Chapter Four- Rest Can Be a Good Thing, But Decisions Are Even Better
YIPE! People are reviewing this?! Whoa. I completely didn't expect this. Anyway, for everyone's questions yes, there will be explanations in a couple chapters so please, please be patient. Until then, enjoy the story, eh?
~*~
Lina sprawled out on the closest bed to the door. Well, it wasn't really what one would call a door- it was more like a trap door, as it was on the floor. The trap door was closed now, and rolled in a neat bundle right next to it was the ladder they'd used to get into the room. The sorceress wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, enjoying the chance for a brief rest.
Darian and his friends had questioned them, and they had questioned him, very closely. Both sides demonstrated magic- of course, nothing offensive, just defensive magicks- until everyone was about ready to drop. Darian then told them he and the others had to think about what they were going to do, and added they could come out later for food. Someone named Ayshen was busy cooking up a storm.
The thought of food made her stomach rumble. Zelgadis gave her a somewhat amused look. "We are in another world, practically being held as prisoners by strange people with different magic skills, and you somehow manage to think of food?" he asked. He was also somewhat exasperated.
"Hey, magic makes me hungry!" she said defensively.
"It makes me hungry too," Gourry chimed in.
Everyone gave him a look. "Uh, Mister Gourry, you can't DO magic," Amelia pointed out slowly.
"I know, but watching it makes me hungry!" he stated.
Everyone who was standing up fell over. Then Filia got up and gingerly sat on a second bed. Zelgadis walked over to peer out the window.
"Don't do that, Zel," Lina complained. "I'd rather not have you fall out."
He smiled faintly. "I do fly, Lina."
"Last time I tried, it was pretty hard concentrating on a spell while you're falling," she said.
"Mister Firesong said the window's got some sort of magicked glass that would hold even if someone did fall," Amelia added. "Don't worry."
"I'm more worried about freaking these people out, actually," Filia said, feeling a corner of one of the blankets curiously. "If they saw Mister Zelgadis flying around, they might think... well, I'm not sure what they would think, but it probably would involve asking us to leave."
"Or demanding about how we can fly, and no one else here can," Lina agreed. "I just don't understand it. These guys claim they saved the world a couple times using their magic, but they can't do something so simple as flying!"
"Maybe it's their time of the month, only it's constant," Gourry said.
All of the girls shot him evil looks. Lina started to build energy into her palm, then remembered where she was and quickly dismissed it.
They were in a treehouse, of sorts, though it was much more comfortable than any child's treehouse. For one thing, it had a trap door one could lock if one wished, and Lina wasn't so sure a child's treehouse could hold three beds. They were a couple 'stories' up in the air right now- the men's room was right below theirs, with the same furnishings.
When they had broken up the conference, the group had discovered where the Tayledras settled- up in the trees, mostly. There were some underground and on-the-ground buildings, but they were mostly for people who couldn't handle the heights, for something called hertasi, and the man Darian.
She took a deep breath and made sure the energy was gone. It wouldn't do to destroy something of a stranger's.
It was amazing. Just a few hours ago, they'd been walking around in Seyruun. Now...
Now they were in another world.
It was creepy to think about. After all, why were they here? Why did the caster of that weird spell WANT them gone? Could Lina find a book with a spell-
Wait. Hadn't Darian mentioned something called 'Gating'?
She suddenly sat up, snapping her fingers. What if this Gating stuff could get them back? After all, their Mindspeech was like Lina's Telepathy. Why couldn't their Gating be like that odd spell that brought them here?
She'd just have to ask about it the next time she saw Darian.
"What is it, Lina?" Zelgadis asked. "You look like you just got hit on the head."
"Yes, with an idea," she said. "I'm going to ask Darian about it."
"What idea, Miss Lina?" Amelia asked curiously.
Lina shook her head. "I don't want to raise your hopes. I'll tell you after I talk to Darian, if the idea can work."
"Oh..."
"In other words," Xellos said cheerfully, "That is a secret!"
Filia immediately pulled out her mace and started chasing him around. After all, one couldn't DESTROY the place, but a dent or two could easily be patched, right? "NAMAGOMI!" she screeched. She managed to hit him once before he disappeared entirely.
