--Dropkick Murphys, "The Gang's All Here"
Lina awoke groggily late the next morning to find herself the only one in their quarters. She yawned, picked the straw out of her hair, and wondered where everybody had gone. After wriggling out of her bedclothes and into something decent for daytime wear, Lina ambled out the door and toward the upper decks. Beneath her feet, the boat lurched and bobbed on the waves, and she stumbled to one side.
“Well that’s embarrassing. Thought I’d have my sea legs with me,” she joked to herself and marched up the stairs. First, she checked the dining area, but found it to be empty. Breakfast had ended at ten o’clock. Lina pouted at this revelation, and continued upward to the main deck. With a yawn, she stepped out into sunlight and fresh air. Zelgadis greeted her with a half-grin.
“Enjoy your sleep?” he asked. Lina’s sleeping habits usually irked the chimera when they traveled on the road, but seeing as they were at sea, he could just take subtle amusement at the normally driven sorceress’ laziness. He chose to not tell Lina about the less than flattering position she and Gourry had gotten themselves into during the course of their sleep. She would blush and deny it and then probably slug Gourry, in spite of his probable innocence.
“Yup,” she yawned, stretching. “Where is everybody?”
Zelgadis snorted derisively. “Amelia and Gourry? Probably at one of these childish ‘activities’ they have planned.”
Lina scratched her head briefly before remembering that the ocean voyage also included a number of planned distractions, a disproportionate amount involving alcohol. She turned around to find that a large board outlining the activities for the day and their locations had been fixed to one of the masts. Lina scanned it idly. She could see nothing that would particularly interest Gourry—but the “Feats of Justice Aerobics Class” more than likely had Amelia in its grasp. Lina supposed that she could ask her where Gourry had gone.
“Sure you don’t want to do anything, Zel? It’s a two week trip,” Lina cautioned. “At least this way you won’t get bored.”
Typically, Zelgadis made no answer other than a noncommittal grunt.
“Suit yourself.”
Elsewhere on deck, day one of the Feats of Justice Aerobics class was in full swing. Amelia stretched each muscle carefully according to the instructions of their teacher and waited patiently for his command.
“Welcome to day one of Feats of Justice Aerobics. I am Robin West, sailor on the Blue Heaven and Ally of Justice. I will pass on to you the techniques of justice that have kept my body fit to defend all that is good in the world from piracy and evil.”
Amelia grinned expectantly at their instructor. He didn’t quite look the part—medium height, well muscled but not bulky, lanky and a little on the skinny side, and boyishly faced. However he commanded his small but captive audience with a broad grin and strangely inescapable charm. Perhaps the almost entirely female audience also noticed that his snug clothing left little to the imagination, which led to hushed giggles from the crowd. With a sip of water from his bottle, Robin clapped his hands and introduced the lesson.
“Today I’ll be teaching you the meditative poses of Justice.”
“Yoga of Justice?” Amelia asked helpfully.
“Exactly,” Robin chimed. “You’re an eager student, what’s your name?”
“I am Amelia Wil Tesla de…” she trailed. Oh yeah, I’m supposed to pretend… Amelia blushed and stammered “G-Greywords.”
Elsewhere on the deck, Zelgadis spat out his coffee violently, and sneezed.
Amelia smiled and hoped that people at home would not find out about this—there would be a terrible scandal if rumor of the crown princess eloping reached the capitol. Daddy would kill her! Amelia bit her lip nervously, and took a deep breath. No time to worry about that—there was justice to be learned.
“Well Amelia, let’s get started.”
They began with the classic “shining star of justice” position, which they held for two full minutes, then moved on to the “pure white maiden.” Robin told them to deeply meditate on the might of true justice while they posed. In the middle of “reaching for the might of heaven,” Lina appeared.
“Hey! Hey Amelia, have you seen Gourry?”
Slightly irritated at the interruption, she replied: “No I haven’t. Have you tried any of the bars yet?”
Lina decided she might as well check. Gourry liked his beer like any other red-blooded manly man but his love of the drink paled in comparison to other traveling companions she had known. She decided against pressing the inquiry further, as Amelia looked to be deeply into her justice exercise. Strange girl. Pausing to take in the fresh sea air, Lina leaned against the gunnels and filled her lungs deeply before letting out a drawn out sigh. She didn’t quite know why she had insisted on dragging Amelia and Zelgadis along for this—she just felt safer because they were around. Safe from what, though? She peered down to the water, and caught a glimpse of a solitary dolphin playing in their wake. A pang of dread filled her briefly—now that she had prevented Dark Star’s reign of destruction, how would the Mazoku find her useful? Caught between Phibrizzo, Gaav, and the Golden Lord herself before, what would Dynast, Zelas, and Deep Sea Dolphin have in store for her, if anything? With a playful flick of its tail, the dolphin disappeared beneath the surface and Lina decided to just not worry. Other things were more important than idly wondering if an all-important dark lord wanted to toy with her. To the bar she went.
