Slayers! Yoyutchi
by Leaf-Chan (leaf_chan@excite.com)

I'm *really* sorry for that Eminem joke. I really, really am.

"I summon thee--PHIL! Not that of Philbriezo, Master of Hell, but PHIL!
Lord of Heck, Prince of Insufficient Light!"

Episode V: Parallel Trouble--Adventure Dual!

[-----]

Lil' sis gulped, and tried to look back at ol' sis' gaze. She failed
miserably, and dropped her focus lower. Finding another source of inadequacy
there, Lina kept going, until she eventually began to wonder why the hell
she hadn't physically matured into a woman yet, unlike her sis, who could be
the covergirl for Playmage.

"Do me a fave?" ol' sis said, combing her bangs back. Lina could see her
eyes, and was suddenly more scared than she'd ever been in her life: more
than when she'd had to face hordes upon hordes of demons alone, more than
that battle against Ruby-Eye Shaburanigdo, more than anything.

They were a flaring, opaque blue.

"S-sure," Lina mumbled uncertainly. Ohpleasedon'tletitbesomethingbad...

"Know this girl?" Luna said, flicking her finger out in an underwhelming
show of power.

An image floated in the sea of rolling fog: a blue-haired girl with piercing
blue eyes, a chestpiece that veered off to the left, and a long, ornate cape
that was designed solely to flap in the wind.

"Kiseki?" Lina murmured. "Yeah, I know her... why?"

Luna smirked and let her hair fall back to its normal place, although the
azure glow easily penetrated through the red strands. "Here's the fave I
want. Find her. Help her."

Lina was struck speechless. *Whaaaaaat* did she just say?

"Ya heard me."

*blinkblink* Okay, and she could read minds now... where the hell did sis
learn this stuff?!

"Can't read minds. Saw it in yer face." Luna unfolded her arms and folded
them again, this time placing her left arm on top.

"... right," Lina said trepidantly.

"Help her. G'wan, do it."

"*Why*?! Not like I'm questioning you, or anything--of course not!--but
she's just some deluded girl who thinks she's all strong..."

"Like you?" Luna shot back easily.

"... that hurt." Lina pressed her face in both hands, sighing. "All right.
Lemme guess... Ceipheed's orders, right?"

"Ayup."

With that, Lina suddenly *snapped* back from wherever she'd gone to and in
front of the restaurant. And everything--the silence, the rolling fog, the
piercing, azure glow, the form of her older sister--was simply gone... as if
it had never happened.

She blinked, and looked around. Wait a minute, this *wasn't* the restaurant
she'd been so rudely snatched away from. This was... in the middle of some
place she'd never been to.

People were beginning to stare.

"This *sucks*," Lina declared aloud, and got up to her feet, looking around.
She tried to think back to the few minutes before the rather-suave meeting
she'd had with big sis. Okay... she'd ditched Jeffrey and the blue-haired
dude, Emmanem or something, and then she ran out and looked around for
Nevv...

Wait. She remembered seeing her.

Nevv had been standing there for the *briefest* moment before she'd waved
her hand and simply disappeared--and as soon as she did, Luna had dropped by
in her inimitable fashion and badabing, badaboom, instant Complex Quest in
a Box (TM). The fact that Luna had either not noticed Nevv (which was highly
unlikely--she noticed *everything*, although she usually gave a rat's patoot
about anything that wasn't Ceipheed-related) or had ignored her struck a bad
note with her.

There was something about Mary... er, Nevv... that was distinctly odd. Lina
had no idea what it was or on what basis--aside from the one she'd just
thought up--she drew that conclusion on, but the nagging feeling simply
*stuck* with her and wouldn't come undone. It was making her distinctly
uncomfortable and even a bit nauseous. It was a not-so-fresh feeling.

Shrugging it off and making a mental note to buy some more pads later on,
Lina took a *good* look around her for the first time.

She was in the middle of a small town of sorts; apparently, Luna had chosen
to send her back in front of a restaurant. Taking a moment--a brief moment--
to appreciate her sister's uniquely-blithe sense of humor, she looked up at
the sign hanging over the lip of the roof on the building: "The 7th Realm".

Her stomach didn't growl. It took Lina more than a moment to realize that
she'd just had lunch a few minutes ago; the meeting had left her more
disoriented than she would've liked to admit. Deciding that she didn't need
food for now, she began to meander about the town, examining its features
and people in an offhanded but attentive fashion.

