Hello all, I've decided after many weeks of lurking to make my presence 
known on this list. So in order to endear myself to your  little hearts, 
here is the first chapter of a fic that I am writing.
C&C is requested as long as it is nice so as not to bruise my little bit of 
self esteem.

*****

Chapter 1
Beginnings and Introductions:
In which Lina and Gourry make a new ally.

	The sun set over the horizon and bathed the countryside in rich gold hues. 
The view spoke of a great contentment with life in general. All except the 
village that was picturesquely silhouetted against the evening sky. Only one 
was contented about the chaos taking place.
	Xellos admired his handiwork with pride; true it was only a small diversion 
but it was fun. He hadn't been having as much fun recently and it was a 
welcome change from the routine tediousness of recent times.
	"Perhaps something interesting will turn up soon," Xellos thought, "or I'll 
die of boredome." Deciding to go off in search of new diversions, Xellos 
stepped through a hole in reality and disappeared.
	Traveling through the astral plane, of course, takes a bit of concentration 
and is almost impossible for humans. But because Xellos was Mazoku he was 
quite accustomed to it, as it was a very effective means of transportation. 
Therefore he was not expecting the sudden shift of realities that deposited 
him into the air above a very deep lake with a rabid pounding in his head.
	As he hovered irritably over the dark blue water he barely caught a hint of 
a child's mocking laughter.

***

	The frightened waiter approached the table on which the anarchy was taking 
place. There comes a time in every man's life when he must stare down the 
gaping maws of his destiny. The waiter was having one of those times right 
now; never mind that his downfall was in the  form of a flat-chested, red 
haired sorceress and her muscular in body as well in mind, blond haired 
companion. The hapless waiter contemplated turning and running for his life 
but he fingered the gold in his pocket and braced himself for the 
inevitable.
	"Ah... ahem, excuse me Mrs. Lina," the frightened waiter squeaked, "there 
is someone here who wishes to speak to you."

