Father Knows Best…Right?
Before the rooster even had a chance to cockle-doodle-do the Baron entered his son's room. After several failed attempts at shouting to wake him up, he finally walked up to the bed and flung it up into the air. The sleeping blond boy was catapulted and slammed against a wall. He yawned, stretched and slowly opened his eyes.
"Huh? What's going on?" he asked sleepily.
"Gourry, wake up and get dressed! You are coming with me for important training and I will NOT have you disappearing on me this time… you hear me!" barked the Baron.
"Y, yes sir!" replied Gourry jetting to his feet after hearing the tone in his father's voice.
"I will be waiting outside the door, if I don't hear getting ready noises coming from this room, I'll break down the door," threatened the Baron seriously, slamming the door behind him.
Gourry sighed; "Great,"
The Baron casually lead the way to somewhere while Gourry followed from behind… way behind. They walked in silence, until Gourry decided to break the ice.
"Um, so where are we going?"
"There was word of a Mazoku planning a surprise attack in the next country below ours. I'm going to use this opportunity to show you what I can really do and then I will show you how to use the light blade. I WAS going to do this YESTERDAY but you had to blow off practice… again," growled the Baron.
"WHAT! A Mazoku is attacking somewhere! Then why are you walking so casually for!" Gourry started panicking.
"Because YOU are lagging so far behind," replied the Baron, dryly.
Gourry's eyes widened in urgency and then he took off running past his father.
"Um, THIS way," interjected his father pointing in the other direction. "You better keep up with me…"
With that, the Baron ran so fast in his direction that when Gourry blinked the Baron was almost at the horizon.
"WAIT!" Gourry shouted after him.
He then charged forward to try and keep on his father's track. The Baron knew he was going to the right place when he saw a billow of smoke rising up into the sky. He finally reached the fighting scene… to see a crater below the strewed pieces of what USED to be a Mazoku.
"That's NOT fair!" screeched a little girl's voice. "I did all the fighting! All you did was give the final blow and you look like the hero! What's wrong with this picture!" the voice continued to shout.
"It shouldn't matter who gets what credit as long as the Mazoku is destroyed before reaching a city here," retorted another young girl's voice.
The Baron followed to where he heard the voices coming from nearby.
"That's just a big, fat cover-up!"
"How about a big, fat knuckle sandwich!"
That was followed by a "Thwack!" noise and a wail from one of the girls. The Baron looked just in time to see a girl about Gourry's age with shorter purpled hair glare down at a sobbing redheaded girl who rubbed her eyes in pain.
"What's going on here?" the Baron demanded with such authority that the girl with purple hair spun around to face him and the youngest girl about four years old with red hair, hid behind her.
"Uh, what do you mean by that sir?" asked the girl with purple hair, putting a hand behind her head hoping he didn't see what she just did.
"I came here to fight a Mazoku only to see that somebody already did that. I then heard you and that girl behind you squabbling about it. What happened?"
"It came to destroy our kingdom…" began the girl with purple hair.
"So we stopped it! Of course I got a little carried away but… it was a BAD Mazoku so it was only fair!" interjected the girl with red hair behind her.
"Li-chan!" scolded the girl with purple hair.
"Eep, sorry,"
"Li-chan, why don't you go and tell Dad and Mom what happened; that we're okay. I'll be home soon, I have to talk to this man,"
"What? Why? I wanna talk to him, too! Well, not really but he seems like he does a lot of fighting, so he has to know some awesome moves! Maybe he knows about the…"
"NOW!" boomed the purple-haired girl and even the Baron shifted nervously.
Without another word, the girl with red hair emerged out from behind the other girl and ran into the distance.
"Sorry about that sir. That's my sister. She's only five but she gets into more trouble than all kids ages combined. With learning magic she's become somewhat of a hotshot. We are both in our kingdom's sorcery guild school and will be graduating soon as the youngest to do so."
"So you two DID destroy the Mazoku! Why did you do that? It was pretty dangerous and reckless," asked the Baron.
"Actually, SHE started it and did most of the fighting. I only gave the final blow and that happened at the same time that the villagers came so I got all of the praise. Honestly I'm glad it turned out that way, the last thing she needs to have more encouragement to be cocky,"
"Hey, Gourry," realized the Baron and he looked around for his son.
"Over here!" called out Gourry and he waved sitting in a tree nearby.
"Gourry, get down here right now! Have you been there the whole time?" demanded the Baron.
Gourry leapt off the tree branch and landed on the ground… on his back. He stood up and rubbed it embarrassingly.