"Damn Mazoku," Zelgadis muttered under his breath. "Always acts like he knows everything."
"Huh."
They were silent for a while, and Filia calmed down enough to put away her mace, straighten her dress, and sit on the bed again, fingering the fabric. Gourry leaned against one of the walls and stared across the room blankly. Zelgadis went to look out at the world they were in once again. Amelia bit her lip and seemed to be muttering to herself.
Finally, there came a tap on the trap door. Everyone simultaneously lunged for it, and as a result there was much banging of heads. When everyone sat there rubbing their heads, Gourry opened the door- his head didn't hurt.
"Yes?" he looked down.
Darian smiled. "Heyla!" he said cheerfully. "There's food out here, if you are hungry-"
"FOOD!" Lina jumped up, any head injuries forgotten. "Yes, food is good!"
Darian's smile grew. "Come on down, then, and I will lead you to it."
The group headed down, almost trampling Darian in the process. At one point they all tripped and fell into a little heap at the bottom of the ladder, and Xellos appeared to tease them all, and walked down ahead of them. Lina thought that for once it was a good thing Xellos kept secrets- she wasn't sure how they'd react to a demon.
However, Darian was staring at Zelgadis, who got up first. The hood had fallen back, and the mask was hanging off of him.
"What...?" Darian asked weakly. "What... who... are you a Changeling?"
Zelgadis stared at Darian for a long moment. "I am a chimera," he said shortly, and pulled his hood back up and readjusted his mask.
"Chimera?!" Darian asked, staring in confusion.
"He's a third golem, a third demon and a third human," Lina whispered. "His grandfather turned him into what he is now. Don't mention it to him. He's looking for a cure."
"I... but... oh," Darian said, blinking repeatedly.
"I still think he looks cool," Amelia stated firmly.
"Will you all not talk about me like I'm not here?" Zelgadis asked.
They all stood up after untangling themselves from the pile, then Lina remembered why they'd been in the pile in the first place. "FOOD!" she hollered, and flew the rest of the way.
Darian blinked again. Filia took pity on him and walked calmly the rest of the way. Zelgadis followed her. Amelia looked at Darian brightly.
"Don't worry, Mister Darian, this is all quite normal behavior for everyone," Amelia said cheerfully, and walked after them. Gourry was already racing with Lina somewhere up ahead, though he was running instead of flying.
~*~ Darian ~*~
This was NORMAL behavior? Good gods, what was ABNORMAL like? Darian wondered this as he slowly stood and stared after the group.
So, Adepts and Masters, a chimera- his head spun at the new term. And, a dragon who acted like a highborn's daughter, quite well behaved.
How on earth was he expected to deal with races that he'd never heard of? And they WERE races, because they called the dragon one, Filia, the LAST of the Golden Dragons, whatever those were. All of this only calmly pointed to the conclusion they'd made at the conference; that these people really WERE from another world.
He felt like he wanted to either faint, scream, ask for help, or just stand there gaping at all of it for a while.
Ask for help... yes, ask for help. That was it! He smiled, suddenly realizing what he could do. After all, if these were folk from another world, it wasn't just his job to figure out what to do with them. After all, the Tayledras were in alliance with Valdemar, and since they were in Valdemar, shouldn't they send these folk to Haven?
It made perfect sense. He felt like someone had lifted a weight off of him. He didn't have to make a big decision about what to do with them, after all. He could ask Herald Anda and Keisha's sister to send the Heralds a message. Then one of them could come down and escort the strangers to Haven, and there they would know what to do.
Besides, no good would come of hiding them anyway, so why not?
"Now I just need to tell everyone else," he murmured.
~*~ Lina ~*~
A number of the Tayledras were watching with curiosity, and a little disgust, as Lina and Gourry wolfed everything down. Zelgadis sat off to one side, ignoring them. Amelia tried to pretend she didn't know them. Xellos also sat off to one side, sipping a drink and sighing happily. Apparently, it was very good tea. Filia sat at Lina and Gourry's table and just drank her stuff too, politely ignoring the polite looks everyone was giving them.
