Slayers: Alive
Episode 136: Actors! All The World's A Stage
After a very strange journey, Filia ended up being sentenced to execution and just when she thought the situation couldn't get worse, she became trapped in Zelas' domain. She should have learned by that point that when it looked like things couldn't get worse, it meant that they were about to get worse.
"You will regret Alice's death for bringing her here, Xellos!" Zelas dramatically declared. "My warriors-" Before Zelas was able to give Lina and Gourry the order to devour Filia, a green parrot with rainbow colors at the end of her wing feathers and long yellow tail feathers arrived with a package.
"Delivery for Alice!" The parrot, who had a golden crown with a pair of blue ornaments attached on its sides as if simulating earrings, gave Filia the package and flew away.
"Open it, meow! Open it!" Xellos purred urgently with curiosity. "There might be catnip in there, open it, meow!"
Filia tore the brown paper off the box and opened it. Inside, among small pieces of white paper that served to cushion the box, there was baby Val. "Val?" She looked at the brown wrapping from the box and read the return address. "This is from the Mother of all Things?"
"The Mother of all Things!" Zelas gasped.
"The Mother of all Things!" Xellos cheered. "You do love me!" Xellos started cuddling Filia, refusing to let her go. She was too stunned to push him away anyway.
"Can we eat them now?" Lina impatiently asked.
"Yes, can we? Can we? Please?" Gourry urged.
"Stand down my warriors, be at ease," Zelas commanded, much to the gluttonous pair's disappointment. "When a couple has loved each other strongly for a long time, the Mother of All Things will send a child to them, which they must raise with loving care. That is where all children come from; they are delivered by the minions of the Mother of All Things. I see now that even with all this adversity, love was able to prevail. Maybe the outlands and the peninsula are not so different after all. Perhaps we can finally unite our lands as one kingdom, as it should be. After all, the legends say that when the child of Ceifeed and Shabranigdu comes to this world, the time will come for the bitter rivalry between the outlands and the peninsula beyond the river to end."
Zelas dramatically continued. "When I saw the child arrive, I did not believe it and kept the truth hidden. The child was adopted by the supreme emperor of the peninsula, who raised her as his own, keeping hidden from her the mission she was born to do, to travel the land and restore peace and harmony to the world! Alice... You are not Milgazia's real sister; you are the daughter of Ceifeed and Shabranigdu. You are not related to Milgazia at all, but Xellos is..."
"I am?" Xellos gasped.
Milgazia suddenly stepped out from behind Zelas' large golden throne with a very shocking confession to deliver. "Xellos... I am your father." That was around the time Filia felt her mind explode into many itty bitty pieces.
xoxox xox xoxox
Her head hurt, her head hurt a lot as Filia's eyes opened suddenly and she looked around in every direction breathing heavily. "It's about time you woke up, stupid dragon!" Xellos was there, he was close, he was... holding her?
Xellos didn't have any cat ears or tail that Filia could see and he was fully dressed, as was she. She also noted that he still had the golden dragon keychain she gave him on his bag. "What... What happened?" Filia asked, still disoriented.
"You were tossing and turning on the ground, muttering incoherently," Xellos truthfully replied. "As for what happened, I thought you would be able to tell me that. Are you sick or something?"
"Not that I know of," Filia mused, as she sat up and tried to shake the dream out of her head, but it wouldn't go away. She blushed, remembering the peculiar cat version of Xellos from the crazy dream. "I had a really odd dream." She confessed, immediately regretting it when Xellos looked at her with curiosity. He wasn't just going to pretend he didn't hear, he would want to know more and would get it out of her somehow. Before that happened, Filia tried to diffuse a potentially embarrassing situation. "I was a fugitive," sort of, given the result of her trial, "and Martina was my adoptive sister."
"Martina was your sister?" Xellos laughed, "adoptive or not that sounds like quite the nightmare. No wonder your emotions tasted so chaotic, she must have been driving you insane." He paused, realizing something, "I didn't know you knew Martina. We are talking about the queen of Zoana, right?"
