Chapter 3
"Miss Lina! Miss Lina! MISS LINA!!!!"
"Amelia! Please!" Zelgadis shouted at the princess who had yelled directly into his ear. It was driving them crazy, Lina had just up and left and was nowhere to be seen, and they were beginning to worry.
"I'm sorry, I'm just worried about Miss Lina." Amelia replied sheepishly.
"I can understand that, but, Lina!" Zelgadis pointed to the edge of the clearing where the figure of a girl with red hair and red eyes had emerged.
"Um, hi" Lina said while sweat dropping slightly.
"Miss Lina! Where were you?" Amelia immediately tackled Lina with a bear hug. Then she looked up and stopped. "Miss Lina, who's this?"
Seiya smiled and looked at the strange characters. There was a chimera, and a young girl with dark brown hair. Off towards where the tents were set up there was a man who was snoring loudly.
"Chibi Hi, who are these people?" He asked, leaning towards Lina so she could hear him.
"Oh, right. Seiya, these are my friends. This is Zelgadis, but call him Zel," She motioned towards the chimera, who slowly shook the hand that was offered to him. "This is Princess Amelia, and I'm not even going to go into her last name." She motioned towards the girl who had tackled her earlier. Amelia gently gave him a hug.
"Well, talk about opposites." Seiya remarked, noticing the differences between Amelia and Zel.
"Yeah, well, I have an interesting group. And that," Lina responded, pointing towards the big man in the back who was still asleep. "Is Gourry,"
Seiya nodded in understanding and waited for Lina to introduce him.
"Everyone, this is my older brother, Seiya Inverse." Lina smiled and then wandered off to get some breakfast. "Amelia, help me with breakfast, will you?"
"Sure Miss Lina! I'll get some water to boil!" Amelia skipped off towards the stream while humming idly to herself. Lina got a small fire going and assigned Seiya and Zel with the duty of finding herbs and berries in the forest.
Both Seiya and Zelgadis worked in silence, neither of them even attempting to make conversation. By the time they left, both sets of arms were full of a variety of berries and herbs for breakfast. They headed back to the campsite, and then dropped their load. The campsite was a mess! Things were everywhere! Right in the middle stood Lina. She had cuts and scrapes along her bare arms and face. Her shoulder had horrid gash where a sword had struck her. She was standing in front of an unconscious Gourry and a trembling Amelia.
"Lina!" Both Seiya moved in front of her. Zel moved behind her and caught her as she collapsed. Seiya moved his hands in a strange motion and a small black hole appeared. He reached in and pulled out a long sword. In it's gold hilt it held an opal that shone with all colors. The leader of the bandits moved forward.
"Give us the girl! That is all we want!" He snarled, his dirty hair bounced slightly with the movement of his head. The group was filled with weapons of all sorts and some mages. Seiya heard Zel move closer to help with defense.
"Seiya," Zelgadis breathed. "They're some pretty powerful people in there."
"That's why you need to protect Lina, when I give the signal I want you to take Lina and the others and get as far away as possible, I'll meet up with you guys at the next town." He charged at the Leader while casting a small barrier spell on the others. "NOW!"
Zelgadis lifted Lina in his arms and cast Ray Wing on Gourry and Amelia. He ran as hard as he could. He didn't really like running away from a fight, but the others were far to important to him. As soon as he was a good distance away he collapsed.
Amelia ran over. "Mr. Zelgadis! Are you okay? Let me heal you." Zelgadis held up a hand.
"Lina first." Amelia nodded and knelt down beside Lina's body. Her breathing was shallow and her pulse was slowed. "First I'm going to take care of that gash. Mr. Zelgadis, I'm going to need a few things."
The next few days were spent healing Lina and Gourry and trying to wake them up, with no success. Lina had developed a high fever and she was constantly thrashing about. It took most of Amelia's abilities to heal the gash in her arm and Zelgadis was beginning to worry.
The night came quickly and Amelia had passed out. Zelgadis was in charge of watching Lina and making sure she was okay. He was about to fall asleep himself, when he heard Lina mumble something in her sleep. He listened carefully and realized she was singing.
"But, Lina, are you awake?" He asked, watching her.
"Yes," She sat up with a wince and turned to face him. "I've had this stupid song playing itself in my mind over and over." She absently began to sing again, but this time loud enough for Zelgadis to hear.
"RASUTO CHANSU wa ichido dake
nokoru yume kazoenai deshinpi ni tobi konde yo mitsumeau hitomi no okujikan ga suikomaretekujigen wo haruka Fly away tsukiakari abireba MEMORIIZUtooku chikai ano koi wakaru deshou ai no tsuzuki wo sagasu tame watashi-tachinan'okukounen samayou no onaji anata to hateshinaku kurikaesuhoshi no yukusue womitodokete hoshii La Moon RIARUTAIMU de ROMAN shitekirameki ni kura manaidekidou ga hizumu kurai tada hitotsu ni kakete yukujunsui na kimochi dake yomirai ni todoke Misty way ima koko de hanarete mo iitsugi no deai kokoro ni kizanda kara tsuki no shizuku ni kono omoi fuujikomedaite yukou to chikaitsutsu furiaogu me ni sosogareru MUUNSHAWAAdouzo onegai yoPAWAA wo kudasaitsukiakari abireba MEMORIIZUtooku chikai ano koi wakaru deshou ai no tsuzuki wo sagasu tame watashi-tachinan'okukounen samayou no onaji anata to hateshinaku kurikaesuhoshi no yukusue womitodokete hoshii La Moon" He listened; she had a beautiful voice and used it well. Lina suddenly realized she was singing out loud and stopped, blushing deeply. "Where did you learn that song? It's very pretty." He asked, watching her with an amused smile. "I used to do stage work. One of my main duties was to memorize songs for the show." She looked off at the moon and gasped. "What? What is it?" Zelgadis followed her gaze towards the moon. "We're close! See that tree there that has a hole just big enough to look at the moon?" she pointed to the tree that stood in the way of the moonlight. He nodded and she continued. "That's one of the landmarks! We're almost there! Uh, Zel, where's Seiya?" "Long story, he said he'd meet us in the next town." Zelgadis said, still trying to figure out the landmarks remark. Oh, well, we need to get going, if we leave now we should make it there before- HEY!" Zelgadis reached up to grab Lina's hand as she began to stand and pulled her down again. "You're not going any where until Amelia makes sure your okay." Lina grumbled a reply as Zelgadis went to wake Amelia.