Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, obviously.
Hello, Absence here! I am totally aware of how ironic what I just said is. I bring you a fanfic that will either really suck or bring you to read my author's note. Even if you can't bear to read this fanfic, please skip to my author's note at the end. I apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors.
Enjoy, or not!
Rated T for harsh conditions and minor swearing.
The sky was a variety of colors as the sun began to rise, hues of pink and orange blended together to become a more vibrant color. The wind began blowing restlessly, animals began to wake from their slumbers, and the calls of birds made the morning all the more beautiful.
It had been years since the last time Lucy had seen a proper meal, let alone eat one, but by now, she could care less about food. She had Levy and Wendy to keep alive, and that was all that mattered.
Lucy watched, her blond hair flowing with the breeze, as the wind blew over a weak tree, its branches flying around and its leaves giving way to the wind, carrying them off into the distant village. She would have to start work in a few hours, so she would make do with the time she had. Lucy looked around the small tent-like structure she was currently living in, it's sides torn and weathered, her brown eyes catching sight of mold forming in one of the damp corners. Soon, she and the others would have to move closer to the village and find better shelter.
Lucy looked fondly at the small bodies that were currently sleeping on the cold hard ground, their forms hovering close as they shared a blanket. She couldn't help but look at Wendy's frail body, which was much smaller than it should have been. Lucy and her other companion, Levy, both knew she was suffering from malnutrition due to the lack of nutrients she was receiving, but they would say nothing to, despite her conditions, the cheerful little girl. Levy, with her once bright brown eyes and vibrant hair, had become dull. She had suffered through much and gained so little, yet she would share as much food as she could with little Wendy and share stories that she held dear to her with the younger girl. Lucy was forced to watch the two girls she held dear to her suffer while she stood at the sidelines, helpless.
Wendy let out a small groan and rolled on her side, grabbing at the small dragon medallion around her slender neck, the torn blanket letting loose her small body. Lucy shivered when she caught sight of the poor girl's frail frame, her spine and rib cage showing unhealthily from her torn garments. Levy let out a yawn and sat up, rubbing her eyes to awaken herself.
"Morning, Lucy," Levy whispered as she untangled herself from the blanket, rising to her feet to begin her chores before work.
"Morning, Levy," Lucy murmured, watching as Levy began to look through their savings, of which they had accumulated very little.
Lucy watched as Levy's petite face became more and more tense before she finally stopped counting. Levy looked up, her gaze boring into Lucy's already fractured soul. "Lucy," she croaked, "we don't have enough money for this week's food supply. All we have is 600 jewel."
Lucy heard a gasp behind her, and swirled around to see a tear-stricken Wendy. The poor girl was already starving from last month's lack of food; she wouldn't be able to sustain herself if her hunger were to go on any longer.
"It'll be okay Wendy," Lucy cooed, walking towards the shaking girl. "I'll just ask the Head if I can work overtime, maybe even gain a couple thousand jewel."
"You've been working at the mines for seven years, Lucy. How will you possibly gain a couple thousand jewel? All you get for your hard work are wounds, contaminated water, and 200 jewel a week," Levy exclaimed, her face filled with sorrow.
"I'll figure it out somehow," Lucy whispered, then she turned and faced Wendy. "Wendy, you can take the money I earned last week, that way you can eat. I still have some body fat, so my body can take that for this week." Despite what she had just said, Lucy's stomach clenched painfully at the thought of having nothing to digest.
Without waiting for an answer, Lucy walked out of their makeshift tent and headed toward the rows of containers she had set up for months. Like Levy had said, the water they received was always contaminated from the minerals in the mines. Levy had figured out a way to rid the water of most of the bacteria and chemicals in it. Due to the heat in Fiore, and the location they were currently in, Lucy and Levy were able to boil the water over a long period of time. After the boiling process, the girls would then filter the water with a clean piece of cloth they had saved up for. Although this wasn't one hundred percent effective, it would do. Lucy considered herself lucky; many people didn't have the privilege to drink slightly de-contaminated water. At this moment, Stella was suffering from a major drought that had already killed many people. So, when she could, she would share her water with others.
