Beastmaster was not sleeping. She lay on her enormous bed and wriggled like a frantic child, wrinkling the watered silk sheets until they rustled and sighed, stretching until her joints cracked in protest. Trying to get comfortable in her latest form, she sighed and streched again. It was not as tall or mature as the shape she was used to and the nose was too perky. She had decided to choose a shape that would put Zelgadis and his friends at ease, but like all her other ideas, it did have its drawbacks. Xelas pouted. She just wasn't intimadating anymore, that was it.
Out of habit she turned to a tarnished silver mirror, half hidden by a rotting silk tapesty that had been a birthday gift some five hundred odd years ago. It was placed conveniantly at it's mistress's right hand, and she leaned over to mist it, blowing easily.
Nothing happened.
Xelas wrinkled her nose. "Stop that."
The mirror remained silent.
"I can break you into teensy-weensy pieces, you know. Remember??"
The mirror sighed. "It's not a pleasent memory, mistress."
Xelas cracked her toes with quiet glee. "Why do you think I brought it up??"
"But," the mirror whined, "you can't just ignore protocol, Juuou-sama. Even deities have their guidelines!"
"Damnit!!! I don't wanna do that rigamarole!! It's stupid!!"
"No dice then," the mirror said, smugly content.
"Fine!! Sadist." The mirror hummed happily,.
Beastmaster took a deep breath. "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, I would like to make a call."
"Thank you for using Magic Mirror Communications, where customer satisfaction is our first priority. We remind you that although donations are not required, we suggest it. Please hold."
"@#!^&*%$!!!!!!"
Ameria shivered where she slept, unconciously knotting the blanket in pale fingers, curling into a fetal knot on the floor. Dreaming her mother's death.
She dreamed of the blood, she dreamed her father's heavy face split with grief, and she dreamed her sister's hysterical screams.
In the dream-which was also a memory-she always walked into her sister's room to wake her on the day of the funeral. The humped shape under the covers never moved as Ameria walked towards it.
The dream Ameria pulled at the blankets, and they fell, tumbling gently away with a sound like sobbing and Gracia wasn't under the blanket, only sticks and clothes. Ameria had sobbed in panicked sorrow for a few moments, then curled up where her sister's head would have lain on the pillow, and slept until the King's guards had found her.
The memory ended, but the dream went on. Ameria slept until she was awoken by her sister's special knock on the window, a signal well used from countless secret dates. Sobbing in glad relief, Ameria got up to let her in, unlatching the window, swinging it wide.
Her sister hovered outside, a terrible black shape with wings and claws and a mouth of flame. With a shriek, her sister dove at her, claws wrenching at her hair, and Ameria scrambled away, crying, her soft sobs wetting the pillow with her grief.
Beastmaster swore under her breath as Ameria's weeping came to her ears. First the mirror she had dialed had been busy, leaving her unable to bitch to the person she had wanted to talk to, and now this. Shit, she thought, she'll wake the whole damn island with that noise.
Xelas put a robe over her nightdress, hopped off her bed and went down the hall to Ameria's pallet. The girl was crying in her sleep, one hand curled defensively around her eyes. Xelas prodded her with a bare foot, setting her anklet to jingling. "Come on girl, wake up," she ordered.
Ameria's eyes opened and slowly focused on the Beastmaster. Xelas crouched next to her and put a cool hand on her forehead.
"You had a nightmare," Xelas said mildly, as she fumbled in her robe for the vial she kept there.
"Yes. It was a nightmare," Ameria replied mechanically, eyes marble-glazed and unseeing. Then she blinked and focused on the Beastmaster's loose dress. "That's not modest."
"Of course not. It's much more fun that way," Xelas replied, uncorking the small glass vial, letting the scent of catmint and bittersweet wash over her.
Ameria started up then, letting the blanket fall from her shoulders. "You-"
"Here," Xelas said, jiggling the vial so the heady scent spilled from it like rain, "take a sip." Ameria blinked at her in confusion. Xelas sighed. "Just one little comforting swallow."
"I-"
"Drink," Xelas ordered, pressing the glass to her mouth, making the bitter liquid run over her lips, making her swallow. Soon Ameria's eyes grew heavy and she passively lay down to sleep, curling back into her nest of blankets.
Xelas sighed again, shaking the vial to estimate how much had been used. Damn, she thought, there's so little left. Then she noticed the raven feather that lay next to Ameria's left wrist.
