Authors
Note:
Well, it took awhile to get this chapter up. Major writers block! So if you read the chapter right before
this one, then this one, you'll see how the two don't exactly go "hand in
hand". The fact is that I have this
all written on paper and am typing it up, and on the way I decided to
exaggerate, and I exaggerated right into a corner. So, all that stuff about the ball? IT
WAS A DREAM! It was the only way out! I'm SORRY! So, here it is,
and if it doesn't run perfectly, its cause of the previously mentioned
reason.
Slayers: A past Reborn
Chapter
Five: Reunion
Lina opened her eyes and looked around. The light from the setting sun
hardly shone through the window. Rubbing her eyes and looking around, she realized that she had dosed
off. "Was that completely a dream?"
she wondered out loud, then sighed a breath off relief. It must have been. Well, at least it hadn't been a dream
about Jeran. Weird, yes, but not
terrifying.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. Getting up from the bed, she went to
answer it. Outside Gourry stood,
with a worried expression on his face.
"Oh, Lina. I knocked 10
times…I wasn't sure if you were here or not."
"Gourry, it's your room too. You could have just came in."
"Oh yeah," Gourry laughed a little, nervously, "I wasn't sure
though."
"I was…just taking a nap," she said, walking back into the room, leaving
the door open for him.
"Well, if you were sleeping, I can-"
"No! No, that's alright. I
was having a weird dream anyways." Lina sat down on her bed and looked up at
him, "So…what's up?"
"Um, well…" Gourry was still trying to decide what to say. Holding the jewelry box behind his back
he carefully avoided her eyes, knowing that he'd get lost in them if he looked,
like he always did. "I was in the market today…and I, um…"
"Gourry! Spit it
out!"
"I got you this. Here," he
quickly held out the box to her.
Lina looked at the box with a bit of shock. She looked from the box to Gourry, to
the box, to Gourry, and then to the box again.
"You…got something for me?"
Gourry blushed a bit and looked at the floor, "Yeah…I hope you like
it."
Lina opened the box and starred in shock. There, in the box, was a necklace
exactly like the pendant she had bought earlier that day. "Where did you get
this?"
"From a cart in the market…"
Slowly she lifted it out of the box. It was an exact duplicate of her
pendant, except for the fact that it was a necklace.
"The ruby reminded me of your eyes…" Gourry said softly. "Do you like
it?"
Lina looked up at Gourry and smiled, "I love it!" she exclaimed and held
it out to him. Confused, he took
it. Lina stood up and turned
around, lifting her hair from her neck. Gourry, understanding, hooked the necklace around her neck. After it was on Lina turned around and
looked at Gourry.
"Thank you," Lina said quietly and put her arms around Gourry, embracing
him. Gourry, a little surprised,
held her gently. Slowly she pulled
away, and looked down at the necklace again. "It's so beautiful…why-why did you get
it for me?"
Gourry blushed slightly and quietly said, "I'm glad you like it…I-I just
thought it would look good on you."
Lina looked up into Gourry's eyes and couldn't stop the hand that went up
to stroke his cheek lightly. "It's
the best thing any one has ever gotten for me before," she said in a barely
audible voice.
Gourry put his hand atop Lina's and closed his eyes. "I'm glad you like it….Lina, I-" a knock on the door interrupted
him.
The knock came again, louder this time. Slowly, and reluctantly, the two parted
and Lina made her way to the door. Opening it, she found herself in a state of shock.
"Hi Ms. Lina!" Amelia greeted cheerfully, Zelgadiss standing behind her,
leaning against the wall with his arms crossed in his usual way, "Hi Mr.
Gourry! I'm so glad we found
you!"
****
After getting over the shock of seeing Zelgadiss and Amelia at their
door, the four of them found their way to the inn's dining room and over dinner
caught up on the last couple of months.
"We've been looking for you and Mr. Gourry for a week now Ms. Lina,"
Amelia said, then went on to tell them about a strong sorcerer who had been
terrorizing Saillune. "Daddy sent
me to find you, and I ran into Mr. Zelgadiss on the way and convinced him to
come with me!"
"Do you know who this sorcerer is Amelia?" Lina asked
curiously.
"Um…I don't remember exactly…something like Jerry or
Jergen…"
"Jeran?" Lina asked quickly.
"Yeah! That's it!"
Gourry looked at Lina, " Isn't that that guy who-"
"Yeah," Lina cut him off, "So, you want us to help
you?"
"Um….well…" Amelia looked down, "He's proven to be more powerful than any
of us…" she trailed off.
"I'd be more than happy too," Lina grinned a bit manically. Finally she could get some revenge for
the nightmares. "We'll leave
tomorrow."
Amelia clapped her hands happily, but not quite as enthusiastically as
she normally would. "Thank you Ms.
Lina! Well, it's getting rather
late…maybe we should all go to bed."
Lina looked at her curiously, sensing that something was wrong, but
decided on not saying anything yet.
Amelia excused herself to get ready for bed and Gourry went to move his
stuff into Zelgadiss's room, leaving Zelgadiss and Lina by themselves. After they were out of earshot,
Zelgadiss turned to Lina and looked at her questioningly.
