Disclaimer: Yadda, yadda, yadda, Slayers copyright of Kadokawa Shoten and TV
Tokyo, blah, blah, blah, send comments to bkuhn@ucsd.edu yackity shmackity...
you get the drift
Special thanks go out to my pre-readers: Tamysan, Incantrix, WillZ, Sethra,
Little Masa-ouki, Big D, and especially Strikestwice.
Lina: (grinning) Well, Amelia's been a busy little princess. She's gotten Mrs.
Tella to treat her like her own flesh and blood, met a wild elf, and is
allegedly carrying Xellos's child!
Amelia: (sulking) I don't wanna talk about it.
(long pause)
Lina: Um... Amelia? This is the part where you tell the readers what happened
to me last chapter.
Amelia: (still sulking) Fine. Mr. Tensado turned into a werewolf and saved the
day, and then some foul-mouthed half-elf showed up.
Lina: Gee, Amelia, it's so nice to see you getting into this.
Amelia: What? That's what happened! At least you got to have a happy ending
last chapter. I've been trying to help Mr. Zelgadis, and he's just been mean to
me.
Lina: Well, he's just nervous about meeting his mother, who showed up suddenly
at the end of the chapter. Geeze, what's with this author and suspenseful
endings?
Amelia: (sighs) Let's just get on with the fic.
Gourry: Hey, guys... Do I get to be in this chapter?
***
Slayers: GO!
Chapter 4: Pajama Party! Part 1
"So you're the great Lina Inverse!" the half-elven woman said, "It's an honor to
travel with someone as renowned as yourself."
Lina just smiled. Ketra, despite the foul mouth she displayed during the
battle, was actually a very nice person. She had insisted that Lina, being
injured, take her horse until they reached the next village. It was hard to
believe this was the same woman who had ruthlessly slain twelve brigands only a
short while ago.
"What was that trick you were using back there?" Lina asked, "I've never seen
anything like it before, and I've seen a lot of unusual things."
"Oh, that," Ketra said, flushing slightly, "It's called the Siren's Blade. It
can put men into a lull. It won't work against a real warrior, but against guys
like that..." she trailed off.
"Do you think you could teach me?" the redhaired sorceress asked eagerly.
Ketra shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I'm not allowed to teach anyone until my
master says I'm ready to take an apprentice. And even then, I doubt you could
do it."
"And why not?" Lina asked indignantly. The nerve of this woman, suggesting she
could do something the great Lina Inverse couldn't.
Ketra sweatdropped. "Well," she said nervously, "The techniques I use require a
combination of internal and external magical energies. With a few exceptions,
only half-elves have the qualifications to use them."
Lina's eyes widened. "Do you mean you're a... spellsmith?" Ketra nodded.
"I've never met a spellsmith before!" Ketra looked embarrassed by Lina's
reaction.
"Excuse me," Tensado said quietly. Lina turned to look at him, curiously. He
had been unusually quiet since they had left the caves, and his face was
slightly flushed. Lina wasn't sure if he was still embarrassed about being
discovered as a werewolf, or if his injuries were more serious than he was
letting on.
"What exactly is a spellsmith?" he asked through a yawn, "I've heard the term
before, but I don't know what it means."
"A spellsmith is sort of a heavy cross between a sorcerer and a swordsman," Lina
told him, suddenly feeling very sleepy herself, "They have the ability to...
*YAWN* channel magic... through their swords... and..." Whatever else Lina was
going to tell Tensado went unsaid, as the young sorceress fell asleep, sliding
out of the saddle and landing on the ground with a soft 'thud.' It didn't make
that much of a difference, however, as Tensado had fallen asleep, and so had
Ketra.
"Finally!" a voice said, "Got you, murderers!"
***
Amelia wrung her hands as she looked at the sheer agony on Zelgadis's face.
"Oh, I can't believe I could be so STUPID!" she exclaimed. Zelgadis turned to
stare at her. "I... Mrs. Tella told me her son and his wife were coming, and
Mrs. Frenlea told me Mr. Solto was staying with your mother. I... I just didn't
put the two together." Zelgadis looked away from her, staring at the door his
mother had disappeared into. "Mr. Zelgadis?" Amelia said, softly, "I'm sorry.
If there's anything I can do to help..."
"You can," he said.
"You're not being fair!" Amelia snapped back, "Wait... what did you say?" She
had been expecting him to ignore her, or yell at her. The last thing she was
ready for was to have him actually accept her offer. She didn't think there was
actually anything she COULD do.
"Which way is it?" he asked. Amelia didn't need him to tell her what he was
talking about. She pulled the crystal out of her shirt and cast the spell. The
crystal swung around and pointed southeast. "It's not swaying as much. I think
we're getting closer."
Zelgadis started down the path that lead towards the potential cure. "Let's
go."
Amelia let out a squeak and ran to catch up to him. "But... your leg. Doctor
Tella said you should at least stay a night." Zelgadis ignored her. "You could
die!" she continued to protest, "Don't you even care?"
Zelgadis stopped, but he didn't turn around to face her. "If I can be flesh
when it happens, then no, I don't care."
Amelia mustered up all the courage she had. "No," she said firmly, even though
her knees were shaking, "Stop now."
"Hmmph! Or what?" he asked.
Amelia searched for a good reply. "Stop or... I won't go with you!" she finally
declared, "You can't find the spell without me, and even if you did, you
wouldn't be able to cast it."
Zelgadis turned and approached her. She closed her eyes, half expecting him to
hit her. But she wasn't going to give up. This was for his own good. Later
on, he'd thank her.
Zelgadis grabbed her wrist and pulled her forward. "Don't play with me,
Amelia," the chimera growled. "I WILL go, with or without you. I'll find a way
to cast the spell."
"You think I'm bluffing, don't you!" the princess yelled back, "You don't think
I'll let you walk off to die, but..." She trailed off, she wasn't sure where
she was going with this, and it didn't look like she was convincing Zelgadis of
anything. He was so damn stubborn! But he was right, she wasn't going to let
him die in the middle of the woods. Especially if there was someone hunting
them. She couldn't leave him alone with someone tracking him.
Tracking him...
It was as if someone had cast a lighting spell in her head. It suddenly became
obvious. Zelgadis wouldn't be able to call her bluff this time, because she
wouldn't be bluffing. She took out the beacon crystal again. She placed a hand
on either side of the crystal and concentrated. It glowed with a blue light as
it started pointing at Zelgadis.
"What are you doing?" Zelgadis asked. Amelia could hear the doubt in his voice.
"You're right," she said, angrily, water filling her eyes, "I'm not going to let
you get yourself killed, even if you are being a big dummy. So I'm going to
adjust the crystal to point to the blue demon inside you. That way, once you've
passed out, I can find you and drag you back here."
"You wouldn't!" the shaman said, but he didn't sound very sure of himself.
The tears started running down Amelia's face, but if she backed down now,
Zelgadis might die. "It must be so easy!" she cried, "Not caring about anybody
but yourself. You're such a stupid jerk! I've come all this way to help you.
I abandoned Gourry AND Lina, because you needed my help. And I'm GOING to help
you, whether you want me to or not!"
Zelgadis just stared at her. There was fire in her eyes. He had always known
the princess was a determined girl, but that was with her absurd notions of
'justice.' She was completely serious now, though, and it didn't look like she
was going to back down. He hated to admit it, but he had underestimated her.
"So you turn around and head right back into that cabin," Amelia ordered, "Or...
or... or I'll break the crystal!"
"You couldn't go through with it," he told her, "That crystal's too valuable."
"I don't give a rat's hiney about the crystal!" she virtually shrieked, "I don't
care about your curse, and I don't care about the Crystal Breath! I just wanted
to make you happy, but you keep making it so difficult! Well, I'm making it
simple. You're going to go back to the Tellas, and you're going to stay there
until Dr. Tella says you can go. Now, MOVE!" Zelgadis glared at her, then
turned around and stormed off towards the cottage.
***
Lina woke up, and immediately regretted it. God, how much did she drink last
night? She winced at the throbbing pain in her head. She wanted to curl up and
die, or, failing that, go to sleep for a month and see if she felt any better by
then.
"About time you woke up!" a small voice said, angrily. She opened her eyes to
see a tiny woman, with large translucent dragonfly wings, standing on her chest.
She was dressed in what appeared to be a white soldier's outfit, but with purple
and golden trim, presumably noting some form of rank, or royal blood. "Once
you're out, lady, you're really out. The sun's already set. I was afraid I
might have to wait all night for you to-"
"What do you think you're doing, standing on my chest?!" she screamed, launching
the fairy into the air. She tried to get up, but she found that she couldn't
seem to move.
The fairy caught herself in midair, flapping her wings slowly to keep level.
She flew back to Lina, and hovered above her face. "Don't you raise your voice
to me. I'm the princess of the Fey Kingdom, and don't you forget it, murderer!"
Lina was in no mood to deal with this. "I've yelled at bigger princesses than
you," she said, lifting her head as far as she could to yell at her, "And...
wait, what did you call me?"
"I, Princess Maia, daughter of Queen Maab, ruler of the Fey Kingdom, hereby
charge you..." the fairy paused, "Um... what's your name?"
"Lina," the sorceress said, laying her head back down, "Lina Inverse."
"Right, I, Princess Maia, yadda yadda yadda, hereby charge you, Lina Inverse, of
the crime of murdering eleven royal explorers!"
"WHAT?!?!" Lina exclaimed, "I haven't killed anyone recently! I mean, there
were those brigands, just now, but they definitely weren't royal explorers, and
Ketra's the one that killed them, not me."
"The elf?" Maia asked. Lina nodded. "Don't lie to me! An elf would never kill
fairies. Elves are our cousins, and besides, she didn't join you until AFTER my
party was cruelly murdered!"
"I didn't murder any fairies!" Lina yelled.
"Save it for the trial!" the fairy snapped. Just then, a string of expletives
erupted from somewhere nearby, telling Lina that Ketra had regained
consciousness.
"What the !@#$% is going on?!" she exclaimed.
"I'm sorry, Miss Elf," Maia said, flying over to where Ketra lay, "But your
friend is guilty of killing eleven fairies, so I have to take her back to the
Fairy Castle to be judged."
"Great," Ketra replied, dryly, "So why can't I move?"
Maia looked a bit embarrassed. "Well, I know you'd never attack a group of
fairies serving the royal army, being an elf and all, but since you're traveling
with someone who did, I need to bring you all back with me to get things
straightened out."
"You still haven't answered my question," Ketra said, "Why can't I move?"
"Well..." Maia started turning red, "I needed to make sure nobody tried
anything, so I... I kinda turned your clothes into silver."
"What?" Lina asked suddenly, "How many of us did you do this to?" she asked.
"All of you," the fairy said, rather confused as to where the conversation was
going now, "Well, not the horse, of course, but everyone else."
