Xaina lay rather peacefully in the tree, enjoying the sun on her
face. Training was off for today. She and Xellos had decided to just relax.
Actually, her last little bit of lessons had resulted in her accidental
hurting him and he was trying to recover, though he would never have
admitted it. She was getting stronger then anyone had expected she would so
early on. Power, however, was far from the girl's mind at the moment. Right
now, all she was concerned about was the sway of the breeze and warmth of
the sun.
Xellos was on a branch higher up in the tree then her, studying. He had "borrowed" a few books on magic in the hopes of learning better ways to train his little charge. There was a slight jingling sound from the bell on the girl's tail ring. He glanced down, smirking. She may have been relaxing now, but tomorrow...oh tomorrow would be very different. He already had a few "battling" lessons he wanted to teach her.
The girl's sensitive feline ears picked up the sound of people coming up the road below them. She perked up her senses, sitting up on the branch. Her teacher had been insisting she learn how to scare and torment people to get a good, negative meal. She never quite understood why, though. Food tasted fine to her. Oh well, she mentally sighed. Now was her chance to test out some of the things she had learned. She floated (one of her newly learned abilities) over behind a few leaves that offered cover from sight and waited for them...
~*~*~
The air was very calm in the little patch of forest. So far they hadn't seen anyone coming up the road. According to Zelgadiss' map, it was a back road, though, so he hadn't really expected to see anyone. Amelia happily trotted beside him. He smiled as he looked at her. Part of him had been nervous about being alone with her for a long stretch of time, but it didn't seem so bad now. It might be rather nice, he thought. It isn't so bad with just the two of us...alone...together...no! Don't think like that! he mentally ordered himself, looking away from the innocent young woman. All the ease and calm he had felt before suddenly drained away. He was going to be entirely alone with her for at least five months as they traveled to 's little shop in the outerlands. He had dreamed of this, who knows how many times for the two years he had been away, and now it had happened. Stupid hormones! he mentally snapped, wishing that part of him had become part demon as well and he would have ever felt that way.
"Mr. Zelgadiss?" Amelia suddenly said, breaking the quiet between them. He glanced over at her, jerked out of thought. "I think we should talk about what happened before...at the palace...when..."
"Yes, we should," he agreed. "Amelia, about that, I...um...think..."
"We should forget about it until we find Miss Lina and we know she is safe," Amelia interrupted, blushing slightly.
"Uh...yes-yes, we should. Right now, this prophecy is more important. We should worry about finding her and getting this figured out..." He cut off as he heard the rustle of some leaves. Amelia heard it to and began glancing around, looking for the source of the noise. Zel gripped a hand on his sword. There was a soft thud behind them. He whirled around, whipping out his sword. He brought it down, stopping just millimeters above a little girl's head. Her violet eyes stared up at the blade that had just nearly gone through her. Her feline ears dropped and her lip quivered as she gave a slight whimper.
There was a blur of black and purple light. The girl was suddenly gone from under the blade. The child burst in to tears, wailing horribly. Zel and Amelia glanced up in on of the trees. On one of the lower branches was a very familiar man: Xellos. He held the small, crying child in his arms. Her white and black fur lined wings were clutched close to her body. Her black feline tail was curled between her legs. The little cat ears were flipped back flat against her head. She was wearing a white, lose fitting body suit with a flared collar. Over that was a white pull over drape that had black lines around the edges and a black line of patterns down the middle. Xellos looked down at them through his squinted eyes and frowned.
He turned his gaze to the little bawling girl. "Oh, there there. Don't cry. I wont let the big bad chimera hurt you," he cooed with a wicked grin. Zelgadiss glared at him. "It's not like he could hurt you anyway. Even with his curse, he couldn't harm you with that little sword." The girl's cries subsided in to little sniffles. "Better?" She nodded.
"And since when did you start adopting children?" Zel demanded suspiciously.
"Adopt?" He looked the girl over carefully. "Well, I suppose you could say I've kind of adopted her." He glanced back down at them, his usual trade mark smile on his face. "Picking on children now, I see? I though you above that. And I would have thought the princess of Saillune would be above such things."
"I do not frighten children!" Amelia protested, putting her hands on her hips.
"She's the princess of Saillune?" the girl choked out.
