This is a little extra story that I thought up from a prompt by my brother. I figured that it would make a nice epilogue-sort-of-thing since it takes place a couple of months after the end of the story, and seems to fit their daily life pretty well. (I seriously think that this sort of stuff happens a lot.) :3

EXTRA- Lorelei and Zara's Exciting Epilogue!

"Lorelei? Where has that little monster run off to? Honestly, she so terribly hard to keep up with…" Xellos mumbled, searching around for his adopted daughter who felt like running off somewhere every chance she got.

Suddenly, the snow on the branch above him fell to the ground with a crash as Lorelei sprung out from behind it. "Surprise!" She yelled.

"Ah, Lorelei. There you are. I was wondering where you had gone off to."

Lorelei slumped disappointedly. "Oh father! You didn't even flinch!"

Xellos patted the little monster's head consolingly. "Haha, trying to scare someone, are we? Might I suggest not targeting monsters? They tend not to scare as easily... at least not the strong ones anyway."

Lorelei nodded glumly. "I suppose so... say, do you know of anyone who can teach me how to scare things easily?"

"I can think of a few people actually." Xellos replied, grinning.

"Alright! Sounds fun! Let's go!" Lorelei exclaimed

"Oh, you want to do that now? Hmm... Lord Beastmaster might get mad at us for slacking off... but our mission has hit a bit of a standstill anyway, so we really have nothing better to do! Come on, Lorelei!"

"Get! Out! Of! My! House!"

"Oh, but Filia, we're here on strictly educational purposes!" Xellos said teasingly.

"I don't care what purposes you have- you're not supposed to be in here anyway!" The dragon fumed, her yellow tail writhing in anger.

"But Miss Filia, I just want to learn the best way to scare people- humans in particular. Would you teach me? Please oh please!" Lorelei begged.

"You know I would never teach a monster like you anything!" Filia swung her mace toward the little monster, who nimbly dodged it with a giggle.

"But Filia! We LOVE you!" Lorelei enticed, teleporting behind the dragon to envelop her in a surprise hug.

Filia violently separated herself from the chuckling monster's grasp. "You idiot! Monsters can't love!"

"Oh yes they can!" Lorelei defended. "Just ask Zara!"

"Who is Zara?" Filia asked, confusedly.

"My bestest friend in the whole world." Lorelei replied haughtily. "Even though he's half human. I don't care. We're going to get married someday, but I don't think he knows it yet."

"Talk about 'ignorance is bliss..." Filia muttered, already feeling bad for the half-monster, whoever he was.

"You've just given me an idea, my dear." Xellos remarked to Lorelei.

"Oh? What's that?"

"Well, you want to scare humans, right? Well, who better to teach you about scaring humans than a human themselves? And which human do we know that knows a good deal about monsters? I'm sure that Zara's mentor might be willing to teach you a few things if get him to beg enough."

"Oh father, you're a genius!" Lorelei exclaimed. "That's what I'll do! Goodbye, Miss Filia! I'm off to learn some valuable lessons!" She teleported away.

Filia watched the little monster go with a sigh. "Don't you want to follow her? Make sure she doesn't get into any trouble?" Filia asked Xellos.

"Nah. She's fine on her own. I trust her. Besides, now it's just the two of us. Don't tell me you don't want to spend some alone time with Xellos, huh my dear Filia?" Xellos waved his finger tauntingly.

Filia's eye twitched. "GET! OUT! OF! MY! HOUSE!"

"Alright, so the principles of this spell are quite simple, though it takes quite a bit of effort to perfect the technique. You do remember all that I told you about the technique, right?" Lina was instructing Zara, trying to teach him as much as she could about the spells that she knew. She turned around. Zara had a baffled look on his face that reminded her of Gourry. "Were you paying attention to that lesson at all?" She asked, suddenly exasperated.

"Well... maybe a little..." Zara mumbled.

"You were sitting there making snowballs the whole time, weren't you?" Lina was not pleased. Just because they had travelled to a place that normally got snow in the winter months, didn't mean that they needed to slack off. "Gourry? Can you tell this kid about what he missed?" Lina asked, turning to her companion.

