Her head was pounding. That's the first thing Amelia became aware of. She cautiously cast a Recovery spell to ease the pain before opening her eyes. She blinked a few times, but no matter how she tried, all she saw around her was total darkness. An oddity, since she couldn't remember night falling, and even then there were always stars or a moon out to provide even a small portion of light.

Amelia eased herself into a sitting position, not sure of her surroundings, and not wanting to bump into anything in the darkness. She held her hand out and cast a lighting spell. Suddenly light was everywhere, and Amelia quickly realized she was in a cave. She noticed something large nearby, and leaned in closer to figure out what it was.

When she saw the teeth from before, she had to resist screaming in fright. Whatever it was, it was asleep, and she didn't want to do anything to wake it. Instead she took a moment to study it, hoping to find anything that might indicate any weakness she might exploit if needed.

The man had certainly been right about wings. The creature looked very much like a dragon...if dragons weren't much larger than horses, and had long pointed ears. This 'dragon' also sported a long tail, with what appeared to be a club at the end. That must have been what knocked her off her feet before. Again she saw those large teeth, but she also noticed its mouth ended in a beak-like tip. It also had bony spikes all down its back, very much a complement to the claws at the ends of its feet.

A most formidable opponent, to be sure.

Amelia stood up as quietly as she could. She knew better than to cast spells in confined spaces (if her travels with Lina had taught her anything), so at this point her best chance at survival was to oh so quietly sneak past the sleeping monster...the sleeping monster with the piercing slitted eyes...

Amelia froze, looking slowly down to the head of the beast she had just about stepped over. The beast that was now staring intently at her. It lifted its head to meet her gaze, a deep hissing sound coming from its throat.

Amelia stumbled backward to where she had been, staring at the beast in fright. She didn't want to cast a spell at it, but she might not have any choice. She scanned the cave, looking for anything to use against the beast.

Not too far off she spotted a sword, and without thinking, picked it up and pointed it threateningly at the now standing beast. Her arms shook as she held the blade, unwanted memories from her past flooding back, but the fear of dying keeping her from dropping the one weapon she had sworn never to wield against another. She fought back a sob as she tried to meet the beast's gaze, hoping that if it saw her intent it would back down.

The beast looked at the sword, as if amused to see someone dare to hold the blade up against it.

Amelia's gaze also fell to the sword in her hand, and she dropped it in shock. She hadn't noticed before, but now that she had seen the hilt, there was no mistaking it. That was Zelgadis' sword... She looked at the beast, tears in her eyes. "What did you do to him?"

It just looked back at her, then back down at the sword. It then turned its head and looked at the back wall of the cave, then back at Amelia.

Amelia tried to look behind her, but was afraid to take her gaze off of the creature. It hadn't tried attacking yet, but it might just be waiting for an opening. And if it had taken out someone as strong as Zelgadis, she knew she had no chance of surviving against this creature. She looked back into the creature's eyes as she slowly backed away, toward the back of the cave.

The creature just watched, not making any movement to follow.

Amelia reached the back wall, and found a small pack laying on the ground. She sank down to her knees and picked up the pack, pulling out a thin book from within. She knew before opening it what it truly was. She had seen Zelgadis write in it on many occasions during their travels. A single tear streaked down her cheek as she looked back up at the creature. It still hadn't made any movements, seemingly content to lay back and watch.

Amelia turned her attention back to the small book as she opened it. She was met with various scrawlings and notes Zelgadis had written. Some were incidents from their travels. Others were various leads he had been following. She eventually came upon a hand drawn map, with two places circled.

The first was a small upside down v, a mountain, Amelia guessed. Or maybe even a cave... Near it she read the word "stash". The other circle was across the map, and within it was a building. There was no description by it, but a small asterisk. She looked down to the bottom of the page, seeing another asterisk, with a lengthy note:

From what I have gathered, a man knowledgeable in the making of chimeras resides here. It is my intent to search him out, to see if perhaps he knows of any way to unmake a chimera. I was warned he's wary of weapons and the like, and as I'd rather not forget my personal effects, I am hiding them away in a cave I found.

Amelia looked for more writing, but that was all she found. Every page after was blank. She reached back into the bag, but all she pulled out was...her bracelet she had given to Zelgadis what felt like a long time before. She knew he treasured the book and sword too much to have left them behind. Perhaps he had been caught by the creature, but it couldn't have really been able to eat him...could it?

