Lina leaned back her chair lazily, patting her stomach, her hunger finally saited. Gourry, Amelia and Xelloss soon did the same, contented smiles on their faces. The Mazoku put his feet up on the table and yawned. "I must say, it's been a while since I've eaten an actual meal. I'd forgotten how good human food tasted."
"See, Mr. Xelloss! You could easily live on this diet! There's no need for you to feed off negative emotions!"
Lina waved her hand and cut Amelia off. "Come on, Amelia. Don't wreck the afterglow of the meal with preaching. You can do that later."
Seemingly reluctant, Amelia settled back down in her chair, though rather pleased that she wouldn't have to perch for a speech. She was far too full for that kind of activity.
Lina stretched and cracked her back. "Ah, this is the life. Just eat a huge meal, then curl up in the sun and sleep."
"You'll get fat if you do that Lina..."
Lina lifted a hand to hit Gourry, but let it fall back. "I'll smack you later. Hey, Zel, d'you like the meal?"
"They had very nice tea."
Xelloss cracked an eye open and peered lazily at the chimera. "Tea? You drink coffee. When did you switch?"
Zel tapped his fingers antsily against the table. "A couple days ago. It's not good for you."
Gourry nodded. "Probably a smart idea. Coffee stunts your growth."
Amelia gawcked at the now smoking Gourry. "Mr. Zelgadis... I don't think he meant to insult you... you didn't have to do that..."
"Shut up, Amelia! Just stop bossing me around!"
The group stared, shocked, as Zelgadis stormed out of the quiet restaurant, swearing. "What the hell was all that about?!"
Amelia shook her head at Lina. "I don't know. But he's been getting crankier and crankier..."
"Mating season?"
Everyone turned to Gourry, and Xelloss shook his head. "No, no, Mr. Gourry. Chimeras don't have mating season. Mazoku do..." A dark grin passed his lips, but disapeared after the shocked looks. "But that's another story..."
Lina shrugged. "Ah, you know Zel. He's just being a big baby. He'll get over it, come back in here, be all indignant, and then all sincere and blushing he'll gruffly apologise, and that'll be that until next week."
Amelia stared out the dorr. "Still... he's just more... irratible... then usual."
"Don't worry about it. And now.. waiter! We're ready for desert!"
The fire flickered and red figures danced on the walls, shadows being tossed about with the smoke. The five sat around it, warming themselves. "It's cold! This is all your fault. Gourry! Why'd you lose the money?! We could be in a nice warm inn!"
"What?! How come you're blaming me? If you hadn't fireballed me, I wouldn't have dropped it, Lina!"
"That wasn't very nice, Miss Lina!"
"Well, I wouldn't fireballed him if he hadn't called me flat-chested!"
"Oh. Mr. Gourry! That was rude!"
"She does have a point, Mr. Gourry."
"Stay out of this Xelloss!
Silence filled the camp-site, broken only by a chattering of teeth.
Lina's gaze drifted over her companions until it reached Zelgadis, who was sitting away from the others, huddled near the fire. His body was shaking and he was bundled up in his cloak. "Zel? Hey, are you allright?"
Zelgadis looked up, a tired look on his face. "I'm f-fine... Just a little c-c-cold..."
Xelloss clucked his tongue. "My, my, isn't that unusual. And here I was under the impression that you couldn't feel cold through that stone skin of yours... At least not very easily."
"Well, you were wrong, allright! Just lay off!"
Amelia walked over and put her hand on Zelgadis' forhead. "Maybe you're sick... you're voice sounds really raspy... do you have a sore throat?"
Zelgadis shoved away Amelia's hand roughly, and buried himself deeper into his cloak. "What's with the third degree? Don't you guys have your own lives to deal with? Why do you keep bothering me?!"
Amelia pulled herself off the ground and brushed a tear away. "I was just trying to help!"
"Well, go help someone else! I don't want or need your help!"
Amelia shuddered, breathed in deeply trying to calm herself, but failed and ran off into the woods crying.
Lina, Gourry and Xelloss stood wide-eyed for a moment before Lina turned on Zelgadis' and hit him on the head. "You jerk! How could you do that? You go find her and apologise right now!"
"No! Just leave me alone! I don't have to listen to you!"
Lina trembled with anger before glaring at him, her ruby-eyes aflame. "Fine Zel, but if you don't want to listen to me, you can't travel with me. You're on your own! Get out of my camp site!"
"Fine! I'm glad you won't be following me around and bothering me anymore!" With that, Zelgadis turned and stumbled away from the camp site.
Lina slumped down onto fallen log and shook her head. "Something's wrong. Zel can be a real jerk and a real whiner at times, but he's never been this bad."
Amelia sat down beside Lina and brushed the rest off her face. Gourry set about absenty picking the forest foliage out of her hair. "I hate him... He's so mean. And injust and... not himself. Maybe he's possessed!"
Lina frowned. "We would have sensed that, and a curse too. No, this is just Zel, plain and simple. And I'm gonna find out what's wrong! Lina Inverse will solve this mystery, or she isn't the greatest sorceress alive!"
The mood was too dark for anyone to notice the fire-work display that accompanied this speech.
They found him the next morning sprawled out in a small clearing. Despite the blankets over-top of him and the blazing fire beside him, he still shivered. A sick smell that no one could place wafted around his camp-site. Lina absently kicked him in the face. "Get up, Zelly. We're heading out and you're coming with us."
Zelgadis weakly rolled over to look at her. "You kicked me out... I don't have to go with you.."
"Yeah, well, I lied. See, you're up to something, and I'm gonna find out what. So, up and at 'em lazy, breakfast is being served."
