***

Check out my writings webpage. Find my stuff. ^_^
http://ca.geocities.com/therealsilentnova/entrance.html

I hate my e-mail signature, because it's not long enough to say anythin
___________________________________________________
GO.com Mail                                    
Get Your Free, Private E-mail at http://mail.go.com



-- Attached file included as plaintext by Ecartis --
-- File: tsw04.txt

The Slayers: Wild
By Troy Thomas

Ranma 1/2 and its characters are the creations and property 
of Rumiko Takahashi. Slayers and its characters are the 
creations and properties of Hajime Kanzaka and Rui Araizumi. 
Excepting flames, if you have any comments or criticisms, 
feel free to send them my way.

***

I can be found at the following addresses:
URL: http://ca.geocities.com/therealsilentnova/entrance.html
Email: Silentnova@go.com

***

Chapter Four

Ranma wanted silence, so he walked nearer to Zelgadis and 
Hunter, who both seemed to ignore the others. Casually, he 
made a mental note about the two, 'Inside, Zel seems to burn 
while Hunter seems to freeze. They seem like they're the 
same, but Zel is really angry about something all the time, 
and Hunter's not giving anything away. Who the hell is he? 
You know where you're standing with Zel, but not Hunter.' He 
stopped reflecting, after realising, 'Damn! I'm thinking 
again!'

He wanted silence, because of the previous night when he was 
nearly captured by Maria's servant. He didn't want to think 
about it, about how he almost became a slave, how he almost 
lost his own will, how he had to be rescued. 'Is this how it 
is with smart people?' he wondered. 'You think and think, 
always growing sadder because every thought leads to another 
thought. You don't think when you're happy.' He looked ahead 
at Gourry, whom he knew was smiling, whom he knew to be 
enjoying the walk through the forest, because it was a tough 
walk what with all the thick underbrush and low branches. 
'But do you want to be dumb as a brick?' he asked himself. 
'Maybe it's better, because then you don't know how bad 
anything really is, but you know you have to do something to 
make it right when it's wrong, or at least you know you have 
to make sure you end up in a better situation than before.'

He looked at the unfamiliar trees. Trees have a general look, 
green and tall. 'Here I am. It's not a nightmare. I haven't 
seen Akane, or Mom, or Dad, or anyone for two days! These 
stupid trees are real, and is there anything I can do about 
it? No! Cause I'm a stupid idiot, who's running around 
without a head, and all I can do is make sure I don't get 
captured by some weirdo and her dumb masks! What the hell can 
I do? Why the hell am I going with these people? Where the 
hell are we going?' He pondered his last question, and then 
asked it out loud to Lina, who was walking ahead of the group 
with Gourry.

Lina answered, "We've been forced to find some old labratory. 
A wizard wants to duel with me there, and he's taken a kid as 
a hostage so that I'd have to go. I've got no choice but to 
do as he says. I don't know why the rest of you came though."

Ranma studied Lina. 'Short, skinny, and loud,' he decided, 
ignoring the fact he was only a little taller than her. He 
didn't want to guess how tall his feminine side was in 
comparison, but he couldn't help it. 'About the same.'

He looked at Gourry's height, then Hunter's and Zel's, 
judging his eye level to be basically at the same height as 
their shoulders. 'Wow, I'm pretty short! Maybe it's what they 
eat.'

"Stop!" Lina ordered, seemingly sensing something. "There's 
something else here."

Ranma looked about, feeling a presence on the edge of his 
subconscious. However, he didn't see anything. 'This world is 
dangerous!' he decided. 'Magic and monsters... Akane, where 
are you? I hope you're safe!' An image of his fianc�e 
appeared in mind. 'She was kind of happy. And she fought for 
everything. And I miss her smile. Damn it! Everything was 
supposed to get better! Not worse! After you almost died...' 
The image changed, Akane Tendo lzying as if dead in Ranma's 
arms. 'We were supposed to sort everything out."

"It's a very strong thing, whatever it is," Zelgadis said, 
looking into the forest, trying to see through the 
undergrowth and low hanging branches. "It's also very 
different than anything we've encountered before. But it's 
leaving us behind, so I don't think it'll bother us, for now 
at least."

