Lisanna gripped the cold muddy chain and pulled the metal links out of the ground. The metal link had sunk into the fresh mud of the forest from last night's rain. She followed the line it created in the dirt. What am I doing here? She asked herself, this job had been taken up on a whim, it wasn't even an official guild job. She was traveling back to Magnolia from a job. Traveling by foot through the mountains was slow but it certainly provided magnificent scenery. But when she passed through a small rural town she managed to get roped into all this. Apparently someone was poaching the local wildlife. The tiny mining town was far to isolated and poor to request help from a wizards guild. So she found herself a victim of her own philanthropic ways. She reached the end of the chain finding a rusty old bear trap on the end hidden within the wet leaves and twigs of the forest floor. The crude sharp teeth were caked with dried blood from previous prey. She could only imagine what kind of cruel person would use such a device to hurt animals. The poacher was also taking food off the tables of the local miners, plenty of the families lived off the land and hunted to put fresh meat on the table to feed themselves. But they didn't do anything like this, they hunted by skill using tracking techniques that had been passed down through the generations. And everyone bagged their limit taking no more than they needed, the locals understood and respected the fragile ecology.
A few clawed footprints could be seen on the muddy ground around the trap. They were far too small to be from a wolf or any of the local wild life. Once again she wondered why she was doing this job and not some trained tracker. If Natsu and Gajeel were here they could track this guy's scent over mountains. She could take various animal forms with powerful noses in their own right but what she lacked was the experience and knowledge to tell one scent from another let alone follow it over miles of rough terrain. A loud crack echoed throughout the forest catching her attention. She activated her takeover magic taking her harpy form and taking to the skies. Another shot sounded out in the forest below and she scanned the landscape trying to spot the shooter. A third shot rang out followed by a forth and a fifth. Yellow flashes from below caught her eye and it became clear to her that there was more than just one shooter here in these mountains. A round whizzed past her and it became clear she was safer on the ground than in the sky.
She landed on the ground and transformed again taking her cat form and moving through the forest hearing the shots grow louder and louder as she approached. She reached a ridge and looked down getting a fair view of the area below. A small man in a tattered cloak lay crouched behind a fallen log, he clutched his side bleeding. Dust kicked up next to her and seconds later she heard the shout sound out, she gracefully jumped from her perch and dashed towards the wounded man crouching low and crawling up to the man.
"Please help me!" he cried as another shot hit the tree they hid behind. "I was simply traveling through when this lunatic shot me," He explained tightening his grin on his bleeding side. "He got me pretty good."
Now that she was up close she could see that the man wasn't unarmed. A sleek pistol was in his hands and the ground around him was littered with spent brass casings. "Can you fight?" She asked knowing they'd stand a better chance with numbers.
The man shook his head, "He's got me pinned pretty good," he said, "and I'm out of ammo."
Lisanna silently cursed to herself, it looked like she was going to have to do this all by herself. "Stay here" she commanded preparing herself.
She leaped over the log and rushed forward with her catlike grace moving on all fours as she moved through the trees. Another shot was fired missing her only to kick up dirt as it impacted. More shots sounded out and whizzed by her.
She sprinted up the hill and leapt over a rock. A tall man in a tattered duster was crouched behind a bolder with a rifle in hand, a large metal pauldron covered his left shoulder. She charged him unsheathing her claws. The shooter dropped the bolt action and went for his revolvers on duel shoulder holsters, Lisanna stared down the barrels of black weapons. Each gun had a circular tube underneath the barrel. He was pulling back the hammer of both weapons when she closed the distance. She lashed out with her claws striking at him.
The man stepped back to avoid the strike bringing his left arm up to shield himself. Her claws cut through his duster's sleeves tearing through the worn fabric. He moved away and she expected to see blood flowing from his arm but he simply leveled the revolvers to her.
"Stop!" He commanded her lining up his sights. "Or I will shoot you!" His low rough voice sent a chill up her spine and as the sunlight shone down on the she caught the sight of light shining off his exposed left arm. It was made of metal. "Turn back to your original form wizard." He said his tone carrying a commanding edge to it, but if he wanted to shoot her he could of already, no amount of cat's grace would help her at this close a range. She conceded and reverted back to her full human form knowing anything else would probably just end with her getting shot.
"Good," The man said holstering one of his revolvers. Now that she could properly look at him she could see that he was a lot larger than she had originally thought, he stood tall at least as tall as her brother Elfman with wide shoulders. His bald head was covered with a leather black skull cap lined with brass studs. His dark brown duster was ragged and fraying at the ends and riddled with what Lisanna could only assume were bullet holes.
His metal hand went to his belt for a pair of handcuffs, "Put these on," he ordered tossing them to her feet. As the cold metal locked around her wrists she felt her magic leave her. Magically sealing handcuffs were not cheap as far as she knew. Her spine tingled as she realized her only weapon was taken from her. The man holstered his second revolver and kneeled to pick up his rifle.
