Chapter 19: Three Down, One to Go

Gourry frowned. When Lina didn't say anything for a while, he got worried. When she came streaking down the tree trunk in an orange blur, his worry heightened.

"Lina what hap-?"

"Never mind Gourry!" she cut him off. Gourry frowned. It was unusual for her to sound this freaked out. "You said you saw Amelia and Zelgadis take the notebook with them right before that monster showed up, right?"

"Yes, but-"

"We need to find them and Naga now," she interupted him again. "That monster's heading straight for us."

Gourry didn't need telling twice. Once again, he picked up Lina in his arms and started running. This time she didn't protest. She knew that at her current size, she would never be able to keep up with him.

"Lina," he grunted, still running, "Are you sure it's coming for us?"

"Do you mean us specifically?" she asked. He made a noise of general assent. "Honestly, I don't really know," she confessed. "But I don't want to take my chances, especially with Morris and co. still after us. I wanna be able to defend myself just in case."

"Which is why you wanted to find Amelia and the others," Gourry concluded. "You mentioned Morris though. Do you think he's behind this somehow?"

"It's a possibility. But we can figure that part out later. Right now we need to focus on finding the others."

At the moment, the three people in question were sitting in a secluded little clearing a good distance away from the monster. They were currently working out a way to undo Morris' spell, and were having the time of their lives. If the previous sentence was read aloud, the latter half of it would be said with a great deal of sarcasm.

"A monkey?" Sitting cross legged on the ground Naga scratched her head in a very Gourry-like manner.

Amelia sweatdropped, shook her head, and tried again.

"A giraffe?"

Looking on, Zelgadis sighed mentally. If the situation wasn't so serious, he might've thought this was funny. But it was, so he didn't. I never thought not having other people able to understand me would make things so difficult!

Amelia sighed after her third failed attempt to convey their theory about a possible way to counter the spell. "After this, I'm never playing charades again as long as I live," she muttered. But I can't give up! Justice will triumph in the end! At least, I hope it will…

Naga rubbed her temples. Having to communicate like this was making her head hurt.

Normally, none of them would have had any trouble working out a way to undo a spell like this one. A sorcerer who knew enough about the mechanics of the particular spell and about spell mechanics in general could do it without much difficulty.

But this spell was completely foreign to them. It was different from most other spells they'd seen before. Hence, their problem.

Naga glared at the notebook, half-hoping that might help somehow. Absently reading it over again, she frowned. Wait a sec…She read over the piece of text again. Could it really be that simple?

"Hey," she poked Amelia in the side. "I think I've got something." Rapidly she began to explain her idea to them.

Zelgadis eyed the magic circle in front of him warily. Although it really wasn't much more than some lines and symbols scratched in the dirt. "I don't like this," he said bluntly. "That was too simple."

"Be more optimistic for once Mr. Zelgadis!" Amelia chided him. "My sister wouldn't let anything bad happen to us. Well, intentionally anyways."

Why am I not reassured?

"Well?" Naga tapped her foot impatiently. "Which one of you is going first?"

"I'll go," Zelgadis said resignedly.

"Mr. Zelgadis?" Amelia looked surprised, and with good reason too, considering how he'd been bad mouthing the whole thing just moments before.

"If anything goes wrong, I'd rather it happen to me than you," he explained. Amelia wasn't sure she if she should be touched by his concern for her safety or annoyed by his lack of faith in her sister.

Zelgadis stepped cautiously into the magic circle. "About time," Naga muttered, before starting to chant.

The magic circle began to glow. A great wind suddenly started blowing about, as the Laws of Dramatic Special Effects dictate that there must be wind during magical events like this one. Amelia dug her claws into the grounds to keep from being blown away.

POP! Where there had been a sullen-looking grey wolf, there was now a somewhat dazed-looking chimera. Although the dazed look quickly vanished as he realized that he had no clothes on.

Face burning, Amelia ducked her head while he got dressed. I'm glad we remembered to get our clothes, she thought gratefully. Naga didn't seem to notice her embarrassment.

"Are you ready?" Amelia nodded, and, regaining her composure, stepped into the magical circle.

It was more or less the same as what had happened to Amelia. The circle glowed. Gusts of wind blew. There was a loud POP! noise. Amelia blinked, and then examined her hand, to make sure she wasn't dreaming. Then she grabbed her backside to check for tail. To her relief, she found nothing.

"Are you dressed yet?" Zelgadis (who was determinedly not looking at her) asked irritably.

"Oh, right," she mumbled, quickly complying.

"Right then," Zelgadis said as soon she'd finished, "I think our next course of action should be-"

"Well, I see you've finally rejoined the human race," came a new voice. The three of them whirled around.

"Morris," Zelgadis growled.

"Foul villain!" Amelia shouted angrily. "What do you want?!"

"Oh, I think that you should know very well what I want by this point," Morris said calmly. "The-"

"Oooooohhohohohohohoh!" He was cut off by Naga's laughter. Somehow she'd managed to get up onto a tree branch. "So, you've come to challenge me the great Naga, have you?" she laughed again.

Morris looked confused. "Who?"

Naga face-faulted, then composed herself. "Surely you've heard of the famed sorceress Naga the White Serpent?"

"I'm afraid I haven't." Naga pouted and opened her mouth to say some thing else.

"But that's really not the point her," He cut her off, turning to look back at Amelia and Zelgadis. "You see I recently acquired a new pet, and I need someone to play with him."

Zelgadis' ears pricked. Suddenly he could hear the faint booming sound of the monster footsteps. It was getting steadily louder too. He had a bad feeling about this.

"He's lonely and wants something to play with. I was hoping you might comply." Now they could all hear the sound of the beast moving as it grew closer.

"Coward!" Amelia pointed at him in an accusing manner. Zelgadis quietly drew his sword. "You're just using this thing to do your dirty work for you!"

Morris frowned. "You could put it that way I suppose…"

"Why don't you face us yourself!"

Morris snorted. "Do you really think I'm that stupid? If I did that I'd only get killed Call it cowardice if you want, but I prefer to keep living."

"Morris! One other thing!" Zelgadis called. "Why are you doing this? Isn't Lina the one you're after?"

"Yes, that is true," Morris admitted. "But I know that she hasn't regained her form yet, and sooner or later she'll come looking for you." His face darkened. "But enough with the chit chat." He cast a Levitation spell and retreated. As he went, Amelia saw him pull something out of his robe pockets.

A loud roar heralded the beast's arrival. The sorcerers last taunting words carried towards them on the wind.

"Have fun."

A/N: Hello again! Yet another chappie! Amelia and Zelgadis are finally back to normal. Except nowthey must fight Beast-sama. Morris is acting very... villain-like.

My mom's been limiting my computer access due to school related issues (evil school...) so I don't know when i'll have the next chapter up.

R&R folks!