Rescue
-------------------------------------------------------
"This is my father's palace," Amelia reminded the
man before her. "I have the right to enter any room or
chamber here." She tapped her feet angrily.
"I'm sorry Princess, but your father commanded that
no one should invade Lady R'Lyeh's privacy," the guard
answered, he and his partner stood firm yet nervous
against their princess.
"I see, well I'm going find out who this person is
eventually," Amelia promised. "Then we'll see if she
really serves the cause of Justice." Amelia stomped
off in the direction of the Library, Zelgadis would be
there. Zelgadis and Lina always gravitated toward
books. She had know idea where Gourry was, she hadn't
seen him since the day before. It didn't worry her the
swordsman was probably wandering around the palace at
random.
"I think me and Zelgadis should investigate this
'temple,'" Amelia thought to herself.
Gourry knew he couldn't really help Zelgadis and
Amelia in their investigations. He had taken the
opportunity to get a little hunting in. It had been a
short ride out of the city's bounds and now he was
stalking the woods with a bow in hand.
His friends would have been surprised by just how
good he was at sneaking through the underbrush, even
more surprised that he could get his horse to travel
so silently. He had managed a fairly lucky start,
happening upon a fairly frequently populated section
of the forest fringe. Of course as he got deeper into
the woods the tracks became denser, about what one
would expect for a healthy woodland. The signs were
everywhere, you just couldn't see the animals.
Gourry didn't think anything of camping when the
sun set, it wasn't like Zelgadis or Amelia would miss
him. They were going to be far to busy digging into
the story of this Lady R'Lyeh. It was half an hour
after dark, cooking the quail he had managed to catch
over a small fire, that he first noticed that he was
being watched.
He looked about and saw a circle of yellowish eyes
about his campfire. His horse was shifting from foot
to foot nervously.
"Wolves," he said. "Sorry not enough food for all
of you." Looking around again, unconcerned, he could
handle a pack of wolves if it came to that, he found
the eyes gone again. Except for one pair that moved
into the light.
"Hmm, your eyes aren't even yellow, are they,"
Gourry asked as he started digging through his pack
for rations. In fact the eyes were a sort of copperish
color, though it might have been the reflection of the
fire. Gourry tossed the remains of his quail to the
wolf.
"Might as well be a good host." He shrugged, the
wolf sniffed the quail and then swallowed it down.
"Wow, you eat like Lina and me," the wolf shook its
head back and forth as it prepared to sit down. For a
moment the sleek black down covering the wolf puffed
up making him look twice as big, then they settled
down again.
"Boy you look like you're moulting," Gourry said as
he noticed some of the feathers floating slowly to the
ground. "Wait a minute since when do wolves have
feathers?" Then the wolf was gone, pouncing into the
night time woods.
Gourry took up his sword, not as good as the light
blade, but still effective in his hands, and bounded
up to his horse's back. He was fairly certain that the
wolf would have out run him if he went on foot, and
there was something funny about this. The animal
stayed in his sight periodically glancing back to
check if the human was still following him. Zelgadis
would have recognized the expression on the wolf's
face, but Gourry had left before the Zelgadis's raven
made its appearance.
Gourry's chase lasted a good deal longer than
Zelgadis's, a continual game of tag with the swordsman
unable to keep up. He finally lost the wolf as the
Eastern sky began to glow. The wolf didn't just
vanish, something else had attracted Gourry's
attention and he let it go.
"Bandits," he muttered sagely. Beneath him in a
bowl with a clearing towards the bottom was a rather
large camp of armed men. He tied up his horse and
began creeping down towards the camp. He found it
pretty easy to sneak up on them, what they considered
alert sentries were almost laughable. He found the
largest tent and sat down outside it listening to the
conversation with in.
"...what is she doing here? We have enough trouble
with that snooping priestess."
"You can tolerate her for a few days," a second
voice said. "The master doesn't want her cover blown
just yet."
"Why must we go through with this charade? She's
always blabbing about how she's a princess anyway."
"We need a queen, now just humor her and keep her
away from the prisoner. What's her name?"
"Syphiel. I'll be glad when they're both dead."
"Be patient, their time will come when the stars
are right, until then no one hurts them and keep your
eyes open. We still haven't found who was living in
that cave."
"They're going to kill Syphiel and someone else!"
Gourry blinked, and moved away from the tent, falling
back into the fading shadows. "Now where would they
keep prisoners." He scanned the area quickly, and
moved to another shadow to change his view. Eventually
he found a tent that was actually effectively
protected.
Gourry smiled and snuck around to the back of the
tent in question. He was using a mix of caution and
urgency, the sun was quickly rising. There would be
virtually no shadows soon. Fortunately Gourry was part
elf, and had spent much of his life growing up with
elves and woodsmen. He came around the right and
tossed a stone straight up.
The stone landed a few feet in front of him and the
guards glanced in that direction, rolled their eyes
and started in the other direction. Gourry rushed out
behind them slashed once and twice and then dragged
the two bodies into the tent with him.
"Gourry?" he turned to see Shyfiel looking at him
with a shocked expression on her face. "How did you
find this place?" He stopped and thought about it for
a moment.
"I don't remember, oh well, not important," he
said. "Come on we have to get one more person and then
get out before anybody notices us."
