Title: Slayers Gateway: Discovery

By: Slayersgrl (slayersgrl@yahoo.com)
Disclaimer: I don't own the Slayers… just borrowing them…

A/N: This is the first in a trilogy I'm working on. Only the first part, Discovery, is done so far… Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Lina walked through the woods wearily. "It's been three days since we last saw a village!! I thought you said there was one up ahead!" she exclaimed in frustration.

Zelgadis, who was leading the group at the moment, slowly stopped and turned around. He glared at the disgruntled sorceress. "Well maybe we would have been there already if you hadn't overslept!"

Lina glared back at Zel. "Hey, can I help if it a girl needs her beauty sleep!"

Zel decided there was no way he was going to win this argument. So he just turned back around and started walking again. Amelia, on the other hand, decided to add to Lina's annoyance.

"Miss Lina, don't you think you could at least walk a little faster. You're trailing so far behind the rest of the group."

"That's it!" Lina had finally had enough. She held up her hand and a fiery ball appeared. "FIRE…" But before she could finish her spell, two strong arms gripped her from behind, making her stop the spell.

"Whoa Lina! Calm down!" Gourry said as he tried to get Lina to relax. "Look, we're all a little hungry and tired, but I'm sure we'll find a town soon."

Xellos, being the 'oh so helpful' Mazoku that he was, calmly added, "I'm not hungry."

It took all of Gourry's strength to hold Lina back…

Eventually, they came across a small town. Luckily, they were all in once piece: no thanks to Lina however. There was only one restaurant, so the travelers had no choice but to go there. As they headed towards the building, they noticed that the villagers were looking at them strangely.

Zel, feeling self-conscious, immediately pulled his hood back up and covered his face. Gourry didn't seem to notice. And Xellos just had that big smile on his face. Lina, however, was confused. "I wonder what their problem is?"

"Well," Amelia replied with a smile, "They probably think we're a group of bandits or something." After a menacing glare from Lina, she decided to hide behind Zelgadis.

They then walked inside the dim restaurant and took a seat. Lina and Gourry immediately grabbed the menus. Their faces fell once they saw what was listed. "Hey, waitress! Get over here!" Once the waitress got to their table, Lina immediately began to voice her opinion about the choice of entrées. "What's with your menu?! Everything here is vegetarian! Where's all the meat!"

"I'm s…s…sorry!" the waitress stuttered. "A…A…All the livestock are gone. Some bandits attacked us and all the animals escaped. The only food we have now is from the farms outside of town."

Lina ears perked up. "Bandits you say? Did they take anything else?"

"No, just our livestock." The waitress paused. "Actually, the whole thing is really quite perplexing. We didn't even see how many bandits there were. There was too much smoke and flames." Then, returning to her job, she asked, "So, can I take your orders?"

"We'll just have whatever you can give us…" Lina replied for the others.

After the waitress left, Gourry suddenly spoke up. "Wow, that's really weird. I guess those bandits must have been pretty hungry, huh Lina."

Lina was about to whack the swordsman over the head until she realized what he had just said. "You know, as dumb as that sounds, there doesn't seem to be any other reason as to why they would do that. I mean, they didn't even take any gold or anything!"

"Maybe it wasn't bandits." Xellos interrupted.

Zel glared at him. "And what exactly is THAT supposed to mean."

"Uh, nothing… Forget I mentioned it." Xellos was spared from having to say anything more by the arrival of their food.

Lina just stared at it. Then she noticed that the others were already eating. "Well, it's not what we normally have, but I'm so hungry I'd eat just about anything!" And with that, Lina took a bite. It was actually pretty good! She then ate as much as she could, also helping herself to Gourry's…

After their 'lunch', they decided to ask a few of the other villagers about this mysterious bandit gang. All Lina and Gourry could find out was that no one had actually seen any of the members of the gang. Apparently, they had a sorcerer/sorceress working for them because right before the attack, several fireballs were thrown into the middle of town. This caused so much smoke and confusion, that no saw anything.

Amelia and Zelgadis were able to find out something more… There was a reward being offered for whoever could find these bandits and take care of them. Lina immediately decided they should go and collect that reward. She made them all rush out of town. (They picked up Xellos, who had stayed at the restaurant to finish some tea, on the way.)

After about an hour, Lina's enthusiasm wore off. She had forgotten how hot it was walking through the woods. And, to make it even worse, she was now hungry again! In fact, she was so hungry that she had begun to imagine Gourry was a nice big chicken leg… Right before she completely lost it, she heard a strange noise. "I'm so hungry, I'm hallucinating! I thought I just heard a cow."

Amelia stopped. "But I heard it too."

"It came from up ahead." Zel said as he cast a Raywing spell. He then flew to see what the source of the noise was. About a minute after he had left, a loud explosion shook the ground beneath them. The rest of the group quickly ran to see if Zelgadis was all right.

Lina was the last to reach the clearing: at least, what was left of it… There was now a small crater in the center with charred grass and trees around the edges. Standing a little ways off was Zelgadis, sword drawn and ready. "What happened?" Lina asked as she looked for their attacker.

