Amelia screeched. The strange chimera jolted awake and leaped back. He
tried to grab for a sword at his waist only to find he was completely
naked. Lina, Gourry, and Filia were also startled awake along with three
other naked people. Lina screamed and scooted away from the dark skinned
man with ample amounts of exposed flesh right in front of her while Gourry
grabbed his sword. Filia grabbed her cape and threw it over the naked
blonde child next to her, then grabbed little Xaina and covered the neko
monster's eyes. The dark skinned man lunged for the new chimera. The
chimera yelped and dashed behind Amelia. The tall attacker tried to grab
for him around the princess but the chimera kept her between them. Amelia
covered her eyes and let out another scream. And all of this happened in
less then ten seconds.
~~~~~
Five minutes. That is exactly how long he had been gone. He had just left the camp for a moment so he could use one of the bushes and of course, something had to happen on HIS watch. Zelgadiss cursed his rotten luck. It was bad enough Xellos had followed him for who knows what reason. (The trickster had been smelling Filia ever since she had dozed off to sleep and was acting odd... more then normal, anyway.) He really didn't need to be fighting off any bandits or demons or monsters in the middle of the night. The chimera swore to make them pay for this.
When Zel came bursting back in to the camp, he had been expecting some sort of crazed werewolf or monster to be attacking the group. Bandits had also been on his list of things attacking them given Lina's reputation. Hell, he would have thought of fishmen before this: four naked people in their camp. Four STRANGE naked people. Two were sitting by the fire along with Lina, Gourry, Filia, and Xaina. Filia was looking back and forth between a young Xaina with the dragon woman's hand clamped over her eyes and an older Xaina who had her wings wrapped around her body. Two naked men, one he recognized as Dragon, were having a fight with Amelia between them. Amelia, for her part didn't seem to know what to do and had covered her eyes with her hands.
Zelgadiss yanked out his sword and charged for the men around Amelia. "Get away from her!!" the chimera screamed. The new chimera yelped, leaped out of the way, and dove behind a rock. Dragon whipped around just as Zelgadiss was about to strike him with his sword and snapped his hands over the blade, stopping it cold. Zel jerked back and pulled the blade away, cutting Dragon's hands in the process.
The dark skinned man glanced down at his bloody hands when Zel backed off slightly. "Well, that wasn't very nice," Dragon commented. Zelgadiss looked the man up and down slightly and then looked away. "Could you please cover yourself?"
A smug smile formed on Dragon's lips. "What? Is the little man embarrassed?"
"No, but it would be nice if you weren't running around naked in front of little children," Filia growled. He glanced over his shoulder and just smiled. Little Xaina tried to move out of Filia's grasp but to no avail. She felt a poke in her side and tried to look at the poker but couldn't see through the hand.
"I thought I told you to watch the camp for a few minutes," Xellos whispered.
"I did watch," the child protested. "I watched everyone sleep. I watched the birds start to glow when the moon was coming up. I watched them transform. I watched Amelia wake up, and I watched her scream and everyone wake up. Then Filia covered my eyes so I can't watch anymore." Xellos suddenly realized he was between two Xaina and did a double take. How had she done this? A second later, a pair of arms had latched on to his waist. He glanced down at the blonde haired child wearing Filia's cape, who had leaped over Filia to get to him. The trickster gaged as she nuzzled lovingly in to his side. One glance at her aura told him this was the same dragon girl that had grabbed him before.
Big Xaina leaned over him to speak with still stunned dragon woman. "Filia, she's already had theuncensored version of the birds and the bees explained to her... from Xellos... nothing she sees here can corrupt her further. Trust me on this."
"I'd gladly cover myself if you'd toss a blanket, sir," the chimera behind the rock called.
"Oh, is the little butcher pretending to be polite?" Dragon jeered. "Trying to win your way in to their hearts? Ain't gonna work, my friend." The dragon man hopped to his feet. "I'm gonna kill ya before you can get that blanket... again, anyway."
"We're all dead," Big Xaina explained.
Dragon leaped for the younger chimera. Said chimera bolted out of the way while Dragon crashed in to the rock, smashing it. The chimera ducked behind a tree in a pathetic attempt to to hide. Dragon ambled to his feet and sauntered towards the tree confidently.
"It was all so tragic," the cat monster continued lamely.
"When I'm done with ya, princey, you'll be nothing but a bloody heap on the ground!" The tall man jumped behind the tree just as the chimera came bounding out.
"We just cried and cried when we were murdered... well, sorta cried. We were dead so crying wasn't really an option... but we did the equivalence to that," the older black haired monster pressed on.
