Slayers Special - Volume 2 - Chapter 1

Dragon’s Peak 

"I take it that you are a sorceress, mistress?" 

An old man spoke to me. I was currently in the rundown inn of a small town - if you could the single building a town - eating a meal of stew in a drafty common room. The  wind that came through gaps in the walls made it impossible to forget the cold weather that waited outside, which was the likely reason for there not being any other customers. I looked up at the old man whose distress made the wrinkles in his face turn to deep furrows.  

"You see... I have a dire request to ask of you...." "No." 

I cut him off. He stood there in silence. Time passed without either of us speaking. The common room was quiet except for my contented slurps of stew and the unsettling moaning sound coming from the second floor.  

"....Ah.... Um..... I would appreciate it if you'd at least hear me out...." 

I resignedly raised my head once more. 

"Well that's fine.... but I'm only going to listen." 

"Well... to the east of the village there is a snowcovered mountain...." 

"No way." 

I refused him firmly. 

"....Um.... Could I ask why you're saying no? You can at least tell me the reason, can't you?" "It's cold." 

Warrior and sorceress with considerable renown (and a fair bit of infamy), I, Lina Inverse, was nevertheless human. And any human has at least one or two things they dislike. In my case the cold was one such thing. I had come over the mountains to the east to reach this village, and during that time the cold had been so awful that I wanted to scream and shoot fireballs in every direction.  

....I may have given into that desire. 

When a magician registers with the magicians' guild they are taught a weak cooling spell which is useful for enduring hot conditions. The spell could be used underneath clothing to remain cool despite the weather. However.... 

There was no such "weak heating" spell which would serve the same purpose for cold weather. The main reason for this is a lack of need. The task of a magician is generally to discover and research. This typically means that a magician registered with the guild will be cooped up in a tower or a basement somewhere reading books and conducting experiments. In such a setting a hearth fire or warmer clothing would more easily thwart the cold than a spell. 

But there was a second reason. 

A warming spell would be elementally based on "Fire," which could also be called "Conflagration." As you may guess from the word, it's not an element which can be controlled. To put it simply the amount of heat produced cannot be limited. Nevertheless, two magicians had attempted to solve this problem. One of those magicians was myself.  

The other was an acquaintance of mine (I guess) named Naga the Serpent.  

Naga is a sorceress that dresses like a villain for some reason, wearing very little in the way of clothing. She's decided that she is my rival and quite often says "Hooohoho~! One day I'll defeat you for good!" while following me around like poop trailing from a goldfish. Still, with such a flimsy outfit she must be truly freezing. I warned her that she should just put on some normal clothing, but she ignored me and insisted that she would work on making a warming spell during our trip to the village. 

....Perhaps she simply didn't have enough money to buy new clothes? Maybe I should have insisted after all.... In any event, while she was gifted with incredible magical power, when it came to control she had a troubling lack. And sure enough.... 

"I'll just combine fire and ice to control the heat level!" she declared, and then went on to freeze a lake solid at one point while setting a forest on fire at another. In the end she even somehow created a giant flaming ball of ice.  

I must admit that I was so surprised that I actually applauded that one. 

.....So the unsettling moaning coming from upstairs was the bedridden Naga the Serpent who was recovering from her exposure to the elements. 

To be fair though, I had once thought "All you have to do is heat the air around you! I'm a genius!" My chosen method for achieving this was to launch fireballs at the surrounding area, which triggered an avalance that almost swallowed me alive (I really thought that I might die....), so I didn't feel that I was in a position to mock her. 

So anyways, that's how we came to be here in this inn. We had enough travel funds to remain at the inn while Naga recovered, which I felt that I had to help with given our long time knowing each other. To that end there was no way that I was going out to some snow-covered mountain to march around in the freezing cold! 

....The old man watched me for a while longer before finally sighing heavily - presumably from resigning himself to the fact that I would not be helping him. 

"I see... so you won't do it...." 

"Yup." 

I nodded firmly. 

