The waiter scrambled over to the table with several trays of food and
then hurriedly back away from the ravenous people. He was terrified he'd
lose an arm if he left it in the free for all feast. Several of the candles
had already disappeared from sight. 'They had better have enough money to
pay for all that,' he thought.
"After eating that much food, you'd think they would put on great amounts of weight," Destiny commented to her other two companions who did not take part in the carnage.
"One would think that, and yet they don't," Filia replied. "I still wish we knew where we were." The dragon woman peered over at the chimera scanning over all of his maps. "Still no luck, Mr. Zelgadiss."
Zel shook his head. "None. I can't even find the kingdom, let alone this town." He sighed. "We may very well be in uncharted land."
"Well, if you ask the people who live here, it's charted," a childish voice commented. Zel glanced over to see a winged child sitting in the seat next to him. He jumped slightly but then calmed down when he realized who the girl was.
"Oh, your back," the rock skinned man stated dryly.
"You don't want me here?"
"Oh no, we don't mind you being here," Filia answered with a smile. It instantly turned to a grimace as she glanced at the purple haired monster sitting behind her. "It's him we don't want."
Xellos gave her his usual smile. "Oh, Filia, you wound me," he teased.
"Hold still and I'll REALLY wound you," she retorted while reaching for her mace.
The neko girl folded her arms together on the table. She rested her chin over her arms and sighed. "There doing it again."
"Doing what?" Zel inquired.
"Teasing each other. I think they're flirting it's kinda gross." The chimera grunted in response and went back to his maps. The girl shrugged and slid off the chair. She toddled over to Lina and climbed in the the woman's lap. Peered up at the red head and smiled. "Hello again."
Lina, while taking an extremely temporary beak in her stealing and devouring of food, smiled back. "Hi." Then, it was back to the ever important food with several cries of "That's mine, Gourry!" and "Give it back, Amelia!" The child on her lap watched paitently. She was use to such scenes of mayham. Much to the amazement of the observers, Xaina managed to get a bite here and there. (That really is quite a feet for someone so small). When the last of the food was gone, the three around the table stacked with dishes sighed and sat back. Lina wrapped her arms around Xaina and hugged the girl against her stomach. "And where were you two?"
"Chasing a frog monster," the neko monster replied. At this point, people in the inn were beginning to notice the strange looking child and were edging away from the adventures.
"If you were chasing him, then why were we the one's fighting him?" Zelgadiss demanded, though not harshly. His eyes left his maps for only a brief moment to glance at her.
"Cuz we didn't know where he took you. We couldn't find his astral something or other either..."
"Astral form," Xellos supplied.
"Yeah, what he said," the girl muttered while waving a dismissive hand at Xellos. Filia was still threatening to hit him while he just grinned back casually. He was restraining himself...for the moment. "Anyway," Xaina continued, "We did find out who he was an' who he worked for."
"And your allowed to tell us?" Zel grumbled sarcastically.
"Yep, this stuff I can share with you. His name's Ball and works for the Deep Sea Master."
"His name's Ball?" Everyone except Xellos, Destiny, and Xaina chorused. Small chuckles started to escape their lips.
"So he's a giant frog names Ball," Lina. The child nodded. "Ya know, I've always heard stories that there was something not quite right with Deep Sea Dolphin... Hey, can you tell us anything else?"
"Um..." She pause to think, trying to remember everything she had been told she couldn't say, so she could remember what was alright to say. "Well... I know he was trying to kill you..." she said to the black sorceress more then anyone else.
"We know that. Do you know why?"
"Yep."
The group fell silent for a moment as they anticipated an answer. When no answer came, Lina tried to spur up an one, "Well?"
"Xellos insists that I should tell you that's a secret."
They slayers (Except Xellos, Xaina, and Destiny of course) face faulted. "Oh great, she's already picking up your habits," Filia growled to her most despised enemy as she picked herself up again. Xellos smiled innocently. "Leave it to a monster to corrupt a perfectly good child."
"You seem to keep forgetting that she has always been a monster," the mysterious priest pointed out, which only succeeded in making the dragon even more furious.
"Well this doesn't help us," the red head continued to grumble as she looked down at the girl still in her arms. "Geez, between you two and Destiny, we'll never get this figured out."
"What'd Destiny do?" the little monster questioned.
