“You’re heavy.”
He had said it as a joke, but Lina
took it to offense and slapped him upside the head for cracking an insult like
that, particularly when she was not in the best of moods. Though it didn’t
necessarily hurt him, being a mazoku and all, he made a mental note to keep his
mouth shut if he didn’t want his head rotated one-hundred-eighty degrees by the
end of the day. And that was only if she was feeling merciful. It must be a
pain to be a human female – he thought with dry humor.
Lina tried to refrain from falling
asleep on Xelloss’s broad, warm back, but the illusion of sleep was becoming
annoyingly persistent, and Lina could hardly resist shutting her eyelids for a
little rest. Besides, her reflexes were always top-notch, for better or for worse
depending on what unfortunate soul was near her at the moment of awakening. And
Xelloss was a revered mazoku with a lot of pride, so he wouldn’t break a pact
with her and toss her out for the vultures to feed on her corpse. Although,
since this was Xelloss, she shouldn’t be trying to figure out what he was going to do, but rather what no one
would ever imagine him doing. But
that kind of thinking could also be in vain because he always managed to do the
unpredictable…since it was part of his nature as the master of deception and
chicanery…
All that thinking eventually
knocked Lina out. Xelloss let out a long breath, loosening the tension that had
collected inside of him. He was always upsetting her – something that needed to
be fixed if he was going to receive any sort of cooperation from this
uncontrollable wildfire of a human being. And with that kind of thinking, he
would be forced to watch the words that rolled ever so freely off the tip of
his tongue, for slips of the tongue happened too often to be healthy. It was
okay, though, since his job as a mazoku was to annoy and incite feelings of
anger within a being.
He suddenly became aware that,
unless Lina rested properly, her health and mood would remain beneath the
surface and he would be forced to endure long grueling hours of her griping and
complaining throughout the day. He found a nice shadowed area, concealed from
above by a thick mesh of tree leaves, along his path and put her down on top of
his flattened cloak to sleep. He could keep watch until morning, since he
didn’t require sleep to keep his sanity (or lack thereof) and energy levels
high, so she could rest here peacefully and, at the same time, he would be
given time to enjoy his own company.
Or that would have been the ideal
situation, but Lina would not let go of her source of warmth and clung tightly
to Xelloss. Her face pressed up against his stomach, her arms around his waist,
and the rest of her body lay out in front of him between his propped legs. Her
pleasure was driving him insane, but he couldn’t do anything about it, so he
gave up and tossed the cloak over her back, pinning the top in place by resting
his hand on her shoulder. His other hand provided support for keeping his torso
upright, but his elbow was loose enough to keep his arm from going numb. It was
gong to be a long night, but at least the next day would be much easier to
bear…or at least he hoped it would have that general effect.
But of course, an unexpected and
unwanted visitor had to appear to ruin a calm night. As the person approached,
she snapped a twig, alerting both human and mazoku to her presence. Lina bolted
up quickly, hand on the hilt of her sword and ready to draw it at any given
moment, but as her mind adjusted to being awake again, she realized that
Xelloss stood in front of her, arm extended, blocking her from any danger this
stranger could possibly launch at then. And then she realized how incredibly awkward it was to be able to rely on The Xelloss to protect her, and she wondered what an incredibly
strange situation she was suddenly experiencing.
The mysterious visitor was
unveiled to be Fayle, the young golden dragon Lina had met only once before,
but this time, her eyes were cold as ice, particularly towards Xelloss. When
she was within reasonable talking distance, she ordered the two men who had
accompanied her to leave them alone to “converse,” and as son as they were out
of sight, she began by asking, “So you have decided to join those mazoku?”
“Not necessarily,” Lina replied,
making Xelloss wonder if she had betrayed her already, but Lina went on to say,
“But I am going to aid them, since their goal is similar to my own.”
“You mean you want world
destruction and the obliteration of all other races?” Fayle asked, disgusted by
her foolish decision.
Lina shook her head. “No, I’m just
going to help them stop you.”
The dragon girl stared at her for
a moment or two, then spontaneously burst out laughing. The sudden rancor
started both Lina and Xelloss, neither of whom expected such a carefree
disposition from someone who commanded so much respect. When she had finally
regained her composure, which included wiping the stray tears from her eyes,
she said, “I like you. You’re an interesting person.”
Lina was somewhat ticked off that
she hadn’t been taken seriously, and the dragon caught her mistake but did
nothing to fix it. Instead, she ran a hand through her silky golden hair and
said, “It was a compliment.”
“Why are you here?” Xelloss asked,
cutting straight to the point since the dragon was beginning to annoy him as
well. “I could kill you on the spot if I wanted to, you know.” Though with Lina
there, that course of action would probably prove to not be worthwhile.
Fayle smiled. “But I know you
won’t because you’d be disobeying orders,” she said, as though it were a
statement when it really was only a presumption. But it was true, Xelloss had
been given strict orders to avoid initiating any sort of conflict with one of
the five ryuuzoku. If encountered, he was ordered to evade combat and flee
immediately. This dragon, however, apparently had no intention of leaving or
letting him leave.
