[FFML] [Slayers]Slayers Born 29-35

Xina meets Sherra

"So what do you want to watch this for? She has no
chance at all."
"She has my staff again, the Shroud is weaker, I can
talk."
"But that's all you can do, and only a little at a
time at that. Though I guess you can teach her the ins
and outs when she comes over here."
"I'll have passed on by the time she dies," he
laughed.
"And how can you be sure of this, you seem rather
stubborn about that subject."
"Sore wa himitsu desu."

*******************

The mazoku smiled as Xina prepared for battle.
"You don't use a staff the same way you use a sword,
little-girl," the mazoku smiled.
"Look who's talking, you're worse developed than I
am." Sherra stomped her feet angrily.
"Shut up!" she shouted. "Its not my fault that Dynast
didn't wait until I got older."
~You were freezing to death, how long could he have
waited?~
"YOU SHUT UP TOO!!!" Sherra snapped at her sword.
"Forget the talk I'm going to kill her NOW!!" The
mazoku was suddenly surrounded with a cold white light
as she blurred forward with a speed that just barely
left Xina enough time to dodge. The light confused
Xina, until she realized that her opponent wouldn't
have a shadow as long as she held that aura.
"Oh shit," Xina breathed as the mazoku turned around a
launched a blast. Xina raised a field of force in
front of her and the mazoku's blast collided with it
sending both constructs into shattered fragments of
energy and light.
~Form shadow, meld shadow~
"Huh?" then Sherra flashed into existence behind her.
Xina instinctually surrounded herself in darkness as
she dodged forward into a roll. The sword flashed over
her.
"Where's the magic you Inverse's are so famous for?"
the mazoku sniped. "You can't cast it can you?"
Desperate, Xina melded with her own darkness and
snaked it out to another shadow. She came back into
existence there after a blink of time.
"So that's what he meant." Xina mumbled. She encased
Sherra in a force bubble, only to watch the mazoku
teleport out with a laugh. Xina saw the mazoku appear
above her and launch a barrage of blue circular energy
blasts. Sherra watched as an amorphous shadow rocketed
up into the sky.
The mazoku couldn't see through the gate into the
pocket dimension formed by Xina's meld, but she didn't
need to. The young looking mazoku laughed as another
bubble of shimmering force, almost like moonlight,
launched from the shadow.
"Trying to trap me again?" Then the bubble shattered
into numerous spears of force all heading for her.
Sherra choked on her laughter at the surprise and then
released a blast in the shard's path that scattered
them.
Xina knew she wasn't really flying, she was just
moving the gate back to the real world higher into the
air. Still, it was a wonderous sensation. She liked
this, usually she was limited by where a shadow was,
and if something happened to get rid of the shadow,
the real object falling down for example, then she was
kicked back out. This new twist opened a whole world
of possibilities, which she vowed to explore. Assuming
she survived this battle.
Sherra snarled as one stray shard slashed past her,
cutting her face open. Xina gulped as an energy disk
passed into her little pocket dimension and exploded.
The force of the blast forced Xina flying out of the
floating shadow, and suddenly she was falling.
"Any ideas!?" she shouted at the staff.
~Let the dragon catch you.~
"The what?" then something swooped under her and she
landed hard, but safely on a great reptillian back.
"Hey you! Get back here!" Sherra shouted flying after
the dragon that had rescued her opponent.
"Val?" Xina gasped. "Is that you?"
"Yeah, who's the brat and where's that traitor?"
"Janus is dead," Sherra snapped a barrage of energy
blasts at them. Xina managed to blcok most of them
with a wall that quickly crumbled under the onslaught.
Xina felt Val shudder as the blasts she couldn't block
struck him. "I can't block them all!" She shouted in
apology."
"Its nothing serious," the dragon roared. Xina grasped
for dear life onto his back as Val swooped around to
face Sherra and release a fiery breath at their
attacker. Sherra teleported out just a mite too slow
and appeared behind them looking a little charred.
"I've killed dragons before!" she snapped before
attacking again. One of the blasts that got through
Xina's shield as it crumbled again, struck the dragon
in the head. Val began descending rapidly toward a
town below, obviously knocked senseless if only
momentarily.
"Val!!! WAKE UP!!! VAL!!!" The dragon's eyes blinked
open, and he managed at least enough maneuvering to
avoid landing in the town and crushing a building or
two. So when Xina was tossed clear, at least she
didn't have to deal with falling rubble. Xina slammed
into a wall and was dazed for a moment, barely
managing to climb out of the hole she had made flying
through the stone.
"I can't believe a weakling like you had the great
Xellos as a father!" Sherra laughed.
"Its a mazoku!" somebody yelled. "Get her!" Xina
decided she must still be shaking off the hit, because
she could have sworn she heard five different voices
shout "FLARE ARROW!" and maybe four other such spells.
"Damn minor spellcasters! Get out of my face!"
"A PMSing, adolescent mazoku!!" Someone shouted.
"WHAT!!?!" Sherra started turning her attention to the
various sorcerers the town had somehow managed to
produce against her. Xina stumbled out into the street
and saw that Val was unconscious, at least she hoped
he was just unconscious. She wasn't feeling good
herself, her head hurt, she was dizzy, and her stomach
kept wanting to toss up whatever food was left inside.
She didn't really care at the moment though.
~You're injured, let them handle her, they're enough
of them.~
"I'm not helpless," Xina gasped, clutching her head.
~There is a line between foolishness and bravery.~
Xina ignored the voice she suspected was her father.
"HEY YOU LITTLE BRAT!!!" Xina spat forcing herself to
stand straight and still, despite her desire just sit
down and rest for a little while. "YOU WANT TO SEE
WHAT THE DAUGHTER OF LINA INVERSE AND XELLOS METALLIUM
CAN DO!!! FINE!!" She unleashed a wave of force spears
mixed with shadows, obscuring the barrage.
Sherra laughed and blasted the spears away as before
and then noticed that Xina had vanished. The mazoku
turned around and saw one of the shadows hanging above
her in time to see a force spear slash down and into
her arm. The mazoku was carried down into the ground
where she was pinned like an insect in a collection.
The mazoku waited for the death blow to come, then the
shadow faded away and Xina fell limply out of the sky.
Sherra smiled as the force spear vanished and she
stood up, left arm hanging limply while it healed.
Sherra saw some waitress raywing up and catch the
fainted kage-kitsune.
"Gee everybody can cast magic in this place," Sherra
complained.
~LUNA!!!~ she looked to her sword confused.
"What?"
~LUNA!!! LUNA INVERSE!!! THE KNIGHT OF CEIPHEED!!! THE
BLOODY KNIGHT OF CEIPHEED!!~ Sherra's eyes shrank into
her skull as the purple-haired waitress landed on the
ground carrying Xina. All the other villagers shrank
back from her in barely withheld terror.
"Oh shit, I'm in trouble," Sherra whispered.
"I work there," Luna pointed to where Xina had been
through the wall, and Val and had crashed through what
may have been a garden at one time. The woman did not
sound happy.
"Bye now." Sherra said suddenly, before vanishing
away, far, FAR away.

