Zephyre had been the first one up that morning; just how Zelgadis always remembered her. Well, it was good thing to know that the little things about her hadn't changed.
Hearing things opening, closing, rolling, shutting, and all the like, Zel got off his bed, and went to his door to peer out in the hallway.
Zephyre had found him a cot the night before and set it up in the backroom when Amelia and her father left, since she found out that Zel currently had no money with him. Which meant, no vacancy in big, bold, neon pink letters...that blinked.
Zelgadis saw Cyrus, his 'best' friend, running around like a chicken with it's head cut off...or was it because he somehow missed putting his pants on this morning? Quite nauseated at seeing his aquaitance in boxers, running and screaming like a girl back to his room, Zelgadis scurried over to Zephyre's room down the hall quickly, afraid of seeing the ill sight again. Gently, he knocked on Zephyre's door. He heard a muffled “C'mon” before he let himself in.
“Oh, hey, Zel,” Zephyre greeted him with a yawned stretch. “Just packing up for Krimson...” She turned back to putting some odds-and-ends into the little pouch that would hang from her belt.
“About that,” Zel said casually as he took a seat on the very edge of her bed. “I was wondering if I could join you. You know, as company.” He didn't want to reveal his actual intentions. He was worried about her, and he wanted to make sure...
“Oh, yeah. That'd be great,” Zephyre said off-handedly. Not to insult Zelgadis, but to assure him that it was fine with her and that she had no problem with it. “Besides, the Guild gave me loads of travel money, and they said I could bring some company with me if I liked.”
Zelgadis smiled silently to himself. She really seemed a lot better than what she did yesterday. Maybe Amelia was right. Maybe she was just under stress, and the effects of it were igniting some of her earlier depressive characteristics...
“Well, I guess we could go see if the carriages are here yet,” Zephyre offered sarcastically.
Zelgadis just nodded and walked out with her.
<<<<<<<<<<
“Wow! This is a beautiful carriage!” Amelia gushed as her eyes sparkled.
The carriage was a deep brown and burgundy color, like a reddish wood material. It was trimmed in what looked like gold, as were the wheels. Drake had packed the giant chest on the back of the carriage on the shelf, and it's dark blue container contrasted heavily against the carriage's colors. The template of the carriage was a simple one; bowed at the bottom, and then curved up at the top, getting skinnier until it “rounded-off” at a certain point, and it looked like it had been given a “high-and-tight” haircut at the top. In abstract terms, it seemed the carriage was fat, and most of it's contents were at the bottom.
“I'm glad you like it, Amelia,” Zephyre smiled sincerely. Ever since Zelgadis had come back, it seemed Zephyre was babying her. And he didn't know if they had made a new relationship as she was going through her depression, or not. But it seemed as though Zephyre was like big sister to her now. Zephyre had invited her to come with her as well.
Amelia gushed some more about the carriage, and decided to take a peak inside. “I hate extravagance,” Zephyre said quickly, and quite bluntly. She didn't think Zelgadis would catch what she said.
“Why's that?”
“Makes me feel fake. I didn't grow up with it.”
There was a silence of recognition.
“Well, I guess we can leave now--”
“Just wait one minute...,” a voice said with fierce seriousness. Zelgadis saw a patch of red hair coming through a crowd. He groaned. THIS was not going to go down well.
Zephyre decided to ignore her and go to the carriage herself. It may just have to be her and Amelia to go on this trip if Zelgadis wasn't moving.
Zephyre went to open the door, but Lina caught her hand. It seemed Gourry was keeping his distance away from the two as well... “I said 'wait,' “ Lina said with as much acidicy as her last command.
They were glaring hard, making lines come across their faces that made their faces look dark and unforgiving. Niether flinched, but everyone else who saw them did. In fact, they were stealthily moving away from the area as quickliy and as quietly as possible...
“Take your hand,” Zephyre demanded her in a throaty tone; it was because her teeth was clenched, “off of me!”
Lina never flinched, and kept her arm on her's. Zephyre then violently took Lina's hand and threw it off of her, making Lina backtrack a bit.
That's when Lina knew, she wasn't upset about the tickets she was going to steal (^-^'); it was something she couldn't quite put into words yet.
