In morning Rena was the first person to get up which in itself seemed like a contrast to what everyone knows of Lina Inverse. Or at least that's what was going through Zel's mind when he got and was surprised to see he wasn't the only one up.
Rena sat at a table looking over some papers while drinking more red wine. As soon as Zel had came down the stairs Rena had been aware of him. But she pretended not to notice him.
"Red wine in the morning? Not exactly a standard choice for a drinking beverage in the morning." Zelgadis sat down next to her and ordered a light breakfast and some coffee.
"Who says that I need to be like everyone else?"
"Ahh the voice of an independent."
"Sounds more like the voice of an alcoholic." Zelgadis came down and also joined them.
"Yeah but then there's also such thing as drinking too much coffee." Rena said with a half smile. Lina had been telling Rena quite a bit about their traveling companions the day before. Including both the chimera's caffeine addictions.
"So Rena what are you doing?" Zel asked looking over to the papers she had.
"Well since Zelgadis' discussion with me yesterday about a way to cure his chimera condition I've been thinking. I had a faint feeling that maybe I had a map or something that lead to a special temple of healing. That special temple was supposed to heal human souls of their illnesses and curses from their bodies with the water of its fountain that flowed in the middle of the temple. Upon looking through my papers I did remember that I indeed had it but the problem is I don't remember which map is which." Rena placed down five very tattered and old maps on the table so that both Zel and Zelgadis could see them.
"So you don't have any way to tell the difference between them?"
"No, they all look too similar. And what I was doing before you two came and joined me was trying to figure out a way to rule certain maps out because I do remember a bit about the temple when I had visited it. So I has hoping I could recognize some of the geographically markings on the maps. Currently I haven't been able to pin point any yet."
Zelgadis picked up a few of the maps and to him the maps looked like they outlined some foreign world. He couldn't recognize anything that he saw.
Rena watched Zelgadis look at the maps. Zelgadis' face was very serious and one could tell he was deep in thought. But Rena could easily see that he was confused and she found it interesting that even in that fact Zelgadis still tried to remain calm like he understood all in front of him. She mentally chuckled rubbing the back of her neck as she look down at one of the maps in front of her that was upside down to her view. And that's when she saw something she knew.
"Well I'll be damned." Rena picked up the map and now it came back to her. This map she was holding was a map of an ancient city. The marking she had recognized was a small picture of a rock statute. Only after the map had been made that area have been in a large earthquake and that same statue had been put upside down. Now in a real fact this map didn't help too much. It wasn't the map they needed and besides even if they wanted to visit the ancient city they couldn't. The remains of the city had been long since destroyed leaving only dust. So why was this important to Rena? Well first of all it narrowed down the maps from five to four. But the real reason was that the map Rena was looking more had that ancient city marked on it. Rena looked through the maps till she found it, the one she was looking for. She wondered the condition of the healing temple, would it still work after all these years? Or was this just a pointless idea? Rena herself had visited the temple before hoping to heal her curse only it didn't work.
"Well I now remember which of these maps is the right one." Rena moved the other maps away and placed the right one in the middle of the table so that both Zel and Zelgadis could get a better look at it.
"Do you think that this temple might a hold a cure for me?" Zelgadis asked looked very closely at the map of the temple. Like before Zelgadis didn't recognize any of the markings on it. He also wondered how Rena was able to pin point this one as being the right map.
"I'm not going to lie to Zelgadis, this might not have anything that could help you. The place is ancient and might not possess the same healing powers that it might have once had. It could be just a big waste of time to visit there. But then at the same time it might have your cure. It's always a gamble on these types of things." Rena knew how that felt. She had gone through far too many false leads that she had gotten her hopes up about. The disappointment only got worse the more leads you went on.
Hours later after everyone had gotten up and ate their breakfast they all sat around discussing this proposed journey to this ancient temple of healing.
"Well this might be the cure that either Zelgadis has been looking for, but then it could be a wild goose chase just like the other leads we've gone on." Lina mused while everyone else gave the idea a thought.
"Perhaps since it is their curse that Zel and Zelgadis should be given the decision on whether or not to go." Rena suggested and everyone else more or less nodded in agreement. They then all stared at Zel and Zelgadis waiting their answers. Neither of them were very comfortable with the intense gaze that they were being put under. Now Zelgadis was pretty much decided that he wanted to check this lead out. Only he wasn't going to say his opinion until he heard Zel's. But that's where the problem was. Unlike Zelgadis, Zel didn't have as optimistic mind as he did. He'd been disappointed too many times in the past with these false leads. Who's to say that this isn't just another one? And Zel had other things to worry about. They weren't in their world, so they still needed to be careful because they don't really know what could happen. Like what had happened the day before, they had been kidnapped by one of Rena's old enemies. And if Rena was anything like Lina then she had many enemies lurking about that would take any chance to cut her down. So he had the whole group to think about here. Would he really want to endanger the whole group just for himself? But then there was that angle that maybe if they went to go to the ancient temple of healing that they might find and complete the task that they needed in this dimension. Zel frowned in his thoughts.
"Zel if you are worrying about the danger that it might be then don't bother. There's thirteen of us, I think we'll be fine." Lina said while stretching.
It kinda unnerved Zel that Lina almost practically read his mind. Well why not then? Let's just go for it. "I guess that going on this search may not be a bad idea. Besides the possible cure, we might find a way to complete the this task that we need to do."
"Zelgadis? What about you?"
"I wouldn't mind going myself." Zelgadis said with a half smile. I wonder, could this be the cure I'm looking for? Will I finally be release from this monstrous body?
