Chapter 14: Hidden
"#I do not love you anymore!#" The rest of Zel's words were lost in throwing up over the side of the boat.
"Mister Gourry, how could you?"
"Smooth move, Gourry."
Gourry gave up trying to prove his innocence. For the past four hours of their trip, Lina and Amelia verbally and
physically abused him.
"This conversation is getting really old. I already said sorry about ten times," Gourry moaned.
"But what you allowed was simply evil, Mister Gourry!"
"You should've caught him BEFORE he got there!"
"Was that... never mind."
*** ***
The trip itself took two days. The shore of the island Mead was muggy and overgrown with weeds.
"I have no idea why you guys want to come here of all places," the young captain, not much older than Gourry,
said, scratching his head, "I mean, there's nothing here that's worth seeing. Look, I could take you to Matha, it's
only a hour away, I hear it's beautiful..."
"No, thanks for the offer, though," Lina said, whom had been wondering the same thing herself, "What are we _doing_
here?" she asked herself.
"Well, when you're done looking around at nothing but weeds, on the southwestern side, there's a bridge leading to
Aca. They're great boatmen and I'm sure one of them will take you back to Hayla for a small fee."
"Thanks for the advice," Gourry said. The captain departed, eager to get his cargo to his buyers, leaving Lina
and the others on the dismal shore.
"This place sucks! Who'd want to live here?!" Lina complained, sitting down on the shore.
"I'm beginning to doubt that people do," Gourry added.
"It is pretty bleak looking, isn't it?" Amelia said, near tears.
"#I want to go home!#" Zel whined.
"You and me both, Master Zelgadis."
Lina shook herself out of her sulking and said, "Well, sitting here and complaining about the aesthetics of the
place is not going to help Zel. Let's find this temple, get his body back together, and go to Aca."
"But, we don't even know where the temple is, Lina," Gourry commented.
"Then we go LOOK for it! Come on!" Lina moved to charge into the overgrowth when Gourry noticed something.
"Hey, Lina, wait! Aren't those plants nettles?" Gourry called after her.
Lina looked down, "Uh, yeah, they are."
Amelia looked at the trees, "Those are poison ivy trees, too!"
"Fine! We won't go this way, we'll go another way."
Lina led the group farther down the shore. At first, Amelia thought one of the entrances was safe... until she nearly
banged her head against a huge beehive. Later on, Gourry nearly walked into hot spring. Not one of those nice hot
springs, he nearly walked into a hot spring that give the victim third-degree burns and are covered in colorful
bacteria. A nearby raccoon convinced Gourry to find another route when it stumbled into the spring and died there.
"What is with this island?! How do you get inside?!" Lina screamed in frustration, tearing her hair out.
"These people must really not like people," Gourry said.
"How do these people get supplies?" Amelia wondered aloud.
"WHAT people? I haven't seen anyone on this stupid island! We've have been walking around for four hours and we
haven't seen any signs of human activity! It's a GHOST island! We're wasting our time! Look, we're nearly at the
place where we started!"
"#There is a path here,#" Zel interrupted, pointing to the nicely cleared off path.
"Oh, look, there's a path here, silly me," Lina amended.
"Hey, Lina, isn't this funny? If we had gone the other way, we would've gotten here in under ten minutes," Gourry
laughed.
Lina then punched him in the jaw, "IT'S _NOT_ FUNNY AT ALL!!!"
"No, I guess not," Gourry mumbled, trying to put his jaw back into alignment.
They walked down the path. Inside, the vegetation was much more organized, "They probably put those weeds and
stuff on the outside to keep people out," Amelia figured.
They walked for hours on end.
"Okay, we found a path but it doesn't GO anywhere!" Lina moaned.
"#I am bored,#" Zel said.
"I know," Amelia agreed, half-heartedly.
"#Well, I am.#"
"What do you want me do about it?"
"#I have to got potty too.#"
"Guys, I think we should rest," Amelia suggested. Lina plunked down on a rock wordlessly and held her head in her
hands, "No people, no town, no inn, no food, nothing. There is absolutely nothing here," Lina complained quietly to
herself.
