Chapter 5
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Note: If you are one of the over-serious Erik fans that I find glaringly annoying, and as such cannot stand the thought of him in any ridiculous situation, I warn you to stop reading now. Over the course of this chapter, he will sustain several embarrassing injuries at the hands of two young girls. For the rest of you, enjoy, as it is always quite hilarious to see a very dignified character stripped of all dignity. Why, just look at the fun the creators of Slayers had with Zelgadis! ^_^
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When he looked back upon the incident in previous years, Erik, the acclaimed and feared Phantom of the Opera, would have been hard-pressed to tell you exactly where all of this had began.
Here he was, though, on his back against the freezing stone of the floor, the wind quite effectively knocked out of him, staring up in to the wild, nearly hysterical face of Meg Giry, a young ballet girl for the opera house in which he made his home, who was apparently more highly skilled in the area of self-defence than the other ballet brats, and whose firm, lithe form straddling him, pinning him effectively to the ground, was really beginning to make him reconsider this whole 'pining eternally for Christine' bit.
His thoughts were blessedly derailed before he could embarrass himself when another voice called frantically from down the corridor.
"Meg! I heard a scream! What happened?"
"Amelia! I've found him! The Phantom!"
"Oh, no! Meg!"
The next moment, Meg was pulled off of him, and through a shower of stars, Erik found himself lying facedown on the floor with a small foot, clad in a mint-green boot, deeply embedded in his ribs.
"Foul fiend!" the same voice shrieked at our bewildered Phantom. "How dare you try to attack Meg?! Picking on someone smaller than you is utterly unjust!"
"Picking on Meg? Who exactly is attacking whom?" Erik demanded, prying the foot from his side and sitting up dizzily. He rubbed the sharp pain radiating out through his solar plexus, its origin about the size of a small fist. More exactly, Meg's small fist. He glanced up at her with a slight smile. "I am impressed, Little Giry. Element of surprise or no, it isn't every young girl who could take down Erik with one blow."
"Er-er, I apologize, Monsieur," Meg squeaked, now shaking uncontrollably. "You startled me, is all."
"Yes, you startled me as well, my dear."
"Silence, villain!" Amelia barked, assuming a pose. "We are down here in search of our friends, who we believe you have abducted!"
Erik rose unsteadily and raised an eyebrow behind his mask, the beginnings of a smile forming on the side of his mouth not covered by that same mask.
"Your friends?" he echoed. "Can you describe these friends of yours for me? You see, child, I abduct enough people over the course of a day that I am not always certain which ones which staunch hero is in search of."
Amelia scowled darkly at the tall caped man, suspecting that she was being made fun of.
Meg, however, did not share this suspicion, and instead suppressed a frightened whimper.
"Please, Monsieur, if Amelia's friends have come down here, will you let them go?"
He turned to glare at her, reflecting quite untruthfully that it always annoyed him to see people terrified of him. On any other day, Erik might have told you, immediately before disposing of your corpse neatly and efficiently, that he delighted in the frightened screams of those damned ballet brats when they were startled by loud noises in dark corridors.
"And why, pray tell, Little Giry, should I do that?"
"Because a lady asks you," Amelia replied immediately and smugly.
Erik let out a bark of laughter.
"A lady?! And exactly which one of you claims to be that? The little brat poking her nose into my business when she knows exactly how I hate to have my home invaded, or the little brat proving herself to be an ignorant, loud- mouthed chit?"
"Ignorant?!" Amelia repeated, her back up in an instant. "The only truly ignorant creature I see here is you, Phantom! You, who pay no mind to justice, and simply kidnap innocent girls and threaten to murder the men that they love! How utterly evil!"
"Oh, no," Meg sighed, bidding this mortal coil a melancholy farewell as Erik stiffened at these words.
"Little Giry," he began, his visible eye - and presumably the not visible as well - narrowing, "have you not told your new friend here of the inadvisability of angering me?"
"Y-yes, Monsieur," the tiny dancer choked out nervously.
"Perhaps you weren't clear enough?"
"I-I think I was as clear as I could have been, Monsieur."
"Perhaps mere word-of-mouth is not how this young lady learns? Perhaps I ought to apply the lesson in a way that more suits her style of learning?"
"Oh, Monsieur, please don't harm her!" Meg pleaded breathlessly.
"I doubt he could," Amelia murmured airily, her head held high.
