Lina slowly opened up her eyes, as the first rays of morning hit the bedroom. Her lover was sound asleep and she wasn't going to disturb him. They had made love the night before and it exhausted the both of them to unimaginable limits. Lina shivered slightly at the remembrance of the previous night. She didn't regret one bit of it and she hoped that Zelgadis wouldn't either.
Lina finally got out of bed and got dressed. Once she was dressed she went downstairs for breakfast.
Lina walked into the kitchen and found Sylphiel already there, cooking.
"Ohayo, Sylphiel!" she greeted her cheerfully.
Sylphiel turned around and smiled at Lina. "Ohayo, Lina-san! Did you sleep well?"
"I didn't sleep at all last night, but it was a wonderful night," Lina said with an insinuating grin, which made Sylphiel blush slightly.
Disregarding the subject, Sylphiel asked, "Will the five of you be off today?"
Lina nodded and said, "We'd better leave as soon as possible. I would love to find out who burnt down Zephilia."
Sylphiel's eyes widened. "Zephilia was burnt down? That's awful, Lina-san!"
Lina snorted. "Tell me about it. My parents are dead because of the explosion."
"I feel very sorry for you, Lina-san. I know how you feel," said Sylphiel.
"I know you do. It was very hard for me when I saw what had happened and it still is. I'm just trying to be strong for my own sake and for the sake of my nee-chan," said Lina.
"Lina-san, I know it's not much, but...I was wondering if you would like the workers from this city help out with the rebuilding of Zephilia," Sylphiel suggested timidly.
Lina's eyes lit up. "That would be great! Send them over there as soon as they're done in this city!"
Sylphiel giggled softly at Lina's happy reaction. Well...at least she's not moping around.
"I'm amazed that Amelia and Val aren't up yet. Amelia is a very early riser," Lina noted.
"Maybe she was just very tired. It can happen," Sylphiel pointed out.
Lina shrugged. "Sure it does."
"Another question, Lina-san," said Sylphiel.
"Ask away," she replied.
"May Gourry-sama and I accompany you on this journey?" she asked.
Lina raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you sure? It could get dangerous."
"I really want to help. I know that I can," Sylphiel said in a determined voice.
Lina sighed. "Well, since your mind is obviously made up, I can't refuse you. Now can I?"
Sylphiel smiled happily at her. "Arigato gozaimasu, Lina-san!"
Lina waved a hand at her. "Yeah, yeah. Just don't make a habit of it and make sure that Gourry understands what's going on because I don't wanna have to repeat myself time and time again."
Sylphiel nodded. "Hai."
At that moment, Amelia and Valteira walked into the kitchen. They noticed that Sylphiel was cooking breakfast and that Lina was already there.
"Ohayo, Lina-san," Amelia said with a yawn.
"Oi, Amelia! You look really tired. How late did you stay up last night?" asked Lina.
"I just had a really bad dream and I ended up staying awake for more than half the night. Valteira-san had to calm me down. I didn't get more than two hours of sleep," Amelia explained.
"A bad dream, huh? What kind of 'bad' dream was it?" Lina asked suspiciously.
"It was more like an omen than a nightmare, but it was horrible! I saw you, Zelgadis-san, Xellos-san and Filia-san dead in it!" Amelia exclaimed.
"You saw only the four of us dead and no one else?" Lina asked.
"Hai," said Amelia.
"What else can you remember?" she pressed on.
"Well...Valteira-san, Gourry-san, Sylphiel-san and I were up against a dark lord. A young dark lord. The youngest one, actually," said Amelia.
"You were up against Deep Sea Dolphin?" Lina asked incredulously.
Amelia shook her head. "Iie. It wasn't her. It was some newer dark lord. A sixth one, to be more precise."
Lina furrowed her brow. "A new dark lord, huh? Something tells me that this dream of yours wasn't just a coincidence, but a message to me."
"I don't remember anything other than that, Lina-san," said Amelia.
"I see. It's not much to go on, but I have a feeling that the incident at Zephilia and the events of your dream are somehow connected," Lina deducted.
"It's quite possible," Amelia agreed.
