"Noooo!!!" Alyssa cried out, watching her little sister sail through the air with bats going after her.
"You'll pay for that!" Lina shouted, firing a Ice Arrow at the bat mazukou. It hit her wrist and in pain released the totem.
"Kassandra!!" Alyssa screamed, tears falling from her eyes.
Lina narrowed her eyes. She grabbed the pendant and threw it towards the child, casting a Raywing right after. It all happened in one motion it seemed. Alyssa ran from Amelia's defense, Zelgadis knocked out Gourry sustaining damage himself, the bat mazukou transformed into a hideous creature with oversized teeth, the bats seemed to have frozen in mid flight, and Kassandra hovered a mere three feet from ground with the totem in her hand, glowing a soft yellow.
Then, as if it couldn't have gone any other way, the bat mazukou let out an ear piercing scream of agony and fizzled out of existence. Who but the smiling mazukou priest, Xellos, was left floating in the air behind the vanished bat demon.
"Well hello everyone," Xellos said cheerily, "I didn't think we would see each other so soon."
"Xellos?!" Everyone exclaimed in surprise.
"What? Don't tell me you're not happy to see me," he said good-naturedly.
Lina held Kassandra until Alyssa took her and faced the trickster mazukou priest. "Alright Xellos, what's this all about?"
"It's quite simple really," Xellos said, "Scil was out of favor with Beast Master Zelas and I came to take care of her. I'm surprised to see all of you here, actually."
"What about what was happening just now?" Amelia asked, walking over towards Zelgadis.
"Hmmm?" Xellos wondered from his spot in the air.
"What did the totem pendant have to do with Beast Master?" Zelgadis asked, holding his side.
"Totem pendant?" Xellos cracked open an amethyst eye, sending a chill down everyone's spine. It was scary to see him do that because it rarely went well for the group afterwards.
With super speed, but slow enough for everyone to see him, Xellos regarded the two newcomers with mild interest.
"Are you the ones who have this pendant?" Xellos asked in a false kind voice.
Alyssa nodded, holding on tightly to Kassandra and glancing at the others for help. She was completely lost on the situation.
"Oh, what's your name little one?" Xellos asked, squatting down on the floor.
Kassandra pulled away from Alyssa and stood at eye level with Xellos. "She won't talk," Alyssa said, her voice shaking after everything that had happened. "She hasn't talked in over two months."
"Really?" Xellos asked, still 'looking' at the child. "But you can talk, you just don't have to if you don't need to, do you?"
Kassandra nodded, holding her totem in her hand.
"Can you show me what your totem can do?"
Kassandra pointed to the bats. "Shoo!" she said, waving her small hand at them. The bats dispersed, flying out of the room from wherever they could. Alyssa looked at her sister speechlessly.
"Mmmm, interesting," Xellos said, tapping his chin.
"What are you up to know Xellos?" Lina asked, closing in around the mazukou with the others.
"Why nothing Lina," he answered, standing up. "at least not now, you know I only follow orders and I'm done for today." He appeared above them in the air. "The child has something quite interesting but unless Beast Master or Mother says something, she can keep it. Well, I'll be off now…"
"Wait!" Lina shouted. "What about Gourry? How do we return him to normal?"
Xellos barely cast a 'glance' in Gourry's direction and shrugged. "Ask Scil, oh wait I killed her, oops!"
"Mr. Xellos, this is serious!" Amelia said. Xellos cringed inwardly. He knew she was about to go on a justice-and-good-for-all rant and he really didn't want to be gone longer than Beast Master had sent him out for.
He thought quickly. "Well, I suppose that totem pendant the child has would work, but most likely Scil bit poison into him. You'll need these ingredients." A piece of parchment floated down to them with a list on it.
"But that Scil said that Gourry was completely under her control," Zelgadis said.
Xellos waved an impatient hand at him. "Scil, as you probably guessed, is a low class mazukou. She'd like to think Gourry was completely under her control but I doubt he is. The poison is more like spell that makes the person more susceptible to physical and mental changes, but Gourry's safe from the later. He won't be in the best of shape but the sooner you can get the antidote in him, the faster he'll be his clueless self. Have fun now!" With a wave he disappeared, leaving the group alone.
