A/N: I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. I know I did, even though there wasn't any turkey left to take with me home.

There arequite a few spells inthis chapter. Their definitions can be found at the end.Enjoy.

Thanks to my beta, Fuu43.

Timeline:

The Slayers takes place two years after Try. Lina is 19.

Inuyasha takes place while Kagome is 17. She is still dividing her life between her present and the past. The group is still after Naraku.

Disclaimer:

I do not own Inuyasha or The Slayers.

The Lesser Kindred

Chapter 4: The Grape Ape

Lina admired the trees as she walked along the path. For some odd reason, nature seemed rather pretty today. It wasn't like oak tree were new to her. Hell, she'd wandered through enough woods so that she could draw them, with her eyes closed, without any artistic talent. Well, at least the trees were something in this outer-world that reminded her of home.

"What are you looking at Lina?" Gourry asked breaking her reverie.

"Just admiring the trees," she replied to the man walking next to her.

"Oh," he glanced around. "They just look like trees to me."

Lina sighed. "Never mind, you wouldn't understand."

"Hey, I'm not that stupid!"

"Really?"

"Yeah, just explain it to me."

"Fine," Lina paused a moment to put her thoughts into words. She couldn't believe that she was actually going to try and explain this to him. "Now for instance look at that tree to the right. The leaves are bright red and orange. They stand out well against the pale green leaves of the tree next to it with the pink flower blossoms. Oh, and the oak trees kind of remind me of home." Lina shrugged her shoulders at Gourry who still looked confused. "Like I said, never mind."

"No, I think I get what you're saying," Gourry was staring thoughtfully at the trees, his face scrunched up in concentration. "I like the red and orange leaves. They kind of remind me of your hair."

Lina blushed. Had Gourry just complemented her?

"You like my hair?" she asked tentatively.

"Yeah, it's nice."

Lina didn't even try to stop the smile that spread over her face. It wasn't everyday that he said something about her looks that didn't involve the words 'twelve year old.' She decided to return the complement. "Well, you have nice hair too."

"You think so? Cause I really like it long. I don't think that I'd ever cut it short."

"Even if it makes you kind of look like a girl," Lina grinned up at him. She just couldn't pass up a moment to tease him.

"It does not make me look like a girl! Many guys have long hair. I mean, look at these muscles," he flexed his right arm. "Girls do not have muscles this big. And, my voice is deep! A girl with a voice this low is just plain scary."

Lina smiled slyly at him, a picture of Gourry in a dress filling in her mind. It was a very vivid image. After all, she'd seen him in drag, two. . .no, three times during the course of their adventures. She wondered if he remembered just how pretty he'd looked.

"Well, boys never seemed to mind seeing you in a dress," she really couldn't help herself. Gourry's face went red.

"If you want," Lina continued, "I could dress you up and make you pretty again. We could find you a nice suitor and you could get lots of pretty presents."

"Lina!" Gourry huffed. "Unless it's a tall, long-legged, big breasted beautiful woman, I'm not interested."
Gourry stalked out in front making it a point to ignore her. Lina rolled her eyes, knowing that she had walked into that one. Scratching her head, she turned around to see what Amelia and Zelgadis were doing. Getting rather frustrated with it herself, Lina had given them the sacred jewel shard to look after. Amelia was glancing around carefully, a thoughtful expression on her face while Zel watched. It seemed that the game was back on.

"It's in your left pocket!" Amelia announced.

"Nope," Zel replied, clearly getting a kick out of the game.

"Oh I know!" Lina wiggled her eyebrows. "It's in your underwear under the guard of mini Zelgadis!"

Amelia blushed, a look of utter embarrassment on her face.

"Well," Zel smiled back at her. "Actually, it is."

"Eww! Gross!" Lina responded as Amelia's hand went up to cover her gaping mouth.

"Hey Lina," Apparently Gourry had either forgiven her, or forgotten his anger. "I think something big is coming this way."

Lina turned to look ahead of Gourry. Sure enough, there was a cloud of dust visible on the road ahead of them.

"Could it just be horses?" Amelia suggested, her face still a sharp shade of pink.

"I doubt it," Zelgadis added, feeling the vibrations in the ground. "Unless the horses have giant footfalls."

Amelia frowned. "I can sense a jewel shard."

"What? You can sense it already," Lina did her best to hide her shock. "It's still hundreds of yards away."

