Chapter 6: Mindless Destruction... Sort of

Crash.

To most passersby it sounded like a monster was on rampage.

Shatter.

This was actually untrue.

Thud.

No mere monster could have caused the level of havoc currently going on the Stone Ridge village inn.

"GIMME BACK MY SAUSAGE GOURRY!" Yup, you guessed it. Lina Inverse and Gourry Gabriev were having breakfast. A most destructive affair, only to be rivaled by them having lunch and dinner. And maybe the battle between Cepheid and Shabranigdo.

"No way Lina, you took my pancakes, and finders keepers!"

"That doesn't even make se- Hey! You stole my waffle!"

"Erm, excuse me…"

"You weren't eating, I assumed you'd finished."

"Oh, so that's how you wanna play it, huh? Then I'll do this."

"Sir, Madam?"

"Hey! I didn't take nearly that many Lina!"

"Serves you right for taking an innocent girl's food!"

"Who's an innocent girl?!"

"EXCUSE ME!" Lina and Gourry both looked up mid-food fight. A stray piece of bacon fell unnoticed to the floor and was quickly gobbled up by the cat hiding beneath the table.

The innkeeper stood in front of them, hands on hips, looking irritated. "Could ya please refrain from destroying me inn while ya finish yer meal?" she implored. They both muttered an apology and continued eating in silence for a while.

"Hey lady," Lina said as she finished chewing a mouthful of muffin. "Why is this place so empty? Where are all the other customers?"

The innkeeper shrugged, picking up the empty dishes. "Well, the reason most folks stay at this inn is coz they want to cross the Schwenkfelder Mountains. But seein' as how the mountain passes closed up yesterday, business isn't doing well, and I'll probably jes close up for the winter once yer gone."

Lina frowned. "Wait, the passes are closed up?"

The innkeeper nodded. "Won't open til mid-April." Damn, thought Lina. Just missed it. So much for finding those temples.

As she wallowed in a momentary bout of self-pity, Gourry piped up. "So does that mean we're the only ones staying here right now?"

The woman looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well, there was one girl here who went up to the mountains a yesterday, said something about a 'Quest fer Justice.' Not sure what that means, though I should pro'lly know better than to take what crazy folks say seriously. She left her things here, so I s'pose she meant to come back. I doubt she'll be back before spring though, if she comes back at all…"

The innkeeper continued to prattle on, but Lina wasn't listening "This girl," she interrupted, "What was her name?"

The innkeeper looked startled by Lina's question. "Well… I don' remember offhand… But if yer really curious I could look it up in the registry." Lina nodded, and the innkeeper, after setting down her load of dishes, led Lina over to the bar. She opened one of the cupboards and pulled out a large, leather-bound tome and plunked it on the counter with a dull thud. She opened the book and turned it towards Lina.

"Here," she said, gesturing at the open page, "This is a list of all the people who've stayed here in the past few weeks."

Lina scanned the page. At the bottom of list of names, about half way down the page, were her and Gourry's names. And on the line above that… her eyebrows raised. Amelia Saillune, written in curvy, cutsey-looking handwriting, with little hearts dotting the i's. Saillune was an old variation on Seyruun, and Amelia sometimes used it as an alias when she didn't want to attract attention.

So Amelia was here… and now she's in the Schwenkfelder mountains… I wonder why? Then Lina spotted another familiar name near the top of the page, printed in very neat and precise hand. Zelgadis Graywords.

"Zel?" she muttered to herself. What was he doing here? According to the date, he had stayed here for a few days last month. Lina found it difficult to believe that the two of them being here within only a few weeks of each other was just a coincidence. Her intuition told her something was up, and over the years Lina had learned to trust her intuition.

Meanwhile…

It was times like this that Zelgadis really believed fate had a cruel sense of humor. Amelia had broken the spell which had turned him into a statue. But now it turned out that the entrance to the caves was caved in with snow. Luckily, there were a number of other tunnels, one of which might lead to the exit. Might.

They had picked a random tunnel and had been wandering through it ever since. They walked. And walked. And walked. Then they got tired and slept for a while. Then they walked some more. With no way to keep track of time, they had no idea how long they'd been walking. Unlike in the chamber, the tunnel walls had no distinguishing reliefs to tell them how far they'd traveled.

Even Amelia was getting pessimistic. This tunnel didn't seem to go anywhere, but they had come too far to turn back now.

Suddenly Zelgadis stopped. "Amelia," he said sharply. She looked at him curiously. "I'm going to blast our way out of this tunnel."

She gave him an alarmed look. "What?! But Mr. Zelgadis, you could cause a cave in, or an avalanche!" That had been why they didn't blast their way through the snow when the first found the tunnel caved in.

"I know that Amelia!" he snapped back. "But I'm tired of walking through this endless tunnel." She opened her mouth to protest, but then closed it. Deep down, she had to admit she shared his feelings.

She chanted a protection barrier. "If there is a cave in, this ought to protect us," she explained.

Zelgadis nodded. "Good thinking." He turned to the cave wall, and Amelia stepped back. "Damu Brass!" There was an explosion, and as the mist cleared, they saw daylight streaming into the tunnel. Then a rumbling sound filled the air. Amelia barely had time to react before Zel shouted "GET OUT OF HERE!", grabbed her roughly by the arm, and leapt out of the hole. The makeshift escape routed created by the Damu Brass spell opened out into the face of a sheer cliff, several hundred feet above the ground.

The two of them instinctively began rapidly chanting Levitation, but several tons of snow falling down on them from above, hitting them with near bone-crunching force, broke their concentration. The force of the avalanche tumbled them about like clothes in a drier. At some point Amelia was aware of being separated from Zelgadis, but she had no time to dwell on that before she hit the ground and got the wind knocked out of her. The last thing she was aware of was Zelgadis shouting her name before everything went dark…

Zelgadis groaned and opened his eyes. He was utterly surrounded by white, and completely unable to move. It took him a minute to realize he was buried in the snow. The avalanche… It suddenly all came back to him. Amelia! He looked around frantically, but it was useless. There was nothing but white. First I need to get out of here…

He muttered a spell. "Ray Wing!" The wind barrier hugged his body, simultaneously dispelling the snow that surrounded him and lifting him out of the snow. Once he was free, he alighted on the ground, and began searching.

There! He spotted a dark patch amidst the field of white. Hurriedly, Zelgadis ran over to take a closer look. Sure enough, it was Amelia, unconscious and almost completely buried in the snow. He frantically began digging her out. He noticed with alarm that her skin was turning blue. How long was I out? He dug faster. As soon as she was half-uncovered, he grabbed her under the arms and pulled her free. He took of his cloaked and wrapped it around her before gently picking her up in his arms.

Don't worry Amelia. We'll be someplace warm soon. He began making his way towards the village.

A/N: Given the cliffhanger, you're probably going to hate me for saying this, but I'm afraid this will be the last update until after New Years. I won't insult your intelligence by explaining why (but for those of you with Gourry-level IQ's I'll give you a hint: "Christmas" and "vacation")

Before I go, here's a Christmas present for ya'll:

www. deviantart. com /deviation/ 44833495/

Happy Holidays!