c-chan: I couldn't remember exactly the scenes in Slayers 01 and I couldn't find the script for it. So I ended up fusing my memory of the anime series with the manga series.

Disclaimer: I don't own Slayers.

The Road to a Treasure

The moon hung high in the sky, casting a soft glow wherever its snowy rays shone upon. But the silver of its light paled against the warm golden lights that emanated from the town. Cheery, colorful banners adorned the town, inciting excitement and happiness in those who found themselves a part of the festival that was taking place. Vendors, entertainers, shoppers, and visitors crowded the town. Among these was Lina Inverse, sorceress extreme.

Lina walked down the street as her eyes darted back and forth from food stand to game stand, back to food stand. She hefted the heavy purse that hung on her belt. I'm glad those bandits were around when my supply was running low. I was already deciding to go look for them, but they came to me!

Lina was walking down the path in the forest, deep in thoughts. Hmm… I don't have many coins left. Too bad Naga isn't here, or I could always steal her coins. Guess I'll have to go find some bandit holes and take from them what they stole from other people. Lina's eyes lit up. "Yes! That's what I'll do!"

As she continued to walk down the path, she approached a lone figure standing to the side of the road. "Good lady, can you spare me some change?" Oblivious and still deep in her thoughts, Lina paid no attention to the man and walked by. The man sweatdropped. Two more figures appeared next to the first man and yelled out "Hey lady! Why won't you spare some change? Come on!" One of them reached out to grab her by the shoulder and quickly found out what a bad idea it was as his arm was twisted behind his back and Lina's boot connected with his bottom, sending him flying towards his companions.

"I hear ya. You guys look pretty strong to me. Why don't ya get a job or something? Quit wasting my time." Lina crossed her arms.

"All right! Hand over your purse, kid. Don't make me come over and get it." The strongest looking one of the three snarled as they all pulled out their swords.

"Oh… you guys are bandits?" Lina drawled.

"Umm… I suppose so." Unused to being asked that question, the man sweatdropped and hesitantly responded.

"Luck-y! Hand over your loot!" Lina jumped with glee and demanded.

"Huh? Hey kid, WE are the bandits. Give us your purse now!" The three men started to approach Lina menacingly.

Good grief…Lina rolled her eyes with boredom. "Fireball." She flicked her index finger towards the little group.

Fire suddenly erupted around them. "AH!" The little company of bandits found themselves flying off into the horizon. "Evil people have no rights!" Lina yelled after them.

Lina smiled smugly and extended her hand palm up. Seconds later, a small bag of coins fell onto the ground 2 feet away from her. "Oh… gotta work on that one." She trudged over and picked up her loot.

Just thinking about the incident earlier today made Lina happy. Now, she had a purse full of coins and a Harvest Festival to attend. Which, technically, meant lots of food for Lina to stuff her face with.

"Cotton candy! Hey! Give me three of those!" Lina yelled at the vendor.

"Ooh~ Roasted meatballs! I want four of those!"

"Mooncakes! Give me three boxes!"

Hours later, Lina patted her satisfied tummy and sighed contentedly. That was great! Now off to check out the fun stuff! With a contented smile, she took a side street and walked into the section where all the magic stuff were being performed and sold. She visited vendors and examined their products. Hmm… The things I can create are better than these will ever be. Suddenly, she felt it: the distinct feeling of being watched. Her back stiffened a little, as she forced herself to remain still in front of a sorceress who sold books on magic. She picked up a book, slowly stood up and turned around. Using the book to cover her face, she scanned her surroundings out the corner of her eye and found nothing. Then she felt it again. This time, even stronger. Lina frowned. She gave up the cover the book offered her and put it back down. Intent on looking for the source of her discomfort, she glared at the sea of people around her. Finally, in a dark corner she found it. A pair of eyes looked at her intently from the shadows. Annoyed, Lina walked up to the corner.

"What are you doing? Why are you looking at me? Come out so I can see you." Lina scowled.

The pair of eyes left the dark corner and with it, brought out their owner. Lina's eyes widened with surprise. She had not expected this. The owner of the eyes was a petite old lady with a pleasant smile. The lady wore a blue flowing skirt with a cream-colored gipsy shirt, giving off an air of elegance and confidence. Lina tried hard to find a hint of menace in the old lady and found none.

"Lina. You're finally here." The old lady said in a pleasant tone.

"Yea. How do you know my name?" Lina asked dubiously.

"I'm a fortune teller. It's my business to know what is necessary."

"Right." Lina's tone dripped with sarcasm.

"Are you ready to launch your way to the stars?"

"What? Have you had too much ale to drink?" Lina frowned.

"I know what you seek, Lina. You seek recognition. You want to be recognized. You want to step out from the shadow of your powerful sister."

"…" For once, Lina was speechless.

"You also want to be the owner of a lot of treasures." The old lady added with a chuckle. "I can't help much on your first goal, but I can point you to the right direction for the second one. On your way to your second goal, you'll be able to find out how to accomplish your most important purpose."

"What are you talking about?"

"Just remember one thing. You know who you are. You are the engine that drives itself but you choose to climb uphill. You're full of fiery passion, but there's no air for you to feed from. It explains the emptiness you feel when you are travelling alone. You don't feel lonely, but you feel like you're missing something. It happens to all of us. You just need to find your air."

Lina was puzzled. What's this with emptiness talk? Air? She must have drunk way too much wine or ale…Geez, you'd think that old people were more sensible.

"Here, take this with you. It's a book of the treasures in Atlas City and a map to it. You can use it as reference." The old lady shoved a booklet into Lina's hands, patted her forearms and retreated into her little corner.

