Findings False and True
"Look it at," the man with the eye-patch gloated
over his prize, a single globular earring. "Its hers I
tell you. We took it off her corpse right after
returning a little of wot she gave to our profession."
"All I see is a pretty bauble," the man he was
talking to grumbled. "You think I'm going to believe
you because of that, get real. Show me a head or
something and I'll believe you then."
"I lost five o' me crew taking her down," the patch
complained. "And then three more when we found them
trying pinch some o' the loot. Still can't find ware
the bugger 'id the rest o' 'er gear. But he'll be
talking to soon enough I wager."
"Bring out all the gold and jewels you want, no one
will believe you until they see the corpse."
"Well, we can show that as well, we can," the eye
patch answered.
"Excuse us," The two large bandits turned to face a
blue-skinned person dressed all in baige. The hand on
his hilt spoke volumes.
"Would you mind telling us where you got that
earring," this time the speaker was a tall blonde
swordsman.
"Wot's it to you then?" the patch asked. "Wot is
you, bounty hunters, bandits, mercenaries?"
"Please just tell us where you found the earring,"
the third member of the party, a young woman with
black hair, asked reluctantly.
"Soldiers o' fortune lookin for a rep," he jabbed
his thumb at the three as he turned back to his amused
companion. "I pulled it off the dra matta's corpse, so
go somewhere else for your fun." The girl winced,
while blonde looked pained.
"Take us to the body," the blue skinned warrior
demanded icily.
"You gonna make me?" the man with the eye patch
stood up, towering over the blue swordsman. "Go ahead
and try!" He punched out and was surprised when his
much smaller opponent easily stopped the attack with
one hand.
"Try that again and I'll rip the arm off," he
promised. The blonde stepped in front of the other
bandit, cutting off his escape.
"You're coming along too, don't want to miss your
proof do you?"
"Fine! I'll take you to the body, but after that
I'll dice you so fine they'll never find the pieces."
The threat didn't bother the three whatsoever. Nobody
in the tavern interferred with the unofficial arrest
as the slayers escorted the bandits out of the
building and eventually out of the city.
A little more than forty-five minutes later they
came to the battle site.
"We tossed her in that ditch o'er there," Zelgadis
shoved the veritable giant to the ground and followed
Amelia to the indicated spot.
The grass was still stained red in places and the
remains of a hauberk of studded leather lay discarded
in a little to the side. The item was useless for all
the great bloody holes in it.
"That's the armor I bought for her," Amelia
whispered, stricken.
"There's no body," Zelgadis noted.
"Is it Lina?" Gourry called out, not taking his
eyes off the two bandits.
"No body," Zelgadis called back.
"No body, eh?" the patch's companion repeated. "I
knew you were full of hot air."
"Listen you, there weren't much left after we was
through, I suspect that for the past two days the
crows have had a wonderful feast." he started to laugh
but was cut off as Zelgadis roared and rushed at the
bandit from across the field. Before the big man could
react the inhumanly fast chimera had skewered and
gutted him. Coming away from the eye-patch's corpse in
a circular motion, Zelgadis took the second bandits
head.
Finished with the thugs Zelgadis planted his sword
point down in the ground and kneeled, head against the
hilt.
"We found Lina," he said hoarsely. He turned to
Amelia. "We can go talk to that hermit about my cure
now."
"Shouldn't we do something," Gourry asked.
"We could bury the armor," Amelia suggested. "Raise
a cairn."
"It's the least we can do," Zelgadis agreed. Gourry
nodded.
"I think I saw some rocks over this way," the
blonde noted. And the three friends set about giving
their lost comrade a memorial.
"Perhaps this is the best," Amelia thought to
herself, hating that she could even consider it.
"I'm looking for the courier that delivered
this...trash," Xellos handed the poster over and
sneered.
"It's not my business to keep track of who puts up
what on that board for every passing mercenary."
"Someone else has asked about this?" Xellos arched
an eyebrow. "What did they look like."
"Couldn't see her face, she kept it hidden under a
hood the entire time." Xellos tapped his foot
irritably, this day was almost finished, and he didn't
have but one or two more before Xelas came looking for
him. Filia would be needing some help as well, but he
actively avoided thinking about that.
"Can you tell me anything about her?"
"Short girl, spoke quietly, I think she had red
hair." Xellos began to hope that he had struck upon an
incredibly lucky event.
