Lina slapped her arm for the fifth time in ten minutes. "Damn mosquitoes! Why won't they leave me alone?"
"I told you long sleeves would've been a smarter choice for this trip," Zel smirked.
"Feh. You can wear whatever the hell you want. These little pests can't bite through your skin!"
"We'll see about that on the return trip, alright?"
"What makes you think this place is any more promising than any of the others, huh? Couldn't we find your cure somewhere nice, preferably where insects aren't?" The redhead slapped her magenta leggings yet again as three mosquitoes lighted on them for a snack. She managed to swat two of them, leaving Ugly splotches of black and red on the fabric. "Ew. I'm gonna have to find a pond to clean these off now!" she whined.
Zelgadis strode purposely forward, cutting down the jungle overgrowth with his sword. "Just stop whinging on about it and we'll get through this faster. Besides, you didn't have to come. I told you it'd be better if you stayed behind with the others."
The two reached a clearing an hour or so later. Before them stood a tiny hut with an attached stable. Farm animals grazed on the various plant life surrounding the vicinity. They headed over to the hut and knocked on the door. An old woman with long white hair braided into a ponytail answered.
"Hello! Are you the healer who lives here?"
"Huh? Oh, no, not me! Well, not anymore. My granddaughter takes care of that now," she smiled. "Please come in. She'll be back soon. I sent her out to catch dinner."
The inside was furnished quite nicely for a hut. Paintings covered the walls, including a mural on one of the kitchen walls they passed by. The woman ushered Lina and Zel into the living room, where sat a few cushioned chairs and a fireplace. The two sat down as their hostess walked back towards the doorway. "I've got to prepare dinner. Just make yourselves comfortable and we'll talk later."
"Well, this is an interesting turn of events."
"And not necessarily a good one," the chimera grumbled, bringing down his hood and facemask.
"Why do you say that? At least we found the right place, ne?"
"Yes, but not the healer."
"But she said - "
"Her granddaughter has taken over."
"Right!"
"But these healers are very different from others. It's a family trade, a power passed down to one daughter in every generation. No two hold the ability to heal as they can at the same time. Death or a transfer of the power has to be done."
"Yeah, and obviously this time it was a transfer."
"But to her granddaughter. Who knows how young this granddaughter is, or how well she can control her abilities yet? She may not have the capability to help me yet."
"Oh. I see how a problem would exist in that, yeah."
"Uh, Lina?"
"Yeah?"
"You shouldn't scratch the bites like that."
"But they itch!" she argued, taking off her gloves to scratch with her nails.
"They'll get infected if you scratch them open, you know."
Lina snapped. "Since WHEN were you my mother, Zelgadis?!?!?!"
The shaman simply reclined in his chair. "Fine, catch some jungle disease. See if I care."
"J-j-jungle disease?" she weakly asked, pausing in mid-scratch.
Zel nodded.
"Uh...I think I'll put my gloves back on now." Lina did so, unrolling the tops to cover more of her skin.
After dinner, the four sat in the living room, discussing the problem. The sorcerers had relaxed a bit when they met the granddaughter, named Ximenia. She was in her mid-twenties, and had studied the ways of her family with her grandmother for ten years before the power passed to her. Zelgadis explained his situation to the two healers.
"Hmm...this is one odd curse, don't you agree, Oba-chan?"
"Hai. Very peculiar indeed. I'm not sure we can help you." Zel's face fell immediately.
Ximenia nudged her grandmother's arm. "Don't you know a chimera expert? I remember you telling me about him when I was little."
"A chimera expert?" Lina leaned forward. "Who?"
The old woman looked at her clasped hands sadly, "Well, I used to know a chimera expert, but I'm afraid he's been dead for some years. A shame, too. He was a great man. I'm certain he could've at least told you something that would aid you."
"Who? Maybe we could search for his journals or something."
"Yeah! That's a good idea! Oh, his name is right on the tip of my tongue. Ba-chan?"
She sighed. "Akahoushi Rezo."
CRASH
The cup of coffee Zelgadis had been nursing after the meal cracked and broke in his clenched hands, his face contorted in pure hatred. "Sorry. Excuse me," he said before storming out of the hut.
"Oh, my, is your friend alright?" Ximenia blinked. Outside, loud explosions could be heard from the sky as the chimera let some steam off.
Lina cleared her throat. "Rezo's the one who cursed Zelgadis. Sufficed to say, he doesn't like hearing the man's name very much." Gods know he's had enough of closed-eyed purple haired priests for one lifetime.