"Lina! Look! I built a snow fort!" Gourry exclaimed from behind a wall of compacted snow. "What do you think?"

"I think I'm going insane..." Lina muttered, shoving her face into her gloved palm. Usually Zara was good about paying attention to her lessons, but Gourry had often proved to be a distraction. An almost-four-year-old could pay attention better than that jellyfish-brain.

Suddenly, a shrill voice pierced through Lina's thoughts. "Hey there!"

Lina fell over, leaving her imprint in the snow. "L-Lorelei? What are you doing here? You scared me!" She yelled.

Lorelei seemed pleased. "Scared you? Really? I did? Why?"

"Why?" Lina was getting annoyed with the little monster. "Because you popped out of nowhere! That's why!"

"So appearing out of nowhere scares people?" Lorelei asked innocently.

"Yes! It does! Especially if you yell out like you did just now!"

Lorelei smiled brightly. "Wow! I'm learning things already! Father was right when he told me to get your help!"

Lina sneered. "So Xellos was behind this after all, huh? What do you want my help with exactly?"

Lorelei got down and looked up at Lina with big, tearful eyes. "Please, Lina Inverse, would you be so kind as to teach me how to scare humans?"

Lina was taken aback. "S-scaring humans? Why on earth would I teach you that, you despicable little monster?"

"Because!" Lorelei whined. "You're a human! And you know the most about monsters of any human that I know!"

"No! No! And I will say it again, NO!" Lina shot back. She did not like Lorelei, and was not happy about the prospect of teaching the monster anything. It was hard enough teaching things to Zara- someone that she actually liked.

Lorelei turned to Zara. "Help me." She whispered. Zara stepped forward and tugged on Lina's coat.

"Please, Lina?" He asked. Lina stiffened at the tone of his voice. She was not going to give in to him. She was not. She was not.

"Lina, pretty please will you help Lorelei? She's my best friend. Please?" Zara looked up at Lina with his eyes sparkling like always. Lina cringed. Curse this little boy and her weakness towards him.

"Well... alright. Sit down and I'll teach you what I know. Okay?" Lina pointed to Lorelei.

"Oh, thank you, Miss Lina Inverse!" Lorelei said happily.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Lina mumbled. And no matter how much she tried, she couldn't hate Zara for this. It was impossible. She could hate Lorelei, though, and the monster sensed it.

"Okay, the trick to scaring people is to appeal to their sense of danger. All fears are rooted into just one- and that is the fear of losing something important to you." Lina lectured.

Lorelei raised her hand. "I thought that all fears came from the fear of death."

"Your life counts as something important to you!" Lina shot back. "But it could also be losing an item that you treasure, or a person close to you. Right?"

"Oh. Right. I hadn't thought about it like that before." Lorelei responded. This lesson was proving to be insightful at the nature of fear indeed.

"Now, I think that the first thing to learn would be to appeal to the body's natural alarm system. Like the way you snuck up on me earlier. Remember?"

"Yeah, I remember." Lorelei said.

"So, the main thing in this case is to take your enemy by surprise. You've got to be unexpected, or they won't be sufficiently frightened. Got it?"

"Yes ma'am!" Lorelei replied.

"Alright, I have an assignment for you." Lina said. "See the tall, blonde guy over there?" She pointed to Gourry, who was still working on his snow fort.

"Yeah, the jellyfish-brain?" Lorelei asked.

"I TOLD YOU NOT TO CALL HIM THAT!" Lina nearly strangled Lorelei. "Anyway, I need you to sneak up on him and try to scare him. Do you think you can do that?"

"Got it!" Lorelei replied. She quickly materialised her staff and disappeared. Lina grinned. She had a feeling that she knew what was going to happen.

Gourry was paying no attention to what Lina and Zara were doing, (it was doubtful that he had even noticed Lorelei's appearance.)

Suddenly, Lorelei appeared behind him with a loud shriek, wielding her staff in an attempt to catch him off guard. But Gourry's quick reflexes took over and,

KLINK!

