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THE SLAVERS Chapter Four - Something Stinks in Dragonville… ####################################"Well, I'll hazard a guess and say it was an astral attack of some kind," Lina said.
"More than that," Xelloss said. "Holly has lost her uniqueness also. We've cancelled one another out, leaving just the human qualities."
"Hey, I'm still here!" Val pointed out. "And I ain't human at all."
Lina shrugged, "I haven't got it all figured out yet, but I will." She folded her arms and searched out Xelloss' eyes. Human for certain, but not as confounded with his 're-birth' as she might expect. "You're dealing with this well, Xelloss. It's as if this happens to you on a regular basis."
"Well, I wouldn't say 'regular', but on occasion when the mission required it or the moment moved me…" he began smoothly about to describe his sex life to Lina.
That was not something she wanted to hear or know about! She smashed him in the face to shut him up. "Not that! Damnit, Xelloss! I'm talkin' about becoming human!"
"Owwwwww," he whined. "I don't repair so quickly, Lina! Now I'll have a black eye! I don't want to be seen with a black eye!"
"Here, Mr. Xelloss," Amelia said as she pulled him into the light to see the damage better. "I can heal you now, watch!"
"I can't WATCH! It's my face you're treating!" he whined more.
"That's right, but I promise you'll look good as new in just a moment. There… What do you think, Holly? Is he as handsome as ever now?" Amelia asked.
"Too delicate, for a fighter," Zel muttered before she could reply.
"I'm supposed to appear innocuous and non-threatening," Xelloss cut in defensively.
"What was that line you used on us when we first met?" Lina asked with a smile.
"Um…I'm not sure, Miss Lina. I say many things…" he said warily.
"That's for sure," Zel said under his breath. "And none of them useful or important."
"That's not entirely true! I'm evasive and… Where would the fun be if I just told you everything?" Xelloss smiled. He had managed to throw the ball into Zel's court.
Zelgadiss' lips drew back in an evil grin. He might not be as strong a magic user as Xelloss now, but he certainly could damage him a bit if he tried. Lina saw the look and stopped Zel with smallish FIREBALL thrown between the two men.
"That's enough!" Lina shouted, bringing all arguments and sparring to a halt. "If you two want to duke it out, make it after we've resolved Holly's predicament. Got that?! We don't wanna draw attention to ourselves, now that you two are unreliable… Well, you are! You're two human sorcerers and that's about it. Standard issue; no demon magic. One might say that you're both kinda a liability to me now… But I'll let you hang out with me a bit longer…IF you behave yourselves and control your macho, male egos!"
That said, Zelgadiss and Xelloss clamed up for the time being.
"So, then, Lina" Gourry broke in bravely. "What are we gonna do now?"
"Probably spend a great amount of our time travelling around evading Mazouku curious about us. And… we still wanna find a spell that opens that dimensional rip and help Holly pass back through. You do still wanna go back, doncha?" Lina turned toward the young woman and waited for an answer.
That was a complicated question to answer.
"I bet Zel wants ta stay the way he is, doncha Zel?" Gourry asked.
Zelgadiss gazed down at his flesh-covered hands. "Yes. It's been the focus of my life since I was transformed—to become entirely human again. I could be happy to remain in Holly's company forever, if that's what it takes, no matter how much of a drag on Lina I am." He glanced over at Amelia. His words had struck a sensitive chord and brought tears to her eyes. "I-I mean, in the proximity of Holly…just for the effect to be complete!" he added quickly. He looked askance again at Amelia and found that he'd said the right thing. She had brightened considerably.
Xelloss looked dazed. He was in love for the first time in his life. He was happy. He did not want Holly to leave him, and yet…she did not belong in this world. What would her impact be over time? And of course, what did she want herself? He knew that he wasn't really human; he didn't feel human, mortal, with a soul. But he wasn't entirely Mazouku either having had his astral part withdraw far out of his touch. He felt entirely alien, though. Odd and out of touch, and worse, dependent on Lina and her band of misfits to save him, whatever that meant. He needed to find a way to revive his Mazouku nature, he supposed, but did he want to lose these new passions? Lose Holly? Lose the only good thing he had ever possessed, at least possessed in his heart. No. So, what was he to do?
Holly shook her head in answer to Lina. "I'm so confused. I don't belong here but…I don't want to leave now either!'
No one had an answer. A gentle breeze blew through the pine needles, making the trees sigh.
Gourry scratched his head and said, "I was thinkin' 'bout that hole in the sky."
Lina smiled, "The rift?"
"Yeah," he looked pleased with himself. "Ya didn't try any dragon spells on it. See, Val here didn't get bothered by Holly or nothin', nor did Amelia or me. We ain't demon whole, part, or nothin', but you guys and Lina in a way I don't really get are. Ya tried human and demon spells, but nothin' dragon so I got ta thinkin'…"
Lina grinned and slapped him on the back, hard enough to wind him. "And good thinking that was! Yer right! Val, what dragon spell do ya know?"