As she tried to make sense of it all, she heard a rather wet squishing sound. She jerked up to see the creature munching on...an apple. She breathed a small sigh of relief.

The creature felt her gaze and turned to look at her. It swallowed down the apple in its mouth, then pulled another out of a small bundle using it's...er...clawed hand, Amelia reasoned. It held the apple out and looked to her, as if in offering.

Amelia shook her head. She didn't feel at all hungry, especially since she could only imagine it was staving off its hunger until it was ready to dine on her. She cringed at the thought, but couldn't help but watch as the creature continued to pull more apples out of the bundle at its feet. She looked closer at the bundle, as the color reminded her of...Zelgadis' cloak. She even saw the inner lining was the exact color as Zelgadis'.

Zelgadis had definitely been here, no question about it. Amelia wanted to find out if he had been to the chimera man's place, but she was trapped. Amelia found a small space in the cave wall and struggled in, folding herself up as she held her knees to her chin. She stayed like that for a time, trying to think of some way to get out of her current situation.

The creature finally stopped munching on apples, and looked up to see where its captive had gotten to. Not seeing her, it got up and approached where it had last seen her. It looked into the small gap in the wall, being rewarded with a loud shriek from Amelia. It quickly backed off, wandering off until Amelia couldn't hear it any longer.

As silence settled on Amelia, she couldn't help but feel curious. Just what was it doing? If it meant to kill her, it wouldn't be so skittish of her, would it? Come to think of it, it had had the chance to kill her when it first jumped out at her, and hadn't. It hadn't attacked that man from earlier, either.

Maybe Amelia had been too quick to assume it was out to get her. Maybe it was actually a good creature...no matter how scary it looked. Either way, she didn't want to sit in the cave any longer. She needed to find out what had happened to Zelgadis!

Amelia poked her head out of her little hole, then quietly snuck out. She stood and dusted herself off, before trying to walk as silently as possible out of the cave.

She needn't have bothered. No matter how silently she tried, the creature had excellent hearing. It sat at the opening of the cave, waiting for her to round the last bend. When she came in to view it glanced at her from the corner of its eye before resuming its post watching the entrance of the cave.

Amelia stopped dead in her tracks when it looked at her, but when it looked away, she slowly crept up near it, if not clinging to the opposite side of the cave wall. Amelia bit her lip. Should she make a run for it and blast it if it pursued her, or would it be better to try and reason with it? She wasn't even sure which spell would actually do it harm, and she certainly didn't want to anger it. She had always been taught to settle all matters through diplomacy. Perhaps this creature was capable to see reason...

"Umm...mister creature...thing?" Amelia squeaked. She cringed as it turned its gaze on her, but when it made no move she felt somewhat bolder. "Well, you see, my friend was here, but I think he went elsewhere, and, you see, I was hoping to find where he went to see if maybe he's still there, and I was just wondering if perhaps you would let me...go?"

She held her breath as she waited for a response. Anything to indicate it had understood her.

The creature studied her a moment, then made a humming sound.

Amelia shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I don't understand you."

The creature gave what seemed to Amelia to be a sigh, then stepped out of the cave. It looked back at her, as if urging her to follow.

Amelia bit on her lip again. Just what was it doing? Did it want her to follow? She stepped out cautiously into the open, but kept a fair distance. "Do you know the way?"

The creature made a humming noise again, then nodded in the universal gesture for "yes".

Amelia smiled, but didn't move. "You'll not do me any harm, will you?" Amelia jumped when she saw it dig its talons into the ground.

The creature looked back at her, seeing the fright in her eyes, and quickly relaxed its grip. It even went so far as to shake the dirt from its claws, then again met Amelia's gaze, this time shaking its head, "no" at her.

Amelia's fears were finally put at ease. While she wasn't too happy following such a frightening creature, so long as it could guide her and wouldn't harm her, she would trust it.

To be continued...

Author's notes: Guess I lied this time! I do plan on sticking to updating once a week, but at times like this I just might update more often. (I am silly like that.)

Amelia finally finds evidence that Zelgadis was once in the area! Just where could he have gotten himself off to without his belongings?

Next chapter: The man waved her off. "Never you mind. You don't need to know anything, anyway, experiment. Come, bring her this way, Mino."