Darkness. Nothing more than pure, inky blackness. It was a horrible thing for most to experience, let alone a golden dragon. Accustomed to colors and light, Filia couldn’t see a thing. And that worried her, considering. Well, considering the one who was with her in this darkness.

The cave had completely collapsed only moments before, leaving Filia trapped inside. Of course, she wasn’t too worried about escaping. Lina and her friends would get her out. But then again, if Lina and Gourry got hungry--they may just take a break to eat. So when the escape from this cave came was a mystery to her.

Then there was the issue about her companion in the cave. He had arrived at the very last minute, but their arguing--although Filia would never admit to it being partly HER fault--got in the way of their escape.

He probably teleported out of here without me, Filia thought bitterly. Stupid, good-for-nothing mazoku.

Still... she looked around.

"Xelloss?" she called out softly. "Namagomi?"

She heard a soft groan and light coughing from behind her and whirled around--and promptly tripped over something.

"Eck!" Xelloss complained as she flopped onto his stomach. "Get off me, you overweight dragon!"

"OVERWEIGHT!" Filia barely kept her voice below an indignant shout, "Why you little-"

"Please?"

"Oh," Filia blinked in surprise. She realized she hadn’t moved, being to preoccupied with her irritation. So she pushed off, purposely shoving her palm down into his stomach as she did.

"Ow," Xelloss whined, "Filia, that wasn’t nice!"

"You’re the one who called me overweight," she said snobbishly.

"You called me Namagomi!" he shot back. "Are we still in the cave?"

"Yes, silly mazoku, we are!" she huffed, "And why aren’t you leaving anyway? You can teleport."

"I know that," he grumbled, "But the whole reason we came to this cave in the FIRST place was because of the magic Lina sensed. Some magic--it’s making it difficult for me to do anything. Not to mention that those rocks falling sliced right through me. I hope you’re happy. I come in here to rescue your sorry dragon ass and now I’ve got a gash the size of Gaav’s hair through me."

"Masochistic mazoku slime," she sneered, "You’re probably enjoying it!"

"There’s nothing to be enjoyed about extreme bodily harm, Filia," he snapped, "And I suppose you’re perfectly unharmed?"

"Fine."

"And Lina’s out there trying to get us out?" he wondered, "I hope."

"What do you mean HOPE?" Filia reached out blindly and latched onto his cloak. She shook him violently.

"Ghh! Stop it!" he pushed her away. "Lina doesn’t know I can’t just teleport us out of here. And she doesn’t know if we’re even still alive. I hope she tries anyway because if I have to stay in this cave with you much longer I’ll kill you!"

"Eeep," Filia jumped away, her blue--yet blind--eyes wide. "You-you-you... you wouldn’t, would you?"

Xelloss grunted softly, and Filia could hear him shifting slightly on the gravelly, rock-littered ground. She knew his eyesight was much more suited to the darkness than her own and wondered if he could still see, even though there was absolutely no light. She suspected he couldn’t.

"No, Filia," he said finally, "I won’t kill you."

That surprised her. She wondered why not and asked as much.

"Because Lina threatened to use her Laguna blade on me if I don’t bring you out alive," he replied.

"Aaaahh!" she shrieked, "You stupid Namagomi!"

"Keep your voice down!" he snapped, "You want to cause another cave-in?"

"Um, no," she peeped.

"Good," he sighed, "Now please keep quiet. I’m in pain, and it takes concentration to heal this kind of wound."

Filia sat back and kept quiet. She didn’t want Xelloss to ‘accidentally forget’ all about Lina’s threat and kill her anyway. He would. He would have no qualms with just snapping his fingers and destroying her. What a mess. She thought back to how this mess had started...