Lina awoke early. She looked out the window of her inn room at a rather sunny day, overlooking the glittering waters of Serpent Lake. She smiled at the many odd birds that flew over the water's surface and yawned, stretching her arms into the air. A loud knocking was heard at her door about a second later.
"Lina! Are you awake?" Lina, still smiling, answered, "Yes, I am. But if you thought I'd still be asleep, why did you knock, Gourry? That would have awoken me, and you'd have been in for a fireballing." She smirked slightly as the blue-clad swordsman entered the room. "Heh, sorry," he apologized, but soon regained his denseness. Looking out the window at the glittering silver waters of the lake, he popped the question, "Was that a whale?" Lina smacked him over the head with her pillow and looked out the window at the surfacing creature, "Gourry, whales aren't that thin." He looked more carefully at the legless water creature, "A dragon?" She hit him again, "It's a serpent! Dragon's aren't usually like..." she got cut off as a creature surfaced again hissing such a large amount of steam that is reached the window and clouded it over. After all, Lina's room wasn't very high up, considering. Lina shrugged, and just then, her stomach gave it's warning, "Well what are we waiting for!? We gotta get outta here and EAT!!" With that, she was a whirlwind, getting her gloves, shoes, and cape one before Gourry could remember anything. Well, it should be compared to something a bit faster, ano? Anyway, she was up and at it, Gourry not so far behind.
In a matter of seconds, the two were down at the just-opening restraunt and began ordering amounts of food that made the cook almost want to cry. In fact, the cooks eyes were tearing after a few minutes, which was about the time Lina cried out, "MORE! MORE FOOD, NOW!" for about the fifth time. After eating her fill, Lina waited a bit longer for Gourry to finish. When he did, she decided to start conversation.
"So Gourry, what will we do this time?" Lina asked. Gourry just sat there blankly. Lina shrugged, "I take that as an "I have no idea whatsoever"." She tapped her fingers on her fork a few times. Gourry finally decided to speak up, "Hey, maybe we can seek out some information," Lina looked at him blankly this time, "And what? Why are you saying this? You can't even remember how you got your Sword of Light back." "Lina let me finish. I was thinking that maybe we seek out some people. I don't know who, but if we find the right people, we might get some information that will give us a reason to have an adventure." Lina tapped her fingers a few times again, "Hmm, I don't see why not now. I'm bored as I could ever be."
Just as Lina was about to stand up, a happy voice yelped out, "Miss Lina! I can't believe you're actually here!" Lina turned around... To see Amelia. Alongside her was a pretty blank Zelgadis. Lina's bored look turned into a smile, "Amelia! Zel! Oh man, I was just thinking about you two." Amelia paused her giddy rush, "Huh? What do you mean?" Lina smiled, "Have a seat and I'll explain." The "Justice Freak" Princess and the stone chimera sat.
"Okay, now that we're all here, we might as well start an adventure." Lina started. Not even two sentences into the conversation, Amelia piped up, "An adventure? What evil must we stop this time?" She started to get hyper. Lina tried to calm her, "I wasn't finished speaking. As I was saying, we will probably go on an adventure. But this time we don't know what to get into. So Gourry suggested to me that we seek out someone to give us a quest. Or at least the information we need to start one. We just don't know where to go." Zelgadis sighed, "Well, I've heard of a large temple built somewhere. It was built in the name of a new Lord. The priests there believe that there is a lord higher than the Lord of Nightmares." Lina looked interested, "More powerful than the LoN? That may be something to look into, and maybe even stop. There is no way there's any Lord that powerful. We might have to persuade the people who started that shrine to take it down. I don't think they want to get killed. Zel, do you know the name of this new "lord"?" Zelgadis shook his head, "I just heard about her. Yes it's another female lord. I just keep hearing people talking about a "She" and "Her", and other stuff."
Amelia looked at Zel, "But don't people refer to the Lord of Nightmares as "She", and "Her" too?" Zel nodded the frowned, "I'm not so sure about the situation myself, but it's a start." Another, seemingly invisible, voice spoke up, and startled the group. It seemed to come from above the entire group, "Perhaps you might be interested in some clues I'd give you. They'll lead to this temple. Would you want to take them?" Lina narrowed her eyes, even though she had a smirk on her face, "You know we don't trust your clues. Most anything you lead us to lines us up for trouble, Xellos..." She said the name rather harshly, as to make sure he knew she knew who he was. The Trickster Priest appeared, floating above the group. He then came to land down by the table, "Augh, how did you know it was me? I mean, I tried to make my voice sound different." He smiled, like usual, and his smile indicated that he was joking.
On the other hand, Zelgadis was NOT happy. "What are YOU doing here, Xellos?" He asked coldly. Xellos continued to grin, "Oh, I know where the temple is. I've wanted to show you guys to it sometime. But, knowing me, I'm not just going to TELL you, am I?" Lina nodded, her face becoming more serious, "Well, are you going to get us to it anyway?" He nodded, "I guess I'll stick with the team until we reach the appointed destination. And now I can bug him," Xellos snickered as he pointed to Zel, who moved out of the way of his pointing finger. Lina turned to him, "Okay, you're in the team. But trust my words, don't you try ANYTHING." Xellos smiled and nodded, "I promise..." Lina grumbled. Knowing that smile, she knew he wouldn't.
The cave was cold. It was cold, and half of it in shadow. Almost the entire cave was made of blue crystal; most of which glowed brilliantly. But other than that, the sparkling jewels would might as well have been ice. Water flowed down the middle of the cavern, so clear it was almost like air. A figure, looking off in this cool environment lurked in the shadows.
"Damn you, Hellmaster," came a barely audible voice from the darkness. The figure was quite a fiery chara. His cold eyes showed hatred. He shivered a bit in the cold. He wasn't used to it, even as heavily clad as he was. The giant red-feathered wings upon his back shuddered involuntarily. His eyes darted left and right, making sure he was well hidden from anyone who would have a chance of seeing him.
Someone was coming...
It was a girl. She looked around sixteen or seventeen. She wore blue and white robes. Her hair was almost to her feet, and of many shades of blue. Each strand of hair a different shade, and an occasional sea green or lavender, which also would differ in shade. The shadowy figure calmed down. In his mind he thought, 'This one won't be a threat. I hope...' He recognized her as a dragon. It wasn't unusual, he had noticed that he was in Kariavax Cave. Cave of high dragons. Meaning this one was of rather high rank. She also seemed familiar, like old family from a life long from gone. He then cursed under his breath at the cold. That was all it took. The girl looked around.
"Is anyone here?" she stepped forward slowly. Her eyes came upon the shadowed figure. "Oh..." she said. She walked towards the figure. "Wha..?" She looked at him. "Are you hurt?" He huffed and nodded. The girl adjusted her robes. "Um, you don't look like you're in a good environment." He knew she noticed his choice of outfit color and perhaps even his red wings. Though, regular Red Dragons had bat-like wings, not feathered. He nodded again. The girl sighed, "Um, I was heading back to a temple that I go to. Would you want to some with me? I'm sure you can get fixed up a bit there." The figure smiled, which he noticed was an odd thing for him to do. He nodded again. She looked behind her, "Okay, come with me..."
Chapter 2 | Fanfiction