Slayers: Growing Up
Chapter 1
By: Madam Meow
Weeeeeell, I'm still at it. If you got this far…I have
something incredibly cutting
to say, but I won't say it because I don't feel like it. And of course, I do
want you to
continue reading this, no matter what else I say ^_^. Okay, so the prologue
was….amazingly short, brief, in all probability confusing, and generally
vague. Forgive
me. It's four in the morning, I wrote it in an hour, and I only have a blurry
idea of what I
want to do with this. With any luck, it will make sense later. And if not, hey,
it's only
the prologue. They're only good for cryptic foreshadowing anyway.
Oh by the way. I like to give my infant characters large amounts of intelligence
and maturity. I'll try to keep it within reason, but no guarantees. If it gets
too bad…well,
just picture them as Chibis.
I don't have much else to say. So I won't say anything. Read on.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lina Inverse, adorable toddler extraordinaire, was very, very angry. Actually,
the
word she was looking for was LONELY, but she really had no concept of what that
meant, and besides which, even if she did, she probably wouldn't admit it. As it
was, all
she knew was that she was not happy. And this was not a good thing.
Stomping as well as a four year old can stomp, with the occasional trip and
stumble along the way, Lina invaded her big sister Luna's sitting room. At
least, that's
what she called it, since all her sister ever did in there was sit at her desk
for hours on
end. What was so interesting about the top of the desk anyway? She had once
climbed
up in an effort to figure it out, but on the way there, she had knocked over a
candle her
sister had left alight, and low and behold, some pieces of paper with black
squiggles all
over them had gone up in flames. They had been really pretty, Lina recalled, and
hot too.
She had reached out to grab one, to see if what it felt like, but to her shock,
her hand had
gone right through it. And there was this sharp tingling sensation all over it
too. Like her
hand was growing bigger, too big for her skin, and she didn't like it, so she
pulled her
hand out. But the feeling continued, and got worse, and even though her hand
wasn't in
the fire any more, it still felt hot. And so she started to cry, because she
couldn't make it
stop. Loud wailing cries that quickly brought her sister. When her sister
arrived, she
cried out a word that Lina had never heard before, and yanked her away from the
still
growing fire. With a few muttered phrases, a controlled torrent of water doused
the
flame, leaving the charred desktop covered with wet ashes. That had been the
first time
Lina had seen magic, and it was more than interesting enough to make a badly
burned
hand seem insignificant. Well…in a relative sense. Needless to say, with all
these
distractions, Lina had never discovered what about the desk captivated her
sister so.
Back in the present, Luna was staring at her desk again. Shrugging this off,
Lina
stomped up to her and tugged on Luna's skirt. "Luna, come play with
me!" she
commanded, "I'm bored."
Luna looked up from her papers with irritation. "Lina, I'm busy. Beat
it." That
being said, she went back to writing her letter.
Lina scrunched up her face, and clenched her fists. "But Lunaaaaaa! I've
got
nothin' to do, and you NEVER play with me! Why don't you teach me magic or
something?"
Luna didn't even look up this time. "No. Magic isn't for little girls. Go
away."
She continued to ignore her little sister even as the girl screamed with anger,
then ran out
of the room, slamming the door behind her.
Lina scowled to herself as she walked down the path to the beach. 'Luna never
pays any attention to me anymore, and when she does, it's for the wrong
reasons!'
Taking off her shoes and socks, she threw them violently into the sand, then
walked
down to the waters edge, letting the feel of icy cold water between her toes
distract her.
It was a good thing her family's house was right on the waterfront. Even if Luna
wouldn't play with her, or teach her magic, she could still play at the beach.
Since her sister was always busy and she'd never even met her parents, who were
supposedly ambassadors in some far away country, she had lots of spare time, and
she
spent most of it on the beach. Doing what? Building. Lina liked to build sand
castles.
She was very good at it. But she didn't stop at just castles. She built towns,
cities, farms,
you name it, and if she knew what it was, she had built it. She had an
understanding of
the world beyond her house that was astonishing in a girl so young, especially
since she
had barely ever left the family estate. And her creations were always meticulous
in
detail, the wet sand compacted into forms that sometimes seemed to defy the laws
of
physics. But she didn't know that. And neither did anyone else, because she was
always
alone, and the cities crumbled as soon as she left for the house. But that was
about to
change.
