"Are you really going to go? Is that what you truly wish?"
Zelgadiss floated there in the expanse of his dream. It was strange, this dream, nothing like the ones he was accustomed to. The nightmares of despair, self-loathing, anger, those were less frequent now than before but they still came at low points in his life. He couldn't really recall having any nice dreams though and what was happening now could have been classified as one of those except for the uneasiness sitting like a rock in his stomach.
"To go with him..."
Who was this? Zel couldn't place the voice but it had to be someone he knew if he was hearing it in his dream. Not Amelia, the voice was older than her. There was something lingering in its tone, something regal and firm. Cross off Sylphiel. Filia was older, she was probably old enough to be his grandmother twice over at least, but she didn't sound old. Then there was the yearning and melancholy entwined through the words and tone. One by one, Zel eliminated all of his female acquaintances as being the owner of the voice, a task that didn't take much time.
"The world outside is colder and harsher than home. I did not wish for any of you to suffer from it so I brought you here. I love you dearly."
"I have no idea who you are," Zelgadiss grumbled, not really expecting an answer even if this was his dream. It was his dream right? He hadn't heard of anyone being able to cross over into other people's dreams. That would be quite embarrassing. "At the very least you could try giving me a hint regarding your identity."
"So much, that I cannot deny you anything."
The speaker hadn't heard him. Zel wondered how he could wake himself up and get out of this. Listening to ghostly voices of unknown origin was not part of his idea of a good night's sleep. Especially since tonight, it had taken him a very long time just to fall asleep.
"The memories of me, of here, of everything you've seen and done since coming here..."
Something began to glow before him. Zelgadiss wasn't sure this was a good thing but as it was the only thing that had been happening since he 'woke up' in this dream, he cautiously waited for whatever it was to happen. If it was his dream, he could probably cancel out any negative effects. He hoped.
"You must forget it all..."
Part of the glow reached out a tendril, thinning out to form the slender pale, and glowing, arm of such form to indicate a female owner. Not that that was any surprise to him. The level of detail of the arm was amazing, in Zelgadiss's opinion, allowing him to see even the palm lines of the hand that stretched toward him. There were no calluses on the fingers, indicating someone who did not engage in manual labor.
Another tendril/hand had stretched out to him as he studied the first one. Still undecided on how to react to this, his subconscious was making one very weird dream, he didn't flinch as the glowing hands brushed his face. A deathly numbness tingled at the spot where they touched, and it spread as the hands moved down to grasp his shoulders.
"Let me embrace you one last, final time."
Okay, now this was definitely not in the script. He wanted to protest but his lips refused to move. In fact, not a single part of his body responded to his mental demands, numb and rigid, as they were made by this...this...thing's icy touches.
"You will remain in my heart. Always."
Zel's mind shifted to hyper-panic mode as the glowing arms, wrapped around his neck, pulled him closer to where he guessed the 'face' must be. But he couldn't see it, the face; only the increasing intensity of this...ghost's glow. The cold around his neck sharpened to that of ice shards, cutting across it as if it was normal skin and not enchanted stone.
Oh gods, he couldn't see the face but he was certain beyond anything else in his life that he was about several millimeters away from being kissed. Wake up NOW!!!
His eyes snapped open into a dark expanse. Panic gripped him, as he feared that he was still in that dream but slowly shadows and substance began to separate. Zelgadiss sighed in relief. He was awake, laying on his bedroll in the campsite they had made earlier tonight. Or was that yesterday? He didn't care, as long as he was out of that dream.
"Something wrong?" asked a voice from across the small clearing. Sitting with her back against a tree with her cape wrapped tightly around her was Lina. Did she know he was awake? "And if you try to pass off that you're asleep, I'll throw a rock at you."
He had no doubt she would do exactly that but a small pebble wasn't really going to hurt him much. A sweatdrop formed and froze stiff to the side of his head as he looked at the Lina-sized boulder the sorceress was holding easily over her head.
"I'm awake, I'm awake!"
Lina blinked and then grinned. "Okay."
"If it's okay, then put that rock down."
She dropped it to a side, proving that their two other companions were so far into dreamland that only a major earthquake could wake them up. That or Lina dropped a Sleep spell on them.
"I just had some neck cramps from laying in the wrong position," Zel shrugged, not wanting to tell Lina he just woke up from a scary dream. And what he said wasn't entirely untrue, as he noticed now that his neck and shoulders were feeling rather stiff and sore. Maybe it was because of the early winter chill.
