Oh, hey, look, it's me again. Well, look at that, I've got another
story going. This one follows my last one, Monster Blood. If you haven't
read it, that's alright. You can pick it up pretty quick when things from
the last story overlap (which wont really be for a while).
Well, I'll say it now, I'm a supporter of the cannon couples (if you haven't noticed already), though I do love it when Filia and Xellos fight. This is, in most respects a very Zel/Amelia fic with some Lina/Gourry in it. It may also be a bit sappy in some parts. If you don't like these couples or a little mushy stuff, then you'll hate me as you read through the story so don't bother reading. If you do like those couples, then please, by all means, read on and please review. I love hearing what people think, good or bad. It helps make my writing better.
As always I don't own slayers. A bunch of Japanese people do, and not being Japanese, I don't stand a chance of ever getting to own it. I make no money off of this so don't sue me. I don't have anything you want anyway (just some brothers and a couple of cats that I would miss if you took). Also, ~*~*~ means a change in perspective but not in the scene and ***** means a change in scene entirely.
*****
It was a tempting target, he had to admit. It was just hanging there, waiting for him to take it. Now, it wasn't like he hadn't warned her many times before. He had told her, Cephreed knows how many times, that he didn't like her foot hanging that close to his face. He had warned her that he would take those little leather sandals with the cloth flowers on them if she did it again. It wasn't like it would be hard to take them. She couldn't really do much to stop him while this high up in the tree.
The foot twiddled a little as the princess on the branch above him sighed contentedly. It had been a long time since she had had time to relax out side of the palace. Ever since he had returned with his stack of books, all he had ever seen her do was work. He hated to disturb her happiness, but her foot was just right in the way of his reading. With a careful and gentle hand, he grabbed her ankle. She jerked out of her day dream and looked down at him, smiling sheepishly.
"Sorry, Mr. Zelgadiss," the black haired princess apologized as she balanced her leg back up on the branch. She turned back to the view they had of Saillune. It really was a great view, he had to admit. Even if you are a chimera, you can still appreciate beautiful scenery.
He turned back to his papers. He had brought eight books back with him to translate. He had found all of them in an ancient temple and come back to Saillune because if its extensive libraries and temples that would have a way to translate them. Of course, the temples were more then happy to help in exchange for letting them keep the books when he was done, and the library was was always open for him because of a little persuasion from Amelia. Sometimes it was good to be a friend of royalty. While, so far, most of them translating had turned up with nothing, he had only gone through three of the books. The temples were still working on the others. They all, however, had been books on white magic and temple life. That was why he had yet to lose all hope in his findings.
Amelia sighed again. He glanced up, slightly amused. She was wearing a simple white and pink blouse and pants along with her two bracelets on her wrists. Zelgadiss had chosen the right place to sit for most of the afternoon. She had always loved high places. He had thought he might regret coming back here to see her and know she had probably forgotten about him, but he wasn't. She had been happy to see him and welcomed him without question. They had talked about old times and about how they were doing now. Neither of them had seen or heard anything from Lina, Gourry, or Xellos, but Filia had written the princess often and told her about the pottery shop and Val, which Amelia had told to him. It had been a nice break from his traveling.
"Enjoying yourself?" he asked as a light breeze picked up and brushed some of the strands of hair out of her face.
"Yes," she breathed out. Her stress from before had been long forgotten. Zelgadiss had wondered what she had been upset about before, but didn't ask. Seeing her relaxed again eased a little bit of his own tension.
"Told you, you would."
"I know." She laid her head in her hands and glanced down at him. "Having any luck?"
He shook his head. "No, not so far. Temples must be loving this, though."
She giggled. "Yes, they mentioned something about giving you a small reward for bringing such valuable books to them intact."
"You say that like it was hard."
"Not hard, just rare. After all, they say they're older then the war of the monsters. They think one of them is over three thousand years old. It has a few spells on it to keep it from rotting and decaying away. It's a little washed out though."
"It's that old?" he asked curiously. She nodded. "Huh. Place must have been older then I thought." He shrugged. "Oh well. Doesn't really matter unless it has my cure in it."
There was a long pause. Each of them just sat, enjoying the company. The sun was setting painting the sky with brilliant reds, yellows, and oranges. The area was bathed in a pale pink light.