"Ah, thish ish sho good!" Lina babbled through the food.
"Miss Lina, you're talking with your mouth full," Filia observed calmly. "I thought you learned not to do that, at least, after the past couple of years."
"Hey, doeshn't bother me!" Lina said. "Wha' 'bout you, Gourry?"
Gourry didn't even answer her, he was so busy stuffing his face.
"Miss Lina and Mister Gourry never change," Amelia said, finally admitting defeat and slumping into a chair near their table.
Lina decided to ignore everything else and focus on the food. It was exotic, it was new, and it was GOOD.
However, even great food never lasts, and Lina and Gourry's silverware both claimed the last piece of food at the same time.
"That's MINE," Lina said.
"It's MINE!" Gourry declared.
They started to duel using the silverware as small groups of Tayledras watched in amusement. Mostly, they were men between teenage years and somewhere in middle age. All of them had at least a streak of silver in their hair, and their eyes were light blues and grays. However, there were a few women, though sometimes it was hard to tell between the two genders when they were in what one of them, when asked, called "scout gear".
Finally, Amelia solved the problem by taking the bit of food and eating it herself, though she knew full well what was going to happen next. She prepared a defense wall with magic as Lina said, "That- YOU TOOK MY FOOD!"
"IT WAS MY FOOD!" Gourry hollered.
"FIREBALL!" Lina focused. She felt the energy, though it seemed for some reason to feel- distant, like when she'd used the magic to fly with- but shook it off as dying of hunger. She fired the ball of fire energy.
The blast hit Amelia's magical barrier, though she'd had to adjust the spell so it would absorb the fire, not deflect it. She had a faint expression of confusion on her face, and the barrier nearly was destroyed when the fireball hit it, but she kept it up. When she dismissed the barrier, it was with a faint look of relief. Lina wondered, somewhere in the far back of her mind, if Amelia had been draining herself, somehow.
"Um, please, miss?" one of the Tayledras said shyly. He came up and tapped the enraged girl on the shoulder. "Don't harm me, but... there's lots more food right over there... Ayshen's cooking more..." He pointed down a path.
"FOOD! THANK YOU!" Lina raced down the path with Gourry in tow.
The Tayledras coughed and raised an eyebrow. "Do your friends normally act so..." he tried desperately to find a polite word.
"Bent on finding and eating every scrap of food? Yes," Filia said. She was still calmly drinking her tea.
"I see. So you are the... folk that Keisha found out in the wood?"
"Yes," Amelia said. "Who would you be?"
"I'm Wintersky." He nodded to her. "Anyway, I just heard from Dar'ian that they are going to be sending you to a place that can help you all out."
"Where, Mister Wintersky?" Amelia asked.
"Haven," he said.
She gave him a blank look.
"You know, Haven, in Valdemar? With the Companions and Heralds and everything?" Wintersky said.
Still another blank look.
"I can see you have no idea what I'm talking about. Well, you'll find out. But first, we will make sure your friends have enough to eat."
"They never have enough to eat, Mister Wintersky," Amelia said, a little amused.
"Ah... But please, I am Wintersky. I'm just one of the scouts." He shrugged. "And I can't be more than a year older than you."
"Hard to tell, with everyone having silver hair," Filia pointed out.
"Oh, that's from our Heartstone," Wintersky said.
"Heartstone?"
"It's what... well, did you feel any barrier when you came in?" At their nods he continued, "That's part of what it does. The Heartstone takes in magic so we can use it to build our homes and repair any damages to the land in the Pelagirs." At their blank looks he explained, "That's where we are right now, the Pelagir Forests."
"Oh."
"Interesting," Xellos said, and sipped more.
"But what's wrong with the land to need repairing?" Filia asked.
"It would be a long story... let me just say a couple thousand years ago, two mages fought, and the damages are still all over the world." He shrugged. "We were set in the Pelagirs to fix them so people could move in and use the land. What with Changelings about..."
"Changeling. What is a Changeling?" Zelgadis asked quietly.
