Chap 9 - Fun and Games
"What are you doing?" Xellos asked as he appeared behind the girl, sitting himself on the bed.
Xaina yelped, knocking over what she had been building with the wooden shapes. "Please don't do that?" she breathed out.
"Why?"
"It scares me, an' I don't like being scared," Xaina explained calmly.
Xellos made a mental note of that. She needed time to get comfortable here and being started probably wouldn't help. "Ok. What are you doing?"
Xaina glanced up at him from the floor. "Building with blocks," she shrugged.
"Oh, so they're called blacks. Building what?" he asked, truly curious as to what she might think to make out of the colored pieces of wood.
"Well, I was making a castle, but you knocked it down," she retorted. She was gathering up the pieces again.
"Oh, and how did I knock it down?" Xellos quipped. He bent down a little, leaning on his staff. "I didn't touch it."
"No, but you startled me when caused me to bump it and knock it over. Therefore, it's your fault."
"Oh, is that so." The trickster motioned to the little wooden dolls he had been using before and made them walk over next to her. "Yeah, well, it wasn't a very good castle anyway. I bet my little soldiers here could take that mangy pile of rumble no problem."
"Could not!" Xaina argued.
"Oh yeah, and who's going to stop them. You don't even have a castle, let alone an army," Xellos teased.
"Well, I will!" She grabbed one of the blocks and tossed it at the little people that were advancing on her pile. It struck, knocking down three of them. "Ha!"
"Ah ah ah, not so fast." He pointed to the little fallen dolls who stood back up and started walking towards her again.
"Not fair!" Xaina snapped.
"Life's not fair. What're you going to do about it?" Xaina grabbed another block and tossed it at them, with the same results. "Keep that up and you wont have anything left to build with." A thought crossed Xellos' mind. Mentally, he reached out and touched the old spells he had placed on her. They were thin, at best. Some had come lose. Two were even gone. He poked at the spells until finely a few more gave way and started to dissipate. Now let's see just what you can do, he thought.
Xaina tossed another block. The monster priest caught hold of it with his power and stopped it before it could hit any of the dolls. It dropped to the ground and the wooden figures kept moving forward.
"Hey! Now that's just plain cheating. How can I stop you if I can't fight back," the child pointed out. She was starting to radiate frustration against the game.
"You can fight back. You just need to figure out how. Imagine if this were a real battle and you're trying to protect the castle you are making. Those," he said, pointing to the dolls, "are the enemies. Do you think the enemy will simply stop doing something because you say it's not fair?"
"No..."
"Exactly. Now, you have no soldiers, so what do you do?"
"Run," she stated rather bluntly. "I couldn't fight an army by myself."
"Uh...well yes, that might be a good idea...but after that. What about when you want to take it back? You're not just going to give up are you?"
"I can build my castle somewhere else."
"What about when they want that land too? Are you just going to spend the rest of your life running?"
"Well, no, I guess not."
"Good," he replied cheerfully. The dolls had stopped moving to give her time to think. "Now, you want to fight, so what do you do? How do you fight them?"
"Get my own army?" she asked rather uncertainly as she looked at the little dolls.
"Very good." He gave her a small tug on the back of her black hair so she'd look at him again. He opened his eyes and stared down into hers, a playful smile on his face. "So, get your army."
He made the dolls move towards her again. They were getting quite close to the small child. The sun had started to come up and was bathing the room in a warm golden glow. Xaina seemed confused as she stared at the toys moving in her direction. Suddenly, her face brightened. She snagged hold of Booie next to her. She placed him out in front of her and started to growl like a wolf.
"You can't have it," she playfully growled in, what Xellos guessed Xaina thought was, the toy's voice was.
"Ha, you don't scare us!" Xellos played back. He floated down behind the little people and laid on the floor. "We're not afraid of some mangy wolf!"
"You will be!" She lashed out with the toy, knocking over several of Xellos' little people.
Xellos mock laughed. This was actually mildly amusing. "Ah ha ha ha ha. You think such a weak attack can stop us."
A more determined look crossed the girl's face. She grabbed another block and threw it. He could tell she was trying to make something move with just her mind like he was. She growled, partly to be fearsome, partly out of frustration. She concentrated hard on one of the blocks, disparately trying to move it with out touching it. Nothing happened. The dolls got closer. She gave up and grabbed the block, tossing it at Xellos instead of the toys.
"Hey! You're fighting them, not me!" he barked.
"Yeah, but you're controlling them. If I take out the controller, they'll stop," she teased, an evil grin on innocent face. He nearly beamed at her quick thinking, but another block was thrown at him, reminding him that he had not won just yet.
"Oh, well, if that's the case then, attack!" he commanded. The little dolls moved at a faster pace.
This rattled the girl further. She threw another block. She felt something bump into her leg...one of the dolls. "Oh, go bother someone else! Why don't you just go attack him!" she barked. There was a sudden flair in her power that surged into the doll. The little doll about faced and marched right back to one of it's companions and proceeded to bop it on the head a couple of times. Xellos' smile fell. Xaina beamed. "Yeah! You, help him!" she ordered one of the other toys. Small bits of her power flowed into it. This doll proceeded to do the same as the first and turned on the other toys. He felt his control on the other toys slipping. "Ha ha! They're mine now! Attack him!" She pointed at Xellos. All the dolls, well all except the one that had been beaten down quite hard and now was missing a leg, proceeded to turn sharply and head back to Xellos. "Surrender!"
"Never!" he cried. He reached out with his mind for the wolf toy. It suddenly got up and charged all the dolls, knocking many of them over.
"No!" Xaina wailed as she chased after her favorite toy. All of the dolls stopped moving. She grabbed hold of Booie and cradled him in her arms. Xellos instantly let go of his control on the object. She hugged it close, refusing to let go.