“What the HELL is YOUR problem, Zephyre!?!” Lina demanded. “First it's the cold shoulder without even telling me what I did! Now it's the 'don't touch' me crap?!”
Lina saw her eyes flare up, and she was shaking in anticipation. Like it was something long kept that Zephyre had been wanting to tell her for a long time. But with as much excitement as her eyes flared up, they died down, and she said, “It's because I don't want you around anymore! You're such a flat-chested, big-headed miscreant, and I don't want anything to do with YOU!”
Lina's eyes took on flames as she grinded her teeth. Her cheeks were flushed in embarassment and fury. How DARE she?! How DARE she?!! “Well, exCUSE me for coming around and seeing how you're doing! I guess I should leave now that I got your diapers in a bunch!”
“What?”
“You heard me you gray-haired granny!”
“My hair is silver!”
Zelgadis huffed. “I AM NOT going to deal with this the WHOLE way!”
Lina waved off Zelgadis' rising fury. “Quite sharp, Zel.”
Zephyre was obviously taken aback by Zelgadis' deduction. She hadn't thought that Lina was here to state that she was going, so caught up in her fury she was. “What're you talking about?! She isn't going ANYWHERE I'm going!”
Zelgadis smirked. “It's obvious she wants to come with us. Her change pouch is empty.”
Lina smiled sheepishly, and tried to hide the weightless pouch. “Eh, heh, heh...”
“Well that's too bad!” Zephyre said quickly. “There isn't enough room!”
Lina instantly had a piercing face on, trying to cut into Zephyre with her eyes alone. “You've got some nerve... I AM going! Because I'm GOING to find out what the Hell your problem is!”
Zephyre crossed her arms in defeat, albiet with that stubborn pride. “Well, you're not riding in here.”
Lina was so mad, her whole face had gone cherry-red. And she was about to let off a whole stream of insults and a few choice words, but Zelgadis' iron mediator skills beat her to it. “Why you LITTLE-”
“Look,” he began quite sternly. “I know you're not going to like it, but Lina's going to go, Zephyre. We'll take horses instead, so I can have you two, at least, at a fifty mile buffer between yourselves, because I'm not dealing with you two the whole way!!”
Both girls took on very sheepish looks.
Amelia and Gourry were stunned.
Zelgadis smiled in triumph. Peaceful silence the WHOLE way...
<<<<<<<<<<
...he wished they would start fighting again. Their hostile silence was worse than the actual storm. And besides that, trees and various rock formations got really boring to look at. Especially when Mother Nature decided to have a creative block.
The trip was WAY too long. Zephyre wasn't kidding when she said she'd have to ride over one and a half kingdoms until she got to her destination. And Lina and Zephyre's antics were down-right exasperating. Which made the trip seem even longer because it was like the tension cloud was reigning over the group.
But finally, after almost a week and half of travel, they had made it to Krimson Town.
However, it was night. Which meant, no getting Zephyre's work done until morning. Which meant, the longer it would take to leave. They all just wanted to stop traveling, but they didn't want to STAY in Krimson for longer than they had to. Or it could have just been “jet-lag” for traveling so long, and they were all rather hissy and just wanted to complain about something.
“DAMMIT!” Lina screamed in traveler-weary rage. “We WOULD arrive at night!”
Everyone else also groaned. Except Gourry, who was clueless.
“What? What's wrong coming at night?”
“Because Gourry,” she said his name with such sardonic-ness that she just could have called him 'stupid.' “It means we have to wait until MORNING until Zephyre can do her job.”
Her inkling still hadn't cleared the fog.
She stress-marked. “Which means we have to STAY in this town until MORNING so we can do that and then leave!”
Gourry still didn't get why it was a problem. Afterall, they were going to be able to have a good dinner, and sleep in beds tonight! But he didn't sense it was safe to continue his prodding. Lina seemed rather thin with her patience right now. So, he gave a smile and said, “Okay!”
Everyone in the group sighed, accompanied by sweatdrops.
Despite the edginess of everyone, they somehow got to the first inn they saw without biting each others' heads off, and ordered some food. Well, maybe the right phrase is “all the food the inn could possibly make, carry out, and not die from exhaustion doing it.”
