--- A Slayers Fanfiction by Winged Dancer.
"What a nice day, today!!"
"Indeed!! The sun shines, the sky is so blue and I've got some ice cream. Nothing could be better. Well, maybe a few sandwiches, you know - a whole picnic!!"
"That'd be great!! If we had known the weather would be so nice today, we could have even brought a lemonade jar and a cake."
"That's a nice idea, coming from you Gourry."
A tall man, of perhaps four-and-twenty years, smiled. "Heh. Thanks, Lina."
"It's nothing, it's nothing. Lets go find some shadow now; we don't want our ice creams to melt under the sun."
"But didn't Xelloss and the others said they'd meet us at the entrance?" Gourry asked, as his companion started walking.
"Yeah, yeah. But you know Xelloss - he'll talk Filia into going to the lake or something like that and leave Amelia on her own, and she'll find us by herself."
"You think?"
The pair found a nice shadow under a leave-filled tree, and Lina sat down with care, straightening her one-piece red dress and making sure most of her legs were covered.
"Yes, Gourry. Amelia is not dumb, you know - she'll figure that, being us, we went to get something to eat and will search near the food vendors, therefore finding us easily enough."
The blonde man sniggered. "Your brains sure make up for your lack of breasts, Lina."
"Why you…" Moral problem: Lina was a lady. Maybe not a very wealthy one, and maybe her family didn't had the 'breeding' the Seyrunns or the Ul Copts did, but she was a lady nonetheless. Therefore, she shouldn't insult nor punch a man; as that was utterly un-ladylike.
Gourry, however, soon was rubbing his arm, hoping he wouldn't get a bruise out of Lina's punch.
"Hey, I thought your sister had told you not to hit me anymore!!"
"Well, you deserved it!! True gentlemen wouldn't say something like that to a lady like me."
"But… you are no lady, Lina."
If something could unnerve Lina, that was Gourry's oh-so-honest comments. He wasn't trying to poke at her - he was just stating an opinion.
"Gourry… just shut up."
"Why?"
"Just do it or I'll be forced to kick you."
"Alright!! Alright, I'll shut up now!!"
"Good boy."
Their concentration went back to their respective ice creams, that were starting to melt by then; but being fast eaters, that wasn't much of a problem.
"Told you, Gourry. Look who's coming now."
"Miss Lina!! Mr. Gourry!!" A black-haired girl with a long white skirt called.
"Hey, Amelia!!" Gourry waved at her. "How'd you found us?"
The girl smiled. "Well, I figured that since the sun is so strong today, you'd try and get an ice cream, so I decided to search for you here."
Lina snickered. "Told you."
"And Filia and Xelloss?" Gourry continued.
"At the lake. Mr. Xelloss convinced Mr. Filia to go rowing - I just hope he wont throw her overboard this time…"
"Told you again!" The red-headed laughed out loud.
"Right, right…" Gourry mumbled. "Hey, Amelia - would you mind casting a healing spell on my arm? Lina hit me again…"
"What?¡ Miss Lina, that is terribly improper and un-ladylike!!"
"Well, what he told me wasn't terribly gentlemanlike either!!"
Amelia sighed, starting to cast the Recovery spell on Gourry's arm. "Really, I sometimes can't understand the two of you."
"Whatever," Lina grumbled. "Where were you all? I hope you didn't go to the movies with those two. My last movies experience with that pair was definitely not a good one. Xelloss can be so… so…!! Well, so himself sometimes!!"
Her friend laughed. "I completely agree. But no, we didn't go to the movies…" The girl's smile disappeared. "We went to that fair we saw announced at the town. There, Mr. Gourry - it shouldn't hurt anymore."
"I don't think it hurt to begin with, Amelia. And what were you doing at that fair? It's not something I can imagine you being at!!"
"Yeah. I mean, you are more of a uh… well, I don't know, culturized person." Gourry tried, happy to see his arm wasn't sore anymore.
"Er... wrong, non-existant word, Gourry, but I think I understand what he means."
"Well, Mr. Xelloss convinced me to go… it wasn't that bad, at first. Some creatures were so pretty!! Like the unicorn, Miss Lina!!"
"A unicorn?" Lina's eyes lit up. "To have something like that - it must be as valuable as h… as a gold mine. And beautiful, too."
"Watch your language, Miss Lina." Amelia scolded, playfully. "It was very pretty, but, it turned out it was a complete fake!!"
"What?¡ A.. fake? How can that be possible!!"