*****************************************************************************

Luna

"Where is a healer?" Luna asked cooly, scanning the
crowd. As her gaze passed everybody founnd somewhere
else to look. Luna was about to arbitrarily pick some
one out of the crowd when she noted the two figures
running in towards town at a blur. At that rate and
this distance it would take them several minutes to
get to the town, assuming she left them to their own
devices.
"Raywing," she sounded almost bored as the bubble of
air surrounded the other two strangers, at the insane
range they were away from her, and then pulled them
forward at an equally insane speed.
"aaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!" Then she
stopped the air bubble about two yards from her. The
pair inside were still screaming.
"Excuse me, can either of you cast healing spells?"
Luna said. They continued screaming, Luna narrowed her
eyes. The air bubble rocketed up into the sky. Jolrael
and Amethyst saw the day fade into night, and then
they rocketed down again. By the time they got back
down they were both trying to catch their breath.
""Shall we try this again? Are either of you a
healer?"
"Uh....I am," Amethyst whimpered.
"Luna Inverse...I presume?" Luna arched an eyebrow,
and mentally cut the Raywing spell. Amethyst and
Jolrael blinked in the moment before gravity took hold
and then fell the two feet to the ground. She set Xina
on the ground, straightened her uniform and achieved
an officious pose.
"You heal, you explain, wait," Jol snapped his mouth
closed. She turned to the surreptitiously dissipating
crowd "You four!" everybody turned to face her and
sighed as they discovered that she didn't mean them.
Or trembled when they realized that they had been
picked. "Fix that."
"Umm, Luna-sama?" the purple haired waitress regarded
the speaker, who flinched. "Is there any chance that
this won't take long, lunch rush will be..." She
looked up away from him and back at the crowd.
"Everybody else go home," she shouted. "And stay there
until you hear otherwise. You were discussing the
lunch rush?" she asked the nervous innkeeper.
"No, everything is covered."
"Good, gomen, Derek this should not take long," Luna
assured him.
"That's fine...take however much time you want," he
bowed his way back from the irritated sorceress.
"Now you, I take it you can explain what is going on
here?"
"In part," Jol nodded.
"Then DO so," Luna whispered angrily.
"I'm not casting recovery on Xina," Amethyst declared.
"She does not seem badly injured," Luna protested.
"But she's already exhausted," Amethyst said
sheepishly. This woman really was terrifying, anybody
with the power to use raywing like THAT was no one to
be annoyed by the likes of her. "I don't know whether
she's beyond the point of safety or not."
"I can heal her a little," Jol suggested. Luna fixxed
him with her coldest gaze yet.
"Do you ever do anything, or do you just talk?" she
asked. Jol edged around her to where Xina lay on the
ground. They all heard the sound of Val waking up,
Luna glanced in that direction and then at Amethyst.
"Heal the dragon before he starts rampaging, unless
you see a problem there as well."
"Yes, Luna-sama," Amethyst bowed and walked to the
dragon nervously.
"Elven blood?" Luna asked as she saw Jolrael place a
hand on Xina's forehead. She noted the lines of strain
form on the young man's face. He didn't seem to have
heard her question. "Excuse me, I asked you a
question." Then he slumped back, breathing heavily.
"Ow, my head," Xina moaned. "What...the mazoku brat!"
She tried to sit up and succeeded in triggering her
upset stomach. Jol managed to see it coming and turned
her away from anybody. While Xina was purging herself
of her hunting efforts earlier, Jol felt himself
lifted up by the scruff of the neck and turned around
to face Luna.
"I asked you a question,"she repeated. "Are you..."
"I heard you the first time," Jol snapped, recovering
in some measure his normal attitude. "Judge for
yourself." The fingers around his neck were forced
back, and Luna betrayed a slight surprise.
"Your arrogance is certainly pure elf," Luna said,
causing Jol's eyes to snap wide. "Even if you look..."
"Watch who you're calling an..." Jol was lifted up and
held above the ground. Xina gasped from where she hung
her head over her knees. The sorceress hadn't budged a
muscle in casting the spell.
"Don't try me, boy," she hissed. "Now what is going on
here? Four strangers, one of them CLAIMING to be my
sister's child..."
"What do you mean claim..." Xina suddenly found
herself unable to move, even talk. Luna noticed the
dragon taking human form, but chose to ignore it.
Amethyst ran from that direction and kneeled before
the irritated sorceress.
"Luna-sama, please, we don't mean any offense,"
Amethyst pleaded.
"I've never tolerated impudence," Luna looked to the
glaring Xina and noticed the silvery shimmer about
her. As that occured she could feel the elf-blood
countering her other set spell and lowering himself to
the ground. She considered testing the other two as
well, but it would seem over-zealous. There were other
ways that such direct spells.
Luna let the shimmer about Xina grow, she could have
squashed the power like nothing, but she was curious.
The light ate through the spell she had left quickly
and then Xina could talk and move again.
"Hmph, I suppose that next you'll be telling us to
chop down a tree with a herring," she mumbled, Luna
arched an eyebrow. The effort had taken a toll though.
The fox girl started to waiver.
"Xina, don't do that," Amethyst gasped and steadied
the girl. "I'm not sure Jol can heal you again." The
young chimera began healing Xina then, and soon the
drain on Xina's resources caused by the spell made her
faint again. Amethyst stopped momentarily afterword.
"I dare to heal her no more."
Luna sniffed and picked up the staff from where Xina
had dropped it. She mumbled something under her breath
and a light shimmered forth, and channeled through the
staff. It revealed a familiar cloaked man that was
glancing about himself curiously.
"I should have known you'd sense me around," the
translucent image said, in voice as if far away.
Amethyst immediately recognized the man.
"Xellos Metallium," she breathed in a whisper. Val and
Jol looked at her shocked.
"Its been nearly twenty years," Luna said. "And I know
you're dead, why then, spirit, do you linger here and
not pass on to whatever is in store for you?"
"I worry about my family," he admitted.
"No 'Sore wa himitsu desu'?" the ghost smiled.
"Even such as you, sister, cannot give me voice and
face for long in this world," he told her. "I have no
time for my usual games. I have my children to
consider."
"Sister? She is my blood then?" The image flickered
briefly, large blank spots appearing in its form. Luna
regarded the unconscious half-mazoku doubtfully.
"Yes," he answered. Then the flickering returned and
the appearing and disappearing face frowned and
started yelling. "It's
..ming....p..ce...f...t..oid...old...eed...mo...TIME!!!"
and then he was gone totally. Just before the spirit
vanished he seemed to be struggling to remain, adding
his power to the sorceress's. After he vanished, even
Luna had to drop to one knee.
"That is never easy," she muttered standing up, since
Phibrezzo's death the channels to realms of the dead
had been harder to tap. A more permanent summoning
would have required twisting the spirit and maddening
it with pain until it was a foul undead thing. She
suddenly regretted casting the spell, now the dead
mazoku would be thoroughly weakened. "Come along,
bring...my niece....with you." She refused to let
these misgivings show themselves as she coldly turned
from the children.
"I hate to interrupt," Jol commented. He noticed
Luna's glare. "I REALLY do, but there is the small
matter of an undead army heading this way."
"Oh please," Luna sighed, frustrated. "They are at
least a week out at least, you underestimate your own
speed. I would hear the full story soon, but first I
have to work my shift." The three awake adventurers
face faulted.

