The Noise

Author: Ameban Mic Title: The Noise

This story came out after a naughty chat about the side-efects Zelgadiss would suffer if he touches himself. The chat degenerated into this fic and I made up my mind to write it. Special thanks to Phizzy-chan and Rowena both for helping me with this, and Phizzy-chan for beta the writing.

Again, Slayers isn’t my property but Hajime Kanzaka’s, Dragon Magazine’s and Rui Araizumi’s Tokyo TV SOFTX. I just write this for fun.

=The Noise=

The camp was quiet; well, at least it was as quiet as it should be. As usual gain, Lina and Amelia shared a tent, as Gourry and Zelgadiss did the same. Firia was out, somewhere, busy with her maiden’s duties, something any of them could not do with her, so she went alone and the group wouldn’t meet her again in some days. Xelloss also was nowhere to be seeing, which wasn’t surprising; It made… the travellers quieter than usual, because neither Firia was demanding stuff like “We must move on NOW” and Xelloss wasn’t there getting everybody’s nerves (especially Firia’s) and playing around with them.

Oh, yes, it was quiet

---Almost.

Amelia had shared a tent or an inn’s room too many times with Lina. She knew Lina wasn’t quiet when she was asleep. The redhead sorceress had a temper, and she never lost it, even in her sleep. Therefore, Amelia ended up eating Lina’s foot or anything because Lina couldn’t be still in one place, and she moved up a lot. To her dismay, Amelia remembered one time she had to *tie up* Lina to her bed in order to remain her quiet enough… But she also remembered how much Lina got angry with her after that.

In spite of herself, Amelia found she could do anything but trying to ignore Lina’s noisy manners and trying to sleep next her; otherwise, when Firia (and Xelloss) would get back, the travel would be even more tired.

She needed to sleep *now*.

As she tried to get it, Amelia also thought Zelgadiss was lucky in some sort of bizarre way. Since he was an artificial being, a chimera, he didn’t care about many things such like “I’m starving” or “I’m sleepy”; he was quite resistant, in fact. The only things that could get him really tired were Xelloss, Mazoku in general, Lina’s crazy and irresponsible ideas, and quarrels over the food table. It could be told Zelgadiss disliked anything about arguing and quarrels, even if they weren’t related with him, instead being about events around him.

Therefore, he was now mounting guard in the campfire, watching for anything suspicious. Zelgadiss was really used in that sort of task; being Rezo’s berserker provided him of certain training like that. It got rid of all the group of a good watchman.

… That was when the sound started.

It was rasping, crunching, quite repetitive… and annoying.

Amelia heard it perfectly; she was awake (again) trying to ignore Lina’s noises and moves and get some sleep. But the continuing, rasping sound didn’t make things even easier; the noise drilled in her ears crazily. At first she didn’t recognize that sound, it was weird and it was sure it wasn’t any nocturnal animal, such like mousse, owls, foxes or something like that; and if it was something dangerous, Zelgadiss would take care of that or he would had warned them, and if something had happened to Zelgadiss, they would have heard the scuffle that ensued. Now, it should be some other thing.

Finally Amelia recognize the sound; it was the same crunching sound that Gourry or Zelgadiss made when they sharpened their respective swords; it was very similar to the sound produced by a stone being rubbed over the blade of a sword. No wonder why Amelia didn’t recognize that sound previously, she hated swords or any weapon, so she didn’t know too much about those things. Amelia remembered she had seeing him doing it with a stone, or even with his own skin when there wasn’t any good stone rock available.

“Zelgadiss must be sharpening his sword…” she mussed being more relaxed.

Soon, she could fall asleep, finally.

***

When the morning came and everybody came out their tents, they found some weird scenario. Lina didn’t like mornings too much, so when she came out, with her long red-haired mane being a mess after her sleep, she found everybody was already out watching something. The scenario was… amusing. Gourry and Amelia also were watching it.

“Hey!” exclaimed the sorceress, “What happened here? Is Firia back, already?” she asked.

“No, she hasn’t come yet, Lina.” Answered Gourry with a confused look.

