"Esgrey! Mister Esgrey!" Lina pounded hard on the door. "Open up! We need to talk!" She scowled in silence as she waited. When she didn't hear a response she knocked again. "Is anyone home?"
Finally, the door opened a crack. Rose peered at them from the other side. "My dad isn't home, he..." She grew silent when she spied a familiar blanket in Gourry's arms. "You...you..." her voice wavered as her eyes glistened with tears.
"Whoa, wait! What's the matter? Why are you crying?" Lina looked about nervously.
Rose pointed to the quilt in Gourry's arms. "Where did you get that?" She sniffled.
"Do you know who it belongs to?" Gourry asked, holding the quilt out for her.
Rose nodded.
"Great!" Lina smiled. "A friend wanted us to return it, but she couldn't...that is, she didn't say who it belonged to."
"It's mine, but..." Rose grew quiet and looked about for any bystanders. "I gave it to someone."
Lina caught on to why she was being so quiet, and knelt down closer. "Is this the same friend that gave you your cute little pouch?"
Rose nodded.
Lina knelt in closer, and brought her hand to the side of her mouth. "Is this friend of yours big and furry? Like a cat?"
Rose smiled. "Kitty, yeah!" Her eyes bugged out as she cupped her hand over her mouth.
"Don't worry," Lina whispered, "we didn't hurt your friend. She's not the one who hurt you, is she." She glanced back, to make sure no one but Gourry was paying attention.
Rose shook her head. "Kitty saved me...my dad didn't like her though, so he made me lie to you."
Lina's eyes narrowed. "Is that so... Do you know where we can find your dad?"
"He should be home soon." Rose poked her head further out the door to get a better view of the street out front. "He just had to do something."
"Okay, thank you, Rose." Lina smiled at the little girl. "Gourry?"
"Huh?" Gourry jerked back to being alert and looked at Lina. "Oh! Here you go." He handed the quilt to Rose.
"Thanks!" Rose beamed at them, then dashed off.
Gourry looked at the still open door. Lina saw what he was looking at and shrugged. "She's still young."
They closed the door quietly, then sat against the side of the house. Lina gazed at the locals going about their business for a while, before her thoughts and gaze wandered to the clouds in the sky. Gourry snored quietly. Finally, just as Lina was starting to get bored out of her skull, someone called out to them.
Lina and Gourry both were on alert in an instance.
"Mister Esgrey!" Lina waved. "We need to talk to you!"
Esgrey approached them cautiously. "What's the matter? Did something happen?"
Lina crossed her arms. "First, I need you to answer a question for me. Did a girl, say, my height, with dark hair and light clothing come through here anytime a few months back?"
Esgrey became very quiet, and averted his gaze.
"Mister Esgrey?" Lina gave him a questioning look.
"Yes..." Esgrey looked very agitated. "She didn't stay long though. She left and we never saw her again."
"Never?" Lina tapped her foot. "Never as in you never saw her, or never saw her as human again?"
"W-what are you getting at?" Esgrey started to sweat.
Lina shot him an unamused look. "Let's just say this trek we took into the woods was very enlightening. You'll fare better if you tell us the truth."
Gourry nodded in agreement. "She's serious, you know. Lina doesn't like being lied to."
"Lina?" Esgrey looked at Lina in horror. "Surely not the Lina? ...Lina Inverse?"
Lina wasn't sure if she should smile or scowl. "So you've heard of me, eh? If you've heard of me, you must know what I do to those that dare to deceive me." She shot him a particularly frightening glare.
Esgrey fell to his knees, clutching Lina's hands. "Please, don't hurt me! Yes! Yes, I saw her again, but he got to her! We scared her off for fear of angering him!"
"Who's him?" Lina asked in a cool tone.
Esgrey looked about nervously, then leaned in to whisper, "Dorel, the chimera maker. He's a nut that lives north of here. For the most part he leaves us alone, and we've tried to stay out of his affairs."
"Dorel, eh?" Lina fought free of Esgrey's grip so she could tap her chin in thought. "This is just becoming one big fiasco..." Lina shrugged her shoulders as she stepped away from the house. "Let's go, Gourry."
Gourry shot Esgrey a disapproving look before joining Lina.
"Don't think I'm done with you." Lina pointed back at the still scared man. "We'll be back!" Then, just to be dramatic, Lina cast a Ray Wing, grabbed Gourry, then took to the air.
(Meanwhile, outside of town...)
"Wow. They've been gone for ten minutes, without a single explosion. Think everything's all right?" Amelia turned to Zelgadis, who was hiding in the forest just outside of the village with her.
Zelgadis yawned in boredom. "I think if things weren't, we'd be seeing an inferno about now."
Amelia nodded in agreement. "You're right." Amelia settled back on her haunches, her thoughts running rampant. So much had happened so suddenly, she was still trying to sort through it all. Her gaze settled on Zelgadis' damaged wing.
"How are you feeling? I mean, your wing that is..." Amelia trailed off. That came out sounding pretty stupid!
Zelgadis looked at the useless appendage and scowled. "I'll not be using it again, if that's what you were wondering. Not that that's such a bad thing."