"You are full of questions, aren't you?" Wintersky asked. "Well, none of them are harmful, so I shall answer. Changelings are creatures or people, or even plants who are changed into something unnatural by the harmed lands, from the old magic. Part of our... job, you could say, is to make sure they don't harm anyone."
Zelgadis sipped his tea, and Amelia noted the sudden hurt in his eyes.
"Ah, well, here comes Dar'ian with your friends," Wintersky said cheerfully. "I must be off. Zhai'helleva!" And with that, he walked off.
"This place sounds weirder and weirder every minute," Amelia noted.
"Makes sense, we ARE in another world," Zelgadis said shortly.
"Now, now, why the long faces?" Xellos said cheerfully. "This is a chance of a lifetime!"
Zelgadis jumped up, leaped over and grabbed Xellos, lifting him up by the collar of his shirt. "Now LISTEN, you Mazoku-"
"Zelgadis, CALM DOWN!" Lina suddenly said. Everyone turned to her as she, Gourry, and Darian walked in. "Put Xellos down!"
The chimera frowned, but dropped the Mazoku. Then he turned away and sat down to return to his meal.
Darian cleared his throat. "We... don't know whether you want people to know where you are from or not, but there are matters that need to be taken care of," he said. "As much as we would like to help you, we cannot. So. I have spoken with Herald Anda. He is contacting someone in Haven to come and escort you to the Palace."
"I asked him about Gating," Lina said quietly, "but he said it's only been done on the same plane, the same world. And now they cannot do Gates at all anyway." At everyone's blank looks she explained, "I heard him talking about Gating earlier, so I asked him. It was supposed to be an old magical way of transportation. Like... teleporting."
"Oh."
"In any case, they should be here in a couple days," Darian said. "In the meantime, we have built hot pools for people to relax in, we have plenty of food, and perhaps we should introduce you to a few of our nonhuman friends so you will not be startled at their appearances."
The group nodded. So they at least were going somewhere, perhaps to people who would help them.
Yes, food was all to the good, and rest was even better, but it was the fact that someone had made a decision about what to do next that made them all relax and decide to find out exactly how the hot pools worked.
~*~
Chapter Four done, wow. People actually like this. That's amazing. I hope you keep liking this!
YIPE! People are reviewing this?! Whoa. I completely didn't expect this. Anyway, for everyone's questions yes, there will be explanations in a couple chapters so please, please be patient. Until then, enjoy the story, eh?
~*~
Lina sprawled out on the closest bed to the door. Well, it wasn't really what one would call a door- it was more like a trap door, as it was on the floor. The trap door was closed now, and rolled in a neat bundle right next to it was the ladder they'd used to get into the room. The sorceress wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, enjoying the chance for a brief rest.
Darian and his friends had questioned them, and they had questioned him, very closely. Both sides demonstrated magic- of course, nothing offensive, just defensive magicks- until everyone was about ready to drop. Darian then told them he and the others had to think about what they were going to do, and added they could come out later for food. Someone named Ayshen was busy cooking up a storm.
The thought of food made her stomach rumble. Zelgadis gave her a somewhat amused look. "We are in another world, practically being held as prisoners by strange people with different magic skills, and you somehow manage to think of food?" he asked. He was also somewhat exasperated.
"Hey, magic makes me hungry!" she said defensively.
"It makes me hungry too," Gourry chimed in.
Everyone gave him a look. "Uh, Mister Gourry, you can't DO magic," Amelia pointed out slowly.
"I know, but watching it makes me hungry!" he stated.
Everyone who was standing up fell over. Then Filia got up and gingerly sat on a second bed. Zelgadis walked over to peer out the window.
"Don't do that, Zel," Lina complained. "I'd rather not have you fall out."
He smiled faintly. "I do fly, Lina."
"Last time I tried, it was pretty hard concentrating on a spell while you're falling," she said.
"Mister Firesong said the window's got some sort of magicked glass that would hold even if someone did fall," Amelia added. "Don't worry."
"I'm more worried about freaking these people out, actually," Filia said, feeling a corner of one of the blankets curiously. "If they saw Mister Zelgadis flying around, they might think... well, I'm not sure what they would think, but it probably would involve asking us to leave."
