Disclaimer: [Insert If-you-think-I-own-Slayers-I'll-sell-you-Brooklyn-Bridge Joke Here.]. Hey, it was only a matter of time; I think everyone who writes humorous disclaimers does this one eventually. P.S. I don't even live in New York.

Slayers: The Starbird Chronicles

Chapter 5: That Night, At the Inn

In spite of the late hour, Lina lay awake in her bed. This actually had little to do with Naga's snoring and more to do with having a few too many things on her mind. Her eyes wandered around the dark room, from the bookshelves, to the mirror, to the couch where Naga lay sleeping in the navy blue pajamas Starbird had insisted on buying earlier that afternoon, along with a whole bunch of other supplies, most of which now stuffed in the closet. I swear, it's not normal for a guy to like shopping that much...

Lina sighed and slid out from under the covers; she obviously wasn't going to get any sleep at this rate. She walked over to the window and threw it open, letting the night air in. The cool breeze was a relief from the warm and slightly stuffy air in the room, so she decided to go where she could enjoy it better. She grabbed her cloak and put it on over her own pajamas, which, except for being dark red in color, were indistinguishable from her old ones (Starbird had insisted on buying them anyway), then cast a quick Levitation spell to get her up to the Inn's roof.

The roof of the Kale inn was mostly flat, except for the sharp drop at the edges and a small, square structure in the middle which was apparently intended to let light and air into the building's attic. She'd thought this would be an ideal place to relax and get some fresh air; someone else had, apparently, had the same idea. A human form was visible as a silhouette against the moonlight, sitting against the central structure. She approached anyway, and was halfway across before the figure turned its head to look at her her, white forelocks catching the moonlight.

"Hello, Miss Lina," Starbird said. "What are you doing up so late?"

"The room's stuffy and Naga snores. Is this seat taken?" He shook his head absently, so she moved to sit just around the corner from him. He was close enough to the corner that their shoulders almost touched. "How 'bout you?" She continued. "What're you doing? Standing guard?"

"No, I put a guardian spell on the Inn; that's a large bit of how I paid for your stay."

"What are you doing, then?"

"Just looking at the sky. Aren't the stars beautiful? And the moon is so bright..."

"Mmm." Lina had never been big on stargazing, but on crystal clear, moonlit nights like this, she could almost see the appeal. They sat in silence for a few moments before Starbird spoke again.

"There's something on your mind. What is it?"

"It's you, actually. It feels like you know too much about me, and I know next-to-nothing about you. You're a total mystery, and, frankly, I'm a little uncomfortable working with someone that mysterious."

"What about Xellos? What about Zelgadis, for that matter?"

"I don't work closely with Xellos, he just keeps turning up. As for Zelgadis, even he wasn't as much of a mystery as you are; He told me about his curse, and about being related to Rezo. By the way, you knowing about Zelgadis and Xellos... that's what I mean when I say you know too much."

"Hmm. Well, I suppose I can tell you a bit about myself, if you'd like."

"Well, you don't have to..."

"No, it's important we trust each other. I've been trying to find you for a while, but I was always a step or two behind until I caught up with you at Princess Martina's wedding, and I only ended up there because your name was on the guest list, and it took a few days to prepare for the ceremony. Since I kept meeting people within a few days after you left, I managed to learn a lot about you, and I did some extra research whenever I hit a slow spot. That's why I know so much about you.

"As for me... Where should I start? The Starbird clan hails from outside the Mazoku's Barrier, but there was a sizeable group of my family members on an ambassadorial visit to Elmekia when the barrier went up. Naturally, they were trapped inside. Most of them settled in Elmekia, but some of them fanned out across the subcontinent.  However, between those who had no children, and those who only had girls, I'm relatively sure I'm the only one left to bear the actual name Starbird. That's why it's the only name I use." He paused for a moment, swallowing what may have been a lump in his throat.

"What about your parents?" Lina turned, Intrigued by this development.