The villagers were typical, run-of-the-mill type of people you see in other
places with palette-swapped clothes. Aside from the fact that all of them
had nothing to say to Lina, she didn't find anything too odd about it.
Walking further, she saw what appeared to be a large well in the middle of
the ground, tiled with black slabs of marble and inlaid with gold.

Lina smirked. /Maybe this little venture isn't going to leave me *totally*
high and dry,/ she thought. /Now, how to get this into my knapsack...?/

She decided to leave the elegant well for a bit until she had a way of
removing it that didn't involving also blowing it to smithereens. Lina
turned around again, scanning the area for anything important.

There was a distant explosion and a slightly-singing wind as something very
powerful was cast off in the distance. Was that important enough?

Answering the obvious, Lina turned to one of the villagers who happened to
be walking past: an elderly, gray-haired lady. "Hey, what's in that forest
over there?" she asked her.

"Eh..." was all the lady said before continuing on her daily hobble around
town square.

"Excuse me!" Lina yelled after her. "I'm talking to you! ... geez, old
people are sure rude. Hey, you over there, what's going on?"

A brown-haired youth regarded Lina with a look of pride. "Our hero is
fighting against the evil dragon of Darkwood Forest!" he declared, and
turned away from her, continuing on his path.

"Darkwood Forest? Dragon? Hero?" Lina mused. "You guys are getting *really*
uncreative here... *anyways*, where there's dragons, there's piles of gold,
so... time for lil' Lina to get to work and Slave--*slay*, hee--the dragon!"

She took a moment to turn back to the youth, who had traversed a remarkable
distance of five feet in the meantime. "Who's this hero, anyways?" she said.
"Maybe I can teach the old fart a thing or two."

"Our hero is fighting against the evil dragon of Darkwood Forest!" the
youth repeated, turning to Lina to deliver his line and turning away again
once he was done.

"Oh... kay..." Lina mumbled, and turned in the direction of Darkwood Forest.

[-----]

"Wakey wakey," a lilting female voice called out.

"Huh?! Wha... no, dangit, I woke up again..." Jeffrey mourned, groping the
thin air around him in hopes that the jubblies *were* real. They weren't,
and his hands fell flat on his lap. "Awww, this sucks... mommy, I don't
wanna go to school today..."

Nevv struck him across the face with a left hook.

"OWWWW!!" the gink yelped out, rubbing his cheek. "What'd you do that for,
Nevv?!"

"I never did like whiners," she said, rubbing her knuckles. She never did
like fistfighting either, because she sucked at it... still, there were
certain things that couldn't be done any other way.

"You'd better watch out," he warned. "Mommy doesn't like it when people try
to hurt me... she usually ends up bashing their heads in with a frying pan
or something."

Nevv nodded distractedly, looking over at where Emmanem had slept for the
night. The blue-haired man was lying there, curled up in a comfortable
little ball. "I saw that," she said to Jeffrey, and made her way over to
him, half-expecting him to be sucking his thumb.

The shadowy-figure-who-had-acquired-a-new-title wasn't doing anything except
breathing slowly. Nevv decided to let him wake up by himself--after all, if
he *really* wanted to come along, he wouldn't let himself oversleep,
right?--and turned back to Jeffrey.

"You think you can walk?" she said, her voice a touch concerned. "You looked
pretty bad last night..."

"That's because you hit me," he whimpered.

Nevv sighed. "Right, right... besides that. You're not going to pass out on
us when we start walking, right? Actually, you two will do most of the
walking, since I'll be flying my way along and scouting out what's ahead of
us."

"Of course I'll be fine!" Jeffrey proclaimed, leaping up to his feet. "I am
the White Knight of Flaming Justice!"

"*Former* White Knight," Emmanem pointed out, stirring from his cozy fetal
position on the grass. "I believe your power and skill was derived from the
armor that Kiseki Rendahl seemed to have disenchanted."

Something seemed to deflate within him, and Jeffrey nodded dejectedly, his
shoulders slumped.

Nevv glanced over at Emmanem, who was impassive, and back over at the
crestfallen White Knight. "There, there, Jeffrey," she comforted. "Even if
you're no longer the White Knight of Flaming Justice, remember that the
strength within you is what makes you a true hero at heart. If a certain
blue-haired man was less of a complete *jerk*, he would agree with me...
right?"

Emmanem glared at her. "Is this a *threat*, Nevv Swanson?" he said in a
low tone.