"Harm her?" Erik echoed, seeming not to have heard the tiny princess. "I was simply talking about performing a short puppet show, detailing my tragic story."
"A...puppet show?" Meg echoed. Oh, the poor man HAD lost his mind alone down here these years!
"Of course not!" he scoffed. "How silly!"
Meg blinked.
"Er...what?"
"I suspect, child, that you do not take me as seriously as you should."
"But...Monsieur, you just finished saying that you intended to show Amelia a puppet show detailing your tragic story."
Erik scowled darkly at her.
"I most certainly did not! Ridiculous!"
"But...I...you...but...ow," Meg whimpered, one hand to her head as she reflected that life really had become too complex at last.
"I...don't believe we've met," Erik was meanwhile saying, extending a hand toward the small, dark-haired princess. "I am Erik. And you?"
"Amelia Wil Teslea de Seyruun," she replied coolly, taking his hand politely. After all, one had to show the necessary courtesies, even to villains, if one didn't want one's kingdom put to shame.
"Quite an extensive name for one so small and ignorant," he commented lightly.
Amelia glared, not quite sure she approved of the faintly mocking tone of the man's admittedly very beautiful voice.
"And your name is properly short. Don't villains who stand against justice like to keep their names short? The better to have word spread of their misdeeds against humanity. Isn't that so, Erik?"
"Indeed," he agreed coldly. "Perhaps I should give you something to carry word of back to wherever it is you have come."
Meg gasped in horror, and then proceeded to quite effectively lose her head.
"Amelia, look out!" she shrieked, uncertain of what she was warning the other girl of, as no signs of instant death had shown themselves up or down the dark corridor. Still, Meg reflected, it was always better to be on the safe side.
"Elmekia Lance!" Amelia cried, preparing the spell, aiming it, and letting it loose at the tall, gaunt figure, the unmasked side of whose expression was now registering confusion and slight nervousness.
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"Hey! What was that?" Gourry exclaimed as a bright flash of light sparked into and out of existence far down the hallway.
"I don't know, but it sounded like Amelia," Zelgadis replied, breaking into a run.
"Wow...the poor Phantom," Gourry sighed in despair.
"Don't say that yet, Gourry," Zelgadis called dryly over his shoulder. "He hasn't made Lina angry yet."
"Hey! What are you trying to say, Zel?" Lina demanded angrily, hands on her hips.
"Uh...nothing," Zelgadis hastened to assure her, seeing his life pass before him as a familiar glint, which he had secretly taken to calling the 'Dragonslave Imminent,' flashed into her eye.
"That's what I thought," she smirked, jogging after Gourry.
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"Oh, no," Amelia sighed. "I think I've killed him."
Meg gasped.
"Oh, Amelia, I don't think he could be killed so easily. But you've probably made him angry. Whatever will we do when he wakes up and decides to come after us?"
"Don't worry, Meg," Amelia said consolingly. "Miss Lina will take care of him."
"But how shall we FIND Miss Lina?" Meg sighed.
"I don't think it'll be too hard, Meg," a voice called, laughing, from down the corridor.
"Miss Lina!" Amelia exclaimed, hurling herself at the older girl.
"Hey, Amelia," Lina greeted cheerfully. "We heard yelling and things exploding."
"And since Lina was with us, and Martina isn't even here, we figured it must be you," Gourry added, smiling warmly at the tiny princess.
"But...why couldn't it be Miss Filia?" Amelia asked, frowning.
"Amelia!" Zelgadis admonished. "Continuity! Filia won't join us until next season."
"Oh, right," Amelia laughed sheepishly. "How silly of me."
At this point, both of them happened to glance up and notice the curious and confused glances trained on them.
"U-um, guys," Lina began hesitantly. "Who's Filia?"
"Er, never mind. It's nothing," Zelgadis hastened to assure her. Then he turned to Amelia and muttered, "We've got to stop looking ahead in the script."
"Yeah," Amelia agreed sadly.
"Ooh..." the unmoving form of the feared Opera Ghost groaned as it began to twitch slightly. "What happened?"
Then, as he managed to struggle into a sitting position, he caught sight of Amelia and glared frostily at her.
"Oh, yes, of course. I recall now. The little chit with the loud mouth threw some sort of firecracker at me."
Amelia returned the glare with equal coldness.
"It wasn't a firecracker. It was simply the conquering fist of justice...and, you know, an Elmekia Lance."
