"Tiny, hold on!" Lina cried as she dragged the boy toward the town healer's home worry in every part of her small serious face.
They had ran into a group of bandits easier that day and Tiny, who normally disappeared as soon as danger was near, got clobbered by a burly bandit. A large ugly bump was rapidly swelling on his head, and he has been out cold since that incident.
Lina took another worried glance at Tiny's head. Still out cold. This is serious! It's been five hours already, and he still hasn't woken up yet!
After pounding as hard she could on the door for a few seconds, an old women came out. "Listen you brats, stop playing..." She broke off when she saw the unconscious boy in the girl's grasp. "Quickly, drag him here." the old woman nodded toward a bed as she hobbled over to some wooden cabinets. From the cabinet, she took several bottles and dried herbs. Quickly, she took a clay bowl from a shelf and began to mix in the ingredients.
She didn't even pause in her work when Lina suddenly asked. "Why don't you just cast recovery on him?" When the old woman said nothing, Lina turned to more important matters. Seeing no other choice, Lina heaved Tiny to the bed. Glaring at Tiny, she whispered to him, "How many of my roasted chicken order did you steal this time? You're getting too heavy to be carried anymore!"
"Your brother, child?" the old woman asked conversationally as she applied a salve to the bump on Tiny's head.
Lina bit down a protest at being called a child. Instead, she asked again, "No. Why don't you just cast recovery on him?"
The old woman stopped a moment and gave Lina a sharp look. "You're a sorceress, child. Why didn't you cast it?"
Lina flushed. "Be...be...because," Lina stammered, "I can't cast it correctly." Lina mumbled. She shifted her gaze uncomfortably onto her shoes; the old woman's gaze seemed to pierce into her young soul. "I'm afraid I'll cast it wrong and ... and ...." She voice trailed off.
The old woman turned to Tiny and continued to apply the salve. "What did you try to heal that time?"
"Um...my Big Sis had a cold so I tried...."
"To cure it with recovery?" The old woman looked Lina in the eye again.
Lina nodded slowly in defeat. "I made her cold even worse instead."
The old woman grabbed some bandages and wrapped it over the Tiny's head to cover the bump. "Do you understand why now?"
Lina nodded again.
"Then you have answered your own question." The old woman finished the bandaging and turned to Lina. For the first time, she smiled. "Don't worry. Your friend will be all right. You can stay here with him until he wakes. I'll be in the back room if you need me." Dusting off her clothes, she hobbled slowly away.
Lina said nothing.
Luna and Zelas glared at one another.
They glared at each other some more.
Actually, they've not glaring at one another; they were staring off into space. But it looked like they were glaring at someone so bystanders assumed they were having a glaring contest or something.
Their table had attracted a small crowd. Bets have been place on which of the two women would stop glaring first. Currently, Zelas was getting more votes - probably because her eyes were starting to look sleepy. Plus the fact, the innkeeper swore Zelas had over 5 cases of wine before this glaring contest started that morning.
At around midnight, Lina suddenly woke up. Tiny was stirring! Joyfully, she hugged him. "I thought you were going to die!" She cried. She had never had a friend her own before.... Is this what is called a friendship?
Tiny sleepily rubbed his eyes. When his eyes fell upon Lina's teary face, his expression immediately changed into a sly expression. Sitting up in the bed, he wagged a forefinger at Lina's surprised face. "Why, Lina-chan!" Tiny grinned broadly. "I didn't think you cared. After you are known as the Bandit Killer, Enemy-to-all-who-lives, Someone Even a Dragon Wouldn't...ouch!" Tiny's speech was ended abruptly by Lina's fits into his face.
I take that back. No one as annoying as him can be my friend. "Tiny." Lina said, her right eyebrow twitching in anger. "Was that getting hit on the head all an act?"
"Getting hit on the head?" Tiny unwrapped the bandages and felt his head for a bruise. "I don't feel any bruises...."
Lina's jaw dropped in shock. There wasn't a large bump anymore! Quickly, she grabbed Tiny's head over his protests to inspect the spot where only a few hours before sported a large ugly bump. When she couldn't find any trace of the bump, she released Tiny and sank back to the ground with a disbelieving look on her face. How is this possible!? No medicine can heal that large bruise so quickly!
Tiny looked around. "Say we're only a hour away from Atlas City, aren't we?" Tiny grinned smugly. "I'm touched, Lina-chan. You carried me for ten miles? Maybe you aren't as scrawny as I thought you are."
Lina's eyes were hooded by her bangs.
"I guess even a Bandit Killer can do useful things. Say, Lina-chan, can you carry me the rest of the way as well? I'm such a delicate person; I shouldn't have to do something as strenuous as walking like a common pheasant to the City now should I?"
Lina begin to glow softly. "OF COURSE!" With a terrifying look in her eyes, Lina screamed out a spell.