"Wha-wha-wha-whaaaat?" Lorelei gasped, seeing Gourry with his sword drawn and easily blocking her feigned attack. There was no fear in his eyes, only determination, which suddenly turned into confusion.

"Huh? Lorelli? Where did you come from? What are you doing?" He asked, forgetting the monster's name.

"Th-the name is Lorelei... and... HOW DID YOU DO THAT?" She demanded.

"Do what?" Gourry asked.

"Th-the sword! So fast! You weren't even scared!" She stumbled. Suddenly, she head the sound of laughter behind her.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA~! Oh, Gourry, that was GREAT! Perfect! I loved it!" Lina exclaimed.

"M-Miss Lina Inverse!" Lorelei gasped. "What do you mean?"

"That was a test. And you failed. Miserably." Lina said back.

"Wh-what?" Lorelei was taken aback.

"You see, just like fighting styles, different ways of scaring people won't work on everyone. You have to know your enemy before doing anything. In this case, you tried to sneak up on Gourry- he may be a bit slow in the brains department, but he has killer reflexes. In other words, it's nearly impossible to sneak up on him. Do you understand why you failed?" Lina asked.

"That was cruel!" Lorelei spat. Lina just laughed.

The little monster turned to Zara. "Well, what's the most scary thing you know of, Zara? And don't say bad monsters, 'cause I know that's what you're going to say."

"Um..." Zara thought for a moment. "Probably Lina when she's angry." He answered.

Lorelei burst out laughing. "Lina Inverse when she's angry? Is she really that scary? Oh, that's priceless!"

"WHAT DID YOU SAY YOU DESPICABLE LITTLE MONSTER?" Lina snarled, her eyes flaming. Lorelei gasped, and backed away quickly.

"Oh crap, you're right! That is scary!" She turned around. "What about the dumb blonde over there? Hey! You!"

Gourry looked at her. "What is it?"

"I want to know what you're afraid of." Lorelei responded. Zara nodded. He was also interested.

"What am I afraid of? Let's see..." Gourry thought for a moment. "A lot of things, actually."

"Like what?" Lorelei asked. Monsters always loved hearing people talk about their fears.

"I guess... something happening to Lina... running out of food... something happening to Lina... my sword getting broken... something happening to Lina..."

"Ow! ow~! Okay, stop it! You're giving me a headache!" Lorelei groaned, clutching her head painfully. "That's not fear, it's love!"

"Oh. Sorry." Gourry apologised. "Is that bad?"

"YES! IT HURTS!" Lorelei shot back. "Anyway, what are you afraid of, Lina Inverse?"

"Who, me? I'm not afraid of anything. Lina Inverse has no fear." Lina replied coolly.

Lorelei frowned. "Well, there must be something that you're afraid of. Let's see... oh! Now I remember! Zara! Quickly! Help me find some gastropods!"

"Wh-what? No!" Lina shot behind Gourry, clutching his arm defensively. "Don't you dare bring those things into this!"

"Uh, Lorelei? Judging by the current atmospheric conditions, I'd say that the chance that there would be active gastropods in this area is very slim." Zara said.

"Oh, darn it. I was hoping to scare Lina Inverse again." Lorelei pouted.

"Now look here you little monster! I am not going to just go along with whatever you want! I already taught you a whole bunch already, so why don't you just scram! Get out of here!" Lina yelled.

"You know what? I think I will!" Lorelei shouted angrily. "After all, you're just trying to trick me anyway!" The monster turned around to Zara and gave him a quick hug. "See you later, Zara!" She said brightly, jumping up and disappearing.

"Bye-bye, Lorelei!" Zara called.

"Honestly, that stupid monster..." Lina groaned.

"Uh, Lina? Were you planning on letting go of my arm anytime soon?" Gourry asked.

"Ah! Sorry!" Lina snapped her hands away.

"I didn't... I was just saying..." Gourry began, but didn't finish his sentence.

"So, what do we do now? It's getting dark." Lina observed.

"Well, we're pretty far away from the nearest town. What do you say we camp out here for the night?" Gourry suggested.