Val, like any teenager put on the spot with his shortcomings in full view, grew sullen and uncooperative. That left Xelloss to speak up for him. "Unfortunately, Filia-dear has neglected that part of his education," Xelloss said quietly.
"Then we'll have to go get her. Val, take me. The rest of you lay low and wait. We should be back by nightfall," Lina announced.
She could not be argued with or nay-sayed and Val needed an excuse to show off some ability of his. All those teenage hormones had bulked him up and fired his passions. He required a physical outlet right now and Lina's suggestion suited him fine. With barely a "harumph", Val transformed into his gigantic dragon form and helped the tiny redhead onto his back. "She'll be fine. Nothin'll happen to her," he growled.
Xelloss nodded. He was actually more concerned for his own neck. He was certain that Val could break it with a well-placed kick, now.
*~~~*
Filia was surprised, but pleased, to see Lina and her foster son step into her shop late in the afternoon. Lina jumped into an explanation the moment the single customer finished her business and left. "So…What we need you do is to blow off some dragon spells at this crack…between two worlds."
Filia flopped onto a stool and drew a deep breath. After a pause, she met Lina' expectant gaze. "I'll come and help, but that's not what you need me to do. That would close the abyss forever."
"Huh?" Lina straightened. "You understand what I'm talkin' about? You know somethin'?"
Filia nodded. "We'd better hurry. I don't want to explain this over and over, so just take me to your camp where I can see this girl first. By the way did you get a good look at the Slavers who had captured her?"
Lina shrugged slightly embarrassed, "Ya mean before I blew 'em up?"
Filia sighed and locked the door to her shop, flipping over the Closed sign. "Where are we going?"
"Just follow me," Val shouted gruffly as his arms lengthened and roughened with dark scales. "It's too hard to explain."
And in a minute, the two dragons, with Lina aloft flew into the already setting sun.
*~~~*
Meanwhile, Gourry kept his mind off the missing Lina problem by sparing with Zelgadiss, and alternatively Xelloss. Amelia fancied testing Zel's magic ability over attempting to do the same for Xelloss. Xelloss appeared to be uncomfortable in his new skin, so to speak, and was unwilling to display any new weaknesses, even in front of these 'friends'.
"Come on, just try the spell Mr. Xelloss," Amelia pleaded at one time.
"Miss Amelia. I know you mean well, but even in my most esteemed Mazouku position, I did not practice white magic. It's just…not my thing. I call on the dark lords for power, not the gods, thank you."
"But you are a dark lord yourself—or were-- and you can't call on anybody right now, correct?"
He gave her a disturbed look, "Yes." It came out practically a hiss. Without his contact with his astral self and astral powers, he was merely a highly skilled human sorcerer—in the black arts, of course.
"Then maybe the gods will listen and help you with this spell. Now try it!" Amelia was persistent. You had to give her that.
Holly watched and encouraged the boys to push themselves and really test their boundaries. Lucky for them they were well conditioned. Zel's musculature had maneuvered a golem shell and carried that weight for several years. Now released from carrying that load, he was stronger than most men his size. He was, however, no longer protected by the rock, and neither had he the demon speed and agility he once had, nor the hearing! He had to relearn how most effectively to wield his sword, and that would take some time. The shamanist spells still responded to his chants, but to a lesser degree commensurate with his overall reduced demonic power.
By the end of the day, both men were worn out and discouraged, Xelloss especially so. The loss of his astral part was distracting him; he felt lost and extremely out of balance and disadvantaged. It made him snippy. Zelgadiss became sullen.
"Come on, Holly," Amelia called her away. "We don't need to listen to two grown men gripe. While Mr. Gourry is fishing, we can clean up a little, wash our hair, you know, girl-stuff!"
Holly agreed. As much as she believed she loved Xelloss, she did not care to be around him at the moment. By the time they had returned to camp, the sun was going down and the smell of fish sizzling over an open flame reminded them of how long it had been since they had eaten.
"Better hurry," Gourry waved them over. "This is the second batch I've cooked. The first went real fast."
Oh yes. Both Xelloss and Zelgadiss now had to consume food to fuel their bodies all the time. It was most bothersome and undignified, scrambling and fighting over portions. They wondered what would happen when they had Lina and Val to share the meager offering with as well.
Gourry looked over the dwindling pile of fish remaining. "Yer gonna havta learn how ta fish."
"I can fish," Zel revealed.
"I so know how to fish," Xelloss said proudly.
So they joined Gourry by the stream to demonstrate their abilities. Xelloss whispered a spell and sent a glowing ball of energy into the slower moving, deeper section of the water. Zelgadiss, in turn, chanted a spell creating a magical net, which snagged then swiftly hauled the stunned fish out of the water and to the shoreline. Gourry slapped them both on the back and chuckled. "Wish I could do that trick!"
"I hear something overhead," Zel said as they carried their catch back to camp.
