It was so nice to have someone to share a civilised cup of tea with! Filia sat in her room at a small coffee table with Amelia sharing a well-deserved pot of high quality tea.

During their adventures Filia had been quite surprised to see that Amelia (a princess no less) ate as voraciously as Lina and Gourry did. She began to suspect however, that that was simply a matter of survival in order to get any food from the infamous duo, because now, sitting here and sharing the tea and a small plate of biscuits, her good breeding was showing through.

"Another cup Filia-san?"

"Yes please… Thank you, that's enough."

Amelia set the pot back down after filling her own cup and looked over at the dragon egg lying in a basket near Filia's bed.

"How long do you suppose it will be until he hatches?"

"I'm not really sure" Filia replied thoughtfully "I don't know much about Ancient dragons, even then he wasn't born in the normal way. Golden eggs usually take about fifty years to develop fully though."

"Fifty years? Wow that's a long time…"

"To you maybe, it's not really so long for a dragon."

"Fifty years… I'll probably be queen by then, if I'm even alive… I guess I won't be able to visit then." She giggled slightly, but Filia could tell she was upset.

"Don't worry about it Amelia-san, I'll bring him to visit you if you can't make it! Besides, like I said, he's not a Golden dragon and he wasn't born the usual way, you never know he might hatch tommo- NAMAGOMI!"

The dragon's tail suddenly popped out as she reacted to the presence she could feel around her, even if Xellos didn't show his face she could tell when he was around.

"Filia-san! Filia-san calm down!"

"That mazoku's here! In my room!" she wailed, but Amelia grabbed her arms, forcing her to look into the human's eyes.

"Filia-san! Repeat after me; Life is wonderful."

"L-life is wonderful?" Filia was slightly confused, but as she said it she felt his presence diminish slightly.

"Good now; Life is wonderful, living is marvellous, love is beautiful, I love life!"

Filia caught on to Amelia's plan and repeated after her in a sing-song voice. Before she even finished she felt Xellos disappear again and managed to bring her tail back in under control.

"Thank you Amelia-san. I wouldn't have thought of that."

"That's probably why he picks on you, you react the way he wants you too."

"I do not! I would never do what that mazoku wants!"

"Ah right, right!" Amelia backed up nervously "More tea?"

"Ah, yes, thank you. By the way… would you teach me that song?"

Amelia grinned and launched into the lesson; more than happy to promote the ways of truth, love and justice, especially to a willing audience!

A/N; Considering the amount of reviews I got when I first put this story up (one) I've been most pleased by the amount I've been getting recently, which encouraged me to write this chapter sooner than I'd planned.

As much as I appriciate the reviews though, you can stop pestering me to get to the AZ chapter - Good things come to those who wait after all. And I assure you, patience will be well rewarded.

Ichiban Victory; If Slayers had ended at the first series I would understand why people might think there was hidden romance between Zel and Lina (that said I can still pick out a fair amount of AZ moments in there) when we get to Next though, it just becomes so obvious that they're friends and no more, especialy with the continuing LG bond -You could probably tell me much more of the various relationships given as you have more of the media available than I, so your praise of that chapter means a lot (thank you thank you thank you)Hitteh Pitteh: Soon enough for ya?Steven P.P; Very hard to write indeed. Particuarly Gourry as he's rarely without Lina, Thank you for the compliment though (grin) Yexis Metallium; Well i can't have my reviewers die on me now can I? I'll update as fast as i can, no worries.