Slayers Fan Fiction ❯ Inseparable ❯ Chapter 1

Inseparable

Prologue

"I'm glad you came. I didn't know who else to talk to, what with Gracia gone. It'd not like I can talk to Daddy about this."

"I see... and what--"

"It's Zelgadis-san. It's been over a year since we parted ways in the Outer World and I haven't seen him since. He hasn't even written!"

"Well, you know how the mail is..."

"He's not coming back, is he?"

"Now, I don't know about that. You just have to trust in--"

"I don't want to trust in anyone! I'd go out myself to give him a piece of my mind, but Daddy wants me to stay home."

"You really have it bad. Does Zelgadis know how you feel?"
"I don't know... I think he does."

"Jerk."
"Don't say such mean things about him! Even if they are true..."

"Well, what would you have me say about him? He abandoned you!"

"I don't know... I'm sorry I'm being so annoying."
"No, I think you needed to get this off your back. Good seeing you again, Amelia."

Chapter 1

The road runs on and on... through some of the most boring country Zelgadis had ever seen. Nothing but farmland for miles, broken up by the occasional cow pasture or the very rare group of farmhouses that, with some imagination, could be called a town.

No cure here, Zel thought. Just days spent traveling to get somewhere worth looking.

*SMACK!*

Zelgadis was knocked flat. He stood up, readjusting his cloak, and reached out in front of him. His hand touched empty air. He shrugged and tried to take a step forward.

It was like stubbing his toe on a brick wall. Zel spent several minutes muttering expletives and hopping about on one foot in pain, which, of course, led to more collisions with the invisible barrier and, thus, more cursing and wild movement, culminating with one final collision, knocking him flat on his face again.

"Kuso..." Zel sat down in the road to ponder the situation. The barrier is only present when I try to walk across it, he noted. Maybe another form of movement...

Fifteen minutes later, Zel had discovered (the hard way) that, not only could he not walk, hop or stumble across the barrier, he couldn't crawl, fly, run, jump, skip... Well, I think the pattern here is obvious. The infuriating thing was that it only seemed to apply to him -- birds, small, furry, crop-eating rodents, and even the sweat gnats trying unsuccessfully to make a meal out of him seemed to treat the barrier as if it wasn't there... which it wasn't. Except for him.

"Excuse me, sir?"

Zel looked at the farmer, who was giving him a look of polite annoyance for blocking the road. "Yes?" he said coldly.

"Well, you look like a traveler. Need a lift to the next town?"

If I can't get there under my own power... "Sure, that would be nice." Zel managed to climb onto the wagon without running into the invisible wall. The farmer, seeing Zel was seated in the back and not squishing any of his award winning crop of cabbages, tried to start the horse moving again.

The wheels and axels made a groaning sound... the sound of stressed wood... not a good sound. Zel felt an immense pressure on him and, once again, was knocked prone. Remind me to knock whoever created this damn barrier on their face, he thought angrily.

The farmer stopped his horse and went back to inspect the wheels. "We seem to be stuck," he informed Zelgadis congenially. "Nothing a little elbow grease wouldn't fix. I'll just check the wheels... oddd... they look clear... hey, stranger, where're you going?"

Zel had gotten off and started walking back the way he had came. "I just remembered... I left something in the inn I stayed at last night. Thanks for the offer, though."

"Uh... sure. No problem." The farmer got back in his wagon, which seemed to work fine now. "Guess it was just a bad spot in the road... what an odd person. Wonder why he was dressed like that? Well, I guess that's what you get in for'n parts. I'll have to tell the kids... they'll think it's interesting..."

Zel continued retracing his steps until he reached one of the cow pastures. "Alright," he said to himself. "Someone wants to keep me out... or in. So, if I figure out what direction the barrier is going, I'll have narrowed down the sources."

After a half hour of walking parallel to the barrier, a few near-misses from various 'livestock byproducts' and countless odd looks from grazing cows, Zel stopped and got out his map, sextant and compass. "Let's see... it's abut noon now... north is to my right... I passed through that town yesterday.... So, I'm here and the wall runs like so." He marked the map, then drew a perpendicular to the line representing the wall. "Nothing much in the area I can't reach... farmland until the ocean. So, what's on the side I can reach? And stop looking at me like that... I'm allowed to talk to myself," he informed a passing cow. "L-sama, maybe I have spent too much time on my own... now, where was I?" He traced the perpendicular he had drawn with his finger until he reached a very familiar little black dot.

"Sailoon."