Ashi: This is a prologue for people who don't know anything about the new characters, or the others that we had in the other "fic". And if you'd like to read it anyway, well then, that's cool too. ^^'
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Zelgadis was currently traveling down a lush road filled with trees of evergreens on either side of him. He was on his way to yet another town for his search of a cure. Since he was done with yet another “world-saving” mission with Lina and her antics, he found that he could get back on to his main goal; his cure.
God, that was a crazy run-about; that last thing he did with Lina. Going up against Dynast? Yeah; that was a tangled problem. Especially the new people he had met. Zephyre Ravenel, and Atalya Chastity-Faye Elysia.
Zelgadis groaned aloud. How did he find these crazy people? They were JUST like the antics Lina and the group displayed whenever he was with them. Was it Fate's great plot twist that let him meet them?
Probably.
Zephyre had enmity stronger than he'd ever seen; it was no wonder she and Lina never got along. Of course, the only thing those two had in common was strong attitude. Zephyre was usually the calm, cynical one. And it contrasted sharply to Lina's domineering side. But, it seemed to be their friendship; being able to fight with each other. Like it was always a competition of wits with them.
Atalya, was basically a copy of Amelia, in Zelgadis' opinion. Except, she seemed to be more childish than Amelia ever was. Atalya was over-zealous about women's rights, and whenever she talked, you could bet bias junk would come out of her mouth. And by Fate's cruel hand, she simply adored Lina. She was the epitome of how a woman should be in Atalya's eye; strong, and stood up for what was right, and what she believed in. However, Zephyre NEVER liked the fact that Atalya idolized her so much; she was protective of Atalya to a tee, and she was always afraid that Lina would let her down.
And of course, there was the new monster in town; Ertai Grausherra. Yes, he DID work for Dynast. He was Dynast's priest and general, but he was a lot younger than Xellos. It was rumored that Dynast and Zellas had recently formed some kind of pact. When Gaav was going around, flagrantly showing that he was a traitor, the two formed an alliance or sorts. Especially after Dynast's priest and general got extremely restless in the North Pole with him, doing nothing, and decided to go out on their own. When Dynast found out, he killed them; they had disobeyed his orders of staying out of the human lands, and he didn't want them to pull a Gaav over on him...
And no one knew how Ertai showed up, but he was extremely loyal to Dynast; it was amazing. Of course, it was very peculiar to many higher up monsters. No monster EVER showed that much loyalty to his master; it wasn't a monster trait. Xellos may be loyal too, but it was suspicious to anyone who heard of it.
Anyway, Ertai was your basic monster: sneaky, sado-masochistic, and deceitful. He was much different from Xellos, though. Ertai was overly zealous for no apparent reason for many sorts of things, but he could also be very dignified. It was probably a trait Dynast had made sure to put into him.
Zelgadis had met all of thes people on his last adventure with Lina and the others. He first met Atalya, who was begging him to save her life from these less-than-worthy bandits. Then, shortly after, he ran into Zephyre, who was looking for her. Later, they met up with Lina and the others.
After several days of madness, which Zelgadis did NOT want to reminice on, they finally came onto some leads of monster attacks, Filia, and inklings of Dynast being behind the whole thing. It turned out that they were after Atalya because she was actually a “tool” to be used to gain something called the “Grand Trine” Power. They never found ANY information on it, but of course, they couldn't let Dynast get his hands on it.
The big shocker was when Dynast was attempting to use Atalya to get hold of the power. She ended up inverting her body (the “tool”) so that it impolded and killed her; it was to make sure that Dynast wouldn't get hold of what he wanted. Somehow, in her semi-conscious state, she could tell that Zelgadis and the rest of them couldn't dent Dynast's forces. Zephyre had taken the hardest hit on Atalya's death; that he knew for sure.
And now that Zelgadis had reminiced on the happenings of last year, he couldn't see why he left. Maybe, he wanted to get away from such a sad ending? The group never suffered such loses before in their other adventures...
Almost begrudgingly, Zelgadis moved on down the road, his head held a little more lower than what he usually did.
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Ashi: Okay! Now that THAT is done! You guys will have no prob with the rest of the story! I hope this part didn't come off as too boring for you all!