**************

"Well now you truly are useless. You won't be even
able to talk for a long time yet."
"I...can find...a...fill in."
"Really? Why did you accept the summons? You didn't
even get your message across."
"I keep...telling you....Sore wa....himitsu...desu."

***************************************************************************

Lunch

Xalan flinched and stopped in mid stride. He had known
that Xina was in battle, but she had been handling
herself well enough by the feel of it. Now she'd been
hit hard again.
"Is something wrong, Xalan-san?" Celina asked
nervously.
"My sister is in trouble," he said without doubt.
"You can tell when she's hurt?" Tinuviel asked. "How
very interesting, I wonder if the reverse is true."
Xalan cringed at that phrase, he reached into his
pouch and idly began playing some red jeweled amulet.
"Excuse me, where'd you get that?" the one that looked
like his mother asked. Xalan looked down.
"Something Val brought from my mother," he said idly.
"Its for sorcerers but Amethyst said something about
not knowing the proper spells, I've been holding them
since then." Gracia and Celina started whispering at
each other and then turned smiling faces toward him.
"Perhaps you should wear it." They suggested. "It
enhances black magic, you're half-mazoku."
"Hadn't thought of that," he shrugged. "Well, thanks
for the food and the claws." Xalan said gesturing with
the gauntlet over his right hand. "But now we
definitely have to be going."
"Of course, but come again some time, maybe bring your
mother." Xalan sweatdropped at his mother's probable
reaction to a passive copy of herself, unaware of
exactly how accurate that thought was.
"Maybe," he said, walking away. He turned to wave
politely once before clipping one of the jeweled
bracelets to his wrist. A series of black and silver
energy bands passed over it as he fastened it, and the
kage-kitsune felt a surge of power. "Whoah. They were
right."
He fastened the remaining amulets on and felt the same
rush of power with each of them. As the rushes finally
passed he noticed that his senses had suddenly
sharpened, all of them. Xalan had to clear his head
before his mind adapted and assimulated the new
information, and then he knew in which direction Xina
was.
"Do you mind a piggy back ride, Tinu?" he asked. She
looked him briefly for a moment and he knew she
embarrassed before the blush even started to rise. "We
can move faster that way."
"H..hai," she stammered.
"Good," he kneeled down and let her climb on his back.
Then he stood up and started running. Fast. Then he
had to jump over a person that had suddenly appeared
in his way, and he didn't come down for nearly half a
mile.
Throughout the run Tinuviel hung tightly to his back,
and he could tell what she was feeling. He would have
expected blank terror, but, typical of Tinuviel, there
was merely a sense of wonder and intense curiousity.
He wouldn't get there for another couple of days, but
he would get there quickly. And he knew that Xina was
alive. All of his senses were primed and directed for
the task he had always been best at. Hunting.