Lina tried to look around, but in her current condition, she couldn't see very
much. "Tensado?" she called out frantically, "Tensado, are you there?" She
heard someone gasp. "Tensado? Is that you? Are you okay?"
"I've... felt... better," Tensado said through clenched teeth. He couldn't
figure out why, but his entire body ached with a dull pain, not to mention
several sore muscles from sleeping on something hard and uneven. "What's going
on?"
"Some stupid fairy turned your cloak into silver," she told him, "Can you
squeeze out of it or something?"
There was a long pause, then finally Tensado replied. "I'd rather not."
"What do you mean 'you'd rather not'?" Lina yelled, "It's silver!"
"True," Tensado said, "But this isn't real silver, so it's not quite so bad."
"Wait," Ketra said, "Are you a werewolf or something?"
"It's not something I generally advertise, but yes," the assassin admitted.
"Oh, my!" Ketra said, "Well, I guess that explains it!"
"Explains what?" Lina asked, "Why don't you want to get out of your cloak?"
Tensado didn't answer. Ketra giggled. "What's so damn funny, Ketra?!"
"He doesn't want to," Ketra said, "Because he's not wearing anything underneath
it." Lina would have facefaulted, had she not already been on the ground. She
had forgotten about that. "I was wondering about that," Ketra went on, "But I
was too embarrassed to ask. It makes sense now, though. He shifted forms
recently and lost his clothing, didn't he?" She giggled again.
Lina could almost *hear* Tensado blush. "Well, I managed to salvage my belt,"
he said quietly, "But, yeah, that's about it."
"Hey!" the fairy shouted, "Aren't we forgetting something?!"
"Right," Lina muttered, "The damn fairy. Look, Maia, I don't know what happened
to your friends, but I swear I didn't do it!"
"I can vouch for her," Tensado said, "I've been with her for the last two days,
and you're the first fairy we've seen."
"Really?" Maia asked.
"Yes, really!" Lina shouted, "Now can you turn our clothes back?!"
The fairy flew over to Lina again. "Then you don't know anything about that
icky mist?"
There was a long silence. "The mist that blocks out magic?" Lina finally asked.
"So you DO know about it!" Maia said, accusingly.
"Yeah," Lina told her, "But we didn't have anything to do with it. Let us up
and we'll tell you what we know."
The fairy princess thought for a moment. "All right. I'll believe you, but
only because you're traveling with an elf." She closed her eyes, and a golden
aura formed around her. Lina felt her clothing soften around her.
"Thanks," Lina said, sitting up, "Now let's get a few things straight." She was
suddenly cut off as Ketra screamed. Lina turned to see her curled up against a
tree. A bunch of white thread littered the ground around her.
"What happened to my dress?" Ketra asked, turning bright crimson. True enough,
while her armor remained, her actual clothing seemed to have disappeared. Lina
looked down to find herself in a similar state of undress, only worse, because
she wasn't wearing a breastplate.
"Um... oops," Maia said, quietly.
"Oops my ass!" Lina yelled, covering herself with her hands, "What happened?"
"Well," Maia said, meekly, "Turning clothing into silver's pretty easy, because
silver's all one big piece. I guess I forgot to weave the threads together when
I changed it back. Sorry!"
"Sorry?" Lina exclaimed, "SORRY?!" She leapt to her feet and grabbed the fairy.
"I'll show you sorry!!!" A sudden thought occurred to her. "Tensado, you'd
better be looking the other way, or you're a dead man!"
Tensado suddenly found the bark of a tree to be much more interesting than two
naked women.
"Is your cloak still intact, Tensado?" Ketra asked.
"More or less," Tensado responded, still staring at the tree, "It's mostly one
piece, but it's lost all its hemming."
"I'm really, really sorry," Maia said.
"As soon as I get some clothes, you are so dead, fairy," Lina growled.
"Let's just get our supplies so we can change," Ketra said, "Where did you
tether Safiya, my horse?"
Maia blinked in confusion. "Um... I'm a fairy. I'm just under two inches tall.
How do you expect me to tether a horse?"
***
Xellos was in heaven. Well, that's probably not the term he'd choose to
describe it, but it's fairly accurate in this case.
He had spent the entire day in this disgustingly peaceful little town. All he
had to feed off of was Amelia's frustration, which was decent enough, but
nothing compared to this.
Zelgadis glared at Amelia across the table, while Amelia deliberately didn't
look at him. The emotions flowing from the two of them were amazing. Anger,
frustration, sadness, regret. It was a virtual feast of dark emotions. Then
there was Zelgadis's mother, Zahara. Her sad, quiet longing was a Mazoku's
equivalent of a finely aged wine. The fact that the one she longed for was in
front of her just made it even better.
"So... Mother tells me you two are getting married," Solto said, trying to break
the oppressive silence that had descended on the table. Amelia didn't respond.
Xellos, on the other hand...
"Oh yes!" he said cheerfully, "We're on our way to meet with my future mother-
in-law, and then we'll be hitched before you know it." There was a scrape as
Zelgadis pushed his chair out and stood up. "Is something wrong, brother?"
"I've lost my appetite," he said, gruffly, "If it's all right, I'll turn in for
the night."
"I don't see why you're being so difficult about this!" Amelia shouted, knocking
over her chair as she leapt to her feet.
"I think you've said all you have to say about this, sister," he spat out the
last word.
"She's your mother!" Amelia blurted out without thinking, "Do you really think
she's going to care what you look like?" She suddenly realized what she had
just said, and clapped her hands over her mouth, turning bright red in the
process. Zelgadis just stared at her. If looks could kill, Amelia would have
died on the spot.
"Amelia dear and Zel haven't told their mother about his... condition," Xellos
interjected, although to be completely honest, he wasn't entirely sure why he
was doing this.
"Stay out of this!" the chimera snapped.
"What?" Xellos asked innocently, or as innocently as a Mazoku could manage,
"She'll be my mother, too, soon." There was a scrape of steel as Zelgadis drew
his sword, and pointed it at Xellos's neck, the tip half an inch from the
demon's throat.
"Say that again," he hissed, "And I swear to Cephied, I WILL find a way to kill
you."
"Stop this!" Mrs. Tella shrieked.
"Please," Zahara said, softly, "You're all family, aren't you?" His mother's
pleas were too much for Zelgadis; he sheathed his sword, and sat back down, not
meeting anyone's eyes. Amelia picked up her chair and sat down as well. She
resumed not looking at Zelgadis.
"This stew is delicious," Xellos said, holding up his empty bowl, "May I have
seconds?" Two generations of Tellas stared at him as if he had gone absolutely
insane. "You have to keep things in perspective," he told them, "This happens
all the time. It's a bit unusual, but it's family."
"You should treasure family while you have it," Solto said, reaching out to take
his wife's hand, "Anyone in this house has enough regrets for all of us.
There's nothing worse than losing family."
"But there's nothing better than having it," Zelgadis's mother said with a weak
smile, "I wouldn't trade my memories for anything in the world." She started to
giggle. "Solto dear, do you remember that time when Ketra fell from the old
oak? She was only eight feet off the ground, but Zelgadis was in tears!"
Amelia stifled a laugh. Out of the corner of his eyes, she could see Zelgadis
starting to blush through his fingers.
Solto burst out laughing. "Oh, sweet Cephied, I remember him running to my
house and telling me she was horribly injured," he calmed down a bit, "Granted,
I didn't think it was funny at the time, but..." he started laughing again.
"He didn't sleep at all that night, he kept asking me if she was going to live!"
Zahara said.
Solto continued to chuckle. "Then there was the time when Zelgadis started
learning magic." He laughed harder.
Amelia saw Zelgadis bury his face in his hands.
"What happened?" she asked, curiously.
"He was showing off in front of Ketra," Solto told her, "And he lost control of
a fireball. Completely destroyed my shed."
"How about when they were playing 'Dragon Slayer' indoors, and they knocked over
my great-grandmother's vase," Zahara said. She turned to Amelia. "We found
them at the carriage station with their bags packed. They were only six at the
time. It was so cute, neither of us could punish them."
"Ah, yes," Solto smiled, "Back when Ketra was scared of her clothes chest."
"Huh?" Amelia asked, "Why would she be afraid of that?"
"She was convinced it was a mimic, and would bite her arm off if she tried to
take anything from it."
Amelia blinked in confusion. "What's a mimic?"
"A seemingly useless bit of trivia which will inevitably be important later on,"
Xellos replied casually.
"What?" Amelia asked.
"Woops!" Xellos said with a smile, "I meant to say, a mimic is a monster that
hides itself as a chest and waits for unwary travelers to try to open it."
Zahara smiled, but the smile quickly faded with a sigh. "Hold on to your loved
ones," she advised, "You never know when they'll disappear."
Anna leaned over to Amelia. "Perhaps you should tell him your little secret,
dearie," she whispered, "It's not healthy to let things simmer inside you like
that, and the longer you wait, the harder it will be to tell him." She had said
it very softly, but Zelgadis's pointed ears did more than just look odd.
"What secret?" he asked harshly, looking up. His anger was clearly visible. If
she had said something to Mrs. Tella... he didn't know what he would do, but it
wouldn't be pretty.
Now it was Amelia's turn to blush. "It's nothing, really," she stammered."
"Amelia," he said, in a tone that could only be described as dangerous, "Tell
me."
Amelia sweatdropped. It was embarrassing enough as it was; she certainly didn't
want Zelgadis to know. But if he thought she was hiding something about his
family, he'd only get madder.
"I... um..." She could feel her face heating up more and more, "We didn't want
to tell you until after the wedding, but... Imcarryingxellossbaby!" she blurted
out.
Zelgadis was very silent. She didn't think he'd take it this badly. Maybe he
was mad at her for lying in front of his mother... but HE was the one who didn't
want them to tell the truth.
Suddenly Zelgadis exploded into laughter. He could barely breathe, he was
laughing so hard.
"Well, dear..." Mrs. Tella said, just as surprised by Zelgadis's reaction as
anyone else, "He took that... better than I expected." Amelia burst into tears.
***
"Oi, Delvier!" Gourry said, bringing his horse up alongside his brother's.
"Yeah?" the knight asked.
"Doesn't this road keep going to Seyruun?" the blonde swordsman asked, "Why are
we turning here."
"You really do have pudding for brains, don't you Gourry?"
"You know, Lina said the same thing," Gourry replied.
Delvier chuckled. "Small wonder. Now, try to stay with me here, Gourry. We
have you, so what else do we need to go through with this?"
Gourry thought for a moment. "Um... cake?"
A bead of sweat formed on Delvier's forehead. "No, you dolt! Try again!"
Gourry's brow furrowed in concentration. Suddenly, his face brightened. "I've
got it!" he said, snapping his fingers.
"Yes?" Delvier asked, more than ready for some idiotic response.
"We need 'her,' don't we?" he asked. Delvier nodded, rather surprised that
Gourry had gotten it right. "How are we going to get her to come? She's gotta
be pretty mad at me."