Interesting, he thought. She has power. She's a fast learner. That should make some of this easier...the control is going to be hard. He felt a wave of slight distress come over him, and the monster felt a little bad for what he done. He didn't like this. He wasn't use to it. How does she do that? he wondered. "I'm sorry Xaina. I shouldn't have controlled him. He's your's, not mine."
"None of these are your's," she reminded him. "They're Val's. I saw them in his room when I helped Filia put him down for his afternoon nap." She picked up the broken doll and his leg. "I don't think we should play that again. Filia might not like it if they all were broken."
"Oh, she probably hasn't noticed anything's missing. Knowing her, she's probably still worrying about the things I broke."
"You shouldn't brake her things. She worked really hard on those tea cups, ya know."
"I know she did. It makes them all the more fun to brake. You forget, we monsters live off negative emotions like hate and anger, and Filia is full of them." He smiled evilly.
"It's still not nice."
Xellos shrugged. "I do believe you said I wasn't very nice. Do you still think that?" She nodded. "Oh, why's that? I thought I was being nice a minute ago."
"Because you're not. You were just playing, and not very nicely anyway."
"Well, you didn't seem to be playing to nicely when you took my soldiers from me."
"I was only defending myself. You were the one who started it originally. Besides, I wasn't going to hurt you. I was planning on taking you alive."
Xellos stood and walked over next to the girl. "And why were you taking me alive?"
" Ôcause I didn't want to kill you. I was being merciful," she replied.
"How disgustingly compassionate of you." He picked her up and balanced her with one arm. "How Ôbout we find another game to play."
*****
Xaina dashed around one of the bushes in the garden. Xellos was close but not close enough to see her...at least she didn't think he was. The game had started as hide-and-go-seek but had quickly become a game of cat and mouse as the dashed about in the garden. Any fear she had of this place and its few occupants was forgotten for the moment. While part of her was still waiting for something to jump out and grab her, dragging her away, it was much more quite now in the afternoon sun.
The girl had seen only two other monsters on the whole island that Xellos had said were lower servants of Lord Beastmaster's. One, Murikiva, had been in charge of the food. "Monsters don't need to eat," Xellos had explained, "But Lord Beastmaster does enjoy it." The other was a gofer for the monster lord. His name was Wraithand and he was a former servant of Gaav who had begged for safety when Gaav was killed and Gaav's servants were being put to death. Xaina didn't pay them much mind, so long as they left her alone.
"You can run but you can't hide, Xaina," Xellos called.
I can try, she thought. She ran behind a tree. Xellos passed right by her, seeming not to know where the girl was. When he was out of sight, she turned and ran in the direction he had come from. She spotted the tree they were using as base and tapped it, yelling, "Safe!" before running off into the garden again.
Xaina wasn't paying very good attention to where she was going. She didn't really care if she got lost. If she did, she could just sit down and wait. Sooner or later, Xellos always managed to find her. He'd proved this several times already since he brought her there last night...or at least it had been night here. Her foot made contact with something. She suddenly went flying into the ground. She rolled on the ground when she hit. She got a mouthful of dirt and grass. She quickly recovered from the fall, bracing herself halfway up with her hands, spitting out the grass and dirt in her mouth. She shook her head, trying to clear out the shaking feeling she had. She ground twitched slightly under her. She froze. It gave way and she went tumbling down a dirt slope, landing hard on the grass.
"Owe," she moaned as she rubbed her head.
"Are you hurt?" Xaina's head jerked up to see Lord Beastmaster sitting at a small table shaded by an old oak only a few feet away. On the table was a glass of wine and a book she had been reading. There of her wolves were sitting around her. There was a cold look on the woman's face. "Xaina, are you hurt?" she repeated when the girl didn't reply. When the girl still didn't offer any response, she signaled to one of the wolves to go check her. Xaina watched it with suspicious eyes as the wolf trotted up next to her. It leaned down its snout and sniffed her before nudging her. The girl slowly pulled herself up to her feet and dusted herself off, not looking up at Lord Beastmaster. "What were you doing?" the monster lord demanded.
"Playing," the girl shyly replied, staring at the woman's high heal shoes.
"Playing?"
"H-having fun," Xaina nervously explained.
"I know what playing is and tumbling down a hill does not look fun."
"I-it's not..."
"Then I suggest not doing it. Come here." Xaina hesitated but the wolf nudged her forward. Zelas reached down under Xaina's chin and made the child look up at her. She turned the girl's head from side to side gently, examining something, though Xaina knew not what. "Hm," she sighed. "Xaina, did you believe anything I told you last night?"
Xaina hesitated. Part of her didn't, part of her did. She really wasn't sure...but I couldn't tell a powerful monster like Lord Beastmaster no. That would be saying she was a liar, she thought as she remembered some of the manners her mother had taught her. That would make her angry...
"Well?" Zelas asked, losing her patience quickly.
"I don't know," Xaina admitted fearfully.
Lord Beastmaster sighed. She stood and held her hand down. "Come with me." Xaina took the hand, though she was ready to draw it away at any time if the woman tried anything. She lead Xaina to a small pool of almost black gray water. "Look." Xaina peered into the water but didn't see anything other then the bottom. that was lined with gray stones, giving the water its color. She looked up at Zelas, confused. The monster sighed. "Look again, closer, at your reflection."
Xaina let go of Zelas' hand and dropped down on to her knees. She leaned over and peered down at the reflection of her face. Her shadowy hair dangled down around her pale skinned face. She didn't see anything wrong. What's she so up about? She glanced up again. The woman made an impatient gesture with her hand for the girl to keep looking. Xaina shrugged and looked down again. Her hair was getting in her eyes, so she pushed it back behind her ears...her eyes widened and her hands traced up to her ears. She traced over them, confirming what she saw in the reflection. Her human ears were gone, replaced, instead, by a pair of feline-like ears that stuck out. The outsides were black, like her hair, with a soft fur and the insides were a pale pink. "Wha?...how?..."