***************

"Why does my head still hurt?" Xina asked as she came
to.
"Because you keep passing out," Amethyst answered.
"And I don't think your brother would like it if you
died because I tried to cast recovery when I shouldn't
have."
"Was that sarcasm coming from you?" Xina asked. "I
think I hit my head harder than I thought."
"Then its a catching condition," Jol shrugged.
"Because I heard it too."
"I've been working on that line since we sat down,"
Amethyst complained. "Can't you at least pretend to be
stumped for a response?" Jol and Xina stared at her in
wide-eyed surprise, she sweatdropped.
"Uh...where's that..." Luna appeared at their table
and handed Xina a menu. She looked up at the sorceress
in confusion.
"And what will you be having today?" Xina's mouth hung
open. Luna's eyes narrowed. "Seeing that your my
sister's daughter, I assume you eat like your friend
here." Xina continued to stare, Luna hmphed in
frustration. She then reached forward and put a hand
on her forhead, frowning. "How are you feeling? I have
no gift for healing magic."
"My head hurts," Xina whimpered as if she were eight
years old again. The shock of seeing the powerful
sorceress actually serving tables had been a little
much.
"I could try to heal her again," Amethyst suggested.
"No, I want to talk to her," Luna said. She turned and
walked to the obvious owner of the inn or tavern they
were inside. "I'm taking my break."
"Fine, go ahead," the man answered nervously.
"This shouldn't take long," Luna pulled up a chair and
placed it at the head of the slayers' table. "I am
given to understand that you came here looking..."
Xellos's staff flew across the room into her hand.
"...for this."
"That's mine," Xina reached for it across the table.
Luna took the staff's tip and pushed her back into her
seat and against the wall.
"Please wait for me to ask you a question," Luna said.
Then she twirled the staff and handed it to the
irritated kage-kitsune. "I would like know...."
"Well the staff was..." Amethyst found that her stone
skin was suddenly inflexible as well as hard.
"I know about Roquen, thank you," Luna said, then
released her spell. "As I was saying, I would like to
understand how YOU can be my niece."
"What do you mean?" Xina asked.
"But Luna-sama, you heard the...." Luna rolled her
eyes as Val's head was smashed against the wall. Heard
enough to daze, but nothing else.
"I was talking to....Xina."
"What do you mean how can I be your niece?" Jol looked
like he was about to say something, Luna looked at him
and he snapped his mouth shut.
"Your sister and my dad met, fell in love..." she
found her mouth forced closed. Luna reminded herself
that the girl was still injured and that her normal
methods of chastizement could result in something
serious.
"That is not what I meant," Luna explained patiently
and tightly. "In case you have failed to notice, I am
human, Lina was...is my full sister. When last I
heard, your father at least looked human. So please
explain why you don't."
"You're not a shape changer?" Xina asked confused as
the spell released her.
"Shape changer?" Luna repeated. "One moment," She
reached into her pocket and pulled out a coin. The
sorceress turned it over in her hand and then it
lifted up and drifted to Xina. The fox girl felt her
arm pulled out and watched as her hand was pulled
open. The coin dropped into her palm and then her hand
closed.
"What are you doing?" Xina asked, Luna just kept her
spell's grip on Xina's hand. "That's starting to hurt.
Quit it. Ouch, please, Luna-san, please LET GO OF MY
HAND!!" She was really struggling by this point, and
her friends were starting to move. Luna shrugged and
released Xina's hand, letting the silver coin fall to
the table. Xina snatched back her head, giving Luna
only the barest glimpse of the angry red burn on her
hand.
"My sister is a werecreature?" Xina held back tears,
glaring angrily at her aunt.
"Lina-sama is a were-fox," Luna looked at Amethyst,
who shifted nervously and added. "Luna-sama."
"That explains why you can use the moon's power," Luna
said. "And why your abilities are....unusual. Lucky
girl."
"I'm always getting beaten to a pulp," Xina grumbled.
"How lucky can I be?"
"I doubt that you would have survived with a father of
any other race," Luna explained coldly. "Lycanthropy
kills children."
"Is there anything else you want to know?"
"Not really," Luna said. "Though I suppose I should
pay my sister a visit sometime soon."
"Then we can go destroy the undead horde now?" Jolrael
asked.
"Of course," Luna said, standing up and checking her
uniform.
"Aren't you going to help?" Val asked.
"Depends on whether its my day off or not," Luna
answered. "Or if they come here." She shrugged.
"I don't get it," Amethyst said. "You're the Knight of
Ceipheed, shouldn't you be interested in saving the
world?"
"Are you demanding an explanation?" Luna asked through
narrowed eyes.
"No, never mind," Amethyst stammered. Luna nodded and
walked to her boss.
"I'll be back from my break in a moment."
"H-hai." Luna walked into the hallway towards the
kitchen. Unnoticed to everyone else she shimmered
away. Holding the soul of the dragon god gave her
access to powers usually closed to humans, such as
teleporting. The sorceress appeared on the fields, on
her own. She scanned about for a moment and then
released her facade. The sorceress dropped to her
knees and gasped.
"Thank the HEAVENS, she's alive," she cried. She
sobbed from the release of pent up emotions and
repeated the pertinent thought. Quietly, almost as if
she could make it true by saying it. "She's. Alive."
Then Luna stoof up and recovered herself before
teleporting back to the inn.
"I'm back," she said coldly.

******************************************************************************

Sisters

"Am I going the entire day going to sleep?" Xina asked
as Amethyst healed her. Her eyes were just starting to
flutter closed when Amethyst pulled her hand back from
the girl's head.
"I think you're fine now," Amethyst said. Xina yawned.
"Really? And I'm not asleep....again?" she asked. They
turned silent as Luna passed and set down food before
them. Jol and Xina each got large sides of roast beef
that would probably not last much longer than a few
seconds around them. Val and Amethyst both got coffee.
Then the sorceress left to serve other terror-stricken
customers. Jol and Xina ignored her, staring starry
eyed at the food in front of them.
"What do we do from here?" Val asked, sipping the tea
in front of him. Amethyst blinked as Jol and Xina
began to tear into their food.
"Uhh...well I suppose we finish our meal here,"
Amethyst said.
"wmff ood fnd lln fst," Jol added. Xina paused for a
brief moment to yawn.
"What did you say?" Val asked
"Where is Xalan anyway?" a yawning Xina asked before
digging into the next helping of food that a nameless
waitress, with nervous glances at Luna, brought to
them.
"He went to look for a weapon of light," Amethyst
said. Then she added a little quietly "...with
Tinuviel."
"Yfff de," Jol mumbled.
"Mmf bfthr nd," Xina yawned. "tht dff?"
"What did they say?" Amethyst asked.
"I've never bothered to learn how to understand that,"
Val answered as the swordsman and the kage-kitsune
continued to decimate their meal. The only really
bizarre thing was the in this place THEY were the
normal, most of the other customers were eating the
same way.
"You don't eat much for a dragon," Amethyst noted.
"How many dragons do you know?"
"Point taken."
"eh, eena, ou ng eef tht?" Jol asked Xina as he
noticed her food starting to pile up.
"Zzzzzzzz," everybody sweatdropped.
"I suppose that we'll waiting here until she wakes up
again," Val said. Amethyst giggled nervously.
"Umm," they looked up to see the innkeeper in front of
them. "Luna wants you to know that there are two empty
rooms upstairs, and the food and rooms are..." he
cringed as he continued. "...on the house."
"Uhh...thank you, sir," Amethyst responded after a
moment's surprise. "But I'm the Crown Princess of
Sailoon, I'm sure my father would send a..."
"Luna told me to make it on the house," he explained.
"Oh," Amethyst said.
"Well I'm finished, should we get Xina upstairs now?"
"I've got her," Val said as she picked up the
fox-girl, who unconsciously wrapped her arms around
his neck and nuzzled against his shoulder. "Please
don't let her wake up like this," the dragon prayed.
Amethyst giggled.
"Shall I escort you upstairs, milady," Jol asked
bowing before the chimera and extending his hand. She
giggled and curtsied, as well as she could in her
travelling breeches. It was so hard to use a sword in
a dress.
"Certainly, Gabriev-sama," she said formally as she
accepted the hand and they walked upstairs in parody
of courtiers everywhere.
"Silly children," Luna mumbled as she continued
working. Much later she irritably folded up her apron
and walked upstairs a moment. She could hear the four
adventurers snoring inside. Looking about cautiously
the sorceress vanished.