"Or demanding about how we can fly, and no one else here can," Lina agreed. "I just don't understand it. These guys claim they saved the world a couple times using their magic, but they can't do something so simple as flying!"
"Maybe it's their time of the month, only it's constant," Gourry said.
All of the girls shot him evil looks. Lina started to build energy into her palm, then remembered where she was and quickly dismissed it.
They were in a treehouse, of sorts, though it was much more comfortable than any child's treehouse. For one thing, it had a trap door one could lock if one wished, and Lina wasn't so sure a child's treehouse could hold three beds. They were a couple 'stories' up in the air right now- the men's room was right below theirs, with the same furnishings.
When they had broken up the conference, the group had discovered where the Tayledras settled- up in the trees, mostly. There were some underground and on-the-ground buildings, but they were mostly for people who couldn't handle the heights, for something called hertasi, and the man Darian.
She took a deep breath and made sure the energy was gone. It wouldn't do to destroy something of a stranger's.
It was amazing. Just a few hours ago, they'd been walking around in Seyruun. Now...
Now they were in another world.
It was creepy to think about. After all, why were they here? Why did the caster of that weird spell WANT them gone? Could Lina find a book with a spell-
Wait. Hadn't Darian mentioned something called 'Gating'?
She suddenly sat up, snapping her fingers. What if this Gating stuff could get them back? After all, their Mindspeech was like Lina's Telepathy. Why couldn't their Gating be like that odd spell that brought them here?
She'd just have to ask about it the next time she saw Darian.
"What is it, Lina?" Zelgadis asked. "You look like you just got hit on the head."
"Yes, with an idea," she said. "I'm going to ask Darian about it."
"What idea, Miss Lina?" Amelia asked curiously.
Lina shook her head. "I don't want to raise your hopes. I'll tell you after I talk to Darian, if the idea can work."
"Oh..."
"In other words," Xellos said cheerfully, "That is a secret!"
Filia immediately pulled out her mace and started chasing him around. After all, one couldn't DESTROY the place, but a dent or two could easily be patched, right? "NAMAGOMI!" she screeched. She managed to hit him once before he disappeared entirely.
"Damn Mazoku," Zelgadis muttered under his breath. "Always acts like he knows everything."
"Huh."
They were silent for a while, and Filia calmed down enough to put away her mace, straighten her dress, and sit on the bed again, fingering the fabric. Gourry leaned against one of the walls and stared across the room blankly. Zelgadis went to look out at the world they were in once again. Amelia bit her lip and seemed to be muttering to herself.
Finally, there came a tap on the trap door. Everyone simultaneously lunged for it, and as a result there was much banging of heads. When everyone sat there rubbing their heads, Gourry opened the door- his head didn't hurt.
"Yes?" he looked down.
Darian smiled. "Heyla!" he said cheerfully. "There's food out here, if you are hungry-"
"FOOD!" Lina jumped up, any head injuries forgotten. "Yes, food is good!"
Darian's smile grew. "Come on down, then, and I will lead you to it."
The group headed down, almost trampling Darian in the process. At one point they all tripped and fell into a little heap at the bottom of the ladder, and Xellos appeared to tease them all, and walked down ahead of them. Lina thought that for once it was a good thing Xellos kept secrets- she wasn't sure how they'd react to a demon.
However, Darian was staring at Zelgadis, who got up first. The hood had fallen back, and the mask was hanging off of him.
"What...?" Darian asked weakly. "What... who... are you a Changeling?"
Zelgadis stared at Darian for a long moment. "I am a chimera," he said shortly, and pulled his hood back up and readjusted his mask.
"Chimera?!" Darian asked, staring in confusion.
"He's a third golem, a third demon and a third human," Lina whispered. "His grandfather turned him into what he is now. Don't mention it to him. He's looking for a cure."
"I... but... oh," Darian said, blinking repeatedly.
"I still think he looks cool," Amelia stated firmly.
"Will you all not talk about me like I'm not here?" Zelgadis asked.
They all stood up after untangling themselves from the pile, then Lina remembered why they'd been in the pile in the first place. "FOOD!" she hollered, and flew the rest of the way.
