The group had headed downstairs for dinner with their usual enthusiasm. Lina and Gourry ran to the table, followed closely behind by Amelia. Zel, Sylphiel and Xellos, who claimed he wasn't hungry and would just keep everyone else company, followed more sedately.
This evening, the town not only knew to expect the wars, but also wanted to take a look at 'their' Wilam's cousin. The tavern room was so crowded that the innkeeper had to bring in additional chairs from the house proper, and only the threat of Lina, Amelia and Gourry's battle taking out innocent bystanders kept space around their table. Zel was very glad for that space when he looked up at the shopkeeper from earlier, and realized she had brought along two daughters and a niece.
The shopkeeper laughed gently at his expression, then turned to Millie to inquire about Raine performing. Millie smiled at the question, and pointed at the full room. "Unless we can get your girls to help, she's going to be too busy serving up food for entertaining tonight."
Nearby townsfolk heard the interchange, and quickly pushed the three girls towards Millie. All three laughed their agreement, and went to claim aprons and send Raine out. When she walked through the door, the entire room fell silent for a moment. The only sound was a quick clash of forks from Lina and Gourry. Sylphiel softly touched Lina's should to get her attention. Lina glared for a moment, then caught Sylphiel's indication of Raine's entrance. She calmly sneaked half the plate of ribs she and Gourry had been arguing over, then smacked Gourry over the head, and pointed to Raine.
Gourry looked up from swallowing the ribs almost whole and saw where she was pointing. He finished his bite then said "Hi Raine. Are you going to tell another story?" The whole room broke into requests as soon as Gourry broke the silence, only to fall silent again as Raine started to speak.
"I want to tell you a story about a beautiful princess, her evil step mother and the handsome prince who rescued her." Raine began. The tavern fell silent, allowing her furry contralto to weave a spell over them all. Sometime between when the evil queen poisoned the beautiful princess, and the gallant prince kissed her awake, Wilam sat at the table and acquired his own bowl of noodles. Lina and Gourry were so entranced with Raine's storytelling that they missed his entrance. Amelia, on the other hand, was a little distracted by the sight of a human Zelgadiss look-alike, so much so that she stopped eating with a meatball halfway to her mouth, and only realized it when Sylphiel reached over and gently pushed her fork down on to the plate.
Amelia blushed, hoping no one had noticed. Fortunately, everyone was so entranced by the story that they probably wouldn't have noticed the roof blowing off. She tried to follow the story, but her gaze kept wandering back to Wilam's face, comparing his to Zelgadiss's. After a while, Wilam seemed to notice her staring, and he turned to her, grinning. He blew her a kiss, and Amelia blushed, then looked back at Raine.
Amelia wasn't sure why, but all throughout Raine's story her gaze was drawn back towards Zelgadiss and Wilam. She couldn't figure out why she was interested in their new guide, and convinced herself that she was simply curious about Zelgadiss's family. The rest of the group was busy either stuffing their faces and whispering food orders to the serving girls, or listening intently to Raine's story.
When the story ended, the room erupted into cheers and shouts for another. Raine laughed and promised another as soon as she had time to check on her mother. The slayers group finished up their dinners, and discussed their plans for the next morning.
"We need to leave early tomorrow," Wilam began, raising an eyebrow at Lina's moan of despair. "We can't leave before dawn, or we'll be tired too early, but we shouldn't leave much after it, or we'll get stuck in the foothills before the first good camping stop."
Xellos smiled enigmatically at the group, eyes closed as usual. "What make you the most qualified person to lead us through this path? Have you taken this route before?"
Gourry looked up, finally having run out of food. He studied Wilam for a moment, then broke in, "You don't look too old, I can't believe that you have enough experience to lead us through this dangerous territory in the winter."
Zelgadiss looked astonished at Gourry's question; usually Gourry was ready to follow Lina anywhere without any planning at all. This was a strange turn of events.
Wilam looked a little surprised at the questions, "Didn't Zelgadiss tell you? My grandfather helped Lord Rezo get to the temple. He left a journal of the trip."
