Zelgadis was startled awake by cries of anquish. He jumped to his feet, ready to take out whatever it was that had woken him. As he woke up more he realized what he was hearing was Amelia, who was writhing on the floor in pain. Unsure what to do, he watched over her. It wasn't until she started choking that he got in closer to see what was wrong.

Amelia's body was being warped; this was more evident when he got a closer look. Her clothing had already torn at the seams, and it would only be a matter of time before they were utterly torn apart. That wouldn't be a problem...

Zelgadis then realized that the clasp Amelia used to keep her cape on wasn't made out of cloth. Amelia was clawing at it, trying to get it off, but her body was spasming so badly that she was unable to. Zelgadis reached out to steady her, then worked to pry the clasp apart, finally allowing her to breathe again.

He felt so helpless just sitting there watching, but what could he do? Zelgadis finally got up and paced about, to work off his nervous energy, trying not to hear each cry of pain. He shuddered. It wasn't working so well. He looked back again, seeing that now Amelia's torso had stretched out, while her ribcage had deepened. Her face had elongated as well, and already he could see bony ridges growing out of her back.

Zelgadis finally turned away, and would have blushed. Even if she was no longer human in form, she was still so...naked! Zelgadis covered his eyes.

Amelia finally grew quiet, panting to catch her breath after her painful ordeal. "What...am I?" Amelia groaned.

Zelgadis dared a peek, relieved to see she was now 'clothed' in fur. "Uh, you look like...a big cat. Sort of."

Amelia eased herself back into a sitting position and stretched her wings out. "Sort of?"

Zelgadis tapped a claw nervously on the cave floor. "Well, how many cats do you know that have wings and a draconic tail?"

Amelia instinctively lifted a giant paw and began licking it, then thought better when she got dirt in her mouth. She glanced back at Zelgadis. "I guess about as many dragons I know with big ears." She smiled when Zelgadis reached up to touch an ear.

"They're not so big." He growled. "Anyway, we need to figure out what we're going to do. You were right we can't just sit in this cave, and there's no chance of us finding anyone to help us...unless we want to get killed. Perhaps if we stormed Dorel's mansion and forced him to..."

"No!" Amelia exclaimed, but averted her gaze when Zelgadis looked at her.

"Is something wrong? It seems the best thing to do since he is the one that did this." Zelgadis again tapped his claws upon the cave floor.

"You don't remember what he did?" That man. Dorel... Amelia snarled remembering what he had done.

"He was casting a spell, but after that...no, I don't remember anything before seeing you trapped in that capsule."

"He cast a mind control spell on you. He told me that he had already sensed one on you, so he reworked it to his advantage!" Amelia gnashed her teeth in anger.

Mind control...the only other to do that to him was...Rezo. He smashed his tail against the ground, shattering a few stones. "What did I do to you?"

"What?" Amelia looked at him in shock. Zelgadis stared intensely at her, indicating she'd not be able to avoid answering. "You...you pinned me to the floor, so I couldn't escape." Zelgadis smashed another stone, causing Amelia to jump. "I know it wasn't your fault, Mister Zelgadis! You couldn't help it! Even you said you have no memory of it."

Zelgadis didn't reply, instead stalking off, his tail thrashing wildly.

"Mister Zelgadis!" Amelia bounded after him. "If you're going to blame yourself for something you couldn't control, then I must blame myself too! I originally came out here to kill you!"

Zelgadis stopped and looked at her. "That's because you didn't know it was me! And how could you? I am a monster..." He started to stalk off again.

"No!" Amelia chased after. "Mister Zelgadis, don't you see? You had no way of knowing what you were doing, but I knew exactly what I was doing! If you hadn't caught me by surprise, I would have killed you!"

Zelgadis hunched his shoulders and looked back at his persistant companion. "Just what are you trying to say?"

"Only that we are both as guilty as the other. Beating yourself up for something you couldn't help isn't going to solve anything." Amelia looked pleadingly at Zelgadis.

