Chapter 2: On My Way


"A BIBLE?" Zel cried buoyantly.

"A BIBLE?" Mira mimicked. She smiled widely. "Yes an Clair bible." She held up her hand. "Follow me." Mira glided out of the cold room and ducked into a nearly hidden door. It had concealed stairs until then. Mira jumped down them. "Hurry up!"

Gourry sat down and slid down the stairs, Lina levitated down gracefully, and Zelgadis did a relocation spell.

Once they all arrived at the bottom of the stairs, they were greeted by a large room full of books, books, and more books.

"Wow! Spell books!" Lina and Zel drooled. Gourry yawned, "Books equals boring."

He cowered in the corner when all three people shot angry glances at him.

"Someone ... anyone ... help!" Amelia bawled.

"Oh yeah! The wannabe!" Mira turned to Zel "Is it all right to bring Rimrea in?"

"Rimrea? Amelia? I guess."

"Earthly distance,
Banished from me,
Godly movement.
Relocation!"

Amelia appeared on the ground in front of Gourry. "Uh, hi." She quickly cast a cleansing spell. "Hi Zel," she stepped towards him. He rolled his eyes. Mira stifled a laugh. Amelia turned and looked at her. She gasped. "You evil ..."

"Mute!" Mira cried. "Thank you. I'm Mira and I'm no enemy so don't even try one of your anti-evil speeches."

"Oh," Amelia mouthed. Mira waved her hand and Amelia started up again.

"Oh!" she bawled angrily. "Why did you do that?"

"Because I don't have the tolerance to hear 'justice warrior' speeches every two seconds," Mira sighed loudly.

Gourry laughed and Amelia gave him one of the worst looks she could muster. "I can't help it if I have a love for justice." Mira stuck her tongue out at her. Lina and Zel laughed and Amelia fell down pouting.

"So ..." Zel demanded, "the Clair bible?"

"Oh yeah." Mira turned and began shuffling through a nearby shelf.

"How did you ever get an eclair bible?" Lina asked.

"Well ..." Mira began, still looking through shelves. "When I was a kid my mother gave me a copy of one of the Clair bibles. She had gotten it from a suitor."

"A suitor?" Gourry said surprised. "He must've been rich!"

"Oh he was," Mira assured him. "Rezo Graywords was a rich man." She turned and looked at Zel's face. His eyes were bulging out and his jaw was basically touching the ground.

"Rezo?" he moaned, questionably.

"Rezo. That's actually how I became a chimera," she sighed.

"God!" Lina yelled at Zel. "What kind of sicko was your dad?"

"You have no idea," Zel snapped.

"When my mother ..." Mira was interrupted by Amelia.

"Why was Rezo interested in your mom?"

"Haven't you heard of the Ruis?"

"I don't think so ..."

"The Harrel Ruis?"

"THE ROYAL RUIS?" Amelia yelled.

"Don't remind me," Mira hissed.

Lina, Zelgadis, and Gourry looked at Mira with looks of utter surprise on their faces.

"Yeah I was a Princess Mira," she sighed mockingly. "Not now."

Amelia's eyes went starry. "You're a princess like me."

"WAS!" Mira snapped.

"Was?" they echoed.

"Allow me to finish my story. When my mother refused his engagement he said he would curse her first born. And guess who that was?" Mira joked.

"Uh, I know this! Gimme a minute. I'll get it ..." Gourry thought out loud.

"IT'S MIRA YOU IDIOT!" Zel screamed.

"Oh."

"So you were born a chimera?" Lina questioned.

"No." Mira held our her hands, "This was my 16th birthday present. He wanted to hurt me and my mom."" Her voice became hushed; "He hurt all of us. My parents killed themselves."

"I'm sorry ..." Zel started but was interrupted by Amelia.

"I remember your story!" Amelia exclaimed proudly. "After your parents killed themselves the Ruis cousins took the throne. You were banished."

Mira was looking sadly at a book she had just pulled off the shelf.

"Amelia!" Lina and Zelgadis shouted, annoyed.

"Sorry. Amelia's ... . ." Lina stopped midsentence when Mira spun around and pinned Amelia to the wall.

"Listen Anlea!" Mira's eyes were cold. "You have no right to talk about me like some strange animal."

"You are kind of a strange person. AH!" Amelia yelled when Mira began a fireball.

