"FIREBALL!!"
"Lina cut it out—argh!"
Despite his attempts to restrain her, she still broke out into a tantrum, throwing tables and chairs here and there while cursing at the top of her lungs using her endless air supply. People were at the opposite end of the restaurant cowering in each their own mouse holes in the wall, looking on at the tumultuous storm and destruction with very large, frightened eyes. Even the babies were too afraid to cry in front of this loose monster with the power to destroy the world, or at least the entire town.
"To hell with that Ramadeus-something-or-other guy!" She screamed through scraps of roast turkey forced to fill up the wide cavity of her mouth. "Telling us that the job was unsatisfactorily completed and kicking us out without a single penny!"
She took the roast pig lying in the center of the table and, literally, ripped it in half from sheer strength alone. Half of the onlookers fainted, convinced doomsday had finally arrived. The other half began to pray to Suifeed or some other god/idol for salvation or forgiveness for their sins. A person here and there would attempt to crawl away, but one of Lina’s stray flying utensils would bar their exit.
Her companion finally regained consciousness and approached her with extreme caution. "Hey Lina, don’t you think this is enough…"
She answered him with a butter knife–the closest thing within reach–pointed right at the bridge of his nose. She wore a deadly expression with full intent to murder if he spoke up again, so he didn’t.
The sorceress sat back down in her chair and sighed, releasing the thick tension in the room. Her friend took a seat across the table from her, upset by her rashness and wishing someday she would learn to be more feminine.
"So what do you want to do?" he asked her in submission to her demands.
"Gourry, isn’t that obvious? We go back and threaten him until he coughs up the money, then we take off with the entire stash before some guards catch us," she stated a little too optimistically. Obviously, she was omitting a lot of very…gruesome details.
Gourry sighed. There was no arguing against Lina when she was like this. And he knew he would end up being the bait for the officials, too, while Lina packed mounds of treasure into the seemingly black holes in her cape. It happened so often now that he never failed in escaping the officials anymore. And if worst came to worst, Lina would torch them all with a Dil Brand or two.
Satisfied, she threw all the bones back onto the table and stood up while dusting off her hands. To Gourry she said with a cheerful grin, "Let’s get going!"
They didn’t get far. Only a few blocks down the road from the restaurant, Lina bumped into someone and fell backward, but before she hit the ground this stranger caught her hand. If she had been in any other mood, she might have thanked him properly for stopping her fall and excused him for the mishap, but in this situation she lashed out viciously and without restriction.
"Who the hell do you think you are!? Running into a lady and not apol-"
Her retort was cut short when she saw the face of whom she was verbally assaulting. At a loss of words, she could only stutter, "Y-Y-Y-Y-Y…"
He smiled. "Why hello Lina-san! It’s been so long since we last exchanged words like this! I hope life hasn’t been too difficult."
Tears streamed down her face as she winced at his words and suffered the tingles running up and down her back in response to his voice. "Why Suifeed? Why?"
Gourry, on the other hand, greeted their "friend" with glee. "Xelloss! It’s been so long!"
The priest glanced up, having heard his name spoken. "Why hello Gourry-san! I see you’re as bright as ever…" Xelloss noted with a weak smile as the blonde fell flat on his face, having tripped over the miniscule rubble on the ground.
He winced as a rather pointy object—Lina’s forefinger—pressed sharply into his chest. He looked down to see her glaring at him like…a loose cannibal. "Oya? Have I picked a bad time?"
She pressed harder and moved her face closer to his, baring her fangs and breathing hot, heavy breaths filled with complete and utter abhorrence down his neck. She grinned, rather creepily, and inquired, "What. Are. You. Doing. Here?"
He was unaffected by her approach and thoughtfully brought a finger to his lips. "Should I be blunt or shall I beat around the bush?"
She stepped on his foot, crushing it with delight beneath her own. He cringed and bent down to inspect the damage after she removed the weight. With hot tears in his eyes, he whined, "Lina-san is so cruel. I was only joking."
"Which is EXACTLY why I did that," she lashed at him. "My patience is wearing thin. Spit out whatever you have to say quickly and go away or just go away without saying anything. Either way, you’re WASTING MY TIME!"