As soon as any platter a waiter/waitress came in range, Lina, Gourry, or Amelia lunged after it, trying to get the contents on their plates as soon as possible. Zelgadis merely asked for a muffin and a soothing cup of peppermint tea. However Zephyre looked wiped.
“Not eating again?” Zelgadis asked her lowly as he sipped his tea.
“Not when I can see everything I could have eaten hanging outside Lina's rancid mouth,” Zephyre snapped, but it was more like she was directing it at Lina herself. “I'm going to bed.”
Zelgadis eyed her curiously as she went up the stairs. He wasn't expecting her to use Lina as a cover for whatever reason she wasn't eating.
<<<<<<<<<<
The next morning, Zephyre was the LAST one up. The group stopped in mid-bite while eyeing her coming down the stairs. What were they doing?
“What?”
Lina swallowed her inhumanly big side of potatoes in one gulp, and said simply, “You're never the last one up.”
“So?” She wanted a little more as she started to take her usual seat by Zelgadis.
“So, are you alright?” his question came of casual, but the look in his eyes demanded the truth. Zephyre backtracked subconsciously.
“So the trip wiped me out a little more than usual,” she offered. “So what?”
Zelgadis turned back to his coffee, and began to take a long sip.
“Aw, Little Zephy-weffy can't take a little walk?” Lina slid off her tongue in pure sarcasm.
The next scene took place in iron-fast stealth; Zephyre's eyebrow started to twitch, and somehow Zelgadis' coffee cup ended up in Lina's right nostril. But it looked like Zephyre never even moved from her spot. But she was smirking in triumph, so somehow, she did it.
As Zephyre took that time to walk out of the inn leaving money with the bartender, Gourry, Amelia, and Zelgadis wore comically wide-eyed expressions, as Lina tried to pull the coffee cup out of her nose.
<<<<<<<<<<
It took about ten people from the inn's staff, Gourry, Zelgadis, and Amelia to get the cup out of Lina's nose.
The rest of the group had finally caught up with Zephyre, who found that the leader of the town wasn't where he said he was going to be. Lina had her nose covered by her hand, casting a recovery spell. Zephyre smirked, in what some would say was arrogance.
“Don't you even start with me...”
“Well, I've knocked on the door numerous times, and I don't believe anyone's in there,” Zephyre stated as she signaled behind her at the mansion.
“We could probably ask some people,” Amelia suggested. “I'm sure someone would know where he is.”
So they commenced asking random villagers about where the leader of the town could be. The problem wasn't that they couldn't find anyone who knew, even though it should have been the problem, but it was that the villagers seemed like they were all off their rockers.
The latest response they got was, “Ya tink th' leader has time fer th' likes of you?! *laughing*”
Zephyre groaned. “Why would the leader NOT be here?! And why isn't ANYONE helping?!”
“Did he say if he was going to be out of town...?” Zelgadis queried.
“No!” Zephyre assured. “He said he'd be in town when I got here! And we made it in town in the time we were given!”
“Maybe he went shopping,” Gourry said aways away as he was staring into a trinket shop. “They have really cool things to buy here.”
Lina bopped him over the head and dragged him back over to where the group was. ”I SWEAR you were a jellyfish in a past life!”
“So what are we going to do?” Amelia questioned.
A man approached the group. “I'm sorry, but I couldn't help over-hearing that you all were looking for the leader of the town.” His eyes were violet, and his midnight black hair was a natural mess that went down to about the end of his neck. He wore a white, sleeveless tunic that was trimmed with blue ends, tied at his waist with a slash. He also had black slacks and some simple black slip-on flats that adorned his lower body.
“So you know where he is?” Lina said disbelievingly. He could have just been playing with them, since no one else knew where he was.
“Yes, he's currently at his summertime mansion, about a mile north on the outskirts of town,” he told them generously.
“Hey, thanks,” Gourry said politely while the others went ahead of him, starting towards their new destination.
“And the name's Victor Wolcott!” He yelled to them quickly. “Ask for that name if you need anymore help!”
They totally missed the glint in his eye as he turned to leave.
