Chapter 6 - Finally, heading towards the temple
The next morning dawned chilly. The various slayers gang awoke, or were dragged kicking and screaming from their beds. Amelia was the first one up, and bounced from room to room, happily informing her traveling partners that it was almost time to go.
Amelia's usual morning exuberance was slightly less bouncy than usual, but most of her traveling companions were a little too tired themselves to really be aware of it. Lina had evidently spent most of the night in the kitchen with Millie and the chef arranging last minute food for the next day. Zelgadiss had remained buried in the old stories of Rezo's journey to the temple, and between the lack of sleep and the increasing mental strain of his current condition was unresponsive even after his morning coffee. Gourry was too intent on breakfast, and Sylphiel was too intent on Gourry to notice Amelia. Xellos noticed Amelia, but was enjoying her mental turmoil too much to assist her.
"Miss Lina," Amelia began "When are we going to leave? I thought that we had to start off early in order to make it to the best campsite before dark."
"Hmm?" Lina grunted, shoveling food into her mouth and blinking at Amelia's questions. "We'll leave soon. Don't worry about it."
Xellos giggled silently at Lina's response. This trip was going to be very amusing. Soon the group was finished with their breakfast, and Wilam had arrived ready to leave. The entire staff watched the group divvying up their additional provisions, amazed at the casual displays of magic. Lina carefully divided the food supplies up, making sure that she had tucked a good supply of Millie's sleeping draught into her packs next to the package of big sister's headache tea. Amelia needed some help placing her portion of the supplies into a pocket space due to its large size, but Sylphiel had gotten enough Gourry watching in to tie her over until Amelia was comfortable.
"It's a good thing Miss Sylphiel is so good at teaching, isn't it Miss Lina?" Amelia chirped at the fiery sorceress.
"What do you mean by that, Amelia?" Lina snapped, turning to the younger girl menacingly. Xellos bounced in glee at the upcoming explosions.
"Nothing, Miss Lina, just with Mr. Zelgadis so sick and you taking care of Mr. Wilam's supplies and all..." Amelia trailed off, wondering how to extricate herself from this new mess.
"Lina, leave Amelia alone." Zelgadis interrupted, "We need to leave, and if you slow us down now, we'll never get out of here."
The group assembled, now completely packed, and followed Wilam to the outskirts of town.
Once they reached the start of the slender path they would be taking into the mountains, Wilam gave the group marching orders. He quickly realized that the clumsy princess was going to need help, and that Zelgadis wouldn't take the time to assist her, especially in his own weakened state. Xellos would probably push her off the path just for the amusement value, so he turned to Lina.
Lina was adjusting her new warmer traveling garments and muttering something about hating to travel in the cold. Wilam crossed her off the list and turned to Gourry and Sylphiel. Sylphiel was clinging to Gourry's arm as they made their way across a slippery patch of leaves. Wilam sighed, crossing them off the list as well.
"Well, Princess, how would you like to be my climbing partner?" He asked, flashing her a grin.
"I guess that's okay, Mr. Wilam" Amelia said, flashing a pleading look at Zelgadis, who ignored her.
"Right, Zel, Lina, Xellos and Sylphiel behind us, and Gourry make sure that you help anyone who needs it, okay?" Wilam looked over the group, realizing that Xellos had disappeared.
"Where is Xellos?" he asked, somewhat confused.
"Don't worry about him, he'll pop back in at just the wrong time." Zelgadiss answered.
After reassuring Wilam that there was nothing to worry about, and that Xellos was capable of catching up with the party at any time, the group began the long journey into the mountains. Wilam was somewhat surprised to find that Amelia's clumsiness didn't cause her more concern, and took the opportunity to speak with the young princess. After a while, she became resigned to the fact that a trapper doesn't have much contact with anything requiring a dose of justice, and settled into the rhythm of the trip, half heartedly listening to his stories about the village they had just left.
The first day of the trip passed uneventfully, and the group stopped in the early evening to set up camp. While Sylphiel prepared food and Gourry, Zelgadis and Wilam pitched the tents, Lina and Amelia gathered extra firewood for the fire.
"Miss Lina?" Amelia asked, once the others were out of site.
"Yes, Amelia?" Lina responded, fumbling slightly with the pile off wood she was putting together.
"Are you still upset with me?" Amelia asked, setting her armful of wood down next to Lina's.
Lina fussed with the wood a bit more, avoiding Amelia's gaze. She sighed, then stilled her hands and looked up.
"Amelia..." She began, looking the younger girl in the face, "I think that you really need to stop jumping to conclusions. I know that you... well, what I mean is... I know that you think you have feelings for Zel, but..."
