Lina and Zelgadis continued their way trying to find Naga and her bodyguard. The only problem was that they found out that Naga had suddenly decided to go in a different direction and search up some half-baked treasure lead. Which meant that they had to travel more just to catch up with her. And even when they did that they weren't sure where she went.
"So Zel what's your specialty? Since you wear a cape you must be able to cast magic of some sort." Asked yet another question. The whole time they walked Lina was chatting away. She was very determined to keep a conversation going. Zelgadis found it a bit annoying that she kept on talking non-stop but what got him more was her calling him Zel. No one ever called him Zel. But then Zelgadis hadn't really got to know many people to well that they'd call him by a nickname. Though Lina called him Zel even straight from the start.
"..."
"What's wrong with you Zel? Something bugging you?"
Zelgadis just narrowed his eyes at her. "Um, can I ask you a question?"
"Shoot."
"Alright tell my why is that you call me... 'Zel'."
"Well why not? Seems like an appropriate name to call you. Why don't your friends call you that?"
"I don't have any friends."
Now it was Lina's turn to look at him oddly. "You don't have any friends. Now even though you aren't exactly Mr. Personality I still find that hard to believe."
"I grew up in a secluded life. I never had the chance to get to know people my own age until after I was cursed with this body. And after that I didn't exactly feel like socializing with people."
Lina rolled her eyes again at Zelgadis. There he goes again getting all depressive and talking in that cold tone. Man this guy really needs to lighten up. "Okay whatever, do you really care too much if I call you Zel though?"
"Not really I guess."
"Good then. Now Zel are you planning on answering my question?"
"Which was what again?"
"You're magic specialty?" Lina asked again with her annoyance at having to repeat herself very evident.
"Shaman magic."
"Ahh, makes sense. So does that mean that you can do like the Ra Tilt then?"
"The Ra Tilt is the strongest spell in shamanism." Zelgadis said dryly with a monotonous tone of voice.
"Yes I'm very well aware of that, I've done my magic research. But can you do the Ra Tilt?"
"What makes you think that I can cast something like that?"
"What reason would I have to think otherwise?"
Yes this line of questioning seemed a bit silly but Zelgadis wasn't quite sure why he was being so difficult anyway.
"Yes I can cast it." Zelgadis finally spoke after a spell of silence.
Lina flashed a victory sign and Zelgadis chuckled under his breath.
"Doth my ear deceive me but did I just hear Zelgadis chuckle?"
Zelgadis' chuckles turned to laughter. "You're a strange girl."
Lina stuck her tongue out at him.
In a restaurant in a not so distant town...
"OHOHOHOHOHOHOH!!! More whine please at this table!" A tall woman with long black hair and not very much in the way of clothing bellowed out. The restaurant owner and as well as the many other people in the place cringed at the sound of Naga the White Serpent's laugh. It was like nails being scratched on a black board. Some suffered through the sound of it and continued eating while others had retreated from the restaurant. Unfortunately for the restaurant owner and the waitresses they didn't have the opportunity to leave.
The only person whom seemed unaffected by Naga's laugh and that was her current companion, the mercenary that Prince Philionel had hired to act as a bodyguard to his eldest daughter. The mercenary was a tall blond with long hair and blue eyes. One might peg him as a pretty boy and not a fighter or even a girl for that matter, Gourry Gaberieve was anything but a weakling. Gourry was very skilled with a sword and good in a fight. Of course since he had the brawn and the looks somethings gotta be missing right? Yup well Gourry naturally wasn't so bright.
"OHOHOHOHOHOH!!!! I said more whine!!!"
Especially if he was traveling with Naga.
Many people in the restaurant wondered how Gourry could stand the sound of Naga's laugh considering that he was sitting right in front of her at the table they were sharing. But then it could also be noted that Gourry was eating just as much food as Naga was drinking whine and that's saying quite a bit.
"So Naga where are we going now?"
"OHOHOHOH! I don't know my little sidekick! Perhaps go and see if we can get some money for offering to stop that dragon from terrorizing that town a little while. To think who'd let a dragon like that out on a town without anyway to control it." Naga made a scolding face. Naturally she hadn't put two and two together.
"Wouldn't it just make more sense to do it for free?"
Naga gave Gourry an evil look. "For free?!?!? Are you stupid?!?!? OHOHOHOHOH and how am I supposed to get enough money to survive if I start doing jobs for free?!?! OHOHOHOHOHOH!!"
"But isn't your dad Prince what's his face of that big place city um Saigune or something? Don't you have tones of money anyway?"
Gourry got a chicken leg thrown at his face for his question. Not that Gourry minded too much, more food for him.
Speaking of food both Zelgadis and Lina were hungry from their travels. The problem being that they were far from the next town and running low on packed food.
"I'm sooooo hungry...." Lina grumbled. Technically Lina was the reason why they were low on food in the first place.
"Well if you didn't eat so much then we'd have stuff to eat."
Lina muttered something under her breath that Zelgadis couldn't make out, not that he cared to hear it anyway. Lina was going to say something more only she heard a familiar sound of running water. Lina bolted off to the sound and like she figured she saw a river hidden on the side of the trail they were on.
"Don't even bother trying to fish you wont get anything."
"You mean you knew that this river was here?" Lina asked him in a deadly tone.
He did have anything to say in reply to that and instead went to address about fish. "Don't try and fish, you wont catch anything."
"I'll be the judge of that!" Lina declared with a challenging spirit. But as Lina soon discovered fishing at this river proved to be harder then she thought. Partly not having any proper bait as a reason. But then Lina remember the orihalcon swords she had. She pulled the one that she had only made hours before she met Zelgadis.
"What are you going to challenge the fish to fight now?" Zelgadis said in a sarcastic tone. Lina shot him a dirty look. Using the sword Lina caused another lightning bolt to rain from the sky and into the water. As a result fish going belly-side up in the water.
"What the hell was that?"
"Just a special thing that I added to this sword. The different gems allow me to control different elements at a given time. So far only tried the thunder gem. But anyway are you hungry?" Lina grinned at him and he sighed with defeat.
In the trees nearby a platoon of trolls, berserkers, demons and various other creatures awaited the signal to attack.