Lina looked interested at this piece of news, "A journal? Can I see it?"
Wilam looked pained, but pulled the journal out, "Just be careful with it, okay?"
Lina snatched it out of his hands, pulling away from the table slightly to set the journal on her lap and read it. She covered the journal, preventing anyone else from reading it. As she looked through the journal, her expression became more frustrated, and she started flipping pages faster. Finally she tossed the book onto the table with a sigh of frustration.
"This thing doesn't have anything useful in it." She complained.
Wilam looked up from his conversation with Zelgadiss and Gourry with a grimace at Lina's rough treatment of the tome.
"My grandfather wrote things that would be of interest to a hunter or a trapper, or even a guide. I wouldn't expect a sorceress to find it interesting in the least." He snapped, checking the book for damage.
Lina looked surprised at his response, then shrugged. "Why didn't you say so?" she demanded.
"Umm, Lina?" Gourry said, looking puzzled, "I think he just did." Gourry yelped in pain as Lina's slipper bounced off his head. Sylphiel quickly signaled to one of the temporary serving girls for more food to distract her companions, and attempted to check Gourry's head.
"Sylphiel, he's fine. I only hit him with a slipper..." Lina half growled, half grumbled. As the waitress returned with another plate of ribs, Lina and Gourry began squabbling for the food. Amelia noticed the journal sitting on the table and picked it up, telling herself that she just wanted to protect the book from any spilled food.
"Amelia, are you all right?" Zelgadiss asked. "You haven't eaten very much..."
Amelia brightened at this sign of his concern for her, then flushed when she realized Wilam was staring at Zelgadiss in bewilderment.
"Not eaten very much?" Wilam began, "If this is not eating very much, how in the world are we going to be able to carry enough provisions for the journey?"
Gourry looked up at this questions, "Mmmm hmm a mrry hmmd himmin hmem", he began.
"What?" Wilam broke in. "I can't understand a thing you said."
"What Gourry dear said was that Lina has a very good fishing spell." Sylphiel translated, "But he forgot that were bringing along plenty of supplies, and I'll make sure we have proper cooking utensils. We'll be fine."
Wilam winced at the thought of having to provision the group if tonight was any indication of their usual eating habits.
"Um, I wasn't too specific on quantity when I gave you that list..." he began.
"Oh, don't worry about it. We adjusted your rations, it's not like we've never done this before." Lina retorted. "You forget that you will be traveling with a very competent sorceress."
Unnoticed, Amelia flipped through the book Lina had dropped. She was amazed at the descriptions of the terrain that they would be journeying over, and began to worry that Wilam might be right.
"Um, Miss Lina..." she began, only to be overridden by Lina's argument with Wilam. "Miss Lina!"
Lina stopped her argument and turned to Amelia, "What is it Amelia?"
Amelia held out the journal, pointing to a small map. "It doesn't look like we'll be able to stop for food on the way... are you sure we've brought enough?"
Lina glared at the little map, then sighed. "I suppose you're right. It couldn't hurt to get some extra."
Wilam smiled down at Amelia as Lina turned to Sylphiel to discuss their supplies.
"Thank you." He said, his grin widening as the little princess blushed, "I don't think that I would have been able to convince her without your help."
"Oh, well, Miss Lina's always concerned about food. Just mentioning that we might run out would make her immediately try to figure out how to carry more." Amelia simpered.
Zel placed his empty tea cup on the table, and picked up the journal.
"Mind if I borrow this?" He asked Wilam. At Wilam's shake of the head, Zel picked up the journal and stood up.
Amelia noticed his move to leave, and immediately stood up to follow him. As he moved away, idly flipping through the book, she sat down again, sighing at her idol's apparent lack of interest. Wilam noticed her aborted move to leave, and grinned at her.
"A little preoccupied, isn't he?"
"Yes." Amelia sighed, little hearts in her eyes, "He never seems to notice me."
"Well," Wilam began, "It's not really my place, but why do you care? He seems a little self-centered, not nearly as nice as someone like you deserves."
Amelia blushed, "Mr. Wilam, I really don't think you should..."