"How can you tell?" Ranma asked, watching Zelgadis' eyes. "I 
can feel something, but I can't tell anything about it except 
that it's there."

"It's his powerful Shamanism, Ranma," Lina answered. "It 
works in harmony with his spirit, so he can sense with a bit 
more detail than you or me."

"His magic acts like a magnifying glass then, I guess," Ranma 
said, quietly. 'So it can work that way... Magic... Maybe I 
can beat it.'

"It's going pretty fast. Actually, now it's completely left 
us behind. I can't find it anywhere." Zelgadis turned to 
where it seemed he last felt the prescense. "I think it's 
important that we find its trail." He slowly began to move 
forward through the brush, as though looking for something 
specific.

"You know, Zel, all we really knew about this lab was what 
that Gerim told you. We didn't even get directions, except 
that it was this way!" Lina sourly commented. "If there's 
also something that's going this way, then maybe whatever it 
is knows exactly where it's going! You said it was going 
pretty fast. That might mean whatever it is, is following a 
trail, which leads right to that lab!"

"Or it's actually making a trail," Zel said. "And it was 
going pretty fast..."

"That's not so good. And now I'm getting the feeling that 
whatever it was will be waiting at the lab, for us..." Lina 
said, nervously. "Well, I guess we have no choice but to find 
out what it was..."

'I wonder if they have any idea of what it was?' Ranma 
thought. "I have a question. What do you think it might be? 
Maybe it was one of those mazoku you were talking about."

"I really hope not! They're too much trouble to face off 
against!" Confidently, Lina smiled. "Well, whatever it is, 
we're definitely up against something strange, and it's 
probably not like anything we've ever faced before." She 
chum-ly patted Gourry on the back, which was the equivalent 
of a hammer pounding in a nail. "Are you ready Gourry?"

"I don't know. Ready for what?"

Reluctantly sinking back into thought, Ranma slowly followed 
whoever was in front of him through the thick forest, 'So is 
this it for me? I'll just wander around this world, and 
forget about everything that's ever happened to me? Maybe 
whatever happened in... I guess it's the old world now... 
Whatever happened there isn't important anymore.'

A thought, unbidden, entered his mind, 'It's your choice 
concerning its importance.'

'Did I say that?' he wondered.

Ranma suddenly felt awake at the thought's end. He looked 
around, seeing Lina and Gourry barking at each other. He 
looked to Zelgadis, who was forcing his way through the 
woods. He looked at Hunter, whose expression seemed as hard 
and cold as ice.

'Everything seems more real...' He looked at the trees, and 
noticed the bark, which was brown, thick, coarse, and sticky 
looking. 'Well, maybe not more real, but I'm less... I don't 
know the right word. It's more that I'm looking at the world 
as it is, and less that I'm not looking at it as I think it 
is.'

"What a mess," Gourry said, his voice shaking apart Ranma's 
perspective. "Wow, there must have been at least four guys 
through here. Look at this!" He picked up a tree branch. "A 
sword did this!" he said, pointing to the branch's end, which 
had a particular cut.

"I only sensed one," Zelgadis said. "And this path is fairly 
clean. How convenient. Perhaps it was just somebody running 
along this trail."

Ranma silently noted how Zelgadis said convenient, which 
sounded like it could easily be exchanged for the word 
suspicious. He looked down, seeing the debris. 'Those 
branches were just cut though. It rained last night, so the 
branches would look different if they got wet and then 
dried...' He said, "No way that it didn't just go through 
here! It just cut all this down, whatever it is."

"Ah, well, even if that's true, or if it's something else, 
then we'll find out for sure, later on! But for now, it'll 
actually be better if we don't worry about it." Taking a 
tentative first step onto the trail, Lina then began to 
follow it towards the lab. "Because there's no time like the 
present! So let's get our rears in gear!"

***

"Darling, please, you must wait a moment," Maria's servant 
heard, the voice coming from behind her. "Please turn and 
face me."

The girl behind the mask felt her body turn. She soon saw 
through the mask's eyes the relative shape of Maria, but 
realised upon sight it was not actually the lady she 
instantly began to hate, but only a telepathic projection of 
the lady.