"That's already taken care of," Delvier said nonchalantly, "I told her I knew of
a great treasure and I'd meet up with her in Seyruun to discuss the details."
Gourry's eyes went wide. "Really? What kind of treasure?"
Delvier dropped his head. "Gourry, you really are dense. There is no treasure,
I just said that to get her to come."
"You lied?" Gourry asked in amazement, "You do realize once she finds out,
she'll kill us both. Even *I'm* smart enough to know that, brother."
Delvier nodded. "That's what the side trip is for. We'll need something to...
persuade her to forgive us."
Gourry paused. "Yeah," he said, finally, "She's pretty easy to buy off, isn't
she? So where are we going?"
"There's a Dukedom this way, right near the Zefiela border, called Trebec. The
Duke there is insanely rich. Accent on the insane part. He holds public
showings where he gives out large quantities of money to whoever can win his
contests."
"What kind of contests?" Gourry asked.
"Normally he asks a bunch of trivia questions, but he changes it around from
time to time. Ah, here we are."
Gourry looked around as he and his brother entered the city of Trebec. A woman
was out on the balcony of her house, beating the dust out of a rug. A gang of
small children laughed as they chased a ball across the street.
"Looks ordinary enough to me," the blonde swordsman commented.
"It is," Delvier told him, "At least most of it is. You need to talk to the
right people to find out how strange this place truly is. Here we go. The
Contestant Inn."
"Odd name for an inn," Gourry said.
"It gets odder," the knight replied. Despite Delvier's warnings, Gourry
couldn't help but think that the inn seemed rather normal on the inside. He
started to wonder if Delvier had looked at his map wrong.
"Hi!" the young clerk said in a loud, cheerful voice as they approached,
"Welcome to the Contestant Inn. Today's lodgings are brought to you by Seyruun
Quilts - so soft, they're like sleeping under a cloud - and Mr. Felmar's
Butchery - the finest meat for the finest meals."
Gourry took a step back. "Um... okay." He turned to Delvier. "Can we go
somewhere else?" he asked quietly, "This place is starting to freak me out."
"We'd like a room," Delvier said, ignoring his brother.
"Very good," the clerk smiled, adopting a more normal tone, "Rooms are twelve
gold pieces a night, and that comes with dinner and the continental breakfast.
It costs an extra three gold-"
"Actually," Delvier interrupted, "My brother and I would like one of the
Contestant Suites."
The young man's eyes brightened. "Really?" he said, "Hold on a second, I've
been practicing this part." He cleared his throat, then said in a deep, loud
voice. "Welcome to the Contestant Inn! Our contestants will be staying free of
charge in the..." He stopped briefly to check his register, then continued on.
"Price is Right Suite, where they'll be dining on the finest cuts of dragon
steak from Mr. Felmar's Butchery - the finest meat for the finest meals! And
what better way to relax at the end of a day full of trials and challenges than
in our very own Red Phoenix hot springs. Plus, they'll each be receiving these
beautiful, hand-woven, official Trebec tunics courtesy of Stitch in Time
Tailoring..." He reached below the counter and came up with a pair of deep blue
tunics, which he handed to the brothers. "When you need quality clothing, and
you need it yesterday, think Stitch in Time Tailoring! And finally, a five gold
coin gift certificate good at any store in the Trebec area!" By this point, the
boy was short on breath, and his cheeks had gone red. "How'd I do?" he asked.
"Very nicely done," Delvier said. "That practice must have paid off. It's nice
to see a man who takes his job seriously."
The boy beamed at the compliment. "Right, here's your keys. Your suite's on
the second floor. Just look for the door that says 'The Price is Right' in
white letters."
"Thanks," Delvier replied, flipping a gold coin at the clerk. "Come on,
Gourry."
"How much is this gonna cost?" Gourry said, once they had found the door the
clerk had described, and gone inside. The room was a huge lounge area with two
doors leading to the bedrooms. Beautifully carved furniture was spread out
around the room, and the sliding glass doors opened onto a balcony with a
wondrous view of the sun setting behind the mountains.
Delvier sighed. "What I wouldn't give to be sharing this room with some busty,
starry-eyed serving girl, but instead I'm with my braindead brother." Gourry
didn't take offense at this. He knew his brother well enough to know that he
never meant anything seriously. "In case you missed the sales pitch," he said
searching through the furniture for something, "This is all free of charge. Ah!
Here we go, the mini-bar!" He opened up a small cabinet and started rummaging
through the bottles of wine inside it.
"But why?" Gourry asked, as clueless as ever.
"Because we're going to be competing in tomorrow's contests," the paladin
responded, "Ooh, nice year, maybe it's not too late to find one of those serving
girls..." He smiled to himself. "Anyway, let's head down to that hotspring
before dinner. It'll give us a chance to size up some of our competition, and
besides," he gave his brother a nudge in the ribs and a sly smile, "It's co-ed."
Gourry sighed. "You never change, do you, Delvier?"
***
"Hold on, Tensado," Ketra said, suddenly, stopping what had been a rather
constant stream of vulgarities, "I think the tracks turned here." It was
getting late, and they still hadn't caught up to Safiya. It was awkward to
begin with, as modesty required Tensado lead, even though Ketra was the only one
who knew how to track well enough to follow the trails in the limited light.
"Are you sure?" Tensado asked.
The half-elf knelt to examine the ground. "Yeah, she turned here. Come back a
bit." Tensado started to turn around, when Ketra shrieked.
"Don't look, stupid!" Lina yelled.
"Sorry," Tensado apologized quickly, "I didn't see anything." Awkwardly, he
started walking backwards.
"That's good enough," Ketra told the werewolf as he approached them, "She turned
to your left." Tensado pushed his way through the brush, and they continued on.
Lina turned to Ketra as they walked. "You didn't have to scream like that," she
told her.
Ketra blushed. "Sorry," she said sheepishly, "I reacted like a teenage girl
catching a peeping tom, didn't I?"
"At least you've got your breastplate to give you SOME decency," Lina muttered.
"That's not necessarily a good thing," Ketra said, loosening her armor's straps
a bit, "Do you have any idea how much this chafes?"
Maia flew alongside them, all but forgotten at the moment. She had been silent
during the trip, not wanting to remind the women exactly WHY they were traipsing
naked through the forest. She hoped once they were clothed, Lina would be a bit
more forgiving (and Ketra might stop swearing, for that matter), but at this
rate, it felt like it would take them all night to find the horse.
No sooner had she thought this, than Tensado suddenly took off, disappearing
from view.
"Tensado?" Lina called out, "Tensado? Where did he go?!"
Tensado darted quickly through the underbrush, following the scent of the horse.
It was faint at first, so he had to hurry, or risk losing it, but it would be
much faster than trying to follow those tracks in the dim light. In a
relatively short time, he came upon a clearing. In the middle, stood Safiya,
her black body barely visible in the moonlight. She turned her head sharply,
as he stepped out from the brush.
"Easy, girl," he whispered, as he approached the horse, "It's me, Tensado.
Remember me?" She seemed very nervous, but Tensado kept talking to her in
soothing tones, and soon she had calmed down.
A sudden rustling in the bushes startled them both.
"Lina?" Tensado asked, cautiously, "Is that you?"
Lina's voice responded. "Yeah, it's me. Now turn around." Tensado walked to
the other side of the clearing. He heard more rustling behind him, then he
heard Ketra's voice.
"You poor girl," she said, running a hand gently down the back of Safiya's neck,
"I wonder what frightened you."
Lina moved eagerly towards the packs the horse carried. "I don't care as long
as she has some clothing!"
Tensado could feel his face heating up. "I, um, I think I'll look around the
area, while you two get dressed." He quickly disappeared into the woods.
"What's gotten into him?" Lina wondered, rummaging through her packs.
Ketra started pulling off her armor. "He's probably just self-conscious. I
mean, neither of us are really wearing anything, and he's only got his cloak.
Oh, Ceiphied, it feels good to get that off." She had finally removed her
breastplate, littering the ground with more white thread.
Lina couldn't help but noticed the half-elf was rather well formed. She might
not have been anything close to Naga's size, or even Amelia's for that matter,
but she was certainly better endowed than Lina was. Lina sighed. Why did every
girl she traveled with have to have bigger breasts than hers?
After quite a bit of searching through the packs, they came to the conclusion
that neither of them actually had a spare set of clothing with them. Lina
realized she must have lost hers when they ran away from that mob in Gelfia.
Ketra HAD a change of clothes, but her bag had torn open during Sefiya's flight
through the forest, and most of what was inside had spilled out somewhere.
In the end, they had to settle for their nightwear: pink pajamas in Lina's case,
and a long flowing white nightgown for Ketra. It wasn't exactly ideal, but it
was a lot better than wandering around naked.
"I'm really sorry," Maia apologized again, once the two were dressed, "But if
you HAD killed my companions, you might have attacked me. I didn't mean to
destroy your clothing."
"Yeah, yeah," Lina said. Now that she had settled down, she realized it wasn't
really the fairy's fault, "So what exactly happened to your friends?"
Maia sat down on Safiya's saddle. "Well, about three days ago," she explained,
"A whole bunch of animals got driven out of the cave to the northeast - the one
you came out of. A group of Explorers were sent out to investigate, and I was
chosen to lead. It was my first time leading a party, so I wanted to show
everyone that I really was Queen Maab's daughter. But... when we entered the
cave..." the tiny girl suddenly got very sad.
"Faeries are magical creatures," Lina pondered out loud, "And that mist seems to
block out magic, so..."
"Before I knew what had happened, they were all dead!" Maia cried, "There
weren't even any bodies left! They fell to the ground like injured birds, and
they... they..." she sniffled a few times, before finally screaming out, "They
faded away into nothing!" And she burst into tears.
"Oh, you poor thing!" Ketra said, picking up the fairy and gently hugging her.
Just then there was a large cracking sound, as the branches of a tree gave way,
and Tensado came crashing to the ground.
"Um... hi, guys," Tensado said, looking up at the three girls looking down at
him, "I can explain..."
"DIM WIND!" Lina shouted sending Tensado flying across the clearing. He crashed
into a tree, and landed in a heap on the ground, his cloak spread out behind
him. Ketra turned her head, blushing profusely. Maia just stared. As soon as
Tensado had recovered from the shock of being blasted into a tree, he quickly
pulled his cloak around him. His face quickly surpassed Ketra's in shade.
"You deserve a lot more than that," Lina said through clenched teeth, "Spying on
us like that. No wonder you were so anxious to 'look around.'"
"I didn't mean to spy on you," Tensado protested, "Honest!"
Lina wasn't buying it, though. "Then what were you doing in that tree?" she
asked. Almost as if answering her, a body fell from the tree, landing with a
thud at her feet. A long knife stuck out of the dead man's back.
"Dealing with him," Tensado replied. He picked up the dagger, cleaned it on the
man's shirt, and returned it to his belt, hidden underneath his cloak. "There
was another one," he added, "But he got away while I was stuck in the tree."