Fayle took a seat on a tree stub
and crossed her legs. She stretched and yawned, muttered something about the
effects of idleness, then began the conversation. “To be honest, I’m here for
you, Xelloss. I’ve come to request information about how prepared the mazoku
are for initiative attacks.”
The mazoku had only just begun
preparing their forces, but he wasn’t about to tell Her that. “Why do you wish
to know?”
“I don’t like to stage a
full-fledged war without having the opposing party ready…” she mumbled. “It’s
like killing helpless children…”
Lina noticed that she had said
that last sentence with a strangely large amount of remorse, given this was the
same dragon who had laughed only yesterday about throwing baby Valgarv into the
ocean. She seemed to almost be an entirely different person.
Seeing that Xelloss had absolutely
no intention of telling her anything, she shrugged and said, “Well, whatever
you want to do is your own business. I’m just here to talk today.” Her eyes
fell on this left shoulder. “I hear someone planted purified dragon’s blood in
you?”
He stiffened. “How did you know
that?”
“And who did it?” Lina butted in,
pushing by Xelloss’s extended arm and ignoring the nonverbal advice he had
given her. He had silenced her long enough; she was tired of standing and
waiting.
“Because it was one of my own men
who did it,” she answered. “I must admit it is a good strategy, but it does not
present itself honorably, so I never issued the order. He’s been
given…responsibilities back at base for his actions, but more dragons will be
after you now that you’ve been removed of an extensive use of your powers.”
Xelloss didn’t quite believe her,
but he let her go on anyway.
“Either way, you shouldn’t have
too much trouble sneaking into the
“Werewolves?” Lina and Xelloss
exclaimed almost simultaneously. No one liked to deal with them, beings of rash
and uncontrollable behavior. Not to mention the horrid stench they carried
around, along with their spontaneity. Easy to dispose of if you have the means
to, but if they caught you off-guard or in numbers, they could pose a decent
threat. There’s also the teeth to avoid, if you wanted to stay human.
Fayle nodded. “It’s unexplained,
but they suddenly multiplied in numbers around here. A couple of our kind have
already been wounded by them, and they make it incredibly difficult to forge
weapons when they continue to break them, so many of our kind have left
already.”
“Why are you telling us this?”
Lina asked. This dragon was harder to read than Xelloss was, and that in itself
was a commendable accomplishment. “Almost like his counterpart,” she mused,
“equally as annoying and just as hard to trust.”
Fayle shrugged and stood up. “To
give you a fair chance, I suppose. It’s no fun otherwise.” She walked towards
her awaiting men and left without a word more.
“Hey Xelloss,” Lina said. They had
rested up for the rest of the night and were following a path up the side of
the mountain, Lina still riding on Xelloss’s back. His arm was gradually
getting worse with time, and now he couldn’t feel anything through his
fingertips anymore. Unfortunately for Lina, her powers were still nullified and
her leg remained broken for the time being. But, luckily, since Fayle had left
this area for the time being with her dragon squad, they had few things to
worry about. At least, during the day they didn’t.
Lina glanced over her shoulder at
the vast expanse of wilderness that stretched out below them. If they
maintained this pace, they might reach the mountain Cliffside where Lei Magnus
resided before nightfall the next day. Hopefully Xelloss would hold out until
then…
“Lina-san?”
She blushed when she realized she
had actually been worrying about the mazoku. Now that was something special indeed. “Oh…it’s nothing.”
He wondered about her peculiar
behavior, but assumed it most likely had something to do with Gourry. He wasn’t
in the mood for a conversation about love (he never was, in fact, since he was
a mazoku), but apparently Lina had other ideas.
But to his surprise, her question
had absolutely nothing to do with Gourry. “Xelloss, have you ever been in love?
…I mean, I know you’re a mazoku and all but…just maybe…” she asked, realizing
how stupid she must have sounded asking a mazoku that kind of question.
He paused briefly. “What would you
define love as?” he asked.
Lina paused briefly, searching for
an appropriate definition of the word. With a bit of difficulty, she began
slowly, “It’s when you…feel a strong attraction towards someone who makes you
happy…”
Xelloss cocked an eyebrow. “When
you feel pleasure being around someone?”
Lina frowned in frustration. “Not pleasure per say…but has there ever been
anyone you just feel like…you’d be happy just being able to stay by their
side…?”
Xelloss stayed quiet for a long
time, and Lina wasn’t sure whether or not he was trying to think of an answer
or if he was ignoring her question. But he answered her question with, “I don’t
think I can understand what you’re saying.”
Lina sighed, realizing it was a
stupid idea to attempt to strike conversation on a topic like love with
Xelloss, a feeling mazoku never felt nor had the capability of feeling. She
played with a lock of her own hair in silence with no intention of talking
anymore, but Xelloss interrupted her thinking process this time.
“I think you would have best
described it as a long lasting source of pleasure because I can vaguely imagine
what it might be like. However, mazoku tend to keep away from having those
kinds of relationships because it’s too dangerous…”
“Why?” Lina wondered.
