Scouting the Situation
"Why aren't we going into the city," Amethyst asked. "Shouldn't we be reporting those 'knights' or whatever to the magistrate?" Jol looked at Amethyst as if she had just asked whether they were going to fall of the edge of the world. The chimera princess blinked and looked around for the source of his amazement. "What?"
"How can we possibly do that?" Xina demanded.
"What's wrong with that idea?" Amethyst demanded.
"Elves don't have magistrates," Xina rolled her eyes as she picked out one of the few pieces of elvish history that had managed to stick in her head from listening to Filia and her mother. Sitting behind her Val slapped his forhead, Xalan facefaulted out of the tree he was keeping a look out from, and Jolrael rolled his eyes heavenward asking for patience.
"But if we don't go into the city we'll never figure out whether the knights are supported by the House of Feanor or not!" Tinuviel whined. Everybody looked at Tinuviel and sweatdropped.
"We're being hunted," Xalan said irritably, he looked back into the forest. Several times he had almost caught a scent following them, and it wasn't an elf. "We can't sit forever."
"I'm heading to the Gabriev lands as soon as it is dark," Jol said, he turned to Tinuviel. "Are you coming Tinuviel?" The elf looked from her notebook and blinked.
"Hmm, go where?" she asked, blinking. Jolrael sighed and was about to clarify when Xalan called for attention from his recovered lookout position. Amethyst and Xina heard what had caught his attention only moments later and creeped to the edge of the campsight to watch for other signs.
"What is it?" Val asked, staying back for fear that his rather irritating outfit would stand out too much.
"Lots of people moving," Xalan said. "We need a closer look." Next to Amethyst, Xina nodded. In the next instant Jol felt an absence, and looking about saw that the twins had virtually vanished.
"I hope they know what they're doing," Jolrael said. Any large group of people in this area were likely to be elves, and that meant they'd be harder to sneak up on the humans.
"Xalan-san would certainly take no risks," Amethyst noted. "Xina-san, on the other hand." Amethyst and Jol sweatdropped.
"Ooo, Val-kun I'm scared!" the swordsman and chimera turned to see a nervous dragon being glomped by a not even close to nervous elf.
"Maybe its a good thing that Xina-san left after all," Amethyst sighed. Then Amethyst shook her head and decided to ask a question that had been plaguing her for some time. "Excuse me, Jolrael-san, why do you like her?" Jolrael turned from his jealous glare to attend to the question.
"Well..." Jolrael, paused in confusion, glanced at Tinuviel flushed, and then gathered his normal attitude. "Uh...I can't answer that right now."
"As you say, Jolrael-san," Amethyst sighed.
Val, meanwhile, teleported out of Tinuviel's glomp into the higher branches of the tree Xalan had been in. Tinuviel blinked in confusion, and then whipped out her notebook before going into a running commentary on how exactly her "Val-kun" had vanished like that.
"What is with her?" he asked himself, sweatdropping.
"YOU!!!" The graying woman turned to the sound and found an angry-looking blue-haired girl standing behind her and pointing. She seemed vaguely familiar somehow, she also looked like she hadn't been eating well of late. "I've been trying to find you everywhere!! How can a damn MORTAL move so FAST?!!"
~Sherra, you're mortal right now, you don't want people getting any other ideas.~ Sherra sweatdropped at the sword's comment.
"Oh, I remember you, you're the one that suggested speaking to my sister in order to find Lina Inverse," the older woman said. Sherra blinked in confusion for a moment.
"I suggested the Prince Regent Zelgadis, who's your sister?" The older woman laughed and Sherra covered her ears to keep the painful sound out.
~I can't do that you know,~ Duofolger whined. ~This hurts.~
"Oh don't be silly," she waved her hand in dismission of the comment. "There is no Zelgadis in the lines of inheritance, so it must be my sister Amelia on the throne." Sherra smirked.
~Time for a little lunch,~ she thought eagerly. "Oh, but Zelgadis was her husband. Amelia Wil Tesla Sailoon died in childbirth."
"WHAT!!?!" The woman shrieked. "When did that happen?"
~Shouldn't I be...oh...I'm still human, that's right,~ Sherra shrugged, and proceeded to break the news. "Seventeen years ago now, wait if she's your sister.."