"Ugh! No way! I hate camping in the snow! Too cold!" Lina exclaimed, kicking a pile of snow into the air. "You know I hate cold weather! Let's try getting to the nearest town!"

"Well, okay, but only if you don't mind walking another eight hours, and then having to go to the trouble of trying to find a place to stay at 1:00 in the morning, and..."

Lina set her belongings down on the ground with a thud. "I hate it when you make sense." She muttered to Gourry.

They began to set up camp, clearing an area of the snow, and building a fire with the firewood that they carried with them. It didn't take them long to cook dinner- and even less time to eat it. It was dark, and the group was tired as they sat around the campfire, trying to keep warm.

"I am so done with winter!" Lina complained. "Starting tomorrow, we are heading for somewhere tropical. I can't take much more of this!"

"Really? I kind of like playing in the snow. It's fun." Gourry said.

"Yeah, me too!" Zara agreed.

"Why do I get the feeling that you both want me to freeze to death?" Lina asked.

"Aw, come on, Lina! You know we wouldn't want that!" Gourry said teasingly.

"Yeah! Who would teach me magic stuff?" Zara asked.

Lina glared at the two of them. "Whatever. Come here, Zara."

The child obeyed, coming to Lina's side. She picked him up, and carried him over to where Gourry was sitting. Lina sat down beside the swordsman. "H-hey, what are you doing?" Gourry asked.

"You two are going to keep me warm. I'm cold." Lina said back, pulling herself closer.

Zara hugged Lina tightly, and Gourry put his arm around her. He was surprised that she didn't even flinch. "I thought you didn't like this sort of thing." He observed.

"I don't." Lina replied sternly. "But I like being cold even less."

Gourry laughed. "Oh Lina, what are we going to do with you?"

"You're going to keep me from freezing to death! That's what you're going to do! Now shut up!" Lina shouted back.

Zara didn't usually sleep that much. As a monster, he didn't need to- he was usually quite happy with Lina and Gourry, and the positive emotions kept his energy up. So usually at night he would simply lie there and look up at the stars, thinking about all the things that had happened that day. This particular night, he was quite happy, since the clear sky gave him an excellent view of the millions of stars above them. The three people had combined their sleeping bags, along with a large blanket, and Zara was in the middle with Lina on one side and Gourry on the other. The boy was drifting contentedly in an almost meditative state, until a voice broke him out of it.

"Hey! Hey, Zara! Are you awake?" The voice whispered.

"Lorelei?" Zara asked, sitting up carefully so as not to disturb Lina or Gourry.

"Yeah, it's me." She replied, making herself visible. "You're not going to sleep, are you?"

"No, I'm not tired." Zara replied.

"Good. There's something I want to show you." The monster said.

"What? What do you mean?"

"Well, night-time is the best time for exploring." Lorelei replied.

"Really? I didn't know that. I always thought that night was for sleeping." Zara said innocently.

Lorelei scoffed. "For humans, maybe. But we are monsters, after all. We can do whatever we want at night!"

"So where do you want to go?"

"Somewhere special- follow me!" Lorelei motioned for Zara to follow her as she walked in one direction.

Zara got up carefully, so as not to disturb Lina and Gourry. He made sure that the two were close to each other, so that it was less likely that they'd notice his absence before he returned. It was still very cold, though Zara wasn't as bothered by the temperature as a normal human would be. Lorelei was still in her short-sleeves, indicating that the cold weather didn't bother her one bit.

"Come on! It'll be quicker if we fly there!" Lorelei called from the air.

"Right! Levitation!" Zara said, joining Lorelei in the air. He hadn't quite gotten enough power to work the Ray Wing spell on his own yet. "So, where are we going?" He asked as they flew.

"It's an old building that was made by humans, but it's abandoned now, and ghosts inhabit it. At least, that's what the rumours say. And I wanted to check on the credibility of the rumours." Lorelei answered.

"A haunted house, huh? That sounds cool! I hope we see a real ghost!" Zara said grinning.

"We probably won't. I'm not sure about the rumour- it's probably not true. But we can still have some fun exploring the place. Oh! Look! There it is!"

