[FFML] [Slayers]Slayers Bred 13-18

A Meeting of Forces

"The caravan was...destroyed," Sylphiel repeated
quietly. "All those
people, and...Kyrie!!" The priestess turned to her
husband and buried
her head in his shoulders to cry.
"I'm sure she's fine," Gourry said, looking somewhat
doubtful himself,
but not wanting to show it.
"He said he had Tinuviel," Jolrael noted. "Maybe he
took Kyrie hostage
as well?" His voice had lost its normal bored tone and
he sounded as
desperate as the rest of his family.
"Yes, he probably would do that," Gourry narrowed his
eyes.
"We're not going to get anywhere like this," Xina
said. "Does anybody
know what he was talking about?"
"Martina and Zangulus were married in New Sairagg,"
Sylphiel said
after a moment to take hold of herself and take the
chance to find her
daughter alive and well. "Past Kitsune Forest and...an
ocean..."
Sylphiel gestured towards where the elf army was
camped.
"I know where it is," Amethyst said. "It is quite far,
but considering
our resources it should be easy to reach." Everybody
looked at Val,
who sighed as he realized that he again was the chosen
mode of
transportation.
"We can't fly past the army," Xalan reminded them.
"They'll notice
that."
"It should be pretty easy to sneak past them again,"
Jolrael added.
Everybody took a moment to look at Amethyst.
"However..."
"Why is everyone staring at me?" she asked.
"Hey, I can get her..." Gourry started to offer his
services.
"No, Gourry-sama, Sylphiel-sama," Amethyst said,
interuppting the
older hero. "You're needed here, we can handle
Zangulus....again."
"She's right, we're the only ones who could fight any
truly powerful
fighters that might show up here," Sylphiel agreed,
very reluctantly.
"They'll have to go alone."
"Which still leaves the problem of getting past the
army without
letting them know we're there," Xalan said.
"Why is everybody looking at me again?" Amethyst
glanced around
blinking.
"You're all forgetting something here," Xina said,
smiling. Xalan
nodded toward her and shrugged.
"What's that?" Val asked nervous, Xina smirked. In the
next moment
they were all swallowed in a globe of darkness.
Gourry, Sylphiel and
the elves were then treated to the sight of the globe
rocketting out
towards Kitsune Forest.

****************

Sherra's eyes blinked open and she moved to sit up.
Last thing she
remembered they had just destroyed the elves that were
daring to
infringe on the home of her...most recent...beloved.
Looking around
she found that she was back in the abandoned village.
"How are you feeling?" Duofolger asked. There was some
odd quality
about his voice, but she couldn't figure out what it
was yet. As usual
she didn't bother to turn to the direction of the
sword's voice,
knowing it only existed in her mind anyway.
"Hungry," she said simply, she tried to stand up and
found herself
suddenly dizzy and faint. Before she could fall,
Sherra found herself
being lifted off the ground. She was prepared to haul
off and hit the
offender before she saw who it was. "But...he sealed
you in the sword
form."
"The seal was broken," Duofolger said simply as she
carried Sherra
into the tavern. "Lina broke it when she saved your
life." Sherra
glanced at the collection of faces that stared at the
two of them as
Duofolger sat her at the table, and then sat down
himself.
"But the seal is my..." Sherra reached for that
growing spark of
mazoku power that she'd had even after absorbing that
spell. She found
nothing, no mazoku power, not even the mana for human
magic. As Sherra
tried to understand this, Duofolger reached with his
own powers to
grab a plate of food and whisk it over to them.
Sherra glanced at her arm and noticed the bandage for
the first time,
she hadn't remmebered being injured at all. Sherra
unwrapped the
bandage and revealed the slash underneath, it was
healing quickly, but
there was still some blood flow. Red, completely human
blood. As the
plate of food, mostly meat, landed in front of her,
she paused before
tearing into it.
Duofolger watched the display in confusion. He had
spent almost six
hundred years bound to this girl, as he repeatedly
reminded her.
Dynast had punished him by sealing the bulk of his
power away and
given him to the new recruit. Now he couldn't feel a
link to anything,
he was a rogue mazoku. Maybe a few hundred years ago
he would have
been celebrating at this fact. Now, however, he had
been dealing with
this girl for so long he couldn't really figure out
what he else he
was supposed to do.
Sherra finished her meal and then stood up, a little
wearily. The
blue-haired girl growled and walked toward Lina. The
werefox sighed
and paused in her own feast to face Sherra.
"What did you do to me?"
"I mixxed my blood into yours," Lina said simply.
"Okay, so what?" Sherra snapped. "What does that
mean?"
"Sherra-san," Filia said slowly. "What is Lina?"
"A werefox, so, I'm mazoku, I don't catch
lycanthropy."
"This little girl is a mazoku?" Naga blinked. "You
must be joking, she
is hardly an adult."
"I am six hundred years old," Sherra growled at the
aging sorceress.
"What are you, forty? I am the general of Dynast
Grausherra." She held
herself proudly.
"Listen you multi-centinnial brat," Lina growled. "You
were human,
your body was trying to make you mazoku without going
through the
proper methods. All that was going to happen was that
you were going
to starve to death and never complete the
transformation. So I
initiated a different transformation that only
required you to be
human." Sherra took a moment to consider this and then
turned about to
leave the tavern, growlling. Duofolger followed behind
her quietly.