DILL BRANDO!
Tiny was sent, after being roasted and mixed with dirt, into the sky and to land on his head in the general direction of Atlas City. Lina gazed up with great satisfaction.
The old healer's head peeked out from the back room. "What was all that noise?"
Lina laughed uncomfortably. "Nothing, healer. Just playing, that's all."
The old healer looked thoughtfully for a moment before returning back to her bed. "AS long as you children are getting your exercise, I suppose."
"Of course, Cephied." Luna closed her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she looked up at Zelas. "Zelas, what did your Lord say about...."
Zelas sat in her chair with her head on the table snoring away. Around her, on the floor was a small group of fried people.
Luna closed her eyes again briefly.
DIGGER BOLT!
"Ahhhhhhhhhh!" Zelas screamed out as the bolts of electricity coursed through her Mazoku veins. Surprisingly, Mazokus made a very good conductor.
Luna got up and walked to the frightened tavern owner to order some tea. The shaky man quickly made the tea. Thanking the man - who fainted after hearing that for some strange reason - Luna went back to her table. The electricity had finally stopped and a very roasted Zelas now sat in her chair.
"Now, what did your Lord say about this matter, Zelas?" Luna asked calmly as she got back to her seat with teacup in hand.
Zelas raised a shaky, burnt hand to weakly admonish Luna. "Luna-chan, couldn't you have woken me want in a different way?"
Luna thoughtfully sipped her tea. "Yes. Next time I will use Mega Brando. You don't seem to have completely woken up yet." Putting the teacup down, she raised her hand, "Let me correct that error."
"Waaaa!" Zelas wailed as she quickly shook off the black dust off her. "I'm awake! I'm awake!"
"I see... so what was his reply, Zelas?"
"Reply?" Zelas asked in confusion as she searched her pocket dimensions for her pipe and wine.
"The one we were trying to get a second ago during our trance?" Luna said each word slowly.
Recognizing the danger, Zelas hastily said. "I couldn't talk to him. He was kinda of busy at that moment. Went to talk to L-sama about that Old Dragon to see if She could turn him into a newt or something. She probably will since the Old serpent didn't come to defend himself - probably because he was so busy talking to you. Important dragon talk and all that right, Luna-chan? What did the old newt have to say?
Luna said nothing.
Zelas shrugged in reply. Warming up to her subject, Zelas continued to gossip. "Also something about serving magma instead of tea at the tea part L-sama is having. And something about dressing up Old Cephied as doll then turn him into one. You know how L-sama loves to dress up. I mean just look at Her wardrobe; it has all the fashion that ever existed on all of Her worlds! I'm so jealous of that Werewolf outfit She has from that world where all the kids wear clothes like that on certain days to get something, food I think. Great world, don't you think? Everyone dresses up as wolves. Why it just makes me feel -
The teacup slammed onto the table.
"Yeep!" Zelas squeaked. Maybe she said too much?
"So your Lord doesn't care about this matter?"
"Yes" Zelas squeaked again.
"Oh, and I'll be sure to ask L-sama if we can attend her tea party too. I love tea." Luna said brightly as she sipped the rest of her tea.
Zelas sweatdropped. Luna-chan thinks so much like L-sama...it's SCARY! Zelas shuddered at the thought of having only tea to drink through the "tea party". Of course, it would be nice to see what L-sama forces Her Lords to wear this time. Zelas grinned. Last time, L-sama wanted to recreate the scenes of a human zoo. Old Shabby ended up as mouse and that Old Dragon as a cat. They almost destroyed the "zoo" chasing one another all over the "zoo." L-sama turned them into two status and put them in something called a museum on one of Her world...as a cat and a mouse....
"What! They've left already!" Lina wailed as she pounded the ground with her fits. "It's not fair! Not fair! Not fair!"
Tiny tried desperately to calm Lina down but it only escalated into a full-scale tantrum. "Lina nee-chan. Please don't cry anymore! We'll catch up with them. I'm sure we will."
Lina looked teary-eyed at Tiny. "Really?"
"Of course." Tiny flashed a confident smile at Lina.
Lina stopped crying. "All right!" Her mood suddenly swung from depression to anticipation. "Let's find them!"
Tiny gently tapped Lina's shoulder.
"Um? Yes?" Lina turned to Tiny.
Tiny, still with that confident smile fixed on his face, asked, "By the way, who are looking for Lina nee-chan?"
Lina crashed to the ground.
"Nee-chan?"
Lina bonked Tiny on the head. "What do you mean 'who are we looking for'!?" Lina screamed into Tiny's ears. "And why are you calling my 'nee-chan' again? You didn't a second ago."
"Yare, yare. Lina-chan."
Lina stopped raving and blinked stupidly at Tiny. Why am I a "Lina-chan" now?
