Lina poked the crystals that glittered in the morning sun light. She grabbed the blue one, held it up between her pointer finger and thumb, and marveled as light caught inside making it appear to glowing a soft sapphire. She glanced down at the other two: one was an ivory white and the other a rich violet. "And what exactly are we suppose to do with these?" The sorceress grunted.

Amelia had scooted over and peered over Lina's shoulder. "I don't know, but the white one is really pretty." She grabbed the little crystal and admired it as light bounced inside it. "It's white, like everything good and beautiful and just in the world!" the princess proclaimed. Lina and Zelgadiss stared at her lamely. Gourry and Xaina, on the other hand, were too absorbed in the fight waging between Filia and Xellos to notice the shrine maiden.

Try as she may, Filia could not break out of the trickster's grasp. Xellos had somehow gotten the perfect hold on her with her arms held up and her mace out of reach. He was behind her with his nose pressed in to her hair so she couldn't even kick him. This was so humiliating! If only she could get her mace...

"Let go of me!!" the dragon wailed.

Sniff. "I'm not goin' to hurt you." Sniff. "You smell sooo good." Sniff. "Have I ever told you yer my favorite?" Sniff sniff. "You really are, Fi'ia."

"Let me go! Let me go! Let me go! Miss Linaaa!!"

The sorceress waved a dismissive hand at the former priestess. "In a minute. I busy."

Xellos smirked and rested his chin on Filia's shoulder. "Take yer time. Take yer time. There's no rush here."

Magic was brimming off the crystals. Lina could feel that much in her hand. This wasn't little magic either. The fact that she could feel the magic in them meant it had to be pretty powerful. Funny how something that was just a little bigger then her thumb nail could hold so much energy. Of course this knowledge did not help them since they had no idea what the crystals were for or how to use them. 'Damn it! Why wasn't Xai... Big Xaina more helpful?! She could have at least told us how to use them!' the red head mentally grumbled.

"Forget a few years!" Filia barked. "The second I get free, I'M sending you to the afterlife!"

The trickster moved one hand up so he could give her a pat on the head. His other arm, however, still held her too tight to allow her to grab her mace... or anything else that could be used as a weapon. "Such a good little dragon. I had a pet dragon once, but he stopped moving a few weeks after I got him. I miss him."

Anger was suddenly replaced by panic and the blonde woman's eyes bugged out. "Miss Liiinnnnaaaa!!!"

"I said in a minute," the sorceress snorted.

"But Miss Lina..."

"My dragon didn't have a tai', though. I like yer tai', Fi'ia."

A large blush covered Filia's face as she realized her tail was sticking out... between his legs... twitching from her fury "ANYONE, PLEASE HELP!!!!!"

Lina finally whirled around and glared at them. "Xellos, let her go! Filia let him... ... ... smell you! Now!"

Xellos pouted. "But, but, but..."

"But nothing! Now!"

"Alright," the trickster priest whimpered and released his prey.

Filia didn't waste a second in grabbing her mace and beating Xellos several times with it. Surprisingly, the monster didn't even try to dodge; he just smiled blissful as each blow pounded him in to the ground. "And stay there!" the dragon woman roared.

Xaina floated over to her teacher and gave him a soft pat on the head. "Maybe we should go back to the island for a while." She grabbed a chunk of his hair and they teleported away.

~*~*~

Xellos wobbled slightly as he appeared before his master. He quickly dropped to one knee more out of need to keep stable then to show her respect. Xaina was with him, but she stood several feet away from him. Filia's scent was still all over him. Murkivra said he reeked of it and sprayed him with some of her perfume in an attempt to cover it. Sadly, that only made it more pungent and he had hastily bathed afterwords. It didn't do him much good, though. The scent still persisted.

The neko child eyed her teacher warily. Xaina herself did not bow as he did since the last time she had, she had been scolded. She was not suppose to bow to anyone who was her equal or less, as Xellos claimed, and supposedly she was on the same level as Beastmaster. She, of course, was still trying to figure out why she and Master Zelas were equal. Xaina could barely preform the same tricks as the low level servants; how could she be equal to the master of beasts? Beastmaster waved her hand in a silent gesture for Xellos to stand... well, relatively silent since her mental bracelets tinked as they hit each other when the woman's arms moved. Xaina let out a disgruntled sigh as Xellos wobbled as he stood and leaned on his staff.