"Oh yes, that's her. I'd know her anywhere," Xellos responded, saying it as if he were implying something.
The child instantly became defensive. "And what's that suppose to mean? You didn't do anything to her, did you?"
"No, of course not."
"Then why'd you say it like that?"
"I thought I taught you about that?" Xellos hissed in a lower tone, obviously annoyed.
"You did? Are you sure, cuz I don't remember you ever saying anything like that to anyone other then Filia..."
"I'll explain later!" he interrupted the girl.
She shrugged and rolled out of his grasp, floating down to the princess and chimera. Her arms and legs dangled below her. "Are you really Princess Amelia?"
"Uh...yes..." she replied uneasily exchanging a questioning look with Zelgadiss.
The girl glanced over at Zel. Her big, baby eyes stared at the blue skinned man with innocent curiosity. The was a long pause while she studied him. Everyone else watched her closely to see just what her reaction would be. "You're weird lookin'."
Xellos smirked, reveling in the bit of annoyance radiating off of Zel. Zel glared at the floating child. "Have you looked in a mirror lately?"
"Oh, I know I'm weird. I've been weird for almost threeeee weeks." She flexed her little wings out and flapped them slightly. "I woke up with these one morning. It was kinda strange, but I like Ôum." She flipped her self up so she appeared to be sitting on an invisible board and waged her tail, ringing the little bell. "I also got this too. Filia says I should tie a bow on it just like her's but I like my bell better. Xellos gave me the bell. It makes little ringing noises..."
Xellos floated down next to the small child and grabbed her out of the air. The girl cut off abruptly in her ramblings and glanced back at him, curious as to what she had done wrong. "You're not in trouble," he assured her, "You just need to be quiet and let me do the talking."
"Why? You always get everyone mad at you, and that just makes things harder." Her comment received a small chuckle from Amelia and a half smile from Zelgadiss. Xellos, however, seemed flustered by her comment. "What? It's just the truth."
"Be quiet," he ordered in a hushed voice. He turned his attention back to Amelia and Zel, smiling once more, and tucked the girl under one arm. The girl was about to say something, but Xellos slapped a hand over her mouth, much to the child's displeasure. She began squirming, trying to break free from his grasp. "Now then..."
"What do you want?" Zelgadiss demanded, now suspicious again.
"Want? What makes you think I want something?"
"You always want something," the shaman coldly reminded Xellos.
There was a short pause while Xellos debated this. Then his grin grew wider. "Well, then what do you think I want?"
"To annoy us."
The girl broke her mouth free and stared up at the two arguing men...well, sort of men; neither of them exactly counted as human. The blue skinned man glared at the monster and the monster smiled back. She glanced at Amelia, who was frowning.
"Annoy you? Have I ever annoyed you?"
"Yes!"
"You're annoying them now," the girl pointed out. Xellos shot her an evil glare. "Stop getting mad at me for telling the truth! You ARE the one who told me never to lie!" she snapped. He didn't stop glaring with his eyes closed. "Fine! Be that way!" She folded her little arms together and stuck her nose up, closing her eyes. The males went back to their staring. She peeked them open to see Amelia staring at her. "Are you really the princess of Saillune?" The raven haired young woman nodded. "Positive?" Again, Amelia nodded. "Oh...You're a lot different then I imagined."
"Why? How did you imagine me?"
"I donno. Just different. Where were you going, anyway?"
"To speak to Miss Filia..."
"Wow, that's a long way away from here."
"I know," Amelia sighed. "But we have to. It's rather urgent."
The child's ears perked up. "Really, why?"
"Well, we found this prophecy that involves a friend of ours and we need Miss Filia's help to find her."
"Ohhhhh...Prophecies aren't good. I could take you to her..."
"You could?"
The girl nodded and smiled. "Yep. Watch." She wriggled free from Xellos' grasp and floated between the small group of adults. She closed her eyes, concentrating and a white light surrounded her. Xellos' eye shot open as he stared at her. He reached out to grab her just as a bright light flashed. When the light faded, They were standing behind a two storied building under a small fruit tree. Xellos snagged the girl and stared at her bitterly. To say he was a little irritated would have been an understatement. She glanced lazily up at him and smiled. "And you said I couldn't transport anything living without holding on to them."
"Obviously, you and I need to have a LONG talk about how we deal with mortals!" he hissed.