"Hardly," Nevv replied airily. "I would never threaten a poor, defenseless
little creature."

"You... how *dare* you--"

"Ease off, Emmanem... we can argue when we're walking (and flying, in my
case). For now, let's try to get a move on, mmmkay?"

Jeffrey seemed to perk up slightly. "Yeah... yeah, Nevv, you're right!" he
said, his old lopsided smile returning. "It wasn't the armor that made me
strong... it was *me*! I'm going to go out there and be a *real* hero, just
like mommy wanted me to be!"

"I must admire your spirit," Emmanem muttered, gathering his belongings up.
"Despite Nevv Swanson's words, I still find your lack of power disturbing."

"Who needs power?" Jeffrey grinned, flashing him a peace sign. "I've got
*faith*! In myself!"

"You've also got your suit of armor and sword to carry along," Nevv pointed
out. "So c'mon, stop the pepping and start the toting!"

"Right on!" Jeffrey agreed enthusiastically, throwing his entire weight
into lifting his equipment.

A few hours later, they stopped for a short rest. Nevv, who was grumbling
because she had to carry one end of the makeshift stretcher they'd tossed
together for Jeffrey, simply dropped her end and stalked off silently. A
yell of pain came from the rather-interestingly positioned form of Jeffrey.
Emmanem carefully lowered his end, and glanced around to see where their
group leader had gone off to.

"Stay here," he advised Jeffrey. "I shall be back forthwith."

"*I*... *can't*... *MOVE*!" Jeffrey pointed out, but the blue-haired man was
already a good ways off, running after Nevv.

He found her tossing rocks into a nearby stream, her silence a wall of
anger. She said nothing as he approached, and nothing as he took a spot next
to her, standing stoically.

After a few minutes, with only the splashes of water to accentuate the
occasional break in silence, Nevv spoke first. "You should probably be
eating something. You look malnourished."

Emmanem blinked. "'Malnourished'? I am perfectly capable of handling my own
health, Nevv Swanson--" he retorted.

"What I *mean*, Emmy, is that you should probably be checking up on Jeffrey,
since he managed to throw his back out earlier today. That boy never ceases
to amaze me."

"'Emmy'... what sort of name is *that*?" Emmy said in half-wonderment and
half-indignance.

Nevv sighed, and flung another pebble into the stream, watching as the rock
sank beneath the surface of the water, the ripples making their way towards
the banks. "If you managed to get past analyzing every damn thing I said and
actually *listened* for a while, maybe we can talk to each other," she
muttered.

He looked at her in mild bewilderment. "What is your problem, Nevv Swanson?
I merely wished to behold the stream in all its... liquid... glory, and you
are berating me for not being able to communicate with you?"

"Yes," she said matter-of-factly. "I don't think you came here to watch the
stream, because even you have better things to do than that. You came here
to check on me, didn't you?"

"I most certainly did *not*."

"So you could really give a rip about your group leader? That's some
gratitude... I *knew* I should have gone alone."

"... that's not fair!" Emmanem protested. "Look, Nevv, I *do* care about you
enough to check up on you, but you have no reason to think that I'm hitting
on you!"

"I see, I see," Nevv said, tapping her chin in thought. "So... what you're
saying is that you're playing hard to get?"

"No..." Emmanem groaned quietly. /She could be *so* dense,/ he thought in
frustration. "Look, just leave me alone, all right? You piss me off... and I
don't like getting pissed off."

"You're the one who came here in the first place," Nevv smiled.

"You asked me to come along."

"But you stalked us."

"... touche, Nevv Swanson," he said, returning her smile (although he was
obviously gritting his teeth). "I do believe you are right. On this note, I
will bid you adieu for now. Please inform me when we are ready to depart."

"'Adieu'... oh, for... can't you people speak *English*?!" she demanded, as
a snickering Emmanem made his way back to a pained Jeffrey.

Deep down, Nevv Swanson hadn't really bothered with the entire conversation.
It was important, of course... but not right now. She still needed to talk
to Luna... and she'd blown her chance when she had cloaked herself with the
Ilyuum back at the restaurant.

/She'd *known*, too,/ Nevv thought. /Luna was no idiot--she saw right
through that cloak. But she didn't do anything about it.../

Right now, though, there was nothing for her to do except act on her
instincts and hoped that Ilyuum would lead her to Lina. It had before, as
much as she wanted to deny it, and it probably would again. And there wasn't
anything else she could do right now, without her. Or the Kiseki girl, who
had been rather-interesting.

