Chapter 10: What the Heck is Going On On?
Darkness. It surrounded her. Something heavy pressed down on her head. A soft material enveloped her completely. It was difficult to breathe. It took all of Lina's self-control to keep from panicking. She struggled against the material that encased her. It moved when she pushed against it, but she still couldn't get herself free.
She pushed her head upwards against the weight pressing down on her, and suddenly it vanished. The darkness fell away as she looked blinkingly at her surroundings. It looked like the clearing she'd been standing in a minute ago, but…
"Why are the trees so big all of a sudden?" she wondered aloud. Her words came out as a string of mewing sounds, yet for some bizarre reason, it sounded like normal speech at the same time.
What the hell is going on here? Lina raised a hand to rub her eyes, and make sure she wasn't seeing things. On can only imagine her shock when, instead of seeing a gloved hand, she saw an animal paw. An animal paw that was covered in ginger-colored fur.
Lina stared at the animal paw with a sinking feeling. The trees hadn't gotten bigger. I got smaller.
She looked around wildly. She needed a reflective surface, something she could look at herself in. Something she could use to confirm her fears.
Lina noticed she was standing in a pile of clothes- her clothes. On her left was one of her shoulder guards, within reach. That's got a big jewel in it, she thought. I can use that.
She reached out with her hand- or paw, rather- and grabbed the piece of armor and turned it so the big red jewel was facing her. She stared intently at her reflection.
True, the image was warped and distorted, but there was no mistaking the face that stared back at her.
"I'm a cat…" Lina whispered.
A sharp growling noise startled her out of her reverie, causing her to jump nearly a foot in the air. A few feet behind her, a gray wolf stood struggling to disentangle itself from … Zel's clothes? What the-? Lina began to put two and two together. No, wait, it can't be…
"Zelgadis?" The wolf looked up, apparently just noticing her.
"Lina?" It sounded like a confused dog-like whine, but at the same time it sounded like Zelgadis' familiar voice. They stared at each other for a moment in mutual shock and disbelief. Finally, Zelgadis managed to get out, "What… what the heck happened to you?"
"I could ask you the same question," Lina replied dryly. "I woke up like this."
Zelgadis nodded. "Same." He paused. "Soooo… what exactly am I?" Lina blinked at his question. Of course, he can't get a god look at himself…
"Uhh…." she surveyed him for a minute, "some kind of wolf-dog type thing I'd guess."
"'Wolf-dog type thing?'" Zelgadis parroted, raising an eyebrow.
"Hey, do I look like a wildlife expert to you?!" she shot back defensively, hissing a little.
Before Zelgadis could respond, they were interrupted by a dog-like whimper.
"Lina, that was my drumstick." They both whipped their heads around. Curled up and asleep on top of familiar blue clothes and armor, was a golden retriever. Lina and Zel looked at each other with the same realization, and turned back to the dog.
"Gourry?" Zelgadis ventured uncertainly. The dog lifted its head to look at them and yawned.
"Hi Lina, hi Zel. What's up?"
Lina fumed. "Whaddaya mean, 'what's up'?! We-" she frowned. "Wait a sec, how'd you know it was us?"
Gourry shrugged. "I dunno. I just figured it had to be you. You still look kinda the same." Before either could respond, Gourry added, "By the way, where's Amelia?"
Lina and Zel realized he was right. They looked around. "Over here," Zelgadis said, bounding over to where Amelia's clothes lay in a heap. He prodded the pile with his forepaw.
"Ribbet." A frog poked its head out of Amelia's shirt collar. They all stared with mixed feelings of shock and horror. Had Amelia been-?
"Eeeek!" A yowl of disgust came from inside the pile as the frog hopped away. A small black-and-tabby cat emerged from beneath the pile, looking disgruntled. "Frogs are icky!" it spat in a voice Zelgadis recognized.
"Amelia," he said, feeling a little relieved. She blinked and looked at him. "Huh? Mr. Zelgadis?"
After a taking a few minutes to fill Amelia in, Lina finally said, "Ok, I think we can agree that this is the result of that spell Morris was casting, right?" Zelgadis and Amelia nodded. Gourry just looked lost. "And it's also the reason everyone nearby- including Morris and his cronies- got knocked out." They nodded again. The road was littered with the bodies of unconscious bandits. That sort of thing did happen, though it wasn't common. "Alrighty then!" she said triumphantly. "Soooo… now what?"
"Before we do anything else, I suggest we get as far away from here as possible," Zelgadis replied. "Given our current condition, I don't want to be here when they wake up." He indicated the sleeping bandits with a nod of his head.
Lina nodded. "Good point Zel. We should our things somewhere first though. We're gonna need em when we get back to normal." They all nodded and got to work.
Later…
Bailard groaned and sat up. He rubbed his head. "What happened?" he muttered. All around him he heard moans as his comrades slowly regained consciousness.
"Damn it!" Nearby, Morris was kicking to dirt near his magical circle. "They got away!"
"Wha-? Who got away?" Bailard asked, still not fully awake.
Morris glowered at the ground. "Inverse and her companions." That got Bailard's attention.
"Wha?! How could that happen?!"
"I don't know. But it did."
Bailard fumed. "We need to find them!"
Morris glared at him. "And how do you propose we do that?" he snapped. "We don't even know what form they may be in now."
"I can tell you where they went," came a voice. From right beside them. Both men leapt backwards, startled. It was a man, dressed in typical preists' garb, with violet hair cropped about his chin.
"Wha-?!" sputtered Bailard, "Where the heck did you come from?!" The man gave him a mysterious, Cheshire-cat like grin.
"That, my friend, is a secret."
A/N: -gasp- It's him! That fruitcake priest guy with the rabid fangirls! What's he doing here?! And will our heores ever get out of their predicament?
Hem, anyways, I wish I could say I came up with the turning into animals bit all by myself, but, well, I can't. It was inspired by the fics excellent of Ichiban Victory, who seems to like turning Amelia into things. Please don't sue me!
Of all my fics, this fic is now the longest, the one with the most reviews, and the one with the most hits. WH00T!
And on a completely random note, 24 started last night. It makes me happy .
