An impression of commitment
Page 1 — Liberation
Irene did not want to admit it, but she was scared—even terrified! The amount of magic she witnessed was lethal, she knew.
A few meters in front of her, Natsu, in deep concentration, molded an enormous amount of magic. It manifested itself in a scorching aura around him that singed anything alive in close proximity. Irene could not discern whether the ground shook or her.
As she watched his aura expand further, cold sweat began to form on her forehead and in her palms.
Suddenly, Natsu inhaled. The blazing aura which he had formed, he consumed, and for a final attack, he leaned backwards.
In a desperate attempt, Irene held her staff protectively in front of her body, gripping it with a force that made it crack. "S-Stop," she begged in a timid voice and took a step back. "S-Stop! Don't do this!"
But it was too late.
"Enryuuou no..." Natsu snapped forward. "HOUKOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUU!" And the moment he shouted, a blazing torrent of magic washed over Irene.
Her staff disintegrated instantly, and she felt something that she had not for centuries—she cried in agony.
But it did not last, for not a second later she fell silent again as darkness descended on her.
Irene startled awake, but winced with the movement. Her body felt battered and beaten and remained unmoved, but not for a lack of tries. She struggled to open her eyes, but her eyelids, too, refused her command.
Suddenly, she felt movement, but not her own. A weight was pressed against her left side and along her back. She was carried.
Irene tried to speak, only for a silent moan to escape her lips. Ultimately, she resigned to her fate and ceased her futile attempts.
It felt like hours before she tried again. This time though, her eyelids opened. It took a while and a few blinks before the shadowed veil above her eyes vanished and she identified her carrier, even though she had already concluded it to be none other than him.
After his attack, Natsu had noticed Irene had remained surprisingly unharmed, despite obviously being hit. Curious, he had moved beside her where he had promptly fallen to his knees, his physical exhaustion disallowing him to remain standing. He had first confirmed her to be simply unconscious, and had then proceeded to rest beside her, when, with the moment of ease, Natsu had come to realize that he was not sure what he had left.
Natsu had remained in this position for what felt like a long time, to contemplate, though honestly, thinking was not really his forte.
So, without thought, after he had felt some of his strength return, he had picked up his enemy and began to walk in an unknown direction.
Irene watched her carrier for some time. Natsu looked straight ahead as he walked along a forestal path. He did not spare her one glance, though she assumed he had noticed her stare.
Her mouth felt dry, so she ran her tongue along the roof of her mouth and swallowed the gathered salvia before she spoke somewhat unsteady.
"W-Why?"
He did not look down.
"I don't know."
And there was silence again.
Sometime later, when the sun began to near the horizon, and they were still within the forest, Natsu knelt down in front of a broad tree beside the path and gently leaned Irene against it. She watched him during the process, being surprisingly sedate, she herself noted, and continued to do so while his eyes roamed their surroundings.
"I'll be back," he said simply.
She believed him.
After Natsu had disappeared somewhere behind her, Irene took a first look down at herself. Her clothes were notably intact, although singed at some places. Sensing the lack of fabric between her back and the bark she leaned on, she surmised she must be without her cloak. Nonetheless, it was a miracle she was not naked after being hit by the Dragon Slayer's fire attack. Or, maybe it wasn't?
With her next thought though, she tried to move some of her extremities. Albeit with difficulty, she managed to lift her gloved hands in front of her face. They began to shake with the exertion. She could move her feet and legs, too, yet she dared not stand. And as she moved her limbs some more, she noticed something amiss. It was a sense much like that of a person before he pulled off his covers only to find his leg amputated. Irene could not explain what it was in her case.
She contemplated this and other things for an uncertain amount of time, until a rustling sound behind her informed her of Natsu's return.
He held under one of his arms a variety of tree branches and in his hand two dead rabbits with slightly burned pelts. He wandered to the middle of the forest path in front of her where there was a small clearing between the treetops and began to stack the wood to make a campfire.
With the help of his magic, Natsu had no difficulty to ignite the wood. When it started to crackle, Irene watched him skin the rabbits with an ignited finger.
Interesting.