Xelloss noticed Gourry hinting that Lina’s temper shouldn’t be fooled around with today or they all might see a glimpse of hell, but he didn’t care. Lina was more fun to be around when she was like this, and he had something very important to discuss with her.
"To get straight to the point, I came to offer you something in exchange for your assistance—please wait, I have more to say," he said, stopping her before she could answer with a brief and concise "no" as she always did. "This time, it would be in your best interests to accept."
She was suspicious right off the bat. This didn’t seem like the ordinary proposal, but mazoku were too wily to be trusted. "Go on."
Xelloss took a seat on top of a nearby brick wall and motioned for her to sit down beside him, but she stayed put. He shrugged and said, "Suit yourself. Anyway, you are aware that the ryuuzoku (this he said with some contempt) are planning an attack to completely wipe out our race, correct?"
She nodded. So that’s why she had noticed dragons randomly flying around in different directions. They were planning an assault. "What does this have to do with me?"
Xelloss frowned. "I was getting to that. You are also aware that you are the reason for all of this?"
That information she wasn’t too sure about. "Why me?"
"Need I remind you that you tipped the scales when you killed Garv and Hellmaster-sama?"
"Oh." She had done that, hadn’t she.
"Moving on. I say it is in your best interest because, as I’m sure you know, there are many mazoku who resent your very essence of being. Also, there are many ryuuzoku who are wary of your presence and would never pass up a chance to eliminate you as a threat."
"I can protect her," Gourry declared, drawing his sword as if to show proof. It was a well-done mimic which resembled the Hikari no Ken in almost every way.
Xelloss smirked a bit, amused by the human’s ignorance and even more by Lina’s blush. "May I remind you that, no matter how much it may look like the Hikari no Ken, it is still NOT the real Hikari no Ken. You couldn’t possibly protect her from a mazoku (for example, me) with that thing."
"Yes I can," Gourry stated rather confidently, and wrapped an arm around Lina’s shoulder, keeping his gaze locked with Xelloss’s all the while.
Xelloss was bitter, very bitter. He had received the opposite reaction from Gourry that he intended to get, and Lina was definitely unwilling to accept his proposal now. "Not that she has a choice, anyway," he noted as a small triumph and smiled again. "I assume your answer is a no?"
"Of course," Lina answered, sticking her tongue out at Xelloss as he stood up to leave. Her head was up in the clouds—Gourry rarely ever held her so close.
Xelloss stopped as he was walking away and peered back over his shoulder at the two lovebirds. "Oh, if you ever change your mind, just call my name."
"Don’t be expecting it," Lina called back, rather cocky now.
Xelloss couldn’t help but chuckle as he continued walking. "So you say, Lina-san. So you say…"
"You seem happy," Gourry mentioned a while later as they strolled along the paths and roads which led to Ramadeus’s mansion. He was quick to notice that Lina was no longer breathing fire everywhere but was slow to understand that he was the reason as to why.
"Do I?" she asked him in a rather cute voice. She was grinning incessantly, like a child after receiving a new toy on Christmas Day. She skipped a little as she walked, showing a side of her that she would show Gourry and only Gourry. She was overjoyed—jubilant—at what he did and said earlier. Even though it may just be another guardian thing…she would just hope it was a pure display of his blossoming affection for her. Life was short; there wasn’t any extra time she could waste on worrying.
But Gourry, being the kind of guy who acted on natural instinct rather than his emotions and intellect, immediately concluded that something was wrong with her. Preparing for some violent reaction, he waged a small gamble by telling her, "If you smile that much, your face will get stuck like that."
But instead of throwing her usual tantrum, she just replied with two words: That’s okay. After that kind of answer, Gourry was thoroughly convinced that there was something amiss. He took her shoulders and whirled her around to face him, then slowly reached out his hand to check and see if she had a fever or some sign of illness.
Lina wasn’t quite sure how to react. For one thing, she had misinterpreted his actions and assumed his was being more assertive, so she closed her eyes as her cheeks burned a bright red and waited to see what would happen.
Instead of the kiss she was expecting, Gourry pressed a hand directly to her forehead and said, "It doesn’t seem like you’re sick, but maybe we should to see a doctor anyway since your face is really red."
The pulsating of blood to her face quickly died down as her hopes were crushed once again. Was it true that even now he still could not see her as anything more than a child? As someone to take care of and not as someone to care for? Was she still only a little sister in his eyes?