The chimera jolted back to the still half panicked princess and cowered behind her. "I'm gonna do to you exactly what ya did to all those poor people!"
"What did you do to make him so angry?" Zel inquired.
"It was just one little act of cannibalism while I..."
"Cannibalism!" Amelia screeched. A second later, her fist made contact with the young man's face and sent him flying a few feet away. Then she grabbed her hand and whimpered. It hurt just as much as punching Zelgadiss.
"Little act! There's no such thing as a little act of cannibalism!" Dragon continued to roar.
"It wasn't a fair death really. We didn't ask for it... and we weren't really much of a match for him," Xaina rattled on.
Dragon cracked his knuckles and smiled maliciously as he approached his prey. "Then I'm gonna do to ya exactly what ya did to Dusty."
"Wait, wait, can't we talk about this?" the chimera pleaded.
"Nope."
"It's not as bad as what he did to Dusty, though," the grown up cat girl stated.
"Oh, what'd he do?" Xellos inquired.
"That depends."
"Depends on what?"
"What do I get if I tell you?" she inquired with a familiar smug, closed eyed expression.
"What do you get?" the trickster inquired in disbelief.
"What do I get?"
"Uh... birdseed?"
She gave a disgruntled sigh. "I don't like birdseed, ya know."
"Um, well... why do you need something?"
"Because, I am a monster."
"But so am I."
"Exactly. That's why I'm trying to cheat you. You don't work for me so I'm suppose to get everything out of you that I possibly can. That's what you taught me, isn't it?" Xellos shot her a bitter glare while Big Xaina smiled in triumph.
"Xaina! Help!" the chimera shouted as Dragon grabbed one of his ankles. "Help what?" Little Xaina asked. "Who'er you anyway? Do I know you?" Big Xaina rolled her eyes. "Hey, Duorue! Quick! Look! There's a handsome, naked blond guy! And he's gay!"
"That's nice," Dragon responded without bothering to look away from his prey.
A worried look passed across the older Xaina's face and she glanced over at Kendra. "Duorue's not interested in a handsome guy? This is serious. He must be really mad tonight. Posmose might just be doomed. ... ... Maybe not..." She reached over and rubbed a hand affectionately over the dragon child's head. "Kendra, sweet, please forgive me. I love you very much, baby doll, and I would never harm you if I didn't have to. Don't be angry with me. Promise you wont be mad?"
"Uh... okay," the blonde child replied in confusion.
A long set of claws appeared on the finger's of one of Big Xaina's hands. She moved that hand over the girl's golden tail. Her hand smashed down and the claws went right in to the dragon's flesh. Kendra let out a deafening screech and clutched Xellos harder.
"Xaina!" Filia scolded.
"What!?! What'd I do!?!" Little Xaina cried.
"Hey, hey, relax," Big Xaina explained nervously, "Just give it a second. I didn't hurt her that bad."
"AHHH! What'd ya do to her, ya filthy monsters!?!" Duorue snapped. Posmose let out a sigh and flopped limply on the ground as his attacker abandoned him and ran over to protect Kendra. The dark skinned man slid on to his knees and tried to yank the girl away from Xellos only to find she was pretty securely attached. He tried again but the sobbing child would not release her hold on the trickster.
"I really would appreciate it if you could get this thing off of me," Xellos stated as he pointed to the young blonde.
"What do ya think I'm trying to do!?!" Big Xaina sighed and laid on her back. "Doesn't matter if ya do or don't. Dawn'll be here in another minute or so."
"Ah, but we just got up," Posmose whinnied. The neko monster shrugged. "This stinks."
"Life stinks... death stinks too... so do rotten fish..."
"Ah, gee, Xaina, much as we love your random babblings, could ya keep 'um to yourself for once," Duorue stated coldly.
The young woman brushed off his comment and relaxed. A moment later, she sat straight up and smiled in a fashion far too similar to Xellos' for anyone's liking. "Say, Lina, could you do me a favor? I have these little crystals..." she snapped her fingers and three small stones appeared in the still very confused red head's hands, "...and I'd really appreciate it if you could hold on to them for me. Just for a little while. They're special and stuff, ya know. All ya need to do is make sure Destiny doesn't get them... or even know you have them, actually."
Lina stared at the small crystals for a moment and blinked. "Um... alright."
"How the hell d'ya get those!?!" Duorue demanded.
"I stole them, of course."
"How?"
"That is a secret."
"You're stealing my material," Xellos grumbled.
"Yes, but see, your dead so I didn't think you'd care. In fact, you should feel honored; I'm keeping alive your words long after you're gone. People will remember you forever through your words."
"They'll remember you saying it."