"What will you do when you get your cure, Mr. Zelgadiss?"
Zelgadiss thought about this for a moment, then shrugged. "Don't know. Haven't thought about it much. I guess I'll figure that out when it happens."
"Oh." Again, there was a long pause. "We should probably start to head back before it gets dark," she sighed disappointedly. "People might worry."
By people, he knew she meant her father, Prince Philione, but he knew better then to point that out. She didn't seem to be getting along with him lately. Zelgadiss knew better then to ask why, but that didn't stop him from wondering. "I guess you're right." He rolled up his papers and hooked them to his belt. He slipped off his branch and dropped to the ground. Amelia levitated down behind him. She smiled at him in her ever so innocent way and they walked back to the city.
*****
Amelia couldn't remember the last time she had been so miserable. The afternoon she had spent with Zelgadiss had helped ease her frustration, but the problem still persisted. She was lying awake in her bed, gazing out the window at the half moon. She hadn't slept well in the past few days, tonight being no different. She rolled on to her side, remembering...
The princess sighed bitterly. Princess...she had come to hate that title. Once it had been something she had held high, but now it was nothing more then a brand keeping her from truly being happy. She gave an involuntary shiver as her fathers words rang in her head.
Ã"You have a responsibility to this country, Amelia,' he had said. Ã"You must do what is best for your people. That doesn't always mean you must like it.'
Ã"But if I were unhappy, wouldn't I be a bad princess,' she had tried to rebuttal. Prince Phil had only shook his head no. Ã"But why? That makes no sense!'
Ã"I know this sounds unjust, sweetheart, but I'm afraid you must,' was all he had said.
She snorted, hating it all. Where was the justice in that? she had wondered. More and more lately, it had seemed that everything her father had taught her had been nothing but lies. Why had he taught her to believe in truth and justice when he was only gong to contradict it when she got older? She was 19 years old. She could handle the truth, so why was he still being so vague with her. She hated it.
The young woman's mind drifted to her old friend, Zelgadiss. He was free...well, yes he was cursed and all, but he could go anywhere he wanted and do what ever he pleased. Part of her longed for that life. Part of her wished she could throw away all her responsibilities to the wind like he did. However, the logical part of her told the girl she could not just run off like her sister. That wouldn't be fair to her kingdom or her people. Though she wouldn't mind getting a little time to just be off on another adventure like she use to have with Lina, Gourry, and Zelgadiss. She wouldn't have minded having Xellos along for the trip, even if he brought them nothing but trouble. At least that was something to get her away from all that was currently around her.
She missed them all so much. She occasionally got letters from Filia, telling her all about how her shop was going and how Val was growing. Lina and Gourry never wrote or stopped by like they said they would. Zelgadiss had just shown up but she knew, cure or not, he'd probably pick up and leave again. It was just how he was. She hadn't the first clue about Xellos. He was Xellos, the great trickster priest, and he only showed up when he needed to use you for something.
Finally giving up on sleep, she sat up and hugged her knees. She could just barely see herself in the mirror through the sheen curtains on her bed. She was a little thinner then she had been and her hair was an inch or two longer, but nothing else had really changed about her in the past two years. She may have been and inch or two taller, but she wasn't really sure. While she didn't look much like her father, she could still pick out a few things she had in common with him and she hated them.
"Why do I have to be like him?" she muttered to herself. "Why can't he understand? It's not like I'm asking for him to let me wage war on another country." She slipped out of the bed and padded across the floor to her bathing room. She poured some water in a basin and splashed some of it on her face. She dried her face and went back out to stare at her reflection. "I don't see how any of that will make my people happy. It's not like it will really strengthen Saillune. It'll just make the council happy," she pondered aloud. "I'm beginning to see why Gracia left." She flopped down in the plush chair by her dresser and stared out the window again.
She never realized she had dozed off until she heard a tapping on her window. Drowsily, she lifted her head from her hands and looked over at the glass. Sitting on the sill outside was a small bird tapping on the glass. She was suddenly wide awake. She approached the window and looked down at the creature carefully. It looked almost like a raven only it was a pale turquoise blue with ocean blue eyes. It stopped pecking at the glass with it's gray beak and stared back at her. When she didn't make any move, it began taping the glass again. It's feathers glistened like a polished stone in the moon light. Curious, she opened the window for it. The bird hastily flew in and landed on her bed. It cawed at her, sounding a lot like a crow.
