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Chapter 4: The Lead-up
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"Fireball!"
The trees swayed in the slight summer breeze, the sun high in the afternoon sky. The grass played lightly on the sun-warmed ground, swaying this way and that. Lush forests surrounded a dirt path that swerved and turned through the dense green trees. Birds were perched on the branches that over-looked the dirt road.
In the middle of the forest lay a clearing, the ground now charred and fried, the surrounding trees enclosing the clearing all bare and smouldering. Gold littered the once grass-filled ground, along with many dirty bodies a certain red-head had just burnt to a crisp.
The petit sorceress walked away from the pile of charred bodies that lay behind her. Lina, Gourry and Zelgadis had been trying to 'casually' find information on the whereabouts of Amelia for the past three days, but to no avail. Not one bandit gang knew anything. And this put Lina in a bad mood.
"Well?" Zelgadis asked as she approached the two men who had stayed a safe distance away from Lina while she went to 'talk' to the bandits.
Lina shook her head sadly and sighed. "Nothing," she said quietly. "Absolutely NOTHING!!" Her voice echoed through the trees as she yelled that last word. She swiftly turned to see about a dozen more bandits come charging towards her, and she sighed again. "Flare Arrow!"
We must've blown up 50 bandit hideouts or more asking for information, and none of them know anything, Zel thought as he, Lina, and Gourry began walking down the road again. "This is just a waste of time," he said out loud. Lina put the last coin she had taken from them in her cloak, stopped and turned to look at him.
"Would you rather we just walk around looking under rocks and behind trees to see if we can find her?" she asked sarcastically. Lina was clearly in a bad mood.
Zel gave her a cold, hard stare. He didn't feel like putting up with the redhead at the moment. Gourry just looked from the sorceress to the chimera and back again. "Well," the blond-haired man began, thinking very hard, "I think Lina has a point. But so does Zel."
Zel and Lina both turned to glare at the blond swordsman and then turned to glare back at each other. "Look, Zel, this is the only thing we can do right now. It's not like we have a lead…or anything else. Bandits are the best source of information for these kinds of things. I doubt asking old women in town rocking in their chairs will help."
"Well, the bandits haven't been helpful yet, now have they?" came his stony reply.
"Which makes me worried," Lina sighed. "It's just, every bandit should've at least heard of Amelia's kidnapping, but none of them did."
"I'm guessing Phil didn't tell anyone about it," thought Zel out loud. "Which is a good idea; the city of Saillune would be in an uproar if they knew."
"Maybe she wasn't even kidnapped," Gourry said suddenly. "Maybe.... maybe she just ran away!"
Lina whacked Gourry upside the head. "You idiot! Amelia would never run away! And if she did, she would at least tell Prince Phil!"
Zel sighed. "Let's just keep walking. Standing around won't help us either," he said, turning around swiftly to continue walking. Lina scowled at his back, grabbed Gourry's arm, and followed after the chimera.
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"Your Majesty, the messenger has arrived."
"Send him in, please."
The room was large, the throne at the end. Tapestry hung from the walls, and fine silk curtains framed the elegant windows. The white stonewalls shone brightly as the sun shone off of it, giving the room a bright glow. A red carpet led the way to the magnificently carved throne.
A fairly young messenger in his early twenties appeared through the large, carved wooden doors. Two guards held their positions at the door, while the messenger walked by them swiftly.
Philionel stood by a window, over-looking the busy city of Saillune far below. He turned and gave a weak smile as the messenger walked in.
"Your Majesty," the messenger said, kneeling.
"Come now, Romins, there's no need for formalities. I already told you, call me Phil."
"Umm.... yes, Your Ma.... I mean…Phil. I'm afraid I do not bring very good news, sir."
Phil sighed. The messenger looked down at his feet. "Miss Lina Inverse, and Sirs Gourry Gabriev and Zelgadis Greywords have not found your daughter, Princess Amelia, yet. They are still searching."
Phil turned to look out the window again and thought for a moment before his mind was made up. "Thank you, Romins." Romins bowed and left silently and quickly. "Christopher!" Phil called loudly, although Phil always seemed loud.
"Yes, brother?"
Phil's younger brother appeared from a side door, his skinny body, brown hair and moustache made it hard to believe that he was related to the somewhat big-boned, dwarf-like looking, and dark haired Philionel.
Phil turned to look at his brother, his face set. "Get my horse from my stables. I'm going to go find my sweet daughter, Amelia."
"But Phil, you have to help keep Saillune in order. Everyone will find out what happened if you leave. Saillune needs you!"
"Amelia needs me! And with the power of Justice on my side, I will find my daughter and bring her back safely. What kind of father am I to just sit in the palace and wait? So long as there is evil out there, my daughter isn't safe. But I know she's all right! With justice as my weapon I will find her!" Phil ended, his legs spread apart and arm shot up in the air.
Christopher sighed. "All right, brother, if that is what you want."
"I want to leave immediately. Come," he said, leaving the room through the large wooden doors, as he went on his way to the stables.
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The sky was bright and clear, the air sweet and serene, a light breeze playing with the leaves that created a cool shade for the figure below. Her back was propped up against a tree, her chest rising and falling with her steady breathing as she slept. On the branch to her left hung a brown blanket made of wool and cotton. The grass was soft beneath her, and the tranquil sound of flowing water came from a creek not too far away.