She sighed again and tossed another rock into the stream. She was about to
head back when a slight gust of wind pricked up from behind her. Nevv froze
in place, and gently spoke to the wind, not moving her head a single inch.

"Not now," she said.

The gust of wind swirled around her, then kicked up a minor dust storm and
went spinning off into the distance. Relieved, Nevv glanced around to make
sure neither Jeffrey nor Emmanem had noticed--although the latter was
definitely the one she was watching out for. He was different...

"Is your majesty quite done with her active sport of pebble-tossing?" Emm
asked somewhat sardonically when she finally drew into sight.

"Yes. Yes, I am," she said, actively paying attention to him now unlike a
few minutes ago. "Let's go."

[-----]

Darkness veiled the land... the time of reckoning was at hand
Two forces: evil and good, beyond the thoughts of those who would
Seek the light and shatter the dream, and all within which people have seen
A dragon, mystical and true, shining a deadly, titanic blue
Rose up from the ashes of the past, to become the first and last
In what was a battle of epic might, sealing all that was--

"What the hell is this all supposed to mean?" Lina muttered, glaring at the
sign outside of Darkwood Forest. "'Rose up from the ashes of the past?' This
sounds like something out of Mother Duck's Big Book of Nursery Myths." She
glanced at the sign--the bottom portion, anyways, where there was a little
flowing caption announcing the name of the forest: "The Evil Lair of
the Evilly Evil Black Dragon of Evil, the Evil Darkwood Forest of Evil."

Shaking her head, she looked around.

Darkwood Forest (she had no intention of ever mentally referring to it as
the 'blah-de-blah blah Evil Evil Evil smorgsaborg') itself was an amalgam of
trees and leaves and branches, creating an overhang so dense that the entire
place was almost as dark as dusk (not night--it wasn't *that* dark, thanks
to nifty Mode 7 transparencies). Lina could see scattered treestumps that
probably served no purpose aside from being a wood-filled soapbox for
vociferous mushrooms... clumps of brush thick enough that they were
virtually impassable walls... and a scattering of red treasure chests that
were simply laying on the ground for no good reason.

She didn't have any problems with random treasure just *waiting* to be
found, so she chose to ignore whatever warnings the sign had been trying to
convey and walked into the forest, looking at the clumps of thick brush
around her in amusement. /It's almost as if someone had *created* them,/ she
thought. /Who could've d--/

Lina didn't have time to finish her thought; from the expanses of thin air
came a group of ugly trolls, each carrying a wickedly-curved scimitar that
was probably bought en masse in a villain-weapons blowout sale.

/Trolls? *Here*?/ she wondered, charging up a Fireball between her hands.
/Weird. Ah, hell, they all blow up the same.../

"FIREBALL!" she pronounced, sending the usual blah blah blah go boom kapow.
Instead of the usual smattering of charred troll and vegetation she'd come
to expect, Lina was greeted with the sight of what appeared to be ethereal
numbers floating above each of the troll's head.

Numbers that went along the lines of 8314, 9989, 7810, and so forth.

Lina blinked, and was on the verge of approaching the odd sight when the
numbers simply faded into thin air. Moments later, the trolls did as well,
dissipating into a hazy purple mist.

She shrugged if off. Numbers and purple mist aside, nothing had really been
out of the ordinary. Now, it was time to see what those treasure chests had
inside...

Opening one up easily (it wasn't even *locked*, for some reason), she peeked
inside greedily... and was met with the sight of a marvelous, shining bottle
of blue liquid topped with a cork. The flask wasn't even *full*.

"What the hell is this?" she complained. "Where's the gold? The jewels?"

Tossing the potion aside on the grass, Lina made her way across the
makeshift maze of hedge and brush. It never occurred to her that maybe--just
*maybe*--she could Dragon Slave the rampant vegetation and simply pick the
treasure out of the ashes (if they were hardy enough to survive the blast,
that is). It never came to her that a simple Fireball would have burned down
over half the forest. Instead, Lina made her way back and forth, trundling
across bridges that spanned over yawning, treacherous dips in the ground,
gathering up treasure from the (unlocked) chests, and fighting the requisite
trolls, of which there seemed to be an endless supply of--all carrying the
same wickedly-curved scimitar.