*******************

Sherra paced about the clearing, trying to come to
terms with her loss
of power. She couldn't fly, she couldn't summon fire,
couldn't
teleport. She was weak, Lina Inverse had given her the
final insult,
and taken away her power.
"I'm a werefox," Sherra sighed. "She made me a
werefox." The former
mazoku walked to the edge of a river and stared into a
small pool that
was forming along the edge of the bank. "I wonder what
I'll look
like." Her reflection was shattered as something flew
past Sherra's
face burning a line across her cheek.
"AAHHHHH!!!" She lifted her hand to her face and
rolled around to face
her attacker.
"Don't worry about it," somebody said. "You won't be a
were much
longer."
"Where are you?" Sherra demanded, she felt slow and
heavy, but she did
manage to avoid the next thrown dagger. She stood up
gripping a thick
piece of wood looking for an assailant. A stream of
arrows first took
the makeshift weapon away, and then nailed her to the
tree behind her.
Sherra had a brief glimpse of a flash of oncoming
silver when the
double image of a teleport obsucred the view. Then she
was across the
clearing, again in Duofolger's human form arms.
"My business isn't with you," the assailant's voice
called out. A
dark-haired human stepped out, flanked by three elves
with bows. "I
just want to get rid of the were."
"I'm afraid not," Duofolger growled.
The elves released a spray of arrows then, and looked
on shocked as
they grew heavy with ice and fell short of their mark.
Kalus narrowed
his eyes and released a wave of knives. They fared
similarly,
Duofolger smirked as they dropped to the ground, and
the noticed the
flask hidden in the wave of sharp weapons. It
connected with a rock
and shattered in a loud bright flash.
Sherra and Duofolger were thrown backwards by the
blast of seeking
light. Sherra sat up almost immedatiely, but pain and
a still strong
hunger kept her down on the ground.
"Alchemy," Duofolger coughed standing up. He tried to
search his
memory for any other tricks he hadn't used in six
centuries. "Can't
hack being a full mage?"
"You're working for the elves, aren't you," Sherra
demanded.
"In a manner of speaking," Kalus smiled, producing
another flask. "I
hate weres, and you weres are in their way...its a
mutual benefit."
Duofolger braced himself to deal with the new flask as
Kalus reared
back his hand.
"Its the knife psycho again!!" Kalus and the elves
whirled as a sudden
wind lifted the four of them off the ground. Duofolger
lashed out as
well, added the power of a winter storm to the magical
wind. At some
point, at least one of Kalus's flasks exploded in
mid-air resulting in
a brilliant flash of light.
As the light cleared three bodies dropped to the
ground, along with a
scattering of silver knives and steel arrows. Xina
shook the drifting
snow out of her purple hair as she stepped forward and
then noticed
the other two people in the clearing.
"You," Sherra jumped back a shimmer of light appearing
at her side.
She hesitated, however, remembering that the mazoku
girl had saved
Xalan in the tomb. She glanced at the bodies and
shouted back. "The
psycho got away somehow, and that mazoku girl is
here." The remaining
four slayers edged forward into view then.
"She doesn't smell the same," Xalan noted, before
fading out of view
again as he left to hunt Kalus.
"You're right," Xina blinked in confusion. "She smells
like a
werefox."
"That's because I AM one," Sherra growled. "Your
mother did it to me."
"We don't have time for a reunion," Jolrael reminded
them tightly.
Xalan appeared again, fading in from the woods.
"He's gone, the smell was scattered by the winds," he
explained.
"Let's get this over with I agree with Jol. Tinuviel
is not someone to
be left in Zangulus's hands."
"That elf-girl has been kidnapped?" Sherra gasped. She
remembered
giving Tinuviel a brief interview, the girl had been
likeable enough,
which as a mazoku at the time had made her rather ill.
"They are obviously allies," Amethyst said, then
continued the voice
that uncomfortably reminded Lina of the chimera's
father. "Let's
continue moving. We need to talk to Lina-sama and be
gone. Or are we
going to have to prod you all?" Xalan and Jol nodded
in support of the
statement. Duofolger took a brief mental accounting of
their power
relative to his and decided to agree as well,
especially if they
weren't a threat this time.

****************

"You're certain they're here?" Xina asked nervously.
She could smell
the traces herself well enough, but she wanted to hear
it from someone
else.
"Yes I'm sure there here," Sherra snapped. Duofolger
sighed and shook
his head in exasperation, and then pondered the
action, considering
this was probably the first time he'd done it right
for around six
hundred years.
"Have you lost your sense of smell?" Xalan asked.
"No...I just wasn't..." The red blur landing in the
middle of their
circle went unnoticed for only as long as it took her
to open her
mouth.
"XINA METALLIUM!!!"
"uh...oh..." Xina swallowed nervously and turned to
face her mother's
rather angry face. "Hi Mom, I'm...uh...back." Val
standing next to her
also turned around and met Lina's frosty glare.
"Mom," Xalan nodded to his sister and swallowed
nervously. "I tried to
protect her."
"She's fine, Lina-san...we..." Lina turned to glare at
him fully. Val
flinched back in time to feel some snag his ear.
"Val, dear," he looked up to his mother. "We have to
have a talk."
"Lina-sama, we need to tell..." Amethyst tried to
press the issue of
Zangulus and the elves. She could appreciate Lina's
need to speak to
her children, but they had some one to rescue.
"Not now Amethyst," Lina growled, quite literally
growled. Amethyst
narrowed her eyes and started to move. What she had
been plannin on
saying was interrupted.
"WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!!!" Jolrael's shout was
punctuated by a
wave of force out from him. Everybody had to dig
themselves into the
ground and hold against it. Amethyst reached out and
struggled to
release a simple weave of mana, distracted as he was
Jolrael didn't
feel the concentrated spell putting him to sleep.
"Jolrael-san is under a lot of stress right now,"
Amethyst explained
sheepishly.
"That's a way to put it," Xina agreed.
"Is there something going on that we don't know
about," Lina asked, as
the force of the young man's will subsided.
"Jolrael-san's sister is missing," Amethyst explained.
"We are hoping
that she's being held hostage..."
"You're HOPING that she's being held hostage?" Lina
blinked.
"The alternative is....not good," Amethyst said as
everyone else
nodded in agreement. Well Val tried to nod in
agreement, but it was
hard with his mother still gripping his ear. Lina
turned to face her
daughter and son past Amethyst and growled wordlessly
for several
seconds before swallowing and releasing a long breath.
"We're STILL going to talk," Lina growled. "Spill the
news and we'll
see what to do about it..."

*************

"So, what you're telling me," Lina said blinking at
her children. "Is
that there is a true Elf Lord working with Zangulus,
who's now a
mazoku, and they have a huge army about to just walk
through me. Not
too mention the were-hunter that's now loose in MY
forest."
"Sylphiel-sama and Gourry-sama have a decent sized
force of wood elves
waiting for a chance to ambush the high elves,"
Amethyst added
helpfully.
"Yeah, that's the only good news you've given me,"
Lina admitted.
"Okay, you kids...need..." she growled as she fought
her parental
instincts to continue the rest of the sentence. "To go
after that
Zangulus creep. We're going to prepare to defend or
retreat to
Sailloon."
"Hai, Mom!" Xina called out standing up and turning to
leave.
"Take Sherra with you."
"What?!?" several voices demanded.
"I can't take care of her right now, and she's too new
a were to take
care of herself well," Lina explained. "And between
the lot of you,
you can handle her fourth aspect, even if this DOES
take the three
weeks for the full moon to rise."
"What if I don't want to go?" Sherra asked. Lina
turned to glare at
her and Duofolger.

**************

Sherra found herself flying through the air, in
Duofolger's arms and
watching Val carry the slayers beside her. She tried
to figure out
just when she and Duofolger had given in, but couldn't
quite figure it
out.
"How did she do that?" Sherra wondered. She turned her
attention to
Xalan speaking to the chimera princess and daydreamed
for a moment in
an effort to get over the events of the day.

