Disclaimer: Look, if I owned Slayers this would already have been turned into an anime. Do you see an anime here? No? Damn….that must mean that I don't own Slayers.
Taki's training
Hour of fate
The sound of battle could be heard through the trees. Eruk whipped the sweat from his forehead, as he stared at his practice dummy. He smiled at it's resemblance to the trickster Xellos. He rolled forward and slashed viciously at his enemy. "That's not very nice to mister Xellos, you know" Sylphiel playfully scolded him. "Oh is that so?" he slowly turned at the sound of her voice. Ever since he found out that he was perfectly normal, and that Xellos was only playing with his mind, he had hated the smiling priest. The good thing about it was that he and Sylphiel had returned to the barrier lands. " Are you ready for our little picnic?" she giggled, as his eyes scanned her over "I thought we could go swimming first" she spun around "How do you like my new swim suit?". He was speechless. "Eruk dear" she slowly moved towards him. He didn't respond. "Eruk dear?" "Eruk?"
"Hey Eruk, wake up call!". He slowly opened his eyes. "Oh so you are awake now" Taki happily cried, before she let go of his shoulders, and caused him to crash back into bed. "Now that you have finally woken up, how about that present you promised me last night?" she looked at him with starfilled eyes. "Taki, lay off will ya?" he mumbled sleepily. If there was one thing he hated, it was to be woken up early in the morning.
Well one thing was getting up early, having an overly happy teenager bouncing all over you was something else entirely. "Taki, come on let me sleep some more" he slowly rolled over, looking away from her. She stopped prodding him, and started walking around. "If you want to go back to sleep that badly…." She thought out loud "that must mean that you were having a very nice dream. A dream about a certain shrinemaiden perhaps…". His eyes shot open. He could faintly remember the dream that he had been having, and he wasn't about to let Taki and her hyperactive imagination go on. "Fine, fine you win" he grumbled and sat up. With a blush she noticed that he was not overly dressed, in fact he was only wearing a pair of pajamas pants. "Umm I'll just wait for you outside, ok?" she stuttered, and backed out of the door.
She carefully closed the door behind her, and walked down the empty hallway, lost in her own thoughts. "well well Taki, good morning!" Xellos greeted her with his usual smiling face. No need to say that his sudden appearance made her jump several feet into the air. "Mr. Xellos!!!" she panted "don't scare me like that!". She continued on, closely followed by the priest. "So where are you going this early in the morning" he asked curiously. She stopped for a while "you know, I haven't really thought about it" she admitted "I just thought I would wait for Eruk outside, or something like that". Xellos raised an eyebrow, "you know" he whispered "you shouldn't go too far away from town. I have heard rumors of a terrible golden dragon that lives in this area".
The two of the continued on, and while they walked Xellos kept telling scary stories about the evil dragon.
Taki was watching the sunrise, while trying to pay full attention to Xellos's hair raising stories about the dragons, when Eruk joined them. "Oh but I'm sure it's nothing to worry about." Xellos assured the frightened youth before he left them alone.
"So what were you talking about?" Eruk asked, as he caught up to the waitress. "Oh nothing" she lied. "Now how about that present?" she asked eagerly. "You don't waste any time, do you? Eruk laughed "I just hope that you wont be disappointed". He handed her the bundle of rages he had wrapped around the guns for protection. She eagerly tore away at the bundle until she finally held the two guns. "Umm I'm grateful and all" she said, while looking funnily at the twin guns "but what are they?". Eruk took the guns "It's something that I bought a little while back. They are weapons, and according to the salesman, they are quite easy to use". He gave the guns back to Taki. She still looked at them like they were completely alien to her "You are giving these to me?" she asked one more time. He shrugged "they were never intended to be your birthday present. It's just that it seems that this journey could be dangerous, and I would feel a lot better if I knew you were able to defend yourself". She smiled at him "you are worrying about me? That's so sweet of you!" she hugged him tightly.
With some effort Eruk managed to pry her off "let's just say that I fell somewhat responsible for your being here". He started walking towards a small forest located at the east side of the village "there's a little time until breakfast, so how about if I try to teach you how use those guns? He asked.
"Mr. Ascard, Mr. Ascard! Wait up!" Neela chased after the tall swordsman. He frowned at his unwanted partner, and continued into the cave. "You sure aren't a very good listener are you?" she scolded him, when she finally caught up to him. He continued walking without even turning his head in her direction "So sorry" he hissed through cleansed teeth. Having been forced to work with the schizophrenic girl, he quickly learned that neither of her 2 very different personalities were easy to work with. "Nimph are afraid of the dark" the bluehaired girl complained, while the fairy in question sat on her usual spot, nodding in agreement.
