The giant rock formations around us towered high above the hilly sands of the desert. The wind gently blew against my cloak. It was hot as anything, but it was an effort to keep the sun off my skin. My companion lumbered behind me, his big and hulking frame keeping some of the sunlight off my much smaller frame. We'd been traveling for weeks together, becoming as thick as thieves. My heart, however, had much different feelings in mind for him.
He stopped behind me. He slowly turned away, choking on his breath. He looked over his shoulder, the sun illuminating his scarred face. The sun reflected off his magic headphones, blinding me, causing me to wince.
"L, you okay?" I walked back over to him, reaching up to set a hand on his warm shoulder under his cloak. He took a shuddering breath in. His hand twitched as if he wanted to touch my hand but instead it traveled to his bag.
"I feel like… someone just walked over my grave." He tightened a hand on his shoulder bag. "I… I need to go. Something's wrong." He finished in a distraught tone. He dropped the bag. I watched as it slid down a few feet in the sand.
"What do you think is wrong?" I kept my tone light and positive. I could feel my heart breaking under the desert sun. The sun was forcing its warmth into my skin, but it couldn't melt the ice forming around my heart.
"I can't explain it… I... Something is wrong back home. I need to go. Sin, I will find you. I need to go home but I will come back for you." A flash of lightning and he was gone.
Before
"Oy! Waitress! More beer!" Male voices cheered at the request that was thrown my way. I inhaled a deep, ragged breathe as I pasted a smile onto my face. Acid filled my stomach as the men did their best to flirt with me while almost falling over themselves. I gave the table of drunken fools a nod and a smile, heading back towards the kitchen of the Earthland Tavern. The bar was filled to the brim at this late midnight hour, with many guild wizards from various parts of Fiore celebrating. We ourselves were more to the southern edge of Fiore, quite far from almost anything else. It wasn't uncommon for random spells to be cast, and tonight was no different. Sparks of light were flying around the bar as I filled the pitcher of beer.
The tavern was my home, and I didn't mean that metaphorically. Truth be told, I hated working here, but I had an apartment above the bar I split with the newbie to the bar, Millianna. We were both the tender age of sixteen, but I was much more experienced in the real world, while Millianna went through a true horror story. Mills, as I had affectionately nicknamed her, told me her story one night after a particularly bad night of customers. It was in her first week of work, and she had had more than a few curse words thrown at her due to beginner-waitress clumsiness. Mills told me the tale of being forced to work in a cult, thinking her friend had betrayed her as a young child, before finding the truth and barely escaping with her life. Millianna was absolutely obsessed with cats, she even resembled one. Her room certainly proved it. I loved her, but the cat-obsession was a bit much to me. I remember the night she stumbled into the tavern a few months ago. She had been traveling with two other guys, but Millianna had wanted to learn what it was like to work hard, earn money, share an apartment. While I had been able to afford the apartment on my own, it was nice to be able to buy groceries and not steal from the kitchen of the tavern.
Mills is slightly taller than I, and we both have dark eyes but that is about where our physical similarities end. While Millianna is tan, and well… developed, I am on the paler side and, well, let's just say that my body isn't earning me hefty tips. My dark blue hair is almost always thrown into a braid over my shoulder, while Mills always has her shining golden-brown hair hanging around her face.
"Fairy Tale is such a shit-show now." One drunken woman chortled, her pink eye makeup running. Her guild tattoo was too far for me to see, I couldn't help but roll my eyes. Truly, nobody had anything else better to talk about than their guilds.
"Yeah! They even let in those creeps that destroyed their guild hall join in. Weaklings!" another drunk laughed in response. The lights flickered. A light appeared out of the corner of my eye, but I was too focused on the beer tap in front of me to pay much attention.
"Clair! In front of you, meow-meow!" Millianna's light and high-pitched tone called out to me from across the bar. A flash of lightning was heading towards my position from behind the bar. Millianna's voice held panic, while I felt nothing. Bar fights were nothing new. I happened to be so lucky that this type of magic was my forte. I held one hand up in front of my face and the light hit my hand, forming into a ball. The bar, just a moment ago was buzzing with excitement, was now dead silent. I tried my best to curb the temper I felt reeling inside of me… Why couldn't I just have one simple night? I somewhat slammed down the pitcher of beer on the bar, taking the light with two hands.