He could hear her snort and then the rustle and breaking of half-frozen grass as she got up and carefully made her way over to his bedroll. She had better not be coming over to offer him a massage but it would be like her to try and test him to see if he was telling the truth. Though how she planned to see if he had knotted muscles when his skin was all stone he had no idea.
"You looked pretty comfortable from where I was sitting even without that bedroll-warming spell I used on Gourry and Amelia. Tonight is rather cold. Let me take a look."
She was trying to catch him in a lie, he could just tell by the knowing look on her face. There was no harm in letting her look since he really couldn't find a comfortable sleeping position now, finally noticing the cold. Sitting up, Zel debated on exactly how to accomplish the 'let me take a look' order.
"Take off your shirt. The enchanted gem on my dagger should give enough illumination for me to examine your 'neck cramp'," Lina smirked, pulling out said dagger and whispering the words to activate the enchantment.
"Of all people, I never expected you to be the one who wanted me to take off my shirt." Zelgadiss purposely added a suggestive tone to cover his uneasiness at revealing his chimeric body to even a friend. Besides, he wanted to get back at Lina for enjoying this way too much. And from the rising pink on her face, his jab had hit home. Pulling off his shirt, Zel hissed as his shoulders screamed and it felt like he had to rip his shirt away from them.
"Sounds like you got some real bad...cramps..." Lina stared at his left shoulder.
"What?" The chimera asked irritably. If she was setting him up for some joke...
"Let me see your other shoulder," she said steadily even as she moved her light to illuminate his right side. Zel himself couldn't see what she was looking at, not without a mirror at least, and her behavior was either annoying or worrying him. "...cramps you said?"
"Yes, cramps. So I probably hunched over while I was asleep. What about them?"
Lina looked at him and pulled out a hand mirror. Her eyes dared him to make a comment about her carrying something like that on her person but he wisely kept his tongue still. Taking the mirror and letting Lina handle the illumination, Zel took a look at his 'cramps'.
"..."
"Alright Zel, now tell me the truth about how you got your 'cramps'."
The area around his neck, and parts of his shoulders near there, was covered with a thin layer of frost. Some of which had managed to get a foothold inside of his stone skin, splitting it and causing blood to die the otherwise colorless crystals of water red.
"...frost bite?" The chimera feebly tried to joke. It was a better answer than saying the person in his dream did it and he wasn't even sure about that.
Lina gave him an exasperated look. It was cold, she hated cold, and she had pulled the watch shift in the coldest portion of the night. It was colder than usual so none of them were particularly prepared for the chill. And here, Mister Wiseguy Chimera was joking around.
She was tempted to hit him.
But she had a better idea.
She blew a breath of hot air across the frost.
Some of it melted and Zelgadiss winced, much to her satisfaction, as the icyness touched the open cracks. If it wasn't already so cold, his glare would have caused a temperature drop. Lina only grinned cutely as she took out a handkerchief and pressed it down on the ice.
"Hey, it's has to melt before I can heal it."
"But you don't need to press so hard," Zelgadiss grumbled, not comfortable with sitting shirtless in the middle of the night while it was cold enough to make your breath visible. Lina being so close to him wasn't helping matters either.
"Unless you have a quicker way of getting you thawed out..." Lina entertained thoughts of popping a Fireball on him. The frost would be gone along with just about everything else on him. An evil grin danced on her lips, almost making her forget about the cold.
The chimera swallowed nervously, hoping that Lina wasn't thinking what her grin looked like she was thinking which would be what he was thinking. His idea of getting warmed up didn't involve the use of a spell. He just fixed his eyes on his lumpy bedroll and muttered, "Thanks."
The next day, everyone was in agreement that it was no longer the time to spend nights sleeping outside on the ground. They made all haste to the nearest signs of civilization. That turned out to be a bandit hole, which Lina made all warm and toasty after evicting its previous tenants. It snowed for the next two days. As soon as there was a break, they hurried to the next sign of civilization, a small village called Empyrean.
"Lucky! I'm starved!" Lina cheered, making a beeline to the nearest building showing any signs that it served consumables. Amelia and Gourry were right behind her when she suddenly stopped. They of course blew by her in the rush for food and warmth.
"What? You suddenly lost your appetite?" Zelgadiss asked, bringing up the rear as always. He resisted the urge to touch his neck even though the wound was long gone thanks to Lina's spell and the dream did not come again during the nights after. For some reason, he couldn't stop dwelling on it.