“Then, why is everything around here carbonized?” asked the sorceress. “Wasn’t it her and her ill dragon manners?”

Everything really was carbonized, but not the places where the tents were placed, but the forest around them, mainly around the fallen trunk where Zelgadiss had been sitting, watching all the night. All plants were burned, not totally but it was quite obvious there had been a fire, bigger that the campfire’s one. And not only that, in spite of the burned elements, there was also a thin cover of ice.

“Zelgadiss… What happened here?” asked Lina in certain demanding tone, “Was there some trouble last night? I didn’t hear anything.”

“My fault.” Answered him shaking his clothes of ashes, “I neglecting the fire and the flames began to consume everything… I didn’t know how to extinguish the fire and I had to use a ‘Freez Britz’ spell”. (1)

Amelia could see Zelgadiss seemed to be quite disturbed, but she couldn’t formulate anything because Lina was faster.

“Did you use a Freez Brizt spell for extinguishing the fire?” Lina exclaimed, “It’s very lousy for putting out flames, you know.”

“…No. It was the only way I had to put out the fire… Or would you have preferred I do nothing and let your tent catch on fire?” Zelgadiss snarled, half angry, half ashamed.

Amelia could tell Zelgadiss was upset because he didn’t know how to do something as easier as turning off the fire, and he had to use a big spell for that.

In fact, Lina was laughing hard.

“Lina!” exclaimed the priestess, “You shouldn’t do that…I bet you also burned down plenty of forests because of your crazy fireball-throwing manner! You can’t mock Mr. Zelgadiss just because he made one mistake!”

“She makes a point, Lina.” Gourry added, “Amelia is right… every time we’re in some crowned place, everything bursts into flames because of you.”

“Hey! We were talking about what happened here… and we know it wasn’t my fault.” Lina complained, “Stop talking about my use of spells!”

Amelia nodded, knowing that this could get even worse if they kept on arguing about it. However, Gourry did ask.

“Okay, Lina… but I’d like two things.”

“Huh?... what’s it?”

“I’d like to know what’s that ‘Frozen bride’ thing you were talking about.”

Lina’s face was half amused, half desperate.

“No ‘Frozen bride’, but ‘Freez Brizt’.” She corrected, “It’s the water equivalent of a Fireball… Basically it’s an Ice-ball. That’s why Zel used it to extinguish the fires.” Lina explained

“Oh… Ok.” Answered the blonde swordsman.

“So… what was the other question?” asked Lina, “I know I’ll regret asking, but…”

“Oh, yes… Did the food bag burn?” asked Gourry, “Is our food also burned?”

Lina blinked, realizing slowly what Gourry meant to say.

“…The bag is black, now.” Gourry explained as he pointed at the place where the bag with the food should be, and certainly it was… crispy.

“AAAAAAARGH!”

Lina’s cry was heard all around the forest.

Later, the group walked by the path across the pines and eastern oaks. Again, since Firia and Xelloss weren’t around, and there wasn’t any bandit, either, the travel was pretty quiet. Of course Lina was still upset because of the burned food and she didn’t stop to throw muffled comments about Zelgadiss’ incompetence. However, Zelgadiss was used to Lina’s temper and he just ignored it, or at least he did as it wasn’t something he found really offensive. Both Lina and Amelia knew if Zelgadiss become really angry, Lina’s wrath wouldn’t be enough for stopping him.

However, Amelia noticed something. Zelgadiss, somehow, seemed to be also upset because of the events of last night, which was quite unusual with him, who wasn’t used to feel bad about anything this unimportant. Perhaps it was because Zelgadiss found himself quite incompetent because he could extinguish any fire without using big spells like “Freeze Brizt”. If this was the truth, Lina was right after all.

But, somehow, Amelia thought Zelgadiss was lying; the fire that burned the campfire on the past night was a negligence of him, but there was something else. Amelia knew Zelgadiss was sharpening his sword, so, how could he really ignore the fire when it was just in front of the trunk where he was sitting? Zelgadiss couldn’t be so absent.

Something else had to happen last night.