"Do you believe me now?" the woman asked coldly. Xaina stared up at her with fearful, pleading eyes, demanding knowledge and cursing this woman at the same time. "That is your monster half taking advantage of being set lose. As the spells disappear, you'll develop more into a monster, most likely settling half way between monster and human forms as your most comfortable state...we all have monster forms that we're born as. You'll get use to it."
"I think they're rather becoming," Xellos commented. Both shot their attention to behind them where the trickster priest stood. "Don't you like them, Lord Beastmaster?"
Zelas was caught slightly off guard by his question. She was puzzled for a moment before recollecting herself. "I see nothing wrong with them."
Xellos seemed pleased with the answer. He confidently strolled over to Xaina and picked her up to her feet. "Now then, I think I'm rather bored of this hide-n-seek. Should we try another game?"
"Perhaps one that wont disturb me," Zelas commented dryly as she started back for her table.
"Of course not..." he trailed off as he watched where she was going. "Ah, I have a better idea. How does afternoon tea sound? I already have a tea set."
"No, Val has a tea set. You stole it," Xaina corrected.
"Well if I stole it, then it's mine now, isn't it?" Xellos tried to counter.
"No, it's stolen, not yours. Stealing it doesn't make it yours," Xaina retorted. Zelas chuckled; now she knew why she kept the girl around.
"Oh, never mind. Let's just go have tea."
~*~*~
Xellos laid down a blanket. Normally, he didn't care about sitting in the grass but Xaina had insisted on it. He had to make her happy, after all, those were his orders. She was standing near by, watching him curiously. She had offered to help but he had insisted that she not. When the blanket was laid out flat he sat and stared at her.
"Are you going to sit? You are the one who insisted that we have a blanket."
"There's no tea cups, or plates, or anything," she pointed out. "You didn't bring any."
He flicked his wrist and two tea cups and saucers, a tea pot, a plate with some cookies on it, and plate of small sandwiches appeared on the blanket. Xaina looked amazed. Xellos raised an eyebrow. "You didn't expect me to carry all this out here, now did you."
"I suppose not," Xaina shrugged and sat next to him. "How'd you do that?"
"Easy. I can teach you how to that too, if you'd like," Xellos offered.
"I can't do that," the girl argued, shaking her head.
"Yes you can. You've just never tried before. So long as you know where it is, you can call it to you...can't be alive, magical, or too heavy though. Teleporting those things requires you to be touching them. These are just things from the kitchen, though. They're not hard to move at all."
"If you can't move living things, then how come you moved me when you kidnapped me?"
"I didn't. I made my staff return. You just happened to be attached to it. That staff is part of me, anyway.Now," he flicked his wrist again and all the little people dolls appeared a few feet away. "Try making one of those come to you."
"I don't..."
"Yes, you can. You moved them around this morning when we were playing with the blocks."
"Yeah, but..."
"We'll, try. Just concentrate on moving one from over there to your hand," he insisted. He wasn't about to take no for an answer. He checked the spells, just to be sure they were lose enough that she could move small things. They were, though he pried at them a little more. Never realized how strong they were, he pondered. Then again, if they're that strong and she was breaking them apart without even trying...no wonder Lord Beastmaster wants her.
The girl stared hard at the wooden doll. She obviously had no idea how she was going to move it. Figuring it out was the hardest part of all when it came to learning how to use some of their abilities. Once one did it two or three times and one understood how it was done, it was easy. Watching her reminded him of his own trials with his lessons. He had never been a child, while not like Xaina was now, but he had to learn just as she did. Of course, his lessons had come from Lord Beastmaster and had often involved the tormenting of small, furry creatures. Somehow, when he had been thinking about how to train the girl, the torturing of small animals had not seemed like a good idea. She may have tried to run away from him if he had done that. Xaina concentrated, trying to move them with her mind. None of them even budged. You can't always get it the first time, he mentally reminded himself.
"Alright, alright, that's enough," he sighed, seeing that this was going nowhere. She was only getting frustrated with it.
"Told you I can't," she sighed.
"You can too," he argued, getting annoyed with her pessimism. "You just need practice. Let's try something else...it's easier if it's familiar-what about Booie?"
"What about Ôim?" she demanded suspiciously.
"Do you know where he is?" Xaina nodded. "Good. Think about where he is. Think really hard." Xaina closed her eyes, picturing the place where she had left him. "Can you picture where he is?" She nodded. "Good, good. Now bring him to you."
"How?"
"Just make him come. Think only about making him come. Reach out and grab him. Bring him to you."
She reached out a hand, trying to reach him. Her eyes squinted tighter together. Her mind called to the toy. He could feel a power emanating off of her body. The power was almost unbelievable for someone so young and inexperienced. It was all jumbled around her, not focused or in any sort of order. She desperately needed training. Her control was fragile at best. It was no wonder she couldn't move the dolls. The toy suddenly appeared in the girl's hand. She relaxed her mind and the power flared down slowly.
"I did it!" she cheered.
Xellos nodded. "Yes," he replied thoughtfully.
"Did I do it wrong?"
"No, not at all!" he exclaimed.
Xaina frowned and hugged the toy to her chest. "Then what's wrong?"
"Your power. You need to learn to control it. It would make it easier to learn how to manipulate it if you learned control of it."
"And how do I do that?"
"I'm not sure, really. I've never had to teach it to someone before."
"How'd you learn?"
"I didn't," he confessed. "Like most monsters, I was created so I just always had control. Mine also grew over time. Your's are four years worth of stored away energy that's now breaking lose. You, Xaina," he explained, tapping her gently on the nose, "Are the first monster who's ever been born like all the other species on the planet."
"How come?"
Xellos shrugged. "Don't know. You just are. Other hybrids usually take after their human side."
"Are all hybrids part human?"
"No, they're just the only one's who's parents have let them live long enough for us to find out."
"Oh," she yawned.
