The Search for Freedom CH3 Help
by Zachary Dovel
LAST EDIT: 6/13/00
C&C appreciated to pzach@mac.com or Yahoo Messenger username pzach816!
It hadn’t been long before they had reached the base of the mountain they meant to climb. Staring up, it looked to be the footsteps to heaven.
“It’s going to be a rough climb, the path doesn’t look to lead all of the way up,” Gourry remarked.
Lina agreed. “Yeah.”
“Hey, you never said what you guys had wanted with the cup, anyway,” commented Spyn carrying a new curiosity. Continuing forward on his horse, he took the lead. The Man turned back his head back, though, expecting an answer.
“Back in Brouge it was,” Lina recollected.
Spyn mentioned, “That’s quite a ways from here.”
“Yes, it is. Gourry and me were running a mercenary job along with some other friends...Amelia and Zelgadis. We were working for a quaint middle aged man wanting a small statue. Unfortunately, he failed to mention it’s deadly to touch it directly. A demon switches souls with the body. It’s kind of a portal for them. I should have strangled him after that.” She pounded her first against her hand as if giving an example of what she’d do.
Gourry continued at Lina’s slight pause, “I started to figure it out that something wasn’t right the third time Zelgadis tried to suck my blood. So...we had to tie them up and throw them into the man’s basement for safe keeping. If we hadn’t they might have escaped and caused more trouble sucking other people’s blood.”
“Thank you, Gourry,” Lina edged him with her elbow containing a bit of agitation, ”for that narrow minded statement.”
“No problem.”
“Agh!” Lina facefauted.
“Hey look!” Spyn shouted as a building came within their views.
It was an old rickety thing, looking to have had no paint applied in ages. The wood was rotting in numerous places and holes sparsely covered it about. It’s disrepair was so much, that it almost blended perfectly next to the walls and trees it was against as a part of the scenery. Most likely it would have been missed if not for the path ending next to it, and a horribly steep incline ahead blocking them.
“Shall we enter?” Spyn invitingly inquired.
Gourry opened the door gently. The building was sturdier than it appeared at first glance. It’s tilted angle of the walls made it look almost ready to collapse. About the room lay few furnishings. At the center a fire once burned, now hot cinders with a thin stream of smoke floating out of the hole space above. There next to the fire was a chair and a table as close as possible to the slanted wall.
Before Gourry took in more, a warning came. “Obra!” It sounded from Lina’s lungs. Gourry turned face to see the creature at a small distance. His and Spyn’s weapons were automatically drawn with no thought needed. It looked different from the others of its kind somehow. It’s temperament was not of one of fighting. You could plainly see it in its stature. The clothes of it were worn down with a few holes, but still usable. It bore a green tunic with short boots and pants.
“You humans are all alike,” the animal complained outwardly, giving no special attention to the visitors, “thinking the minute you see one of my kind we want to fight. Bah!” Lina, Gourry, and Spyn blinked cooperatively together. The animal had the voice of a male. Low it was, yet it had a musical hop.
“You wouldn’t happen to be the one living here would you?” Lina asked.
“Yes, I make my living here offering passage to the top of the mountain to the prophet. It’s three gold pieces for the trip up.”
“Oh, a man of business...” Spyn trailed off.
Lina glanced at the mountain. “I think we can make it up ourselves. It doesn’t look that tough.”
“Yeah, I think so too.” Spyn had thought the same, though being aquious with her wasn’t his fancy.
Gourry hesitated. “You guys sure?”
“I’m pretty sure. We don’t need to spend the extra money.”
“Whatever you say,” the long snouted nonchalant face spoke. Its eyes had a shine in them, like he knew something they didn’t. He was off with a scamper within a few moments notice.
All that left the three was the mountain to contend with. The closer and closer they came, the more and more of a feat it turned out to actually be. The deceptive structure took very sharp rises every so often greatly faltering their proceedings.
