She sat unmoving at the dining-hall table, shoulders hunched, holding herself as if to ward off a chill. Her head was bowed, and her violet hair fell into her eyes, masking her expression.
Deeply worried about her friend, Lina asked for at least the tenth time, "Are you sure you don't want a stuffed tomato?"
Zelgadis shook her head. "I'm not hungry," she said, in a weak voice.
"Not even a little one?"
The purple-haired girl again shook her head.
"They're really good..."
"Just leave me alone, okay?" snapped Zelgadis, her voice trembling, on the verge of tears.
Lina, still worried, gave up trying to get her to eat. It had taken three days for Lina and the others just to persuade Zelgadis to leave her room at the inn and come down to the dining hall; it would probably take just as long to convince her to start eating again.
It didn't help that Amelia was now spending all her time silently staring wide-eyed at Zelgadis, as if she literally couldn't believe what had happened; it really didn't help that Gourry kept on forgetting and referred to Zelgadis as 'him' most of the time.
Lina herself had been shocked beyond all measure, back in that cavern, and it had taken her a long time to come to terms with her friend's new form. Gourry had carried Zelgadis, still unconscious, back to her room in the Twoflower Inn in Masaoc, and Lina had been there when she woke up. On reflection, Lina supposed that maybe she could have broken the news to her a little more gently, but it was too late now...
This was an awful lot for Zelgadis to have to deal with. She had been prepared to give up the obvious advantages of virtually unpierceable stone skin, and great proficiency in Shamanist magic, to regain her humanity; she hadn't been prepared for a gender change on top of all that. [author's note: I'm assuming that the Shamanist powers were due to Zel's chimaeric form, and that when he stopped being a chimaera, he lost the powers as well.]
The worst thing was, no matter how hard she thought, Lina couldn't come up with a reason why Zelgadis's simple wish could possibly have gone wrong. 'I wish to be returned to my true form' - how on earth could that have been misinterpreted? Lina had spent the past few days trying desperately to come up with an answer, and from the looks of it, so had Zelgadis herself. Lina figured that her friend had probably been doing nothing except brooding on this cruel twist of fate ever since she'd realized what had truly happened.
Sitting on the opposite side of the table, Zelgadis looked so forlorn that Lina desperately wanted to reach out and comfort her. She'd tried that, though, for days; it hadn't worked.
Lina couldn't stand the oppressive silence any longer. She leaned forward and asked, "Are you thirsty?" There was no response, so she continued, saying, "Would you like some water, or maybe some wine? It's pretty good stuff - I should know..."
Suddenly, Zelgadis leaped up from her place at the table. "I said, leave me alone!" she yelled angrily, and ran across the dining hall towards the stairs.
"Zelgadis..." called out Lina, rising from her chair and reaching out towards her fleeing friend. Gourry and Amelia did likewise, but when it became obvious that the violet-haired girl wasn't about to stop, they dropped tiredly back into their seats. Lina crossed her arms, pouting fiercely. "I tried ..." she muttered. All Gourry could do was shrug helplessly, and Amelia did nothing but watch Zelgadis climb the stairs towards her room.
In frustration, Lina grabbed the platter of stuffed tomatoes, and shoved as many of them as she could in her mouth. She chewed mechanically; now, they tasted little better than cardboard. Just before she swallowed, however, she heard a piercing scream that made her spew bits of stuffed tomato across the dining hall; it was Zelgadis who had screamed.
Hastily wiping her mouth, and casting an apologetic look at a couple of diners who were now covered with the remains of her dinner, Lina shouted, "What's wrong?" Amelia had already vaulted over the table at the first sign of danger, and Gourry's reaction had been no less rapid.
Zelgadis was slowly backing down the stairs, a look of sheer terror on her face. In front of her, an enormous, serpent-like monster was slowly coalescing into existence, taking up the entire stairway. Its face was dominated by a gaping, toothy mouth, and as it became more and more solid, more and more gory details became apparent; its wickedly sharp teeth, its prehensile tongue, its glistening, dripping saliva...
Zelgadis shrieked again, panicking; the almost-solidified monster began chuckling at her, a horrible, liquid chuckle, like the voice of a putrescent swamp. "Finally," it said, "Finally!" and again chuckled wetly. "Rezo has hidden you well these past 15 years - but I've finally found you, Princess Amethyst of Therilon!"
At this unexpected revelation, Lina, Gourry, and Amelia crashed into each other, mouths gaping, shocked beyond belief. The other diners finally realized what was going on, and a general panic began. People rushed for the doors, the kitchens; anywhere, as long as it was away from the horrendous, inexplicable monster. In the midst of all this confusion, Lina could just barely see Zelgadis making her way outside, followed swiftly by the monster. She picked Gourry and Amelia, still stunned, up and closely followed Zelgadis and the monster out of the inn.
"Don't worry, my dear," snarled the dreadful beast, having backed its violet-haired prey into an alley, "I'll crunch your bones... You will feel such pain as you have never felt before. My Master will be proud!"
Zelgadis, beyond panic, beyond all hope of coherent thought, fell back on instinct. Wild-eyed, shaking, she reached out and slammed one hand to the ground, shouting, "Dug Haut!"
Lina had just rounded the corner and caught a glimpse of the monster when the ground erupted beneath its feet. Massive spikes of rock slammed it skyward; it howled in pain and writhed like a snake, spurting some kind of noxious fluid where the rock-spikes pierced its leathery skin. "What?" Lina gasped, eyes widening as soon as she saw the powerful shamanic spell take effect all through the alley, and even straight through several of the nearer buildings. "A Dug Haut? But that's not possible... She can't..."