"Darling, the dreadful girl Lina Inverse is causing you such 
trouble. We hate her, don't we darling?" Maria said. "The boy 
is not yet in our possession, but he must be. He is too 
interesting a prize to lose. You will capture him today, 
before they find," she spat the next word, as though it was 
horrible a taste, which crawled in her mouth, "his labratory, 
where the fiend's experiments reside, for the grotesque 
things there will overpower them all, should they encounter 
them. You must, darling."

Behind the mask, the girl spitefully thought, 'When I escape, 
Maria, you'll die in ways you've never dreamed of! I'm not 
one of your puppets!'

"I've sent one of the nameless creatures to help you, 
darling," Maria said, the illusion dissipating from sight.

'Darling? My name is Til Undover! And I'll destroy you! Burn 
you from the face of the world!'

A creature approached, walking through the space Maria's form 
had just occupied.

Til looked at the creature, recognising it for one of her 
father's golem-look-a-likes. 'One of them? But they don't 
listen when Father's not around! They go funny, like they're 
alive sometimes.'

However, her body was not under her control, so she could do 
nothing. Also, in the recesses of her mind, there was a 
sensation, which she knew in her heart to be both unnatural 
and parasitic, and it was so filthy it polluted her soul.

'Maria, you've done such a horrible thing!' Til inwardly 
screamed. 'I'll kill you! You'll regret ever meeting me!'

The creature, Til though of it as a perverted tree, a goblin, 
because of its bark-like exterior, versus a golems earth 
build,, looked down at her. After picking her up, the goblin, 
she could never again consider it or its copies anything 
else, cradled her, and then turned towards the forest, as if 
though intent with singular purpose.

'Those people! Perhaps... they will free me!'

***

"How long is this stupid trail, anyway?" Lina asked, moaning. 
"Why was the stupid lab built so far away from civilisation?" 
she shouted, perhaps asking the trees, since only Gourry was 
near enough to her to offer an answer.

To her surprise and annoyance, Gourry did reply, "Maybe this 
guy isn't a people person?"

"Gourry, it was a rhetorical question..."

"Oh." Stopping, Gourry started stroking his chin, as though 
deep in thought.

Despite knowing a deep thought for Gourry was the equivalent 
of wading in the shallow end of the kiddie pool, Lina, much 
like one picks at a sore, had to say, "Gourry, say it. What's 
on your mind?"

"I was just trying to figure out what rhetorical means." 
Clueless-ly smiling, Gourry scratched his head. "Is it like 
saying something twice? But I only heard you ask it once!"

"That would be redundant!" Lina waited for, wanted Gourry to 
say one more word, because she knew whatever he said would be 
something she could leap on, meaning she could attack Gourry, 
and in the process relieve her building stress.

"I don't think should get to the lab today," Zelgadis 
suddenly said, his words much to Lina's regret sweeping away 
the look Gourry always had on his face whenever the blonde 
swordsman was about to say something. "It's a bad idea to 
approach it in the dark."

"Yeah, that's probably the smart thing to do," Lina 
conceeded. "We'll wait till morning, and then get to the 
bottom of this mess. It's the best thing, really. Especially 
for my feet."

After setting camp, with darkness having fallen, Lina slowly 
looked around to study the positions of her comrades. Gourry 
and Zelgadis in relative ease sat near to her. Ranma, she 
noted, sat near to the fire, but away from everyone, as 
though uncomfortable with the company. She thought, 'But 
that's fair enough. We just met.' Hunter seemed to sit 
outside attention, as though fading into the background. 'Now 
that's suspicious!'

Gourry suddenly and cheerfully asked Ranma, much to Lina's 
surprise, "Hey Ranma, what about your world? Where do you 
come from? And what about you?"

Hiding a wince, because of the bluntness of Gourry's 
questions, Lina then leaned forward, wanting hear whatever 
was said, hoping Ranma wouldn't evade the questions.

Dumbfounded, Ranma seemed to search for an answer, "Uh, my 
world? It... It was called Earth, actually."

Lina searched the pigtailed boy's face, seeing in his 
expression a desire to share everything about himself. 
However, she also noticed worried wrinkles, as though he 
would hold everything important to himself, as though 
unwilling to be anything except a strange boy from another 
dimension.