"They left home when I was five, and never came back. I don't think they intended to, frankly; they're probably not even on this world anymore, whether they're dead or just traveling on a different plane. My dad had some spirit blood, so that's entirely possible. Anyway, I haven't seen either of them since. My functional family is just the retainers who raised me."

"Retainers?"

"There are a few human servants pledged to the clan, along with a few Daemon servants. In fact, it's one of them that's looking for a boat to get us across the Northern Sea. Anyway, they raised me until I was old enough to take control of my parents' estate near Zeiphielia and Saillune."

"When was that?"

"Two years ago. On my fifteenth birthday."

"So you're seventeen?"

"And a half. It sometimes feels like I'm a lot older, though."

"I know what you mean. I sometimes feel like I've seen more in my life than anyone should have to." There was a pause that started short, but stretched on for a minute or more. A breath of chill wind blew in from the north, causing Lina to pull her cloak more tightly around herself, and Starbird to shiver slightly. The young sorcerer pulled a thermoslike bottle out from under his robe, took the cap off and filled it, then held it out to his red-headed roofmate. She looked at it, a little quizzically.

"It's an herbal tea. It's a little bit bitter, but it warms one nicely."

"Oh" Lina took the cup and sniffed it, then took a small sip, which she rolled around on her tongue before swallowing. Indeed, the warmth spread quickly from her stomach through the rest of her body, and she found it tasted pleasantly of raspberry and lemon. "It's not bitter at all."

"I don't really think so either," the young man smiled, a little sadly, "But I've little taste for sweet things, and I'm told I'm overly acclimated to bitterness..." he poured himself a cup, and they sipped in silence for a few minutes before Lina spoke again.

"Just one more question: You weren't very informative before. How powerful are you? I mean really."

"I don't know."

Lina looked at him in surprise. "What's that supposed to mean? How can you not know?"

"I've never been tested to within hailing distance of my power's limits. Ergo, I do not know what those limits are. I assure you, I don't like it any more than you do." There was a tiny bit of a sharp tone in the mystery man's voice, apparently calculated to get Lina off the subject. It worked, and they went back to sipping in silence, Starbird now with a slight scowl on his face. After a few minutes it softened, and he turned to speak to the red-haired girl again, but he found that she had fallen asleep. Just as well, he thought, fewer questions to try to answer this way. He picked up her sleeping body and flew over the roof and into the room. He tucked her into bed, cast a cooling Diem Breath into the room, and disappeared back out the window.

Author's Note: There. Not romantic, just an interlude.

...

...

Okay, maybe it was a little bit romantic. So sue me. It's not like you'll get anything.

1) It's possible that Lina would be more accepting of a mysterious companion than she is shown as here, but If she didn't want to know, then I wouldn't have plot justification to tell you.

2) The place Starbird's clan comes from originally is related to the Subcontinent in which the first two seasons of Slayers takes place in roughly the same way that Japan is related to Europe. Starbird's family tried to keep some of the heritage of their homeland alive; thus, the names they use are translated more or less directly from their original Japanese, which the family's children also know. Thus, "Hoshitori" became Starbird; and Starbird's "first" name (he has one, he just doesn't use it), "Koushirou" (Literally Light-Child-Man or Light-Boy; the same as "Izzy" Izumi from Digimon. I liked the name.), is more loosely translated as "Light." Also, as in Japanese, family name comes first (which is why the "first" above is in quotation marks), so it would be "Starbird Light" rather than "Light Starbird."

3) I don't know what the age(s) of Majority is/are in the Slayers Culture(s); Lina left home at Twelve or so because her Sister (Luna) told her to see the world (probable actual phrasing: "Get the hell out of this house and don't come back!"), but I don't know how typical that is. I'm assuming it's the parents' decision, and Starbird's parents told the Servants to give him control when he was fifteen. Also, my sources (Websites I've mentioned before; I believe it was QP's in this case) suggest that Lina was Seventeen by the end of Next; Starbird's older than her, but only by a matter of months (six or less, specifically).

Next Chapter: On the Road Again (For the First Time); with all the trouble that it entails.