"You must be joking, child. Rezo would never do a thing like that. He never made chimeras from human beings!" the woman retorted.
"Well, in the last few years of his life, Rezo...kinda...lost it in the mental department," Lina sheepishly replied. "Maybe if he'd been all there, he wouldn't have done that to Zel, especially to Zel, but what's done is done, and now we've got to find a way to undo it."
Ximenia nodded. "Well, good luck to you."
Zel and Lina Raywinged out of the jungle on their way back to camp that night.
"Now why didn't we think of this earlier?" Lina crowed. "Flying's the only way to go!"
"I don't think we'll be able to travel like this for much longer, Lina. Those storm clouds look just about ready to drop."
Lina sighed. "Yeah. Let's just make it to the other side of the jungle, then we can land."
They lighted back on the ground just as the first peal of thunder resounded in the heavens.
The shaman glanced around. "We should get underneath the canopy. That way we'll stay mostly dry while the storm passes."
"NO WAY!" she protested. "There's no way in hell I'm going back into Mosquito Country!" Her eyes swept over the desert-like terrain before them. "Aha! We'll head over there. That old shack should hold up against the rain."
Zel sighed as a raindrop fell on his nose. "Whatever. Let's just get under some sort of cover, quickly."
The clouds seemed to bottom out the second Zelgadis closed the door behind them. Rain poured down to the sandy ground in buckets. Lightning danced from cloud to cloud, occasionally missing a bank and landing on a jungle tree, sending up sparks of fire in the night sky. Lina took inventoried the shack while Zel watched the storm from a partially dirt-caked window.
"Well, I managed to find a few things," the flame-haired girl stated. She walked over to her companion with a wooden crate.
"Something's better than nothing, I suppose. So, what'd you find?"
"Um, I just sorta grabbed stuff as I saw it. Let's see here..." Lina sat down cross-legged in front of the crate, then bent over and peered inside. "We've got some bottled water, a lamp...with oil, thankfully...., whatever this weird thing is, and a there was a bed back in the other room." She picked up the 'weird thing', which just happened to be a roll of the Handyman's Secret Weapon. Yes, we're talking duct tape here. Hey, it's a shack, what do you want?
Zel looked at the duct tape with a glint of curiosity. "Can I see it?" Lina nodded and handed it to him. Turning the roll over in his hand, he studied it, trying to find its use and purpose. He caught sight of the end and picked at it, pulling a strip off the roll with the usual annoying noise. Zelgadis took the end between his thumb and forefinger, then dropped the bulk of the roll, causing a little more of the annoying noise as it swung beneath his hand. When he tried to remove his hand, the tape stuck stubbornly to his thumb. The chimera shook his whole arm wildly, annoyance clear on his face as he succeeded only in further attaching himself to the roll.
By this time, of course, Lina was rolling on the floor, laughing like an idiot.
"Oi! Stop laughing and help me out here!" he whined. The tape had somehow found its way into his wire hair, and it liked it there immensely.
She snickered as she stood back up and walked over to Zel. "Okay, okay, just hold still and let me see if I can get it off." She took the end of the roll and carefully unwound it from Zel's body. Unfortunately, it wasn't carefully enough.
"IIITTTAAAIIIII!!!!!! #*$&(*#$&(#)^#&*@&@%&*!*$#!&*^#*&"
Lina blinked. "Wow, I didn't know you knew that many languages, Zel..."
The chimera simply held his head and whimpered. The duct tape now owned three big clumps of his hair.
Winds picked up, throwing around debris in the summer storm. Rains whipped around and battered the shack, pelting the tin roof mercilessly. A large tree fell to the elements, shattering as a lightning bolt broke it apart. The winds picked up a few large chucks, flinging them at the shack. One piece found its mark, crashing through a window. The opening allowed the rains to come in, threatening to drench the two inhabitants.
"As if this night couldn't get any better." "Oh, stop whining Zel! We've gotta find something to patch this up with....I know! You go push the branch-tree-thing out of the window, and I'll be right back!" Lina ordered.
Zelgadis stood reluctantly. "Great, I get the joy of being all wet." He went over to the window and pushed out the debris, therefore letting all the rain in. A soaked Zelgadis Graywords is not a happy Zelgadis Graywords. So it is easy to understand why he yet again began to mutter multi-lingual curses as he wrung out the front of his tunic.
His companion picked that moment to return, dragging with her a long, wide piece of plywood. "Gods, you're soaked!"
"No shit?" he angrily replied.
