Disclaimer: I do not own Storm Hawks or Slayers.

WARNING: Ambiguous Age Gap.

Sherra's Folly

Squadron Log:

While in the area, we recently heard a rumor about some sort of powerful and dangerous relic. Not much is known, but we decided to check it out just in case. We're currently following a local resident named Sherra. Lina pretty much hounded her into helping us since she said she knew where it was. I feel sorry that she got dragged into this. Even more so since Finn had flirted with her several times already. She doesn't seem to mind, though she gets a bit agitated around Lina. Maybe resentful. Lina seems to think she's kind of familiar and that's why she's like that. But it could just be my imagination.

"Hey! Piper! We're almost there!" Piper heard Aerrow shout as she quickly placed the book back into her pack. The others were already ahead, standing in front of an ominous-looking cave. They all stared in, seeing blackening darkness at its end. Its eerie quietness echoed back at them which caused chills through their bodies. In other words, it certainly was a place to hide a legendary relic.

"It's supposedly at the heart of the cave," their guide, Sherra spoke up. "It's pretty linear but I heard there were monsters in it."

"That's why you have the Finnster here." Finn pointed at himself while giving her a wink. She stared at him for a bit before letting out a somewhat forced giggle. The others, especially the girls, all stared at the two in complete silence. Their minds all questioned how that would garner any response. Still, it was best not to think about it and take it as she didn't know better.

In any case, Lina let out a cough and said, "Well, then, why don't you lead us there since you know where it is, right?"

"R-Right," Sherra replied in an indifferent tone. As they entered the cave, a few of them couldn't help but notice her giving a slight glare over at an oblivious Lina. It was strange, given that Sherra seemed like any normal girl. But they knew the plucky sorceress had a habit of indirectly making enemies. So, the big question was what did Lina do to make her so cold towards her?

The journey through the cave was fairly uneventful. Other than the dark, there didn't seem to be anything to hinder them further. The path was pretty straight forward and there weren't any monsters around. It didn't take long for them to make it to the cave's inner chamber, a large space that was vast and completely empty. Not even an altar for something to be on it.

After a moment of silence, Lina shouted, "Hey! What gives?! There's nothing here!" She and the others all looked at Sherra who had been very quiet. Like an uncharacteristic quiet that was a little unnerving.

"Well, of course there's nothing…" she finally said, a twisted smile growing on her face. "It wouldn't have been easy to get you here if I hadn't spread that rumor in the first place."

The entire group continued to be silent. Then, Aerrow suspiciously narrowed his eyes. "Let me guess, this is a trap."

"That's right! I had led you all here so I can destroy you!" She then started to change, her clothes shifting from peasant garbs to more majestic wear. "For you see, I'm not Sherra, the lowly girl you keep pushing around. I'm Sherra, general to the Dark Lord, Dynast Grausherra!"

Despite the dramatic reveal, they didn't look impressed by her appearance. The majority of them looked confused while Lina and Gourry were indifferent. She, after placing a hand on her forehead, said, "So, you're doing the same trick when we first met. Pretty unoriginal, even for you."

"Yea… Well…" Sherra coughed for a bit. Then, she became all smug again. "Even if it's unoriginal, it still managed to fool you."

Lina balked for a moment. "You didn't fool me! I just didn't think you would be dumb enough to pull the same stunt twice!"

"Yea," Gourry agreed, "It kinda seems a bit redundant."

"Oh! Don't be so haughty! I so had you fooled!" She watched as Lina became even more flustered, a sight that she rather enjoyed. It was satisfying to see the so-called sorceress genius get knocked down a few pegs.

Then, she went back to a composed demeanor, letting out a cough in the process. "In any case, it's a trivial manner. I have you all cornered and there's nothing you can do about it." She then readied herself, holding her sword high. "Now then, prepare yourselves for-!"

"OH DUDE! NOT AGAIN!"

Sherra stopped in her tracks, almost fumbling until she caught herself. She, along with the others, looked at Finn who seemed panicked as he clenched his head. Zelgadis raised an eyebrow and asked, "What do you mean by 'not again'?"

"Well… I may have flirted with Cyclonis." He looked away while pushing his index fingers together.

He plus Lina, Amelia, and Gourry all raised their eyebrows. It didn't take too long for them though as Junko realized what he meant. "Ohhhh, you mean from that time she infiltrated the Condor, right?"

Finn remained silent as the others continued to stare at him. Lina sighed, rubbing her head from the migraine she was getting. "Okay, can someone explain what happened?"

"Cyclonis disguised herself as a girl named Lark and tried to get Piper to join her," Aerrow explained. He then glanced over at a still-mopey Finn. "… And he may have tried to flirt with her."

"To be fair, she pretty much had us all fooled," Piper said, still kinda embarrassed by it.

After listening to that explanation, the ragtag group of adventurers squinted their eyes. They then nodded thoughtfully. It made sense now why Finn had been flustered before.

"Well, Cyclonis isn't that bad." Gourry crossed his arms while musing, "She's around your guys' age, right? Sherra's probably as old as Xelloss."

