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!

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"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" Amelia screamed as she was shoved through the doorway. She felt herself falling and instinctively cast a levitation spell. However, this just made it so she was floating in total darkness.

"Miss Lina?" she called out hesitantly.

"You ok Amelia?" asked the familiar voice.

"No I'm not ok!" she shouted back. "Miss Lina! You're so mean!!"

Lina sighed and cast a lighting spell. Then she sent it through the doorway to Amelia. Amelia watched as the small ball of light floated down past her. When it hit the floor, it exploded in a burst of light, illuminating the surrounding area. Lina then floated down next to Amelia.

She smiled. "See, nothing bad happened to you."

"That's not the point!!" But Lina had already landed on the stone floor below. Amelia quickly landed beside her and looked around.

The two girls appeared to be in an ancient temple. Unlit candles hung on the stone walls. There were several stone benches around the room, which were all coated in a thick layer of dust. In the center of the room was a large stone table.

As Lina lit a few of the candles, Amelia walked towards the table. She noticed that there was an old book lying in the middle. "Miss Lina! Come here! I think I found something!" she said as she blew the dust off the cover. All the dust made her sneeze loudly and Amelia nearly dropped the old book.

"Amelia! Be careful!" Lina scolded her as she quickly grabbed the book away from the other girl. The cover was too old to read clearly so Lina opened it up, hoping the rest of the book was still in tact. She gasped at what she read inside.

Amelia was finally able to stop sneezing and looked over Lina's shoulder. "What does it say?"

"Well, I can't read all of it but from what I understand, this book contains a very powerful spell. I'm just not exactly sure what it does…" She pauses as she reads a little more. "From what I can tell, it creates a doorway."

"A doorway? But to where?" Amelia asked

Lina shut the book. "How should I know?" She looked around one more time. "Well, I don't think we're going to find anything else down here. We should start heading back."

The two then flew back up the way they had come, with Lina keeping a strong hold on the old book.

Zel and Gourry were still in the underground cavern, trying to figure out what to do about the large yellow duck in the center of the room.

As he held his sword ready, Gourry turned to Zel. "So, your big spirit thing didn't work?"

Zel sighed. "Won't he ever learn names?" "No, Gourry, it didn't work."

"Alright. It's my turn then." He paused and then shouted, "Light come forth!!" Instead of a metal blade, his sword was now made out of light. He then ran towards the large duck, raising his sword above his head. Right as Gourry was about to bring it down he felt himself flying backwards into the hard stone wall.

"You alright Gourry?" Zel asked as he turned towards the now glowing yellow duck.

Gourry rubbed his sore head. "Yeah, I'll be fine. But how did it do that?"

Before Zel could answer, he found himself flying through the air towards the ceiling. He stopped just inches away from slamming into it. Then he fell all the way back down to the ground.

The fall hadn't really hurt him because of his rocky skin. But now Zel was mad! "Fireball!" he shouted as a ball of hot flames flew from his hands. However, the duck just glowed again and the ball stopped inches in front of it. Then the ball extinguished itself in a small puff of smoke.

Zel mumbled angrily to himself. He was about to try another spell when Gourry interrupted him.

"Hey Zel! I've got an idea." Gourry quickly told him his plan.

Surprised, Zel said, "You know, that might just work!" He turned back to the duck and cast another spell. "Gaav Flare!"

The annoying duck was surrounded by fire. It simply glowed again and extinguished the flames. However, this time, there were so many flames that the room filled up with smoke. As some of it cleared, the duck suddenly saw a figure jumping towards it. But it was too late to defend itself. The figure swung the Sword of Light and the duck disintegrated like the others.

Gourry landed on the ground behind where the duck had been. He then put away his sword and turned back towards Zel. As he did, he noticed something on the table. "What's this?" he asked as he reached for the large piece of paper.

Zel walked over and looked at what Gourry now held in his hands. "It looks like a map."

The map was actually in pretty good condition for being in a cave for so long. It was barely faded and only one corner was ripped. In the bottom left corner was a small note that read "You Are Here".

"Hey, we can use this to get back to where we split up." Zel said.

Now that they had a definite idea as to where they were going, Zel and Gourry decided to head back and see if the others had found anything yet.

