Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail just what's written below.
The boat steadily made its approach towards the small harbor town of Eucalyptus. Despite being a harbor town, its location near the southernmost point of Fiore coupled with it's small populace and the dense, lush forestry surrounding it placed as one of the country's more out-of-the-way places especially with Hargeon further up the country's coast. As such, any boats arriving at their port were usually here for trading purposes.
That did not mean the village did not receive any visitors.
Docked and moored securely, the gangplank had barely lowered before a young man stepped off the ship, his face hidden by the hood of his blue trench coat. Following closely behind the man was an orange tabby cat walking on her hind legs like she was human and dragging along behind a blue denim jacket many times her size.
"Wait up, you guys!" A voice hollered out as a girl suddenly jumped out of the river and ran after them ignoring the water dripping off of her. "Rui! You're dragging my jacket across the dirt again!"
Letting go of the jacket, the tabby cat called Rui pulled out a light pen hidden within the black bandana covering half her furry head and scribbled words in mid air.
'You were the one who threw it off the moment the boat set off' Rui wrote. 'Maybe next time, you will think before going for a swim'
Still dripping wet, the girl glared at the cat as she picked up her jacket.
"Maybe next time, I'll just leave you back at the guild and have Cana watch over you." The girl smirked letting the jacket hang in her grasp as she jogged to catch up to the blue clad teen leaving the tabby cat hissing at her.
"Jeez, Alastor. Is there really a guild all the way out here?" She asked of him as the two left the village and started following the dirt road through the forest followed closely by Rui after tucking away her light pen.
"There is. But that doesn't mean you have to tag along, you know." Alastor replied pulling down the hood of his coat letting the girl see the stoic face of her partner.
"But we're a team, you and I- and Rui!" The girl added when said cat suddenly leapt onto her bare shoulder with claws semi-extended to make sure her owner knew she disliked being left out of the 'team'. "Even if she doesn't do anything other than sleep, drink milk or scratch the hell out of my things whenever I do something wrong."
This earned the girl the full extension of Rui's claws digging into her shoulder causing the girl to yelp out loud and jump about as she tried to dislodge the orange tabby. Alastor paid the duo no attention as he kept on walking. He had known the girl for more than six years now and had come to tolerate these random tussles she had with her feline friend as much as he tolerated all the other squabbles back at the guild.
"We've already completed the job, Will. Just swim on back to Magnolia or something. This is what you and Natsu call a boring job." Alastor suggested to the orangette as she and the tabby finished their little duet.
"And miss out on whatever fun you happen across?" Will grinned as she fell in step beside her blue haired buddy.
True, what Alastor was doing was by all means the least exciting type of job Will liked to be on. But, considering the guild they were a part of, things were surely not to go as anyone planned and was likely to end up with a good old fashion rumble happening somewhere along the line. That is what Will was betting on happening while out here in the lush green yonder.
Unfortunately, it did not look like Will was going to win that bet.
After nearly a full hour of walking, there was still no sign of their destination just trees, trees and more trees with healthy abundances of bushes and flowers on either side of the dirt trail. While Will was glad they were going there by foot and not by cart, the lack of something different or any sort of action was starting to get to her usually having the boredom back at the guild nonexistent due to several wizards.
"Allllll...Are we there yet?" Will groaned as they neared the crest of a hill. Her feet were starting to ache and her shoulder was feeling heavy due to Rui taking up residence on it ten minutes into the hike.
"See for yourself." The wizard in blue replied reaching the top of the hill before his partner.
"A simple yes or no would've sufficed…" Will grumbled as she stood beside Alastor and gazed down at the lake that was easily visible from their vantage point along with the settlement on the far side of it.
With eyesight sharper than Alastor's and even Rui, Will easily made out the appearance of the building situated in the settlement's centre and could now fully understand the guild's name.
"So that's Cait Shelter, huh? Doesn't look like much from here." Will commented dryly wondering why her friend would want to come all the way out here to invite such an out of the way guild into the this alliance he was trying to build.
"Quit judging the book by it's cover." Alastor scolded the orangette as they started making their way down towards the lake.
"Yeah, yeah- save the spiel…" Will replied.
She liked the bluette as if he were her brother. The only downside being that Alastor was pretty much a workaholic: if he was not taking jobs, he was studying books of various magic; if not studying magic, he was practicing magic; if not practicing magic, it was something guild related. It was as if the word 'fun' did not exist in Alastor's vocabulary despite efforts from herself and others.
Still, it could be worse: he could be a blue haired version of Erza and everyone knew just how extreme that girl could sometimes go if someone did not intervene.
"Let's just go there and get this-" Will stopped talking as she spotted something happening down at the edge of the lake.
"What's wrong?" Alastor asked noticing Will seemed to freeze up like a bloodhound when it caught sight of it's target.