"Details details." She waved one hand at him as if brushing away his concerns. "They're not important. You're dead anyway..."
"I am very much alive," Xellos protested.
"Yeah, sure, now," Posmose broke in. "Give it a couple of years and you can kiss your staff good-bye."
As the sun started to creep over the horizon, light surrounded each of the naked people. Bits floated off them and collected just above them. Kendra released her hold on Xellos and stared at her hands as they turned to golden light and faded in to nothing. Posmose let out a defeated sigh while turquoise light pulled away from his being. Duorue gave Kendra a gentle pat in an attempt to reassure her that everything was alright while black light left his body.
Xaina smirked at Lina with her eyes closed, looking as if nothing were wrong while white light drifted off her tail and legs making them fade away. "Destiny will be back in an hour or so. Don't turn your back on him. The monstrosity will help you only so long as he can't get his grubby hands on that child. After that, well, don't count us as friends." Her whole body was nearly gone. She opened her eyes and gave the sorceress a compassionate, real smile this time. "Use the crystals. They were made to help."
"Help... but how..." Lina's words were cut off as bright light flashed in everyone's eyes. When the light was gone and their eyes had adjusted, the four people were gone and the birds had taken their places. The red head looked back at the stones that rested in her palm. "Use the crystals?" Silence had settled over the group. There were no words that to either answer Lina's question or explain what had just occurred.
"AHHHHH! Get off me you creep!" Filia screeched.
Xellos gave a slight pout while still keeping his arms tightly wrapped around the dragon woman. "But I'm scared," he mock whined.
"I don't care! Keep off me!" Everyone else face faulted, except Little Xaina who looked just plain confused.
"What happened?" the child inquired. "I couldn't see anything. I don't know what happened. Someone tell me."
"Soon as we figure out, Xain, you'll be the first to know," Lina assured her.
____________________________________________________________________________ ______
Ah, so sorry this took so long. (get's down one hands and knees and bows to all loyal readers) I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I was with relatives for a long time and had no access to my writings. Plenty of video games, but no writing.
Oh, and a big thanks to Erin Mcateer who read my way to long notes last time and e-mailed me a picture I could use on my site that has all the slayers main characters. (gives big hug) Thank you so much. It is greatly appreciated and will be used on my web site when I find the time to get back to working on that page again. Hopefully I will have some of it up and running by the end of the next month.
Well, I'm off to write another chapter. I'm hoping the get the dragon's peak by the end of it, but I guess we'll see. One question before I go though, does anyone know what color Gaav and Dynast's eyes are? I can't find that info, though I think Gaav's are black (but the pictures I'm basing this off of are not very good or close up). Anyway, 100 points to anyone who can tell me one and a 1000 to anyone who can tell me both.
~~~~~
Five minutes. That is exactly how long he had been gone. He had just left the camp for a moment so he could use one of the bushes and of course, something had to happen on HIS watch. Zelgadiss cursed his rotten luck. It was bad enough Xellos had followed him for who knows what reason. (The trickster had been smelling Filia ever since she had dozed off to sleep and was acting odd... more then normal, anyway.) He really didn't need to be fighting off any bandits or demons or monsters in the middle of the night. The chimera swore to make them pay for this.
When Zel came bursting back in to the camp, he had been expecting some sort of crazed werewolf or monster to be attacking the group. Bandits had also been on his list of things attacking them given Lina's reputation. Hell, he would have thought of fishmen before this: four naked people in their camp. Four STRANGE naked people. Two were sitting by the fire along with Lina, Gourry, Filia, and Xaina. Filia was looking back and forth between a young Xaina with the dragon woman's hand clamped over her eyes and an older Xaina who had her wings wrapped around her body. Two naked men, one he recognized as Dragon, were having a fight with Amelia between them. Amelia, for her part didn't seem to know what to do and had covered her eyes with her hands.
Zelgadiss yanked out his sword and charged for the men around Amelia. "Get away from her!!" the chimera screamed. The new chimera yelped, leaped out of the way, and dove behind a rock. Dragon whipped around just as Zelgadiss was about to strike him with his sword and snapped his hands over the blade, stopping it cold. Zel jerked back and pulled the blade away, cutting Dragon's hands in the process.
The dark skinned man glanced down at his bloody hands when Zel backed off slightly. "Well, that wasn't very nice," Dragon commented. Zelgadiss looked the man up and down slightly and then looked away. "Could you please cover yourself?"
A smug smile formed on Dragon's lips. "What? Is the little man embarrassed?"
"No, but it would be nice if you weren't running around naked in front of little children," Filia growled. He glanced over his shoulder and just smiled. Little Xaina tried to move out of Filia's grasp but to no avail. She felt a poke in her side and tried to look at the poker but couldn't see through the hand.