**************************************************************************

Dreams

Xina cracked open her eyes and glanced around.
Everywhere she looked
was
gray and featureless. She was alone, totally and
completely alone...or
was
she.
"Dad, is this you again?" Xina demanded irritably. She
glanced to her
left as a pair of the figures formed out of the gray.
She immediately
recognized Xellos and Amethyst's mother. Her father
was perched up on
a tree
and Amelia was sitting on a rock underneath him. She
gripped the staff
in
her hand, not bothering to wonder where it had come
from. She slept
holding
it usually, as a result calling it to being in this
dream was child's
play.
"What's with the dream thing again?"
"This isn't my doing, Xina-chan," her father said,
shrugging as his
image
solidified.
"Huh?" Xina blinked. "Is it...that other guy?"
"We really don't know," Amelia said. "But I would
expect so."
"Are you two always together?" she asked, suddenly
suspicious.
"There aren't that many people to talk to out here,"
Xellos explained.
"Even fewer that we knew alive," Amelia added. "Why?"
"Because....well," Xina tried to find a way to say
that they should be
with their spouses that didn't sound silly. After all
they were dead,
and
Xina's mother and Zelgadis were alive. Marriage was
until death do you
part
after all. "Ummm..."
Suddenly there was movement out of the corner of
Xina's eyes. She
glanced over and saw a circle of revealling light and
cool shade
appear in
the gray, across from a gate to that wasted realm
Roquen had been
pulled
into. Turning her attention fully towards the new
vision see
saw...herself.
"What?" Xina ran towards the image, confused. As she
got closer she
saw
something, actually several somethings, moving beyond
the corrupted
darkness
and light. They were coming closer and closer and then
a mix of shade
and
illumination poured from the other gate, through the
other her and
into the
corrupted realm.
Then in a flash there was nothing but gray again.
"What was that?" Xina asked, turning around to her
ghostly companions.
>From all appearances she hadn't moved, the tree, rock,
Amelia and
Xellos were
no farther from her than before.
"The Source and the Waste," Amelia said.
"The Waste, in the words of our heavenly some-time
companion," her
father
smirked. "Is a mistake born of the ego of certain
powers, The Source
is
where all life comes from and goes too."
"Okay, so why was I there?" Xina demanded.
"That..." Xellos started.
"...Is a secret." Xina arched and eyebrow as she
finished his comment.
"Meaning you don't know."
"Well, you certainly picked up on that," Xellos
smirked. Then the
surrounding gray vanished. Xina shot upright as her
dream ended and
the
sound of Sherra's first transformation pierced the
growing darkness.
"What's wrong!!" Amethyst gasped turning to see the
twisting Sherra.
The
chimera approached the pained girl carefully.
Duofolger was holding on
to
Sherra and glancing about in confusion as his long
time partner
sprouted
silver fur and dug furrows into his mazoku flesh.
"She's fighting it, and she doesn't know how," Xalan
said in
explanation,
shrugging. "Mom's had a few accidents in the past,
we've seen it
before."
"Is there anything we can do," Amethyst asked
desperately. "It sounds
like it hurts a great deal."
"It does," Duofolger nodded. Then the transformation
ceased and Sherra
started breathing heavily, as if exhausted. "Are you
feeling alright?"
"I'm fine!" Sherra snapped irritably. "Why are you
still here, aren't
you free now?"
"I can't think of anywhere else to go," the former
sword shrugged, he
slowly released the blue-silver furred fox-girl he
immediately took to
pacing.
~So much for getting a little nap,~ Xina thought.
~Strange dreams,
talking to Dad and Amelia, and now Sherra making all
that noise.~
"What do I do now?" Sherra whined, not caring if
everybody heard her
or
not.
"Go hunting," Xina suggested. She started to stand up
when the space
around her faded out momentarily. She was in the gray
again, and there
was
something hunting her. After a moment she realized
that it was herding
her
somewhere. No wait, it was herding her AWAY from
somewhere.
"Xina-san is right, you still seem a little...thin,"
Amethyst said
diplomatically as Xina came to the real world again.
Val was looking
at her
concerned, he must have noticed her blanking out for a
moment there.
"There's a point when trying to keep your figure
shouldn't be a
concern,"
Xalan added. Sherra's eyes bulged and she launched
herself at Xalan.
The
kage-kitsune wasn't there by the time she finished the
lunge.
Xina was up and a force bubble was around Sherra
before anybody could
move.
"Don't try to hurt my brother girl," Xina growled,
narrowing her eyes.
Xina noted Duofolger starting toward her and being
halted by the
appearance
of Xalan with his light claws blazing inches from the
mazoku's form.
Val had
also moved to Xina's back and seemed to be preparing
an attack against
the
released mazoku.
"ALL OF YOU STOP THIS!!" Everybody stared at Amethyst
in outright
surprise. "Xalan Metallium! You apologize this INSTANT
to her!" Xalan
opened his mouth and suddenly the chimera blazed
across the campsite
and was
glaring up into his face.
"I know she tried to kill Xina, but that was nearly a
year ago,"
Amethyst
continued in a very displeased tone, though her voice
hadn't gone
above a
normal volume since the first shout. "Since then she
has nearly gotten
killed saving YOUR life and then had her own life
quite neatly turned
upside
down. You owe her an apology." Xalan opened his mouth
again and
Amethyst
rose to the tips of her toes and narrowed her eyes at
him.
"You're right," he admitted finally. He released the
claws of light
and
stepped away from threatening Duofolger, who was
staring in confusion
at the
chimera. "Sorry, Sherra." Amethyst settled back on her
feet and gave a
satisfied smile.
"Does that settle everything?" the chimera asked
everybody. Xina
shrugged and her force bubble dissipated dropping
Sherra to the
ground.
~He's a JERK!~ Sherra told herself suddenly, wondering
when they were
going to let the light back into the area. ~Don't jump
to conclusions
yet,
this is just one incident, and you DID try to kill his
sister.~
"Sherra are you okay?" Duofolger asked. Sherra didn't
bother to turn
to
face him, again, force of habit and she couldn't see
him anyway.
"Once they get rid of the darkness spell," Sherra
growled, her tail
swished behind her angrily as she looked around and
waited. Everybody
looked
at her confused for a moment, then the slayers stared
at Jolrael.
"Jolrael-san," Amethyst started.
"Alright, alright," the swordsman shrugged. Suddenly
Sherra could see
again.
"Much better," she said arrogantly, then her stomach
growled across
the
camp site. "What was that about hunting?" Another
growling stomach was
heard and everybody looked to Xina.
"I'll go with you," Xina said reluctantly. Xalan and
Val exchanged a
glance at that remark. "I need the practice anyway."
Xina turned to
her
brother and the dragon and fixed them with a look that
dared them to
suggest
she couldn't handle herself.
"That sounds like a good idea," Amethyst said. "Try to
be nice to each
other." The two fox-girls, one thoroughly furrier than
the other,
looked at
the chimera princess as if she were crazy, then went
into the forest
to look
for food.
"Are there bears around here?" Sherra asked.