"Oh well.... I suppose I can't blame you.... it is a white dragon after all. I suppose it's too much for you to handle...." White dragon?! 

Hold on! 

"....Mnfufu...." 

I stood up, knocking my chair to the floor behind me. You see, I have quite the connection to that white dragon. It was long ago, during the distant days of my youth. It was the first time I had ever seen such a sight. A white dragon soaring gracefully through the air. I raced after it, feeling as if I could run forever - and then tripped. Not only did I hurt my leg, but the candies I had bought with the entirety of my allowance went falling off of a cliff. 

White dragon bastard! I'll never forgive you!! 

Despite my young age I had faced the dragon as it flew away and raised my middle finger towards it. 

Hey! Who said that! I know I just heard someone say, "Sounds like it was entirely your own fault"!! 

...Well I can't say you're wrong.... 

In any case! If the old man wanted somtehing involving that white dragon then the situation was completely different. 

"Let me hear more about that! In detail!" 

According to the old man - who was actually the village mayor, as it turned out - this was the situation. Towards the end of last year a white dragon began to live in the snow-covered mountains to the east of the village. Having a dragon nearby was of course a stressful situation, but the dragon had shown no intention of causing harm to the village. Rather than trying to force the dragon away and risk angering it instead, the village had decided to pretend it did not exist....
 
But a few days ago the dragon began to cause trouble. So far there was no loss of human life or even of livestock, but it now seemed to be only a matter of time. And so all of the villagers agreed that it would be best to kill the dragon before it killed them, resulting in a search for warriors who could be hired to take on the task. But the village didn't see many warriors passing through, as it was it was a frigid little village located at the back end of nowhere. Which is to say that the village had yet to find someone capable of killing the dragon.  
 
And so... the owner of the inn had taken notice of the sorceress staying in his establishment - a sorceress who looked like a clever, beautiful girl - and passed the word along to the mayor.

Whoooooooooooooooooooh...... 

I stood there lost in thought as the north wind gusted around me. Small piles of snow surrounded me, but the sky above the mountain was cloudless and brilliantly blue. The air was tinged with the cold scent of snow. It was midday, but the cold didn't seem to be affected by that. An old man had guided me to this point, but he was apparently very afraid of the dragon because he had taken off after quickly panting out "It's around here! Where the dragon shows up! Bye!" Ever since then I had wandered around looking for said dragon.... 

I glanced at the distant mountain peak and the thick mass of trees that extended down from it.... Thinking about the old man's words some more, exactly how big of an area is "around here"?! And to speak frankly, a white dragon is no match for me!     

I've taken down more than a dozen blue dragons, which are stronger than white dragons, and I've even taken down a black dragon which would send most warriors running for their mothers. BUT... it doesn't matter how strong or weak this particular dragon is if I can't find the thing!  

...For a moment I considered marching back to town to drag the old man back up here to show me where the dragon is, but it's not as if the old man knows exactly where to find it. And that's how I find myself standing here on the mountain unsure of what to do. I was certainly not about to go roaming around the mountain so I could get lost and have everyone mocking me for it for the rest of my life.  

At a time like this the best thing to do is have an early lunch. Yep. Another option would be to scream at the distant mountain top, but while that might vent some of my frustration, it wouldn't actually achieve anything. Let's save that for another time. So, now the problem at hand is where to eat lunch.... 

But then.... suddenly birds burst into flight nearby. Moments later I could hear the creaking and popping of trees shifting and shaking. Well then....    f 

I began to walk quietly towards the direction of the disturbance. I walked around a small grove of trees - so small that it was a stretch to even call it a grove - and looked towards the direction that I had heard the noise. And there in the shadow of one of the trees.... was a single white dragon. Looking right at me. 

It appeared to be eating bark from the tree's trunk, but it just so happened that it was looking my direction. When I peeked my head out from the edge of the grove to look for the source of the sound, our eyes met.  At this distance the dragon had the advantage. I could feel my body begin to tense up. The dragon opened its mouth... and human words came out.  