Lorelei pointed as a large building came into view. Zara noticed that it was much too large to be a house- it must have served some other purpose. The two landed on the ground in front of the doors of the decrepit building. "Do we just go straight in?" Zara asked.

"Sure thing." Lorelei said. She was looking forward to having to blast the doors in, but Zara opened them without any trouble. They walked inside, their footsteps echoing on the marble floor. "Whoa! This place is like a palace!" Lorelei gasped.

"I think that it used to be a theatre." Zara replied, looking around.

"Well, I don't see any ghosts." Lorelei observed. "So let's get exploring! This is so exciting!"

The pair looked around, and found a series of rooms behind the stage. They went into one, which had a large amount of boxes and wardrobes. The walls were lined with mirrors, though many of them were broken.

"This must have been the costume room. Look at all this stuff." Lorelei said, studying the room.

"Hey, look at this!" Zara pulled a hat out of one of the boxes. It was blue, with a large brim and a billowy white feather attached to it. He put it on his head, though it was a bit too big for him and sunk down almost covering his eyes. Pushing the hat up further, he asked, "What do you think? Does it look good?"

"Heck yeah!" Lorelei replied. "This looks like fun! Let's play dress-up!"

The two went around the room, trying on various articles of clothing. Lorelei dematerialised her wings for the moment, as the dresses and other garments were not made for someone who was part bird. After quite a while of playing around with the costumes, Zara had on the blue hat with the feather, along with a black cape that was long enough to pool on the floor around his feet. He held out a foam sword, as if he was actually going to hurt someone with it, though it would never be strong enough to actually do damage to anything. Lorelei was wearing a long pink dress over her regular clothing, and held a matching parasol over her head dramatically. "We look amazing!" She exclaimed. "Fit for the stage! Come on, let's go!" She rushed out to where the stage was.

"Hey, wait for me!" Zara called. He followed his friend out onto the stage, where some assorted props lay, abandoned.

"Look! A balcony!" Lorelei pointed to the structure on the stage, which had obviously been set up for some sort of romantic play. "Oh, let's do the balcony scene! I'll be Juliet!" She exclaimed, using her wings again to fly up to the balcony. Zara watched her in confusion.

Lorelei stood on the balcony with her parasol, dramatically pretending to be Juliet. She sat on the railing of the balcony, looking down at Zara. "Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?" She stared at him, waiting for some sort of response. Zara looked up at the monster with Gourry's famous expression, little question marks popping out around his head.

"Lorelei, what are you doing?"

Lorelei groaned. "No! No! You're supposed to say 'Soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!"

"What does that mean?" Zara questioned, still looking puzzled. Lorelei banged her head on the railing of the balcony.

"Kids these days... no respect for literature..." She sighed. Flying down to meet her friend, she put a hand on his shoulder. "Sorry. Don't worry about it. Now, do you know any stories that we could act out?"

"Stories?" Zara asked. "I know a lot about Lina blowing up stuff..."

"No, no! I mean like Fairy Tales!" Lorelei said.

"Oh, well, Amelia once read me this one about a prince who got turned into a frog, and then a princess came along and changed him back..."

"Oh! The Frog Prince! That has kissing in it, right?" Lorelei blushed. "Yeah! Let's do that one!"

Zara didn't notice Lorelei's face; he was looking off in a different direction.

"Alright, you can be the prince, and I'll be the princess. Now, if I remember correctly, the story starts off... Zara? Are you paying attention?" Lorelei looked at her friend who didn't seem to be paying any mind to what she was saying.

"Do you hear music?" He asked.

Lorelei listened with her sensitive ears. Sure enough, there was a sweet melody floating through the theatre. "Where is it coming from?" She asked hesitantly.

"I don't know, but we should find out. It could be a ghost!" Zara exclaimed, running off to follow the sound.

"W-wait for me! Hey!" Lorelei ran after him, following the haunting sound of the melody.

It was still very dark when Lina began to open her eyes. The first thing she noticed was not the absence of a little boy, but the fact that her face was right next to Gourry's. "Aah!" She sat up quickly, blushing, but suddenly realised how cold it was. Lina dove back under the blanket, shivering, not caring how close she was to the swordsman as long as she wasn't cold.