"What an odd bird," she thought aloud. She stepped over to the bed and kneeled down. She held one nervous hand out, half expecting it to peck at her. Instead, it hopped over and nuzzled against her hand affectionately. "Well, you are kind of cute," she giggled. "You must belong to someone." She made a quick inspection of its leg and found no id markers of any sort on it. "Well, then where did you come from?" she asked it. She didn't expect an answer, though it looked like it wanted to say something. She turned her hand palm up and it hopped on. It was rather light weight, even for a raven. In fluttered up to her shoulder to perch and nuzzled against her cheek. She giggled. "Well, I suppose you can stay until we find out where you came from. You need a name, though..."
*****
"You found a what?" Zelgadiss and Prince Phil asked at the same time in disbelief.
"A blue-ish green bird last night," Amelia repeated. "He's still in my room right now..."
They were sitting at breakfast when she had brought up the bird. The men exchanged skeptical glances.
"And it looks like a raven?" Zelgadiss asked for the third time. He still wasn't believing most of this. He had never known Amelia to lie, but still; A blue-ish green raven did sound a little far fetched to believe, especially if it had just come to her like it was an old pet or something. The prince was obviously thinking the exact same thing as him.
"And you want to keep it?" Phil asked. His daughter nodded. There was silence at the table. Phil was pondering her request. Under any normal circumstances, he would have gladly said yes, but this didn't sound like any ordinary bird. She had once brought home a pink cat that had turned out to be a person's familiar, which was why he was reluctant to say yes. He didn't want to upset his little girl, he had done that enough in the past few days, but he wasn't sure what else to do. Finally, he sighed. "Alright, we can take a look at it after breakfast." She gave him a happy smile he had seen so little of recently, and he couldn't help but smile back.
The girl hastily finished her food and impatiently waited for her father. During the meal, the older man had one of his servants send word to one of the magic users in the castle so that the bird could be tested to see if it was anything bad, such as a monster. When they were finally done (much to Amelia's joy), they walked up to the girl's room. Zelgadiss followed simply for the lack of anything better to do. He was still waiting for the temples to send over some of the books he needed, and he couldn't translate anything until they did. Besides, if the bird was cursed or dangerous (and not that he didn't think she could take care of herself), he might be needed to keep her or her father safe.
When they turned the corner down the hall, the saw her door was open. Amelia trotted down there, for fear that her bird may have accidentally been let lose, but gave a sigh of relief when she saw one of the palace's white mages holding the bird. The woman, Kyra, who had been one of Amelia's first teachers, sat in one of the chairs with the bird perched on her hand. She was feeding it a cracker. she smiled when she saw the princess.
"He's a very nice bird," she commented. "You're quite lucky to have found him."
"Then it's nothing more then just a bird?" Phil asked, stepping up behind Amelia.
The mage shook her head. "No, there's more to him then that, but he's not dangerous. I think he may have originally been another color, but a student probably turned him into this color. He has a mild magic aura around him, but nothing that you wouldn't find around an animal that's been used for practice by students. Other then that, he's just a bird. And it is a male, by the way." The bird cawed happily and flew over to perch on Amelia's shoulder. He nuzzled against her cheek and then stared at the two men.
"Certainly friendly, isn't he?" Zelgadiss commented.
"So what are you going to call him?" Phil inquired. The bird fluttered off the princess' shoulder and landed on the prince's. Phil stared at the turquoise colored creature, not sure if he particularly liked it there. He had never really been much of a bird person.
"Turquoise, since he's the same color as the rock," she happily supplied. The bird flew over to Zelgadiss, who held up a hand for the creature to land on. Amelia giggled. "I think he's trying to say hello."
Zelgadiss gave her a curious look. He then glanced back at the bird. "Uh, hi... Turquoise... I guess." The bird cawed twice and hopped on to the chimera's shoulder. It cawed again and nuzzled against Zel's cheek, much the same way he had done to Amelia.
"He'll need a cage," Phil commented.