"He's wearing the same outfit as the brigands earlier," Lina noted, "And they
seemed to know the man we met in the cave... What did they call him? Jenso?"
Maia suddenly spoke up. "A man in the cave? Do you mean the one with the
mist?"
"Yeah," Tensado nodded, "Why?"
The fairy flew up to Lina and bowed to her. "Please, Miss Inverse, help me find
this Jenso!"
Nervous sweat formed on Lina's forehead. "Um... I'm kind of busy right now,"
she told the princess.
"Please!" Maia insisted, "I... I can't go home until I've found out what
happened."
Lina looked at the fairy. "This isn't one of those 'I've failed, so I can't
return' honor things, is it? Those can be such a pain in the ass!"
"No... not exactly," Maia said, "I could return home, but if I came back like
this... my entire team is dead, and I don't even have something to show for it.
I'll be the laughing stock of the entire fairy kingdom." She looked down at her
feet. "Everybody's expecting me to fail. I even heard the guards taking bets
on how long it would take me to fly crying back to my mother."
"That's awful!" Ketra exclaimed, feeling very sorry for the little fairy.
Maia wiped at her eyes. "Well I'm not going to let them see me cry. I'll show
them all." As her voice became more determined, she began to glow. "So what if
I'm a little clumsy with my magic? I've got more magic power than any fairy in
the last six hundred years! My mother trusted me with this job, and I am NOT
going to let her down!" Her enthusiasm waned at this point, and she stopped
glowing. "But I can't do it on my own. I can't fight the mist. I need your
help."
There was a small poof, and a little devil Lina showed up on her shoulder. "Why
are you even considering this? That little bitch has caused nothing but
trouble. You don't owe her anything. Besides, you've got more important things
to take care of." She held up a poster with a picture of Gourry. In large
letters on the top it said 'Missing,' and at the bottom it read 'Answers to:
Pudding-for-brains.'
Predictably, there was another poof, as a saintly version of Lina appeared on
the opposite shoulder. "Now, now, she needs your help. She's in trouble, and
only the great, magnificent, wonderful, beautiful Lina Inverse can-"
"Stop buttering her up!" Devil Lina yelled, "She's not going to help that stupid
fairy, and there's nothing you can do about it!"
"Oh yeah?" Angel Lina yelled back.
"Yeah!" Devil Lina retorted, pulling her hands forward, "Origin of all power..."
"Bring it on, bitch!" Angel Lina said, tackling the devil in mid-chant. Lina
stared in confusion as her id and superego clashed in a fury of fists. When the
dust cleared, Angel Lina stood on top of an unconscious Devil Lina, raising two
fingers in the victory sign.
"Now that that's settled," the angel said, "Here's what you're going to do.
You're going to help Maia find Jenso, and when you do, you're going to make that
bastard pay for all the crap you've had to put up with. Your wrist, Tensado
almost dying, hell, even the whole clothing issue is indirectly his fault. So
let's find him, and give him what he deserves!" And with that, the
manifestations of Lina's mind disappeared.
"All right," Lina told the despondent fairy, "I'll help you, Maia. Together,
we'll make that creep suffer!"
***
Amelia sat down on the bed and let out a heavy sigh.
"Something wrong, dear?" Xellos asked with a grin. Amelia just glared at him.
He disappeared with a black flicker, and reappeared on the bed, next to Amelia.
"Oh, Amelia-chan, let's not fight!" he said melodramatically.
"Go away," Amelia said, standing up and walking away from him, "I hate you."
Suddenly she found herself walking right into Xellos, who wrapped his arms
around her.
"Aw, isn't it great?" he said cheerfully, "Our first lover's spat. Can we kiss
and make up now?"
Amelia tore herself out of his embrace. "Leave me alone," she told him,
harshly.
"You know, this is rather odd," the Mazoku commented.
"What is?" Amelia snapped, not turning to look at him.
"Seeing you this angry. I've seen you be sad, or assertive to uphold justice,
but never with these dark, brooding feelings." He appeared in front of her
again. "They don't quite fit."
"So what?" Amelia said, sitting back down on the bed and sulking, "I think I've
got a right to be angry."
"I never said that you couldn't be angry, just that it seemed... out of place."
"So what? It's not like you care."
Xellos shrugged. "True."
"Could you leave so I can get changed?" Amelia asked.
"That's probably not that good an idea," Xellos told her, "How would you explain
it to Mrs. Tella why your lover is standing out in the hallway while you
change?"
Amelia practically didn't care anymore. She just wanted this day to be over.
She didn't think she had ever been so miserable in her entire life. She dragged
Xellos over to a chair. "Just sit here and look straight ahead," she told him.
She quickly shed her clothing and pulled on her pajamas. "There, I'm... done."
Xellos winked at her through the mirror.
"I hate this," she muttered.
"I only did what you told me to," Xellos said, innocently, "You have a very nice
figure, by the way." Amelia stared at him for a moment, then lay down on the
bed, facing away from him.
"Good night, Mr. Xellos," she said.
"If it would make you feel any better, you could watch me change," the dark
priest offered. The princess didn't say anything, she just pulled the covers
over her head.
***
Jenso was not in a good mood by the time he had returned to the fortress. The
spirit shaman pounded heavily on the thick stone door. A small slit in the door
opened up.
"Who goes there?" a squeaky voice asked. Jenso bent down to look through the
slit, which was at eye level for most people, but barely reached the giant's
chest. On the other side of the door he saw a single eye looking back at him,
the other being covered by an eyepatch.
"It's me, Fisk," Jenso growled, "Open up!" He didn't get along with Fisk under
the best of circumstances. After the battle at the cave, Fisk was the last
person Jenso wanted to see.
"Did something go wrong?" Fisk asked with a grin. Fisk had a unique sense of
humor, which meant that he thought he was funny, even if all he did was annoy
everyone around him.
"Open this door, Fisk!" Jenso roared.
Fisk's grin only widened. "All right, all right," he said, as he lifted the
heavy oak bar from the door, "You need to relax more."
Jenso resisted the urge to attack the scrawny man. Fisk might not look like
much, but he was incredibly fast of foot, and Jenso knew this. He was the one
that took Fisk's left eye. He had meant for the blow to remove the bandit's
entire head.
"I'd tread carefully, Jenso," Fisk warned him, still grinning, "Rumor has it you
let the girl get away. Lord Kenno isn't happy about that. He doesn't want THEM
to think he can't handle his side of the deal."
Jenso sighed, his massive hands clenching in frustration. Fisk apparently found
this funny, because he started giggling madly. Jenso launched a fist at him,
but the wry little thief dodged it easily, laughing even harder. Jenso wondered
about the man's sanity, and not for the first time either.
"How many of THEM have arrived yet?" Jenso asked, trying to ignore the high-
pitched, squeaky laughter.
As irritating as Fisk was, he was always well informed. "The Iron Dagger's
here, along with her second. Dabria came about an hour ago, but she doesn't
seem to have a second with her. As for the Mechanists, they're using that
engine of theirs to bring a bunch of people back to Bezeld, but they'll be back
in a little while."
The shaman spat to the side. "Mechanists," he said in disgust, "The spirits do
not like them."
"Well that's the business of the spirits," Fisk said, patting the giant on the
back, "But Lord Kenno likes 'em plenty!" He burst into laughter, even greater
than before, and ran off down the hall.
Jenso stared at the fleeing figure, wondering why Lord Kenno kept him around.
The man was clearly insane. He shook his head and walked off towards Lord
Kenno's chambers, unaware of the sign on his back that read 'Kick Me.'
***
It was late. The moon had risen, and the Red Phoenix hot spring was almost
empty.
Gourry stood up from the hot springs. Climbing out of the pool, he sat down in
the sand and let out a heavy sigh.
His brother looked up at him. Delvier had managed to find not one, but two
'busty, starry-eyed serving girls.' Both of them had been lulled to sleep by
the warm water, and rested their heads on Delvier's broad chest.
"Something wrong, Gourry?" he asked.
"Just nervous, I guess," was Gourry's reply, "I guess this is the end of my
adventuring days."
"I'm sure one of these women," he indicated the girls sleeping on his chest,
"Wouldn't mind taking your mind off of things for the night."
Gourry sighed. "You have a one-track mind, don't you brother?"
"Nah, I just like to have a little fun every now and then."
"Have you ever considered looking for something..." The swordsman searched for
the right word. "Deeper?" he finally finished. Delvier glared at him, his
friendly demeanor vanishing suddenly. "Sorry," he said quickly, "I shouldn't
have asked that. I know how much Mabel meant to you. I liked her, too."
Delvier sighed. "It's not your fault," he said, "You're just an idiot." He
looked at his left hand, at the indentation on the base of his fourth finger.
"I've been married four times now, Gourry." Gourry opened his mouth to ask
something, but his brother cut him off, answering his question before he even
asked it. "Yeah, I tried again after you left. It just... never works out."
After a long pause, he finally asked, "What about you, Gourry? Have you met
anyone special since I last saw you?"
Gourry frowned, thinking of her, even though he'd never admit it. "Doesn't
really matter," he said, smiling, "My fate's sealed."
"Oh, come on," Delvier said, "It's not that bad, is it?"
"I guess I could do worse."
"Why don't we call it a night, bro," Delvier said, gently removing himself from
between the two girls.
The two retired to their suite, and prepared for bed. Just as Delvier was about
to crawl under the covers, a loud knock was heard. He looked out into the
suite's main room, at the same time Gourry's head popped out from behind his
door.
"Did you order room service?" Delvier asked. Gourry shook his head. "Better
see who it is, then." Delvier picked up his sword belt, pulling it on over his
pajamas. Cautiously, he approached the door, Gourry right behind him.
It was the clerk from earlier. "Ah, Mr. Gourry!" he said, "I need you to come
with me."
Gourry blinked. "Huh?"
"What's going on?" Delvier asked, suspiciously.
"I'm not allowed to tell you," the clerk replied, "But it's very important. You
should come, too, Mr. Delvier. Hurry, this way." He started off down the hall,
not waiting to see if the Gabrievs were following him.
"What do we do?" Gourry asked.
"Let's see what he wants," Delvier said, "But keep your sword ready."
***
"What in Cephied's name is this?" Lina asked. The phenomenon in question were
two metal rails, spaced about five feet apart, which ran off through the woods
in either direction as far as the eye could see. Wooden boards stretched
between them, apparently holding them in place.
"I've never seen anything like it," Ketra replied. She turned to Maia. "Do you
know anything about this?"
The fairy looked at the strange setup. "Well, we're kinda out of the Fairy
Kingdom, but I think I heard some scouts report about a bunch of humans messing
around down here."
"Do you hear something?" Tensado suddenly asked. The others stopped to listen,
and sure enough, they could hear a low rumbling sound. Out of nowhere, a giant
metal dragon raced through the forest. It let out a loud roar as it charged
directly at them, staring at them with one glowing eye.
To be continued...
