Fourth chapter up! Sorry this took a little long for it to get up. The weekend was kind of busy, and I wanted a small break from the hours of typing these things up! Ugh...

Just a small announcement! This fanfiction's next chapter is going to be postponed for just a little while. I'm starting up a oneshot. It's Slayers, and a random idea I thought up. It's going to be a strange oneshot though...

. I've been staring at the screen too long... I'm getting sleepy... ;.;

OK! Now for...

Bound Souls: The Beginning of Emotions

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He ran through the thick forest, not wanting to gain the attention of others by teleporting. Once he saw the other side, he ran even faster, determined to get to his destination. He ran with the speed only a demon could possess, and he soon saw it: the bandit camp. Forcing to move his legs even faster, he shot through the green grass, pulling clumps of it up with his feet from going so fast. Even though there was no one around, he didn't teleport. Best to save the most of his energy for if there was a fight. He suddenly stopped by the window of a huge building made of stone, not making a single sound while doing it.

A spell said in Mazoku lanuage was heard, then an ear-piercing roar. Fearing the worst, he teleported into the building, only to be greeted by a horrible sight.

The bleeding body of a mangled golden dragon was lying before him. There were cuts inches deep into her flesh all over her body, her wings were ripped and out of shape, one eye was bleeding, and her tail bent in a way that it shouldn't have been. If it weren't for the pink bow on her tail, Xelloss probably would have refused to accept that the dragon in front of him was Firia.

He watched in horror as what was supposed to be the head of Firia lifted itself off the ground and twitched a little, making it look like it pained her to smile. Xelloss quickly came up to the dying dragon, but was stopped. Before he could reconize the dark figure of the woman, darkness took him.

Xelloss woke up, sweat covering his body and the blankets off of him, in a messy pile beside the bed. He ran upstairs, but to his horror, nothing was lying in Firia's bed. He jumped from the second story onto the carpet, not bothering to take the stairs, and ran to the kitchen, only to find Firia looking at him with a puzzled look. Xelloss went wide-eyed, then lowered his head in embarassment from the scene. He must have looked stupid, running around the house after a bad dream! He walked over to the chair and sat down in it in defeat. No more sleeping for him!

Firia got down another cup so Xelloss could have some tea, and set it down on the table in front of him. Then she took the teapot and poured some tea into his cup. Instead of smiling and saying thanks, he just looked into the cup with a neutral face.

Firia sat down a minute later with tea in her hands, and sipped from it, waiting for Xelloss to do or say something. But even after ten minutes, he was still there with the same face, just looking into his cup. Firia opened her mouth to say something, but was interupted by an annoyed snort from Xelloss.

"I-it was just a dream... that's it... I'm over reacting by a ton," he mumbled to himself soft enough to where even Firia with her keen hearing couldn't hear him.

"Xelloss?" Firia said.

Xelloss just smiled up at her, shielding his emotions with the cheerful mask, but twitched a bit when another image of the bleeding dragon came into his mind. Firia saw this and raised an eyebrow.

Before she could question him, he said, "I'll open the shop," and teleported away, still with that cheerful smile on his face. Firia shook her head and dumped Xelloss's now-cold tea into the sink, then washed the dishes. She would get whatever was on his mind out of him sometime or another...

Xelloss opened the windows to the shop and switched the closed sign to open. Then he teleported to behind the counter to wait for the first customer. To entertain himself, he took the liberty of torturing a couple rats, but after only a couple minutes of doing this, a couple customers came in. He frowned in annoyance (torturing the rats was pretty fun) and with a snap of his fingers, obliterated the suffering rat, then turned towards the gawking customers. Oh yeah... this was the outer world. They didn't know this kind of magic existed.

Xelloss just smiled at them, and they immediatly went about their business. One of the customers apparently didn't find what they needed and left, but the other found a very good-looking vase, and brought it up to Xelloss, not daring to speak.