"Miss Lina's going to have a baby," Amelia supplied proudly.
"Thank you Amelia," Lina sarcastically grunted. The young princess frowned, not sure what she had done wrong.
"Oh... then you already know why Ball was after you," Xaina sighed.
"You knew?" the sorceress growled and glared at the girl. (Can we say mood swing?)
Xaina's ears drooped and she leaned back. "Um... well... yeah, I found out yesterday...b-but Xellos knew shortly after I became bound to him..." she hastily stated while pointing at the monster trying to goad Filia in to a fight. Lina thrust the child in to Gourry's hands and turned her fiery gaze to the purple haired priest. "Uh oh. I think she's gonna kill him." The little woman suddenly pounced on Xellos and grabbed him in a head lock. "That looks painful." Gourry nodded in agreement. The sorceress pounded her fist in to the monster's head several times. "Really painful."
"You knew the whole time and you didn't say anything!?!" Lina roared.
"Knew? Knew what?" Xellos inquired innocently with his usually smile.
Lina pounded on his head a few more times. "You know EXACTLY what I'm talking about!" she hissed, her voice now low and dangerous.
Deciding that this had probably gone on for long enough, Xaina leaped out of Gourry's arms and landed on the table in front of the sorceress and monster priest. She leaned down near Xellos' face and whispered, "She means the baby thing."
"Oh, that, well, yes I knew," Xellos teased with a smirk.
Lina tightened her grip. "Xellos!!!"
Just as his face looked like it was starting to turn blue, Lina let Xellos go. "Your...your letting him go!?!" Filia cried, not caring that everyone was now staring at them.
"Well, it's not like I can kill him like that. It's a just a waste of energy trying." Lina glanced out at the window. Night had settled over the small town. Lina let out an exaggerated yawn. "It's getting kinda late anyway. We should head off to bed."
Like any good yawn, Lina's spread to the neko child, the blond swordsman, and the young princess. "Yeah, I'm feeling kind of beat too," Amelia sighed. "We can figure out where we are tomorrow."
"But I'm not tired," Xaina complained as she tried to stifle another yawn.
"Good little girls always go to sleep on time," the dragon woman stated matter-of-factly.
Xellos grinned and scooped his charge up off the table. "See, good little girls never have any fun."
"That is not true," Filia argued calmly. "Good little girls are never tired because they go to bed on time and have much more time to play in the morning. They also never have to spend time in the corner for doing bad things..."
"And they sit up straight and never talk and never have any friends. Oh, and did I mention they aren't allowed to have any sweets."
"That's not true!"
"Poor lying little dragon. I guess it's not her fault though. She is a gold dragon after all," he explained to the little girl.
"This from the master of lies?" Filia quipped.
"Master of secrets, not lies," Xellos retorted. "Not that I would expect a selfish dragon to understand..."
"Here they go again," Xaina sighed.
~*~*~
Lina stared out the window. The half moon illuminated the empty street below. This whole baby thing just didn't seem right. She was a black mage; she shouldn't be having a child. Didn't high level black sorceresses have a hard time conceiving children? Wasn't black magic a destroyer of life? She shuddered at the though of someone calling her mommy. What terrified her most of all was the thought of someone to take revenge on her through her child. She knew she couldn't bare to live with herself if she had been the reason an innocent baby was hurt.
She glanced over at Gourry sleeping on the bed and sighed. The truth was she really didn't want to have any children. But how could she tell him that? He seemed so content with the idea. Since she had found out two nights ago, all he had done was fuss over her. He even offered to carry her a few times if she was tired. Naturally, she turned him down, but... "I hate this," she muttered to herself.
'I can picture it now; Gourry's brain, Lina's temper, and all the power and abilities both of them posses.' 'The world is doomed.'
Those words still rang in her head. They were right. If this prophecy was true, then her child was just going to reduce the world to nothing. It would have Gourry's brain and her temper. "But why?" she thought out loud. "We still don't know the full extent of what's going to happen." A thought suddenly passed through her mind: giga slave! 'What...what if...' She tried to put the thought out of her mind. The thought would not be so easily drowned out. 'If this child learns that spell, it may not be able to control it. It could destroy everything without ever meaning to...but then what about the other four? What do they have to do with any of it?'
