A few moments later found the group standing outside the city, panting and gasping for breath. Angry shouts could be heard from behind them, but none worried now because by the time anyone discovered they had left, they would be long gone. Tabby had managed to sneak back into the inn quickly enough to retrieve everyone's bags and these she handed out as she tried to catch her breath.

A voice from behind starlted them all.

"Hey!" Tabby spun around to see Valgaav standing there, a smile on his face. "Thought I'd find you here."

"How did you know we'd be here?" Lina demanded, her eyes flashing angrily. It seemed she was in no mood to deal with Valgaav, having just realized that she wouldn't be receiving those gold pieces for winning the contest.

Valgaav chuckled rather menacingly before saying, "Well, when I noticed half the city go up in smoke, I knew I could catch you here before you fled."

She pursed her lips and then began to ignore Valgaav.

"Where's Teague?" Tabby asked suddenly, seeing that Val was alone.

Valgaav shrugged lightly, "He left during the night. It was time for him to be getting home anyway." Val's yellow-green eyes held the look that he really couldn't care less about Teague, the man must have only been an acquaintance.

"And you simply don't care where he went?" Amelia demanded.

Before he said anything, Val sighed and shook his head. "No, that's not it. It's not that I don't care, it's that I don't know where he went. The man simply muttered about going home, said farewell, and then he left. That's all."

Considering this carefully, Amelia finally nodded. Tabby could tell she didn't really accept the story, but it mattered only little in her mind. "So, Miss Lina, what are we going to do now?"

But the great sorceress only shrugged, "I don't know, Amelia. Tabby, are you setting out now?"

"It seems like the wisest decision after what happened." To this Tabby nodded and leaned back on the trunk of the tree she was standing in front of. "Zelgadis, do you want that sheet back?"

However, Zelgadis shook his head. "I can remember the directions, the thing is they're of course not from here to Rorfinia." As Tabby's mouth dropped open, he continued. "They're from the Kataart Mountains to Rorfinia."

"Don't tell me we'll have to go all the way to Kataart just to get where we're going!" Lina cried, her eyes aflame. She stuck her hands on her hips and sent a scathing look at both Zelgadis and Tabby.

"Not at all, Lina," Zelgadis interjected. "It's rather easy to decipher from here where to go, without going all the way back to the mountains."

Lina calmed down about it then and went back to dusting off her clothes. A few patches of rubble had embedded themselves into her shirt and pants and she was furiously trying to pull all of the rocks out.

Valgaav looked around with a rather amused expression, but it softened when he looked over at Tabby. She was looking quite ill-appeased in her current state. "Look, we better get going, guys. Before they come looking outside of the city for us. Zel, which way do we go?"

~*~

"So, Tabby, you said you'd tell us the story of how you met dear Valgaav here." Lina's voice was candy-coated in sarcasm as the word 'dear' left her mouth. She cast a one-eyebrow-raised look in his direction.

Watching her feet as they took small steps along the path Zelgadis had pointed them down, Tabby sighed. For an instant, she glanced up at Valgaav, but saw that he wasn't really listening. His arms swung at his sides, whispery noises emitting from where they rubbed against his shirt. In a stalling fashion, Tabby looked up at the birds that circled, called, and chittered overhead, darting in and out of the veridian trees that lined the beaten dirt road. Finally her eyes left all of this and went to her expectant cousin. "Do you really want to know?"

Lina nodded curtly. Even Amelia dropped back a few paces to listen. Gourry simply walked on, headed off by the stone-skinned chimera. For at least an hour now they'd been walking in silence, ever since they'd left the town. Only now had Lina decided to speak up.

"Well, what happened was this..." And Tabby began her tale.

* * *

It was two years ago when she'd stumbled upon him, traveling alone near the outermost ridges of a mountain range. They were not the Kataart Mountains, but another chain Tabby hadn't caught the name of. She had finally stopped to rest on a small outcropping in the rock a few feet off the ground when she heard the sounds. There was the distinct noise of phasing, a sort of traveling only Mazoku and Ryuzoku (the Dragons) really had the power to do. It consisted of astrally shifting oneself from one place to another without actually walking or such action. Then there were the curses and yells, definite signs of battling between two or perhaps even more opponents. Also, there were the explosions of power and magic to consider.

Even though she knew she couldn't interfere Tabby had gotten a strange sense of urgency as she listened to the battle continue. When finally the sounds began to die down, she hastened to where she felt was the right place. What she found was what looked to be a human being, lying in a pool of blood. Gasping at this atrocious site, she stumbled down a most convenient mountain pass and headed straight for the body. She noticed as she neared that this was no ordinary human, for one there was a small, dark horn that protruded from the frontmost top of his head, amidst a sea of mint green hair. Two small stripes elongated from where his head met his neck and on up into the edges of his cheeks.

This could have been a number of races that lived throughout the continent, but Tabby couldn't specifically finger one for this man. She knelt down beside him and tried to wake him by patting at his cheeks. The rest of him was covered in his blood, which was unusually silvery. "Please don't be dead," she said softly.

But thankfully at that moment, he coughed. It was a dreadful hacking sound and a few trickles of blood leaked from his mouth. Tabby would have wiped them away, but she was still a little cautious about touching him. "Hello?" she said, hoping that he was awake enough to talk to her, though what he would say she wasn't sure. "Hello, can you speak?"

He only coughed again and proceeded to try and curl into the fetal position. Tabby knew then she would have to get him to some sort of healer soon, or else things would be grave. No pun intended.

However, she could not physically lift him. She might have been a great sorceress, but she was no body builder. So, instead she would have to rely on her magic. "I hope this doesn't hurt anything," she muttered before casting a Ray-Wing around herself and the man. Tabby cringed when she saw the spilled blood dripping down through the bubble of air she'd created. "I hope I'm not too late."

Then she flew, fast and hard through the air, only stopping once where she'd first heard the battle to pick up her things. Afterwards she sped towards the nearest town, a small one she'd passed on her way to the mountains, hoping against hope he'd make it and a healer there could help him.

However, there was not such great news at the town. The healers she consulted in the little establishment refused to help him, claiming that he was somehow half Mazoku and Ryuzoku. Tabby didn't want to believe that was possible. After all, the two races completely despised one another. So, she rented a room at an inn, promising no trouble with her companion, and spent the rest of her time nursing his wounds.

A week passed before she was able to really get acquainted with the one she'd saved. He had spent most of that week in and out of consciousness, while his wounds healed and his powers returned. Often, Tabby would sit by his bedside, watching over him and every so often helping him along with what little white healing magic she knew. For a long time he was a most pitiful sight, but as the days went by he began to gradually look better. When at last a week had passed, he was looking quite fresh and new.

One morning he woke her and said, "I have to thank you for what you've done for me. I appreciate it more than I can truly show you."

Tabby nodded, sitting on her pallet in the floor, for she'd given him the only bed in the room. "I was afraid you'd die if I didn't do something."

"I very well might have."