Lina Inverse, sorceress supreme, leaned her chair back from the table that she was sharing with her friends at a small country inn. Gourry sat on her left, his head pillowed on his arms as he dozed at the table. Ameria was on her right fiddling with her wrist bands and staring towards the last member of the little party. Zelgadiss' chair was pushed back a little from the table and he was calmly sipping coffee while doing an admirable job of ignoring the rest of the world.
Lina watched everyone for a few more minutes, before drawing a deep breath and blowing it out dramatically. "I'm bored," she announced. "Bored. Bored. Bored."
Gourry lifted his head and blinked at her sleepily. "Why don't you eat something, Lina? That always makes you happy..."
"But we just ate, Gourry!" Lina waved her hand in the direction of the tower of plates that still graced their table.
Gourry tilted his head to follow the gesture and gazed upwards towards the top of the leaning tower. "Oh..." he said softly.
"Well?"
Gourry focused his attention back on her and blinked slowly. "I guess that means that you don't want anything to eat?"
Lina clenched her fists and attempted to count to ten. She only made it to five. She reached over and grabbed a fistful of Gourry's blond hair, pulling his head closer to her so that she could better yell in his ear. "Yes, Gourry! That means that I am NOT hungry, but I'm still BORED!"
"Miss Lina?" Ameria tugged at Lina's cape to get her attention.
"Yes?!" Lina snapped without releasing Gourry.
"If you're bored, Miss Lina, why don't we go smite the evil bandit gangs!" Ameria quickly climbed on top of the table pointing dramatically at the ceiling, her eyes alight with excitement. "In the name of Justice, you can relieve your boredom and stop the tyranny of the icky, evil bandit gangs at the same time!"
Lina made a face, releasing Gourry to grab onto Ameria's cape. "Sit down, Ameria. I don't want to chase any more bandit gangs. We did THAT just the other day. I want to do something different."
Ameria slouched back down in her chair pouting. "Oh," she sighed disappointedly. "There has got to be something that we can do in the name of justice though, right Miss Lina?"
"I'm sure that there is, Ameria, but I couldn't tell you right now what it is." Lina blew her breath out once more and propped her elbows up on the table. "Well, Zel? You have anything to add to this conversation?"
Zel looked up from whatever he had found so interesting in the bottom of his coffee cup. "Perhaps..."
"Well? Let's hear it. I'm all ears!"
"Perhaps it is time to search for what we're missing at this point in our lives..."
"You're not going to get on that 'finding a cure' kick again are you?" Lina asked suspiciously.
Zelgadiss sighed and glared at Lina over the rim of his cup. "Not that, I mean what we're all missing right now."
"What?" Lina paused in thought and realization lit her face. "Oh! That! I get it!" She chuckled gleefully. "I'm all for it. It would certainly be a change of pace, but where should we start?"
Gourry looked at Zelgadiss and then back at Lina. "What are we going to look for, Lina? I'm confused..."
"Don't worry about it, Gourry, I'll explain it to you later. Let's go." Lina jumped cheerily to her feet with a new quest to occupy her she was no longer bored. "You know the drill, Ameria?"
"Right, Miss Lina! I'll go scout ahead!"
"Wait! Ameria!" Lina tried to catch her overenthusiastic friend, but the little bundle of justice had already streaked out the door. "That's not exactly what I meant," she muttered to herself as she started gathering up her stuff. After sending Zel to pick up a few supplies, (she didn't trust Gourry with the task), they were soon ready to set out on their new quest. Of course, it would be best to find Ameria first...
They finally found Ameria a couple miles down the road perched precariously on the top of a towering forest giant. "Ameria!" Lina called.
Ameria turned her head from whatever she had been starring at in the distance to look down at her friends. "Hi, guys!" she yelled waving enthusiastically, unfortunately, a little too enthusiastically. Lina winced at the sound of breaking branches as Ameria exited the tree to rejoin the group a little faster than she might have anticipated. She finally came to a stop on her face a couple feet in front of the rest of the group. "Ouch..." she moaned.
"You okay, Ameria?"
"Ummm, I think so... Oh! Miss Lina! I saw a bunch of evil nasty bandits just a few miles from here, maybe they have what we're looking for in their hoard!"
