AN: Yeah I know, a Slayers oneshot in 2019 is a bit random. What can I say, I had this idea that I couldn't let go, thought I'd write a short story on it of about 1000 words and...here I am. Still, I'm happy with the results and decided to share it, so without further ado, enjoy.
Rocks. All he could see were rocks getting closer as he collapsed from the stings. Everything ached, from his hands to his legs, having been pecked mercilessly by spikes that raced each other to reach his marrow. The assault finally gave him a moment of reprieve when he fell, and with a dull thud he slumped on the floor. He wanted nothing more than to lay, but he couldn't afford to.
It wasn't finished with him.
With a ragged breath he turned his head to the left side to breathe as his right arm grabbed at thin air and the cave was filled with light. Pure white heat formed within his hand and began to grow, its light doing little to illuminate the cave, but managing to cast some shadows with the help of the stalagmites lining the ceiling. The light did even less to deter his assailant, who mouthed a taunt he couldn't afford to focus on while urging it to grow bigger, turning from a spark to a granule.
Pain suddenly shot up through his forearm and two screams filled the room, much to the delight of his chuckling assailant. The corners of his eyes were telling him that a crooked staff with a ball like jewel at the top was being dug into his forearm with so much force it was peeling away his scaly skin and digging into his bones. Yet he still clung on to the pebble of fire in his hand, which turned to a rock when he was forced to inhale..
The pain came back harder at his elbow and his screams rose to match it, as it turned the staff in circles over his bones. A twisted tug of war took place for a while as the walls shook from his screams and his bones from the pain. He took every pause in this game to focus on his aching hand, and soon the rock became a boulder.
Undeterred, the staff came down on his wrist, and he lost the game. His fist clenched over the fire, his dagger like fingers pierced it to the core, and it exploded into smaller erratic rocks of white flame that twisted and danced, searching for a partner. Most found only walls, but one found the ceiling, and the stalagmites could no longer hold on.
A gasp startled him from his pain as he turned his head to look forward, noticing the shower of rocks that was about to crash onto...
"MOOOOOM!" he yelled as he reached with his right hand to try and stop the rocks. His fear turned to shock as he realised he was in a room, alone. The ceiling was not crashing down on anyone, and as he stared at his hand he noticed it was neither broken nor scaly, nor where his nails were nowhere near long enough to qualify as daggers.
Light burst into his room with a crash as a golden haired figure wearing a plain white nightgown violently entered the room without giving the door a chance to open. Splinters and chunks of wood crashed into the walls of his room, and he saw his mother's blue eyes filled with fear for the moment it took her to engulfed him in a fierce hug.
"Val!" shouted Fillia, not looking at him but frantically looking around the room in search of anything that remotely looked dangerous, baring her teeth to the walls like a thirsty bloodhound, Finding none, she gently laid her blue eyes over the shaking boy. "What's wrong Val?! Was somebody in here?"
Val shook his head and hugged his mother as tightly as he was closing his eyes to stop the tears. "N-Nightmare..."
He could feel her shoulders relaxing as her protective hug turned into a comforting one, and her face quickly joined it . "There there, You're awake now, It's ok. Nightmares aren't real. You're safe now.."
She spent the next couple minutes ushering and reassuring the child, patiently waiting for his shaking to stop before she asked her next question, "Would you like to tell me what was it about?"
Green eyes slowly opened after Val felt confident he wouldn't cry over something as silly as a bad dream. He looked up and gave her mom a shaky smile to show her he was ok, to which Fillia reciprocated with an amused one.
"I...I was in a cave," he began, focusing on the fading images and trying to retrace what happened. "Some rocks were falling on you, and I think I made them fall on you...I was on the floor and...in a cave..."
Val's next words died in his throat, as he saw an unfamiliar emotion on her mother's face, but one he knew would not be caused by a simple dream.
It was early enough in the morning that a couple of roosters could still be heard shouting about it to any poor person that was even remotely considering snoozing, as Val walked around the village. He felt terrible, not just because of the broken sleep but also because he told his mom that he was meeting with the other kids to play.
'It's not even the first lie I told her today...' Val though forlornly. After seeing the fear in her eyes, he told her that in his dream he screamed so hard because of the dark that the cave collapsed on her.
'Why...did she look so relieved..' thought the little boy that was barely belt length, his lips quivering as he tried to think of any reason...of any other reason as to what would have caused such a reaction. Before his tired mind could fail to calm his nerves however, Val's pale gold eyes widened as he lost his balance, and with a dull thud he slumped on the grass. He wanted nothing more than to lay there, but he couldn't afford to.
It wasn't finished with him.
"Now now, I'm fairly sure the stairs did not mean to trip you Val," chirped an adult voice that sounded far too carefree for it's age.