Zelas frowned in concern. Her servant wasn't acting normal. Had he not been a monster, she would have thought him to be drunk. Her eyes flickered to Xaina for a moment in the hopes of getting some sort of idea but found none. The child seemed just as concerned as she was. "Xellos, is there something you wish to report to me?" the blonde lord inquired.

The trickster nodded and nearly fell forward. 'Damn it,' he mentally cursed, 'you smelled to much!' There was a long pause with nothing said and all eyes focused on Xellos.

"And?" Zelas finally prompted.

"Aaaannnnnnnddd..." He dragged out the word in order to give him a little time to think of what exactly he was going to say. "Things are not going exactly as... as... as... planned! Yes, planned. The group has changed their... uh... um... co... cor... course!"

"Why?"

"..."

"Well?" Zelas demanded impatiently.

"... I... we uh..."

Xaina sighed again and folded her arms together over her chest. "Because Filia's hot," the child supplied.

Her answer earned her a questioning look for Beastmaster. "Filia's hot? Filia, the annoying little golden dragon, Filia? The Filia Xellos usually gets his daily meals from? The dragon woman who owns the tea shop? She's hot?" Xaina nodded proudly. Usually she just stood around and listened in these meetings. Today, she was helping and that gave her a small bit of pride. Zelas glanced back and forth between her servant and the partial cat child, trying to understand exactly what was going on. It was obvious she was missing something very important. "And what does that mean?" she asked carefully though she was almost certain she wouldn't like the answer.

"That Filia's hot."

"What do you mean by that?"

"That Filia's hot."

"I see," the blonde replied as she saw that this approach was not going to work. "Fair enough. What does Filia being hot have to do with Lina Inverse... or should I be calling her Lina Gabrieve now? I can never keep up with the other species' name thing... Anyway, what does Filia being hot have to do with Lina and her companions changing course?"

"They have to go somewhere so Filia can give Val little brothers and sisters and no longer be hot."

Now Zelas was confused. 'What the hell is she talking about? What does being hot have to do with having children...?' A light suddenly went off in the back of her mind. 'It could be that...' "Xaina, come here." The child hesitated for a moment but then floated over to Beastmaster. The monster lord took hold of the girl, reached out with her power, and instantly sensed all the pheromones on the child seeping in to the woman's system. "My my child, it seems you've been playing with a dragon in heat."

"That's what I said: Filia's hot."

"So you did, so you did," Zelas agreed. "It has certainly made you smell quite interesting."

"If you think I smell funny, you should smell Xellos." The trickster raised one hand and twiddled his fingers in a pathetic wave while smiling sheepishly. "He's been stuck so close to Filia so much, he smells just like her."

"Is that so." The beast master reached to the side of her throne and rang a little golden bell. A few moments later, Murkivra came in and bowed before her master. "Take Xaina and play with her, feed her, bathe her, or something that'll keep her occupied for a few hours." Xaina pouted as she was spoken of in the third person despite her presence. She was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, as far as she was concerned. "I wish to speak to Xellos alone and I don't want her or anyone else interrupting us. Make sure no one disturbs us unless Shabernigdo himself has been reborn."

Murkivra bowed again and took the child being held out to her. "Yes master." With that, the low level servant and Xaina teleported out of the room.

When they were gone, Zelas looked back at her priest with a mischievous grin. "Why Xellos, you should have told me sooner that your little pet was in heat." Xellos gulped as the foreboding sense that something very bad was going to happen to him soon crept through his body.

~*~*~

Perfume from summer flowers filled the air as the slayers and Destiny walked along. When exactly Destiny had returned or when she had fallen in step with them was not clear. All any of them knew was one minute she wasn't with them, the next she was. She was still just as creepy as ever and none of them dared ask about what had happened. They had already seen small demonstrations of Destiny's power, and none of them were interested in seeing all of it, especially when their best magic user didn't exactly have any real control on how her magic behaved at the moment.

Several days had passed since the birds had become people and none of them were any closer to figuring it all out exactly. Zelgadiss, of course, explained to them that he was sure that the two men he had tried to chase down in Saillune were Posmose and Duorue. But why had they changed then? What was so special about each of those nights that had made them change? It was obviously not Destiny's doing. She had only changed them to people when the slayers had been in danger and even then, she had only changed two of them (the second only because the first had proven too terrified to do anything other than hide). They were all desperate for answers but none were coming. Between learning she was pregnant, knowing her kid was going to bring about the end of the world, meeting Destiny, having four birds who are actually people that are dead (according to the older Xaina), and on top of all that, were quite possibly from the future, Lina was frustrated. All of this was making her head hurt. She was ready for a break from the weirdness and confusion.