"I lived in a city called Tokyo, in the district of Nerima. 
And I was a martial artist, who was cursed to become a girl 
when splashed with cold water. Luckily enough, hot water 
would change me back to a guy." Lina shrewdly smiled as Ranma 
finished his short, non-threatening answer, which seemed to 
her to give them some information about himself, but not much 
more than what they already knew, "And that's me."

"Well, I'm Lina Inverse, sorceress supreme! Slayer of evil! 
Defender of good!" Lina shouted out, her voice filled with 
passion. "And I travel around the world, searching for 
treasure, adventure, and excitement! Just what every girl 
wants, really."

"And I'm Gourry Gabriev, and I travel with Lina, because if I 
didn't, then she'd travel with me, and nobody wants that!" 
Gourry leaned towards Ranma, and whispered, much to Lina's 
annoyance since she could still hear him, "And all that stuff 
she just said about herself? She's really the slayer of 
anyone in her way and defender of what's hers, which she 
thinks is everything!"

"Gourry! Why you! Die!" Lina cried, leaping into battle with 
the blonde swordsman. After a moment of violence, Lina ended 
up with Gourry's elbow under her chin, and her knee digging 
into his side.

Zelgadis said, during Lina and Gourry's stalemate, "We 
already know about me, and there's nothing more to tell, 
anyway."

"How... about... you?" Lina asked Hunter, as she struggled to 
break, if not free of Gourry's hold, then something of 
Gourry.

However, the bounty hunter didn't respond, and instead looked 
to the trail, from where they'd come.

Zelgdais said, "Something is following us."

"Not now!" Lina groaned. After kicking Gourry away from her, 
she then stood and faced the large figure, which approached 
them on the trail. She realised what it was when the creature 
placed a smaller figure onto the ground, which began to walk 
towards the group. "Hey, it's that girl again. There's 
something different about her though. She's less... 
mechanical."

"Break... mask..." the girl said, nearing. "Free... me..."

"She didn't just say that, right?" Lina asked. Hunter walked 
past her, with his sword unsheathed. "Hey! What are you 
doing?"

"I'll kill her." The bounty hunter held his sword out in 
front, ready to attack.

"No!" Lina shouted. She reached for Hunter's shoulder, but 
the bounty swung around, his sword at Lina's wrist. A clang 
of metal broke through to Lina's mind, causing her open her 
eyes. She saw Gourry's blade just above her arm, holding at 
bay Hunter's. Shoving Gourry aside, she sprang at Hunter, 
with on the tip of her tongue the sentence, "What were you 
trying to do?" However, the hunter punched her in the face, 
knocking her back. She felt herself caught by Gourry before 
she could land on the ground.

"Stay out of my way, Inverse. You don't know who's behind the 
mask. She should've died last night, when you had the 
chance." Hunter turned back towards the masked girl, his 
whole manner as though intent on killing her.

"You!" Gourry laid Lina onto the ground, and then rushed at 
Hunter, sword drawn. "This isn't how you treat a lady!"

The blades met, their voices breaking the silence of the 
night.

Sweeping his leg to trip Gourry, Hunter also brought the hilt 
of his sword at Gourry's head. "I'll kill everyone who stands 
in my way," he said, as Zelgadis sprang at him, sword drawn.

***

'That man... he's a damn wildcard!' Til thought, her body 
indifferently standing beside the impassive goblin, watching 
the strange battle unfold. 'And this damn body, it's a 
coffin!' She wanted to run, hide. 'I can't do anything except 
stand here!' She thought of her body's inaction, 'It's not 
doing anything! Why? The last time I saw that pigtailed boy, 
the mask made my body try to kidnap him.'

The man, his hair short and black as a star-less night, 
seemed to hold his own against other the two swordsmen. 
However, the girl and the boy seemed to be creeping around 
the battle towards her, out of the wildcard's sight.

"Ranma! Be careful!" she heard the red-haired girl hoarsely 
whisper. "Just cause she's asking for help doesn't mean 
she'll actually let us do as she asks!"

"What about that big thing?" the boy, his name definitely 
Ranma, asked. "I'm more worried about it than the girl."

"Don't worry about it! If it moves, I'll just blow it up with 
my Fireball!" the girl confidently said.