************

Far to the north a being locked in place looked over
his new minions.
They weren't exceptionally powerful, but they would be
able to
discover what
had happened to his general. He shifted in his prison
and tried again
to
break free, without any success. The Water Dragon King
had cast the
enchantment too well.
Angered the dark lord cast out his mind and found the
Elf Lord and his
army. There was a power strong enough to destroy a
general. The house
of
Feanor spreading its doomed fate throughout the known
multiverse,
springing
up like a weed. Even here, in his homeworld. Well that
would be
stopped.
The same way they had brought low the dwarves that had
tried to settle
in
L-sama's world. The dark lord of the cold north turned
to his assorted
demons and lesser mazoku.
"Go and punish these mortals," Dynast shouted. "The
elves, Sailloon,
ALL
of them...GO!! And leave the winter in your wake as
you go!!"

**********************************************************************

Morning

Zangulus smirked to himself as he began to arrive at
the sight he had
left his captives. This time he wouldn't have to worry
about them
roaming around and wreaking havoc with his little
ambush sight.
"There is no way they could have..." Zangulus stared
in disbelief at
Tinuviel jotting something down in her notebook and
readjusting her
spectacles as she scanned the walls, oblivious to the
mazoku's
reappearance. Kyrie, on the other hand saw him
immediately.
"HI!!! Look what I made!!" The little girl pointed at
the cutesy kid
drawings all over the walls. Zangulus didn't even
bother to ask where
she had gotten the paints, he had other things on his
mind.
"How did you get loose!!" Zangulus shouted.
"Kyrie-chan untied me," Tinuviel supplied helpfully as
she continued
looking over the ruined building she was "imprisoned"
in.
"How'd she get loose?!!" Zangulus demanded. He turned
to face the
little blonde girl.
"Jol-niisan asks me that all the time," she said
thoughtfuly, before
going back to her painting.
Zangulus vacated the room, sick to the stomach from
all the good
feelings in the room.
"They had better get here quickly," he grumbled. "I'm
running out of
patience."

************

Amethyst took a moment to try and figure out the point
of this stop.
Obstensibly they had all been tired and thought to
stop and get some
sleep so they would be of some use later when they
reached Sairagg.
Especially Val, who'd have to fly them over the ocean.
Of course there
was also the problem of Sherra's transformation,
which, admittedly,
Amethyst hadn't thought of.
Now, that she was sitting here watching the guys glare
at each other
she wondered if they might as well just get moving. Of
course, now
they had to wait for Sherra and Xina to return from
hunting. So
Amethyst contented herself with watching the guys and
wondering what
to do about them.
Jol merely sulked, and Amethyst couldn't blame him,
this was becoming
an uneccesary delay. His sister and Tinuviel were
being held prisoner
by a murdering demon that had several times come close
to killing one
or another of them all, mostly Xina. The fact that
apparently Zangulus
was an old rival of Jolrael-san's father made the
conflict even older.
The young swordsman hefted his sheathed sword and
glared silently.
Amethyst was moderately worried about sharing a
campsite with a
mazoku, even one that was apparently limited in power.
Then again,
Xina-san and Xalan-san were half-mazoku, so she
assumed that meant not
all mazoku were instantly bad. Besides, Duofolger
tended to look more
confused than anything, except about watching out for
Sherra. Amethyst
sighed at that, it was SO sweet, of course Sherra
didn't seem to
notice at all. The former sword seemed to be splitting
his attention
between Val, Xalan and the woods.
Xalan appeared to be relaxed, sitting there and
carving a new
quarterstaff for use against foes a light weapon would
be overkill
for. Amethyst smirked, nobody else had probably
noticed that he would
occaisionally glance off at the woods. The only thing
keeping him in
place was probably the desire to keep an eye on
Duofolger, and maybe
Val. Amethyst wasn't certain. It was killing him to
not go out and
watch his sister. Amethyst smiled at him quietly, and
giggled as he
embarrasedly turned away from her.
Val meanwhile was probably more obvious than anybody.
He kept looking
at Duofolger and scratching his head, as if trying to
figure something
out. Amethyst had overheard tell Xina that the mazoku
seemed familiar
somehow. Mostly, however, he kept an eye on the woods,
even more than
Duofolger. Amethyst supposed it was because he didn't
have as many
former enemies around as Doufolger. He was also
fidgeting more than
anybody else. Amethyst shook her head amused and
turned toward the
east.
"Hmm, its going to be a beautiful sunrise," she said,
then scrunched
her eyes in confusion.
"Its dawn already?" Xalan asked. Now everybody looked
into the woods
where Sherra and Xina were hunting.

**************

"This is all your fault," Sherra growled. Her focus
his directed to
where she was clawing through the damnable threads
that had the two of
them tangled up.
"Who started the fight?" Xina snapped. She was glaring
at the ground,
and the mass of splattered giant spiders below her.
She would have
been trying to use her force spears to slice through
the web, but the
damn things had an uncomfortable habit of
ricochetting.
"I remember somebody leading me around to a skunk,"
Sherra reminded
her.
"Oh, shut up and just finish cutting this damn thing,"
Xina insisted
from her inverted position.
"I'm almost finish..." Sherra's eyes went wide and she
started picking
up the pace of trying to cut the strand she was
working on.
Xina was curious until the first restrained sounds of
pain coming from
the werefox above her. She had seen heard other
transformations, and
caught the tail end of Sherra's first transformation
last night. This
was the first time she had seen one up close, other
than her mother's.
Lina had long ago gotten past any pain in the
transformation.
Xina hadn't expected the spasms as Sherra's fur and
foxy features
retreated into a normal, if blue-haired, form. She
couldn't help but
feel sorry for the girl as her attempts to cut the web
degenerated
into spasms and she screamed outloud into the growing
day. The
kage-kitsune was confused as well, her mother had said
that becoming
human usually didn't involve any pain. The spasms and
screaming didn't
stop until a completely human Sherra suddenly slumped,
as if she had
been a puppet with her strings cut.
"Sherra?" the blue-haired girl didn't answer, merely
tried to catch
her breath. "Hey, you awake?"
"Yes, I'm awake you damn brat!" Sherra snapped. "I've
faced worse pain
than that! Try being a mazoku for six hundred years
you'll experience
all kinds of pain." Of course, she wasn't mazoku now,
and not long a
werefox, and pain was different when it didn't feed
you a little as
well. And the human instincts of her body screamed
that the change was
wrong, and they hadn't adjusted yet. Nor had she was
she even close to
learning how to control the change yet, after all it
was only her
first night.
"Whatever you say," Xina would have shrugged, if she
could have. The
kage-kitsune didn't buy her explanation. "There's
something I haven't
tried yet."
"What's that?" Sherra demanded after a long, irritated
pause.
"This could hurt," she warned.
"What are you going to..." Sherra glanced up as region
of darkness
spread out above them. She glared back down at Xina.
"What's that
supposed to..." Then the two of them were falling to
the ground and
landing with a thump. Sherra growled and tried to
stand up out of the
mess of spider guts and webs.
"AAAHH! YOU'RE PULLING MY TAIL!!"
"GOOD!!!"
"When I get out of this I'm going pull your hair out
by the roots,"
Xina promised levelly. "AHH!!"
"Oh, I'm sorry, did that pull your tail again?"
"Grrr.."
"Oh...dear..."
Both girls tried to turn toward the familiar voice.
Amethyst was
staring at them mildly shocked.
"Do we want to know how this happened?" Xalan asked
the almost
terminally embarrassed mazoku next to him. The
kage-kitsune's nose
scrunched as the wind shifted. "Gah...who pissed off
the skunk."
"I think its both of them," Val said, looking a little
green.
"Let's just get them loose and get going," Jol
insisted.
"We could just roll them into a package and carry them
along," Xalan
suggested calmly. Xina and Sherra exchanged glances.
"He pays for that."
"Agreed."