A nudge on her hand brought the red head out of her thoughts. She glanced down to see Dragon rubbing his head against her fingers. "Oh, it's you. What do you want?" The bird looked up and blinked. "If your looking for food, you'll have to go bother Destiny. She's your master, remember?" Again, the bird just blinked. "No, of course you don't. You don't even understand me." This time, he let out a harsh caw. "Hey, shhhh!!! Not so loud!" she snapped in a whisper. "You'll wake everyone up!" It blinked and tilted it's head to one side. "That's better. Don't suppose you'd know anything about this prophecy you'd like to share?" she asked sarcastically. Dragon cawed several more times. "Hey, didn't I say quiet!?!" The bird stopped and nudged up against her hand more. Then he cawed again. "Okay okay! Just don't wake up the whole building, alright?" she sighed. Lina let her hand lazily reach up and stroke the bird. He let out a faint chirp of approval. She didn't even notice it as her mind wondered back in to thought.
'How is the world going to be destroyed? We still don't know that yet. And what about the shadow? I'm pretty sure there was something about a shadow in there. A shadow on the heart? Shadow over judgment? A shadow could mean anything...'
A pair of strong hands suddenly grabbed her shoulders. She let out a small gasp in surprise and her body tensed up. Lost in all her thoughts, she hadn't heard anything moving in the room. "You should be sleeping," a soft voice whispered.
The sorceress relaxed and leaned back against him. "Sorry if Dragon woke you up," she apologized. "He didn't exactly wanna be quiet."
"Who?"
"Destiny's black bird, jellyfish," she grumbled.
"Oh... he didn't wake me up. You should still be sleeping," Gourry insisted again while he looked down at his small wife. "It's not good for you to be up late."
"Says who?"
"Um... ... ... don't remember..."
"Why am I not surprised? Don't answer that." She let out a deep sigh in frustration and covered her eyes with one hand. They were both quiet for a few minutes. She couldn't think of anything to say, or at least anything that wouldn't confuse or upset him. He just watched her with his hands still resting on her shoulders, not sure what was wrong. "Hey, if dragon didn't wake you up, then what did."
Gourry shrugged. "Don't know. Just woke up."
Her crimson eyes flickered back to the bird in question. "I wonder..." she trailed off. She turned her hand up and urged him to climb on. Dragon readily obeyed. The sorceress called up some of her magic and cast an identifying spell on him. "That's what I thought," she muttered.
"What?"
"He has a silencing spell on him. My guess is that only people he wants to hear him can. The others probably have it too. It certinally would explain a lot." She held him a little closer to her face so she could stare in to his black eyes. "I bet you guys make a whole lot of noise no one but you can hear." The bird titled it's head to one side and blinked. "They really are weird birds. Sometimes I think they're Destiny's familiars."
"Familiars? People she knows?"
"No, spiritual partners...kinda like pets, except their owner can talk to them. Most people only have one since if a familiar dies, its master is left with a defect in their mind forever." She glanced up at the swordsman, who was completely lost. "It makes them crazy it their familiar dies."
"Oh."
"That's why it's better to only have one. Having more then that not only takes a lot of energy and time, but it can be really risky. Then again, Destiny does seem pretty powerful, so I wouldn't put a whole lot past her at this point." Dragon leaped off her hand towards the window. His wings flickered out and carried him out on the air. Lina watched him enviously. She couldn't help but think of wonderful life would be if she were a bird with no problems or cares.
Gourry scooped Lina up in his arms. "Hey! Gourry! Put me down!"
"You need to go to bed," he explained.
"I'm not tired!"
"It's not good for you or the baby to be up late. It'll make you sick."
"It will not! And I feel fine!" He ignored her protests and carried her over to the bed. She kicked and hit him, but he had done this enough before that he knew how to keep a hold on her. Gourry laid her down and grabbed some of the covers to pull over her. She tried to get back up put her wouldn't let her. "There is nothing wrong with me staying up late! And what would a guy with the brains of fish bait know about what's good for me, anyway!?!"
He gave her a light peck on the forehead, much to her annoyance. "Go to sleep," the blond insisted gently.
"I'm not a little kid."
"You look..." His sentence was cut off by a fist pounding in to his head.
Lina growled as she hit him. When she was tired of that, she grabbed some of his hair. "Oh, and if I look so much like a little kid then why'd ya marry me, huh? Got something for little girls, pervert?"