<<<<<<<<<<
“Well, this HAS to be it,” Lina acknowledged. “It's the one house about one mile out of town, and I don't see any others around here...”
Zephyre smiled. “Okay then, let's go! The sooner we do this, the sonner we can leave.”
“Here, here,” Zelgadis said unenthusiastically. 'We'll get out of crazy-town and into more hostile environment that way...'
The house looked absolutely stunning! It was a beautifully lain brick house, with two stories and a bright red roof. It may have looked small, height-wise, but the width of the house definitely made up for it. The yard was very simple around it, no flowers or anything, but it was the richest, fullest, and greenest grass they had ever see.
After taking in the simplistic aestheticism of the house, they made their way to the front door. Zephyre didn't get a chance to knock on the door, when a strong wind made the door open slightly. She took that signal assertively, and pushed the door open, expecting to see an overly well-groomed man standing there, with a pipe stuck in his mouth and house slippers on his feet.
No one expected that the place was covered in cobwebs, and had a blue tint to everything from lack of light and the amount of dust covering everything by the distortion of light because of the lack of people living in it.
Everyone stood slack-jawed.
“I don't get it!” Gourry concluded. “I thought that guy said that that OTHER guy was here!”
“He DID, Gourry,” Lina said in anger at the thought of being tricked for kicks and giggles.
“We've been HAD!” Zelgadis said in disbelief. “It better not be because I'm a chimera...”
“Why? What're you gonna do about it?” Zephyre questioned stalely.
“I'll put my hood on and stalk the villagers and be known as 'the mysterious man who walks at night who doesn't do anything to people except scare them',” he stated simply.
Amelia facefaulted to the ground, sweatdrop and all. “Mister Zelgadis! That doesn't make any sense!”
“Yeah, well, niether does that guy tricking us!” Lina butted in. “He said his name was Victor Wolcott, right? Well then, let's go show him that you don't mess with Lina Inverse!”
Gourry did a half facefault. “But you weren't they only one tricked, Lina!”
“It doesn't matter!” Lina quieted him. “If you mess with Lina Inverse alone, you're and idiot. If you mess with her in a group, it means the same thing...and you're STILL an idiot for doing it! No one crosses MY path like I'm some sort of pushover! NO ONE!”
“Tch,” Zephyre snorted.
“Do you have a problem with my statement...?”
“Actually, I have a problem with YOU-”
“LADIES!” Zelgadis blew out any flames that were about to take hold of the two. “Save your anger for Victor! He's the one that deserves it anyway.”
<<<<<<<<<<
The first villager they saw they asked where the man “Victor Wolcott” lived. Unlike the situation with the leader of the town, which they still had no idea where the guy was, they knew exactly where Victor Wolcott lived.
The stood in front of where all they had asked said was Victor's house. It was a fancy-looking house. Nothing like the outside of the leader's “summertime mansion,” but it was nice.
“So, how do we handle this?” Zelgadis queried aloud. “I mean the guy tricked us and everything, but we don't want to get in trouble when the leader shows up--”
“FIREBALL!!”
The left corner of the roof was suddnely gone in a bone-rattling explosion.
“Of course,” Zelgadis sighed. “Why didn't I think of that...?”
“Yeah,” Gourry joined him. “Perfect.”
“Uh, oh!” Amelia shreeked as Zephyre was walking over toward Lina.
“LINA! What the HELL is your problem?!”
“Hey! He messed with me,” her face took on that of a devil. “And now he's gonna pay!”
“You're SO selfish! Everything isn't --” But before Zephyre could finish, a man was seen coming from the smoking house.
“Wait...,” Amelia called. “That isn't the same guy!”
“Don't tell me we have the wrong house again!” Zelgadis sighed in exasperation.
This man, looked nothing like the one that had told them about the “summertime mansion.” And there was no movement anywhere else that said someone else lived with this other guy. He was much tanner than they other guy they had spoken to, and his hair was a goldenrod blonde that resembled a group of wheat stalks. It bowed a little at the top, and his aquamarine headband seemed to keep it defying gravity. His blue eyes were hard, glaring down the criminals that had dared taken a chunk out of his house. He wore white slacks and a navy blue knee-length vest that expertly showed off his medium-build.