"Yes, I am Gracia wil Naga Sailoon," the woman declared arrogantly. "The rightful ruler of Sailoon." She held a dignified pose, completely ruined by the fact that she was a older woman in a battle bikini, for a few seconds, before relaxing. "Assuming I ever bother with the whole mess that is."
~'Naga'? Great, just great, I'm stuck following one of the great loonies of the age,~ Sherra nearly screamed, somebody else beat her too it.
"These lands have encroached on our realms for long enough!" a voice shouted. "Hear now that the House of Feanor lays claim to this village."
"What insolence is this?" Naga demanded turning to the shout to see nearly twenty elven spearman with a mail-clad knight at the head.
"Feanor," Sherra spit the house name.
~Fighting twenty elves as you are wouldn't be your smartest move.~ Sherra, of course, ignored the comment.
"This village is on neutral ground belonging to no Kingdom!" Naga declared, stepping forward. "You know as well as I that these villages are left as an intentional buffer between Beleriand and Sailoon, do you WANT war?"
"Of course they want war," Sherra said. "What is the House of Feanor good for." She smiled darkly at the thought, that was part of the reason that the elves had been allowed into the world. Of course the other was that their were several elf-lords at the time they arrived who were capable of fighting mazoku on even footing.
"This land belongs to the elves now," the elf-knight declared. "Who are you and what do you hope to do to stop us?" The spearmen arrogantly shoved the various villagers out of the way as they circled the two female "humans."
"I am Naga the White Serpent! Sorceress supreme, Lina Inverse's Greatest and Closest rivals" Naga broke into her laugh and the collected people cringed.
"Oh, one of those annoying lunatics with the crazy laugh, this makes three I've met before," the elf-knight said irritably. "And who's the sick-looking girl?" Sherra smirked, and wiped her brow non-chalantly.
"I am Sherra Grausherra," she answered simply. The elf-knighted started scrambling to get away.
"Kill them!"
"Wind, crimson flame. Grant the power of thunder to my hand! DIGU VOLT!"
"You who crosses between sky and earth, gently flowing water, gather in my hand and give me power: DEMONA CRYSTAL!"
The resulting battle was short.
"Well, that was irritating," Naga snorted. "Imagine mistaking me for one of those cheap imitations!" She turned to Sherra, in time to see the exhausted girl slump to her knees. "Excuse me, are you feeling okay?"
"I'm just a little hungry," Sherra snapped.
~It seems you're always just a little hungry recently.~ Duofolger noted seriously. ~And always eating.~
"Shut up, sword." Sherra whispered it under her breath.
"Well, for you're aid, Miss...Grausherra, I believe you said your name was," Naga suggested. "I believe that I can treat you to a meal." Sherra blinked and arched an eyebrow, wondering if a meal with this woman was safe.
"Then I suppose we can return to looking for the late Lina Inverse?"
"After I talk with this Zelgadis fellow," the graying woman growled, stomping off.
"But I thought you were dead set on finding the Dra Matta!!"
~You're pathetic,~ Duofolger sounded tired.
Xina and Xalan watched the passing host carefully. There were hundreds of elves passing through the trees and heading towards Sailoon. Sailoon by way of THEIR forest, they assumed.
"This puts a new light on things," Xalan muttered.
"I'm getting really annoyed with elves," Xina agreed. The kage-kitsune faded back away from the passing elves, and returned to the others.
"We can't stay..." Xalan cut off as he saw that there was someone new sitting at camp.
"Xina-san, we have news," Amethyst declared cheerfully as the visitor stood up to face them.
"Why, you must be Lina's children," the woman said pleasantly. "It is good to see you after so many years."
"Who are you?" Xina demanded of the tall, dark-haired woman sitting comfortably on the ground across from Jolrael. Suddenly the small campsite was suddenly crowded with green-clad elves and a few woodsman.
"How did...?" Xalan decided to ignore the comment this made on his alertness.
"Did you think wood elves would be as easy to fool as high elves?" one of them asked.
"Xina and Xalan Metallium," Jol said. "Meet my mother, Sylphiel Gabriev." Xina and Xalan blinked as the woman bowed with quiet smile on her face.
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