Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Slayers characters. I only own my own original characters and the town of Ralir.
Chapter One – The beginning The small town of Ralir, two-hundred years before the events of Slayers…The rain pelted down on the tiles of the small house in the relatively unknown town of Ralir. Xellos Metallium, General-Priest of Zelas Metallium, finished getting dressed and glanced down at the women he had just slept with. It wasn't as though he cared about her – she just happened to want to sleep with Xellos, and he had readily agreed. Mazoku like him didn't need physical pleasure, but being in human form caused him to experience…impulses.
Sex was one of them.
"Goodbye, Riana," he said, grinning that annoyingly sweet grin that women seemed to love. "It was…fun."
He vanished from sight.
Two weeks later, Riana found that she was pregnant, but she could not know that her child would not be quite human.
*-*-*-*
Nine months later, Riana gave birth to a daughter. She was a beautiful child – she had the fair skin of her mother as well as her beautiful, almost elfish face.
Her eyes, however, were what attracted the most attention. They were amethyst and elliptical – the eyes of a Mazoku. The village Elder was alarmed when he learned that Riana had slept with a man nine months ago, and determined that he had to be a Mazoku in human form.
Riana was horrified, but argued that, if this child were raised in a loving environment, then she would – hopefully – not become a monster. The child was, after all, half human…
The Elder agreed, albeit reluctantly, and the child was named Zillas…
*-*-*-*
Five years later…Zillas ran inside, her purple hair flying wildly behind her as she ran up to her mother, holding a small beetle in her hands.
"Look mama!" she said, holding the brightly coloured insect up for Riana to see. "Isn't it pretty?"
Riana bent down and smiled at her daughter. "Yes, Zillas," she said. "It is pretty, but we have to leave it outside in the bushes…"
Zillas paused. "Why, mama?" she asked. "Can't I keep it in my room?"
Riana paused before answering. "No," she said, her tone gentle. "It will die if you keep it inside. It needs the bushes and the soil of the outside to survive."
Zillas thought for a moment, then shrugged. "OK," she said, walking to the door and putting the beetle on the ground. She looked at it for a long moment, then raised a hand, and released a small blast of energy that flash-fried the insect.
She went inside for supper.
*-*-*-*
Zillas' first day of school was, as far as she was concerned, akin to Hell. None of the other children liked her! They called her nasty names and shunned her, as if she were a monster or something. Even the teachers seemed to hate her – they completely ignored her in class, acting as if she didn't exist. No, that was not totally true – they did know that she existed, but only to yell at her when she had done nothing wrong.
In short, Zillas was a tad pissed off when she got home. That much was obvious because, despite her age, she managed to slam her bedroom door hard enough to cause her windowpanes to crack and fall out.
Riana went to her daughter's bedroom and opened the door quietly, looking inside to see that her daughter was staring into the sky, her face red from crying. She turned to face her mother, her dark amethyst eyes seeming to pierce her mother's heart, her soul. That gaze was so intense that Riana was transfixed, unable to move.
"They hate me," she said, breaking the spell when she looked outside again. "Everybody in this town…hates me."
It was a statement, completely devoid of emotion, as if she was a soulless golem, or a skeleton brought back by a sorcerer.
"The other kids, even the teachers, hate me," she continued. "Why, mama? Why?"
Riana stepped into the room with a heavy sigh. She was torn – should she tell her daughter the truth about who, and what, she was, or should she lie to her only child? Half-Mazoku or not, Zillas was still her daughter, her only child – born of a Mazoku and a Human, a halfling, most likely destined to be exterminated by a Priest of Ciephied.
"Mama?" Zillas' voice brought Riana out of her thoughts, and she realized that she had started to cry.
"Yes, Zillas?" she asked, quickly wiping the tears away with the back of her hands.
"Why are you sad?" Zillas asked, now kneeling on her bed and looking at her mother with concern in her Mazoku eyes.
Riana shook her head. "Never mind, Zillas," she said. "Come, supper is almost ready."
Zillas didn't move. "I'm not hungry," she said.
Riana nodded and left, closing the door behind her.
Zillas sighed and returned to the window, staring aimlessly into the night sky, watching the stars shine brightly as the moon smiled down at her.
Author's notes: ^_^ You like?