"I know," Amelia replied. "I can take care of him." She held out her hand and Turquoise flew back over to her. "I'm not a child." Phil frowned at her comment, but didn't say anything.
Well, I'll say it now, I'm a supporter of the cannon couples (if you haven't noticed already), though I do love it when Filia and Xellos fight. This is, in most respects a very Zel/Amelia fic with some Lina/Gourry in it. It may also be a bit sappy in some parts. If you don't like these couples or a little mushy stuff, then you'll hate me as you read through the story so don't bother reading. If you do like those couples, then please, by all means, read on and please review. I love hearing what people think, good or bad. It helps make my writing better.
As always I don't own slayers. A bunch of Japanese people do, and not being Japanese, I don't stand a chance of ever getting to own it. I make no money off of this so don't sue me. I don't have anything you want anyway (just some brothers and a couple of cats that I would miss if you took). Also, ~*~*~ means a change in perspective but not in the scene and ***** means a change in scene entirely.
*****
It was a tempting target, he had to admit. It was just hanging there, waiting for him to take it. Now, it wasn't like he hadn't warned her many times before. He had told her, Cephreed knows how many times, that he didn't like her foot hanging that close to his face. He had warned her that he would take those little leather sandals with the cloth flowers on them if she did it again. It wasn't like it would be hard to take them. She couldn't really do much to stop him while this high up in the tree.
The foot twiddled a little as the princess on the branch above him sighed contentedly. It had been a long time since she had had time to relax out side of the palace. Ever since he had returned with his stack of books, all he had ever seen her do was work. He hated to disturb her happiness, but her foot was just right in the way of his reading. With a careful and gentle hand, he grabbed her ankle. She jerked out of her day dream and looked down at him, smiling sheepishly.
"Sorry, Mr. Zelgadiss," the black haired princess apologized as she balanced her leg back up on the branch. She turned back to the view they had of Saillune. It really was a great view, he had to admit. Even if you are a chimera, you can still appreciate beautiful scenery.
He turned back to his papers. He had brought eight books back with him to translate. He had found all of them in an ancient temple and come back to Saillune because if its extensive libraries and temples that would have a way to translate them. Of course, the temples were more then happy to help in exchange for letting them keep the books when he was done, and the library was was always open for him because of a little persuasion from Amelia. Sometimes it was good to be a friend of royalty. While, so far, most of them translating had turned up with nothing, he had only gone through three of the books. The temples were still working on the others. They all, however, had been books on white magic and temple life. That was why he had yet to lose all hope in his findings.
Amelia sighed again. He glanced up, slightly amused. She was wearing a simple white and pink blouse and pants along with her two bracelets on her wrists. Zelgadiss had chosen the right place to sit for most of the afternoon. She had always loved high places. He had thought he might regret coming back here to see her and know she had probably forgotten about him, but he wasn't. She had been happy to see him and welcomed him without question. They had talked about old times and about how they were doing now. Neither of them had seen or heard anything from Lina, Gourry, or Xellos, but Filia had written the princess often and told her about the pottery shop and Val, which Amelia had told to him. It had been a nice break from his traveling.
"Enjoying yourself?" he asked as a light breeze picked up and brushed some of the strands of hair out of her face.
"Yes," she breathed out. Her stress from before had been long forgotten. Zelgadiss had wondered what she had been upset about before, but didn't ask. Seeing her relaxed again eased a little bit of his own tension.
"Told you, you would."
"I know." She laid her head in her hands and glanced down at him. "Having any luck?"
He shook his head. "No, not so far. Temples must be loving this, though."
She giggled. "Yes, they mentioned something about giving you a small reward for bringing such valuable books to them intact."
"You say that like it was hard."
"Not hard, just rare. After all, they say they're older then the war of the monsters. They think one of them is over three thousand years old. It has a few spells on it to keep it from rotting and decaying away. It's a little washed out though."
"It's that old?" he asked curiously. She nodded. "Huh. Place must have been older then I thought." He shrugged. "Oh well. Doesn't really matter unless it has my cure in it."
There was a long pause. Each of them just sat, enjoying the company. The sun was setting painting the sky with brilliant reds, yellows, and oranges. The area was bathed in a pale pink light.
"What will you do when you get your cure, Mr. Zelgadiss?"