"Yes," Filia nodded, "Zangulus' wife," then she realized that she held no recollection of ever actually meeting them outside of her dream. Yet she must have met them because she knew who they were. This must be part of her missing memories, bits and pieces were finally coming back! Even if the dream was insane, and somewhat traumatizing in certain aspects, Filia consoled herself in thinking that if she was starting to recover from her amnesia, then at least something good came out of it. Plus the hunt for the tea leaves was over and Filia could go home.
xoxox xox xoxox
The tea leaves were collected and Xellos took them to Zelas, who suspiciously decided she didn't need them. Her reasoning was that, "Milgazia doesn't need the extra energy after all." It was just a cheap excuse on Zelas part, because the true purpose of the tea leaves had already been accomplished judging by Xellos report, which mentioned Filia's dream in passing. He told Beast Master about the detail for the sake of amusement only, with Xellos not realizing that it was indeed an important point.
Xellos, who was still caught in the peculiar misunderstanding that had been plaguing him and Filia lately, really didn't want to know how Zelas reached her conclusion. Honestly, what Milgazia did to demonstrate his energy and endurance was none of Xellos' business and he most certainly did not want to know about it.
xoxox xox xoxox
Amelia and Zelgadis were currently traveling around the world, spreading Seyruun's good will and taking a few deviations along the way to follow leads concerning Zelgadis' cure. He wasn't searching for it as if it were something as vital as what he had thought it to be in the past, but rather something he would like to have if it was possible, without getting too distracted from the other more important happenings of his life.
Seyruun was calm, recovering much more easily than most of the other cities of the world. With the princess gone, Filia had offered to assist kind king Philionel in anything he needed; the Seyruun royal family had helped her a lot. Phil appreciated the offer and asked Filia to participate in a task that he thought she would enjoy, managing a small play to entertain children. Palou, Val and a group of children from around the city would participate in a somewhat modified reenactment of a classic fairy tale that existed in both human and dragon culture.
For the humans, the main protagonist of the story was a little girl, whose trademark accessory was a red hooded cape. For the dragons, the heroine was a little dragon girl who wore a similar red hooded cape. For the villain of the story, many of the human variations of the tale depicted the antagonist as being a ferocious wolf. As for the villain of the dragon version of the story, it was, predictably, a monster.
To accommodate for more children to appear on the little play, the role of the main girl was modified to be a group of children instead, who attended a school at the edge of a forest. Jillas, Gravos and Elena also became involved in the process of the play and after some rehearsing; the children were ready to put on a show at the park. Families gathered around sitting on picnic blankets to watch the show with Phil himself personally attending with a front row seat.
Filia was on their little improvised stage where a group of children, Val and Palou included, were sitting. "That's it for today's lesson, children, be careful on your way home. I'll see you tomorrow bright and early!" The golden dragon cheerfully went over her lines perfectly.
The children energetically got up, giving Filia their farewells and moving to the other side of the stage, which was outside the classroom area and in the imaginary kingdom where the story took place. Filia had gone on her way, disappearing behind some cardboard trees to wait for her next scene.
"Miss Filia sure is nice," Palou observed.
"Yes she is!" The children chorused.
"We should do something nice for her," Val suggested.
"Yes we should!" The children chorused.
While the scene went on, Filia felt a familiar presence backstage. "Xellos," she eyed him critically, growling in a low tone. "If you ruin this for the children, I won't forgive you," she warned.
"What? Can't I watch?" Xellos feigned hurt.
"You can watch," Filia voiced carefully. "But you can't do anything that will negatively affect the play. The children were really excited about this and if you make them sad, I'll... I'll... I'll make sure you get indigestion!" That wasn't the most threatening thing to say and certainly not the worse Filia had offered to do to Xellos. But in her favor, one could observe that it might be a somewhat doable threat if she ruined his meal of misery by finding a way to fix things fast enough. Besides, Filia was distracted for a second, taking note of the fact that Xellos still had that little doll of her decorating his bag.
