Chapter 6

A 'Lovely' Walk

"Pain is a good thing, it lets you know you're still alive."

Lina's body was hurting, protesting, and as soon as it had enough strength, it let her know just how much it was going to. Unconscious or not. She slowly woke up to a hot wind blowing against her, and the sounds of water rushing against stones.

Her first thought was, 'What the hell...' Second thought, 'Damn sun... who had to make it so bright?' and third, er, a rather inappropriate word.

Pain may be your 'Friend' but it didn't mean it hurt any less...

"ECH...." she rolled onto her stomach, pushed herself up, then opened her eyes. From the looks of it, it was going into the afternoon... a nice hot one. "Doko desu... Shoot."

The spell... the portal... Xellos. Gourry. Death...

"Darn it." she stood up and immediately fell back down. "Fine I'll just stay here than." as she looked herself over she realized just how bad she had come out of that 'minor' battle. Torn clothes, no, check that, torn bloody clothes, bruises galore, and blood decorated her body gloriously.

"Healing power flowing white..." the simple spell which should have easily gone off without too much trouble didn't go off. In fact, within her she hadn't felt the magical charge spread through out her either. She felt empty. "Why is it I always lose my powers?! Not Martina, not Zelgadis, or Ame..." her voice cut off as her memories interrupted her words, causing her to feel the tightness in her throat to return. "Damn..." she forced herself up, legs trembling, head swimming, and began walking. All she had on her was her sorceress outfit complete with weapons and jewelry, a bag of fifteen gold, and the book. Nothing else, and she wasn't going to just start ripping up her nice expensive cloak as bandages for her wounds.

'Might as well just go find the nearest town and find out what time period I'm in...' she stuffed the book into one of the larger pockets hidden in her cloak and limped her way through the grass. Twenty minutes of walking earned her the discovery of a dirt road that looked well traveled. She looked to her left, saw it led into the forest she had been walking away from, and then to her right, she saw off in the distance small little brown spots.

'Well I found the town at least.' she thought to herself sarcastically. She pressed forward towards the town or village, whichever it may be. The sun beat unmercifully upon her, heating her body, causing her to break into a sweat, her wounds which had been lightly scabbed over, or had slowed bleeding, had long since reopened, bleeding afresh. But she failed to notice, mistaking the feel of blood, for sweat.

'Why am I so dizzy? This stupid heat.' she tripped and caught herself in time before her face met the dirt road. 'I'm gonna throw up.' she crawled herself to the side of the road and collapsed on the grass. 'I just need to rest for a minute... or two.'

Her mind sank back into painful unconsciousness and then into darkness where pain was nothing but a bad memory.

A tall man with long billowing crimson robes walked upon a long dusty road, aware that it was becoming dark for the air was cooling, and though he was blind, he walked with confidence, not tripping or stumbling once. His blind eyes could see things that we who could see, might never notice. As he hummed softly into the darkness of his own world his senses warned him of another presence.

But instead of a vagabond, threat, or normal villager, it was something helpless. Unmoving, the essence of the person in fact seemed to be dying out. It had been there for quite some time he supposed. Who ever it was, it had a very strong will to live. He patiently walked over to the body and spoke out softly, "Are you awake child?"

When nothing but silence answered him he reached out his hand and touched her shoulder. What he felt actually disturbed him. His hand had come in contact with a wound, an open one that had been bleeding and was still open. He moved his hand and shook her shoulder lightly, "Girl, wake up..."

As she shifted he felt silky long hair fall onto his hand, after another moments silence he began casting a very strong healing spell on her. Fifteen minutes went by with him healing her, and than his spell ended. He touched her shoulder and could feel her normal soft skin beneath the moist and dried blood. It seemed she was healed; he shook her shoulder again and heard a light snore.

He smiled lightly, "Very well than," placing his staff on the ground momentarily he picked up her up carefully and then picked up the staff without dropping her. He than began to walk back down the road, she was pleasantly light and small enough it didn't bother him to carry her. He wondered what had happened? Had vagabonds attacked her? Trolls? It would have to wait until she woke up.

Lina yawned widely as she forced herself awake. She opened her eyes to find herself in a room with wood walls and crudely made furniture. She sat up and could see the sun was all ready up without her, and a dog's rough bark sounded from below.

"Where am I? Oh man, everything is so muddled, what was a dream and what's reality?" she rubbed her hand against her eyes. She stood up and saw her outfit was restored, her cape and shoes neatly placed on a chair which was beside a table with wash water and a brush.

So figuring there was no harm in doing so, she cleaned herself up, grabbed her things and was all but ready to leave the room when a soft knock sounded.

"Who is it?" she immediately had her guard up, she had no idea where she was, how she got there, and most importantly what might be after her.

"The person who saved your life." the soft voice spoke smoothly, calmly, and truthfully. Lina had an ability to tell when things were off, and it wasn't going off in the truth area... But something about his voice was sending alarm bells in her head. Why though?

"Fine, you can come in, but any funny business I'll fireball you out of this world."

There was a pause of silence, 'She knows magic? Of course, she was wearing a cape... and her clothes were not that of peasants. I should have guessed as much...' Rezo thought to himself.

"I understand." the door knob slowly turned and than the door was opened, as he walked in he heard her drop something with a solid thump as she gasped and took a step back. He could sense, see (astral sight), and hear all this. What was wrong?

"REZO!"

TBC

Notes: Aren't you just beginning to hate me?