"Yea, whatever." Lina rubbed her forehead and shoved the booklet into her travel bag. It's getting late. I should find an Inn and stay the night. With that, she turned around and left.

Moments later, Lina was under covers dreaming a dream of reaching for the stars in the velvet sky.

Meanwhile, the old fortuneteller in some dark corner in the Harvest Festival was accosting a young man.

"Young man, your fire has appeared. It's up to you to be there for her when she flies too high and crashes back down. Her passion is pure as a lover's desire, but evil as a murderer's dream. You're her air. Don't let her become a kite without a string or she'll be lost forever."

"Huh? Kite? Fire? Murderer? Where?" The young man looked around, his hand on his sword hilt.

The fortuneteller sighed. "Just go to Atlas City. You'll find your luscious babe there."

"All right!"

Lina woke up to her stomach grumbling with hunger. She patted her midsection. "Ok, tummy. We'll fill you up soon enough. Let me brush up." She got up from the bed and walked towards her travel bag. Tugging open her bag, she revealed her changing clothes along with the booklet the fortuneteller from the previous night had shoved into her hands.

"Hmm… I wonder what that old lady was talking about." She flipped open the book, read the first paragraph:

This is a book listing the treasures along the paths to Atlas City. To optimize the use of space in this book, the names of the treasures have been substituted by the first letters of their names and a dot has been placed on the place where they may be found.

Lina screamed, "What the hell? What kind of stupid book is this? How am I supposed to know what treasures they are only by the first letter of their names?" Her eyes fell on a particular dot on the treasure map in the next page. It said G.G., in bold and the dot was bigger than the others. Ooh… does this mean this G.G. thing is the treasure of treasures?

Lina's stomach grumbled louder. "Oops, forgot about you, tummy. All right. I'll be ready soon." She shoved the book back into the bag, hastily cleaned up, and changed into her travel clothes. Like a whirlwind, she ran downstairs, travel bad in tow.

"Hey, waiter! Bring me three servings of your breakfast! And step on it! I'm hungry!"

After finishing her breakfast, Lina checked out from the Inn. Where to go? Oh well, might as well check out what that G.G. thing is. With that, she walked out of the town, bound towards Atlas City.

It's been a week since she took the road and Lina felt like she hasn't done anything exciting since forever. Why were the woods so boring and quiet? Why weren't there any bandits to fry and loot to hoard? Lina was almost out of her mind with boredom. If things keep being so quiet, I'll be forced to make a detour and find myself some bandit king to step on.

As she walked deeper and deeper into the woods, Lina arrived at a fork in the path. Without giving it a second thought, she took the one to the left, completely missing the sign that was posted to the side of the path:

Warning! You are entering the Living Woods. Enter at your own risk.

After walking for what seemed like hours, Lina suddenly stopped. Why is it so quiet? Not even a chirp of bird or insect. It's so quiet… like a graveyard, not even the leaves were rustling. Complete silence. Warily, Lina looked around her. Nothing seemed to be out of place. The trees looked quite normal.

Then she heard it. It was a quiet hissing sound. No, not really a hissing sound, but more like the sound of something being dragged across leaves behind her. She whirled around and came face to face to a… tree limb. Lina scoffed. Nerves…Wait, was this here a minute ago? Suddenly, the tree limb came to life as it darted towards Lina's face. While more vines snaked around her ankles and tightened around them. Lina yelled out in surprise. A vine reached up and wrapped itself around her chest.

"Hentai!" She yelled and with her free hand reached for her sword. But the tree vines were already retreating. The trees started to quiver as if they were containing laughter. Is that possible?

"It's a little kid, no breasts at all. Wait till the ancient hears about this." Voices spoke as the trees rustled. "We need voluptuous females to be our Dryads. Not some scrawny little girl."

"Kid? No breasts? Scrawny?" Lina's eyes widened with anger as bits of the conversation were carried to her ears. "Not voluptuous enough for you? I'll give you voluptuous! Flare Arrow!" Pissed, Lina aimed blindly at the trees and sent her flare arrows in the general direction of where she thought the voices came from.

The trees caught fire and it started to spread. Uh-oh…Time to split. Lina sweatdropped as she saw the extent of the destruction she had caused. She ran.

"Stupid book, bringing me troubles. Just how far am I from this G.G.? I'm hungry and I'm tired!" But I still have the treasure I took from the last bandit hole I found. Hehe.

"Hey, Lina Inverse! Tell you what. Why don't you give us back our treasure and join us, then we'll forget about what you did to our boss?" A gang of bandits appeared before her.

Lina sighed. "No."

The bandits sweatdropped. As the leader made a dash to attack Lina, someone stuck his foot out and tripped him.

"A bunch of guys attacking one little girl is pathetic."

"Who are you?" The bandit exclaimed.

"If I give you my name, you'd just dirty it." The young man replied.

Oh… so this is where I play the part of a damsel in distress. Lina screamed and hollered in mockery as she watched the warrior take care of the bandits and literally cut the clothes off the back of the leader.

"Hey, little lady. Are you all right?" The blond warrior asked her.

"Yes, thank you. I gotta go. See ya!"

"Oh… It's a little kid. And here I thought I was rescuing a luscious babe."

Lina sweatdropped.

"Hey little girl, where is your father? Are you alone?"

"Yes. I'm going to Atlas City." Lina answered. Sigh… I heard that…

"Well… it's dangerous for a girl like you to travel alone. I'll be your guardian and accompany you to Atlas City. My name is Gourry Gabriev."

c-chan: And thus ends my fic for Growly's Lyric Wheel. I had intended to write a longer fic. But the plot would have required a long long fic. So I restrained myself. And came up with this silly one.