Xellos smiled again. "Tired?"
"No," she lied. "Aren't we suppose to be having tea?"
He raised his hand and one of the cups appeared in it. He took a sip of the tea. "We are. You're just not drinking any," he teased. The girl sighed and reached over to pour herself a cup and grab a cookie. "Ah ah ah," he broke in, stopping her. "The little people can do that." He directed his attention to the dolls and the moved forward on to the blanket and started preparing her a cup. One handed her a cookie. Xaina just shook her head and smiled.
*****
Zelas passed her hand over some of the watered down page of her book. So much had been lost over time. Useless, she thought bitterly, taking another sip of her glass. "What is it?" she asked Xellos as she sensed him approach. She didn't have to look to know he was there.
Xellos bowed. "She's asleep..."
"And?"
"And I was curious about a few things involving her training."
"Such as?" She took another sip of her wine, savoring the taste. It was from a very good year.
Xellos paused, trying to think about how to go about phrasing his question. He didn't want to give his master the idea that he didn't know what he was doing with her. "She..has...a lot of...wild power," he carefully phrased.
"And you're not sure how to get it under control?"
"... ...yes," he admitted.
Zelas took another sip of her wine. "Make her contain it."
"How?"
"That is what you need to figure out. Why is she asleep?"
"She's living off of a different time. It's time to sleep right now, according to her." She took another sip of her wine as he explained. "Something on your mind?" he asked after a long pause.
She turned to him for the first time since he had arrived. "It's nothing you need to concern yourself with at the moment. Just make sure she she can do something to impress them...or at least convince them. I don't think I need to remind you how important this is."
"No..."
"Good. Just make sure she is ready for what ever may come from them."
"Yes master." He was about to leave when a thought struck him. "Lord Beastmaster?"
"Yes?"
"Why is it important to keep her here?"
"That does not concern you right now. Now leave; I have work to complete."
Xellos bowed and disappeared. The monster lord sighed. She really didn't want to keep him in the dark like this, but it was necessary. It wasn't that she was afraid he might let something spill out, she knew he wouldn't. Xellos never told her secrets to anyone. She just couldn't have him acting differently around the girl and she knew he would if he knew. "Why does this have to come now?" she sighed to herself. "Hasn't enough happened already in the past few years?"
*****
Xaina rolled over uncomfortably. Her back itched horribly and she couldn't reach to scratch. When she laid on her back, it felt like she was sitting on something, but when examined the spot, nothing was there. Her hand traced over her strange ears. What are they doing to me, she wondered. Can monsters change you into things?
She was in a room Xellos had said was hers, though it wasn't much different then his. The sheets were just white cotton instead of purple silk. There was a window seat that overlooked a small pond with a mournful willow hanging over it instead of a door, though. There was a dresser with a mirror on it right across from the bed. The toys Xellos had "barrowed" from Val were set on a window seat. Xaina doubted that he had any attentions of returning them. There was a closet, but nothing was in there. The bathroom had only the normalities such as a bath, privy, towels, but nothing else. Nothing looked like it had ever been touched, by people or time. It was like everything was just put there for show.
She sat up in the bed. Straight ahead at the mirror. It still looked like her, yet somehow it didn't seem like her. The ears stood out to the sides. She twitched them, though how she wasn't really sure. She had never had them before today...but then again, she had never been able to move things simple by want them to move until today. It was all so confusing. She flopped back down on her back, staring up at the canopy of the four poster bed. She could feel something poking into the base of her spine. It wasn't painful or anything, just annoying. She sat back up and examined the spot for the twentieth time. Nothing. She growled with frustration. She was dead tired but couldn't sleep with so much light and she was uncomfortable.
One hand traced down her back to where she had felt the thing under her...something bulged out from the base of her spine. Curious, and slightly horrified, she reached inside her pants and found something furry and soft. She jumped up and wiggled her pants down just a little and in the mirror spied a black tail! A tail! A real, honest tail! I know I didn't have that before, she thought with alarm. She shook it around. It felt real. She told it to move up and down. It responded just how she told it to. She reached down to Booie with it and tried to pick up the toy. It felt like a lead weight. Alright, can't lift anything. Wonder what it's for then? She slipped her pants all the way off and tugged at the cloth where her tail was until it ripped into a hole big enough for her tail to fit through. Then she slipped them on, sticking her tail out through the hole.
Her ears perked up as she heard footsteps. The footsteps were still far away. She dropped down in the bed and slipped back under the covers, pretending to be asleep. The door creeped open. Someone came in. She cleared her mind, forcing herself to remain still. A pair of hands pulled the sheets up higher on her body, covering her fully. She kept her breathing steady.
"You are an odd little thing," Xellos' voice whispered to her softly. "What makes you so important to her." He sighed and left, never seeming to notice she was awake.
When she was certain he was gone, she sat back up. What's that suppose to mean? she pondered. That's it. I've had enough of this place. Time to get out of here. She stood up and tucked Booie under one arm. She'd seen him teleport. How hard could it be. It wouldn't hurt to try. She hopped off the bed and arranged one of the pillows under the covers to look like she was still there. She glanced at the bell on her wrist. The purple band shone like satin in the little light that came in through the curtains. She slipped it off her wrist and tucked it under the blankets with the pillows.
She then thought back to when she got Booie. Think of what you want, she reminded herself. She focused on the little pottery shop. That's where she wanted to be, with Lina, Gourry, Filia, and Val. Reach out and take it, she heard his voice explaining. But you couldn't take this...go to it! She took a step forward. She felt her body pulled forward, moving and yet not moving in the same instant. There was a drain in the energy she had, like some of it had just been pulled away. Then it was over. All of it had been in a heartbeat. When she opened her eyes, it was dark all around her. She was standing on the counter of Filia's shop. I did it! she mentally cheered. Her ears picked up the sound of talking near by. Lina! She hopped off the counter and ran in the direction she had heard the voices.