**********

"My lord, there is a woman wishing to speak to you,"
the guard panted nervously.
"And who is this woman?" Zelgadis asked.
"She...she.." the man collected his breath. "Appears
to be a waitress, but she is a powerful sorceress and
claims to be the Knight of..."
"Ceipheed?" Zelgadis asked, his heart running cold. He
remembered snatches of anecdotes Lina had told about
her sister.
"Yes sir, how did you know that?"
"See her in..." a purple haired woman, still in
waitress uniform walked into the study.
"I'm here, I apologize for the clothes, but I just got
off work," she explained. Zelgadis sweatdropped.
"I suppose you're here about..."
"Where is my sister?"
"Lina's terrified of you," Zelgadis noted. "And she
doesn't like company at the best of times. Now
probably wouldn't..." Zelgadis barely raised a shield
in time to resist the blast of magic. Luna rolled her
eyes and the shield cracked and shattered. Zelgadis
found himself flattened against the wall.
"I didn't ask if it would be a good time," she said,
ignoring the guards behind her. "I asked where she
was."
"Why should I tell you?" Zelgadis asked. "I've faced
dark lords in my time."
"I have news of my niece," she said simply, after
calculating that he wouldn't betray her sister.
"I thought you may have met her children," Zelgadis
hmphed. "So why not tell me, and I'll pass the message
on to her."
"Because I also would like to speak to my sister,"
Zelgadis's eyes narrowed. "I swear not to harm her."
"She went home, should be there by now, they call it
Kitsune Forest, now," he answered after a long
moment's silence. "It's to the East of here, about
three days by dragon flight."
"That would put her near where Filia ul Copt resides,"
Luna mused. "Suddenly that dragon's presence makes
sense. My thanks." Then she turned around and left,
the guards followed her around a corner and found
nothing.

**********

Lina absent mindedly dipped her furred arms into the
water to splash it up into her face. In the week she
was gone, a small bandit force had tried to set up
shop in HER forest. She'd spent the better part of an
hour hunting down and tearing the scum to pieces. She
whuffed in frustration as she imagined the difficulty
of getting all that blood out of her hunting leathers.
As Lina stepped into the water fully she took her
human form, skin being much easier to clean than fur.
Lina was coming to the conclusion that she'd have to
replace them. This wasn't an unpleasant prospect, the
meat from the deer she hunted for leather was quite
tasty. She was thinking this while every so often
submerging herself in the river, and was just going
over the number of places she could find the right
kind of deer right now.
"Lina?" the were-fox froze in the middle of scrubbing
a stubborn spot on her arm. She stared straight out
into space and the hairs on the back of her neck stood
on end. There was suddenly a new scent in the air, one
that was familiar but which she'd never been around
since becoming a were-fox.
"Onesan?" she asked nervously, turning around.
Standing before her was her older sister, no older
than she had seemed when Lina finally left home all
those years ago. "Is that..." Then Luna did something
that completely surprised Lina, who was somewhat
expecting to be sent into the stratosphere a la
raywing. She stepped forward and embraced her sister
in a relieved hug.
"Onesan?" Lina repeated, startled. "Are you okay?"
Luna released her and then wiped her eyes dry.
"You scared me you little brat!" she shouted. "I
thought you were dead!"
"You were sorry about my death?" Her sister gave an
exasperated sigh.
"Of course I was!" she calmed herself before
continuing. "Please don't do that again."
"I'll try not to," Lina said, still shocked.
"Uhhh...onesan?"
"What is it?" her normal facade was starting to
reappear. For some reason, Lina wasn't as scared any
more.
"How did you learn about me being alive?"

****************************************************************************

Moving Out

"Well, you know we still don't have enough people take
on all the undead," Jol noted absently. Xina stood up.
"Xina-san, what are you doing?"
"HEY!! DOES ANYBODY ELSE WANT TO GO BLOW UP SOME DEAD
THINGS!!" The other three sweatdropped as the people
in the inn's common room cheered in response from
behind rather large servings of food. "That was
simple."
"By Ceipheed, its a nation of Xina's," Val muttered,
"How has the world lasted this long?" Xina's ears
twitched as she turned to glare at him.
"What was that?"
"A reasonable question, considering how crazy you
are," that's when Xina began to use her eating
utensils to hit Val over the head.
"At least there's going to be no reluctance to fight
among them," Jol noted, sweatdropping as the various
civilians of the village began to laugh about the
coming fight.
"Ouch! Stop kicking me!"
"Umm, should we go now?" Amethyst asked.
"Let go of my hands and I'll stop kicking you!"
"Yeah, before you have to heal them again."
"If I let go of your hands you'll hit me with your
spoon!"
"That's what you get for calling me crazy!!"
"Hmm, I wonder what would happen if Luna were to show
and see them risking damage to her inn?" Xina and Val
both glared at Jolrael, but they stopped "fighting."
"Shouldn't we try to convince Luna-sama to fight
again?" The table nearest Amethyst silenced and
someone turned to her.
"She practices non-interference to a point," the man
explained. "We're on our own unless they come here."