Lucy grabbed one of the older containers and walked back to the tent. When she entered, she caught sight of Levy reading an old torn newspaper from three years ago. Levy was very smart for her age; every day she would look through scraps of text in the village when she was working and read them whenever she had time. The one she was currently reading was one of her favorites. It had many different languages in it, and Levy had mastered them all. Unfortunately, Levy wouldn't be able to go to school due to their situation.
Wendy was sitting on the blanket she and Levy shared, nibbling on a small piece of dried bread the three had eaten together the previous night. She looked up and gave Lucy a weak smile, her dark blue hair falling from her shoulders. "Hi Lucy. I'm sorry for breaking down earlier, I should be grateful for the food I am eating now. Ice Berg has it worse with that terrible worm infestation that's killing all their food resources."
"It's fine, don't worry about it,Wendy. Here's your water." Lucy handed Wendy the container. "Make sure you share with Levy, and save some for work. I don't want you to get dehydrated."
"I'll be fine, Lucy. Thank you." Wendy took a few sips of water, then went and handed Levy the container.
"Lucy, you know we can just sell my medallion," Wendy reminded, fiddling with the pattern of a beautiful dragon carved into the round piece of metal. "We could easily make thousands of jewel with it, then we wouldn't have to starve."
"Wendy, we've been over this at least a hundred times. We will not sell the medallion that you have had since birth to feed ourselves. That is the only thing that you can remember your mother by, and we will not take it away just to get some extra jewel," Lucy lectured, tired of having this argument every few weeks.
"But, Lucy-"
"No, buts. My decision is final," Lucy stated for at least the hundredth time. "We have to go to the mines now." She smiled down at her younger companions, wishing that it didn't look as fake as it felt.
Lucy walked out of the tent with her two companions inches away from her, hoping she would be able to gain more jewel for their survival. If she couldn't support herself and her loved ones, who would?
The mines were a terrible and hazardous place for children to work, but it was the only way for them to get money and feed themselves. Mounds of dirt were scattered all over the area, children and adults alike working with haste. Cobalt tunnels were off to the side, unarmed men climbing down them through the dug in holes.
Lucy watched, still working, as a hoard of boys ran back and forth, all carrying heavy sacks on their shoulders. A boy of the name Romeo, who was about Wendy's age, was being yelled at and pushed in the direction he had come from. Most of the work at the mines were done by children, but the ungrateful adults treated them like trash.
Lucy quickly went back to her own work, picking through the soil and rock with her bare hands to find cobalt. Her fingers were numb and cracked, blood trickled down the side of her thumb. Lucy caught a glance from Wendy and noticed the hint of worry on the girl's face, even though she had the same cracked fingers and the same numb hands. Lucy shot the girl a reassuring smile before going back to her work.
Most of the cobalt she was collecting now would be sold to the Pergrande Kingdom. The ungrateful, greedy scoundrels there would be looking for the cheapest price, unconcerned of who had collected the minerals for them. Lucy, at the mere age of 11, wasn't stupid; she knew that the people of Fiore were being cheated. Fiore was rich in minerals, yet the nation was among the poorest of the nations in Earthland.
Lucy looked up at the sky, clouds were starting to form and the wind started to pick up. It was going to rain, and the rain would be coming down hard. Although it would be raining, Lucy knew that she was still going to work her twelve hours. It didn't matter how hard the rain would fall or how unrelenting the sun's rays were, money was money.
Lucy quickly started grabbing as many pieces of cobalt as she could, adding them to her sack that was a quarter way filled. If she didn't collect as much as usual or more so, she would be punished, and she couldn't risk that. Lucy winced as she cut herself on the rough mineral, but she kept her pace, unwilling to face the consequences.