Zelgadis scowled at Amelia, knowing she was right, but not ready to admit it. Her persistance finally paid off, and he finally dropped the scowl.

Amelia smiled. "So what now?"

Zelgadis frowned. "Honestly, I have no idea. All we can really do for now is lay low, while we figure out what to do."

"Oh..." Amelia's smile dropped, as did her gaze. Zelgadis finally turned to ask about her silence, only to see she was searching about the cave. She finally gave up her search and glanced up at Zelgadis. "Did you have any more apples? Or any food, really..."

"I actually...ate them. You should have taken one when I offered." Zelgadis fidgeted nervously. "I can show you where I got them from. I'm feeling hungry myself."

"Okay!" Amelia beamed as she followed Zelgadis out into the morning sunshine. She noticed as she followed behind Zelgadis that he was headed in the direction of the village. Surely he wasn't headed there? Amelia bit her tongue and followed quietly, waiting to see for herself where they were going.

After a time the forest gave way to a small meadow, and within there were many fruit trees. Amelia was overjoyed to see many heavy with fruit, until she spied a basket sitting near the base of an apple tree.

"This orchard doesn't belong to anyone, does it?" Amelia secretly hoped that it didn't, because she hadn't eaten since the morning before.

Zelgadis just blinked at her. "Even if it does, what does that matter?" He made for the nearest tree.

"Mister Zelgadis!" Amelia's jaw dropped. "That's stealing!"

Zelgadis was undeterred. He reached up the trunk of the tree to a branch laden with fruit. "Considering how the locals treated us, I consider it a fair trade."

"How can you say that?" Amelia could feel her righteous wrath building. "Even if they have treated us poorly, that doesn't excuse the fact that us taking their property is stealing! I refuse to take part in this." She twitched her tail in anger as she stalked back into the forest.

Zelgadis watched her go, feeling a small pang of guilt. He sighed, thumping his tail angrily on the ground. He was about to call after Amelia, when shouts were heard. He glanced in the direction they came from, to see a group of villagers headed his way. He knew they saw him by the way they were charging, in some vain attempt to scare him off. Not wanting another confrontation, Zelgadis dashed after where he had seen Amelia last.

Amelia was not far off into the forest, having hoped that Zelgadis would have seen the error of his ways, and that he'd soon follow. She couldn't help but smile when she saw him dashing in her direction. "Mister Zelgadis, I'm-"

"Run!" Zelgadis shouted, cutting her off.

Run? Why? Amelia looked over him to see he was being pursued by a group of villagers. Without a word she turned to follow Zelgadis, dismayed to see that he was easily outdistancing her, even though she was running as fast as she could. Not wanting to be left behind, she launched herself up into a tree.

"Okay, that was easier than I thought...but now what?" Amelia's heart leapt at the sound of the mob. They were still coming! She didn't want to risk jumping back down to the ground, for fear of being spotted, and jumping to the next tree was out of the question because it was too far away...

Amelia smacked herself. "I have wings!" She climbed as high into the tree as she could until she had enough room to spread her wings out, then held her breath as she leapt into the air. Her intent had been to, if anything, glide to the next tree, but she was caught in an updraft and felt herself rising higher in the the air.

Being familiar with wind spells, Amelia knew how to ride the current, but using magic was far different than using wings! After faltering a bit, she finally was able to propel herself forward, finding the flight to be rather exhilarating. Looking down through the trees, she could just make out Zelgadis, still dashing through the trees, but now he was weaving dramatically, trying to throw off any pursuers.

Zelgadis eventually reached a river, and paused long enough to listen for any more pursuers, and also to make sure Amelia had been able to keep up. He relaxed a little when all he heard was the sound of birdsong and other familiar forest sounds, but he couldn't see Amelia anywhere.

"Amelia?" Zelgadis called out, hoping to hear her reply.

"Up here!"