Gourry, however, had no such misgivings. He drew his sword, and with a shout, launched himself towards the foul creature. It sensed his approach, and though it was wounded, lashed out at him with flailing limbs and serpentine tail. He dodged frantically, and somehow managed to get a couple of nasty sword slashes in before leaping to safety.
Lina paid no attention whatsoever to the fight; all her attention was focused on the massive, and entirely unexpected, results of Zelgadis's shamanic spell. Amelia realized this, and decided that it was all up to her. Leaping to the top of one of the higher rock spires, she called out, "Monster! You have threatened one of my very good friends! More than that, you're a public nuisance! You must be punished for these heinous crimes!" Closing her eyes, she began murmuring a spell.
Gourry saw what was going on, and after a couple more sword strokes, got away before he could be caught in the blast radius of whatever spell Amelia was casting. The monster snapped its jaws at him; luckily, it was held in place by the enormous rock spikes piercing its body, so its teeth snapped just short of him.
Amelia finished her spell; as magical winds whipped around her, she opened her eyes and let loose with a "Merule Banish!" A burst of energy engulfed the monster. As it writhed desperately on its spikes, it faded away to nothing, vanishing with one final howl. After the magical winds died down, it only took a couple of seconds of blissful silence for Amelia to realize joyfully that her spell had worked, that everyone was safe again, and that justice had been done. Jumping up in the air, she ecstatically yelled, "All right! I did it!", missed her footing as she was about to land, and ended up crashing head first onto the ground fifty feet below.
Rubbing her aching head, Amelia made her way past the spikes of rock towards Zelgadis. Gourry had already arrived, and was standing next to the violet-haired girl, looking puzzled.
Zelgadis was kneeling at the end of the alley, her back to the end-wall. She was holding out her hands and staring at them, as if she was unable to believe what they'd accomplished a short time ago. Finally, she sensed the presence of her friends; she raised her head, a look of wonder on her face. "It's not gone," she whispered. "The magic isn't gone! I thought it would be; I was sure... I couldn't even make myself try it out... But it's still there, just like it was before..." A hint of tears appeared in her large blue eyes; they were tears of joy, not sadness. She almost even smiled.
Amelia was overjoyed. "That's great!" she yelled, rushing towards her friend.
"Wait a minute, Zelgadis." Lina had just arrived; her intensely serious tone of voice made everyone stop and turn towards her. Behind her, the spikes of rock, legacy of Zelgadis's immensely successful Dug Haut, stood some 50 to 60 feet high. They filled the alley, and had even pierced their way through several nearby buildings, over which they now towered. Spectators were lined up on the other side, gawking at this remarkable new landmark gracing the streets of Masaoc.
"We thought you'd lose your shamanist powers when you stopped being a chimera," continued Lina. "I mean, it only made sense, right? Rezo gave you those powers when he made you part demon, like he gave you stone skin when he made you part golem. So when you lost the stone skin, you should've lost the powers too.
"I could understand if there was just a residual effect - if your magical powers took a while to fade away because of all the time you spent as a chimaera. But you're just as powerful as you were before, if not more powerful. So what's going on?" Zelgadis could only stare, incomprehending, at Lina.
Gourry had been looking very puzzled for a long time. "I've been wondering..." he said haltingly to Zelgadis, "that monster in there... Why did it call you... Princess Amethyst?"
"That's right!" said Amelia, suddenly remembering. "It said that you were Princess Amethyst... of... Therilon..." Her voice trailed off as she retreated deeper and deeper into shock. Then, she started frantically yelling at Zelgadis, "YOU'RE THE MAGICAL PRINCESS AMETHYST OF THERILON??!?"
As if he hadn't heard Amelia's outburst, Gourry continued. "It said something about Rezo too... about how he was... hiding you? Something like that..."
Amelia grabbed Zelgadis by the shoulders, and shook her ferociously. "YOU'RE PRINCESS AMETHYST?"
Zelgadis, however, looked a little bit lost. "I'm what? Who?" she said weakly. "...no, that can't be right... Princess Amethyst...?"
Lina, too, remembered the strange monster's even stranger words: 'Rezo has hidden you well these past 15 years - but I've finally found you, Princess Amethyst of Therilon!' She stood for a few seconds, deep in thought, before smacking her fist into the palm of her hand and exclaiming, "We're going to Therilon!"
"Huh?" was the universal reply.
"We're going to Therilon," Lina repeated. "That's where we have to go, to find out what's really going on. To find out if Zelgadis really is Princess Amethyst; if so, how on earth that's possible; what Rezo has to do with all this; who sent that monster to kill her, and why..."
"To Therilon?" murmured Zelgadis. "I don't know why... but somehow, that just seems right..." She sighed, and brushed a few strands of violet hair out of her eyes; then, smiling up at her friends, said, "It's strange; I'm feeling a little hungry now..."
"A little hungry?" Lina exclaimed. Empty dishes were piled all over the four friends' table; they were among the few patrons left in the Twoflower Inn's dining hall. "A little hungry? Zel, you ate almost as much as I did!" Zelgadis, blushing furiously, ducked her head in embarassment.
Picking her teeth, Lina leaned back in her chair, her appetite sated for now. She suddenly looked up, pensive. "Amelia?" she asked.
"Hmm?" The young princess of Saillune cast a questioning look towards her red-haired friend.
"I've never heard of the 'Merule Banish' spell before," said Lina. "What exactly does it do?"
It was Amelia's turn to blush. "Uh... I'm not really sure. I know it banishes the target somewhere, but I've never been able to find out exactly where..."