Send all comments, complaints, death threats, money, etc. to bkuhn@ucsd.edu
Tokyo, blah, blah, blah, send comments to bkuhn@ucsd.edu yackity shmackity...
you get the drift
Special thanks go out to my pre-readers: Tamysan, Incantrix, WillZ, Sethra,
Little Masa-ouki, Big D, and especially Strikestwice.
Lina: (grinning) Well, Amelia's been a busy little princess. She's gotten Mrs.
Tella to treat her like her own flesh and blood, met a wild elf, and is
allegedly carrying Xellos's child!
Amelia: (sulking) I don't wanna talk about it.
(long pause)
Lina: Um... Amelia? This is the part where you tell the readers what happened
to me last chapter.
Amelia: (still sulking) Fine. Mr. Tensado turned into a werewolf and saved the
day, and then some foul-mouthed half-elf showed up.
Lina: Gee, Amelia, it's so nice to see you getting into this.
Amelia: What? That's what happened! At least you got to have a happy ending
last chapter. I've been trying to help Mr. Zelgadis, and he's just been mean to
me.
Lina: Well, he's just nervous about meeting his mother, who showed up suddenly
at the end of the chapter. Geeze, what's with this author and suspenseful
endings?
Amelia: (sighs) Let's just get on with the fic.
Gourry: Hey, guys... Do I get to be in this chapter?
***
Slayers: GO!
Chapter 4: Pajama Party! Part 1
"So you're the great Lina Inverse!" the half-elven woman said, "It's an honor to
travel with someone as renowned as yourself."
Lina just smiled. Ketra, despite the foul mouth she displayed during the
battle, was actually a very nice person. She had insisted that Lina, being
injured, take her horse until they reached the next village. It was hard to
believe this was the same woman who had ruthlessly slain twelve brigands only a
short while ago.
"What was that trick you were using back there?" Lina asked, "I've never seen
anything like it before, and I've seen a lot of unusual things."
"Oh, that," Ketra said, flushing slightly, "It's called the Siren's Blade. It
can put men into a lull. It won't work against a real warrior, but against guys
like that..." she trailed off.
"Do you think you could teach me?" the redhaired sorceress asked eagerly.
Ketra shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I'm not allowed to teach anyone until my
master says I'm ready to take an apprentice. And even then, I doubt you could
do it."
"And why not?" Lina asked indignantly. The nerve of this woman, suggesting she
could do something the great Lina Inverse couldn't.
Ketra sweatdropped. "Well," she said nervously, "The techniques I use require a
combination of internal and external magical energies. With a few exceptions,
only half-elves have the qualifications to use them."
Lina's eyes widened. "Do you mean you're a... spellsmith?" Ketra nodded.
"I've never met a spellsmith before!" Ketra looked embarrassed by Lina's
reaction.
"Excuse me," Tensado said quietly. Lina turned to look at him, curiously. He
had been unusually quiet since they had left the caves, and his face was
slightly flushed. Lina wasn't sure if he was still embarrassed about being
discovered as a werewolf, or if his injuries were more serious than he was
letting on.
"What exactly is a spellsmith?" he asked through a yawn, "I've heard the term
before, but I don't know what it means."
"A spellsmith is sort of a heavy cross between a sorcerer and a swordsman," Lina
told him, suddenly feeling very sleepy herself, "They have the ability to...
*YAWN* channel magic... through their swords... and..." Whatever else Lina was
going to tell Tensado went unsaid, as the young sorceress fell asleep, sliding
out of the saddle and landing on the ground with a soft 'thud.' It didn't make
that much of a difference, however, as Tensado had fallen asleep, and so had
Ketra.
"Finally!" a voice said, "Got you, murderers!"
***
Amelia wrung her hands as she looked at the sheer agony on Zelgadis's face.
"Oh, I can't believe I could be so STUPID!" she exclaimed. Zelgadis turned to
stare at her. "I... Mrs. Tella told me her son and his wife were coming, and
Mrs. Frenlea told me Mr. Solto was staying with your mother. I... I just didn't
put the two together." Zelgadis looked away from her, staring at the door his
mother had disappeared into. "Mr. Zelgadis?" Amelia said, softly, "I'm sorry.
If there's anything I can do to help..."
"You can," he said.
"You're not being fair!" Amelia snapped back, "Wait... what did you say?" She
had been expecting him to ignore her, or yell at her. The last thing she was
ready for was to have him actually accept her offer. She didn't think there was
actually anything she COULD do.
"Which way is it?" he asked. Amelia didn't need him to tell her what he was
talking about. She pulled the crystal out of her shirt and cast the spell. The
crystal swung around and pointed southeast. "It's not swaying as much. I think
we're getting closer."
Zelgadis started down the path that lead towards the potential cure. "Let's
go."
Amelia let out a squeak and ran to catch up to him. "But... your leg. Doctor
Tella said you should at least stay a night." Zelgadis ignored her. "You could
die!" she continued to protest, "Don't you even care?"
Zelgadis stopped, but he didn't turn around to face her. "If I can be flesh
when it happens, then no, I don't care."
Amelia mustered up all the courage she had. "No," she said firmly, even though
her knees were shaking, "Stop now."
"Hmmph! Or what?" he asked.
Amelia searched for a good reply. "Stop or... I won't go with you!" she finally
declared, "You can't find the spell without me, and even if you did, you
wouldn't be able to cast it."
Zelgadis turned and approached her. She closed her eyes, half expecting him to
hit her. But she wasn't going to give up. This was for his own good. Later
on, he'd thank her.
Zelgadis grabbed her wrist and pulled her forward. "Don't play with me,
Amelia," the chimera growled. "I WILL go, with or without you. I'll find a way
to cast the spell."
"You think I'm bluffing, don't you!" the princess yelled back, "You don't think
I'll let you walk off to die, but..." She trailed off, she wasn't sure where
she was going with this, and it didn't look like she was convincing Zelgadis of
anything. He was so damn stubborn! But he was right, she wasn't going to let
him die in the middle of the woods. Especially if there was someone hunting
them. She couldn't leave him alone with someone tracking him.
Tracking him...
It was as if someone had cast a lighting spell in her head. It suddenly became
obvious. Zelgadis wouldn't be able to call her bluff this time, because she
wouldn't be bluffing. She took out the beacon crystal again. She placed a hand
on either side of the crystal and concentrated. It glowed with a blue light as
it started pointing at Zelgadis.
"What are you doing?" Zelgadis asked. Amelia could hear the doubt in his voice.
"You're right," she said, angrily, water filling her eyes, "I'm not going to let
you get yourself killed, even if you are being a big dummy. So I'm going to
adjust the crystal to point to the blue demon inside you. That way, once you've
passed out, I can find you and drag you back here."
"You wouldn't!" the shaman said, but he didn't sound very sure of himself.
The tears started running down Amelia's face, but if she backed down now,
Zelgadis might die. "It must be so easy!" she cried, "Not caring about anybody
but yourself. You're such a stupid jerk! I've come all this way to help you.
I abandoned Gourry AND Lina, because you needed my help. And I'm GOING to help
you, whether you want me to or not!"
Zelgadis just stared at her. There was fire in her eyes. He had always known
the princess was a determined girl, but that was with her absurd notions of
'justice.' She was completely serious now, though, and it didn't look like she
was going to back down. He hated to admit it, but he had underestimated her.
"So you turn around and head right back into that cabin," Amelia ordered, "Or...
or... or I'll break the crystal!"
"You couldn't go through with it," he told her, "That crystal's too valuable."
"I don't give a rat's hiney about the crystal!" she virtually shrieked, "I don't
care about your curse, and I don't care about the Crystal Breath! I just wanted
to make you happy, but you keep making it so difficult! Well, I'm making it
simple. You're going to go back to the Tellas, and you're going to stay there
until Dr. Tella says you can go. Now, MOVE!" Zelgadis glared at her, then
turned around and stormed off towards the cottage.
***
Lina woke up, and immediately regretted it. God, how much did she drink last
night? She winced at the throbbing pain in her head. She wanted to curl up and
die, or, failing that, go to sleep for a month and see if she felt any better by
then.
"About time you woke up!" a small voice said, angrily. She opened her eyes to
see a tiny woman, with large translucent dragonfly wings, standing on her chest.
She was dressed in what appeared to be a white soldier's outfit, but with purple
and golden trim, presumably noting some form of rank, or royal blood. "Once
you're out, lady, you're really out. The sun's already set. I was afraid I
might have to wait all night for you to-"
"What do you think you're doing, standing on my chest?!" she screamed, launching
the fairy into the air. She tried to get up, but she found that she couldn't
seem to move.
The fairy caught herself in midair, flapping her wings slowly to keep level.
She flew back to Lina, and hovered above her face. "Don't you raise your voice
to me. I'm the princess of the Fey Kingdom, and don't you forget it, murderer!"
Lina was in no mood to deal with this. "I've yelled at bigger princesses than
you," she said, lifting her head as far as she could to yell at her, "And...
wait, what did you call me?"
"I, Princess Maia, daughter of Queen Maab, ruler of the Fey Kingdom, hereby
charge you..." the fairy paused, "Um... what's your name?"
"Lina," the sorceress said, laying her head back down, "Lina Inverse."
"Right, I, Princess Maia, yadda yadda yadda, hereby charge you, Lina Inverse, of
the crime of murdering eleven royal explorers!"
"WHAT?!?!" Lina exclaimed, "I haven't killed anyone recently! I mean, there
were those brigands, just now, but they definitely weren't royal explorers, and
Ketra's the one that killed them, not me."
"The elf?" Maia asked. Lina nodded. "Don't lie to me! An elf would never kill
fairies. Elves are our cousins, and besides, she didn't join you until AFTER my
party was cruelly murdered!"
"I didn't murder any fairies!" Lina yelled.
"Save it for the trial!" the fairy snapped. Just then, a string of expletives
erupted from somewhere nearby, telling Lina that Ketra had regained
consciousness.
"What the !@#$% is going on?!" she exclaimed.
"I'm sorry, Miss Elf," Maia said, flying over to where Ketra lay, "But your
friend is guilty of killing eleven fairies, so I have to take her back to the
Fairy Castle to be judged."
"Great," Ketra replied, dryly, "So why can't I move?"
Maia looked a bit embarrassed. "Well, I know you'd never attack a group of
fairies serving the royal army, being an elf and all, but since you're traveling
with someone who did, I need to bring you all back with me to get things
straightened out."
"You still haven't answered my question," Ketra said, "Why can't I move?"
"Well..." Maia started turning red, "I needed to make sure nobody tried
anything, so I... I kinda turned your clothes into silver."
"What?" Lina asked suddenly, "How many of us did you do this to?" she asked.
"All of you," the fairy said, rather confused as to where the conversation was
going now, "Well, not the horse, of course, but everyone else."
Lina tried to look around, but in her current condition, she couldn't see very
much. "Tensado?" she called out frantically, "Tensado, are you there?" She
heard someone gasp. "Tensado? Is that you? Are you okay?"
