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Kitsune Lina
Filia meets “Rannaur” Filia had at first ignored the clattering sound of hooves and rolling
wheels, it was a common enough sound out here on the edges of the city. Of
course when it stopped in front of her current residence, then she took
notice. She had set Val to playing and then approached the front door with a
caution that was almost paranoid. Of course Xellos choose that moment to
throw open the door and come waltzing inside. Whatever the mazoku had been
going to say was cut off as Filia shrieked in surprise and brought her mace
down on the now equally surprised Xellos. The smile died on his face and he
actually opened his eyes to watch the mace connect.
"Owww," Xellos groaned as he got to his feet wobbly.
"Oh I'm sorry!" she dropped the mace in embarrassed surprise, it fell on
Xellos's foot.
"Aahh!" Xellos grabbed his foot and, unbalanced, fell backward and
smashed his head on the door frame.
"Xellos!" Filia heard a rough, but definitely feminine voice call out
from the buggy.
"I thought somebody found out I was dragon or something." Xellos
struggled to his feet again.
"All of you calm down," Xellos pointed randomly and speaking drunkenly.
"Your tails are showing." Then he fell over on his back again. Filia bent
down immediately to check him for any serious injuries.
Filia dropped a groggy Xellos's head as she looked up to see a face
covered in red fur and large black furred ears.
"What are you doing to him?" the fox girl demanded, eyes narrowed. She
started to climb out of the buggy. Filia noticed immediately that whoever
she was, though she looked somewhat familiar. she was certainly pregnant.
Filia immediately rushed to help her down, accidently kicking Xellos's head
as she did and nearly tripping.
The fox-girl, the tail proved it, whuffed in surprise as Filia easily
lifted her away from the buggy and sat her down on the ground. As the dragon
turned about to set her down gently her tail thwacked into the again
recovering Xellos.
"You should be resting," Filia said politely and cheerfully. "You're the
girl Xellos has been trying to hide, aren't you?"
"Look at what you did!" the fox girl pointed to where Xellos was trying
to sit up and shake his head clear.
"I'll be fine," Xellos assured her, weaving a little even sitting. Filia
blushed and giggled nervously as she looked back to the shocked and a little
angry fox-girl. "She's just a little excited. Rannaur should get inside
before..."
"Before someone sees her," she looked to her tail. "Or me, of course.
Come on, dear we'll find somewhere where you can be comfortable." Filia's
tail smashed Xellos to the ground again.
"You did it again!"
"I'm sorry," Filia said embarrassed. Then she virtually carried Rannaur
into the house, much to the fox girl's surprise. She was apparently too
surprised again to react at all and merely let herself be carried into the
house and be set down in one of the oversoft chairs that Xellos seemed to
collect. "Now I'll go get Xellos and be right back."
"No!" Filia stopped and turned back to look at Rannaur. "I mean that's
fine, I think he'll do better on his own. Just sit down and relax, get
control of your form. Deep breaths. One. Two. Three." Rannaur reached
for anything else that she could remember people telling her while she was
angry or otherwise upset.
"Don't be silly," Filia snapped angrily, but her tail disappeared and she
dimurrely sat back in a chair. "Now, I'm sorry to be so rude, but you and
Xellos scared me there."
"You call beating your roommate into the ground rude?" Xellos asked as he
shuffled into the house. "I'd hate to see you being offensive."
"I said I was sorry," Filia offered.
"Oh come over here," Rannaur waved him over and he bent down to let her
examine his head. "Oh what did the mean dragon-lady do to you?"
"I am not mean," Filia insisted futilely.
"Oh I'm allright, kind of fun actually," Xellos answered giggling with
the fox-girl. "You know what masochist I am."
"Mommy, who's she?" Filia turned to look down at Val.
"So that's why like the claws while we..."
"Ahem!" Rannaur and Xellos turned to look at the dragon maid with her
eyebrow arched and indicating the toddler next to her.
"Oh, sorry," it was the fox girl's turn to be sheepish.
"What?" Xellos had no clue as to what the problem was, both women rolled
their eyes at the amoral tendencies of mazoku.
"Who's she?" Val asked again.
"That's Uncle Xellos's..." She looked to the fox-girl expectantly.
"Xellos's mate," the word flowed easily from her lips. "Rannaur." Val
looked up at her and blinked.
"Fire," Rannaur's ears flicked in surprise at the boy's single word.