Lina trailed off, noticing the other girl's eyes filling with tears. She was very uncomfortable talking about this with Amelia, especially when the younger girl's unhappiness was so evident. All Lina really wanted to do right now was to hit something, or maybe blow something up... she shook her head in a futile attempt to clear it.
"No, Amelia... I'm not still upset with you." Lina sighed. She watched the younger girl swallow her tears, and wished that she was better at this. "I think you just need to leave Zel alone right now. He's not feeling well, and..."
"Oh, Miss Lina. I know that sometimes Mr. Zelgadis is a little hard to talk to, but surely he needs to know that we care about him, especially now!" Amelia cried. She quickly gathered up her load of firewood and turned to go back to camp. "I'll go tell him right now!"
"Oh, no!" Lina whimpered. "Zel's gonna kill me!"
Back at camp, Gourry had been banished from the tent setup crew because it was taking them longer to untie him from the tents than it would have to set everything up without him. Sylphiel had detangled him, and had set him to fetching water for the stew she was planning to cook for dinner. When Amelia returned with the additional wood supplies, Sylphiel smilingly had her stack the wood near the fire area. Zelgadiss had finished setting up the last of the tents, and was leaning up against a nearby tree.
Amelia immediately saw her chance, and walked towards Zelgadis.
"Mr. Zelgadis?" She began, approaching him quietly, "Mr. Zelgadis, are you okay?"
Zel mumbled something vague, and Amelia immediately began to stutter.
"I just wanted to tell you that... well, we all care about you very much... and well..." Amelia began to squirm, not sure exactly what she was trying to say.
"Is that you Amelia?" Zel said, barely opening his eyes.
"Umm, yes..." Amelia began.
"Oh, is Lina back, too then?" Zel asked, somewhat distracted by the pain in his head.
Amelia's face immediately fell at Zel's question. Here she was, trying to reassure her companion that she cared about him, and the first words out of his mouth where a question about Miss Lina? Immediately, she felt horrible... Miss Lina had prepared that headache tea for Mr. Zelgadis, maybe that was what he was looking for... at least she hoped so.
She looked around the campsite, not seeing Lina. 'Maybe I can cast a spell and help him... maybe then he won't need Miss Lina's tea...' Amelia thought.
"I don't see her... do you want me to try to help? I could cast a healing spell." Amelia offered timedly.
Zel sighed, looking up into Amelia's hopeful face. He really just wanted something to make the pain go away, maybe Amelia's healing spell would help. It couldn't hurt to try...
"All right." He agreed, pushing himself up from the tree.
Amelia beamed at him, thankful that Mr. Zelgadis would want her help. She began to cast her best healing spell, but as soon as she finished the spell, Mr. Zelgadis drew back with a hiss of pain.
"Get Lina!" Zelgadis snapped at Amelia, curling into a ball at the base of the tree.
Amelia gasped in horror, her eyes filling up with tears.
"Miss Lina!" She cried, not noticing that the chimera shivered in pain at the sound of her voice. "Miss LINA!"
This time Zel's response was evident, tears forming at the corners of his eyes, and a cry of pain forcing its way out of his throat. He curled further into himself and covered his ears, breathing harshly.
Lina turned from the stack of wood she had been adding to, and saw Amelia running full tilt towards her. As she watched, the young princess tripped over a small rock and landed on top of Wilam, who was just emerging from his tent. The two rolled to a stop near Gourry's feet. Gourry immediately picked up a small twig, knelt down, and began poking the two of them with it.
"Hey. Get up. Hey." Gourry continued poking the tangled duo, making no attempt to actually help them up.
Lina sighed at these antics, and stomped over to pull Amelia up by her collar. Amelia dangled limply, her eyes swirling blindly as Lina demanded to know exactly what was going on. The noise from all of this muffled the tiny whimpers of pain from the chimera under the tree.
Soon Sylphiel came over to figure out what all the fuss was about. She extricated Amelia from Lina's grasp and set her down gently on the ground. Amelia immediately gasped out the news that Zelgadis was suffering some odd effects from a healing spell, and Lina ran over to see if she could do anything for the now insensible chimera.
Upon finding him unconscious under the tree, she immediately asked Sylphiel for a pot of water and produced the herb packets from her pockets. Setting the medicinal tea to steep, she began casting the headache spells that Luna had taught her years ago. The first two attempts produced no response in the stricken chimera, but Lina Inverse would not admit defeat to a mere headache. The third try produced some results, and Lina immediately maneuvered the groggy chimera into his tent.
The interested party heard strange rustling and whispered commands come from inside the tent, but no one wanted to check and see what was happening. Soon, a slightly pink Lina emerged from the tent, glaring in all directions.
