Welcome to my new story, Silent Thunder. This story follows Ringo Cloudminn, my main OC on my DeviantArt account. This is a Fairy Tail fan story with an OC being the main character as well as an OC X Canon. I do hope you like it. I do accept proper critiques. I have never written for Fairy Tail before, nor have I ever written a character like Laxus before. Please do tell me what you think.


Silent Thunder

Arc I

Chapter 1 Scorpions

A young woman, one just under twenty-two, sits on a rock in a wasteland of stone, sand and shrubs. She was taking a small break from the walking that she had done since the sun had risen on the horizon. Now the sun was almost directly overhead, providing the time as a few minutes until noon. It was the hottest time of the day and the worst to be stranded with little shade. The young woman opened the worn out, teal, leather bag she was carrying on her back and pulled out a faded brown cloak. It was old and worn out but had a hood and a chipped gold clip to keep it in place.

The woman was Ringo Cloudminn, a young and inexperienced mage who traveled simply to wander. Despite the environment, she wore faded denim shorts and a wavy beige tank top that now clung to her skin from sweat. A sleeveless brown and teal vest overlaid the tank top, making the heat even worse. Sand was stuck between her toes, causing blisters from simply wearing gladiator sandals. Overall, she had not planned well for a desert experience other than preparing her cloak. She did not even wear the sunglasses which were securely placed on her head, trapped in her sienna colored hair. Her hair was thin and wavy, tied in two long pigtails at the side of her head, snuggled behind headphones, that reached well past her waist.

A strong wind started to pick up behind her, throwing sand and dust into her vision. "Sandstorm." Ringo said, surprisingly calm despite the disaster. She stood up and fumbled with the cloak, attempting to fasten it as wind and sand whipped around her body.

The wind tugged at the cloak, yanking it from her grip. Ringo instantly attempted to grab it before the wind took it away but she was too late. She watched the cloak disappear into the storm and frowned. "Now I have to go and get it." she sighed.

Without much thought, the young mage started to walk at a quick pace in the direction that her cloak went. With the wind pushing at her back, she often fumbled over the uneven ground. Sand hit her bare legs and arms, feeling like needles pricking at her skin. It was painful, but more of an annoyance that caused her to stop and rub her arms and legs often. Her hair whipped out in front of her, hitting her in her face every so often and blinding her. The sand itself made it difficult for Ringo to see even a foot in front of her.

Fearing that she might run into something, Ringo put her hand out in front of her, moving it around to make sure there was nothing directly in her way. Time seemed to go by slowly as she struggled through the storm in vain in search of a simple cloak. After what felt like hours, Ringo's hand touched something solid. She instantly gripped at it, finding that it was not a rock, but soft and something that could be easily gripped. Right after her fist clenched down on whatever she had grabbed, something grabbed her wrist in a grip that was much tighter than her own.

On instinct, Ringo instantly tugged away but to no avail. Whatever had gripped her yanked her forward. Taking a step forward, she looked up at what had her and noticed that it resembled a person. She forced her eyes to focus on the stranger more as the winds died down and the storm passed. Once the sands had stopped spinning, she could finally see that what she had grabbed onto was the cloak of a tall man of a large physique with blonde hair and a solid scowled.

This solid scowl disappeared however, when the man realized that who had grabbed him was a simple woman, lost in the storm. He released his grip and Ringo cradled her wrist. "My apologies." Ringo said politely. "I didn't think I would grab a person out here." Her voice was quiet but her eyes were on his and a smile was on her face. She glanced down and noticed that in his hand was a worn brown fabric, resembling her cloak. She pointed at it.

"Where did you find that?" she asked simply.

"The wind carried it." the man said. He held it up to her. Ringo took it, revealing it to be her cloak. She smiled happily at finding it and draped it across her shoulders securely; clipping it so that it did not blow away again.

"Thank you for catching it." Ringo told the stranger.

The man simply nodded and walked around her and continued on his way. Ringo turned to watch him leave but after a minute, went on her way. Some people simply liked solitude, which was a simple ideal to understand.

Several minutes into walking, Ringo could barely see the sandstorm in the distance. It was then that she remembered why she avoided going in the direction that the stranger was going in now. Along her journey, Ringo had come across a scorpion pit. These scorpions burrowed underground and waited for anyone to walk over top of them for easy prey. These scorpions were large, coming up to the knees of an average sized man and over twelve feet from claw to stinger. With her enhanced hearing from her sound magic, Ringo had avoided the trap but the man was no going directly towards it.

Debating her choices, Ringo turned on her heel and started running towards the man. Though he meant nothing to her, knowing that she could stop him from dying and not doing anything would not settle well in her stomach.

She ran across the now loose sand, losing her balance but regaining it. A few times she fell thanks to her faulty shoes but she would get up and follow him again. Despite simply walking, the stranger seemed to have gotten rather far away. She could barely see him on the horizon. The idea of shouting at him to stop came, but her fear of what would follow her shouts also stabbed at the back of her mind.

