Lina and Amelia watched the group with worry, not much they could offer save suggestions here and there.
The boat was starting to get a little out of control. The waves were becomming enormous. Marner started to shout to crew mates. He looked down at Tsunami.
"Get inside now!"
She shook her head furiously. She took her hands off his arm and signed as quick as she could, so that she would not loose balance.
"Do not argue with me young lady! I'll be fine!" Marner bent over and kissed her on the forehead. "Go inside, please! It's too dangerous for ye!"
Tsunami starred at him for a long moment before she reluntantly removed her arms and started to walk away. The boat tossed heavily, throwing her down to her hands and knees. The waves crashed again, and the boat began to turn on it's side. People were sliding towards the water. Marner reached quickly for Tsunami, and made her clutch onto the wheel to hang on. Gourry had slide down to Lina, and was holding her by the waist with one hand, and one of the masts with the other. Zelgadis was making his way to Amelia, reaching out for her.
Once again, the boat tossed. This time turning to the other side. Almost completely sideways, to the point where everyone thought it was going to flip over.
"Hang on!" Gourry yelled. Lina buried her head into his shoulder. Zelgadis tighened his grip on Amelia, and Marner did his best to keep Tsunami's grip on the wheel. Members of the crew were starting to go overboard, including the first mate.
"Hold on!" Marner called. "Hold on tight me girl!"
Tsunami shook her head in protest, trying to tell him to stay.
"I gotta save me men, it's the least I can do. They are family also. I love ye." Marner smiled and let go of the wheel, sliding down to the down side of the ship, and reaching for the mate that was hanging off the edge. He pulled him up as the ship was ready to righten itself. As the first mate got his footing, another member of the crew slid down rapidly, yelling and kicking, trying to find any purchase with his feet. He could not find one, and collided with Marner, sending them both overboard.
"No!" Amelia started to run for him, but Zelgadis pulled her back. The ship had almost rightened itself.
"No Amelia! I know you can cast magic still, but these conditions would be too difficult!"
Tsunami stared.
The ship rightened itself, the waves stopped.
"Almost..." Dolphin whispered as she looked from under the water. "Come on..."
Tsunami looked at Amelia, Zelgadis, Lina and Gourry. Then at the doorway to the lower decks where her parents where, then to the side of the ship that Marner had gone over. She ran over, to see if she could find him.
Even though a dozen men fell over, there was not a sign of them. The waves had stopped, like all they wanted was to claim her grandfather, and now their hunger was sated.
"NO!" She screamed. The group started in surprise.
"She's talking.." Amelia whispered.
Tsunami was letting her tears run freely now. "No more saddness! I'm sick of this! Take me away! Take me away!" She began to huddle and bawl into her knees.
"What is she talking about?" Lina asked.
Dolphin smiled.
A form of a tall handsom man with dark hair and ice blue eyes appeared. He was wearing light, black armor with gold outlines. He knelt next to Tsunami.
"Then come with me."
Tsunami reached for him, holding onto him like a last hope. He looked at Lina and smiled coldly. "Ah. Till we meet again, Inverse-san." And he vanished with the little girl in his arms.
"What the hell? Who was that?" Lina shouted, running to the spot where Tsunami had dissapeared. "Where did she go?"
"Well, with my brother, of course." A voice, sweet in sound, rang from high in the air. Everyone looked up to find a petite beautiful woman with long light blue cascading hair done up in ordangos hovering above them.
"Who are you?" Lina demanded. This situation was spinning even more out of control, and Lina was determined to get things back on track.
"Why, I'm Kai-ou, and that, my dears, was Ha-ou...also known as Deep Sea Dolphin and Dynast Grausherra. And I have come to provide a suitible distraction and to recruit a member into my ranks." She smiled smugly.
"What and who?" Gourry asked, srcatching his head.
"They're dark lords, you baka." Lina muttered.
"Oh dear..." Amelia made a very damselish gesture of putting her hands delicatly over her mouth in astonishment and leaning towards Zelgadis. "Xelloss and Filia are going to kill us for letting a dark lord kidnap Tsunami! We have to save her!"
"Uh uh uh...!" Dolphin waggled her finger at the princess and gave her a "you've been naughty" look. "Right now I should have your full attention. You see, I have something to propose to you all. First, let me tell you a secret though...." She leaned forward in a girlish manner and gave a sneaky smile.
"Yeah, and what would that be?" Zelgadis snapped, not trusting her (and with good reason).
"Well, you see...about your powers...I know how to get them back!" The dark lord grinned.
Lina raised her eyebrows in apparent interest. "Oh, and how would that be? How do you know how to get them back?"
"Why, because I took them!" Dolphin rose higher into the air and laughed insanely. Lina grimaced and Zelgadis snarled.
"So tell us how you are going to give them back already!" Lina yelled, her temper already reaching a limit. She liked Marner, and was starting to hate this blue haired dark lord a terrible lot.
"Simple: what am I here for? You have three guesses kiddies." The dark lord leaned back like she was lounging in a chair in thin air and inspected her nails, which glimmered with a pearlish nail polish.
"To piss us off, maybe?" Zelgadis muttered under his breath, his temper stretched to it's bare limit.
"Nope! Strike one!" Dolphin said cherrily, still examining her nails.
"Wha...that wasn't a guess! It was a sarcastic remark!" Zelgadis yelled in protest.
"Too bad stone boy. It counts. Make your next two worth it."
Lina looked at Zelgadis in irritation and crossed her arms across her chest. "Zel...no more remarks."