The lack of a taunting tone shocked the boy out of his panic and he struggled to look behind him to see a pair of stone stairs leading to Emilia's inn, one of moms clients that lived near the edge of town.
"Unless that reaction was aimed at me, in which case I must admit you may be taking too many and not enough cues from your mother, Val."
Lifting himself up, Val turned his head to the source of the voice, spotting a crooked staff with a ball like jewel at the top, resting lazily on the ground, His eyes traveled further to his always closed eyes and violet hair.
"Were you going for a trip outside of town Val?" he replied with a smile, unfazed by the boys reaction, "I dare say that might not be the best idea you've had, I can name quite a few monsters that aren't polite enough to leave travelers alone with their own thoughts. Perhaps you would prefer to circle the village to the sweatshop instead?"
"Xellos..." Val replied warily, yet feeling better at seeing him act so normal, or as normal as a self proclaimed trickster could act. A question formed in his throat, but a memory of his mothers eyes caught it and refused to let it out. He struggled to say something for a minute, as Xellos did nothing but stand still and smile as the wind lightly blew his cape to the side.
"...I don't have money," Val said lamely.
A snort was Xellos's initial response. "Well then, since it's been a while since my last visit, allow me to make amends with a handful of candy of your choice."
Val found himself on the southern side of the village eating a couple of honeyed peanuts, sitting on a bench next to Xellos with their backs to the wall. He was contemplating what to say, or more precisely what to ask the wandering priest sitting next to him.
The events of last night weighed heavily on Val to the point not even honey could make him forget about it, yet it still took him time to try and ask the smiling priest about his nightmare. What ultimately won him over and gave him the courage to speak was the continuous stretch of non aggression from Xellos.
'Not that Xellos was ever aggressive to me,' thought Val, which made sense given what he knew about priests and tricksters. He would frequently come to moms shop, try and get her mad at him through flowery language, and disappear before mom could reach for the mace under her counter. Still, he couldn't quite shake this new feeling of unease he felt towards him.
'Why am I getting so worked up over a dream! Just ask him. Mom was probably just remembering something bad', he tried to convince himself, and eventually the desire to confirm things won out and he turned his head to the priest. "Can I ask you a question?"
Xellos tilted his head towards Val, for what good that did given his eyes stayed closed. "Do I have to answer it?"
"I...:" Val paused, a little taken aback by the answer. "I would like you to, yeah…"
"Hmm," pondered the priest, a blue gloved finger resting on his cheek and dropping his smile for a moment to pursue his lips. "Does it have anything to do with how distracted Fillia is today?"
Wall flinched and looked away at the road, watching disinterestedly as a wagon of melons passed by. "Yes?"
"Was that a question or an answer?" Xellos chirped cheerfully.
"Yes!" Val offered loudly, a frown crossing his face.
"Hmm," pondered the priest with the exact same motion, much to the boys chagrin. "Well I suppose I can't sit back and let things blow over given the state you left your mother in."
"...I'm sorry."
"Oh don't let that get to you. Persistence is her most dominating trait…" said Xellos with a dismissive roll of his head. Though he had no way of seeing it, Val felt the eye roll that accompanied the motion. "And I'd wager she'll get over this thing in less than a day. Speaking of...mind telling me what the thing is, Val?"
'Finally!' thought Val, not realizing his earlier jitters have been forgotten in the conversation. "I had this nightmare that really spooked mom. I was in a cave and caused some rocks to fall on them because...I shot fire from my hands."
Val paid close attention to Xellos's face, looking for anything, a twitch, a raise of a brow, an intake of breath or a jolt.
"Was it really a fire that did that?" asked Xellos without missing a beat, which made Val's confidence rise.
"I think so? It felt like a fire to me and i kept growing it in my ha...oh! And my hand was really huge and scaly and black with nails the size oh knives!"
"I think your current hand suits you better," the trickster replied with amusement.
"Yeah! I think it was even longer than my other hand. And bigger too!" said the little boy, stretching his right hand as far as he could to try and demonstrate
"Yeah that sounds about right," Xellos replied with a chuckle, "Was that all you remember?"
"Yeah...err. You were in it and..." Val shoulders tensed without him realizing before he asked, "fighting me."
"For no reason?" Xellos asked with a head tilt and no hesitation,
"I..don't remember..." Val replied honestly, letting his shoulder relax, "But you were really strong, like, stronger than mom!"
A snort was the priests only response.
"And...I think that's it..." Val finished.
"Well I can already tell you're already feeling better" Xellos couldn't help but tease.
"Yeah..:" Val agreed halfheartedly. He did feel better admittedly, but there was still one thing that was bothering him. "It's just...do you know why this dream would upset mom so much?"
"Because it's a memory."
"..."