"Before I forget, Sylphiel and Gourry will be coming with us on the rest of our journey," said Lina.
Amelia looked confused. "Why?"
"Because Sylphiel wants to come with us and there's also the fact that we might need a priestess that specializes in high level white magic," said Lina.
"I see," said Amelia.
Valteira looked at the two conversing and then over at Sylphiel, who was still cooking. He felt rather out of place, so he left the kitchen and sat down on a chair in the family room. He then heard footsteps from upstairs and as he looked towards them, he saw Lina's sister Luna descending the stairs.
"Ohayo, Valteira-san," Luna greeted, once she was downstairs.
"Ohayo," he replied.
"What are you doing sitting out here?" she asked.
"I was feeling kinda left out, so I went out here," he explained.
"Everyone's in the kitchen I gather," said Luna as she looked towards the kitchen door.
"Hai. Lina-san and Amelia-san were talking about omens and Sylphiel-san is cooking," he said.
"Hmm...omens did you say? I'd better go see what this is all about, then," she said as she went into the kitchen herself.
"Lina-chan?" said Luna, once she was in the kitchen.
Lina turned around and gave her sister a cheesy smile. "Ohayo, nee-chan!"
"Valteira-san told me that you and Amelia-san were talking about omens. Why would that be?" she asked.
Lina sighed. "You see, Amelia had a bad dream last night and when she told me about it, it sounded like the events in the dream that she had could be related to the incident that occurred at Zephilia."
Luna looked pensive. "Hmm...what exactly happened in this dream of hers?"
"She said that Zelgadis, Xellos, Filia and myself died and that she and everyone else had to face a dark lord," said Lina.
"A dark lord? Which one?" she asked.
Lina shrugged. "She said that it was the youngest, but that it wasn't Deep Sea Dolphin."
Luna blinked. "It wasn't?"
"Nope. She said that it was a sixth dark lord," Lina finished.
"A sixth dark lord. Interesting," Luna commented.
"Tell me about it. I also have a feeling that her dream wasn't only an omen, but a message sent to me," said Lina.
"A warning, pretty much, ne?" said Luna.
"That's exactly what I was thinking, but I'm not so sure. I need more evidence and more information on this new dark lord," said Lina.
"Well, I would say that you do," Luna agreed.
"Now that that's done with...WHERE THE HELL IS ZEL?!" she bellowed.
Everyone in the room sweat-dropped.
"Lina-san, don't get so worked up. He must be really tired," said Sylphiel.
"That's no excuse," Lina huffed.
Amelia and Sylphiel sighed as Lina kept on rambling about what she was going to do with Zelgadis once he was finally downstairs.
Zelgadis, as a matter of fact, was awake, but he was preoccupied.
"Where the hell is it?!" he asked himself, furiously.
He had looked under the bed, the chairs in the room and in his pant pockets. The last place he had to look was in the dimensional pockets in his cloak.
"It had better be in here," he muttered as he looked in his cloak.
To his own luck, it was. He grabbed it quickly and pocketed it. He had gotten up late on purpose, so that he could do this. He wanted to surprise Lina.
Lina was in the kitchen, annoyed and pacing. If looks could kill, Amelia and Sylphiel would have been dead already.
"What is taking him so long?" she muttered.
"Maybe you wore him out," Luna suggested calmly.
Lina's face turned several shades of red. "How did you know about that?"
Luna sipped the tea that Sylphiel had made for them, slowly and then said, "You, Lina-chan, are very loud."
Lina laughed weakly. "Ano...really? I didn't notice."
"I also thought that you were going to wait until you two got married, if you two ever did. Why did you change your mind?" asked Luna.
Lina blushed. "Well...Zel proposed to me last night."
"Did he? That's wonderful! My baby Lina-chan is getting married!" Luna exclaimed happily.
Sylphiel and Amelia's heads shot up once they heard and they ran over to Lina.
"Congratulations, Lina-san!" they both exclaimed in unison.
"Ano...arigato," said Lina.
"So...let us see it!" Amelia said with glowing eyes.
Lina's eyes were clouded with confusion. "See what?"
