"Come on, Zel! I'm your friend! You can trust me," she prodded.
Zelgadis squeezed his eyes shut, and shook his head. "It's not that simple. I..." he said nervously. He took a deep breath and began again... "Yume is a wonderful place, and I know that. I also know that if anywhere has a cure, Yume would have it. That occurred to me soon after I was transformed into a chimera, so I traveled to Yume in search of the cure they probably have." He shut his mouth and curled his hands into tight fists as the memories flooded back.
"But...?" Lina prompted.
Zelgadis glanced at her, then at the his feet on the floor. Choosing his words carefully, he said, "I went straight to the castle where the royal family resided, hoping to get into the library." He ground out between clenched teeth, eyes burning, "But...the guards took one look at me, and declared me a monster who was trying to kill the royal family. I was forced to fight them. The royal family came out when they heard the commotion we were making, and joined in the hunt, for that was what it had become. I'd only been a chimera for a short while, and hadn't learned any spells yet. Plus, I didn't know what many of the special properties of my body could do. It didn't help that the royalty were masters at sorcery. They had me beaten and broken, lying up against a wall waiting for death, much too soon." Here his lips turned up in a cynical, half-disbelieving smile, and he stated, "The only reason I'm not dead today is because Rezo suddenly appeared and saved me." He shook his head. "After that, I agreed to work for him."
Lina sighed and rubbed the back of her head. "That's a pretty awful experience..." she said lamely, not sure what to say after that revealing speech.
He nodded, and said grimly, "I never want to go back to Yume." At this, Lina frowned and hit him on the back of the head with a convenient book. He grimaced and glared at her. "What was that for?!" he demanded.
"For being an idiot!" she snorted.
Blinking at this unexpected pronouncement, Zelgadis asked, "What are you talking about?"
"You're much more powerful than you were before, and now you know how to use your body! Plus, if we went to Yume, you'd have me on your side! If they tried that again, I'd Dragon Slave them!" she declared heatedly. "There's no reason to avoid Yume!"
"..." Zelgadis said wittily.
Then she pointed at him and said, "Even if you stay here, I'm going! I refuse to stay in this dull palace any longer than I have to, and Yume will be a good diversion!"
He winced noticeably at her pronouncement. "Damn," he muttered.
"So, are you going?"
He nodded. "Yeah." Inwardly, he thought, I can't let her enter Yume on her own...
She smiled and winked. "Don't worry, Zel. I'll be on your side, remember?"
Finally, he gave a tentative smile. "I know."
Lina yawned and stretched her arms above her head. She didn't notice how it pushed her breasts up, or Zelgadis's blush and hastily averted eyes. "Let's get some sleep! I'll see you in the morning, okay?"
"Okay," he agreed, eyes still averted, the blush slowly dying down.
"Good! Now get out of here!" Lina ordered him with a wave of her hand toward the door.
Zelgadis got up, and headed over to the door, where he paused, and looked back at her. "Lina...you do look pretty in that dress, you know..."
To his amusement, she blushed slightly as he quietly walked out and closed the door behind him. Lina stared after him long after he was in his own bedroom, thinking about her blush and his confession.
Boom.
Lina woke up with a small start, and glared at her surroundings with sleepy, confused eyes. What had just woken her up?
Boom. Crack.
She grimaced, and hid her head underneath her pillows. No! She'd only been asleep for two hours! It wasn't time to get up and deal with something going boom. She refused to deal with it till the morning!
Boom. Rattle. Shake.
"Grr...shut up!" she growled irritably in the general vicinity of the noise. It didn't stop.
Knock, knock.
Lina transferred her glare to her bedroom door. Who had the audacity to knock right now?
Knock, knock.
"Alright, I'm coming!" she called to the door, hoping the person behind it heard her. She pushed off her covers and swung her feet onto the floor.
Knock, knock.
"I said I'm coming!" she shouted angrily, and hurried to the door. It swung open to reveal a fully dressed Zelgadis, looking worriedly at her.
Boom. Shake. Crack.
Lina gave a gasp of surprise as the floor under her feet trembled, and fell forwards slightly, right into Zelgadis's arms. She winced and pushed herself out of his arms as soon as the shaking stopped. "What's going on?!" Lina demanded as she gestured to the world in general. "I want to get back to sleep!"
Zelgadis stalked into her room before she got a good look at his beat-red face, and opened her closet. "We're leaving."
"Wh-what?!" she stammered, mystified.
"Aristos escaped from his cell and is trying to find us. He's blowing up parts of the palace till he manages to kill us or he finds us," Zelgadis explained grimly as he tossed her clothes at her. He stopped and braced himself, and Lina did the same.
Boom. Scream.
"And how do you know this?" Lina asked. "Turn around."
Zelgadis hastily complied as she reached for the ends of her shirt. "I saw him running around."
Lina paused for a second. "Why are you leaving, then? We can beat him easily enough."
"He called in another weapon..."
"Which is?"
Boom. Rattle.
They'd gotten used to the occasional shakes, and easily continued their conversation. "His pet slug," Zelgadis sighed, shaking his head. "The little sucker is almost two stories tall, and incredibly strong."
"...A...slug..."
"Uh-huh. I tried to fry him, but he's got a powerful shield around him protecting him from such attacks," Zelgadis grimaced.
"...A...slug..."
Zelgadis said crossly, "You already noted that. I was hoping we could get out of the city before Aristos notices us. Amelia and her father have a better chance of dealing with the slug than us, because it looks like only physical attacks will work on it, and they're good at using physical force."
"...A...slug..." was all she said in response.
"Lina?" he asked worriedly. "Lina, are you feeling fine?"
"...A...slug..."
Boom. Shake. Scream.
This time he heard the fear in her voice. Why was she afraid of a slug? She should have been laughing her head off in disbelief, if anything. "Lina?" Cautiously, he turned around.
She was still only half dressed. All she had on was her usual tunic and her panties. Normally, he would have blushed twenty shades of red, but the fear in her voice banished the red demon from his cheeks for the moment. Lina was standing stock still, her knees trembling in terror, her ruby red eyes wide, and her mouth slack.
"...A...slug..." she repeated for the fifth time.
With a heavy curse directed at Aristos for picking such a pet, Zelgadis grabbed Lina's arm and shook her. "Lina, snap out of it! I told you; we're not going to fight it! We're leaving it for Amelia and Phil!"
To his surprise, she didn't fireball him for getting so close; instead, she grabbed hold of his waist and buried her head in his shirt, whimpering. "Noslugpleasedon'tletthesluggettomeIhateslugsIhateslugs..." She took a breath, and continued. "Ihateslugswhere'ssomesaltpleasedon'tleavemeZel..."
He couldn't catch anything in that except a few words. "I hate slugs" and "Don't leave me Zel" were about all he understood, but it was enough. He hugged her awkwardly and patted her on the head. "We're partners, remember?" he chided softly, raising her chin to meet his warm, comforting sapphire gaze. "I'll protect you."
Lina stared up at him wonderingly, and finally nodded. Her panic ebbed all at once as she realized that, even if they did have to deal with the slug, he wouldn't abandon her. Zelgadis extracted himself from her embrace as he felt the belated blush creep upon his cheeks at last, and turned away again as it hit him he had been hugging Lina Inverse, who was wearing nothing but her shirt and panties. "You'd better get dressed," he muttered gruffly. A second later he heard the unmistakable sound of clothes rustling.
It didn't take long for her to get dressed and pack her things. Soon, all her important things were being carried inside her cloak, and they were escaping out of the palace as more booms rocked Seyruun palace...