Zelgadis looked up to see Amelia in flight. She gracefully rode the wind as she neared him, then at the last moment faltered and fell into the river. He watched in surprise as she swam to shore.

"Brr! That's cold!" Amelia shook herself to get rid of the excess water, then grinned sheepishly at Zelgadis. "I'm still figuring this flying thing out."

Zelgadis flicked water off of his foot. "You did well for a first time."

Amelia beamed. "Have you tried to yet?"

"What, fly?" Zelgadis glanced nervously at his wings. "No..."

"How come? It's a lot of fun!" Amelia fanned her wings out as if to demonstrate.

Zelgadis sighed. "I wasn't sure if I could trust them. My wings, that is." He stretched them out and flapped them just to see if he could.

"I think you should try. I mean, we don't know how long we're going to be stuck like this, and it would be better to learn how to use everything to our advantage. I don't want to be left behind again." Amelia folded her wings back up, then shook herself again. "I definitely don't want to fall into the river again!" She smiled at Zelgadis.

Zelgadis gave her an unamused look, having been smacked in the face with water. "I thought you were hungry?"

"I am! I don't think we should go back near the village to find food, but there's got to be something edible out here." Amelia didn't see anything nearby, aside from the river. She looked at the water, taken back when she saw her reflection.

Zelgadis watched in mild amusement as Amelia made faces at herself. "What are you doing?"

Amelia didn't take her eyes off of her reflection. "I look so weird! And furry. My teeth are still really big, too." She stuck her tongue out. "This is so strange! Even though I don't look like me, it's still me."

Zelgadis sat next to her on the riverbank and looked into the water. "If you were an oversized housecat with wings." He smirked at his own reflection.

"Mister Zelgadis, you know what I meant." Amelia pouted. "Even you are still you," Amelia suddenly grinned, "if you were a runt of a dragon."

Zelgadis scowled slightly at the comment, but let it slide. "If you say so." He looked back into the water, this time focusing on the shadow he saw swimming by. Without warning he suddenly lunged forward, upsetting the water and Amelia as she was again doused. He came back up with a fish trapped in his jaws.

Amelia made a face. "How are you going to cook that?" She stared as he just looked at her, then swallowed his quarry. "Eew! How can you do that?"

"Normally I'd not eat it raw myself, but since I'm not 'normal', not to mention it doesn't taste the same, I can." Zelgadis just shrugged. "Go ahead, try yourself and you'll see what I mean."

"Blech!" Amelia crouched in front of the water and waited to see something swim by. Finally she spotted something, and also lunged forward.

Zelgadis again watched in amusement as she fell completely into the water. She came up a moment later, but with a fish in tow.

"Rgh! Shtill c-culd!" She climbed back out, then squeezed her eyes shut as she sank her teeth into the fish. After chewing a moment and deeming it edible, she too swallowed it down. "You're right! Normally that would have tasted disgusting, but it didn't really taste too bad." She shook herself off. "You're better at fishing though."

Zelgadis just grinned as he prepared to catch another fish.

To Be Continued...

Author's Notes: As Zelgadis said in the previous chapter, Amelia wasn't done being affected by Dorel's meddling. Mwa ha, because I am messed up like that...

Way back when I first plotted this out, I drew a basic drawing of chimera Zelgadis and Amelia. (And EarthstarChan was awesome and drew some fanart for me as well!) I'd love to link it from here, but this site has a way of eating links. Blah... I guess if people want to see it, just leave a review and I'll give you the link in the response. If it gets eaten there, I shall cry!

Oh! I might not be able to update next week, so if you see nothing, don't panic. It's finals week at my university, so I shall likewise be busy doing that. After that, I am heading back home! Then life shall be grand, and I will be back to writing and updating again.

Next time: "I can't just leave her out here." Amelia continued walking, making sure the girl didn't fall. "Even if they try to attack me again. I can live better with injury to myself than to know that an innocent life was lost because I chose to do nothing."