Author's notes: This chapter was a pain in the neck! Wait. Wasn't that chapter eight? Hm. Well the truth is that I took two chapters of mine and edited them like crazy. Unfortunately when I did that they were both too short, so I ended up sticking them together. Here's the result of that.

Bleeding Aide

"Xellos!" Lina called as she searched around the valley for the monster. He had vanished earlier without a trace. It was beginning to tick her off. He always took off on them, and how could they help someone who wasn't even there? "Xellos, get your butt back here right now!" she snapped, startling the birds in the nearby trees.

The dragons reacted to her as though she had gone crazy, and the few elves that were milling about stayed well out of her way while the sorceress continued to have her yelling fit. Even Milgazia was beginning to get a headache.

"I wonder if Mr. Xellos is even around here anymore…" Amelia sighed. She was sitting in the shade of a tree, playing with a blade of grass. Gourry was snoozing nearby and Filia was sitting on a blanket, with Valgarv's egg beside her, sipping tea. Everyone but Lina was taking this time to relax.

"Even if he was, why would he come out with her shouting like that?" Filia questioned before finishing her second cup and moving onto a third. Nothing calmed her down like her favourite beverage, and right now she needed a lot.

Surprisingly the monster did appear, and right next to Lina who hadn't noticed his presence. He tapped her on the shoulder and she spun around to face him. After yelling at him for surprising her, she calmed down.

Xellos' no longer looked like he had been attacked by razor wire. The wounds he had gotten from the last battle had healed, but his staff was still missing. It would probably take him a while to create another one.

"I knew you were still around," she commented wryly. "So… are you back to normal?"

The monster didn't answer right away. He stood there smiling, and seemed to be thinking of a good reply. Eventually he shook his head and Lina slapped herself in the forehead.

"Well at least he's sane enough to know when he's insane," she thought out loud.

"Miss Lina!" Amelia called from the shade of the tree. "That doesn't even make any sense!"

"Shut up Amelia!" Lina snapped back at her. When she turned back to Xellos, he was looking at his hands. His gloves that had dissolved shortly after the battle hadn't been replaced. He seemed surprised. He couldn't stop staring at his hands.

Lina covered her face with her hand and let out a sigh. She had no idea how to deal with a mentally unbalanced monster. "Ok then. First of all we've got to figure out who exactly is going to be coming after you."

Filia put away her tea set and scooped up the dragon's egg before she and Amelia joined Lina and Xellos. Milgazia stayed where he was. This wasn't something he wanted to involve himself in. He glanced at Gourry who was still sleeping beneath the tree. At first he was going to wake him, but he stopped jus before he did.

"Let the ones who can sleep rest," he told himself. Besides, the others didn't seem to be missing him at all.

"Even though we have defeated many monsters, there are still some out there," Lina began to explain. "First there is Dynast. I defeated Sherra a short time ago, and now Norst is gone. This means that there shouldn't be any of his followers left."

She looked at Xellos to fill in anything she might have missed, but the monster was distracted. His eyes were closed and his head was bowed so that his bangs covered his eyes. He was struggling to rid himself of the pain that was again spreading throughout his body. It was like a disease. Why wouldn't it just leave him alone?

Even though he had taken time to heal himself, he still wasn't all there. He had repaired his physical body as best he could, and he had done a good job for his condition. The monster didn't want to distract anyone with his visible injuries. It hadn't taken long for him to hide his physical wounds, but his psychological scars still ran deep into his core.

He flinched when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Filia had seen him hurting, and was trying to comfort him. He offered her a smile, for there was one thing he had felt no need to fix, and that was his tattered throat. If he tried hard enough, he could speak to them without using his mouth.

"Anyway…" Lina continued. "Other than Dynast and his lesser servants, there is only Deep Sea Dolphin… And actually, I'm not sure how many followers that Dark Lord has. I don't know much Deep Sea Dolphin other than she resides in Demon's Sea. I guess she's been keeping herself pretty much in the dark for these last few hundred years."

"How do you know she's a "she" Miss Lina?" Amelia questioned.

"I've seen her before," Lina replied shrugging. "But that's not what's important right now. Amelia, stopped staring at me or I'll use a fireball on you!"