"Mister Gourry, can you take Master Zelgadis somewhere?"
"Why?"
"He has to go."
"Go where?"
"He has to just GO."
"Go WHERE?"
"Mister Gourry, nature is calling him."
"He can talk to trees, too?"
Lina threw a small stone at Gourry, "Jellyfish, she means he has to go to the bathroom!"
"Why didn't she just say so?" Gourry took Zel into the underbrush to do his business.
*** ***
After they had rested, they continued on. Eventually, they reached a town.
"Thanks the gods, a town!" Lina cried. She ran ahead of them towards the largest building. Gourry, Amelia and Zel
ran after her. To Lina's dismay, the building was not an inn but a town hall.
She sat down and cried, "It's not fair! I've traveled so far. I'm tired, I'm hungry, I'm utter
bereft! WAAAA!!!"
"Lina..."
"Go away! Let me die in peace!"
"Miss Lina..."
"WHAT?!"
"You just passed the inn," Gourry pointed behind him.
Across the street and two doors down was a building attached to a swinging sign with a plate surrounded by a knife
and fork above a bed.
"Oh." They helped Lina up and walked towards the inn. Amelia noticed that some of the houses had little plaques on
them with a picture of a woman figure under a house shape. Under the picture, there was an inscription but Amelia was
too far away to read it.
"Miss Lina, have you ever seen plaques like that?"
"No, never. Wonder what that's all about."
When they reached the inn, it too has a similar plaque and Amelia read the inscription: "Safe house."
"'Safe house'? What's that got to do with anything?" Gourry asked. The girls shrugged. Zel, meanwhile, was
climbing on to the bench under the plaque and touched it. He saw a flash of a woman getting her throat slit.
"#My grandmother...#" Zel said.
"What about her, Master Zelgadis?" Amelia asked.
"#My grandmother died here.#"
"How do you know that?"
"#I saw it when I touched the plaque.#"
"What's he talking about?" Lina asked.
"He says that his grandmother died here. The plaque told him," Amelia shrugged.
"We-ird."
They went inside and ordered tons of food. When the food was half gone, Lina called the waitress over, "Hey,
what's up with all those plaques?"
"Oh, it's a very sad story," the quiet girl replied, her audience had to lean over to hear her, "Long ago, a
woman with a baby came running into town, late at night. She screamed that someone was trying to kill her and begged to
be let into a house. Not wanting to get involved, no one let her in."
"What's happened?" Amelia asked.
"The man got her. No one could clearly identify the man, nor the woman. The woman's throat was slit. The next
morning, the people found her in a pool of blood. But the strangest thing is," she looked straight at them, "the baby
was gone."
"Gone? Did the man take it?" Gourry asked.
"We don't know. No one saw the man take it and even so, the woman fell face first, the baby would've been crushed
under her. To get to the baby, they would have flip over the woman. There was no sign that the woman had been touched,
besides the slit throat. It was as if the baby had vanished."
"That's so creepy," Amelia said, holding on to Zel's hand, "isn't it, Master Zelgadis?" Zel shrugged.
"But why all the plaques? You said no one knew the woman," Lina asked.
"When the people found the body, they realized that it was their fault the woman had died. They then set up the
'Safe House' policy. If someone is in trouble, they can go to the houses with the 'Safe House' plaques on them and be
given protection."
"I think that's a beautiful policy," Amelia commented, shaking off the jetters.
"Thank you. Is there anything else you want?"
"Yeah, chicken dinner for twelve and some information about your island," Lina ordered.
"Of course," the girl smiled but when her back was turned, her smile turned into a scowl.
"There's something about that story that doesn't add up. I mean, where did the baby go?" Lina leaned back into
her chair.
"Maybe it wasn't really hurt and walked away," Gourry offered.
Lina pulled Gourry in a head lock, "Gourry! That's the stupidest thing I've EVER heard. Even you are not that
stupid!"
"Okay, maybe it didn't," Gourry replied.
"Wasn't that story what Misses Veronica saw in her vision?" Amelia offered.