Lina shook her head, still studying the lightly dusted, sparkling white throughway. This wasn't a large town, perhaps more on the order of a large village. The taverns and inn probably only saw and catered to the townspeople on a daily basis. It was a very sleepy town as well considering how empty this street was.
"Lina-san! Zelgadiss-san! Hurry up!" Amelia called from the warm doorway of the inn before slamming the door shut to conserve heat. She was all for justice and friendship but that was no excuse to let in the cold.
"You heard her. Let's go." Zel nudged Lina forward before walking past her. Funny. She was usually the first one to get out of the cold but here she was just standing with a large sack of loot on her back, staring at nothing.
"Where are the children?"
"Where are the children?" Lina asked again, this time out loud and to all present though it was directed mainly toward the innkeeper's wife Beatrice. The inn was run entirely by one family, something Lina kind of liked because those places always had a nice homey feeling, but there seemed to be something missing behind the smiles, something heavy in the steps. "It's the first snow and even if it's cold, I know I always wanted to play in the first snow of the year."
Zelgadiss sipped from his cup. Was that why she had spent the rest of the afternoon inside the inn just staring out of the window facing the street? There was obviously no one outside and he thought little of it. He did wonder though why Lina had noticed it and for that matter, was even concerned.
"Perhaps they all caught colds?" Amelia guessed, holding a steaming mug of apple cider. She stirred it with a stick of cinnamon. "Not that there is enough snow outside to make even a snowball."
"I like making snowmen actually," spoke up Gourry before he bit off the head of a gingerbread man. The rest of the 'man' disappeared just as quickly. The fate of his friends didn't look too bright.
Beatrice's dark green eyes darkened even more under a heavy brow, as if she holding a painful anxiety. She seemed to be making a difficult decision. Finally, the plump woman let out a sigh.
"I didn't want to burden guests with our troubles but we so rarely get travelers here, travelers such as yourselves, that I can only think that you must be a godsend." Having clarified absolutely nothing so far, Beatrice bowed her head to Lina. "Please, you have to help us!"
The foursome looked at her.
"H-Hey, auntie, no need to go around bowing to us and all," Lina stammered, embarrassed by this sudden display. "Why don't you sit down and actually tell us what's going on since it's obvious something."
Beatrice wiped her eyes on the edge of her apron, taking the seat Gourry courteously pulled out for her. "I'm sorry, this is all so sudden. I probably should have spoken with everyone else first, at least the village head, before making such a request of you. But...I'm just so worried!"
"You haven't made a request yet."
Lina stepped down hard on the inconsiderate chimera's foot, only earning pain for herself. Trying to conceal her wince of pain, Lina smiled reassuringly to the matron. "It has something to do with the children? Or just your son especially?"
"How did you know I have a son??" Beatrice asked, her jaw dropping open. Zelgadiss, Amelia, and Gourry held identical expressions of surprise.
"I saw the picture." The sorceress pointed to the painting over the roaring fireplace, showing the innkeeper, Beatrice, and a young boy with brown hair and green eyes.
"Oh, yes, of course. Yes, that is my son Daniel. He's missing. I haven't seen him since I tucked him in two days before. And he isn't the only one, children have been disappearing since the day before my Daniel did. This is usually a very safe and quiet town but we don't know what to do about this. The children just disappear from wherever anyone has seen them last."
Now Beatrice broke out into tears and hysterics, necessitating for her husband to come out and apologize for her behavior, too much stress and anxiety, as he took her to their back rooms. The foursome remained sitting there quietly, still a bit hazy on what exactly was going on.
"So then her request must be to find the missing children," Amelia spoke up finally. That cued everyone else to try to ignore the muffled sounds of Beatrice's sobbing. "This is terrible, all of those poor children."
"I'll assume you want to take it."
"Of course, Zelgadiss-san. The heart of love and justice cannot sit idly by while mothers' are crying for their missing children! Who knows what kind of foul monster has spirited them away? They could be eaten or forced to work in slave mines or..."
"But she didn't mention anything about payment," Lina interrupted, leaning back in her chair and closing her eyes. Her arms were folded behind her head. "This isn't a big place nor does it get much outside business, they probably wouldn't be able to scrap together a lot. You can't make a living by working at your own expense."
"Lina-san, that's horrible! Selling off the lives of others for your own benefit! Why that's -- "
Lina opened one eye and put a finger on Amelia's lips. "Rude to interrupt. Let me finish first, okay? You can't make a living off of charity but a little freebie here and there can't hurt. That and it does boost up my reputation so it's not like I'm gaining nothing at all."