Adara mumbled curses under her breath as she slowly made her way along the barrier. She tried to keep her eyes looking out towards the fresh green grass, but every once in a while she had to turn and look towards the lake. So far, she hadn't seen anything but water…

She suddenly noticed how dark it had gotten. As she looked up at the spectacular sunset, she heard a voice behind her.

"There you are! I was wondering when you were coming back! Did you find anything!"

Startled, Adara was about to throw a fireball at Xellos when she remembered the barrier. "Don't do that!!" She paused and tried to calm herself down. "No, I didn't find anything!! And what have you been doing this whole time?"

Xellos smiled at her. "Oh, just running some errands…"

"Errands?!? Out here?" she yelled in response. Adara then sighed. "Look, I'm in a really bad mood right now and I would like to get out of here as soon as possible!"

"Well, I don't think you can… at least, not until you find what it is that we need."

"WHAT!?! But I looked everywhere and it's not here!"

Xellos pointed behind her. "Not quite everywhere…"

Adara shook her head. "No way! There is no way I'm going in there!"

"It's only a little water. It won't hurt you…"

"But… but…" she whined. Then she realized she really had no other choice.

Taking very little steps, she worked her way towards the edge of the lake. Once she was finally there, Adara reached down and tentatively stuck her hand in the water. "Ahhh!! It's cold!!" she shouted.

She shivered slightly as she looked out over the calm surface of the water. Then, she took off her cape and boots.  "Well, I'd better get this over with…" After taking a deep breath, she jumped as far out into the lake as she could.

As soon as she hit the icy cold water, Adara wanted to get back out! But she was already soaking wet… and besides, she had to find something that would get her out of the barrier!!

The sorceress whined to herself for a minute and then took another deep breath. Then she dove under the water. She managed to open her eyes so she could see where she was going. As Adara was trying to see through the dark water, she felt something rub against her leg. She almost screamed but remembered she was underwater. As she turned, she saw it had only been a fish…

"I want to find this thing now!!" As she was watching the fish swim away and contemplating what spell to blow it up with, she noticed something. On the ground not far from where she was swimming was a piece of metal. Adara swam down to it and found out it was a rusty old chest.

She smiled with delight. "This has to be it!" However, as she realized this, she also realized that she was running out of air. Frantically, she reached for the chest. But she couldn't lift it!! "What's in this thing anyway?"

Then Adara had an idea. Holding her right hand out towards the chest, she thought "Windy Shield!" A small barrier of wind surrounded the box and slowly began lifting it towards the surface. Adara quickly swam after it, relieved that she could now get out of the water.

When she was finally out of the water, she laid out on the dry grass. But she was still soaking wet…

After she was fully dressed again, she walked over to see what was in the chest. After the heavy box was set down on the ground, the shield disappeared. Adara then tried to pry open the lid. But it wouldn't open… The metal had been rusted shut…

"AHHHHH! It just had to be stuck!!!!" she stopped her ranting and thought about how she could open it. "Well, I can't fireball it or anything because I don't know what's inside… but maybe…" She smiled and then recast her Windy shield spell. The chest then floated high above her head.

Once she thought the box was high enough, Adara released her spell, sending the chest plummeting to the ground. Pieces of wood and metal were sent flying through the air.

Then she was able to approach what was left of the chest. After digging through the remains for a few minutes, she finally found something. It was an old gold key.

The overjoyed sorceress jumped up and down, clutching the newly found object to her chest. "This has to be it!! I know it!!" Then she ran straight for the barrier.

Xellos was still standing in the same spot as when she had left him. Adara was too exited to wonder about what he could possibly have been doing while she was in the lake.

Xellos, on the other hand, was just surprised to see the girl running right for him. "I see you've found something!" he called out. "But are you sure it's the right something…"

The rapidly approaching girl faltered for a step or two, but then continued on her fast pace. "It has to be! I am not going back in that lake!!" And with her last remark, she hit the barrier…

And passed through effortlessly. However, her speed hadn't changed and she ran right into the mysterious priest on the other side…

When the two finally came to a stop, Adara found herself lying awkwardly on top of Xellos. She blushed furiously and quickly stood up. She quickly searched her mind for something to say. Settling on changing the subject, she held up the key. "See, I was right!"

"Ah, so you were." Xellos replied. "Well, I guess we'd better go then." He turned and started back down the path.

Adara quickly ran to catch up. Then she remembered something. "But I'm still soaking wet!!" she whined.