"Maybe they used some glue and pasted a horn to the horse's forehead?"
"Er, not exactly glue, Mr. Gourry. But the owner, some Mr. Messon, used magic to cheat people into believing all the creatures were real!! Can you believe he did something so unjust?!"
"So… cunning, actually." Lina quickly started to scheme. "He must be powerful in his own sense, to be able to use a mind spell so strong to control everybody who enters…"
"Why would he do that?" Gourry blinked. "You think he couldn't find a real unicorn?"
"Of course not!! No unicorn would be dumb enough to be caught. He must've enchanted all of his creatures to gain customers."
"But… there were some real creatures there, too." Amelia's voice became sad at this. "Humans, just like us, and he had them caged and mistreated."
"Humans?¡" Both Lina and Gourry exclaimed, both in surprise and dislike.
"Yes!! There was a girl about our age, Miss Lina - he had sown wings to her back and called her a siren. And she was almost naked, and looked so sad!!"
"What a scoundrel…" Gourry muttered, frowning. "How can someone be so cruel, to do that with a girl?" Lina nodded.
"There was also this crippled man…" Amelia continued, "He had only one eye, but with the illusion, he looked like a Cyclops. And, the one that impressed me the most… a Chimera."
"Eh? Ca-meera?"
"No, Gourry - Chi-me-ra. A mix of creatures, or something like that."
"Yes - this one was a man, but he had stone skin."
"Stone skin?" The blonde cocked his head. "Was it even able to move?"
"Well, he was able to leap at the jars and talk, so I guess he could…"
"Wait a minute there!!" Lina cried, interrupting. "He could talk??"
"Well, he… um, looked to be a man." Amelia semi-blushed. The loincloth did little to hide the chimera's attributes. "And his voice sounded like a man's, too."
"…so this man, Messon, is a strong-enough sorcerer to build such a chimera…?"
"No, he captured it."
"Aw, poo. I was hoping I could get some information out of him."
"…poo?"
"Imagine - I could become the strongest sorceress around!! Not that I'm not already." Lina said. She loved to flaunt, but at least with that, she was being quite truthful - the petite redheaded had enough power to blow an entire town and most probably would be quite able to hold her own against Xelloss - in fact, one or two spells in Lina's arsenal could probably defeat or even kill the man.
However, Amelia was not thinking of that - she was thinking of the opening Lina was showing there.
"Well, he's powerful anyway. He managed to trick both Miss Filia and me!! Perhaps he has some secret spells…"
"Bah, mind-control is not my zone." Lina dismissed the idea.
"…and he might have some money."
"What are you getting at?" The girl arched an eyebrow.
Gourry sighed. "Mention money and you'll have Lina's complete and undivided attention."
Amelia suppressed a giggle. "Well, Miss Lina, I was thinking about, you know, maybe helping those creatures escape, since it's completely unjust for them to be caged."
"So…?"
"You want our help, don't you?" The blonde man quickly offered.
"Yes, of course!! Miss Filia and Mr. Xelloss have already agreed to help, but I need more people!! I want to be sure we'll be able to free all the creatures and that no innocent by passer will be hurt…"
"So, some of these creatures are dangerous, uh?" Gourry seemed to be thinking. "Why would you want to free them if they are dangerous, Amelia?"
"It doesn't matter if they are, Mr. Gourry!! If we are there to control things, nothing will happen at all. And we can't leave them there, either!! What will happen to them if they continue to suffer from this assault to their freedom? Who knows what kind of unbearable treatment they are subjected to!! No, Mr. Gourry, it doesn't matter if they are dangerous or not - we can't allow such a thing to go on!!" The girl finished the speech pointing a finger to the sky dramatically.
"Ar… er, well, what do you think, Lina?"
The redheaded had stood silent so far. "Mmmh… well, Gourry, if Amelia here will let me take the money and/or the magic knowledge we find…"
"You can keep the books. The money should go to those creatures that need it!! The 'Siren', the 'Cyclops', the Chimera!!"
"Alright, then." Lina crossed her arms, a little bit ticked at the loss of the money. "Let's check the fair tomorrow. If I deem anything to be valuable, we'll help."
Gourry sighed. "If you say so, Lina."
Amelia was so happy, she would've probably done a victory pose if it wasn't because of Filia walking towards them with a soaked Xelloss coming behind.
