"Therilon, the Fallen Kingdom; a dark, ruined, feared and dreaded place..."
It was a cool night. Zelgadis was sitting on a grassy slope, her cape pulled tightly around her for warmth. She was all alone in the moonlight, with nothing other than her thoughts and the noisy crickets to keep her company.
"Therilon... Will I really find the answers there?" the violet-haired girl asked herself quietly. She shook her head, unable to quell the doubts that nagged her constantly.
With her back to the little country inn where her friends lay sleeping in their rooms, Zelgadis looked out at the vast forest that stood in their path. "According to Lina, it'll be another couple of days, traveling through that forest," she murmured wearily, "then a few more, for crossing the Clory Plains... We should reach Therilon in a bit less than a week." A twinge of apprehension accompanied that statement. Ever since she'd been old enough to listen, she'd heard stories about the Fallen Kingdom, the kind of stories that would give nightmares even to Mazoku. And now she was actually going there, to the once-bright Kingdom that had been irrevocably, incomprehensibly destroyed, to the ruined Kingdom that had swallowed up legions of adventurers hoping to profit from the country's collapse or make a name for themselves in the world. Zelgadis had known a gang of bright young adventurers, some of them friends of hers, back in the days when she'd been normal, human, and male. The gang had gone off to Therilon to make their fortune. Only two had returned to their home village, months later, scarred and exhausted; one had been driven nearly insane by the horrors he'd witnessed there. Zelgadis could never forget the poor boy's haunted eyes, his frantic babbling, the nights where he screamed for hours on end...
She'd been reluctant to admit it, but she was afraid of going to Therilon. She had no wish to end up dead, or worse. But despite the fear, some small part of her was looking forward to going; she was a tiny bit curious to see what it would actually be like. She wanted to see for herself whether it was as bad as the stories told. She supposed that was a good thing; after all, she had no choice but to visit the Fallen Kingdom. There was no other way to find out the truth about what had happened to her.
"Am I really Princess Amethyst?" she asked herself, for the thousandth time. There seemed to be no other explanation, but sometimes Zelgadis couldn't help but think of this as a dream, that one day she would wake up and everything would be back to normal.
It had been two weeks now, since she'd made the wish that had changed her life. The moment she'd realized how the wish had turned out, the moment she'd learned that she wasn't a normal man as she'd wanted to be but was instead female, she'd been devastated. She had apparently lifted one curse with her wish, only to be ensnared by another one. It had seemed like the end of the world.
As a chimaera, Zelgadis had spent years looking for a cure. After months of struggle, she had thought she'd finally found the answer to all her prayers. She'd woken up after her wish only to learn that everything had gone wrong, that her struggle was far from being over. She would have to keep searching for another cure, only this time, she wouldn't have any of the advantages she'd had as a chimaera; no stone skin, no Shamanist magic. It had seemed to be an impossibly cruel joke.
But then, she'd discovered that she still had the magic, and suddenly, everything had seemed bearable. Then, she'd learned that maybe, just maybe, she was meant to be a woman, that she was a famous, lost princess... It didn't seem very likely, but Zelgadis supposed that it was a possibility, no matter how unbelievable it seemed.
"If I am the Princess..." She wasn't sure if she wanted to be Amethyst of Therilon. It would mean she was fated to spend the rest of her life as a woman, and even though she was slowly learning to cope, she wasn't sure she could handle being female forever. She'd grown up as a man, and that's how she saw herself.
Whether she'd like what she found there or not, Zelgadis was committed to going to Therilon. If she truly was Princess Amethyst, she'd deal with that bit of news if and when it came; if not, well, she had plenty of experience in searching for cures...
Zelgadis shifted her shoulders uncomfortably for at least the tenth time that day, muttering, "Damn shirt... too tight..." She truly didn't want to think about what that implied, but knew that sooner or later, she'd have to deal with such changes. After all, no matter what happened, she'd be spending quite a while as a woman.
With a groan, she lay back on the grassy slope, and looked up at the stars. Or rather, she tried to look up at the stars, since a huge furry monster was materializing directly above her, blocking the view. Its putrid slobber dripped down on her as it wheezed, "You will die!"
Rolling quickly to one side, an enraged Zelgadis shouted, "Why won't you blasted monsters leave me alone!" The foul beast thudded to the ground where she'd been lying, and slid a fair way down the slope due to its considerable momentum. It stopped, dug its ferocious claws into the ground, and turned back towards its violet-haired prey, long hairy arms outstretched in anticipation.
The monster never even got near to Zelgadis. Furious, she burst forth with arguably the most powerful spell in all Shamanist magic, yelling, "Ra Tilt!" The hairy creature disappeared in the resulting massive explosion, and, as Zelgadis saw when the dust had settled a bit, so had an enormous chunk of the nearby forest.
"Wow," exclaimed a nearby voice breathlessly. Zelgadis turned hastily, only relaxing when she saw that it was her three friends, running up to stand beside her. "We came as soon as we heard the shouting," explained Lina. "It looks like you didn't need us, though..."
Amelia, wide-eyed, craned her neck, trying to see the extent of the damage Zelgadis's Ra Tilt had done. Gourry yawned; he looked as though he'd just been dragged out of bed. He probably had.
"That's the ninth one so far," said Lina, contemplating the late monster. "They're attacking more and more often."
"The closer we get to Therilon..." said Zelgadis pensively.
"What were you doing out here anyway?" asked Lina suddenly.
"It was too noisy in there," said Zelgadis, indicating the inn with a nod of her head. "I needed to think."
"Noisy in there? It's noisy out here, with all these blasted crickets!" Zelgadis shrugged helplessly. "You can't just go off alone anymore, Zel, not with those freakish creatures popping up everywhere."
"But if she'd stayed in the inn," piped up Amelia, "when the monster showed up she'd have blown the whole place up, right, Amethyst?" Zelgadis winced. The young princess of Saillune was already convinced that Zelgadis truly was Therilon's lost princess. "So it was a good thing that you were out here, where all you blew up was the forest!" concluded Amelia brightly.
"Yeah, I guess we don't have enough money to pay for another inn's repairs," said Lina, reluctantly. "Not since the fiasco last week, anyway." She'd forgotten to lure a monster out of that particular inn before using her favourite spell, the immensely powerful Dragu Slave. The results had been quite spectacular, though the inn's owner hadn't been at all pleased...
A cool night breeze swept across the grassy slope, and the red-haired sorceress shivered. "It's cold out here. Come on, let's get back to bed." She dragged a still-yawning Gourry back towards the inn. Amelia, full of pep even though it was the middle of the night, bounced the whole way.
Zelgadis started to follow her friends, but at the last second, turned instead and looked beyond the forest - well, blast crater - in the direction of Therilon. Her eyes were full of apprehension. As the chill winds whistled across the grass, as the crickets chirped their sorrowful songs, she whispered, "Whatever I find there, my life will be changed forever..."
"Are you coming?" called Lina, jolting Zelgadis out of her thoughts. She smiled happily and turned back towards the inn, towards the friends who were waiting for her.