Okay, people, here's part two

Okay, people, here's part two. I wanted to tell you I am one of those people with a Zel/Lina Bias. I will be seriously hinting at some attraction between Lina and Zelgadis, and if you don't like it, you've been warned. Who else could make this little story interesting? AMELIA? I bloody well doubt it. ANYWAY, Here's my story, hope you like it.
On with CHAPTER 2, of ZELGADIS! And the Search for the Amulet of Accomodation!

Alana's mind was reeling. Everything was happening so quickly. After so long, there was the man she had devoted the previous 3 years of her life to finding.  He was in her arms, and she was kissing him. And more importantly, he was returning her kiss.  She couldn't have imagined a more perfect day. Her mind and heart were racing. This was the man she loved.. and maybe… He loved her too. This was too good to be true.
"ZEL! Yahooooo-oooh My God, ZEL!?" came a woman's voice from a little ways down the road. Alana jerked her head around, blushing all the way through to her fur. She could feel the heat rising from his blush even at this distance. She looked over at him… she was slightly surprised he didn't turn purple when he blushed, instead of the bright red he currently was.
"L-Lina… What are you doing here? And Where's Gourry?" Zelgadis stammered… Who was this Lina, and who was she to Zelgadis?
"FORGET GOURRY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?". Her proximity to Zelgadis turned Alana's embarrassment SWIFTLY into a slight pang of Jealousy.
"Zelgadis… Who is this girl?" she asked, tugging on his cape a little to get his attention.
"Lina Inverse… This is Alana Brightstone… we… were close, when we were growing up…"
"Oh, I can SEE you're close…" Is what Lina was about to say, but She didn't get much past 'Oh'… Alana's scream cut her off. She dived behind Zelgadis, babbling incoherently…
"LINA INVERSE?!?!?! THE LINA INVERSE!???! THE DRAGON SPOOKER, AND ENEMY OF ALL WHO LIVE???! HELP ME, ZELGADIS, PLEASE, DO SOMETHING DON'T LET HER GET ME, I DON'T WANNA DIIIIIIIIIIIIE!!!!!!!!"
Lina and Zelgadis were both in the process of sweatdropping at all this. "Umm… Alana… I'd really advise you  to stop saying those things… It's alright. Lina is a friend of mine… She's saved my life quite a few times." He continued for some time to pry the cowering girl off of him. "She's not going to hurt you…"
"Not if she doesn't say those things about me again…" came Lina's voice with the edge that meant that someone was inches away from a fireball.
He finally managed to get Alana calmed down, and back to acting like a human. Lina was slowly recovering from her anger as well, and just shrugged it off with a, "Hey, It's no big deal. People hear a lot of things… Most of them aren't true anyway."
This earned a questioning glance from Zelgadis, which was answered with a glare from Lina. How could Zelgadis know someone… Like Lina Inverse? She was crude, angry, and didn't seem like Zelgadis' type at all… Alana's train of thought was derailed when Zelgadis asked her, "Back to my question… Where's Gourry?"
"He had a Family Reunion back in Testabourne… I decided I'd meet up with him later. I mean, ONE Gourry's bad enough… but his whole Family?!" Lina shuddered at some thought, and Zelgadis nodded sagely. Alana didn't know of this Gourry person, but he must be something to make even Lina Inverse shudder.
"So Zel… THIS is why you kept wanting to go out on your own, huh? Why didn't you TELL us you had a Girlfriend?" Lina's grin was predatory, and her face VERY close to Zelgadis'. It was almost like she was enjoying putting him off balance, and making him uncomfortable.
{Girlfriend? Me?} thought Alana, as she blushed again.
"I-it's not like that… not at all… We only just met a few minutes ago…" Why was Zelgadis so nervous?
"Oh Really… You certainly are a fast mover, then Zel, huh, huh?" Alana did NOT like the malicious grin on that girl's face… what was she, Mazouku?