"Yeah, and Zel here claims the woman was his grandmother," Lina's face scrunched, "but how can that woman
be Zel's grandmother if she got her throat slit?"
"And the baby's head got smashed in?" Amelia added.
"Supposedly. The baby disappeared, remember?"
"Maybe the woman had another kid," Gourry suggested.
"_After_ she had her throat slit?" Lina glared at him.
"No, no, no. _Before_ she got her throat slit."
"Then where was that other kid?" Amelia asked.
"At home, probably."
"So, she just left her kid at home?" Lina asked, doubtfully.
"Look! I was just giving a suggestion!"
"Thanks for playing, Gourry."
The waitress came back with the food and nearly walked off when Lina ordered, "Hey!
Wait! I want some information!"
The waitress whirled around, "Oh, yes. Forgot."
"This is Mead, right?"
"Yes, and this is the town of Harra," the waitress said proudly.
"Do you know where the old Death Angel temple is? I hear it's on this island."
"It is."
"Great! Then where is it?" The waitress was walking away but Lina grabbed her shoulder, "I wasn't finished."
"I was, Miss."
"Look, where is the temple?"
"The temple of what?"
"The Death Angels! I just said so!"
"No, you just said 'where is the temple?'"
"Never mind. Just tell me where to find the Temple of the Death Angels."
The waitress crossed her arms, "I don't see why you want to go there, there's nothing there to look at. It's
just a big building!"
"I don't care about tourist attractions! Where is it?"
"There. Is. N-O-T-H-I-N-G. There!"
"Do you _want_ me to blow up this inn? 'Cause I will if you don't tell me!"
"Fine! It's on the mountain. The path leading to it is at the end of town! Happy?" The waitress shouted.
"Yes, very happy. Thanks for your time," Lina said and with that, sat down and ate her food. The waitress scowled
and ran out of the inn.
"How weird. What's wrong with telling us where the temple is?" Amelia asked.
"Who cares? We'll go tomorrow morning," Lina ordered.
*** ***
After a good night's sleep and a hearty breakfast of leftovers (for some reason the innkeeper was gone), they set
out for the Temple. The streets were silent. No children were playing, no women were hanging out clothes, the sound
of the smith hitting hot iron was missing.
"I don't like this, something's up," Gourry said, holding his sword.
"Yeah, it's too quiet out here. It's unnatural," Lina agreed.
They continued, conscious of the silence until the reached the cemetery. The cemetery was not enclosed. The
tombstones were all uniform shape and size, all of them were equal distance apart. The trees hung low, as if they were
sick and tired of standing up straight. A few dismal flowers tried to grow but their height and beauty was stunted by the
morbid air of the place.
The crew passed the cemetery, which stood at the crest of a hill and starting heading downhill. They noticed all
the people there.
"Maybe a trade wagon comes this way," Gourry explained, shrugging.
"But aren't they facing the wrong way? They're facing us," Amelia shivered.
As they grew closer, they knew that the crowd was not waiting for a trade wagon. They were armed with pitchforks
and shovels. Some had swords and maces. Even the children were armed with little clubs. All of them gave the group a
belligerent glance.
"They don't look too happy with us," Gourry whispered.
"We have to go through them to get to the path to the Temple," Lina whispered back. This looked really bad. To the
crowd, she said, "Hey, could you let us pass, please? We need to get to the Temple."
The sturdiest man there stepped forward and boomed, "We can not let you pass." He unsheathed his sword to prove his
point.
"Why not?"
"It is FORBIDDEN!"
"We have to go there," Lina barked back.
"Then you will DIE!"
To be continued...
Author's Notes: This chapter was easier because now I know what I want to do. I planned this part before everything
else. What will happened to our brave heroes? Will Zel be put back together? Will I finish this before school starts
up again? Find out next time in Chapter 15! In the meantime, send me C&C at destinyplot@lycos.com since Netaddress turned
evil and started charging and Angelfire wouldn't let me send mail so I'm at that address now. Don't bother writing to the
usa.net nor the angelfire.com address because it will be cancelled July 31, 2001 and I won't be checking it anyway.
So send me C&C there! See ya later!