"Oh, brother," Lina groaned. "Look, you two, what were you doing down here in the first place?
"We came down here to find Mr. Zelgadis and Mr. Gourry, because we thought they had been kidnapped by the Phantom!" Amelia proclaimed proudly. Then she frowned, confused. "So, why are you down here, Miss Lina?"
"Oh, for crying out loud!" Lina exclaimed, exasperated, turning away from the rest of the group and rubbing her forehead wearily. "We just came down here because we knew you'd be wandering around, snooping into things that you probably shouldn't, and we didn't want you to get into trouble. But now that we found you, and you know the guys haven't been kidnapped, can we just get out of here?"
"I think not," Erik informed her smoothly.
Lina whirled about to behold the masked man, who had apparently managed to stand, with Amelia slung over one shoulder and Meg slung over the other. Smirking, he continued.
"You see, I had never thought of kidnapping anyone. But, with all this talk of it, it seems appealing. So, I think I shall. If any of you wants to get these two young ladies back, you must navigate your way through the - OW!"
His dramatic speech was cut abruptly and tragically short as Amelia's foot connected roughly with his stomach for the second time that day. Acting entirely on instinct - to get the hurty thing as far from his as possible, as quickly as possible - he hurled her across the corridor, and, as luck would have it, right into Zelgadis.
"Ow!" Amelia shrieked as she bounced off of the stony young man and to the floor.
"Amelia!" he exclaimed, kneeling and helping her carefully to her feet.
"Ahem," Erik called, annoyed. "As I was saying, if any of you wants to get this one nice young lady back - every good plan needs room for improvisation, after all, and that little one seemed more trouble than she was worth - you must first navigate your way through a series of traps that I have lain out for you throughout this opera house. Farewell, my dear adventurers! And good luck!"
With that, he disappeared in a puff of smoke, the explosion mingling with Meg's shriek of terror, and the four stood in a pitch-dark corridor, staring helplessly about them.
Lina looked at Amelia...or in her best approximation of Amelia's direction, given the pitch-darkness about them. Amelia looked at Zelgadis. Zelgadis looked at Gourry. Gourry scratched his head.
"Uh...is that a bad thing?"
"Of course it's a bad thing, you yogurt-for-brains! Now we have to go rescue Meg!" Lina groaned in despair. "How could things get any worse?"
Ah, Lina, you foolish beautiful young sorcery genius! Little do you know that you have single-handedly just brought peril, destruction, and unparalleled silliness down upon you and your friends, as well as setting up the rest of the plot, which, in a Rhianwen-tale, is never a good thing.
The instant the fatal phrase was out of Lina's mouth, a cloud of mist rose up to envelop our staunch adventurers.
"Whew...I don't feel so good all of a sudden," Amelia noted, wobbling dizzily.
"It's just your imagination," Lina would have doubtlessly told the younger girl, had she not chosen that moment to slump forward to the cold grey stone in a dead faint, followed quickly by Amelia.
"Uh...Lina? Amelia?" Gourry called tentatively. He knelt next to the impromptu doggie-pile and poked Amelia gently in the side. "Hey. Hey. Hey- hey. Hey." Then he stopped and frowned. "Why does this feel familiar?"
He had little time to wonder, though, as the next moment, a loud crash rang out behind him.
"What was that?!" he exclaimed, whirling about. He groped blindly through the darkness until his hand hit something rocky. "Oh, no! Zelgadis, too?! This is horrible! NOW what do I do?"
This proved not to be an issue for Gourry, however, as the next moment, he, too, slumped forward to the ground, nearly impaling himself on Zelgadis' hair as he fell.
And throughout the corridor rang a gleeful, maniacal laugh.
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End Notes: Hee! Plot! I don't believe it! Plot? In a Rhianwen-fic? ^_^ Anyway, I muchly apologize for taking so bloody long to get this chapter posted. The rest should come much more quickly now, as we've entered the fun part: the part where I can turn it Erik/Meg 'shippery. [Blush] I do hope I haven't just alienated any readers by saying - er, typing - that out loud. ^_^ Long live fluffy romance! Of course, the fluffy shall be reserved for Lina/Gourry and Amelia/Zelgadis. I just can't make Erik and Meg be fluffy and romantic without abandoning all characterization that I haven't already.
