Slayers Fan Fiction ❯ Broken ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: Slayers and their characters are not owned by me. They belong to Hajime Kanzaka, Rui Araizumi and any other companies which own them. I'm just borrowing them for a little bit and I promise to give them back all in perfect working order.

 

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“Hey! Gourry!? Wake up! This isn't funny. If you're faking this, I'm gonna make sure you're really knocked out!”

 

I blinked a couple of times before opening my eyes and found myself being blinded by the light, but there was a slight shadow. I was trying to remember what happened and why I would be lying on the ground. But with the almost blinding light and the pounding headache, trying to remember anything else was pretty much impossible.

 

“Lina?” I groaned, and blinked a little more, trying to adjust to the light.

“Jeez, finally. You had me a little worried then. You hit that tree pretty hard!”

 

I could feel her presence now, knelt down next to me. I couldn't remember what she was talking about though. I didn't remember hitting a tree. I just remember the ambush by a couple of mazoku and then an explosion.

 

“Tree? What tree?”

“Oh c'mon Gourry. I know you can be bad but you're really pushin' it!”

 

My eyes got used to the light now and I could see Lina pretty clearly. She was leaning back against a tree, which I'm guessing was the one she was talking about. I was happy enough on the ground at that point, since my head was pounding. Hangovers were never this bad!

 

“What happened to those guys then?”

“Oh, well since you were busy taking a nap, I finished them off myself! I think that means you owe me a week of dinner.” Lina put on a smug look and I groaned, quickly forgetting the headache and more worried about the fact my bag of gold was already getting pretty light.

 

“We should get moving soon, the sun is about to set and it's not really the best place to camp. I think the map said there would be a stream not too far away.”

“Nngghh…ok Lina. Just let me get the feeling back in my legs first.”

“The only reason you don't have the feeling in your legs is cause you've been lying there the whole time. You're being lazy!”

“I'm serious Lina, I can't feel my legs. Just give me a minute.”

“Oh really?”

 

Lina had that look, the one that really scared me. That was the one she showed when I was about to be hurt. She knelt down beside by my legs and in reaction I brought my hands up to fend her off. She batted them away, and then with an evil grin, started pinching at my legs.

 

“AHH…wait. I don't feel anything.”

“Seriously? I'm pinching pretty hard here.”

“Nope, I don't feel a thing! Hey, maybe I have an immunity to you now!”

Lina growled at that, and I could tell she was thinking of fireballing me at that point. “Don't push me Gourry…”

“Ok ok ok. Hehe. I was kidding.”

 

Lina looked down at my legs and I could see something was bothering her a little. Just like she would when reading through a new spell book in a language she didn't use often. She'd wrinkle her nose a little and then test things out. Suddenly she brought her fist down on my knee. She looked back at me for a reaction.

 

“Nope…nothing!”

 

Now she seemed nervous, this was the point when she was really struggling to understand what was going on. Her brows wrinkled in more serious thought. But there was something else in there. She looked troubled. She moved around and picked up my right leg. Then standing up she pushed it towards me.

 

“Push back against me, ok?

 

I tried but I couldn't. I didn't even feel her pick my leg up into the air. There was just nothing, nothing at all.

 

“Push Gourry!!! Stop playing about!”

“I am!!! There's nothing. Can you stop? My back is starting to hurt…”

 

I looked over to Lina, and the look on her face had me suddenly worried. I started to move my arms to give myself leverage so I could move closer, but I never got the chance to. Lina pinned me back down to the ground.

 

“Don't you dare move!”

“But Lina…it's really uncomfortable!”

“Shut it!! I don't care! I...I thi…I think you're paralysed.”

“I'm what!?”

“Paralysed…the reason you can't move your legs. When you hit that tree, you must have broken something in your back.”

“Well can't you just heal it?”

 

Lina was silent at that point. Her head was lowered a little so I wasn't able to see her eyes. I never liked her doing that, because I couldn't work out what she was thinking. It usually wasn't good though. I knew whatever she was about to say, it wouldn't be good. Or she would try and pretend everything was ok, when it wasn't.

 

“It's not that easy. It's complicated in there. I can't just use a healing spell. I could end up doing you more harm than good.”

 

It was my turn to lie there in silence. I'd seen people paralysed before. Some couldn't move their legs. Others couldn't move their whole body. I guess I could count myself lucky then if I was able to at least move something. There was something else I noticed about all those other people though.

 

“I'm not going to get better…am I?”

“Don't be stupid Gourry! Of course you'll get better!”

“Stop it Lina. I've seen this before. People don't get better from this.”

 

Lina clenched her fists and gritted her teeth in reaction.

 

“So what!? You're gonna give up that easy!? We'll sort this out! I'll work out a way!! Hey, we can just get you to a healer. They know better healing magic than I do which will make you good as new!”

 

I was surprised by her reaction and so I didn't really know how to reply. All I could really think about was what we were supposed to do. We were out in the middle of nowhere and the sun had almost set. I wasn't able to move anywhere, and it's not like Lina was able to carry me. But my mind kept going back to the way Lina reacted. To me, it was like she thought this was somehow her fault and she was the one who had to fix it.