Amelia blinked and the quickly threw out Lina's selfish reason for taking Beatrice's request. It was how she could keep justifying to herself why she stayed with Lina. "I knew the way of justice would reach you, Lina-san! Now let's go find those missing children!"
"Oi, hold up, Amelia!" Lina held the overeager princess back by the arm. It was already dark outside thanks to the shortened daylight hours of winter. "The only thing you may find out there right now is a cold, or maybe pneumonia. We'll start looking first thing in the morning, when there's light to actually do any looking around in."
"What's this 'we'?" Zelgadiss asked, already knowing the answer.
"Naturally you and Gourry are going to be helping too," Lina said sweetly, way too sweetly. "Someone has to protect the delicate maidens and helpless children from whatever monster or twisted freak that's out there."
Zel caught Gourry's eye and the swordsman just shrugged. That was always the way, wasn't it? If you didn't want to do what Lina wanted, you leave. Unfortunately, the longer he stayed around her, the less inclined he was toward heading off on his own.
Zel's footsteps slowly crunched the light layer of snow as he walked through the newly blanketed land. Small piles of snow kept piling up on his cloak before they fell in a clump to the ground as he would move to pull his hood close even tighter to futilely keep out the icy chill wind. Snowflakes slowly drift from the cloudy sky.
Why did this look so familiar? This landscape.
The last time he had seen snow that had been at the temple of the Ancient Dragons. But that had been a rocky, mountainous area full of death. This place was flat, and white, as far as the eye could see. Though there was something similar between here and the mass graveyard of Ancient and Gold dragons alike.
Zel sighed, watching his breath form into a small cloud of vapor before dispersing into the air. Wintertime was not a time that he particularly enjoyed at all. The cold and barren look of the land was bitter reflection, except that he would never flourish into spring. He was condemned to live in an endless winter devoid of life and warmth.
He stopped to look back on his path, the footprints of one person clearly outlined in the new snow, soon to be covered over as if they never even existed. Was that his fate? Neither loved nor remembered...
"You will remain in my heart. Always."
It was that voice again. But was it really speaking or simply a memory within a dream? Was it a memory? For the life of him, he couldn't tell. There was no connection to anything since the time he met Rezo.
How naive he had been then. If only he had known what Rezo was planning, what Rezo would do, he would never have left.
Left...?
Zelgadiss paused, confused by his own words. 'Left' would imply that there was a place he was leaving but he couldn't recall a place that he was leaving in order to go with Rezo. Perhaps he was overanalyzing, it was common for children to not remember their early memories.
But how old had he been then?
Ten wasn't it?
As in answer to his questions, an illusion appeared in the wintry landscape, of the Red Priest Rezo agreeing to take this scrawny boy of ten with him. Zelgadiss knew it was impossible to try to stop the boy, this was only a memory, not some window into the past, but he took a step toward it anyway.
Something snapped beneath his feet.
Snow doesn't snap.
The chimera took a step and looked down. There in the imprint of this foot was a broken white feather.
"You must forget it all..."
Zelgadiss woke up. Faint crisp cold sunlight was streaming through the rough curtains that covered the window. They all had their own rooms since they were the only guests at the inn. He lay there in bed, staring at the wooden ceiling as he re-oriented himself.
"Another strange dream...?"
At least this one didn't have that ghost with the frost bite touch even if he did hear the haunting voice again. Just what was going on with him? And why was he even awake?
Judging by the light, it was barely dawn. Not that he was an early riser or anything but he had the distinct impression that he was woken up because of something.
Well, the inn wasn't burning down around his ears nor were there the sounds of ravenous stomachs threatening to shake down the building, so it wasn't any of his...companions. Just what had woken him up then?
Resigned to the fact that he was not going back to sleep, not with his mind in this state of hyperactivity, Zelgadiss got out of bed. A very small part of his mind mentioned it was thankful that the tough, stone skin kept them from suffering from the hopping disease of foot-meets-cold-floor.
To get a better gauge of what time it was, the chimera pulled open the curtain and pushed out the glass paneled windows. And was almost beaned in the head when a large clump of snow fell off from the roof above.
"Must have been another heavy snow fall last night..." He trailed off, his eyes fixated by a slowly drifting object before his window. It was a white feather like from his dream, except that this one was still whole. On its own, his hand reached out and grabbed it. "Just where..."
Zelgadiss's eyes traveled down to the ground below. There, half buried in the pile of snow that had nearly hit the chimera, was an unconscious boy, white-feathered wings on his back.