Anyway, thanks for reading! [Waves cheerily, then bounces away to consume ridiculous amounts of sugar and caffeine]
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Note: If you are one of the over-serious Erik fans that I find glaringly annoying, and as such cannot stand the thought of him in any ridiculous situation, I warn you to stop reading now. Over the course of this chapter, he will sustain several embarrassing injuries at the hands of two young girls. For the rest of you, enjoy, as it is always quite hilarious to see a very dignified character stripped of all dignity. Why, just look at the fun the creators of Slayers had with Zelgadis! ^_^
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When he looked back upon the incident in previous years, Erik, the acclaimed and feared Phantom of the Opera, would have been hard-pressed to tell you exactly where all of this had began.
Here he was, though, on his back against the freezing stone of the floor, the wind quite effectively knocked out of him, staring up in to the wild, nearly hysterical face of Meg Giry, a young ballet girl for the opera house in which he made his home, who was apparently more highly skilled in the area of self-defence than the other ballet brats, and whose firm, lithe form straddling him, pinning him effectively to the ground, was really beginning to make him reconsider this whole 'pining eternally for Christine' bit.
His thoughts were blessedly derailed before he could embarrass himself when another voice called frantically from down the corridor.
"Meg! I heard a scream! What happened?"
"Amelia! I've found him! The Phantom!"
"Oh, no! Meg!"
The next moment, Meg was pulled off of him, and through a shower of stars, Erik found himself lying facedown on the floor with a small foot, clad in a mint-green boot, deeply embedded in his ribs.
"Foul fiend!" the same voice shrieked at our bewildered Phantom. "How dare you try to attack Meg?! Picking on someone smaller than you is utterly unjust!"
"Picking on Meg? Who exactly is attacking whom?" Erik demanded, prying the foot from his side and sitting up dizzily. He rubbed the sharp pain radiating out through his solar plexus, its origin about the size of a small fist. More exactly, Meg's small fist. He glanced up at her with a slight smile. "I am impressed, Little Giry. Element of surprise or no, it isn't every young girl who could take down Erik with one blow."
"Er-er, I apologize, Monsieur," Meg squeaked, now shaking uncontrollably. "You startled me, is all."
"Yes, you startled me as well, my dear."
"Silence, villain!" Amelia barked, assuming a pose. "We are down here in search of our friends, who we believe you have abducted!"
Erik rose unsteadily and raised an eyebrow behind his mask, the beginnings of a smile forming on the side of his mouth not covered by that same mask.
"Your friends?" he echoed. "Can you describe these friends of yours for me? You see, child, I abduct enough people over the course of a day that I am not always certain which ones which staunch hero is in search of."
Amelia scowled darkly at the tall caped man, suspecting that she was being made fun of.
Meg, however, did not share this suspicion, and instead suppressed a frightened whimper.
"Please, Monsieur, if Amelia's friends have come down here, will you let them go?"
He turned to glare at her, reflecting quite untruthfully that it always annoyed him to see people terrified of him. On any other day, Erik might have told you, immediately before disposing of your corpse neatly and efficiently, that he delighted in the frightened screams of those damned ballet brats when they were startled by loud noises in dark corridors.
"And why, pray tell, Little Giry, should I do that?"
"Because a lady asks you," Amelia replied immediately and smugly.
Erik let out a bark of laughter.
"A lady?! And exactly which one of you claims to be that? The little brat poking her nose into my business when she knows exactly how I hate to have my home invaded, or the little brat proving herself to be an ignorant, loud- mouthed chit?"
"Ignorant?!" Amelia repeated, her back up in an instant. "The only truly ignorant creature I see here is you, Phantom! You, who pay no mind to justice, and simply kidnap innocent girls and threaten to murder the men that they love! How utterly evil!"
"Oh, no," Meg sighed, bidding this mortal coil a melancholy farewell as Erik stiffened at these words.
"Little Giry," he began, his visible eye - and presumably the not visible as well - narrowing, "have you not told your new friend here of the inadvisability of angering me?"
"Y-yes, Monsieur," the tiny dancer choked out nervously.
"Perhaps you weren't clear enough?"
"I-I think I was as clear as I could have been, Monsieur."
"Perhaps mere word-of-mouth is not how this young lady learns? Perhaps I ought to apply the lesson in a way that more suits her style of learning?"
"Oh, Monsieur, please don't harm her!" Meg pleaded breathlessly.
"I doubt he could," Amelia murmured airily, her head held high.