He said it so carefree and happy, like he was talking about the nice sunny weather, yet those simple words were enough to make Val's heart stop beating for a second. For a while, he could only stand still like a statue, trying to comprehend what he just heard. Once the realization dawned Val instantly bolted off the bench..
'I can't move!?'
Or tried to at least. Panicked eyes looked down to notice the staff resting over his legs, having been casually moved by Xellos when he wasn't paying attention. It wasn't heavy, Xellos wasn't holding it or pushing it down, yet it wouldn't budge an inch, and deep down Val knew the wall behind him would sooner give in then that crooked thing.
"Well that settles things. You really are taking too many cues from your mother Val," said the trickster while wagging his finger in mock disapproval. "This is hardly something worth running away from home over you know."
"I wasn't trying to run away!" replied the now frantic boy, looking anywhere but at the priest and trying in vain to push the staff off his legs. He winced a bit at his tone, darting his eyes around to make sure no one was noticing his distress and trying to intervene. Val couldn't be sure what Xellos was going to do to them if they tried and that scared him.
"Ah so you weren't thinking of running towards the south with no consideration to how Filla would react?"
His not so innocent question caused Val to wince again, and the trickster was quick to capitalize.
"Why does it bother you that it's a memory?"
"Why does..." Val started, incredulous eyes darting to the smiling man, which caused his words to get caught in his throat. "Y-y-you tried to...to..."
"Allow me to be more specific," Xellos interrupted him without a care, "Why does it sadden you that it's a memory?"
An image of his scared mother flashed in his mind, causing Val's heart to stop for a second.
"Ah progress, finally," said the trickster, taking the moment to move the staff to the side of the bench. Val made no attempt to stand in spite of his new found freedom. His fear being replaced with guilt made him realise he had no way of outrunning Xellos, especially since he never used the door when visiting his mother, he would quite simply teleport in whatever room she was in. All he could do was hope that the priest wouldn't try and reenact the events of the dream.
That thought somehow failed to make him feel at ease.
"Bleh," came out of Xellos's mouth as he rested his elbow on his knee and his chin on his palm, seemingly not caring about Val's state of mind. "I can't remember the last time I was forced to talk this much. I have half a mind to blame your age but I've met plenty of adults that are as difficult."
Val didn't answer. If he were in a better state of mind he might have tried to retort. A small part of him dared to hope that the priests attitude indicated he wasn't interested in fighting him, but that begged the question.
"...Why?"
"Humans are creatures of habit," shrugged the priest. "Especially the bad ones. It's quite amusing, really."
Despite the situation Vlad couldn't help but give Xellos a glare.
"Ah my mistake, that why was aimed at me wasn't it?" Xellos said with a tone that left little doubt to Val that he already knew that, and was just being difficult on purpose. His suspicion has all been confirmed as he raised a thumb over his mouth, "That's a secret."
Val unconsciously growled at the trickster priest in a manner he saw his mother do at least once whenever he visited. Just like those times, Xellos was unperturbed, and the two stayed in relative silence for a while.
"Let's play a game, Val," he suddenly said while pulling up the satchel on his left hip.
The little boy felt a small shudder go down his spine. "I don't think I want to."
"Even if this game may show that both you and Fillia have nothing to worry about?"
The bait was obvious, Xellos has used his mother's name several times like a knife to stab Val in the heart. Still, the little boy couldn't ignore it even if he wanted to, but that didn't stop him from being suspicious about it.
"Why?"
"Because I've had it with talking," replied Xellos like it was the most obvious thing. "Don't worry, all you really need to do is watch".
Not waiting for a reply, Xellos reached into his satchel. Vaguely, Val noted the bag was bigger on the inside as Xellos's hand disappear within it, searching for...something.
"Ta dah!" he singsonged once the something was found, pulling out the elusive item out of the bag, which turned out to be…
"A string..." Val offered disinterestedly.
"Not just any string," Replied the priest as he tied both ends together, "but a silver ring of string!"
Xellos waited till it became obvious that the little boy was not going to reply.
"Now pay close attention Val less you're going to miss it," he said before looping the string over both his thumbs and pulling. It was a fairly large string, giving about a foot of length space between his hands before it straightened.
Val tried not to pay attention to the trickster as Xellos's little fingers were inserted under the string, before doing the same with his thumbs and pulling. But as his thumbs joined in and the string began to intersect in several places, Val couldn't help but become curious, especially since he was doing all that with his eyes closed.
"Ta dah!" Said the priest eventually with his trademark smile as he pulled his hands apart triumphantly. "This is known as the moth. Can you see it?"
He could, though he had to ignore one of the strings. Xellos managed to make a pattern that showed two sets of triangles on either side, positioned like a pair of wings. The bottom triangles were smaller and thicker compared to the top ones. Val felt impressed for a second before his eyes narrowed with suspicion.