Zelgadiss couldn't get himself to sleep that night. It was a rather usual thing for him, though, to have sleepless nights that were spent in the planning of his escape or the planning of how he would kill his captor. But that night was different… that night, he wanted to sleep, if only to escape the sounds coming from the master wagon.
Panting, above every other sound, and a few muffled whimpers. He knew what was going on inside the Master's wagon… it made him want to cut the bars once and for all and finish things on the spot. But he couldn't, so he just satisfied himself with punching as hard as he could the orihalcon wall of his cage to let his rage out even a little.
Twenty minutes or so later, in the cage next to his, there came the sound of something soft dropping on the floor, and then the metal door closing and someone locking it. A few minutes went by, and someone started crying with violent, broken sobs.
"Lizzie?" Zelgadiss called, half-crawling to the end of his cage and towards his neighbor's. "Lizzie, are you alright?"
The sobs stopped for an instant, only to restart violently. "Oh, Zel…" A girl's voice spoke in between tears, "He… he did it again…"
The chimera grunted in frustration. Poor Lizzie - kidnapped away from her home, Messon had sown owl wings to her back using some strange spell and had forced her, as he had forced him, to stay all day long in a cage, half-naked. Not happy with taking her away from everything she loved and destroying her life, the Master also had the custom of having sexual intercourse with the girl every so often, leaving her more racked every time.
"Lizzie…" He called again, "Don't cry. I'll kill the bastard someday, I promise."
"Zel…" The voice answered meekly. Lizzie kept crying, rambling without realizing. "We are prisoners. We can't escape… we'll die here. Why can't I die already? I want to die. I want to, I want to. I can't take it… I can't, I can't."
"Poor girl." A deep voice came from the another cage, in front of Zelgadiss'. He recognized it as Mark's - the Cyclops. "She is lucky, Zelgadiss."
"Just how?" The stone-skinned man snarled. Mark could be so calm, so indifferent, it simply angered him.
"Die, die, die, die…" Lizzie kept chanting, in a vain attempt to lull herself.
"If that man was even more sick than he was…"
"Even if he did something worse, he couldn't hurt her more." The chimera spat. "He has destroyed her completely anyway."
"It can always be worse."
"How?¡ We are trapped, caged, mistreated, abused and poor Lizzie gets raped every week. How can it be worse?¡"
At the mention of her name, the girl gave a long, desperate moan full of pain and sadness. The moan broke into sobbing again, and the 'Die, die, die' lullaby came back.
Silence followed for a while. Finally, Mark continued:
"We could've lost all will to live, Zelgadiss."
He laughed in return. "I can't die just yet."
"I know. I can't, either. We all have different goals - Lizzie wants to return home. You want to kill Messon and continue with your search. Me…" Zelgadiss could almost swear the one-eyed man was smiling. "I want to take care of Cerberus and lead a peaceful, normal life again before I die. Isn't that right, boy?" A whistle followed that sentence, and Cerberus' one head barked from the distance.
Zelgadiss sneered. "You two… I find you all extremely weak."
Lizzie had fallen asleep. Mark sighed. "We are just very different, Zelgadiss."
The following day at the Fair would have been exactly the same as always for Zelgadiss if it wasn't because a certain familiar someone walking around the fair's grounds. The same man with purple hair that had taunted him the day before was back, along with his girlfriend. The chimera had to wonder, why were they visiting such a place again? At least the girl looked to be a snotty upper class snob, one that wouldn't like to visit lowly places like this one.
However, the two of them didn't seem to be looking at the creatures now - instead, they were walking from cage to cage, observing the positions and often arguing with each other about which place was best.
Zelgadiss' attention was quickly distracted, though, as someone started to yell not far away.
"No, Gourry, no!! I keep telling you, you can't use common glue to attach wings to people!!"
"But that girl…"
"No glue. Magic. Get it? You just have to… ignore the spell."
"I know that, Lina. From the time we entered, I could see everything was a fake.
The chimera, still sitting at the bottom of the cage, arched an eyebrow. It seemed there were a lot of people around the area with enough magic knowledge to see through the spell… and enough voice to alert everyone around of the prank they had been fooled by.
"Then why did you keep asking me?¡" The redheaded girl who answered to the name of Lina yelled.
The man, in return, only wagged his finger. "Well, I was just wondering how could you hide the glue so well."
"What glue?¡?"
"Eeeeh…. Excuse me, Mr. Chimera?" Zelgadiss almost jumped. To the right of his cage, a short girl with large blue eyes and black hair was standing - she had been there the day before as well, he believe. "Mr. Chimera? Good day."