"It's Val, no…it's yellow and big." Gourry squinted through the trees. "I think… It's gettin' dark."
"Filia!" Xelloss smiled. "My, my…how good of you to join out little party!. And now, here comes your son and Lina. We just caught ourselves dinner number three. Care to join us?"
Lina punched him on the head, "You haveta ask?"
The odd assortment of beings sat by the crackling fire that night, well nourished and physically exhausted from all their activities. It was time to talk and sort out what they knew and what they would do next.
"What I am saying," Filia repeated more haughtily than necessary. "Is that the rift might have be caused by a dragon attack gone wild and that the slavers might have been black dragons in disguise, or at least travelling in human form."
"So," Zel sighed, "How can we tell, now that they've been destroyed? We can't explore the rift until its day light out."
Filia straightened, "Well, does anybody have anything from the slavers? Trinkets, clothes, any artifacts that I can see."
Lina turned over the entire haul of valuables, which she had collected, but sadly, everything was human in nature, probably all stolen merchandise from the people they had captured and enslaved.
Then Amelia hopped up, "Oh! I kept the coin bag from them. Just a minute and I'll be right back!" She skipped off to her shared tent and returned with a grin. "I loved the little pictures stitched into the trim at the edge, see? That's why I kept it!"
Filia nodded, "That's it. Black Dragon. They still use a form of primitive picturegraphs with which to write. This says…and I am not one hundred percent proficient in reading this I warn you…"
"Oh really," Xelloss smiled. "And you seemed such an expert!" He was teasing her and she knew it.
"I'll demonstrate my superior breeding by not falling into one of your traps, Xelloss. Ahem… this held a fixed amount of gold worth 12 slaves it says. They count everything base twelve, you see."
"Why's that, Miss Filia?" Amelia asked.
'Because," Xelloss answered this time. "They have twelve toes and twelve fingers!" He wriggled his own gloved ones, all ten.
That's correct," Filia nodded. "So, your slavers were black dragons by the marks on the coin bag."
"That explains why they were so nasty towards me," Xelloss imparted with a smile.
"And maybe why they didn't detect anything unusual about Miss Holly here," Zel noted. "Had they been Mazouku, they would have felt her…astral interference after awhile."
Lina shrugged, "Yeah, if they had her long enough…and if the bag wasn't stolen off some other guys."
"What's bothering me is, I didn't know dragons kept slaves," Amelia put in.
Filia nodded, "Only the Black Dragons, nowadays. Black dragons were slaves to the Ancients and Goldens, my people, at one time—a long time ago. I guess they retained that horrendous custom in their culture as we dropped it and became more civilized."
"I guess," Xelloss chuckled. But before she could generate any anxiety from his ribbing, he changed subjects. "So, what of the spell affecting dimensional rifts?"
Filia blinked and hesitated a second before saying, "A Dragonbreath variation."
Xelloss' smile turned more evil. "Something like that could be dangerous. It could bring powerful enemies here, like Dark Star. Forces of darkness like Death Fog and Chaotic Blue."
Just saying their names made the air grow colder, the night seem blacker, and the sounds around them become unfriendly and foreboding.
"W-Who are t-they?" Amelia asked with a quavering voice.
"The Shabrinigdos of other worlds," he answered to her dismay.
"Don't you think we know that? Why else do you think these rifts are never found? We don't use the spells intentionally. It's forbidden! Only a very few of the priests and priestesses know them at all. However, if there was an accident, an attack where the spell was produced improperly and resulted in…a rift…" Filia replied.
"Or," Lina leaned in, stabbing at the air to make her point. "The Black Dragons are messin' around. Testing their skills…planning an attack. Maybe they see this as their chance to rise to the top of the Dragon pool."
That pronouncement was met with silence.
"That would be very bad." Filia gasped.
"It would indeed," Xelloss agreed. "And there isn't a damned thing I can do about it."
"Bet that was the plan," Gourry chuckled mirthlessly. "Didn't the caravan thing come to ya in a dream Lina?"
"Ah, that was my trick," Xelloss relented and told them all a secret. "the dream thingy…"
"So where did you get the lead from?" Gourry stopped stirring the coals and met Xelloss' eyes. "They got to one of yer servants and fed them a clue or two. It was a trap fer you."
Lina looked askance at the tall, lanky swordsman. "When did you get so knowledgeable about dragons, huh?"
"I'm not. Don't know nothin' 'bout dragons, but I can see a trap after it's closed on my foot."
"Well, let's hope that the trap can be sprung yet," Lina grumbled. "We'd better get some sleep while we can. I have a nasty feeling about tomorrow."
"Good idea!" Xelloss said happily. "And I claim that tent over there." He offered Holly a hand up and together made for the furthermost tent.
"I'll take the first watch," Zel offered.
"Me next," Val grunted.
"I'll cover the rest of the night," Gourry said in a low voice. "Let the ladies sleep, if they can."
THE SLAVERS -- end chapter 4.