Filia meets �Rannaur�
This story arc (Kitsune Lina, Slayers Born, and
Slayers Bred) is most completely archived at
*http://www.darknessrising.com* however all of Kitsune
Lina and most of Slayers Born can also be found at my
website
*http://members.aol.com/pookanopeeka/slayfic.html* and
R&C books
-------------------------------------------------------
Filia had at first ignored the clattering sound of
hooves and rolling wheels, it was a common enough
sound out here on the edges of the city. Of course
when it stopped in front of her current residence,
then she took notice. She had set Val to playing and
then approached the front door with a caution that was
almost paranoid. Of course Xellos choose that moment
to throw open the door and come waltzing inside.
Whatever the mazoku had been going to say was cut off
as Filia shrieked in surprise and brought her mace
down on the now equally surprised Xellos. The smile
died on his face and he actually opened his eyes to
watch the mace connect.
"Owww," Xellos groaned as he got to his feet
wobbly.
"Oh I'm sorry!" she dropped the mace in embarrassed
surprise, it fell on Xellos's foot.
"Aahh!" Xellos grabbed his foot and, unbalanced,
fell backward and smashed his head on the door frame.
"Xellos!" Filia heard a rough, but definitely
feminine voice call out from the buggy.
"I thought somebody found out I was dragon or
something." Xellos struggled to his feet again.
"All of you calm down," Xellos pointed randomly and
speaking drunkenly.
"Your tails are showing." Then he fell over on his
back again. Filia bent down immediately to check him
for any serious injuries. Filia dropped a groggy
Xellos's head as she looked up to see a face covered
in red fur and large black furred ears.
"What are you doing to him?" the fox girl demanded,
eyes narrowed. She started to climb out of the buggy.
Filia noticed immediately that whoever she was, though
she looked somewhat familiar. she was certainly
pregnant.
Filia immediately rushed to help her down,
accidently kicking Xellos's head as she did and nearly
tripping.
The fox-girl, the tail proved it, whuffed in
surprise as Filia easily lifted her away from the
buggy and sat her down on the ground. As the dragon
turned about to set her down gently her tail thwacked
into the again recovering Xellos.
"You should be resting," Filia said politely and
cheerfully. "You're the girl Xellos has been trying to
hide, aren't you?"
"Look at what you did!" the fox girl pointed to
where Xellos was trying to sit up and shake his head
clear.
"I'll be fine," Xellos assured her, weaving a
little even sitting. Filia blushed and giggled
nervously as she looked back to the shocked and a
little angry fox-girl. "She's just a little excited.
Rannaur should get inside before..."
"Before someone sees her," she looked to her tail.
"Or me, of course. Come on, dear we'll find somewhere
where you can be comfortable." Filia's tail smashed
Xellos to the ground again.
"You did it again!"
"I'm sorry," Filia said embarrassed. Then she
virtually carried Rannaur into the house, much to the
fox girl's surprise. She was apparently too surprised
again to react at all and merely let herself be
carried into the house and be set down in one of the
oversoft chairs that Xellos seemed to collect. "Now
I'll go get Xellos and be right back."
"No!" Filia stopped and turned back to look at
Rannaur. "I mean that's fine, I think he'll do better
on his own. Just sit down and relax, get control of
your form. Deep breaths. One. Two. Three." Rannaur
reached for anything else that she could remember
people telling her while she was
angry or otherwise upset.
"Don't be silly," Filia snapped angrily, but her
tail disappeared and she dimurrely sat back in a
chair. "Now, I'm sorry to be so rude, but you and
Xellos scared me there."
"You call beating your roommate into the ground
rude?" Xellos asked as he shuffled into the house.
"I'd hate to see you being offensive."
"I said I was sorry," Filia offered.
"Oh come over here," Rannaur waved him over and he
bent down to let her examine his head. "Oh what did
the mean dragon-lady do to you?"
"I am not mean," Filia insisted futilely.
"Oh I'm allright, kind of fun actually," Xellos
answered giggling with the fox-girl. "You know what
masochist I am."
"Mommy, who's she?" Filia turned to look down at
Val.
"So that's why you the claws while we..."
"Ahem!" Rannaur and Xellos turned to look at the
dragon maid with her eyebrow arched and indicating the
toddler next to her.
"Oh, sorry," it was the fox girl's turn to be
sheepish.
"What?" Xellos had no clue as to what the problem
was, both women rolled their eyes at the amoral
tendencies of mazoku.
"Who's she?" Val asked again.
"That's Uncle Xellos's..." She looked to the
fox-girl expectantly.
"Xellos's mate," the word flowed easily from her
lips. "Rannaur." Val looked up at her and blinked.
