The Child


Notes

I have no idea how the dragons in Slayers age. All I know is that Filia is around 400-500 years, and Val is around Xeros' age, but a little younger than our favorite Trickster Priest. So instead of doing the math, which I'm really bad at, I put in the ages that they appear to be. The final part of this fic takes place in, I think, episode 14 of TRY. Hope you like it.


Valgarv hated life - but then, what else was new? He found himself now cursing the new life that he had once embraced, the new chance that Lord Garv had given him to continue living as a half breed; half dragon, half demon. The only true thing that kept him going was the thought of revenge. Revenge on the Golds who had obliterated his kind out of fear.

Val snarled as he gazed down on the Fire Dragon King's Sanctuary from his post on one of the many hillocks that dotted this wasteland of nothing but sand. At that moment, more than anything, he wanted to destroy that building, raze it to the ground, and massacre all the Golds that took shelter in its twisting hallways. Val's face twisted into a visage of hate and anger, because he knew he wasn't powerful enough yet to be able to fulfill his wishes. Garv had told him that it would take several years before he could fully master the vast store of power that hovered near his fingertips with any type of skill. It would take even longer to reach the skill level that the Beast Master's general/priest, Xeros, had already reached.

Val took one last look at the Sanctuary, cursing his life and his fate, before turning away to leave. Just as he was about to teleport away, a faint sound reached his ears. It sounded like a child crying. Though Val told himself it was none of his business, curiosity got the best of him, and he went in search of the source of the sound. A little way further down the hill, he came across a small, blond child who looked to be no older than six and was curled up in an abject ball of misery, crying her eyes out. Val narrowed his eyes when he saw the long, golden tail that stuck out from underneath the girl's pink dress.

Val snorted, and turned to walk away when a small voice full of misery asked, "P-please sir, could you help me?"

Val turned back around to find himself staring into a pair of large, blue eyes that shone with the tears that trickled down the girl's cheeks. Something cold inside of him moved, and without knowing why, he found himself kneeling beside her, offering a scrap of cloth to be used to clean her face. She blinked at him then took it, scrubbing her face before blowing her nose.

"What are you doing up here?" Val asked gruffly.

"I was practicing a teleportation spell to get from my room to the kitchen, and I wound up out here instead," the little girl answered, her eyes tearing up once again. "Can you help me get home?"

Val stood up and glanced down at the Sanctuary. He should just kill this Gold Child and be done with it. After all, the Golds showed no mercy when they destroyed his kind, not even to the unborn hatchlings who had never tasted the joys of having the wind blow over their wings. He looked down at the little dragon girl, and again found himself gazing into her deep blue eyes...eyes that were filled with trust. It was that trust that did him in.

"I can't take you down there, if that's what you're asking," Val said.

"Why not?" the little girl asked with a child's innocence.

"I wouldn't be very ... welcome in your home," Val explained.

"Why not?"

"Just...trust me on this, ok?"

"Ok! So how are you going to get me home?" the little girl asked.

"I'm going to help you with your teleportation spell," Val answered.

"Really? You can do that? Thanks!! Oh, my name is Filia, what's yours?"

"Valg .... . uh, Val. My name is Val," Val answered.

Filia's eyes shone with excitement as she reached up and began to tug on Val's hand. "How are you going to teach me, huh, Mr. Val?" she asked.

"For starters, I think you should tell me how you were taught to teleport," Val answered, even though he knew she hadn't been.

Filia shuffled her feet, then admitted in a small voice, confirming Val's suspicions, "I wasn't. I just wanted to try it, so I visualized the kitchen. Didn't really work right."

"You can definitely say that again! You have the idea, but when you visualized, did you visualize the whole kitchen or just parts of it?"

"Just the wall behind the stove. It's the easiest one to see," Filia answered.

"Ahhh. That's how you wound up here. I bet that wall is made of the same stone as this. Am I right?" Val asked. Filia nodded.

"That's why you wound up out here. When you visualize, you have to visualize the whole room that you want to go to, not just a single part of that room," Val explained.

"So, when I visualized the wall, the spell thought I meant that I wanted to come out here because this whole place looks like that one wall?" Filia asked.

"That's right. Now, we're going to start your lesson with short teleportations to different areas out here, just so you'll get the hang of visualizing. I want you to concentrate on that stand of brush by that large boulder over there, and try to teleport. Do what you did before, only this time visualize the whole area, ok?"

"Ok!" Filia said. She took a long look at the area that she was aiming for, closed her eyes, and clasped her hands in front of her. A golden light engulfed her, and she vanished, to reappear in the area that Val had pointed out. "I did it!" she cried.

"Very good. Now teleport back here," Val instructed. Filia repeated what she had done before, and was soon standing next to Val, her eyes shining with excitement. This continued for several minutes, with Val pointing to different locations, each one farther away than before. Filia missed a couple of times, but each time Val would ask her what she had forgotten to visualize, and the second time around Filia would arrive there perfectly.

"You're a very fast learner," Val smiled down at the small child who was almost dancing in excitement. "It's time for you to return home."

"But I'm having fun out here! I like you, Mr. Val!" Filia cried, latching onto one of Val's legs.

"Now, now. Your parents are probably wondering where you are," Val replied, but thought, "I could always keep her. Why do I have to send this child back to my enemies, even though she's an enemy by blood? I'm so lonely, and a child would liven up Garv's castle some. I could teach her the ways of my kind and bring her up like my own."

Before Val could act on his thoughts, Filia pulled away from him, with large, fat tears rolling down her cheeks. "You're right, Mr. Val. I just got a message from Mommy wondering where I am. I have to go." Her face brightened. "But I'll come back to see you!"

Val smiled sadly. He knew that the Golds never taught their children spells of any kind until they were around ten years of age, and any child that learned a spell before then would have their memory erased of how, where, and when they performed that spell. This helped to insure that there were no accidents among the children that could endanger themselves and the Gold community as a whole.

"I'll look forward to it," Val replied, as Filia gave him a hug, stepped back, and vanished.

Several days later, he learned through some of the spies that Lord Garv had placed throughout the Sanctuary that Filia's memory had, indeed, been erased. Val was alone again, with the memory of large, trusting blue eyes to remind him of that fact.


"I never thought I would see you again, Filia," Val thought to himself as the Dragon Child, now a Dragon Maiden, introduced herself and tried to pass judgement on him for the crimes he had committed against the safety of the world. As her magic rolled off him as water rolls off a duck's back, Val couldn't help but study the woman he had once known as a child. The beauty that had been hinted at when she was a child of six had blossomed fully, just as he had thought it would. But those eyes, once so trusting of him, were filled with suspicion and a little bit of fear as she watched her magic fall away without a scratch.

"Go home, lady," Val said cooly, and turned his attention back to the task at hand - summoning Dark Star to come and destroy the world.


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