"Yes, you got so far ahead of me that I went in my own direction and ended up here. So I sat in that tree to try and see you but I must've fallen asleep until I heard your voice. I kinda heard and saw things here and there," explained Gourry, walking up to the Baron.
"Honestly, I don't know what to do with you. This girl and her sister destroyed the Mazoku before we arrived so we'll have to find another one elsewhere,"
"They did WHAT!" cried Gourry in shock
"You must be the Swordsman of Light… am I right?" interrupted the girl.
"Yes. So what of it?" replied the Baron.
"I thought so, that's why I sent my sister off. If she had found out, she would make a big scene out of it," replied the sister.
"Really? Who wouldn't…" mumbled Gourry.
"Oh, but she has a weird connection to it. I sense some sort of bond between her and it all though she has never seen it. When she hears or speaks of it, her spirit glows much like the light blade itself. I suspect that she is destined to be with it somehow,"
" I don't think I like where this conversation may head so I have to get back to what we were discussing before… I want to know why she did all the fighting and you didn't."
"I only use my powers when I have to. I don't want to get my hands dirty and will not fight a battle unless I know for sure that I'll win. I Especially avoid ones as senseless as that…we have hidden guards just before the gates to the major cities. All though once a demon dragon did try to burn that city down but unfortunately for them I was having a bad mood swing,"
"You're that girl, aren't you? The girl that was born with the powers of Lord Cepheid… I heard that you lived in this kingdom but I didn't really believe it myself. From the earlier situation and the power that I sense coming from you, I can tell that it's true,"
"Yes and that is precisely why I refused to fight that Mazoku until the end. Those born to power grow to hate it and those not born with it, grow to desire it. However, those who seek power must also accept the consequences that comes from it. I don't want her to regret gaining the power she seeks,"
I care not to get involved in things unless I have to. She however, has a warped sense of justice. When there is something BAD, she believes that she should remove it from the situation. Mostly permanently so that it can't harm anyone or anything else again,"
"Remove it from the situation?" repeated Gourry, blinking.
"Yes, and because of that she jumps into situations pretty much knowing the odds but ignoring it. There are many sayings that we have here in Zephilia. One of them that she takes to heart… too much if you ask me. As one who has the powers of such greatness I have a sort of insight on things. I think you should hear this… both of you" replied the girl
The Baron noticed Gourry watching a colony of ants marching up their anthill. He thwacked his son upside the head.
"Pay attention! What is the saying?" asked the Baron.
"Those who run away from their problems are cowards. You must find what's most important to you and fight for it with all that you have. Even when it seems that you've already lost. If you don't then you will lose what's most important to you. Then find something else that's important to you and fight for that as much as the other one. Keep on building up things to fight for and then you will realize that what stopped you before was fear and self doubt.
You have much fear and self-doubt in your situation with the Sword of Light. You believe that if you make the wrong decision, it will destroy the future of this world. So you keep your distance from those involved in it, in fear that it will influence your decision. Do not, try to force a result. If something is meant to happen, then it will happen no matter what you try to do to stop it. Stop looking to the future for answers and start living for the now. All though my sister doesn't believe in destiny or fate, like I do. She thinks that the worse thing you can do in a situation is to stand by and do nothing. Fate and destiny are something that you make up as you go along to try and explain why things happened. Keep thinking about it leads to regretting your life and fearing your future. For every person should have the right to live their lives in happiness without regrets for as long as they can" explained the sister.
The Baron scoffed and grunted.
"Ridiculous. All that you say is farfetched and have no credibility to be true. I will continue to walk down this path that I've chosen even if it's wrong. That's the only thing I have left to believe in. Come Gourry, let's get going to continue our practice somewhere else,"
"Hey miss, you sound like you care about your sister… then why does she have two black eyes?" Gourry asked the girl.
The sister flinched and sweat dropped.
"Observant, audacious kid aren't ya? I suppose I take the power I hate having out on her a lot. However, on most occasions; I'm her sister… no one can punish her and beat her up except for me. So um, I've got to go… Mom and Dad will be worried about me. Okay, bye!" she replied quickly and made her escape.
"I guess sibling rivalry existence in any family," commented the Baron.
I wasn't going to add this part in but I decided; "oh what the heck, it'll be fun!" So I did. I figured a tiny could-have-been-a-meeting event could have happened considering that the country of Elmekia and the country of Zephilia are neighbors. I liked giving Lina's sister a character of being gracious and yet opposed to her sister's thoughts and actions. I will be adding the next chapter soon… hopefully.