"She acted like this would be easy," the dragon grumbled as he winged through the air. Now that his mother and Lina were a safe distance away he felt it was okay to complain a little. "'Blue boy there says they went east, just go east, how hard is that?'" If she hadn't given Val these stones he could have sworn that she didn't want him to find the others.
It was Zelgadis and his mother that had encouraged him to go after Xina and the others. The chimera had discussed some sort of prophecy with his mom while Lina grumbled off to the side and rummaged through her bag. There was something about 'old ones' and a raven with black fur, and after all was said in done his mother agreed that he should go to join the others.
That was about the time Lina had jammed those jewels into his then human hands snapping "They could use those." Val could sense the magic within the stones, and didn't doubt that the shaman-priestess could definitely use them. Zelgadis and Fillia's upraised eyebrows were even more substantial proof of their power.
He had been looking for about week now, which meant that he must have travelled more ground than they could have. Unfortunately he had overshot their several times and had to backtrack and ask around in human form a couple of times. Finally, it seemed they were on a steady track heading north for some reason, it shouldn't be long until he caught up with them now.
"Excuse me, are you the Princess Amethyst of Sailoon?" Amethyst blinked and turned to face the desperate looking woman.
"Yes, I am, how could you tell?" Everybody sweatdropped.
"The metallic hair was probably a good clue," Jol noted.
"Is it true that you are a practioner of white magic?"
"Is this going to take all day?" Xina asked eyeing the inn and, in this way, the prospect of food. Xalan meanwhile was trying to deal with Tinuviel who had picked him as her most recent study subject. He was on the verge of turning the elf on his sister.
"I've some training in white magic," she admitted. "But I'm a better shamanist. Why do you ask?"
"Thank Ceipheed! It is you! It's her! It's her!" They were suddenly being surrounded by pleading townspeople. Actually, more to the point, Amethyst was being surrounded.
"Oh your highness, we need your help!"
"Let go of my tail."
"Our town is besieged by dark forces!"
"I just want to get a piece of fur."
"They come in the night and kill any one caught outside!"
"Umm these, 'dark forces' wouldn't perchance be dead things, would they?" Xina asked, suddenly interested.
"You have seen them?"
"No, but I and my companions have been tracking a vile sorcerer who enslaves the souls of the dead for his own vile purposes." Everybody sweatdropped again.
"Hey did you hear that? We get to see undead monsters."
"Hmm, I need to prepare for this then."
"Good...Now, let go of my tail."
"This means that you'll help us?"
"All you can eat at the inn?" Jol and Xina asked at once. Yet another mass sweatdrop.
"Well..." somebody started. Then the speaker grunted as if somebody had jabbed him in the ribs. "It's the least we can do."
"Hey these zombies are as good as dead!" Xina promised, then she sweatdropped. "Well...you know what I mean."
After seeing Jolrael and Xina eat, for something like two hours non-stop, the innkeeper almost preferred the undead creatures haunting the city to the heros they had hired to get rid of them. Then the sun had started to go down and he changed his mind as he rushed into his private room and bolted the door. By the time night had fallen everything and everybody was pretty much locked into there homes.
"I wonder when this is supposed to happen?" Xina asked, bored.
"Is your skin actually ivory or does it just look like that?"
"Pretty soon now," Jolrael commented, drawing his sword. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end, something was coming.
"Actually it is ivory-white marble."
Xalan and Xina smelled the approach first, and almost simultaneously wrinkled their noses in disgust. There was a twanging sound and sharp "ouch" from Amethyst as the chimera turned to look at Tinuviel with a half-hurt, half-annoyed expression.
"It feels like metal," the elf muttered.
"Umm Tinu?" She glanced at him still playing with Amethyst's "hair." "Don't you think it would be better if you were to....uh stay inside?"
"Too late," Xalan pointed to the shambling figures.
"Don't waste..." Jolrael started.
"You who are not of this world, by the light of purity I possess, I bid thee begone to the nexus of our two worlds! MEGIDO FLARE!"
"...too much effort on these things," he finished as the zombies vanished in a flash of white magic.
"Most Impressive," a rasping voice called out. "But I am not one of those mindless toys."
Something dropped down in their midst and lashed out at Amethyst. The chimera lashed out with her blade, as Xalan attacked with his staff. Both weapons passed harmlessly through the shadowy figure, Amethyst's blade slicing cleanly through the kage-kitsune's staff.
Amethyst felt their attacker grab her and then it was gone, screaming in hideous pain.
"Hey, that actually works!" Tinuviel said, brandishing a vial of what had been holy water.
"Okay, what was that?"
"Never mind the what, how about the where?" Xina asked. Xalan examined the two halves of his staff and tossed them aside, shrugging. Maybe he couldn't touch it with the unenchanted weapon, but he himself was half-mazoku.
"Amethyst, Xina," he said. "Don't bother with your swords," he noted Xina hadn't even drawn hers. "Well I guess you weren't about to anyway." She leveled him a glare and returned to looking for the shadow that had attacked them.
"Here it comes again," Jolrael pointed.
"You're sure?" Xalan asked. Then he saw a ripple of motion in the shadows that didn't belong.
"He's sure," Xina said. That wall of Xina's appeared again, in time for the shadow to smack into it. In the night, the translucent wall seemed to be merely a sheet of moonlight. Until the shadow rebounded off of it. As the spirit maneuvered to come from another direction, Jol moved forward. Xina's wall dropped as he slashed out with his blade. The dark creature was hard pressed to avoid the attack and backed into Xalan's reach.
The kage-kitsune confirmed his belief that his fists could do what his staff could not, as he punched into their attacker's head. A flurry of kicks and punches forced the creature back towards Jolrael as the sound of chanting could be heard. The swordsman slashed low, cutting the shadow creature's "feet" out from under him.
"...let the power hidden in my soul be called forth from the Infinite..." The shadow's feet reformed and it tried to leap away, only to find itself caught in a bubble of translucent light. "RA TILT!"
The trapped spirit screamed in agony as it was torn apart by the astral spell.
"Is that it?" Xina asked after a moment's anxious silence. The words seemed to summon forth a great gust of wind which knocked them off their feet.
"What beast of darkness dares attack us now?" Amethyst shouted. Xalan and Xina, however, recognized the scent the artificial wind carried.
"Hey Val, could you watch the landing next time?" Xina asked.
"Sorry," the dragon grumbled loudly.
"Change to you're human form, so you don't destroy the village we just saved," Xalan added.
"Is that a REAL dragon?" Tinuviel asked.
"I'm a real dragon," Val admitted, managing to sound embarrased even in this form. Everybody else looked at Tinuviel and sweatdropped.