"Welcome back, Lina." Wilam began with a smile.
"Don't you start with me, Mister." Lina snapped, heading towards the guide with fire in her glare. "I don't want to hear about it..."
Wilam laughed, motioning to Sylphiel. "Stew's ready, are you joining us?"
The rest of the group let out the breaths they'd been holding as Lina's attention was immediately redirected.
"Food?" she asked, little stars forming in her eyes. "You have food? For me?"
Gourry looked up from his fifth helping to announce, "Yeah, it's really good. Aren't you glad Sylphiel came with us?"
Lina agreed, mouth full, as Sylphiel set another pot of tea out for the petite sorceress.
While Gourry, Amelia and Lina were occupied with the pot she had left sitting next to the fire, she carried a bowl of the stew into Zelgadiss's tent.
"Mr. Zelgadiss?" She called softly, "I brought you some dinner."
The gentle shrine maiden knelt beside the bedroll-wrapped chimera and carefully shook him awake. She blushed as he sat up, and then realized that he was still fully clothed. She hid a smile at the realization that Lina was embarrassed because of what others might have thought, not because of anything that actually happened. She carefully held out the bowl of stew to the sleepy chimera.
"Thank you, Sylphiel. I think I'll come out and eat..." Zel said, pushing his covering back and taking the bowl of stew. Sylphiel smiled at him, then carefully turned and exited the tent. Zel followed, the bowl of stew carefully balanced in one hand. He sat down near the fire, turning slightly away, and began to eat.
"Feeling better, Zel?" Lina asked, sitting back and rubbing her distended belly. "I know that Sylphiel's cooking is enough to make anyone feel better, but really."
"Thank you, Miss Lina." Sylphiel replied, gathering up Gourry's bowl and cup and washing them absently before replacing them in her pack. "But I think that it was probably that headache spell of yours that did it. Would you mind teaching it to me?"
"Oh, and me too, Miss Lina?" Amelia asked, bouncing over to clean her own dishes.
"I'll have to think about it," Lina replied, looking down at her bowl. "I hate washing dishes..."
"Oh, I could do that for you in return for teaching me the spell." Sylphiel offered, knowing that Lina would find some way of getting out of the chores she didn't like.
"You're on, Sylphiel!" Lina cried, holding out her bowl to the shrine maiden with a grin. "Victory!"
The next morning dawned chilly. The various slayers gang awoke, or were dragged kicking and screaming from their beds. Amelia was the first one up, and bounced from room to room, happily informing her traveling partners that it was almost time to go.
Amelia's usual morning exuberance was slightly less bouncy than usual, but most of her traveling companions were a little too tired themselves to really be aware of it. Lina had evidently spent most of the night in the kitchen with Millie and the chef arranging last minute food for the next day. Zelgadiss had remained buried in the old stories of Rezo's journey to the temple, and between the lack of sleep and the increasing mental strain of his current condition was unresponsive even after his morning coffee. Gourry was too intent on breakfast, and Sylphiel was too intent on Gourry to notice Amelia. Xellos noticed Amelia, but was enjoying her mental turmoil too much to assist her.
"Miss Lina," Amelia began "When are we going to leave? I thought that we had to start off early in order to make it to the best campsite before dark."
"Hmm?" Lina grunted, shoveling food into her mouth and blinking at Amelia's questions. "We'll leave soon. Don't worry about it."
Xellos giggled silently at Lina's response. This trip was going to be very amusing. Soon the group was finished with their breakfast, and Wilam had arrived ready to leave. The entire staff watched the group divvying up their additional provisions, amazed at the casual displays of magic. Lina carefully divided the food supplies up, making sure that she had tucked a good supply of Millie's sleeping draught into her packs next to the package of big sister's headache tea. Amelia needed some help placing her portion of the supplies into a pocket space due to its large size, but Sylphiel had gotten enough Gourry watching in to tie her over until Amelia was comfortable.
"It's a good thing Miss Sylphiel is so good at teaching, isn't it Miss Lina?" Amelia chirped at the fiery sorceress.
"What do you mean by that, Amelia?" Lina snapped, turning to the younger girl menacingly. Xellos bounced in glee at the upcoming explosions.
"Nothing, Miss Lina, just with Mr. Zelgadis so sick and you taking care of Mr. Wilam's supplies and all..." Amelia trailed off, wondering how to extricate herself from this new mess.
"Lina, leave Amelia alone." Zelgadis interrupted, "We need to leave, and if you slow us down now, we'll never get out of here."
The group assembled, now completely packed, and followed Wilam to the outskirts of town.