"Can't you?" Amelia shrugged.

Lina sighed and closed her eyes. Damn it! How could Amelia sense it and she couldn't? Stupid Amelia.

"Hey guys," Gourry said as she opened her eyes. "That thing is approaching pretty fast."

"Amelia. Zelgadis. Hide in the trees to the right of the path. This way we can have a surprise it if it's needed," Lina ordered.

"Lina," Zel said. "Take the jewel shard. We don't want whoever it is sense it on me just in case."

Without thinking Lina held out her hand as Zelgadis dropped it into her palm.

"Aw, man," Lina groaned, a grimace crossing her face. "I forgot that this was just down your pants."

Zelgadis chuckled as he ran into forest, Amelia following close behind him. Lina watched as they disappeared into the trees and made a mental note of their location. She dropped the shard into it's designated pocket in her cloak, wiping her hand on her pants when it was secure. Her eyes went back to the approaching enemy. Or friend? Lina snorted. Whoever was coming had a jewel shard and considering that they were meaning to take it away, by force if necessary, she was pretty sure that they wouldn't be the best of friends.

"You ready Lina?" Gourry asked, pulling out his sword- a smile still on his face. Lina glanced at the metal blade. It was a pity that he no longer had the sword of light, the thing was bloody useful- not to mention priceless.

"Oh yeah," Lina smiled crookedly.

She squinted as the figure began to appear on the path, Gourry's form tensing up out of the corner of her eye. It looked to be around ten to twelve feet tall and it was definitely some sort of monster. Crap- why did it always have to be monsters? Light bluish-purplish in color, Lina sort of thought it looked like an ape.

An ape with an oversized head. Scratch that. An ape with an oversized head and two very long fangs that protruded from the its mouth. The large head itself was complemented with tiny ears and huge saucer like eyes. A really weird looking ape. It would have been comical if not for the two teeth previously mentioned and the even more menacing claws on its paws. Or were they more like hands? Either way, Lina could see that they wouldn't leave glitter marks exactly. Three dark purple triangles vertically stacked themselves on it's forehead and she thought she glimpsed another on its back. The ape thing turned it's oversized red eyes downward and looked menacingly at Lina and Gourry.

It chuckled.

"Hey!" Lina yelled up. She wasn't going to allow some weird ass ape thing to get away with that. "What the hell are you laughing at?"

"I can't believe a demon of my stature would be called to eliminate something so pathetic," it responded.

Lina raised an eyebrow. What was that?

"Nope, definitely not friendly," Gourry stated besides her, still rather relaxed.

"Where are your two friends?" It asked them, its voice sounding gravelly. "I was informed that there were four of you. No matter. I will kill them after I am finished with you two. Now, little girl, hand over the sacred jewel shard you carry and I might let you live."

Lina laughed loudly, allowing herself to mock him fully. "How stupid do you think we are? Hell, you just told us that you were sent to kill us. Apparently for such a big guy you have a small brain."

It growled at them.

Lina twisted her face into a fake grin. "My stomach growls more menacingly than that. You're going to have to try a little harder you stupid grape ape."

Before the words were even fully out of her mouth the grape ape lunged forward toward her. Moving much faster than Lina had initially expected, it caught her rather harshly under its right hand. Berating herself that she didn't move fast enough to escape his grip, she struck one of its fingers with her fist. Feeling one of its claws dig into her side, she grit her teeth and didn't give the stupid thing the satisfaction of a response. Without even needing to look, she could feel Gourry enter the fray.

Glancing at his approaching frame, she immediately distinguished the flash of metal as Gourry's sword pierced through the forearm of her attacker. Not bothering to cover his own roar of pain, the ear splitting sound ground itself into Lina's ears, even as his claws dug themselves deeper.

"You're not helping Gourry!" She yelled, now quite sure that the claw had gone all the way through her. Lina grit her teeth again, this time attempting to stretch down, extending her arm out as closely as she could to the ground. "Balus Rod!"

Swinging her whip of light in an arc above her, she sliced through the taloned fingers that pinned her down. From the corner of her eye she caught Gourry taking advantage of the monster's sudden pain, pulling his sword out of the monster before jumping away from it.

He landed gracefully next to the immobile and out of breath Lina, himself barely looking worse for wear. Yanking out the claw still imbedded in her, Gourry half dragged-half carried Lina away from the thrashing creature.

