Episode 8

"Returning Home! Some Highly Unwelcome Surprises!"

As the vessel sailed across the sea, each day the captain estimated how close they were to their destination on the sea chart and Fillia would patiently observe waiting for the time when they would be close enough to make it in no more than two jumps.

Lina concentrated on conjuring a wind spell to speed them along and on the third day a storm picked up which advanced them ahead even more.

But the morning of the fourth day Fillia decided she was close enough and they teleported to land, making it to the beach.

"Well," Lina happily declared, "Looks like we made it!"

"Wow that's really good!" Gourry declared amazed.

"I wasn't too sure to be honest," Fillia humbly replied.

"Well you did a fine job I say," Luna praised.

"Well then lets get going!" Lina announced, taking the lead as she was prone to.

"Hey!" Gourry asked, "Where are we going?"

"Oh." Lina chuckled, "Yeah...about that...where are we going anyway?"

"We're going to have to figure out what caused this plague before we can figure out how to cure it," Luna replied, "So you two need to figure out what is written on the crypt this thing came from and hopefully we'll have a clue what we're up against."

"A crypt did you say?" Lina asked wide eyed.

"Something like a crypt," Luna shrugged, "Or a burial vault...what does it matter?"

"It matters a LOT!" Lina replied, "It could be a curse of a necromancer!"

"A necromancer?!" Gourry cried, "I-I-I'm not so sure this is such a good idea guys! Those things are really bad!"

"Well I'm immortal, so it has no effect on me." Luna boasted proudly.

"That's all good and well for you, but for the rest of us that's no help at all!" Lina shouted.

"Lina, please!" Fillia pleaded her. "We must stop this or it will destroy every living thing in the whole world!"

"So we have to do this now or it will be too late!" Luna growled. "And since you haven't found the cure YET, Lina Inverse," she warned darkly, "You're not out of the woods with me YET."

Breaking into nervous laughter, Lina replied, "Heh-heh...Oh yeah...Well then we better hurry!"

With that, Lina cast restoration on Fillia so she could teleport to the Inverse's home.

Ep 8, Chapter 2

The party arrived at the Inverse's home in a flash.

Upon arrival, Lana rushed outside with her arms outstretched toward Lina whom she had not seen in four years, "Lina! Come here my baby!"

Lina, however, was not quite so delighted to see her mother because of their past. To her mother's chagrin, she began to walk right past her mother as if she wasn't even there.

That was, until Luna said, "Oh isn't it so wonderful to have a family who loves you!" which made Lina's eyes bulge, and take a different tact...

"Momma!" she suddenly exclaimed, "Its been SO LONG!" throwing herself on the suddenly unimpressed Lana knocking her mother to the ground.

"I get it Lina," her mother grumbled, "Now get off of me."

Lina gathered herself off Lana and rose to go inside, but Grandma Laura was by the door blocking her way with a very solemn face. "Be warned child..." she said in a grave tone, "Your father is not well."

Steeling herself for what she was going to see, she was led up the long, winding stairs to the top tower room, where she was only allowed to peer into the room through a glass pane to keep her from breathing the air from the room.

There in a bed with only the light from the window so that no magic or energy would advance the plague her father lay, not moving, for all appearances dead already.

Seeing the ashen colored body, not breathing, no color in the face, gaunt, frail, it was hard to believe it was her proud, powerful wealthy father, one of the greatest merchants to ever ply the trade.

"Father..." was all she could choke out as tears filled her eyes.

Turning to her grandmother, she leaned into her chest and sobbed miserably as for the very first time in her life, the prospect of losing a family member, especially the one most near and dear to her came upon her. "No! This can't be happening!" she cried within herself, "I won't let it!"

Lina felt so helpless right now, knowing that her magic could not kill this plague and in fact would instead only kill the ones she loved and herself as well. That just infuriated her to a level she had never experienced before in her life.

People had insulted her, robbed her, even threw her in jail for things she had never done 'just because she was Lina Inverse! But NEVER...NEVER EVER had any ONE or any THING made her feel so utterly and pathetically helpless, and that was simply unforgivable.

