Slayers Fan Fiction ❯ Brave Breeze ❯ Chapter 6

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

“Explain yourselves mazoku,” the golden haired man snarled.
“Hey Mil, no time no see,” Lina greeted cheerfully.
The golden dragon narrowed his eyes. How he hated mazoku and their arrogant ways. “Who are you to address me in such a way, monster scum?”
“Now, I’m hurt, Mil,” the redheaded mazoku said pouting, as she sat floating in mid air. “I can’t believe you’d forget all about cute little me, especially after all that traveling we did.”
Milgazia growled. “I am not, never have, nor will I ever travel with a mazoku, witch!” he spat. If these monster scum weren’t going to explain why they had dared intrude on his valley, then he would have to teach them not to mess with the last of the golden dragon race.
“I can’t have changed that much, Milgazia,” the redhead began, “It hasn’t been that long for you since the whole biz with Grau… him.” Lina still couldn’t bring herself to say the Haou’s name out loud. Her aqua haired companion placed his hands on her shoulders. She smiled in thanks, grateful for Val’s support.
The head of the golden dragons of the Kataart Mountains blinked. The only person he knew of that had helped him and his elven lover Memphys against Dynast’s plans was… “Lina… Inverse?!” he asked in confusion. “You can’t be!” he shouted in denial, “The last time I saw Lina Inverse, she was a human not a piece of monster trash!”
Valgaav had had enough of this man’s high and mighty attitude, besides now that he had his memories back, his former utter hatred of golden dragons had returned as well – though his ‘mother’ was the only exception. He may have hated these arrogant people, but he never could bring himself to hate Filia; she did raise him from an egg after all.
However, he never did forgive the golden dragons for wiping out his people, the anczoku. To hell with Milgazia being one of his ‘mother’s’ people! The aqua haired mazoku lunged at the dragon. Lina shouted for him to stop, but he ignored her. He wasn’t about to let this arrogant jerk get away with insulting his Lina.
The aqua haired mazoku grabbed the front of Milgazia’s robes, his right arm covered in black scales and ready to strike.
“THAT’S ENOUGH VAL!!!!!!” Lina bellowed, grabbing a hold of the scaly arm and promptly hit him upside the head. “Look, Mil, we didn’t come here to fight,” she tried once again in an attempt to play peacemaker, though she did enjoy the smell of apprehension wafting off the golden dragon.
“Then why did you come here, Lina?” Milgazia asked again, saying the girl’s name in a rather sarcastic tone. He still wasn’t sure if the mazoku before him really was Lina Inverse or just some sick joke.
“We’re looking for any signs of Gaav,” Lina explained.
“Hmph. As you can see he’s not here. If you really were Lina Inverse, you of all people would know Maryuuou Gaav is dead, now leave.” It was not a request.
“Of course she knows that, you arrogant—“ snapped Val.
Lina once again restrained her taller companion. The last thing she needed now was a full scale battle with a bunch of golden dragons. “Like Val-kun said, I know he’s dead, Mil. We’re looking for signs if he’s been reborn.”
“Well, we haven’t seen any, if we had, we would have dealt with him accordingly,” Milgazia shot back, his patience extremely thin now.
“Just like what you did with my people, the anczoku?!” Valgaav retorted.
The golden dragon’s eyes widened in shock then narrowed. “I see,” he said with just the slightest hint of pity and shame. All golden dragons knew of the heinous culling of the anczoku race they unleashed all those centuries ago. It was their blackest moment in the entire history of their race. “You were once one of that doomed race, were you not? As penance for my part in that most blackest of times of or race, I will not strike you down where you stand mazoku. I will ask once again, leave our valley.”
The once human sorceress nodded. There was to be no reasoning with the rather stubborn golden dragon. “Well, thanks anyway Mil. It was good to see you though,” she called as she began to teleport from the valley, a rather reluctant Val following. “Give Memph-chan my regards will you?”
Milgazia’s gold eyes bugged. No one he knew ever called the elf girl ‘Memph-chan’, only a certain redheaded sorceress. “I will Lina,” he replied, not caring that the mazoku had already vanished. He then shook his head in dismay. “Just what have you gotten yourself into now, woman?” he muttered, not liking these new turn of events.