Pushing herself back up onto her feet, she heard Zelgadis's voice from the right. Thank goodness Gourry still had a steadying hand on her shoulder, she was feeling a bit off balanced still. Having a claw rip through a person's mid section had a tendency to do that she supposed.

"Wind which blows across eternity, gather in my hands and become my strength! Bram Gush!"

The blast hit the monster head on, sending it crashing off the path and into the forest on the left side. A flock of birds took flight as the trees crash down.

"Elmekia Flame!" Amelia's voice rang out over the loud squawking of the birds. The spell hurtled itself at the grape ape still on the ground and caused it to thrash in pain and anger. Quite a bit of anger. Despite bleeding from where Zel had hit it with his spell, and surely feeling uncomfortable after Amelia's attack, the monster sprang back up to its feet. Deciding to vocalize its anger by a roar, Lina was both impressed by the level of noise and grossed out by the huge amount of saliva that landed on her.

"Nasty!" Lina didn't bother to hide her shudder. "Val-Flare!"

The spell hit the monster as it began to charge at the person closest to him, Gourry. Briefly stumbling, the thing continued to travel with determination towards its target. Gourry raised his sword, ready to defend himself. Diving between its limbs, Gourry swiped at the injured leg, the sword barely nicking it. The creature kicked its back leg catching Gourry in the side, sending him face first into a maple tree. He slumped down to the ground, looking reluctant to get back up right away.

"Screw this," Lina muttered, looking over to see Gourry attempt to crawl back up. Doing her best to forget the wound at her side, she let the adrenaline of the fight wash over her. It had been awhile since she has fought anything of a challenge- she wasn't sure if the chance for a real fight was pumping her up or pissing her off. "Darkness from twilight, crimson from blood that flows; buried in the flow of time-"

"Lina! Stop!" Zelgadis shouted as he came running out of his hiding spot. "That spell could disincarnate the jewel shard!"

Shit! Lina resisted the urge to smack her forehead. She had forgotten about the shard. Drawing the power back into herself, she let the spell evaporate. "Zel! Distract it!"

"Dug Haut!" Zel dropped on his hands and knees creating stone spikes that shot up from the ground at an alarming rate. They may not have impaled the creature but they were definitely a distraction.

"Amelia, where is the shard located?" She asked the girl who was now a few paces behind her.

"Um. . ." Amelia hesitated. "It's in the right shoulder… I think."

"You better be right. Now go join Zel." Lina ran over to Gourry who had finally managed to stand. "You feeling alright?"

He nodded, watching Zel and Amelia throw spells at the creature.

"Good. Aim for the eye. I'll follow you."

With a running start Gourry jumped onto its back. Too distracted to notice, the monster didn't even flinch at the blond man's intrusion. Lina was fast on her sword man's heels.

"Fireball!" She yelled hitting it in the back of the head.

The grape ape turned it's head over his shoulder just in time to see Gourry's sword being thrust into its eye. Ducking under his arms, Lina grabbed onto the hilt of the sword as well.

"Digu Volt!" She chanted as the lightening traveled through the metal sword directly into the creature's eye. And, as Lina hoped, into it's brain as well. Now screaming in obvious agony, the monster flung Lina and Gourry to the ground- the sword still impaled in the thing's eye. She grunted in pain as she landed on her injured side.

The demon pulled out the sword and flung it to the ground. Black blood spurted from the wound and covered both the ground and the still too near Lina. Wiping the black mess off of her face she didn't even bother to move from her position, instead already getting ready for another spell. She never got the chance to open her mouth.

"Rah Tilt!" Zelgadis's voice called from somewhere behind her. Blue light streamed through the air above Lina and enveloped the monster. It writhed in misery. With a final shudder, it collapsed onto the ground.

"Damn it," Lina said as she attempted to get up. Her side really hurt now that the thrill of the fight had worn off. She peeled up part of her shirt so that she could get a better look her wounded side.

"Lina," Gourry said as he ran over to her. "You're hurt."

Lina looked at him. "Thanks for stating the obvious. Amelia, do you have any more of that sterilization stuff that smell mysteriously like rum?"