While trying to figure out what to do, Ringo failed to notice the uneven ground and tripped over a slab of rock, busting her nail open as she fell on her face. The pain in her nose and toes caused tears to form in her eyes but she quickly wiped them away. Her nose was not bleeding but her toes were, the nail cracked and the toes scraped up. She quickly wiped away the sand that was sticking to the forming beads of blood. The blood smears scarlet red onto her toes, hands and the sand. She waved her hand to get rid of some of the blood and continued after the stranger.

By now the man was out of her sight. She was about to pick up her pace when she heard a large clap of thunder and lightning strike not too far away. Ringo instantly covered her ears from the pain and looked at the sky. There were no clouds in the sky and this was a region of little rain. Why was there lightning? Another strike came and smoke grew from where she had heard it.

Ringo scrambled forward and ran as fast as she could. She stopped when she came to a large pit, one that she did not remember being there before. In the pit was the stranger along with several of the large scorpions, many of which were charred black; there original color being a sickening blood red that almost seemed to glow. The stranger raised his hand and another bolt of lightning struck a scorpion, killing it instantly. Ringo covered her ears and held back a yelp of pain.

She instantly placed a spell on her ears, lowering their volume to where she could barely hear the lightning. She watched the man continue to take out the scorpions, sometimes several at a time. She sat in the sand, watching until each one was taken out. One after another, a bright blue and yellow jolt of electricity shot from the sky and stabbed one of the monstrous creatures. At times they would flail after the electricity stunned them before dying while others never moved after taking a step towards the man. Some attempted to attack from far away, others tried to avoid the lightning, but none were able to even come close to the stranger. When all of the creatures were dead, Ringo could not help but applaud the strong mage before her. The sounds of her clapping caused the stranger to look up at her.

Ringo smiled and waved. She stood up and slid down into the pit, stumbling slightly when she landed on her bad foot. She trotted over to the tall man who stood in the center of the large pit. "You are amazing." Ringo said, standing only a few feet away from him.

"Why did you come here?" the man asked, "Weren't you going the opposite way?"

Ringo nodded. "Well I wanted to go this way in the first place, but the scorpions stopped me. I meant to tell you about them but forgot so I came back to warn you." She smiled at him, realizing that her actions had been quite unnecessary.

"Thanks for the concern." The man said. His words were a bit harsh, but earnest. Ringo sighed, a bit embarrassed. With the clear weather, she finally noticed that the man had a long scar on his right eye which formed a lightning bolt at the bottom.

"I'm bad at gauging a person's magic powers or even if they have any." Ringo stated honestly. "I thought you might have just been a normal person."

The man simply nodded.

"My name is Ringo Cloudminn, nice to meet you." Ringo put her hand out.

"Laxus Dreyar." The stranger said, not taking her hand. Ringo put her hand down after he did not take it.

Ringo was just about to say bye to Laxus when the ground began to shake and slip from beneath them. Ringo put her hands out quickly as she started to lose her balance. Laxus crouched slightly, managing to keep most of his balance in check. Ringo on the other hand, fell flat on her butt as a much larger scorpion emerged from the sand, feet away from where they were. The black creature raised his pincers, pinching them together in a loud snipping noise.

"I'm guessing that we woke the queen up." She said with an easy going smile. She looked at the stinger of the scorpion which oozed a piss colored venom. "That looks deadly."

"Don't get stung." Laxus warned her, charging electricity in his hand.

"Good to know." Ringo said, standing up. "I'll be staying out of your way."

"Aren't you a mage?" Laxus asked whilst Ringo moved out of his way.

"I dislike attacking." Ringo said simply.

Laxus didn't have time to talk back as the scorpion thrusted its large stinger at him. He dodged out of the way and struck the large arthropod in the back with another round of lightning. The hit was bright, blinding Ringo for a few seconds. When she finally could see again, she saw that the attack had barely done anything to the creature. It was phased but simply shook off the pain and continued to attack. It charged at Laxus without a care, going at a speed that seemed to fast for its size which could match a small building.

Laxus was not surprised at how resilient the creature was to his lightning. It was much larger than the ones from before and its shell was clearly harder. Ringo watched the fight from what she thought was a safe distance, until the scorpion decided to direct its attention to her. It raised its massive tail up right and shot it towards Ringo like a bullet. Ringo ran quickly to her right to dodge the stinger and its lethal venom.

Laxus attacked it with more lightning as it began to chase Ringo around the pit. With the lightning striking so close, even with her hearing turned down, Ringo had to cover her ears whilst she ran—this action slowed her down. She went around in a circle, dodging around dead scorpions as the big one simply trampled them without a thought. She glanced back at the creature but fear did not seem to grow in her eyes, simply the wish to get away from the monster chasing her.

"Laxus-san, please do something." Ringo asked calmly as she continued to play bait. The lightning mage was still attacking the creature but if he used too large of a strike, it could easily affect Ringo.

"Attack it yourself!" He suggested.

"I told you, I cannot attack." Ringo simply stated, running towards him. She went right past Laxus and the man shot a bolt right in front of the scorpion, blinding it and causing it to become stunned.

Laxus turned to Ringo. "Why not?" he asked.