As Fillia and the others came up to the top of the tower stairs, Lina turned to them, tears in her eyes, "I shall DESTROY this cursed plague!" both fists balled up tightly, then she resumed sobbing, only this time into Fillia's chest.

Ep 8, chapter 3

As the group departed the Inverse mansion, there was a lot more depth of feelings in Lina's embrace. It was as if she had suddenly grown up. She came a child and left an adult.

Seeing somebody threaten her most beloved possession and make her feel more helpless than she ever imagined possible crystallized something in her soul that would never be undone.

She was on a mission like never before. She had officially declared war on this mysterious cursed plague if it took sacrificing her life! Nothing and nobody would stand in her way!

Well, it looks as if my little sister is finally growing up.

As they walked down the road, Gourry asked, "Hey Lina, uhhh..." scratching his head, "Did you get all the gold we collected while we were mining? Because I couldn't seem to find my share anywhere."

"Oh...about that," Lina snapped out of her reverie briefly, "I forgot to tally up the balance."

"You did?" he came back worried.

"Well since we've got a little time here before we get anywhere we need it, I can count out your share as we go."

"That's good," he replied with calm gratitude, "I sure need a new pair of socks!"

"I'D SAY!" Lina replied, and with that she pulled a large bag of gold coins from her magic cape and began counting them as they went.

As they proceeded, however, an evil pair of eyes leered upon them from the bushes.

"Two thousand six hundred seventy one, two thousand six hundred seventy two..." Line was counting, "Two hun-" she was interrupted by an Explosion Array cast by an unknown assailant, "Ahhhhhhhhh!" she wailed in pain and anger as her coins flew in all directions by the blast.

"There they are!" Luna exclaimed launching at the dark cloaked figure only to strike an empty ghostlike silhouette.

"No there they are!" Gourry shouted, launching with the Blast Blade at another figure to only find they too were nothing but dark mist.

As Lina rose from the ground already at the breaking point, she spun in all directions seeing at least twenty of these ghostly figures and without an adequate spell she called out to Fillia, "Hey Fillia! This is a Shadow Shaman! They are using shadow magic to protect themselves from physical attacks!"

"I have just the thing for that!" with that she lifted her voice and shouted, "ateku...ra-zu-omu... ranaku-tsuraku... izu peku naomu... kaotikku disutingureito!" and a blinding blue-white light enveloped the entire area for fifty paces, totally dissolving the shadow copies and eliciting a bellow of agony from behind a nearby outcropping of rocks.

"Lina!" Gourry pointed, "Over there!"

Foregoing her usual pomp and chatter with an enemy, she simply recited, "Lord of darkness of the four worlds, grant me all the power that you posses. Lord of the dreams that terrify. Sword of cold and darkness, free yourself from the heaven's bonds. Become one with my power, one with my body, and let us walk the path of destruction together. Power that can smash even the souls of the gods: Ragna Blade!"

As the blade leapt forth, it slipped through the stones as I they were stacks of warm butter and the top portions all slid off.

As the monster behind the stone and the shadow shaman lay there, one fading into mist while one lay bleeding out, the monster declared, "You shall not save your worthless world Lina Inverse, Xelloss will see to that!" and faded completely away.

"Theolis..." the shadow shaman gasped while dying, Theolis Rhystan will see to your deaths personally..." and with a painful gasp and cough, the man expired...

"Xelloss?" Fillia gasped, "That worthless namagomi!" she growled as much as her soft voice would achieve, "I'm so sick of him!"

"Why am I not surprised he is involved with this?" Lina rolled her eyes, "Seems everything we do somehow has something to do with him trying to destroy this world!"

"Well I for one would be delighted to cut his 'ah-hem' off, that sack of orc turds!" Luna growled in a much more menacing tone.

"Cut his WHAT off?" Gourry looked up alarmed.

"Never mind that now!" Lina shouted, "All our gold is scattered everywhere!"

Rrrr-righ!" Gourry responded, "I'll help you!"

Everybody began searching around on their hands and knees picking up the tens of thousands of small gold coins, all along the roadway, in the bushes and even out in the vineyards.