Just as Lucy was gathering the rest of her materials, the first few hundred drops of rain began to fall, splattering to the ground and nipping at her flesh. The boys who had been rushing earlier were now working even harder, shoving soil into sacks and running to their stations with heavy weight on their shoulders. If they didn't work up to the Head's expectations, they would surely be beaten. She quickly stood and brought her working materials and her sack of cobalt to a more sheltered area. The Head didn't care about their wellbeing, rather the wellbeing of their money makers.
Lucy looked back just in time to see Levy slip on the slippery mud and fall, landing on her hip with a noticeable flinch. Instead of rushing over to help the poor girl, the supervisor rushed over to save the minerals Levy had dropped, delivering a painful looking slap to the girl's face for being so clumsy
Lucy fumed and clenched her fist, but stayed quiet, knowing she needed the money in order for them to survive. Just as she thought nothing else could go wrong, she saw Wendy trip on a forgotten shovel that was halfway buried in the ground, and somehow managed to land her foot in glass bottle full of alcohol. The glass shattered, wedging pieces into Wendy's now bleeding foot. The girl cried out in pain and fell over, managing to catch her sack of cobalt before it fell into the tunnel she was walking past. The supervisor howled at the loss of his only release, not even noticing the poor girl that had injured herself due to that poison.
Lucy and Levy, who could care less about the bruise on her hip at the moment, rushed over to help the girl up, escorting her to a relatively dry area and inspecting her wound. The larger pieces of glass were easier to remove, but many shards of glass had made their way into her skin, buried too deep.
"I know this is a stupid question, but are you okay?" Levy asked, her eyes filled with worry.
"I'll be fine, my stomach pains are much worse than this," Wendy replied dismissively.
"You are clearly not fine," Lucy protested.
"Children in Seven and Joya are suffering more than I am at the moment. If they can survive starvation and severe malnutrition, then I can handle having glass shards stuck in my foot."
"But Wendy-"
"Where's my medallion?!" Wendy's faithful medallion was no longer hanging around her neck. "I was just wearing it minutes ago. How could I have lost it?"
"Maybe it fell off when you tripped," Levy suggested.
"It must have, I need to look for it, now!"
"Wendy, it's dangerous! I won't let you go out while it's raining!" Lucy snapped.
"Like you said earlier, that medallion is the only thing left of my mother. I need to find it. I can't lose it!"
Lucy watched as Wendy got up from her sitting position and limped over to the area she had fallen, ignoring Lucy and Levy's warnings, drops of rain sliding down her body. Wendy began desperately searching for her medallion, moving lumps of dirt and small pebbles in vain. From where Lucy stood, it looked like Wendy couldn't find it, and that maybe she was about to give up. However, the small girl persisted to look, noticing something, and looking down into the tunnel she had fallen by.
"She's not going to do what I think she's going to do, right?" Lucy asked, looking at Levy with a pleading and panicked look.
"I think she is," Levy groaned, watching as the small girl began to descend the tunnel by the small holes carved into the rock and soil.
"Wendy!" Lucy cried, her voice falling on deaf ears. Lucy watched as Wendy's blue hair disappeared from view.
Levy and Lucy waited anxiously as the minutes passed by, the blunette still not appearing from the cobalt tunnel she had descended into. The wind began to blow faster and the rain became more frenzied. Children were still gathering their workstations to find shelter, the supervisor not even noticing that one of his workers had disappeared.
After what felt like hours of agony, but was probably about seven minutes, rumbling began. The entrance of the tunnel began to crumble, mud and rock falling through it at an alarmingly quick speed. Lucy and Levy raced towards the cobalt tunnel, slipping on mud and tripping over rocks as they did so, finally reaching their destination. They both watched in horror as the hand dug tunnel collapsed under the weight of the rain.
Below all the rocks and mud, her body lay. It could no longer take a breath, nor could it ever see again. She could never see her companions, never thank them for everything they had done. She would never be able to tell them she loved them.
Even though her body ahd been crushed and killed on impact, she had gotten whet she wanted. Between her fingers, the dragon medallion was clutched close to her heart. She had gotten her last wish and took it with her to be free...
