How to Convince Luna to join your Fight...not a recommended procedure
A wave of cold weather flowed down south from the artic wastelands of Dynast's realm. At the head of the fast moving storm a mass of minor mazoku flow over the grounds below. The demonic army moved with directness of purpose as they moved towards their assigned target.
As ordered, the storm in their wake brought on early winter to every realm they passed over. Even the wine fields of Zephilia. The demons moved cautiously through the highly volatile realm, above the magical senses of almost every sorcerer in the world. They kept their auras dampened and moved slowly so as not to attract attention.
As a result a far larger amount of snow full on Zephillia than on most other countries. This wasn't much of a concern to them, however, Zephillia had an obscene number of sorcerers within its border, magic was as commonplace there as water was in the ocean, but they were rather impulsive and didn't usually chase anything for very long. The only Zephillian known that would pursue someone that had annoyed her until the insult was repaid was the late Lina Inverse.
At least so they thought.
A purple-haired woman in a waitress outfit stood and stared irritably at a mound of snow that should have been a tavern. Her head was lowered and the bangs shaded her hair into invisiblity, anybody who knew her could have told you that this was a bad sign.
Luna looked up and the trail of mazoku energies that was quickly fading away. She ca sually turned to face the mound of snow, which was suddenly shrinking very rapidly. A cloud of steam-billowed out and away from the structure obscuring everybody nearby. The eldest Inverse narrowed her eyes angrily as she was enveloped in the steam cloud.
As the cloud dissipated into the sky the severely nervous inhabitants of Luna's village were treated to the sight of the Knight of Ceipheed soaked to the skin and standing in front of a completely caved in tavern. Nobody DARED to comment on it, at least not to her face.
"This is going to take some time to repair," Luna said coldly. "Isn't it?"
"Errr....yes," her "boss" agreed with her. The man was prepared to bolt at the slightest hint of the sorceress's anger being unleashed in his direction.
"Do you mind if I take a few days off?"
"Go right ahead," he swallowed nervously. "Don't let me stop you."
"I shall be back shortly," Luna promised him. "I need to pick a few things up, excuse me." Luna turned and started walking down the street to her own home, which at the moment looked like a spherical ball of snow. A brief gesture and the defense spell around her house exploded outward, and uncovered her cottage.
"I've never missed work until now," she grumbled as she entered the dimensionally enhanced building.
Further south, Lord Fimore got tired of waiting for the human to return with news of his southern foes defeat. The elf lord had been about to move the whole bulk of his forces down through the forest when his scouts brought back reports of something more interesting.
Sailloon's army had left the safety of its border fortresses and moved into neutral ground as well. The elf lord smiled as he gave the order to move out. They would meet in the woods, and that was to the advantage of the elves, as it should be.
His scouts failed to notice the various forces trailing around behind his army. True to the history of his bloodline he could only focus on what was in front of him, with no thought that anything could possibly threaten him. None of his scouts played witness to the scenes behind him.
"So this is the great army those children claimed would prove to be your allies," Naga sneered as she looked on the elves before her and Filia. "You're nothing but a rag tag collection of rabble. You expect the White Serpent to travel with you? OH-HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!!" Everybody cringed before the hideousness of her laughter. More than a few elves reacted with shock and wariness as several foxes around them grew and took human form.
"Well I'm planning on travelling with them," Lina snapped. "So if you want to stay around me you'll have to also." ~Please decide to leave...please, please PLEASE!!!~
"Hey, Lina," Gourry waved, a little subdued as he stood next Sylphiel.
"I heard about your daughter," Lina said quietly. "I know how you feel."
"Thank you Lina-san," Sylphiel answered just as quietly. "You plan to leave your forest?"
"None of us are safe with a Feanor ruling the elves," Filia sniffed.
"Lina?" an elf repeated. "Lina, as in Lina Inverse....but she's dead!"
"Do I look dead?" Lina asked the elf. The elf swallowed nervously and kept his mouth shut. "Listen there's some psychotic running around with potions and silver knives, we've met him twice since the twins and everybody left for Sairag. He hasn't managed to kill anybody yet since we've been staying together, but he's getting really annoying."
"Hey I met someone like that a few weeks ago!" Gourry shouted. "I thought I got him lost."
"He was with some elves apparently," Lina said. "That's the only fly in the ointment though, so let's stop gabbing about and head after that army! I DON'T want them coming back to MY forest."
"Excuse me, Sylphiel-sama," one of the elves stepped forward looking over the werefoxes nervously. Most of them looked fully human, aside from Lina herself who seemed to be insisting on remaining in that half form. "Should we be travelling with these, monsters. And what can those two women do to help us?"
"Do you know the name Filia Ul Copt," the blonde, human form dragon asked politely. Several of the elves just stared, even for them, this was like something out of the storybooks. "And Naga is a sorceress of....some talent." "We haven't figured out quite what that talent is yet," Lina added. "But its there."
"Why, Lina, you aren't jealous of me are you?" the graying woman asked in a high-pitched voice. "Really this can't be much different from when you were tagging along with me on all those adventures. OH-HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!!!" A number of people turned to look at Lina.
"LONG story," Lina grumbled. "Long, long, terrible story."
"Poor Lina-chan, she just can't take the stress," Naga sighed. "OH-HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!!"
"Its apparently not over yet," finished a shivering Lina.
"Aren't you getting tired?" Xina asked from her perch at Val's head. The dragon's eye rolled back to stare at her for a moment before facing forward again.
"No, I'm fine," Val insisted. "Besides I'm not letting that mazoku out last me." Xina turned to look where Sherra and Duofolger were flying alongside them.
"Well, I could.."
"You tried that," Val noted. "You held the dimensional space for about an hour and then slept for the next half-day. I'm fine, its mostly just gliding for now anyway."
"Oh yeah," she shivered. That had been twelve hours of disjointed conversation with her father and Amelia, and those damn "dreams" kept happening to interrupt. Nothing so clear as the first "dream" though.
A storm over a golden ocean, the strikes of lightning illuminated a cloud of what she thought were birds. Strangely enough the birds seemed to be howling like wolves. There was sense of something hunting her again, the lightning kept striking near her. The Waste again and huge ugly things reaching out to grab her. The Source calling for her.
Finally, she didn't seem to be herself, she couldn't look down to see a body. There was just a silvery light and a few shadows. At times, she could see another sparkle in the storm and birds, and she thought it was supposed to be her brother. If it was him, he was hunting too, she recognized the attitude of the motion. It was confusing, but she got the gist of it.
Something huge was going on, and they were caught in it.
"Are you okay?" Xina blinked and looked down at the dragon below her.
"I'm fine," Xina insisted. "All I have to do is sit here after all."
"You've been sort of blanking out at times."
"I've noticed that too, Xina-san," Amethyst said.
"I'm fine," Xina snapped. She turned to glare at the slayers behind her on Val's back, and caught her brother staring at her. He didn't say anything, but she could tell that he was on the verge of telling her to hold back from the upcoming battle. "I just can't wait to finally give Zangulus what he deserves." Xina leaned forward onto Val's head, settling in comfortably between his eyes.
There was one more part of the dream that she didn't want to think about. An image of Val getting smaller and smaller, as if she was rocketing into the sky away from him. Beyond everything else, that scared her the most.
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