"What?!"
He shook his head, "Is something wrong Lina?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you seemed a little too eager to help Amelia with her problem, and
didn't even ask about money…"
"Is that what you think? That money is all I care
about?"
Zelgadiss smirked, "Come one Lina, your not fooling me. There's something wrong, there's an odd
sort of aura around you."
"Oh…"
"Do you know this Jeran or something?"
"Well…kind of. At least, I
used to…" Lina trailed off.
"Hmmm…" Zelgadiss said thoughtfully.
"Well, anyways Zel, we have a big day tomorrow," Lina fake yawned, "And
I'm tired, so g'night." And quickly she retreated to her
room.
When she reached her room, she entered it, closed the door and leaned
against it, sighing. She wasn't
looking forward to sleep. It seemed
that everytime she went to bed, she had some sort of weird crazy dream that left
her feeling drained and more tired than when she went to
sleep.
"Hi Ms. Lina." Amelia said,
sitting on her bed and watching Lina curiously.
Amelia…she had forgotten that she was sharing a room with her. Sighing and walking to her bed, she
pulled off her boots lazily.
"Ms. Lina…is something wrong?"
This was getting annoying. Why did everyone have to ask her if she was ok? 'Can't a girl not be all smiles one day
without getting harassed?' she thought to herself. "I could ask you the same thing
Amelia."
"Wha-what do you mean, Ms. Lina?"
Lina turned to face Amelia and sat down abruptly on the bed. For a moment they just looked at
eachother. Then Lina sighed and decided to end the staring contest, "Do you
wanna talk?"
Amelia nodded.
****
About a half hour later, Amelia and Lina sat on Amelia's bed, dressed in
pajamas.
"…so then, you and Zel showed up and, well, you know the
rest."
"That is SOOOO romantic!"
Lina blushed. Maybe….but
what was she going to do?
"What are you going to do?"
Surprised at how intuitive Amelia was, Lina shrugged and muttered, "I
have no idea."
"I knew it, by the way."
"Knew WHAT?"
"That you two loved eachother."
Lina's blushed deepened a couple of shades. "We don't LOVE eachother…" she paused,
"…you… knew?"
"Oh yeah, well, it wasn't too hard."
"But…he always insults me!"
"I don't think he really means to, Ms. Lina…and you know what they say
about boys who tease girls…"
"Yeah, right."
"Of course, you DO hit him a lot which is odd if you love him…" Amelia
said thoughtfully.
"I DON'T love him!" Lina paused and looked at the bed spread, "Do….you
think I hit him too much?"
"Well, no I guess not…I haven't seen you hit him since we met up
again."
Lina remained quiet.
"So…what are you going to do?"
"I don't know."
"Hmmm….." Amelia said with stars in her eyes, "It is sooo
romantic!"
"Yeah, whatever. Anyways,
what's wrong with you?"
"Me? Uh…nothing really."
"No way! I told you, now you
tell me!"
"Well…it's really just a bunch of things…I always feel down about this
time of year. Tomorrows the
anniversary of my mother's death…" Amelia said softly.
There was a moment of silence, then Lina said very quietly, "I'm sorry
Amelia…I had no idea."
"Oh…it happened a long time ago. It's ok, it's been a long time. But a little bit after her death, my sister Gracia ran away," Amelia
sighed, then looked away. "But…that's not the main thing that's bothering
me."
"What is it?"
"Well…Mr. Zelgadiss."
"Oh, that."
"What do you mean, 'oh that'?"
"Well, your thing for him."
"You-you know?"
Lina rolled her eyes, "I'm very observant Amelia."
"Well, so what do you think?"
"I honestly don't know. I
read people pretty well, but Zel keeps his emotions really
hidden."
"I know…"
"But there's always hope!"
"I always thought he liked you."
"WHAT?!?"
"Well, you two have more in common."
"Yeah right!"
"You do!"
"No way! He's
so….unadventuresome, boring…."
"Hey!"
"No offense Amelia, he's just not my type."
"And Gourry is?" Amelia asked slyly.
"Yes! Er- I mean, I…"
"That's what I thought," Amelia smiled
triumphantly.
"Amelia…" Lina said in a warning tone.
Amelia shrugged, "I know, you know, Gourry knows, and Mr. Zelgadiss
probably knows too."
Lina sighed, "I guess everyone knows….By the way, Amelia, STOP calling me
Ms. Lina."
"But…it's polite."
"Maybe but your like a sister and I don't call Luna 'Ms.
Luna'."
Amelia's eyes welled up and grew big, "I'm…like a
sister?"
Lina realized what she had said, "Well, yeah. Your like the little sister I never
had." For some reason, those words brought back some sort of memory. But Lina, even as she tried to analyze
it, couldn't figure it out. During
this time Amelia had thrown her arms around Lina's neck and was
sobbing.
"Amelia? Did I say something
wrong?"
"You-you don't know what that means to me! With Gracia gone…I've always missed
having a big sister!" She continued to cry happily.
Lina smiled and hugged Amelia back. Yes, Amelia was like a little sister.
Once Amelia had finished crying, they continued their talk for awhile,
before going to bed. Tomorrow was a
big day, after all.