“Well, that went well,” grumbled Val as they reappeared a few miles away from the Valley of Dragons.
“Must have caught him on a bad day,” Lina offered in apology, “Mil’s usually not so grumpy. A little stubborn and conceited, but then most gold dragons are.”
“So what now, Lina? Go back there and make them talk?”
The redhead glared then smacked him upside the head again. “Of course not!” she scolded. “The last thing we need is a bunch of angry dragons after us. Besides, I believe him. If Mil says Gaav didn’t come back here, then he didn’t.”
The aqua haired mazoku frowned. “I’m sorry Lina, I didn’t mean to get your hopes up. I should have known that Gaav-sama…”
“I’m not saying he didn’t get reincarnated, Val,” she interrupted before he went into another of his bouts of angst. “I’m just saying that he could be elsewhere.”
“L-Lina, are you sure?”
The petite mazoku sighed. “To tell the truth, not really, but I’ve got to try. It’s either that or give up and drag my sorry self back to… to…”
Valgaav grabbed his shorter companion fiercely, holding her tight against him. “I would die a second time before I ever let that sick b@$^@rd touch you!” he vowed, causing Lina to blush profusely.
“V-Val…”
“Shh, Lina. I swore to ‘Kaa-san that I’d protect you and I will, always.” The aqua haired mazoku then turned her cute face up toward his and laid a soft kiss on her lips.
Lina’s eyes tripled in size and her mouth did an impression of a fish caught out of water. Val quickly turned away, his face as red as her hair. They floated in the air for what seemed an eternity, each lost in their own thoughts.
To say the red haired mazoku was stunned would be quite the understatement. Lina’s mind was a swirling mess of emotions. Before this whole mess, she never once would have thought of the aqua haired teen in that way at all. But now… she wasn’t so sure of herself. A part of her still had feelings for a certain annoying as all hell purple haired mazoku. He was her first love, though she’d never in a trillion years admit it to his face. That moment he’d kissed her in the lair of the “Fighting Dragon’s Blood Macho Men” bandit gang – so what if it was an indirect one – he began worming his sneaky way into her heart. Now, Dynast had to come after her, again, and suddenly she found herself sneaking tiny glances at someone she practically helped raise since an egg.
‘What the blazes is wrong with you, Inverse?!’ Lina chided herself, ‘You’re twice his age! Not only that, you were his nanny! His freaking nanny for crying out loud! He used to call you ‘Auntie’!’
‘Admit it,’ another part of herself piped up, ‘he’s hot! Just look at him! Those arms, those legs, those abs!’ Lina mentally slapped herself before anyone saw her drooling, especially the very good looking dragon mazoku floating mere inches away from her.
‘Ok, so he is uh…easy on the eyes,’ she admitted, ‘but I just can’t do that to him. I can’t just string him along, it’ll kill him.’
‘Uh huh,’ that more realistic part of her quipped, ‘riiiiiiiiiiight. It’s obvious he wants you, and face it Inverse dear, you want him too. Why else would you have clung to him like that when you easily could have run to…’
“Arrrghh!! Just shut it already!!!” she screamed, startling her taller companion. “I’m not in love with…”
“Lina?” Val asked, genuinely concerned for his smaller crush’s well being.
“Val,” she began, her voice taking on a rather serious tone, “Just what did you mean by that? Why did you…” Lina looked away slightly, blushing again, unable to finish her question.
‘She’s awfully cute when she blushes,’ he noted, before shaking his head, to stop himself from going any further; it was obvious she was annoyed. “I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.”
“Answer me, Val!” she demanded.
“E-Ever since that day…” he started, not sure how to explain his own tumultuous feelings. “When you were… I thought I was going to lose you. I didn’t like it; the thought of someone else having you. When I saw you there… something inside… snapped.” She made to speak, but Val held up his hand indicating she should wait until he’d finished. “It was then I realized, I-I love you, Lina. I know you’d never feel that way about me, but I… I had to tell you.”
Yet again, Lina Inverse was flabbergasted. The younger mazoku’s words had touched her deeply. She’d known that Val had always worshipped her as a child, but never did she once realize just how deep those feelings ran or what form they’d later take as he grew into adulthood. She was at a complete loss for words, she couldn’t think of a single thing to say. Did she love him back? Possibly. That little voice inside her had a good point, she could have gone to Xellos for comfort, even if Val and Filia had practically kicked the trickster priest out of his own room while she stayed there recovering. But she didn’t. It was Val’s comfort and company she had desired.
Not knowing what else to do, Lina let her body take the lead and kissed him fully on the lips. Val just floated there, blinking confusedly. It took several seconds for his short-circuited brain to realize what was going on before he let out a low growl and kissed back. The two fought for dominance for a few more moments then Lina gave in, allowing the taller mazoku to take full control.
“Mine,” Val said in between a growl and purr then bent to lick and nip at the redhead’s slender neck. ‘Hah! Take that you namagomi!’ he sneered inwardly.
Lina gasped and moaned as she felt the dragon mazoku’s fangs breach her skin, her mind too muddled to realize that he was marking her as his mate. Even if was aware of what was going on, she wouldn’t have cared anyway. She loved this man. There. She’d finally admitted it, she loved Val. All thoughts of a certain purple haired mazoku long since gone.