"What are you doing?" Xellos asked as he appeared behind the girl, sitting himself on the bed.
Xaina yelped, knocking over what she had been building with the wooden shapes. "Please don't do that?" she breathed out.
"Why?"
"It scares me, an' I don't like being scared," Xaina explained calmly.
Xellos made a mental note of that. She needed time to get comfortable here and being started probably wouldn't help. "Ok. What are you doing?"
Xaina glanced up at him from the floor. "Building with blocks," she shrugged.
"Oh, so they're called blacks. Building what?" he asked, truly curious as to what she might think to make out of the colored pieces of wood.
"Well, I was making a castle, but you knocked it down," she retorted. She was gathering up the pieces again.
"Oh, and how did I knock it down?" Xellos quipped. He bent down a little, leaning on his staff. "I didn't touch it."
"No, but you startled me when caused me to bump it and knock it over. Therefore, it's your fault."
"Oh, is that so." The trickster motioned to the little wooden dolls he had been using before and made them walk over next to her. "Yeah, well, it wasn't a very good castle anyway. I bet my little soldiers here could take that mangy pile of rumble no problem."
"Could not!" Xaina argued.
"Oh yeah, and who's going to stop them. You don't even have a castle, let alone an army," Xellos teased.
"Well, I will!" She grabbed one of the blocks and tossed it at the little people that were advancing on her pile. It struck, knocking down three of them. "Ha!"
"Ah ah ah, not so fast." He pointed to the little fallen dolls who stood back up and started walking towards her again.
"Not fair!" Xaina snapped.
"Life's not fair. What're you going to do about it?" Xaina grabbed another block and tossed it at them, with the same results. "Keep that up and you wont have anything left to build with." A thought crossed Xellos' mind. Mentally, he reached out and touched the old spells he had placed on her. They were thin, at best. Some had come lose. Two were even gone. He poked at the spells until finely a few more gave way and started to dissipate. Now let's see just what you can do, he thought.
Xaina tossed another block. The monster priest caught hold of it with his power and stopped it before it could hit any of the dolls. It dropped to the ground and the wooden figures kept moving forward.
"Hey! Now that's just plain cheating. How can I stop you if I can't fight back," the child pointed out. She was starting to radiate frustration against the game.
"You can fight back. You just need to figure out how. Imagine if this were a real battle and you're trying to protect the castle you are making. Those," he said, pointing to the dolls, "are the enemies. Do you think the enemy will simply stop doing something because you say it's not fair?"
"No..."
"Exactly. Now, you have no soldiers, so what do you do?"
"Run," she stated rather bluntly. "I couldn't fight an army by myself."
"Uh...well yes, that might be a good idea...but after that. What about when you want to take it back? You're not just going to give up are you?"
"I can build my castle somewhere else."
"What about when they want that land too? Are you just going to spend the rest of your life running?"
"Well, no, I guess not."
"Good," he replied cheerfully. The dolls had stopped moving to give her time to think. "Now, you want to fight, so what do you do? How do you fight them?"
"Get my own army?" she asked rather uncertainly as she looked at the little dolls.
"Very good." He gave her a small tug on the back of her black hair so she'd look at him again. He opened his eyes and stared down into hers, a playful smile on his face. "So, get your army."
He made the dolls move towards her again. They were getting quite close to the small child. The sun had started to come up and was bathing the room in a warm golden glow. Xaina seemed confused as she stared at the toys moving in her direction. Suddenly, her face brightened. She snagged hold of Booie next to her. She placed him out in front of her and started to growl like a wolf.
"You can't have it," she playfully growled in, what Xellos guessed Xaina thought was, the toy's voice was.
"Ha, you don't scare us!" Xellos played back. He floated down behind the little people and laid on the floor. "We're not afraid of some mangy wolf!"
"You will be!" She lashed out with the toy, knocking over several of Xellos' little people.
Xellos mock laughed. This was actually mildly amusing. "Ah ha ha ha ha. You think such a weak attack can stop us."
A more determined look crossed the girl's face. She grabbed another block and threw it. He could tell she was trying to make something move with just her mind like he was. She growled, partly to be fearsome, partly out of frustration. She concentrated hard on one of the blocks, disparately trying to move it with out touching it. Nothing happened. The dolls got closer. She gave up and grabbed the block, tossing it at Xellos instead of the toys.
"Hey! You're fighting them, not me!" he barked.
"Yeah, but you're controlling them. If I take out the controller, they'll stop," she teased, an evil grin on innocent face. He nearly beamed at her quick thinking, but another block was thrown at him, reminding him that he had not won just yet.
"Oh, well, if that's the case then, attack!" he commanded. The little dolls moved at a faster pace.
This rattled the girl further. She threw another block. She felt something bump into her leg...one of the dolls. "Oh, go bother someone else! Why don't you just go attack him!" she barked. There was a sudden flair in her power that surged into the doll. The little doll about faced and marched right back to one of it's companions and proceeded to bop it on the head a couple of times. Xellos' smile fell. Xaina beamed. "Yeah! You, help him!" she ordered one of the other toys. Small bits of her power flowed into it. This doll proceeded to do the same as the first and turned on the other toys. He felt his control on the other toys slipping. "Ha ha! They're mine now! Attack him!" She pointed at Xellos. All the dolls, well all except the one that had been beaten down quite hard and now was missing a leg, proceeded to turn sharply and head back to Xellos. "Surrender!"
"Never!" he cried. He reached out with his mind for the wolf toy. It suddenly got up and charged all the dolls, knocking many of them over.
"No!" Xaina wailed as she chased after her favorite toy. All of the dolls stopped moving. She grabbed hold of Booie and cradled him in her arms. Xellos instantly let go of his control on the object. She hugged it close, refusing to let go.