Before she knew anything was happening the man sprang into action dropping the rifle again and forcefully shoving her to the side spinning her around. As she turned she caught sight of a flash of lighting shooting through the air towards her former location. The metal armed man took her spot and raised his steel limb catching the blue arcs of electricity in his hands. The shock sent the large man back a step or two and the shock hit him, the torn remains of his dusters sleeves turned black with char and the massive gunslinger clenched his iron fist.
The spell's caster stood in awe as the man caught the spell and shot it right back at him. The mage took the bolt of lightning unable to catch it like the other man. The man went down in a heap and the gunslinger drew his revolver and pulled the hammer back. Lisanna stood up prepared to stop the man from killing this mage. As she approached she could see that the attacker was the man from earlier no longer clutching his bleeding side, he had dropped his pistol and was writhing in agony, she could only imagine how painful that lighting was, this mage certainly wasn't a Dragon Slayer, Dragon Slayers couldn't be harmed by their own element.
The man recovered enough to try for his dropped gun, the gunslingers right foot came down on his hand stopping him. "Jared Galmar," the gunslinger said in that commanding tone of his. "You are under arrest for thievery, assault, resisting arrest, poaching, and murder. I've been hired to bring you back dead or alive."
Lisanna looked up at the man's face, his hands reached for another pair of magic suppressing handcuffs. "You're a mage? From a guild?" she asked realization dawning on her. The man lifted his metal arm letting the tattered and burned sleeve fall back showing the mark of a red firebird on his steel forearm.
"I'm a bounty hunter," he said never turning away from the lighting mage, "I'm from the Phoenix Talon guild."
The name didn't ring a bell to Lisanna, but hundreds of guilds dotted the landscape of Fiore and not just simple wizard guilds, merchant guilds, treasure hunter guilds, and even bounty hunters. Lisanna blushed realizing she had attacked the wrong person.
"If I'd have known you were a bounty hunter I would have helped you." She said apologetically. "I'm a wizard, and I'm used to this kind of work."
"What guild are you from?" He asked tilted his head towards her a little.
"Fairy Tail," she answered pulling her skirt back a little so the hunter could see her guild mark on her left thigh. For a second she thought she saw the cheeks of the man's hard leathery face darken just a little as he inspected her guild symbol.
The lighting mage saw an opening and took it grabbing the man's leg and sending out a burst of electricity making him roar in pain and bend down as his muscles contracted sending him down. The mage grabbed his pistol and rolled away jumping to his feet and aiming his weapon. Lisanna moved to stop him still handcuffed and unable to use her magic to help the bounty hunter. She slammed her body into him and the shot went out in a bang hurting her ears, she knocked him back a step. She slammed her cuffed hands into his bloody side hitting the wound he carried. He cried out in pain and clutched his side with his free hand, "bitch!" he growled hitting her across the face with the butt of his pistol sending her down. She hit the ground as she looked up the man was standing over her leveling the gun to her pulling the hammer back for another shot.
A loud ear splitting bark sounded from the forest, Jarred turned away from her to see a massive white spotted bulldog running through the forest its slobbery jowls flopping about. The huge dog slammed into the mage and send him to the ground and the angry mutt stood over him baring his fangs at him saliva dripping onto his face. If the dog had wanted to it could have easily have bitten the man's head off with a single chomp. The man grabbed for the dogs leg and once again channeled lighting into it. The dog gave a defining yelp of pain and like the hunter before him when down stunned by the shock. Jarred rolled out from under the massive horse-like bulldog as it collapsed down. He quickly got up onto his feet and brought his gun up aiming at the dog's head.
A shot came out with a bang, followed by a second. Red mist filled the air as the rounds pierced Jared Galmar, the gun fell from his hands and then he collapsed to the ground. Lisanna turned to see the bounty hunter back up with his revolver in hand.
"Don't touch my dog." He growled as the gun smoked in his hands. He stood fully up and holstered the weapon walking towards the corpse making sure he was truly dead, he picked up his gun and pocketed it for good measure, then he turned to Lisanna. "Are you ok?" he asked kneeling over her and helping pick her up out of the dirt.
"I'm fine," she said just now noticing her heart pounding in her ear. "I'm just fine, how's your dog?"
"He'll be just fine." He said reaching for a satchel on his side hanging by a strap along his leather bandolier. "He's just a little stunned is all, but we really need to get that looked at."
Lisanna looked down to see red soaking her dress, she hadn't noticed the bullet hit her. Apparently that first shot from Jared's pistol had pierced her side going straight through her. When you had enough adrenaline just about all kinds of pain was an afterthought. Now that the fight was over she was feeling the pain and clutched her side in agony.