"Why? What'd I do wrong?"
"Everything!" Suddenly they disappeared, leaving the princess and the chimera there.
"What just happened?" Zel inquired.
"I think she took us..." Amelia started to say but was cut off by the sound of someone yelling.
"Miss Amelia!? Mister Zelgadiss!?" The both looked over towards the door to the building. A young blond woman with a baby dragon in her arms stood there, gazing at them in half shock, half joy.
"Miss Filia!" Amelia cried running over to the blond to greet her. Zel scratched his head, just a little more confused then before.
*****
"Her name is Xaina," Filia explained, pouring her new guests some tea in the kitchen. "She's half monster, half human, but she has all the strengths and abilities of a greater monster...or at least she will when she grows up."
"I see," Zel stated. "So why is she with Xellos?"
"He's suppose to be teaching her to be a monster, though she often ends up annoying him." Filia chuckled, remembering the handful of times they had shown up and ending up leaving because she had done something she wasn't suppose to. "The problem is, she's not a typical monster. Positive emotions don't seem to bother her at all like they do with other monsters. Right now, they're stuck with each other. They can't go more then 20 feet away from each other, literally." She poured herself a cup and sat down.
"She's certainly doesn't act like any monster I've seen," Amelia commented.
"Yeah, she's helpful," Zel added. "Shame Xellos has to be everywhere with her. We could get a lot more done with her instead of him."
Filia chuckled. Amelia frowned. "That's not very nice, Mr. Zelgadiss," the princess chided. Zel just sipped his tea. He would have preferred coffee, but tea seemed to work fine for the afternoon. "Xellos has helped us several times..."
"And used us more," Filia interjected.
"Not to mention, he tried to betray us and abandoned us every time we needed his help," Zel supplied.
Knowing she was fighting a losing battle, Amelia decided to change the subject. "So how have you been, Miss Filia?"
"Oh, fine," the golden dragon replied, happy to think of something other then that evil monster. "My shop has been doing alright and Jilas and Grabos help out quite a bit. And little Val is starting to walk and he's already trying to change shape..."
"I thought you said dragons wouldn't start changing shape until they were four or five."
"Normally they don't, but Val like's to do things as quick as possible," Filia bragged. She was very proud of her adopted son.
Zelgadiss sat, rather bored, listening to the two woman chat on about the little boy. He didn't really know anything about children, nor did he care to learn. He sighed and downed the rest of his tea. He reached for his pack on the floor next to him and pulled out the book, though neither of the woman noticed. He slipped out the papers with the translations on and set them on the table. Still, the woman ignored him. He glanced back and forth between them. He cleared his throat. Neither noticed. He coughed. Nothing. He coughed louder. They continued to talk. Seeing they weren't going to listen to him, he changed tactics. He thought about casting a spell, but then realized that might hurt Amelia.
Instead, he pretended to be glancing out the kitchen door to the main store room. "Oh my, I don't think Filia would like it if you dropped that vase Xellos," he mocked scolded. The mention of the trickster priest's name jerked Filia out of her conversation. Her hand went reaching for her mace. She rushed to the doorway and peered in to the room. Jilas and Grabos looked up from their work of smoothing out some of the rough spots on the pottery at her.
"Wha's the matter, boss?" Jilas asked.
Filia grunted. "Nothing." She glared back at Zelgadiss.
"Now that I have your attention," he stated, not bothering to hide any of his annoyance.
"Mr. Zelgadiss, that wasn't very nice," Amelia scolded.
Zel ignored her. He set the paper on the table. "Read it," he told the dragon.
Confused, Filia took the paper and read it. At first, she didn't quite grasp what it said. She read through it again, and then a third time to make sure she had read it right. She stared back at her guests. "Wha...What is this?"
"A prophecy I found in an old book," Zel commented.
"But...but..."
"That's why we came," Amelia sighed seriously. "We have to find Miss Lina. She is involved, though we are not really sure how, yet. We just know that she is."
"But couldn't it be someone else..."
"How many other people do you know that have destroyed dark lords and been a vessel for the Lord of Nightmares?" Zel asked. Filia paled. "You see why we need to find her?" The ex-priestess nodded.
"You wouldn't have happened to have seen her recently, would you?"
