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Kitsune Lina
Findings False and True "Look it at," the man with the eye-patch gloated over his prize, a single globular earring. "Its hers I tell you. We took it off her corpse right after returning a little of wot she gave to our profession."
"All I see is a pretty bauble," the man he was talking to grumbled. "You think I'm going to believe you because of that, get real. Show me a head or something and I'll believe you then."
"I lost five o' me crew taking her down," the patch complained. "And then three more when we found them trying pinch some o' the loot. Still can't find ware the bugger 'id the rest o' 'er gear. But he'll be talking to soon enough I wager."
"Bring out all the gold and jewels you want, no one will believe you until they see the corpse."
"Well, we can show that as well, we can," the eye patch answered.
"Excuse us," The two large bandits turned to face a blue-skinned person dressed all in baige. The hand on his hilt spoke volumes.
"Would you mind telling us where you got that earring," this time the speaker was a tall blonde swordsman.
"Wot's it to you then?" the patch asked. "Wot is you, bounty hunters, bandits, mercenaries?"
"Please just tell us where you found the earring," the third member of the party, a young woman with black hair, asked reluctantly.
"Soldiers o' fortune lookin for a rep," he jabbed his thumb at the three as he turned back to his amused companion. "I pulled it off the dra matta's corpse, so go somewhere else for your fun." The girl winced, while blonde looked pained.
"Take us to the body," the blue skinned warrior demanded icily.
"You gonna make me?" the man with the eye patch stood up, towering over the blue swordsman. "Go ahead and try!" He punched out and was surprised when his much smaller opponent easily stopped the attack with one hand.
"Try that again and I'll rip the arm off," he promised. The blonde stepped in front of the other bandit, cutting off his escape.
"You're coming along too, don't want to miss your proof do you?"
"Fine! I'll take you to the body, but after that I'll dice you so fine they'll never find the pieces." The threat didn't bother the three whatsoever. Nobody in the tavern interferred with the unofficial arrest as the slayers escorted the bandits out of the building and eventually out of the city.
A little more than forty-five minutes later they came to the battle site.
"We tossed her in that ditch o'er there," Zelgadis shoved the veritable giant to the ground and followed Amelia to the indicated spot.
The grass was still stained red in places and the remains of a hauberk of studded leather lay discarded in a little to the side. The item was useless for all the great bloody holes in it.
"That's the armor I bought for her," Amelia whispered, stricken.
"There's no body," Zelgadis noted.
"Is it Lina?" Gourry called out, not taking his eyes off the two bandits.
"No body," Zelgadis called back.
"No body, eh?" the patch's companion repeated. "I know you were full of hot air."
"Listen you, there weren't much left after we was through, I suspect that for the past two days the crows have had a wonderful feast." he started to laugh but was cut off as Zelgadis roared and rushed at the bandit from across the field. Before the big man could react the inhumanly fast chimera had skewered and gutted him. Coming away from the eye-patch's corpse in a circular motion, Zelgadis took the second bandits head.
Finished with the thugs Zelgadis planted his sword point down in the ground and kneeled, head against the hilt.
"We found Lina," he said hoarsely. He turned to Amelia. "We can go talk to that hermit about my cure now."
"Shouldn't we do something," Gourry asked.
"We could bury the armor," Amelia suggested. "Raise a cairn."
"It's the least we can do," Zelgadis agreed. Gourry nodded.
"I think I saw some rocks over this way," the blonde noted. And the three friends set about giving their lost comrade a memorial.
"Perhaps this is the best," Amelia thought to herself, hating that she could even consider it. "I'm looking for the courier that delivered this...trash," Xellos handed the poster over and sneered.
"It's not my business to keep track of who puts up what on that board for every passing mercenary."
"Someone else has asked about this?" Xellos arched an eyebrow. "What did they look like."
"Couldn't see her face, she kept it hidden under a hood the entire time." Xellos tapped his foot irritably, this day was almost finished, and he didn't have but one or two more before Xelas came looking for him. Filia would be needing some help as well, but he actively avoided thinking about that.
