Bone left in the morning, while Naga was still sleeping off her hangover. While it was nice to see her again, being the only one of her parent's old friends that had both the ability and time to find them, she could only take her in small doses.
So she once again headed out. And East, toward Zephielia.
***
Barely ten minutes later, another pair left the town by the same route, but their planned destination was much closer. Their clothes indicated that they came from wealthy families, and they practically radiated 'Bandits Attack Me!' looking like they would be completely helpless in a fight.
Nothing could be further from the truth, of course.
"So," the dark haired young man asked his companion, "why are we bandit hunting again?"
The green haired girl looked at him in shock. "What? Putting down a gang of vicious bandits isn't enough for you?"
"Yes, it is. For me. But when you suddenly suggest a detour or side quest, I begin to wonder."
"Well, I just thought we needed to keep in practice, you know? Keep sharp! And since the villagers had enough problems, getting rid of this Demon Hand gang would help them out a lot..."
There was a pause in the conversation as the boy just looked at the girl.
"In other words, your mother cut off your money again, and you're broke. Right Zoe?" he said with a smirk.
"Grrrr... shut up, Roland. She's just jealous of me, again..."
Roland shut up, but kept the smirk. Roland des Nara Sailoon, eldest son of Amelia and Zelgadis, looked much like his father, when Zelgadis was human. Except of course for the black/purple hair and blue eyes common to all of the Sailoon royal family. He was the most popular prince in the recent history of Sailoon, having both his mother's strong sense of Justice and his father's pragmatism.
Of course, he didn't push it any farther than that. Because it very likely was just Zoe's mother being jealous again.
Her Highness Zoemara Zoana mel Navratilova of Neo-Zoana (Zoe for short) did not get along at all with her parents. It especially didn't help matters that Zoe had inherited her mother's strong personality, or that she had more magic in her pinkie finger than Martina had in her entire body. She brushed back her long, wavy green hair and sighed. "Why can't mother ever be proud of my achievements, rather than try and keep me down?"
Roland shrugged. "It might be because you learned the Dragon Slave behind her back."
Zoe snorted. "I learned all my magic behind her back. She'd just want me using curses calling upon Zomel Gustav."
"Yes... but didn't the Dragon Slave pretty much destroy the original Zoana?"
"And what better way to defend against a spell than learning it too?"
Roland just looked at her funny. "I'm not sure I follow. I'm not sure I want to follow."
Zoe snorted. "Sometimes, I wish we could be just a normal Mother-Daughter. It shouldn't be that hard. But noooo... all she can ever do is try and keep me down at her level of uselessness. I mean, she's only managed to do one nice thing for me her entire life."
Roland raised an eyebrow. He wasn't used to hearing Zoe saying anything positive about her mother. "Oh? What was that?"
Zoe smiled at him, and then he found her glomped onto his arm! "Why, she got me engaged to you, dear!"
Reminded of their engagement, (not to mention having her hanging on his arm...) neatly derailed Roland's train of thought. "Uh... we should get going..." he said in a controlled voice. His face was set in a stoic mask... but was also very red.
Zoe would have continued teasing her fiance, except they heard the loud cracks of gun fire! "Ah!" Zoe screamed. "Someone must have gotten on the road ahead of us!"
Roland cursed under his breath. "Come on!" he said, drawing out his sword. "We've got to go save them!"
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(Posted Thu, 23 Jan 2003 18:44)
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