****************************************************************************

How to Convince Luna to join your Fight...not a
recommended procedure

A wave of cold weather flowed down south from the
artic wastelands of
Dynast's realm. At the head of the fast moving storm a
mass of minor
mazoku flow over the grounds below. The demonic army
moved with
directness of purpose as they moved towards their
assigned target.
As ordered, the storm in their wake brought on early
winter to every
realm they passed over. Even the wine fields of
Zephilia. The demons
moved cautiously through the highly volatile realm,
above the magical
senses of almost every sorcerer in the world. They
kept their auras
dampened and moved slowly so as not to attract
attention.
As a result a far larger amount of snow full on
Zephillia than on most
other countries. This wasn't much of a concern to
them, however,
Zephillia had an obscene number of sorcerers within
its border, magic
was as commonplace there as water was in the ocean,
but they were
rather impulsive and didn't usually chase anything for
very long. The
only Zephillian known that would pursue someone that
had annoyed her
until the insult was repaid was the late Lina Inverse.
At least so they thought.
A purple-haired woman in a waitress outfit stood and
stared irritably
at a mound of snow that should have been a tavern. Her
head was
lowered and the bangs shaded her hair into
invisiblity, anybody who
knew her could have told you that this was a bad sign.
Luna looked up and the trail of mazoku energies that
was quickly
fading away. She ca sually turned to face the mound of
snow, which was
suddenly shrinking very rapidly. A cloud of
steam-billowed out and
away from the structure obscuring everybody nearby.
The eldest Inverse
narrowed her eyes angrily as she was enveloped in the
steam cloud.
As the cloud dissipated into the sky the severely
nervous inhabitants
of Luna's village were treated to the sight of the
Knight of Ceipheed
soaked to the skin and standing in front of a
completely caved in
tavern. Nobody DARED to comment on it, at least not to
her face.
"This is going to take some time to repair," Luna said
coldly. "Isn't
it?"
"Errr....yes," her "boss" agreed with her. The man was
prepared to
bolt at the slightest hint of the sorceress's anger
being unleashed in
his direction.
"Do you mind if I take a few days off?"
"Go right ahead," he swallowed nervously. "Don't let
me stop you."
"I shall be back shortly," Luna promised him. "I need
to pick a few
things up, excuse me." Luna turned and started walking
down the street
to her own home, which at the moment looked like a
spherical ball of
snow. A brief gesture and the defense spell around her
house exploded
outward, and uncovered her cottage.
"I've never missed work until now," she grumbled as
she entered the
dimensionally enhanced building.
Further south, Lord Fimore got tired of waiting for
the human to
return with news of his southern foes defeat. The elf
lord had been
about to move the whole bulk of his forces down
through the forest
when his scouts brought back reports of something more
interesting.
Sailloon's army had left the safety of its border
fortresses and moved
into neutral ground as well. The elf lord smiled as he
gave the order
to move out. They would meet in the woods, and that
was to the
advantage of the elves, as it should be.
His scouts failed to notice the various forces
trailing around behind
his army. True to the history of his bloodline he
could only focus on
what was in front of him, with no thought that
anything could possibly
threaten him. None of his scouts played witness to the
scenes behind
him.
"So this is the great army those children claimed
would prove to be
your allies," Naga sneered as she looked on the elves
before her and
Filia. "You're nothing but a rag tag collection of
rabble. You expect
the White Serpent to travel with you?
OH-HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!!"
Everybody cringed before the hideousness of her
laughter. More than a
few elves reacted with shock and wariness as several
foxes around them
grew and took human form.
"Well I'm planning on travelling with them," Lina
snapped. "So if you
want to stay around me you'll have to also." ~Please
decide to
leave...please, please PLEASE!!!~
"Hey, Lina," Gourry waved, a little subdued as he
stood next Sylphiel.
"I heard about your daughter," Lina said quietly. "I
know how you
feel."
"Thank you Lina-san," Sylphiel answered just as
quietly. "You plan to
leave your forest?"
"None of us are safe with a Feanor ruling the elves,"
Filia sniffed.
"Lina?" an elf repeated. "Lina, as in Lina
Inverse....but she's dead!"
"Do I look dead?" Lina asked the elf. The elf
swallowed nervously and
kept his mouth shut. "Listen there's some psychotic
running around
with potions and silver knives, we've met him twice
since the twins
and everybody left for Sairag. He hasn't managed to
kill anybody yet
since we've been staying together, but he's getting
really annoying."
"Hey I met someone like that a few weeks ago!" Gourry
shouted. "I
thought I got him lost."
"He was with some elves apparently," Lina said.
"That's the only fly
in the ointment though, so let's stop gabbing about
and head after
that army! I DON'T want them coming back to MY
forest."
"Excuse me, Sylphiel-sama," one of the elves stepped
forward looking
over the werefoxes nervously. Most of them looked
fully human, aside
from Lina herself who seemed to be insisting on
remaining in that half
form. "Should we be travelling with these, monsters.
And what can
those two women do to help us?"
"Do you know the name Filia Ul Copt," the blonde,
human form dragon
asked politely. Several of the elves just stared, even
for them, this
was like something out of the storybooks. "And Naga is
a sorceress
of....some talent." "We haven't figured out quite what
that talent is
yet," Lina added. "But its there."
"Why, Lina, you aren't jealous of me are you?" the
graying woman asked
in a high-pitched voice. "Really this can't be much
different from
when you were tagging along with me on all those
adventures.
OH-HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!!!" A number of people
turned to look at
Lina.
"LONG story," Lina grumbled. "Long, long, terrible
story."
"Poor Lina-chan, she just can't take the stress," Naga
sighed.
"OH-HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!!"
"Its apparently not over yet," finished a shivering
Lina.