Darian blinked again. Filia took pity on him and walked calmly the rest of the way. Zelgadis followed her. Amelia looked at Darian brightly.
"Don't worry, Mister Darian, this is all quite normal behavior for everyone," Amelia said cheerfully, and walked after them. Gourry was already racing with Lina somewhere up ahead, though he was running instead of flying.
~*~ Darian ~*~
This was NORMAL behavior? Good gods, what was ABNORMAL like? Darian wondered this as he slowly stood and stared after the group.
So, Adepts and Masters, a chimera- his head spun at the new term. And, a dragon who acted like a highborn's daughter, quite well behaved.
How on earth was he expected to deal with races that he'd never heard of? And they WERE races, because they called the dragon one, Filia, the LAST of the Golden Dragons, whatever those were. All of this only calmly pointed to the conclusion they'd made at the conference; that these people really WERE from another world.
He felt like he wanted to either faint, scream, ask for help, or just stand there gaping at all of it for a while.
Ask for help... yes, ask for help. That was it! He smiled, suddenly realizing what he could do. After all, if these were folk from another world, it wasn't just his job to figure out what to do with them. After all, the Tayledras were in alliance with Valdemar, and since they were in Valdemar, shouldn't they send these folk to Haven?
It made perfect sense. He felt like someone had lifted a weight off of him. He didn't have to make a big decision about what to do with them, after all. He could ask Herald Anda and Keisha's sister to send the Heralds a message. Then one of them could come down and escort the strangers to Haven, and there they would know what to do.
Besides, no good would come of hiding them anyway, so why not?
"Now I just need to tell everyone else," he murmured.
~*~ Lina ~*~
A number of the Tayledras were watching with curiosity, and a little disgust, as Lina and Gourry wolfed everything down. Zelgadis sat off to one side, ignoring them. Amelia tried to pretend she didn't know them. Xellos also sat off to one side, sipping a drink and sighing happily. Apparently, it was very good tea. Filia sat at Lina and Gourry's table and just drank her stuff too, politely ignoring the polite looks everyone was giving them.
"Ah, thish ish sho good!" Lina babbled through the food.
"Miss Lina, you're talking with your mouth full," Filia observed calmly. "I thought you learned not to do that, at least, after the past couple of years."
"Hey, doeshn't bother me!" Lina said. "Wha' 'bout you, Gourry?"
Gourry didn't even answer her, he was so busy stuffing his face.
"Miss Lina and Mister Gourry never change," Amelia said, finally admitting defeat and slumping into a chair near their table.
Lina decided to ignore everything else and focus on the food. It was exotic, it was new, and it was GOOD.
However, even great food never lasts, and Lina and Gourry's silverware both claimed the last piece of food at the same time.
"That's MINE," Lina said.
"It's MINE!" Gourry declared.
They started to duel using the silverware as small groups of Tayledras watched in amusement. Mostly, they were men between teenage years and somewhere in middle age. All of them had at least a streak of silver in their hair, and their eyes were light blues and grays. However, there were a few women, though sometimes it was hard to tell between the two genders when they were in what one of them, when asked, called "scout gear".
Finally, Amelia solved the problem by taking the bit of food and eating it herself, though she knew full well what was going to happen next. She prepared a defense wall with magic as Lina said, "That- YOU TOOK MY FOOD!"
"IT WAS MY FOOD!" Gourry hollered.
"FIREBALL!" Lina focused. She felt the energy, though it seemed for some reason to feel- distant, like when she'd used the magic to fly with- but shook it off as dying of hunger. She fired the ball of fire energy.
The blast hit Amelia's magical barrier, though she'd had to adjust the spell so it would absorb the fire, not deflect it. She had a faint expression of confusion on her face, and the barrier nearly was destroyed when the fireball hit it, but she kept it up. When she dismissed the barrier, it was with a faint look of relief. Lina wondered, somewhere in the far back of her mind, if Amelia had been draining herself, somehow.
"Um, please, miss?" one of the Tayledras said shyly. He came up and tapped the enraged girl on the shoulder. "Don't harm me, but... there's lots more food right over there... Ayshen's cooking more..." He pointed down a path.