"No, no, I swear!"
"You had better not! Especially if this kid is a girl!" she snapped and released him. "And I know what's best for me. You not taking my food from me would be one of them."
"You take mine..."
"Only because you started it! I'm acting out of self defense! I'm just a poor little innocent girl!"
"If you're innocent then how come there's a baby inside you?" Lina glared at him. He was generally not to bright, but on those moments when he was, she usually wanted to pound the daylights out of him. Gourry smiled innocently and backed away slowly. He scuttled around to the other side of the bed and carefully crawled in. She glared at him the whole time. After several moments of just staring at the rather terrified blond, she sighed and gave in. She slipped down under the blankets and rolled on to her side so she didn't have to look at him. Gourry smiled and snuggled up against her back. He snaked his arm around her waist, letting his hand rest over her stomach, and kissed her on side of her neck. She wasn't exactly happy with him, but at least he knew she wasn't really angry either. "I love you Lina," he whispered. She smiled and let her hand rest just over his.
*****
A small murmur escaped the sleeping child's body. Filia smiled down at the little girl. She was so sweet and innocent... 'and she'll remain that way if I have anything to say about it,' the dragon woman grunted mentally. She brushed some of ebony hair out of the girl face and gave her a small kiss on the side of the head. The scent of soup was easily picked up by the blond's sensitive dragon senses. There was only one thing she would have ever given Xellos credit for and that was that he kept Xaina immaculate and well fed. Since he had started taking care of her, she was always freshly washed and never hungry. He took his job as her care taker quite seriously, much to her surprise. Everything else, as far as she was concerned anyway, was wrong.
The smell of soup reminded her of her own baby back home. She had promised to be gone for only three or four days at the most. With no idea where she was, she knew she wouldn't have much luck teleporting back to her home. And even if she did, that would leave Lina unprotected; it was already clear that some of the monster race wanted her dead. It raised her suspicion of Xellos as well. It was doubtful that Xaina was being told much, so there was no point in asking the child what he was doing. The general/priest, of course, would only say it was a secret. "Stupid monsters," she grumbled.
"What was that, Miss Filia?" Amelia inquired as she looked up from some of Zelgadiss' new translations.
"Oh, nothing. So what else has been translated?"
The princess sighed. "Not much that's really useful yet. A lot of it is about the dragon. He doesn't really seem all that bad from the descriptions. He loved all creatures, and he was a healer who traveled around their world curing people of fatal illnesses. He really sounds like more of a hero then a murderer."
Filia padded over and glanced over Amelia's shoulder to read some of it.
'He was very handsome and graceful when I first saw him after his travels... ... His life had been spent in the service of the earth dragon king. ... ...close to his parents. ... ... ... ... ... I remember Antra told me once that all life was precious. That was why he had became a healer at the temple but never advanced on to being a priest. He had wanted to preserve all life and he felt a priest was no as good as a healer at doing that. I didn't mention the prophecy to him when he first came even though I already knew of it. I was afraid of what he would say or how he would react. When I look back now... ... ...'
"You right. He doesn't sound dangerous at all. I feel sort of sorry for him. I wonder what the end is suppose to say?"
The princess shrugged. "We probably wont ever know. Mr. Zelgadiss showed the page, and I'm amazed he got this much out of it. The ink is almost completely gone. He's probably still working on it right now, though." Her ocean eyes flickered over to the wall. Zel was on the other side most likely working himself to the point of exhaustion. The princess longed to help him, but there wasn't much she could do. She was an expert at languages. All she would be able to do was bring him coffee and off some moral support. She was better off not disturbing him. "We should know more soon enough."
"Let's hope so," the ex-priestess sighed.
(I swear, I had no idea what was going on most of the time in this chapter. It all literally wrote itself. I just pressed the keys for it. I'm pretty sure this isn't going to go more then two or three more chapters. The next one will be shorter and will have some fun with Destiny's birds. I promise. What exactly, you wonder? *smiles in Xellos fashion and waves a finger* That's a secret. Ah, yes Lauren-sama, I do agree that mixing Lina and Gourry's genes is quite dangerous. Their child is going to be a destroyer of the planet, after all. I don't think you can get much more dangerous then that. Lina herself on a really bad day, maybe... Anyway, do please review, though. I love to hear your comments and I promise to try and respond to them in my comments if you ask any questions or anything.)