Back on Wolf Pack Island, Xellos sneezed, startling Amelia.
“Oh my!” the black haired princess exclaimed, “You’re not catching a cold are you Xellos-san?”
The purple haired mazoku smiled amicably at the human’s genuine concern. “It’s nothing Amelia-chan,” he excused, “It must have been a speck of dust.”
“Oh. Okay then.” Amelia then went back to the book she had been reading, dismissing the mazoku once more. ‘Gee, I hope Lina-san and Valteira-kun are all right,’ she thought, hoping her dearest friend hurried back soon.

“Are you sure you want to look around here?” Lina asked, fanning herself from the desert heat. She may be a mazoku now, and thus a bit more resilient, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t be immune to the intense noonday heat.
“Gaav-sama always did say he preferred the desert to anywhere else,” replied the aqua haired mazoku. “I just thought that it’d be a better choice right now.”
“Hey, I just remembered,” the petite mazoku piped up.
“What’s that, koi?” Val asked, making his chosen mate blush.
“This is where we first met, when you…” Val looked at her confusedly at the rocky landscape that marked the beginning of the Desert of Destruction, then immediately stiffened when he realized what the former human sorceress had meant. “Sorry, Val. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“It’s okay, Lina,” he assured her, “It’s that I’d never thought I’d come back to this place, hell, I couldn’t even remember meeting you here and now…”
The redheaded mazoku growled, silently vowing to rip a certain ‘master’ of hers a new one for ruining poor Val’s chance at a normal life. “Val…” she laid a comforting hand on his arm.
“Let’s get going Lina,” he said, wishing to drop the subject all together. Lina gave him a short nod; she understood how her taller lover felt. She had no wish to reminisce on the whole Dark Star mess either.
After the two mazoku phased out of sight, an old woman crept from her hiding place. “Just what this desert needs,” she groused, “More demons.” Down the path another, younger, woman nodded her head in agreement as she and the rest of the tiny village crept from their huts. Several of the men sighed and shook their heads, resigning themselves to the fact that their land may never be demon free. Demons had plagued their village for as long as they could remember and they’ve learnt how to deal with it. As with any village, life went on.