Finally it became worthless to even try to pull the horses alongside. Their hooves couldn’t grab a stone for leverage on the bland rocky surface. Gourry took a good rope from his bag and tied the animals to some trees at the next small plained cliff. It was to be a cumbersome journey ahead, to say the least.
“Guys,” Lina informed, “I’m going to continue ahead using my levitation magic. I’ll try to get some information as soon as possible.”
“Okay, we’ll catch up as soon as we can,” responded Gourry. Spyn was quiet, yet he gave a nod of agreement. It had to be done. They just didn’t have the time to dwattle around in climbing. “Looks like we’re on our own.” He was about ready to climb, cracking his knuckles as if ready for a real challenge.
“Thank God the witch is gone.”
“Lina isn’t that bad once you know her.”
“Ha.” Inside Spyn felt he could never believe that. Hurt so much, he felt he could never trust any magic user.
They started to escalate the rough wall with the air now silently brushing them. Much of their burden climbing had been released with the horses. For a bit, they could still catch a sight of Lina ahead, floating over a a boulder ever so often with some unlegible words. She was steadily gaining distance until gone. At her speed there was no way to keep up for long.
“So Spyn,” Gourry said, giving a snort at pulling himself over the side of the cliff, ”did you ever think that Lina might be able to help you?”
“She wouldn’t have been able to help, and I knew it to begin with. The curse was a very advanced spell, with many barriers over it. The spell belonged to a select few of the Magic family of Borderhand clan. They each had a book with spells of different types. It was never found though.” Spyn heaved a sigh. It wasn’t from finally getting on top of the cliff itself, but an emotional one. “People of it are rare to come by and even harder to find.”
“You have to keep trying though, man! You’ve lived too long to give up.”
“I know...I’m just so tired of trying to be strong so long. You can trust though, this thing will have to kill me. I won’t go easily.”
Gourry’s mind became a bit of a daze. He only half heard the rearing neigh of the horses behind. It was like a blanket being pulled away in a winter’s night. Its icy cold managed to freeze your senses for a moment as your body tried to compensate. Finally realizing the happening, Gourry also realized it was worthless to run back. They had already moved too far ahead to make it back within due time. Apparent from Spyn’s stance, he had come to the same conclusion.
“Shit. What do you say it was?” Spyn asked. Their ears picked up sounds of lashing, then the dim deadness. It was a quick end.
“Dragon?”
“Could be, I thought I saw smoke. It’s gone, though, now.”
“Let’s keep moving on,” beckoned Gourry. “There’s no use falling behind so we just have to battle it.”
Spyn grinned. “It would be gone with one swipe of my sword.”
“You wish,” laughed Gourry, returning a challenging smile. They both had forgotten what had happened behind them for slight time. It helped them continue again. Still, a howling growl followed, reminding them of what lay back along their path.
Lina’s pace had never slowed. Within a minute she would have made the top of the mountain. No sound of what had happened below made it to her. She hopped up the ledges in bounds now. There was no way she could stop now anyway, the lady was almost there; almost to the end of the course. Her feet made a light tap on the ground, landing into a standing stance.
The view came great, with miles upon miles of distance in sight on all sides of what this appeared as a plateau now. Ahead actually stood a grassy meadow ready for a child to prance in. In the middle stood a great little building, made of stone it was. Marble was most likely the answer. It held a flat white shine against the sun beating down on it now. Leading up to it was a beaten cobblestone path. It was a bit out of place, it seemed, next the great monument at it’s center. Humble in a way of it’s own, it was leading to something much greater.
She slowly walked along the rock bedding in the ground. Passing through the pillars under the light overhead, she shouted, “Hello? Anyone here?” She passed a side long glance inside the doorless opening. As she did, she felt a tap at her shoulder causing her heart to stop at the furry hand. Under her tongue she started pronouncing the words, “Dare Brando.”
The guys hadn’t made much more distance before they heard the howl of the beast again. It was visible a ways down now. They scrambled as quickly as possible, trying their hardest to keep a large pace ahead. It was a futile effort though, as the creatures magnificent wings allowed it to fly great distances closer and closer. Landing again, its head thrashed from side to side as it ran forward in an agile-like pattern.
