"Is sleep all anyone ever does around here? You can't expect me to be the only one to work! I can't believe you guys!"
Amelia opened her eyes to see Lina prodding Gourry rather irately, causing the swordsman to jerk awake. Amelia was about to get up herself, but a weight against her side kept her from moving. Wha..?
Lina turned her attention to Amelia and smiled. "Now that is too cute for words. I'd have never thought Zelgadis the sort to snuggle like that."
Amelia tried to turn her head to see what Lina meant, but her head was also restricted. She could see something just out of the corner of her eye, a closer look revealing fingers resting against her face.
Lina walked casually over, twirling a small vial in her hand. "What say you, Amelia. Are you ready to get this over with, or would you rather be Zelgadis' pillow?"
Amelia was thankful she was covered in fur. No doubt she'd be blushing right now under normal circumstances. She shot Lina what she hoped was an unamused look and yowled quietly.
Lina just grinned, kneeling down where Amelia couldn't turn her head to see her well. "Hey Zel, c'mon Zel, wakey wakey..." She cooed, but when she got no response she frowned. "Come on, mister lazy. Just because you're human now doesn't mean you get to sleep your life away!"
Still no response. Lina glared at Zelgadis. "Okay, if you're going to be like that...sorry, Amelia." Lina stomped on Amelia's tail, causing the poor girl to screech in pain, but more importantly, also causing Amelia to bolt in surprise. Needless to say, Zelgadis had a very rude awakening when his soft pillow became a cold hard floor.
Zelgadis jerked awake in time to hear what had to be Amelia scolding Lina, but for the life of him all he heard were a lot of yowls, growls, and snarls. A hand was offered to him and he looked up to see Gourry standing over him.
"Come on, Zelgadis." Gourry was watching Lina face off against an angry Amelia. He knew when to leave, and right now he didn't want to get involved in girls fighting.
Zelgadis yawned, "What are they fighting about now?"
Gourry shook his head as he walked toward the door. "You don't want to know." Before they left, Gourry turned back to Lina and Amelia. "Zelgadis and I'll wait outside, Lina."
Lina and Amelia's spat died as soon as it started, as they turned to watch the two men leave. Lina turned back to Amelia and shrugged, Amelia turning to glare at a nearby wall.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry, sheesh! Are you happy now, Amelia? I wanted the guys out of here so you'd have some privacy, but never mind." Lina followed after where Gourry and Zelgadis had just gone to make sure the door was closed all the way. The last thing she needed was peeping toms...
Amelia didn't reply, still staring at the wall as her tail thrashed around angrily.
Lina sighed. "Amelia, you can be mad at me later, okay? Let's just get this over with so we can get out of this place." She smiled when Amelia seemed to agree, getting up from the floor and stalking over to Lina. "Besides, it won't matter soon anyway since you won't have a tail that's smarting." Lina smirked.
Amelia thrashed her tail one last time (making sure it smacked into Lina) before giving a sigh. Lina was just being Lina, and although she didn't agree with her methods, Lina's intentions were mostly in the right place. Amelia lifted a foreleg in offering.
Lina took the offered leg and searched out a place to inject the vial's contents. Only... "You have too much fur! You would have to make this complicated." Lina grit her teeth as she parted the offending fur, until she thought she found a good spot.
Amelia let out a cry as Lina jabbed her arm, but didn't jerk away. Zelgadis hadn't had much pain until things started to take effect, so Amelia knew the pain from the needle was nothing to what was to come. She grit her teeth and waited.
Lina opted to back away from Amelia. Getting hit with a tail was bad enough! She didn't want to subject herself to needless punishment. She moved over to the door, having a feeling certain people might try to break in should Amelia be too vocal. "Not what we want at all," Lina sighed.
Lina started to count the stones in the wall as she waited, meeting Amelia's gaze a few times. Lina was starting to get suspicious she'd forgotten something when Amelia suddenly doubled over in pain.
"I will not cry out, I will not cry out... I've been through much worse than this! It will be over soon eno-" Amelia jerked, "Ow!" She yowled in absolute pain as her body began to shrink and extra appendages disappeared back into her body.
Lina for her part braced herself against the door, fending off the worried voices coming from outside. "It's fine, everything is fine! Give the girl some privacy!"
Amelia finally quieted down, drawing Lina's attention. Lina blinked at the sight before her: a big pile of fur? "Umm...Amelia?" Lina crept forward. She jumped as a sneeze came from the pile, causing fur to fly.
Amelia sneezed again as she tried to get all of the loose fur out of her face.
"Dang, Amelia, you really did have a lot of fur!" Lina started to laugh, but then her laughter died in her throat.
Amelia cleared more of the offending fur away from her to see she was in fact back to her human self. "What is it, Miss Lina? What's wrong?" Amelia couldn't help but bring her hand up to her mouth to feel her teeth. Nope, those were finally back to how they should be...
Lina didn't speak in reply, instead reaching out to touch Amelia's hair.
"My.." Amelia also grasped some of her hair and looked at it. Instead of being dark, it was completely white! "What happened to my hair?"
"Let's not worry about that right now, I'm sure it's just temporary. We better get you dressed before the others come in." Lina held out a small bundle of clothing. "They aren't much, but they'll work for now, until we can get you something better."
"Thank you," Amelia took the offered clothing, quickly pulling the too large shirt over her head as she brushed more fur away. She started to stand to pull on the pants, but winced in pain. "...Miss Lina, it still hurts!"
"What?" Lina blinked.
Amelia rubbed her backside. "It feels like someone kicked me." She shot Lina a dirty look, but pulled on the pants anyway.
"Oh, right..." Lina laughed nervously. "I'll make it up to you, okay?"
Amelia just shook her head and stepped clear of what had been her fur coat not a few minutes before.
Author's Notes: ...three months? It's been over three months since I last updated! Somebody needs to kick me! School did eat up most of my past few months (the last semester was a bit more than I'd been expecting), but I had some other things take up my time as well. I certainly never thought I'd let that much time get away from me... My apologies to those who have been following this story.
And now I'll apologize some more. This was going to be longer, but there's something going around the campus right now, and my roommate was kind enough to bring it home and share with me. I am so tired of being sick... I'm hoping to be recovered enough some time this weekend/next week to get some more written, as this story is so close to being finished. I still have all those loose ends to tie up is all. (Why do I do this to myself again?)
Next time: Joyful reunion! The gang's finally all back together and on their way out. They just need to make a quick stop (and perhaps quick lecture speech) to the local village. (Possible sap warning. I've not written it, so I can't say for certain, but seeing as it snuck into this chapter...)