"About two weeks ago, yes. She and Mr. Gourry left, saying something about a bandit gang in the south..."
"Then we may still be able to catch up with her," Zel stated, getting up.
"And for the sake of peace and justice, we have to find her..." Amelia cried, jumping up from her seat.
"Then I'm going with you!" Filia cried out.
Zel stared at her. Amelia beamed. "What about Val?" the chimera inquired.
"Jilas and Grabos can watch him for a few days. Right now, this prophecy is important and I might be able to help you find them faster. I do know the way they were going after all."
"Alright, then let's go!" Amelia cheered. Zel sighed, wondering just how he got stuck with these two again and silently thankful Xellos wasn't there.
*****
"They got married and didn't invite us!" Amelia half cried.
Filia nodded. "They said they eloped."
"Well, that does sound like them. Still, it's unjust not to invite their friends to their wedding."
Zelgadiss sighed, checking his map. He was beginning to wish it was just Amelia and him again. According to Filia, they had gone south, but the road went off in three different directions ahead. One went to a town and the other two lead off the map of the area.
"So which way, Filia?" he asked, interrupting the girl's conversation.
"They probably went to Lathel. It's the next town if you follow the road on the right. They were the one's supposedly having the bandit problem."
He nodded and put his map away. The walked on towards Lathel. They hadn't gone very far when Zel picked up the scent of ash and soot. He stopped, trying to figure out which direction it was coming from.
"What is it, Mr. Zelgadiss?" Amelia inquired.
"Something was burned near here..."
"AHHHHHHH!!!!" several voices all screeched at once. "RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! IT'S THE BANDIT KILLER!"
"I think we found her," Zelgadiss sighed. Several barbarians came running down the road. The skidded past the three travelers, all continuing to screech like little girls. " This is almost too easy."
They ran the rest of the way up the road until they came to a rather charred spot. It still sizzled a little from the heat. Black soot was everywhere. Lina and Gourry, however, were nowhere to be found.
"They must have just left," Amelia stated, glancing around at all the destruction.
"We should be able to catch her in town. If we hurry, we can be there before dark.
*****
Lathel was a busy town, even at night. People were bustling around, enjoying the cool evening air. The inn was full of friendly people, though there were no loud noises of a certain sorceress and swordsman fighting over food. The girl had stayed downstairs to eat and chat, but Zel had gone straight up to his room. He had never liked crowds, especially when he felt like everyone was staring at him.
He pulled the old book out from his pack along with a second book he used for translating. The prophecy had been in the front of the book, and he hadn't translated anything after that. Zelgadiss was hoping translating more would give them a better idea as to what was going to happen. He didn't want to be caught by surprise by it.
There were obviously others involved. What was still readable mentioned something about a white monster, a black dragon, and a demon. Then there was something about a shadow with power and birds. What did birds have to do with this? He suddenly remembered the blue and black birds back in Saillune. Are they somehow connected? he wondered. He flipped to pages just after the prophecy and opened the translation book. Just like the pages of the prophecy, the rest of the book was washed out and hard to read. Why does everything have to be so damned hard!? he mentally snapped as he tried to make out some of the words.
He was drawn out of his anger at the book by the sound of laughing. One sounded like Amelia. He glanced over at his window, realizing it was open. The chimera sighed and got up to close it. As he pushed it shut, he glanced out side. When he had been given his room, the owner had said it was the best room of the place and winked. Zel had no idea what he had meant at the time. Suddenly, it was all clear. From his window, he could easily see in to both sides of the public, open air baths. A huge blush spread across his cheeks when he saw Filia and Amelia splashing each other in the water. Zel quickly pulled the curtains over the window, hiding it from view. He rushed back over to the book and tried to continue translating... ... ...No, wasn't working. His mind was too distracted. "Maybe a bath wouldn't be such a bad thing," he commented, still blushing. Anything to get me out of this room, he mentally added. Grabbing a towel, he headed down to the baths.
Once he was there, he peered inside, hoping he would be alone. He got his wish; no one was there at the moment. He stripped down and settled in the water. He could faintly hear the woman in the bath next door talking, though he couldn't make out the words. Part of him was grateful for that. He didn't really want to know what they were saying. The water actually felt nice and relaxing. He sighed, closing his eyes, and decided to just hang out in here for a while. So long as he wasn't bothered...