Zelgadiss thought about this for a moment, then shrugged. "Don't know. Haven't thought about it much. I guess I'll figure that out when it happens."
"Oh." Again, there was a long pause. "We should probably start to head back before it gets dark," she sighed disappointedly. "People might worry."
By people, he knew she meant her father, Prince Philione, but he knew better then to point that out. She didn't seem to be getting along with him lately. Zelgadiss knew better then to ask why, but that didn't stop him from wondering. "I guess you're right." He rolled up his papers and hooked them to his belt. He slipped off his branch and dropped to the ground. Amelia levitated down behind him. She smiled at him in her ever so innocent way and they walked back to the city.
*****
Amelia couldn't remember the last time she had been so miserable. The afternoon she had spent with Zelgadiss had helped ease her frustration, but the problem still persisted. She was lying awake in her bed, gazing out the window at the half moon. She hadn't slept well in the past few days, tonight being no different. She rolled on to her side, remembering...
The princess sighed bitterly. Princess...she had come to hate that title. Once it had been something she had held high, but now it was nothing more then a brand keeping her from truly being happy. She gave an involuntary shiver as her fathers words rang in her head.
Ã"You have a responsibility to this country, Amelia,' he had said. Ã"You must do what is best for your people. That doesn't always mean you must like it.'
Ã"But if I were unhappy, wouldn't I be a bad princess,' she had tried to rebuttal. Prince Phil had only shook his head no. Ã"But why? That makes no sense!'
Ã"I know this sounds unjust, sweetheart, but I'm afraid you must,' was all he had said.
She snorted, hating it all. Where was the justice in that? she had wondered. More and more lately, it had seemed that everything her father had taught her had been nothing but lies. Why had he taught her to believe in truth and justice when he was only gong to contradict it when she got older? She was 19 years old. She could handle the truth, so why was he still being so vague with her. She hated it.
The young woman's mind drifted to her old friend, Zelgadiss. He was free...well, yes he was cursed and all, but he could go anywhere he wanted and do what ever he pleased. Part of her longed for that life. Part of her wished she could throw away all her responsibilities to the wind like he did. However, the logical part of her told the girl she could not just run off like her sister. That wouldn't be fair to her kingdom or her people. Though she wouldn't mind getting a little time to just be off on another adventure like she use to have with Lina, Gourry, and Zelgadiss. She wouldn't have minded having Xellos along for the trip, even if he brought them nothing but trouble. At least that was something to get her away from all that was currently around her.
She missed them all so much. She occasionally got letters from Filia, telling her all about how her shop was going and how Val was growing. Lina and Gourry never wrote or stopped by like they said they would. Zelgadiss had just shown up but she knew, cure or not, he'd probably pick up and leave again. It was just how he was. She hadn't the first clue about Xellos. He was Xellos, the great trickster priest, and he only showed up when he needed to use you for something.
Finally giving up on sleep, she sat up and hugged her knees. She could just barely see herself in the mirror through the sheen curtains on her bed. She was a little thinner then she had been and her hair was an inch or two longer, but nothing else had really changed about her in the past two years. She may have been and inch or two taller, but she wasn't really sure. While she didn't look much like her father, she could still pick out a few things she had in common with him and she hated them.
"Why do I have to be like him?" she muttered to herself. "Why can't he understand? It's not like I'm asking for him to let me wage war on another country." She slipped out of the bed and padded across the floor to her bathing room. She poured some water in a basin and splashed some of it on her face. She dried her face and went back out to stare at her reflection. "I don't see how any of that will make my people happy. It's not like it will really strengthen Saillune. It'll just make the council happy," she pondered aloud. "I'm beginning to see why Gracia left." She flopped down in the plush chair by her dresser and stared out the window again.
She never realized she had dozed off until she heard a tapping on her window. Drowsily, she lifted her head from her hands and looked over at the glass. Sitting on the sill outside was a small bird tapping on the glass. She was suddenly wide awake. She approached the window and looked down at the creature carefully. It looked almost like a raven only it was a pale turquoise blue with ocean blue eyes. It stopped pecking at the glass with it's gray beak and stared back at her. When she didn't make any move, it began taping the glass again. It's feathers glistened like a polished stone in the moon light. Curious, she opened the window for it. The bird hastily flew in and landed on her bed. It cawed at her, sounding a lot like a crow.