Xellos took her threat with amusement. "Children get upset too easily anyway. Their sorrow lacks in flavor, since they are too innocent to fully understand fear and disappointment. They're too naive to think of the horrible possibilities beyond the immediate present. Dragon anguish, now that's a delicious dish!"
Filia placed her hands on her hips and glared, "that's cruel." Well at least he wasn't interested in making the kids suffer. She carefully listened for her cue to go back on stage. The children would go to the bakery, that was Elena's scene, and get some delicious goodies. Then they would head out to the gates, that was Gravos' scene, and after being given some warnings and advice, they would head on to the forest to deliver the baked goodies to their teacher's house.
Gravos was currently explaining about how a fairy that lived in the forest had casted a protective spell on the marked paths that repelled evildoers and that they should never stray from those paths. Next up on the play, the children would go into the forest, leave the path and encounter a wolf. That was Jillas' scene, except Jillas couldn't be on stage because he was currently backstage giving Filia desperate nervous looks. "Jillas? What's wrong?" She asked with gentle concern.
"I... I can't do this..." Jillas whimpered. "Elena, Palou, Val... the children, the audience..."
"Coward," Xellos mockingly chirped with abundant cheer.
Filia glared murderously at Xellos for a second, before turning her kind and encouraging eyes towards Jillas. "There's no need to be afraid, just get out there and do your best. I'm sure you'll do great."
"Or mess up terribly," Xellos suggested, grinning happily, "By the way, it's not bad, pretty good actually." He remarked as if tasting food.
"Stop feeding off Jillas' stage fright!" Filia scolded.
"I... can't..." Finally giving in completely to the stage fright, Jillas removed his wolf costume and practically shoved it into Xellos' arms. "You do it!"
"Me?" Xellos shook his head. "Oh no, I couldn't, don't forget that I'm expected to-"
"I said... I think we're lost!" Val's loud voice coming from the stage snapped Filia, Jillas and Xellos into attention. In the play, the children disregarded the advice they were given and strayed away from the path in the forest, becoming lost deep in it. Now it was time for their encounter with the wolf.
"Jillas, that's your cue!" Gravos joined them backstage with the reminder.
"Right away!" Jillas was full of determination as he picked up the wolf costume, but as soon as it was in his hands, he became once again afraid. "I can't!" He shoved the costume back at Xellos. "But everyone is counting on me!" He took the costume back, "what if I fail?" He pushed it away.
"You know, this costume doesn't even fit me, it's too small," Xellos pointed out.
Gravos searched around a trunk full of costumes for something that would fit Xellos. "The only other wolf-like costume we have is that outfit from the fashion show that was cancelled." He held up the garment, there was a wolf tail attached to it, but it was...
"That's..." Filia pointed at the garment in disturbed disbelief. "Fur speedos?"
Xellos shook his head, "only Marty Lenford..." Then again, Naga might also like stuff like that and that's just about as far as that train of thought was permitted to go.
"You can't wear that, there are children present!" Filia snapped.
"I never said I would!" Xellos snapped right back. "Besides, I'm supposed to-"
"I hope we don't run into any wolves!" Palou practically shouted from the stage, the show needed to go on.
"There's no other choice," Filia picked up the wolf mask and shoved it into Xellos' face. "You'll have to play the part of the terrible wolf before the play falls apart. Go out there and... and... just be yourself." Without further ado, Filia shoved Xellos into the stage. He made a stumbling entrance, causing the audience to erupt into laughter and continued the play, more or less as it should go from there.
"I'm sorry boss," Jillas apologized profusely. "I don't know what's wrong with me. Every time I pick up this costume, I get such terrible stage fright."
Filia touched the wolf costume and peculiarly, she felt stage fright too, then she sensed it. "Wait a minute; this costume is under a spell that gives stage fright! The mask must not affect Xellos because he's a monster. That tricky piece of raw garbage, he must have sabotaged the wolf costume!"
"Actually," Jillas confessed, "that might have been Val. I saw him casting some magic on this costume earlier. When I asked him about it, he said it was a secret and that's what he always says when he gets into mischief."
Filia let out a breath of distressed disappointment, "my little Val, why did you have to turn out to be such a trickster?"