"After eating that much food, you'd think they would put on great amounts of weight," Destiny commented to her other two companions who did not take part in the carnage.
"One would think that, and yet they don't," Filia replied. "I still wish we knew where we were." The dragon woman peered over at the chimera scanning over all of his maps. "Still no luck, Mr. Zelgadiss."
Zel shook his head. "None. I can't even find the kingdom, let alone this town." He sighed. "We may very well be in uncharted land."
"Well, if you ask the people who live here, it's charted," a childish voice commented. Zel glanced over to see a winged child sitting in the seat next to him. He jumped slightly but then calmed down when he realized who the girl was.
"Oh, your back," the rock skinned man stated dryly.
"You don't want me here?"
"Oh no, we don't mind you being here," Filia answered with a smile. It instantly turned to a grimace as she glanced at the purple haired monster sitting behind her. "It's him we don't want."
Xellos gave her his usual smile. "Oh, Filia, you wound me," he teased.
"Hold still and I'll REALLY wound you," she retorted while reaching for her mace.
The neko girl folded her arms together on the table. She rested her chin over her arms and sighed. "There doing it again."
"Doing what?" Zel inquired.
"Teasing each other. I think they're flirting it's kinda gross." The chimera grunted in response and went back to his maps. The girl shrugged and slid off the chair. She toddled over to Lina and climbed in the the woman's lap. Peered up at the red head and smiled. "Hello again."
Lina, while taking an extremely temporary beak in her stealing and devouring of food, smiled back. "Hi." Then, it was back to the ever important food with several cries of "That's mine, Gourry!" and "Give it back, Amelia!" The child on her lap watched paitently. She was use to such scenes of mayham. Much to the amazement of the observers, Xaina managed to get a bite here and there. (That really is quite a feet for someone so small). When the last of the food was gone, the three around the table stacked with dishes sighed and sat back. Lina wrapped her arms around Xaina and hugged the girl against her stomach. "And where were you two?"
"Chasing a frog monster," the neko monster replied. At this point, people in the inn were beginning to notice the strange looking child and were edging away from the adventures.
"If you were chasing him, then why were we the one's fighting him?" Zelgadiss demanded, though not harshly. His eyes left his maps for only a brief moment to glance at her.
"Cuz we didn't know where he took you. We couldn't find his astral something or other either..."
"Astral form," Xellos supplied.
"Yeah, what he said," the girl muttered while waving a dismissive hand at Xellos. Filia was still threatening to hit him while he just grinned back casually. He was restraining himself...for the moment. "Anyway," Xaina continued, "We did find out who he was an' who he worked for."
"And your allowed to tell us?" Zel grumbled sarcastically.
"Yep, this stuff I can share with you. His name's Ball and works for the Deep Sea Master."
"His name's Ball?" Everyone except Xellos, Destiny, and Xaina chorused. Small chuckles started to escape their lips.
"So he's a giant frog names Ball," Lina. The child nodded. "Ya know, I've always heard stories that there was something not quite right with Deep Sea Dolphin... Hey, can you tell us anything else?"
"Um..." She pause to think, trying to remember everything she had been told she couldn't say, so she could remember what was alright to say. "Well... I know he was trying to kill you..." she said to the black sorceress more then anyone else.
"We know that. Do you know why?"
"Yep."
The group fell silent for a moment as they anticipated an answer. When no answer came, Lina tried to spur up an one, "Well?"
"Xellos insists that I should tell you that's a secret."
They slayers (Except Xellos, Xaina, and Destiny of course) face faulted. "Oh great, she's already picking up your habits," Filia growled to her most despised enemy as she picked herself up again. Xellos smiled innocently. "Leave it to a monster to corrupt a perfectly good child."
"You seem to keep forgetting that she has always been a monster," the mysterious priest pointed out, which only succeeded in making the dragon even more furious.
"Well this doesn't help us," the red head continued to grumble as she looked down at the girl still in her arms. "Geez, between you two and Destiny, we'll never get this figured out."
"What'd Destiny do?" the little monster questioned.
"Miss Lina's going to have a baby," Amelia supplied proudly.
