Raven Summersong: Thank you, it's always nice to know that my efforts to make the transitions smooth have been successful. Thank you also for the chocolate strawberries (please excuse the snicker, it's an in-joke) and the chibis send their thanks, too, for the chocolate donuts. (Chibi Ame in particular is happy about them.)
Alea Seikou: Um, he's not left Hell yet... I'm glad you're liking Jalon, though. About your theory, no comment. But I hope this chapter is up to your expectations...
Lauren-sama: Oh dear. Well, at least you reviewed before I got this chapter up...
On the first review: I'm glad my explanation was good enough to keep you from missing your theory that much after its demise. A lot of your questions regarding what's been happening will be answered at the bottom of this chapter... I'm glad you like Jalon, who is quite intentionally different for a mazoku since he's supposed to be somebody whom Phibrizo would ultimately deny having created and would never let out into public. I'm very happy you liked the bit about the sheep, too.
On the second review: Jalon may be turning up again later...and I'll keep your desire to have his ram turn up in mind, too. I'm pleased that somebody, at least, has been enjoying how he and Zelgadiss interact, since I've had a couple doubts on how well he'd go over. Thank you so much for the dark chocolate!
Slayers is the creation of Hajime Kanzaka and Rui Araizumi. I don't own it; they and a lot of other people do. I'm not making any profit off of this story.
Idylls
+=== A Slayers Fanfic by Ryo Hoshi
13 +===+ And the Wood Comes Into Leaf
Zelgadiss wasn't sure how much time passed before he saw Jalon again. He didn't have much to do, and the light was always dim, muted; he still had not discovered the source, since once he felt up to getting out of bed he had found out that the room was windowless and that the door was actually an amazingly realistic illusion. Food turned up every so often while he was asleep, though, and other things were taken care of regularly enough that he felt inclined to be a polite guest for a bit longer.
It was getting hard to convince himself to remain patient, though. He wasn't going to be delayed for much longer by his wounds. He knew that he would have left much sooner, had he not discovered that infection had set in when he had finally recovered enough to consider using a healing spell on himself. Zelgadiss had been quite lucky that it was only a minor infection, only bad enough to give him a bit of a fever, but he remembered Amelia having been quite adamant that no healing spells should be used on any wounds that had been infected.
He wasn't that happy about it, but he had understood why. It was better to put up with letting himself heal with abysmal slowness, with the agonizing wait for his skin to become as strong as it had been before and no longer so vulnerable, than have an even more serious infection on his hands. It would have helped if he had something to do other than the most basic motions of life while he waited.
Zelgadiss woke up suddenly as a weight seemingly dropped out of nowhere and landed on top of him. He blinked a few times before he realized that the weight was Jalon, who was straddling his waist...
Zel yelped and scrambled to pull himself out from under the mazoku, blushing the entire time.
"I see you're nearly fully healed!" Jalon announced cheerfully. Zelgadiss's blush deepened as he realized that he had been sleeping in the nude and he quickly held a pillow in a strategic position to protect what was left of his modesty. "I suppose you'll be glad to hear that I finished copying out the map... I'm really sorry it took so long, but I decided it would be a good idea if I copied out and translated the passage about the oasis for you, too."
"Thank you, Jalon-san. Maybe I should get dressed and leave now; I've imposed on your hospitality for too long already."
"Please, wait a little while longer. It would be rude of me to not see if I could find anything in the way of supplies for you, when you have done me such a favor as bringing news of my master's demise." Jalon grinned at Zelgadiss's confused expression. "You talk in your sleep, and you also babbled about some very interesting things while you had that fever..."
Damn! Zelgadiss thought, that fever must have been worse than I remembered...
Jalon hopped off the bed. "You really do need to be less uptight about your feelings. There's nothing wrong with loving other people, even if they're not what you're supposed to be in love with," he said with a cheerful smile before leaving Zelgadiss to sit there and be very, very confused.
Zelgadiss had been somewhat surprised to discover that his own personal kit and his clothes had come through completely intact, but then careful inspection revealed the faint traces of stains and repaired rips whose causes he found himself very disinclined to think about. His food supply had been replaced, though, which he suspected was something to be thankful for given that it had already been getting noticeably old when he had arrived at the edge of Hell.
Being carried through the astral plane by a mazoku was definitely not an experience he wanted to repeat, but he was glad that Jalon had been willing to dump him outside of the walls of sand that made up the outer walls of Hell. Zel carefully oriented himself, using the sun and his & Jalon's shadows to determine which direction he wanted to head in. Then, with a deep, calming breath, he turned to Jalon. "Jalon-san, thank you for all that you have done for me."
Jalon sighed. "I suppose that's all the thanks you'll give me," he said mournfully.
Zelgadiss twitched, remembering the mazoku's after-breakfast proposal of a quickie. "I prefer women."
"You do keep saying that..." Jalon said with an air of resignation.
Feeling that he had won, Zelgadiss started walking away. "Goodby..."
Zelgadiss froze as a pair of lips touched his own in a passionate kiss in mid-farewell. Jalon pulled away slowly from the stunned chimera, smiling cheerfully. "A kiss, for luck."
"Ah..."
Jalon gave Zel a gentle push, copping a feel as he did so. "Unless you want me to drag you back to the bed for more, you should start walking again," he said with a wink before teleporting away.
Zelgadiss couldn't remember the last time he felt so happy about leaving a place.
I suppose at this point I should explain a bit of what happened...
Phibrizo's headquarters are, according to various canonical resources, in the Desert of Destruction; Sairagg was taken over specifically for the events of NEXT. There is, as far as I know, nothing in the canon about it beyond that. Thus my description of Hell is made up almost completely from whole cloth.
So, really, aside from the prologue this entire story is technically set within the borders of Hell itself.
This is the last chapter of Idylls. This story will be continued in Shikar which I will be starting posting on Saturday. Meanwhile, please read Mr Somewhere, which is also continued in Shikar. Also, replies to all reviews of this chapter made before the second chapter will be included in that chapter's AN. Dark chocolate for myself and cinnamon buns for the chibis will certainly encourage me to work hard to maintain my current speed of writing.