Ascard took a deep breath before he faced the girl, "Listen carefully Neela, I can see in the dark. And according to lord Loid, so can you!". Her smile broadened, "Oh really?" She looked around "Hey, you're right! Nimph look, the big scary man's right! We can see!". She started dancing around until she fell over her own legs, for god knows what time. Ascard hid his face, and shook his head, getting her to understand could easily prove to be even more difficult than their ultimate goal, to eliminate a failure that went by the name Eruk.
"The plan goes like this…" He continued explaining, trying his best to ignore the fact that she seemed more interested in throwing rocks into a small puddle of water.
"Okay, this is going to be a lot harder than I thought". Eruk sighed as he knelt down, beside the crying waitress. "Oh I'll never get the hang of this" she sniffed. "Don't say that" Eruk tried to calm her down "you've already learned so much". She clutched her shoulder, while a small stream of blood had started running down her arm "Like what?". Eruk started chanting a healing spell "well…" he started, thinking desperately of a diplomatic way of telling her that she was the most hopeless person he had ever met, what fighting concerned anyway. "Well, for starters you have learned how to load your guns pretty quick…" he started thinking back to all the times during that morning, that he had jumped behind a fallen tree because she kept dropping bullets and gunpowder into the small fire they had built. "and you have learned that even though I called the guns projectile type weapons, you are not supposed to throw them at your target. That's what bullets are for". He smiled as his healing spell started to mend the broken flesh in her shoulder "And now, I guess that you have learned that it probably isn't a very good idea to point them against yourself and pull the trigger" He shook his head "even though I honestly don't understand how exactly you managed to do so in the first place".
The two of them spent most of the morning in the woods together. Under Eruk's guidance Taki's abilities gradually improved.
"How did I do?" she asked curiously, as Eruk went over to examine the target. "Wait a second, I'm not done looking…." He whistled in amazement "it would seem that you have hit the target with all of your shots this time, you even managed to get a bullseye". For a while she just stared at him in disbelief, then started doing a funny little dance "YAY! I hit the target! I hit the target! YAY!!!!!"
Suddenly he stiffened "Taki, be quiet!" he ordered. "Lalala, I hit the target, lalala…." Lost in her own happiness, she totally ignored him. He strained his ears, was it just the wind he had heard before?.
Not wanting to take any chances he pulled Taki close and put his hand over her mouth "Taki, I told you to be quiet!" he hissed. "Mmmpppfff?" She looked at him with questioning eyes. "Listen Taki, I heard something out there, just be quiet until I know what it is". In the silence that had fallen over the forest he heard the sound again. It sounded almost like a huge bird flying around somewhere nearby. "There, I heard it too" Taki whispered "what do you think it is?" Eruk quickly tossed some dirt over the remains of the fire "I honestly don't know, but it sounds like trouble". A thought popped into Taki's head "you don't think it's that evil dragon Mr. Xellos told me about, do you?" she asked.
Eruk swallowed hard, while slowly moving towards her. Suddenly he dashed forward like mad. In a flash he wrapped his arm around her waist, and pulled her into some nearby bushes. "What the hell are you doing?????" she cried. As answer he grabbed hold of her face, and directed her eyes to the sky. A huge golden dragon were hovering a little distance away from the place they were hiding. With a mighty roar, the dragon dived towards the trees. Eruk could almost feel the vibrations from the dragons landing. "Is it still out there? Taki whispered. Eruk nodded "couldn't you feel it? It landed nearby." Both of them started to move away. "Mr. Eruk?! Miss Taki?! I know you are out here somewhere!" a familiar voice echoed through the forest. "That's Miss Filia" Taki gulped "didn't she see the dragon?". Eruk pushed her back a bit "be quiet" he ordered "I see her already. When she pass by here, I'm going to pull her to safety".
"Mr. Eruk! Miss Tak….EEEEK!!" Filia cried as Eruk forcefully pulled her off the road. "What's the meaning of mphf?" Eruk quickly put his hand over Filia's mouth. "sorry about this miss Filia" he whispered "I had no choice. There's an evil dragon out there". Filia's first reaction was to blink at him in surprise, but gradually her surprised look turned into a glare. Eruk's mind however, was occupied elsewhere at the time.
