"AUGHHHH!"
The shriek came after coming face to face with a face that should never had been viewed in such close proximity.
"SILENCE!," croaked the frog, giving Filia the impression she'd experienced something similar to a rather unpleasant smelling Diem Wing. It wasn't that the frog was considerably frightening or extremely jarring that had caught her off guard. In fact, the frog was like any other..or at least, its lower extremities.
Its head, on the other hand, was 20 times the rest of its body, with the addition of 4 chins that wobbled with every movement it made.
"Yes, sir..," winced the prostrate dragon priestess, almost in a kneel before the abnormally proportioned creature. She added a barely audible, "Please don't eat me", for good measure.
She then experienced what would be properly termed a wind storm as the frog launched into a practiced accusatory speech. "YOU, HUMAN, HAVE BEEN FOUND TRESPASSING IN THE FOREST OF THE DRAGON FROGS. FOR PUNISHMENT OF THIS CRIME, YOU WILL BE BROUGHT BEFORE A COUNCIL OF FROGS FOR THEIR JUDGEMENT. RESISTENCE IS FUTILE AND YOU WILL BE PUNISHED MORE SEVERELY SHOULD YOU ATTEMPT ESCAPING I, TODA, GUARDIAN OF THE FOREST OF THE DRAGON FROGS."
He gestured for her to walk with him, an action that set his chins violently a-wobble, and started hopping away.
"Wait-wait-wait!" Filia ran in front of him, crouching down before him when his expression became one like royalty humoring a petitioning peasant.
"YES?," bellowed the dragon frog.
Filia winced from the volume of his tone and tentatively began to make her plea. "Sir Toda, guardian of the forest of the dragon frogs, I am..um..not a human, first off–"
"YOU ARE NOT A HUMAN?"
"No, I'm a dragon priestess of the--," she started to reply.
"FINE!," announced the frog, in what could be considered a bark. "YOU, DRAGON PRIESTESS, HAVE BEEN FOUND TRESPASSING IN THE FOREST OF THE DRAGON FROGS. FOR PUNISHMENT OF..THIS..CRIME.." His words dropped slowly off, as his glance drew directly level with Filia's for just a moment and beheld her deep blue scared eyes fully.
"DRAGON..PRIESTESS..?" Toda, the dragon frog, was not posing a question, merely clarifying for his own sake. Peering intently, he slowly hopped around Filia, examining her from all sides, leaving the dragon priestess to only wait in confusion and uncertainly.
When he faced her once more, Toda, Guardian of the Forest of the Dragon Frogs looked at her through changed eyes. Froggy little Cupid had strung his froggy little bow and shot a froggy arrow through Toda's froggy three-chambered heart. It was dragon love.
"Eheh..nice froggy," Unnerved, Filia awkwardly reached out and patted the frog on its massive head, pulling back with another shriek of horror when the frog responded by fawning, rubbing its head against her hand like a dog begging for attention.
She looked at him in absolute shock. He looked at her in absolute adoration. After an almost timeless moment..he began emitting his mating call.
Filia immediately blushed a vibrant scarlet red, which gradually transmuted into a dark shade of purple, as an unseen gear whirled hastily in her head, translating the frog's intentions. The Vein began throbbing steadily. The Mace emerged and was put into position.
"HENTAI FROG!"
...ooooooooooooooooooo...
"Now listen, you despicable little scum! Either you can tell me the way out of this maze of a forest or you can be the first frog to ever be made frog paste of!" The frog cowered beneath the dragon priestess's menacing glare. Her mace was still out and pointed at his head, which had been unfortunate enough to sustain four beatings already, not including the collision with a nearby tree while he was airborne. It was, as they say, hard love. "Your decision?"
The frog slowly stopped his trembling to lift his head, his buoyant chins continuing to shake slightly, but hope still fresh in his heart. His eyes met hers and reminded him of what he had fallen in love with from the start..yet again.
"YES?," scowled Filia impatiently.
Toda's eyes shined. "MARRY ME?," he croaked.
"NO!" Filia's patience had been stretched and broken once more. "HOW..SMACK!..MANY..SMACK!..TIMES..SMACK!..DO I..SMACK!..HAVE..SMACK!..TO..SMACK!..TELL YOU..SMACK!..NOT TO ASK ME THAT?..SMACK!..SMACK!"