Interesting, he thought. She has power. She's a fast learner. That should make some of this easier...the control is going to be hard. He felt a wave of slight distress come over him, and the monster felt a little bad for what he done. He didn't like this. He wasn't use to it. How does she do that? he wondered. "I'm sorry Xaina. I shouldn't have controlled him. He's your's, not mine."
"None of these are your's," she reminded him. "They're Val's. I saw them in his room when I helped Filia put him down for his afternoon nap." She picked up the broken doll and his leg. "I don't think we should play that again. Filia might not like it if they all were broken."
"Oh, she probably hasn't noticed anything's missing. Knowing her, she's probably still worrying about the things I broke."
"You shouldn't brake her things. She worked really hard on those tea cups, ya know."
"I know she did. It makes them all the more fun to brake. You forget, we monsters live off negative emotions like hate and anger, and Filia is full of them." He smiled evilly.
"It's still not nice."
Xellos shrugged. "I do believe you said I wasn't very nice. Do you still think that?" She nodded. "Oh, why's that? I thought I was being nice a minute ago."
"Because you're not. You were just playing, and not very nicely anyway."
"Well, you didn't seem to be playing to nicely when you took my soldiers from me."
"I was only defending myself. You were the one who started it originally. Besides, I wasn't going to hurt you. I was planning on taking you alive."
Xellos stood and walked over next to the girl. "And why were you taking me alive?"
" Ôcause I didn't want to kill you. I was being merciful," she replied.
"How disgustingly compassionate of you." He picked her up and balanced her with one arm. "How Ôbout we find another game to play."
*****
Xaina dashed around one of the bushes in the garden. Xellos was close but not close enough to see her...at least she didn't think he was. The game had started as hide-and-go-seek but had quickly become a game of cat and mouse as the dashed about in the garden. Any fear she had of this place and its few occupants was forgotten for the moment. While part of her was still waiting for something to jump out and grab her, dragging her away, it was much more quite now in the afternoon sun.
The girl had seen only two other monsters on the whole island that Xellos had said were lower servants of Lord Beastmaster's. One, Murikiva, had been in charge of the food. "Monsters don't need to eat," Xellos had explained, "But Lord Beastmaster does enjoy it." The other was a gofer for the monster lord. His name was Wraithand and he was a former servant of Gaav who had begged for safety when Gaav was killed and Gaav's servants were being put to death. Xaina didn't pay them much mind, so long as they left her alone.
"You can run but you can't hide, Xaina," Xellos called.
I can try, she thought. She ran behind a tree. Xellos passed right by her, seeming not to know where the girl was. When he was out of sight, she turned and ran in the direction he had come from. She spotted the tree they were using as base and tapped it, yelling, "Safe!" before running off into the garden again.
Xaina wasn't paying very good attention to where she was going. She didn't really care if she got lost. If she did, she could just sit down and wait. Sooner or later, Xellos always managed to find her. He'd proved this several times already since he brought her there last night...or at least it had been night here. Her foot made contact with something. She suddenly went flying into the ground. She rolled on the ground when she hit. She got a mouthful of dirt and grass. She quickly recovered from the fall, bracing herself halfway up with her hands, spitting out the grass and dirt in her mouth. She shook her head, trying to clear out the shaking feeling she had. She ground twitched slightly under her. She froze. It gave way and she went tumbling down a dirt slope, landing hard on the grass.
"Owe," she moaned as she rubbed her head.
"Are you hurt?" Xaina's head jerked up to see Lord Beastmaster sitting at a small table shaded by an old oak only a few feet away. On the table was a glass of wine and a book she had been reading. There of her wolves were sitting around her. There was a cold look on the woman's face. "Xaina, are you hurt?" she repeated when the girl didn't reply. When the girl still didn't offer any response, she signaled to one of the wolves to go check her. Xaina watched it with suspicious eyes as the wolf trotted up next to her. It leaned down its snout and sniffed her before nudging her. The girl slowly pulled herself up to her feet and dusted herself off, not looking up at Lord Beastmaster. "What were you doing?" the monster lord demanded.
"Playing," the girl shyly replied, staring at the woman's high heal shoes.
"Playing?"
"H-having fun," Xaina nervously explained.
"I know what playing is and tumbling down a hill does not look fun."
"I-it's not..."
"Then I suggest not doing it. Come here." Xaina hesitated but the wolf nudged her forward. Zelas reached down under Xaina's chin and made the child look up at her. She turned the girl's head from side to side gently, examining something, though Xaina knew not what. "Hm," she sighed. "Xaina, did you believe anything I told you last night?"
Xaina hesitated. Part of her didn't, part of her did. She really wasn't sure...but I couldn't tell a powerful monster like Lord Beastmaster no. That would be saying she was a liar, she thought as she remembered some of the manners her mother had taught her. That would make her angry...
"Well?" Zelas asked, losing her patience quickly.
"I don't know," Xaina admitted fearfully.
Lord Beastmaster sighed. She stood and held her hand down. "Come with me." Xaina took the hand, though she was ready to draw it away at any time if the woman tried anything. She lead Xaina to a small pool of almost black gray water. "Look." Xaina peered into the water but didn't see anything other then the bottom. that was lined with gray stones, giving the water its color. She looked up at Zelas, confused. The monster sighed. "Look again, closer, at your reflection."
Xaina let go of Zelas' hand and dropped down on to her knees. She leaned over and peered down at the reflection of her face. Her shadowy hair dangled down around her pale skinned face. She didn't see anything wrong. What's she so up about? She glanced up again. The woman made an impatient gesture with her hand for the girl to keep looking. Xaina shrugged and looked down again. Her hair was getting in her eyes, so she pushed it back behind her ears...her eyes widened and her hands traced up to her ears. She traced over them, confirming what she saw in the reflection. Her human ears were gone, replaced, instead, by a pair of feline-like ears that stuck out. The outsides were black, like her hair, with a soft fur and the insides were a pale pink. "Wha?...how?..."