Following the rumors they picked up from various caravans of beleaguered merchants and the occasional group of beastmen bandits of a vicious monster haunting the desert, Lina and Val continued deeper into the sand covered land. Neither said anything, both fearing that their unsaid prayers would be jinxed if they did.
It wasn’t long before the two mazoku spotted a somewhat large city smack dab in the middle of the Desert of Destruction, which surprised the redheaded sorceress since it wasn’t on the map she’d coerced out of the beastmen bandits along the way.
She was about to gripe about the poor quality of the parchment drawing when a humungous wall of sand rose in front of her, knocking the petite mazoku flat on her bum. Val ran to his mate’s side only to have the golden grainy substance hold him fast to the ground. He snarled in anger and frustration as he watched chains of sand wrap around Lina, effectively pinning her to the desert floor.
“Explain your presence in my desert or else,” came a low monotonic voice. Lina couldn’t help but get shivers running up and down her spine at the sound of it.
The aqua haired mazoku whirled his head to see a person about his age standing a few mere feet away from them. This teenager had short blood red hair and piercing aqua eyes that seemed to be looking straight into his very core. Val couldn’t help but lower his eyes from those hard and icy orbs. They just unnerved him, though they did seem a bit familiar somehow.
Then it hit him! The strange sand wielding teenager glaring before them had the same eyes as…
“G-Gaav-sama?!” the taller mazoku queried, remembering seeing the same look when the Maryuuou had stumbled upon a broken, battered, and half dead anczoku lad.
The glaring redhead’s eyes widened slightly before narrowing back to their usual glare. Other than that, he hadn’t budged a single inch, his arms still crossed. “You may know me, mazoku,” he said, his voice not changing in tone one bit, “But I don’t know you. I’m growing impatient, you best explain yourselves before I feed you to the sand.”
Lina couldn’t believe their luck. Here they were traipsing all over the world looking for Val’s former master and here he was, standing mere feet away. ‘L-sama must be in a reeeeeeeeeaaaaaallllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyy good mood if we found Gaav so quickly,’ the petite mazoku mused.
“Don’t you recognize me Gaav-sama,” Val pleaded as he felt the sand holding him start to drag him under, “your most loyal servant? Don’t you remember the dying anczoku you dragged from death’s door?”
Annoyed aqua stared at the slowly sinking mazoku, scrutinizing every detail, every scar upon the other’s face. “Valgaav,” spoke the male redhead emotionlessly. The sand then dragged the dragon mazoku back out of the sand and released him.
“Thank L-sama,” Lina said, drawing Gaav’s attention over to her prone form. The Maryuuou glared at her as he studied the petite sorceress. She was scrawny – not as developed as the human who insisted on calling herself his sister – nor was she as appealing. Tamerie had a more mature look to her while this mazoku was, well, childish looking at best, though she did look kind of cute.
After a few unnerving – for her anyway – moments of Gaav’s intense scrutinizing, the faintest of smiles appeared on the Maryuuou’s thin lips. “Trying a new look are we, Lina Inverse?” he said, a tiny bit curious as to why the human redheaded girl he had tried to recruit in his last life was now a mazoku.
Lina huffed, annoyed at not being immediately released like her lover and annoyed at the mazoku lord’s obvious amusement. “It’s not like I had a choice!” she spat defiantly in spite of the fear garnered from her memories of their previous encounters – she did have the hardest time in her life fighting him after all, not even Shabranigdo was that tough and he was the big boss of the mazoku too!
Gaav continued to stare amusedly at the squirming female. “It was Grausherra,” Val offered in explanation. Aqua eyes swept over to his former minion briefly before returning to Lina. He growled lowly before causing the sand to cover the still bound redhead.
“Gaav-sama, wait!” begged the aqua haired teen, “We can explain! We’re not here under his orders!”
The golden substance paused just below Lina’s nose, but continued to churn and swirl as it impatiently waited for its master’s permission to go on ‘feeding’. “Explain then,” came Gaav’s monotonic voice.
“C-Can’t you get me outta here?” the once human sorceress pleaded, “Please?” She then tried one of her best weapons, the dreaded puppy dog eyes.
The redheaded mazoku lord only narrowed his eyes in impatience. “We came looking for you, Gaav-sama,” Val explained, his eyes never leaving his frightened mate. “Lina never wanted to join Grausherra, or even be one of us!”
“P-Please, G-Gaav… sama,” Lina beseeched, quickly adding the ‘sama’ in hopes to improve his mood, “let me join you!”
The Maryuuou’s laughter echoed for miles throughout the desert air. “Now, you agree to join my side!” If she thought he was scary when they’d first met, Lina thought he was twice as frightening now. “I can see why mother likes you so much,” Gaav said between guffaws, “You amuse me Inverse. Maybe I will keep you.” The sand then lifted the female mazoku and dragged her closer to the redheaded mazoku lord.
“Thank you, Gaav-sama,” Val humbly thanked.
“I said maybe, Valgaav-kun,” Gaav interrupted. He gave the still uneasy mazoku sorceress another of his dominating stares, which caused her to gulp as those piercing aqua depths roamed up and down her trembling form. Once again the Maryuuou appraised the girl before him. She may have lacked that certain physical appeal, but he knew in spite of her current fear there lay a rather feisty fireball of a woman underneath; a quality he had always been attracted to in the past. Nodding to himself, he smirked, pleased with these interesting turn of events. “The Inverse girl may remain, but only if she becomes my concubine,” he announced, inwardly enjoying the look of utter shock and anger on Lina’s cute reddened face.

Sakura: Duh, duh dum!! Blame the few drops of mazoku blood in me for this. ^_^
Lina: You finally write another fic about me and you do THAT?! Being a mazoku’s bad enough, but Gaav?!
Sakura: Oh? Did you want Dynnie, Lina-chan? I’m sure L-sama could arrange that.
Lina: I-I change my mind! I loooooooooooove being a mazoku! Yep I do! And Gaav’s hot!!! (nods violently)
Sakura: Good to hear that. I’d hate have to explain to Gaav you didn’t think he was good looking. Anyhoo, before any of you start complaining that Gaav is too much like Gaara from Naruto, let me say this. For you newbs out there, Slayers has always been known to spoof other popular anime clichés. So I’m following Kanzaka-sama’s example here by giving Gaav’s reincarnation Gaa-chan’s personality. Also I may spoof the other Suna sibs too. As always, feedback is always welcome! It’s a fic writer’s lifeblood. ^_^
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