Xellos tensed.
"He can't remember me from before, can he," she thought to herself,
exchanging a quick glance with Xellos.
"Oh, I've been teaching him some elvish," Filia explained. Rannaur did
her best to release her breath without showing her relief. "Wandering Fire?
That reminds me of a friend of Xellos' and mine's."
"Really, who was that?"
"Lina Inverse," Filia sighed sadly.
"The Bandit Killer? You knew her?" Xellos looked at the fox-girl with a
"what are you doing" expression.
"She was a brave woman, and a very powerful sorceress," Filia continued.
Rannaur seemed shocked that the dragon was actually crying about the Dra
Matta. "Some bandits killed her while she didn't have her power. Didn't
Xellos tell you about this, he found the body after all." Filia got back
control of herself.
"I just thought that was another of his stories," Rannaur rolled her eyes
back at the mazoku, who shrugged back an "I give up."
"Now are you here just to meet me, or are you here to stay? And why did
you come by buggy rather than just teleporting." Filia didn't bother to ask
what Rannaur was, she kept getting surprised by new races all the time
anyway. Things she didn't really notice before living with these "lower"
races.
"I didn't just want to pop in with her and startle you," Xellos said,
then rubbed his head. "That's painful sometimes." He did not miss the irony.
"I was hoping you wouldn't mind me staying for awhile," Rannaur asked
quietly, trying to be as demure as possible and overdoing it.
"She's getting to where she can't hunt for herself," the fox-girl hmped
at him indignantly.
"I'm not that far along yet," she insisted.
"Ronar?" Val tugged at the corners of the woman's sleeve. She looked
down at him. "Why are you fat."
"Val! Seriously, how rude," Filia stood up and picked the young dragon
up off the floor and sat down again with him in her lap. "Now apologize to
the nice girl," then she looked between Xellos and Rannaur. "How old are you
anyway?"
"Not as young as I look," the girl assured her. "I heal fast and it
keeps me from aging."
"Oh...good," she looked down at the confused dragon kid again. "Val
apologize."
"I'm sorry, I said you were fat, miss Ronar," he said very formerly.
"It's all right," she said. Xellos was now sitting in a chair he had
moved next to her. "I am fat, and I'll probably be fat for the next few
months." Rannaur reached out and grabbed his head and pulled him over so she
could nuzzle his face. "And its all because of my mazoku here, isn't he
cute?" Filia's eyebrow arched, again.
"Well is she wrong, or am I cute?"
"I wouldn't go that far," Filia answered dead pan.
"How did uncle Xellos make her fat?" Filia turned beat red.
"Well you see...hey!" Rannaur playfully smacked the top of his head and
wagged a finger in front of his face. "What?" He looked for answer from
Filia, who, for some reason unfathomable to Xellos, was holding her hands
over Val's ears.
"Well, I guess you can stay here," Filia said. "But you'll have to stay
under cover, or we could have some unwanted visitors."
"You can be sure of that," Xellos and Rannaur mumbled at about the same
time. Zelgadis had found what he was looking for rather quickly. He had come
down to Sairuun palace's library and was immediately aware of a large raven
sitting on the vacant desk. There was something odd about it, and he walked
forward to get a closer look. Usually he could move swiftly and quietly
enough to sneak up even on animals, but this Raven bolted almost as soon as
he started moving.
It stopped within his sight, and he moved toward it again. It called and
took flight again. Fairly certain that it was leading him somewhere he
followed it. Until it stopped at a certain row of books and let him approach
closer than before. The raven pecked at a book and then flashed into the air
when Zel tried to grab it again. The bird slipped through his feathers
calling as it flew into the shadows of the high ceiling, sounding as if it
were laughing. He looked at the book it had pecked and read the title.
"I knew I recognized that name," he grumbled sourly and gingerly, very
gingerly, picked up the indicated book. Lina would know more about the
history of the tome, Zel had half-way delved through a less complete version
once before. He stopped when it became obvious that book was nothing but
exorcisms, summonings and discussions of various demons.
"Necronomican. I hope they're just poseurs." He opened the book to the
strip of paper stuck in the black bound tome. He found words on the paper,
and wasn't too surprised.
"Stall them now, their end comes with the next generation."
Zelgadis thought about the bird and the way it had slipped out of his
hands, he looked and saw thin black strands caught on his rock skin. "It had
black fur."
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