Xelloss gave the teapot a look as only a few drops fell from its spout into his cup. "We're out of tea already...? Oh, dear. I suppose I best make more." He put the kettle back on, moving bit more quickly than Filia could track his movements, and opened up the cabinet that Filia kept her teas inside. "Hmmm...what should be good..." he muttered, and Filia found herself somehow feeling compelled to stifle a giggle. There was just something about seeing Xelloss muttering over teas like he was making the most important choice he would ever need to make.

The fact that she often was the same way over teas escaped her completely. However, the fact that she had not had anything other than the tea Xelloss had made for her did not escape her. "Xelloss, shouldn't we have more than just tea for breakfast?"

Xelloss paused in his muttered critique of the pros and cons of particular teas in the morning. "Zelas-sama ordered me not to cook for you."

Filia looked at him, curious. "Why would she order you not to cook for me...?"

Xelloss sweatdropped. "Lina-san didn't tell you...?" Filia shook her head. "I'm not very good at cooking." He pulled a canister out of the cabinet and carefully measured out the proper amount of tea into the teapot just in time for the kettle to whistle.

"Oh. Well, I got something at the bakery yesterday, when I got lunch..." Xelloss watched curiously as Filia, with a faint blush, pulled a bag out of her bread box and placed the contents on a plate. "I had thought it might be polite to offer you something this morning to go with your tea..."

Xelloss smiled, amused, as he poured the water into the pot. "How thoughtful of you, Filia!" Xelloss carried the teapot to the table, followed by Filia with the plate. "Thank you very much, Filia-chan."

She smiled, and watched the tea brew. "So, which tea did you choose?"

"The Keemun. You have an impressive selection of teas, Filia, and quite good taste." He had learned to appreciate good taste in tea selection, after having once visited an inn with Lina that had only peach tea and mango herbal brew -- and both were quite stale, and overbrewed. (He had taken the time that night to have a little 'talk' with the inn's owner, though Zelgadiss, who had managed to visit the innkeeper before him, had not left much else to 'explain.' The next morning, there was a very nice pot of green tea for them, on the house.)

Filia smiled, enjoying the complement. "Thank you, Xelloss." She picked up a scone and nibbled delicately on it as she waited for the tea to finish brewing. "So, Zelas-sama had ordered you guard them...?"

Xelloss smiled in private amusement at hearing Filia, a golden dragon, refer to his mother as 'Zelas-sama.' "Yes, she had..."

Xelloss had not been given any significant tasks by Zelas before in his entire life. Zelas had been quite clear that she did not want to risk him until she felt relatively certain that he would survive. He understood that, knowing that his creation had been quite draining for his mother, and didn't mind that she gave him tasks that would otherwise be carried out by much lesser mazoku. He enjoyed taking care of her library, wines, and wolves, and took pride in doing a much better job with them than anybody other than Zelas herself.

However, he did not feel that checking on the cave was a task particularly requiring him for various reasons. The primary one was that, though Zelas had been the one to give him the order, the task itself was (in his opinion) from Phibrizo. Instead of actually watching from the top of the cliff and checking within the cave daily, he simply walked to its entrance daily, cursing the wards that made it unwise to either teleport or fly there.

If it had not been something so important, such measures would have been enough.

Xelloss carefully picked his way through the stones, trying to not loose his balance on the slick, wet rock. As he neared the cave's mouth, he saw something white tangled among the jagged rocks in front of it. As he neared it, he realized that it was a length of cloth.

Carefully, he speeded up. The cloth shouldn't be there. If it was there, really there, then...

Then he had failed, and it really didn't matter whom he had failed. If he had failed Phibrizo... Phibrizo would punish him, Xelloss had no illusions that the Hellmaster could and would punish him, and he didn't want to discover just how Phibrizo would do that. Even if he was told that he was forgiven...

If he had failed Zelas, though, it would be just as bad. She wouldn't punish him as badly as he knew Phibrizo would, but simply knowing that he had failed her, his mother... That would be punishment all by itself.

He knelt down carefully, all too aware that the rock was slippery and he could quite easily slip into the water on the wrong side of the beach. The course feel of soaked cheap linen under his fingertips confirmed the reality of the cloth. He had failed.

Damn. This is not good. He knew that if he wanted to make things at least a bit better, he needed to get it back and kill those who had taken it.

The wind shifted direction for a moment, blowing to his ears a snippet of conversation, somebody talking about how close they had come to being caught. Xelloss stood up quickly to try to see the speakers, and lost his balance. As he fell into the ocean, he had a quick glimpse of a small, strange boat with five passengers, well out to sea before he was submerged.

The waters grabbed him instantly, pulling him swiftly towards even darker depths. He tried to break free from them, but both his inexperience at swimming and the strength of the current kept him from succeeding at escaping it.

He had a vague impression of a large, black tentacle wrapping itself around him. There was a much less vague impression of a painful dullness spreading through his form from where it touched. Quite distinctly and very definitely, Xelloss was aware of a mouthful of long, sharp fangs, each and every single one as long as he was tall.

The mouth started to close, and he knew that he wasn't going to be completely inside before the teeth reached him...