"I've... felt... better," Tensado said through clenched teeth. He couldn't
figure out why, but his entire body ached with a dull pain, not to mention
several sore muscles from sleeping on something hard and uneven. "What's going
on?"
"Some stupid fairy turned your cloak into silver," she told him, "Can you
squeeze out of it or something?"
There was a long pause, then finally Tensado replied. "I'd rather not."
"What do you mean 'you'd rather not'?" Lina yelled, "It's silver!"
"True," Tensado said, "But this isn't real silver, so it's not quite so bad."
"Wait," Ketra said, "Are you a werewolf or something?"
"It's not something I generally advertise, but yes," the assassin admitted.
"Oh, my!" Ketra said, "Well, I guess that explains it!"
"Explains what?" Lina asked, "Why don't you want to get out of your cloak?"
Tensado didn't answer. Ketra giggled. "What's so damn funny, Ketra?!"
"He doesn't want to," Ketra said, "Because he's not wearing anything underneath
it." Lina would have facefaulted, had she not already been on the ground. She
had forgotten about that. "I was wondering about that," Ketra went on, "But I
was too embarrassed to ask. It makes sense now, though. He shifted forms
recently and lost his clothing, didn't he?" She giggled again.
Lina could almost *hear* Tensado blush. "Well, I managed to salvage my belt,"
he said quietly, "But, yeah, that's about it."
"Hey!" the fairy shouted, "Aren't we forgetting something?!"
"Right," Lina muttered, "The damn fairy. Look, Maia, I don't know what happened
to your friends, but I swear I didn't do it!"
"I can vouch for her," Tensado said, "I've been with her for the last two days,
and you're the first fairy we've seen."
"Really?" Maia asked.
"Yes, really!" Lina shouted, "Now can you turn our clothes back?!"
The fairy flew over to Lina again. "Then you don't know anything about that
icky mist?"
There was a long silence. "The mist that blocks out magic?" Lina finally asked.
"So you DO know about it!" Maia said, accusingly.
"Yeah," Lina told her, "But we didn't have anything to do with it. Let us up
and we'll tell you what we know."
The fairy princess thought for a moment. "All right. I'll believe you, but
only because you're traveling with an elf." She closed her eyes, and a golden
aura formed around her. Lina felt her clothing soften around her.
"Thanks," Lina said, sitting up, "Now let's get a few things straight." She was
suddenly cut off as Ketra screamed. Lina turned to see her curled up against a
tree. A bunch of white thread littered the ground around her.
"What happened to my dress?" Ketra asked, turning bright crimson. True enough,
while her armor remained, her actual clothing seemed to have disappeared. Lina
looked down to find herself in a similar state of undress, only worse, because
she wasn't wearing a breastplate.
"Um... oops," Maia said, quietly.
"Oops my ass!" Lina yelled, covering herself with her hands, "What happened?"
"Well," Maia said, meekly, "Turning clothing into silver's pretty easy, because
silver's all one big piece. I guess I forgot to weave the threads together when
I changed it back. Sorry!"
"Sorry?" Lina exclaimed, "SORRY?!" She leapt to her feet and grabbed the fairy.
"I'll show you sorry!!!" A sudden thought occurred to her. "Tensado, you'd
better be looking the other way, or you're a dead man!"
Tensado suddenly found the bark of a tree to be much more interesting than two
naked women.
"Is your cloak still intact, Tensado?" Ketra asked.
"More or less," Tensado responded, still staring at the tree, "It's mostly one
piece, but it's lost all its hemming."
"I'm really, really sorry," Maia said.
"As soon as I get some clothes, you are so dead, fairy," Lina growled.
"Let's just get our supplies so we can change," Ketra said, "Where did you
tether Safiya, my horse?"
Maia blinked in confusion. "Um... I'm a fairy. I'm just under two inches tall.
How do you expect me to tether a horse?"
***
Xellos was in heaven. Well, that's probably not the term he'd choose to
describe it, but it's fairly accurate in this case.
He had spent the entire day in this disgustingly peaceful little town. All he
had to feed off of was Amelia's frustration, which was decent enough, but
nothing compared to this.
Zelgadis glared at Amelia across the table, while Amelia deliberately didn't
look at him. The emotions flowing from the two of them were amazing. Anger,
frustration, sadness, regret. It was a virtual feast of dark emotions. Then
there was Zelgadis's mother, Zahara. Her sad, quiet longing was a Mazoku's
equivalent of a finely aged wine. The fact that the one she longed for was in
front of her just made it even better.
"So... Mother tells me you two are getting married," Solto said, trying to break
the oppressive silence that had descended on the table. Amelia didn't respond.
Xellos, on the other hand...
"Oh yes!" he said cheerfully, "We're on our way to meet with my future mother-
in-law, and then we'll be hitched before you know it." There was a scrape as
Zelgadis pushed his chair out and stood up. "Is something wrong, brother?"
"I've lost my appetite," he said, gruffly, "If it's all right, I'll turn in for
the night."
"I don't see why you're being so difficult about this!" Amelia shouted, knocking
over her chair as she leapt to her feet.
"I think you've said all you have to say about this, sister," he spat out the
last word.
"She's your mother!" Amelia blurted out without thinking, "Do you really think
she's going to care what you look like?" She suddenly realized what she had
just said, and clapped her hands over her mouth, turning bright red in the
process. Zelgadis just stared at her. If looks could kill, Amelia would have
died on the spot.
"Amelia dear and Zel haven't told their mother about his... condition," Xellos
interjected, although to be completely honest, he wasn't entirely sure why he
was doing this.
"Stay out of this!" the chimera snapped.
"What?" Xellos asked innocently, or as innocently as a Mazoku could manage,
"She'll be my mother, too, soon." There was a scrape of steel as Zelgadis drew
his sword, and pointed it at Xellos's neck, the tip half an inch from the
demon's throat.
"Say that again," he hissed, "And I swear to Cephied, I WILL find a way to kill
you."
"Stop this!" Mrs. Tella shrieked.
"Please," Zahara said, softly, "You're all family, aren't you?" His mother's
pleas were too much for Zelgadis; he sheathed his sword, and sat back down, not
meeting anyone's eyes. Amelia picked up her chair and sat down as well. She
resumed not looking at Zelgadis.
"This stew is delicious," Xellos said, holding up his empty bowl, "May I have
seconds?" Two generations of Tellas stared at him as if he had gone absolutely
insane. "You have to keep things in perspective," he told them, "This happens
all the time. It's a bit unusual, but it's family."
"You should treasure family while you have it," Solto said, reaching out to take
his wife's hand, "Anyone in this house has enough regrets for all of us.
There's nothing worse than losing family."
"But there's nothing better than having it," Zelgadis's mother said with a weak
smile, "I wouldn't trade my memories for anything in the world." She started to
giggle. "Solto dear, do you remember that time when Ketra fell from the old
oak? She was only eight feet off the ground, but Zelgadis was in tears!"
Amelia stifled a laugh. Out of the corner of his eyes, she could see Zelgadis
starting to blush through his fingers.
Solto burst out laughing. "Oh, sweet Cephied, I remember him running to my
house and telling me she was horribly injured," he calmed down a bit, "Granted,
I didn't think it was funny at the time, but..." he started laughing again.
"He didn't sleep at all that night, he kept asking me if she was going to live!"
Zahara said.
Solto continued to chuckle. "Then there was the time when Zelgadis started
learning magic." He laughed harder.
Amelia saw Zelgadis bury his face in his hands.
"What happened?" she asked, curiously.
"He was showing off in front of Ketra," Solto told her, "And he lost control of
a fireball. Completely destroyed my shed."
"How about when they were playing 'Dragon Slayer' indoors, and they knocked over
my great-grandmother's vase," Zahara said. She turned to Amelia. "We found
them at the carriage station with their bags packed. They were only six at the
time. It was so cute, neither of us could punish them."
"Ah, yes," Solto smiled, "Back when Ketra was scared of her clothes chest."
"Huh?" Amelia asked, "Why would she be afraid of that?"
"She was convinced it was a mimic, and would bite her arm off if she tried to
take anything from it."
Amelia blinked in confusion. "What's a mimic?"
"A seemingly useless bit of trivia which will inevitably be important later on,"
Xellos replied casually.
"What?" Amelia asked.
"Woops!" Xellos said with a smile, "I meant to say, a mimic is a monster that
hides itself as a chest and waits for unwary travelers to try to open it."
Zahara smiled, but the smile quickly faded with a sigh. "Hold on to your loved
ones," she advised, "You never know when they'll disappear."
Anna leaned over to Amelia. "Perhaps you should tell him your little secret,
dearie," she whispered, "It's not healthy to let things simmer inside you like
that, and the longer you wait, the harder it will be to tell him." She had said
it very softly, but Zelgadis's pointed ears did more than just look odd.
"What secret?" he asked harshly, looking up. His anger was clearly visible. If
she had said something to Mrs. Tella... he didn't know what he would do, but it
wouldn't be pretty.
Now it was Amelia's turn to blush. "It's nothing, really," she stammered."
"Amelia," he said, in a tone that could only be described as dangerous, "Tell
me."
Amelia sweatdropped. It was embarrassing enough as it was; she certainly didn't
want Zelgadis to know. But if he thought she was hiding something about his
family, he'd only get madder.
"I... um..." She could feel her face heating up more and more, "We didn't want
to tell you until after the wedding, but... Imcarryingxellossbaby!" she blurted
out.
Zelgadis was very silent. She didn't think he'd take it this badly. Maybe he
was mad at her for lying in front of his mother... but HE was the one who didn't
want them to tell the truth.
Suddenly Zelgadis exploded into laughter. He could barely breathe, he was
laughing so hard.
"Well, dear..." Mrs. Tella said, just as surprised by Zelgadis's reaction as
anyone else, "He took that... better than I expected." Amelia burst into tears.
***
"Oi, Delvier!" Gourry said, bringing his horse up alongside his brother's.
"Yeah?" the knight asked.
"Doesn't this road keep going to Seyruun?" the blonde swordsman asked, "Why are
we turning here."
"You really do have pudding for brains, don't you Gourry?"
"You know, Lina said the same thing," Gourry replied.
Delvier chuckled. "Small wonder. Now, try to stay with me here, Gourry. We
have you, so what else do we need to go through with this?"
Gourry thought for a moment. "Um... cake?"
A bead of sweat formed on Delvier's forehead. "No, you dolt! Try again!"
Gourry's brow furrowed in concentration. Suddenly, his face brightened. "I've
got it!" he said, snapping his fingers.
"Yes?" Delvier asked, more than ready for some idiotic response.
"We need 'her,' don't we?" he asked. Delvier nodded, rather surprised that
Gourry had gotten it right. "How are we going to get her to come? She's gotta
be pretty mad at me."
"That's already taken care of," Delvier said nonchalantly, "I told her I knew of
a great treasure and I'd meet up with her in Seyruun to discuss the details."