He turned his face upward to the
sky, watching as the clouds passed by above them. “Because it’s like our
drug…we’ll take too much and eventually die from it.”
They had just reached the outer
area of the
But it was more than her leg that
bothered her – she had begun to ache in certain
places again because of a certain
something, and there was nothing she could do here to counter the agony.
“At least my powers will begin to return tomorrow, she thought.
The fact that it was cold this
high up in the mountains didn’t really help. Rather than just being hungry and
in pain, she was cold, hungry, and in pain. She hoped Xelloss would
remember to grab something on the way back, since she couldn’t exactly conduct
a hunt on her own.
She rested her back against a tree
as she sat down, hand resting across her stomach as she stared off into the
sunset. If she could focus on other, calming things, she wouldn’t be able to
think of her physical pain, so she closed her eyes and focused on the sweet
melody of the forest as it prepared for a night of temperance and serenity. She
focused on the lingering rays of sunshine as they disappeared behind the horizon,
a place she had once hoped to reach one day when she was still a child because
there she would find the answer to why the light sometimes gave way for
darkness. But as her life progressed, the answer would unveil itself with time.
As the moon rose in the eastern
sky, Lina could hear the faint howls of wolves in the forest as they broke out
of their human shells and scouted the land for living flesh. Lina was
practically a sitting duck, with nothing left to defend herself with aside from
her sword…and Xelloss. But as if she would ask for his help when she could take
care of herself on her own. She had done so for countless years of her life…
A rustle in the bushes behind her
sprung her to her feet. Though she seemed even more vulnerable standing on
wobbly legs, she would at least be able to dodge a head-front attack. However,
she hadn’t quite figured out what she would do when the creature launched a
second attack, and she was even less prepared for the mob that was approaching
her.
She stood her ground, sword ready,
and watched carefully as the beast approached her on all fours. It was a small
wolverine in comparison to some she had seen before, which meant both good and
bad – it lacked the necessary strength to take her down in one hit but it would
be exceedingly agile, so she would be taking many small hits instead.
Thankfully, the young werewolf’s
patterns were easy to predict. Lina recognized the usually pause before an
attack and was easily able to deflect the fangs with her sword. As the little
predator circled around for another attack, Lina braced herself and managed to
wound it just behind its neck as it leapt at her. She had only realized the
magnitude of her mistake when the werewolf crawled away and howls filled the
stalid night air, chilling her to her bones. She sheathed her sword and
practically carried her broken leg in her hands as she limped in the opposite
direction of the howling, hoping for some area in which she could take refuge.
But alas, luck never quite works
out so well and she found herself cornered against the edge of a cliff, faced
by three snarling werewolves. These were larger in size and much more fearsome,
most likely the adult males of the pack judging by the bulk of their body. The
situation seemed deathly grim as Lina frantically looked around for a solution,
but she was not given enough time as a werewolf launched itself at her. She
barely pulled her sword out in time to catch its teeth, but the sheer force of
its tackle force her off her feet and sent them both into the air, plummeting
down the steep cliff side.
Lina tried to escape from the
beast’s clutches, but human strength waned in comparison to the strength of the
beast, and her efforts were in vain. The beast turned its face to her, ready to
bite off her head. Her eyes widened in panic and she cursed – “Shit!”
But the head of the werewolf
suddenly flew clear off its shoulders in one nice, clean cut. A gloved hand
reached out to pulled the sword effortlessly from its place situated between
its fangs, and suddenly the body, a bloody mess, was stabbed right through the
middle and flung off to the side. Lina was mute as her savior took her by her
waist and stopped their fall by catching a protruding edge in the cliff. She
stared at him in silence, unable to speak a word.
“I thought I told you to call for
me if something came up,” he stated sternly. Rather unhappy with the
circumstances.
Lina flushed and looked away in
embarrassment, but he demanded to know why she hadn’t called for his help.
Taking a second glance at him, she noticed that he was splattered from head to
toe in crimson blood, and Lina realized that the reason why only three
werewolves had caught up to her was the fact that Xelloss had killed off the
rest of them on his way back. She owed him another, again. Swallowing her pride
for the moment, she muttered, “Sorry.”
Xelloss was quickly losing his
grip on the mountainside and barely gave Lina enough of a warning before
pushing away from the rocky cliff, sending them soaring through the air and
into the forest below. Lina’s voice was caught too deeply in her throat to
scream properly, and she only managed to wail in jagged segments as they fell.
But apparently Xelloss had everything under control, for they landed safely and
silently on the ground.
Or at least, Lina did. Xelloss was
beginning to show signs of pain. Apparently he had overstrained his abilities.
Lina shook her head. “Xelloss and
Zelgadiss are so similar sometimes that it’s almost scary,” she thought. Not
only was this cliff jump the same action Zelgadiss had performed when Lina
first met him, but they both had that trait of overexerting themselves
sometimes.
The bushes near them moved, and
Lina sprung to her feet, sword in hand, since Xelloss was still reeling from
the pain. She had prepared herself for another werewolf, so she was shocked to
find that the source of the movement was human.
She was even more shocked to see
who it was, for it was someone she knew well. “You…!”
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