An original Slayers Fan-fic written By Alina
Standard Disclaimer: I don't own Slayers or its Characters (darn), so these characters are copyrighted by someone else. This is for fun only, not profit, though the story itself is mine, I make no claim to the charcters. ******************************** Contact me at : alinasan@yahoo.com Other Disclaimers:
I haven't seen all of Slayers yet, and I'll I'd seen is the dubbed version when I wrote this. So I set this story
in between Episode 16 & 17 when Lina & Company are on their wayto Sairaag. Also, I'll be using "dubbed" spelling,and interpretations. But it should be an enjoyable little romp. If you like this, please please please write me to tell me! ***************************************
Quest! "PICK UP THE POT OF PLENTY"
***************************************

A cool breeze swept across the sparsely covered landscape carrying with it the gentle scents of spring. The small creatures of the desert nestled in that perfect morning, relaxing in the sweet hushed harmony and enjoying the shade of the few growing things around them.

That is, until a scream whipped through the air, stirring the
trees and sending small animals whimpering for cover.

"AHHHHH I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOO HUNGRY!!!!!!" Lina wailed, her hands clutched over
her stomach. "We're miles from any town, stuck in a desert and we don't have
anything to eat!"

"Say, Lina, why are we in the desert?" Gourry asked, heedless of the look in
the red eyes of his irate companion. "Let's go back to that town and get
something to eat!"

"What town?! We haven't seen a town in two days!" She said, punctuating her
point with a punch to his midsection. "If we weren't lost, we could find a
town!!"

"Uh, Miss Lina?" Amelia ventured softly. "Weren't you the one with the directions?"

Lina's face creased into a storm of fury as she whirled towards Amelia. The
younger sorceress skipped back, her face cringing.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Lina yelled.

"Nothing!" Amelia replied, shutting her eyes and stepping just out of Lina's grasp.

Lina took a step, but then her anger subsided as her hunger pangs
overpowered her. Her eyes sunk a bit, as her whole body seemed to shrink into
itself. "Oh! I can't take it any more...who cares about Sairaag? I just
want to EAT! Why can't a girl get a decent meal anymore!"

"Uh, Lina, we just *had* a decent meal with those Theatre
folk!" Gourry said cheerfully "Let's go back there!"

Amelia and Lina turned to stare at him, their faces astonished
by his suggestion.

"Did you forget what happened already?" Lina asked slowly.

"Mr. Gourry, we were attacked by Zangulus and Vrumugun and the
whole theatre was destroyed!!" Amelia exclaimed in a rush.

"Oh yeah...heh heh...." Gourry said laughing. "Well, the food *was* good!" He
smiled, and then wondered why the two women looked about to collapse.

"Oh what are we going to do...." Lina groaned. Suddenly
her head perked up. Gourry mimicked her a second later.

"Is something the matter Miss Lina?" Amelia said. Her head
spun from side to side, as a slight wind fluttered
her cape "Miss Lina? Mr. Gourry? Where did you go!!"

Following the cloud of dust raised by her companions haste,
Amelia walked a short distance to where a man sat watching
Lina and Gourry shovel stew into their faces.

"Amelia muble, slurp slurp Stew slurp slurp here" Lina mumbled around her food.

"Ah! Young miss, you too are welcome to share my food." The old man smiled,
and took out a bowl and leaned over the huge pot. "I was making enough for a
week,so I have more than enough to spare and share---" He stopped short and
the bowl dropped into the pot. A clanging sound rang out as the bowl hit the
empty metal of the dish.

"I'm afraid your companions have consumed it all!" He whined. "I didn't even
have any!"

"Well, it did need more salt!" Lina sighed contentedly. "You can
remember that when you make the next batch. But enough talk, you ready
Gourry?!" She stood. "Come on Amelia, let's get to Sairaag."

"Why you!" Swore the old man as he sputtered looking from his missing meal to
the departing figures. "What did you think this was? The Pot of Plenty? Come
back here!"

"Thanks again!" Lina called with a wink over her shoulder. She stopped
suddenly and whipped around. "A Pot of Plenty? What do you know of one?"

" Hmmmph" The Old man grunted.

"What's that Lina?" Gourry asked.

"An old legend, of a mystical pot that always stays full with whatever you put
in it! They say the ancient God of Light used this pot to save the ancient
desert city of Kordool from starvation...But most people do not even
remember the legend, let alone where to find the City...They say that when the
city was destroyed, the Pot was buried with it! Just think if we had
the Pot of Plenty!" She sighed, her eyes growing large and soft as she dreamed
of how life would be. Hazily she formed the picture of a large castle, heaps
of gold, servants, and never ending piles of food all springing
from the pot.