"That would be 103 silver and 5 bronze," Xelloss said. Without looking up, the customer gave him the money and scrambled out the door. Xelloss smiled from the breakfast of fear he got from the man, and put the money into the register. Obviously the advertisements were doing what they were supposed to. They hadn't even been open ten minutes, and the third customer was already arriving! At least today wouldn't be slow and boring like the day before.

It didn't take long for the third customer to find what they needed (a mace that was extremely heavy and made with the finest iron, for a hugeifyingful 50 gold coins) and they left, also not saying a word.

The fourth customer was the opposite. She wouldn't stop talking! To top it off, she was a widow, and was flirting with Xelloss. Xelloss found this awfully annoying. But soon, she got bored with Xelloss's nods and "mhm"'s that she got a very simple, small vase for five silver and slowly walked out the door. Xelloss let out a sigh, happy that the woman was finally gone.

Bye the end of the day, a fourth of the shop's stock had been purchased. Xelloss was surprised that the advertising had done that much good, but knew the customers would be cut by more than half the next day. He switched the sign back to 'closed' and marched back up to the counter to count the earnings for today.

It took about half an hour of counting and recounting to get the definate amount of money. There was 653 gold, 89 silver, 462 bronze, and 604 copper. A lot of money for just one day of selling. If this rate kept going, they would be rich in no time! But, the advertising boom went on for a couple days at the most, and they would have more customers than they used to when that was over, but still not very many.

"Firia!"

After a second, Firia came out from the beads. Xelloss had to stop himself from gasping loudly and moved uncomfortably because of his stomach turning upside down. Firia was still in her gown.

Xelloss pointed to the huge piles of money that was now back in the register, and making Firia gape when she saw it.

"How much is there?" Firia asked excitedly.

"653 gold, 89 silver, 462 bronze, and 604 copper," Xelloss replied.

Firia didn't know what to say. One part of her mind was saying to go balistic and hug Xelloss, but the other side just wanted to say thank you. But luckily, Xelloss took the silence and gaping as a good sign and smiled.

"Soooo... what are you going to do with the money?" Xelloss asked.

Firia truely didn't know. She just wanted enough money to get them by with food (and tea), but had never planned what she would do with the remaining money. She had plenty of clothes, the house was already paid for, nothing needed to be refurnished or mended, and the garden in the small backyard was doing fine.

"I don't know," Firia answered, kind of embarrassed.

Xelloss frowned a little, but kept it hidden. Of course she didn't plan ahead, she was a dragon! "Why don't I go out and get some food for you?" Xelloss offered, "I'm bored."

Firia smiled. "Sure!"

Xelloss took a gold coin and a few of the others, then teleported of after saying a quick "See ya!" When he teleported away, Firia clambered upstairs and flopped onto the bed. Then she took out the spell book from the library and went to the bookmarked page. She had been reading through the book again, and this time happened to be on the Soul Bind spell. Even though she had cast it, thus gained a complete understanding of the spell, she read the passage anyways.

Soul Bind is an extremely powerful spell that binds the souls of two creatures into one. The two are then unseparable, and any pain one or the other gain is shared. With this spell, the personalities are combined, each gaining the other's habits, skills, purity, evilness, and anything else that is linked with the personality.

Caution: Any physical pain or wounds felt by one is then shared with the other. If you get hurt in any way, the other is hurt in that way also, and vise-versa. But, if they die, the caster will be left alive. Also, creatures sharing the opposite soul should not use this. (black should not cast this on white, nor white on black) This can cause serious injury or death from one's soul being clashed with the opposite.

Firia skipped the directions for casting the spell and went onto the next section: How to make Potions. Firia suddenly lost interest in her book and placed the bookmark, then snapped it shut. She placed it on her nightstand with a sigh, then hobbled back down the stairs. She was just in time to see Xelloss teleport into the kitchen with a handful of bags full of food, and put them on the counter.

"There ya go Firia-chan!" Xelloss said happily, as if he was extremely proud of himself for getting the food, "You can put them away!" With that, he teleported to who knows where, leaving Firia to put away all the groceries. She put them in the cabinets and pantry, then went back into her craft room to fit in a couple more maces to put in stock before she went to bed.