Lina tapped her chin thoughtfully for a moment. "I guess that's possible. I mean, we have to start looking somewhere for it. I guess that's a good a place as any."
"Yay! We get to go crush the evil bandit gangs! In the name of Justice, let's go get them!" So saying, Ameria set her chin firmly and skipped happily down the road to satisfy the call of Justice.
The rest of the group paused for a moment to look after their chirpy associate. Lina finally sighed and motioned them onward. "Sometimes, that girl really scares me," she muttered.
They finally caught up to Ameria who was standing on a stump (she was still a little sore from her last fall), preaching about Justice to a group of stunned bandits who had no idea what to make of the diminutive princess.
"All right, boys," Lina called cheerily as she readied a fireball, "Ready to fry?"
"Oh yes," the first bandit answered quickly, "Anything to keep from having to listen to her anymore!"
"Yes! Please fireball us, oh, Lina the Bandit Killer!" a second bandit called.
Gourry stared at the groveling bandits eager to be fireballed for a few moments and scratched his head. "You know, Lina, I think they really want you to do it..."
Lina blinked a few times in shock before drawing on her power once more. "Never let it be said that the great and mighty sorceress, Lina Inverse, never gave the crowd what they wanted. FIREBALL!"
A couple of fireballs and a gang of crispy bandits later, it was time to go check in on the bandit's treasure.
"But, Miss Lina," Ameria protested, "I was just getting warmed up!"
Zelgadiss looked at Ameria for a moment and then at the smoking bandits. "I think that they made the right choice," he said.
Ameria pouted, but was happy to lead the way to the treasure room so that they could begin their search.
Later the adventurers were sitting in the bandit's treasure chamber, a huge pile of gold and jewels against one wall and a small pile still in front of them. Lina looked over a large ruby, started to throw it into the 'finished' pile, but changed her mind and tucked it into her cape instead. "Well, that's all of it. We're obviously not going to find what we're looking for here." She dusted her hands off and climbed to her feet.
Gourry sat with his chin cradled in his palm and looked up at Lina. "Lina..."
"Yes, Gourry?"
"What were we looking for again?"
Lina groaned and slapped her hand against her forehead. "Never mind, Gourry. Let's just go."
The gang was still on the road a week later and starting to get discouraged. "If I'd known that this was going to be so hard, I would have just gotten used to being bored," Lina complained. "I'm tired, hungry, and I need to take a bath..."
Zelgadiss sniffed, "I can't argue with you there."
Lina started to raise her hand to retaliate, but then let it fall back to her side. "This is all your fault, Zel. It was your idea after all."
Zelgadiss shrugged his shoulders. "I didn't force you to come along. You wanted someone to give you an idea to relieve your boredom, and I did. You can't blame me."
Lina was trying to determine if she really wanted to follow up on this argument when Gourry announced cheerily from the front. "Look, Lina! It's a peddler! Maybe he has one of those whatever it was you were looking for!"
Lina sighed in frustration. "Gourry, what we are looking for is a rare item that can't be gotten from a peddler! So wise up all ready!"
"But...can't we at least look?" Gourry asked meekly.
"Okay, fine! Look!"
Gourry nodded his head and made his way over to the peddler's wagon. The peddler was happy to set up his wares for the big swordsman to look through. Lina stood several feet back tapping her foot in impatience. "Hey, Lina..."
Lina gritted her teeth. "What is it, Gourry?"
"What's this thing?" Gourry pointed at whatever object was in front of him.
Faintly curious, Lina stepped forward to investigate. Upon seeing what Gourry was referring to her jaw dropped in shock. "It's..."
"It's kinda small isn't it, Lina?" Gourry said poking the object.
"It's...."
"Weak too," he noted.
"It's the..."
"Well, Lina? What is it?"
"It's the plot..." Lina managed before fainting and falling to the ground.
Gourry looked down at Lina's fallen form and then back up at Zel and Ameria. "I guess all this questing is getting to her, huh?"
Zel nodded and smiled faintly. "I don't think that was exactly what she had in mind..."
Ameria fanned Lina until she opened her eyes. "Look on the bright side, Miss Lina. At least we found it by the deadline!"
Lina looked once more at the plot and moaned, "Why me?"