As they were busily collecting them, Fillia was in sort of a gold induced state of mind brought on by her natural affinity for the precious yellow metal. As she crawled along toward the side of the road and saw a coin resting up on top of the stone fence which bounded the field and peered over it to see a relatively large bar of gold laying just over the other side!

Excited by this, she got up on her knees and reached over to lift the heavy bar, which in turn tipped her forward, and reflexively her tail popped straight up trying to counterbalance her and the huge gold bar.

Luna who was not far behind her saw this sudden commotion and there before her she saw two beautiful legs, frilly pink bloomers and a majestic golden tail quivering under the effort of lifting the unseen object behind the stone fence.

At once she had a sudden nosebleed, feeling quite dizzy, and at the same time, her new found parts [which had CONTINUED growing] were now pressing up against her belly button, threatening to lift the hem of her own skirt sky high as well, only in FRONT!

"Oh dear Ceiphied!" she wailed to herself in despair, "What am I EVER going to do now?!"

"Luna," Fillia requested in a strained voice.

"Y-y-y-y-yess?" Luna stammered from only a few feet behind the dragoness.

"Could you please help me get this big bar up?"

"Bu-bu-bu-bu-bar?" she stuttered, looking up and down the soft fleshy golden shaft of dragoness, "Oh, um..." then she thought how the stone wall would be a great place to hide her own unexpected lifting bar, "Sure!" and with that she leapt forward to offer just enough meager help to keep the entranced dragoness busy while she did her best to clear her mind.

"These rocks are terribly painful!" she realized to herself, as her weight pressed her tender tipped body into the rough and unyielding stone, "I'm not sure which is worse! The embarrassment or the pain of this predicament!"

To make things worse, her nose dripped blood right onto the heavy gold bar, making it slippery and harder to hold onto.

"Luna?" Fillia asked.

"Wha-wha-what?" she responded trying to keep her mind on the task, which in reality she could have handled with her supernatural strength.

"Why is your nose bleeding?"

Ep 8. Chapter 4

inset

With the gold collecting task completed and Gourry's share of the prospecting venture taken care of, the group was under way.

That is, except Luna who said she had to take care of something personal and that everybody else should just go on ahead, she would catch up.

While she struggled to regain control of her unruly new part, she tried to find a way to make it stop throbbing and aching like it was going to tear apart inside.

What she didn't know is that while Lina and Gourry proceeded toward the inn and a sumptuous meal, Fillia was worried at Luna's strange behavior and held back, finally turning around and retracing their steps to where they were when she sent them ahead.

She heard Luna's voice from the thick brush, at first thinking she was simply relieving herself but with perhaps a little difficulty.

As Luna's grunts and groans seemed to vary from anger to frustration, then to something more like fear or pain, then she groaned (or was it a sigh?) as if she had just achieved a very difficult task one would be most embarrassed to speak about.

The strange item was that there was no corresponding odor she would have expected. There certainly was an odor, however, her keen dragon senses picked up something more musky and tangy, very unlike anything she could recall ever smelling in her short 1573 years of life in the temple.

"Luna?" she queried nervously anxious.

"Waaaaaaa!" Luna jumped and fell backward out of the bushes on her back, the hem of her skirt flipped up onto her chest, body part sticking straight up, shiny wet with milky gray translucent goop slowly oozing out of the tip.

"Luna!" Fillia rushed over alarmed that some terrible disease had stricken Luna, "Do you need help?"

"I need something to wipe myself with..." Luna croaked in teary eyed embarrassment.

"Hold on," Fillia responded, still not comprehending what she was seeing, "I'll get something from Lina and be back in a flash!" she vanished before Luna could protest.

"Ohhhh...nooooo..." Luna groaned.

Ep 8, Chapter 4

With the gold collecting task completed and Gourry's share of the prospecting venture taken care of, the group was under way.

That is, except Luna who said she had to take care of something personal and that everybody else should just go on ahead, she would catch up.

Fillia fell behind with a worried look but the other two failed to notice as Lina was bragging about how much gold they would be making once they returned to the claim she had staked, and Gourry seemed to just be looking around at the scenery, although despite his seemingly mindless inattentiveness, he was actually scanning the area for more ambushers or wild beasts.

