Lina panted and fell to her knees on the side of the dirt road. Her breathing was uneven, ragged, and obviously strained, with her chest heaving and her eyes tightly shut. Zelgadis, on the other hand, merely stood above her, not panting in the slightest, and acting as if they hadn't just run out of the city without a single break at her top speed.
She raised her head slightly and glared at him. "The least you could do is pretend to be winded from that run. I may walk everywhere, and be in great shape, but even that stretches my abilities. Running at my top speed for so long takes a lot out of me."
He shrugged. "You were the one who wanted to get away from the slug."
Lina winced at the dreaded word, and shook her head. "I didn't want to take the chance of the slug finding us."
Zelgadis didn't even suggest the possibility of using flying spells like Ray Wing and Levitation. He knew from experience that such modes of transportation drew attention, which was the last thing Lina wanted. He shrugged. "So don't complain."
She glared up at him from her vantage point.
He held out a hand to help her up, and said, "Come on. We were going to Yume, right?"
She sighed, and let him help her up. "Right." With a flourish, she produced the map, which she'd ripped out of the book earlier despite Amelia's protests, and studied it for a few minutes before pointing down a lonely looking road leading off down a great distance. "I think we go that way..."
Zelgadis shook his head minutely. This was going to be a long trip...
Aristos glared at the palace in general. Zelgadis and Lina weren't there. When he'd found both their rooms, they'd been empty of belongings. It was obvious they'd cleared out awhile ago, and had no intention of coming back. He frowned and looked toward the outside of the city. Smirking, he wondered if they'd left because of his little pet.
He looked back up at the large slug by his side, and grinned, eyes blazing. "Looks like were going to have to go after them, eh Schnookums?" The slug winced mentally at the name, and burbled in response. "I have to get my revenge, after all."
He returned his gaze to the road just beyond the city when Prince Phil and Princess Amelia came around the corner, shouting for him to stop. He gulped and leaped into the saddle on his slug's back. "Time to go!" he announced grandly, pointing towards the gates of the city. "Onward, towards a great life of revenge, disaster, and pointless mayhem!" Aristos laughed maniacally.
If slugs could sweatdrop, it would have. It settled for a burbling sigh instead.
Aristos dug his heels into the slug's goey softness and pointed down a narrow street near them, which the slug couldn't possibly go down without knocking over all the buildings on the side. "Come on! It's the fastest way out of the city!"
Actually, the fastest way out of the city was through a nearby, wider street which would easily fit the slug's bulk, as Schnookums knew all too well, and so did Aristos, for that matter. His master simply wanted to create a little more mayhem before he left the city. But, who was he to refuse?
Schnookums slid forward at a surprisingly fast pace. He could, when pressed, go twice as fast as the average horse, and his normal walking pace was a horse's gallop. So soon enough, they had cleared through the buildings and were outside of what used to be the city gates. People, who'd hastily gotten out of their path, stared wide-eyed at the destruction they'd left in their wake as Phil, Amelia, and an army chased after the retreating figures of Aristos and Schnookums.
Lina yawned tiredly, and stretched her hands above her head. She turned slightly to her left and looked over at Zelgadis. The man seemed determined to walk all night, and she had no intention of doing that, no matter how much she wanted to get to Yume. "Zel, let's stop for the night," she requested, mentally ready to dig in her heels if he resisted.
To her surprise, he nodded readily enough and pointed toward a nearby forest. "I was just about to suggest it. There's a clearing in those trees that should serve as a good camp for the night."
She yawned again and nodded, relieved he hadn't resisted the idea of sleeping. "Good!" she sighed.
They walked into the dense foliage, and were quickly surrounded on all sides by dense, stifling leaves. She sputtered as she tried to work her way through. Zelgadis grabbed her hand and lead her forward. "This way," he said softly.
For once, she was quite willing to let him lead. Lina was too tired to argue, and it seemed rather pointless at the moment. He knew where he was going, so therefore, he should find the way to the campsite.
They stumbled forward a few about a hundred feet, when suddenly Lina broke through the leaves into a lovely clearing. Moonlight bathed the thick, plush moss and short, carpeting grass with an eerie, silvery glow, and the surrounding trees and leaves winked whitely at her, as if they were apologizing for a practical joke. The clearing itself was big enough that it could easily fit both Zelgadis and Lina were they lying down toe to toe. It was almost perfectly round, and for some reason, the leaves didn't push past a certain point. In fact, she would swear they were doing all they could avoid to going past that certain point. She shook her head to clear it of the strange thought, and gazed upwards. She gasped. The trees seemed incredibly huge, yet there was an almost perfect circle just above her where the trees hadn't encroached any further. In the sky, stars twinkled brightly at her.
"What...is this place?" she asked with wonder.
Zelgadis shrugged. "I found it on one of my travels."
"How?"
"...I just did..." he answered uneasily.
"Yeah right," she snorted in disbelief. "But I'll ask later. Right now, I want to get to sleep." With that, she sat on the ground, pulled out a thin blanket, and snuggled onto the clearing's natural carpet. "Goodnight."
He sighed, and resisted the urge to smile in relief. "Goodnight, Lina."