"Fire," Rannaur's ears flicked in surprise at the
boy's single word. Xellos tensed.
"He can't remember me from before, can he," she
thought to herself, exchanging a quick glance with
Xellos.
"Oh, I've been teaching him some elvish," Filia
explained. Rannaur did her best to release her breath
without showing her relief. "Wandering Fire? That
reminds me of a friend of Xellos' and mine's."
"Really, who was that?"
"Lina Inverse," Filia sighed sadly.
"The Bandit Killer? You knew her?" Xellos looked at
the fox-girl with a "what are you doing" expression.
"She was a brave woman, and a very powerful
sorceress," Filia continued. Rannaur seemed shocked
that the dragon was actually crying about the Dra
Matta. "Some bandits killed her while she didn't have
her power. Didn't Xellos tell you about this, he found
the body after all." Filia got back control of
herself.
"I just thought that was another of his stories,"
Rannaur rolled her eyes back at the mazoku, who
shrugged back an "I give up."
"Now are you here just to meet me, or are you here
to stay? And why did you come by buggy rather than
just teleporting." Filia didn't bother to ask what
Rannaur was, she kept getting surprised by new races
all the time anyway. Things she didn't really notice
before living with these "lower" races.
"I didn't just want to pop in with her and startle
you," Xellos said, then rubbed his head. "That's
painful sometimes." He did not miss the irony.
"I was hoping you wouldn't mind me staying for
awhile," Rannaur asked quietly, trying to be as demure
as possible and overdoing it.
"She's getting to where she can't hunt for
herself," the fox-girl hmped at him indignantly.
"I'm not that far along yet," she insisted.
"Ronar?" Val tugged at the corners of the woman's
sleeve. She looked down at him. "Why are you fat."
"Val! Seriously, how rude," Filia stood up and
picked the young dragon up off the floor and sat down
again with him in her lap. "Now apologize to the nice
girl," then she looked between Xellos and Rannaur.
"How old are you anyway?"
"Not as young as I look," the girl assured her. "I
heal fast and it keeps me from aging."
"Oh...good," she looked down at the confused dragon
kid again. "Val apologize."
"I'm sorry, I said you were fat, miss Ronar," he
said very formerly.
"It's all right," she said. Xellos was now sitting
in a chair he had moved next to her. "I am fat, and
I'll probably be fat for the next few months." Rannaur
reached out and grabbed his head and pulled him over
so she could nuzzle his face. "And its all because of
my mazoku here, isn't he cute?"
Filia's eyebrow arched, again. After taking care
Val for so long she had a resistance to cutesy wutesy
behavior, having to engage in some herself. But
STILL.
"Well is she wrong, or am I cute?"
"I wouldn't go that far," Filia answered dead pan.
"How did uncle Xellos make her fat?" Filia turned
beat red.
"Well you see...hey!" Rannaur playfully smacked the
top of his head and wagged a finger in front of his
face. "What?" He looked for answer from
Filia, who, for some reason unfathomable to Xellos,
was holding her hands over Val's ears.
"Well, I guess you can stay here," Filia said. "But
you'll have to stay under cover, or we could have some
unwanted visitors."
"You can be sure of that," Xellos and Rannaur
mumbled at about the same time.
**************
Zelgadis had found what he was looking for rather
quickly. He had come down to Sairuun palace's library
and was immediately aware of a large raven sitting on
the vacant desk. There was something odd about it, and
he walked forward to get a closer look. Usually he
could move swiftly and quietly enough to sneak up even
on animals, but this Raven bolted almost as soon as he
started moving.
It stopped within his sight, and he moved toward it
again. It called and took flight again. Fairly certain
that it was leading him somewhere he followed it.
Until it stopped at a certain row of books and let him
approach closer than before. The raven pecked at a
book and then flashed into the air when Zel tried to
grab it again. The bird slipped through his feathers
calling as it flew into the shadows of the high
ceiling, sounding as if it were laughing. He looked at
the book it had pecked and read the title.
"I knew I recognized that name," he grumbled sourly
and gingerly, very gingerly, picked up the indicated
book. Lina would know more about the history of the
tome, Zel had half-way delved through a less complete
version once before. He stopped when it became obvious
that book was nothing but exorcisms, summonings and
discussions of various demons that made Shabrinigdo
look tame.
"Necronomican. I hope they're just poseurs." He
opened the book to the strip of paper stuck in the
black bound tome. He found words on the paper, and
wasn't too surprised.
"Stall them now, their end comes with the next
generation."
Zelgadis thought about the bird and the way it had
slipped out of his hands, he looked and saw thin black
strands caught on his rock skin. "It had black FUR."
=====
"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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