So when Fillia returned by teleportation, Lina jumped up startled. "Don't do that to me!" she shouted.

"I'm terribly sorry Miss Lina," she humbly apologized, "But I think Miss Luna has something wrong with her and she asked for something to wipe herself with"

Not knowing what Fillia really meant, Lina assumed it was the normal womanly problem and quickly rummaged in her travel bag for a spare lady's cloth. "She should know to pack more of these with her in the future," Lina grumbled, "I only have so many and I'm not her personal valet!"

"Yes Miss Lina," she humbly apologized then teleported back to Luna's previous location.

Luna was huddled behind the bushes still, having regained her footing, if not her composition.

"I got a cloth to wipe yourself with Miss Luna," Fillia nervously offered, leaning over toward the bushes worried, wanting to see what was going on, yet too timid and too much of a lady to peer in on somebody in their state of privacy.

"Just roll it up and toss it in to me!" Luna shouted, "I'll be okay now," she tried to sound calmer and more composed, "You just go on ahead like I asked you to before and I'll be right along shortly."

"Yes Miss Luna," Fillia responded timidly while doing as she was instructed, "here is the cloth." and she tossed it, but it snagged on a high branch of the bushes Luna could not reach while squatting. "Oh-!" Fillia blurted in embarrassed exasperation because her nervousness caused her to toss the cloth too high, and without thinking she teleported to the cloth to dislodge it, just as Luna decided to make a quick standing grab for the cloth.

The results were rather complicated!

Luna, still dealing with the new hardship stood up just the moment Fillia teleported directly beside her, landing exactly astraddle Luna! After what seemed like an eternity within only a couple of seconds, they both realized that only two thin layers of cloth separated their nether regions and the pressure could be felt by both!

Both girls screamed in shock, and Fillia teleported away again and Luna curled up into a very humiliated fetal position shaking violently.

"I'm terribly sorry Miss Luna!" she once again profusely apologized, "I promise it will never happen again!"

"Just please don't tell anybody else what just happened!" Luna wailed miserably.

"Oh no Miss Luna!" she promised, "I swear to Ceiphied I shall never tell a soul!"

"Then can we perhaps get to the inn ahead of the others so I can wash up?"

"Yes Miss Luna!" she heartily agreed with this idea and soon they were in the womens' wash room of Alyth's All Welcoming Inn.

"If you wouldn't mind please," Luna asked blushing profusely, "I'd prefer to bathe in privacy."

"Sorry!" Fillia too blushed, "Yes Miss Luna!" and she teleported to the dining hall to announce their arrival formally to the proprietors.

"Oh Fillia!" Alyth exclaimed, "Welcome!" as she rushed up, wrapping the dragoness in a busty but warm embrace, "Are you here alone?" she asked.

"No ma'am," she replied, "Luna is here too, and Lina and Gourry will be along soon."

"Lina?" she exclaimed in greater excitement, "Why I haven't seen her in years!" then thinking, "This Gourry then," she queried, "is a sorcerer as well?"

"No Miss Alyth," Fillia replied, "He is a swordsman who protects Lina while she travels."

"Well I welcome you all to my inn and please feel at home here!" then looking around, "So..." halting between words in confusion, "Just where is Luna?"

"Oh," Fillia began to blurt out, then stopped in a blush, then thinking quickly, "She's just cleaning up from the trip," smiling graciously, "She will be here soon!"

Fortunately, that was just the time Lina and Gourry walked in the front door making the bell jingle.

"Linaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Alyth exclaimed again, rushing over to embrace the younger Inverse in her ample bosom, "And you must be Gourry!" she greeted the muscular blond young man.

"Aunt Alyth!" Lina's muffled shouting came forth, "You're smothering me!"

"So terribly sorry!" she released the younger girl while laughing heartily, Bruno's warm resounding laugh accompanied it from the kitchen, "What will it be today then?" she clasped her hands before her apron.

"We'll have ten of everything on the menu!" Lina exclaimed.