"Your engagement ring!" Sylphiel clarified.
"He...he didn't give me one," said Lina.
Sylphiel and Amelia's eyes widened. "WHAT?!"
"He just asked me out of the blue. I wasn't even expecting that much!" she exclaimed.
"Do you think that he will buy you one, though?" asked Amelia.
Lina shrugged. "Maybe."
"I'm going to go wake up Gourry-sama, since breakfast is almost ready. Amelia-san? Could you watch over the stove, while I'm gone?" asked Sylphiel.
Amelia nodded. "Hai."
As Sylphiel left the kitchen, Zelgadis entered it. He looked and saw Lina in there and once she noticed him, she glared.
"Why the hell did you sleep in? Huh? I'm in my right mind to fireball ya!" she snapped as she neared him.
"Jeez, Lina! You're one to talk! You always sleep in late!" he snapped right back at her.
"..." was Lina's witty comeback.
"And to think that I pretended to still be asleep that way I could find something that I bought especially for you as a surprise," he said, feigning anger. "Some thanks I get."
"You bought me something?" Lina asked quietly.
"Well, yeah, but now...I'm not sure if you even deserve it," he replied.
"Can you at least tell me what it was?" she asked.
"No, but I can show you," said Zelgadis as he pulled the item from his cloak.
Lina looked at the small velveteen box in his hands. "Zel...is it what I think it is?"
Zelgadis shrugged. "It depends. Why don't you open it and find out?"
Lina did just that and what was in the box took her breath away.
"Zel, it's gorgeous!" she exclaimed in awe.
"I hope it's your size," he said as he took it out of the box and slipped it on her finger.
"You're still giving it to me?" she asked, hopefully.
"I wouldn't have just done that if I didn't want you to still have it," he explained.
"Oh, Zel! It matches my necklace perfectly," she said, pointing to the ornament around her neck.
"They were a set, actually. I just separated them," he said.
"Arigato gozaimasu, Zel! I love them!" she exclaimed happily as she latched onto him and gave him a hug.
"Not more than me I hope," he said, teasingly.
"Yada. I could never love anything or anybody more than I love you, Zel," she said as she snuggled deeply into his embrace.
"Not even your own nee-chan?" Luna asked from behind her.
Lina paled. "Gah! Nee-chan! I meant that I love Zel the most in a romantic way."
"I hope that was all you meant," said Luna as she walked out of the kitchen.
Lina sighed. "Why me?"
Zelgadis shrugged in response.
"We need to get going soon. Something interesting has come up, so we'd better investigate it," said Lina.
"What would this interesting thing be?" asked Zelgadis.
"Well, it's like this..." Lina launched off into the story.
Zelgadis looked very pensive, while she told the story. So...Amelia had a nightmare. That's very unusual. Especially a nightmare like this.
"...And that's what happened. We haven't got much of a lead, but we need to journey on with what we've got," said Lina.
"If we had a name to go with this dark lord, then things would be much easier," said Zelgadis.
"But we don't. We need to figure out who this dark lord is and what he or she wants," said Lina.
"You want to bet that this new dark lord wants something from you and you alone," Zelgadis said grimly.
Lina grimaced. "I hope that this one doesn't want me to cast the Giga Slave because there ain't no way in hell that I'm doing that again!"
Zelgadis raised an eyebrow. "I wouldn't let you anyway."
Lina blushed slightly and then continued, "So, what do you make of it, Zel? I have a gut feeling that Amelia's nightmare and what happened at Zephilia are connected somehow."
"You're probably right about that, Lina. We all need to keep our guard up for the time being," said Zelgadis.
"Also, Sylphiel and Gourry wanna come with us," said Lina, while scratching the back of her neck.
"That's a good thing, then. Sylphiel is a great source of white magic and can help Amelia with healing and defense spells and we'll definitely need that kind of magic around, since we don't know how strong our opponent is," said Zelgadis.
"Or opponents. Remember, Hellmaster Phibrizo had people set up for to defeat before we had to face up with him. He also used Gourry against us!" she exclaimed.
