The bridge to Saillune was known to be safe, well made and used by many travvelers as a easy way to enter the worlds capital of whit-magic. What it wasn't known for was the rising of the dead. Korvadus got up from the ground, kicked his destroyed crossbow off the bridge and picked up the remaining one. It looked like it would last another battle, but first he'd need some new arrows. Preferbly ones which couldn't be cut in half. He looked down at his chest, no blood, no wound and no scar. Korvadus realised this curse was making him a sloppier opponent but he was still impressed by the swordsmans skill. Ofcourse now he didn't have much time to avenge his latest death, he had to finish them off soon. Korvadus grinned as he saw a young girl walk onto the bridge leaving Saillune. Maybe she had seen the Soceress & the Mercenary. "Hey!" he pulled a heavly chewed toothpick out of poket and put it in his mouth. "You seen a guy with a sword and big breasted Sorceress go past your way." The girl looked at him and brushed her long hair out of her face. "Yeah I saw them, why'd you want to know?" Korvadus grinned and cocked his crossbow. "Buisness." He put the crossbow back in its holster and walked off towards Saillune. As he did the girl stood there and scratched her head. "Weird guy." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Slayers Glorious. Chapter 27: Memories! A serpents desision. Written by Smurf. Created by Todd Harper. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Actinaea woke up in one of the beds that Renn had made for her, Mariposa and Luanni. The beds, while being spare and put up in a hurry were still very comfy and nice looking. And like everything else in Renn's house, Imaculate and perfect. The strange thing about the beds were that in most houses three beds in one room would make the whole room look small and cramped, but Renn's trick with the white paint really worked. Actinaea slowly got out of bed, Mariposa and Luanni were still asleep and there was no point in waking them up yet. As she crept towards the door, Mariposa turned over in her bed. Actinaea stopped moving and turned to look at her students sleeping form. She sighed, poor Mari-Chan, She thought. You've been through so much and you still keep going onward because your parents being alive gives you hope. Ofcourse she has me to look upto and although I hate it, Naga. The praetor turned away and opened the door and went into the next room. She stood there wide eyed with amazement as looked around the room and then stared at Renn. It was only six in the morning and she'd already set the table, made brekfast and by the looks of things, cleaned. Right now Renn was busy washing some sheets so she could change the beds later. "R-Renn." Actinaea managed. "What time did you get up?" Renn quickly turned around to Actinaea and smiled. "I got up early so I could sort out you and your freinds brekfasts out Ace." "Look Renn you really did'nt have to goto all this trouble for me and the others." Renn smiled again. "It's the least I could do for a freind Ace, now go and get your two freinds and we can have brekfast." Actinaea blinked. "But there still asleep and Mari-Chan can do with the rest so let's-" There was mumbling as Mariposa and Luanni popped their heads round the door and squinted at the two women. Mariposa yawned and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. "Um Actinaea-San, what time is-" Mariposa froze and her eyes fully opened as she nudged Luanni who also froze. Together they maneged one word. "Woah..." * * * Gethel was panting for breath as he walked up a seemingly never-ending hill, at this rate he'd be climbing a mountian in half an hour. They'd ditched the horses as they couldn't cope with the steepness of the hill. Naga was doing okay by the looks of things but she was a few feet away and was looking at the ground and obiviously wanting to get away from Sailune as fast she could. Gethel still could'nt work out why she feared the place so much. The horizan slowly crept over the hill as Gethel reached the top. He looked down below at the view, the whole area was enclosed by hills creating a bowl effect with Saillune filling it up. Even from up here you could make out all the major Guilds, Attractions and ofcourse, the Palace. Naga had just catched up with Gethel and looked down at Saillune. She froze and was hit by a flashback. Naga stood and watched a younger version of her self sitting down looking at the same view and crying. She had a bag of possesions over her shoulder and was wearing non- royal clothing. "Mother, why did they kill you!?!" The little girl sobbed again and then stopped as she looked up at Naga. "W-who are you?" the girl asked. "I'm you I think." said Naga. "Me?" "Yes i'm you Gracia, but now i'm Naga the White Serpent, ooohohohoho" Her laugh sounded more sad than it ever had. The little girl stood up and looked at her future self. "Oh, it's *you*." "Huh?" "Is *this* what I become when I grow up." "What do you mean?" "Instead of becoming stronger and becoming a great leader I become a big breasted joke of a Sorceress who gets the name "Goldfish's feces" and creates useless spells with jellyfish!" "But i'm-" "But i'm what? The leader, don't make me laugh! You're a sidekick now and always will be. You could have been in charge of Lina, but you were far too stupid to prove your superiority in strength and just waved your breasts everywhere and did that stupid laugh!" "Now it's different..." Tears began to appear in Naga's eyes as the area around them was swept away by tides of blackness. "No it isn't!" screamed the girl. "If you were in charge you'd look out for your companions." "But there was nothing I could do to help Mari-Chan." Naga whimpered. "You could have helped her if had'nt followed Torr, and look where that got you." "Yes, but now i'm going to find her." "No! You should go to Saillune, that's where you can solve everything. Get the bell, and rescue Mariposa's parents!" "I can't go to Saillune, I just can't." "What's the matter, is the Goldfish's feces afraid to goto Saillune?" The little girls voice had changed into a voice which Naga knew well, it was *hers*. The girl had also changed shape, she'd grown taller and her hair and eyes turned to a firery red colour. Her clothes had changed as well, she now had red trousers, cream yellow tunic and a purple cape along with armor on her shoulders and gloves and earings. She had now become *her*. Then clones started appearing all around Naga, all of them *her* all of them saying the same thing. "Goldfish's feces! Goldfishs feces!" These words continued to rush through Naga's head as she now filled up with anger. "Shut up! I am not the Goldfish's feces! OOOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!! I'm Naga The White Serpent!" Then there was silence as the clones of *her* disapeared and Naga's child form appeared once more. "So are you going to achieve your goal?" "Ofcourse! I'm going to get that bell, save Mari-Chan's parents!" "Good, you made the right choice..." The girl melted away and the blackness swept away as Naga returned to reality. The first thing she realised was the fact that Gethel was waving his hand directly in her face, the second thing was that the hallucination she'd just experienced told her an important message. She had to goto Saillune and face her hardest challenge, as a leader. "Naga! are you okay?" "What, oh yes i'm fine Gethel." The Mercenary nodded. "Well I guess this is it, we both have to go our seperate ways." Gethel began to walk down the hill towards Saillunes city gates. "No." Gethel turned around, Naga's eyes were full of fire and determination. "What did you say Naga?" "I said "no", i'm coming with you to Saillune." "But you were totally agaisnt it." "Yes but I now I realise all our answers are in Saillune Gethel, The bell, Mari's parents, everything. OOOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!! Watch out Saillune! The White Serpent is on her way!" Naga began to run the down the hill at high speed, full of pride and determenation. Gethel smiled and ran to catch her up, he didn't know what made Naga change her mind but he was happy she had. As the two of them disapeared into the distance, a shape crept out from behind a nearby tree. It spat out a toothpick and grinned. * * * The four women sat around the table eating brekfast. Actinaea was telling Renn about how she liked the decor in her house and the trouble she was having getting the Singe guild sorted out. Mariposa and Luanni were commenting on the great food. It was perfectly peaceful scene, then the door caved in. "I'm back Ace and I want another fight!" it was Drogan. He was covered in bandages after last night but this time he had more of his freinds here. "Didn't you here me! I said-" "Flare Arrow!" The arrows fired straght through the door and caused a satisfiyng explosion taking out most Drogan's freinds and Drogan himself. "Ow..." Luanni and Renn looked at Actinaea. "Ace..." "I didn't do it...Mariposa!?, you didn't..." The teenager smiled as some sparks of magical energy faded away from her hands. "I casted it, after all we were having a nice brekfast in peace until he came in and besides it's what you would have done isn't it?" Actinaea blinked at the girl with slight shock. "Erm...lets just finish brekfast OK?" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Authors notes. It's late and kinda short, sorry. At the time I was bogged down with school/personal work which meant I did'nt have much time to devote to this chapter. If I do another chapter i'll work harder on it, but in the end it wasn't that bad a result. Thanks to Todd for pre-reading (I wasn't aware that Naga had already killed her mothers killer) as this was a great help to getting the plot to work with exsisting Slayers stories. Bai! Smurf "Live long and have no freinds" (Ned's Newt.) SmurfUK@talk21.com