Chapter 10 - What's This? Rumor of a Horn of Plenty!
"Ahh, that was good..." Lina sat back, patting her full stomach. They were at a restaurant, the piles of empty dishes on the table evidence of a recently finished meal. "Hey Xelloss, what've you got there?" Lina asked, noticing a piece of parchment in the mazoku's hands.
"Oh, nothing much, just some local legends..."
"Lemme see that!" She grabbed the parchment and looked over it. She gasped. "A Cornucopia?!"
Gourry was confused. "What's a 'Corny-copier'?"
"Cornucopia," Zelgadis corrected him. "It's also called the 'Horn of Plenty'. It's said that the Cornucopia can produce unlimited food of any kind."
Lina was busy daydreaming of infinite food, so Zelgadis took the parchment from her hands. He read carefully through it.
"Hm, according to this, there's long been a local legend of a horn filled with endless food. But sometime ago it was taken and hoarded by a rich lord and became hidden somewhere deep in his vast halls. Many people have looked for it, but either failed miserably or never returned."
"We have to go find it!" Lina exclaimed suddenly. "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity!"
Zelgadis stared at her for a moment. "What about the bandit gang?"
"This is more important. If I had the Cornucopia, I'd never have to worry about food again!"
This, Zelgadis had to admit, was true, and it was common knowledge that coming between Lina and food was a bad idea. So in the end everyone consented, and Lina led the way on the quest to find the Cornucopia.
Not long after they had left the town, Kristy realized something.
"Hey, did anyone else notice that Xelloss isn't here?"
Lina barely hesitated.
"So then there's one less thing in the way that we have to deal with!" she replied.
"Maybe he had other things he had to do," Sylphiel suggested.
"Maybe..." Kristy decided to let the matter go, despite the fact that after watching countless hours of anime she was pretty certain that things wouldn't work out so nicely.
----------
There was a crossroads ahead. Lina stopped and glanced around.
"Okay, where does that thing say we have to go?"
"Uh... bay coke?"
Lina turned and glared at Gourry as Amelia took the parchment from him.
"It says, 'Go not the right into the sun, then all your plans will be undone'." She looked up, a confused expression on her face.
"I think that means, 'go left'," Zelgadis said.
"Right!" Lina replied.
"But I thought Zelgadis said it was left," Gourry mumbled, confused.
"It is!"
"Then why'd you say 'right'?"
By now Lina had already started off down the path.
"Never mind, Gourry dear," Sylphiel said, as they all continued on after Lina.
----------
Sometime later, after several more perplexing directions from the parchment, they arrived at the remains of an old castle built into a mountain. Sylphiel read from the parchment.
"'See the floor above twisting door go around find one more'."
Everyone blinked.
"Is that supposed to be a sentence?" Zelgadis said.
"I'm beginning to wonder if whoever wrote that was completely wasted at the time..." Kristy commented.
"Hey, guys!" Gourry called. "I found the entrance!"
"What?! But how did you...?"
Gourry pointed to an odd-looking rock formation to one side.
"That space looks kinda like a door, but it's all twisted. And the part above it looks like another floor. So I looked around on the other side and there was an entrance."
There was a brief, stunned silence.
"Does that look like a door to you?" Lina asked Sylphiel. Sylphiel shook her head. "Oh well, at least we found the way in. Let's go!"
Inside there was a single long, straight hall. Once again the parchment was consulted.
"Huge suddenly from no where roar and quiet long sharp of shadow eyes beware!"
Again, there was a confused silence.
"That was even less coherent than that last one," Zelgadis shook his head. "I didn't know that was possible..."
"Still, we need to figure out what it means, and I don't think that Jellyfish Brains is going to come up with any more solutions anytime soon."
They fell silent as they continued on, trying to decipher the perplexing clue. A low rumbling noise could be heard.
"Gourry!" Lina accused.
"It wasn't me!" the swordsman replied.
The sound came again, louder this time.
"...Then what is it?"
There was a deafening bellow, then silence.
"Maybe it was just some landslide or something on the outside..."
Suddenly, with a thunderous roar, a huge monster was in front of them. It had long, razor claws, dozens of sharp fangs, and narrow red eyes that gleamed with ferocity.
That and really, really bad breath.
The monster roared and bellowed, but Lina, who was standing in front and therefore the closest, did little more than hold her nose against the stench.
"Why doesn't it attack?" Amelia wondered.
"Because..." Lina said, and chanted a spell.
"Flare Arrow!"