"It's okay, it's just a harmless prank," Jillas tried to console Filia. "I just need to get a different costume."
"It might be a little late for that now," Gravos pointed out. "But you can act out the other scene my character was supposed to play and join in that way."
"Alright," Jillas agreed, "I'll act that scene and figure out a way so that the play can still go on even if Xellos is stuck playing a different character!" He realized only too late that he had said too much, automatically slapping both hands over his mouth.
"What do you mean a different character?" Filia questioned suspiciously. "It's not like he actually had a character to play in the first place!" She demanded.
A loud and rather realistic sounding growl was heard from the stage. "No one can save you now!" Xellos threatened. The children called out for help, hoping that the hero didn't take as long to get there as the villain, because they could hardly think of more lines to improvise with.
"That's my cue," Filia realized. The kind hearted teacher, who was secretly a forest fairy, was supposed to show up and save the children from the wolf, sacrificing herself to do so. Then the town guard, previously played by Gravos, who had given the next scene to Jillas, would arrive to find the children crying about the fallen fairy. He would instruct them to focus their positive energy and together they would cast a massive recovery spell that would save the fairy's life. Or at least that's how Filia thought the story was supposed to go.
Filia dashed to hide between the curtains that were set up as a sort of change room back stage, then she ran out to the stage in her fairy costume. The only difference was that instead of her fairy wand, she was holding her mace instead. "Terrible wolf, with my fairy magic I shall defeat your evil, even if it takes every ounce of strength I have in me!"
Filia swung her mace against Xellos who, just the same as any other semi-sane being would do, dodged it. "You'll never defeat me, forest fairy! I shall feast on these children, I'll devour them all!"
Filia swung her mace at Xellos again, which he dodged again. He didn't teleport, but he was moving around a lot with great speed. "You're supposed to stay still!" Filia growled under her breath.
"You're supposed to only pretend to hit me," Xellos countered. Though his face was hidden behind the wolf mask, Filia could still clearly imagine his mocking sarcastic grin. It was infuriating.
"Alright, let's just get this done." Determined to progress with the play as smoothly as possible, Filia prepared to hit Xellos with her mace once more, nodding to him slightly as she dramatically moved her mace towards him. It looked as if she wouldn't hit him too hard, but Xellos knew better than to lower his guard. His miscalculation was that he kept his attention focused on the mace to get out of the way if Filia tried to put some real strength into the hit at the last minute. Then suddenly, Filia shot a laser breath point blank that got Xellos square in the chest.
The crowd cheered, assuming it was all part of the play, while Xellos tackled Filia to the floor on the stage. "That hurt, you sadistic dragon." He whispered in her ear as he lay on top of her. If he wasn't such a high ranking monster he would have been seriously injured.
"Get off me, raw garbage!" Filia whispered back, putting every bit of willpower she had into the effort not to further ruin the play.
"Shh, quiet, you're supposed to be unconscious in this scene, remember?" Xellos whispered back.
"You're supposed to be dead," Filia growled in return, in a low tone of voice.
Jillas entered the scene, playing a second, recently added town guard. "I was worried about you children, so I came to look for you. Why have you gone out of the path? What has happened here?"
"We're sorry!" The children chorused.
"We should have listened and stayed in the path," Val voiced with well acted regret.
"Miss Filia, who was secretly the forest fairy, sacrificed herself to save us from that terrible wolf," Palou voiced in a sad tone.
"If only we could save Miss Filia!" The group of children chorused.
"Maybe we can!" Jillas dramatically declared.
The play was almost over, then Filia could stop pretending to be unconscious and Xellos could stop pretending to be dead in such an uncomfortably close proximity to her. Do unconscious people even blush? 'C'mon Jillas, hurry with the lines. Have the children cast the healing spell so I can get away from this piece of raw garbage.' Filia thought. She had no idea that the script had been modified without her knowledge and Jillas was about to implement those modifications along with a few last minute edits.
To be Continued
The title All The World's A Stage, is a reference to Shakespeare. The "I am your father" quote is from Star Wars.