To Live Another Day 96

Slayers: Alive

Episode 096: Ferocious! The Cunning Wolf's Den

The fear of Luna had pushed Lina to the brink of insanity. When her chance to win back Luna's good favor was taken away by Zelas, Lina's wrath knew no reason. It didn't matter if Zelas was a monster lord who could kill her on the spot. Lina had faced monster lords and lived to tell the tale before, without the scars of mental trauma. Luna was another story; Lina had an absolute fear of her that she didn't feel towards anything or anyone else, not even Zelas.

"Lina, don't pick a fight!" Zelgadis urged, but his plea fell upon deaf ears.

"Miss Lina, you can't win against Miss Zelas!" Amelia insisted.

"They're right Lina. All of this is very confusing, but you can't pick a fight with a monster lord just because her pet got into mischief!" Gourry had forgotten about Zelas' alternate kitten form, not surprising given the usual span of his memory, which only went beyond its limits in a few rare occasions. Instead, he concluded that Zelas came into the conversation so suddenly because the kitten belonged to her.

"She ruined my chance to show Luna I'm behaving!" Lina screamed with an absolute raging fury. Nothing is worse than Luna's anger, not even a monster lord! You'll pay for this, Zelas Metallium!" In her state of panicked fury, Lina didn't even reason that using black magic on a monster lord was not very effective. She only acted automatically and summoned her usual temper tantrum spell. "Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows!"

"Stop!" Zelgadis protested to no avail.

"Buried in the stream of time is where your power grows!" Lina furiously continued.

"Miss Lina, you mustn't do this! Mr. Gourry, please stop her!" Amelia pleaded.

"I pledge myself to conquer all the fools who stand before the mighty gift bestowed in my unworthy hands!" It didn't look like Lina had any intentions of stopping. "Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed by the power you and I possess!" At a loss for what to do, Gourry kissed Lina, hoping that it would distract her from her rage. Much to his surprise, she actually kissed him back, more fiercely than ever before. But she suddenly parted from him and shouted out "Dragon Slave!" Then she pressed her lips against Gourry's again, blinded by her mix of panic and wrath.

A brilliant flash of light invaded their vision, but they felt no pain despite being right in the middle of the out of control Dragon Slave and having no time to run for cover. Lina was still desperately clinging to Gourry, while he could do nothing more than respond to her unexpected affections. Amelia and Zelgadis saw the ruins of the restaurant, not a single dish, or piece of furniture, or wall for that matter, was left unbroken. Then it was all gone, the scene before them disappeared and was replaced by something else.

xoxox xox xoxox

At Zelas' secret palace in Wolf Pack Island, Xellos was in his room, staring up at the near-black dark purple ceiling, surrounded by walls of a ligther purple and a plush purple carpet on the floor. The room was a place to keep things rather than a place to reside. There was a large bed that served mostly as a decoration because he needed no sleep as a monster, albeit it was actually being used as a place to rest at the moment. It was big and soft, covered in purple sheets with a multitude of purple pillows. Yet despite how nice and comfy it was, Xellos couldn't get to sleep. He had dispelled the lighting and the whole chamber was shrouded in darkness. Even so, he glanced at the many book shelves and mentally went over the titles of the tomes housed in them, wondering if he should try reading a little to pass the time.

Xellos sat up and created a new orb of light that floated above his head, illuminating the room. Now that he took a better look at it, there was really little there to be seen in comparison to its size. The room looked empty, but it somehow gave it more elegance with a lack of clutter, though Xellos had never paid it any mind before. He was only there for very short periods of time to drop something off or get something he had previously put away, usually a rare magic book, but even those occasions were rare. His stomach growled loudly, reminding him that he had a human body to feed and that's when a troubling thought invaded Xellos to sit alongside the troubling thought of Filia acting rationally and not rushing into danger for a seemingly hopeless cause, thus failing the test of loyalty set up by Beast Master. What in the world was he supposed to eat?