He patted the top of her head again as if to comfort her. She had to hide her face to conceal any visible disappointment from earlier, afraid he would notice and further assume something was wrong. To her relief and further disappointment, he didn’t, and they continued walking in silence.
By the time they reached the gates of the mansion, Lina was back to the way she usually was and was prepared to beat this guy into submission. She kicked down the iron gate without a sweat and motioned for Gourry to (albeit reluctantly) go in first.
The reason for his entry was soon conceived as a couple dozen guards suddenly appeared before the front door. It was nothing to worry about, but Gourry had to feign cowardice in order to divert their attention from Lina as she made her way around to the back where the master’s chamber was located.
The plan was executed smoothly; Lina experienced no difficulty in sneaking around while Gourry had all the guards hot on his tail.
However, she accidentally knocked a vase over as she entered through the window and set off the alarm. A cage fell down from the ceiling, trapping her on the spot.
Ramadeus emerged from the shadows of the room, laughing a "maniacal" laugh that sounded no viler than a young girl’s giggle—Tee hee! Lina grimaced as the shrill sound pierced her eardrums and the disgusting image of a rotund boor encroached upon her with slow, earth-shaking steps. He finally came to a stop approximately three feet in front of her, inconspicuously pre-marked by a bright yellow tape.
"I have you now, Miss Inverse!" declared the pudgy man as he bellowed yet another round of guffawing. His stomach jiggled as he shook—a rather unsightly image. Lina had to cover her mouth with her hand to keep from vomiting the feast she had just consumed, but her face nevertheless turned an unhealthy green.
When he had finally caught his breath, he pointed a stubby finger at her, adorned with rings of gold and silver, and said triumphantly, "If you thought you could defeat me, I’m afraid you were gravely mistaken!"
At this point, Lina’s eyebrow had long been twitching and veins had begun to take appearance around her temples. Glaring directly at the man, she began to chant a spell…
But before she could finish, Ramadeus pulled out a remote control and pressed the large red button, sending a shockwave of electricity through the metal bars. He laughed again as she fell to her knees, hair sticking up in different directions and little sparks of static electricity going off at the burnt ends of her hair.
To his complete surprise, however, she began to cry—a more feminine approach in comparison to her haughtiness earlier. "You’re such a heartless man! Attacking a poor, little helpless girl like me with no money even for food!" she whined, rubbing tears from her eyes as sobs escaped her throat.
He seemed to take the bait seriously and suggested, "Well if that was all there was to it, I would have gladly given you the money if you would do this and that with me…"
Lina feigned a look of shame. "Oh no! You couldn’t mean doing that!"
"Don’t worry, I’ll be gentle," he said, releasing her from her prison. He crawled towards her with such an eerie look on his face that it was all Lina could do to keep from gagging.
She uttered another girly scream before knocking him over the head, rather harshly, with one of her hard-as-rock fists. He was out in a blink of an eye, and she spat on his shiny bald head with a "As if I’d let you touch my perfect body!"
Gourry happened to poke his head in at that moment to ask, "Who has the perfect body?" before getting hit in the face with one of Lina’s famous black slippers.
"Who the hell asked for your opinion?!" she snapped at him as he took off once again to avoid his pursuers. She turned around and headed towards the door to seek out the stash of treasure when her foot was snagged by something and something slithered up her leg. She glanced down to see Ramadeus, blood dripping from his nose, wrapped around her leg. Without even a second to think, she screamed the first spell that came to mind.
"Mega Brand!"
The entire west wing of the mansion, along with a large fragment of the yard, went up with the explosion. Gourry, too, had been included in the list of victims, and was currently soaring through the air. He landed just feet away from Lina, head first in the dirt. She was jumping around, brushing germs off her leg in a very vain attempt to make the grotesque feeling go away.
The jokes ended, however, when a large spear landed just inches in front of where she was standing. She paused, taking in the weight of the situation. Nothing human could throw something that large…!
Her intuition, as always, was correct. Above the town soared a large group of dragons, gold to be specific, and they were well armed with weapons of monstrous demeanor.
It only took her a second to figure out why they were there—Xelloss had given her a synopsis of the story earlier. Her silly expression faded, and she looked upwards at them with utmost austerity. "What do you want from me?"