"Okay then it's settled. Let's get ready and go!" Lina yelled out already out the door and heading over to the nearest supply place to stock up.
"Why did we even decide to go on this little quest?!" Lina groaned flopping down on the ground. They had been traveling towards the temple following Rena's map for a greater part of the day and they didn't expect it to be this rough. There was a quite a few problems with following Rena's map. First of all the map was very old so it was hardly accurate to the surroundings. Like on the map where it said there was a hill it ended up being a mountain. A few trees ended up being a large forest. Plus where it said there was a path to take there wasn't one there. But still they followed the map with Rena guiding them. She was the only one could even make the slightest sense of the map. But what the others didn't know was that she was partially leading everyone from memory. There was no way she was going to tell anyone that.
You'd think that Xellos and Zeros would recognize the area a bit and had a bit of an idea of where they were going or how to get there but they didn't. Up until recently that area on both dimensions had a protective shield around it that prevented creatures like monsters from entering. In Xellos' dimension the barrier was still up. It made him a bit curious to why it was down here. Though if the barrier had still been up it wouldn't have prevented them from getting in. It would have just prevented Xellos and Zeros from entering.
"Let's rest of a little bit here." Lina motioned for everyone to sit down. It wasn't the hard hiking that was bothering them the most, it was the heat. For some odd reason this area was hotter then most almost as if they were in a desert. Rena was the only one who remained standing.
"Miss Rena aren't you tired and hot? You take off your cloak and hood and sit down with the rest of us."
Rena looked down at Amelia. True she was a bit hot and tired but she really didn't want to take off her cloak and hood. But she knew that if she kept it on any longer then that might be a bad idea considering that it was such a dark color. But she complied and lowered her hood and pushed her cape back but she didn't take it off. She sat down with the rest of them.
This was the first time they had been able to get a better look at what she was wearing. What she wore was a tunic, pants and boots all the matching color to her cloak and hood. Compared to Lina's outfit it looked rather dull and boring. The only real interesting thing was she wore a set of blood red jewels, much like Lina's demon blood talismans.
"Are those magic amplifiers?" Lina asked staring at one of the gems that Rena wore.
"Um yes and no. Let's just put it this way they were a special gift from someone that I wouldn't part with for the world." Rena's tone was very serious and just by the look she was giving Lina, Lina knew that there was no way in hell that Rena would even dare think of selling them. "So how long do you wish to rest for?"
Everyone thought for a few moments about that.
"Well how far is the temple supposed to be from here?"
Rena consulted the map while thinking back about the last time that she traveled here. "Hmm... maybe other day or two."
Lina groaned. She was tired and didn't want to keep going on. And she didn't look forward to having to go back after they were done. But she kept telling herself, Going back will be easy because you'll remember how you got there and all you'll need to do is backtrack. Though Lina told herself this it still wasn't much of a reassurance. She was very temped to fly all the way over only there were problems with that. In order to follow the map properly they needed to be on the group because the temple was deep in a forest and not easily seen from overhead by flying. That and they made themselves better targets flying through the air. They still didn't know what could attack them at any moment.
Zelgadis looked to the sky the sun hadn't set yet but would probably in a couple of hours. "How about we call it a day and make camp and leave tomorrow morning? We don't have many hours of daylight left anyway."
There was a general agreement among the group and thus they set up camp.
The night air had been such a blessing after all the heat of the day. But it was strange the temperature didn't change until after sunset. Normally it would have gotten cooler as the time got closer but it remained hot the whole time until daylight was gone. That didn't both Rena as much as it bothered the others. She had come to expect weird things like that in her travels. Ah it was so peaceful, the gentle breeze in the air the quiet sounds of the forest...
"You dare steal food from me?!?!?" Lina yelled out load at both Gourry and Garry.
"But you weren't eating it." Both the blond swordsmen said in unison. Well so much for the quiet peacefulness. Yet another feud other food had started. And Garry and Gourry were right in the middle of it. But then aren't they usually the ones who start them?
"STAY AWAY FROM MY FOOD!" Lina bonked both of them on the head. After which she contentedly smiled, sat down and resumed eating. Everyone sweatdroppped.
"Mister Garry, Mister Gourry you two should know better not to steal Miss Lina's food. Even if she steals a lot of everyone else's." Amelia stated and Lina complained in reply.
Rena was assumed by the whole display. She had long since forgot what it was like to travel in the company of others. And to think I used to be just like Lina at one time... but that was far too long ago. Rena sighed and drank more wine. Luckily for her they were all to busy to notice that Rena wasn't eating with the rest of them. She just calmly sipped her wine staring out into the forest.
Only moments ago the sky had been clear with many stars twinkling in the sky. But without warning rain started to pour down. The sky was dark with many clouds that seemed to have appeared out of no where.
"What the?!?! Damnit where did this rain come from?!" Lina and the other scampered under the larger trees with their fire dying out.
"We can't stay out here. We'll freeze to death!" Gavin shuddered rubbing his shoulders.
Rena whom was still dry due to the fact that she had been sitting under a tree previously pulled out her map. "According to this there should be a cave up a head just a bit. We might be able to take shelter there!" Rena yelled out to the others, her voice barely heard of the raging storm.
"But it might say it on that map but it might be there!"
"Trust me on this one!"
With no other option they followed Rena as she leaded them deeper into the forest. But to their surprise a cave did really exist where Rena said and two more as well next to it. They quickly ran inside taking refuge from the storm that had come on them so sudden. Most of them shivered and tried to dry off as best as they could. It was going to be a long cold night.