Mariposa was the first to stumble upon Actinaea's prone form. Literally. "Huh? Hey!," she shouted as she stumbled and fell, the progress of her left foot hindered by some miscellaneous part of Actinaea. As she hit the ground, she decided that it would be appropriate to add "oof" to this list of statements. Mariposa stood, dusted herself off, and cast Lighting in order to get a good look at what had tripped her; darkness had descended upon the Desert of Destruction, as it always did at that particular time called 'night'. When she saw that it was Actinaea that had tripped her, and saw what condition she was in, she decided to call the others immediately. "Naga-sama! Getel-san! Come quickly! I've found Actinaea-san!" Although distant, Naga heard Mari's cries, and relayed them to Getehl (The Great White Serpent is a master at many things, including long-distance vocal communication), and soon both were running towards where Mari stood looking over the prone form of Actinaea. Mari hoped that Actinaea would be feeling better, soon. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Slayers Glorious Chapter 20: This chapter by Robin Strickland Started by Todd Harper ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Actinaea woke up feeling just fine, thank you very much. As for the others, they were elated to see her back in the realm of the very- definitely-not-comatose. Each expressed their joy in their usual manner. Mari said, "Good to see you awake, Actinaea-san!" Getehl said, "'Morning, Ace." Naga didn't say "OOOOOHOHOHOHOOO!!! Good Morning, O flat-chested Praetor!" because she wasn't there. Which is truly a shame, because Actinaea had actually prepared herself for this by clamping her hands tightly over her ears and opening her mouth. Mari was dumbfounded by this, but Getehl knew what the Praetor was doing. "Don't worry, Ace, Naga is off getting the horses and supplies we left back at the tower. She hopes to maybe run into Feyik back there, too, so he can get us out of this desert." Actinaea nodded. As an afterthought, Getehl continued, saying "She also hopes to talk to Greiven and find out what Mari is." Actinaea blinked, confused. "Why, she's a girl." "Er, I meant besides that." "Well, she's my student." "And besides that. You know, the thing about Greiven saying Mari is 'one of them', like Torr and er, whatserface." Actinaea blinked, and looked at Mari. Getehl remembered that she had taken a hit on the head when she'd fallen over last night, on one of the many rocks scattered about the area near the cave of Ogg. Perhaps this was the result; Actinaea was usually much sharper than this. The Praetor turned back to face Getehl. "But Mariposa isn't a redhead, she's blonde." Oh, yeah. Much, much sharper. "Why don't you take a nap, Ace?" Getehl looked pleadingly at Mariposa. The intent was clear; if Actinaea didn't want to go back to sleep, Mari was to make her do so. "No, I don' wan--hm." And so Actinaea fell back to sleep, dreaming of little laughing white snakes. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Naga lead her horses-- since Feyik wasn't here to claim them, and she was, and she needed them more, anyway, they were now hers-- away from the tower, back in the direction of her cohorts. The rations and equipment in the saddlebags would see them through the desert towards wherever the bell was now heading. Even better was the fact that, since Feyik wasn't around, she wouldn't have to pay him. Such a pity, that. And not a moment after these thoughts had crossed her mind, the shadow of a dragon in flight passed over her, and Feyik could be heard shouting at her. "Oh, poo," commented Naga intelligently. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile, out in the desert... The nomadic pillagers loyal to King Hindan were doing what nomadic pillagers would often do after pillaging something that was useless to them; they were going off to find someone rich and stupid to buy it from them. Fortune was smiling on them that day (or at least grinning vacantly in their general direction), for instead of having to look long and hard and shell out precious money for adds in newspapers and such, the rich person came to them first. Weather you want to call him 'stupid', tho, is entirely up to you. Torr rode up to the band of nomads. The Silent Bell was plainly visible, to the side of one of the pack horses, strapped to the beast via a wooden platform that it was attached to. The length of rope used to ring the bell dangled dejectedly off to one side. Torr cleared his throat purposefully, and one of the nomads turned to look at him. "I see you have a bell there... are you looking to sell it, by any chance?" One of the nomads turned to favor him with a smile. "Why, yes, we are..." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Despite having been plundered by nomadic bandits rather recently, the inside of Lugandi's tower was a rather pleasant place to have tea. Greiven had decided to invite Naga and Feyik in while they haggled over the latter's fee, as well as bickered over whether or not it was worth Feyik's time to come along any further. There was also the small matter of the way Naga had seemed about to just walk off with four perfectly good horses and all sorts of food and supplies. "That was really irresponsible of you, Naga," announced Feyik. "So was leaving your clients in the middle of the desert, Feyik," Naga replied. "Well, erm, uh..." stammered Feyik. "Oooohohoho!" Replied Naga. "Since you obviously cannot come up with a suitable response, there's only one options left to me, dear Feyik." Feyik tried to look hopeful. "You're going to forgive me?" "Oooohohoho!" laughed Naga, again. "Of course not. I'm going to chew you out for an hour or so and then give you only half of the original agreed-upon price. And take four of the horses." "Oh," said Feyik as he sank into his chair. "Now, to start off..." began Naga, smiling evily. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lilen sat on the back of Torr's horse, studying the bell intently. Apparently, this was the big mighty artifact that Lady Erika was after. Why she was after it, Lilen couldn't tell; it wasn't even a high-quality bell. It was shiny, sure, and the wooden platform and the iron support were well- polished; but the bell also had a seam running down the side, as if it'd been poured from a poorly-made mold. It probably didn't get a good note, but Lilen didn't want to check; never know what might happen with something made by Shazard Lugandi. Speaking of Lugandi, Lilen didn't see his name anywhere on this. She turned it around-- it was stuffed with a rag so that it wouldn't ring on accident-- and eventually looked at the bottom of the bell's platform. "Torr?" she asked hesitantly. "Yes, Lilen?" "Who's Kinko Copi?" "I don't know. Why?" "Well, I think it says here that it was made by him." A bad feeling welled up in Torr at that-- could this be a fake? No, this had to be it, he thought-- this was the prize that Lady Erika sought. Of course. Right. "Perhaps it was an apprentice of Lugandi's. It doesn't matter." Lilen shrugged and decided not to worry about it. They'd be in Saillune soon enough, and then she'd be paid, and that would make her happy. What happened to the others wasn't her concern. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Feyik had left in tears. Naga's job was done, and she was currently basking in her own glow. Then she remembered something. "Oh, yes, Greiven-san. Yesterday, you were saying something about Mariposa being something or other?" Greiven looked at Naga confusedly, needing a moment to think back to yesterday. "Hm? Oh, oh yes. I was just beginning to say that... wait. Do you hear that?" "You mean the sound of a thousand hooves beating their maleficent way towards us?", inquired Naga. "Yes, but I don't think it's very important. Why?" Greiven ran out the door abruptly, and Naga stood to follow. "Oi! Greiven-san, you haven't told me --what in the world is that?" "That" was a cloud of dust kicked up by hundreds of chefs who were drawing near on horseback. Each had an implement of lethal cooking at hand; usually a large knife, but there were meat-mallets and spatulas among the crowd as well. "They're a legion of chefs from restaurants in nearby countries," Greiven explained while waving frantically for Freska to come over. "They come by every now and then to try and kill Freska so they can serve her meat and make a name for their restaurants. I'mafraidIhavetoleavenowbye!" "..." Naga spoke eloquently as Freska took off towards the horizon. The chefs turned to follow, eventually leaving the nearby desert silent once more. Naga shrugged, took the horses in tow, and rode back towards where she had left her companions. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was late afternoon when Naga made it back to where Getehl, Mariposa, and Actinaea were sitting. She had with her four horses, each still laden with their saddlebags, which, in turn, had food. For Actinaea, Mari, and Getehl, it would be the first meal they'd had all day (Naga had snuck some while at the Tower). Everyone was glad to see food, the fact that Actinaea was very hungry and Naga was very tired kept the two from starting any arguments. Everyone began eating their dinner of trail food for the night, nobody talking much. Eventually, Getehl decided to brake the silence. "So, Naga, what did Greiven have to say about Mari?" "Something," Naga replied. "I didn't get to hear it, however. He had to flee form a rabid horde of chefs looking to eat his dragon." "Oh." "Quite," said Naga. "Now, I'm going to sleep. Any who wake me will perish." There was a round of muffled "Good night, Naga"s from the others, who soon went to sleep themselves. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The next morning found everyone in much higher spirits. Apparently, some food and a good night's rest did wonders when you were chasing a bell through the desert. "Oooooohohoho!" Naga laughed, which was, of course, the best way to start off the morning. Especially since it woke everyone else up. "We had better move out early today, before the sun gets too high. After all, we do not want to get too far behind whoever took the Silent Bell, do we?" Acintea muttered. "The people with the Bell are probably asleep right now, Naga." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Torr yawned lazily as his horse plodded along. "Uhg. I wish I were asleep right now." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- "That matters not, O flat-chested one," Naga said, raising a finger for emphasis. "They are still a good day's ride ahead of us, and that means we'll have to work harder to catch them. Might as well start while it's still cool out, ne?" Actinaea couldn't find anything to say to this, so she didn't. Perhaps she'd find a retort sometime later, when she was more awake, but for now, she'd settle for breakfast. After eating some nummy dried food, they set off towards the north, hoping to intercept the nomads who (they thought) had the Silent Bell. Ironically, it was hardly two hours before they did, in fact, intercept the nomads, which were heading their way. Actinaea glared at Naga. "'That means we'll have to work harder to catch them'," she parroted. "Sure. Looks like we could have just waited a while, Naga." Naga chose to ignore Actinaea, and instead waved at the slowly oncoming band of nomads. "OI!" she cried. "Do you happen to have a bell with you?" The nomads were still some hundred yards off, but Naga's voice carried easily over to them, and soon they were stopped and searching their packs for a bell; prospective customers were always good. Soon, Naga's horse had gotten close enough to the nomads that they could shout back and be heard. A man called, "Sorry, lady, no bells here! We had one earlier, but some redheaded guy bought it." Naga's heart sank just a bit. "I see. Did he say where he was headed?" The man thought. "Uh, yeah. He said he was going to Saillune." And then Naga's heart sank through clear through to the other end of the planet. ~~*Author Notes*~~ (Which treats of Robin apologizing profusely) Sorry it's late. Sorry if you don't like it. Sorry it wasn't as long or as good as I'd hoped. ^_^; Okie. I'm done. I'll go flog myself, now. Also, I'd like to thank Todd for pre-reading, Ravi for almost pre-reading, and Calculus for poinging how my spelling had degenerated to such a phenominal extent as it had, and, moreover, for giving me an opportunity to fix it.