Sherra's face twitched as Finn grimaced. "Augh, didn't have to tell me that."

"Wait! How do you know she's as old as Xelloss?" Amelia asked, turning to Gourry.

"Well…" He put his hand on his chin. "He's like a thousand years old. So, she may be around that age too."

"You sure?" Zelgadis raised an eyebrow. "She could be younger."

Junko nodded. "Yea, she kinda acts less mature than Xelloss does."

"Is he even mature himself?" Piper questioned sarcastically.

"Well, she is kinda less mature than him," Amelia said, "If we go along those lines, she could be younger."

Gourry stared at her for a moment, his hand rubbing his chin in a contemplative manner. "Oh… I guess so. She was like that whenever me and Lina fought her before."

"But she's still pretty old, right?" asked Finn.

"Not sure. It's hard to tell with them. If anything, she could be ten years old." Zelgadis' brow furrowed as he thought about it some more.

Upon hearing that, Sherra's eye twitched. "Ex-excuse me…"

"Really? Ten?" Aerrow asked, "She's that young?"

"Well, I'm just eyeballing it here. Like I said, it's hard to tell."

"WOULD YOU JUST SHUT UP ALREADY?!" She yelled, causing everyone to jump up and turned to her. Her face was pretty much red as she was tired of these humans discussing her age. It wouldn't even matter anyway as she was about to destroy them.

Sherra had expected them to fight her by now. But they all looked at her with skeptical stares. Next, Gourry narrowed his eyes and asked, "So?"

"… So what?" She stared at him in a dumbfounded stupor.

"How old are you?" In a serious manner, he crossed his arms. "Cuz if you're like a thousand years or so, then you're too old for Finn." He then raised a finger and continued, "But if you're like ten years old, then that's a completely different problem."

As the few nerves in her mind broke, she stood there, gawking. Lina, who had been quiet during the whole conversation, sighed exasperatedly. "Gourry, you jellyfish brain. Mazoku don't age the same way as humans."

"They don't?" he asked, looking over at her.

"Yea, they're mentally mature, regardless of age… More or less." With a conceited smirk, she glanced over at Sherra, who fumed.

On hearing her explanation, the others all nodded. That seemed to make sense, considering that Mazoku weren't exactly mortal. But then, Finn spoke up, "But she's old, right?"

Before Lina could answer, she was interrupted by a very irritated Sherra. "Is that really important?! My age should be the least of your worries!"

"Look, we'll get to you in a moment," Aerrow explained calmly, "But right now, we're kinda focused on this."

Her eye twitched some more as they continued to talk while ignoring her. It was getting on her nerves until she finally had enough. "You know what?! I'm done with this! I have better things to do than wait!" With that said, she vanished from her spot.

The group stared at where she once was, seeing no trace of her. After a while, Junko finally spoke up, "Did she just leave us?"

"Yea, she did. Typical Sherra as always." Lina looked down as she sighed. "She pretty much did the same thing when we first met, though it was over her name."

"That's going to be something to think about." Zelgadis shrugged nonchalantly.

"We should probably get going," Aerrow said, turning to the others, "I don't want to stay here if she comes back."

"Good point." Lina agreed as they started to head out of the cave.

Along the way, Amelia smiled as she held her fist up into the air, eyes shining. "At least we defeated her with the Power of Justice!"

"Actually…" Piper let out a hesitant laugh. "I think it was more like the Power of Annoyance."


As the winds of the North blew through his fortress, Dynast sat on his throne as Sherra reappeared. He glanced down at her, his hand tapping the edge of his chair arm. "I take it you manage to destroy them?"

"Oh! I wish!" Sherra exclaimed; her voice exasperated. "Not only did I have to deal with that Inverse girl's nagging and that squirrely blonde's constant flirting! But after I revealed myself, they went on to debate about how old I was! Seriously! The nerve of some people."

"So… You left?" Despite his cold disposition, The Dark Lord of the Frozen North's eye twitched.

She was about to reply until she finally realized what she had done. Becoming very pale and sweaty, she remained silent. There were no viable excuses that could lessen his disappointment. Even if she could go back to rectify her mistake, they would've been long gone by now. The only thing she could do at this point was stand there and sulk.

And so, she did, with a disappointed Dynast staring her down. "… And after all that trouble in bringing you back."


Author's Notes:

Hi again, peeps! Back again with another fic!

So, this was a pretty random idea that I had mulling in my head for a while. Decided it was time to finally write it since a. I've started on the second novel arc (While I still like the anime, I've been finding the novels fun.) and b. I really wanted to do a fic messing with Sherra. Is it repetitive from her introduction and have her be out of character? A bit, yes. But to be frank, I only read up to book 9, and a lot of my characterization of her is fanon interpretation, including my own.

Poor Finn. Don't worry though. He'll be fine. I have some possible sequels to this. Nothing has been written. But it's going to involve more Slayers characters from outside the anime continuity. There are some fun ones that should've appeared in anime form. Anyway, it will probably be a long time before the sequels. But I do wanna write them.

Until next time then!

Please Read and Review!