After a long while, Lina finally found herself back at the entrance of
the... Forest. Another explosion cued up the moment she stepped on a certain
position on the ground; this one was slightly smaller, but powerful
nonetheless. Lina abruptly remembered what she came here to do, and headed
off towards the direction of the noise, her footfalls accentuated by the
crunching of leaves and the faint, spongey sounds of her boots treading
across the moist soil.

She approached what looked like a gigantic skeleton of a dragon's head, and
looked around briefly. *Someone* had to have arranged this whole thing
beforehand; one does not find spare, unlocked chests laying around in a
forest, and one certainly does not find the entrance to a dragon's lair--or,
rather, an entrance that was decorated with what looked like a very well-
crafted dragon skull.

/What the hell,/ she thought, and barged right on in.

The cave was dark, except for a few torches along the sides of the walls
that *only* provided illumination in a six-inch radius around the flames.
Lina quickly cast a Light spell, and let the illumination spread throughout
the cavern.

It was empty.

Kicking a small rock and the anticlimax aside, Lina looked around the cave
for a full two seconds before another explosion--this one was distinctly
closer--rocked the nearby area. She quickly scrambled outside, extinguishing
the spell as she did so, and looked around. And up.

A tremendous dragon, completely black save for the red underside of its
wings, was roaring its head off as another explosion--a flaring hemisphere
of amber energy on the side of its leg--tore into his flesh. Lina looked
around to see who was casting the spells, and saw...

It was a knight in shining armor.

Shining *white* armor, to be precise. Spiky, blue hair that waved oh-so-cool
in the gentle breeze; a large, blue-tinted blade in one hand; a gauntlet
running along the length of his other hand, the one that was currently
flinging some sort of half-assed spell onto the dragon; and to top it all
off, the hero carried absolutely no sheath or supply sack of any kind.

He pointed again, and another flaring explosion rocked the dragon. Only then
did Lina finally notice the ethereal "145" appear over the giant beast
momentarily before vanishing.

"Hey, man, you need any help?" she blurted out before she could wonder why
she'd offered to help in the first place. Since when had she gone around
offering to help people?!

"That would be quite a nice thing, miss!" the hero replied, before the
dragon sent its tail smashing straight into him in a blow that should've
sent him capping across the skies. Instead, the hero was struck once across
the chest, sending him stumbling back momentarily before he resumed his cool
pose. A small "56" appeared over his head and vanished.

Managing to regain part of her sanity and more than a part of her sense of
capitalism, Lina simply sat back and crossed her arms, watching the battle
take place. The hero sent another hemisphere of amber-colored energy at the
dragon ("132"), and turned towards her, his face somewhat-panicky.

"Do you intend on jumping in anytime soon?!" he shouted. "I cannot hold him
off forever!"

Lina yawned. "I don't work for free, buddy," she said. "If you got the goods
I got the big-assed explosions."

"I..." The man seemed to be more than a little horrified as he dodged
another swipe of the dragon's tail. "How much do you want?" he finally said,
resigned.

"Hmm... two hundred thousand gold should be good!" she said, giving him a
Charming Lina Smile (R).

The hero coughed. "That is a ridiculously-expensive amount of money, miss,
one that no one in the entire village can afford," he said reproachfully.
"How about... five hundred?"

"Five hundred? *Five* *hundred*?!" Lina laughed openly. "Oh, come on! You
can take care of the big ol' nasty dragon by yourself, buddy. See ya!"

With that, Lina sauntered off, just as the dragon sent a spout of fire at
the hero that registered as "9999".

[-----]

Nevv and Emmanem had managed to find Jeffrey's hometown, Doru-kii, by
nightfall. The two of them had promptly sought out his mother--a truly
intimidating woman with rolls of fat and muscle and great big flapping
lips--and had apologized profusely on behalf of Lina and all that they
really, really didn't intend to hurt him, but that he'd hurt himself while
trying to carry his disenchanted armor.

The mother had acquired a somewhat-homicidal gleam in her eyes before her
son corroborated their statements with a couple of weak gasps and coughs.
Instantly dropping all pretenses of murder and other fluffy thoughts, she
dropped what she was doing and carted Jeffrey and his stretcher to the back
room, yelling out things such as, "you *poor* thing!", "my *precious*,
*darling* son!" and other phrases that could give a hobgoblin cavities.

"Now there walks a disturbed woman," Nevv said as she and Emmanem wandered
around the town of Doru-kii to look for an inn to stay for the night.
"Somehow I'm glad Jeffrey's not going to be travelling with us anymore... as
if he was anything more than a burden."