"Yep, it's in my bag," Amelia ran out of sight to retrieve her fallen bag. She came back out in moments digging through it as she walked. Lina's gaze drifted from her friend to the demon's body. Gross. She let out a sigh, knowing that there was a jewel shard located somewhere in the body of that thing. Double gross. Lina was so not looking forward to looking for it. She was already covered in its blood and saliva, she doesn't need to add guts to the list. Amelia's voice interrupted her thoughts. "Here you go."

Taking the bottle, she glanced back at the body. Was it her imagination, or did it just move?

"I think we need to find the shard," Lina said eyeing the carcass. "Now."

"What's the rush?" Amelia asked. "We have time to heal your side first."

Lina looked at Amelia besides her. "I'm not so sure it's dead."

Gourry, Amelia and Zelgadis all looked at the body. This time it twitched under all of their gazes.

"But, that's impossible!" Amelia gapped. "I mean the Rah Tilt destroyed it's astral body. Didn't it?"

"It's the jewel shard," Zelgadis replied. "It looks like it's regenerating the creature. We need to get it out. Now."

Zelgadis ran over to the sort-of-dead-but-twitching monster and climbed up so he could stand on its right shoulder. Amelia left Lina's side and ran after him. Lina moved to join them, but stopped as herwound furiously protested. She groaned in pain.

"Stay here Lina," Gourry had heard her. He ran over to the carcass as well. Amelia stood next to Zel, her head tilted thoughtfully to one side. "Amelia! Where in the shoulder is the shard?"

"Um, well. . ." dropping down to her knees, Amelia placed her hands on the creature's hide. All eyes were on her as she concentrated. "There. I think." She pointed to a spot in front of Zel. "It should be a few inches below the surface."

Zelgadis pulled out his sword and plunged it into the flesh of the shoulder. At a depth of around eight inches, he began to cut a circle into the body. Once the circle was finished, he reached down and pulled out a block of flesh about ten inches wide. With the ten by eight chunk of demon flesh in his hand, he presented it to Amelia.

She looked like she was going to cry in revulsion at the offering.

"Is it in here?" Zel asked her. The flesh seemed to be wiggling around in his hands.

"Um hmm," Amelia nodded, looking a little green.

Zelgadis jumped off of the grape ape and walked over to Lina.

"Whoa," Lina said as the flesh wiggled on it's own again. "Don't bring that over here."

Zel glared as he began to pick his way through the body part. Throwing chunks of flesh around, he dug for the shard. Lina wanted to look away, but she just couldn't tear her eyes from the gruesome site. The hunk of flesh seemed to almost be protesting the assault that it was being put under. It had to be some sort of side affect from the jewel. She didn't even notice that Amelia had knelt down next to her.

Amelia bent her head closer to Lina's side, fussing over both her and the wound. Grabbing the bottle from Lina, she pulled off the cork and lifted up Lina's shirt.

"Hey," Lina said, now giving Amelia her full attention. "What are you doing?"

"I'm cleaning it so I can heal it," she responded as she poured the liquid onto her friend's side. Lina grit her teeth in pain. Damn it, if cleaning a wound was a good thing, then why did it have to hurt so freaking much.

"I can do it myself," Lina said through her clenched teeth.

"Shush," Amelia responded as the pouring stopped. "You're hurt and I am better at healing than you are so just let me."

Lina sighed and turned her attention back to Zel allowing Amelia to do her business. A few moments later, Zel's face lit up as he pulled a shiny pick object out of the mess.

"Look at what we have here," he smiled presenting the jewel and throwing the rest of the flesh onto the ground. The hunk of demon stopped moving on it's own once the shard was removed.

"Thank god," Lina responded.

Amelia looked up from her patient's side and smiled. "You found it!"

"All thanks to you Amelia," Zel said. "You're getting pretty good at locating these things."

Amelia smiled even wider at the compliment, a light blush dotting her cheeks.

Lina turned her attention back to the dead monster laying in the path. Something just didn't seem to feel right. It was too easy, even if she got hurt. After all of the mazuko she has fought in the past, this monster just seemed way to simple to kill. Sure, it could have just been an underling for some lord, but seriously, there wasn't a demon lord who didn't know about her. If they were trying to kill her, they would have sent something that would have presented just a bit more of a challenge. Something was off. Something was wrong. Something had seriously underestimated her and her friends.

"Hey guys," Gourry interrupted her thoughts. "We have company."

