A/N: *_* I realize its not as fun for Slayers fans to read when its not about the original characters, but come on, please review. Lina and everybody else will be a major part in the end.
Disclaimer: I don't own Slayers or anything else that isn't mine to own.
Go Fish Alliance Style
Liona, Angelina, Val, and Blake continue on their way South. Nobody has yet to tell Liona that they're going the wrong way. When they come to the southern border of Seyruun, Liona stops at the sign that says 'Welcome to the Coastal Alliance' (or whatever it's called). She stares at it for a long time. After an exceptionally long time, she slowly turns around and asks innocently, "Am I going the wrong way?"
Val and Blake both nodded, but Angelina asked back, "Well, it depends. Where are you headed?"
Liona instantly replied, "To find Mommy's cure!"
Angelina nodded before continuing, "And where to you expect to find that?"
Liona put a finger to her chin as she looked up thoughtfully. Silence. "I don't know?"
All three of her companions sighed at this. Liona rubbed the back of her head nervously. "Well, I never /was/ good at directions. The North Pole could be the South Pole for all I know."
Liona shrugged and smiled. "So where /are/ we going?"
Angelina said gently, "Wherever you want to go. This is your quest."
Liona contemplated this. "I know!" Liona closed her eyes, and spun around rapidly half a dozen times in succession. When she stopped, she pointed her finger in the direction that she was facing.
Val looked up at the sky, looked at the direction Liona had chosen, and surmised, "You want to go east to the Desert of Destruction?"
In the silence that followed, a tumbleweed blew past them.
Blake suggested, "Why don't we just go to the next town and decide there?"
Liona's response was as predictable as ever considering her lineage. "FOOD!!!"
And with that, she actually turned the right way and left dust in her tracks as she ran to the closest Alliance city. Knowing where she'd be, her companions followed in a quick but steady pace.
In all actuality, Liona stopped in her tracks when she was far out of eyesight of her friends. She looked in the direction of the Desert of Destruction, and said quietly, "Just you wait, I'll come for you soon enough. I'll /make/ you cure Mommy, and then-"
"Liona!"
Liona abruptly stopped and turned around. Her companions had seen her and called out to her. She waited for them to catch up to her, with a completely innocent, blank face.
Once caught up, Blake asked, "Why'd you stop?"
Val added, "We thought you'd already be in the next town – making our purses ten times lighter."
Liona cracked a grin and said offhandedly, "I can't spend your money if you're not there to pay for it." She turned. "Come on, let's get going already. I'm hungry! ^_^"
Val, Angelina, and Blake exchanged glances. With a collective shrug, they decided to just go with the flow. Unsurprisingly, Liona's mark was off, and they completely missed the next town. After several uneventful hours, Liona finally began to question her navigation skills again. Nevertheless, they continued on. . . right until they hit the southern coast.
With the sea several yards ahead of her, expanding farther than the average eye could see, Liona silently stood as she watched the water come up and down the beach. Finally, Angelina put a hand on her shoulder and suggested that they go and eat. When asked back "Where?" Angelina responded by pointing to a nearby beach house/restaurant. Her expression immediately brightened by 100 fold, and she ran to the beach house. Hungry as well, Angelina, Val, and Blake followed her (they seem to do a lot of that, don't they?).
Once inside, Liona hurriedly looked left and right. Val came up behind her and informed her, "The ordering counter is over there Liona."
Liona wasn't listening as she suddenly declared, "Found him!"
Liona rushed off to the corner of the restaurant, where a hostess was seating a young-looking man with purple hair…
"Uncle Xellos!" In a galloping leap, Liona latched on from his back in a tight hug. Surprised, the hostess, and just about everyone else in the near vicinity, turned to look. Xello turned his head a little and saw a mop of strawberry-blond hair connecting with his back. Carefully holding her hands, Xellos deftly swung her around so that she was in front of him. Xellos pretended to act surprised. "Why, if it isn't little Liona-chan! What brings you to these parts?" Then as an afterthought, Xellos invited Liona to eat with him. Liona said she would if he paid for hers and her friends. When the hostess saw the amount of people that'd be eating, she suggested moving to a bigger table. They obliged.
It was a semi-circle table in the corner, so the seating went like so: Xellos on the end, Liona, Angelina on her other side, then Val, and finally Blake. Throughout the meal, Angelina tried to blandly ignore Xellos while she went through three pots of tea and a small salad. Val was very agitated as he kept stealing glares at Xellos while he paid no attention to what he ate. Blake had no clue who Xellos was, so he ate his fish-flavored steak heartily (don't ask -_-). As for Liona, she chatted with Xellos like they were old secret buddies. In fact, she was so busy talking that she only ordered a small platter of fish, and spent the length of the meal eating just that.
When Xellos asked why she was here again, Liona made him lean down and she whispered it in her ear. Xellos' eyebrows raised slightly when he heard her reasoning, but then Liona pulled back and asked why he was on the mainland. Xellos replied easily, and Liona said at the same time, "Sore wa himitsu desu." Xellos huffed playfully when Liona copied him, but he got over it.
About an hour passed before they finally decided to go, and only because Xellos told Liona of a special seasonal contest they had in this town. Compete to fish for the most catches, and at the end of the day, the winner with the most catches received a medal and was allowed to keep half of their catches. The rest of the contestants, and the other half of the winner's catches, went to the beachhouse storage since they were hosting this event. Everyone who competed received a compensation prize though – a free buffet coupon at the beachhouse.
Contestants were allowed to enter with a team of up to three people. Liona immediately entered, she dragged Angelina into it, and Blake was coaxed in by the promise of a lot of fish meat. Val said he'd watch them from afar, and Xellos said that he had to be on his way, as his mistress was expecting him to be back soon.
At dawn the next day, the contest began. Fifty teams, a total of one hundred fifty people, entered. It turned out, that the fish in the Alliance bay were very hard to catch. Even by the end of the day, more than half of them hadn't caught a single fish. Liona was a skilled fisher-girl though. With the old Inverse trick, she baited and caught fish after fish. Blake also happened to be skilled at fishing; he put his sword in the water, made a wide circle around their boat with the blade, took it out after connecting the full circle, and immediately, dead fish surrounded their boat. Angelina abhorred such violence against the poor fishes, and set about putting the dead fish into a cooler, as a "proper" burial – in ice. The only real reason she agreed to this was to stay close to Liona and make sure she didn't hurt herself or drown. She didn't, but she did have a lot of fun.
The end score was anything but close. In third place, was a group of three old fishermen whom caught 20 of the same fish – probably a passing school caught in a huge net. In second place, was a pair of teenagers who amazingly caught 50 different types of fish all varying by size and color. In first place, was Liona's team with 250 fish – all different types, a mother and baby shark, and a young sea dragon. Not only did they receive a medal each and three buffet coupons, but they were allowed to do whatever they wanted with the sea dragon and sharks, as they were still alive. Angelina immediately suggested that they be set free again. Having no reason to complain, Liona offered to do it – alone.
As Liona insisted and informed Angelina that she'd only let them go if she could do it alone, Angelina was forced to consent. That night, Liona walked to the beach, with the three aquatic creatures hovering over her, while everyone else enjoyed a nice seafood buffet inside.
Inside her former home, Mazolina cursed, the sound reverberating through the empty room. Although she could not here what Liona talked about, she knew that Liona knew about her, and her location. Then, Mazolina smirked to herself. Liona was smarter than she had thought, too smart to be left alone.
A/N: Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! Please Review! |T_T_T_T| I'm near the climax of the story now! Come on! I know you're there! Please Review! -_-