*******************

"Aren't you getting tired?" Xina asked from her perch
at Val's head.
The dragon's eye rolled back to stare at her for a
moment before
facing forward again.
"No, I'm fine," Val insisted. "Besides I'm not letting
that mazoku out
last me." Xina turned to look where Sherra and
Duofolger were flying
alongside them.
"Well, I could.."
"You tried that," Val noted. "You held the dimensional
space for about
an hour and then slept for the next half-day. I'm
fine, its mostly
just gliding for now anyway."
"Oh yeah," she shivered. That had been twelve hours of
disjointed
conversation with her father and Amelia, and those
damn "dreams" kept
happening to interrupt. Nothing so clear as the first
"dream" though.
A storm over a golden ocean, the strikes of lightning
illuminated a
cloud of what she thought were birds. Strangely enough
the birds
seemed to be howling like wolves. There was sense of
something hunting
her again, the lightning kept striking near her. The
Waste again and
huge ugly things reaching out to grab her. The Source
calling for her.
Finally, she didn't seem to be herself, she couldn't
look down to see
a body. There was just a silvery light and a few
shadows. At times,
she could see another sparkle in the storm and birds,
and she thought
it was supposed to be her brother. If it was him, he
was hunting too,
she recognized the attitude of the motion. It was
confusing, but she
got the gist of it.
Something huge was going on, and they were caught in
it.
"Are you okay?" Xina blinked and looked down at the
dragon below her.
"I'm fine," Xina insisted. "All I have to do is sit
here after all."
"You've been sort of blanking out at times."
"I've noticed that too, Xina-san," Amethyst said.
"I'm fine," Xina snapped. She turned to glare at the
slayers behind
her on Val's back, and caught her brother staring at
her. He didn't
say anything, but she could tell that he was on the
verge of telling
her to hold back from the upcoming battle. "I just
can't wait to
finally give Zangulus what he deserves." Xina leaned
forward onto
Val's head, settling in comfortably between his eyes.
There was one more part of the dream that she didn't
want to think
about. An image of Val getting smaller and smaller, as
if she was
rocketing into the sky away from him. Beyond
everything else, that
scared her the most.

******************************************************************************

Sairagg

Xina looked up at the slowly growing moon and felt
heartened for some
reason. Dark or light, she could always find the moon,
come to think
of it,
so could Xalan. Even when the moon was new they could
see where it
was, or
rather see where it certain stars that should have
been there. She had
never
thought it was difficult to do, or that her constant
awareness of the
moon
was anything unusual until recently.
"I suppose I'm just trying to get my mind off those
dreams," she
thought
to herself.
~You should work on your power,~ the voice came to her
through the
staff.
~There's not much time.~
"Hi, Dad," Xina whispered. "Deciding to talk to me
when I'm awake?"
~Xina-chan, this isn't as easy as it seems,~ her
father's voice
chided.
~We both know something major is coming, and you'll
need every trick
you can
think of.~
"What about Xalan?" Xina asked. "Or the rest of us.
Though getting
Xalan to try and learn anything is like telling Mom
she's wrong about
something."
~Yes, you both seem to have inherited a little of that
stubborn
streak,~
Xellos commented. ~But you need to be stronger to
survive."
"So what do you suggest?" Xina asked, she waited a
moment. "Dad? Oh
great, he's gone again."
"Who's gone?" Xina turned to see her brother stepping
out of the
shadows.
She couldn't tell if he had been walking in the
shadows or if he was
just
that good at walking unseen.
"Our father," she said without a beat. "He wants us to
train, get
stronger."
"One of these times, I hope to speak to him," Xalan
said, moderately
suspicious.
~I think that's going to happen soon actually,~ Xina
thought to
herself.
She glanced at him nervously. ~I hope not.~
"What does he look like?" Xalan asked, still a little
suspicious of
these
spirits Xina had a habit of talking to.
"Well he's sort of..." she paused, and then decided to
try something
new.
Xalan blinked as the shadows and moonlight before him
coalesced into a
cloaked humanoid form of silver and darkness. "I can't
put color in
it, but
its like that. Amethyst can do a better image."
"I've seen it," Xalan said simply as the silver-shadow
moved about at
Xina's mental directions. His purple haired sister
shot him a look as
she
dissipated the shadow. "I was just curious as to what
you've seen."
"It IS our father I talk to," Xina insisted. "And why
don't you ever
try
to do anything like that?"
"I don't really need to," Xalan shrugged.
"Oh yeah, Zangulus almost beat you when he was human,
right?" she
asked.
"An older human even. Sounds like you could use some
practice too."
"And what could you do with that illusion?" Xalan
asked. Xina smirked
and another silver-shadow formed, wielding a sword of
darkness and
silver.
The near-featureless figure sliced through a small
tree which toppled
to the
ground as the shadow dissipated again.
"Is that enough?" she asked cheerfully. "And I know
you can do this
one." Xalan watched as a circular region of shadow
appeared around a
branch,
as he watched he felt the familiar action of a the
shadow opening to
admit
something inside. The branch toppled to the ground,
sliced cleanly
off,
seperated by the dimensional pocket. "I couldn't
complete with
Luna-obasan,
or...Zelgadis, but I think I could handle myself with
someone like
Amethyst
or Jol, maybe."
"The maybe is the problem," Xalan pointed out, he
refused to admit
that
he was thinking of trying some of those tricks
himself. Xina had just
fairly
well proved she might be able to protect herself
better than he could.
"And
you still can't fight well."
"Is Val awake yet?" Xina asked, ignoring her brother's
commentary.
"Are
we going?"
"You know Zangulus wants that staff," Xalan said.
"Yeah, and he'll get it upside his head if I have
anything to say
about
it," Xina snapped. "You can't make me stay behind,
don't even try."
"You've been jumpy the last three days," Xalan noted.
"Every since we
started hunting down Zangulus. What's wrong?" Xina
stared at him for
moment
before breaking into a smile and leaning forward.
"Now why would you think something's wrong," she asked
him. "I'm just
a
little nervous, that's all."
"Then you can stay..."
"Nope," she wagged her finger at him. "I have to be
there, you have to
be there." ~Or maybe we're just going to end up there
whether we want
it or
not.~
"And why is that?" Xalan asked levely, his eyes
narrowed.
"That...is a secret," Xina said before leaping back
into one of her
own
shadows, which Xalan saw shift back towards the camp.
He followed her,
stepping from shadow to shadow, leaving almost no
traces.
Arriving at the camp he found her sitting next to the
sleeping dragon.
She seemed a little wistful and protective herself
now, as if she
thought
something was going to attack them right then. He
scowled at her, and
Xina
produced her normal mature response and stuck out her
tongue in
response.
"Oh what are you two fighting about now?" Amethyst
asked. Sherra
rolled
her eyes and wondered why she had fallen for the jerk
in the first
place.
"Probably the normal," Jolrael said, shrugging. "He
wants her to stay
behind, and she wants to go."
"How much further is it to Sairag?" Sherra asked,
seemingly bored. Her
tail was twitching nervously behind her, however.
Duofolger sat behind
her,
very close, but she didn't notice. As far as she was
concerned, it was
normal for the former sword to sit so close to her.
The mazoku could
feel
her anger and hopelessness as she began to think that
she had stepped
in
front of that spell for nothing.
~Maybe you won't make the same mistake again.~ He
thought to himself.
"Not much further, we just need to wait for Val to
recover from the
ocean
trip," Amethyst said cheerily, with a brief glance in
Xalan's
direction. She
was going to have to talk to Xalan again. Xina could
take care of
herself
for the most part now, but he seemed to be refusing to
see that.
~Then everything is going to start.~ Xina thought to
herself.