Filia let out a high pitched screech. Nope, a break wasn't coming anytime soon. "How dare you show your miserable face here again, nomagomi!"

That's right, not a single break in sight.

"Oh, you mean you missed me?" Xellos teased.

"Die you creep!" There was a loud crack as Filia's mace swiped through the trunk of a rather large tree. Several moments later, the tree came crashing down with enough force to shake the earth.

Nope. No breaks from the weirdness and random dragon caused destruction today.

"My, my, Filia, you're so violent, even for a dragon." Swipe. Filia successfully made a large crater in the ground... swipe... make that two craters... smash... and another tree.

"And everyone is concerned about me having a child," the red head grumbled.

"What was that, Miss Lina?" Amelia inquired as she surveyed the damage now being done to the helpless forest.

Lina folded her arms together and glared at the carnage taking place behind them. "Alright, Filia and Xellos cause some of the greatest amount of destruction, right?"

"Right."

"And they can both be extremely dangerous, right?"

"Yes."

"They can also be quite self centered too, correct?"

"Sometimes, yes."

"And yet we give them children thinking it's perfectly alright and these children are going to turn out perfectly normal?"

"Uh..."

"Not even I cause this much destruction on a day to day bases! Yet everyone is certain I'm the last person who should be given a child! I'm responsible! I don't go around smashing trees! I'm not mean or scary most of the time! But everyone is afraid of me having a child!!"

Amelia took a few steps away from Lina, fearing the red head's temper. Xaina, however, had no such fear and floated right over to the sorceress and sat on her shoulders. "I'm not afraid of you having a child, Lina," the neko child smiled.

"Your the only one," Lina sighed. "Your the only one who likes me too."

"I like you," Gourry broke in.

The petite woman glared at him. "Of course you do, jellyfish! You have to! You don't get a choice!" She turned her gaze back to the rampaging dragon in human form and monster. "Good gods, do they ever stop?"

"It's love," Xaina chirped. "Of course not."

Everyone stared at the child in confusion. "If that's love, I don't ever want to see hate between them. There might not be anything left of the planet when their done fighting."

Xaina gave the sorceress a gentle pat on the head. "Murkivra says it's hate too, so we get to see both at once."

"Lucky us," Lina grunted sarcastically. "Hey, people, are we just gonna stand here all day or are we going to get get moving!" She didn't wait for a reply and started tromping along the path again with Xaina still on her shoulders. Gourry hastily ran after her with Destiny walking calmly behind.

Zelgadiss and Amelia exchanged curious glances. "Mood swing?" the princess inquired.

"Mood swing," the chimera agreed. His demonic eyes glanced back at Filia. "And we may have two of them doing that very soon."

"I'm not sure I could take another one."

"You're not the only one."

"Should we be worried."

"Yes."

____________________________________________________________________________ ______

*Tealya comes out dragging Writer's Block behind her. She throws him on the ground, grabs Filia's mace out of nowhere, and proceeds to beat Writer's Block while crying out several non-repeatable obscenities in a PG-13 fic. Writer's Block tried to crawl away but fails and is beaten in to a bloody pulp. Tealya pants for a few moments and glares at Writer's Block as she calms down.* And don't come back!!! I'll do it again if you do!!!

I hate writer's block. I hate writer's block. I hate writers block. If anyone else hates it, feel free to give it the same treatment. I have not been able to write or edit anything for two weeks! Two freakin' weeks!! *growl, grumble, groan* Absolutely nothing! That's what I did for the past two weeks! Aside from school, anyway.

Okay, I've ranted a little. I feel better. Hopefully the next chapter will come in a more timely manner. And the next chapter they will be reaching dragon's peak! I will make them reach dragon's peak! I was hoping to do it in this chapter, but succeeded it making it too long and cut it off and moved what else I had done to the next chapter.

Erin Mcateer-sama, I'm sorry. *bows so low forehead is touching floor* I didn't mean to call you by your dad's name. I corrected it when I uploaded this chapter. Thank you again for the picture. I am about half way done uploading my stories to it (which is impressive for someone who didn't know any html a few weeks ago and is now using it completely for that section of my page). If anyone has any suggestions for other things I should put up there (aside from a small image gallery) please let me know. I could really use some ideas. Also, thank you everyone who helped me out with the color of Gaav and Dynast's eyes. That will have relivance later. Anyway, that's all I have to say for now. As always, please review.