Chapter 10
A Stranger in the Shadows
The stranger entered the town. Hidden by the confines of a heavy cloak and cowl, this newcomer made it's way towards the darkened streets. But if the stranger was wearing the heavy cloak with the concern on running into trouble, such worrying wasn't necessary. Being in the middle of the night, there was no one else about. Plus, in the event of trouble, the various shadows that made up the town offered some sort of refuge.
But it mattered not: the stranger was able to find it's way around, unchallenged.
The space also gave the stranger time to think.
What was this town's name? Dakeyras? It said so on that sign back there, right?
But what did it matter? The stranger was tired. Tired after journeying all day. Tired after journeying on a road that was leading nowhere. Tired after spending yet another day journeying onward, searching for an empty destiny.....
Yes, an empty destiny. Once you lose grip of that which gives you a sense of self-purpose, what are you? A shade of your former self that's doomed to roam this earth with no concept on what else to do? A empty husk with no concept of self-worth?
Life can be so cruel.....
But for now, what mattered was that the stranger's bones were crippled with weariness. What mattered was the importance of finding somewhere to sleep. What mattered was finding an inn or something.....
It didn't take long for the stranger to find exactly that.
There it was, standing a short way ahead, like a beacon of refuge, a hope of sanctuary.
The stranger grinned in triumph before striding up to the door of the inn and entering.
The inn's owner was merely minutes from going to bed. But with this new arrival, such a plan was about to face severe changes.
The innkeeper looked up from the bar, at the stranger. Odd, he wasn't expecting anyone at this hour. Especially anyone hiding every square inch of their features under a heavy cloak and cowl.
Could this person be trusted? Anyone turning up at some ridiculous hour, completely concealed by a heavy cloak certainly bears an aura of mystery about them. And these sort of people weren't exactly the types to be trusted.....
But even as this stranger was hardly the trustworthy type, he/she was still a customer....
"What can I do for you?" the innkeeper inquired.
A voice, bearing rich evidence of femineity emerged from the heavy cowl:
"Do you have a spare room?"
".....And that's the whole story" Lina finished.
Silence descended upon her friends. In the stillness of the night and the illumination from the bonfire, not a word was spoken. As a full moon made it's way across the sky and above the tree tops, the four companions pondered on the unexpected appearance of Xelloss, his interloping intentions and his piece of alarming information.
Gourry, though dim-witted he was, wore an expression of concern. Even with his mediocre IQ, he could still tell that whenever Xelloss was involved, things begin to get out of control.
And all the more so when Zelas herself was also involved.
Zel, on the other hand, was absolutely angered by this piece of abrupt, if not disturbing, news. At the mention of the mazoku, his eyes hardened, his fists closed and he looked like he could break someone's bones without hesitation. Indeed, the chimera's distrust for Xelloss had hardly changed at all since he'd last seen him.
Amelia however was the most solemn of the four. It isn't everyday you find yourself the target of a partnership of evil. It wasn't bad enough that her health was failing due to some evil curse but to be pursued by three evil minds as well.....?
Lina noticed the princess' expression and laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. What she's been going through must be absolute hell.....
"So what do we do now?" Gourry asked.
"I guess we go and find this Adolphus and this Alana and force them into undoing this spell that's destroying Amelia." Lina sighed. "What else can we do?"
Gourry blinked before nodding. Yeah that seems like the typical Lina plan.
Suddenly he had one of his all too rare thoughts.
"Hang on!" Gourry started. "If we leave Dakeyras then we would certainly be caught by the authorities from Sairaag!"
"Oh well" Lina shrugged. "I guess we trash them as well!"
Gourry grinned at Lina's resolution. Well, he's certainly not going to argue with THAT.
Now delighted that she had Gourry's agreement in this, Lina looked to Amelia. Even now, she was looking worse and worse. Her expression was paling, her coughing was becoming more and more horrendous, and her hair was becoming more and more rigid. Whatever was plaguing Amelia was certainly creating a lot of damage.
Yet even as sick as she was, Amelia still nodded her approval.
Lina blinked.
"Are you sure, kid?"
"Yes" Amelia whispered.
Lina paused. Should she be taking Amelia along? Should she facing life and limb in some great danger when she's in this appalling condition?!
The red-head sighed. No matter how she looked at the situation, she could not neglect the fact that Amelia was a friend. And the sorceress certainly wasn't the type of person who would turn away from a friend, nor let them down.
Lina lightly patted Amelia's shoulder and smiled.
Then her gaze settled on the chimera.
Zel's expression explained his annoyance perfectly. This intervention with Xelloss and his master Zelas was hardly satisfying on his part. There was no way in hell he wanted to play a part in anything which those mazoku were involved in.