"When? Where?" the princess asked.

"I don't know, it happened a while ago," the sorceress replied.

"There's two," a voice echoed inside Lina's mind. It also reached Amelia and Filia.

"There's two of them; a priest and a general."

"So that's two monsters we're going to have to lookout for," Lina concluded.

"What about the Dark Lords?" Filia asked feeling a little anxious. It was one thing to have followers of the Lords after them, but if the Dark Lords themselves decided to attack, they would be in trouble.

"Since Xellos was The Greater Beast Master's servant, it's unlikely that she would come after him herself," Lina began to explain. "Actually, it doesn't even make sense that she would welcome the other Dark Lords to go after him. Xellos is a part of the Greater Beast. If he was destroyed, a part of herself would be destroyed as well."

"Wow Miss Lina, you sure know a lot about monsters," Amelia remarked in amazement.

"Well the monster race has been chasing me around for so many years, It'd be sad if I hadn't learned anything," she said.

Just then a sleepy headed Gourry shuffled over to them. He was holding his head, with his sheathed sword in hand. "Uh… what are you talking about?" he asked.

"Speaking of someone who hasn't learned a darn thing…"

"We should leave the valley," Filia suddenly interjected. "If there's a chance of us drawing another monster here we could endanger elder Milgazia and the others."

"Miss Filia is right!" Amelia exclaimed. "Staying here would be incredibly rude and unjust towards the elves and dragons living here!"

An expressionless Milgazia calmly approached them. "I will escort all of you out of the valley."

"He sure jumped on that one didn't he?" Lina muttered to herself.

They started back towards the outer edge of the valley with Milgazia in the lead. This day had been an interesting one indeed. The elder dragon looked at the surrounding mountains. There was no way around them. They'd have to go straight through.

"I'm hungry," Lina complained as they continued their march. They had just made it through a part of the mountains, but there was still a ways to travel before they'd be out of the valley.

"Isn't there a quicker route?"

"Yes," Milgazia replied. "But you didn't ask for that route."

"Miss Lina, you should be grateful towards Mr. Milgazia instead of complaining all of the time," Amelia chided her. "He's doing his best."

The elder glanced back at her. He seemed to be questioning her a little since this really wasn't his best. The truth was he did want them to leave before another disaster happened, but a part of him also wanted to hinder their progress. It was fun in a way. He didn't get humans in the valley often.

"Amelia is right," Filia said backing up the princess. She was letting Xellos lean on her. Actually she was making him lean on her.

The monster had tried moving on his own, but each measure of movement caused him to flinch under the pain he was continually inflicting on himself. He tried to protest when the golden dragon caught him and moved to support him, but she had insisted. The distraction worked. With Filia's body against his own, Xellos had suddenly forgotten his turmoil.

"You need to be more patient Miss Lina."

"Oh but can't I just make a small little hole in the mountains? It'd be so much faster that way," Lina asked giving them her cute innocent look. Everybody turned away from her, and Milgazia sighed. Sometimes he wondered about that human.

Night had settled in by the time the group emerged from the valley. The cool stillness that enveloped them was calming. Everyone except Lina stood there for a moment taking in the fresh night air. The sorceress was already leaving. There was no time to stand around. She was hungry. They needed to find some place to eat!

"Oh Mr. Zelgadis, I wonder where you are right now." Amelia said softly to herself as she stared up at the blanket of stars above.

"This is where we go our separate ways," Milgazia said as he turned back to the mountains.

"Thank you elder…" Filia said to his retreating form.

"Yes! Good bye Mr. Milgazia!" Amelia called waving happily to him.

Before he could take another step, the elder suddenly grasped his upper body and fell to the ground. The golden dragon didn't have time to make a sound. His eyes grew wide when he saw the blood pouring from a wound in his chest, staining the soil red.

A shape appeared over him, and he could faintly hear the sound of laughter before he lost consciousness. A monster had attacked him, and he had been careless enough to let it.

Author's notes: Lina stole the spotlight didn't she? Gah! She's so like that! Maybe I should have given her bronchitis or something. Milgazia is in my top ten at the moment, so I couldn't let him make it out of the story unharmed. Mm... twisted logic.