"And they have a large jewel shard," Amelia chimed in still healing Lina's side.

Lina looked up to see a group of people still very distant. Too far away to see clearly, there were four of them walking on foot with what appeared to be a small animal beside them. They approached slowly, seeming to take in the environment. Zelgadis and Gourry moved in front of the two girls in a protective stance. Normally, she would have given both of them a good smack on the head for doing it, but considering she was in the process of being healed, it left both Amelia and herslef vulnerable until they were finished.

Getting a glimpse of them as they walked around the corpse, Lina took the opportunity to examine them. A man with white hair wearing a red outfit of some kind lead the group. He didn't look human, especially since he had dog like ears sticking out of his head and golden yellow eyes. Behind him was a young girl who had on a strange outfit. It kind of reminded Lina of some type of sailor's uniform for girls; or a type of prostitutes uniform modified to look like sailor's garb. The thing showed way to much leg; then again, Naga and Martina dressed more scandaless than that. Either way, it was odd. Peering out of a bag on the shoulder of the sailor prostitute was some kind of fox creature thing. Like a little Jiras. On second thought, she hoped not. Man that stupid gun-toting fox was annoying. The next person was another woman who was dressed like a warrior. She carried a heavy looking incredibly large boomerang across her back. Another strange creature walked next to her. It was growling softly at them while it approached. Lina would have said it was somewhere between a fox and a kitten of kinds. In fact, it was actually sort of cute. And, lastly, bringing up the rear was a holy man who carried a large staff. Lina scratched her head, she had a feeling that she should know them.

The sailor prostitute stopped to look at the dead demon. She frowned as she looked at the carcass and looked back at them. Her eyes went straight to Amelia and Lina. More importantly to where Amelia was healing Lina. Her gaze then drifted up towards Zelgadis, a look of confusion passing over her features. Lina bit her lip, Amelia needed to hurry up with the healing spell. As if reading her mind, Amelia pulled down Lina's shirt signaling that she was now good to go. They both stood up, knowing that it was time to face down the new arrivals.

Here are the definitions of the spells used in this chapter. The definitions are from The Slayers Universe at www. inverse. org (Spaces will have to be removed in order to work. Sorry about that, but I can't get it in here any other way.)

Balus Rod
A whip of light appears in the caster's palm which can be used to attack. Unlike spells which are shot out, the movement of the whip can be more tightly controlled by the caster, improving the chances of hitting the target. The primary weakness of the spell is its short range.

Bram Gush
The spell creates an arrow of wind, which is shot at a target and bursts upon contact (or at the caster's choosing), shredding the target to pieces. An extremely lethal spell which has the power to blow a hole through a brick wall.

Digu Volt
A lethal spell which shoots out a blast of lightning from the palm of the extended arm. This spell is a stronger version of Mono Volt, and a direct hit by this spell most likely means death. There is also a small chance that targets struck with this spell will catch on fire.

Dug Haut
A powerful and effective spell in which numerous large stone spears rush out of the ground. This is done by gathering magical energy in a hand and slamming that hand against the ground, which causes the layers underneath the ground to shift. Since this spell also causes a small earthquake, any target whose feet are on the ground will have a hard time dodging this spell.

Elmekia Flame
Stronger version of Elmekia Lance. Instead of a lance, a pillar about as wide as a man's chest is shot out. It deals no physical damage, but since it attacks from the Astral Plane, it can easily destroy the spirit of a man.

Fireball
A ball of fire appears between the hands of the caster which can then be thrown. Upon contact with an object, the ball explodes, spreading flames. Caution is necessary when using this spell in enclosed area or forests because this spell affects a wide area. This is the most popular offensive spell. Lina uses variations of this spell such as making the ball of light appear in places other than between the hands, or making the ball of fire explode on the word "Break." Being able to cast this spell is one of the criteria for a full-fledged mage.

Ra Tilt
The strongest spirit magic spell which envelops a target in blue-white light. This spell can only be used against a single target -- and only those that have spirits -- but its effect is absolute. The blue-white flame can destroy even a pure Mazoku with a single hit.

Val-Flare
At first glance it looks like an enlarged Flare Arrow, but upon contact it causes a tremendous explosion and deals a tremendous amount of damage. It can be used against living beings, and also to open holes in ceilings. Care is needed when casting this spell in a wooden building because the building could catch on fire.