"That didn't answer all of our questions," Amelia said, point out the obvious.
"Well the rest is pretty easy," Lina said. "Bat lady was out of favor with the Beast Master, so she decided to come after me to get back in favor. Most likely she decided to use Gourry to lure us here and finish me off."
"But what about the pendant?" Amelia asked.
"The pendant is powerful, we just saw that. Bat lady must have wanted it to be strong enough to beat me. Those bat monsters went crazy when she had it in her possession."
"Then they stopped attacking us when Kass had the pendant because she can control its powers," Alyssa said. She smiled in relief. "Thank you everyone, for saving us and for watching out for us before we got to this place."
"No problem Alyssa, just one more thing," Lina said, handing the list to the girl. "Think you can find the remaining ingredients?"
Alyssa nodded. "We'll have to ask for a few but I'm familiar with the others."
"Good, let's get out of here and head out in the morning."
Three weeks later….
"Yeah, so," Gourry gulped down another chicken leg, "that bat lady caught me by mistake. Turns out she was blind as a bat."
Everyone sweat dropped. Gourry continued to talk and eat. "She kept talking and talking and the second night, I figured it was because she couldn't see and had to talk to see where I was, even though she locked me up in the same place each time."
"Poor Mr. Gourry, alone in the dark all day and night," Amelia commented, filling up his mug.
"It was bad," Gourry agreed solemnly, pausing his eating. "All she had to eat was fruit and goats." Everyone face-faulted. "I've never eaten so much fruit or goat cheese in my life!"
Lina whacked him upside the head, fork in her hand. "Jellyfish brains, we were worried you were turning into a monster like her!"
Gourry rubbed his head, wincing. "Really Lina, you were worred?" he asked. Lina fought a blush on her cheeks but it soon turned into red of anger. "I don't really remember attacking you guys, sorry. It was like I would fall asleep and have weird dreams, then I would wake up and the lady would keep on talking. Ow!" Lina held her fist above him threateningly.
"Next time something like that happens, don't fall asleep!" she shouted and began to take his food.
Alyssa watched the two in silence, leaning towards Amelia and Zelgadis on the opposite side with a concerned look on her face. "Are they going to be alright?"
Amelia nodded and sipped her tea. "Oh it's fine. Mr. Gourry and Miss Lina are always like this. It's how they show they care," she said quietly.
Zelgadis smirked to himself. They show something alright. "Hmm?" He looked to his side at Kass who was pulling on his shirt sleeve.
"Can I have a napkin?" she asked him softly, her voice still a bit gruff from being quiet the last three months.
Zelgadis saw the food fight was escalating and suggested to the others that they move to another table before they were kicked out. He grabbed a clean towel among the piling dishes and wiped Kassandra's cheek were mashed potatoes had stuck. "Clean the other side too," he said as they walked to another table. Kassandra took the napkin and did as he said. Alyssa and Amelia stifled giggles and pretended to be interested in the remains of their drink.
"So what will you do now Alyssa?" the princess asked her new friend. "I was thinking of inviting everyone back home with me. I'd like Daddy to meet my new friends and maybe you might decide to stay in Seiyruun."
Alyssa looked at the princess in surprise. "Really? Kassandra and I could stay with all of you a bit longer?"
Amelia nodded. Alyssa thanked her and gave the young princess a quick hug.
"You'll love it, it's a wonderful city. You'll be safe there, there's a large library in the palace, Daddy already had it fixed after one of Miss Lina's visits, the people are so kind…! You'll really like Alyssa," Amelia said excitedly.
"I can't wait," Alyssa said, joyful tears springing in her eyes but not falling. "I thought about going back to my village but I don't know if anyone will come back. Kass and I don't have any real family either and…I'd like to keep learning magic."
"Then to Seiyruun it is!" the red-headed sorceress declared, joining her friends at their new table. Gourry came up behind her with a plate of ham and other foods and nodded. "Let's stock up and head out!"
So off the group went to the city of white magic, another adventure left behind them and more than likely another adventure ahead of them. The search for tomorrow and what it may bring continues.