"Do you always hit your baby-sitters so hard?" Tiny asked. He suddenly brought his hands together, "I get it! That's how you earned names like 'Enemy-of-All-Those-Who-Lives' or 'Someone even a Dragons Wouldn't Cross'!"
MEGA BRANDO!
"What did I sayyyyyyyyyyyyy?" Tiny yelled as he was sent flying yet again.
FLARE ARROW! FIREBALL!
Tiny coughed out smoke after landing two miles east of Atlas City.
"Fruitcake!" Lina muttered. Then a sudden thought struck her. If Big Sis left here, then whatever she's doing is done and so she'll be returning to....
RAYWING!
"Get back here, Tiny!" Lina cried out. "We have to get back to before Big Sis notices we left!"
A few days later....
... at Zephilia....
"Waaaaaaaaa!" Lina wailed. "I didn't mean to leave!"
Luna ignored Lina's wailing and placed more plates into the sink before leaving the kitchen.
"And why CLEANING DISHES of all punishments!" Lina cried out to no one in particular. Hasn't she cleaned enough dishes at Owl's Inn where she met that fruitcake of a sitter?
... at Wolf Pack Island....
"Waaaaaaaaa!" Zelas wailed. She went into chibi-mode and glomped on Xellos's leg. "This punishment is too cruel! It's inmamoku!" Chibi-Zelas wailed some more. "Give me the cure, Xel-kun!"
Xellos smirked. He was finally cured from mother's spell. He didn't have to be a whinny human child anymore. "Now, now mother." He said with a broad smile. "You should act more like your age. "
Chibi-Zelas wailed even harder.
"Besides, Luna-sama strictly told me to only give you the cure until one year has passed." Xellos added.
"So you're going to listen to Luna-chan but not your own mother?"
"Of course," Xellos replied cheerfully. "You always said 'Luna-sama is always right'."
"I never said that!"
"No," Xellos admitted. "But you could have said something similar to that."
"Would not!"
"Would too!"
"Would not!"
"WOULD TOO!"
"WOULD NOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!" Chibi-Zelas screamed triumphantly.
Xellos ignored Chibi-Zelas. Instead, he tried unsuccessfully to pry Chibi-Zelas from his leg with a crow bar he took from one of his private dimensions nearby. He was forced to dragged Chibi-Zelas, who was still attached to his right leg like super glue, as he walked - dragged - into the now defenseless kitchen.
"After all, it's your fault that you wore that bracelet without thinking." Xellos pointed to a particularly beautiful golden bracelet that sparkled as brightly even through they were indoors on Zelas's left wrist.
"Bu...but," Chibi-Zelas stammered tearfully, "I never thought to have anything more to do with that accursed Hero family and their Mazoku-power-incapacitating jewelry!"
"Well," Xellos was enjoying the irony of his mother's current predicament. "It's only for a year mother."
"But I'll die before then!"
"Now, now mother. The bracelet only seems to affect certain things. For example, any wine you touch becomes tea." Xellos ignored Chibi-Zelas's renewed wailing at those words. "And," he added brightly, "any time you try to smoke your pipe, your pipe disappears as fast you summon it back."
Chibi-Zelas continued to cry.
Xellos reached the cookie jar and took out a large cookie. All mine for a whole year! He though joyfully to himself. To his mother, He continued, "It'll be all right mother. You can bare those two conditions for one year." Smiling brightly at his mother with a cookie in his hands, "I have the utmost confidence in you."
AT those words, Chibi-Zelas suddenly reverted back into Zelas. In a serious tone of voice, Zelas said slowly, "Your right Xel-kun."
"Err?" The cookie still half-way toward his mouth
Her eyes flashing with determination, Zelas suddenly declared, "I can live without my wine and smoke for a whole year!"
Clapping, Xellos said, "That's the spirit mother!"
Turning to the kitchen, Zelas continued. "I will not only stop drinking and smoking. I'll also stop torturing humans, causing havoc, and making cookies for one year!"
"Aye!? No cookies!????"
Zelas suddenly hugged Xellos. "Come Xel-kun. Join mother in her new cause. Let's all swear not to have anything we enjoy for a whole year! We must train ourselves so our stomachs don't rule our lives anymore! We'll live as a regular human for a whole year, Xel-kun! You, me, and all the other demons on our island will join me! Won't it be great!?"
Xellos's cookie suddenly disappeared from his hands as well as the whole cookie jar. Xellos stared in horror at Zelas.
"I'm so glad you agree with mother, Xel-kun! We'll all begin today."
A sudden shielding fell over the entire island. Before it cut off the island completely from the rest of the Slayers world for a year however, sailors reported hearing someone screaming like he - it sounded like a he - had just lost everything he lived for. It later become known as the Wail of the Lost.