Its many heads would strike fear into almost any warrior. One of a snake stood farthest out. Its deep dark black eyes would draw you frozen if stared at too long. Then closely following came it’s goat and lion heads. You could see blood drip from the animal king’s jaws. The shedded blood of their horses. It all twisted together onto the one body of a Lion with brilliantly white Pegasus wings.
“Damn chimera,” Gourry complained with a sigh, “we’re gonna have to stop it.”
“Sounds good to me....” Spyn leap to a stop at the next flat area, just before the next wall to climb. Head tilted back, it brought forth vision of another chimera bounding down the mountain to intercept. “I’ll take this one. You take the other.”
“Got it.” Gourry and Spyn unsheathed their swords. Pacing to each other’s backs, they readied for the first attack.
“Ready?” Spyn asked.
“Let’s go for it.” Tapping swords together over their heads, they separated to address their respective targets with a sharp focus.
Weapon in hand, Gourry took a wide battle stance. His muscles tightened, aching with the ambition. He could feel the animal leaping at him as he dodged and placed a well aimed blow as easily as striking a stationary bag of flour. It was that easy in his mind.
This time the animal approaching was real. The stride it used slowed to a prowl around the man. An opening it seeked; a weakness. The monster bellowed out a low deep, intimidating howl. Its shaking sound caused Spyn’s skin to crawl like it was covered with ants and other insects. Spyn himself started strafing to his left, causing them to walk in a imaginarily drawn circled with their movements.
The Chimera dove at him through the air. In a way, it took off like a plane. Spyn dodged away from its large cat-like claws trying to rip at his head and shoulders. As he did so, he slashed upwards barely missing its slender body. It then flapped to a landing on the other side of the cliff. Gourry slowly turned to meet the creatures oncoming, ready gaze that seemed to taunt like a boy. In a way it was begging him to try his best attack.
Gourry’s arms recoiled slowly back so that the sword pointed at his intended target perpendicular to his body above his head. Dashing forward in his charge, his stab hit the laughing air. It gave no mercy for his overzealous actions. Before he had time to recover, his footing disappeared to a lashing tail. Collapsed to his chest, his rival opponent flipped him with its paw and stepped on, accompanied proud, overpowering roar.
With his legs, Gourry swiftly kicked off the brute animal. It was stunned for a moment, almost not expecting it. Recomposure came quick, though. The fight wasn’t over yet. Gourry looked from the corner of his eye. It didn’t look like Spyn was doing much better with his luck.
Gourry took a shallow slash, missing as figured. He then took another just to keep the action flowing and smooth. This time the beast lifted off with its wings. The air it caused to blow almost made the swordsman fall back to the ground. It kept incessantly flapping though. It’s motives were clear then that it was trying to blow him down the mountain clifts. Gourry fell to his knees and inched forward with sheer determination. Each inch forward came slowly but surely with great effort. The energy of the chimera was depleting rapidly now as he came under its large shadow.
Replacing his sword into its scabbard, Gourry worked himself to his knees in a crouch. Then with a spring he jumped and grabbed the Chimera’s tail. The animal tried to fly low and drag it off, but the man ran with it and still held as it took off. Lashed about in the air now, it was unable to shake it’s holder. Steadily he gained ground on its tail, reaching up to the body of the beast. Groping its thick mane, he marveled at the extreme altitude it had taken. He would’ve tried to grab the hilt of his weapon, yet all of his attention had to center its focus at just hanging onto the creature.
Spyn in his battle decided to try to follow Gourry’s example. The Chimera of his battle fought with the same air type attacks at points. As it dashed forward, he chose the right timing to move out of its path and grip it’s front left-hand paw. It furiously flapped about in the air the same as the first. The snake head quickly reacted, lashing its venomous mouth. With a little luck, Spyn kicked it back as he swayed back and forth on his lifeline. He attempted to climb now as the serpent head was dazed. Two times he put forth the effort, and twice he lost the steps he made. Spyn then looked forward. The chimera had chosen an aerial cross with its special brother. Darting through the air, Gourry’s chimera approach Spyn, lion fangs bared. Spyn swayed back and forth, trying frantically to swing on top of his held creature in hopes of avoiding the other one. It was to no avail, though.