To those of you who somehow made it to the end of the fanfic, thank you. This is a really important message that I would like to share, so don't leave just yet.
In the fanfic, I never wrote how old Wendy and Levy were. Wendy is 7 years old and Levy is 10 years old, if you didn't remember from the summary.
Before I get into anything, Wendy's death was significant to the story. Many children in Africa might not even make it to their 5th birthday. Life ain't a Disney movie, suck it up and move on. Although that sounds really cruel, this is reality, it killed me to take away Wendy's precious life. In reality, people live, suffer, and die; death waits on no one. None of this is supposed to offend anyone, so I apologize in advance to anyone who feels offended.
First off, so many people don't appreciate food as much as they should. There are so many examples of this if you look all around you, it pisses me off to no end. If some of you who are reading this don't believe it, I'll give an example like a teacher. A while ago, a classmate of mine refused to eat a large ripe apple because it had a bruise the circumference of a centimeter. That bastard threw the apple away with no care in the world. I obviously got upset and told that ungrateful shit that people were freaking eating garbage and grass and that he just threw away a perfectly good apple. The bastard just shrugged it off as a first world problem, the nerve of some people!
It annoys me even more that people are worried about how we will get food in 2050, which is like 32 years from now, when people this second are starving and suffering because they can't eat. What is wrong with people!?
*cough* Anyway, people are suffering all over the world from famine and hunger. But in my fanfic, I specifically based Earthland around Africa. Now, to those internet warriors who love picking fights, I am not standing for anything that says I don't care about any other worldly problems or any other nations, because I absolutely do and have tried to do something about it. I just want to enlighten a few people on the things that average people aren't aware of. Like, seriously, some people don't even know that slaves were never payed, where have you lived, in a castle?
To those of you have little to no knowledge of the conflicts in Africa or which nations in Earthland stood for which countries, I shall enlighten you. Since Earthland and Africa have different layouts, it was kinda hard to fit things together, but I managed. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is obviously Fiore. The DRC is one of the poorest nations on this planet and is highly abundant in minerals, such as cobalt. In fact, what you are using right now to read this is powered by the minerals that children in the DRC have collected, so be grateful. Stella stands for Kenya, which is suffering from a major drought. Seven stands for Sudan, half of South Sudan's population is starving, be grateful for the fresh food and water you get. Ice Berg (or however you want to spell it) stands for Ethiopia, which is suffering from a terrible worm infestation. Joya stands for Somalia, which is suffering from severe malnutrition. The Pergrande Kingdom stands for China, and before I get any hate for this, please note that I am just stating a fact. I know many Chinese people who are little angels, but many people only care about money, such as the heads of companies that want the cheapest price. Now. I only listed a few countries that were suffering, either because it wouldn't fit on the map I created for myself or I couldn't figure out how to involve them. I wanted to put Uganda in as Bosco, but I didn't know how to put in that the most refugees in Africa that travel from place to place by foot that haven't eaten or drank for days.
If you have any doubts on the locations of the countries, please go compare a map of Earthland to a map of Africa. If any of you who have read this want to help, you can donate to organizations or share information with people who can. If anyone couldn't visualize my poor descriptions of the mines, please go to YouTube and type in 'Special report: Inside the Congo cobalt mines that exploit children' and the first video that pops up will be a video I watched for information. I hate reporters, I'm sorry, but they just annoy me. Since I'm a sensitive weirdo, I cried every time I watched this video, which was probably over 20 times.
Organizations you can look at are:
Save The Children Africa, specifically the 'Child Hunger and Famine Release'
Aid for Africa
Africa Muslims Agency, I don't want any comments about this, internet warriors
There are many other organizations to look at, but I'm just giving a few suggestions.
To those who read this whole thing, thank you. Everything I just said was very long and time consuming. I hope someone who went away from this grasped at least some knowledge and a different perspective.
I'd like to thank my main editor, AL, and Clarity for helping me.
-Absence, out!