The gunslinger took a key from a ring and unlocked her handcuffs returning her to normal. He pulled a handkerchief from the satchel and a flash from his hip soaking the red cloth and pressing it to her wound. She hissed as the cloth stung and she smelled the alcohol burning the hole in her. "Thanks for taking the bullet for me." He said in a low serious tone, "My name's Heckler" he said reaching for a roll of bandages in his satchel, "Hold this please."
Lisanna did as she was told and held the alcohol soaked cloth to her wound trying not to let the pain deter her as he unrolled the bandage and wrapped it around her waist. "I'm Lisanna," she said as he secured the bandage stopping the blood flow. Once he had stopped the bleeding he stood and looked at the tattered remains of his left sleeve torn and charred from the lighting attacks from Jared. "I'm sorry I attacked you, and cost you your bounty." She explained. "From where I was Jared looked pretty helpless and innocent, you kind of have the opposite appearance from him, being a big guy with a lot of guns and all."
"The world isn't as simple as white hats and black hats ma'am," he said grimly, "the meanest of men can have the most charming smiles whilst the good wear scared faces."
Lisanna cursed herself, "I'm sorry," she said, "That came out wrong I'm just saying I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions in the middle of a fight, but you did shoot at me."
"I missed on purpose," He said to her picking the rifle up again and throwing the bolt open and pushing fresh rounds into the magazine and closing the bolt. He slid the rifle into a boiled leather scabbard on his back and pulled one of his revolver breaking the top open to expose the rounds he tipped it over and poured out the spent casings to be replaced.
"Those are some pretty strange looking revolvers," she said eyeing the polished blue steel weapon in his hand.
"44. caliber nine shot LeMat revolver with a custom break top and a 24. gauge shotgun." He explained with a touch of pride in his voice.
"Is that what that hollow tube beneath the barrel is?" she asked deciding to indulge the man's pride a bit.
"Yes ma'am," he said holstering the weapon.
"They must have cost you quite a bit of jewel." She commented as he pulled a canteen from his satchel and unscrewed the cap.
"They were my father's, along with the shotgun." He pulled back his duster a little to show a short stubby sawed off lever action in a leather holster its length spanning his thigh and the barrel sticking out just past his knee. He handed her the canteen and she took it silently deciding not to pry into details about the gunslinger's farther.
A low gruff caught her attention as she watched the massive bull dog pull itself up off the ground trotting over to him like nothing had happened. The dog panted pleased as Heckler rubbed its head affectionately.
"You ok Browning?" he asked getting a pleased groan from the dog. Lisanna watched as the rough bounty hunter doted on the huge drooling animal. Before her eyes the dog shrunk in size becoming a small simple bull dog. "Your dog knows magic?" she asked both shocked and curious.
"He's pretty well trained, and having a magic collar helps with that among other things." He explained.
The dog looked at her and lumbered over sniffing her. She smiled at the mutt and petted him keeping her hands away from his wet jowls.
"Don't worry he's friendly and likes meeting new people." Heckler said walking over to the corpse of Jared Glamar and picking him up and throwing him over his right shoulder to haul back.
"You mean when he's not attacking your bounties." She said petting Browning and getting a happy guttural groan from the dog. Heckler just smiled a bit and whistled Browning over to him. "Come along," he ordered both of them looking to Lisanna, "keep drinking from that canteen, it's a long walk to the closest town and with that hole in you it's going to be tough, so keep yourself hydrated."
She obeyed seeing the reason of it and followed him and Browning through the forest staying close by his side.
The walk started off easy at first, she was still feeling the effects of the adrenalin from her fight, but it didn't last and she had lost more blood than she had originally thought. At first her pace had slowed, Heckler hand been kind enough to slow his pace for her but his long strides made it difficult to. Eventually he just stopped.
"You need to rest." He said turning around to look at her. "You're wounded so there's no shame in that, so tell me when you need to rest so you can rest."
Lisanna was going to protest but couldn't find the words for it. She nodded and sat herself down upon the nearest a rock, as soon as she was sitting down she realized just how tired she really was, the whole forest started spinning. "I'm sorry." She apologized taking a healthy gulp of water emptying the canteen.
"For what?" he said setting Jared's body down and propping it against a tree.
"Ripping your sleeve," she said trying to make the world stop spinning, she could hardly think she was so exhausted, once she had said that she realized how silly it sounded to saw that now. "And for drinking all your water," she added handing him back the empty canteen, "and for slowing you down."
"Don't worry yourself about any of that." He said putting the canteen away, "I owe you for taking that bullet for me."
"I didn't really intent to get shot doing what I did." She explained to him closing her eyes realizing everything spun even when she shut it out of sight, she opened them again and tried to focus on the man sitting in front of her hoping that everything would just stop spinning so she could continue trying to get back to town to see a doctor.