A single volley was all that was needed to take care of the monster.
"...it's a pathetic weakling."
Lina strode on past the charred remains. Finally, they reached the end of the hall. There they were confronted by a solid stone wall.
"Okay, what does the parchment say?" Lina asked, bracing herself for yet another of its distorted phrases. Kristy took out the parchment and read aloud.
"'Press the stone with the number 1 on it'."
Once again, there was a brief silence.
"Sheesh," Lina said, " couldn't they've written the whole thing like that?"
Zelgadis was shaking his head. "Let's just go and get this over with already..." He walked over and pressed the stone. Immediately the wall slid back to reveal a chamber beyond, with a single small table in the middle. Lina gasped.
"There it is!" She ran forward and picked up the Cornucopia. "Now, what food do I want first... How about some roast for started?"
Something fell out of the horn. But it certainly didn't look or smell anything like roast.
"What? Some cake, then!"
An unsightly mass splattered across the table. Kristy took the Cornucopia from the confused Lina and looked over it.
"Hey, what's this? 'Best if used before...' An expiration date?!"
Zelgadis looked over. "It seems it expired some centuries ago. It still can produce nay food there is, it's just no longer fresh."
"How unfortunate..." Sylphiel said. Lina took the horn.
"Hmph, this thing is useless!" She tossed it into a back corner of the room and stomped off. Everyone followed her, a bit disappointed as well. The search for the Cornucopia had turned out to be a complete waste of time and energy, would you expect anything less? Kristy, at least, really wasn't all that surprised.
End of Chapter 10
**********
Xelloss: Erm, well, due to certain incidents in last chapter's Afterword, I have been asked to tell you that no I did NOT tell Lina what Kristy said, and I never will.
AC: You had better not, or I assure you the next chapter will be far from pleasant for you.
Xelloss cringes.
Xelloss: That's all.
He teleports away.
AC: Before I go, I'd like to thank War Serebii for help with the idea for this chapter.
She also disappears. Hey, the author can do anything she wants!
Kristy: Well, now that that's been taken care of, I think I point out one quick thing in this chapter. Because of the dubbed version of Slayers, many people confuse ordinary monsters with mazoku. Xelloss is a mazoku, which means he's basically a being made of pure evil. The monster we ran into was just that, a living creature that was looking for a fight. And I do hope that we don't ever need to find out just what AC'll do if Xelloss (or anyone else) really gets her mad...
"Ahh, that was good..." Lina sat back, patting her full stomach. They were at a restaurant, the piles of empty dishes on the table evidence of a recently finished meal. "Hey Xelloss, what've you got there?" Lina asked, noticing a piece of parchment in the mazoku's hands.
"Oh, nothing much, just some local legends..."
"Lemme see that!" She grabbed the parchment and looked over it. She gasped. "A Cornucopia?!"
Gourry was confused. "What's a 'Corny-copier'?"
"Cornucopia," Zelgadis corrected him. "It's also called the 'Horn of Plenty'. It's said that the Cornucopia can produce unlimited food of any kind."
Lina was busy daydreaming of infinite food, so Zelgadis took the parchment from her hands. He read carefully through it.
"Hm, according to this, there's long been a local legend of a horn filled with endless food. But sometime ago it was taken and hoarded by a rich lord and became hidden somewhere deep in his vast halls. Many people have looked for it, but either failed miserably or never returned."
"We have to go find it!" Lina exclaimed suddenly. "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity!"
Zelgadis stared at her for a moment. "What about the bandit gang?"
"This is more important. If I had the Cornucopia, I'd never have to worry about food again!"
This, Zelgadis had to admit, was true, and it was common knowledge that coming between Lina and food was a bad idea. So in the end everyone consented, and Lina led the way on the quest to find the Cornucopia.
Not long after they had left the town, Kristy realized something.
"Hey, did anyone else notice that Xelloss isn't here?"
Lina barely hesitated.
"So then there's one less thing in the way that we have to deal with!" she replied.
"Maybe he had other things he had to do," Sylphiel suggested.
"Maybe..." Kristy decided to let the matter go, despite the fact that after watching countless hours of anime she was pretty certain that things wouldn't work out so nicely.
"Okay, where does that thing say we have to go?"
"Uh... bay coke?"
Lina turned and glared at Gourry as Amelia took the parchment from him.
"It says, 'Go not the right into the sun, then all your plans will be undone'." She looked up, a confused expression on her face.
"I think that means, 'go left'," Zelgadis said.
"Right!" Lina replied.