***

Two days passed after that, and there wasn’t any signal from Firia, and, fortunately, neither from Xelloss, which wasn’t anything relaxing because it meant the annoying and eternal mocking smiling mazoku could be playing around with them. Well, it could be that, or it could be *he* (or rather, *it*) was bothering Firia again where ever she was right now.

At least, that meant that the four travellers could be quieter than usual. And really, that was all they cared about.

The now-usual events happened again and again. Lina demanding food (especially after loosing the bag in the past fire), asking for burning some bandits, collecting coins and classifying them according with their value, etc… Gourry always walking behind her; covering her instinctively, and fighting with her over the food. Zelgadiss, trying to ignore those two and looking for a good chance to learn about his cure, but couldn’t find anything since there weren’t any clues among the trees. Amelia, on the other hand, just tried to remain happy, enjoying the travel and putting some peace in the groups’ quarrel.

Zelgadiss couldn’t stop himself of feeling envious of Amelia. He knew the priestess wasn’t as happy as she pretended to show, but she also regretted many things in her life; things such like killing off her own uncle Randy (the prince Randione), fighting her cousin Alfred, losing her older sister and ruling the most powerful country inside the accident barrier. The way she tried to live, being always happy and never upset, always filled of energy, in sort, *living in joy*, made Zelgadiss feel envy about her. Not jealousy, just envy, which wasn’t the same.

As she jumped happily of the sandstone path, he felt overwhelmed with her, in both spiritual and physical sides. Even if at first she wasn’t the “model” of girl he would look for in the past, back in the time he was human, Amelia could awake many feelings in him.

Of course, Amelia wasn’t the only one suffering because of relatives. Zelgadiss didn’t know what happened with his parents, he barely could remember them; as far he knew, they had died in some accident. (2); that was when Rezo took care of him and what the Red Priest had explained to him. But Rezo’s manipulations, or rather, Ruby Eye’s control over his great-grandfather, had made Zelgadiss to be a berserker, and he hated that. However, he knew he could blame the Mazoku Grand Lord for that, not just Rezo… But Amelia couldn’t blame Ruby Eye for her lost, but other human people. There was a difference here.

What was because he needed her, even if he didn’t totally realize all of that.

Suddenly Amelia made a bad step and she felt backwards. She would have hit the ground but Zelgadiss was faster enough and the chimera could catch her before she slapped the ground. It wasn’t the first time he caught her in order to save her, but now Amelia felt quite ridiculous.

“… Thanks, Zelgadiss.” She mussed embarrassed somehow.

Zelgadiss looked at her gravely.

“What’s wrong with you, Amelia?” he asked, “You used to be clumsy, but this is too much even for you. There wasn’t even anything to trip over.”

Amelia made a face. Usually it was Gourry or Lina who sighed about her moves, not Zelgadiss. Besides, he was right, Amelia couldn’t be that clumsy and she had overcome that trait long ago.

Without waiting for any answer, Zelgadiss helped her to rise on her feet.

“I… I just don’t feel very good today.” The priestess in white mussed. “I felt quite… weak.”

At that time, Lina had reached her, being followed closely by Gourry.

“Amelia, are you alright?” Lina’s question was pointless, the redhead sorceress knew how strong and clumsy Amelia was, but there wasn’t anything wrong in asking her.

The princess-maiden looked at the big and rounded eyes of her friend, trying to tell her something with her looks, but Lina seemed to be unable to understand.

“I… I feel bad and weak, Lina.” She repeated.

“Huh?” the sorceress exclaimed.

“I think she’s trying to say she’s in the time of the month.” Gourry explained, suddenly.

Amelia and Lina both jumped. None of them expected his intervention.

“---That’s because she’s weak… Ain’t that right?” added the blonde swordsman.

“Yes, Gourry, you’re right.” Mused Amelia in unpleasant tone. “I cannot use my magic for a while.” She added embarrassed.

“Oh, wonderful!” exclaimed Lina, “Why now? We need to be ready for Vargaarv’s next move! We cannot lower our guard.”