"FIREBALL!" she hollered. Mira dropped Amelia.

"Oh!" Amelia groaned. Lina looked at Mira with admiration.

"Nice spell."

Mira ignored her and walked over to Zel with the book. "There you go. Don't know if it will help but if there's even a possibility ..."

Zel nodded gratefully. He sat down and started flipping through the book.

Gourry snorted, "Can we go do something? This is boring."

"YOU PERVERT!" Lina screamed.

Crush.

Mira looked at them. "If you guys wanna eat the kitchen's down the hall."

Stampede.

"Always an effective way to get rid of the terrible trio," Zel stated, not looking up from his book.

"I thought so," Mira laughed. Suddenly Zel's face lit up. "Find something?"

"Listen: And the oracle of magic righted the injustices of Shabernigdo. Just as the oracle always has and will do."

Zelgadis and Mira looked at each other. "WHERE?" they exclaimed in perfect sync. Zelgadis flipped violently through the book with Mira hanging over his shoulder.

"FOOD, FOOD, FOOD!" Gourry, Lina, and Amelia cried while running towards the smell of, you guessed it, food.

Lina rounded the corner into the kitchen first and dove into the pantry. Gourry came in second and was raiding the cupboards. Amelia snatched a cake from the breadbox.

Two words: pig out!

"She's a pretty good cook," Amelia stuttered between bites.

Mira moaned, "Damn oracle." Zel was muttering about the same thing but meaner about the oracle.

The book was open to:
The oracle is never in             to human(ish)s.
The same spot twice. It             usually a life
Was last seen in             or something of
Omide in 89 AD. The             much importance.
Oracle also charges             Shabernigdo tried
Very high prices to             destroy the oracle.

"So, there is a cure but it's never in the same place ..." Zelgadis began.

"And it charges a life!" Mira finished.

"There's some hope."

Mira looked over at Zel with disdain. "Hope? Hope! HOPE! That's no hope, that's a one in infinity chance."

Zel smirked. "WHAT ARE YOU SMILING AT?" Mira screeched a tiny red vein appearing on her forehead.

"I LOVE YOU!" Mira hugged him. Then recoiled in horror. "I meant that in a purely platonic way."

"You better have." Zel was BRIGHT red.

"Don't worry!" Mira assured him. "I hate men!"

"Really?"

"Really!"

"Good to know."

"Let's go, let's go, let's go!" Mira yelled, grabbing Zelgadis by his cape and dragging him up the stairs.

"Lina, déjà vu!" Zel sighed. He winced as Keets leapt onto his arm and dug her kitty claws deep into skin and stone.

"Ow! Get off me you stupid ca ..." Zel was cut off by Mira.

"Call her a 'stupid cat' and become a punching bag," Mira warned.

"Ok. Get off me unkind feline!"

"Better! Keets off!" Mira ordered. The cat immediately jumped off Zelgadis onto Mira's shoulder and sat down.

"That stupid little ..." Zel murmured.

"I'm not deaf!"

"Meow!" Keets protested. Mira grinned and paused long enough for Zel to stand up and start running. "There. So now I guess I should introduce you to Keets. Keets- Zel, Zel- Keets."

"Meow," Keets purred happily.

"Next stop, kitchen!" Mira stopped at the door. Zel slammed on the breaks.

The three strolled (well, Keets rode) into the kitchen. Lina, Gourry, and Amelia were stuffing their faces.

"Hi guys. What's up?" Food spilled out of Lina's full mouth.

"Oh, just the possibility of a cure," Mira casually mentioned.

"That's great," Gourry stated matter-of-factly.

"You're kidding?" Amelia looked at Zel. She shuffled closer.

"Take a break, Melba," Mira warned. Amelia pouted.

"My name is Amelia!"

"Sure, Amelmer."

Amelia!"

"Whatever!" Mira grinned and walked over to Lina. "So, how long will your 'fearsome foursome' be staying? Oh, yeah, are you people also joining us to the oracle?"

"We will stay until the food runs out and we are definitely going to the oracle with you." Then Lina whispered, "If we didn't come Amelia would kill us. A chance to see a human Zel? Hormone girl couldn't pass that up."

Mira laughed. "I guess we can do the location spell tomorrow. It's too late to do very much right now. What do you think, Zelgadis?"

"Sounds fine." Bored, he leaned against a wall.