"Because I can't." Ringo said simply.

"You don't know any attack magic?" he asked.

"I do, I simply can't use it here." She said.

"Why not?" Laxus crossed his arms over his chest but constantly kept his attention on the still stunned scorpion. His voice was louder, a vein appearing on his forhead.

"You will be affected by it as well." Ringo said, placing her hands on her hips. "I don't want you to get hurt because of my magic."

"Why do you care so much, I'm just a stranger." Laxus asked.

"A stranger is still a person." Ringo said simply.

Laxus could no longer argue as the scorpion recovered and continued to rampage. The two mages moved out of the way, fumbling to the ground. As they fell, a pair of spiked, magical headphones fell out of Laxus's bag. An idea popped into Ringo's mind as she grabbed the headphones and forced them into his hands.

"Put these on and I will attack." She said. "You will still be affected, but it won't hurt as bad."

Laxus didn't question the girl and put the headphones on; he did, however, dislike her commanding tone. Though his hearing was muffled a bit with the headphones on, he could still easily hear the scorpion's movements and continued to keep it a safe distance away from himself.

Ringo got a safe distance away and swallowed hard. She disliked using the spell, Howl, but Laxus kept pushing her to do so and she knew he was strong from what she had seen. She got right in front of the scorpion, a large knot in her stomach formed but she tried to ignore it. Ringo took a deep breath and released her spell.

A magic circle formed right in front of her mouth as a blast of sound shout out, slamming the scorpion right into the air. Laxus could hear the loud attack, even through his headphones but it did not hurt him as Ringo had feared. When the scorpion left the ground, Laxus shot a large bolt of electricity which covered the whole body of the scorpion.

When the lightning attack ended, the scorpion fell to the ground, twitching slightly before stopping all movements. It was charred worst than the other scorpions and the smell of the burned flesh was nasty. Ringo looked at it and turned to Laxus with a smile though she had trouble hiding her disgust.

"At least it's over." She said, reassuring herself.

Laxus pulled his headphones off and shrugged. "You shouldn't be too paranoid with your magic." He told her. "It didn't hurt."

Ringo was surprised at Laxus's words. To her, someone telling her that her magic did not hurt was a first. The only other person it had not affected was her grandfather, the sound mage who taught her how to control her magic. She sighed in a bit of relief, the knot in her stomach disappearing.

"Is there a specific place you are traveling to?" she asked the man.

"No." Laxus said, putting his headphones away.

"May I travel with you?" Ringo smiled at Laxus. Her eyes and tone showed no signs of joking.

"Why?" Laxus asked, not keen on the idea of someone going with him.

"I have my reasons." Ringo said simply. "I'd rather not go into details on why."

Laxus wanted to reject her instantly but he had a feeling that just telling the girl no would not work. "You are going to follow me until I accept." He said, not bothering to ask.

"I just want to find out if what I was told is true." Ringo said simply, walking over to him.

"Which is?" Laxus asked.

"It's nothing." Ringo said. "So what do you say, can I come with you?"

Laxus looked at her and sighed slightly. "Just don't fall behind." He said, walking to the edge of the pit.

Ringo smiled happily. "I won't." she said. She turned to follow him and a strap on her sandals broke, causing her to fall on her face

Laxus frowned as Ringo stood up and wiped herself off. "Why are you wearing such useless shoes?" he asked her.

"Because they are the only ones I own." Ringo admitted.

Laxus watched the girl take off her shoes and placing them in her bag, opting to walk in the desert barefooted. He could not understand how this girl could underestimate traveling so much. "You need new shoes."

(*A*)

"Laxus, I can't go in there." Ringo said, nervous.

"Why not?" Laxus asked, getting frustrated; his arms crossed over his chest

"There are too many people there." Ringo said, hiding behind a palm tree.

"It's only a town." He said. A vein was clearly visible on his forehead.

"Too many people." She repeated.

"Why does that matter?" Laxus frowned.

"More people means more noise and more noise means I might lose control and me losing control is bad." Ringo said, not making much sense.

"Why are you so difficult?" Laxus growled.

"I'm sorry." Ringo said though her face did not seem to say that. "Can you get the shoes for me?"

"No." Laxus said bluntly.

"But my feet hurt." Ringo said.

"Then go in town and get your shoes!" Laxus said.

"But I can't." Ringo said, gripping at the bark of the tree.

"This will never end, will it?" Laxus asked.

"Not until you get me my shoes." Ringo said with a pleasant smile.

"Not happening." Laxus said.

"Stingy." Ringo frowned. She looked at the town and noticed a pile of trash along the outer wall of the town. She went over to them and pulled a simple pair of sandals out, mostly clean. Wiping off some dirt, she went back to Laxus and held up her new found shoes. "Okay, I'm ready." She said, placing the shoes on her feet.

"We're getting your fear of people fixed." Laxus said, turning around and continuing to walk. Ringo shrugged and followed behind him.

If he could change her fear, she welcomed it.


As I said above, I do accept critiques and I would love any helpful tips. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter and hopefully the second one will becoming shortly.