Heckler chuckled to himself and pulled a long wooden pipe out from his coat lighting it with a match, "No one wants or plans to get shot ma'am but I appreciate the gesture all the same."
"Can you please stop calling me ma'am?" she asked holding her head feeling her stomach churn. "Please call me Lisanna, alright? Lisanna."
She couldn't take it anymore, she turned away from him and keeled over letting everything come up. She vomited up spitting out everything she had eaten the night before and all that water she had drank, everything came out and spilled onto the forest floor. She felt a warm hand on her back.
"Let it out." Heckler said giving her an encouraging pat. "Just let it all out and leave everything to me Lisanna."
Lisanna finished heaving everything up and rested leaning her head against a tree breathing heavy feeling the weight of exhaustion bear down on her, moments later she slipped into darkness.
She felt warm when she woke, a musky scent of gun powder and tobacco filled her nostrils and pulled her back to the land of the living. "You awake?" a gruff voice asked her bringing her eyes open.
Heckler looked down at her, his face inches from hers. She looked up into bright green eyes against the background of the night sky. She realized he was carrying her his right shoulder pillowed her head while his metal one held her legs. His arm felt cold against the fabric of her skirt.
"What are you doing?" she asked, she had one hell of a headache but at least her head wasn't spinning anymore.
"Taking you into town," he said casually walking she looked down to see browning following closely.
"Where's your bounty?" she asked noticing the lack of a corpse draped over his shoulder.
"I buried him," he said simply, "couldn't carry you both," he explained to her.
"Won't you need him to collect the price on his head?" she questioned not wanting to cost this man all his hard work.
"I marked the grave and he's not going anywhere, I'll retrieve his body once I know you're safe." He explained continuing at his pace.
"I thought bounty hunters cared about their reward more than anything else," she teased.
"Have you met many bounty hunters?" he asked her, she shook her head.
"Let me worry about what happens to my money all right, you just rest and concern yourself with getting better alright?"
"Fine," she conceded looking around at the dark forest as he walked with her in his arms. "So you're from Phoenix Talon?" she asked trying to make conversation with the gun slinger.
"That's right." He said simply looking down at her, "I've been there for ten years now."
"Is that how long you've been bounty hunting?" she inquired.
Heckler shook his head, "No, I was freelancing for a year before then, the guild approached me once I gained a notable reputation."
"Reputation in what?" she asked finding it hard to believe he gained such a notable reputation as a hunter in a single year.
"Hunting mages," he said seriously, "not a lot of bounty hunters are cut out to hunt mages, usually the only people who can hunt mages are other mages."
"You mean like yourself?" she asked remembering him catching that bolt of lightning in his metal hand.
"Yes like myself, my farther taught me guns magic when I was young and I've collected a number of magical items in my time," he explained to her.
She decided to take a chance and spoke, "What about that arm of yours I don't think I've ever seen a man who can catch lighting with his bare hands."
"I got my arm after I joined Phoenix Talon," he said seriously, "you can't see it but I've got a metal leg too, both made by my guilds armorer along with some of my other equipment. Before I joined the guild I was a… cripple."
"You hunted wizards for a whole year missing an arm and a leg?" she questioned in disbelief.
"My leg was made of wood back then, my arm… well I had no arm back then, I had to do everything with just the one back then, couldn't hold a rifle and was barely able to reload my pistols, my shotgun holster was designed to hold it for me while I reloaded, I can cock it one handed and use it just fine with one hand."
She stared up at him, had this man truly tracked down and captured mages with his a few magic guns and one arm. "How did you lose your arm and leg?" she asked causing his worn scared face to grimace.
"I'd rather not talk about that." He said looking away from her staring straight ahead on the road.
"Why did you become a wizard?" he asked steering the conversation towards her a bit.
"My older brother and sister both are wizards and use transformation magic like mine, I just followed in their footsteps really, and we didn't have anyone to take care of us so we ended up joining Fairy Tail."
"Do you like it there?" he asked calmly.
"I love it there," She said smiling to herself, "we're all family there and we have a lot of fun… do you like your guild Heckler?"
He nodded, "It's a small guild, but I can trust everyone there and they've been good to me since I joined."
They walked for a while in silence, Lisanna breathed in the night air and thought about the interesting story she was going to have when she returned to the guild, she felt she could have walked by now but she didn't want to risk getting woozy again and throwing up, besides she was enjoying being carried it felt nice. A low yawn escaped her lips she tried to stifle it but it snuck out on her.
"Go to sleep" he said, "I'll have you at the doctors by the time you wake up."
Lisanna wanted to protest but she knew they would do nothing but delay the inevitable. She closed her eyes and once again allowed the warm embrace of darkness take her.