*********

Xalan yawned and sat up looking toward where his
enhanced senses told him his sister was. She was
moving, fairly fast, maybe Val had found her. If he
was lucky, perhaps Amethyst and Jolrael had found them
as well, but that was asking for a lot. Whichever, he
was rested now, and much closer, maybe tomorrow. Maybe
the next day if she kept moving like this.
The kage-kitsune stretched and looked to where
Tinuviel was sleeping, looking quite safe annd
unthreatening while unconscious. He considered waking
her up, but she needed more rest than he did, and he
could deal with moving while she was sleeping. Xalan
gathered her up and started running.

*********

"Damn," Sherra grumbled. "I can't get near that little
bitch while she's around Luna."
~That would qualify as suicide.~ her sword agreed.
"Be quiet you," she snapped. She started pacing in the
icy room, considering her options. "Now let's see
here, she was traveling with her brother, the crown
princess of Sailoon, an elf and a Gabriev."
~hmmm, sounds familiar.~ Sherra rolled her eyes.
"Perhaps we should look at some other families," she
decided, with a smile.

**********

"One more time my love," Martina promised. "I ask you
to make the try one more time."
"And if I fail this time?" Zangulus asked quietly,
ashamed.
"The little brat has obviously inherited her father's
skill with deception," Martina noted. "But if you fail
this time, I will invest you with the power of the
monster Zomalgustar! And then you will be superior
again, and we shall be together, for all time!!
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"
"I swear to you, my love," he whispered, smiling
viciously. "Inverse blood WILL adorn your gift to me."
He hefted the dark blade and chuckled quietly.

***********

He was cocooned in dark power, soul sealed within the
phylactery that kept him tied to this world. What and
where the phylactery was, was his secret. It hadn't
been in the tower when it crumbled. If it had been he
wouldn't be here gathering power and recovering from
the death the transformation required. If the
phylactery had been destroyed then he would have
snatched away to oblivion long before the spell had
been completed. He had suspected the ancient structure
might prove so weak, though, and so the keeping of his
soul had been entrusted to one of his secondary
strongholds.
He was not ready to walk the world yet, but he could
send his will across either plane. He knew that those
children were still interferring. Before his body was
stripped away to nothing he had recognized the
moon-white body of the crown princess of Sailoon. The
moon and the elf, these were the threats to his future
as the Dark Lord Phibrizzo's replacement. Amethyst was
with this collection of sorcerers and creatures, and
his spirit growled in rage.
Roquen reached out across the spirit plane, calling
out. All he could do in either plane, for now, was
call and watch, but this was enough. He found an
appropriate spirit, delivered the appropriate
information and sent it on its way. Perhaps this would
halt the advance of the Crown Princess of Sailoon at
the very least.

*************

"I can move faster," Val grumbled, as he poked the
camp fire.
"But, Val-san, we don't want to leave behind all these
other sorcerers," Amethyst pointed out. She gestured
at the dozen or so other campfires. "You're a little
to fast for a raywing to keep up...unless you're
Luna-sama." Amethyst added the last quietly.
"How far away are these zombies anyway," Xina asked.
Jolrael shrugged. Xina sniffed, bored, ears drooping.
Then suddenly they perked. "Hey Val, you're itching to
get something done too, right?"
"Yeah," Val said slowly, Xina had an idea. This could
be bad.
"Why don't you and I go scouting," she suggested.
"Neither of us needs much sleep, usually." She added
the last while rubbing her head and glancing at
Amethyst.
"And do what when we find them?" Val asked.
"Kill a lot of them and then come back to say we found
them?"
"Sounds like sound planning," Jol shrugged.
"Yeah, that actually does sound good," he admited,
standing up.
"Be careful," Amethyst called as they left the camp,
Xina bouncing cheerful little circles around the
dragon.
In the shadows a pair of eyes watched and waited. The
owner of those eyes wanted to attack now, failure
would be inevitable and then it would be freed from
this slavery. The necromancer's commandment held it
back, however, the spell equally aware that attack now
was suicide. So it could only watch as the dragon and
the fox-girl went out to scout and the other two laid
down to rest like so many of the others on the
campsite.

**************

"Amethyst."
"Who's that?" the young chimera scanned about the
darkness for the source of the voice. She was holding
the watch at their camp, like perhaps four Zefilians
across the field were doing. Val and Xina were still
out, Jolrael was asleep, pretty fast asleep.
"I'm here, Amethyst," it was a woman's voice. And it
sounded familiar. She stood up and looked about.
"Follow my voice."
"Excuse me, who are you?" Amethyst asked as she walked
away from camp, leaving her sword behind. She didn't
notice Jolrael shifting nervously in his sleep.
"You know me, Amethyst," the voice repeated. She
continued to follow the voice for a few more minutes,
until she began to notice that the camp was out of
sight.
"Please, spirit or lady, who are you?"
"Don't you recognize me, Amethyst," the voice asked
and a form shambled into the light. Amethyst flinched
as it was revealed to her vision, there were
unmistakable similarities in the form. She had decayed
much slower than she should have, and it didn't make
sense that she was here, but there was no mistaking
who it was. Amethyst had seen pictures of this woman
all her life.
"Mother?" she managed to ask before freezing up.
"I've come for you daughter," the form said softly.
Amethyst couldn't see the pain in the zombie's eyes,
the desire to stop. "Time to answer for killing me."