The blue man stared at the girl. What could she possibly want with him? Just yesterday she was referring to him as 'it', and now she was trying to start a friendly conversation.
"I'm sorry if I interrupt anything…" The girl said, wavering. "But I wanted to apologize for yesterday. For - you know, taking for granted that you couldn't talk nor understand. I shouldn't have done that; a book is never to be judged by it's cover. It was an unjust behavior of me so, would you forgive me?"
Again, Zelgadiss didn't answer. He had no reason to, and he would rather have the girl leave. The book she was hugging close to her chest did seem interesting, though.
"And, I wanted to ask you… do you have a name?"
He sneered. "What do you think?"
"That you do. I'm guessing you do, but I can't know if you don't tell me." She said, looking happy he finally answered.
"Yes, I do. And that's none of your concern."
"Wont you tell me your name? I'm Amelia. I'm please to meet you."
"You are too forward for a girl."
"Well, maybe… but, what's your name then?"
"I haven't told it to the son of a bitch that runs the fair. I don't have to give it to you either."
"You can't be possibly saying I'm like Mr. Messon!! He's an unjust, cruel person that must be punished by his crimes!! I'd never do something like this." The girl indicated the Fair's grounds with her hand. In the background, the blonde was yelling at her boyfriend and the redheaded was trying to explain something to hers.
"I have no proof you are any different."
She frowned. "I'm completely different!! I'd like to help you, Mr. Chimera. You and all these people, and animals. Mr. Messon has no right to have you trapped like this!"
"Look, would you just stop calling me 'Mr. Chimera'?¡ It's frustrating enough to be one without you rubbing the fact!!"
Blinking, the girl looked a little confused. "Ah, sorry, I hadn't thought it would bother you that much. But how am I to call you if I don't know your name, then?" The girl half-huffed. "Wont you let me help you?"
"You could start to help by leaving me alone, and maybe just giving me that book you are carrying." Zelgadiss parted his eyes from her, looking at the bars in front of him.
"This… but you wont like it. It's just, uh, a pink novel…"
"Girl, I haven't read anything in almost two years. It could be a fairy tale for all I care."
"Fine… I'll give it to you if you tell me your name."
Sighing, he turned to face her again. "Zelgadiss."
"Mr. Zelgadiss. Nice to meet you!!" A petite hand was offered through the bars, careful not to touch them. He took it and quickly released it, hoping she'd give him the book.
However, as she placed it on his hand, she leant forward, close to the gate. "Mr. Zelgadiss - do you know who my friends are? Those four over there? We are going to get you all out tomorrow noon. It's Sunday, so just after church everybody will come here, and it'll be crowded enough for us to open the cages."
Against his will, Zelgadiss' eyes widened. "You can open these locks?"
"Yes - we all are mages, we should have no problem with them since we are outside the cages. We'll get you all out of here and to my place, where you'll be fed, washed and free to do as you please."
The girl was starting to take her hand away, but he took her wrist and violently yanked her close again.
"Girl - Amelia, you said - you know very well what will I do as soon as I'm free. If you want to free me, just remember that I'll kill that fat jerk as soon as I step out."
"I… I can't allow that." The girl answered, grimacing and trying to free her hand.
"The bastard deserves it."
"I know - but I can't allow you to break another law - we are breaking a few already!! W-would you let go of my hand and mind your vocabulary please?"
Zelgadiss released her hand, a little guilt appearing as he saw a bright red mark on her wrist.
Amelia looked a little scared, but nonetheless determined. "Mr. Zelgadiss… well, I'll see you at noon."
The girl left and walked to where two of her friends were standing already, the redheaded arguing with Mr. Messon about something. He looked down at the book in his hands, and half-smiled.
"Since when Descartes classifies as a pink novel?"
Notes: I'm very glad all you people seem to be enjoying this story. As much as I'd like to, it won't be very long - five or six chapters at much. It's the way it wants to be written, and seemingly it wont allow me to do any different. I work on my stories based on time - certain things must happen during a limited lapse of time, and all things that need doing in here must be resolved within a weekend.
Thanks to PyroPixie, Alea Seikou, Lady of the Moon, Raven Summersong, Ichiban Victory, Blue lady, Locke, Hysteria82, Dragonet of Ice, Suisei, Sis of Darkness, Amechan, Phizzy-chan and Ilione. Do tell me what do you think of this new chapter, I'll appreciate any critic.
WDR