"I'm not hungry."
Lina shrugged. "Whatever. Just get up, or I'll force you out of bed. There's a bandit camp nearby, and I want to hit it before noon."
Zelgadis moaned again, and forced himself to from underneath his blankets. Trembling and wrapped tightly in his cloak he weakly lurched to where the others were eating. His fingers shaking he took the mug of hot water that Amelia coldly proffered to him. He tossed aside the tea bag and just sipped feebly on the water, his cracked lips groping the sides of the cup. He whimpered softly as the hot water burned the sores beside his mouth. Then his bruised fingers seemed to give up and he dropped the cup in clatter. Lina absorbed every detail of this scene with fascination. She prayed what she thought was wrong wasn't real...
"Okay, here's the plan..." Lina whsipered, hiding behind the large tree. "We bust in through the front door. They won't be expecting the obvious entrance. While they're caught up in the confusion of the explosion, Zel and Gourry will rush in and cut down the bandits to provide cover for me and Amelia. Xelloss, you'll take our back while we go looking for the treasure. It's rumored they have a magical amulet, so this is big time!" She waited for everyone to nod, and then began the countdown. "Five... four... three... two... one... KABOOM!!!"
Zelgadis and Gourry rushed into the blast, Amelia and Lina following and Xelloss running in from behind. Everything went according to plan until Zelgadis was surrounded by bandits. Amelia watched with horror as he lifted his sword to cut-through a villian and then he stumbled and fell to his knees. His body seemed lost in the sea of people and she ran desperatley to help him. "Lina! We've gotta help Zel!"
Lina swore and grabbed Gourry by the collar, levitating away. "Grab Zel and let's get out of here!"
Lina watched Zel intently as he lay unconcious. She had insisted that she speak to him alone, and had since been sitting beside him in the inn room for almost an hour. Her labours paid off as his eyes slowly began to open. "Good morning, Zelgadis. So tell me, why are you starving yourself?"
Zelgadis' head swam and he tried to say something, but each time his words turned to nonsense.
"Come on, Zel. You've shown all the signs of anorexia. You don't eat, you're irratible, you're cold all the time, weak, sore throat and bruised fingers from sticking your fingers down your throat to puke, and now fainting... There's no denying it. Now tell me why you're making yourself starve. How long have you been doing this?"
Zelgadis gave up, too weak to argue. "On and off since before I met you."
"Why, Zel? You're, like, too skinny as it is!"
"Because I think I'm fat, I guess."
"Bullshit."
Zelgadis looked up in shock. "What do you mean?"
"I mean bullshit. I know you hate the way you look Zel, but you've got too much sense in your head to actually believe that you're fat. Besides, if you did, you're intellignet enough to know that starving yourself actually makes you fatter by screwing your metabolism. Now tell me why you're really doing it."
Zelgadis hung his head and sat silent for a few minutes, hoping Lina would give up. When it became apparent she would not, he looked up. "Fine. It makes me feel good about myself."
"How so?"
"I don't know! It just does!" He threw a pillow at her and lay silent for a few more moments. "Becuase... it gives a sense of power. I don't have any power, Lina. Not like you guys do. Look at you, your spells decide the fate of the world! You lead this group! Amelia practically leads her country. One word from her and her people will fall all over themslves to comply. Xelloss? Come on. He exudes power. He lords over other Mazoku, which lord over humans! Hell, Gourry's got even more power then me. He's got his freedom, he's got a choice as to where he wants to go... What have I got?" He shifted positions uncomfortably. "But me... I'm powerless. I'm a decent sorcerer, a not bad swords-man, big deal. I follow you around like a little lost puppy. I'm pathetic and weak. I followed my worst enemy around for years. I let Xelloss feed off of me because I'm to powerless to control my own emotions. People don't listen to me the way they listen to Amelia. My speeches just make pretty girls cry. And Gourry's freedom to do what he wants.. I don't have that! I'm constantly having to search for my cure! You think I don't know it's an obession?!"
Lina lifted her coffee to her lips, waiting for him to continue, ignoring the tears streaing down his face.
"But... when I don't eat... It makes me feel strong and in control. I can control my weight... It's a wonderful power. And when I make myself throw up... it's strength. Kind of how I used to practice to much with my sword when I was little. My mom always said I practiced exsessivley. It made me feel strong." Zelgadis hung his head. "Pathetic, huh?"
"Yep."
Zelgadis gaped at her cold tone and expressionless face. "Aren't you going to even say anything? Yell at me? Say 'poor Zelgadis, you don't have to do that'? Hit me?"
Lina shook her head. "Nope. This is you problem Zel. I can't solve it for you. What good would that do? I would have done it for you. It would just prove that you don't have the power the make yourself better, to control yourself." With that, she stood and left the room.
Meakly Zelgadis' fingers explored the top of the nightstand and he pulled a packet of crackers she had left behind down off of it. "I will have the power to be better. I am strong enough!" Painfully he unwrapped the plastic and chewed labourously on the salted biscuts.
The rain drizzled over the shiny black grave stone, and four people in traveller's clothes gazed out at the writing etched into it, the name 'Zelgadis Greywers' shining brightly through the rain.
Amelia shook her head in disbelief, and wiped her tears away. "I can't belive he starved himself to death... He was getting so much better, I thought! He was eating his dinner and, and..." She buried her head against Gourry's arm and he patted her hair.
Lina looked out coldly at the grave and hid her bruised fingers in her glove. After the next meal she wouldn't make herself throw up, she wouldn't. She wouldn't be dead like Zelgadis. After the next meal she would start taking control... or maybe the one after that...