"Hey there! You alone, little lady? Want to come eat some of this tasty tree bark with me?" 

....After a few moments my muscles relaxed and my mind stopped planning for battle.

"Well that's awful.... talk about false accusations." 

The white dragon, whose name was apparently Riol, skillfully waved the claw at the top of his wing at me. I walked over and sat down on a flat stone next to where he had settled down.  

"Are you saying that you've done nothing wrong?" I asked in human language. How convenient that he can speak human language! I can speak the dragon tongue, but the pronunciation is incredibly difficult. The mispronunciation of a single part of a word could make it unintelligible or even reverse the intended meaning!  

"Of course I haven't. ....For that matter what 

"wrong things" have even been done?" 

I was at a loss for words. The village mayor had said that the dragon was "causing trouble," but he had never specified what that trouble was and I had not asked.  

"No idea... the village mayor was pretty vague, but it sounded like it was a real problem." I had no choice but to remain imprecise in my response. "And... not to imply that you're lying, but are you certain that you haven't done anything?" 

"Of course." The dragon puffed out his chest with pride. "I swear on the name of the Flare Dragon Ceifeed. ...And really, if I did anything to attack humans nearby, it's obvious that they would come to get revenge on me. At the very least that would not be a pleasant situation. Even a baby dragon has the intellect to see that cause-and-effect relationship. ...Well, aside from blue dragons. Those guys are big, but their brains... not so much." 

He laughed heartily at that. Apparently in the dragon world humans have a certain stigma about them as well. ...Well I guess that's more or less inevitable.... The dragon eventually stopped laughing and his expression changed to suspicion.  

"Not too long ago a blue dragon started showing up around here.... I wasn't interested in fighting with some idiot over territorial lines, so I opted to ignore him instead.... But now that you've showed up here, I can't help but wonder if he's not responsible." 

"So he's the real culprit." 

"Mm, most likely." Riol replied flatly.  

Well. It certainly wasn't the most unlikely story I'd heard. It must have been easy to find food at the beginning of autumn, but once the snows began to fall the pickings would have become slim and so he came to this area that is covered with evergreen trees. That's likely what had happened. Most people think that dragons strictly eat meat - and lots of it - but dragons are actually a lot like humans in that they're omnivores.  

"Would you say that the blue dragon was causing trouble for the village with the intention of having the blame put on you?" 

"Yeah. Blue dragons have an innate wicked intellect." 

....That's not what you were saying before. I think this guy might just really hate blue dragons.  

"Alright, I think I understand enough of what's going on. Okay! Time to get to work! Come down the mountain with me and talk to the villagers.  

It's fine, it's fine! I'll be the mediator. I'm sure once you talk to them they'll understand." I said, confidently thumping my fist against my chest.  

"......I don't know... is this really going to turn out okay...?" He was watching my face with a look of uncertainty.  

"Just leave it to me!" 

"....So anyways, that's the kind of ridiculous story this guy's telling me. What do you make of it?" I said, slapping a hand against the dragon I held bundled up on my back. Magically strengthened wires had been wrapped around his mouth, tail, fore and hind limbs, and his wings. The villagers were lined up in front of me.  

"Well that's just nonsense of course!" 

"I've never even seen a blue dragon!" 

"That's right! Hurry up and kill the thing!" 

"That thing's the one that did it! No doubt!" 

The villagers were all shouting. I turned my head to look at Riol and spoke quietly. 

"Looks like convincing them isn't going to work after all. Guess you just have to accept that this is your fate. Ha ha ha ha ha." 

The dragon tried to say something in reply, but his mouth had been wired shut to prevent him from using his breath as a weapon, so the only sounds that came out were indecipherable grunts. But then.... 

"Ah, l-look there's a giant bird over there!" a young child called.  

I had a feeling that I knew what I'd see as I turned to look. Against the backdrop of the white-topped mountain a giant blue dragon was lazily flapping its wings as it hovered in the air.