"The Pot of Plenty...." Gourry sighed as well, his eyes also tracing an unseen
dream. That is, they grew slightly larger and more vacant, until he turned
to Lina. "Yeah, but why would we want something like that?!"

Lina groaned and pushed him away.

"How do you know of the legend?!" Lina asked pointing a finger at the
departing figure of the old man. "You're from Kordool aren't you?"

He turned around, his monkey like face more twisted with anger.

"Leave me alone!" He complained. "Haven't you done enough to me
already!" He began to turn to leave.

"Oh no!" Lina said, as she concentrated "Fireball!"
A small sphere of fire shot out and smashed into the
ground beside the old man, who began to jump to get the
flames out of his tunic.

"Hey, that's hot!" He whined.

"So you were saying, about Kordool? I thought I
recognized your accent!" Lina's eyes gleamed with the hint
of an unspelled flare arrow.

The old man noticed that, and sighed. "I never lived there, but my great grandfather did
...the legend of the cursed Kordool Pot has been
handed down generation to generation.." The old man said.
"Its just an expression now for someone who eats too much!"

"HEY!" Lina shouted. "Flare Arrow!"

The attack smashed beside the man who jumped.

"Cursed?! I thought the God of Light gave those to
save the city!" Amelia asked, distracting Lina's attention.

"Ah, young Miss...so the legend goes. But my ancestors found
that the Pot itself was cursed when used by humans.
After the famine ended, people began to fight for possession
of it, to be able to make whatever they wanted.
People began to misuse the pot, until the city
was destroyed. No one knows what became of
the Pot. I don't think you'll find anything there."

"No one ever looked! The way I heard it, everyone was
so convinced the Pot was cursed, they decided to let it
stay buried....but if I could find the City, I could
find the Pot!" Lina declared. "You've got to
tell us where it is."

"I'm the last of Kordoolial descendent..." The old
man said, sitting down. "My ancient heritage sadly
fades with every wrinkle on this old head, every lost white hair...."

"Get to the point!" Lina ordered. "Is it around here or what!"

"I was on a pilgrimage to the ancient city." The old man continued. "It is in
that valley just between those hills. But there is nothing left! It is a
sacred spot and you must not disturb it!"

"No problem, pops!" Lina winked. "Thanks again! Ok,
let's get to that valley!"

The three adventurers sped off down the road, as the
old man frantically waived his hands. "But wait,
I didn't tell you about the curse! If you do
find it....you have to be careful, because whatever
you first put in it, is what you're stuck with!"

***************

"There, this *must* be it!" Lina announced as they climbed
over a rock and stood facing the valley. Gourry sighed and
sat down at the foot of the rock. Despite the arid land
through which they'd been travelling, they found themselves
staring at an Oasis of lush green vegetation.

"Wow its so beautiful!" Amelia exclaimed as she perched on
the rock. Below them a stream meandered through a field of
flowers, as huge tufts of grass whispered to themselves. Large
palm trees dotted the landscape here and there.

"Enough admiring the scenery, let's find that pot!" Lina ordered.

"I thought you said the city was in a desert?" Amelia asked
as her small face contorted in confusion.

"Things change over time, Amelia." Lina replied. "But this is where the old
man said to go. We're just wasting time up here--lets go!"

The three ran down the steep slope into the heart of the
beautiful valley. "Ok, now we've just got to locate
some of the signs of the ancient city, and then maybe we
can start to see where this Pot is!" Lina said.

"But, Miss Lina, however are you going to find it here--
this is a pretty big area!" Amelia complained.

"Then we'll just have to split up and search!" Lina
declared. "Besides, its a magical item...I should
be able to sense its exact location if I try hard enough."

"How do you know its even still here, Lina?" Gourry asked confused.

Lina ignored him, as she concentrated feeling for the magic.

"Uh, Miss Lina?" Amelia gasped.

"Not now, Amelia. I'm concentrating." Lina admonished her
young friend. She shut her eyes tight, trying to feel
the tingle of magic in the surroundings. To her surprise
she felt a tangled skein of magic threads, as if everything
around her was made of magic.

In fact, something rather large was emanating much magic
just to her--She smelled something foul and looked up
as Amelia shrieked her name again.

A huge monster with shaggy hair covering a wide body,and a long trunk enhanced
with sharp teeth poised to strike, stood in front of her.