Emmanem pondered this. "Perhaps... but the only reason he lost his powers
was because of Kiseki Rendahl... apparently, Jeffrey was capable of evading
magic when under the influence of the armor." He paused, and pointed at an
inn. "Such power is not commonplace. A very wise sorceror must have
enchanted his equipment in order to have made it so strong."

"And yet," Nevv said casually, "all it took was a simple spell from some
girl who practices a rogue form of magic to break it."

"... touche," Emmanem admitted, desperately trying to take the lead for
once. He was just a bit sick of having to follow Nevv all day. It afforded a
very generous view of her bottom, but it, like all other parts of her body
(save for the two round gifts from God) was covered in that flowing robe she
wore.

So there really wasn't anything to see except a shifting beige expanse of
fabric, which was about as stimulating as seeing Lina topless. Emmanem
quickly glanced around to make sure that she wasn't around; the wrath of
Lina Inverse knew little bounds, be it across the space of distance or the
fourth wall.

"I believe we should stay here for the night," he continued, trying to
assert *some* sort of leadership.

Nevv shrugged. "I don't have a problem with that. It's been the first good
thing you've suggested all day," she added, heading towards the inn.

"Why, you..." Emmanem began before the sweet taste of victory settled in.
He'd actually managed to make Nevv do something. How cool was that? "As I
was saying... let us stay here for the night, and in the morning, we
shall--"

"Find out where Lina's gone off to," Nevv finished. "I think we can do that
by asking around a bit, to see what people know. Of course, that will most
likely lead us nowhere, since villagers *never* know anything about major
occurences outside their towns."

Emmanem paused. "Riiight," he said. "May I offer a suggestion?"

"Sure thing."

"I suggest that we return to the town where Luna captured her sister. In
that way, we can conceivably find Luna once more and confront her as to the
whereabouts of Lina. Since Luna seems to be so knowledgeable, perhaps we can
even ask her where Kiseki Rendahl is as well," Emmanem finished.

Nevv considered for all of three seconds (give or take three seconds) before
wheeling on him. "Emmanem, that is..." she began.

"Yes? Yes?" he asked anxiously.

"... the stupidest idea I've ever heard of. We are *not* going back to the
town we just spent an entire day walking away from, we are *not* going to
find Luna Inverse, and even if we can, she has no reason to answer our
questions. *And* Kiseki isn't even a big part in all of this."

"But... she's been allied with those two Mazoku," Emmanem said, considerably
crestfallen.

"They're after me, and Kiseki didn't seem to care too much about me last
time. So I'm guessing their priorities changed."

"Either that, or she was distracted... like you were," he said, walking into
the inn.

Nevv followed behind, and placed her hands on her hips in a strident
posture. "I had no reason to fight her, and you know it!"

"Perhaps you were just too lazy." He signed the book on the counter, and
tossed a few coins at the manager, hoping that she was watching.

She noticed, and said nothing about it. "Perhaps," she admitted. "But that's
a moot point. I think that my plan will work better."

"Very well, then, let us use your plan," Emmanem said. "I will reserve the
right to mock you when it fails."

Nevv smirked, and headed over to the restaurant inside the inn to grab some
dinner. Emmanem quickly followed suit.

The sounds of the crowd around them and Nevv's insistent tapping of her
knife on the tabletop were the only sources of distraction he had. It got
boring really quickly... and the food wasn't here yet, so he couldn't bury
himself in the meal. He *had* to say something. But what?

"What's going on with all this?" he finally managed.

Nevv looked at him, and set the knife down, smiling. "I don't know," she
said. "I guess we're all just having a good time. Lina, myself, you..."

"I do not even know who I am," Emmanem said quietly. "This is something I
will find out... and I want the two of you to help me, if possible."

"First things first," Nevv said. "We can't move until we find the group
leader... right?"

"I suppose," he agreed half-heartedly. The food arrived, and both of them
proceeded to dig in, until...

"Nevv?"

"Yes?"

"Have we gone for this whole chapter with a complete lack of a cheap gag?"
Emmanem asked around his mouthful of mashed potatoes.

"Apparently so." She didn't seem to perturbed about it.

"Truly a miracle," he said, relieved. "I was under the general impression
that you--"

Nevv shoved her bowl of pudding in his face.

[-----]

Comments can be sent to: leaf_chan@excite.com