"Lina? Huh?" Gourry began to wake up. "What's the matter?"

"I'm still freezing!" She exclaimed.

"Well, I can see that. But where is Zara?"

Lina looked around. She hadn't noticed him gone, and was scolding herself for it. "I don't know where he is. He wasn't here when I woke up."

"Where did he go? Zara?" Gourry called for the little boy, but no answer came.

"Did he run off somewhere?" Lina asked, beginning to get rather concerned.

"He could have." Gourry replied. "Though I don't know where he would go."

"Me neither, unless..." Lina's voice trailed off as she thought.

"Excuse me. I'm sorry to interrupt, but I need to ask you something." A voice called from behind them.

The two of them turned around. Lina blushed and moved a few inches away from Gourry. "Xellos!" She stammered. "This isn't... it's not..."

"What are you talking about? I wanted to ask you about Lorelei. Have you seen her lately?" Xellos asked.

"What? You mean the girl with bird wings? She was here this afternoon." Gourry answered.

"Yes, I know that. She told me that you were able to defend against her surprise attack, and that you gave her a headache. That's quite impressive, especially for you, Mister Gourry." Xellos said.

"What do you mean, 'especially for him?" Lina asked angrily. If anyone was going to insult Gourry, it was going to be her, not some monster.

"Ah, but that's not the point. She disappeared a little while ago, and I thought that maybe she came here. Have you seen Lorelei around lately, as in the last few minutes? Or have you been too... busy?" Xellos asked, suspiciously.

"W-we just woke up like a minute ago!" Lina defended. "And anyway, we can't seem to find Zara, and he's the only one that Lorelei would come to visit..." Her voice trailed off as she took in the situation. "Oh, crap, no!"

"What's wrong, Lina?" Gourry asked.

"You idiot! Lorelei must have taken Zara somewhere!" Lina replied, hitting Gourry over the head.

"Taken? You make it sound like my Lorelei is a kidnapper. What makes you think that he didn't go with her out of free will?" Xellos asked. "They are best friends, right?"

Lina didn't want to admit it, but Xellos had a point. "But where would they go?" Gourry asked.

"Well, I have a hunch as to where Lorelei might have decided to go, but..." Xellos' voice trailed off.

"But what?" Lina growled.

"Well, it's an old theatre that is supposedly haunted. Lorelei wanted to check it out to see if the rumours of ghosts were true, but I kept her away. You see, that theatre is actually possessed by a large group of demons. That's why it was abandoned by humans. They take the forms of ghosts to trick people who wander into the house, but they are vicious and bloodthirsty, and would have no reservations about attacking a pair of children- even if they were monster children." Xellos explained.

Lina stood up, ignoring the cold. Her rage at Xellos was enough to keep her warm. "You mean that, because of your little monster friend, my son could be in danger?"

"Uh oh." Gourry said to Xellos. "She just called Zara her son. That means that you are in some big trouble."

"What?" Xellos asked, but was cut off when Lina began strangling him. "Ah! Ow! Can't... breathe..." He groaned.

"You're a monster! You don't need to breathe!" Lina accused,

"Oh, yes." Xellos replied. "But could you please let me go? I can help you find them. I was going to go help Lorelei, after all."

Lina let go of Xellos. "You'd better help me find my kid. And he'd better not have so much as a scratch on him, or you are going to be very, very sorry!"

"Right, right." Xellos replied, knowing that he could not promise anything. "The theatre is this way." He directed, flying.

"Ray Wing!" Lina shouted, and joined Xellos in the air.

"Hey! What about me?" Gourry called.

"Stay here and hold down your little snow-fortress-thing. We'll be back soon!" Lina replied.

Gourry watched the two fly away. "Why do I always get left behind?" He sighed.

"This must have been the music room. Look at all the instruments." Lorelei observed, as they entered the place that seemed to be the source of the music. A large grand piano sat at the far end of the room, surrounded by other instruments and music stands. The music, however, seemed just to be coming from the piano.

"No one is playing it." Zara observed. "Do you think it's a ghost?"

