“Zelgadis Greywords, I swear
that if I die in this, I’m going to come and haunt you for the rest of
your life!!!”
The chimera, of course,
paid little attention to the ranting of the sorceress. Lina Inverse ranted
all the time. End of story. He was more concerned with the potential cure
that lay on the other size of this large cavern. He didn’t even pay attention
to the chest-high mud that he was slogging through.
Lina and Amelia were a lot
shorter than Zelgadis and Gourry. As a result, the mud was considerably
closer to their chins, and Lina was letting everyone have it. “For crying
out loud, Zel… can’t you find a cure near a nice sunny beach instead of
a cavern that’s so short we have to walk through mud that’s up to our chins?”
“It isn’t up to my chin,
Lina…” Gourry started, but a well-aimed ball of mud smacked into the back
of his head, interrupting. “Ow!”
“Miss Lina… don’t you think
that sometimes the things worth finding aren’t easy to get to?” Sylphiel
asked, picking her way daintily through the mud, wrinkling her nose in
distaste, even though the mud was up to her shoulders. “Although I have
to agree that this mud is cold and it’s getting harder to work through
it… but I’m not complaining!” She forced a cheerful smile. “See? I could
enjoy this…”
Amelia looked back at Sylphiel
with a sweatdrop as Lina brought her hands together, muttering under her
breath. Zelgadis’ hearing picked up the spell, and as he turned to stop
her, she called it. “Vigarthagaia!”
“Lina…! No!!!” Zelgadis
shouted, albeit too late.
The spell flared away from
her, splitting the mud clear to the stone floor of the cavern. For approximately
three seconds, it was two visually impressive walls of mud rolling up on
either side of them.
And then the effects of
the spell faded and the mud fell back in.
The force of the mud hitting
them swept them all off of their feet and they were caught up in a swelling
mud tide that carried them through a hole that Lina’s spell had punched
in the far wall, upending them repeatedly until the wild ride came to a
stop in a totally different group of caverns.
Lina landed on her back,
thinking that perhaps that wasn’t the best course of action, but it was
over and done with now, wasn’t it? And there wasn’t any more mud…
“LINA!!!!!” Zelgadis roared
in irritation as he tumbled to a halt along with the rest of the group,
not too far away. He stood, dripping mud, but intent on getting to Lina
before she could cast another spell that might have equally disastrous
results.
Lina looked over, seeing
Zelgadis approaching, covered from head to foot in mud. Without giving
it much thought, she clapped her hands together. “Aqua Create!”
Any objections and intents
that the chimera might have had were suddenly drowned in the deluge of
water that washed down over the cavern.
When the water stopped falling,
the mud was cleared off of them, and they were now only wet instead of
wet and muddy. But Zelgadis wasn’t amused. He was stomping about, shaking
water out of various things that had been in his pockets. “Of all the recklessly
stupid things to do, you cast a Vigarthagaia spell down here in a network
of caverns that you haven’t mapped, get us swept into Cepheid knows where,
and then try to drown us!!” He turned to glare at her, water pouring out
of the boot that he had just pulled off of his foot. “What were you thinking?!”
Lina had the grace to blush.
“Well… we aren’t muddy anymore…” She tapped her fingers together, trying
to think of a way out of the mess that she had inadvertently caused.
“We aren’t muddy anymore?!
Is that all you have to say??” Zelgadis snarled, advancing on the redhead.
As Lina took several steps
backwards in surprise, Amelia grabbed Zelgadis from behind, wrapping herself
around his arm. “Mister Zelgadis, don’t be mad at Miss Lina! She was only
trying to help you!”
Lina continued to back up
and away from the irate chimera. Man! Who got up on the wrong side of
the campfire this morning! I’ve never seen him in such a lousy mood!
Zelgadis walked up to Lina,
and for an uncomfortable moment, Lina wasn’t one hundred percent certain
of what was going to happen. The unmistakable sound of a hand falling to
sword hilt echoed slightly in the cavern, and Lina realized with a jolt
that Gourry had just made it completely clear where he stood.
With Amelia still clinging
to him, Zelgadis bent to look at Lina eye-to-eye. “Don’t ever do that again.”
Before Lina could react, he shrugged himself free of Amelia and stalked
back towards the hole that they had come through in the mudflow.