Zel could feel three pairs of inquisitive eyes gazing at him, awaiting an answer. Immediately, his face screw up with contempt.
"NO!" he snapped. "No way!"
The other three blinked in astonishment.
"Why not?" Gourry asked.
"Don't you get it?" Zel said "Every time we follow a trail of clues left by Xelloss, we usually end up much worse off then when we started! And if Zelas is connected in this, then we are heading into something big here, indeed. Something where we are being dragged into so Zelas can achieve her goals."
"How do you figure that?" Lina inquired.
"Well" Zel reasoned "Xelloss takes orders from his master only. Right?"
Lina, Amelia and Gourry nodded.
"And in this instance, he is warning us on the behalf of Zelas. Right?"
"Yessss....." Lina mused, whilst stroking her chin.
"So why would he do that? Why would he give information about the dangers we are in? Why would he tell about the evil forces that threaten us?
"Because these evil forces are working for a higher power. A higher power that is perhaps threatening Zelas."
Upon hearing the chimera's theory, Lina raised an eyebrow. Amelia blinked and Gourry scratched his head.
"So what you're saying" Amelia said. "Is that we are caught up in the middle of a war between mazoku?"
The chimera nodded.
"It's a theory." Lina said. "But that doesn't explain what part Amelia plays in this fracas."
"All the same" Zel said. "I'm still not coming with you.'
"Oh come on!" Lina cried out. "You still distrust Xelloss that much?!"
"Oh yeah?" Zel retorted. "Then why, if we are truly the pawns in Zelas' plans, are so you keen to go with whatever that mazoku has up her sleeve?"
Lina paused uncertain as to how to answer Zelgadis' question.
"My guess" Zel continued. "Is that we stay here."
"WHAT?!?!" Lina shouted, in exasperation. "You can't be serious!"
"What do you mean by that?" Zel snapped back. "Firstly, Amelia is no state to travel. Secondly, we should remain in hiding from the authorities and thirdly if we are being threatened by those evil powers then it's somewhat inevitable that they will come looking for us!"
Lina blinked.
"Well" she said, softly and thoughtfully, "That seems like a good idea....."
But all of a sudden, her eyes grew with fury!
"....BUT STILL!!!!!" she thundered.
"But what?" replied Zel, without flinching an eyebrow.
"THIS ISN'T LIKE ME TO REMAIN IN HIDING!!!!!!"
"Sorry?" Zel blinked.
"HIDING ISN'T THE TYPE OF THING FOR SUCH A BEAUTIFUL, WONDERFUL, SORCERESS AND BANDIT KILLER LIKE MYSELF!!!!!!"
Zel sighed, and covered his eyes.
"Isn't that what you do all the time?" he retorted. "Have you forgotten that wherever we go we always seem to attract the attention of many would-be bounty hunters?!?"
Lina didn't reply, instead she looked swiftly to Amelia and Gourry. But neither didn't look like they wanted to offer a hand in defending her argument. The swordsman was sniggering heartily at the red-head and the chimera as they bickered at each other. Even Amelia was seeing the funny side of the situation - Her sounds of giggling certainly made a pleasurable difference to her constant fits of coughing.
"Jeez Lina" Gourry snickered. "Come on. Lets just follow Zel's idea. At least he has one."
"THAT'S NOT IT!!!!!!!" The sorceress yelled.
"Oh, Lina!" Amelia said in exasperation. "What's there to argue?!"
"WHATS THERE TO ARGUE?!?!?!?" Lina bellowed "I'LL TELL WHAT THERE'S TO ARGUE!!!! IT'S WHENEVER BLUE BOY AND I HAVE AN ARGUMENT, HE ALWAYS ENDS UP WINNING!!!!!!!!"
Upon hearing this, Gourry blinked in disbelief, while Amelia and the chimera fell flat on their face! Lina however continued yelling at the swordsman.
"And another thing" she snapped. "Why don't you ever take my side in these arguments?!?! What type of friend are you?!?!?"
"Well it's just that Zel always has great ideas!" Gourry protested. "Better then anything then I could come up with!!!"
Lina snorted.
"Besides" Gourry reasoned. "If Zel is right, then those bad guys will come looking for us if we stay here!"
"And then they will come looking for us" he added, with a manic glint in his eye. "And then we can all smash them all into next week!"
Lina grinned. Well even that idea was through Gourry's blunt perspective, it certainly made Zelgadis' idea sound promising.
Amelia got to her feet. "I'm all for Zelgadis' idea".
Lina grinned. Well, THAT shouldn't come as a surprise.
The red-head sighed her defeat. Eventually she nodded her head in agreement.
But just you wait Zel she thought. Next time we argue it'll be my turn to win!
The rest of the night came and went.