She didn't even have time for a fireball, she realized.

A flash of white light swung through her vision, as a curtain of silky blond
hair washed over her. The motion sent her falling, landing
smack down on her backside.

"Got it!" Gourry cheered, as he squatted down to stare at the beast.
It's trunk lay squirming on the ground a few feet from the rest of
its body, a dark stain soaking the brown fur covering its surface.

Gourry leaned over a bit more to examine his handiwork.
This brought his rear end directly in front of Lina's face. The
dark red of embarrasment mixed with anger spread across her face.

"DO YOU MIND!?" Lina yelled shoving him forward and onto the
monster.

"HEY!!!!" Gourry yelled as he scrambled off the furry beast.
"What was that for!?" His head swivelled down scanning his clothes
that luckily remained unstained.

Lina didn't answer him, but looked over at the creature.

"What is it, Miss Lina?!" Amelia asked.

"A Wolphephant." She replied. "A magical creature so dangerous
that only the most experienced wizards dare summon one..."

"Oh!" Amelia exclaimed. "Its so hideous!" She shivered. "
Who would make that? It's so UGLY!" She whined.

"But very tasty!" Lina declared smiling. "They're considered
quite a delicacy..and from the looks of it, there have been
plenty of these things wandering around here!" She
pointed to a field of bones on the other side of the stream, near a cave.

"You mean there are *more*!" Amelia cringed, the soft hairs
on her skin rising up as she shivered. "I don't want to fight that thing!"

"Seems like that was the last one...the others would have
attacked by now. They usually keep in close packs." Lina
explained. "So there's nothing to worry about!" She winked
"Except how we want to cook dinner!"

"EEEEEK" Amelia shrieked as she narrowly dodged out of the
way of a huge snake. "Flame Arrow" As the attack hit,
the creature blew into a few dozen pieces.

"AMELIA!" Lina scowled. "Why did you do that!? That's a
Drum-snake. If you hadn't blown it to pieces like that we could
have eaten that too!"

"But it was gonna eat me!" Amelia responded.

"AYYYYYHA" Gourry grunted as he swung his sword into the
heart of another strange creature. "Take THAT!"

"Gourry! What did you do that for!?" Lina asked
turning around "That was just a Crog...they make good
pets, but you can't eat them. They're really good
at fishing though...." She sighed and looked at the
small furry frog looking creature. "See, it was
just gathering a mound of fish." She pointed
to the small pile next to the slain creature.

"Uh, sorry, guess I got carried away!" Gourry shrugged.
"I figured it was something else we could eat!"

"Why are there so many of these creepy things?" Amelia asked,
still visibly shaken from the unnatural animals around her.

"I think this could be the work of the Pot of Plenty.
Perhaps the Kordoolians decided to reproduce whole creatures
rather than processed foods...After all, legends say that
the Kordoolians fought over what to put inside the Pot. They must
have experimented with several different creatures."

"And things...Miss Lina, look at all this gold!" Amelia
called pointing to a huge mound of gold pieces all exactly
alike.

"GOLD? GOLD?!" Lina's eyes became dangerously wide, as she
and Gourry turned and ran towards the piles. Lina began
to dive into it, until she stopped short with an "OUCH."

"All this treasure!"She sang, grabbing fistfuls of it. The
gold danced in her red eyes, as her hair swung over the gold.

Gourry paused for a second, his eyes locked in either horror
or admiration, or both, of the picture Lina made caressing the gold.

"Lina, how do you expect to carry it away? There is
just too much of it!" Amelia asked, as she tried to get Lina's
attention. "Besides, shouldn't we leave this gold for the Kordoolian people?!"

"What Kordoolian people? That old man was the last one,
and besides, there is nothing wrong with taking piles of
gold that are left unguarded!"

"There isn't?" Amelia scrunched her eyebrows down, as the
inflection in her whine grew. She didn't really believe
Lina, but then, she wanted to trust her because she wanted to be
her friend. At least, Amelia sighed, she believed that somewhere
deep down (well hidden and very deep down) that Lina was, if not a good
person, at least not a truly evil one. Maybe if Amelia tried, she could
bring Lina to the ways of Justice by her own example--surely
a grander task she could not imagine. She had to convince
Lina that the gold had to stay in the Valley. "But..." She started
again, pausing to think of just the right line of argument.
Noble reasons rushed through her, swelling her with the passion
of the cause of justice. She knew she was right, and that
once she spoke, she'd convince Lina! "BUT--" She stopped.