"And do you know where she is?"
"She was on the verge of falling asleep in front of
me, sent her to that inn over there, two days ago."
Xellos turned to regard the building. "Haven't seen
her leave, but..." he shrugged.
"Thank you good sir," Xellos smiled. "I don't think
I'll kill you today." The purple-haired priest
vanished from in front of the annoyed man's face.
"Fruitcake," he muttered before going about on his
business.
"It can't be Lina," Xellos told himself, preparing
for the let down. "Her signature isn't here." Despite
this he began a quick survey of the rooms until he
found what he was looking for.
The snoring form was definitely Lina, magic or no
magic, Xellos could tell that. The red-head was lying
unconscious wrapped in blankets that appeared somewhat
shredded.
"Lina, what happened to you," Xellos wondered as he
walked over to attempt and wake her up. Curiously
enough he smelled something familiar. "If I didn't
know better, I'd say she just healed some major
damage." The mazoku priest reached out with his staff
and poked Lina in the side to shake her awake.
"What?" Lina muttered, blinking awake. The tired
and confused woman finally caught site of Xellos and
narrowed her eyes. "Xellos what are you doing here."
"I was looking for you," the priest smiled. "I
heard...rumors..." Xellos stopped talking as Lina's
eyes snapped wide and she looked at the window towards
the darkening horizon.
"Close the window," she demanded, sitting up,
grabbing the headboard, and biting down on the wood.
Xellos blinked in surprise but closed the shutters
anyway.
As the trickster caught a last glimpse of the
setting sun he couldn't help but realize that Lina
hadn't been wearing anything when she emerged from the
blankets. When he turned around again it was to the
sound of restrained thrashing and cracking wood.
"Lina?" Xellos. gasped as he watched the
transformation proceed. The wood between Lina's teeth
didn't last long, shattering under the pressure.
"Ah!" the sound of bones cracking and reshaping
came as her legs changed. "Ahhh!! AHHHH!!!" Unlike
Amelia, Xellos had no worries about approaching Lina
as she was now. After the first couple of moments of
surprise he rushed forward and encircled the changing
woman in his arms. He clamped a hand over her mouth in
an attempt to keep her screams from alerting the rest
of the inn.
Xellos found it difficult to contain her, even with
his mazoku strength. As the seconds creeked by
undeterminably slow, he found himself almost hanging
on for dear life. Lina bit into his hand and the demon
had to supress his own expression of pain.
The transformation ended after a pair of measly
minutes and Lina began to relax, temporarily exhausted
by the process. When Lina stopped struggling, Xellos
released his grip, the exhausted Lina continued
leaning back against him.
"How long have you been like this?" Xellos asked.
"Three days," Lina whispered. She didn't yet know
that she had slept through the previous day, a side
effect of the natural stimulants her body had used to
heal her earlier. "Why are you here?"
"I was...worried about you," he usually didn't come
out right and say things like that, but his usual
"that is a secret" routine didn't seem appropriate at
the moment.
Lina turned around and faced him, her tail was now
flicking nervously behind her.
"You were worried about me," Lina repeated. "That's
it?" Zelgadis thought she was a weakling, Amelia acted
like she thought Lina was thinking about stalking her,
a gang of bandits had beaten her past the brink of a
human death. Now Xellos was...worried... about her,
and of course he wasn't afraid of her.
"Why shouldn't I be?" he asked. "You are a friend
after all, I never claimed anything else." Lina looked
at him and blinked.
The were-fox desparately wanted some control,
wanted something to go her way. Apparently the only
rock in her ocean at the moment was the mazoku
trickster. He wasn't prepared when Lina pulled his
head down and kissed him.
"What-?" Xellos started to ask as he managed to
pull away. Lina was stronger now, but still not as
strong as mazoku.
"Please..." was all Lina said, looking up at the
purple-haired mazoku with red reflective eyes.
Xellos considered refusing, but decided against it. He
had always been curious, and it wasn't like Filia
cared what he did. Or like he cared what Filia thought
about his actions. He smiled and initiated his own
kiss as they fell back to the large bed covered in
torn blankets.
=====
"Caffeinated Kender? What's that, a berserk spell?" -
Tribble, Kender Warrior of the Celestial Kingdom
Signed
He of Too Many Names (Thrythlind/Thryth/Luke/Hyperbole/Pika/Pooka)
http://members.aol.com/thrythlind/snake.html
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