"Here, hold this over the window while I go find something to hold it up." She handled to board to her friend and searched some more before returning with the duct tape.
"Where'd you find this, anyway?"
"Oh, that's the bottom of the bed. I figured that'd be easier to dry out than the mattress, so I brought it," she explained as she taped up the board. "There! Much better." ^_^Y
"Doesn't look like this storm is gonna relent anytime soon. I guess we're stuck for the night."
"Guess so. Hey, you're not too bummed out about today, are you?"
"Why should I be? Just another dead end, like every other lead I've gone after." The chimera slumped to the floor, connecting with the wood with a slight clack. "I don't wanna talk about it, Lina."
She folded her arms as she sat down next to him. "You never wanna talk about anything. Why won't you share your problems and let others help you?"
"Like anyone cares."
"..." Lina blinked, saddened. "Is that what you think?" she whispered as her brows furrowed in concern. "You don't think we care about you?"
Zel turned away, facing the lamp. He stared into the flame as he replied, "Why should you?"
"Because you're our friend!"
"Friends are only friends when it's convenient to be."
"Bull."
"No it's not. I learned that the hard way."
"Yeah, and I learned the opposite the hard way! If what you said was true, we wouldn't have stuck together against anything that stood in our way," she glared at his back.
"We had to in order to stay alive. If we had had another choice, it would've been different."
"Then you don't care about us. We're not your friends. Is that what you're trying to say?"
"I didn't say that."
"Then what is it you're trying to say, Zelgadis?!?"
"...I don't know."
"Exactly. You don't know." The girl turned away in a huff.
Zel sighed. "I'm tired of being hurt, alright?" Lina turned back towards him. "That's why I am the way I am. If you don't let yourself get close, no one can hurt you. I'm sick of being betrayed by those I make the mistake of putting trust in, those I open up to."
He jerked up as a pair of gloved arms wrapped around his waist and a red-haired head came to rest on his shoulder. "Lina...?"
"You don't have to worry about that, you know. We aren't going to hurt you. Especially not me."
"Humph," was all he could reply, trying to keep control of his mask of indifference.
"It's true! I care about you, Zel. We all do. You don't have hide yourself away anymore. You've got people who you can truly trust." She nuzzled his neck. "Can you imagine me, or Gourry, or Amelia betraying you in any way?"
The barest of smiles graced Zelgadis's lips as he shook his head. "No."
"So don't worry about being yourself around us, ne?" she smiled as she nuzzled his neck again. That only served to make Zel's smile grow as his head dropped onto hers. "Hey, how'd you get your clothes dry so fast?"
"An original spell of mine. It's a combination between a Diem Claw and a Fireball. Gets things dry in seconds."
"Sugoi!" she pounced on him, knocking the two over. "You've GOT to teach me!"
He chuckled. "L-Lina! Get offa me!"
"Not until you agree to teach me that spell!"
"Alright, alright, I'll teach you! Get off!" The sorceress hopped off her stone cohort and flashed the victory sign. Zel just shook his head, smirking at the greedy girl as she celebrated. "Are you quite done?"
"I guess so," she replied as she wound down her dance. Lina sat back down next to Zelgadis and let out a wide yawn. "Well, that's my signal to find someplace cozy for the night. Now, let's see..." she started looking around. Well, there's the mattress from the bed, but that wouldn't be very fair to take it. Of course, it is a double bed, but Zel would never agree to that. I just barely got the boy to crawl out of his little shell, no need to scare him back in. Ah well. "Oyasumi!" she announced, then curled up on the floor with her cloak wrapped around her.
"There's a perfectly good mattress in there," Zel pointed to the other room.
"True, but I'm not gonna be a hog while you sleep on the floor."
"Well I'm not gonna use it while you sleep on the floor."
"Then I guess we'll both sleep on the floor."
"...We could...both use the mattress."
Lina sat up, smirking at him. "Sir Blush-a-lot, offering to sleep in the same bed with someone? Zel, I'm shocked."
The shaman blushed. "Ano..."
She just giggled. "Sheesh, it's no big deal. We can share if you want."
"Uh, okay."
The two slowly got up and went to the other room, then dragged the mattress back to the main room by the lamp. Lina jumped right onto it and got comfy, pulling off her sword, shoulder guards, and cape, and using the cape as a blanket. Zelgadis, on the other hand, was having a bit of trouble getting on. He sat at the edge of the mattress, training his eyes on it, his face a portrait of indecision. He bit his lip and continued staring.
Lina turned to face him. -_- "Am I gonna have to pull you in or what?"