****************

Before the sun rose to its xenith the next day the
seven of them stood
at
the edge of the huge lake that was left behind by the
Giga slave.
"There's NOTHING out there!" Xina gasped as they
approached. The
kage-kitsune shivered as she looked out over the vast,
dead lake. The
complete lack of life even surpassed the sensation of
gray nothingness
of
that spirit world her father and Amelia were in. That
place wasn't
like her
home, but it had a nature of its own, and everything
belonged.
"Nothing alive, just minerals," Xalan added, shifting
the grip on his
staff, and making sure the claws of light were tight
on his hand.
"I never felt sick here before," Sherra muttered
backing up into
Duofolger and instinctively flexing her hand for a
sword that wasn't
there.
Xina looked to the former mazoku a moment and grabbed
the sword she
had
carried almost without use the entire time. The
kage-kitsune tossed it
to
her.
"You might as well have some way to be useful," she
muttered as Sherra
looked at her surprised. "Its not magical though, so
don't think it'll
be of
much use."
"I can keep an eye on her," Duofolger said. "I have a
few hundred
years
experience at baby sitting."
"There is something out there," Jolrael turned toward
them, frowning,
but
a little relieved. "Tinu and my sister, on that little
island over
there.
Your sense of smell isn't too reliable if the air
isn't moving."
"Where's Zangu..." The blast came down in the middle
of them, knocking
scattering them all. The slayers took there feet and
stared at the
dark-haired being the center of them all.
"I'm right here," Zangulus smirked. "And you're
welcome to the brats
if
you can get past me first." The slayers stared,
blinking for about two
seconds before everybody but Duofolger, Xalan and
Jolrael burst into
laughter, pointing at their enemy. Zangulus fumed.
"YES!! THOSE ARE
DAISIES
PAINTED ALL OVER ME!!! DIE!!!"
Zangulus charged forward, a blade of darkness
seemingly just appearing
in
his hand. The slayers came back to their senses and
prepared for
battle.