Once they reached the start of the slender path they would be taking into the mountains, Wilam gave the group marching orders. He quickly realized that the clumsy princess was going to need help, and that Zelgadis wouldn't take the time to assist her, especially in his own weakened state. Xellos would probably push her off the path just for the amusement value, so he turned to Lina.
Lina was adjusting her new warmer traveling garments and muttering something about hating to travel in the cold. Wilam crossed her off the list and turned to Gourry and Sylphiel. Sylphiel was clinging to Gourry's arm as they made their way across a slippery patch of leaves. Wilam sighed, crossing them off the list as well.
"Well, Princess, how would you like to be my climbing partner?" He asked, flashing her a grin.
"I guess that's okay, Mr. Wilam" Amelia said, flashing a pleading look at Zelgadis, who ignored her.
"Right, Zel, Lina, Xellos and Sylphiel behind us, and Gourry make sure that you help anyone who needs it, okay?" Wilam looked over the group, realizing that Xellos had disappeared.
"Where is Xellos?" he asked, somewhat confused.
"Don't worry about him, he'll pop back in at just the wrong time." Zelgadiss answered.
After reassuring Wilam that there was nothing to worry about, and that Xellos was capable of catching up with the party at any time, the group began the long journey into the mountains. Wilam was somewhat surprised to find that Amelia's clumsiness didn't cause her more concern, and took the opportunity to speak with the young princess. After a while, she became resigned to the fact that a trapper doesn't have much contact with anything requiring a dose of justice, and settled into the rhythm of the trip, half heartedly listening to his stories about the village they had just left.
The first day of the trip passed uneventfully, and the group stopped in the early evening to set up camp. While Sylphiel prepared food and Gourry, Zelgadis and Wilam pitched the tents, Lina and Amelia gathered extra firewood for the fire.
"Miss Lina?" Amelia asked, once the others were out of site.
"Yes, Amelia?" Lina responded, fumbling slightly with the pile off wood she was putting together.
"Are you still upset with me?" Amelia asked, setting her armful of wood down next to Lina's.
Lina fussed with the wood a bit more, avoiding Amelia's gaze. She sighed, then stilled her hands and looked up.
"Amelia..." She began, looking the younger girl in the face, "I think that you really need to stop jumping to conclusions. I know that you... well, what I mean is... I know that you think you have feelings for Zel, but..."
Lina trailed off, noticing the other girl's eyes filling with tears. She was very uncomfortable talking about this with Amelia, especially when the younger girl's unhappiness was so evident. All Lina really wanted to do right now was to hit something, or maybe blow something up... she shook her head in a futile attempt to clear it.
"No, Amelia... I'm not still upset with you." Lina sighed. She watched the younger girl swallow her tears, and wished that she was better at this. "I think you just need to leave Zel alone right now. He's not feeling well, and..."
"Oh, Miss Lina. I know that sometimes Mr. Zelgadis is a little hard to talk to, but surely he needs to know that we care about him, especially now!" Amelia cried. She quickly gathered up her load of firewood and turned to go back to camp. "I'll go tell him right now!"
"Oh, no!" Lina whimpered. "Zel's gonna kill me!"
Back at camp, Gourry had been banished from the tent setup crew because it was taking them longer to untie him from the tents than it would have to set everything up without him. Sylphiel had detangled him, and had set him to fetching water for the stew she was planning to cook for dinner. When Amelia returned with the additional wood supplies, Sylphiel smilingly had her stack the wood near the fire area. Zelgadiss had finished setting up the last of the tents, and was leaning up against a nearby tree.
Amelia immediately saw her chance, and walked towards Zelgadis.
"Mr. Zelgadis?" She began, approaching him quietly, "Mr. Zelgadis, are you okay?"
Zel mumbled something vague, and Amelia immediately began to stutter.
"I just wanted to tell you that... well, we all care about you very much... and well..." Amelia began to squirm, not sure exactly what she was trying to say.
"Is that you Amelia?" Zel said, barely opening his eyes.
"Umm, yes..." Amelia began.
"Oh, is Lina back, too then?" Zel asked, somewhat distracted by the pain in his head.
Amelia's face immediately fell at Zel's question. Here she was, trying to reassure her companion that she cared about him, and the first words out of his mouth where a question about Miss Lina? Immediately, she felt horrible... Miss Lina had prepared that headache tea for Mr. Zelgadis, maybe that was what he was looking for... at least she hoped so.
She looked around the campsite, not seeing Lina. 'Maybe I can cast a spell and help him... maybe then he won't need Miss Lina's tea...' Amelia thought.
"I don't see her... do you want me to try to help? I could cast a healing spell." Amelia offered timedly.