Light magic was a funny thing. Despite light being an object, it certainly had feelings. This ball of light was practically buzzing with excitement, purring. Light loved to be shown off and admired by all. I could almost hear as if the light were whispering to me, begging to show off.
"Light magic- butterfly formation." I whispered to it. I threw my hands into the air and hundreds of light-made butterflies were released into the bar. Excited yells and shrieks echoed. Millianna ran over to me.
"Mew! That was amazing Clair! I've never see you use your magic! You must have so much of it!" Mills gave me a large hug, the rough material of the work uniform blouse itching against my arms. She held my shoulders, eyeing me up and down. Her gentle hands forced me to spin, the work mandated black skirt flaring around my knees.
"I'm fine, Mills. I promise. Who was the idiot that lost their temper this time?" I smoothed the top of my hair down. I could see the security lacrima floating around above Millianna as my boss, Jameson, worked in the back office, but kept an eye on things here. We certainly didn't need him coming out to handle the mess.
Jameson Mann owns and operates the Earthland Tavern, which he believes makes him a ladies man. While I am beyond thankful to him for all the kindness he has shown me, from giving me a job, to renting the apartment upstairs, Jameson will kick the flirt up with any women that come through. Which normally would be fine, but he has a fine talent for pissing off boyfriends and husbands.
Millianna pointed to a small table where four people were gathered- one female and three males. The woman clearly thought very highly of herself, her brown hair gathered in a fancy knot, wearing a low-cut dress that showed off her assets quite well. She held a fan in front of her glasses, as if she was acting coy.
The two men to the woman's right had somewhat terrified looks on their faces. Well, one of them did. The other had a mask of sorts on, it was impossible to know what his true expression was. The clear alpha male was pissed. His hands were clenched into tight fists on the table and little sparks of lightning were emanating off him. I took a moment to study him.
He certainly looked as though he spent a lot of time training. The angry man had a large, muscular frame, with what I could tell were dark eyes, and dark circles under them to match. He had a large, lightning bolt shaped scar reaching from over his right eyebrow, to almost his chin. His blonde hair was shaped like spikes on his head. He had magic headphones over his ears with metal spikes sticking out. Something about this man made my heart go crazy. Judging by the pure anger on his face, perhaps it was fear. However, he was on my turf. He should be the one that's terrified. That kicked my temper back into gear.
"Hey, asshole. Mind taking your temper outside?" I stomped over, arriving in front of the table with my hands on my hips. Alpha's companions gasped and almost fell out of their chairs. The lightning around him increased. The strikes weren't straying far from him, but I could feel the lightning becoming more agitated, just like it's master.
"How DARE you speak to Laxus like that! Don't you know who he is?" One of the males, the one with the long, green hair dressed in a red traveling coat, stood up, coming around the front of the booth to block my view of his leader. He had some sort of green guild mark on his hand. I waved a hand at him.
"Do I look like I care? Look, Locksley, or whatever your name is, you can't lose your cool like that. Someone could have been hurt. If you can't calm down, I'm going to have to ask you to leave." It was silent behind me, as I could only assume everyone in the tavern was watching the scene go down. I crossed my arms across my chest for emphasis.
"Well, well, looks like little miss bitch over here has a bark to her!" The masked male laughed, his tongue flopping about. He had a guild mark on his tongue. Disgusting. I curled my lip at him. Little Miss Prissy groaned and turned her nose up at me.
"You don't want to endure this bitch's bite." I snapped at him. My conscience was dying inside. This was not who I was. I'm almost always a reserved, quiet waitress. I always was the most even tempered out of everyone I knew. There was something about this group that pissed me off. Perhaps it was their god-like worship of this human. I gave the alpha a sinister smile. "My bite is poison."
"Oh, in fact I do actually. I'd like you to bite me in the-" Masked Man, or MM, was cut off by Alpha.
"Enough." His deep voice reverberated through the tavern. He stood, knocking the chair behind him over. He ambled around the table, pushing aside his green haired worshipper to come face to face with me. Well, as face to face as we could be as there was a considerable height difference between us. We locked eyes. "What did you say to me?" He leaned down to get in my face.
Despite the heart attack I was having at our close quarters, my temper (or pride at this point) wouldn't let me back down. "You heard me, asshole. Calm down or leave." For extra measure, I poked his chest. For the record, I didn't happen to notice how muscular or hard his chest was.
And then, it was lights out.
Let me know your thoughts! No flames please. I'm just a simple girl obsessed with FT!