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Kitsune Lina
Rescue "This is my father's palace," Amelia reminded the man before her. "I have the right to enter any room or chamber here." She tapped her feet angrily.
"I'm sorry Princess, but your father commanded that no one should invade Lady R'Lyeh's privacy," the guard answered, he and his partner stood firm yet nervous against their princess.
"I see, well I'm going find out who this person is eventually," Amelia promised. "Then we'll see if she really serves the cause of Justice." Amelia stomped off in the direction of the Library, Zelgadis would be there. Zelgadis and Lina always gravitated toward books. She had know idea where Gourry was, she hadn't seen him since the day before. It didn't worry her the swordsman was probably wandering around the palace at random.
"I think me and Zelgadis should investigate this 'temple,'" Amelia thought to herself. Gourry knew he couldn't really help Zelgadis and Amelia in their investigations. He had taken the opportunity to get a little hunting in. It had been a short ride out of the city's bounds and now he was stalking the woods with a bow in hand.
His friends would have been surprised by just how good he was at sneaking through the underbrush, even more surprised that he could get his horse to travel so silently. He had managed a fairly lucky start, happening upon a fairly frequently populated section of the forest fringe. Of course as he got deeper into the woods the tracks became denser, about what one would expect for a healthy woodland. The signs were everywhere, you just couldn't see the animals.
Gourry didn't think anything of camping when the sun set, it wasn't like Zelgadis or Amelia would miss him. They were going to be far to busy digging into the story of this Lady R'Lyeh. It was half an hour after dark, cooking the quail he had managed to catch over a small fire, that he first noticed that he was being watched.
He looked about and saw a circle of yellowish eyes about his campfire. His horse was shifting from foot to foot nervously.
"Wolves," he said. "Sorry not enough food for all of you." Looking around again, unconcerned, he could handle a pack of wolves if it came to that, he found the eyes gone again. Except for one pair that moved into the light.
"Hmm, your eyes aren't even yellow, are they," Gourry asked as he started digging through his pack for rations. In fact the eyes were a sort of copperish color, though it might have been the reflection of the fire. Gourry tossed the remains of his quail to the wolf.
"Might as well be a good host." He shrugged, the wolf sniffed the quail and then swallowed it down."Wow, you eat like Lina and me," the wolf shook its head back and forth as it prepared to sit down. For a moment the sleek black down covering the wolf puffed up making him look twice as big, then they settled down again.
"Boy you look like you're moulting," Gourry said as he noticed some of the feathers floating slowly to the ground. "Wait a minute since when do wolves have feathers?" Then the wolf was gone, pouncing into the night time woods.
Gourry took up his sword, not as good as the light blade, but still effective in his hands, and bounded up to his horse's back. He was fairly certain that the wolf would have out run him if he went on foot, and there was something funny about this. The animal stayed in his sight periodically glancing back to check if the human was still following him. Zelgadis would have recognized the expression on the wolf's face, but Gourry had left before the Zelgadis's raven made its appearance.
Gourry's chase lasted a good deal longer than Zelgadis's, a continual game of tag with the swordsman unable to keep up. He finally lost the wolf as the Eastern sky began to glow. The wolf didn't just vanish, something else had attracted Gourry's attention and he let it go.
"Bandits," he muttered sagely. Beneath him in a bowl with a clearing towards the bottom was a rather large camp of armed men. He tied up his horse and began creeping down towards the camp. He found it pretty easy to sneak up on them, what they considered alert sentries were almost laughable. He found the largest tent and sat down outside it listening to the conversation with in.
"...what is she doing here? We have enough trouble with that snooping priestess."
"You can tolerate her for a few days," a second voice said. "The master doesn't want her cover blown just yet."
"Why must we go through with this charade? She's always blabbing about how she's a princess anyway."
"We need a queen, now just humor her and keep her away from the prisoner. What's her name?"
"Syphiel. I'll be glad when they're both dead."
"Be patient, their time will come when the stars are right, until then no one hurts them and keep your eyes open. We still haven't found who was living in that cave."
"They're going to kill Syphiel and someone else!" Gourry blinked, and moved away from the tent, falling back into the fading shadows. "Now where would they keep prisoners." He scanned the area quickly, and moved to another shadow to change his view. Eventually he found a tent that was actually effectively protected.
Gourry smiled and snuck around to the back of the tent in question. He was using a mix of caution and urgency, the sun was quickly rising. There would be virtually no shadows soon. Fortunately Gourry was part elf, and had spent much of his life growing up with elves and woodsmen. He came around the right and tossed a stone straight up.
The stone landed a few feet in front of him and the guards glanced in that direction, rolled their eyes and started in the other direction. Gourry rushed out behind them slashed once and twice and then dragged the two bodies into the tent with him.
"Gourry?" he turned to see Shyfiel looking at him with a shocked expression on her face. "How did you find this place?" He stopped and thought about it for a moment.
