Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own slayers…wish I did though…
So peaceful?
A journey by sea
The ship was slowly making it's way across the vast blue ocean. Eruk was standing at the side looking at the water beneath. Finally they were moving forward again. He turned around to see what the others were doing. Amelia was the first to capture his attention. Somehow it didn't surprise him that she was standing in the crows nest singing some silly song about justice and love. At least to him it sounded silly, but there was no doubt in his mind that she meant every word quite seriously. He mentally added high places to his list of things Amelia liked, just below love, justice and Zel. A smile spread across his face, too bad Zel had gone below deck to avoid the sailors staring at his face. Eruk rather enjoyed watching Amelia follow him around like a puppy. He took another look at the hyper princess, in his mind she was a nice enough person, but her love for justice really could get on his nerves. Although it was quite amusing when she tried to lecture Lina about the subject.
He tried to locate Lina and Gourry, but they were nowhere to be seen. To bad I can't make a bet about their whereabouts he thought. Even though it had only been a few hours since they left the port, he was willing to bet all the money he had, that they were off to raid the ships hold for any food they could get their hands on. He decided to leave them alone. He had learned the hard way that getting between Lina and a meal was not a smart thing to do, unless you really liked pain that is. He rolled his eyes, Xellos was the only one who would do something like that on purpose. He shuddered, there was something that he didn't like about the smiling mazuko, but he couldn't put his finger on what it was. Xellos could be annoying, but he hadn't done anything to provoke that effect from him. Luckily nobody had seen Xellos for some time now.
"Isn't it boring just to look at water all the time?" A voice came from behind, snapping him out of his thought. He turned around to face a giggling Taki. "You can't just sneak up behind people and scare them like that" he desperately tried to control his heartbeat. "So sorry, but I just couldn't resist" she was still snickering. Eruk decided that if he were to keep up a cool appearance, he'd better change the subject. "Mind if I ask why you are wearing that outfit?" he asked while gesturing to her bathing suit "surely you can't be thinking of jumping overboard, and swim to the outer world?". She gently hit him in the back of his head. "And why shouldn't I?" she walked up beside him and looked like she was getting ready to jump. "You are kidding, right?" he asked nervously. She sighed "you are no fun, any decent man would have rushed to my rescue by now". She climbed back down. He gave her a sly smile "just remember Taki, I'm not a decent man. I'm the dirty perverted fool that ruined your clothes in a damp prison cell". His quick mouth left her speechless for a short period. She gave him a glare, and walked away. The young warrior started to wonder if he should have been more tactful. He got his answer a moment later when she popped her head around a cabin that blocked his view. "Oh and about my outfit" she giggled "I don't plan to swim, but us girls decided that it would be nice getting a tan for a change. I would invite you to join us, but seeing how you are a perverted fool, I guess I should say no peeking". She waved coyly and vanished from sight. He turned back to watching the waves, and listening to the ongoing song from the crows nest.
Looking at the waves was getting pretty boring, and when he found that he was actually starting to humming along with the song from the crows nest, he realized that he had been standing there far to long. Shaking his head forcefully, he decided that he really needed to get away. He stretched a bit, and decided to head down to his cabin to get some sleep.
The sound of the ship rocking gently in the sea breeze was like music to him. They young Seyruun princess had a pretty voice, but her songs left much to be desired when it came to the originality of her texts. He stopped in front of the door to his cabin. Or to be exact, the door leading to one of the many storerooms aboard the ship. His cabin, as the captain had called it, was nothing more than a small room that was normally used to store the ships drinking water in. As he reached for the doorknob, he heard voices from inside. He pressed his ear against the door. "No Gourry! I already told you, THAT goes in THERE". Eruk was pretty sure that the voice belonged to Lina, but what in the hell were they doing in there? He kept on listening. "But Lina…" it sounded like Gourry was pretty unsure of what he had to do "that's not the way Zel told us to do it". A dump sound could be heard from inside, Eruk was pretty sure that it was the sound of Lina hitting Gourry. "Gourry, you jellyfish brain. We are doing this my way, not Zel's way, so you just get to work". He had a funny feeling that busting inside right now would prove to be hazardous to his health. As he started to back away from the door, fate would, that a rather large wave hit the ship and caused him to fall over and through the door and into a small room . Two pairs of eyes were fixed in his direction. "I'm sooo dead" he mumbled, not even looking up from the floor.