"I thought I told you to watch the camp for a few minutes," Xellos whispered.
"I did watch," the child protested. "I watched everyone sleep. I watched the birds start to glow when the moon was coming up. I watched them transform. I watched Amelia wake up, and I watched her scream and everyone wake up. Then Filia covered my eyes so I can't watch anymore." Xellos suddenly realized he was between two Xaina and did a double take. How had she done this? A second later, a pair of arms had latched on to his waist. He glanced down at the blonde haired child wearing Filia's cape, who had leaped over Filia to get to him. The trickster gaged as she nuzzled lovingly in to his side. One glance at her aura told him this was the same dragon girl that had grabbed him before.
Big Xaina leaned over him to speak with still stunned dragon woman. "Filia, she's already had theuncensored version of the birds and the bees explained to her... from Xellos... nothing she sees here can corrupt her further. Trust me on this."
"I'd gladly cover myself if you'd toss a blanket, sir," the chimera behind the rock called.
"Oh, is the little butcher pretending to be polite?" Dragon jeered. "Trying to win your way in to their hearts? Ain't gonna work, my friend." The dragon man hopped to his feet. "I'm gonna kill ya before you can get that blanket... again, anyway."
"We're all dead," Big Xaina explained.
Dragon leaped for the younger chimera. Said chimera bolted out of the way while Dragon crashed in to the rock, smashing it. The chimera ducked behind a tree in a pathetic attempt to to hide. Dragon ambled to his feet and sauntered towards the tree confidently.
"It was all so tragic," the cat monster continued lamely.
"When I'm done with ya, princey, you'll be nothing but a bloody heap on the ground!" The tall man jumped behind the tree just as the chimera came bounding out.
"We just cried and cried when we were murdered... well, sorta cried. We were dead so crying wasn't really an option... but we did the equivalence to that," the older black haired monster pressed on.
The chimera jolted back to the still half panicked princess and cowered behind her. "I'm gonna do to you exactly what ya did to all those poor people!"
"What did you do to make him so angry?" Zel inquired.
"It was just one little act of cannibalism while I..."
"Cannibalism!" Amelia screeched. A second later, her fist made contact with the young man's face and sent him flying a few feet away. Then she grabbed her hand and whimpered. It hurt just as much as punching Zelgadiss.
"Little act! There's no such thing as a little act of cannibalism!" Dragon continued to roar.
"It wasn't a fair death really. We didn't ask for it... and we weren't really much of a match for him," Xaina rattled on.
Dragon cracked his knuckles and smiled maliciously as he approached his prey. "Then I'm gonna do to ya exactly what ya did to Dusty."
"Wait, wait, can't we talk about this?" the chimera pleaded.
"Nope."
"It's not as bad as what he did to Dusty, though," the grown up cat girl stated.
"Oh, what'd he do?" Xellos inquired.
"That depends."
"Depends on what?"
"What do I get if I tell you?" she inquired with a familiar smug, closed eyed expression.
"What do you get?" the trickster inquired in disbelief.
"What do I get?"
"Uh... birdseed?"
She gave a disgruntled sigh. "I don't like birdseed, ya know."
"Um, well... why do you need something?"
"Because, I am a monster."
"But so am I."
"Exactly. That's why I'm trying to cheat you. You don't work for me so I'm suppose to get everything out of you that I possibly can. That's what you taught me, isn't it?" Xellos shot her a bitter glare while Big Xaina smiled in triumph.
"Xaina! Help!" the chimera shouted as Dragon grabbed one of his ankles. "Help what?" Little Xaina asked. "Who'er you anyway? Do I know you?" Big Xaina rolled her eyes. "Hey, Duorue! Quick! Look! There's a handsome, naked blond guy! And he's gay!"
"That's nice," Dragon responded without bothering to look away from his prey.
A worried look passed across the older Xaina's face and she glanced over at Kendra. "Duorue's not interested in a handsome guy? This is serious. He must be really mad tonight. Posmose might just be doomed. ... ... Maybe not..." She reached over and rubbed a hand affectionately over the dragon child's head. "Kendra, sweet, please forgive me. I love you very much, baby doll, and I would never harm you if I didn't have to. Don't be angry with me. Promise you wont be mad?"
"Uh... okay," the blonde child replied in confusion.
A long set of claws appeared on the finger's of one of Big Xaina's hands. She moved that hand over the girl's golden tail. Her hand smashed down and the claws went right in to the dragon's flesh. Kendra let out a deafening screech and clutched Xellos harder.
"Xaina!" Filia scolded.
"What!?! What'd I do!?!" Little Xaina cried.