"I don't remember, oh well, not important," he said. "Come on we have to get one more person and then get out before anybody notices us."
"One more person? Who?" Gourry took a heavy cloak from one of the bodies and obscurred his face and form, he gave the other to Syphiel.
"I don't know, some princess or something," he glanced outside. "Its clear, act natural." They walked outside, Syphiel trying not to look like she was scared.
"I demand you bring me better fare!" the shout carried across the camp in a shrill wind.
"I'm guessing that's her," Syphiel said.
"That voice sounds familiar," Gourry pondered. "Oh well. Umm, don't attract attention, but go get a pair of horses."
"You're leaving me alone?" she tried to shout and whisper at the same time.
"Well do you want to be around when I try to get her out of there?" Syphiel considered the question.
"I'll go get two horses, don't be long." Gourry watched her until she disappeared between two tents. The sun was definitely up now, but there still wasn't much life in the camp. Gourry shook his head annoyed, these people didn't know anything about life in the woods. He approached the other tent and waited for the bandit to exit it, then he went in.
"Well that was quite a bit too-" Gourry didn't take the time to let her turn around, or see what she looked like. He simple knocked her out and picked her up. Usually he was more than a little chivalrous, but well, trying to explain matters would get them all killed right now.
Now getting out was going to be a little more difficult, people were certainly going to notice him carrying an unconcious woman over his shoulder. He exited the back of the tent and worked his way to the edge of the camp and around to their horses. He found Syphiel quickly and came up behind her.
"Just two horses, I have one up there," Syphiel almost screamed when he started speaking. "Come on let's go."
Gourry swung up into the saddle of the black mare Syphiel had chosen, a little ungracefully because he had to count for the weight of the unconscious girl. Syphiel took a moment to get control over her heart rate again and took the saddle of her dappled gelding.
They had reached his horse and were in the process of securing the princess in her saddle when the alarm was raised below.
"Well they found out that you both are gone, let's not be here." He remembered for a moment chasing a wolf over a smattering of granite rocks rising out of the Earth. He then promptly forgot the wolf again, it wasn't important, but the rocks were. "They'll track us here, anybody could do that, but I think I know where we can lose them." Gourry kicked off his horse, leading the unconscious girls, and Syphiel followed. As he predicted the bandits followed and lost their trail in the rocks.
"The master is not going to be pleased," the second grumbled glaring at his superior. "Zelgadis?" Amelia called out. "Are you here?"
"In the back Amelia," she heard him call, the sound echoing through the great hall of the Library. Amelia walked back and found Zelgadis pouring over an old book.
"I never liked this one," Zelgadis grumbled. "I know what R'Lyeh is."
"Sure, she's a gold-digging opportunist." Zelgadis turned to face her.
"Not Lady R'Lyeh, R'Lyeh. Its a city, sort of, the resting place of one of the old ones."
"Old ones? I thought they were just frightening bed time stories," Amelia moved around to examine the tome with Zelgadis. She didn't notice how close she was when she leaned over to look at the pages, otherwise she might have fainted. Nor did she notice Zelgadis blushing as she brushed his shoulder.
"They're down here somewheer," someone said. They both recognized Reginald's voice. "Find them, get rid of them quietly, I'll tell his highness they left to find their blonde friend." Amelia and Zelgadis quietly faded into the shadows and Amelia started leading them around to a hidden exit she new of.
"Master, could the swordsman be responsible for Lady R'Lyeh's abduction from the north woods." They heard a body hit the ground.
"Keep your mouth closed," Reginald's deadpan voice warned. Zelgadis and Amelia were out of the room before they even glimpsed the open copy of the Necronomican. "They were here, they've been researching us." "Why are we running," Amelia demanded suddenly. "This is my home!"
"Yes, but we don't want to fight them just yet, we don't know how many they are or how powerful, we could kill these and whoever is left could still be a threat. We should find Gourry first, and then continue to look for Lina."
"Why?"
"They need 'Lady R'Lyeh', apparently Gourry might have her, and well, Lina will know more about this than I do."
"So its to the north woods from here?"
"By way of the stables yes." Zelgadis and Amelia had no trouble with the regular servants of the palace or the guardsmen in the city. And soon they were making a bee line for the north woods as planned. Half a day into the ride they heard a familar, screeching voice.
"Damn you, let me go!"
"You don't want to go back there."
"Those are my followers you fool, followers of the monster Zomalgustar!"
"Where do I know that name from." Zelgadis and Amelia topped a rise and saw Gourry approaching down the road with Syphiel and Martina, her hair dyed black. "Oh, hi guys. Look what I found."
"Martina," Zelgadis nodded at the insane princess, glaring at her dangerously. "Lina's going to love to see you again."
"Why am I not surprised?" Amelia asked flatly.
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