THE CHIMERA OF NOTRE DAME

By Courtney Kays "Verdigris"

Author's Note: This is based on the Disney version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, my favorite Disney animated movie. This is my version of the Slayers in a Disney movie. Some of the characters fit the Slayers quite well......maybe a little exaggerated, but oh well. The gargoyles are the only characters I left unchanged. This was fun to write.

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Chapter 1

The puppet wagon opened to reveal a man with purple shoulder length hair and a big stupid blue hat with a purple feather in. He wore a blue, yellow and magenta costume that resembled that of a jester and a gold hoop in his ear. His eyes are closed and he smiled as he told the children a story.

"And they all died horrible deaths, the little boy eventually gnawed off his foot and Tim the dog ran away.......and got hit by a cart. The End." He ended the story cheerfully.

The children stared up at him with horrified eyes, standing very still. One kid sat near wagon and was rocking back and forth. "That was scary story, Mr. Xelloss," A little child said with trembling eyes.

"I know." Xelloss smiled. "Its one of my favorites, and it has a good moral to it too."

"What is the moral?" A child who hadn't blinked once the story started.

Xelloss grinned and held up a finger. "That's a secret." The kids face faulted. One of them cried and ran away from the cart. "Would you like to hear the one about the Chimera that lives in the Notre Dame bell tower?"

"We've already heard it..." A little kid said. "We had nightmares for two weeks."

A snotty nosed one spoke up. "Yeah! We don't want to hear it again!"

Xelloss held up a little puppet version of himself and pushed it into the faces of the children. "Don't you want to hear it again? I know you do." The puppet squeaked in a high voice, and warped into a wolf puppet and grew sharp teeth.

The children nodded their heads nervously and clung to person next to them. "Oh! Yes ! YES! We'd love to hear it again!" They gave each other panicked glances as they planted their feet on the stone floor.

Xelloss smiled brighter than ever. "Alright then." He pulled back the small curtain of the puppet stage. "Blah blah blah. And Minister Rezo gave the boy a cruel name. A name that maenad 'Half-Baked' Zelgaaaaadis...Its a tale of a man and the monster..."

"AHHHGHH! It's killing me!" Xelloss giggled as his puppet was attached the child's shirt with its teeth.

******

Alone in the bell tower sat a lonely Chimera, mentally and physically scarred. Zelgadis walked out to the balcony at a small little baby bird sleeping in a nest in one of the gargoyle's mouths.

"Haven't you left yet!" Zelgadis groaned. "It's been, what, two months and you haven't flown out?" The little bird shrugged and peeped sadly. "Well? It's a clear day, why don't you leave now?" The birds squeaked in fright. "I don't need this." Zelgadis sighed and took the bird and threw it out.

The bird flew and peeped coarsely at Zel that possibly translated into "ass-hole' in bird speech.

Three of the gargoyles came to life next to him. A bird winged one spoke up. "You had a messed up childhood didn't you Zelgadis?"

"No sh.."

"Aw man!" Hugo interrupted and spat out a wad of feathers and nesting twigs. "I'll be spitting feathers out for week."

Zel sighed walked into the bell tower. The gargoyles watched him and looked at one another with sad faces.

Lavern hopped up to Zel who was now sitting at his table full his wood carvings of people and buildings; a baker, a few townspeople, his master with a knife in the back of his head, those kind of things. "Zel, what's wrong?"

"What isn't wrong." He replied in a dead voice.

Lavern sat next to him in the one of the chairs. "Why aren't you watching the festival?"

Zel was getting angry at all the questions and said simply, "I don't like festivals."

"Don't you want to go down and see it instead of watching from up here?"

"Hell no."

He heard a noise coming from up the stairs. Minister of Justice Rezo was coming to see Zelgadis.

Rezo walked up the stairs holding a basket. "Hello Zel-Ow!!" He hit his head on a low hanging woodblock. "Zelgadis..Awh!" Smacks into a sidewall. "Zelgadis! Can you tell we where you are, I'm kind of blind here."

Zelgadis sighed and called out in monotone. "I'm over here Master Rezo." Rezo stood where he was and waited for Zel. "Oh damnit.." He snapped his fingers repeatedly and Rezo smiled and followed the sound.