"I've found a stream close by," Natsu said whilst he worked. "If you are thirsty, I can carry you there if you want. I have nothing to bring it here."
"I'm not thirsty."
He nodded.
By the time the sky was painted in an array of reds, oranges and violets, and the sun set behind the many tree rows, Natsu had finished to skin both rabbits and, in contrast to the soothing atmosphere, impaled them crudely with two long branches. With some force, he managed to stick them both beside the fire into the dirt, so that both animals hovered above the fire in order to cook.
With a whisper he excused himself and went to wash his hands at the stream.
Irene noticed she had watched the whole process with serenity. Even then she found her thoughts escape, simply watching and listening to the fire.
So again, time went by. Natsu had returned, sitting by the fire, and the small clearing was illuminated only by the flicker of the flames.
Natsu picked up one of the branches with a cooked rabbit and broke it into a fitting length. He stood up and handed it to the enchantress, who accepted it without comment.
She looked impassively at the cooked meat in front of her while Natsu had already returned to the fire. He leaned back comfortably on one of his hands and began to eat.
Without thought Irene took her first bite, too, and, with it, went rigid.
Slowly, as if unsure, she chewed again. Tears began to form in her eyes.
Then, as her head bent forward and she chewed again and again, her tears began to roll freely down her cheeks in an unbroken stream.
First, low sobs escaped her throat in between her chews, when suddenly, she began to cry like a person vomiting on all fours, not minding the bits of food that escaped her open mouth.
Throughout the day, Natsu had tried to pay his enemy only the minimum amount of attention, but hearing her sudden cries made his head snap in her direction.
"W-What's wrong!?" he asked alarmed.
At first, she did not respond, but when he was about to stand from his position, she slightly shook her head without raising her head. In between her heart wrenching cries she slowly began to chew again.
With difficulty Natsu continued to eat, trying to avert his gaze again, but failing.
These were not cries of sadness or pain; these were the cries of a person who had found something important again, something that had been lost.
Natsu had witnessed such tears once. They were the same as those Elfman and Mirajane had shed on the day Lisanna had returned.
Even when he had finished his meal and attempted to relax in front of the fire, sometimes throwing more branches into it, Irene continued to sob as she nibbled on her food.
It was only an hour or two later that Natsu noticed her fallen asleep, likely from exhaustion. He threw some more branches into the fire and then laid down himself. The truth was, he was exhausted beyond limit, but simply had not allowed himself to fall asleep before her.
Little did he know that Irene was not even supposed to be able to sleep at all.
Slowly, Irene awoke the next morning. It was an arduous experience. On her back, she felt the many pinching sensations from leaning against the bark of the tree where Natsu had positioned her last night. She decided to ignore them.
Irene slowly opened her eyes, and, with her lips slightly apart, turned them skywards. The moment she truly realized that she had slept throughout the night, her hands that had rested on her lap started to shake again.
From the corner of her eyes, she saw some of her food from last night laid beside her. With a desperate grab, she picked it up and bit into the cold meat. She chewed only once and propped her forehead on the one hand that did not hold her food. Again, she began to sob.
It had not been her imagination.
Natsu awoke to the noise.
He groggily pushed himself into a position to sit and rubbed his eyes. After he blinked a few times, he turned towards the sound.
When he found Irene in a similar state she had been in last night, crying and with her food in one hand, he frowned.
"What's with you and crying while eating?" he asked indiscreetly.
She remained in her position and shook her head again. "You wouldn't understand," she answered faintly.
Natsu shifted, but he remained silent.
After a few moments, he stood up.
"I'm going to the stream. Are you thirsty now?"
She gently rubbed her eyes with her gloved knuckle and, for what felt like the first time to him, slowly looked up from her position.
In that moment, the first rays of the sun decided to descended upon the clearing, accompanied by a gust of wind that ruffled the leaves on the trees creating a sound much like a surf. It was one of those moments that would forever be branded into Natsu's memory, for in that moment he saw the most elated expression he had ever seen.
"Yes, I believe I am!"
Her face was marred from the fighting, and it was stained by the tears she had shed—she was a mess; but her smile was radiant.