A soft noise escaped her lips, and her eyes fluttered slowly. She held her eyes shut for a moment before she opened them slowly, so that her blue eyes would adjust to the light. The sight in front of her was beautiful; she had always loved nature's beauty. That was one reason she loved to adventure.
She looked down at herself; she looked like a ragged doll. Her white nightgown was ripped and torn in many places. Where it had once fallen down to reach her ankles, it now reached her upper thighs. Her cuts and bruises she had healed the night she had escaped, but she had not been able to get any food. She was only able to drink the cool water from the nearby creek, and though it was refreshing, her stomach wanted more.
It had been two or maybe even two and a half weeks since Amelia had escaped, and three weeks or so since she had been missing. She had fallen asleep, exhausted, in a forest close to a village. She had woken up hungry and thirsty the next night, and had flown over to the town nearby. She landed in the middle of the street, hoping to get some food and something decent to wear. She had walked through the village in the peace of the night. Not one person had been on the street.
"I wonder where everybody is…" she had said loud to herself as she wandered over to a store, only to realize it was closed. It was right then and there that her common sense had kicked her hard in the head. Of course, its nighttime! Nobody would be up in the middle of the night!…well, maybe a tavern….
The young Princess had eventually found her way to a tavern, but right before she entered, her common sense kicked her hard again. Oh no! I don't have any money!! And no one will believe I'm a Princess if I look like this! She had thought to herself, looking down at the torn nightgown. Her stomach had growled, and her mouth was unbelievably dry. Maybe the innkeeper will pity me and out of the kindness of his heart will let me stay for the night and give me something to eat.... Amelia had thought. Peering into the tavern, she had seen four men, each looking quite drunk. Looking towards the bar, the innkeeper hadn't looked too friendly either.
Amelia had looked down at herself again, and feeling very modest all of a sudden, began to blush. She knew she was showing way too much skin. And after her experience earlier that night, she didn't want any more men staring at her like a piece of meat. So she had raywinged herself into a forest, and had fallen back to sleep from the lack of food.
She had wandered through forests from that day on, eating as much as she could when she found the rare apple tree as she wandered, and every time she reached a lake, pond, river or creek, she would fish and fish and fish, until she couldn't eat anymore. I think Miss Lina has had some sort of influence on me, she had thought.
Two days ago, Amelia had been lucky enough to stumble into a bandit hideout. What would Miss Lina do? She had thought to herself. As a warrior of Justice, I must punish these evil bandits! Amelia had easily disposed of them, all the while hiding her body in modesty behind a rock. Then she had taken their money and had found a tavern where she ate her fill and bought a blanket to cover herself with. She had sighed when she realized that she hadn't taken enough money for clothing.
Amelia took her blanket down from the branch and threw it around herself. Being free is fun, but its quite hard when you have no real clothing, she thought to herself. Amelia looked down, thinking of her home. I miss Saillune. I miss everyone. I miss father… and he must be so worried about me! I have to go back, so that he knows I'm all right! I am the Crown Princess after all! Oh, what have I been doing? Amelia then began to walk, hopefully in the direction of home. I won't fly just yet…I need to find some food first. And I know I already ate all the fish in this creek. And with that, she walked quickly, her black hair flying in the soft breeze.
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Lina's feet hurt, her legs were tired, and she was hungry again. "Zel, common, we can't find her in the dark! And we'll need to rest if we're going to have enough energy to find her."
"Yeah, Zel, Lina's right. I'm hungry and tired!" came Gourry's voice. He was trailing in the back.
"Fine, you two go rest. I'm gonna keep searching," came Zel's reply.
"Zel, be serious about this! We all want to find her, but if we kill ourselves, how are we supposed to do that, huh?" The redhead said, stopping.
Zelgadis turned to look at his friends, sighed, and then left the road as he disappeared into the trees. Lina and Gourry followed as they found a clearing, and set up camp. It's gonna be a long night, Lina thought as a fire began to rise. They worked quickly, fixing up the tents they were going to sleep in. Zelgadis took out a bag full of food. We'll have to eat sparingly, so that the food can last us until we reach the next town, he thought. "Food!! Gimme, Zel, gimme!" cried Lina as she sprang at him.
"Hey, Lina, that's not fair, I want some too!" came Gourry's shout and he tried to grab the bag from Zel. "Stop it, you two! We have to save this food for tomorrow also! Get off!" Zel yelled as he squirmed underneath the two.
Suddenly, a twig cracked behind him in the darkness of the trees, and he turned. Lina and Gourry also followed his gaze. Both Zel and Gourry took out their swords, and Lina looked ready to fireball.
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*AN: I'm really sorry about this chapter…its pretty short. And I'm sorry that it isn't too interesting. It's just that, as the chapter title says, this is a lead-up to something. Hopefully I didn't bore you all to death with this chapter. And I feel like you need to know what happens to everybody at this point. The next chapter won't be so boring, I swear it won't!! I think the next chapter will have a lot of angst…I'm not sure. Plz keep reading this fic, it'll get better, I swear it will!
And sorry if anyone is OOC in this chapter. I think Amelia went out of character…And I had such a hard time with Phil especially!
---Oh, and once again, thnx so much for reviewing. I really love you guys! Keep reviewing, and I'll keep writing! - Vivi Laney