Chapter 18: Run Away!

As the goblins swarmed the clearing, Zelgadis ran for it. His first instinct was to help fight, but he resisted that impulse. There were too many goblins, and he knew he'd just as likely just get in the way.

Judging by the shouting and spell casting coming from behind him, Gourry and Naga were somewhere behind him, fighting the creatures off.

It hurt his pride a little, to not be able to help them. No point in worrying about it now, he thought, pushing it to the back of his mind.

Zelgadis glanced behind him to make sure Amelia was keeping up. To his relief, he saw she'd had the presence of mind to grab Morris' notebook, and was carrying it in her jaws. However, the bulky object was making it difficult for her to run properly.

Skidding to a halt, Zelgadis turned to help her (getting a distinct feeling of déjà vu in the process).

"Give it to me," he grunted. Grabbing the already beat up note book in his jaws, he turned and kept running.

Amelia panted. Her legs were on fire! How long had they been running? An hour? It sure felt that way. She felt about ready to collapse. This new body of mine clearly wasn't built for long distance running, she thought ruefully.

"Mr. Zelgadis," she mewed, panting heavily, "I think we've run far enough."

"You're probably right." They both stopped, catching their breath.

"What… do you suppose…" Zelgadis panted, "That… was all… about?"

"We've heard reports… back at home… about villages in this area having problems… with goblins," Amelia replied. "Including some in the outskirts of Seyruun. Daddy was talking about sending in soldiers when I left."

"I see…" There was silence for a moment while they finished resting.

"I hope Miss Lina and the others are alright," Amelia mewed softly, glancing worriedly in the direction they'd come from.

"I'm sure they're fine," he replied. "They can take care of themselves." Or at least, Gourry and Gracia can, he thought. He didn't say this aloud however.

Zelgadis was about to ask what they should do with the notebook when…

Ga-ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAR!!!!!!

Her blood went cold as they exchanged horrified looks. The trees shook with the echo's reverberation. Leaves and pine needles fell like green snow all around them. In the tree tops there was a great flapping of wings as the birds took to the sky. Animal cries could be heard from every direction as the forest creatures dashed into whatever shelter they could find.

Every one of Amelia's instincts screamed for her to do likewise, but burning curiosity quickly overpowered that urge.

She scrambled up the nearest tree, exhaustion forgotten as adrenaline pumped through he veins. Below her, she could hear Zelgadis shouting her name. She ignored him, clambering onto the highest branch.

Over the years, Amelia had learned that it was best to find out what you could about a situation before blindly charging into it. Otherwise, she reasoned, you could end up fighting for injustice by mistake. Peering over the treetops, Amelia put this particular piece of knowledge to good use.

It wasn't difficult finding the source of the roar. Even among the trees, a large, dragon-sized creature is difficult to miss. She strained her eyes, trying to make out the details. The creature (that was the best word for it) was roughly the size of a black dragon. It certainly had wings like a dragon, but its head resembled that of a male lion. The creature's hide was all one color: black. The rest of its features Amelia couldn't make out, as most of its lower body was obscured by the trees.

The creature turned its head in her direction. Its eyes were glowing yellow. She shivered involuntarily, though the rational part of her mind knew it couldn't be looking directly.

Finished, Amelia climbed back down the tree trunk, which turned out to be harder than going up was. When she finally reached the forest floor again, she was greeted by a more-than-slightly-ticked-off Zelgadis.

"You idiot! What did you think you were doing?!" he almost shouted. "Do you have any idea how worried I was?!"

Amelia cringed. She didn't like seeing him this angry "I'm sorry Mr. Zelgadis," she mumbled, looking at her feet. "But I needed to see what was making that noise."

"You didn't have to go recklessly climbing trees! You can't cast Levitation now, remember?"

"I know that. It was the only way I could get a good look at that thing," she answered. "I'm sorry if I made you worry Mr. Zelgadis," she added softly.

He sighed, knowing he couldn't stay angry at her for very long. "It's alright Amelia. Just... next time, warn me, ok?"

She smiled and nodded, glad that he wasn't angry with her any longer.

Crash!

They both started. A nearby clump of bushes rustled and uttered a long string of curse words.

Amelia gave him a startled look. "It's Gracia," she said, sounding surprised. But I thought she would be with Miss Lina and Mr. Gourry.

Sure enough, the elder Seyruun princess disentangled herself from said bushes, muttering darkly under her breath all the while. She did not seem to notice either of them.

"Stupid tree roots…"

"Gracia!" Startled, Naga looked around for the source of the loud meow she'd heard. Behind her she saw a very familiar-looking cat and wolf.

"Amelia?" She was plainly as surprised as they were.

"Amelia," Zelgadis nudged her. "Give her the notebook. We need to get that counterspell as quickly possible if we want to be able to defend ourselves against that monster-thing."

"Hmm? Oh, right." Amelia picked up the notebook and complied.

"Can you see it Lina?" Gourry hollered up at her.

"Yeah! It's a big one!" On a branch somewhere up above him, Lina watched the monster from the treetops, not unlike what Amelia had been doing earlier. Not looking away from it, she described the creature to him in detail.

While she did this, she continued to watch it. So far, it didn't appear to be doing much of anything. It just turned its head slowly back and forth, surveying the area around it. It seems to be waiting for something… but what?

No sooner had she thought this, it began to move. Boom! Even at this distance she could hear the loud crash of its footsteps.

Down below she heard Gourry's startled shout. "What's going on Lina?!"

"Just gimme a sec Gourry!" She glanced at the creature to see which direction is going. "Let's see," she mumbled to herself, "It's headed-" she glanced at the sun- "northeast. Now what is northeast of here?" she racked her brain, thinking through the mental map of the land that had become imprinted on her mind due to years of traveling. All that was in that direction was more forest and mountains

Lina had no time to dwell on this. Suddenly the creature stopped dead in its tracks. Then it turned. She gulped.

It was headed straight for them.

A/N: Hi Earthlings! Really don't have much to say this time. Hope I've kept everyone in character. Um... yeah...

Please review! They make me happy, and I probably wouldn't have written this much if it hadn't been for you guys' comments. Seriously, if it doesn't look to me like people are liking my fic, there's not much incentive to write