A/N: Yay, thank you for the consistent reviews! sigh I really should start to crack down and add more realism to my stories though. Somewhat randomness...oh wells.

Winged Knight: The same person? scoffs in disbelief Naw nothing like that... Still, I'm glad to have you as a reader. -

Masaki1: Eh...another thing I should work on- not making every new character "mysterious". Maybe I like it that way, maybe I don't. I dunno, but if you think it's good, I won't stop you. :P

Disclaimer: I don't own Slayers. Simple. Sweet. Not.

Ch. 5: The Wrath of Nature

"I'm known as Eldora. Are you sure you're all right?"

The woman extended a helping hand; Zelgadis hesitated but soon took it. Upon stabilizing eye-to-eye contact, Zelgadis responded, "I'm all right; I've had worse things fall on me before. But what were you doing... um... in the tree like that?"

Eldora laughed and rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "Ah... well... I was replacing a baby birdie back into its nest, and I lost my balance. Hehe. What about you, sir? The road's a ways away from here."

Zelgadis took this chance to look around as he answered, "Looking for an aquaintence that ran off last night. He's about my height with blond hair wearing a blue tunic. Have you seen him?"

"Blond hair? Ah! You've made contact with him?!" At her sudden exclamation of recognition, Zelgadis directed his attention back to Eldora. "His name's Eldwin right? I'm looking for him too! He-" Like a child being forced into a humiliating confession, Eldora's face turned a bright pink, but she finished in a hush, "He ran out on me... before paying."

Somehow, Zelgadis worked out her implication and began to blush as well. In a light huff, he brushed it off and remarked, turning his head diagonally sideways towards the treetops, "We met him at a lake, and from there had dinner at our camp. He ran off during the first watch."

At this, Eldora blinked in surprise. "We? You have companions?"

Suddenly aware of how much information he was giving out, Zel stiffened, but eventually grumbled, as if under a mind control spell, "Companion. Singular."

She quirked her head to one side, and smiled brightly at him, making him blush a shade of a different color. Not losing any charm, Eldora whispered, "Would it be so much trouble if I traveled with you, at least for today? There's a town up ahead, right? He'll probably be there and well, the forest is rather dangerous if taken on alone."

Limply, Zel nodded in acquience. "We're meeting up soon, on the road. Do you have any...erm...supplies?"

"No," Eldora shook her head in reply. "Just lil' ol' me. Shall we go then?"

With a gruff repeated nod, Zel turned back towards the road and started walking. He was distantly aware of the soft treading of feet that told him Eldora was following rather close behind. They had not gone two minutes in silence before she chose to strike up a conversation.

"What's your companion like? Just curious."

Experimentally, Zel resisted answering for as long as he could, and found that his will power did not last long at all. Was it a factor of his full human form, or was she to blame? Nevertheless, his answer eventually escaped him. "Her name's Sylphiel. Sylphiel Rels Nahda. She's a really good cook, and very nice. She's a very skilled shrine maiden, especially for restorative white magic. A long while back, she even mastered the Dragon Slave spell."

"Wow," she sounded impressed, "A shrine maiden who can cast the Dragon Slave? She must be a formidable opponent in the battlefield."

Despite himself, Zel found that he could not resist responding, "She doesn't battle much, since she's usually the head healer. Her area of attack magic isn't too great either- without her talent with white magic, her Dragon Slave basically makes her a 'one-trick horse'."

"Ehh.... You sound like you know her well."

"I've known her for a long time. We've traveled together before."

"Before? Was there a large period of time in between now and then?"

Zel hesitated, wondering how long this interrogation was going to be. He should really be asking about her, but he was compelled to answer first, at least. "Yeah. Maybe twenty-five... no, twenty-seven years I think."

When she didn't say anything back, Zel summoned the strength to ask, "What about you? How long have you known Eldwin?"

To his surprise, she hummed thoughtfully before replying, "I've known him for a while. Every since we met some seven or eight years ago, we've been really close. He runs off every now and then, but we usually meet each other again soon enough."

"Zelgadis-san, there you are!"

Sylphiel had seen them and was now hailing them over. When they approached, she cocked her head to one side in puzzlement. "Who...?"

Thankfully for Zel, Eldora introduced herself. "Eldora. I was looking for Eldwin when I bumped into this guy. You must be Sylphiel-san, right?"