The dragon priestess stepped away from the nearly unconscious frog, panting with the effort of trying to establishing the boundaries of outer-specie love. She was unaware another had joined this happy pair until he spoke.
"Oh, a dragon frog? Your pet, Filia?," inquired Xelloss, peering over her shoulder at the broken creature in front of her.
"..No, Xelloss." There was plenty more she had to say to him, specifically where he had been for the past three days while his directions to "head south" had wound her up in a forest apparently full of a rare breed of frogs, but, unfortunately, that was all she could manage at present.
Xelloss put his hand to his chin, a victim of supposed deep thought. "Ah!" He suddenly snapped his fingers. "Your newest boyfriend?"
"RIBBIT!"
"NO!"
Though Xelloss dodged the mace, the dragon frog received the blow full-fledged. He eyed Filia resentfully, affections beginning to fade as her newly found adrenaline launched her into speech, weapon charging her accused.
"How many times do I have to pound it into your head, Froggy? I don't care if you are a "dragon" frog, it has nothing to do with the fact that I won't marry a slimy, loud, and unattractive creature such as yourself! I'm sorry if your feelings have been hurt because of me, but it's not something I plan on ever doing! Accept it!" She whirled around to address Xelloss. The words ready to fly out of her mouth, however, were cut short by the frog setting up a deafening siren as soon as her back had turned.
Filia quickly laid him out cold, but saw (or rather heard) that the damage had been done instantaneously. From all sides of the woods surrounding the trio, noises, loud and soft, started up.
As the sound increased, she could distinguish the cacophony to be various tones and volumes of "Ribbit!", all becoming louder every second. A large shadow extricated itself from the already dark shadows of the forest. From the woods, the biggest and ugliest frog ever to beheld in existence appeared suddenly.
Filia fainted dead away.
...ooooooooooooooooooo...
Eh, sorry about the wait on this chapter - I was trying to complete a chapter each week, only to have my regime screwed with because of my birthday. (Three days of hardy-partying and your schedule really does fall to crap, I found!)
Couple things I want to address quickly. One being that..I haven't watched Slayers Try in over a year, which explains away (hopefully) any straying from the context of the anime that may have been present so far.
In even better news, in addition to not watching Try in a year, I've only seen the first 8 episodes! BWAHAHA..I'm such a friggin' nut..
Now don't fret about me not knowing what the hell I'm doing - I've got the first three seasons in their entirety now and I just finished Next, which, incidentally, was (expletive) awesome! Even though I haven't see Try fully, I think I'm going to conclude that Next was the best of the three, despite having Noonsa, the Flaming Fish Man in the first series, whom I am paying small tribute to in this chapter, if you notice the subtle insinuations..(or any at all, for that matter).
So, now that you know my slowly evolving predicament, I'm sure you all understand why I've been posturing Filia as a blonde Ayeka from Tenchi Muyo!. Despite Ayeka being from a utterly different show, I think it worked out well..I think..
Second matter on my mind: WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE GIANT SLUG? I happen to find him/her/it very..interesting, to say the least!
Yeah, you're absolutely right, I had writer's block or perhaps a slight episode of insanity. (BWAHAHA - I'm still a friggin' nut.)
Makes me wonder..if you guys reacted like Lina does to a giant slug..just what's gonna be the reaction to these dragon frogs, eh? (Oh, I'm eagerly waiting the response on THAT one!)
Reviewer R'n'R:
Charatka: Eh heh, hope you don't have giant-slug-aphobia.. Thanks for the kind words!
Kaeru Soyokaze: I find Xelloss and Filia to be the most unusual couple of all in Slayers. Of course, Amelia and Zelgadis is an odd-working match too, but the scenes you can think up with Xel and Filia..ahh, just wipe up the competition effortlessly. (And your hope has been rewarded!)
ReianaTreasure Huntress: Aughh, I haven't practiced my Japanese in years! Time to crack open the ol' dusty dictionary after I'm done here. Don't worry, I think I get the gist of your comment: Your story's intriguing, but your imagination can be compared to that of a psychiatric ward occupant. Arigato, my fine reviewer!