As the morning sun crept in, the stranger made her way downstairs. Still concealed under her heavy cowl, she felt quite refreshed following her sleep. Now that she was awake, how about some breakfast?!
The stranger made her way down to a table and, within moments, was approached by a young lad who introduced himself as Antonio and offered to take her order. Upon receiving the order, Antonio disappeared only to return some time later with the stranger's order.
The stranger tucked in heartily into her meal. After spending so much time on the road, this meal was delicious! It's been a long time since she's enjoyed food such as this!
And now that she thought about it, what was she going to do now? Continue on her empty journey? Continue her search for an empty destiny? Continue heading onward with her shattered concept of self-worth?
Man, that sounds like such a disastrous proposition.....
As the stranger pondered on this, her eyes wandered. Wandered into the other people in the dining area of this inn. Now that morning was in it's maturing stage, the inn was now filling up at quite a rapid pace: Many people were coming in, all looking for some breakfast. No one appeared to notice the stranger - But none of these villagers could escape the vigilance of her gaze. She could see everyone as they came in through the door.
Suddenly her eyes widened. She blinked in disbelief, wondering if her eyes were deceiving her. Could she really be seeing what she thought she was seeing?!
The stranger stared at four people that were coming in through the door. One was an exceptionally tall man whom sported a shock of long blond hair. One was a girl, probably somewhere in her mid-teens, whom was pale in face, bedraggled in appearance and rather.....erm.....well-endowed. And one was bedecked completely in beige and kept his facial features under a cowl.
But it was not these three that the stranger was interested in. No way. It was the fourth person in the group. Long reddish orange hair. A black cape. Red eyes. And red leggings.
There was something about this red-head that the stranger found disturbingly familiar.
The foursome found a table and sat down around it - all the while the stranger racked her brains as to where she had seen this red-head before.
Suddenly it occurred to her - whilst the stranger was checking out the red-head's figure!
Such exceptionally small breasts.....
In that instant, all the pieces fell into place. There was only one person who could have such exceptionally small breasts.....
.....as well as all the other stuff! It had to be! Lina Inverse! The dreaded bandit killer! She of enormous appetite and short temper!
The stranger grinned a sadistic grin. Well, her patience has finally paid off: Lina Inverse had finally walked right into her grasp. Her long search was over. She has finally caught up to Lina Inverse - the very person whom wrecked her life! The very person who ran off destroying the stranger's self-purpose in life!
Just wait till she gets her alone - She will have her revenge!!
Yet while the stranger plotted to do away with Lina, she still kept a vigilant eye on the table and it's occupants.
For a whole nothing happened. Each of the foursome sat around the table each tucking heartily into breakfast whilst being engaged in a tight conversation.
What were they saying? The stranger couldn't tell. They were well and truly out of earshot and the stranger had no experience in lip-reading. Oh what she would give to learn what they were saying! It would certainly explain where Lina had been and how she has changed since the last time they met! It would certainly give an chance to see how her enemy thinks and how to establish an edge over her.....
Eventually things began to happen. The figure in beige got to his feet and the girl also followed suite. Lina too got to her feet but, while the man in beige headed for the door, the red-head went with the girl, heading upstairs. Only the tall blond remained sitting at the table - he seemed quite content to continue sitting at the table and feeding his face.
But what the stranger saw was an opportunity. Lina was alone and away from her friends.
Well yes she was with that pale girl but she seemed hardly a threat.
Lina was pretty much alone. And there was no greater chance to exact revenge!!!!!
Without a further ado, the stranger sped off out of her chair and up the stairs.
She sped off so fast, she left her cloak behind.....
Meanwhile, Lina was calmly directing Amelia to the bed. The princess wanted to go to bed - she said she wanted to catch up on some sleep following the hectic events of the night before. And besides, with her health continually worsening, she wasn't in any shape to be running around.
The sorceress laid her unhealthy friend down on the silk sheets and headed for the door. Just before she left, she turned around and took one last look at her friend. Lina's expression then turned sad. Man, Amelia looked like hell. Whatever this curse was that was crippling her, it was certainly creating a destructive path of rampage. How much longer must she remain like this? How much more hell must she endure?
"Hang in there kid" Lina said softly. "We'll find a cure. I just know it."
And with that, Lina turned around and opened the door. Following that she stepped out into the hallway.
And she was about to close the door after her when she heard a noise.
A noise that was enough to stop her dead in her tracks. A noise that was enough to make one's blood turn to ice. A noise that could only exist in nightmares A noise that has been known to frighten even the most battle-hardened warrior. A noise that would make even a mazoku flee in terror.
A noise that was disturbingly familiar.
A noise which Lina had hoped never to hear again.
"OH-HO-HO-HO-HO-HO-HO-HO-HO-HO!!!!!!!!!!"
Chapter 11
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