Zelgadis winced. "Don't remind me. If you had to beat Hellmaster with the Giga Slave and along with the fact that the Giga Slave didn't even defeat Dark Star, I don't even want to think about what you'll have to do in order to defeat this one."
"As far as my knowledge goes, there is no other spell stronger than the Giga Slave, but I could be wrong," said Lina.
"Are you saying that there could be a spell even stronger?" Zelgadis asked incredulously.
"I'm saying that there's a possibility, but who's to know for sure?" said Lina with a shrug.
"Maybe Xellos-san knows something," Amelia said from behind them.
Lina turned to look at the princess and smirked. "You would think that, ne?"
"He's lived by far much longer than any of us and so has Filia-san for that matter, so..." Amelia started.
"One of them would know for sure whether there is or isn't a stronger spell," Lina finished.
"Exactly," said Amelia.
"Amelia, do you smell something?" asked Zelgadis.
Amelia turned around and noticed that the breakfast was nearly burnt. "EH?"
Amelia then rushed out of the kitchen to find Sylphiel.
Lina sighed. "I think I'm gonna need a disguise to hide myself before we leave."
"Why?" asked Zelgadis.
"Do you remember those bandits we met on the road?" asked Lina.
Zelgadis nodded. "Hai."
"Well, they said that there was a price on my head given out by the Bandit King," said Lina.
"I remember and I believe that you don't want to get caught," said Zelgadis.
"What did you think, Zel?" Lina asked infuriatingly.
"I didn't say anything. I was just wondering about what kind of disguise would suit you best," said Zelgadis.
"Hmm...a dress?" she asked.
"That would do it," said Zelgadis.
"But I don't own any," said Lina.
"Could you ask Sylphiel to lend you one?" he asked.
"Ano...Zel, her clothes wouldn't fit me," said Lina.
"Oh, right. That means that we're going to have to go shopping for one before we leave," said Zelgadis.
"And after that, we have to go to Xellos and Filia's house to see if they know anything about stronger spells," said Lina.
At that very moment, Amelia and Sylphiel ran into the kitchen.
"Thank you for getting me, Amelia-san," Sylphiel said gratefully as she turned off the stove.
"Of course," said Amelia.
"How's our breakfast doing? I'm HUNGRY!" Lina bellowed.
Amelia and Sylphiel sweat-dropped. Just then, Valteira and Luna came in, followed by a very sleepy Gourry.
"Breakfast is ready!" Sylphiel announced.
As soon as the food was put on the table, three particular people named Lina, Gourry and Amelia, tore into it. The rest of them watched the three eat with growing sweat-drops on their heads.
Once breakfast was through, everyone gathered their things and left.
As they were walking, Gourry shot Lina a questionable look.
"Ano...Lina?" he said.
Lina stopped and knew what was coming. "Hai, Gourry?"
"Just where are we going?" he asked.
Zelgadis' eyes widened. Uh oh.
Lina placed Gourry in a chokehold and began to beat the information into his head.
"KURAGE! Don't you ever listen to what people say?!" she asked, furiously.
"Ano...nope!" Gourry answered cheerfully.
Lina continued strangling him until Sylphiel intervened.
"Ano...Lina-san? Could you refrain from killing him, please?" Sylphiel asked pleadingly.
Lina sighed. "Fine, Sylphiel."
Lina let go of Gourry and he ran directly to Sylphiel's side.
"Lina-san?" said Sylphiel.
"Hai?" she asked.
"The dress shop is over there. Let's go in, shall we?" asked Sylphiel.
Lina shrugged. "Might as well."
They entered the dress shop and Lina, Sylphiel and Amelia looked for a couple of dresses for Lina to wear.
Luna waited outside with the guys, for she was not interested in such things, just like Lina.
"How about this one, Lina-san?" asked Amelia.
Lina turned around to see Amelia holding up a beautiful, but simple blue dress.
"I guess it's acceptable. Now we need one more," said Lina.
As they looked around, a sea green dress caught her eye. Lina walked over to it and noticed that the dress was exactly like the dress she had worn for the reunion ball that Amelia had a year ago, only a different color. She lifted it from the dress rack and slung it carefully over one of her shoulders.