"Thank you Amelia," Lina sarcastically grunted. The young princess frowned, not sure what she had done wrong.
"Oh... then you already know why Ball was after you," Xaina sighed.
"You knew?" the sorceress growled and glared at the girl. (Can we say mood swing?)
Xaina's ears drooped and she leaned back. "Um... well... yeah, I found out yesterday...b-but Xellos knew shortly after I became bound to him..." she hastily stated while pointing at the monster trying to goad Filia in to a fight. Lina thrust the child in to Gourry's hands and turned her fiery gaze to the purple haired priest. "Uh oh. I think she's gonna kill him." The little woman suddenly pounced on Xellos and grabbed him in a head lock. "That looks painful." Gourry nodded in agreement. The sorceress pounded her fist in to the monster's head several times. "Really painful."
"You knew the whole time and you didn't say anything!?!" Lina roared.
"Knew? Knew what?" Xellos inquired innocently with his usually smile.
Lina pounded on his head a few more times. "You know EXACTLY what I'm talking about!" she hissed, her voice now low and dangerous.
Deciding that this had probably gone on for long enough, Xaina leaped out of Gourry's arms and landed on the table in front of the sorceress and monster priest. She leaned down near Xellos' face and whispered, "She means the baby thing."
"Oh, that, well, yes I knew," Xellos teased with a smirk.
Lina tightened her grip. "Xellos!!!"
Just as his face looked like it was starting to turn blue, Lina let Xellos go. "Your...your letting him go!?!" Filia cried, not caring that everyone was now staring at them.
"Well, it's not like I can kill him like that. It's a just a waste of energy trying." Lina glanced out at the window. Night had settled over the small town. Lina let out an exaggerated yawn. "It's getting kinda late anyway. We should head off to bed."
Like any good yawn, Lina's spread to the neko child, the blond swordsman, and the young princess. "Yeah, I'm feeling kind of beat too," Amelia sighed. "We can figure out where we are tomorrow."
"But I'm not tired," Xaina complained as she tried to stifle another yawn.
"Good little girls always go to sleep on time," the dragon woman stated matter-of-factly.
Xellos grinned and scooped his charge up off the table. "See, good little girls never have any fun."
"That is not true," Filia argued calmly. "Good little girls are never tired because they go to bed on time and have much more time to play in the morning. They also never have to spend time in the corner for doing bad things..."
"And they sit up straight and never talk and never have any friends. Oh, and did I mention they aren't allowed to have any sweets."
"That's not true!"
"Poor lying little dragon. I guess it's not her fault though. She is a gold dragon after all," he explained to the little girl.
"This from the master of lies?" Filia quipped.
"Master of secrets, not lies," Xellos retorted. "Not that I would expect a selfish dragon to understand..."
"Here they go again," Xaina sighed.
~*~*~
Lina stared out the window. The half moon illuminated the empty street below. This whole baby thing just didn't seem right. She was a black mage; she shouldn't be having a child. Didn't high level black sorceresses have a hard time conceiving children? Wasn't black magic a destroyer of life? She shuddered at the though of someone calling her mommy. What terrified her most of all was the thought of someone to take revenge on her through her child. She knew she couldn't bare to live with herself if she had been the reason an innocent baby was hurt.
She glanced over at Gourry sleeping on the bed and sighed. The truth was she really didn't want to have any children. But how could she tell him that? He seemed so content with the idea. Since she had found out two nights ago, all he had done was fuss over her. He even offered to carry her a few times if she was tired. Naturally, she turned him down, but... "I hate this," she muttered to herself.
'I can picture it now; Gourry's brain, Lina's temper, and all the power and abilities both of them posses.' 'The world is doomed.'
Those words still rang in her head. They were right. If this prophecy was true, then her child was just going to reduce the world to nothing. It would have Gourry's brain and her temper. "But why?" she thought out loud. "We still don't know the full extent of what's going to happen." A thought suddenly passed through her mind: giga slave! 'What...what if...' She tried to put the thought out of her mind. The thought would not be so easily drowned out. 'If this child learns that spell, it may not be able to control it. It could destroy everything without ever meaning to...but then what about the other four? What do they have to do with any of it?'