"It could just be an enchanted piano." Lorelei said.

"But I don't feel any magical power coming from it." Zara replied. "But I do feel an evil presence..." Suddenly, all the instruments in the room seemed to come to life. A trumpet flew forward in an attempt to hit Zara and Lorelei, but they quickly dodged. "The instruments! They're attacking us!" Zara shrieked.

"Get down!" Lorelei yelled, ducking out of the path of a clarinet. "Hey, it's not all that bad. At least we're not being attacked with a tuba, or a bass."

Suddenly, all the instrument cases around the room opened, and the instruments began flying around, directed at the two kids in the room. "Me and my big mouth!" Lorelei groaned as she dodged frantically. She pulled out her staff and held it defensively, fending off the instruments.

"If I only had a sword..." Zara said. Suddenly he got an idea. He shot a small Fireball at a violin, causing the main instrument to burst into flames. Grabbing the bow and holding it the way Gourry had taught him, he managed for fend off some more of the instruments.

"Great thinking!" Lorelei congratulated.

"Thanks!" Zara replied, striking at the instruments once more.

Seeing themselves outmatched in that form, the dark presences retreated from the instruments, leaving them lying on the floor. Instead, the dark figures lunged for the little boy and girl.

"Those aren't ghosts, they're demons!" Lorelei gasped.

"What do we do?" Zara asked.

"There's only one thing to do." Lorelei replied. "We will scream. Very loudly. While running for our lives."

"Okay." Zara nodded.

"~!" The two ran as fast as they could out of the room, but the dark forms were faster than they were and followed closely behind.

"They're catching up!" Lorelei yelled.

"Wait, can't we fly?" Zara asked.

"Oh. Yeah. That's right. I forgot." Lorelei said, feeling stupid.

"Levitation!" Zara called as he flew to keep up with Lorelei. "So what's our plan now?"

"We'll lead them back to the stage! They'll be easier to fight in a larger space!" Lorelei responded.

"Alright then, let's go!"

The two kids stood on the stage, just underneath the balcony that they had been using as a playground just earlier. Now it seemed more like a shelter, but the presence was also unnerving, as they nearly had their backs against the wall.

"We have to attack them!" Lorelei shouted.

"But there's so many!" Zara cried, beginning to panic.

"Calm down! If we just work together to combine our powers, we can make this work! My shadow magic doesn't really seem to affect them that much, but if you were to combine your fire magic with it, it might be useful to defeat those things." Lorelei strategized. "Do you think you can do that?"

"I'll try." Zara replied, but he wasn't sure that his magical abilities had improved enough to work very well against the demons that they were facing. "Fireball!"

Unfortunately, even with Lina's training, Zara's Fireballs were still quite lacking in power. They were now larger than the few sparks that he could create before, but still not powerful enough to affect the demons that the two were facing.

"Great! You can't even make a working Fireball! Now what are we supposed to do?" Lorelei gasped. The figures grew steadily closer, preparing for their attack. "Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!" Zara was shouting, but to no avail. The demons lunged at the two of them with an attack, but suddenly,

BOOM!

The demons were blasted backwards with an enormously powerful Fireball. "Z-Zara!" Lorelei gasped, seeing the damage. "You did it!"

"That wasn't me!" Zara replied anxiously.

"Then who was it?" Lorelei asked. Suddenly, a voice called out from the other side of the theatre.

"Hey! You two! Stand back! I'm gonna blast those demons into dust!"

Zara's eyes sparkled. "Lina!" He called.

"Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows...

...so on and so forth...

DRAGON SLAVE!"

Lina's explosion nearly blew up the entire theatre. The ceiling began to cave in, but Xellos created a protective barrier around the group so that they weren't harmed by it. Standing amidst the rubble, Zara and Lorelei looked around. The night sky and the stars were now visible through the roof, and there were no more demons left.

Zara and Lorelei looked up gratefully with sparkling eyes at the people who had come to their rescue.

"Father!"

"Lina!"

THUD!

THWAK!

Xellos gently tapped Lorelei on the head with his staff, while Lina gave Zara a hard- well, not too hard- whack over the head with a slipper.