Wilam laughed. "Oh, Princess... you should know better." He patted her hand where it lay on the table, then excused himself.
"We've got an early start in the morning. You should all think about making it an early night." He gestured around the packed tavern, "These people will stay here as long as you do, so don't even think of retiring once it quiets down."
Amelia looked over at her friends. She noticed that Xellos had disappeared somewhere, and Gourry was blinking sleepily as Lina and Sylphiel discussed their food supplies for the trip.
"Oh, well" She thought "I might as well take Mr. Wilam's advise... after all, that's why he's coming with us."
"I am going to go try to sleep." She announced to the table.
Lina and Sylphiel looked up. Sylphiel noticed that Gourry seemed to be sleeping in his desert, and gently shook him awake while Lina wished Amelia goodnight.
"I should take Gourry darling to his room. I don't think he'd be comfortable sleeping down here." Sylphiel said to Lina, then turned to Amelia "Would you be willing to help me? He's still pretty much asleep?"
"Goodnight, everyone." Lina said, "I'm just going to go check about extra supplies and breakfast from Millie."
Lina turned and moved towards the kitchen, not noticing how Amelia turned to look at her strangely as she helped Sylphiel move Gourry through the crowded room.
After settling Gourry in bed and saying goodnight to Sylphiel, Amelia returned to her own room. She slowly changed into her pajamas, wondering about Wilam's comment to her earlier.
"What could Mr. Wilam have meant about Mr. Zelgadiss?" She thought while tying her hair back, "He couldn't have meant that Mr. Zelgadiss is a bad person, he seems to like Mr. Zelgadiss a lot. He and Mr. Zelgadiss are related, so he knows that Mr. Zelgadiss isn't a monster. But why would he say that Mr. Zelgadiss is self-centered? Surely he can see that Mr. Zelgadiss is just... very focused. Isn't he?"
Amelia slipped into bed, wondering at the direction her thoughts were traveling in. "Well, Mr. Zelgadiss will find his cure at this temple, and then he can show the world what a kind and caring person he is..."
Amelia slipped into sleep, thoughts of traveling with her friends to right the world's wrongs floating in her head.
This evening, the town not only knew to expect the wars, but also wanted to take a look at 'their' Wilam's cousin. The tavern room was so crowded that the innkeeper had to bring in additional chairs from the house proper, and only the threat of Lina, Amelia and Gourry's battle taking out innocent bystanders kept space around their table. Zel was very glad for that space when he looked up at the shopkeeper from earlier, and realized she had brought along two daughters and a niece.
The shopkeeper laughed gently at his expression, then turned to Millie to inquire about Raine performing. Millie smiled at the question, and pointed at the full room. "Unless we can get your girls to help, she's going to be too busy serving up food for entertaining tonight."
Nearby townsfolk heard the interchange, and quickly pushed the three girls towards Millie. All three laughed their agreement, and went to claim aprons and send Raine out. When she walked through the door, the entire room fell silent for a moment. The only sound was a quick clash of forks from Lina and Gourry. Sylphiel softly touched Lina's should to get her attention. Lina glared for a moment, then caught Sylphiel's indication of Raine's entrance. She calmly sneaked half the plate of ribs she and Gourry had been arguing over, then smacked Gourry over the head, and pointed to Raine.
Gourry looked up from swallowing the ribs almost whole and saw where she was pointing. He finished his bite then said "Hi Raine. Are you going to tell another story?" The whole room broke into requests as soon as Gourry broke the silence, only to fall silent again as Raine started to speak.
"I want to tell you a story about a beautiful princess, her evil step mother and the handsome prince who rescued her." Raine began. The tavern fell silent, allowing her furry contralto to weave a spell over them all. Sometime between when the evil queen poisoned the beautiful princess, and the gallant prince kissed her awake, Wilam sat at the table and acquired his own bowl of noodles. Lina and Gourry were so entranced with Raine's storytelling that they missed his entrance. Amelia, on the other hand, was a little distracted by the sight of a human Zelgadiss look-alike, so much so that she stopped eating with a meatball halfway to her mouth, and only realized it when Sylphiel reached over and gently pushed her fork down on to the plate.