Zelgadis suffered a minor case of deja vu. Hastily, he shook it off as Sylphiel smiled and nodded. Perhaps she hadn't noticed what he had. "Will you travel with us then? We're stopping in the next town, and Eldwin may have the same idea."

Eldora grinned, though Zel found himself having another case of deja vu. She replied softly, "You read my mind."

As they walked down the path, Sylphiel and Eldora hung back and chatted about unimportant details, whilst getting to know each other. Meanwhile, Zelgadis trudged almost thirty paces ahead of them, making a point of scouting the territory. The sun had breached an hour past zenith when Zelgadis stopped abruptly. Like an unspoken signal, both women hushed instantly, hurrying to rejoin their male companion. As soon as it was safe to do so, Sylphiel whispered to Zel, "What is it? What's wrong?"

Zel and Eldora murmured at the same moment, "Bandits. With a sorcerer and several trolls."

All instantly got into a triangle formation facing outward, covering their backs, each poised for the impending battle. Zel called out, feeling braver than he should have been, "Come out! We know you're there!"

As if he had stepped on a switch that activated a trap, the surrounding fauna sprung alive in a flurry of movement. Before long, they were surrounded on all sides, about two persons thick, with roughly fifteen feet diameter and no gaps. Zel judged it to amount to perhaps thirty people, and seven trolls. An awful lot for just three travelers. A stroke of bad luck.

Like always, the theives attempted "peaceful negotiations" first. The one garbed as the sorcerer stepped forward and proclaimed, "All right. You know the deal. Hand over all your valuables and gold and we just might let you live."

Out of pure offhandedness, Sylphiel murmured, loud enough for her friends and the sorcerer to hear, "You look too nice to be saying things like that. Surely there are better, more honest ways to make a living?"

None too surprisingly, this caught everyone within hearing range offguard. Finding the greater good in the sorcerer operating with bandits? The very idea was reminiscent of sounding absurd. And yet... her words must have hit something, for the sorcerer clearly blanched. Unfortunately, the bandits were none too similar. A random one in fact yelled out, "Don't listen to 'em! Knock 'em out til they're an inch from death!"

And so, chaos ensued. Though the sorcerer did not join in, the trolls and all the bandits did. That was more than enough, with the current state of affairs. Zelgadis drew his sword quickly, and realized with the first swing that despite the short training session before embarking on the journey, his sword was far too heavy for him now. Another perk to his chimeric form he conveniently chose to neglect in the past. Nevertheless, he swung almost recklessly, hacking away like a child with an axe as large as himself. For these bandits, the sheer weight of the sword was enough to incompacitate them, though, it didn't kill them.

Sylphiel's Flare Carrots had apparently improved since the last time she used them- significantly so. What was once cute little orange-red carrots were now large, fat, pointed loaves of bread. It even had darker shadows to indicate indents on the top portion, and little wisps of smoke rose from it as it cascaded through the air to barbeque its target. Upon getting over the initial surprise, Sylphiel experimented with a supposed Fireball, and was rewarded by a "hot potato" whose size closely resembled if not slightly dwarfed Lina Inverse's Fireball. The oversized potato managed to take out four bandits and scorch a troll in one fell swoop. Stunned, but ready to take on the rest of their opponents, Sylphiel continued the attack, knowing full well that she could and probably would heal them before they went on their way.

Eldora, new though she was, seemed to be holding her own against them... sort of. Squealing with obvious squeamishness, her arms and legs flailed, allowing her to take out unsuspecting opponents with adrenaline pumped strength. Still, it did not seem enough. The onslaught kept coming, and at one point, Zel realized that the sorcerer was no longer having doubts, and was summoning werewolves and trolls as back up recruits. Thirty soon became sixty, and growing still.

Finally though, when they had managed to take out almost twenty of them, Eldora stopped and told her companions to cover their ears really quickly. Wary, they did so, though what came next penetrated clasping their hands over their ears. First came an unearthly scream of a banshee that echoed to the far fringes of the mile radius and back again. Now even the enemies, including werewolves and trolls, were holding hands to their ears, yelling out in agony. Well, the yelling was just about the only thing that separated the good guys from the bad guys. That, and they didn't instantly get tied up by animated vines that thrust out from the nearby tree branches, catching and throwing the bandit force against trunks, and tying them soundly. By the time the echo receded, the clearing had been cleared again. Every being aside from Zelgadis, Sylphiel, and Eldora was tied to a tree and unconscious. A good number of their weapons lay scattered on the ground between the trio and the less dangerous ring of post-opponents. The battle was over, and all it had taken was a twenty-decibel scream.