However, Gourry wasn’t there. Nor was he at the cooking demonstration, or dancing lessons, or the other bar, or the other other bar. Lina bit her lip and decided to systematically check every room that she could. First, she checked their room, then the kitchen (and got chased out by anxious chefs), followed by the mess hall, and finally activity room B, where she found him hunched over a table in a chair which was much too small for him. He was hard at work with a pencil in hand, ignoring the chaos around him in the form of a handful of small children. The room smelled like paste and tempura paint. Lina slapped her forehead and groaned: of all the places—the kids’ arts and crafts room! A little boy ran past, crayons sticking out of his nostrils.
“What are you doing in here?” Gourry jerked to attention at the sound of Lina’s voice, and he greeted her with a broad smile.
“We’re drawing pictures of our best friends,” he grinned. “Tim even let me use his red crayon.”
“You do realize that this is the children’s activity room, Gourry.”
“Oh! Well that would explain the size of this chair, wouldn’t it?”
Lina crossed the distance between them, shaking her head. She caught glimpses of the other children’s drawings: other children, images of parents, and even more of their pets. Curious, she craned her neck to see Gourry’s masterpiece. Unsurprisingly it was her (who else?) fireballing a group of bandits. Now she held no great expectation of Gourry’s artistic skill, but his representation did little to improve her fearsome reputation. Her eyes were large and demonic, complementing her shark like mouth, complete with razor sharp teeth. A village burned in the background and in her hand she held a sack full of stolen money.
“Hey! That’s not me!”
“I think that it’s pretty good,” Gourry said meekly. “I worked really hard on the hair.”
Fine! Lina decided to exact revenge, and hastily grabbed a sheet of paper and a blue crayon from a neighboring child, who promptly began to bawl. With furious strokes, she scribbled a jellyfish bearing the head of her blonde companion. Gourry frowned, bit his lip, and began to update his picture. Now Lina had a forked tongue and screamed “Dragon Slave!”
Lina was not pleased. Above the jellyfish-Gourry, she added a thought bubble reading “duh I’m stoopid.” In an offensive measure, she extended an arm and crossed out part of Gourry’s drawing. He did the same to hers. In a very short while, utter chaos ensued: crayons and insults flew across the room as each tried to improve upon the other’s picture. Children cowered in the corner, muttering: “she really is that scary!” and “my parents are like this, too.”
The fight finally ended when both of stuffed each other’s noses with pencils and crayons: Lina took one look at Gourry and began to laugh, and he did the same. Just then, a middle-aged woman in conservative clothing came though the door. Lina hastily removed the drawing material from her nose and tried to scrap together some sense of maturity, and Gourry gave the woman a carefree wave.
“Oh thank you for watching the kids,” she cooed. “You must be Lina,” she said as she noticed the red head. “You’re very lucky—he’s so good with the kids.”
Lina raised an eyebrow but held back a comment about Gourry being close to being a kid himself. “Well it’s about time for lunch so Gourry and I should get going,” she decided and stood. She tugged at Gourry’s collar, and he rose from his seat as well. They left with a friendly wave and marched purposefully to the mess hall to remedy the gaping holes in their stomachs. Once there, they wordlessly filled their plates with heaping portions of spaghetti and sat down.
Some time between courses one and three, Amelia arrived. She sat with them and explained with wide-eyed enthusiasm about Yoga of Justice and the great teacher Robin West. Lina nodded politely and chewed. Gourry thought that Amelia knew how to pose already but Amelia corrected him, detailing the finer points of achieving a higher state of consciousness though justice meditation. This cleared nothing up for him, but he smiled and nodded all the same. Then Zelgadis came in, looking foul.
“What’s wrong, Zel?” Gourry asked. What could possibly have gone wrong on their first day of the voyage?
“The ship is being followed,” he said darkly. “I think that it might be woman from last night.”
“It’s probably nothing, Zel,” Lina dismissed with a wave of her hand. “You probably saw a fishing boat or something. Eat. You’ll feel better.” Even if the crazy bird woman from the night before decided to hunt them down and exact vengeance for spoiling her plan, one half-rate shamanist hardly qualified as a real threat to any of them. Lina sat back in her chair and grinned. It felt so good to just travel for the sake of adventure rather than questing with a purpose.