Amelia blushed, hoping no one had noticed. Fortunately, everyone was so entranced by the story that they probably wouldn't have noticed the roof blowing off. She tried to follow the story, but her gaze kept wandering back to Wilam's face, comparing his to Zelgadiss's. After a while, Wilam seemed to notice her staring, and he turned to her, grinning. He blew her a kiss, and Amelia blushed, then looked back at Raine.
Amelia wasn't sure why, but all throughout Raine's story her gaze was drawn back towards Zelgadiss and Wilam. She couldn't figure out why she was interested in their new guide, and convinced herself that she was simply curious about Zelgadiss's family. The rest of the group was busy either stuffing their faces and whispering food orders to the serving girls, or listening intently to Raine's story.
When the story ended, the room erupted into cheers and shouts for another. Raine laughed and promised another as soon as she had time to check on her mother. The slayers group finished up their dinners, and discussed their plans for the next morning.
"We need to leave early tomorrow," Wilam began, raising an eyebrow at Lina's moan of despair. "We can't leave before dawn, or we'll be tired too early, but we shouldn't leave much after it, or we'll get stuck in the foothills before the first good camping stop."
Xellos smiled enigmatically at the group, eyes closed as usual. "What make you the most qualified person to lead us through this path? Have you taken this route before?"
Gourry looked up, finally having run out of food. He studied Wilam for a moment, then broke in, "You don't look too old, I can't believe that you have enough experience to lead us through this dangerous territory in the winter."
Zelgadiss looked astonished at Gourry's question; usually Gourry was ready to follow Lina anywhere without any planning at all. This was a strange turn of events.
Wilam looked a little surprised at the questions, "Didn't Zelgadiss tell you? My grandfather helped Lord Rezo get to the temple. He left a journal of the trip."
Lina looked interested at this piece of news, "A journal? Can I see it?"
Wilam looked pained, but pulled the journal out, "Just be careful with it, okay?"
Lina snatched it out of his hands, pulling away from the table slightly to set the journal on her lap and read it. She covered the journal, preventing anyone else from reading it. As she looked through the journal, her expression became more frustrated, and she started flipping pages faster. Finally she tossed the book onto the table with a sigh of frustration.
"This thing doesn't have anything useful in it." She complained.
Wilam looked up from his conversation with Zelgadiss and Gourry with a grimace at Lina's rough treatment of the tome.
"My grandfather wrote things that would be of interest to a hunter or a trapper, or even a guide. I wouldn't expect a sorceress to find it interesting in the least." He snapped, checking the book for damage.
Lina looked surprised at his response, then shrugged. "Why didn't you say so?" she demanded.
"Umm, Lina?" Gourry said, looking puzzled, "I think he just did." Gourry yelped in pain as Lina's slipper bounced off his head. Sylphiel quickly signaled to one of the temporary serving girls for more food to distract her companions, and attempted to check Gourry's head.
"Sylphiel, he's fine. I only hit him with a slipper..." Lina half growled, half grumbled. As the waitress returned with another plate of ribs, Lina and Gourry began squabbling for the food. Amelia noticed the journal sitting on the table and picked it up, telling herself that she just wanted to protect the book from any spilled food.
"Amelia, are you all right?" Zelgadiss asked. "You haven't eaten very much..."
Amelia brightened at this sign of his concern for her, then flushed when she realized Wilam was staring at Zelgadiss in bewilderment.
"Not eaten very much?" Wilam began, "If this is not eating very much, how in the world are we going to be able to carry enough provisions for the journey?"
Gourry looked up at this questions, "Mmmm hmm a mrry hmmd himmin hmem", he began.
"What?" Wilam broke in. "I can't understand a thing you said."
"What Gourry dear said was that Lina has a very good fishing spell." Sylphiel translated, "But he forgot that were bringing along plenty of supplies, and I'll make sure we have proper cooking utensils. We'll be fine."
Wilam winced at the thought of having to provision the group if tonight was any indication of their usual eating habits.