	The someone who wished to speak to Lina had taken temporary residence in an 
inn not far from the restaurant the two adventurers had recently left. The 
innkeeper had been expecting them and had directed them to a rather large 
room on the top floor of the three story building.
	"Oi, Lina, what do you think this guy'll be like," said Gourry.
	"Who knows, probably wands to gaze upon the might beauty of Lina Sorceress 
Extraordinaire and Major Babe," gloated the little sorceress.
	"You mean: Lina Flat-Chested Enemy of All Who Live." the blond oaf stated 
with an oh so innocent look on his face.
	WHACK
	"Itaii."
	The now slightly peeved sorceress and the mercenary with the newly acquired 
migraine stood before the door to their mysterious summoner's room. The 
door, aware of the dramatic atmosphere, swung open on its own.
	"You think this means there's going to be trouble, Lina." Gourry said.
	"Either that or the person in this room has some sort of major personality 
flaw."
	Inside the room was dark. It was furnished with dark deco, dark furniture. 
The windows were dark because the curtains shut out the bright daylight and 
the air was dark too. Sitting in the middle of the dark carpet was a dark 
couch with dark throw pillows lavishly strewn about. And on this dark couch 
reclined a dark shadow.
	"Definitely has a personality flaw," remarked Lina under her breath.
	"Greetings, sorceress Lina Inverse and swordsman Gourry Gabrieve. Please 
take a seat," the shadow crooned in a soft feminine voice.
	Said sorceress and swordsman did as they were told.
	"Listen lady," began Lina while she tried to catch a glimpse of the 
shadow's features, "just tell us why you called us here and then maybe I'll 
be up for a little negotiation."
	"My my what a shrewd little buisiness woman I have found," said the shadow. 
And she reached over to a table beside the couch containing a glass and a 
pitcher of some clear substance. Then she did something very unbecoming for 
a mysterious shadow. She lost her balance and tumbled off the couch, rolled 
over a few times, and came to an ungraceful halt at Lina's feet. She 
appeared to be a girl of no more than sixteen with short, straight black 
hair and startling green eyes which were now open wide in surprise.
	"Heh, she's just a kid. Let's go." said Gourry, heading out the door with 
Lina close behind.
	"Oh no wait," cried the girl as she leapt up and grabbed on to Lina's arm. 
"I really do have something I need you for. Please just listen to me."
	"Can you let go of my arm first." The girl relinquished the sorcereress's 
appendage promptly.
	"Right. I need your help to find a very old treasure. I thought it might be 
best if I traveled with some experienced adventurers," the girl paused and 
thought awhile as if she had forgotten something, "by the way my name's 
Aurora."
	"Pleased to meet you Aurora," said Gourry.
	"All right, Aurora, suppose we did decide to travel with you. What kind of 
treasure are we talking about," inquired Lina.
	"Ohh, well that's the problem," Aurora paused once again, placing her index 
finger near her temple in thought, "you see the treasure's so old that I'm 
not exactly sure what I'm looking for; all I know is that its very powerful, 
  capable of destroying the world, even, if put to the right use. It grants 
wishes, you see" Aurora then smiled in a very Xellos like manner, gaining 
her a look of mistrust from Gourry. "But that's okay because I definitely 
know where to find it."
	"Excuse us a moment," said Lina to the overly cheery girl, she grabbed 
Gourry and herded him out the door.
	"Doesn't she strike you as a little strange Gourry."
	"Yea she does, but I can't exactly place it."
	"That's what I"m thinking. I'm not sure if she can be trusted, somehow she 
reminds me of that dammed Xellos and I don't like it."
	"But I don't think she's lying," said the swordsman.
	"How so," queried Lina.
	"I think we can trust her. I don't know how I know but I don't think she's 
the type of person who lies very often."
	The two discussed the matter while Aurora leaned against the doorframe. 
Sometimes its very useful to have good hearing. She moved back to the couch 
as they re-entered. "Have you made your decision?" Aurora said, with a air 
of uncharacteristic calmness around her that earned her another suspicious 
look from Gourry.
	"Hai," announced Lina, "we've decided to join you."
	"Waii. I'm so happy! Now I have my very own team of adventurers, its so 
exciting!"

	The three travelers made their way ponderously down the road leading north. 
The birds were singing and the sun was beginning to set and Aurora, berobed 
in adventure clothes, as she called them, green and tan tunic and leggings 
with a cloak for those dramatic moments, was stopping every few minutes to 
examine anything that caught her eye along the way.
	"Lina-san, look there's a butterfly," cried the little adventurer before 
skipping off to view yet another interesting object.
	"Hai, hai," said Lina glancing in the indicated direction. Surprisingly 
enough Lina did not find traveling with the energetic girl tiresome in the 
least, in fact it was a welcome change from some of her former traveling 
companions.
	"Animated, isn't she," commented Gourry.
	Lina once again turned her gaze toward Aurora who was now dashing up ahead 
of them, "You got that right, I'm going to leave her at the next town, 
though. Traveling would be too dangerous for her, especially since I'm not 
sure what we're up against." Aurora had now stopped in the middle of the 
road.
	"Now wait a minute, that's not fair, is it�"
	Gourry had collided with Aurora, standing stalk still in his path. She 
pointed a finger in the direction of the horizon and was running down the 
road again before he could comment. Her voice drifted down to the confused 
duo, "Stay here, I'll be back."
	"Let's camp here tonight," said Gourry with an exasperated look on his 
face.

	Aurora made sure she was far away from her two new friends before she 
kicked into high speed, it wouldn't do to have them suspect her humanity at 
all.

	And she had to protect them.

	Protect what?

	From what?

	Forgetting.

	Dammit. It's happening again.