"I have no idea," was Zel's reply. "I didn't even see who attacked me. It seemed to come out of nowhere."

Suddenly another fireball flew through the smoke and headed straight towards Lina, Gourry, Amelia, and Xellos. Xellos just teleported out of harms way, leaving the others to defend themselves...

Amelia decided she would take care of the situation. She stepped forward and readied her spell. Then she shouted "FIREBALL!"

"Amelia! Not again!" Lina yelled as she dragged Gourry and Amelia as far away as she could.

The explosion that followed was somewhat larger than they had expected. The blast flung them all the way to the edge of the clearing. When some of the smoke cleared, Lina, Gourry, and Amelia found themselves standing alone.

"Mr. Zelgadis! Where are you?" Amelia called out worriedly.

But before getting a reply, Lina noticed two people running through the trees. She took off without waiting for Amelia or Gourry. After running about ten steps, she realized it would be a whole lot faster to fly. She cast Raywing and was soon soaring above the forest canopy. She couldn't see who was running below, but she had an idea of who one of them was…

Up ahead, Lina could see that the forest ended and there was only an open field. She smiled and then flew faster to get ahead of those on the ground. She gracefully landed on top of a small hill near the edge of the trees.

A minute later, a figure ran out of the forest and headed straight for Lina. As the figure came closer, Lina was shocked. Running towards her was a girl, not any older than herself. She had two bright red pigtails tied at the top and ends with white bows. She was dressed in a sorceress' costume consisting of a white shirt and skirt, with gold trim. The girl also wore a shoulder guard over the left shoulder. To complete her outfit, she wore a long black cape.

But as the girl got closer, Lina could see her casting something… And then a fireball was flying right at her! She barely had enough time to jump out of the way. But as she did so, the girl was then able to run by her. Lina angrily stood up but found herself knocked to the ground again by the girl's pursuer.

"Hurry up and give me a hand!" came Zelgadis' voice as he chased after the fleeing girl.

By now, Lina was furious. She quickly cast Raywing and flew past Zel towards the girl. When she was within reach, Lina tackled her from behind. The two sorceresses rolled several times before coming to a stop. Lina had managed to pin the other girl down.

"Now, you're going to explain to us exactly what you were doing back there!" Lina yelled at the frightened girl.

Zelgadis slowly walked up behind them. "Way to go Lina. Just frighten the girl to death. I'm sure she'll just tell us everything now."

Lina just glared at him, then at the approaching Gourry and Amelia, and then back at the girl.

"Mr. Zelgadis! You're all right!" Amelia exclaimed as she ran up and embraced the chimera.

Zel tried to pry the princess off of him so he could actually breathe… "Amelia! Do you mind?!"

The girl was now utterly bewildered. "Uh…" she began. After seeing Lina's expression, she figured she'd better hurry up with her explanation. "Ok… ok… I was the one who attacked the village. But I had to do it!! I couldn't let those poor animals continue to be locked up like that! How can people eat such cute little things?"?!"

Everyone sweat dropped in unison. "Uh… ok…" Zel mumbled.

Then she remembered something. "Lina? Did you say Lina? As in, Lina Inverse, the greatest sorceress who ever lived!" she asked excitedly.

Everyone stared at her in disbelief. Lina slowly let go of the girl and stood up. "Wow, that's a first…" she mumbled.

"Yeah, no one calls you that but yourself." Zel added under his breath. Luckily, all he got was an angry glare.

The girl jumped up in excitement. "So you really are Lina Inverse! I've been waiting my whole life to meet you! You've been such a role model for me!"

Everyone exclaimed in unison, "WHAT!?!"

Amelia shuddered at the thought. "Miss Lina… a role model?" Amelia got whacked on the head for that one.

"Uh, so… who exactly are you?" Lina asked, still wary about whether she should be elated or concerned that someone thinks of her as a role model.

"Oh! Hold on." The girl then proceeded to quickly dust herself off and readjust her cape. She then fixed up her hair as best she could. "Ok, I'm ready." She then posed and began her obviously prepared speech.

"I am Adara, the dazzling, magnificent fire sorceress! I travel throughout the land, always striving to achieve my ultimate goal: to meet Lina Inverse!" Adara suddenly stopped. "Uh, I guess I've just done that… Now I have to make up a whole new speech!

Lina had made up her mind: she was afraid, very afraid…

Just then, Xellos decided to reappear. "My my. This was certainly unexpected."

Adara then screamed as loud as she could and proceeded to blast Xellos with a fireball.

"You must admit: she does have your reflexes!" Gourry replied with a laugh. Lina however, didn't respond. "Uh, Lina, are you ok?" As he stepped closer he heard her saying something softly. "Hey Zel, what spell is 'Darkness beyond twilight'?"

Zelgadis didn't even respond. He grabbed Gourry by the arm, Amelia grabbed the other, and then they flew away as fast as they could. Xellos simply disappeared.

Adara found herself standing alone. "Uh guys? What's going on?"

Lina shouted "DRAGON SLAVE!"