"Um, I wasn't too specific on quantity when I gave you that list..." he began.
"Oh, don't worry about it. We adjusted your rations, it's not like we've never done this before." Lina retorted. "You forget that you will be traveling with a very competent sorceress."
Unnoticed, Amelia flipped through the book Lina had dropped. She was amazed at the descriptions of the terrain that they would be journeying over, and began to worry that Wilam might be right.
"Um, Miss Lina..." she began, only to be overridden by Lina's argument with Wilam. "Miss Lina!"
Lina stopped her argument and turned to Amelia, "What is it Amelia?"
Amelia held out the journal, pointing to a small map. "It doesn't look like we'll be able to stop for food on the way... are you sure we've brought enough?"
Lina glared at the little map, then sighed. "I suppose you're right. It couldn't hurt to get some extra."
Wilam smiled down at Amelia as Lina turned to Sylphiel to discuss their supplies.
"Thank you." He said, his grin widening as the little princess blushed, "I don't think that I would have been able to convince her without your help."
"Oh, well, Miss Lina's always concerned about food. Just mentioning that we might run out would make her immediately try to figure out how to carry more." Amelia simpered.
Zel placed his empty tea cup on the table, and picked up the journal.
"Mind if I borrow this?" He asked Wilam. At Wilam's shake of the head, Zel picked up the journal and stood up.
Amelia noticed his move to leave, and immediately stood up to follow him. As he moved away, idly flipping through the book, she sat down again, sighing at her idol's apparent lack of interest. Wilam noticed her aborted move to leave, and grinned at her.
"A little preoccupied, isn't he?"
"Yes." Amelia sighed, little hearts in her eyes, "He never seems to notice me."
"Well," Wilam began, "It's not really my place, but why do you care? He seems a little self-centered, not nearly as nice as someone like you deserves."
Amelia blushed, "Mr. Wilam, I really don't think you should..."
Wilam laughed. "Oh, Princess... you should know better." He patted her hand where it lay on the table, then excused himself.
"We've got an early start in the morning. You should all think about making it an early night." He gestured around the packed tavern, "These people will stay here as long as you do, so don't even think of retiring once it quiets down."
Amelia looked over at her friends. She noticed that Xellos had disappeared somewhere, and Gourry was blinking sleepily as Lina and Sylphiel discussed their food supplies for the trip.
"Oh, well" She thought "I might as well take Mr. Wilam's advise... after all, that's why he's coming with us."
"I am going to go try to sleep." She announced to the table.
Lina and Sylphiel looked up. Sylphiel noticed that Gourry seemed to be sleeping in his desert, and gently shook him awake while Lina wished Amelia goodnight.
"I should take Gourry darling to his room. I don't think he'd be comfortable sleeping down here." Sylphiel said to Lina, then turned to Amelia "Would you be willing to help me? He's still pretty much asleep?"
"Goodnight, everyone." Lina said, "I'm just going to go check about extra supplies and breakfast from Millie."
Lina turned and moved towards the kitchen, not noticing how Amelia turned to look at her strangely as she helped Sylphiel move Gourry through the crowded room.
After settling Gourry in bed and saying goodnight to Sylphiel, Amelia returned to her own room. She slowly changed into her pajamas, wondering about Wilam's comment to her earlier.
"What could Mr. Wilam have meant about Mr. Zelgadiss?" She thought while tying her hair back, "He couldn't have meant that Mr. Zelgadiss is a bad person, he seems to like Mr. Zelgadiss a lot. He and Mr. Zelgadiss are related, so he knows that Mr. Zelgadiss isn't a monster. But why would he say that Mr. Zelgadiss is self-centered? Surely he can see that Mr. Zelgadiss is just... very focused. Isn't he?"
Amelia slipped into bed, wondering at the direction her thoughts were traveling in. "Well, Mr. Zelgadiss will find his cure at this temple, and then he can show the world what a kind and caring person he is..."
Amelia slipped into sleep, thoughts of traveling with her friends to right the world's wrongs floating in her head.