******************************************************************************

Family Reunion

"They must be alot further out than we thought," Xina
said as Val landed
at the edge of a familiar twisted forest. Xina took a
small leap off of
Val's dragon back and stood on the ground next to him.
"Luna-sama said they were at least a week out," Val's
voice rumbled as he
walked behind a particularly thick group of trees.
"I wish Xalan were here," Xina muttered. "He's better
at this sort of
stuff than me."
"I hope he and Tinu found what they were looking for?"
Val, now in human
form, added. Xina narrowed her eyes.
"Well he's with Tinuviel," Xina growled under her
breath. "He's got to
be having a lot more fun the rest of us."
"Actually, I think I'd rather face that mazoku brat
over that," Val said
as he came from behind the trees, adjusting his
clothes a little.
"What? You don't like Tinuviel?"
"As in like a girlfriend?" he asked startled. "No!"
"But she's so beautiful!"
"She's annoying," he corrected. "Though I'm getting a
little used to
that. Why do you ask?
"No reason," Xina answered happily. "Now, should we
head out on foot and
see if we find them without being seen?" Or do we head
back to camp?"
"We have most of the night left, lets go a little
further?"
"Hai!"

**********

Like most beings that actually seek power beyond the
limits of their
kind, Roquen was a fool. When he first tried and
succeeded to tie a spirit
to a physical body he was elated. When the creature
failed to return quickly
from its test mission he was annoyed. When he found
himself unable to
successfully bring down other spirits without
completely destroying some
aspect of their mindsm he was frustrated, but dealt
with it. When he checked
back on that abberation and found that it had been
slowly reforming its body,
he was confused. When he finally recognized that the
thing was becoming a
spectral version of the late queen of Sailoon, he
laughed. When her daughter
showed up opposed against him, he was amused by the
irony. The cardinal rule
of magic and power in general never occured to him.
Surprises are never good
news.

**********

"FLARE ARROW!!"
The thought that undead usually couldn't cast spells
passed through
Amethyst's mind as the firey arrow struck her. Her
mind tried to use that
thought in an attempt to blank the fact that she
appeared to be fighting her
mother. Fortunately for the shock frozen chimera, the
flare arrow did little
more than char her clothes and throw her back against
a rock.
"I...I was just a baby!" Amethyst stammered as another
arrow struck and
she had to shake her head clear.
"You know its true," the specter accused, walking
toward the now kneeling
chimera. "You know its...." she wouldn't let herself
say that this was
justice, she wouldn't do it. "Why don't you defend
yourself?"
"I'm sorry," Amethyst pleaded before her mother, now
standing directly
over her. Amethyst noticed now a translucent quality
to the dead queen's
body, only parts of her seemed to be dead flesh.
"Zelgadis understood, but I wouldn't listen," Amelia
whispered. "And you
know too. Why don't you cast a spell, any spell?" The
specter forced
Amethyst to look up into her dead eyes. She shivered
as the death-cold hands
touched her stone skin. Through tear-filled eyes she
was finally forced to
see her mother's pleading eyes.
"Any spell?" Amethyst asked, she was getting colder.
The specter's touch
draining her vitality. "You who are not of this
world..."
"Finally, coming to your own defense?" the specter
smiled tauntingly, but
her eyes encouraged her daughter on.
"By the light of purity I possess, I bid thee, begone
to the nexus of our
two worlds! MEGIDO FLARE!" Amethyst and her mother's
specter were
enveloped in a flash of white light. The young chimera
cringed as the
specter screamed in pain, at first thinking that now
she had killed her
mother a second time. In moments, before the spell
vanished, the scream
became a cry of freedom and triumph. Then the light
was gone and with it
Amelia's specter.
In spell-induced calm, Amethyst was able to logically
examine the matter.
Her mother had been one of the best sorceress's of the
time. If she had
really wanted to kill her daughter, she would have
used something other than
a flare arrow. Of course this was just on top of the
look in the specter's
eyes. A look Amethyst had half-suspected was her
imagination at first.
"And she told me to defend myself," Amethyst finally
said. She shivered,
still cold from the specter's touch. Finally her eyes
narrowed, merely
annoyed for the moment, she was still too calm for
anything else. "The
necromancer."
"Amethyst! Are you okay?" she looked up to see Jol
standing on the rock
above her. "I felt something over here?" She smiled.
"I'm fine Jolrael-san," she answered calmly. "I had an
encounter with a
ghost and had to cast a megido flare around me. I do
feel kind of cold
though." She didn't want to say that she had
recognized the ghost yet.
"It's making me kind of tired, with the megido flare I
think I might do like
Xina-san always does and go to sleep."
"Do you need help?" He sheathed his sword as Amethyst
stood up
unsteadily, but caught herself.
"I don't feel like anything is seriously wrong," she
looked to Jol.
"It doesn't seem that way to me, either," the
swordsman agreed
reluctantly.
"Okay then, all I need is for you to take the watch
early and then I can
get some sleep. Is that okay Jolrael-san?"
"It's perfectly logical." He nodded watching her walk
sleepily but
straight and in control.
"Okay, and by the time the megido flare's wear off
I'll have thought
about it too long to freak out." Jolrael didn't know
what "it" was, but that
statement certainly sounded optomistic. He was only
mildly apprehensive
about it, however, as she slept peacefully upon lying
back on her bedroll.

************

Zangulus couldn't believe his luck as he came upon
fresh tracks moving
towards the undead army without looked like some
concern for stealth. He
smiled as he noted the occasional staff point bored
into the ground. She
came this way, he could feel it in his bones. The
fox-girl had come this
way, and she had the staff.