A nudge on her hand brought the red head out of her thoughts. She glanced down to see Dragon rubbing his head against her fingers. "Oh, it's you. What do you want?" The bird looked up and blinked. "If your looking for food, you'll have to go bother Destiny. She's your master, remember?" Again, the bird just blinked. "No, of course you don't. You don't even understand me." This time, he let out a harsh caw. "Hey, shhhh!!! Not so loud!" she snapped in a whisper. "You'll wake everyone up!" It blinked and tilted it's head to one side. "That's better. Don't suppose you'd know anything about this prophecy you'd like to share?" she asked sarcastically. Dragon cawed several more times. "Hey, didn't I say quiet!?!" The bird stopped and nudged up against her hand more. Then he cawed again. "Okay okay! Just don't wake up the whole building, alright?" she sighed. Lina let her hand lazily reach up and stroke the bird. He let out a faint chirp of approval. She didn't even notice it as her mind wondered back in to thought.
'How is the world going to be destroyed? We still don't know that yet. And what about the shadow? I'm pretty sure there was something about a shadow in there. A shadow on the heart? Shadow over judgment? A shadow could mean anything...'
A pair of strong hands suddenly grabbed her shoulders. She let out a small gasp in surprise and her body tensed up. Lost in all her thoughts, she hadn't heard anything moving in the room. "You should be sleeping," a soft voice whispered.
The sorceress relaxed and leaned back against him. "Sorry if Dragon woke you up," she apologized. "He didn't exactly wanna be quiet."
"Who?"
"Destiny's black bird, jellyfish," she grumbled.
"Oh... he didn't wake me up. You should still be sleeping," Gourry insisted again while he looked down at his small wife. "It's not good for you to be up late."
"Says who?"
"Um... ... ... don't remember..."
"Why am I not surprised? Don't answer that." She let out a deep sigh in frustration and covered her eyes with one hand. They were both quiet for a few minutes. She couldn't think of anything to say, or at least anything that wouldn't confuse or upset him. He just watched her with his hands still resting on her shoulders, not sure what was wrong. "Hey, if dragon didn't wake you up, then what did."
Gourry shrugged. "Don't know. Just woke up."
Her crimson eyes flickered back to the bird in question. "I wonder..." she trailed off. She turned her hand up and urged him to climb on. Dragon readily obeyed. The sorceress called up some of her magic and cast an identifying spell on him. "That's what I thought," she muttered.
"What?"
"He has a silencing spell on him. My guess is that only people he wants to hear him can. The others probably have it too. It certinally would explain a lot." She held him a little closer to her face so she could stare in to his black eyes. "I bet you guys make a whole lot of noise no one but you can hear." The bird titled it's head to one side and blinked. "They really are weird birds. Sometimes I think they're Destiny's familiars."
"Familiars? People she knows?"
"No, spiritual partners...kinda like pets, except their owner can talk to them. Most people only have one since if a familiar dies, its master is left with a defect in their mind forever." She glanced up at the swordsman, who was completely lost. "It makes them crazy it their familiar dies."
"Oh."
"That's why it's better to only have one. Having more then that not only takes a lot of energy and time, but it can be really risky. Then again, Destiny does seem pretty powerful, so I wouldn't put a whole lot past her at this point." Dragon leaped off her hand towards the window. His wings flickered out and carried him out on the air. Lina watched him enviously. She couldn't help but think of wonderful life would be if she were a bird with no problems or cares.
Gourry scooped Lina up in his arms. "Hey! Gourry! Put me down!"
"You need to go to bed," he explained.
"I'm not tired!"
"It's not good for you or the baby to be up late. It'll make you sick."
"It will not! And I feel fine!" He ignored her protests and carried her over to the bed. She kicked and hit him, but he had done this enough before that he knew how to keep a hold on her. Gourry laid her down and grabbed some of the covers to pull over her. She tried to get back up put her wouldn't let her. "There is nothing wrong with me staying up late! And what would a guy with the brains of fish bait know about what's good for me, anyway!?!"
He gave her a light peck on the forehead, much to her annoyance. "Go to sleep," the blond insisted gently.
"I'm not a little kid."
"You look..." His sentence was cut off by a fist pounding in to his head.
Lina growled as she hit him. When she was tired of that, she grabbed some of his hair. "Oh, and if I look so much like a little kid then why'd ya marry me, huh? Got something for little girls, pervert?"
"No, no, I swear!"