"#I do not love you anymore!#" The rest of Zel's words were lost in throwing up over the side of the boat.
"Mister Gourry, how could you?"
"Smooth move, Gourry."
Gourry gave up trying to prove his innocence. For the past four hours of their trip, Lina and Amelia verbally and
physically abused him.
"This conversation is getting really old. I already said sorry about ten times," Gourry moaned.
"But what you allowed was simply evil, Mister Gourry!"
"You should've caught him BEFORE he got there!"
"Was that... never mind."
*** ***
The trip itself took two days. The shore of the island Mead was muggy and overgrown with weeds.
"I have no idea why you guys want to come here of all places," the young captain, not much older than Gourry,
said, scratching his head, "I mean, there's nothing here that's worth seeing. Look, I could take you to Matha, it's
only a hour away, I hear it's beautiful..."
"No, thanks for the offer, though," Lina said, whom had been wondering the same thing herself, "What are we _doing_
here?" she asked herself.
"Well, when you're done looking around at nothing but weeds, on the southwestern side, there's a bridge leading to
Aca. They're great boatmen and I'm sure one of them will take you back to Hayla for a small fee."
"Thanks for the advice," Gourry said. The captain departed, eager to get his cargo to his buyers, leaving Lina
and the others on the dismal shore.
"This place sucks! Who'd want to live here?!" Lina complained, sitting down on the shore.
"I'm beginning to doubt that people do," Gourry added.
"It is pretty bleak looking, isn't it?" Amelia said, near tears.
"#I want to go home!#" Zel whined.
"You and me both, Master Zelgadis."
Lina shook herself out of her sulking and said, "Well, sitting here and complaining about the aesthetics of the
place is not going to help Zel. Let's find this temple, get his body back together, and go to Aca."
"But, we don't even know where the temple is, Lina," Gourry commented.
"Then we go LOOK for it! Come on!" Lina moved to charge into the overgrowth when Gourry noticed something.
"Hey, Lina, wait! Aren't those plants nettles?" Gourry called after her.
Lina looked down, "Uh, yeah, they are."
Amelia looked at the trees, "Those are poison ivy trees, too!"
"Fine! We won't go this way, we'll go another way."
Lina led the group farther down the shore. At first, Amelia thought one of the entrances was safe... until she nearly
banged her head against a huge beehive. Later on, Gourry nearly walked into hot spring. Not one of those nice hot
springs, he nearly walked into a hot spring that give the victim third-degree burns and are covered in colorful
bacteria. A nearby raccoon convinced Gourry to find another route when it stumbled into the spring and died there.
"What is with this island?! How do you get inside?!" Lina screamed in frustration, tearing her hair out.
"These people must really not like people," Gourry said.
"How do these people get supplies?" Amelia wondered aloud.
"WHAT people? I haven't seen anyone on this stupid island! We've have been walking around for four hours and we
haven't seen any signs of human activity! It's a GHOST island! We're wasting our time! Look, we're nearly at the
place where we started!"
"#There is a path here,#" Zel interrupted, pointing to the nicely cleared off path.
"Oh, look, there's a path here, silly me," Lina amended.
"Hey, Lina, isn't this funny? If we had gone the other way, we would've gotten here in under ten minutes," Gourry
laughed.
Lina then punched him in the jaw, "IT'S _NOT_ FUNNY AT ALL!!!"
"No, I guess not," Gourry mumbled, trying to put his jaw back into alignment.
They walked down the path. Inside, the vegetation was much more organized, "They probably put those weeds and
stuff on the outside to keep people out," Amelia figured.
They walked for hours on end.
"Okay, we found a path but it doesn't GO anywhere!" Lina moaned.
"#I am bored,#" Zel said.
"I know," Amelia agreed, half-heartedly.
"#Well, I am.#"
"What do you want me do about it?"
"#I have to got potty too.#"
"Guys, I think we should rest," Amelia suggested. Lina plunked down on a rock wordlessly and held her head in her
hands, "No people, no town, no inn, no food, nothing. There is absolutely nothing here," Lina complained quietly to
herself.