Gourry saw now, too, what was oncoming fast. He started beating down on the animal he rode. “Go down you stupid animal!” Taking its mane with one hand, he pushed its head down with high hopes. Still, it was coming closer and closer to Spyn. “AGH!” Sweat streaked his face and frustration filled his heart. Taking his other arm, Gourry started beating on the Chimera’s lion head. It started complying..slowly turning down. Then it popped up again. “GO...DOWN!” Goury’s voices spoke with a fierce tenacity. Once again he smacked it, this time knocking out the lion head. The other two heads roared and hissed at this wildly. Apparently, it was the Lion head that did the majority of the flying since down they spiraled to the hard ground. Gourry cried, “Aaaaaah!” as he rapidly plummeted. Dropping and dropping, his mind flickered thoughts of random things. The one thing he couldn't’ think of was how to get out of this situation. Suddenly, the other Chimera swooped its great body down and caught the other one gently. Gourry felt a sigh come but he was still tensed from not being on the ground. “You okay down there Spyn!?” Gourry hollered.
“What do you think?” Spyn was still holding on, barely. All he could hope for was to land soon. His arm ached dreadfully from his earlier wound from a obra attack the previous day. “Don’t try the same thing with this one either! I’m not ready to die yet!”
Gourry nodded, understanding. Hopefully they would land soon. The animal was now flying up the mountain gaining velocity every second. Spyn now was starting to wonder if he’d lose he grip at any moment just from the wind. Then at the of the great hill, it slowed to a stop. Spyn jumped off and so did Gourry, quickly getting some distance.
The Chimera layed down its friend and nuzzled the unconscious one gently, checking to see if it was all right. It’s manner was so careful, you could tell the two had been together for a while. Letting out a great, mournful bellow, the animal retreated back to show a smaller animal behind.
“It was the obra at the base of the mountain...” Spyn commented.
Lina was beside him, staring at the lying beasts. She took in everything with great interest.
“Brutus, Din!” shouted the obra, “Have you been playing with humans again? Brutus!” The wolf-like animal leered at Brutus, petrifying the animal like a dog who knows it has done wrong.
“You own these things!?” Gourry asked, stunned.
“They’re my guardians.” the obra said.
Spyn was skeptical. “Look more like pets to me.”
It let out a dull laugh. “Well, since you made it up here, I as might as well help you. I’m Utopious”
“You’re the prophet!?” Spyn gasped. “I....am Spyn Dovadaog, and this is Gourry Gabriev.”
“Knowledge comes in many forms,” he replied, “not always human. It isn’t free either.” The three face faulted onto the ground. The mongrel was money hungry as it seemed. “I have to have some way to support my animals and myself. Twenty-five gold coins, please.”
“Agh, it’s always money,” Lina growled. “Gourry, give it to Utopius.”
“Well, what have you been doing up here all this time, witch?” Spyn asked bitterly. “I would think you would have had some money.”
“I’m a sorceress, baka! Not some hag!” Lina and Spyn were at each other’s throats. A battle looked like it could erupt at any moment from the seething cracks of anger escaping in burning streams.
“Now, come on,” Utopious spoke with a calm collectiveness. For once he sounded like the wise one he was supposed to be. “Fighting will get us nowhere.”
Gourry handed the money to him. The sound made the obra’s face split into a smile which was an almost devious looking thing. “Okay, okay. As you must have figured by now, the obra are kept sociable by the presence of the cup in their holy temple. This mountain holds the sister cup.”
Spyn, Lina, and Gourry’s mouths gaped for a moment. They were that close and didn’t know it.
“But....that isn’t for you to take. People still need my advice, and it wouldn’t help to go mad.”
