That evening, a little before the sun set, they stopped in a small clearing beside the lake. Momiji began to gather firewood while Matsudaira and Koume set up the tents. Amelia, after being threatened by Lina, helped Momiji, while Gourry set off to catch some meat. Kusanagi jumped up into a tree and disappeared, while Zel strode off into the trees. Firia, after nearly managing to knock Xeros in the lake again before he disappeared, looking puzzled, decided to help Matsudaira after Koume lassoed Yoshiki into helping. Lina, once there was enough firewood, got the fire going. Kunikida, during all this, sat on a log and tried to catch his breath.
They finished their tasks just as the sun finished setting. Kusanagi soon appeared after that, carrying a plucked grouse and three pigeons. After the birds were fully plucked, gutted and set to roasting, Zel appeared with a pouchfull of blackberries and razzberries, a rabbit, and some herbs which he set aside. Matsudaira added some dried vegetables to a pot of water, and once the rabbit was skinned and the meat cut up, added the rabbit and the thigh bones to the pot. Once the stew was finished everyone ate, Gourry only re-appearing when most of the food was gone. At the end of dinner Zel pulled a small herb drying rack and hung the herbs he had found on it.
Lina watched him for a bit than asked,"Zel, what are those for?"
Zel finished tying a sprig of something that looked like a green brillo pad before answering. "Just in case."
"Just in case of what?"
Zel grinned. "That's a secret."
Lina promptly hit him over the head.
"Getting that from Xeros is bad enough!" She yelled at him, whacking him again with her fist. "Just in case of what!?"
Zel simply looked at Lina, his face serious. "It's none of your business. And no, I'm not going to tell you."
And he said nothing more about it though Lina screeched and yelled at him. He just calmly tied the rest of the herbs to the drying rack while she screamed, ignoring her. Matsudaira looked at some of the herbs, her eyes narrowing. She wondered if she should say anything, but decided that it would best to tell Kunikida later. Hours later, after Koume had introduced Lina and the others to roast marshmallows and removed the briar twig from Sakura's hair, they all settled into the tents and went to sleep.
Hours later, about midnight, everyone woke to this loud flapping sound. Momiji poked her head out of the tent she was sharing with Lina, Koume and Amelia. After a brief struggle with the others, they all managed to get out of the tent. Soon everybody was outside, watching a large black shape circling above them, almost as if it was searching for something. Suddenly another shape, this one distinctly dragon in form, darted in from the north, hitting the first one head-on with a short burst of flame. Everyone looked at Firia, who was in human form and on the ground, peering up at the flying shapes.
"If she's down here ... Then who's that up there?" Matsudaira asked, as Koume tried to figure out how to adapt her sawed-off shotgun so it would hit one of the flying things. Nobody answered, watching the battle above them. Then, just for a few seconds, the head of the dragon was clearly outlined by the moon, revealing a pair of horns, one on each side of the head.
Firia gave a unholy shriek, which distracted the first flying thing momentarily. The dragon took advantage of the creature's distraction and fried it to a crisp.
"AN ANCIENT DRAGON!!!!!" Firia screamed, her voice filled with utter hatred. But before she could do anything, a light rose from behind them and flared, bright as a beacon, right above them. Everyone looked behind them to see Zel lowering his hand, the spell complete. Zel barely managed to avoid being flattened by Firia's mace as she swung at him, screeching on the top of her lungs. Firia swung again and again, just barely missing him, despite the fact that each swing was making her more and more off balance, until she swung, missed and fell over on her face. During all this Lina had hit Firia several times over the head, which means during the temporary lapse in adrenaline caused by the fall, Firia fainted. And while she was unconscious, as the others stared in amazement, the other dragon crash landed in the lake and dissappeared from sight with a flash of light. After that, Lina hit Zel over the head with a rock, swearing at him.
"Why the HELL did you send up that flare?!?" She screeched at him, as Firia groggily got up and looked around for the dragon.
"Because - "
"Look!" Momiji yelled, cutting Zel off as she pointed out over the water. The tip of a tail had appeared above the top of the water, the end of it crooked at a right angle. As they watched, the tail turned so that the tip of it appeared to be scanning the coastline of the lake.
"It looks similair a periscope, like for a sub, you know." Yoshiki mused, watching it approach as the others scramble about getting their weapons. Everybody except Firia, who already had her mace out, Xeros, who was sitting in a tree and watching everyone else, and Zelgadis, who was simply leaning against a tree nearby the water. Matsudaira stopped suddenly, noticing that Zel wasn't doing anything except watch the tail-tip approach. Before she could say anything though, the tail stopped, and disappeared below the surface, just a few feet from the edge of the lake. Everyone approached the lake edge cautiously, except Zel, who stayed where he was, Kusanagi, who instead perched on a rock overlooking the water to one side, and Momiji, who watched from nearby the fire.
After a few minutes went by with nothing happening, Firia carefully crept up to the lakeside and looked into the lake. She was met with a spray of water in the face as a young man emerged from the lake and spat a mouthful of water at her. She shrieked and swatted at him with the mace, which he just barely dodged. Before anyone could do anything the young man had pounced and knocked Zel over. When the dust had cleared, Zel was lying on his back, minus his cloak, which revealed he was only wearing his pants and boots. The cloak was wrapped around the young man, who was hanging by his tail from a tree branch nearby. Zelgadis simply looked up at the strange young man and said,"You really know how to make and entrance, don't you, Elkin?"
Elkin shrugged. Which looked rather odd, as he was still upside down. "No more than you do, little brother."