Amelia shot him a surprised look. "What do you mean?"
"I don't enjoy flying." Zelgadis shrugged. "Especially when it involves painful crash landings." He winced and lifted his still tender foreleg just thinking about it.
Amelia hung her head slightly. "Sorry..."
Zelgadis shook his head. "Don't be. This is more my fault than yours, anyway." He placed his leg back on the ground, testing how much weight it could bear without pain. "All things considered, a broken leg and useless wing is much better than being caught on the wrong end of Lina's wrath."
"She's not all bad, Mister Zelgadis." Amelia gave him a small smile. "After all, she is trying to help us, and without any reward."
Zelgadis grinned. "Which is saying something."
"Although I wish she'd be more careful with Mister Gourry." Amelia glanced up into the sky.
Zelgadis followed her line of sight, to see the sorceress herself, with her swordsman hanging onto her for dear life. "Those two." He shook his head.
After dumping Gourry unceremoniously onto the ground, Lina settled gently onto the dirt road next to him. "That went pretty well, I'd say. Amelia? Zelgadis? Where'd you get off to?"
Lina jumped in surprise when two large monsters came dashing from out of the forest. "Don't do that!" She blushed in embarassment. "I know it's them, but it's still a bit of a shock."
Gourry stood up, dusting himself off. "You okay, Lina?"
"Just fine." She replied. She turned to her puzzled four-legged companions. "Just don't sneak up on me like that!"
Amelia and Zelgadis just looked at each other and shrugged.
"Anyway," Lina stood as tall as she could, "we've got one more place to go. I take it you know plenty about this Dorel character?" Lina looked at Amelia and Zelgadis, who nodded.
Zelgadis began thrashing his tail and growling, but stopped when Amelia purred at him.
"I take it you've got a grudge against that guy. What say we drop in for a visit?" Lina grinned.
"No!" Gourry cringed. He stopped when he felt Lina's confused gaze on him. "Er, I mean, oh..okay?"
Lina arched an eyebrow as she gave Gourry a weird look. "Okay, Gourry..." She turned back to Amelia and Zelgadis. "What do you guys say?"
Zelgadis started to growl again, and Amelia whimpered. After having some small argument with each other, they both looked back to Lina and shook their heads "no".
"No?" Lina looked at them in shock. "Do you want to be stuck like this? Can that guy really be frightening enough to scare you both off?" Lina puzzled over this. She listened in as the two seemed to have another argument with each other. Zelgadis then stepped forward and puffed up his chest as he gazed back at her. Amelia, unsure at first, finally stepped up with Zelgadis. If Lina didn't know any better, the girl looked scared.
"This'll be an interesting confrontation, to be sure."
"Lina? Hey, Lina?" Gourry waved his hand in Lina's face. "Are we going?"
"Ack! Gourry!" Lina grabbed his hand and pulled it down and away from her face. "I was just trying to think! Yes, we're going." She stepped into the middle of the road, pointing her hand out dramatically in front of her. "Lead the way, guys!" She cheered.
Amelia and Zelgadis just stopped and stared at her, then back to each other.
Amelia scooted in closer to Zelgadis. "Can you get to Dorel's mansion from the road?"
Zelgadis shook his head. "No, he's a recluse. It took me nearly a week to find his place when I first came here, which is why I had that map."
"What do we do?" Amelia glanced back at Lina, who had her hands on her hips, a confused look on her face. "I doubt Miss Lina will want to travel through the woods."
"Hey! What's the hold up, you two? You can get chatty with each other later!" Lina grumbled.
Zelgadis gave a small sigh. "We'll just have to deal with it. Come on."
He and Amelia stepped up to join Lina and Gourry on the road, then proceeded forward, veering from the main drag, and back into the forest. Lina and Gourry stared after them for a moment, but when they saw that the two were actually going deeper into the woods -not just hiding- they followed after.
They all traveled in silence. After about an hour of walking, Lina did finally demand a halt so that they could eat something. Once Lina was content, they jounrneyed onward. Eventually the mansion came into view.
"At last!" Lina exclaimed. "I thought we'd be stuck out here forever."
Gourry nodded in agreement. "So what do we do now, Lina?"
"What do you think?" Lina winked. "Go in there and demand some answers. Are you two coming?" Lina pointed her question at Zelgadis and Amelia, who were hanging back.
Amelia and Zelgadis stared at each other for a moment, then nodded at each other. They came forward to again join Lina and Gourry.
Lina smiled, then glared at the mansion doors. "Okay, let's go!"
To Be Continued...
Author's Notes: Gasp! Another confrontation looms! This is another chapter that had a lot of revising. Such as the debating Zelgadis and Amelia had. Originally I jumped to them and wrote out the conversation, but it took the story off in the wrong direction. Plus, it's fun to write some things that leave the reader's imagination to fill in the gap, so there you go. (And beside that, if Lina can't make sense of them, why should you? Although if you really want to know, they were going over the whole point that Dorel could take control of Zelgadis again, which could have very dire results.)
Next time: "Why, Mino, I'm touched! You got yourself a girlfriend!"