"What business is it of yours? My personal life is my business," he said, pulling his hood up.  {He's on the defensive…} thought Alana. {What is their relationship?  What are they to each other?  It can't be simple friendship… He wouldn't be reacting like this otherwise. Does Zelgadis… have feelings for her?}
"True enough… SO, Where are you two going? Having a little romantic rendezvous in Seirune?"
"No… The opposite direction.  I was following a lead on a cure… The Temple of Asulia is said to contain an amulet that can undo very powerful transformation curses… I'm not wild about the source of power for it, but I'll do anything…" his further explanation was cut off by Lina's excited yell.
"Asulia!? NO WAY! I'm heading there too! It's time for the Annual Seafood Festival! I wouldn't miss that for the WORLD!" The girl likes seafood that much?
"I… I'm going there for the same reason as Zelgadis… I was looking for the cure as well…"Alana timidly added. She had been like this around people since she had been a small child… very shy, and withdrawn. But as long as everyone was stating their business, she figured she should just volunteer the information, before they pried her for it.  She hated people prying her for information. She wanted people to know her on her own terms… She was still slightly in shock over kissing Zelgadis, despite the fact that it had been her dream to do so for quite a while. The moment had just taken her, and she acted before her mind had a chance to intervene.
"Let's go." Zel said curtly, and moved along the path. The girls blinked a minute between each other, then hurried to catch up. It was amazing how much Zelgadis had changed… but then again, Alana wasn't the same girl anymore. She remembered showing a bit of that coldness, herself. It was that moment that Alana promised herself to never do that again.
Unbeknownst to them all… a small creature sat, watching the events transpiring with an evil glint in it's eye, and a magical glint on the gem on its forehead. It waited until even the ever watchful Chimera was far away and then took off, to follow them.
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Meanwhile, in Asulia, a man sat in a dark room, watching a crystal ball, and listening to the conversations of two chimeras, and an infamous Sorceress.
"Lina inverse… AND Alana… both coming to me… How… Delightful… I wonder when they will discover her little secret… and The Second Chimera… Rezo's work certainly is impressive… Together… they would make me invincible…"
An evil chuckle echoed throughout the chamber.
"Watcher! Keep them in your sights, but stay out of theirs!" a chirp echoed from the direction of the crystal ball. His personal spying chimera was just what he needed to keep his little prize in his sights… oh yes… she would come back to him.
****
Alana and Lina had fallen behind Zel's relentless pace quite some time ago, and had taken to acquainting themselves to pass the time… Actually Lina had started this, to bring Alana out of her shell. Nothing Lina hated more than a quiet Journey, so she began asking questions of the shy beast-girl.
"So, you knew Zel when you were kids, right?"
"Yes." Shy blush, obvious from her voice, since she had mimicked Zel by pulling up her hood.
"I take it you two were pretty close, Right.. .So what was he like as a kid? Was he always this cold?"
"Oh no… when we were studying under Lord Rezo, he was a very determined boy, but he was also very outgoing, and happy…  He loved to sing, and dance… after every festival, he had to rest for two days. His feet were so tired, because every girl wanted to dance with him." She said with a giggle. {Oooh,} Lina thought. {She LIKES him… that's why she wants a cure…}
"That popular, huh?" Lina asked, still getting over the mental image of a gregarious, dancing Zel.
"That handsome… All the girls within walking distance were in love with him… They couldn't wait for the next festival, to have an excuse to keep him that close." Again, that giggle. Lina was starting to think this girl might be even more smitten with Zel than Amelia…
"Sounds like you were one of 'em, right?" Lina nudged Alana lightly on the arm.
"Of course… We were… best friends. I was trying to convince him to join the priesthood, so we'd have more time together… especially… alone… together…" this time, instead of a giggle, she gained a certain dreamy tone to her voice, as if this was a fantasy she had had for quite some time.
"So what happened?"