"You had better not! Especially if this kid is a girl!" she snapped and released him. "And I know what's best for me. You not taking my food from me would be one of them."
"You take mine..."
"Only because you started it! I'm acting out of self defense! I'm just a poor little innocent girl!"
"If you're innocent then how come there's a baby inside you?" Lina glared at him. He was generally not to bright, but on those moments when he was, she usually wanted to pound the daylights out of him. Gourry smiled innocently and backed away slowly. He scuttled around to the other side of the bed and carefully crawled in. She glared at him the whole time. After several moments of just staring at the rather terrified blond, she sighed and gave in. She slipped down under the blankets and rolled on to her side so she didn't have to look at him. Gourry smiled and snuggled up against her back. He snaked his arm around her waist, letting his hand rest over her stomach, and kissed her on side of her neck. She wasn't exactly happy with him, but at least he knew she wasn't really angry either. "I love you Lina," he whispered. She smiled and let her hand rest just over his.
*****
A small murmur escaped the sleeping child's body. Filia smiled down at the little girl. She was so sweet and innocent... 'and she'll remain that way if I have anything to say about it,' the dragon woman grunted mentally. She brushed some of ebony hair out of the girl face and gave her a small kiss on the side of the head. The scent of soup was easily picked up by the blond's sensitive dragon senses. There was only one thing she would have ever given Xellos credit for and that was that he kept Xaina immaculate and well fed. Since he had started taking care of her, she was always freshly washed and never hungry. He took his job as her care taker quite seriously, much to her surprise. Everything else, as far as she was concerned anyway, was wrong.
The smell of soup reminded her of her own baby back home. She had promised to be gone for only three or four days at the most. With no idea where she was, she knew she wouldn't have much luck teleporting back to her home. And even if she did, that would leave Lina unprotected; it was already clear that some of the monster race wanted her dead. It raised her suspicion of Xellos as well. It was doubtful that Xaina was being told much, so there was no point in asking the child what he was doing. The general/priest, of course, would only say it was a secret. "Stupid monsters," she grumbled.
"What was that, Miss Filia?" Amelia inquired as she looked up from some of Zelgadiss' new translations.
"Oh, nothing. So what else has been translated?"
The princess sighed. "Not much that's really useful yet. A lot of it is about the dragon. He doesn't really seem all that bad from the descriptions. He loved all creatures, and he was a healer who traveled around their world curing people of fatal illnesses. He really sounds like more of a hero then a murderer."
Filia padded over and glanced over Amelia's shoulder to read some of it.
'He was very handsome and graceful when I first saw him after his travels... ... His life had been spent in the service of the earth dragon king. ... ...close to his parents. ... ... ... ... ... I remember Antra told me once that all life was precious. That was why he had became a healer at the temple but never advanced on to being a priest. He had wanted to preserve all life and he felt a priest was no as good as a healer at doing that. I didn't mention the prophecy to him when he first came even though I already knew of it. I was afraid of what he would say or how he would react. When I look back now... ... ...'
"You right. He doesn't sound dangerous at all. I feel sort of sorry for him. I wonder what the end is suppose to say?"
The princess shrugged. "We probably wont ever know. Mr. Zelgadiss showed the page, and I'm amazed he got this much out of it. The ink is almost completely gone. He's probably still working on it right now, though." Her ocean eyes flickered over to the wall. Zel was on the other side most likely working himself to the point of exhaustion. The princess longed to help him, but there wasn't much she could do. She was an expert at languages. All she would be able to do was bring him coffee and off some moral support. She was better off not disturbing him. "We should know more soon enough."
"Let's hope so," the ex-priestess sighed.
(I swear, I had no idea what was going on most of the time in this chapter. It all literally wrote itself. I just pressed the keys for it. I'm pretty sure this isn't going to go more then two or three more chapters. The next one will be shorter and will have some fun with Destiny's birds. I promise. What exactly, you wonder? *smiles in Xellos fashion and waves a finger* That's a secret. Ah, yes Lauren-sama, I do agree that mixing Lina and Gourry's genes is quite dangerous. Their child is going to be a destroyer of the planet, after all. I don't think you can get much more dangerous then that. Lina herself on a really bad day, maybe... Anyway, do please review, though. I love to hear your comments and I promise to try and respond to them in my comments if you ask any questions or anything.)