Lina was in the midst of making stocks for the drunkards of the town she was
making to be locked in when they caused trouble, when a voice asked what she was
doing. A little bit startled, she accidentally pressed too hard, and the holes
in her small
structure collapsed back into a pile of wet sand. Scowling, she turned to see a
small boy
of about five watching her curiously. He had purple hair that came down almost
to his
shoulders, and intense purple eyes with weird slits for pupils, both of which
made him
look rather silly in Lina's opinion. His clothes, which were well made and
tailored to
him, but dirty and with holes in the knees, didn't help. Her opinion was, of
course, in no
way influenced by the fact that he made her ruin her socially acceptable torture
device.
Standing up, she glared at him and pointed to her town. "Look what you made
me do! What's the town going to do when the drunks get out of hand now,
huh?"
The boy stared at her for a moment, before closing his eyes and smirking.
"Kill
them of course. That way they won't have to worry about there being a next
time."
Lina frowned at him thoughtfully. Chewing her lip, she considered the
possibilities, then turned around and plopped back onto the sand. "Alright
then, hanging
or beheading?"
Though the girl wasn't looking anymore, the boy grinned nastily. "How about
draw and quartering?"
Lina shot him a dirty look. "Too hard to make movable horses in sand. I'm
going to go with beheading." So saying, she began pushing the sand together
to form a
stand with an indentation for a neck
The little boy walked around her town, examining the structures closely.
Suddenly he piped up, "Hey, can I help?"
Biting her tongue in concentrations, she absently nodded. "Yeah sure. What
are
you going to make?"
The boy grinned gleefully. "The dungeons and torture house."
Lina looked at him oddly. "In a town this size? What reason could there
possibly
be for a dungeon and torture house? There isn't even a castle!"
He shrugged. "Maybe there's an underground crime lord or something, I don't
know. But that's what I'm making!"
Lina rolled her eyes, but went back to her own project with no more protest.
Sometime later, when Lina was satisfied with the additions she had made, she
wandered over to see what the boy was up to. He had apparently finished with his
dungeons and torture chambers, and was working on a tall, creepy tower, purpose
unknown. Kneeling down besides him, she eyed his work with satisfaction.
"That's
pretty good." Reaching out a finger to stroke away a small bump in the
walls of the
tower, she found her way blocked by an invisible wall that made fingertip tingle
in an
itchy sort of way. Feeling inexplicably angry, she jerked her hand away.
"What's that?"
she demanded sharply.
The boy looked up from his work on the roof of his tower. "It's a magic
barrier
silly. It's to keep the sand in place." He gave her an odd look.
"Don't you use one?"
She ignored the last, outraged anew. "You know MAGIC?!? B-but Luna says
that magic isn't for little girls, and that means it isn't for little boys
too!"
The boy looked pretty outraged himself. "I'm not LITTLE! I'm ten years
old!"
he stated proudly.
Lina snorted. "Nah, you're not more than five."
The boy scowled and slammed his fist into the sand. "I am ten, I am. Mommy
just says that Ma- um, that I'm going to age really slowly, is all."
Lina considered this, then shrugged. "Whatever. It's still not fair that
you can
know magic, and I'm not allowed to!" Pouting, she stared down at his tower.
He stared at her, then closed his eyes and smiled. "I know. Why don't I
teach
you magic! I don't know very much yet, mommy's still teaching me, but I can
teach you
more as I learn it. And mommy's always telling me I should make friends, but the
kids
around my place never want to do anything but feed. You're much more
interesting."
Lina stared at him longingly. "Really, you'll teach me magic?" At his
nod, she
cheered and flashed the victory sign. "Great! Let's start right now! How do
you make
that funky barrier thingy?"
The boy grinned. "Okay, but first, what's you're name?"
Lina grinned back. "My names Lina, what's yours?"
"My name is Xelloss."