Gourry's eyes went wide. "Really? What kind of treasure?"
Delvier dropped his head. "Gourry, you really are dense. There is no treasure,
I just said that to get her to come."
"You lied?" Gourry asked in amazement, "You do realize once she finds out,
she'll kill us both. Even *I'm* smart enough to know that, brother."
Delvier nodded. "That's what the side trip is for. We'll need something to...
persuade her to forgive us."
Gourry paused. "Yeah," he said, finally, "She's pretty easy to buy off, isn't
she? So where are we going?"
"There's a Dukedom this way, right near the Zefiela border, called Trebec. The
Duke there is insanely rich. Accent on the insane part. He holds public
showings where he gives out large quantities of money to whoever can win his
contests."
"What kind of contests?" Gourry asked.
"Normally he asks a bunch of trivia questions, but he changes it around from
time to time. Ah, here we are."
Gourry looked around as he and his brother entered the city of Trebec. A woman
was out on the balcony of her house, beating the dust out of a rug. A gang of
small children laughed as they chased a ball across the street.
"Looks ordinary enough to me," the blonde swordsman commented.
"It is," Delvier told him, "At least most of it is. You need to talk to the
right people to find out how strange this place truly is. Here we go. The
Contestant Inn."
"Odd name for an inn," Gourry said.
"It gets odder," the knight replied. Despite Delvier's warnings, Gourry
couldn't help but think that the inn seemed rather normal on the inside. He
started to wonder if Delvier had looked at his map wrong.
"Hi!" the young clerk said in a loud, cheerful voice as they approached,
"Welcome to the Contestant Inn. Today's lodgings are brought to you by Seyruun
Quilts - so soft, they're like sleeping under a cloud - and Mr. Felmar's
Butchery - the finest meat for the finest meals."
Gourry took a step back. "Um... okay." He turned to Delvier. "Can we go
somewhere else?" he asked quietly, "This place is starting to freak me out."
"We'd like a room," Delvier said, ignoring his brother.
"Very good," the clerk smiled, adopting a more normal tone, "Rooms are twelve
gold pieces a night, and that comes with dinner and the continental breakfast.
It costs an extra three gold-"
"Actually," Delvier interrupted, "My brother and I would like one of the
Contestant Suites."
The young man's eyes brightened. "Really?" he said, "Hold on a second, I've
been practicing this part." He cleared his throat, then said in a deep, loud
voice. "Welcome to the Contestant Inn! Our contestants will be staying free of
charge in the..." He stopped briefly to check his register, then continued on.
"Price is Right Suite, where they'll be dining on the finest cuts of dragon
steak from Mr. Felmar's Butchery - the finest meat for the finest meals! And
what better way to relax at the end of a day full of trials and challenges than
in our very own Red Phoenix hot springs. Plus, they'll each be receiving these
beautiful, hand-woven, official Trebec tunics courtesy of Stitch in Time
Tailoring..." He reached below the counter and came up with a pair of deep blue
tunics, which he handed to the brothers. "When you need quality clothing, and
you need it yesterday, think Stitch in Time Tailoring! And finally, a five gold
coin gift certificate good at any store in the Trebec area!" By this point, the
boy was short on breath, and his cheeks had gone red. "How'd I do?" he asked.
"Very nicely done," Delvier said. "That practice must have paid off. It's nice
to see a man who takes his job seriously."
The boy beamed at the compliment. "Right, here's your keys. Your suite's on
the second floor. Just look for the door that says 'The Price is Right' in
white letters."
"Thanks," Delvier replied, flipping a gold coin at the clerk. "Come on,
Gourry."
"How much is this gonna cost?" Gourry said, once they had found the door the
clerk had described, and gone inside. The room was a huge lounge area with two
doors leading to the bedrooms. Beautifully carved furniture was spread out
around the room, and the sliding glass doors opened onto a balcony with a
wondrous view of the sun setting behind the mountains.
Delvier sighed. "What I wouldn't give to be sharing this room with some busty,
starry-eyed serving girl, but instead I'm with my braindead brother." Gourry
didn't take offense at this. He knew his brother well enough to know that he
never meant anything seriously. "In case you missed the sales pitch," he said
searching through the furniture for something, "This is all free of charge. Ah!
Here we go, the mini-bar!" He opened up a small cabinet and started rummaging
through the bottles of wine inside it.
"But why?" Gourry asked, as clueless as ever.
"Because we're going to be competing in tomorrow's contests," the paladin
responded, "Ooh, nice year, maybe it's not too late to find one of those serving
girls..." He smiled to himself. "Anyway, let's head down to that hotspring
before dinner. It'll give us a chance to size up some of our competition, and
besides," he gave his brother a nudge in the ribs and a sly smile, "It's co-ed."
Gourry sighed. "You never change, do you, Delvier?"
***
"Hold on, Tensado," Ketra said, suddenly, stopping what had been a rather
constant stream of vulgarities, "I think the tracks turned here." It was
getting late, and they still hadn't caught up to Safiya. It was awkward to
begin with, as modesty required Tensado lead, even though Ketra was the only one
who knew how to track well enough to follow the trails in the limited light.
"Are you sure?" Tensado asked.
The half-elf knelt to examine the ground. "Yeah, she turned here. Come back a
bit." Tensado started to turn around, when Ketra shrieked.
"Don't look, stupid!" Lina yelled.
"Sorry," Tensado apologized quickly, "I didn't see anything." Awkwardly, he
started walking backwards.
"That's good enough," Ketra told the werewolf as he approached them, "She turned
to your left." Tensado pushed his way through the brush, and they continued on.
Lina turned to Ketra as they walked. "You didn't have to scream like that," she
told her.
Ketra blushed. "Sorry," she said sheepishly, "I reacted like a teenage girl
catching a peeping tom, didn't I?"
"At least you've got your breastplate to give you SOME decency," Lina muttered.
"That's not necessarily a good thing," Ketra said, loosening her armor's straps
a bit, "Do you have any idea how much this chafes?"
Maia flew alongside them, all but forgotten at the moment. She had been silent
during the trip, not wanting to remind the women exactly WHY they were traipsing
naked through the forest. She hoped once they were clothed, Lina would be a bit
more forgiving (and Ketra might stop swearing, for that matter), but at this
rate, it felt like it would take them all night to find the horse.
No sooner had she thought this, than Tensado suddenly took off, disappearing
from view.
"Tensado?" Lina called out, "Tensado? Where did he go?!"
Tensado darted quickly through the underbrush, following the scent of the horse.
It was faint at first, so he had to hurry, or risk losing it, but it would be
much faster than trying to follow those tracks in the dim light. In a
relatively short time, he came upon a clearing. In the middle, stood Safiya,
her black body barely visible in the moonlight. She turned her head sharply,
as he stepped out from the brush.
"Easy, girl," he whispered, as he approached the horse, "It's me, Tensado.
Remember me?" She seemed very nervous, but Tensado kept talking to her in
soothing tones, and soon she had calmed down.
A sudden rustling in the bushes startled them both.
"Lina?" Tensado asked, cautiously, "Is that you?"
Lina's voice responded. "Yeah, it's me. Now turn around." Tensado walked to
the other side of the clearing. He heard more rustling behind him, then he
heard Ketra's voice.
"You poor girl," she said, running a hand gently down the back of Safiya's neck,
"I wonder what frightened you."
Lina moved eagerly towards the packs the horse carried. "I don't care as long
as she has some clothing!"
Tensado could feel his face heating up. "I, um, I think I'll look around the
area, while you two get dressed." He quickly disappeared into the woods.
"What's gotten into him?" Lina wondered, rummaging through her packs.
Ketra started pulling off her armor. "He's probably just self-conscious. I
mean, neither of us are really wearing anything, and he's only got his cloak.
Oh, Ceiphied, it feels good to get that off." She had finally removed her
breastplate, littering the ground with more white thread.
Lina couldn't help but noticed the half-elf was rather well formed. She might
not have been anything close to Naga's size, or even Amelia's for that matter,
but she was certainly better endowed than Lina was. Lina sighed. Why did every
girl she traveled with have to have bigger breasts than hers?
After quite a bit of searching through the packs, they came to the conclusion
that neither of them actually had a spare set of clothing with them. Lina
realized she must have lost hers when they ran away from that mob in Gelfia.
Ketra HAD a change of clothes, but her bag had torn open during Sefiya's flight
through the forest, and most of what was inside had spilled out somewhere.
In the end, they had to settle for their nightwear: pink pajamas in Lina's case,
and a long flowing white nightgown for Ketra. It wasn't exactly ideal, but it
was a lot better than wandering around naked.
"I'm really sorry," Maia apologized again, once the two were dressed, "But if
you HAD killed my companions, you might have attacked me. I didn't mean to
destroy your clothing."
"Yeah, yeah," Lina said. Now that she had settled down, she realized it wasn't
really the fairy's fault, "So what exactly happened to your friends?"
Maia sat down on Safiya's saddle. "Well, about three days ago," she explained,
"A whole bunch of animals got driven out of the cave to the northeast - the one
you came out of. A group of Explorers were sent out to investigate, and I was
chosen to lead. It was my first time leading a party, so I wanted to show
everyone that I really was Queen Maab's daughter. But... when we entered the
cave..." the tiny girl suddenly got very sad.
"Faeries are magical creatures," Lina pondered out loud, "And that mist seems to
block out magic, so..."
"Before I knew what had happened, they were all dead!" Maia cried, "There
weren't even any bodies left! They fell to the ground like injured birds, and
they... they..." she sniffled a few times, before finally screaming out, "They
faded away into nothing!" And she burst into tears.
"Oh, you poor thing!" Ketra said, picking up the fairy and gently hugging her.
Just then there was a large cracking sound, as the branches of a tree gave way,
and Tensado came crashing to the ground.
"Um... hi, guys," Tensado said, looking up at the three girls looking down at
him, "I can explain..."
"DIM WIND!" Lina shouted sending Tensado flying across the clearing. He crashed
into a tree, and landed in a heap on the ground, his cloak spread out behind
him. Ketra turned her head, blushing profusely. Maia just stared. As soon as
Tensado had recovered from the shock of being blasted into a tree, he quickly
pulled his cloak around him. His face quickly surpassed Ketra's in shade.
"You deserve a lot more than that," Lina said through clenched teeth, "Spying on
us like that. No wonder you were so anxious to 'look around.'"
"I didn't mean to spy on you," Tensado protested, "Honest!"
Lina wasn't buying it, though. "Then what were you doing in that tree?" she
asked. Almost as if answering her, a body fell from the tree, landing with a
thud at her feet. A long knife stuck out of the dead man's back.
"Dealing with him," Tensado replied. He picked up the dagger, cleaned it on the
man's shirt, and returned it to his belt, hidden underneath his cloak. "There
was another one," he added, "But he got away while I was stuck in the tree."
