Lina stumbled for the fifteenth time in five minutes. Partially because the moutainside was so very rocky, but more because of the tears in her eyes.

"So this is how Amelia feels," She grinned ruefully out loud, more out of her need to fill the aching emptyness inside her.

"Zel would be very much at home among all these rocks!" A weak smile came to her pale, cracking lips. How much Longer?

"And Gourry'd be..." Her throat closed painfully. Oh God, Gourry... Tears sprang afresh, threatening to spill over. The thought of him hurts. But she wouldn't want it any other way.

She had lost him once, and swore never to lose him again. But she did. And to a teleportation spell! It was the single most idiotic thing in her life. That she, Lina Inverse, beautiful genius redhead sorceress was unable to keep the single, most important oath in her life. Defeated, by an ametuer teleportation spell!

She tripped, and couldn't be bothered to get up. What was the point? He was gone. There was nothing left. Nothing else to live for. Salty tears flooded forth in fustration. He could be anywhere. Anywhere at all. Even dead.

"Would have been better if he'd never tried to 'rescue' me in the first place!" She screamed to the two lonely moons overhead. Wouldn't it? She regretted saying it immediately. The hills threw her desperate words back at her relentlessly.

Each echo was a piece of their past. That 'rescue' from the bandits she was robbing, running through town streets escaping angry innkeepers and chiefs, fighting each other over food, angling for his sword, and him in a dress! Guarding each other's backs, every mutual pact, every co-ordinated defence. Zel's comment rang from so long ago that she had not realized she had forgotten.

"You two must be a real team," Zel had said. She had never gave it much thought before and never realized how true it was.

She had always dreamed secretly of someone meant especially for her, never realizing he was there by her side the whole time. And when she finally did... ...

She couldn't go on. It hurt too much. Oh Gourry, She wept silently. Amelia, Zel, where are you?

Light. Pure, bright blinding light... This isn't supposed to happen! She screamed. "Gourry!"

Help me! Please! A voice sounded. Her head hurt, as if torn apart from the inside... ... You're our only hope!

The returned awarness hit her senses in full force. Her head reeled terribly, as if... no, she WAS falling out of the sky. And drained, too. Damnit. She thought numbly. She couldn't see Gourry, Zel or Amelia anywhere. She was alone and she knew it. There really isn't anything left to fight for when you're alone... ...

"Stay with us, girl, stay with us!"

There was something very familiar about that. Something that made her want to fight out of the soothing darkness... ...

"Gourry?"

"Now who do ya suppose's that?" Lina opened her eyes. Three figures came into focus, none of them familiar.

"Reckon yer gonna stay with us fer a while?" She moistened her lips and nodded.

"Are you sure? You were really far gone." Another voice trilled.

"'twas hell bringing yer back, that's fer sure!"

"I... Thanks." She managed softly. But... how? What had prompted her to come back? Then, she knew.

"Stay with us!" They had said. Gourry had called her back once, with those same words. "Stay with me, Lina! Stay with me!" The memory hurt. And she, sadonicly, did not want to leave it alone.

"You're not from around here, aren't you?" The girl was pretty in a quiet sort of way and seemed barely past thirteen.

"Don't think so." She attacked the glass of water with an urgency that surprised even herself.

"Can I have hair like yours, ma'am?" A child by her bed asked.

"Come now, 'Manda, I'm sure she can't make you any different than what you are." Her sister scolded gently and started to hustle the child out.

"Actually, I can." The girl turned and stared at her guest in awe. Lina just smiled her I've-got-a-secret smile.

"Wow! Really, really, ma'am?" Lina nodded, warmed by the familiar eagerness of the child. "Only not now, 'Manda. I'm pretty much drained."

"Heavens!" The girl breathed, then caught a grip on herself. "Right. I'm Kelly, my ma's the village healer." Lina took her hand.

"Lina Inverse, wandering Sorceress." She got out of bed and realised to her mortification that Kelly was taller than her by half a head. "Where am I?"

So, this is what the old fool managed to call. "Ye-ess, my liege." The Darkaqua Mirror spawned ripples across its watery surface. You know what to do, don't you, kitten. "Of courrrse, my Lorrrd."

"Right," Lina studied the map she got from the villagers. "Follow the mountain range north to a series of stone pilliars aranged in the five points of a star and turn Eastwards." She folded the map and stuffed it into her backpack. "That's simple enough, not as if I'm Gourry or something," She smiled to herself. If what the villagers said was true, then she should find Gourry and the rest at the center of this Cephiro place. Lina figured that if she was lucky, she might even meet them on the way and save the trouble of going to the 'Palace-Temple', where all Otherworlders presumely head for. Things were looking up. She might as well take this as a nice little lone vacation after all.

Check out Chapter 2 of this crazy li'll project!