***************************************************************************

The Risks of Being a Spectator

Sherra leaped away from the area of the charge,
irritably aware that
she really couldn't do anything to help. Considering
her most recent
change in species, and she idly began to wonder just
how many she
would undergo before she died, it would have been
better if they had
waited for nightfall. At any rate, Sherra watched the
fledgling mazoku
and remembered the last time they had crossed swords.
"What an idiot," she muttered as she sat down to watch
the battle. He
might have been able to take them on one at a time,
but all together.
"Idiot." Amethyst paused in joining the battle to turn
towards Sherra
for a moment.
"Sherra-san, are you going to help?" The chimera asked
for a moment.
"How? I can't change on purpose you know, what do I
do, hope for an
eclipse?" Sherra paused a moment and then formed a
megaphone from her
hands. "Umm...DUOFOLGER sic him!!"
"I plan too," Duofolger said in his normal
long-suffering tone. Sherra
wondered why the sword, err ex-sword, was still
treating her like "an
eternal teenager that he was saddled with until the
end of time" to
quote an early comment from him.
"How's that?" the former mazoku asked the chimera
princess, ignoring
the question of why Duofolger hadn't attacked her yet.
"Thank you, I think..." Amethyst turned and launched
an array of flare
arrows at the mazoku swordsman. Sherra watched as the
mazoku's
imitation Ragna blade slashed out and connected with
one of Xina's
force shields. The former bounty hunter ducked low and
let the flare
arrows pass over him into Xina's shield.
"If that was Inverse's Ragna Blade the brat would be
dead now," Sherra
yawned.
Zangulus had to dodge as Jolrael and Xalan came in
wielding their
weapons. The mazoku reacted and tried to slash through
Xalan. Sherra
almost called out and then blinked as the kage-kitsune
pulled one of
his sisters tricks, falling back into a created shadow
and slipping to
a new place.
"When did he start doing that?" Sherra scratched her
head in confusion
as the fight continued. "You know he wasn't this
strong last time,
dangerous yeah, but I would have thought this would be
over by now.
Oh, that's right, he was still human last time I saw
him." Sherra
stopped and considered this. "Uh...oh..."
Zangulus frowned as Xalan came in low with his claws,
and Jolrael
slashed high with his sword. The hunter blinked out as
he teleported a
few feet past his attacker's range. He appeared right
into a blast of
dragon breath as Val found a clear shot.
The dragon looked mostly human, though black wings had
ripped out of
his back. He felt tempted to take full dragon form,
but then he
couldn't fight effectively with everybody else in his
way.
Zangulus flew backward, black mazoku-essence leaking
out of his form
for a brief moment before he healed. The mercenary was
recovering his
feet when the ground exploded underneath him along
with Amethyst's cry
of "DUG HAUT!" One of the spikes tore into the mazoku,
lifting him
away from the ground.
Zangulus gritted his teeth in pain as he pulled
himself off the earth
spike and the cut healed itself.
"That spell's not enough to do more than give me p..."
Zangulus cut
his brag short as the other mazoku on the field
slammed into him. The
former human teleported out before the unnatural chill
radiating from
Duofolger could do him any real harm.
Zangulus was trying to catch his breath as a virtual
volley of
mystical attacks launched towards him from six
directions. Spikes of
moonlight, telekinetic punches, balls of flame, the
essence of a demon
winter, and a beam of pure spiritual energy cascaded
towards his
direction.
"He HAS been watching his sister," Sherra whistled as
the mazoku
"eeped" and teleported away from his former location.
Sherra smirked.
"The idiot can't win if he can't get a shot off.
Imagine a mazoku
saying 'eep'." Sherra felt duly insulted.
Zangulus appeared again and swung his blade of
darkness. A wave of
black energy rippled its way towards six warriors. Jol
levitated above
the attack, while Xalan tackled Amethyst and took her
into a shadow
pocket. Duofolger vanished, as any intelligent mazoku
would. Xina,
meanwhile leaned forward and formed a wall of light
the wave of energy
collided with and washed over.
"NICE TRY!!" Xina shouted, just before the cracks
started appearing in
her wall. "Awww....he's STILL beating me!!" Xina
squinted as her force
wall caved in and then there was this odd sensation of
being in two
places at once.
"Next time run....please," Val pleaded as he set her
down. Xina looked
to where the dragon had teleported her away from "I
don't want your
brother and mother to kill me." Xina blinked for a
moment and then
glomped Val.
"VAL-KUN!!! You saved me!!"
"Urk."
"Get back in the fight!" Jol shouted as his levitation
became
something more like flight. The youngswordsman landed
in front of the
mazoku and he started attacking.
Zangulus smirked as he started in to fight the boy.
That didn't last
long. Zangulus knew the secret of Xalan's phenomenal
fighting skill,
and could easily throw the kage-kitsune off his top
performance.
Jolrael had trully learned his skill though, and
tended to add in a
few surprises that kept the mazoku watching with his
higher senses as
well as the normal five.
When Xalan joined the fight, the trading of blows
became mostly
Zangulus blocking. Everybody else grumbled as they
waited for a clear
shot at the mazoku or some other chance to help
without hindering.
Then Zangulus vanished and didn't reappear.
Sherra snapped to her feet, there were no enemies for
him to fight on
the astral. That meant...
"Where'd he go?" Xina asked confused, not noticing
Sherra charging at
her.
"Tinu and Kyrie!!" Jol gasped, and suddenly most of
them turned to
head out over the lake, following Jol.
~LOOK OUT!!~ Xina paused and looked at the staff,
before glancing
around. Something small slammed her aside as the air
rippled and a
mazoku attacked out of the astral plane. Xina landed
hard on the
ground, the breath knocked out of her and the staff
skittering out of
her grasp. Behind the Metallium, Sherra felt the blade
of darkness
pass through her, chilling her whole being. The
were-fox looked down
in shock as her lower body seperated from her torso
and she crumpled
to the ground. She remained control of her motions
long enough to flip
her face upwards before her body shut down and she
could only watch.
She would have given a sigh of relief as she felt a
healing coma slip
over her, but, she couldn't.
Zangulus frowned as he discovered that he had hit the
wrong target, he
was moving to correct his mistake when he saw the
discarded staff.
"SHERRA!!"
"XINA!!"
Zangulus looked up in time to see three of his
attackers vanish from
sight, and wave of concealing dark moved for him,
obviously carrying
the girl's brother with it. He lunged for the staff
and leaped back as
Xalan leapt out of the shadow and Val and Duofolger
popped into place.
Zangulus growled as light and magic ripped into his
form.
"I got what I came for!" Zangulus proclaimed painfully
as he vanished
from sight again. Teleporting in an escape.
"GET BACK HERE!!" Duofolger shouted. He turned angrily
to what looked
to be Sherra's corpse. He teleported to her side as
Xina was being
helped up by Val, who was getting a glare from her
brother.
"He got the staff," Xina said glumly. "But I know
where he's going."
She'd seen it often enough in her dreams, and her
father had told her
what it was.
"Then you can tell us and we'll..." Xalan stopped as
Xina turned a
look on him. He swallowed until she smiled suddenly.
"I'm the only one who can take us there," Xina said in
a sing songy
manner. Then she looked towards the mazoku. Jol had
paused for a
moment, before Amethyst had waved him to go ahead to
rescue his sister
and Tinuviel.
"I've totally failed..." the mazoku said quietly. The
male mazoku's
long, midnight blue pony tail hung loosely behind his
back as he knelt
down beside her.
"Um...Mr. sword," Xina started.
"She's dead," he pulled at the white collar of his
ice-blue shirt and
sighed.
~What's he going on about?~ the girl was thinking as
she tried to
flick her eyes towards her long-time partner/weapon.
~His mission
ended when I stopped being at ALL mazoku.~
"Duo..." Xina started before being interrupted again.
The mazoku
cradled Sherra's torso and started to actually cry, to
the amazement
of the onlookers.
"And I never got to tell her how much I loved for
her..." the mazoku
stopped as he felt a sudden upswing of shock coming
from the "corpse"
he was cradling. "Uh..she's alive?"
~WHAT DID HE SAY!?!!?!~
"That's what I was TRYING to tell you," Xina sighed.
Then she elbowed
Val, and whispered. "You'd better be taking notes."
Val blushed and
rolled his eyes heavenward.
"Were's don't die unless you behead them, burn them or
use silver,"
Xalan explained, trying to ignore his sister flirting
with the dragon.
He wasn't succeeding.
"Oh, that was so sweet!" Amethyst clapped and
fluttered her eyelashes.
Then she shot Xalan a saccharine glance. The
kage-kitsune did his best
to ignore that as well. He didn't come near as close
to succeeding in
that as he was with Val and Xina flirtting.
Duofolger looked around and then down at Sherra, from
whom he was
feeling a rather confusing mix of emotions. Rage,
embarrasment,
disbelief, rage, fear, curiousity, oh, and rage. He
idly wondered why
he hadn't noticed that before, and wondered if he
would survive after
she healed up.

*************

"Hello Jol-niisan," Kyrie waved as Jol entered the
ruined building.
Jolrael halted and stared at an amazing scene.
"Jol-san!!" Tinu sniffed. "You have to save me from
this monster!!" It
took the swordsman a while to recover from the idea of
Tinuviel being
phased by anything.
"Kyrie got bored, didn't she," Jol asked, as he looked
at
Tinu's....well, he supposed you could call it a hair
style. It looked
more like one of Tinuviel's experiments had backfired,
only they had
never backfired on HER before. The elf nodded
furiously while crying,
Kyrie merely gave her brother a broad grin.

=====
"Caffeinated Kender? What's that, a berserk spell?" -
Tribble, Kender Warrior of the Celestial Kingdom
"God has to have a sense of humor, it's the only explanation for sex." - my father
"I have to write a how-to paper for class, so I'm writing a paper on how to be psuedo-evil." - my brother

http://members.aol.com/thrythlind/snake.html

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