"Harm her?" Erik echoed, seeming not to have heard the tiny princess. "I was simply talking about performing a short puppet show, detailing my tragic story."
"A...puppet show?" Meg echoed. Oh, the poor man HAD lost his mind alone down here these years!
"Of course not!" he scoffed. "How silly!"
Meg blinked.
"Er...what?"
"I suspect, child, that you do not take me as seriously as you should."
"But...Monsieur, you just finished saying that you intended to show Amelia a puppet show detailing your tragic story."
Erik scowled darkly at her.
"I most certainly did not! Ridiculous!"
"But...I...you...but...ow," Meg whimpered, one hand to her head as she reflected that life really had become too complex at last.
"I...don't believe we've met," Erik was meanwhile saying, extending a hand toward the small, dark-haired princess. "I am Erik. And you?"
"Amelia Wil Teslea de Seyruun," she replied coolly, taking his hand politely. After all, one had to show the necessary courtesies, even to villains, if one didn't want one's kingdom put to shame.
"Quite an extensive name for one so small and ignorant," he commented lightly.
Amelia glared, not quite sure she approved of the faintly mocking tone of the man's admittedly very beautiful voice.
"And your name is properly short. Don't villains who stand against justice like to keep their names short? The better to have word spread of their misdeeds against humanity. Isn't that so, Erik?"
"Indeed," he agreed coldly. "Perhaps I should give you something to carry word of back to wherever it is you have come."
Meg gasped in horror, and then proceeded to quite effectively lose her head.
"Amelia, look out!" she shrieked, uncertain of what she was warning the other girl of, as no signs of instant death had shown themselves up or down the dark corridor. Still, Meg reflected, it was always better to be on the safe side.
"Elmekia Lance!" Amelia cried, preparing the spell, aiming it, and letting it loose at the tall, gaunt figure, the unmasked side of whose expression was now registering confusion and slight nervousness.
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"Hey! What was that?" Gourry exclaimed as a bright flash of light sparked into and out of existence far down the hallway.
"I don't know, but it sounded like Amelia," Zelgadis replied, breaking into a run.
"Wow...the poor Phantom," Gourry sighed in despair.
"Don't say that yet, Gourry," Zelgadis called dryly over his shoulder. "He hasn't made Lina angry yet."
"Hey! What are you trying to say, Zel?" Lina demanded angrily, hands on her hips.
"Uh...nothing," Zelgadis hastened to assure her, seeing his life pass before him as a familiar glint, which he had secretly taken to calling the 'Dragonslave Imminent,' flashed into her eye.
"That's what I thought," she smirked, jogging after Gourry.
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"Oh, no," Amelia sighed. "I think I've killed him."
Meg gasped.
"Oh, Amelia, I don't think he could be killed so easily. But you've probably made him angry. Whatever will we do when he wakes up and decides to come after us?"
"Don't worry, Meg," Amelia said consolingly. "Miss Lina will take care of him."
"But how shall we FIND Miss Lina?" Meg sighed.
"I don't think it'll be too hard, Meg," a voice called, laughing, from down the corridor.
"Miss Lina!" Amelia exclaimed, hurling herself at the older girl.
"Hey, Amelia," Lina greeted cheerfully. "We heard yelling and things exploding."
"And since Lina was with us, and Martina isn't even here, we figured it must be you," Gourry added, smiling warmly at the tiny princess.
"But...why couldn't it be Miss Filia?" Amelia asked, frowning.
"Amelia!" Zelgadis admonished. "Continuity! Filia won't join us until next season."
"Oh, right," Amelia laughed sheepishly. "How silly of me."
At this point, both of them happened to glance up and notice the curious and confused glances trained on them.
"U-um, guys," Lina began hesitantly. "Who's Filia?"
"Er, never mind. It's nothing," Zelgadis hastened to assure her. Then he turned to Amelia and muttered, "We've got to stop looking ahead in the script."
"Yeah," Amelia agreed sadly.
"Ooh..." the unmoving form of the feared Opera Ghost groaned as it began to twitch slightly. "What happened?"
Then, as he managed to struggle into a sitting position, he caught sight of Amelia and glared frostily at her.
"Oh, yes, of course. I recall now. The little chit with the loud mouth threw some sort of firecracker at me."
Amelia returned the glare with equal coldness.
"It wasn't a firecracker. It was simply the conquering fist of justice...and, you know, an Elmekia Lance."