"Mister Gourry, can you take Master Zelgadis somewhere?"
"Why?"
"He has to go."
"Go where?"
"He has to just GO."
"Go WHERE?"
"Mister Gourry, nature is calling him."
"He can talk to trees, too?"
Lina threw a small stone at Gourry, "Jellyfish, she means he has to go to the bathroom!"
"Why didn't she just say so?" Gourry took Zel into the underbrush to do his business.
*** ***
After they had rested, they continued on. Eventually, they reached a town.
"Thanks the gods, a town!" Lina cried. She ran ahead of them towards the largest building. Gourry, Amelia and Zel
ran after her. To Lina's dismay, the building was not an inn but a town hall.
She sat down and cried, "It's not fair! I've traveled so far. I'm tired, I'm hungry, I'm utter
bereft! WAAAA!!!"
"Lina..."
"Go away! Let me die in peace!"
"Miss Lina..."
"WHAT?!"
"You just passed the inn," Gourry pointed behind him.
Across the street and two doors down was a building attached to a swinging sign with a plate surrounded by a knife
and fork above a bed.
"Oh." They helped Lina up and walked towards the inn. Amelia noticed that some of the houses had little plaques on
them with a picture of a woman figure under a house shape. Under the picture, there was an inscription but Amelia was
too far away to read it.
"Miss Lina, have you ever seen plaques like that?"
"No, never. Wonder what that's all about."
When they reached the inn, it too has a similar plaque and Amelia read the inscription: "Safe house."
"'Safe house'? What's that got to do with anything?" Gourry asked. The girls shrugged. Zel, meanwhile, was
climbing on to the bench under the plaque and touched it. He saw a flash of a woman getting her throat slit.
"#My grandmother...#" Zel said.
"What about her, Master Zelgadis?" Amelia asked.
"#My grandmother died here.#"
"How do you know that?"
"#I saw it when I touched the plaque.#"
"What's he talking about?" Lina asked.
"He says that his grandmother died here. The plaque told him," Amelia shrugged.
"We-ird."
They went inside and ordered tons of food. When the food was half gone, Lina called the waitress over, "Hey,
what's up with all those plaques?"
"Oh, it's a very sad story," the quiet girl replied, her audience had to lean over to hear her, "Long ago, a
woman with a baby came running into town, late at night. She screamed that someone was trying to kill her and begged to
be let into a house. Not wanting to get involved, no one let her in."
"What's happened?" Amelia asked.
"The man got her. No one could clearly identify the man, nor the woman. The woman's throat was slit. The next
morning, the people found her in a pool of blood. But the strangest thing is," she looked straight at them, "the baby
was gone."
"Gone? Did the man take it?" Gourry asked.
"We don't know. No one saw the man take it and even so, the woman fell face first, the baby would've been crushed
under her. To get to the baby, they would have flip over the woman. There was no sign that the woman had been touched,
besides the slit throat. It was as if the baby had vanished."
"That's so creepy," Amelia said, holding on to Zel's hand, "isn't it, Master Zelgadis?" Zel shrugged.
"But why all the plaques? You said no one knew the woman," Lina asked.
"When the people found the body, they realized that it was their fault the woman had died. They then set up the
'Safe House' policy. If someone is in trouble, they can go to the houses with the 'Safe House' plaques on them and be
given protection."
"I think that's a beautiful policy," Amelia commented, shaking off the jetters.
"Thank you. Is there anything else you want?"
"Yeah, chicken dinner for twelve and some information about your island," Lina ordered.
"Of course," the girl smiled but when her back was turned, her smile turned into a scowl.
"There's something about that story that doesn't add up. I mean, where did the baby go?" Lina leaned back into
her chair.
"Maybe it wasn't really hurt and walked away," Gourry offered.
Lina pulled Gourry in a head lock, "Gourry! That's the stupidest thing I've EVER heard. Even you are not that
stupid!"
"Okay, maybe it didn't," Gourry replied.
"Wasn't that story what Misses Veronica saw in her vision?" Amelia offered.