She licked the sauce off her lips and glanced at Gourry. Lately she just could not get the image of the Ancient Dragon temple out of her mind. Every time she closed her eyes, she remembered the massacre at the Ancient Dragon’s temple and felt cold, even after departing from Filia. All those bodies of young dragons lying in the snow chilled her. How many golden dragons remained in the world? Were most of them like Filia’s elder or were they like Milgazia? More than anything, Lina wished to distance herself from the recent past. As scary and trying as it had been, she avoided the wrath of her sister, which would probably have been much worse. This wasn't like her! Zelgadis held mastery in quiet reflection, not her. With a little grunt, she rose from her chair and went to assault the food line again. After relieving the buffet line of a pound or two of pasta, Lina returned with a wide grin and gorged herself.
"One of these days you're going to choke yourself like that," Zelgadis warned.
"Mrf. Donp blee so feeriuffs," Lina retorted through a full mouth. Swallowing hard, she added: "I need to get my strength back. We've just had that serious adventure, after all."
Had he actual eyebrows to raise, Zelgadis would have raised one, but instead he snorted through his nose and took a sip of tea. Amelia finished her lunch, and suggested to Lina that they sunbathe. After all, it was a gorgeous day outside, if a bit windy. After a little consideration, she agreed. They left the boys to their own devices and went back to their room to change. Inside, the room reeked of mildew and old hay. Amelia winced as the stench hit her nostrils, but made no protest about their accommodations; too late to change it now. She fished through her belongings and retrieved her one-piece bathing suit. She gladly wriggled out of her sweaty workout clothes and slid the suit over her legs and secured it around her chest, which she noticed had grown again. Complaining about growing out of her clothes would probably annoy Lina, so she made no comment. When she was little, her older sister had gone through three wardrobes in the span of a summer! She had been jealous then, but now she found it annoying.
“Amelia, could you help me tie this thing?” Lina pleaded, pulling back the straps of her bikini top.
“Sure,” Amelia answered cheerfully and moved to help her. The suit was a few years old, and was fraying at the seams. Amelia pursed her lips and tied the top on as tight as she could without pinching Lina’s skin. “It’s looking a little worn out,” she said.
“I know,” Lina sighed. “I lost that red one when we were trying to find the Clair Bible.”
They slipped on their sandals and left the room, stretching.
“Hey! I have an idea,” Amelia mused. “Let’s have our husbands bring us drinks while we’re on the deck.”
Lina tripped and fell on her face. “Amelia…please don’t call them that. We only have to pretend around other people.”
“It does sound pretty weird, doesn’t it,” the princess giggled and helped Lina to her feet. She looked as if her lunch didn't quite agree with her.
“You can be such a girl,” Lina groaned.
“That’s because I am,” Amelia replied cheerfully and pushed Lina toward the stairs leading to the upper decks.
Outside, the afternoon air was crisp and breezy. The sea sparkled happily as wind-formed waves caught the sunlight. Passengers milled around noisily. Some sat at tables playing card games, and other8s played shuffleboard. Lina and Amelia joined the contingent of sun worshippers and took their places at two empty folding chairs. Amelia pulled out a book and began to read. Lina leaned back in her chair and relaxed. Within five minutes, she began to pester Amelia out of boredom.
“What are you reading,” she asked.
“A book.”
“I can see that,” Lina said, snatching it from Amelia’s hands.
“Hey give it back!”
Lina looked at the cover and laughed. “You’re reading a Dacey Alloy novel? Isn’t she that trashy romance writer?”
“Can I have my book back now,” Amelia pleaded, already thoroughly embarrassed.
But Lina wouldn’t listen. She opened the book to a passage and began to read aloud: “Lola pressed herself against Daren’s salty skin; she could feel…” Lina blushed. “This is pretty racy stuff, Amelia.”
Amelia squeaked and grabbed for the book again. Lina pulled it out of her reach and continued reading.
“She could feel his red-hot manhood pressed against her thigh. ‘Oh Daren,’ she pleaded. ‘Forget that I’m a shrine maiden! Take me now!’ Daren’s fingers found her--”
Gourry tapped Lina on the shoulder, clearing his throat loudly. “Maybe you should drink this to cool you off,” he offered, holding a blue drink with one of the little umbrellas on top.
Lina made a little noise and blushed all the way down to her elbows. Gourry, too blushed, and Amelia couldn’t stop laughing--cosmic justice had been dealt out, after all!
“Thanks,” Lina said and sheepishly accepted the drink. “That was, uh, unexpectedly nice of you, Gourry.” Lina pressed her darkened glasses higher on her nose and tried to wave him away nonchalantly. “I’ll uh, leave you and 'Daren' alone now,” he said, turning on his heels to leave. Lina pegged him in the head with the book.
"It's Amelia's trashy novel, not mine," Lina insisted and smacked him on the head once more for good measure.
"Hey," Amelia cried, "don't break the spine! It's new!"
Zelgadis looked on from the distance. "Women," he groaned, rolling his eyes.