"You ok?" Lina poked him with her foot. Eruk raised his face. Lina stood slightly bent over, looking at him, while Gourry was busy trying to pick the lock on the door that would take them deeper into the ships hold, and the food supply. So that's what they were doing, I should have know he thought. "Lina, I don't think this is working" Gourry complained. Eruk dusted himself of while Lina turned her attention to her blonde sidekick. "Come on Gourry, if we don't get that door opened, we wont get any food until dinner". Gourry's face turned into a mask of horror "Dinner?" he gasped "that's 3 hours without food? Oh the horror!". He turned back to his futile attempt at lockpicking. Lina turned her attention back to the newcomer " anyway, what brings you here?" she asked. Eruk looked at her funnily "I should be asking the same question. This is my cabin". Lina looked around "this is your cabin? It looks more like a storeroom to me". Eruk sighed, she was right. But what could be expected from a 90% discount?.
"Lina?" Gourry stood up and stretched his back "why do I have to do this?". Lina turned around and glared at the swordsman, who was scratching his head "why don't we just do as we always do, and blast the door with your magic?" Lina grabbed his collar "Take a look around you moron, this is a WOODEN ship". He blinked at her "Yeah so?" She sighed as she let him down "Even this amateur sorcerer" she pointed at Eruk "knows what would happen if I were to blast the door with a fireball". Eruk shuttered, she was right, he didn't even want to think about the consequences of a fireball. He had to do something before the hunger got the better of her. Gourry was casually leaning up against the locked door "I still say we should get Zel to help us out, he's the only one who knows how to use these things anyway" he held up the lockpicks. Something fell in place inside Eruks head, he was pretty sure he had seen that kind of tools before. "Mind if I take a crack at it?" he asked, as he reached for the tools. Gourry handed them over without protest.
He knelt down in front of the door and examined the lock. Both Lina and Gourry watched in silent anticipation, well as silent as they could be with a rumbling stomach. As Eruk worked on the lock, a faint memory came back to him, and when he heard a faint "click" from inside the lock, he had no doubt, he had definitely done this before. "Alright! FOOD" the starving duo behind him cried, and charged forward at maximum speed. Just as he had done many times before, Eruk rolled out of the way before Gourry slammed into the door. Lina, not able to break on the short distance, ran head first into his back. "Gourry what are you doing?" The petite sorceress asked in an annoyed, if somewhat muffled, voice. Gourry was still pressed against the door "Lina? This door seems to be locked". Lina pushed herself of Gourry's backside. "You!" she turned her anger to Eruk, who was desperately trying to think of an excuse. Sure, she had said it herself, it wasn't actually an brilliant idea to blow him up while on the ship, but judging from her look it didn't seem like he was getting away unhurt.
He sweatdropped as Lina advanced at him with a wicked smile plastered to her face. "Maybe the door just opens the other way?" he suggested, before the hungry sorceress decided to eat him instead of the food behind the closed door. "Don't give me that!" she cried and lounged forward. Never before had Eruk been forced to deal with strength in that magnitude, and he took quite a beating. Suddenly she stopped in mid-punch. Slowly she turned her head in a movement that resembled a predator hearing a prey behind it. Gourry had used the chaos to open the door, and sneak into the storeroom, and was now happily chewing on some dried meat. For about five seconds Lina stared at the door in disbelief, it had indeed been opened in the direction Eruk had suggested. She looked down on Eruk and gave him a nervous smile "Oh well, everybody makes mistakes right? Hey Gourry that's my food". She rushed inside to join her companion.
Even though the day was coming to an end, it was still warm. For Sylphiel, Filia and Taki the day had been just wonderful. A journey by sea was the best way to travel, since it meant no work whatsoever. "So Filia, why did you insist on coming along as well?" Taki asked their new companion. Filia pushed her sunshades into her forehead "I thought I already told you. As a former priestess of the fire dragon king, I have a duty to keep an eye out for whatever evil scheme that MAZUKO Xellos has in mind". She gazed lovingly into the small basket that was placed next to her lounge chair, "Isn't that right Val? Filia-mama is going to make sure that namagomi isn't up to something". Sylphiel and Taki sent each other a questioning look. Filia was one of Linas friends, and Linas friend tended to be somewhat weird, but talking to an egg?