Til guessed the girl's name was Lina Inverse. "Not... 
golem... goblin!" She brought her free hand to the crack on 
the mask. "Break!"

An explosion caused all three to look at the wildcard, who 
was calmly walking towards them, away from a fire blazing 
behind him where he had just been fighting.

"He knows magic? I hate it when suspicious people decide to 
use their aces! It's always a damn surprise that you can't 
possibly prepare for!" Lina determinedly faced Ranma. "You 
break the mask, and I'll break Hunter! Get to the lab, and 
away from this bozo! Me and the boys will catch up to you 
later!"

"Right!" The boy Ranma looked at Til, who wanted to smile in 
relief. "I hate to do this, but, uh... I guess I've got to!" 
He punched the mask and shattered it, and then Til remembered 
no more, since her face was behind the mask.

***

Looking up at the giant stone or wood-built looking thing, 
which was so big Ranma realised he couldn't see it because it 
was in the way, he asked, "Golem or goblin?"

The thing looked down at him, and then reached for the girl, 
whom Ranma was holding.

"She called you a goblin. Is that right?" Ranma asked it. 
"Cause if you are, you'll help us." He allowed the goblin to 
pick the girl up. "Will you help me? I've got to protect her 
from Hunter. He's the jerk fighting Lina and them, and the 
best way to protect someone is to make sure they're not in 
danger!" He sighed in relief when the goblin brought a hand 
down for him to step onto. "Right on! Let's get out of here! 
There's a bit too much magic happening, and I can't fight it 
yet."

The goblin brought Ranma up to ride on one of its shoulders, 
and then placed the girl in the pigtailed martial artist's 
arms.

"We're off to the lab. We're on some kind of rescue mission 
or something." Ranma scratched his head, reacting to his lack 
of information. "Maybe we should get going." He suddenly 
remembered, 'There's no time like the present... Maybe then 
the past is important, but it's not now, so I should think 
about it later,' Ranma decided. He smiled weakly, inwardly 
wondering if he actually could. 'But for now, I was a martial 
artist in the old world, so maybe I can be one here. It'll 
definitely be better than whatever else I was being here. 
Maybe now I can work something out here for me.' He began to 
walk with the group. 'First things first though. There's a 
kid who needs help. And this girl needs to be safe. So no 
more thinking if I can help it! Now we go!'

The golem, as though reacting to his thought, started towards 
the lab, running amazingly fast around the battle. 'And we're 
off! Be careful guys!' he thought, looking back, seeing the 
blaze hurriedly disappear from sight.

***

"What's the plan?" Zelgadis asked, leaping beside Lina, who 
was breathing heavily.

"I don't want to kill him. He doesn't really deserve it... 
But he's being so damn stubborn, so I don't know if we have a 
choice," Lina replied.

"Fireball!" Hunter shouted, throwing one at Lina and 
Zelgadis.

Lina quickly countered with a Freeze Arrow.

"You're outnumbered and overpowered Hunter!" Zelgadis 
shouted. "Why don't you just give up?"

The bounty hunter stopped his attack, and then after a moment 
of consideration, shouted, "You idiots! You let the girl get 
free! She's the daughter of Golbez, the man I'm going to 
kill! She'll be more dangerous free than she ever was as a 
slave to Maria!"

"Wow, he's showing more emotion than I ever thought him 
capable of!" Lina said, nervous with Hunter's sudden change.

"You seem to have that effect on people," Zelgadis added. 
"Whoever you meet, you seem to change them." He thought, 'And 
I'm one person who's not the same after meeting you, so I 
speak from experience.'

Gourry appeared at Lina's other side. "Maybe she is the 
daughter of what's-his-name, but it's not right to try and 
kill people who aren't able to defend themselves."

Sheathing his sword, Hunter looked at Lina, Gourry, and 
Zelgadis with an expression so dirty, Zelgadis felt he'd 
later need wash up.

"Fine! I see I can't win here," said Hunter, turning around. 
He began to walk away, his very stride saying, "But I'm not 
going to give up!"

"Do you think we can catch up to Ranma?" Lina asked.

Grabbing one of Gourry's arms, while Lina grabbed the other, 
Zelgadis shouted, conveniently at the same time as Lina, 
"Raywing!" He thought, 'He's a strong swordsman and a strong 
magician. We can't underestimate him when we meet next.'