"Zelgadiss?" a familiar voice asked uncertainly. The chimera jerked up, staring at the person who had just come in wrapped in nothing but a towel.
"Gourry!" he stated in a shocked tone.
Xellos was on a branch higher up in the tree then her, studying. He had "borrowed" a few books on magic in the hopes of learning better ways to train his little charge. There was a slight jingling sound from the bell on the girl's tail ring. He glanced down, smirking. She may have been relaxing now, but tomorrow...oh tomorrow would be very different. He already had a few "battling" lessons he wanted to teach her.
The girl's sensitive feline ears picked up the sound of people coming up the road below them. She perked up her senses, sitting up on the branch. Her teacher had been insisting she learn how to scare and torment people to get a good, negative meal. She never quite understood why, though. Food tasted fine to her. Oh well, she mentally sighed. Now was her chance to test out some of the things she had learned. She floated (one of her newly learned abilities) over behind a few leaves that offered cover from sight and waited for them...
~*~*~
The air was very calm in the little patch of forest. So far they hadn't seen anyone coming up the road. According to Zelgadiss' map, it was a back road, though, so he hadn't really expected to see anyone. Amelia happily trotted beside him. He smiled as he looked at her. Part of him had been nervous about being alone with her for a long stretch of time, but it didn't seem so bad now. It might be rather nice, he thought. It isn't so bad with just the two of us...alone...together...no! Don't think like that! he mentally ordered himself, looking away from the innocent young woman. All the ease and calm he had felt before suddenly drained away. He was going to be entirely alone with her for at least five months as they traveled to 's little shop in the outerlands. He had dreamed of this, who knows how many times for the two years he had been away, and now it had happened. Stupid hormones! he mentally snapped, wishing that part of him had become part demon as well and he would have ever felt that way.
"Mr. Zelgadiss?" Amelia suddenly said, breaking the quiet between them. He glanced over at her, jerked out of thought. "I think we should talk about what happened before...at the palace...when..."
"Yes, we should," he agreed. "Amelia, about that, I...um...think..."
"We should forget about it until we find Miss Lina and we know she is safe," Amelia interrupted, blushing slightly.
"Uh...yes-yes, we should. Right now, this prophecy is more important. We should worry about finding her and getting this figured out..." He cut off as he heard the rustle of some leaves. Amelia heard it to and began glancing around, looking for the source of the noise. Zel gripped a hand on his sword. There was a soft thud behind them. He whirled around, whipping out his sword. He brought it down, stopping just millimeters above a little girl's head. Her violet eyes stared up at the blade that had just nearly gone through her. Her feline ears dropped and her lip quivered as she gave a slight whimper.
There was a blur of black and purple light. The girl was suddenly gone from under the blade. The child burst in to tears, wailing horribly. Zel and Amelia glanced up in on of the trees. On one of the lower branches was a very familiar man: Xellos. He held the small, crying child in his arms. Her white and black fur lined wings were clutched close to her body. Her black feline tail was curled between her legs. The little cat ears were flipped back flat against her head. She was wearing a white, lose fitting body suit with a flared collar. Over that was a white pull over drape that had black lines around the edges and a black line of patterns down the middle. Xellos looked down at them through his squinted eyes and frowned.
He turned his gaze to the little bawling girl. "Oh, there there. Don't cry. I wont let the big bad chimera hurt you," he cooed with a wicked grin. Zelgadiss glared at him. "It's not like he could hurt you anyway. Even with his curse, he couldn't harm you with that little sword." The girl's cries subsided in to little sniffles. "Better?" She nodded.
"And since when did you start adopting children?" Zel demanded suspiciously.
"Adopt?" He looked the girl over carefully. "Well, I suppose you could say I've kind of adopted her." He glanced back down at them, his usual trade mark smile on his face. "Picking on children now, I see? I though you above that. And I would have thought the princess of Saillune would be above such things."
"I do not frighten children!" Amelia protested, putting her hands on her hips.
"She's the princess of Saillune?" the girl choked out.
"Oh yes, that's her. I'd know her anywhere," Xellos responded, saying it as if he were implying something.
The child instantly became defensive. "And what's that suppose to mean? You didn't do anything to her, did you?"
"No, of course not."
"Then why'd you say it like that?"