Their hope instantly disappeared into the wind surrounding them to be crushed on the rocks below. A little still yet held for its life, though. Gourry asked desperately, “Well, what do you suggest then? Fix the one we have?”
“No....that won’t work. The structure of the cup is so unsolid, it’ll never be able to hold an enchantment that strong without ripping itself apart.”
“Agh! Is there any hope?!” Spyn cried at him.
“Settle, man. What you need is a new object of Aegis that hasn’t been cracked. One that can still hold the power.”
“You don't mean...?” The burdened man took a few steps back, unsure of himself now. “What am I supposed to do without it? Wither away and die!?”
“Well, why don’t you ask this young lady here?”
“Huh?” puzzlement filled Spyn as he glared at Lina and back at Utopious narrow eyed. “What do you mean, beast?”
“The answer to your problems lay in her, and your past. That is all I can say.”
Lina was blushing, though she did not know why exactly, yet she did at the same time. It was buried deep within the chasms of her mind.
“He’s worse than Xellos,” Gourry sighed. “Either of you two have any idea what he means?”
Spyn’s lip quivered as he said, “You were related to her, weren’t you!?” His eyes googled as if he was seeing something for the first time.
“No way! May aunt died of natural causes! She wasn’t slayed as you said...at least...that’s what I was told.”
The obra gave a quick laugh. “So things are more closely knit than you think. It’s the way of life. Small world some call it: Destiny and fate to others.”
“Tell me! Are you her!?” Spyn looked deep into Lina’s eyes, full of raw emotion now. He almost felt like shaking her.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
Spyn let go of Lina slowly, then backed away. He was so unsure of himself now. He had wanted so badly attack her, but something screamed inside not to. He turned faced. His eye watched the ground. “Why didn’t you help me, witch, when you heard?”
“The spell and cure had died with my aunt...”
“Oh, that just helps everything!” Spyn shouted in his sarcastic tone. Hurt filled him making him want to burst.
“I have an idea!” Gourry spoke spontaneously.
“What?” questioned Lina.
“Well, what if we have Spyn’s belt enchanted and have him just sit in the temple until we find the cure?”
“Should I or you slap him?” Lina asked Spyn.
“Be my guest.”
With a light smack to his head Lina said, “That was real stupid. There must be some way to stop the effects though....if only we could use the belt to save the obra...and then we could use the cup to save Zelgadis and Amelia. Agh! Magic is suppose to wear off after the caster is dead!”
“No...” Spyn seemed weary for a moment as he trailed off. With effort he tried to reassure himself. “She couldn’t be alive. My father said he had slayed her himself.”
“Well, There was a book,” Lina remembered slowly, as many childhood memories can easily be forgotten and hard to recall. “It was what all her spell were listed in...actually the clan spells.”
“Clan?” Gourry repeated.
“Well, more of family.”
Gourry now was more confused than ever. “Huh?”
“My aunt was on another side of the family, so I had never seen any of the books. The...” Lina had to think for a moment to bring it back to her mind before continuing, “the Borderhand clan.”
Utopious’s wolf eyes lit up in their yellowish glow. He said, “Darnus!”
“Huh?” Lina questioned.
“She’s my next door neighbor so to speak. She lives on the mountain just east of here.” The animal pointed it he general direction of the hug hill. “Someone needs do do something about her. Her acrid stench doesn’t clean easily and relentlessly it comes.”
“Well,” suggested Lina, “How about I head over there and try to find some answers. Though, we are running out of time, you two will have to head out straight to the Obra temples.”
“Mercury Forest,” Gourry stated, the place the temples were hidden. The memories of his stay there wasn’t the most pleasant. “Will you be okay, Lina?”
“Oh yeah. I’m the best sorceress there is.” She gave a chiding look at Spyn, expecting him to revolt in some way.
When he looked at her, he couldn’t help seeing things. What might have been, how things could have been different. She was just so familiar, yet so foreign. “It seems the only choice. So we’ll have to enchant the belt?”
