Well, I was told I should keep going with this story, so here it is!
~*~
A few days later, Gourry and Lina were walking down a path in some non-descript woodsy area. It was noticeably quiet, but that was mostly because they had only just defeated the local bandit gang about ten minutes prior. Quiet... that was, until Lina started up with her usual complaints.
"How close is the next town? I'm bored, and I could really use a bath. Ooh, I hope they have good food there!" ...etc.
Gourry patiently waited until he could get a word in. "You could tell me more of that story from the other night... about your sister, I think..."
"That sneaky little *****? Well... alright, I guess it might help pass the time..."
~~
I was a typical toddler. Once I learned to walk and talk, I was getting into everything, taking things and hiding them away where no one could find them... At least, that's what I thought was happening. Every time, the thing I had taken would be back in its right place the very next day. I couldn't figure out for the life of me how they were doing it!
Anyway, the first spell I learned was obviously the easiest spell in every kind of magic. Would you believe I used to be afraid of the dark? Me, the great and powerful Lina Inverse! Well, as soon as I was able to communicate, my parents taught me how to case a light spell. I didn't have nearly as much skill then as I do now, so it wasn't very bright, but it did serve as the perfect night light! It always amazes me to think of how smart my parents were, but then again, the apple doesn't fall very far from that tree, ne?
That was all I knew how to cast for a while, but it didn't take me long to master being able to regulate the intensity of the light – I'm telling you, genius in the making here!
My parents died right before I turned five. I remember one of the last things Luna told me before she left was that they had been trying to harness some power from the Lord of Nightmares... They didn't have the strength to handle it, though, and it consumed them.
After that, it was just me and 'nee-san, of course. She's only about six years older than me, so it took some getting used to... We argued a lot at first, mostly because we didn't really know how to deal with the loss of 'kaa-chan and 'tou-chan. I kept asking her to tell me what happened, and she kept refusing. After a while, I got so tired of not getting any answers that I stopped asking. That's why I was so surprised when she actually told me...
We had a lot of trouble just keeping our needs met. I was always an active kid, and when I got hungry, I got really hungry. 'Nee-san had to take a job waitressing at the inn around the corner from us, just to keep me fed. That didn't count clothes and the other things we needed for the house itself, but there was often leftover food she brought back for us… She always came home exhausted, though, and didn't really have any time to spend with me.
Everyone knows everyone else in Zephilia, so it didn't bother me much that she was never around. I often played during the day with other the other kids whose parents worked all the time, but it wasn't long until 'nee-san started making me go to school. She said she knew I would eventually want to know the ins and outs of what happened to 'kaa-chan and 'tou-chan, and that going to school would help with that a lot. She was pretty smart (and she had started threatening me, being so irritated and worn-out from her job), so I did what I was told.
Every night when she finished her shift at the inn, 'nee-san would come home and ask me what I did that day. It wasn't enough for her that I had to sit through those boring classes, she practically gave me tests on the material herself! And they were hard tests. I wonder if she was really that concerned about my education...
And... the classes were really BORING! I sat in the corner more often than with the rest of the group, just because I couldn't sit still, which of course made it even worse. It's a miracle I managed to learn anything!
The classes were pretty basic at first - reading and writing, math, social studies, and science.
["You went to school?!?" Gourry was, as usual, dumbfounded.
'You interrupted me!' "Of course! Most people in Zephilia have spent at least a couple years in school! Why... didn't you?" Lina knew the answer, and had regretted asking it the moment it left her lips.
"Hmmm..." Gourry looked off in every direction as if the answer would be written in the air in front of him. Finding this to not be the case, he turned to Lina, smiling, and said "Nope!" {btw, Gourry was the one smiling, not Lina...}
Lina put her hand to her forehead. 'I should have known better than to think he'd answer in the affirmative.'
"There was a guy who showed me how to use my sword, though... might have even been my dad, I can't remember... Hey Lina, look! We've reached the town! See, that wasn't so bad."
"No, I guess it wasn't... but now it's time for some good food and a warm bath! Come on, let's go!"]
~*~
End Chapter 2
A/N: I know, I know… the chapters are pretty short, but it's meant as a shorter story, so if I want to make the breaks at the right places, it means the chapters are gonna be a little shorter too…
If you're wondering about the whole thing with Lina calling her sister by a more formal title, it's all part of that fear thing – she knew her sister much better than her parents, and in the end had a lot more respect for her.
Oh, and also: I only touched on what happened to her parents. More will definitely come later!