The center dragon, apparently the leader of the flock and the one who threw the spear as shown by his lack of one, spoke up. "Your cooperation," boomed his voice. "Or your death."
Gourry pulled his head out of the earth and turned his head, dazed to the sky. Ignorant of the situation at hand, he shouted at Lina, "Hey look! There are golden geese in the clouds!"
Lina abruptly shushed him with a warning glance and shouted up to the dragon, "I would like to speak with you, if you would care to come down…"
Some of the other dragons made a move to attack, but the leader dragon made a motion to halt them. He paused briefly, as if to make a decision, and agreed to abide by her wish.
The person who materialized before Lina shocked her, to say the least. The dragon had apparently been female, and addressed herself as so. "I am the captain of the fourth squad sent to recruit you for our cause. My name is Fayle. I hope you would disregard my earlier act of rudeness and take this moment to form a momentary truce." She extended a hand of which Lina took no heed of, and frowned slightly. "I see you have taken an ill impression of me…"
Lina didn’t necessarily hate the dragon—others had greeted her with much more inconsiderate introductions, she recalled, thinking of one of her former companions from the outer world. It was no time to be nostalgic, she reminded herself, and spoke to the dragon in front of her with little formality. "Get to the point."
Fayle narrowed her eyes in spite and brushed her long golden hair back before continuing. "I’m unsure whether the mazoku have approached you yet or not on this matter, seeing as you have a rather fond acquaintance among them, so I’ll be brief. Do you or do you not wish to support us in the upcoming war against those demons?"
Lina rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "I’ll say the same thing I said to Xelloss," she began, noting with subtle delight how the dragon girl twitched in response to his name. She was imposing herself upon his prestige when she used his name as a weapon, but it was too effective to pass up.
"I’m not interested."
The dragon seemed to have been expecting this answer and motioned to one of her men to go back and send word. Paying no further respect to the sorceress, she turned to retrieve her spear, purposefully kicking dirt onto Lina’s boots as she walked by. Gourry looked on in fascination and wonder as this seemingly human girl pulled the huge weapon from the ground with no visible effort. Before Lina could silence him, he blurted out, "She looks just like Filia!"
Lina shot him a look of anger at his disregard for her earlier warning, but even she was set as still as stone by what the girl had to say next.
"Filia? That traitor? She was executed last month on account of treason."
As Fayle walked forward for room to change back into her real form, Lina mustered enough courage to ask one more question, no matter how much she dreaded the answer.
"What happened to the baby dragon she had with her?"
The dragon laughed coldly, sending shivers down both the spines of Gourry and Lina. "You ask such funny questions! That hideous monster of an ancient dragon, you mean?"
She glanced over her shoulder at the two fearful humans. Her golden eyes danced with utter joy and amusement as she answered.
"I tossed it into the ocean."
Lina fell to her knees and punched the ground, cursing the gods and their twisted sense of humor. She gritted her teeth, unable to fight the tears that fell from her eyes. Gourry made some vain attempt at the dragon, shouting something like "Damn you to hell!" but steel wasn’t enough to pierce the golden scales of the servants of Suifeed, and he was battered back by the sheer force of her wings as she took flight.
"Miss Fayle, are you all right?" asked one of her followers.
She wore a rather bitter, unhappy expression as she flew right by him. "Yes," she answered. "But I have the foul taste of death on my tongue."
The dragons took their leave, ignoring Lina Inverse and her companion for the time being. Grieving was enough for them, at least for now.
But even they did not notice the third spectator sitting atop a nearby building. He applauded the performance and stood up for a better view of the two poor victims as they mourned their souls out.
"Oya oya, I see the ryuuzoku have resorted to more brutal methods of dealing with issues," he commented, enjoying the breeze that brought his feast to him. "But this is good—too good. Just a little more and Lina-san will…"
He broke off the sentence with a grin and disappeared to return to his lair to report the good news to his master. It had been a while since he had brought home good news, and this would help secure his position as part of the main offense rather than Lina’s babysitter. He missed the taste of dragon’s blood on his lips, and he craved more.
"It’ll be just like old times," he mused.
<--Back one Chapter Table of Contents Go on to Prelude Two-->
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