She suddenly realized her companions were already leaving the valley.

"Hey wait...put that back!" She shouted as she started after them. She
ran, suddenly stumbling in the cold waters of the stream.

"NO ....Way" Lina managed between short breaths. "I'm not stopping!"

"But...but...what about the Pot!?" Amelia said resorting to another
tactic than the to get them to stop.

Lina halted, for half a second.
"With this much gold, who *cares* about the pot!?" Lina shouted
over a bag of gold on her shoulder. "Just a little farther..."She
grunted and kept moving. "Come on Amelia."

"I am...but...Oh no...I'm stuck!" Amelia shouted as she
splashed toward the ground, her cape billowing out and spreading
on the water like a leaf. "Hey Guys!" She gurgled from the
stream bed.

"You'll catch up..." Lina gasped as she tugged. Even Gourry, loaded
up with huge sacks looked a little overwhelmed.

"Do you think we should put it down, and help her?" Gourry asked.

"Even for you that is a dumb question!" Lina exclaimed. "Come on Amelia,
why don't you help out."

"I'd really like to but---AIEYYYYYYYY" She screamed. "Its a monster!"

Lina whirled around, as Gourry dropped his bags.

Sure enough, a large green dragonheaded and footed fish was sniffing
Amelia. Its long tongue reached out and slid a slimy trail up her
arm as she shrieked too shocked and grossed out to even fire a spell.

"RAY WING" Lina called as she flew down the hill side up to the
monster. "DIGGER BOLT" She shouted and the monster emitted a
high pitched whine and fell over.

"Oh Miss Lina, you saved me!" Amelia said thankfully. She stood
up, and took a step forward. "Ouch, I
lost my boots" She bent in the water feeling for the lost
articles. "Where is it...this stream is so much stronger
and deeper here, I can't see it!"

Lina winked and said "You fish for that, and
I'm cutting into a snack!" She
began to kneel to examine the fallen beast. "Another edible
beast..." She sighed. "One of my favorites..."

"Hey, Amelia, is this it?" Gourry smiled as he began to
pull up all kinds of random clothing from the stream/river: clogs,
glass heels, hiking boots, tennis shoes, ice skates, and other
objects, like goblets, backpacks, pots, jewelry. She shook
her head at each one, in between her own explorations.

"Oh good, I found the left one, now I just need the right
one." She said at last.

Gourry nodded, and handed her a soft leather boot, soaking with water,
"This has got to be it!" He smiled.

"I already found the left one Gourry, so it can't be mine!" She said
looking at her feet, and then back at the boot.

"Oh, yeah. How about this one?" He pulled another
tiny boot out of the river. "Or this?"

"Its the same side boot, Gourry, I need the right one!" She
said. "Here it is."

"And here's another one!" Gourry smiled handing her another left
patterned boot.

"That is still left!" She looked down at the collection of left boots. "
They're exactly like mine!"

Lina frowned. "She may be clumsy, but she doesn't need more than two left
boots...There's something wrong about all this. Its
exactly the same boot as Amelia's, but where did it come from?"

"The river!" Gourry said. He pulled out another boot to demonstrate.

Lina's eyes narrowed and she waded into the water. One gloved hand
rose up then down splashing into the water furiously. Suddenly her hand
grabbed onto something small and round. A dim, copper-colored pot emerged
from the water, a leather booth stuck inside of it.

She pulled it out. "An Amelia sized boot, left foot." She said tossing
it over with the others,but accidently hitting Gourry.

Amelia sighed looking at the small collection of them. "What'll I
do with all these left boots?"

"Fill them with the gold I'm going to make with this pot
of plenty!" Lina exclaimed. "This is it, it has to be!"

"Miss Lina, you can't use this object for something like
that!"

"You can't stop me, you've already had your turn and made
boots."

"That was an accident!" Amelia responded. "There are so
many people starving, you can't waste it on--"

Lina sighed. "Gold? With this much gold we'll never starve
again! Besides, its my pot and I'll..."

She paused. "What am I going to do with it?
I have to make whatever I put in it special." She
set the pot down, to try and think. "I don't want to
get sick of the food I put in it...hm...this is harder
than I thought! On the other hand, I wouldn't have to
carry all that heavy gold, just a never ending
pot of it!" She paused. "I wouldn't have to scrounge
for treasure if I use this right..Who'd care about Sairaag,
and this challenge...I could buy everyone off..."
Her voice trailed off, the excitement vanishing as she
said the words. "With this pot, I could stop adventuring
and..." Suddenly her imagination supplied her with the
picture of exactly what she would be doing,
surrounded by gold in her own castle, an endless
table of food surrounding her. Was that what
she wanted? "I could even duplicate the sword of Light,
so I could send Gourry on his way...." She thought at last.