"What does this…?"
"Patience. I'm not done," Interrupted the priest before unceremoniously removing one hand from the string and letting it unravel. Val felt a little disappointed the violet haired didn't repeat the pattern backward, so when Xellos started to play with the string again he paid closer attention to his movement.
The first couple of motions were the same as before, but then he removed his pinkies and focused more on his thumbs, and Val was quickly lost again due to the speed of the tricksters fingers.
"Ta dah!" said the priest again with his trademark smile as he pulled his hands apart triumphantly. "This is known as the star, can you see it?"
He could, a lot more clearly than the moth. The string was being pulled in 5 directions by his thumbs, forefingers and one pinky, forming a star made with one line, like some of the drawings his friends made sometimes.
"Is the star the same as the moth?" Xellos suddenly asked.
It took a moment for Val to reply, trying to make sure he heard the question right. "What?"
"Is the star the same as the moth?" Xellos asked again unperturbed. "The shapes I made?"
"Of course not," said Val, almost shouting.
"Are they different?"
"Obviously!" said Val,this time failing to control himself.
"A yes or a no please."
"...Yes?"
"Was that a question or an answer?" asked Xellos with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes!"
"Why?"
Val paused, confused and frustrated but for different reasons than this morning. "Why what?!"
"I used the same string did I not?" offered the priest in a matter of fact tone. "Same length, same color, knotted in the same spot. So how are the two not the same?"
Val tried to figure out what trick Xellos was trying to pull off. But his face remained a mask of a fake smile with eyes closed, unreadable and unchanging as he kept egging Val for something. Giving up on trying to figure out what, he gave Xel the most obvious answer he could muster.
"Because you shaped them differently!"
"Correct!" Xellos chirped. "Same with your dream."
Val was starting to notice Xell had an uncanny ability to make his heart stop with just a couple words."...How...does...what?"
"You were a moth in your dream, and you are a star right now," the priest said slowly. "They are not the same."
"That's not…" began Val, trying hard to find a way to explain the priest that that didn't make any sense. "It's different. I'm..."
"You can be a moth again if you want." Xellos interrupted while unraveling the string again, causing Fillia's fearful eyes to flash again in Val's mind.
"W-what, no! I don't want to be a moth!"
"Then don't," the priest said simply
"It's not that easy!" the child shouted in exasperation, causing a few of the villagers to look at the duo, curiously.
"Yes it is," the priest said unperturbed, "You can choose to change or you can choose not to."
"But you easily changed the shape of it!"
"Yes."
"I-I-I Don't want to change!"
"Then don't." the priest said again.
"I...you.." Val tried before his mind had had enough. He groaned while slumping on the bench, his body going lax as he took a moment to calm down.
A moment became a minute, which became several. Xellos and Val where sitting on the bench with their eyes closed, not saying a word, and the curious onlookers shrugged and went back to their business, assuming the two were napping.
"I'm...not sure what I want," Val finally admitted, half opening his eyes and staring at the sky.
"Then perhaps it's a bit too early for you to jump to conclusions and run away," Xellos pointed out, matter of factly.
A sigh escaped Val's lips before he replied. "Yeah..."
The two stayed quiet again,till eventually val rose up from the bench, feeling a little bit dizzy but also better than he'd been the entire day. He turned his tired eyes to the priest, still standing on the bench, eyes still closed.
"Hey, Xellos?"
"Hmm?"
"What will you do if I go back to being a moth?"
"Kill you in your sleep."
"..."
He said it so carefree and happy, and yet Val couldn't help but chuckle. Xellos's frankness and certainty made his words carry weight, enough to thwart what lingering doubts Val had over this entire ordeal.
"I don't think mom would be happy about it."
"The moth or the killing?" Xellos asked not so innocently.
"Yes," said Val, with a cheeky smile that's been absent the whole day.
A snort was the priests initial response, "Well your sense of humor is back. Now, if you'll excuse me I'll take my leave before you go back to being fully cheerful. It's bad for my health."
Val counted that as an extra reason to stay a star, before a thought struck him. "Wait can I keep the string?"
The Trickster shrugged and dangled the object in front of Val with his thumb. "I'm not staying to teach you how to make those shapes you realize."
Val shrugged in return, taking the string. "I can figure things out on my own."
"Fillia is inhumanly good with that by the way. Consider whining to her when you get stuck."
Before Val could retort, he blinked and the priest was no longer there. Val looked around making sure there was no one paying attention to him, and before making a jog home, he wrapped the silver string around his arm and said one final thing to no one in particular.
"Thank you."
AN: I was originally going to end this one shot after Xellos and Fillia had a similar talk, but honestly, this felt like a better place to end this. Plus there is the risk the conversation feeling samey, so for now I'll end things here.
Thank you for reading this far, and have a nice day.