"Though I can give you a clue..." Dolphin said sweetly, smiling as she started to pick something out from under her thumb nail. "Stone boy isn't too far off...what I am going to do will piss someone off to no end."
Gourry, surprisingly (and to Lina's utmost fear) stepped forward. "You're going to make someone a mazoku, right?"
"Gourry, you idiot, don't waste our questions!"
"Actually, blondie just got you even closer. Seems like he was paying attention to my earlier statment. But strike two, for you need to tell me who I am after."
"What?" Lina asked in confusion.
"She said she was bringing someone into her ranks." Gourry stated.
Lina nodded and thought for a moment. Who would make a powerful mazoku... Amelia isn't terribly powerful...and she is why into justice, she wouldn't allow herself to remain a mazoku...same with Shyphiel. Gourry is too dumb...but might make a good general. But mu gut tells me no. Zelgadis....? He would be powerful...but she has been totally disreguarding him, there has been no sense of focus from her to him. I don't think that. Me? Maybe me?....wait! Xelloss! He would make a powerful mazoku, of course! And they have his daughter, probably as blackmail! It must be..." Are you here to turn Xelloss to your ranks?" Lina asked.
Dolphin blinked in surprise. "Your pretty smart."
Lina grinned smugly and gave her a triumphant look.
"But still wrong, sweetheart."
"Eh?" Lina's eyes got large as Dolphin blinked out and returned, with a body in her arms. She could hear Shyphiel screaming all of a sudden, her feet pounding on the wood of the lower decks ask Dolphin gradually rose to the air.
"Hey, let go of Filia-san!" Amelia cried out, starting towards the dark lord.
"I think not. Oh..by the way, Lina-san...tell that purple bastard that this is what he gets fro defying me." And Dolphin suddenly blinked out.
"Of course...of course! I should have realised it was Filia, not Xelloss!" Lina punched one of the near by masts in anger.
"She just popped in! I couldn't stop her...gomen ne sai Lina-san." Shyphiel pouted slightly and looked at her feet in embarrisment.
"It's alright, Shyphiel." Lina mumbled.
"Um....Lina?" Gourry asked quietly.
"What is it?" She asked in a tired voice.
"How...are we going to tell Xelloss when he wakes up that his entire family was taken by mazoku?"
Lina sighed. "Hell if I know..."
The first mate, his face puffy from tears, clambored up to the small group. "Tell it to 'em strait. It's the only way ye can tell someone these sorts of things. Poor Filia-san and Tsu-chan are as good as dead. Anyways, we are in sight of land, and will dock soon. We need be moarnin' for the lost of our captain and the little gals." He sighed and wiped a few more stray tears as he shuffled off.
The ship docked, and almost everyone departed. Amelia stayed behind to watch after Xelloss (it was the right thing to do) while Lina, Gourry, Zelgadis, Shyphiel and most of the crew wandered through the moderately sized city.
The townspeople were all dressed in white and gave the new commers odd looks, neither welcomming nor unwelcomming. There were several stages strewn about the town, where a person stood upon it and preached to the crowd below about "goodness, virtue and above all, purity".
"Amelia would like this place." Lina commented, noteing how bent these people seemed to be on the "right thing". In fact...
"Hey...there is no graffite...no pick pocketing from what I can see...this place is spotless!" Lina looked around. "Everyone in this wierdo town is bent on goodness!"
Zelgadis nodded. "Yes, I noticed this earlier. I think the fact they all dress in white is more than a fashion statment."
Gourry made no comment and Shyphiel smiled as she looked apon the people. "These people seem so nice...it would be great to live in a city free of crime and evil."
A little boy tripped in front of the shy priestess at that point of time.
"Oh, my! Are you alright little one?" Shyphiel asked worriedly. The little boy turned so he was sitting on the ground. Tears were already spilling down his cheeks, and both of his knees were bloody from the fall.
"Oh..that must hurt! Here.." Shyphiel borrowed Zelgadis' canten and poured some water onto a piece of fabic, and gently cleaned off his knees. "I'll make them feel better. Recovery... Shyphiel whispered, holding her hands out before his knees. The wounds closed up, and the boys mouth dropped open.
"There..is that better?" Shyphiel asked sweetly. She noticed the boys look and reached out to him. "What's wrong?" The boy scooted back quickly and worked his mouth in an attempt to say something.
"What?" Shyphiel asked again, worried about the boy's behavior.
"....WITCH!" The boy screamed, getting to his feet and starting to run, screaming "Witch!" the whole way.
"I don't like this..." Zelgadis whispered in anxiety. "This isn't good."
A whole bunch of the townspeople came to them in a rush, grabbing on to Shyphiels limbs roughly.
"What's your name?" One of the men asked roughly.
Shyphiel was making small yelping sounds trying to get free of the hands, but there was too many of them. Lina and company were being held back. Thankfully, Zelgadis saw the unfriendly group comming from a distance and took off, knowing that, even with this chimeric strength and agility, that a frontal confrontation would be best avoided. He dove away from the group and down an alley, finding some safe shadows to dissapear into. He knew that if they thought Shyphiel was a witch...who knows what they would think of his stone skin.
"I don't want to repeat myself!" The man tugged harshly on the shy maidens arm, causing her to yell out in pain.
"Hey! Leave her alone!" Lina yelled out.
"Shyphiel....Shyphiel Nels Lahda...would you mind letting me go?" Shypheil asked as politley as possible, a little anger creeping into her voice.
"Shyphiel Nels Lahda...you have been accused of being a witch. This afternoon there will be a trial held to determine your innocence." He glared at Lina and Gourry. "And I would inform your friends of darkness that they are not helping your case."