Zelas had no food supplies that Xellos knew of, aside from what she kept in her private kitchen that he was banned from entering. He ruined it one too many times with his volatile culinary experiements and Zelas insisted that the place never smelled right again. Yet there were wolves on the island, actual wolves of flesh and bones that needed real food to survive. They probably hunted the animals on the island's surface, so what was stopping him from doing the same? Just because Filia always said he was a disaster in the kitchen, it didn't need to be true. Hot sauce pranks aside, he could be a decent, maybe even a good, cook, perhaps even a great cook if he really tried. Or at least that's what Xellos thought; albeit he would soon find out that he was terribly mistaken.

Xellos glanced at the small wolf cub he had very recently decided to keep as a pet. "We're going up to the surface of the island to hunt down some groceries." The little wolf eagerly followed him.

xoxox xox xoxox

When the colors of the world around Amelia, Zelgadis, Lina and Gourry, stopped spinning, they found themselves in an elegant palace of ivory and gold. There stood Zelas in her elf-like form. This time her hair was a pale orange at the crown, fading to blond and finally to silvery white. Her eyes were silver, with long pupils that reflected amusement. Her sleeveless dress held its usual style in a pale pink-peach fabric that accentuated her tan, the long skirt slit on either side up to her thighs. She was wearing jewelry as usual, long chains twisting around her arms fading from yellow gold to white gold. "Your chaotic feelings are so delicious, I had to bring some home to share." Zelas grinned her mocking little grin that reminded Lina of Xellos.

"Home?" Amelia questioned in worry. "Do you mean your headquarters?"

"Yes, you may call this place that," Zelas smiled in anticipation waiting for the amusing reaction that was no doubt soon to come.

Zelgadis' eyes shone with Amelia's determination as she went on with her justice speech. "We have infiltrated the stronghold of evil and now we shall bring justice to it!"

"Infiltrated?" Zelas questioned curiously.

"Kind of..." Amelia conceded.

"I really don't think this is a very good time to be fighting for justice." Zelgadis tried to inject some logical thinking into the situation. "This is the lair of a monster lord, we can't win. We're in a terrible situation here."

"We're in a perfect situation here!" Lina exclaimed, taking everyone by surprise.

"Poor Miss Lina," Amelia frowned through Zelgadis' features, assuming that the extreme fear and anger had made poor Lina lose her mind. The princess felt terribly guilty about it.

"This is Beast Master's lair; Luna will never come looking for me here!" Lina finally breathed easy. Sure she had been angry at Zelas for putting her in the path towards the receiving end of Luna's wrath, but if Zelas provided protection from Luna, then Lina could forgive her. Besides, Lina was starting to come back to her senses and remembering that if she made Zelas truly angry, she would be dead.

"If you wish to stay here, you'll have to work for it." Zelas warned with a cunningly plotting look. "I'll tell my monsters not to harm you, but you must do your job well."

"Fine," Lina knew she had no choice but to agree. Greed aside, she also knew that asking for a monetary reward was probably pushing her luck too far. Besides, there was no better reward than being safe from Luna anyway. "What do we have to do?" Since this set of chores wasn't going to be done for a sort of redemption, then there was no reason why Lina shouldn't try to dump the work, or at least part of it, on everyone else.

"Take care of the young wolves. The adults have been possessed by lesser monsters and are off terrorizing human villages." Zelas explained, particularly enjoying the indignation coming from Amelia. "Due to that, the cubs have no one to turn to and need to be fed. Basically, all you need to do is baby-sit a bunch of puppies, easy, right?"

"Nothing's ever easy when it comes to a Metallium," Lina ascertained. "Nonetheless, you can leave the cubs to us."

"How cooperative. Oh and by the way, here," Zelas snapped her finger but no obvious changes occurred. "The cubs are in the inner yard just down this hallway. You'd best not wander around, I cannot guarantee your safety if you do." Zelas disappeared, leaving a heavy feeling of foreboding behind.

A short moment of silence passed as a mischievous grin invaded Lina's face. "I wonder what kinds of treasures and magical devices there are here?"

"Miss Lina!" Amelia scolded, realizing that her voice was indeed her own. She looked at Zelgadis, seeing him from her own perspective now.

At the same time, the same realization reached Zelgadis, "we're cured!"

"Yes!" Amelia cheered. "Maybe Zelas isn't so bad after all, at least she changed us back." 'There might be hope to convince her to agree to Xellos and Filia's wedding after all!' Amelia mused.