"I thought I taught you about that?" Xellos hissed in a lower tone, obviously annoyed.
"You did? Are you sure, cuz I don't remember you ever saying anything like that to anyone other then Filia..."
"I'll explain later!" he interrupted the girl.
She shrugged and rolled out of his grasp, floating down to the princess and chimera. Her arms and legs dangled below her. "Are you really Princess Amelia?"
"Uh...yes..." she replied uneasily exchanging a questioning look with Zelgadiss.
The girl glanced over at Zel. Her big, baby eyes stared at the blue skinned man with innocent curiosity. The was a long pause while she studied him. Everyone else watched her closely to see just what her reaction would be. "You're weird lookin'."
Xellos smirked, reveling in the bit of annoyance radiating off of Zel. Zel glared at the floating child. "Have you looked in a mirror lately?"
"Oh, I know I'm weird. I've been weird for almost threeeee weeks." She flexed her little wings out and flapped them slightly. "I woke up with these one morning. It was kinda strange, but I like Ôum." She flipped her self up so she appeared to be sitting on an invisible board and waged her tail, ringing the little bell. "I also got this too. Filia says I should tie a bow on it just like her's but I like my bell better. Xellos gave me the bell. It makes little ringing noises..."
Xellos floated down next to the small child and grabbed her out of the air. The girl cut off abruptly in her ramblings and glanced back at him, curious as to what she had done wrong. "You're not in trouble," he assured her, "You just need to be quiet and let me do the talking."
"Why? You always get everyone mad at you, and that just makes things harder." Her comment received a small chuckle from Amelia and a half smile from Zelgadiss. Xellos, however, seemed flustered by her comment. "What? It's just the truth."
"Be quiet," he ordered in a hushed voice. He turned his attention back to Amelia and Zel, smiling once more, and tucked the girl under one arm. The girl was about to say something, but Xellos slapped a hand over her mouth, much to the child's displeasure. She began squirming, trying to break free from his grasp. "Now then..."
"What do you want?" Zelgadiss demanded, now suspicious again.
"Want? What makes you think I want something?"
"You always want something," the shaman coldly reminded Xellos.
There was a short pause while Xellos debated this. Then his grin grew wider. "Well, then what do you think I want?"
"To annoy us."
The girl broke her mouth free and stared up at the two arguing men...well, sort of men; neither of them exactly counted as human. The blue skinned man glared at the monster and the monster smiled back. She glanced at Amelia, who was frowning.
"Annoy you? Have I ever annoyed you?"
"Yes!"
"You're annoying them now," the girl pointed out. Xellos shot her an evil glare. "Stop getting mad at me for telling the truth! You ARE the one who told me never to lie!" she snapped. He didn't stop glaring with his eyes closed. "Fine! Be that way!" She folded her little arms together and stuck her nose up, closing her eyes. The males went back to their staring. She peeked them open to see Amelia staring at her. "Are you really the princess of Saillune?" The raven haired young woman nodded. "Positive?" Again, Amelia nodded. "Oh...You're a lot different then I imagined."
"Why? How did you imagine me?"
"I donno. Just different. Where were you going, anyway?"
"To speak to Miss Filia..."
"Wow, that's a long way away from here."
"I know," Amelia sighed. "But we have to. It's rather urgent."
The child's ears perked up. "Really, why?"
"Well, we found this prophecy that involves a friend of ours and we need Miss Filia's help to find her."
"Ohhhhh...Prophecies aren't good. I could take you to her..."
"You could?"
The girl nodded and smiled. "Yep. Watch." She wriggled free from Xellos' grasp and floated between the small group of adults. She closed her eyes, concentrating and a white light surrounded her. Xellos' eye shot open as he stared at her. He reached out to grab her just as a bright light flashed. When the light faded, They were standing behind a two storied building under a small fruit tree. Xellos snagged the girl and stared at her bitterly. To say he was a little irritated would have been an understatement. She glanced lazily up at him and smiled. "And you said I couldn't transport anything living without holding on to them."
"Obviously, you and I need to have a LONG talk about how we deal with mortals!" he hissed.
"Why? What'd I do wrong?"
"Everything!" Suddenly they disappeared, leaving the princess and the chimera there.
"What just happened?" Zel inquired.