“Yes, I can do that here within a half an hour. And if you’re interested, I can point you people to some horses too.” A childish grin sprang to the obra.
“Only if the enchantment is free!”
“All right, all right. I’ll do that for my people.”
“I’ll get going now, and try to catch up to you guys.”
Spyn put his hand gingerly to Lina’s face, looking at her for a moment, seeing if she was the same person he barely remembered. Something told him though, it wasn’t meant to be. “Good luck, Lina.” He turned to face Gourry after Lina had started descending the mountain. Question filled him, making him ask, “Are we going to make it back in time on foot?”
Utopious sighed, realizing the problem. “Maybe you two can ride my Chimeras. It doesn’t do them that much good to confine them to this area when there’s the world.” The words were strained in coming out, as if he didn’t want them to leave his lips. “I have my duty here.”
“Are they really ridable?” Gourry asked, not believing it himself.
“Yes, they just have to get use to you. At first they’ll be a little jumpy. I’m sure you’ve tamed them a bit by at least making it up on them this far.” The obra glanced at the belt of Aegis. Then with a motion, he urged Spyn into the building which he was already treading into. “Do my a favor, bring Bruitus and Din back unharmed.” The way he said it was phrased as a command, yet his voice was in questioning hope.
“We’ll do our best,” Spyn answered.
Utopious waved his arm, gesturing for Spyn to sit on a wooden small stool. Most of the room’s furnishings were made of stone. There was a stone table, a stone water basin, and a stone clock at the center through the stone sun roof. Taking his fur covered hand, he took some of the water, spreading it onto the belt’s gem. “I won’t have to remove the belt to do this.” The wetness softly seeped into the shiny coating. Chanting in his native tongue of the obra, it started to faintly glow.
The sound of his voice was unique as was the language. It’s speech pattern was in phrases of beats and notes. It was almost musical with it’s own melody. The word, “swah,” pronounced in a high C, was different than “swah” pronounced in a low F. What meant love, could easily mean a hate in a tone change. A bridge from the C to the F would mean something else all together. For these reasons humans rarely grasped the language. Obra said it was because of their harsh tongues. The one easy thing to translate between the two, though, was a growl or snare in either language for they were one and the same.
The gem reached its climax of brightness, now a light yellow. Everything held it’s tint now that could be reached by its perpetual light. It died down ever so slowly with the release of the beast-mans grip. Yet it didn’t return. It actually started turning white! “What did you do to it!?” Spyn’s words sheered at Utopious’s ears.
“It’s a slight side effect. Holding the enchantment changed its color a little.”
“A little?”
“At least it’s not pink.”
“Good point.” The young man stood up, looking for his partner. He looked for anything to steal his attention. Gourry was close by, actually just behind him.
“Okay, I have done my job. Off with you and save my people.”
“Yes, wise one.”
With his arms flailing, he wavered them off. “And don’t call me that! I haven’t even reached two-hundred years!” It was ironic how old he is, probably around three to four human lifetimes. Yet, he still held that energy of a child with so much wisdom you wouldn’t expect.
The Chimera were both awake and loping about now, as playful as ever. At Utopious’s word, they both turned to head his command. With two more unclear shouts, they lowered their multiple heads to let Spyn and Gourry board. Both were slow and unsure of themselves at first. It slowly seeped away as they soon found the animals weren’t thrashing them about as before.
“They should bring you with no trouble, good luck!” Before either of the men could speak, the beast-man raised his arm. This caused the animals to stretch their great wings to ready to fly. Dashing forward to the cliffs, Spyn and Gourry held their breaths. It wasn’t until minutes later they they started to really breath again, getting use enough to the feel of the air and height. Gourry then looked back at the mountain.
“Hey look, Spyn! A path! It leads straight up to the top where we were!”
Spyn exclaimed in a grunt, “We went through all that......”
Minutes later they passed over Lina, but kept moving on without stopping. She was halfway between the two great hills. Spyn looked back as he passed her, hoping with all his heart she could save him from what was going to happen.