"Oh, brother," Lina groaned. "Look, you two, what were you doing down here in the first place?
"We came down here to find Mr. Zelgadis and Mr. Gourry, because we thought they had been kidnapped by the Phantom!" Amelia proclaimed proudly. Then she frowned, confused. "So, why are you down here, Miss Lina?"
"Oh, for crying out loud!" Lina exclaimed, exasperated, turning away from the rest of the group and rubbing her forehead wearily. "We just came down here because we knew you'd be wandering around, snooping into things that you probably shouldn't, and we didn't want you to get into trouble. But now that we found you, and you know the guys haven't been kidnapped, can we just get out of here?"
"I think not," Erik informed her smoothly.
Lina whirled about to behold the masked man, who had apparently managed to stand, with Amelia slung over one shoulder and Meg slung over the other. Smirking, he continued.
"You see, I had never thought of kidnapping anyone. But, with all this talk of it, it seems appealing. So, I think I shall. If any of you wants to get these two young ladies back, you must navigate your way through the - OW!"
His dramatic speech was cut abruptly and tragically short as Amelia's foot connected roughly with his stomach for the second time that day. Acting entirely on instinct - to get the hurty thing as far from his as possible, as quickly as possible - he hurled her across the corridor, and, as luck would have it, right into Zelgadis.
"Ow!" Amelia shrieked as she bounced off of the stony young man and to the floor.
"Amelia!" he exclaimed, kneeling and helping her carefully to her feet.
"Ahem," Erik called, annoyed. "As I was saying, if any of you wants to get this one nice young lady back - every good plan needs room for improvisation, after all, and that little one seemed more trouble than she was worth - you must first navigate your way through a series of traps that I have lain out for you throughout this opera house. Farewell, my dear adventurers! And good luck!"
With that, he disappeared in a puff of smoke, the explosion mingling with Meg's shriek of terror, and the four stood in a pitch-dark corridor, staring helplessly about them.
Lina looked at Amelia...or in her best approximation of Amelia's direction, given the pitch-darkness about them. Amelia looked at Zelgadis. Zelgadis looked at Gourry. Gourry scratched his head.
"Uh...is that a bad thing?"
"Of course it's a bad thing, you yogurt-for-brains! Now we have to go rescue Meg!" Lina groaned in despair. "How could things get any worse?"
Ah, Lina, you foolish beautiful young sorcery genius! Little do you know that you have single-handedly just brought peril, destruction, and unparalleled silliness down upon you and your friends, as well as setting up the rest of the plot, which, in a Rhianwen-tale, is never a good thing.
The instant the fatal phrase was out of Lina's mouth, a cloud of mist rose up to envelop our staunch adventurers.
"Whew...I don't feel so good all of a sudden," Amelia noted, wobbling dizzily.
"It's just your imagination," Lina would have doubtlessly told the younger girl, had she not chosen that moment to slump forward to the cold grey stone in a dead faint, followed quickly by Amelia.
"Uh...Lina? Amelia?" Gourry called tentatively. He knelt next to the impromptu doggie-pile and poked Amelia gently in the side. "Hey. Hey. Hey- hey. Hey." Then he stopped and frowned. "Why does this feel familiar?"
He had little time to wonder, though, as the next moment, a loud crash rang out behind him.
"What was that?!" he exclaimed, whirling about. He groped blindly through the darkness until his hand hit something rocky. "Oh, no! Zelgadis, too?! This is horrible! NOW what do I do?"
This proved not to be an issue for Gourry, however, as the next moment, he, too, slumped forward to the ground, nearly impaling himself on Zelgadis' hair as he fell.
And throughout the corridor rang a gleeful, maniacal laugh.
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End Notes: Hee! Plot! I don't believe it! Plot? In a Rhianwen-fic? ^_^ Anyway, I muchly apologize for taking so bloody long to get this chapter posted. The rest should come much more quickly now, as we've entered the fun part: the part where I can turn it Erik/Meg 'shippery. [Blush] I do hope I haven't just alienated any readers by saying - er, typing - that out loud. ^_^ Long live fluffy romance! Of course, the fluffy shall be reserved for Lina/Gourry and Amelia/Zelgadis. I just can't make Erik and Meg be fluffy and romantic without abandoning all characterization that I haven't already.
Anyway, thanks for reading! [Waves cheerily, then bounces away to consume ridiculous amounts of sugar and caffeine]