"I think she took us..." Amelia started to say but was cut off by the sound of someone yelling.
"Miss Amelia!? Mister Zelgadiss!?" The both looked over towards the door to the building. A young blond woman with a baby dragon in her arms stood there, gazing at them in half shock, half joy.
"Miss Filia!" Amelia cried running over to the blond to greet her. Zel scratched his head, just a little more confused then before.
*****
"Her name is Xaina," Filia explained, pouring her new guests some tea in the kitchen. "She's half monster, half human, but she has all the strengths and abilities of a greater monster...or at least she will when she grows up."
"I see," Zel stated. "So why is she with Xellos?"
"He's suppose to be teaching her to be a monster, though she often ends up annoying him." Filia chuckled, remembering the handful of times they had shown up and ending up leaving because she had done something she wasn't suppose to. "The problem is, she's not a typical monster. Positive emotions don't seem to bother her at all like they do with other monsters. Right now, they're stuck with each other. They can't go more then 20 feet away from each other, literally." She poured herself a cup and sat down.
"She's certainly doesn't act like any monster I've seen," Amelia commented.
"Yeah, she's helpful," Zel added. "Shame Xellos has to be everywhere with her. We could get a lot more done with her instead of him."
Filia chuckled. Amelia frowned. "That's not very nice, Mr. Zelgadiss," the princess chided. Zel just sipped his tea. He would have preferred coffee, but tea seemed to work fine for the afternoon. "Xellos has helped us several times..."
"And used us more," Filia interjected.
"Not to mention, he tried to betray us and abandoned us every time we needed his help," Zel supplied.
Knowing she was fighting a losing battle, Amelia decided to change the subject. "So how have you been, Miss Filia?"
"Oh, fine," the golden dragon replied, happy to think of something other then that evil monster. "My shop has been doing alright and Jilas and Grabos help out quite a bit. And little Val is starting to walk and he's already trying to change shape..."
"I thought you said dragons wouldn't start changing shape until they were four or five."
"Normally they don't, but Val like's to do things as quick as possible," Filia bragged. She was very proud of her adopted son.
Zelgadiss sat, rather bored, listening to the two woman chat on about the little boy. He didn't really know anything about children, nor did he care to learn. He sighed and downed the rest of his tea. He reached for his pack on the floor next to him and pulled out the book, though neither of the woman noticed. He slipped out the papers with the translations on and set them on the table. Still, the woman ignored him. He glanced back and forth between them. He cleared his throat. Neither noticed. He coughed. Nothing. He coughed louder. They continued to talk. Seeing they weren't going to listen to him, he changed tactics. He thought about casting a spell, but then realized that might hurt Amelia.
Instead, he pretended to be glancing out the kitchen door to the main store room. "Oh my, I don't think Filia would like it if you dropped that vase Xellos," he mocked scolded. The mention of the trickster priest's name jerked Filia out of her conversation. Her hand went reaching for her mace. She rushed to the doorway and peered in to the room. Jilas and Grabos looked up from their work of smoothing out some of the rough spots on the pottery at her.
"Wha's the matter, boss?" Jilas asked.
Filia grunted. "Nothing." She glared back at Zelgadiss.
"Now that I have your attention," he stated, not bothering to hide any of his annoyance.
"Mr. Zelgadiss, that wasn't very nice," Amelia scolded.
Zel ignored her. He set the paper on the table. "Read it," he told the dragon.
Confused, Filia took the paper and read it. At first, she didn't quite grasp what it said. She read through it again, and then a third time to make sure she had read it right. She stared back at her guests. "Wha...What is this?"
"A prophecy I found in an old book," Zel commented.
"But...but..."
"That's why we came," Amelia sighed seriously. "We have to find Miss Lina. She is involved, though we are not really sure how, yet. We just know that she is."
"But couldn't it be someone else..."
"How many other people do you know that have destroyed dark lords and been a vessel for the Lord of Nightmares?" Zel asked. Filia paled. "You see why we need to find her?" The ex-priestess nodded.
"You wouldn't have happened to have seen her recently, would you?"
"About two weeks ago, yes. She and Mr. Gourry left, saying something about a bandit gang in the south..."
"Then we may still be able to catch up with her," Zel stated, getting up.
"And for the sake of peace and justice, we have to find her..." Amelia cried, jumping up from her seat.