Nervously, Zelgadis uncupped his ears and muttered, "You did that? That's some power you have."

Eldora smiled faintly. "It's nothing really. If only it didn't..." Her words trailed off as she fell forward. Zelgadis barely managed to catch her. With a light wisp of a smile, she murmured, "Sorry, fighting just makes me a little...tired."

Sylphiel leaned over, examining the now slumbering woman. "She seems all right. I suppose flailing around and screaming using the power of adrenaline can really get to you. Although, those vines..."

Zelgadis nodded in silent agreement. After a moment, he glanced around and said, "What do you reckon we should do with these bandits? Leave them here?"

The shrine maiden frowned, contemplating a decision. If her shamanistic fire magic was any indication that her powers had somehow grown significantly... "I want to patch them up first. Then, perhaps we should take a leaf out of Lina-san's book."

Surprised, Zelgadis raised his eyebrows at her and verified, "You mean steal from these bandits? Wow, I never thought I'd hear you of all people saying that."

Sylphiel grinned as she turned to face him. "Well, considering, Lina-san may need quite a bit of money to repair and clean out her place before Luna-san gets home, correct? Also, if we somehow happen to be late, or rather, she blames the lack of customers and therefore incoming money on us...we may need some extra money, aside from that which we use for the trip, to quell her troubles, no?"

Zelgadis paused for a moment, taking in the information. He then smiled softly. "An amazing show of logic. Yes, I'll get right to it as soon as I set her down. Just make sure you don't heal these guys enough to bring them back into consciousness."

Grinning again, she nearly purred, "I know just the spell."

Apparently, Sylphiel did. With one incantation, a wave of light spread out in a circle around her, growing wider with each passing moment. It was actually much like the spell Amelia had used when Lina's Dragon Slave had freed a large hill full of mischeivious ghosts and spirits. In that near blinding moment, a wave of fertility hit the forest, effectively allowing late blossoms to bloom, and fruit to ripen at an excessively hurried rate. The burns and scars on the bandits also healed. However, like Zelgadis "suggested", none awoke.

Noticing the effect instantly, Zelgadis made no show to hide that he was impressed. He even remarked, "Sylphiel, that was one spectacular spell. Were you able to do that before?"

Sylphiel blushed as she kneeled next to Eldora. "Not to this extent. Before, I only extended to about a ten-foot radius. It didn't heal this quickly either. Actually, my fire spells have increased as well. I can't even begin to imagine the reason behind it though."

Zelgadis said nothing, continuing to collect pocket treasures and whatnot from the ring of bandits as he contemplated in silence. About an hour later, he still did not voice his thoughts, though, as he pocketed the results of the encounter, he wiped and sheathed his sword before muttering that he would carry the unconscious Eldora on his back. They were soon on their way again.

The silence stretched for the next few hours, until they reached the town of Silis, or more specifically, the Flaming Rooster Inn. At that point, Eldora woke up with a start, and seemed dismayed when she looked towards the setting sun. She didn't try to hide her worry as she skipped in, received her room key, muttered a quick "Don't wait up for me" to her traveling companions, and ran up the steps two at a time. Sylphiel and Zelgadis watched her in a rather dazed fashion until she disappeared upstairs. Then, with a sigh, they went up to the desk where they found that there was only one room left. After reluctantly admitting that Eldora, added to the fact they had just met her that same day, needed to be alone, for whatever reason, they agreed to share the room. They would worry about the actual sleeping arrangements later.

After dropping off their packs and capes in the room, they set off in different directions- Zel to have his evening cup of coffee, and Sylphiel to relax with a soothing bath. The duo agreed to meet in the restaurant of the inn for dinner. By then, Zelgadis had figured out a possible theory of the Eldwin-Eldora pair. He just needed the evidence.

A/N: I don't know if that's too short or long, but I hope it's okay. I also hope that I haven't become shallowly obvious as to the points and characterizations of my story. Then again, I'm not exactly trying very hard, as my mind wanders, especially in wondrance of the coming new year. Well, happy holidays and I look forward to your reviews! -