Chapter 9: I Spy an Evil Sorcerer
"I spy something pink."
"Amelia's necklace thing?"
"Nope."
"Your clothes?"
"Amelia's purse?"
"No, no, and my clothes are magenta, Gourry."
"My bracelet?"
"There's a difference?"
"Yes, there's a difference Gourry, and yes, it's your bracelet Amelia."
Zelgadis rolled his eyes. It was their fifth day of traveling, and hour after hour of walking through never changing scenery was really, really boring. True, the forest was denser here, but still. He wished something interesting would happen, to break the monotony. Silly Zelgadis. He should know by now, "be careful what you wish for."
Bailard fidgeted. "What's taking them so long?" he muttered, getting irritated. You couldn't exactly blame him. Sitting in the bushes for god knows how long can do that to you. Not to mention the "special camouflage clothing" Morris made them all wear that itched him to no end, and the two small branches tied around his head, which, all in all, made him feel utterly ridiculous.
"They'll get here when they here," Morris replied calmly. This only irritated the bandit leader even more. Morris didn't seem at all bothered by this. In fact, nothing about the situation seemed to bother him; not the itchy clothes, not the dorky looking camouflage, and not the sitting in the bushes. In fact, as far as Bailard could tell, the sorcerer hadn't moved a single muscle since they got here a few hours ago. He simply sat there, crouched on his haunches, showing no signs of getting cramped, staring at fixed spot in the distance. Waiting…
"It looks like we've got company guys," Lina muttered. Her companions nodded. They had sensed it too: numerous presences concealed in the trees on either side of the road. Gourry and Zelgadis both put their hand on the hilts of their swords. Lina and Amelia both got ready to cast spells if need be. They continued walking, waiting for whoever was hiding to make their move.
Amelia suddenly got the feeling that something wasn't right. It was as if there was another danger, one she hadn't noticed before, though she couldn't be sure. She wondered whether or not she should say something to the others.
"Miss Lina-" Too late. There was a shout, and Amelia froze place.
"I can't move!" she heard Lina's voice to her left. Amelia quickly realized she couldn't either. None of them could.
"A Shadow Snap?" Zelgadis muttered, looking around at their shadows.
"A good guess," came a new voice. "Very close. But not quite accurate. You'll notice no swords or daggers pinning your shadows to the ground." Amelia's eyes widened in surprise. She recognized that voice! "The spell that holds you in place is a variation on the Shadow Snap. However, it does not use shadows to trap you from the Astral Plane, so that light spell you're chanting won't help."
Zelgadis glared and released the spell anyway. There was a flash of light, and…
"I told you it wouldn't help." Amelia twisted around to get a good look at the speaker.
"It's you!" Amelia exclaimed, pointing. "Um, whatever your name is!" Morris and all the bandits in the clearing fell over.
"My name is Morris!" he shouted, getting back up.
"You know this guy Amelia?" Zelgadis asked her quietly.
Amelia nodded. "He's that sorcerer I was telling you about yesterday."
Lina glared at him. "Alright Morris, what do you want from us?" she demanded.
"Well, my companions here are all bandits with a grudge against you Miss Inverse," he said mildly. "And me? Well, in exchange for helping them capture you, I get to test a new spell I discovered recently."
"What?!" the big burly bandit standing next to him growled. "That wasn't part of the deal!"
"I'm changing the deal Bailard. You can do what you want with them when I'm finished."
"Lina," Gourry whispered as the Morris and the bandit argued it out, "Why don't you cast a spell and get us out of this?"
"You think I haven't already tried that Gourry?!" she snapped at him. "He must have some kind of warding field up. I can only manage a light spell right now."
"Well there has to be a way to break the field!" Amelia insisted. Gourry quickly became lost as Lina, Zelgadis, and Amelia got into a quiet discussion on how to break warding fields.
There were a lot of things about the situation Gourry didn't understand. But he did understand that the bottom line was these people wanted to hurt Lina. As far as Gourry was concerned, that was all that mattered.
"Let's begin our experiment, shall we?" The evil sorcerer guy (whose name Gourry had forgotten) pulled out a roll of yellowing parchment and unfurled it.
"Listen, Morris," Lina said, thinking fast, "You can at least let my companions go. They have nothing to do with this."
"That's their bad luck," the sorcerer replied coldly. He started to chant a spell. Lina didn't recognize it, but she quickly realized from the level of power building up around them that the spell was a big one.
"If you hurt her-!" Gourry shouted angrily. The sorcerer gave no indication that he'd heard, continuing to chant.
Pop! Gourry stared in horror as Lina vanished from sight, her clothes crumpling in a heap where she'd been standing moments ago. "Lina!"
Pop! Pop! He turned just in time to see Zelgadis and Amelia's clothes crumple to the ground. Gourry looked around wildly for his friends. "Wha-?!"
POP! Everything went dark. On the ground where he'd been standing was nothing but a pile of blue clothes and armor.
A/N: My cliffhangar obsession continues -sigh- Writing from Gourry's point of view is harder than it looks. It was a nice challange. Hope I kept him in character.
I meant to update earlier than this, but my internet crashed -gripes- At least it's back up now.