"What an odd bird," she thought aloud. She stepped over to the bed and kneeled down. She held one nervous hand out, half expecting it to peck at her. Instead, it hopped over and nuzzled against her hand affectionately. "Well, you are kind of cute," she giggled. "You must belong to someone." She made a quick inspection of its leg and found no id markers of any sort on it. "Well, then where did you come from?" she asked it. She didn't expect an answer, though it looked like it wanted to say something. She turned her hand palm up and it hopped on. It was rather light weight, even for a raven. In fluttered up to her shoulder to perch and nuzzled against her cheek. She giggled. "Well, I suppose you can stay until we find out where you came from. You need a name, though..."
*****
"You found a what?" Zelgadiss and Prince Phil asked at the same time in disbelief.
"A blue-ish green bird last night," Amelia repeated. "He's still in my room right now..."
They were sitting at breakfast when she had brought up the bird. The men exchanged skeptical glances.
"And it looks like a raven?" Zelgadiss asked for the third time. He still wasn't believing most of this. He had never known Amelia to lie, but still; A blue-ish green raven did sound a little far fetched to believe, especially if it had just come to her like it was an old pet or something. The prince was obviously thinking the exact same thing as him.
"And you want to keep it?" Phil asked. His daughter nodded. There was silence at the table. Phil was pondering her request. Under any normal circumstances, he would have gladly said yes, but this didn't sound like any ordinary bird. She had once brought home a pink cat that had turned out to be a person's familiar, which was why he was reluctant to say yes. He didn't want to upset his little girl, he had done that enough in the past few days, but he wasn't sure what else to do. Finally, he sighed. "Alright, we can take a look at it after breakfast." She gave him a happy smile he had seen so little of recently, and he couldn't help but smile back.
The girl hastily finished her food and impatiently waited for her father. During the meal, the older man had one of his servants send word to one of the magic users in the castle so that the bird could be tested to see if it was anything bad, such as a monster. When they were finally done (much to Amelia's joy), they walked up to the girl's room. Zelgadiss followed simply for the lack of anything better to do. He was still waiting for the temples to send over some of the books he needed, and he couldn't translate anything until they did. Besides, if the bird was cursed or dangerous (and not that he didn't think she could take care of herself), he might be needed to keep her or her father safe.
When they turned the corner down the hall, the saw her door was open. Amelia trotted down there, for fear that her bird may have accidentally been let lose, but gave a sigh of relief when she saw one of the palace's white mages holding the bird. The woman, Kyra, who had been one of Amelia's first teachers, sat in one of the chairs with the bird perched on her hand. She was feeding it a cracker. she smiled when she saw the princess.
"He's a very nice bird," she commented. "You're quite lucky to have found him."
"Then it's nothing more then just a bird?" Phil asked, stepping up behind Amelia.
The mage shook her head. "No, there's more to him then that, but he's not dangerous. I think he may have originally been another color, but a student probably turned him into this color. He has a mild magic aura around him, but nothing that you wouldn't find around an animal that's been used for practice by students. Other then that, he's just a bird. And it is a male, by the way." The bird cawed happily and flew over to perch on Amelia's shoulder. He nuzzled against her cheek and then stared at the two men.
"Certainly friendly, isn't he?" Zelgadiss commented.
"So what are you going to call him?" Phil inquired. The bird fluttered off the princess' shoulder and landed on the prince's. Phil stared at the turquoise colored creature, not sure if he particularly liked it there. He had never really been much of a bird person.
"Turquoise, since he's the same color as the rock," she happily supplied. The bird flew over to Zelgadiss, who held up a hand for the creature to land on. Amelia giggled. "I think he's trying to say hello."
Zelgadiss gave her a curious look. He then glanced back at the bird. "Uh, hi... Turquoise... I guess." The bird cawed twice and hopped on to the chimera's shoulder. It cawed again and nuzzled against Zel's cheek, much the same way he had done to Amelia.
"He'll need a cage," Phil commented.
"I know," Amelia replied. "I can take care of him." She held out her hand and Turquoise flew back over to her. "I'm not a child." Phil frowned at her comment, but didn't say anything.