"That was quite naughty of you to run off without telling me your whereabouts. Lord Beastmaster will be disappointed with you for sure." Xellos chided.

"You little idiot! How dare you sneak off like that! Do you realise how serious that is? You could have gotten killed!" Lina yelled.

"S-sorry..." Zara and Lorelei both replied at the same time.

"Well, it seems that neither of them are hurt. In fact, I like the costumes. They're quite interesting." Xellos laughed. "So, shall we go?" He pulled Lorelei to his side.

"You just be sure to keep that thing away from my kid!" Lina sneered, sending a pointed glare at Lorelei, emphasising the word 'thing.'

Lorelei glared back, but didn't say anything. She just turned to Zara. "Bye, Zara! See you again soon!" The monster sent a glare at Lina on the word 'soon.'

"Okay then! Goodbye for now!" Xellos said, hurriedly getting himself and Lorelei out of the area.

Lina sighed. "Alright Zara, you ready to go back now? I'm sure that Gourry is worried about you too."

"Yeah, let's go back." The little boy agreed, smiling. Lina cast a Ray Wing, and began to head back to their campsite, carrying Zara.

"Lorelei?"

"Yes, father?" Lorelei asked, apprehensively. She hated it when her father was upset with her.

"I just wanted to say one thing about what happened tonight."

"Y-yes...?"

Xellos smiled mischievously at his companion. "Nice work."

"H-huh?" Lorelei was surprised. "What do you mean?"

"Well, Lina would have gotten quite angry with us if I had not properly scolded you, not that you didn't deserve a bit of it for making us worry. But I was impressed by the chaos you caused. It was wonderful! If anything, I think that Lord Beastmaster would be proud."

Lorelei's eyes sparkled. "R-really? Oh, thank you!" She hugged Xellos tightly. He blushed.

"Yes, well, just let me know where you're going before you leave to go somewhere. That way I don't have to make guesses like this time. Deal?"

"Deal!" Lorelei agreed. "Oh, won't Miss Filia be excited to hear this story the next time we visit her!"

"Who says we can't visit now?"

"But won't she be asleep?"

"We could wake her up."

Lorelei and Xellos both laughed. "Sounds like a good plan to me!" Lorelei exclaimed, and the two disappeared to disturb poor Filia again.

"Zara?"

"Huh? What is it, Lina?" Zara asked.

"I just wanted to ask something. You do know the reason that I was so angry with you, don't you?"

"It's 'cause I did a bad thing, right?"

"No, not really." Lina replied. "It was because you did a dangerous thing. I don't want you to get hurt. I care about you, and get worried when you're in danger. So don't do dangerous stuff like that, okay?"

"Okay. I promise, I won't." He replied, hugging Lina. The two finally reached the campsite and landed safely on the ground. Lina looked around.

"Gourry? Hey, Gourry, where are you?"

"Huh? Lina? Zara? Oh, I'm over here! I protected the fortress, just like you told me to!" Gourry poked his head above the walls of packed snow. "See?"

"Oh. my. gosh. Are you really that stupid?" Lina asked incredulously.

"What do you mean?" He asked. Lina threw a snowball back at him.

"I wasn't being serious! Not get back in bed! It'll be morning soon, and we've got a lot of sleep to catch up on, thanks to that stupid Lorelei!" Lina yelled.

Once the three were settled back the way they had been, Lina and Gourry began to drift off to sleep.

"G'night again." Lina murmured.

"Don't worry. Tomorrow's another day." Gourry replied.

"I swear, if tomorrow is anything like today, or yesterday, or the day before, then..." Lina seemed to think over what she was saying. "Nah, never mind. I don't think that I would change any of it. No matter how annoying those monsters can get."

"I agree, Lina." Zara replied, hugging her. "G'night."

~End~

(A/N: I feel kind of bad for Lorelei. She tries to be somewhat romantic, but Zara's too young to really understand, so she just ends up failing at it. Poor girl.

Yes, this is the end of the story! *sniff* Thanks so much to everyone who read the whole thing! I had so much fun writing it! :3)