Zelgadis' relief was short lived, as his mind came up with a disturbing theory. "What if the only reason Zelas changed us back was because she has something much more troublesome in store for us?" Interrupting his own line of speech, Zelgadis turned his head suddenly, which was actually his own head now, to gaze behind the group, to where Lina was trying to tiptoe away down the opposite end of the hallway. "Gourry, I think Lina is tired, why don't you carry her? Keep her out of trouble while you're at it." The chimera helpfully suggested.

"Sure!" smiling as if he had no idea how dangerous that place was, and he probably didn't, Gourry picked up Lina.

"Put me down! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity! I want the treasures! I need them!" Lina struggled and tried to break free of Gourry's grasp.

It was true that Gourry wasn't exactly an expert on the current happening, or an expert on anything aside from swordsmanship, eating and Lina, but even so, he was still human. He still had a natural survival instinct that pushed his normal capabilities past their limit in cases of emergency. Thus, after much careful deliberation, Gourry reached several conclusions. "This place belongs to Zelas," he made his opening statement by reciting the obvious. "Zelas is a monster lord, she's strong and dangerous. The treasure here belongs to Zelas too. It's a bad idea to steal from someone strong and dangerous."

"Or from anyone at all," Amelia corrected. "It's unjust to steal, but I do agree with Mr. Gourry in that this time it's a particularly bad idea. This robbery would be much worse than any other robbery, not because Zelas doesn't deserve it, but because she would kill us."

Lina crossed her arms and pouted, still in Gourry's arms. "Fine, fine, I'll behave!"

xoxox xox xoxox

"Aw, you're so cute!" Amelia squealed for what felt like the millionth time. She found it hard to believe that those adorable little wolf cubs that were still so small they had to be fed milk in a bottle would one day be terrorizing random human, and likely also elf, villages. The chamber containing the inner yard was large and spacious with various forms of vegetation that were not plastic present there, consisting mostly of beautiful poisonous flowers. This was Zelas' place, so it was fitting.

"I can't believe we're doing this," Zelgadis frowned as he pried another little wolf cub off his arm. "Why do I get stuck with the ones that are teething?"

"Because your skin is the most durable out of all of us." Lina pointed out as a matter of fact. She too, like Amelia and Gourry, was cradling a wolf cub in her arms, feeding it with a bottle. The wolves came in all colors, and though they were all young cubs, they were not all newborns, though most of them were. They came in all imaginable shades of gray and brown, black, white, red-ish, yellow-ish and so on.

The door to the inner yard was suddenly opened with a familiar person making his way in. Xellos had to pause and stare at the scene before him. "What are you doing here?" He wasn't sure if he should be glad or worried. Then again, if this was some sort of insane mission to 'rescue' him devised by Filia, why would her 'troops' be sitting around taking care of the wolf cubs instead of sneaking around trying to find him?

"We're babysitting, what's it look like?" Lina pointed out. She was quickly being tired out by the chores. Sure, the pups were kind of cute, but there were so many of them wanting her attention at the same time that it was starting to get on her nerves.

"Is there a reason for that?" Xellos inquired curiously.

"Zelas is protecting Lina from Luna," Gourry pointed out with a smile. He was proud of himself for being able to remember what was going on and accurately explain it.

Lina shuddered at the reminder, "let's not talk about Luna. Maybe if I lay low here for a while, she'll forget about me... I hope."

"Mr. Xellos..." Amelia wasn't going to reveal more than those around her already knew out of respect for Filia, but she had to have at least a silent conversation with Xellos about the situation. "Have you spoken to Miss Filia lately?" The princess hinted.

"Not really," Xellos admitted with a hint of something in his eyes. Amelia thought it was hope, but it was so well hidden she wasn't even sure. "Did she come along with you and stupidly wondered off?"

"No," Amelia replied somewhat flatly. "Miss Filia isn't here."

"I see..." A hint of disappointment escaped him. Xellos wondered just how much the group knew about his situation with Filia. Amelia seemed to be informed, but her relative silence as if wanting to communicate without revealing a secret made him conclude that the others were not necessarily fully informed about the latest happenings of his personal life. Not that it was any of their business anyway, but even Xellos had grown used to being in nosy company.