"I was turned into this… Rezo chanted some kind of strange summoning spell, and then… Well, look at me… I guess this is what happens when you summon a creature to a spot where another being is standing… I saw my fur, my spots… I… couldn't face Zelgadis like this… I didn't want to see the disgust on his face when he saw the creature I'd become… so… I ran away…" The girl's voice was quiet now… and there were tears in her eyes, "Oh, Ciephied, it's all my fault… If only I'd shown Zelgadis what I'd become… he wouldn't have… wouldn't have… let Rezo do that to him!"
"What?!" Lina jumped at that…She needed to know more about this.
"Rezo told Zelgadis that a mozouku had taken me… That's why he wanted to be stronger… to… save me…"
Wow… Lina had never known Zelgadis had such a romantic side… he'd wanted all that power… to find Alana. "He never told me that…"
"Zel never was the type to tell others about his feelings, or his reasons for doing things, either. He would usually smile, and just play it off, and deal with it himself. At the festivals he could forget about Rezo's harsh criticisms, and his failures in magic… he could be normal, like everyone else, for a change."
"Now, he just plays it off, telling us it's none of our business.  Zel's not exactly what you'd call cheerful." Lina said. If this girl was this head over heels for Zel, she needed to know what he was like now…
"I figured… That's why he's so far ahead of us. That's another thing that's still the same… Zelgadis was Always determined to reach his goals quickly, no matter how much he had to sacrifice to do so."
"Yeah, that's pretty much the same now." Lina commented, putting her hands behind her head, and stretching.
At that moment Lina glanced forward towards Zel… Make that, where Zel had been. Lina blinked, and looked around frantically, "Hey! Where's Zel!?" Alana snapped out of her daydreams about the past and  also looked around.
"I don't know… he was there a second ago…"
"Ahem." Came a familiar voice from behind them. Despite it's familiarity, it made both girls yelp and scream. They spun around and almost screamed again when they saw what Zelgadis(who was the one behind them) was holding.
It was a hideous bat-like creature, with a large crystal gem embedded in its forehead. It had one of Zelgadis' knives embedded in its chest, near its neck. The thing was obviously dead now…
"Just so you know, ladies… We were being followed. Any idea why? I detected a spell in the gem. Probably a puppet type spell, so the user could use it to spy on us. Any ideas who it is this time?"
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The man in Asulia cursed at the glowing crystal ball in front of him. "How!? HOW!? HOOOOW!?!!? How did he know it was there! Rezo's notes said NOTHING about his hearing being that good! I will have them… Yes… I will have them all…"
A door opened behind him, "You sent for me, Lord Jarod?"
"I have a request for you, my dear friend… On the road here is a man and two women. " calling up one of the last images that the watcher had showed him.  A gasp sounded from the person behind Jarod. "You recognize any of them?"
"H-He's the bastard that turned on Lord Rezo! And that's the little witch that helped him! Lina Inverse!"
"Ah… I see… Then you wouldn't mind if I asked you to go and… retrieve them for me… But one thing… I want them Alive…"
"Yes, Lord Jarod… I will do my best."
The door shut, as the servant ran out to do his new master's bidding. Jarod grinned in his darkened room, and gestured to the crystal… it turned a little, and showed a view from another watcher chimera. "Watcher! Follow him. Make sure he does not disobey!"
A shriek of acknowledgement, and Jarod settled himself down to look through the eyes of his faithful puppet.
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"This Time? You mean things like this happen often?" Alana looked back and forth between Zel and Lina as they covered the thing in dirt, to keep some passersby from seeing it and panicking.  Not that Alana wasn't  close to doing that herself… That thing… had been FOLLOWING THEM.  And Zel and Lina didn't seem to mind.
"Not really. But it wouldn't be the first time one of us had been followed. Not by something like this… but still…"
Alana was shivering… the thought that creatures like this were treated as commonplace to Zel and Lina scared her. But she was even more unnerved by her memories. This thing seemed terribly familiar.


Well, there you go. Alana, and Jarod…. What's the connection? And who was that other person? We'll just have to find out now, won't we? Stay tuned… Next chapter should be out… As soon as Inspiration lets me write! I only have twenty things going on at once… .o