After setting down the bags, Xelloss had teleported on top of the roof to do a little thinking. These emotions he had throughout the day were confusing him, for he had never had them before. One was the churning in his stomach every time Firia suddenly came into view or touched him. Then there was him not taking as much interest in feeding off of negative emotions, or not having as much fun tormenting the rats. He was also being much nicer to Firia. He got groceries for her, ran the shop, and was being a little more polite.

It must have been the spell. Firia's personality of a happy, polite dragon was making him nicer. Just the thought made him shudder a little. Him, having his soul bound eternally with a dragon, of all creatures. He would rather be bound to a slug! He sighed. Well maybe not a slug...

Sure, he found this new... personality... interesting, but having it forever? That would stink. He sighed once more. He would take a walk for the rest of the night to clear his mind. He didn't want to sleep again.

Xelloss slipped off the roof and landed on the ground (wow, a two story drop) then walked off down the stone road. Yep, a ten hour walk in the freezing air was just what he needed. He would probably discover a few of his new emotions on the way, too. That would be nice.

Xelloss reached the end of the small town and continued to walk into the woods that was only a couple hundred feet away. When he got inside the shelter of the trees, a harsh, cold wind that was freezing enough to make an icicle out of a lesser demon came in from the north, making Xelloss shiver. Winter wasn't too far ahead, and soon the shops would be full of people trying to find the heat that their house didn't provide. Xelloss loved that time of year, where the suffering of cold people lingered around the rooms all around the clock.

Because of the cold, Xelloss materialized a coat to protect him, and, now feeling much better, continued on his way through the woods.

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I don't think that chapter came out well either. It took me quite a while to type too... oh well (hey, I'm being negative without even trying! OoO) Well, even though I thought it was alright, I hope you like it! The very beginning I though was corny too...

Now, for a couple explanations. Nothing much.

1. Xelloss can now feel positive emotions, due to the spell. He is not pure evil now! Please don't review about that, otherwise... I don't know ;o;

2. Yes! A coat for Xelloss! The reason he was cold is because all creatures have to get cold sometime or another! His 'clothes' didn't provide any protection from the wind, because the clothes are a part of him. So, if the clothes get cold, he does. That coat was a real coat, so it protected him from the wind.

Time for the response to the reviewers! 'Tis an awsome section...

Dairokkan: Wow... that would get annoying! And it would make me feel very uncomfortable...

Hitteh Pitteh: Sorry I didn't update soon enough! I got a good yelling from you... ;.; it's so nice that at least my friend likes my story...

Dragon-Stiel: Wow, long review... Ok! First of all, I found a reason for Xelloss being sealed! Firia needed a good assistant, because Gravos and Jirras weren't doing well at all. So she used magic to catch Xelloss, (which wasn't easy, but it was possible, because she's a dragon), and seal him to do her basic bidding (i.e. staying around the house, not teleporting out of town unless she gave him permission, etc.). Xelloss didn't really want to have the spell cast on him, but because he felt like being nice at the moment, he said yes. As for the paragraph, I fixed it to (I hope) be understood better. Please tell me if it is, or if I should fix it up some more! Yes, I know he got over that quickly, but remember, he WAS going to at least torment her a ton, but to me, I think that part where he gave up came out pretty well. Lastly, I know it's not the best out there, but I'll get better (at least, I really hope I get better) and I'm glad you think it's good!

Encyser: Well, it's kinda like that, but the spell gave the traits (the slurping the tea for Xelloss, Firia having more attitude, etc.) of one of them to the other. If your soul is white, then yeah, you would become more mean and stuck-up if your soul was invaded by one of a Mazoku! Also, about the explaination, the spell will make more sense in later chapters, like the caution and stuff like that. Oh, and feel free to proof my work! That would be awsome!

Maddy02: Thanks! I don't know where I got this idea, but it's nice to know that someone thinks it's interesting!