"Are you here to help take care of the wolf cubs?" Lina being Lina, was eager to recruit another person to dump work on. The more people were working as a team, the less she would have to do herself.

"What's in the tray?" Zelgadis suspiciously inquired, eyeing the covered tray that Xellos held. "Something you cooked?" He inferred from the fact that Xellos was wearing a purple apron with a picture of a little yellow chick on the front and a bandana of matching colors to keep his hair out of the way.

"Yes, I was going to prepare a meal for myself, but I don't have much of an appetite so I tried to give the food to my pet." Xellos looked around until he spotted his little pet shyly peeking into the inner yard chamber from the door. The little wolf cub had yellow fur that was lighter around her face, chest and stomach and bright blue eyes. She looked like she was waiting to take cover for some reason. "The little ingrate didn't want it, so I told her I was giving the food to her siblings and cousins instead. There's no use in letting a masterpiece go to waste. Now that you're here, maybe you can have some too." Xellos' hand hovered over the rounded metal cover that kept the contents of the plate in his hands hidden from view.

"No thanks," Amelia tried to sound as polite as possible.

"I'm not hungry either," Zelgadis agreed.

"Same here," Lina refused as well. She had a huge appetite, but she knew that if worse came to worst, starving was a much more pleasant option that attempting to stomach Xellos' cooking.

"I'll have some," Gourry stupidly volunteered himself. He didn't really understand why Lina would refuse food, but he was about to realize her reasons when Xellos revealed his dish. The scent that invaded the atmosphere was terribly unpleasant at best.

The dish appeared to be some kind of steak, although were it came from was anyone's guess. It was part burned and part raw with a foul scent all around it. Mutants were rather hard to cook, but Xellos thought he did pretty well for this being his first time making a roasted mutant animal steak. Honestly, he couldn't even tell what the mutant most resembled.

"On second thought, I'm not really hungry after all." Gourry quickly changed his mind, unable to resist the urge to cover his nose. The wolf cubs around them, that had an acute sense of smell, began to whine and cover their noses with their little paws. Some darted away further into the inner yard, while others hid behind their caretakers, giving them little shoves with their tiny paws, indicating that they should do something about this.

"Fireball!" Lina blasted the so called steak with a well aimed fireball that left Xellos holding a plate of ashes instead. The little wolf cubs gratefully gathered around their red haired savior, licking her and cuddling her.

The former monster frowned. "That was very rude of you, Lina."

"It was ruder of you to try to cook. Your cooking skills are an offense to food!" Lina scolded. "Besides, what was that thing supposed to be anyway? Some kind of roasted meat? It looked like it came from some kind of mutant creature!"

"It did come from a mutant creature," Xellos confirmed. "Don't you know that mutated creatures are considered delicacies in some countries?" Xellos guessed that they must have been brought directly inside if they had no chance to have a look around the surface of the island and notice the abundance of weird beasts.

Lina twisted her nose to the side in disgust. "Not in the country where I was born." At least she hoped not.

Since the danger was apparently gone, the little wolf that accompanied Xellos walked past the door to the inner yard and went to sit by his side. Having a better look at her, since she wasn't hiding in the hallway anymore, the group noticed that the little wolf had a purple bow around her neck and another smaller pink bow tied around the end of her tail. Before anyone could comment that Xellos' pet reminded them of Filia, or inquire about her name, another person entered the inner yard.

The new arrival walked a few steps inside the large chamber, standing there looking dangerously imposing. Her hair of deep purplish-crimson created a sinister shadow over her eyes as she threateningly voice one name. "Lina..."

Lina's face grew pale, her eyes wide, her mouth ajar. Her whole body trembled. "Lu... Lu... Lu..." This wasn't supposed to happen; she was supposed to be safe there. Where was Zelas when she was needed? "Luna!" Lina screamed at the top of her lungs as she took off in a mad dash further into the inner yard. She spotted another door on the opposite end of it and hurried towards it. She wasn't supposed to be wondering around, but nothing in the lair of a monster lord could possibly be scarier than Luna in Lina's opinion. "Zelas!" She screamed in a panic. "Help! You're supposed to be protecting me! Where are you? Zelas!"

To be Continued

For those who have been missing her, Filia will be in the next chapter!