CHAPTER ONE: Time for a synopsis

View point Lina

I'm twenty-three now. Cool, huh?

Twenty odd years of living under the same sky, doing relatively the same thing and still nothing has changed. True, I've been on quests and saved worlds to small continents (I'm an equal opportunity kinda hero) but life hasn't changed much. While I do admit that I thought I was going out and doing different things all the time, I also know I was kidding myself. My life goes in cycles really.

At the moment something slightly unlike the norm is occurring, I'm alone. Usually I have my "Inverse-gumi" but today I'm standing in solitude. "Lina lone wolf" beneath a fountain. It's quiet and peaceful; people walk by and aimless chatter filters up towards my ears. I like it here; I have space to think.

It must have been a while since I last saw most of my friends; Amelia is still off princessing, that's for certain. She had to go home and start being a ruler; her father isn't directly in line to the throne you see. He married The Queen and was named prince, to be named king that would suggest he was higher than the rightful heir to the throne. The people now want a direct line again and Amelia is there to fill the place.

I think Zel is staying with her at the moment, as a loyal and forever grumpy bodyguard. Amelia wrote to me a sometime a few months ago and told me he's mellowed out a bit. Seems he decided to live as he is. Amelia said that when he first arrived at her palace he was dirty and torn, begging for a place to stay. He'd mumbled on about something incoherent for about twenty minutes then conked out.

He later told her that he'd found himself standing in front of some temple and had been hit with a kind of inspiration. He found that he knew where all the traps would be found inside, just by looking at the place, because he'd done the same thing so many times. He could scarcely recall how long he'd been chasing after this one dream, how many weirdly named buildings he'd been through. He told Amelia he couldn't remember his birthday or his age, whether he'd been as he was for a century or just a decade or two.

He told her that he'd realised that nearly every village he'd passed by had at least one werewolf or Cyclops as a blacksmith or a store-owner. He couldn't remember a time when someone had looked at him oddly, except for when he'd had his face coverings pulled up. People were curious about anonymity, not about him. He told her he still hated his face when he saw it in the mirror but that he couldn't bear to waste another day of his life for nothing. He didn't want to die alone.

After this Amelia informed me that she would indeed kill me if I told him I knew this. Amelia is certainly growing up, she even told me how she could get it done.

Filia I haven't seen for about... maybe a year or three. The last time I did though, she was living happily in her potters shop. Val was looking well; growing up to be a fine "strapping young lad" Fil's incredibly proud of him. Nothing much else has changed with her but she did say, "Xellos says hi." She was looking rather plump… You can decide for yourselves what they've been doing. I think they're happy just staying in one place quietly for the time being.

Oh yeah, and Sylpheel is currently the main shrine maid of Flagoon. Very dedicated and still hung up on a certain someone. Not that he doesn't pretend not to notice. She knows she is a "shrine maiden" though, I guess I'll see what comes of it. The decision is hers.

Which brings me to one more, perhaps the most important one, perhaps not.

My best friend, my companion, my blonde-haired jellyfish. Yes, Gourry is still around and kicking. He's still a swordsman and he has an orihalcon blade at the moment. He says this is so he can channel his energy into it, like the sword of light, without it breaking. I don't know quite how it works; I think he's keeping things from me. He seems to be less dumb these days, like Amelia is less hyperactive and Zel is less depressed. I think we've all grown up. Though we do still have our off days.

The thing I like most about Gourry is that he's easy to spot. I can see him now, all sex... I mean six feet something rising above a crowd. He's like a gentle giant, only he moves fast when he has to and he's deadly with a blade. Some things about him can be vaguely disturbing. Despite his simplicity he still manages to surprise infrequently, particularly with his behaviour. I think that's because he's not a boy anymore, he's grown from when I first met him.

His smiling face looms closer in my vision.

I haven't seen him for a week, we parted ways so he could do some sword searching and I could do some bandit smashing. We have a bit of a routine going now, I suppose, I miss it when he's gone. I can see him wading through the small crowd closer to me. "Lina," he says happily when he's bridged the gap. He hugs me. I am comfortable with this. Gourry is a man now, and I think I'm a woman.



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This fanfic is about life after try, this means it occurs in the same universe, with the same characters. At the moment the couples are obvious but I'm not sure I intend to keep it that way. Filia and Xellos won't be included in this fic as of yet. I welcome all critique with open arms, it can only help me see where to leave my skills and where to enhance them: Fic written under the pen name, Amalphia.