	She was loosing her mind she was sure. Not in the usual sense; it was a 
fragmenting of thought into a million chaotic pieces she was simply unable 
to control. She was not sure exactly how it happened nor was she able to 
keep a train of thought going long enough to find a solution.
	She stumbled slightly as her mind veered of in the wrong direction but 
managed to focus again as she caught an astral scent of her intended target. 
Good, she hadn't been sure of its existence when she had abruptly separated 
from the mercenary and the sorceress but she was  certain of it now.
	She was close enough to identify them. A lesser demon and some sort of 
heavy astral presence blocked her path. Her thoughts coalesced for a minute 
to determine that they must have been sent by her captors. They had caught 
sight of her.
	Aurora skidded to a halt in front of the two beings. A lower life form 
would have seen only two haggard old men walking at a leisurely pace, but 
their true forms were clear to her sight. One was a simple creature of the 
mazoku race with the obligatory horns and tentacles sticking out of it like 
a pin cushion. An unpleasing visual effect to say the least. Aurora had to 
catch her breath at the sight of the next one. It was beautifully male with 
a well proportioned humanoid shape. Except for it's delicate pointed ears 
and fox-like tail which gave it a fanciful appearance.
	"Very nice," she thought, feeling a little remorse for its inevitable 
destiny.
	"HALT!" boomed the mazokuo.
	"Your master Kain has orders for you," added the fox-creature.
	Aurora did not wait two seconds before a blast of black light enveloped the 
creatures leaving nothing but an empty road.
	A shiny blue butterfly fluttered sporadically in the breeze before it 
alighted on the patch of bare earth Aurora's attack had left. The suspicious 
insect began to swell and then burst into a small azure fire-ball radiating 
with negative energy.
	"Azrael," the voice from the center of the flame spoke.
	The girl turned and eyed the flame with distaste.
	"It's so typical of you to simply destroy my more mundane messengers."
	"Spare me the small-talk," Azrael snarled.
	"You forget who you are talking to, child," the flame sputtered 
indignantly, "but you are right in your own way. Have you completed the 
task."
	"I'm working on it," said Azrael with her hands in a tightly clenched knot 
behind her back.
	"Azrael, I am a patient man but time runs short and you have more important 
buisiness to attend to. Kill him," the last two words snapped like dry 
sticks as the flame guttered out of existence.
	"Bastard," muttered Azrael/Aurora as she wiped perspiration from her brow 
with a shaking hand. Finding nothing more of importance to attend to in that 
particular spot she raced back to  where she had left Lina and Gourry.

###

	Greater beast Xelas Metallium reclined in one of the very comfortable 
chairs set around her home on Wolfpack island and smoked a cigarette.
	"The nerve of that creature," she thought, "ordering me to abandon one of 
my children."
	But she knew that, inevitably, she had no choice. Xelas counted herself to 
be one of the more powerful lords under Shaburanigudu; unfortunately that 
would do her no good against this foe. The messenger had been no real threat 
as she had disposed of it easily, it's master, Kain, was the real problem. 
He was rumored to be one of the most powerful beings in existence under the 
Dark Lord and Cephied themselves.
	As any Mazoku knew, however, the legends stated that Kain was imprisoned 
two thousand years ago by a powerful sorcerer; some had even witnessed the 
event. To speak his name was to invoke his presence and to say the subject 
had become rather taboo over the years would be a grave understatement. If 
he had escaped his bonds he had most certainly become even more powerful.
	The thought of the threat he posed to her entire race sent chills down 
Greater Beast's spine. Xellos would have to watch his back.

To be continued...
***

You like? I hope somebody liked. Too bad I can barely spell. Antipathy'll 
stick to the little words from now on. And if any of you kind people would 
be nice enough to visit my webpage I would be eternally grateful, and e-mail 
me (privately please) if there is something wrong with my fanart links 
because I suspect they have not been done correctly. Or the problem could be 
my unreliable computer. My web address is http://209.204.213.22/purplepage
Thanks in advance ^_^
antipathy_


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