“It’s always like that, Lina.” Amelia replied, “After you, it’s my turn… And it’s better like that because it would help if one of us remains able to use her magic.”

“Whatever”. Zelgadiss intervened surprising everybody, “Arguing about our physical conditions won’t allow us to win against Vargaarv or anybody else.” He looked back to the priestess, “And you, Amelia, should be quieter. Avoid any reckless moves.”

Amelia was surprised by Zelgadiss’ comment, as well Lina was. They both knew Zelgadiss was well-aware about the physical conditions in sorceress and maidens when they were in their “time”, but he never showed any concern about that. And now he seemed to be worried for Amelia’s sake. That was surprising.

Lina shook her head and went back to the path. Then, she warned

“Gourry, you should watch out your mouth.”

Meanwhile, the black haired priestess couldn’t help but looking at Zel in confusion.

***

That night they found an abandoned shed shepherds used next to a natural spring, which had a fireplace with a boiler made of brass; two bunks with straws and several oil lamps. It wasn’t the best, but it was better than sleeping out.

The group moved and cleaned up the shed in order to make more habitable. Many cobwebs, the rotten straw and others were removed, and finally the fireplace had a nice fire where they cooked a stew using the boiler hanging over the flames and some rudimentary ingredients such like vegetables and cold meats. That was the good thing about shepherds’ sheds; they always provided their stone huts with enough elements to live inside as the take care of their sheep and goats.

Lina put her wood bowl on a rudimentary table with three legs in front of her when she finished her meal.

“Ok, Zel… you guard us tonight!” she announced with a grin.

“What?” he exclaimed, “Why me?”

“I think it’s obvious.” Answered Lina candidly, “I did on past night, and Gourry did two nights ago. Now, it’s your turn.” She explained.

Zelgadiss blinked; in spite of her childish attitude, Lina was right occasionally. Instinctively, he turned towards Amelia.

“Not me.” She answered, “I already said I was in *that* time. I need to sleep and I cannot do many things without my magic.”

“You women…!” Grunted Zelgadiss, “You always have one over me.”

“That’s our purpose, Zel.” Gourry answered as he chewed his food, “We, men, always have to obey women’s plans … Especially if they’re from a woman like Lina.”

“Hey!” exclaimed the read-haired sorceress.

Amelia couldn’t help but smile. She noticed Gourry had called Lina *woman*, and not *little child*. Surely their relationship had advanced a lot.

Meanwhile Zelgadiss rose on his feet and left the empty plate over the same wooden little table.

“Ok, I’ll do it.” He announced in sharp tone, “But I don’t do that because you order it, Lina.” He pointed clapping the belt with his sword around his hips, “I do this because Amelia cannot do that.” He pointed at her.

And saying that, he turned over his heels, and he walked out as he tied up his cloak around his shoulders.

“Grrmf!” they heard him grunt, “…For once I can sleep placidly, without the she-dragon and the Mazoku around.”

In spite of his words, Amelia smiled. She knew Zelgadiss accepted because of her sake.

***

*Grump* Lina had just throw one of her arms on Amelia’s face. Since the shed only had two bunks, Lina and Amelia had found themselves to be obligated to share a bunk as Gourry slept in the other one. If Amelia had to choice, she would have preferred to sleep next to Gourry at this point but he, in spite of being an errant mercenary, also had gentleman manners and he wouldn’t allow such thing… Or he would’ve had no trouble with it, and it was just the thoughts of Lina’s angry and hurt reaction to them sharing a bunk that kept him from offering part of his bunk.

As a result, the two girls ended up sharing the bunk and Gourry slept freely in the other one while Zelgadiss kept guard outside the shed. And it made Amelia unable to sleep quietly: her belly hurt uncomfortably making her sleep lightly and Lina just didn’t stop moving around and musing things about *food* and *spells*. Amelia knew people said she also mumbled a lot in her sleep, but she was sure she wasn’t as lousy as Lina was about it.

The climax occurred when Amelia was slapped in the face by one of Lina’s arms.