"Do you believe me now?" the woman asked coldly. Xaina stared up at her with fearful, pleading eyes, demanding knowledge and cursing this woman at the same time. "That is your monster half taking advantage of being set lose. As the spells disappear, you'll develop more into a monster, most likely settling half way between monster and human forms as your most comfortable state...we all have monster forms that we're born as. You'll get use to it."
"I think they're rather becoming," Xellos commented. Both shot their attention to behind them where the trickster priest stood. "Don't you like them, Lord Beastmaster?"
Zelas was caught slightly off guard by his question. She was puzzled for a moment before recollecting herself. "I see nothing wrong with them."
Xellos seemed pleased with the answer. He confidently strolled over to Xaina and picked her up to her feet. "Now then, I think I'm rather bored of this hide-n-seek. Should we try another game?"
"Perhaps one that wont disturb me," Zelas commented dryly as she started back for her table.
"Of course not..." he trailed off as he watched where she was going. "Ah, I have a better idea. How does afternoon tea sound? I already have a tea set."
"No, Val has a tea set. You stole it," Xaina corrected.
"Well if I stole it, then it's mine now, isn't it?" Xellos tried to counter.
"No, it's stolen, not yours. Stealing it doesn't make it yours," Xaina retorted. Zelas chuckled; now she knew why she kept the girl around.
"Oh, never mind. Let's just go have tea."
~*~*~
Xellos laid down a blanket. Normally, he didn't care about sitting in the grass but Xaina had insisted on it. He had to make her happy, after all, those were his orders. She was standing near by, watching him curiously. She had offered to help but he had insisted that she not. When the blanket was laid out flat he sat and stared at her.
"Are you going to sit? You are the one who insisted that we have a blanket."
"There's no tea cups, or plates, or anything," she pointed out. "You didn't bring any."
He flicked his wrist and two tea cups and saucers, a tea pot, a plate with some cookies on it, and plate of small sandwiches appeared on the blanket. Xaina looked amazed. Xellos raised an eyebrow. "You didn't expect me to carry all this out here, now did you."
"I suppose not," Xaina shrugged and sat next to him. "How'd you do that?"
"Easy. I can teach you how to that too, if you'd like," Xellos offered.
"I can't do that," the girl argued, shaking her head.
"Yes you can. You've just never tried before. So long as you know where it is, you can call it to you...can't be alive, magical, or too heavy though. Teleporting those things requires you to be touching them. These are just things from the kitchen, though. They're not hard to move at all."
"If you can't move living things, then how come you moved me when you kidnapped me?"
"I didn't. I made my staff return. You just happened to be attached to it. That staff is part of me, anyway.Now," he flicked his wrist again and all the little people dolls appeared a few feet away. "Try making one of those come to you."
"I don't..."
"Yes, you can. You moved them around this morning when we were playing with the blocks."
"Yeah, but..."
"We'll, try. Just concentrate on moving one from over there to your hand," he insisted. He wasn't about to take no for an answer. He checked the spells, just to be sure they were lose enough that she could move small things. They were, though he pried at them a little more. Never realized how strong they were, he pondered. Then again, if they're that strong and she was breaking them apart without even trying...no wonder Lord Beastmaster wants her.
The girl stared hard at the wooden doll. She obviously had no idea how she was going to move it. Figuring it out was the hardest part of all when it came to learning how to use some of their abilities. Once one did it two or three times and one understood how it was done, it was easy. Watching her reminded him of his own trials with his lessons. He had never been a child, while not like Xaina was now, but he had to learn just as she did. Of course, his lessons had come from Lord Beastmaster and had often involved the tormenting of small, furry creatures. Somehow, when he had been thinking about how to train the girl, the torturing of small animals had not seemed like a good idea. She may have tried to run away from him if he had done that. Xaina concentrated, trying to move them with her mind. None of them even budged. You can't always get it the first time, he mentally reminded himself.
"Alright, alright, that's enough," he sighed, seeing that this was going nowhere. She was only getting frustrated with it.
"Told you I can't," she sighed.
"You can too," he argued, getting annoyed with her pessimism. "You just need practice. Let's try something else...it's easier if it's familiar-what about Booie?"
"What about Ôim?" she demanded suspiciously.
"Do you know where he is?" Xaina nodded. "Good. Think about where he is. Think really hard." Xaina closed her eyes, picturing the place where she had left him. "Can you picture where he is?" She nodded. "Good, good. Now bring him to you."
"How?"
"Just make him come. Think only about making him come. Reach out and grab him. Bring him to you."
She reached out a hand, trying to reach him. Her eyes squinted tighter together. Her mind called to the toy. He could feel a power emanating off of her body. The power was almost unbelievable for someone so young and inexperienced. It was all jumbled around her, not focused or in any sort of order. She desperately needed training. Her control was fragile at best. It was no wonder she couldn't move the dolls. The toy suddenly appeared in the girl's hand. She relaxed her mind and the power flared down slowly.
"I did it!" she cheered.
Xellos nodded. "Yes," he replied thoughtfully.
"Did I do it wrong?"
"No, not at all!" he exclaimed.
Xaina frowned and hugged the toy to her chest. "Then what's wrong?"
"Your power. You need to learn to control it. It would make it easier to learn how to manipulate it if you learned control of it."
"And how do I do that?"
"I'm not sure, really. I've never had to teach it to someone before."
"How'd you learn?"
"I didn't," he confessed. "Like most monsters, I was created so I just always had control. Mine also grew over time. Your's are four years worth of stored away energy that's now breaking lose. You, Xaina," he explained, tapping her gently on the nose, "Are the first monster who's ever been born like all the other species on the planet."
"How come?"
Xellos shrugged. "Don't know. You just are. Other hybrids usually take after their human side."
"Are all hybrids part human?"
"No, they're just the only one's who's parents have let them live long enough for us to find out."
"Oh," she yawned.
Xellos smiled again. "Tired?"
