********
"Where the hell are we?"
Zel and Lina glanced at each ther before turning back to the wasted landscape Val referred to.
It was overwhelmingly white, the snow here untouched by human- or otherwise- hands. Here and there, an intricate cross of black broke the stark whiteness that covered grooved and pitted ground. Zel and Lina remembered those crosses, and the dragons that had built them.
Or at least stories of them. There was only one of this clan left, and he had been the only one for a thousand years before either of their births.
"Valteira..." Lina started. She stared at the boy's back as he took in the surroundings.
"Damn, that's alot of snow!" he said finally. His companions let out the breath they'd been holding. "Do you think this is the place?"
Zel shrugged. "Who knows?"
"'Cause I get the feeling," Val continued, "that this wasn't always like this. Something more important than snow was here once, I just know it! Imagine, we could be looking at a place where history was made!" He flushed a little. "I'm sorry. You two must think I'm silly, getting excited like this. I mean, you two MAKE history; I've only read a little bit. This is the closest I've been to a big event. Can we..."
"Go down and see it? Sure." Lina grinned at him. "Get your history, dragon-boy."
******
Xelloss kneeled before his master. "The trap is sprung."
"Good," Xelas purred. She was being very cat-like about this whole thing. "Proceed as planned, my dear. Awaken the boy, and crush him."
"Yes, master." Xelloss and Xelas grinned at each other, although only one felt it.
********
Valteira Ul Copt flopped flat on his back. He'd been running around, basking in remnants of a familiar power. He didn't know why it was so familiar to him- he suspected the power just liked dragons though- and the crosses tugged at his memory.
"I must have seen something like them in a book," he announced to Lina and Zel. He'd been keeping them abreast of his revelations by calling out to them even after they'd stopped following him. At the moment, they sat on a small hill, curled up by the fire Lina had made Zel build. She currently looked like she wanted to throw something. Between shivers, anyways.
"That must have been some book," Zel called to the boy.
"Yeah. Too bad I don't remember it!" The men laughed. Lina scowled at them and moved closer to Zel. She'd been right about his stone body picking up heat.
"Are you okay still?" she asked Val.
"Huh? Oh. Yeah. I'm not col at all. I'm actually overheated from running around!" he chuckled.
"I hate you," Lina grumbled. Zel looked away, whistling innocently. "You too, mister," she snapped at him.
"What about me?" Xelloss asked as he popped in on her other side.
"I hate you most of all," she assured him.
"Hi, Mister Xelloss," Val waved idly, not bothering to get up.
"Hello, Val-chan!" Xelloss grinned and waved back, even though the boy couldn't see him. "He's happy, ne?"
"He says it's familiar here. The magical emanations like him or something," Lina informed him as she yanked a corner of Zel's cloak over her.
"It should be familiar," Xelloss replied, thinking- 'I certainly spent enough time making sure it would.'
"Don't say anything," Lina said suddenly. "You know how I feel about him knowing about... this." She glared at both of them. "I can take you both out if I have to."
"I think I had a dream about this place, or a place like it," Val called to them. "I remember sitting and crying, and seeing one of these crosses." He chuckled again. "Filia probably spanked me for stealing cookies or sharpening my claws on the couch. I can't think of why else I would be crying...."
Zel and Lina glanced at each other.
"He's not..."
"I don't know," Zel said softly. "Noone's ever been reborn like this before."
"He can't remember the way it was!" Lina hissed, trying to keep her voice down. "I like him like THIS!"
"So do I," he assured her. "He's not the same person. He can't remember. He's..." He looked down at the boy, who was making a snow-angel and giggling.
"An idiot?" Xelloss suggested. Zel grumbled at him.
"Having fun," Lina said firmly. The word 'idiot' always reminded her of Gourry, and having Valteira around was nothing like having Gourry around. Val wasn't a jellyfish-brain.
"Look! It's Filia!" Val had drawn a be-ribboned tail on his snow-angel. He grinned at all of them. Lina began rethinking the jellyfish-brain thing.
What was left of Xelloss's heart shriveled up and died inside him.