“I’m tired of this!” the priestess exclaimed raising herself on her elbows, as he moved off Lina’s arm, which didn’t move. Amelia looked at Lina in disgust, knowing that anything she would do would be worthless.

Besides, she felt her belly twisting madly.

“Oowh!” she complained.

Feeling bad, she raised from the bunk and left, catching her white-cream cloak in order to cover herself. The shed didn’t have anything similar to a toilet or a bathroom and she needed to take care of herself; the only way she could do was out there, in the spring near to the shed. She would tell Zelgadiss something like “It’s ok! I just need some fresh air.” and she would go to a spring near there. Later, when she come back, she would be relaxed enough for another *round* with Lina.

The ruined wooden door of the shed cracked when she opened it. Out, in the countryside, it was utterly dark except for the moon and the stars; the air was fresh and a little chill, and the crickets and other nocturnal beings were running around. It was natural Zelgadiss wouldn’t use a light spell to illuminate the place, his seeing was good enough for moving in the middle of the night and any type of light would have caught somebody’s attention. In short, they needn’t that.

However, Amelia thought in using the ‘Lighting’ spell to walk around the countryside because her human eyes didn’t allow her the same good vision that Zel’s. But she couldn’t do that because of her current condition.

Wondering what to do to reach the spring, she heard it again.

The same rasping noise from two days ago.

“Huh? Is Zel sharpening his sword again?” the priestess wondered. “Zelgadiss hadn’t even used his sword today. Why would he need to sharp it again? Was he that bored?” Amelia, although she admittedly had little knowledge about the subject, didn’t think that a sword needed to be sharpened so often. Even Gourry, the one most likely to preach about taking care of a sword, didn’t sharpen his so often.

The princess moved her view around but she only could hear that drilling sound. To her concern, she couldn’t find Zelgadiss either.

The chimera sorceress was easily reckonable in the night. His almost white clothes and his silver hair shined in the middle of the night, making him an easy target; of course he couldn’t avoid his hair’s problem with that, but he just ignored his clothes’ problem. Amelia knew Zelgadiss had a thing for light colours, not unlike herself, and he either didn’t seem to notice or care about the attention they brought.

However, where was Zelgadiss?

Ignoring her aching tummy, Amelia looked around trying to find him or the noise’ source. She couldn’t see Zelgadiss, but she could hear the noise. It seemed to come from somewhere behind the shed, just in opposite direction to her original path. Now, she began to walk in that direction.

The priestess walked around the bushes and low trees hearing the sound more clearly. Her view also had adapted to the night darkness and she could recognize the figures easily now; they were black and the night was dark blue, not only black on black. If something dangerous was around there, she could find easily.

Then she heard clearly the same rasping sound and Zelgadiss’ voice. It was muffled, but she could recognize it. Was he talking with somebody? Perhaps Firia was already back… Not Xelloss, that was sure; otherwise, Zel would be shouting and cursing, even “Fireballing” instead of talking.

Finally, she saw him.

Zelgadiss was sitting on a stump tree; he was inclined towards the front and his cloak covered almost all his frame. And certainly his silvery-lavender hair shinned because the moonlight. However, Amelia noticed, he had taken off his belts, including the one of his sword, which reposed next to him on the ground; it was quite surprising because Zel slept with his sword next to him, always ready for action.

But the most surprising thing was the yellow sparks that merged from… him, and splashed around him. Accompanying the sparks, the rasping sound echoed around the place. It was obvious the sparks were produced by the same thing that produced the sound; they were very similar to the ones made when both men sharpened their swords… or when two rocks are rubbed together in order to produce fire.

…And since the sword was next to him, it couldn’t be that. It could be what? Why would Zel rub two rocks together to start a fire? It didn’t make any sense; he could do that with just a fire spell. Perhaps he was sharpening one of his daggers, the ones he carried hidden in his cloak.

But it didn’t explain why he was murmuring something. It sounded like a grunt of a moan, besides.