 

“I need to move him somehow. But I can't cause I could make him worse…” Lina began mumbling to herself.

 

She started pacing back and forth as she mumbled to herself. She was fidgeting a lot with the bottom of her tunic. She was nervous and worried about the situation. You don't travel with someone for a few years without picking up on some of the things they tend to do. I wanted to get up and calm her down. I just wanted to do something to try and help, but I couldn't. Instead I had to lie there and wait for Lina to do something.

 

“Right! Ok, I need branches, and we have some rope. This should work!” She slammed a fist in her palm.

 

She turned to the tree and looked up, unsheathing her dagger. She started up her floaty spell and headed up into the tree to hack away at the branches and then dropped them beside me. I never really liked the floaty spell, but still it was better than the one where we flew really fast and high. Something about someone so small carrying someone of my size high up in the air like that just felt wrong. But Lina had a tendency of doing things which no one would expect.

 

That's why it was pretty fun to be around her. It was also pretty damned dangerous, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

“Lift your arms, stupid!”

“Wha…?”

“I said lift your arms!!! You know those things that come out from the side of your body?”

“Why?”

“I just told you!!! I need to take your armour off. I…GAHH! Look. I'd explain but by the time I finish it'll be dark. So just do what I say, ok?”

 

I nodded a little and lifted my arms for her. She then took a hold of my body armour and then was pretty carefully about lifting it off my body. It was only then, that I noticed she had made some sort of stretcher from the branches and rope.

 

“Ok, lift your head carefully so I can get this off you.”

“I thought you said I couldn't move.”

“If you can move your arms, then you can move your neck. You must have damaged your back lower down. That's where you feel the pain, right?”

 

I nodded a little and then lifted my head as she said, and she pulled the body armour off. I glanced down and noticed my thigh guards were still on.

 

“Don't you wanna take those off too?”

Lina shook her head. “No, it's too difficult, but I don't think it will mess up anything. Your body armour would have just got in the way.”

 

She placed the armour on the ground next to our belongings, and then started to move the stretched over. She was deep in concentration, almost like she was casting a spell but I knew she wasn't. I'd seen that look in Lina before. She only does that when there is something she doesn't want to think about. Instead she's occupying herself with other things so she doesn't have time to think about whatever it is she doesn't want to think about.

 

“Ok, I know you hate this but you have to stay absolutely still. I'm serious about this Gourry. You can't try and flail about like you normally do.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“What?”

“You're putting too much effort into this. You could fly to a healer and bring him back in no time. I'll be fine on my own.”

“If you haven't noticed, it's getting late. I don't know how fast you think I can fly but I can't fly that fast…Also I'm not leaving you alone. They could end up sending more mazoku and if they find you alone, they could…”

 

I'd never seen the look Lina gave me just then, but I had been told about it by Zel and Amelia before now. They said she was like that when I was taken away by Phibrizzo. I can be terrible with names but that one always sticks in my head.

 

“I told you Lina, I'll be fine on my own.”

“And I told you, I'm not leaving you alone, so you're just going to have to put up with it. Now hold still!”

 

I sighed and closed my eyes. I figured that at least I wouldn't be as high in the air as we normally go. Within a few moments, I could feel a slight gust of wind blowing around me and I guessed that meant I was in the air. Just knowing I was floating creeped me out, but I made sure to stay as still as possible.

 

“All done!”

“Oh finally!”

“What are you talking about? You were barely in the air for a minute.”

“Well it felt like much longer.”

“Why does that scare you? It's not like you were even that high off the ground.”

 

I'm not going into all of that again, it's wrong that people can just fly around in the air like that!!!

 

“Well anyway, you better get used to it, because it's going to happen a lot more often.”

“Huh? How come?”

“Well I'm sorry, but little old me won't be able to carry you around everywhere. I'm gonna have to use that levitation spell to move you around. At least with you in the stretcher, I won't have to worry about you moving about and ending up any worse.”

“This is just an excuse for you to tie me down.”

 

Lina knelt down and began wrapping the rope around me and then tying it off. She didn't really respond to me, and from the way her hands were shaking, I guess she wasn't in the joking mood. I just didn't want to get bogged down with the idea of not being able to walk. I wanted to be like we normally would be. For some reason, Lina couldn't be like that at the moment. She really was worried about me.

 

“Ok, finished. Now we just have to get moving to the stream nearby and set up camp. Then from there it shouldn't take too long to get to a village.”

 

She stood up and dusted herself off. She wasn't letting it on but she already seemed a little tired. I wouldn't be able to talk her out of it though so I didn't bother to try. So I stared off at the surroundings instead, and to occupy my mind, thought about different ways of using the surroundings as an advantage in a battle. It worked pretty well because I didn't really notice floating away from the ground and moving along. It didn't just make me forget about floating in the air though. It made me forget about the fact that maybe I would never be able to travel around with Lina anymore. But worst of all, I would be breaking my promise to her.