"Hey, hey, relax," Big Xaina explained nervously, "Just give it a second. I didn't hurt her that bad."
"AHHH! What'd ya do to her, ya filthy monsters!?!" Duorue snapped. Posmose let out a sigh and flopped limply on the ground as his attacker abandoned him and ran over to protect Kendra. The dark skinned man slid on to his knees and tried to yank the girl away from Xellos only to find she was pretty securely attached. He tried again but the sobbing child would not release her hold on the trickster.
"I really would appreciate it if you could get this thing off of me," Xellos stated as he pointed to the young blonde.
"What do ya think I'm trying to do!?!" Big Xaina sighed and laid on her back. "Doesn't matter if ya do or don't. Dawn'll be here in another minute or so."
"Ah, but we just got up," Posmose whinnied. The neko monster shrugged. "This stinks."
"Life stinks... death stinks too... so do rotten fish..."
"Ah, gee, Xaina, much as we love your random babblings, could ya keep 'um to yourself for once," Duorue stated coldly.
The young woman brushed off his comment and relaxed. A moment later, she sat straight up and smiled in a fashion far too similar to Xellos' for anyone's liking. "Say, Lina, could you do me a favor? I have these little crystals..." she snapped her fingers and three small stones appeared in the still very confused red head's hands, "...and I'd really appreciate it if you could hold on to them for me. Just for a little while. They're special and stuff, ya know. All ya need to do is make sure Destiny doesn't get them... or even know you have them, actually."
Lina stared at the small crystals for a moment and blinked. "Um... alright."
"How the hell d'ya get those!?!" Duorue demanded.
"I stole them, of course."
"How?"
"That is a secret."
"You're stealing my material," Xellos grumbled.
"Yes, but see, your dead so I didn't think you'd care. In fact, you should feel honored; I'm keeping alive your words long after you're gone. People will remember you forever through your words."
"They'll remember you saying it."
"Details details." She waved one hand at him as if brushing away his concerns. "They're not important. You're dead anyway..."
"I am very much alive," Xellos protested.
"Yeah, sure, now," Posmose broke in. "Give it a couple of years and you can kiss your staff good-bye."
As the sun started to creep over the horizon, light surrounded each of the naked people. Bits floated off them and collected just above them. Kendra released her hold on Xellos and stared at her hands as they turned to golden light and faded in to nothing. Posmose let out a defeated sigh while turquoise light pulled away from his being. Duorue gave Kendra a gentle pat in an attempt to reassure her that everything was alright while black light left his body.
Xaina smirked at Lina with her eyes closed, looking as if nothing were wrong while white light drifted off her tail and legs making them fade away. "Destiny will be back in an hour or so. Don't turn your back on him. The monstrosity will help you only so long as he can't get his grubby hands on that child. After that, well, don't count us as friends." Her whole body was nearly gone. She opened her eyes and gave the sorceress a compassionate, real smile this time. "Use the crystals. They were made to help."
"Help... but how..." Lina's words were cut off as bright light flashed in everyone's eyes. When the light was gone and their eyes had adjusted, the four people were gone and the birds had taken their places. The red head looked back at the stones that rested in her palm. "Use the crystals?" Silence had settled over the group. There were no words that to either answer Lina's question or explain what had just occurred.
"AHHHHH! Get off me you creep!" Filia screeched.
Xellos gave a slight pout while still keeping his arms tightly wrapped around the dragon woman. "But I'm scared," he mock whined.
"I don't care! Keep off me!" Everyone else face faulted, except Little Xaina who looked just plain confused.
"What happened?" the child inquired. "I couldn't see anything. I don't know what happened. Someone tell me."
"Soon as we figure out, Xain, you'll be the first to know," Lina assured her.
____________________________________________________________________________ ______
Ah, so sorry this took so long. (get's down one hands and knees and bows to all loyal readers) I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I was with relatives for a long time and had no access to my writings. Plenty of video games, but no writing.
Oh, and a big thanks to Erin Mcateer who read my way to long notes last time and e-mailed me a picture I could use on my site that has all the slayers main characters. (gives big hug) Thank you so much. It is greatly appreciated and will be used on my web site when I find the time to get back to working on that page again. Hopefully I will have some of it up and running by the end of the next month.
Well, I'm off to write another chapter. I'm hoping the get the dragon's peak by the end of it, but I guess we'll see. One question before I go though, does anyone know what color Gaav and Dynast's eyes are? I can't find that info, though I think Gaav's are black (but the pictures I'm basing this off of are not very good or close up). Anyway, 100 points to anyone who can tell me one and a 1000 to anyone who can tell me both.