"Taki, do you mind? I'm trying to concentrate" he growled, as he felt someone repeatedly stroking his leg. "Mind what?" the brown haired girl asked in confusion "I'm not doing anything". Eruk swallowed hard, as he looked down at his leg. A golden, snakelike object was wrapped around his right leg. Slowly he let his gaze follow the strange object. Under normal circumstances he would have found it amusing to see that, despite it's likeness to a large reptilian tail, it was nicely adorned with a pretty pink ribbon near the tip. The thing that made him nervous was, that the other end of the tail vanished beneath Filia's long white dress. Slowly he removed his hand from her mouth. "What in the world are you doing?" the blonde cried, "and what was that about *evil* dragons?" she added with a low growl.
Eruk and Taki exchanged looks. At the moment, there was no need for words between the two of them, as the same thought ran through both of their minds "Xellos, we are so going to get you for this!"
Sylphiel looked at the sky, as a large explosion rocked the small town "Oh my, thunder? I sure hope miss Filia are able to find those two before it starts to rain".
"What's the big idea?" Filia was holding a near unconscious Eruk by the collar, while shaking him violently. Taki could only watch in wide eyed fear. In the span of a few seconds she had witnessed one of her dear friends get burned, blown up, stomped on, and beaten to a pulp by a very angry golden dragon. "It was *cough* Xellos" Eruk whispered weakly "Xellos told about the evil dragon…. We didn't know that you…". With an angry cry, Filia tossed him away before she surrounded herself with a glowing golden halo. Taki watched in awe as the young dragon took flight. In a few seconds she lost visual contact with the dragon, but she could hear it's angry roar "Xellos! How dare you! Dragons are NOT evil!".
Taki was brought back to the real world by Eruk's coughing. By using all of his strength, he had gotten back on his feet. "Taki, get away from here" he whispered. His eyes were darting back and forth. He could feel that something wasn't right. "What's wrong?" Taki asked carefully. Before she could react, he had already thrown her to the ground. In the same second he was blasted away by a concentrated energy beam. "You are slipping" Ascard smirked "At least you proved to be a bit of a challenge on the ship". Eruk struggled to get back up, but failed. Slowly Ascard stared to advance on him. He drew his sword, and prepared to strike. The swordsman brought his weapon down in a vicious slash. Just a split second before the blow connected, something made Ascard grimace in pain. Eruk cried out in pain as the sword pierced the right side of his chest. "You little bitch!" Ascard growled as he turned to Taki.
She was standing a short distance away, still holding one of her guns. Smoke was still rising from one of them. "G… get away from him, you monster" she stuttered. She backed away as Ascard continued to advance on her. "You got lucky with that first shot kid" he smirked " but it wasn't good enough". He prepared to strike once again when he felt something painful in his left leg. He looked down. Eruk's wristblades were buried deep within his flesh. "You idiot" Ascard shouted, while he sent Eruk flying away with a powerful kick.
"Can we go now? Please?" Neela peeked out from behind a tree. Ascard nodded slowly and humped towards her. "Remember, this is what will happen to you too, if you continue on your journey" Ascard shot Taki a threatening look before he vanished into thin air. The young girl slowly nodded her head. She was almost paralyzed with fear. Eruk's gasps for air brought her back to reality.
She hurried to his side. "Eruk? Eruk are you ok?" she shuddered at his condition. Even though she had no medicinal training, it was obvious that his condition was critical, maybe even fatal. She took his arm and placed it over his chest "come on, you're a sorcerer right? heal yourself!".
He looked at her with clouded eyes "too weak…" he mumbled "can't focus…". Tears started rolling down Taki's face "NO! you can't die, not now!". Summoning all of his remaining strength, Eruk reached up and whipped a tear away from her face "I'm sorry" he was gasping for air as he spoke "Tell Sylphiel that I….". His voice trailed off and he stopped breathing. Taki watched his raised hand go limp, and fall to the ground. "No…" she whimpered as she felt all over his body for a pulse, without any luck.
Authors notes:
Oh my god!! He killed Eruk!! …Or did he now? A lot of things is about to change around here in the following chapters.
Hey Kanti, welcome aboard! Always nice to hear from another who enjoys my little fic. Hope you'll like the remaining chapters as well.
And Otaku-girl, my loyal fan as always, I see. You are right! There isn't many Sylphiel fics out there. Too bad. As I see it, her character holds lot of potential. It's really a shame that most people just see her as Gourry's annoying fangirl. I just hope that my work can help change that.
Until the next chapter, keep reading, ok?