"Yeah, and Zel here claims the woman was his grandmother," Lina's face scrunched, "but how can that woman
be Zel's grandmother if she got her throat slit?"
"And the baby's head got smashed in?" Amelia added.
"Supposedly. The baby disappeared, remember?"
"Maybe the woman had another kid," Gourry suggested.
"_After_ she had her throat slit?" Lina glared at him.
"No, no, no. _Before_ she got her throat slit."
"Then where was that other kid?" Amelia asked.
"At home, probably."
"So, she just left her kid at home?" Lina asked, doubtfully.
"Look! I was just giving a suggestion!"
"Thanks for playing, Gourry."
The waitress came back with the food and nearly walked off when Lina ordered, "Hey!
Wait! I want some information!"
The waitress whirled around, "Oh, yes. Forgot."
"This is Mead, right?"
"Yes, and this is the town of Harra," the waitress said proudly.
"Do you know where the old Death Angel temple is? I hear it's on this island."
"It is."
"Great! Then where is it?" The waitress was walking away but Lina grabbed her shoulder, "I wasn't finished."
"I was, Miss."
"Look, where is the temple?"
"The temple of what?"
"The Death Angels! I just said so!"
"No, you just said 'where is the temple?'"
"Never mind. Just tell me where to find the Temple of the Death Angels."
The waitress crossed her arms, "I don't see why you want to go there, there's nothing there to look at. It's
just a big building!"
"I don't care about tourist attractions! Where is it?"
"There. Is. N-O-T-H-I-N-G. There!"
"Do you _want_ me to blow up this inn? 'Cause I will if you don't tell me!"
"Fine! It's on the mountain. The path leading to it is at the end of town! Happy?" The waitress shouted.
"Yes, very happy. Thanks for your time," Lina said and with that, sat down and ate her food. The waitress scowled
and ran out of the inn.
"How weird. What's wrong with telling us where the temple is?" Amelia asked.
"Who cares? We'll go tomorrow morning," Lina ordered.
*** ***
After a good night's sleep and a hearty breakfast of leftovers (for some reason the innkeeper was gone), they set
out for the Temple. The streets were silent. No children were playing, no women were hanging out clothes, the sound
of the smith hitting hot iron was missing.
"I don't like this, something's up," Gourry said, holding his sword.
"Yeah, it's too quiet out here. It's unnatural," Lina agreed.
They continued, conscious of the silence until the reached the cemetery. The cemetery was not enclosed. The
tombstones were all uniform shape and size, all of them were equal distance apart. The trees hung low, as if they were
sick and tired of standing up straight. A few dismal flowers tried to grow but their height and beauty was stunted by the
morbid air of the place.
The crew passed the cemetery, which stood at the crest of a hill and starting heading downhill. They noticed all
the people there.
"Maybe a trade wagon comes this way," Gourry explained, shrugging.
"But aren't they facing the wrong way? They're facing us," Amelia shivered.
As they grew closer, they knew that the crowd was not waiting for a trade wagon. They were armed with pitchforks
and shovels. Some had swords and maces. Even the children were armed with little clubs. All of them gave the group a
belligerent glance.
"They don't look too happy with us," Gourry whispered.
"We have to go through them to get to the path to the Temple," Lina whispered back. This looked really bad. To the
crowd, she said, "Hey, could you let us pass, please? We need to get to the Temple."
The sturdiest man there stepped forward and boomed, "We can not let you pass." He unsheathed his sword to prove his
point.
"Why not?"
"It is FORBIDDEN!"
"We have to go there," Lina barked back.
"Then you will DIE!"
To be continued...
Author's Notes: This chapter was easier because now I know what I want to do. I planned this part before everything
else. What will happened to our brave heroes? Will Zel be put back together? Will I finish this before school starts
up again? Find out next time in Chapter 15! In the meantime, send me C&C at destinyplot@lycos.com since Netaddress turned
evil and started charging and Angelfire wouldn't let me send mail so I'm at that address now. Don't bother writing to the
usa.net nor the angelfire.com address because it will be cancelled July 31, 2001 and I won't be checking it anyway.
So send me C&C there! See ya later!