Author's Note: This takes place inbetween Slayers Next and Slayers Try. It really has nothing to do with any of my previous fics, but it can be counted as part of my Slayers fanon. Also, and this is VERY important: I realize that several people have favorited me and my stories without replying. Although I greatly appreciate the honor of being on someone's Favorites list, I ask you to please, PLEASE do not do this without replying at least once. Its a small pet peeve, and a bit irritating. You don't have to go back and reply to any of my other stories if you don't want to, just please reply to this one and any future ones that you read. And it would probably be greatly appreciated if you took this advice and applied to other stories that you Favorite. Thank you.

Disclaimer: I do not own Slayers. That is all. *whack* Owww! Enough with the shovel attacks L-Sama! *whack* Ow! I mean, waah! Sniff, sniffle, cry. I do not own Slayers and it makes me so sad!

(Yes, this will be a running gag)

Chapter One

The Mysterious Stranger

CRASH!

"That does it, Christina! That's the fifth stack of plates that you've destroyed in as many days! Get out of here! You're fired!"

A blond teenage girl of no more than fifteen fled out of the kitchen's back door, crying into her hands.

Dilgear looked up from the bone that he had been chewing on and said, "You were a little harsh on her, you know."

"I'm under enough stress as it is, Spot," replied Luna. "I don't need to put up with someone who smashes half the plates in here, and mixes up orders every single day, and I won't!"

Dilgear shrugged and went back to his bone.

Outwardly, Dilgear appeared to be a wolf-type beastman (slightly different from a werewolf) with an odd blue-green fur coloring. However, he was also actually half-troll, making him nearly impossible to kill. Because of this, he had once been a highly successful bounty hunter and mercenary. Then he had accepted a contract from the legendary Rezo the Red Priest to track down and obtain the even-more famous Philosopher's Stone.

For that job, he had been assigned to work under one of Rezo's lieutenants: a chimera man named Zelgadis. But Zelgadis had proved treacherous in the end, and it had been Dilgear's job to hunt down and kill him, along with the sorceress Lina Inverse. Unfortunately, Dilgear had been unable to defeat the pair, and was left for dead. After his troll-inherited regenerative powers had healed his wounds, the beastman had spent many months wandering about through the wilderness; until at last he had come to the kingdom of Zephillia, where he had been adopted by a young waitress and swordswoman by the name of Luna Inverse.

Just a coincidence, right?

Luna herself wasn't all that bad to be around, except when her hair-trigger temper went off. Which was not an uncommon occurrence.

In fact, it had gotten to be an even-less uncommon occurrence ever since her parents- a pair of retired mercenaries, a swordsman and a sorceress- had gone to the kingdom of Ruvignald on business two weeks earlier. While gone, the job of running Mr. Inverse's general store had fallen upon the former swordsman's senior apprentice. The job of running Mrs. Inverse's restaurant, however, had fallen to the head waitress. i.e. Luna.

"Why did Mom and Dad pick now of all times to leave on business?" the curly-haired young woman grumped as she began seasoning a chicken that was waiting to be put into the oven. "The grape festival is later this month: The height of tourist season! This is the busiest time of the year, sans the festival itself!"

Dilgear ignored her. Although normally a bad idea, this was an exception as she was not talking to anyone in particular, and it was the same complaint that she had been voicing for the past fortnight anyway.

The half-troll wolf closed his eyes and snuggled up into a tight ball on his soft rug.

A minute later, Luna turned to Dilgear and said, " Spot, I'm sorry, but will you please go out and make sure that the girls aren't slacking off again? I'd do it myself, but there's supposed to be a major food critic dropping by later today, and I have to make sure that everything is just right. And besides, I have to finish the apple pie, and you know how I like to do that personally.

Dilgear opened one eye, nodded obediently, then reluctantly sat up and padded out into the dining room.

Although he had once walked about on two legs like a man, Dilgear now spent most of his time walking on all fours. This was partly because most people didn't know the difference between a werewolf and a wolf-type beastman, and so was forced to pass himself off as a dog to prevent an uproar from travelers. The second reason was that he was less intimidating this way, and girls would often come up to pet him and fuss over the "adorable, big fuzzy puppy."

The Shining Ceipheed Restaurant was packed again that day, and the eatery's three remaining waitresses scurried about frantically taking orders, delivering food, scrubbing tables, and just generally trying to make up for the lack of Luna helping them. No slacking going on here.

"Oh, my! This place is certainly quite busy!" a light, annoyingly cheery voice observed loudly to Dilgear's right.

Dilgear yelped and jumped a foot into the air.

"Oh, dear! I'm terribly sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you, Master Beastman," the man who seemed to have materialized out of thin air apologized in his still cheerful voice.

The man was of average height and build, with purple hair in a long bowl cut, and purple eyes closed a perpetually cheerful expression. He wore a dark gold long-sleeved tunic, and baggy black pants. On his feet were tan, full-footed sandals, and on his hands were white kid gloves. There was also a bag slung across one of his shoulders, and an embroidered black cloak draped over both of them. In his hand was a staff of dark wood with a red orb inset at the top.

"W-w-w-where did you come from?" Dilgear stammered.

"Outside," the man said without sarcasm.

"No, I mean how did you just appear there like that?"

"Oh? Well, in that case," the main said and wagged a finger. "That is a secret."

Despite the man's cheerful and pleasant exterior, there still remained an odd something about the stranger that made Dilgear uneasy.

"Um, I've got to go and do something," the beastman said, slowly backing up. "So, uh, yeah. See ya later."

With that, he turned tail and dashed back through the kitchen door.

The mysterious stranger merely chuckled to himself, then disappeared into thin air.