****************************************************************************

Scouting

Val snapped his wings back and looked back at the
undead army for a moment. Xina and Val were both tired
and hurt. Early in the battle the flying shadows and
the odd shade rider had managed to get close enough to
attack, but Xina and Val had learned quickly enough.
Nothing had managed to get that close to them for a
while, and their wounds had stayed minor.
They were still pressing ahead despite the line that
he and Xina had ripped through them on their last
pass. Those intelligent enough to understand, like the
shades, huddled in fear as the dragon passed overhead.
Even they were still bound by their creator's will to
proceed.
The sky was speckled with those shadow beasts, but not
nearly so much as they had been. The airborne monsters
had been especially targetted by Xina and Val. It
hadn't taken long to discover that the creatures'
incredible speed only applied on a straight line, and
they were nowhere near as powerful or maneuverable as
the dragon. The last point was that they had no method
of attack other than claws and fangs. Since the dragon
had taken his natural form again and they had taken to
the air, fully a quarter of the abominations had been
scattered by fire, light and darkness.
"How many do you think there are?" Xina asked
curiously.
"A good twenty thousand," Val grumbled. "My mother
told me that the dead of wars from the last thousand
years were scattered about the entire continent." Xina
nodded.
"And I'll bet he sought out the biggest collections.
One more pass?" Xina asked. "And then we go back and
say we found them?"
"Sure, why not?" Xina clutched to his scales hard as
the dragon carved back around to make another run on
the undead. "But we should be back before the day
returns."
"So its daylight when we attack," Xina chuckled. "I
know we went over this, now let's go kill something."
The flying shadows began to converge again and Xina
gestured with her staff as Val dived to char through
the ground ranks. A shimmer of darkness and silver
channeled through the staff and into a clump of shadow
beasts, erupting into a burst of white shimmering
light. The beasts that survived the light were
consequently swallowed by a wave of darkness that
absorbed and scattered their essences.
"Another five of those things down," Xina shouted. She
had to pause as the dragon cut through the swiftly
closing hole, all her effort again spent gripping his
scaled hide to prevent falling off. The dragon
released a killing breath of energy that ripped
through another six of the shadows.
"Make it eleven," the dragon roared. As Xina found her
perch on his back stable again she channeled three
more of the light and shadow bombs into the masses
below. These attacks did nothing to the skeletons,
zombies and other physical creatures, but shades,
vulnerable to extremes of light and darkness, were
eliminated where ever they fell.
"My score would be higher if I had a stable perch,"
Xina stuck her tongue out, despite the fact the dragon
couldn't see her.
"Can't you fly now?" Val retorted, after a combined
effort from him and Xina cleared the air path ahead.
"I'm not as fast as you, and you know it," Xina
retorted, erecting a shield of force that several a
shadow landed on and began to seek a way around. Xina
quietly dissipated the force and left only light,
which destroyed the shadow beast as it fell through.
"Besides, I wouldn't have been to busy doing that to
come up with anything new."
"Yeah, that would have been annoying," Val agreed,
whipping almost straight up into the air. As he
leveled out high over their enemies he laughed at the
sensation of Xina thumping him between the shoulder
blades.
"Would you WARN me about those maneuvers!" she
shouted, as they winged their way out from the undead
horde to return to the camp of sorcerers.
"Well I think we weakened them fairly well," Val said
later. "But what do we have twenty sorc...." the
dragon paused as he saw their camp in the growing
light of dawn.
"Um, six hundred humans!?! And I think they're all
sorcerers! Where'd they all come from?"

************

Zangulus cursed as the dragon passed over him, that
was obviously his quarry, and he couldn't follow them
in the air. His sword could summon a blanket of
darkness to slow a descent, but it wouldn't carry him
into the blue. He had no idea where they were going
and couldn't track them. He would be back to guessing,
unless.
The bounty hunter smiled suddenly and he began
searching for strategic position. Why would they come
out this way towards that shambling army, if were not
to scout out their opposition. There was a battle
coming, and in it he would have the chance to reach
the girl and take her staff. All he had to do was wait
for them to pass.

*********

How about that, now his sister was coming back towards
him. He shrugged, she was still quite a ways away from
him. Tomorrow, he decided, he would be find her late
tomorrow. Assuming she moved again, otherwise it would
be sooner.
"Are you ready for one more run?"
"Hmm?" Tinuviel asked, looking up from a notebook she
had taken from a pouch somewhere. He had caught her
trying to steal one of the pendants once. Well knowing
Tinuviel, she probably had every intention to return
it. The problem was whether it would survive her care
or not.
Speaking of the pendants, after the first day he had
started taking them off while resting. Which was how
she had gotten close to them in the first place. They
increased his power, true, but they also put him on
edge, made it hard to relax.
"You haven't been asleep for more than ten minutes!"
she protested. "You usually sleep for a full hour!" As
he snapped the various pendants back in their usual
spots he noticed a line drawn around his wrist.
"Umm, what's this?" he asked confused. He then felt at
his neck and forehead, rolling his eyes as they came
back coated in ink?
"Uhhh," Tinuviel sweatdropped and smiled. "I was
planning on cleaning it off before you woke up."
"Why me?" Xalan asked as he smacked his forehead into
the palm of his hand.

***********

"Hey, where's Amethyst Sailoon?" Xina shouted as she
jumped off Val's back before the dragon went off
somewhere to have some privacy in order to change into
his human form.
"Stone skin, silvery hair?" somebody asked.
"Yeah, that's her."
"She was attacked by something before most of us got
here," the man said. "She's still sleeping it off over
there." He pointed off to where Xina thought they had
been camped before she and Val went off to camp.
"Attacked!?! What!?" Xina ran in the indicated
direction and found Amethyst lying asleep serenly and
Jolrael sitting crosslegged nearby. "Is she okay?"
"She's just sleeping," Jolrael answered. "And I've
checked her health, body and spiritual, couple of
times to be sure." Xina glared at him for not giving
her the chance to actually ask the question.
"So what happened?" she asked, grimacing as he
shrugged before she could finish. "Think she'll...."
"I'd say it won't be long now." Val was walking up
behind the swordsman. "Strange dreams though."
"Do you know..." the dragon started.
"How annoying what is?" Xina and Val glared at him.
Then Amethyst stretched and yawned.
"Xina-san," Amethyst said cheerfully, but wearily.
"Did you find them?"
"Yes, now we..."
"Okay then let's go and free the souls enslaved by
this vile monster!" She stood up and declared it
loudly.
"That's what I was going to say," the fox-girl said
irritably. Val and Jol looked at Xina in disbelief.
"More or less!!" she shouted, annoyed.

=====
"Caffeinated Kender? What's that, a berserk spell?" -
Tribble, Kender Warrior of the Celestial Kingdom
"God has to have a sense of humor, it's the only explanation for sex." - my father
"I have to write a how-to paper for class, so I'm writing a paper on how to be psuedo-evil." - my brother

http://members.aol.com/thrythlind/snake.html

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