"Then I'm going with you!" Filia cried out.
Zel stared at her. Amelia beamed. "What about Val?" the chimera inquired.
"Jilas and Grabos can watch him for a few days. Right now, this prophecy is important and I might be able to help you find them faster. I do know the way they were going after all."
"Alright, then let's go!" Amelia cheered. Zel sighed, wondering just how he got stuck with these two again and silently thankful Xellos wasn't there.
*****
"They got married and didn't invite us!" Amelia half cried.
Filia nodded. "They said they eloped."
"Well, that does sound like them. Still, it's unjust not to invite their friends to their wedding."
Zelgadiss sighed, checking his map. He was beginning to wish it was just Amelia and him again. According to Filia, they had gone south, but the road went off in three different directions ahead. One went to a town and the other two lead off the map of the area.
"So which way, Filia?" he asked, interrupting the girl's conversation.
"They probably went to Lathel. It's the next town if you follow the road on the right. They were the one's supposedly having the bandit problem."
He nodded and put his map away. The walked on towards Lathel. They hadn't gone very far when Zel picked up the scent of ash and soot. He stopped, trying to figure out which direction it was coming from.
"What is it, Mr. Zelgadiss?" Amelia inquired.
"Something was burned near here..."
"AHHHHHHH!!!!" several voices all screeched at once. "RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! IT'S THE BANDIT KILLER!"
"I think we found her," Zelgadiss sighed. Several barbarians came running down the road. The skidded past the three travelers, all continuing to screech like little girls. " This is almost too easy."
They ran the rest of the way up the road until they came to a rather charred spot. It still sizzled a little from the heat. Black soot was everywhere. Lina and Gourry, however, were nowhere to be found.
"They must have just left," Amelia stated, glancing around at all the destruction.
"We should be able to catch her in town. If we hurry, we can be there before dark.
*****
Lathel was a busy town, even at night. People were bustling around, enjoying the cool evening air. The inn was full of friendly people, though there were no loud noises of a certain sorceress and swordsman fighting over food. The girl had stayed downstairs to eat and chat, but Zel had gone straight up to his room. He had never liked crowds, especially when he felt like everyone was staring at him.
He pulled the old book out from his pack along with a second book he used for translating. The prophecy had been in the front of the book, and he hadn't translated anything after that. Zelgadiss was hoping translating more would give them a better idea as to what was going to happen. He didn't want to be caught by surprise by it.
There were obviously others involved. What was still readable mentioned something about a white monster, a black dragon, and a demon. Then there was something about a shadow with power and birds. What did birds have to do with this? He suddenly remembered the blue and black birds back in Saillune. Are they somehow connected? he wondered. He flipped to pages just after the prophecy and opened the translation book. Just like the pages of the prophecy, the rest of the book was washed out and hard to read. Why does everything have to be so damned hard!? he mentally snapped as he tried to make out some of the words.
He was drawn out of his anger at the book by the sound of laughing. One sounded like Amelia. He glanced over at his window, realizing it was open. The chimera sighed and got up to close it. As he pushed it shut, he glanced out side. When he had been given his room, the owner had said it was the best room of the place and winked. Zel had no idea what he had meant at the time. Suddenly, it was all clear. From his window, he could easily see in to both sides of the public, open air baths. A huge blush spread across his cheeks when he saw Filia and Amelia splashing each other in the water. Zel quickly pulled the curtains over the window, hiding it from view. He rushed back over to the book and tried to continue translating... ... ...No, wasn't working. His mind was too distracted. "Maybe a bath wouldn't be such a bad thing," he commented, still blushing. Anything to get me out of this room, he mentally added. Grabbing a towel, he headed down to the baths.
Once he was there, he peered inside, hoping he would be alone. He got his wish; no one was there at the moment. He stripped down and settled in the water. He could faintly hear the woman in the bath next door talking, though he couldn't make out the words. Part of him was grateful for that. He didn't really want to know what they were saying. The water actually felt nice and relaxing. He sighed, closing his eyes, and decided to just hang out in here for a while. So long as he wasn't bothered...
"Zelgadiss?" a familiar voice asked uncertainly. The chimera jerked up, staring at the person who had just come in wrapped in nothing but a towel.
"Gourry!" he stated in a shocked tone.