"No," she lied. "Aren't we suppose to be having tea?"
He raised his hand and one of the cups appeared in it. He took a sip of the tea. "We are. You're just not drinking any," he teased. The girl sighed and reached over to pour herself a cup and grab a cookie. "Ah ah ah," he broke in, stopping her. "The little people can do that." He directed his attention to the dolls and the moved forward on to the blanket and started preparing her a cup. One handed her a cookie. Xaina just shook her head and smiled.
*****
Zelas passed her hand over some of the watered down page of her book. So much had been lost over time. Useless, she thought bitterly, taking another sip of her glass. "What is it?" she asked Xellos as she sensed him approach. She didn't have to look to know he was there.
Xellos bowed. "She's asleep..."
"And?"
"And I was curious about a few things involving her training."
"Such as?" She took another sip of her wine, savoring the taste. It was from a very good year.
Xellos paused, trying to think about how to go about phrasing his question. He didn't want to give his master the idea that he didn't know what he was doing with her. "She..has...a lot of...wild power," he carefully phrased.
"And you're not sure how to get it under control?"
"... ...yes," he admitted.
Zelas took another sip of her wine. "Make her contain it."
"How?"
"That is what you need to figure out. Why is she asleep?"
"She's living off of a different time. It's time to sleep right now, according to her." She took another sip of her wine as he explained. "Something on your mind?" he asked after a long pause.
She turned to him for the first time since he had arrived. "It's nothing you need to concern yourself with at the moment. Just make sure she she can do something to impress them...or at least convince them. I don't think I need to remind you how important this is."
"No..."
"Good. Just make sure she is ready for what ever may come from them."
"Yes master." He was about to leave when a thought struck him. "Lord Beastmaster?"
"Yes?"
"Why is it important to keep her here?"
"That does not concern you right now. Now leave; I have work to complete."
Xellos bowed and disappeared. The monster lord sighed. She really didn't want to keep him in the dark like this, but it was necessary. It wasn't that she was afraid he might let something spill out, she knew he wouldn't. Xellos never told her secrets to anyone. She just couldn't have him acting differently around the girl and she knew he would if he knew. "Why does this have to come now?" she sighed to herself. "Hasn't enough happened already in the past few years?"
*****
Xaina rolled over uncomfortably. Her back itched horribly and she couldn't reach to scratch. When she laid on her back, it felt like she was sitting on something, but when examined the spot, nothing was there. Her hand traced over her strange ears. What are they doing to me, she wondered. Can monsters change you into things?
She was in a room Xellos had said was hers, though it wasn't much different then his. The sheets were just white cotton instead of purple silk. There was a window seat that overlooked a small pond with a mournful willow hanging over it instead of a door, though. There was a dresser with a mirror on it right across from the bed. The toys Xellos had "barrowed" from Val were set on a window seat. Xaina doubted that he had any attentions of returning them. There was a closet, but nothing was in there. The bathroom had only the normalities such as a bath, privy, towels, but nothing else. Nothing looked like it had ever been touched, by people or time. It was like everything was just put there for show.
She sat up in the bed. Straight ahead at the mirror. It still looked like her, yet somehow it didn't seem like her. The ears stood out to the sides. She twitched them, though how she wasn't really sure. She had never had them before today...but then again, she had never been able to move things simple by want them to move until today. It was all so confusing. She flopped back down on her back, staring up at the canopy of the four poster bed. She could feel something poking into the base of her spine. It wasn't painful or anything, just annoying. She sat back up and examined the spot for the twentieth time. Nothing. She growled with frustration. She was dead tired but couldn't sleep with so much light and she was uncomfortable.
One hand traced down her back to where she had felt the thing under her...something bulged out from the base of her spine. Curious, and slightly horrified, she reached inside her pants and found something furry and soft. She jumped up and wiggled her pants down just a little and in the mirror spied a black tail! A tail! A real, honest tail! I know I didn't have that before, she thought with alarm. She shook it around. It felt real. She told it to move up and down. It responded just how she told it to. She reached down to Booie with it and tried to pick up the toy. It felt like a lead weight. Alright, can't lift anything. Wonder what it's for then? She slipped her pants all the way off and tugged at the cloth where her tail was until it ripped into a hole big enough for her tail to fit through. Then she slipped them on, sticking her tail out through the hole.
Her ears perked up as she heard footsteps. The footsteps were still far away. She dropped down in the bed and slipped back under the covers, pretending to be asleep. The door creeped open. Someone came in. She cleared her mind, forcing herself to remain still. A pair of hands pulled the sheets up higher on her body, covering her fully. She kept her breathing steady.
"You are an odd little thing," Xellos' voice whispered to her softly. "What makes you so important to her." He sighed and left, never seeming to notice she was awake.
When she was certain he was gone, she sat back up. What's that suppose to mean? she pondered. That's it. I've had enough of this place. Time to get out of here. She stood up and tucked Booie under one arm. She'd seen him teleport. How hard could it be. It wouldn't hurt to try. She hopped off the bed and arranged one of the pillows under the covers to look like she was still there. She glanced at the bell on her wrist. The purple band shone like satin in the little light that came in through the curtains. She slipped it off her wrist and tucked it under the blankets with the pillows.
She then thought back to when she got Booie. Think of what you want, she reminded herself. She focused on the little pottery shop. That's where she wanted to be, with Lina, Gourry, Filia, and Val. Reach out and take it, she heard his voice explaining. But you couldn't take this...go to it! She took a step forward. She felt her body pulled forward, moving and yet not moving in the same instant. There was a drain in the energy she had, like some of it had just been pulled away. Then it was over. All of it had been in a heartbeat. When she opened her eyes, it was dark all around her. She was standing on the counter of Filia's shop. I did it! she mentally cheered. Her ears picked up the sound of talking near by. Lina! She hopped off the counter and ran in the direction she had heard the voices.