"FOOD! THANK YOU!" Lina raced down the path with Gourry in tow.
The Tayledras coughed and raised an eyebrow. "Do your friends normally act so..." he tried desperately to find a polite word.
"Bent on finding and eating every scrap of food? Yes," Filia said. She was still calmly drinking her tea.
"I see. So you are the... folk that Keisha found out in the wood?"
"Yes," Amelia said. "Who would you be?"
"I'm Wintersky." He nodded to her. "Anyway, I just heard from Dar'ian that they are going to be sending you to a place that can help you all out."
"Where, Mister Wintersky?" Amelia asked.
"Haven," he said.
She gave him a blank look.
"You know, Haven, in Valdemar? With the Companions and Heralds and everything?" Wintersky said.
Still another blank look.
"I can see you have no idea what I'm talking about. Well, you'll find out. But first, we will make sure your friends have enough to eat."
"They never have enough to eat, Mister Wintersky," Amelia said, a little amused.
"Ah... But please, I am Wintersky. I'm just one of the scouts." He shrugged. "And I can't be more than a year older than you."
"Hard to tell, with everyone having silver hair," Filia pointed out.
"Oh, that's from our Heartstone," Wintersky said.
"Heartstone?"
"It's what... well, did you feel any barrier when you came in?" At their nods he continued, "That's part of what it does. The Heartstone takes in magic so we can use it to build our homes and repair any damages to the land in the Pelagirs." At their blank looks he explained, "That's where we are right now, the Pelagir Forests."
"Oh."
"Interesting," Xellos said, and sipped more.
"But what's wrong with the land to need repairing?" Filia asked.
"It would be a long story... let me just say a couple thousand years ago, two mages fought, and the damages are still all over the world." He shrugged. "We were set in the Pelagirs to fix them so people could move in and use the land. What with Changelings about..."
"Changeling. What is a Changeling?" Zelgadis asked quietly.
"You are full of questions, aren't you?" Wintersky asked. "Well, none of them are harmful, so I shall answer. Changelings are creatures or people, or even plants who are changed into something unnatural by the harmed lands, from the old magic. Part of our... job, you could say, is to make sure they don't harm anyone."
Zelgadis sipped his tea, and Amelia noted the sudden hurt in his eyes.
"Ah, well, here comes Dar'ian with your friends," Wintersky said cheerfully. "I must be off. Zhai'helleva!" And with that, he walked off.
"This place sounds weirder and weirder every minute," Amelia noted.
"Makes sense, we ARE in another world," Zelgadis said shortly.
"Now, now, why the long faces?" Xellos said cheerfully. "This is a chance of a lifetime!"
Zelgadis jumped up, leaped over and grabbed Xellos, lifting him up by the collar of his shirt. "Now LISTEN, you Mazoku-"
"Zelgadis, CALM DOWN!" Lina suddenly said. Everyone turned to her as she, Gourry, and Darian walked in. "Put Xellos down!"
The chimera frowned, but dropped the Mazoku. Then he turned away and sat down to return to his meal.
Darian cleared his throat. "We... don't know whether you want people to know where you are from or not, but there are matters that need to be taken care of," he said. "As much as we would like to help you, we cannot. So. I have spoken with Herald Anda. He is contacting someone in Haven to come and escort you to the Palace."
"I asked him about Gating," Lina said quietly, "but he said it's only been done on the same plane, the same world. And now they cannot do Gates at all anyway." At everyone's blank looks she explained, "I heard him talking about Gating earlier, so I asked him. It was supposed to be an old magical way of transportation. Like... teleporting."
"Oh."
"In any case, they should be here in a couple days," Darian said. "In the meantime, we have built hot pools for people to relax in, we have plenty of food, and perhaps we should introduce you to a few of our nonhuman friends so you will not be startled at their appearances."
The group nodded. So they at least were going somewhere, perhaps to people who would help them.
Yes, food was all to the good, and rest was even better, but it was the fact that someone had made a decision about what to do next that made them all relax and decide to find out exactly how the hot pools worked.
~*~
Chapter Four done, wow. People actually like this. That's amazing. I hope you keep liking this!