Taki shook her head and sipped her drink. "Sylphiel, don't you want a drink?" She asked, and raised her glass "I'm sure that one of these nice sailors would love to fetch you one". Sylphiel snapped out of her daze-like condition. She had been busy worrying over her current outfit. Sure, Taki had done a really good jop picking out a bikini for her, blue had always been one of her favorite colors, and she really liked those cute little teddybear images that was woven into the fabric. But the thought of shoving as much skin as she did, made her uncomfortable. She shook her head "no I'm fine, but thanks anyway". She looked away, the truth was that she wasn't to comfortable to have some strange men looking at her like this. Taki noticed the way she blushed "Oh so that's why" she teased the shrinemaiden "You are too shy!". Sylphiels silence made her feelings quite obvious, and Taki just couldn't resist teasing the poor shrinemaiden some more. "Oh I see now, you don't feel comfortable around the sailors, but I'll bet that you are just dying to have your wonderful Eruk to…".
"NO" Sylphiel screamed. She fell silent as both Taki and Filia stared at her. "It's nothing like that" she started explaining, turning redder with each word. "We are just friends, nothing more" her blush had turned into a shade of red that rivaled even Lina's hair. "Now Taki leave the poor child alone" Filia scolded the young waitress "It's easy to see that she's hit real bad".
Sylphiel looked away from her so called friends. If they insisted on making fun of her, she wouldn't stop them.
A cold gush of wind swept over the three girls. Taki shuddered "It's getting awful cold out here. I think I'll go below deck and put some more clothes on". Sylphiel and Filia agreed and followed. As they reached the stairs, they heard a groan coming from a dark corner. All of them let out a small scream when Eruk stumbled out of the darkness, looking almost as bad as he did when he first met Sylphiel.
Both Sylphiel and Filia knelt down and started to cast a recovery spell on him. The combined power of their magic quickly healed his bruised body. "What happened to you?" Filia asked. "Nothing really" he smiled weakly "I just got in the way of one of Lina's meals". Taki shook her head "somebody should really tell that girl to be more careful". All of them looked at each other, as to say "Good idea. You do it, because I happen to like living". Taki laughed nervously "I guess we all feel the same way huh?".
Filia stood up and started to leave together with Taki. Eruk's eyes was fixed on Filia's backside as she walked away. He managed to hold a chuckle back at her outfit. He had never seen a bikini with little dragons on it before. As funny as he found her outfit, something was still troubling him. This is stupid he thought I'm just imagining things, there is no way she can hide a tail in that outfit. The last few times he had seen her chase Xellos around, he had felt certain that he had seen a tail, but now, he wasn't so sure anymore. And he had a feeling that lifting up her skirt from time to time to check, could turn out to be quite painful.
Sylphiel couldn't help notice the way he stared at Filia as she walked away. She took a step away " if you stare any harder your eyes might leave their sockets and follow her on their own", she hissed. Eruk snapped out of his thoughts "I… uhh wasn't staring like that, it's just that…" he trailed off, wondering how he could convince her that he was looking for a tail. "I'll be in my cabin, if you ever decide that I'm worthy of that much attention as those two", Sylphiel ran of to her cabin in the bottom of the ship. I wonder what I did? Eruk asked himself.
Even though the journey was pleasant it started getting pretty boring. Eruk was bored looking at noting but water, even his companions wasn't fun to observe. It wasn't that warm anymore, so the girls had given up on sunbathing. Amelia didn't even sing or preach about justice and love anymore. In other words, almost all of them were starting to get depressed. Of course in the case of Zel, you couldn't feel certain of his emotional state, he always seemed depressed anyway. The only ones that were in positive spirit was Lina and Gourry. The captain had done his research well, and brought huge amounts of food onboard. Eruk sighted, that food was the reason he slept on the deck each night. His cabin was nothing more than a storeroom leading to the main hold, and for that reason Lina had claimed it her second cabin.
Authors notes:
Are Sylphiel acting to much ooc? I do that on purpose sometimes, just to show that she has gotten a bit older since the show. Hope you don't mind my take on her character. Don't worry, even though she has her fits of anger, she's still the old forgiving Sylphiel.