"I found the second one," said Lina as she walked over to Amelia and Sylphiel.
"Let us see it, Lina-san!" said Sylphiel.
Lina carefully handed over the dress to Amelia and Sylphiel.
"It's beautiful, Lina-san!" Amelia exclaimed as she looked it over.
"Are you sure?" she asked.
"Positively!" said Amelia.
"Now, for some hair ribbons!" said Sylphiel.
"Iie! I am NOT wearing any ribbons in my hair!" said Lina.
"But, Lina-san! You'll look so pretty!" Amelia explained.
"I don't care! I'm not wearing them!" she growled.
"Yes, you are," said a calm voice from outside.
Lina sighed. "Hai, nee-chan."
Amelia looked at Sylphiel and whispered, "How does Luna-san do that?"
Sylphiel just shrugged as she and Amelia went off to find hair ribbons for Lina.
Lina cringed at the thought of having to wear hair ribbons. She didn't like them. She preferred her black bandana instead.
"Lina-san! We found some!" Amelia exclaimed from where she was.
Great, Lina thought sarcastically as she walked over to Amelia.
"I only need two, Amelia, not this many," said a shocked Lina as she looked at the massive amounts of ribbons in Amelia's hands.
"But they're so pretty, Lina-san!" she exclaimed, enthusiastically.
"I don't care! I want two only!" she barked.
Amelia winced and said, "Alright, Lina-san."
"Good. I'll take a blue one and a white one," said Lina.
Amelia fished out the ribbons that Lina had requested and handed them to her.
"Arigato. Are you gonna put those away now?" she asked.
Amelia shook her head. "Iie! I'm buying these for myself."
Lina sweat-dropped. It figures.
Once the three of them finished gathering what they wanted to buy, they went up to the counter to purchase their things.
Outside, Luna was patiently waiting with three very impatient men for Amelia, Lina and Sylphiel to come out of the store.
"Jeez! What is taking them so long? I've always known Amelia to be like this and maybe Sylphiel, but Lina? Damn!" Zelgadis exclaimed, throwing his hands up the air out of exasperation.
"Calm down, Zelgadis-san. Amelia-san and Sylphiel-san are probably detaining Lina-chan," Luna said calmly.
"But, Zelgadis-san is right. They are taking a long time in there," Valteira pointed out.
"I just want them out of there because I want to go and eat lunch soon," said Gourry.
"You just ate, Gourry," Zelgadis muttered.
"Oh...I did?" he asked, dumbly.
"Hai," Zelgadis replied.
"Okay! I'm hungry again, then!" Gourry said cheerfully.
"Why am I not surprised?" Zelgadis said sarcastically.
"Here they come now," said Luna.
Amelia, Lina and Sylphiel walked out of the store with bags in their hands.
"We need to go and find a place for Lina-san to change into her new dress," said Sylphiel.
"Very well, Sylphiel. Lead the way," said Zelgadis.
Once Lina was changed into one of the dresses, the blue one to be exact, she and the rest of them went of to where Filia and Xellos lived, which was a pretty remote and far away area.
"I can't believe that I have to walk all the way to Xellos' home in a dress," Lina complained. "I wish I knew where they lived that way we could all use Raywing and get there faster."
"Well, we don't, Lina, so stop complaining about it," said Zelgadis.
Lina glared at him. "At least you get to wear pants, unlike myself."
Zelgadis sighed, but decided not to say anything.
Valteira was showing them the way there and Amelia was walking right by his side, holding onto his arm.
"If we keep it up, we should be there in no more than four days," Valteira told the group.
"Well, maybe we should stop at a restaurant soon because it's almost lunchtime," said Sylphiel.
"What is the nearest town to Sairaag?" asked Amelia.
Everyone shrugged.
"I guess we're just gonna have to find out, huh?" said Lina.
"It looks that way," Zelgadis agreed.
"Alright then, let's go!" exclaimed Lina as she attempted to run in the dress that she was in.
Everyone followed behind her as they ran off into the next town.
The Gathering chapters are going to be long. This series is going to be long. I hope you all like it so far and ja ne!
Chapter 5 | Fanfiction