Ahh, she thought. That explains it. Xelas picked the feather up and retied it to the red cord around Ameria's wrist.
Lina sighed, trying to get comfortable against the the tree trunk she had been placed against. Looking at it's spreading branches and arching leaves, she decided it was a Pray-For-All, so named because of it's upright posture, branches lifted like arms beseeching towards the heavens.
Lina frowned, absently tugging a strand of her red-gold hair. Pray-For-Alls were quite rare now, overharvested because their sturdy wood made excellent building material. In fact, they were only supposed to grow in the Southern wilds, near the elven enclaves, where the elves nutured and kept them. She smiled slightly, the corners of her mouths twisting downwards in rememberance. Her sister had drilled every possible bit of botanical infomation into Lina's head that she could during their travels, coming up with a new and creatively twisted way each time to make sure the infomation stuck.
Lina twisted around as best she could trying to see anything through the fog that hovered over the entire land, palling it in soft grey, like fleecy lambswool combed out and left to drift on the breeze. This mess certaintly wasn't the Elflands. Not unless something terrible had happened. She hugged herself, half in fear, half in wonder.
"Yaa, Lina-san!! Look! I found something nice for you."
Lina rose up like a startled bird coaxed to flight. Xelloss was standing behind her, cradling something in his arms, smiling beatificly down at her.
"YOU LOUSY TOOTHLESS VIPER!!!! DON'T SCARE ME LIKE THAT!!!!!!"
"A thousand pardons, Lina-san," Xelloss said easily, the corners of his smile twisting slightly as he did. He seated himself next to her, unwrapped the bundle and presented it to her. Lina squealed, picked up as much of the fish as she could fit in her hands and began chewing ravenously, only stopping to flick the bones out.
"Ahh, Lina-san, I think I know what the problem with your legs is."
Lina stopped chewing for a moment, and swallowed. "What??"
Xelloss traced the outline of her legs with his staff, poking her in the back of her knee with the pointed end.
"There's a remnent of a spell wrapped around your legs, preventing your usage of them. Probably a fragment of the spell that brought you here, clinging still because it finds your energy so nice. May I?"
It took a moment for Lina to understand. "Don't get fresh."
Xelloss bowed, his smile hooking up at the ends like a child's. He placed himself at her feet, wrapping his hands around them and began tugging at an invisible something, unwrapping it like yarn. Lina frowned and sat up as best she could, watching him. He lifted her foot, and continued to work, his fingers darting in and out of sight like birds, and an amazing thing happened.
As he finished with her foot, she could feel his fingers there. She could wiggle her toes. She could move!!! Xelloss smiled. "Better?" he asked.
Lina nodded dumbly, half willing to throw her arms around him and weep in sloppy gratitude. His hands went up her leg, tugging and more of her leg would move. One leg was free, and he started on the other, faster now. A few brief tugs and then he stopped.
"See, Lina-san just this one piece, and you'll be able to walk again. Isn't that nice?" Xelloss said, cupping his hand around a transparent nothing halfway up her leg.
Lina stared hard at what his hand was wrapped around. "Where?"
"Right here, of course," Xelloss said, tugging at it enthusiastically. "Don't you see it?"
"No."
Xelloss stopped and looked up at Lina's face, a strange terrible wonder slowly emerging on his features. Lina looked at her leg, then at Xelloss's face, startled. His eyes were wide open, the whites showing all around the violet irises.
"Wha..what is it?? Stop that. I don't like it," Lina said, her voice trembling.
Xelloss looked down again and tugged until the strand was gone, smiling softly, swearing gently under his breath. Done, he stood up, picked Lina up in one move, and stood her on her feet.
"Lina-san, if you would be so kind as to cast something for me?" Xelloss said lightly, his brow wet with perspiration.
Lina stood up, her legs weak from unuse, put her hands in front of her, trembling. "FIREBALL!!"
Nothing happened.
"Try again, please," Xelloss said softly, his knuckles white where he gripped his staff.
"LIGHTNING!!"
"It's not that time of the month, is it," Xelloss said, not a question.
Lina's mouth was dry, her throat aching. Water, she thought, I need water or I'm going to die.
She shoved Xelloss aside, heard a soft protest as her elbow slammed into his stomach, and ran, stumbling over tree roots and rocks, stumbling, crawling, half blinded with tears till she found a stream and thrust her face into the water, to cry softly for a long time before she could drink.