"Don't lean there ..." Mira yelped (too late, of course).

Zelgadis fell through the wall into a horde of garlic, wooden stakes, and crosses. "Ow." He stood up and looked around himself. "A little paranoid?" he accused.

"I live in the Dark Woods, vampire central. Only and idiot would come here without any kind of weapons."

Lina and Zelgadis looked over at Gourry. "I have my sword," he howled at them.

Mira stifled a giggle. Amelia frowned at Lina and Zelgadis; "It's not kind to assume things!"

"We aren't nice," Zel, Lina, and Mira loomed menacingly over Amelia.

"Uh," Amelia whined.

Suddenly Mira looked up in alarm.

"What?" Amelia questioned and Mira glared at her.

"Vampires, they are attacking," Mira stated grimly.

"If you're so mean, why do you care?"

Mira went postal, yet again. "I care because I'm the only one who can! And if you ask another stupid question you won't be alive to hear the answer."

Amelia made a weird face then tripped over her own feet, face planting into the linoleum.

"If you'll excuse me ..." Mira began. "I have a job to do. Make yourselves at home." Then she ducked into another hidden door and vanished.

"How many of those 'secret' doors does she have?" Gourry wondered out loud.

Mira popped out of yet another hidden door. "A lot." Then she vanished, again.

"That could get annoying," Lina stated waiting for Mira to appear.

No Mira.

"Please don't hurt me ..." a young girl fell onto her knees. The vampires closed in. Then, they went flying in various directions. Mira was visible at the edge of the clearing.

"Now boys, why do you always pick on us poor, poor girls?" Mira drawled sarcastically. Then she walked over near the girl. "Want some help?"

"No! We don't need it!" yelled a voice behind Mira. Mira stepped to the side dodging the sword.

"Well you're being helped anyway. Genjitsu wa kibishii desu yo (life is hard), So fuknzatsu (complicated), Sore wa honto desu ka? (Is that truth?) NEVER! Homeru (praise) Hope!" Suddenly a white light appeared and drove the vampires into hiding.

"I had the situation under control!" the first girl snapped.

"We could've handled it," the second pouted.

Mira gasped, "So sorry to have helped you! Who are you anyway?"

"I'm Aari."

"Gaeriel. Who are you!" Gaer demanded.

"Just call me Mira Ruis."

Their faces lit up.

"Good! You can help us."

"Help you ingrates? I think not!"

"Ok. Thank you. Better?" Gaeriel snarled. Aari elbowed her.

"Be nice," she hissed.

"All right. What do you need help with?"

"They got Luke!" Gaeriel bawled.

"Luke?"

"Her guy," Aari informed her.

"MY LUKE!" Gaeriel whined.

"Human or vamp?" Mira asked.

"Vamp," Gaeriel sobbed.

"Not good ..." Mira put her head in her hands, thinking. "I think I have a spell book that might help."

"You do! Great! Let's go get that spell and ..." Gaeriel stopped when Mira looked at her. "What?"

"You stay here. I'll get you the book and then you leave, never to be seen again. Ok?"

Aari looked questioningly at her, "Ok?"

"Ok!" Gaeriel sighed, happily. "As long as Luke gets back to normal."

"All right then. I'll be back," Mira assured them as she ran off.

"Please hurry!" Aari informed her.

"I will."

Zelgadis, Amelia, Lina, and Gourry had finished eating and now were deciding where to sleep. Lina and Amelia were sharing the living room and Gourry had found an empty chair in the library. Zel snatches a pillow and created a bed on the floor of the kitchen.

Mira slipped in and carefully maneuvered around Gourry. She then rummaged through her books, grabbed one, and ran back out of the house.

"Where is Mira?" Gaer complained.

"She is getting the spell book. She said she'd be back soon."

"She probably lied and told the vamps ..."

"What would she have to gain by telling the vampires about us?"

"Entertainment."

"You are such a cheerful person."

"I know. I'm Mrs. Sunshine who just happens to have a vampire for a husband."

"Mira is getting a spell to turn him back."

Mira ran into the clearing.

"Told ya so."

Grumble.

"Here." She threw the book at Aari. "You know magic, right?"

"I'm a master."

"Yeah, whatever. I gotta go. Good luck."

"Thanks. I owe ya one," Gaeriel called.

"I'll remember that."


Chapter 3   |   Fanfiction