"One more person? Who?" Gourry took a heavy cloak
from one of the bodies and obscurred his face and
form, he gave the other to Syphiel.
"I don't know, some princess or something," he
glanced outside. "Its clear, act natural." They walked
outside, Syphiel trying not to look like she was
scared.
"I demand you bring me better fare!" the shout
carried across the camp in a shrill wind.
"I'm guessing that's her," Syphiel said.
"That voice sounds familiar," Gourry pondered. "Oh
well. Umm, don't attract attention, but go get a pair
of horses."
"You're leaving me alone?" she tried to shout and
whisper at the same time.
"Well do you want to be around when I try to get
her out of there?" Syphiel considered the question.
"I'll go get two horses, don't be long." Gourry
watched her until she disappeared between two tents.
The sun was definitely up now, but there still wasn't
much life in the camp. Gourry shook his head annoyed,
these people didn't know anything about life in the
woods. He approached the other tent and waited for the
bandit to exit it, then he went in.
"Well that was quite a bit too-*" Gourry didn't
take the time to let her turn around, or see what she
looked like. He simple knocked her out and picked her
up. Usually he was more than a little chivalrous, but
well, trying to explain matters would get them all
killed right now.
Now getting out was going to be a little more
difficult, people were certainly going to notice him
carrying an unconcious woman over his shoulder. He
exited the back of the tent and worked his way to the
edge of the camp and around to their horses. He found
Syphiel quickly and came up behind her.
"Just two horses, I have one up there," Syphiel
almost screamed when he started speaking. "Come on
let's go."
Gourry swung up into the saddle of the black mare
Syphiel had chosen, a little ungracefully because he
had to count for the weight of the unconscious girl.
Syphiel took a moment to get control over her heart
rate again and took the saddle of her dappled gelding.
They had reached his horse and were in the process of
securing the princess in her saddle when the alarm was
raised below.
"They found out that you both are gone, let's not
be here." He remembered for a moment chasing a wolf
over a smattering of granite rocks rising out of the
Earth. He then promptly forgot the wolf again, it
wasn't important, but the rocks were. "They'll track
us here, anybody could do that, but I think I know
where we can lose them." Gourry kicked off his horse,
leading the unconscious girls, and Syphiel followed.
As he predicted the bandits followed and lost their
trail in the rocks.
"The master is not going to be pleased," the second
grumbled glaring at his superior.
"Zelgadis?" Amelia called out. "Are you here?"
"In the back Amelia," she heard him call, the sound
echoing through the great hall of the Library. Amelia
walked back and found Zelgadis pouring over an old
book.
"I never liked this one," Zelgadis grumbled. "I
know what R'Lyeh is."
"Sure, she's a gold-digging opportunist." Zelgadis
turned to face her.
"Not Lady R'Lyeh, R'Lyeh. Its a city, sort of, the
resting place of one of the old ones."
"Old ones? I thought they were just frightening bed
time stories," Amelia moved around to examine the tome
with Zelgadis. She didn't notice how close she was
when she leaned over to look at the pages, otherwise
she might have fainted. Nor did she notice Zelgadis
blushing as she brushed his shoulder.
"They're down here somewhere," someone said. They
both recognized Reginald's voice. "Find them, get rid
of them quietly, I'll tell his highness they left to
find their blonde friend." Amelia and Zelgadis quietly
faded into the shadows and Amelia started leading them
around to a hidden exit she new of.
"Master, could the swordsman be responsible for
Lady R'Lyeh's abduction from the north woods." They
heard a body hit the ground.
"Keep your mouth closed," Reginald's deadpan voice
warned. Zelgadis and Amelia were out of the room
before they even glimpsed the open copy of the
Necronomican. "They were here, they've been
researching us."
"Why are we running," Amelia demanded suddenly.
"This is my home!"
"Yes, but we don't want to fight them just yet, we
don't know how many they are or how powerful, we could
kill these and whoever is left could still be a
threat. We should find Gourry first, and then continue
to look for Lina."
"Why?"
"They need 'Lady R'Lyeh', apparently Gourry might
have her, and well, Lina will know more about this
than I do."
"So its to the north woods from here?"
"By way of the stables yes."
Zelgadis and Amelia had no trouble with the regular
servants of the palace or the guardsmen in the city.
And soon they were making a bee line for the north
woods as planned. Half a day into the ride they heard
a familar, screeching voice.
"Damn you, let me go!"
"You don't want to go back there."
"Those are my followers you fool, followers of the
monster Zomalgustar!"
"Where do I know that name from." Zelgadis and
Amelia topped a rise and saw Gourry approaching down
the road with Syphiel and Martina, her hair dyed
black. "Oh, hi guys. Look what I found."
"Martina," Zelgadis nodded at the insane princess,
glaring at her dangerously. "Lina's going to love to
see you again."
"Why am I not surprised?" Amelia asked flatly.
=====
"Caffeinated Kender? What's that, a berserk spell?" -
Tribble, Kender Warrior of the Celestial Kingdom
Signed
He of Too Many Names (Thrythlind/Thryth/Luke/Hyperbole/Pika/Pooka)
http://members.aol.com/thrythlind/snake.html
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