Rezo stumbled his way to Zel's table. "Now shall we start with our alphabet today?" Zelgadis did the classic guy stance with legs wide open in his chair, elbow on the table and face leaning into his hand. He looked ready kill.

"Whatever you want, Master Rezo." Rezo made a stare at him. He cursed under his breath. "I mean, Yes Master Rezo, I would like that very much."

"Alright." Rezo opened the book. "A."

"Abolition."

"Good. B."

"Blasphemy."

"C."

"Contrition."

"D"

"Hmph…Damnation."

"E"

Zelgadis frowned. "My favorite….Eternal Damnation."

"F."

"Fuck you."

"What?"

"I mean, Forgiveness." Zelgaidis yawned, hiding a smirk.

"You said Festival!"

Zel blinked. "Uh....No I didn't, I said Fu.."

"You were thinking about going to the festival." Rezo stood up facing opposite of Zel, who had to turn him around. "You don't know what the world is like out there, Zelgadis. Its cruel, its harsh its..." He turned away as the background music turned up and he began to sing.

"Master Rezo, Don't sing, for the love of GOD don't sing!" Zelgadis pleaded.

Rezo didn't listen and sang anyway. He grabbed Zel's shoulder to make him stand with him and swayed to the music. "You are deformed." He nudged Zel in the shoulder.

Zel crossed his arms over his chest and sang flatly, swaying slowly. "I am deformed."

"And you are ugly."

Zel hissed. "And I am ugly.." He pulled away. "Okay this is stupid! Let's just skip the musical!" Rezo shrugged and picked up his basket.

"Remember Zelgadis, this is your sanctuary." He made a dramatic gesture with his hand and hit his head on a low board.

Zel just pushed him out. "Mm-Mm, right. Thank you, good-bye."

As soon as Rezo left Hugo popped out. "Thank you come again!"

*******

Gourry looked at his map again. "This doesn't look like the Magic Kingdom." Actually, it was a map of Disney World. "You leave for ten years and they change everything." He looked up at his horse and pointed to the map. "See, Splash Mountain would have been here." The horse snorted and bit out a part of the map. Gourry looked the map and took a bite too. "Hm..not bad."

Elsewhere around the corner Amelia was dancing while a young boy played a flute. Lina sat hunched by the wall until someone threw money into the hat by Amelia. A man walked by and tossed a few coins; Lina rushed forward and grabbed the hat.

"What! Three coins? You jerk! Gimme more money!"

"Miss Lina!" Amelia stopped. "Three coins is pretty good for us since we're the down-trod people of Paris. We're broke!"

Lina growled and held the hat in her claws. "Yeah, well, we'd be making more money if I got up there and danced."

"Oh you know you couldn't fill out my dress..." Amelia said mostly to herself as she fixed her hair.

"I couldn't what!???!"

Two guards showed up looking at Amelia and Lina. "You there! Gypsies!"

"Oh shit." Lina started to run with Amelia behind her.

One of the guards, a tall green haired man with horn in his head catches Amelia by the wrist. "Stealing money again, Gypsy?"

"I earned it!" Amelia squealed, fighting to get her hand free. Another guard walked up to her.

"Gypsies don't earn money, they steal it!" They advance on her as Lina comes back.

She runs back for the hat. "Forgot the money...Amelia? Hold on Amelia!" She puts hands out. "Fireball!" Nothing happens. "Oh..I forgot....no magic in this story."

"All except for the Disney Magic." Another one of the guards interjected with long curly black hair and a floppy hat.

Lina tapped her chin. "Yeah, that. Ah well, whatayagonna do." She kicked both of them in the groin and grabbed Amelia's arm and raced her down the street.

Valgarv and Zangulus run after them in funny looking jogs when they knock into Gourry's horse. Gourry didn't notice because he was eating the rest of his map. He looked down at the two fallen guards. The horse sat on Zangulus' head and he screamed. "Hey! Get out from under my horse!"

Valgarv took out his sword. "I'll teach you a lesson." Gourry turned to him and Valgarv saw the gold helmet on his head. "Your helmet? Oh, it's...Captain! At your service sir!"

"Captain? I just liked the helmet. Hm, where's the Palace of Justice?" Valgarv led the way. "What is that anyway? A restaurant maybe?"

Gourry tugged on his horse's reins. "Heel, Chicken Dinner. Heel."

********