"Can you tell me anything about her?"
"Short girl, spoke quietly, I think she had red hair." Xellos began to hope that he had struck upon an incredibly lucky event.
"And do you know where she is?"
"She was on the verge of falling asleep in front of me, sent her to that inn over there, two days ago." Xellos turned to regard the building. "Haven't seen her leave, but..." he shrugged.
"Thank you good sir," Xellos smiled. "I don't think I'll kill you today." The purple-haired priest vanished from in front of the annoyed man's face.
"Fruitcake," he muttered before going about on his business.
"It can't be Lina," Xellos told himself, preparing for the let down. "Her signature isn't here." Despite this he began a quick survey of the rooms until he found what he was looking for.
The snoring form was definitely Lina, magic or no magic, Xellos could tell that. The red-head was lying unconscious wrapped in blankets that appeared somewhat shredded.
"Lina, what happened to you," Xellos wondered as he walked over to attempt and wake her up. Curiously enough he smelled something familiar. "If I didn't know better, I'd say she just healed some major damage." The mazoku priest reached out with his staff and poked Lina in the side to shake her awake.
"What?" Lina muttered, blinking awake. The tired and confused woman finally caught site of Xellos and narrowed her eyes. "Xellos what are you doing here."
"I was looking for you," the priest smiled. "I heard...rumors..." Xellos stopped talking as Lina's eyes snapped wide and she looked at the window towards the darkening horizon.
"Close the window," she demanded, sitting up, grabbing the headboard, and biting down on the wood. Xellos blinked in surprise but closed the shutters anyway.
As the trickster caught a last glimpse of the setting sun he couldn't help but realize that Lina hadn't been wearing anything when she emerged from the blankets. When he turned around again it was to the sound of restrained thrashing and cracking wood.
"Lina?" Xellos. gasped as he watched the transformation proceed. The wood between Lina's teeth didn't last long, shattering under the pressure.
"Ah!" the sound of bones cracking and reshaping came as her legs changed. "Ahhh!! AHHHH!!" Unlike Amelia, Xellos had no worries about approaching Lina as she was now. After the first couple of moments of surprise he rushed forward and encircled the changing woman in his arms. He clamped a hand over her mouth in an attempt to keep her screams from alerting the rest of the inn.
Xellos found it difficult to contain her, even with his mazoku strength. As the seconds creeked by undeterminably slow, he found himself almost hanging on for dear life. Lina bit into his hand and the demon had to supress his own expression of pain.
The transformation ended after a pair of measly minutes and Lina began to relax, temporarily exhausted by the process. When Lina stopped struggling, Xellos released his grip, the exhausted Lina continued leaning back against him.
"How long have you been like this?" Xellos asked.
"Three days," Lina whispered. She didn't yet know that she had slept through the previous day, a side effect of the natural stimulants her body had used to heal her earlier. "Why are you here?"
"I was...worried about you," he usually didn't come out right and say things like that, but his usual "that is a secret" routine didn't seem appropriate at the moment.
Lina turned around and faced him, her tail was now flicking nervously behind her.
"You were worried about me," Lina repeated. "That's it?" Zelgadis thought she was a weakling, Amelia acted like she thought Lina was thinking about stalking her, a gang of bandits had beaten her past the brink of a human death. Now Xellos was...worried... about her, and of course he wasn't afraid of her.
"Why shouldn't I be?" he asked. "You are a friend after all, I never claimed anything else." Lina looked at him and blinked.
The were-fox desparately wanted some control, wanted something to go her way. Apparently the only rock in her ocean at the moment was the mazoku trickster. He wasn't prepared when Lina pulled his head down and kissed him.
"What-?" Xellos started to ask as he managed to pull away. Lina was stronger now, but still not as strong as mazoku.
"Please..." was all Lina said, looking up at the purple-haired mazoku with red reflective eyes.
Xellos considered refusing, but decided against it. He had always been curious, and it wasn't like Filia cared what he did. Or like he cared what Filia thought about his actions. He smiled and initiated his own kiss as they fell back to the large bed covered in torn blankets.
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