Amelia thought perhaps he was hurt by something and his stony skin was bad, so it produced that sound. Was he in pain? But, if he was, why didn’t he ask Lina or her to help heal him, or if seriously injured, why not cry out for help? Why would he rub the wound? But that didn’t make sense, either; Zelgadiss could use the “Recovery” spell, she taught him that! So it couldn’t be he was hurt. On the other hand, his grunts and moans didn’t seem to be produced by some pain, but they sounded quite… pleasing.

Amelia felt her checks getting red when she realized Zelgadiss was moaning in pleasure.

And it was really weird.

As far she remembered, it was the first time she heard him producing that sound. Even when the group felt relaxed and he ate nice dishes peacefully, he never exclaimed like that. In fact, Zelgadiss didn’t reveal or show any strong happy emotions ever.

But now he was.

---Why?

Just when Amelia was starting to figure it out, she watched how he leaned backwards, allowing a better view of his frame. Now, she could see he had his eyes closed, and his right hand was placed on his hips, just between his legs… the same place where the yellow sparks and the annoying sound merged. Just then, Zelgadiss moved his left hand towards his mouth as he tilted his head, biting it without harm and using his sharp teeth.

She could see he was moaning at the same rate than the annoying sound and his right hand was also shaking quite nervously. She couldn’t see things too clearly, it was too dark for that, but she could see the tip of what looked like a sharpening stone in his palm and definitively not a blade of a dagger. He kept moving his hand up and down it, like he was sharpening the stone. Was that what he was doing then? Just fixing that stone for his sword? But, why then were his eyes closed, and why was he moaning?

His mouth opened lightly and he said in the same tone, “Oh, c’mon here, little maiden… Lick… me.”

After that, his moaning become louder and his hand moved faster, producing more sparks.

“Little Maiden?” Amelia repeated in stupor as she watched him astonished, “…Do you mean me?”

The priestess’ checks blushed furiously when she realized what was happening, what Zelgadiss was doing. She never had seen such thing, but she had heard about that from her priestess companions back at the Cephied’s temple in Seillum.

That man, a chimera man as matter of fact, was doing what any other man did. He was masturbating himself and it seemed he was thinking of her when he did! Or at least, Zel would know another maiden of some kind to fantasize with. Amelia felt that any of those options were disturbing with her; if Zelgadiss fantasized with her, it was… gross; and if he fantasized with another maiden who was somewhere, she felt jealous.

Fortunately for her, Zelgadiss was too much concentrated in his tasks and the rate of his hand become faster, as well the sparks and frantic moans; if he spoke something else, Amelia didn’t get it. However her attention moved to the sparks; in fact, several of them were starting to make fire with the dry grass around him; if it didn’t stop, soon, it would be a bonfire there.

Amelia’s eyes widened as she realized. Since Zelgadiss’ skin was made of stone, when he touched himself, the stone of his hand rubbed furiously with the stone of his lower body, and it produced that chirping. It also explained the fire back three nights ago. He was doing the same and he lost the control of the situation, pretty much alike now, when he didn’t even realize Amelia was quite near to him. The fire, back then, was produced by his same whereabouts.

Thinking on that, Amelia stepped back, praying for being unnoticed, and finally went after her previous path, unable to stop on all this; even her tummy had stopped hurting. Perhaps Zelgadiss needed to do that from time to time, and surely it was pleasing for him… but it also produced fires. Geez, it could be quite dangerous. Perhaps it was the reason because she never saw it previously in any of their travels… Even Gourry…

Wait, Gourry… he did, too!

That also explained why two weeks ago, she saw Gourry with a red palm mark on his face, produced a Lina’ slap, a very embarrassed Lina back then, who refused to talk about it.

Well, that means Zelgadiss was really human. A male human.

And now, she knew he, very probably, thought on about her.

Amelia would keep his secret.

It was an interesting secret after all.

*Author’s Notes:

1) In Zelgadiss’ Spinn-off (“Zelgadiss under the Hazy Moon”) is said he didn’t know how to extinguish a fire without using other spell that “Freeze Britz”. I took the idea for this story.

2) In an Interview with Mr. Kanzaka, it was said Zel’s parents were murdered by Rezo in something that seemed to be an accident. Zelgadiss doesn’t seem to know this, though.

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