Her coppery eyes went as dull and dark as the tarnished pot
which fell from her hands onto the grounds.

"Hey, Lina, its kind of dirty now!" Gourry said picking
it up. "Don't worry, I"ll wash it!" He smiled, dipping
it in the river. For a second, the thought flashed through
his mind that he could use the pot himself, but he promptly ignored it
like he did most thoughts. He couldn't even begin to come up
with something to put in the Pot, and besides,
whatever Lina would do with it would probably
make him happier. That is, as long as he could help her do it.
Out loud he said, "A little river water and it'll be--"

"GOURRY--NO! DON"T!" Lina exclaimed too late, suddenly becomming
aware of him and his actions.

He smiled and turned the pot over to dip the water out.

And out, and out and out! A puzzled look formed on his
face as he realized the pot was still full of water.
He grinned and said. "No way this pot is going to beat
me!" He began to rapidly turn it over, so that more
and more water came out. After awhile, he stopped exhausted as
the water continued to flow out of the pot.

"How's there so much water in this thing?" He asked as he wiped
a bead of sweat mixed into the threads of his hair.

Amelia paled and looked at Lina. "Did he do what I
think he did?"

Lina nodded.

Just then, the water began to back up inside the pot, and
a spread of water began to gush out like a geyser from
the sides of the pot, splintering it and rapidly creating a flood
of water on the fairly rocky and dry land.

"Quick, lets get out of here before we drown!" Amelia
cried as the water bobbed up to her waste. "Ray Wing"
She shouted as the two grabbed Gourry between them
springing up into the air.

"HEY--What happened?!" Gourry asked confused as they soared
away from the valley.

"You idiot!" Lina complained. "You just put a river
in a pot of plenty!"

"A river?! All I did was wash it!"

"With river water...no wonder they say it was cursed. You
put something in, and it takes what you put in it literally..."
Amelia sighed. Down below in the river, a few white boots
danced along in the fading sunlight.

"When you filled it, you told the pot to make a river. When
you dumped it out the first time, you somehow triggered it
to create another river though it wasn't finished producing
the first one. So now you've got it making multiple rivers...
It'll stop eventually...." Lina sighed. "After all our gold and
the whole valley washes away, and the pot is shattered forever."

They slowly descended towards the ground on top of
the mountain, Gourry landing with a thump.

"But wouldn't it stop if you put something in?" Gourry asked as he rubbed
his back where he'd smacked down. "I guess we could still find it
in the water if we tried, just like Amelia did the first time!"

"No way!" Lina said with her usual irritation. "Even if you didn't
destroy it , its buried forever
under that lake! If I found it underwater, the spell would
activate and produce *multiple lakes! Its gone forever. I've
lost my chance to have it all....to retire from
all this endless questing, and fighting and hunger..." The dream of the castle
of gold, the multiple swords of light, the endless dinners
splintered into a mosaic of fragments in her mind, as
the scene in front of her replaced it. She looked briefly
at Amelia, a little longer at Gourry, and then turned around
in the general direction of Sairaag.

"Are you ok, Miss Lina?" Amelia asked slightly confused by hearing
that sort of a hopeless tone from Lina.

Gourry stepped forward, one hand outstretched as if to touch
her, but he hesitated and put the hand through his hair instead.
"Uh, I'm sorry about that, Lina." He said softly. "I hope you're
not angry that we're back where we started." He cringed awaiting
the explosion of her anger.

"Its gone forever....and I was so close." She whispered more to herself than in reply to Gourry. "So close to ending this journey..."

"Miss Lina, what would you have put in it anyway?" Amelia
asked, curious at the strange note in Lina's voice.

"Does it matter?"
They couldn't see Lina's face nor the relieved smile on her face
as she said "Let's concentrate on what is important...FOOD.
Come on, let's get to the next town before they stop serving
diner!" She turned around and gave them her characteristic
arrogant wink. "Or do you want to stay here all night?!"

The other two looked at each other shrugged and followed after her.

THE END!

**********************************

Thanks for reading, and I hope that you enjoyed this little story.
It's my first fanfic on Slayers, so I will appreciate any
comments you have at alinasan@yahoo.com