He looked up at her, blinking. "Lina, I'm not so sure this is a good idea. You can sleep in the bed; I'll sleep over here," he started to get up, but Lina latched onto his arm.
"Oh, no you don't! Lay down, Zelgadis Graywords!" She sat up on her knees and pulled hard on his arm, making the chimera collapse onto the mattress, and partially onto Lina. This only served to increase the blush factor for both parties.
"G-gomen!" he spouted, quickly removing himself from a very...small and special part of the Bandit Killer's anatomy.
"Uh, s'okay. My fault for pulling you in, I guess."
Zel pulled off his two belts, laid down on the other side of the mattress, and turned away from Lina, resting his head on his arm. "'Night."
"'Night."
The morning sun revealed a most interesting scene indeed inside the shack. The sorceress and the chimera slept on peacefully, wrapped in each other's arms.
Zelgadis shifted slightly, then cracked his eyes the barest of cracks open. His world was a blur of varying colours, mostly shades of red and white. He blearily tried to figure out the reason for this. Seeing that was impossible, Zel opened his eyes a little more, bringing the view into sharper focus. Then his eyes flew wide at seeing Lina's sleeping face just inches from his own. Her fiery tresses had rearranged themselves over her face overnight, covering her in a veil of red. The girl slept on despite Zel's gasp of surprise, her own cloak and his draped over her form.
The shaman's mind still hadn't clearly remembered the events of the night before, so he was a bit bewildered. Finally, the memories told him that the situation was nowhere near as bad as it looked, so the red tint across his nose and cheeks died down to a faint pink. Then flared again as he noticed Lina's arms around his waist, holding him to her. Of course, his arms were also around her. That'll make this a little easier to explain when she wakes up, he thought. Plus, if she's holding me, she can't Fireball me. That's good...Though, so is this, he laid his head back down on the mattress, smiling slightly. Maybe she won't wake up for a while...
His silent prayers went unanswered as the sorceress slowly opened her eyes. Zel stiffened, practically squeezing his own eyes shut. She yawned, lifting one of her arms and stretching it. "Oi, Zel," Lina nudged him. "Time to get up."
He pretended to wake, the blush rising as he noticed Lina still hadn't removed her arms from his person. "Ano, Lina..."
She blinked. "Oh, this?" the redhead nodded, indicating their positioning. "Well, you started yelling in your sleep last night. I guessed you were having a nightmare, and I tried to wake you, but I couldn't. So I decided to try holding you," Lina smiled. "It did settle you down. I guess I just fell back asleep after that."
Oh, he thought. That was nice of her, but how do I respond to that? "Oh." Zelgadis looked out the undamaged window, taking in the small view of the sunrise. "Well, the storm's passed. We should get back to the others."
"We'd definitely better get out of here; I'm starving!" Lina crowed as her stomach growled in agreement. She sat up, pulled a small brush out of her cloak, then proceeded to comb out her hair.
A little less than an hour later, the duo flew back towards the town the group had stopped in. Lina swirled around in the air so she floated on her back, letting the wind currents toss her hair wildly. "Ahh, this little excursion was really great, ne Zel?"
"How do you figure that?" her companion grimaced. "It was a total waste of time, not to mention all the crap we went through," the chimera folded his arms as he sped forward, flying at Lina's side.
"Maybe, but at least it was interesting! I mean, we met those nice ladies, and I learned a new spell for keeping away mosquitoes, and both of us finally got some time away from the Jellyfish and the Justice Paladin!" Plus I got to see a side of you that you almost never let show. Gods, I wish I could coax out that smile of his a little more often. It's so adorable...
Zel sighed. "'Nice ladies'? You're starting to talk like Amelia..." He stopped speaking as Lina rammed her elbow down on top of his skull.
"IIITAAAAIIII!!!!!"
"When are you going to learn to quit doing that?" he smirked, chuckling as he floated next to Lina, her palm clutching her elbow. Zel sighed. "Here, let me fix it," He closed in on her and caught her elbow in one hand, holding it gingerly while casting a healing spell with the other.
"Arigatou, Zel!" she exclaimed. The girl flashed her friend a victory sign and before she realised what she was doing, pecked him on the cheek. "Giku!" she spun around in the air, hiding her red face. Zelgadis just floated, too stunned to even manage a blush. He blinked a few times with large eyes before his brain started functioning again.
"Ano..."
"Well, what are we waiting around for? I'm hungry, iku yo!" Lina grabbed Zel's arm and the two sped off again towards their destination, both with their heads and emotions spinning.