In the distance, as he followed the trail from the sky, 
Zelgadis could see the golem or goblin thing running towards 
a large castle, which was even further in the distance.

"Maybe, we can get some rest now," Lina said, as the trio 
descended towards the goblin. As she landed, Zelgadis noticed 
her faced was covered in astonishment. She quietly said, so 
only Zelgadis and Gourry could hear, since the girl and Ranma 
were waiting for them to near, "Wait a minute! If she's 
Golbez's daughter, then how old is Golbez? He only looked 
five years older than her!"

"What happened to Hunter?" Ranma asked, hopping off the 
goblin, with the girl in his arms, when the goblin stopped 
running to wait for Lina and the others. "Did you...." He 
didn't finish his question, seemingly uncomfortable with his 
idea.

"Kill him?" Lina said, her voice sounding as though she was 
guessing, her words obviously disconcerting Ranma. "No," she 
declared, to the young man's relief. "He ran off when he saw 
how unbeatable I am! He seems to be pretty smart, compared 
with others I've faced!"

Ranma let the girl, who was a tad self-conscious in his arms, 
down.

The girl walked a little ways away from Ranma, and bowed to 
Lina. "My name is Til Undover. Thank you for freeing me from 
that evil mask. Words cannot express my gratitude."

"How did you ever end up with that mask?" Lina asked.

"It was a lady you must've encountered, Maria Onnette, who 
put the mask on my face. She wanted him, this boy, Ranma, 
because she wanted to do the same with him." Til stood, 
facing the goblin, still speaking to Lina. "I am certain you 
have many questions. I will answer what I can."

"How can you be the daughter of Golbez?" Lina asked. "He 
doesn't look old enough to be your father!"

"He ages gracefully. He's also a unique individual. The type 
of person who is to magic as a swan is to water. And he's 
changed very little from when I was just a child." Til looked 
about, seeing only the forest, and the stars. "We're in a 
rather strange location. I couldn't even guess as to my 
location when under the mask's control..."

"So he's probably really old then..." Lina walked to the 
goblin. "What is this thing, exactly?" She gave it a kick, 
and then looked up it, which was looking down at her, and 
then she gave it an expression daring it to react to her 
kick. "It's not a golem, but it looks like one."

"It's a goblin."

"Come on. I've seen goblins before, and this ain't one!" Lina 
stared at the creature. "What are you?"

The creature's eyes glowed, and in those eyes, there seemed 
to be a strange intelligence.

"It's a goblin in the sense that it's like a unnatural tree. 
I don't know what else to call it though."

Zelgadis looked to the castle, deciding the current 
conversation was finished. "Do you recognise that place? 
We're headed there, and if you know anything about it, you 
should tell us."

"It sort of looks like my cousin Errol," Gourry suddenly 
said, looking at the golem.

Audibly sighing, Zelgadis looked at the creature, and felt as 
though something had slipped through the universes to land in 
Gourry's brain. "You don't have a cousin named Errol, do 
you?"

"No," Gourry said, scratching his chin, deep in thought.

"But you had to say that, right?"

"Yeah, and it was the weirdest thing, but it seemed so 
right!"

Zelgadis couldn't remove his eyes from the creature, which he 
couldn't help but think of as Errol. It would always be 
Errol. "It can't be helped." He looked to Til. "Anyway, does 
that place remind you of anything?"

"Yes. Trouble," Til answered. "But I don't know anything 
else. Sorry."

Lina spoke up, after yawning, "That sounds about right, but 
all in all, I really think if you people are going to worry 
about that castle, then I suggest you worry about it tomorrow 
morning. In fact, let's stop talking right now, and get some 
sleep!"

End Chapter Four

***

Reference Links:http://www.furinkan.com/
http://www.techserv.curtin.edu.au/ranmascan/index.html
http://www.inverse.org/


             .---Anime/Manga Fanfiction Mailing List----.
             | Administrators - ffml-admins@anifics.com |
             | Unsubscribing - ffml-request@anifics.com |
             |     Put 'unsubscribe' in the subject     |
             `---- http://ffml.anifics.com/faq.txt -----'