Chapter 16: An Interesting Development

Lina's consciousness wandered between that place between dreaming and wakefulness. Disjointed sounds and pictures flashed through her brain, yet she didn't know if they were real or if she was just dreaming.

She was dimly aware of being curled up against something very big and very warm. She purred. It was actually quite comfortable. She cracked open an eyelid.

To find herself lying next to a very human (and very naked) Gourry. Her startled yowls were heard many miles away by a lone traveler, who assumed that someone was suffering a toaster-related incident (don't ask).

To say that the upstart woke her companions would be an understatement.

"Ack-!"

"What the-?!"

"Are we under attack?!"

"Mr. Zelgadis you're sitting on my tail."

It took a few minutes for the initial confusion to die down. Gourry looked as bewildered as the rest of them.

"Lina, what happened to-" he noticed his current state of undress. "Ack! I'm naked!" He blushed and covered himself as best as he could.

If Lina had been human, she'd look like a tomato. As it was, she ducked her head in embarrassment. Of all the things-!

"Alright, first order of business, get some fricken clothes on Gourry!"

"But Lina, I don't remember where we put our clothes!"

"Then get Zel- Wait a second, how can you understand what I'm saying?" He opened his mouth to answer, but she cut him off. "On second thought, just go get your clothes. We can talk about it later."

Once they were gone Lina sighed. "Good grief," she muttered.

"You do realize what this means, don't you Miss Lina?" Amelia said, approaching her with a hopeful look in her eyes.

Lina nodded. "Course I do, Amelia. This spell may only be temporary, in which case…" she trailed off, not needing to finish. Then she frowned. "There's one thing that's bugging me though. Why just Gourry? We all had the spell cast on us at the same time, so if it's temporary, shouldn't we all turn back to normal at the same time?"

"Hmmmm…" Amelia pondered this for a moment. "I wonder…"

"What are you thinking Amelia?"

"Well, you know what herbalists are, right?" Lina nodded. Essentially, herbalists were a poor man's alternative to healers, who used herbal remedies instead of spells to heal the sick and injured.

"Well," Amelia continued, "I was on a diplomatic mission in the Outer World a while ago. Because magic is so scarce out there, their non-magical methods of healing are a lot more advanced than they are here, because they've had to rely on them more. This includes herbalists."

"You do have a point to all this, don't you?" Lina interrupted.

"Yes, right. Well, while I was there, I met an herbalist who was telling me about what he does. He told me that he had to be careful with the herbs he used, because different people reacted to them differently."

"And you think something similar might have happened with the spell?" Lina finished. "That it had a different effect on each of us?"

At that moment, Zelgadis, accompanied by a no-longer-nude Gourry reappeared. Lina and Amelia quickly relayed to them their theory.

"It makes sense if you think about it," Zelgadis after thinking it over for a minute. "It would explain why we weren't all turned into the same thing."

"Uh, Lina?" Gourry asked raising a hand.

"Yes Gourry?"

"I don't get it." Right, thought Lina, Who didn't see that one coming? She sighed.

"Ok, Gourry, think of it like this. You know how some people, when they're around flowers, get itchy eyes and runny noses, and they sneeze a lot?" Gourry nodded. "But that doesn't happen to everyone," Lina continued. "Just some people." He nodded again. "Right, well, it's sort of the same thing with that spell Morris cast on us. Only instead of getting itchy eyes, we all turned into different animals." It suddenly struck Zelgadis how odd it was that their situation was being compared to pollen allergies. "And in your case, at least, the spell was only temporary. So do you understand now Gourry?" He thought about it for a minute, and then clapped his hands together in sudden understanding.

"So basically, what you're saying is that we all had allergic reactions to that spell-thingy!"

Amelia and Zelgadis fell over. Lina sighed again. "Close enough," she muttered.

Picking himself up, Zelgadis added, "Remember, most of this is just speculation. We don't have any definite proof. And it still doesn't answer the question of why Gourry can still understand us even though he's human now."

"You've got a point there Zel," Lina admitted. "Although, we don't really know why we've been able to understand each other period since we first transformed. Logically, you'd think we couldn't, but we can."

"Maybe there's a built-in side effect in the spell that let's us understand each other when we transform," Amelia mused aloud. "And for whatever reason, that side-effect lasted after the spell ended?"

"Yes, but why would Morris put something like that in the spell?" asked Zelgadis. "Wouldn't it be to his advantage for us not to be able to communicate?"

"True, but we don't know that Morris created this spell," Lina pointed out. "For all we know, he could have gotten it elsewhere."

Gourry sat cross-legged on the ground, not really following any of it. Deep and involved discussions like this one were way to complex for him to really understand. Not that he tried very hard. He generally left the magic-related thinking to Lina. That was more her area of expertise. He didn't see the point in thinking to much about it when he had Lina around to do the thinking for him.

A nearby presence broke him out of his reverie. He sat up and tensed slightly, straining his senses. He could tell the presence was getting closer. The blonde swordsman glanced at his companions. Still wrapped up in their discussion, none of them seemed to notice (Lina and Zel were arguing about something related to sealing shadows and Astral Pain).

He was about to say something when-"OOOOOOOOOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!" They all started.

"Gah!" Lina muttered. "I still have nightmares about that laugh."

"Imagine having to grow up with it," Amelia told her somberly.

"Imagine eleven of her all laughing at once," Lina shot back.

"Miss Lina! There are some things you shouldn't joke about!"

"I'm not joking. That's actually happened."

An eerie silence fell. It was broken by the sound of Naga's voice, who- thankfully!- had stopped laughing.

"So Lina Inverse! Are you challenging me, the great Naga, to a fight?!"

"Huh?" Lina looked around wildly, but the scantily-clad sorceress was nowhere to be seen.

"Do not underestimate me! I, your greatest and foremost rival, will not be defeated easily!" She laughed again.

"Lina, I'm confused!" Gourry whined.

"For once you're not alone in that sentiment Gourry," Zelgadis muttered.

A few minutes of searching revealed the White Serpent to be a few yards away in the forest. Apparently talking to a tree. Or rather, talking to the orange cat that was stuck up the tree.

"Hey Lina! That cat looks like you!" Gourry exclaimed, pointing.

"Good grief…" Lina stared, somewhat amazed by Naga's stupidity. "Naga!" she called. The sorceress didn't seem to notice.

"Hey Gourry-" Lina head butted him in the shin lightly- "Get her attention for me, will ya?"

Gourry obediently picked up a rock and chucked it at the White Serpent, beaning her in the head.

"Ow!" Naga clutched her head in pain.

"I didn't mean like that Gourry!"

"Then why didn't you say so?"

"Urgh, never mind."

A/N: Yeah, I know it's a weird place to end a chapter. I'm weird. So sue me.

The nakedness part was fun to write. Bwahahahahah. So was Gourry's method of getting Naga's attention.

I'm still not very good at writing Naga's character... Especially when she's interacting with someone other than Lina. This will be harder than I thought...

Anyhoo, until next time! R&R!