though as I've already discovered this map wasn't drawn to scale. So it could be close or very far from where we are. Also I don't know how big the place is."

"Meaning we could accidently miss it by flying if it's small or hidden amongst trees." Pokota added.

Sylphiel nodded. "Probably just better we walk. And if we don't make it by the time it gets too dark we'll just camp out."

"But what about your sleepwalking?"

"We'll just deal with it."

"How?"

"Well one way I used to try to keep myself from wandering off was to tie my foot to something. We could try that."

"What if you need to get up in the middle of night and need to go to the bathroom?"

"Then I'll just untie myself before I go." Sylphiel explained.

"But if you can untie yourself what's stopping you from doing the same thing while you are sleeping?"

"Then you can tie me to a tree in such a way that I can't free myself."

"But what if you need to go the bathroom and you can't untie yourself?"

Sylphiel just shook her head. "Then I'll just wake you up to untie me. Really Pokota stop worrying so much. It will all be fine."

"I know but I'm still worried. It wouldn't be so bad if there were more of us traveling to the convention. Because then we could have people standing watch and they could keep an eye on you."

"It would be nice but you and I weren't even planning on going together remember? We just happened to bump into each other."

"Well maybe we'll bump into that group traveling ahead of us. Wouldn't it be nice if it was Lina and the others and they were all heading the same place too?"

Sylphiel let out a sigh. "It would be nice but that's a bit of wishful thinking I'm afraid Pokota."

Pokota shrugged. "Yeah I guess. Well then let's pick up the pace and maybe we'll get to that town before dark."