Zel sighed, looking up into Amelia's hopeful face. He really just wanted something to make the pain go away, maybe Amelia's healing spell would help. It couldn't hurt to try...
"All right." He agreed, pushing himself up from the tree.
Amelia beamed at him, thankful that Mr. Zelgadis would want her help. She began to cast her best healing spell, but as soon as she finished the spell, Mr. Zelgadis drew back with a hiss of pain.
"Get Lina!" Zelgadis snapped at Amelia, curling into a ball at the base of the tree.
Amelia gasped in horror, her eyes filling up with tears.
"Miss Lina!" She cried, not noticing that the chimera shivered in pain at the sound of her voice. "Miss LINA!"
This time Zel's response was evident, tears forming at the corners of his eyes, and a cry of pain forcing its way out of his throat. He curled further into himself and covered his ears, breathing harshly.
Lina turned from the stack of wood she had been adding to, and saw Amelia running full tilt towards her. As she watched, the young princess tripped over a small rock and landed on top of Wilam, who was just emerging from his tent. The two rolled to a stop near Gourry's feet. Gourry immediately picked up a small twig, knelt down, and began poking the two of them with it.
"Hey. Get up. Hey." Gourry continued poking the tangled duo, making no attempt to actually help them up.
Lina sighed at these antics, and stomped over to pull Amelia up by her collar. Amelia dangled limply, her eyes swirling blindly as Lina demanded to know exactly what was going on. The noise from all of this muffled the tiny whimpers of pain from the chimera under the tree.
Soon Sylphiel came over to figure out what all the fuss was about. She extricated Amelia from Lina's grasp and set her down gently on the ground. Amelia immediately gasped out the news that Zelgadis was suffering some odd effects from a healing spell, and Lina ran over to see if she could do anything for the now insensible chimera.
Upon finding him unconscious under the tree, she immediately asked Sylphiel for a pot of water and produced the herb packets from her pockets. Setting the medicinal tea to steep, she began casting the headache spells that Luna had taught her years ago. The first two attempts produced no response in the stricken chimera, but Lina Inverse would not admit defeat to a mere headache. The third try produced some results, and Lina immediately maneuvered the groggy chimera into his tent.
The interested party heard strange rustling and whispered commands come from inside the tent, but no one wanted to check and see what was happening. Soon, a slightly pink Lina emerged from the tent, glaring in all directions.
"Welcome back, Lina." Wilam began with a smile.
"Don't you start with me, Mister." Lina snapped, heading towards the guide with fire in her glare. "I don't want to hear about it..."
Wilam laughed, motioning to Sylphiel. "Stew's ready, are you joining us?"
The rest of the group let out the breaths they'd been holding as Lina's attention was immediately redirected.
"Food?" she asked, little stars forming in her eyes. "You have food? For me?"
Gourry looked up from his fifth helping to announce, "Yeah, it's really good. Aren't you glad Sylphiel came with us?"
Lina agreed, mouth full, as Sylphiel set another pot of tea out for the petite sorceress.
While Gourry, Amelia and Lina were occupied with the pot she had left sitting next to the fire, she carried a bowl of the stew into Zelgadiss's tent.
"Mr. Zelgadiss?" She called softly, "I brought you some dinner."
The gentle shrine maiden knelt beside the bedroll-wrapped chimera and carefully shook him awake. She blushed as he sat up, and then realized that he was still fully clothed. She hid a smile at the realization that Lina was embarrassed because of what others might have thought, not because of anything that actually happened. She carefully held out the bowl of stew to the sleepy chimera.
"Thank you, Sylphiel. I think I'll come out and eat..." Zel said, pushing his covering back and taking the bowl of stew. Sylphiel smiled at him, then carefully turned and exited the tent. Zel followed, the bowl of stew carefully balanced in one hand. He sat down near the fire, turning slightly away, and began to eat.
"Feeling better, Zel?" Lina asked, sitting back and rubbing her distended belly. "I know that Sylphiel's cooking is enough to make anyone feel better, but really."
"Thank you, Miss Lina." Sylphiel replied, gathering up Gourry's bowl and cup and washing them absently before replacing them in her pack. "But I think that it was probably that headache spell of yours that did it. Would you mind teaching it to me?"
"Oh, and me too, Miss Lina?" Amelia asked, bouncing over to clean her own dishes.
"I'll have to think about it," Lina replied, looking down at her bowl. "I hate washing dishes..."
"Oh, I could do that for you in return for teaching me the spell." Sylphiel offered, knowing that Lina would find some way of getting out of the chores she didn't like.
"You're on, Sylphiel!" Lina cried, holding out her bowl to the shrine maiden with a grin. "Victory!"