"He's wearing the same outfit as the brigands earlier," Lina noted, "And they
seemed to know the man we met in the cave... What did they call him? Jenso?"
Maia suddenly spoke up. "A man in the cave? Do you mean the one with the
mist?"
"Yeah," Tensado nodded, "Why?"
The fairy flew up to Lina and bowed to her. "Please, Miss Inverse, help me find
this Jenso!"
Nervous sweat formed on Lina's forehead. "Um... I'm kind of busy right now,"
she told the princess.
"Please!" Maia insisted, "I... I can't go home until I've found out what
happened."
Lina looked at the fairy. "This isn't one of those 'I've failed, so I can't
return' honor things, is it? Those can be such a pain in the ass!"
"No... not exactly," Maia said, "I could return home, but if I came back like
this... my entire team is dead, and I don't even have something to show for it.
I'll be the laughing stock of the entire fairy kingdom." She looked down at her
feet. "Everybody's expecting me to fail. I even heard the guards taking bets
on how long it would take me to fly crying back to my mother."
"That's awful!" Ketra exclaimed, feeling very sorry for the little fairy.
Maia wiped at her eyes. "Well I'm not going to let them see me cry. I'll show
them all." As her voice became more determined, she began to glow. "So what if
I'm a little clumsy with my magic? I've got more magic power than any fairy in
the last six hundred years! My mother trusted me with this job, and I am NOT
going to let her down!" Her enthusiasm waned at this point, and she stopped
glowing. "But I can't do it on my own. I can't fight the mist. I need your
help."
There was a small poof, and a little devil Lina showed up on her shoulder. "Why
are you even considering this? That little bitch has caused nothing but
trouble. You don't owe her anything. Besides, you've got more important things
to take care of." She held up a poster with a picture of Gourry. In large
letters on the top it said 'Missing,' and at the bottom it read 'Answers to:
Pudding-for-brains.'
Predictably, there was another poof, as a saintly version of Lina appeared on
the opposite shoulder. "Now, now, she needs your help. She's in trouble, and
only the great, magnificent, wonderful, beautiful Lina Inverse can-"
"Stop buttering her up!" Devil Lina yelled, "She's not going to help that stupid
fairy, and there's nothing you can do about it!"
"Oh yeah?" Angel Lina yelled back.
"Yeah!" Devil Lina retorted, pulling her hands forward, "Origin of all power..."
"Bring it on, bitch!" Angel Lina said, tackling the devil in mid-chant. Lina
stared in confusion as her id and superego clashed in a fury of fists. When the
dust cleared, Angel Lina stood on top of an unconscious Devil Lina, raising two
fingers in the victory sign.
"Now that that's settled," the angel said, "Here's what you're going to do.
You're going to help Maia find Jenso, and when you do, you're going to make that
bastard pay for all the crap you've had to put up with. Your wrist, Tensado
almost dying, hell, even the whole clothing issue is indirectly his fault. So
let's find him, and give him what he deserves!" And with that, the
manifestations of Lina's mind disappeared.
"All right," Lina told the despondent fairy, "I'll help you, Maia. Together,
we'll make that creep suffer!"
***
Amelia sat down on the bed and let out a heavy sigh.
"Something wrong, dear?" Xellos asked with a grin. Amelia just glared at him.
He disappeared with a black flicker, and reappeared on the bed, next to Amelia.
"Oh, Amelia-chan, let's not fight!" he said melodramatically.
"Go away," Amelia said, standing up and walking away from him, "I hate you."
Suddenly she found herself walking right into Xellos, who wrapped his arms
around her.
"Aw, isn't it great?" he said cheerfully, "Our first lover's spat. Can we kiss
and make up now?"
Amelia tore herself out of his embrace. "Leave me alone," she told him,
harshly.
"You know, this is rather odd," the Mazoku commented.
"What is?" Amelia snapped, not turning to look at him.
"Seeing you this angry. I've seen you be sad, or assertive to uphold justice,
but never with these dark, brooding feelings." He appeared in front of her
again. "They don't quite fit."
"So what?" Amelia said, sitting back down on the bed and sulking, "I think I've
got a right to be angry."
"I never said that you couldn't be angry, just that it seemed... out of place."
"So what? It's not like you care."
Xellos shrugged. "True."
"Could you leave so I can get changed?" Amelia asked.
"That's probably not that good an idea," Xellos told her, "How would you explain
it to Mrs. Tella why your lover is standing out in the hallway while you
change?"
Amelia practically didn't care anymore. She just wanted this day to be over.
She didn't think she had ever been so miserable in her entire life. She dragged
Xellos over to a chair. "Just sit here and look straight ahead," she told him.
She quickly shed her clothing and pulled on her pajamas. "There, I'm... done."
Xellos winked at her through the mirror.
"I hate this," she muttered.
"I only did what you told me to," Xellos said, innocently, "You have a very nice
figure, by the way." Amelia stared at him for a moment, then lay down on the
bed, facing away from him.
"Good night, Mr. Xellos," she said.
"If it would make you feel any better, you could watch me change," the dark
priest offered. The princess didn't say anything, she just pulled the covers
over her head.
***
Jenso was not in a good mood by the time he had returned to the fortress. The
spirit shaman pounded heavily on the thick stone door. A small slit in the door
opened up.
"Who goes there?" a squeaky voice asked. Jenso bent down to look through the
slit, which was at eye level for most people, but barely reached the giant's
chest. On the other side of the door he saw a single eye looking back at him,
the other being covered by an eyepatch.
"It's me, Fisk," Jenso growled, "Open up!" He didn't get along with Fisk under
the best of circumstances. After the battle at the cave, Fisk was the last
person Jenso wanted to see.
"Did something go wrong?" Fisk asked with a grin. Fisk had a unique sense of
humor, which meant that he thought he was funny, even if all he did was annoy
everyone around him.
"Open this door, Fisk!" Jenso roared.
Fisk's grin only widened. "All right, all right," he said, as he lifted the
heavy oak bar from the door, "You need to relax more."
Jenso resisted the urge to attack the scrawny man. Fisk might not look like
much, but he was incredibly fast of foot, and Jenso knew this. He was the one
that took Fisk's left eye. He had meant for the blow to remove the bandit's
entire head.
"I'd tread carefully, Jenso," Fisk warned him, still grinning, "Rumor has it you
let the girl get away. Lord Kenno isn't happy about that. He doesn't want THEM
to think he can't handle his side of the deal."
Jenso sighed, his massive hands clenching in frustration. Fisk apparently found
this funny, because he started giggling madly. Jenso launched a fist at him,
but the wry little thief dodged it easily, laughing even harder. Jenso wondered
about the man's sanity, and not for the first time either.
"How many of THEM have arrived yet?" Jenso asked, trying to ignore the high-
pitched, squeaky laughter.
As irritating as Fisk was, he was always well informed. "The Iron Dagger's
here, along with her second. Dabria came about an hour ago, but she doesn't
seem to have a second with her. As for the Mechanists, they're using that
engine of theirs to bring a bunch of people back to Bezeld, but they'll be back
in a little while."
The shaman spat to the side. "Mechanists," he said in disgust, "The spirits do
not like them."
"Well that's the business of the spirits," Fisk said, patting the giant on the
back, "But Lord Kenno likes 'em plenty!" He burst into laughter, even greater
than before, and ran off down the hall.
Jenso stared at the fleeing figure, wondering why Lord Kenno kept him around.
The man was clearly insane. He shook his head and walked off towards Lord
Kenno's chambers, unaware of the sign on his back that read 'Kick Me.'
***
It was late. The moon had risen, and the Red Phoenix hot spring was almost
empty.
Gourry stood up from the hot springs. Climbing out of the pool, he sat down in
the sand and let out a heavy sigh.
His brother looked up at him. Delvier had managed to find not one, but two
'busty, starry-eyed serving girls.' Both of them had been lulled to sleep by
the warm water, and rested their heads on Delvier's broad chest.
"Something wrong, Gourry?" he asked.
"Just nervous, I guess," was Gourry's reply, "I guess this is the end of my
adventuring days."
"I'm sure one of these women," he indicated the girls sleeping on his chest,
"Wouldn't mind taking your mind off of things for the night."
Gourry sighed. "You have a one-track mind, don't you brother?"
"Nah, I just like to have a little fun every now and then."
"Have you ever considered looking for something..." The swordsman searched for
the right word. "Deeper?" he finally finished. Delvier glared at him, his
friendly demeanor vanishing suddenly. "Sorry," he said quickly, "I shouldn't
have asked that. I know how much Mabel meant to you. I liked her, too."
Delvier sighed. "It's not your fault," he said, "You're just an idiot." He
looked at his left hand, at the indentation on the base of his fourth finger.
"I've been married four times now, Gourry." Gourry opened his mouth to ask
something, but his brother cut him off, answering his question before he even
asked it. "Yeah, I tried again after you left. It just... never works out."
After a long pause, he finally asked, "What about you, Gourry? Have you met
anyone special since I last saw you?"
Gourry frowned, thinking of her, even though he'd never admit it. "Doesn't
really matter," he said, smiling, "My fate's sealed."
"Oh, come on," Delvier said, "It's not that bad, is it?"
"I guess I could do worse."
"Why don't we call it a night, bro," Delvier said, gently removing himself from
between the two girls.
The two retired to their suite, and prepared for bed. Just as Delvier was about
to crawl under the covers, a loud knock was heard. He looked out into the
suite's main room, at the same time Gourry's head popped out from behind his
door.
"Did you order room service?" Delvier asked. Gourry shook his head. "Better
see who it is, then." Delvier picked up his sword belt, pulling it on over his
pajamas. Cautiously, he approached the door, Gourry right behind him.
It was the clerk from earlier. "Ah, Mr. Gourry!" he said, "I need you to come
with me."
Gourry blinked. "Huh?"
"What's going on?" Delvier asked, suspiciously.
"I'm not allowed to tell you," the clerk replied, "But it's very important. You
should come, too, Mr. Delvier. Hurry, this way." He started off down the hall,
not waiting to see if the Gabrievs were following him.
"What do we do?" Gourry asked.
"Let's see what he wants," Delvier said, "But keep your sword ready."
***
"What in Cephied's name is this?" Lina asked. The phenomenon in question were
two metal rails, spaced about five feet apart, which ran off through the woods
in either direction as far as the eye could see. Wooden boards stretched
between them, apparently holding them in place.
"I've never seen anything like it," Ketra replied. She turned to Maia. "Do you
know anything about this?"
The fairy looked at the strange setup. "Well, we're kinda out of the Fairy
Kingdom, but I think I heard some scouts report about a bunch of humans messing
around down here."
"Do you hear something?" Tensado suddenly asked. The others stopped to listen,
and sure enough, they could hear a low rumbling sound. Out of nowhere, a giant
metal dragon raced through the forest. It let out a loud roar as it charged
directly at them, staring at them with one glowing eye.
To be continued...
Send all comments, complaints, death threats, money, etc. to bkuhn@ucsd.edu