"But I thought Zelgadis said it was left," Gourry mumbled, confused.
"It is!"
"Then why'd you say 'right'?"
By now Lina had already started off down the path.
"Never mind, Gourry dear," Sylphiel said, as they all continued on after Lina.
"'See the floor above twisting door go around find one more'."
Everyone blinked.
"Is that supposed to be a sentence?" Zelgadis said.
"I'm beginning to wonder if whoever wrote that was completely wasted at the time..." Kristy commented.
"Hey, guys!" Gourry called. "I found the entrance!"
"What?! But how did you...?"
Gourry pointed to an odd-looking rock formation to one side.
"That space looks kinda like a door, but it's all twisted. And the part above it looks like another floor. So I looked around on the other side and there was an entrance."
There was a brief, stunned silence.
"Does that look like a door to you?" Lina asked Sylphiel. Sylphiel shook her head. "Oh well, at least we found the way in. Let's go!"
Inside there was a single long, straight hall. Once again the parchment was consulted.
"Huge suddenly from no where roar and quiet long sharp of shadow eyes beware!"
Again, there was a confused silence.
"That was even less coherent than that last one," Zelgadis shook his head. "I didn't know that was possible..."
"Still, we need to figure out what it means, and I don't think that Jellyfish Brains is going to come up with any more solutions anytime soon."
They fell silent as they continued on, trying to decipher the perplexing clue. A low rumbling noise could be heard.
"Gourry!" Lina accused.
"It wasn't me!" the swordsman replied.
The sound came again, louder this time.
"...Then what is it?"
There was a deafening bellow, then silence.
"Maybe it was just some landslide or something on the outside..."
Suddenly, with a thunderous roar, a huge monster was in front of them. It had long, razor claws, dozens of sharp fangs, and narrow red eyes that gleamed with ferocity.
That and really, really bad breath.
The monster roared and bellowed, but Lina, who was standing in front and therefore the closest, did little more than hold her nose against the stench.
"Why doesn't it attack?" Amelia wondered.
"Because..." Lina said, and chanted a spell.
"Flare Arrow!"
A single volley was all that was needed to take care of the monster.
"...it's a pathetic weakling."
Lina strode on past the charred remains. Finally, they reached the end of the hall. There they were confronted by a solid stone wall.
"Okay, what does the parchment say?" Lina asked, bracing herself for yet another of its distorted phrases. Kristy took out the parchment and read aloud.
"'Press the stone with the number 1 on it'."
Once again, there was a brief silence.
"Sheesh," Lina said, " couldn't they've written the whole thing like that?"
Zelgadis was shaking his head. "Let's just go and get this over with already..." He walked over and pressed the stone. Immediately the wall slid back to reveal a chamber beyond, with a single small table in the middle. Lina gasped.
"There it is!" She ran forward and picked up the Cornucopia. "Now, what food do I want first... How about some roast for started?"
Something fell out of the horn. But it certainly didn't look or smell anything like roast.
"What? Some cake, then!"
An unsightly mass splattered across the table. Kristy took the Cornucopia from the confused Lina and looked over it.
"Hey, what's this? 'Best if used before...' An expiration date?!"
Zelgadis looked over. "It seems it expired some centuries ago. It still can produce nay food there is, it's just no longer fresh."
"How unfortunate..." Sylphiel said. Lina took the horn.
"Hmph, this thing is useless!" She tossed it into a back corner of the room and stomped off. Everyone followed her, a bit disappointed as well. The search for the Cornucopia had turned out to be a complete waste of time and energy, would you expect anything less? Kristy, at least, really wasn't all that surprised.
End of Chapter 10
**********
Xelloss: Erm, well, due to certain incidents in last chapter's Afterword, I have been asked to tell you that no I did NOT tell Lina what Kristy said, and I never will.
AC: You had better not, or I assure you the next chapter will be far from pleasant for you.
Xelloss cringes.
Xelloss: That's all.
He teleports away.
AC: Before I go, I'd like to thank War Serebii for help with the idea for this chapter.
She also disappears. Hey, the author can do anything she wants!
Kristy: Well, now that that's been taken care of, I think I point out one quick thing in this chapter. Because of the dubbed version of Slayers, many people confuse ordinary monsters with mazoku. Xelloss is a mazoku, which means he's basically a being made of pure evil. The monster we ran into was just that, a living creature that was looking for a fight. And I do hope that we don't ever need to find out just what AC'll do if Xelloss (or anyone else) really gets her mad...