“Who DARES assualt the house of Victor Wolcott?!” he demanded in a gruff tone. “You there! Speak as to why you have come to barbarically ravage my home!”
“Wait a minute,” Lina spoke in a confused tone. “YOU'RE Victor Wolcott...?”
“Of course I am!” he spoke in arrogance, but then smiled. “Who else would have such a manly, and PERFECT physique?” He proceeded to entertain the group with posing and flexing.
“Okay,” Zephyre began in exasperation. “I'm going to say that this guy is WAY too simple to be able to lie to us; that has to be the REAL Victor Wolcott.”
“Now! WHY have you set fire to my house?!” He saw a small puddle of water at his feet, in a crook of the stone road and bent down to put his hand in it. Then, he aimed his other hand, open palm at the firery part of his house and said, “Aqua Create,” and the fire was gone in a splash of water. “Tell me!”
“Well, you see,” Zelgadis stepped foward, brave enough to confront this odd fellow. “We were looking for the leader of the town, and this man came up to us, telling us that he was at his summertime mansion...
When we went there, we found that we had been tricked. He said his name was Victor Wolcott and to find him if we had anymore problems.
I apologize if Lina went a little overboard,” he pointedly glared at her. she smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of her neck.
Victor shook his fist and said a name in a very cursing-like tone, “Aydin...”
“Who?” Amelia questioned.
“Aydin Vlademir is the man you're looking for,” Victor told them. “He would be the only one capable of this handiwork. He works at an inn uptown aways; it's called 'The BegINNing'.” They turned to leave. “But, I'm not letting you leave peacefully unless I get some payment on my house.”
Zephyre glared at the man. She threw the rest of her satchel at him; it came to a stop on the ground in front of his feet with the echoing clinging sound of money. “I don't think I like you very much.”
“Well, I'm not going to be nice to a group of people who just about ruined my house,” he leered at her, his blue eyes glimmering in hate.
“Whatever,” Zephyre said simply and joined up with the rest of the group.
<<<<<<<<<<
The double doors to “The BegINNing” were violently shoved open by a steamed red-head, followed by an odd group that was with her. At least, that's what the customers in “The BegINNing” thought.
“Out of towners,” a man dared to mumble.
“YOU!” Lina spat as if pointing the blame of her bad day at him. “WHERE is Aydin Vlademir?!”
“I'm over here,” said and indignant voice from the bar counter.
Lina threw down the man she was interrogating, and silently but hostily went over to the bar. The others only shook their heads, and stayed where they were at.
There were several muffled yelps of fear in the bar of “oh my god! It's a man!” or “that's the scariest man I've ever seen!” Amelia was feared for the man's lives that said them, afraid that Miss Lina may have heard them in her nearly blind fury.
But Lina made no move towards anyone else in the inn except for Aydin. He smirked as she finally came with in range of the bar. The whole place was silent, anticipating that the “man” named Lina Inverse would go off at any moment.
“Well, if it isn't the red-head and her odd-ball friends,” Aydin deducted aloud. He smirked even more, as he put down his rag on the bar counter and supported his weight on his arm. “I assume you found the summertime mansion all right?”
Lina grabbed a fistful of his tunic, and dragged his sneering face close to hers. “You set us up, you coniving bastard, and I. WANT. TO KNOW. WHY!”
“Hmph,” Aydin began matter-of-factly. “I don't think it's wise to cause a ruckus in the workplace of a family member.”
“What are you TALKING about?!” Lina shook him in demand.
“Lina...,” a voice called to her from across the room.
It was a female voice; one that she would ALWAYS recognize. Her body instantly went rigid when he spine was chilled with cold. Lina's eyes went wide in apprenhension as her pupils seemed to dialate; it was a miracle she didn't go into shock.
“......L-Lu-na...?”
<<<<<<<<<<
Ashi: YAY! A cliffy! *the Slayers crew throw random crap at her* Well, not 'yay' for them. Who did you guys think it was, anyway? Filia? No, Lina wouldn't be all extremely upset over someone like that! Anyway, see what Luna has to say to her little sis in the next installment!
