Slayers - Chaos Theory

1. Helping Hand

This is a translation of my original story. Please note that English is not my first language, so there may be some language errors in the text. I am open to feedback.

Chapter 1

"Helping Hand"

It was a beautiful summer's day. The scorching sun was slowly disappearing behind the treetops, moving westwards and heralding the coming of night. Birds soared towards the clouds, their wings cutting through the endless expanse of the sky, but there was something that disturbed the beauty and peace of nature...

"Gourry, stay away from my fish!" shouted Lina Inverse, the ginger master of black magic.

There were few things that could make Lina lose her balance, but sharing a meal with Gourry was certainly one of them. This was one thing the two of them could never agree on. Apart from this one small exception, Lina and Gourry had always been a great team. Since the day they met by chance on the trail, they had become inseparable. Together they faced every new challenge and honed their skills. In recent years, Lina had delved into the secrets of magic inaccessible to mere mortals, while Gourry, heir to the legendary Sword of Light, had perfected the art of fencing.

"No way! I caught it, so it's mine!" the blonde replied, smiling as he pushed away the girl who was desperately trying to grab the last of the food.

"Oh, is that so?" the sorceress growled, her eyebrows twitching dangerously. "You forget who the hell you're dealing with..." After a moment, a red light flickered in her hand. "Source of all power... Scarlet Flame..." she began to recite a familiar spell.

"Oh, Lina, stop it!" groaned a frightened Gourry. Realising the situation, he immediately got up and ran to the nearby stream, trying to prevent the inevitable, as Lina, due to her innate stubbornness, never interrupted a spell once it had started.

"Here, here! More fish! They're all yours!" he babbled in horror as he tried to fish more of the unfortunate creatures out of the nets he had set out earlier.

"Join with my hand and be my power..." she continued. "Fireball!" she finally shouted, smiling happily. "Thank you, Gourry!" she added as she approached the charred blonde and took the fish from his hand.

Of course, the power of the spell was adjusted so that it only showed who was in charge and did no real damage.

"Look... It's even cooked!" she grinned ironically.

"Oh, you're acting like children! Will you never grow up?" Amelia summed up, forcing herself into a playful tone.

The truth was, she didn't mind their behaviour. It was something she had gotten used to over the years. Sometimes she just had to stand aside and wait, which she knew very well.

Amelia met Lina and Gourry shortly after they met. Another coincidence brought their paths together. At first, Amelia was impressed by Lina's skills. As a sorceress herself, she would like to reach that level of power one day. However, unlike Lina, Amelia specialised in white magic and had a much stronger sense of morality. This was probably due to the fact that, as a princess of the capital of white magic, Saillune, Amelia had always been brought up in the spirit of goodness and justice.

Finally, Amelia decided to do what she always did and just stay out of her friends' arguments, and out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of someone else...

Zelgadis was sitting by the stream, staring at his own reflection. Amelia knew exactly what Chimera... no, not Chimera... what Zelgadis was thinking about. She knew he was thinking about how to return to his normal body and how to remove the curse. His obsessive search for the cure. But she couldn't understand why. Zelgadis didn't need the cure, at least not according to Amelia. But she didn't dare tell him. Long ago, she had decided that all she could do was be with him. To accompany him on his arduous journey to find the cure. She hoped that if he stopped focusing on how he looked, then maybe... maybe?