They all looked at me expectantly, awaiting my tale. Gods I love a captive audience. Ahem, I cleared my throat, then began. "My name is Lianna Starrunner, and I'm here as a result of a random teleportation spell that I enacted because there wasn't much for me to do back home." I smiled, they gave a look of confusion and wariness. Well, except for Gourry whose attention had wandered sometime after the first word or two. He was now watching a butterfly.
"So, you came here by chance, because you were bored?" was the question Lina hazarded.
"I wasn't bored per se, it's just that nothing was happening at home. So I thought a change of scenery was in order." I replied, smiling happily. I could feel the chaos forces roiling around the redhead, this was going to be a great trip. They blinked then shrugged, to them my answer seemed as good a reason as any. "So. if you don't mind my asking who are you all?"
Lina was the first to reply, "I'm Lina Inverse, beautiful sorcery genius extraordinaire. And the guy watching the butterfly is Gourry Gabriev, he's got jellyfish for brains but can sling a pretty mean sword." I nodded, wondering if I cracked open his skull would I really find Jellyfish... Interesting prospect, that.
Amelia piped up, "I am Princess Amelia Wil Telsa de Seiruun, and ardent upholder of justice. I hope that your heart will be noble enough to help us in the search for Zelgadiss-san's cure!" Her little tirade over I just sat and blinked. My gods, what type of loonies had I fallen in with?
"Amelia," Zelgadiss snapped, glaring at the diminutive princess, "Gomen, she tends to get a little enthusiastic about some things. I am Zelgadiss Greywers, and as previously stated I am looking for a cure of ..."
"Your chimera-ness, right?" I hazarded a guess. he blinked and nodded. Apparently surprised that I hadn't screamed about some monster looking at me. "Well you're not an unseelie elf, or you would've tried to kill me. So a chimera is the most likely explanation I could come up with for your unique features." Zel's look of astonishment doubled. Lina grinned.
"See Zel, not everyone thinks your a monster. You're so paranoid sometimes." He looked at her and made a non-committal grunt.
"He thinks he's a monster?" I asked, Lina rolled her eyes and nodded. "Geez kid, you must have loose definition of monstrous. In fact, I think you look pretty nice." Amelia and Lina shot Zel identical 'I-told-you-so' looks. I just smiled. Zel blushed a little, I was surprised that the pale blue skin blushed pink instead of the expected purple. My smile grew even wider.
"Ano, Lina? Who's the elf?" asked Gourry, his blue eyes shining with innocence. I sweat dropped as Gourry was drop kicked into the river.
Zelgadiss sighed, "Sorry about that, Lianna?" He gave me a questioning look. I nodded. "Gourry is a bit on the dense side, as you've probably guessed." He rolled his eyes and shrugged in a 'what can you do' manner. Gourry crawled out of the river to Lina's screaming tirade. I smiled, yes this was going to be a lovely trip.
"Well well, Lia-chan. Long time no see, ne?" a pleasant tenor voice drifted down from a nearby tree. Not only was it pleasant, it was very familiar.
I let out a low growl, "Xeros..." Everyone else blinked with surprise. After all how could the elf possibly know Xeros?
"Hmm, it seems your still mad with me, eh Lia." He turned to me and flashed a feral grin. Jumping from the tree he landed not three feet in front of me. Well, scratch that. He almost landed, my sword just happened to trip him up a little. So sad.
The members of team Slayers quickly inhaled, the elf was crazy... No one was demented enough to start something with Xeros. That is, unless the person had the power to stand up to him. This might prove interesting, from a safe distance of course.
Mazoku, prepare to feel pain, I thought and grinned. Remembering a little technique Kasane called 'grab & burn' I proceeded to grab Xeros in a very sensitive spot of his male anatomy, and let loose the fire within...
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWwwwwwwwwwwww!", Xeros let out a cry that would have been understood by males the world over. The grab & burn had served it's purpose. I smiled and dusted off my hands, making sure the one that was still flaming a little didn't hit my clothes.
"Now, Ohayoo gozaimasu Xeros-san! How have you been? You look a little flushed", I winked at him. He just glared at me, then put on the Xeros FaceTM.
"Why just fine Lia chan, and yourself?" We carried on with the inane formalities. While everyone else sat there dumbfounded. Well Zelgadiss and Gourry still looked a bit uneasy about what had happened to Xeros' anatomy.
After we finished with the niceties I turned to the group, "So, you're on a quest to help Zel-san here ne?, nod nod "What's the best lead that you have so far?" They blinked, still stunned at the sudden mood swings that had just taken place.
Zelgadiss shook his head a little and cleared his throat. "Well, we believe that the cure might be found in the Claire Bible. But we're not quite sure because Happy boy over there has destroyed every copy we've come across so far." the young man's apathetic tone could not disguise the intense dislike he had for Xeros. I blinked, storing that information away for future reference and began to think, the Claire Bible ... Hadn't I heard someone speak of it before?
"This Claire Bible, it's a spell book, ne?" Zelgadiss nodded. I closed my eyes and let my mind wander through the halls of my memory. Then all the sudden a light pinged on. Everyone put on sunglasses to block out the sudden burst of illumination. "You're prepared to travel to find it aren't you?" Zelgadiss nodded once more. "Good, cause I know a guy who probably has a copy, but he lives a long way from here."
Zelgadiss replied excitedly "I don't care how far I have to go to find a copy of that damn book. I'm in!" Lina looked at the exuberant glow on his face and sighed.
"He's gonna need some backup on this one so I'll go too." Tho' he looks just fine personally, Lina told me later.
"Being the righteous friend I am, I shall join Zelgadiss on his quest even though he's a hunk the way he is right now!" Proclaimed the justice freak before getting a joint beat down from Lina and Zelgadiss.
Gourry looked up from his bug watching, "Ano, Lia? Is there any good food where the book thingy is?" Glares all around as he awaited my answer.
"Well, that all depends on where the little bastard is at the moment." I scratched my head. "You all are goin' though, right?" Nods all around. "Then we're headin' to Amrahly'nn!"