Lina sat down by the riverside idly running her fingers in the water. It shined with the silver gleam of the full moon above in the sky. She was by herself thinking about various things.
A twig cracked behind her and Lina spun her head around to find out who was nearby. The forest was silent with no other sounds except the faint whistling of the wind. Must be hearing things. Lina shook her head and turned her attention back to the river. She was startled when I rabbit suddenly hopped out of a bush and scattered by her.
She let out a sigh of relief. Just a bunny. She looked back to river just to see a person's reflection standing behind her.
"FIREBALL!" Lina screamed out sending out a large ball of fire at the wood be attacker, only the person was quick enough to put up a wind barrier.
"Geese Lina, hello to you too." Zelgadis muttered while letting go of the barrier and pulling off his hood.
"Don't go sneaking up on me like that! And where the hell have you been you stone idiot! I haven't seen you for months! Nice you just leave like that without saying goodbye or where you were going!" Lina growled at him.
"Well sorry. Where is everyone else?" Zelgadis asked looking around. He had seen the campfire before he approached Lina but he hadn't seen any sign of Gourry or Amelia or even Xellos for that matter.
"Amelia was called home by her father for some Sailune royal business. I think they were going to have some royalty from a neighboring kingdom come over and Phil wanted her to be there."
"And you guys didn't go with her?"
"Nope, Phil warn us in the letter that it was going to be extremely boring and wouldn't be any fun at all."
"And Gourry?"
"I lost him a few weeks ago. I tried looking for that jellyfish but I couldn't find him at all. So I gave up. Usually he pops up again sooner or later." Lina shrugged.
"So you're traveling alone?"
"Yeah, as I've done before."
Zelgadis frowned but sat down next to her.
"So got any new leads?"
"Huh?"
"Cure leads? You've heard of any recently?"
"Uh, no not recently. I haven't had any new leads for a while now." Zelgadis lowered his head in depression.
"Hey, hey don't get moody on me now! So I guess since you're here now you're going to travel around with me for a while right?"
"What?" Zelgadis snapped back to reality.
"Well you don't expect a pretty fragile girl like me to go traveling around alone do you?" Lina put on her cutest look while batting her eyelashes.
Zelgadis was taken back but Lina's sudden cuteness. "You are anything but fragile Lina. And weren't you traveling alone before anyway?"
"Well yeah... But you don't want me to be alone don't you?" Lina gave him a sad puppy dog face.
"Ah... um... well no..."
"Good then it's settled then! You'll be traveling with me for now and you can take first watch. I'm going to go to sleep now." Lina grinned toting a victory sign before jumping off to her bedroll.
Zelgadis just blinked in confusion. Now how did she...? Zelgadis shook his head and decided not to try and figure it out.
"Oh and thanks for the complement." Lina said breaking Zelgadis out of his thoughts by suddenly appearing before him.
"What do you mean by -- " Zelgadis didn't get a chance to finish his question because Lina suddenly got him locked in a very deep kiss.
"Goodnight Zel." Lina cooed to Zelgadis before falling straight to sleep.
"You're welcome..." Zelgadis said in a daze. Then he realized what she was talking about. "Goodnight Lina." Maybe traveling with her alone won't be so bad after all...