Will did not reply. Instead, she just grinned before taking off so quickly Rui was literally left hanging in midair for a second before dropping to the ground with a thud before she could react.
"Will!" Alastor called after her but it was too late. She was already at the bottom of the hill and disappearing into the forest towards the lake.
"Let me go!" The little girl cried as she dangled helplessly from the hand of the large man who just laughed.
"Now why would I want to do that? Don't you know having a hostage always makes getting loot a lot easier?" He cackled as he walked up the gangplank to the commandeered boat.
On the shore and bound to a tree, the boat owner could only look on helplessly as the bandit's small band of followers laughed at their boss' supposed joke. He and the girl had just reached land in order to welcome two wizards from the famous Fairy Tail guild coming to visit when they were suddenly pounced upon by them. Now, it looked like a different group of wizards was going to pay their little community a visit.
"Okay, enough of this. Get on board, you idiots!" The boss ordered to his four subordinates.
"Hey, you!" A female voice hollered out from the direction of the forest causing everyone, bandits and kidnapped child, to turn in the direction of the voice just in time to see Will emerge from the treeline with such speed, none of them had the time to react to her leaping into the air and landing a solid flying kick to the face of the bandit holding the girl sending him crashing into the mast of the boat dropping the girl in the process.
Grinning at the satisfaction of taking down what seemed to be a kidnapper with one move, Will turned to the rest of the bandits still yet to board cracking the knuckles of one hand in preparation for what looked to be a good rumble.
"Okay, which of you goons…" Was all she managed to get out before clenching her mouth shut as a feeling of intense nausea washed over her.
In all her eagerness to jump into the fray, Will had failed to take into account that the boat was not moored at all to the bank and the force of the bandit goon hitting the ship mast had rocked the craft fiercely enough to knock it away from the bank and now drift freely on open water.
"Um...Are you okay?" The girl asked her supposed rescuer who was now curled up clutching her stomach.
"I'm fine...No worries." Will assured the girl although the look on her face said otherwise. "Just as...just as soon as my stomach stops...stops...-URP!"
Recovering from the sudden attack, the bandit boss go back to his feet, his face now carrying a perfect footprint of Will's sandal to go to with the large lump on the back of his head. Rubbing the aching appendage, the boss glared daggers down at Will's curled up form.
"The hell! You got a deathwish, punk!?" He demanded picking Will up by her jacket.
Will responded by giving the bastard her best glare. Too bad her motion sickness made it look less scary and more along the lines of pathetic.
Back on dry land, the rest of the bandits were wondering just what the heck had just happened as they watched the boat drift away from them. One minute, this girl had appeared out of nowhere and charge in guns blazing then was all curled up like a little girl the next.
"That idiot. Always thinking with her heart and not her head."
Whipping round at the sound of another unfamiliar voice coming from behind them, the bandits were surprised to see Alastor calmly walk out from the tree line and walk towards them while scratching the back of his head in mild frustration. Despite his non-threatening demeanor, the bandits immediately prepared for combat in case he suddenly decided to lash out like the orangette did on their boss.
"Who the hell are you!?" One of the bandits demanded.
"You friends with that clown who attacked our boss?" Another asked pointing his saber at the bluette in a threatening manner.
Despite being outnumbered four to one, Alastor showed no signs of being intimidated by the display.
"Friends? Well, I guess you could call us that." He replied calmly stuffing one hand into the pocket of his trousers leaving the other hanging limply at his side. "Got a problem with it?"
"Not at all- So long as you get ready for a beatdown for butting in!" One of the bandits declared charging towards Alastor channeling earth magic into his augmented gauntlets.
At the sight of the bulky behemoth running at him, Alastor stood his ground merely curling the first and last two digits of his hand leaving the pointer and index fingers fully extended together.
"Earth-Make: Morning Star!" The bulky bandit chanted calling upon the power of earth magic to turn his clasped hands into a lethal spikeball that he raised above his head to swing down upon Alastor's own as the distance between them diminished.
"Silent Sound!" Five steps from the bandit's range, Alastor's hand became a blur of motion that ended with him pointing at his opponent.
The next second, the burly bandit, whose girth was at least thrice that of Alastor, was sent flying backwards as something as clear as air yet heavy as iron struck him clean in the chest flying passed his stunned fellow bandits before crash landing in a heap a good twenty odd metres away at the base of a stout apple tree. As if to add insult to injury, a single apple fell to hit the bandit atop his head.
"Here! What the bloomin' hell just happened?!" One of the three remaining bandits demanded tightening his grip on his ruby tipped staff.
"What just happened is that this guy just made a huge mistake!" The saber wielding bandit remarked. "Let's show 'im what the consequences are for defying us!"
"Right!" The staff wielder nodded before charging in with the saber wielder following close behind him. "Dynamite Strike!"
With the red jewel of his staff glowing, the bandit swung the staff wildly at Alastor in the hopes of hitting him and activating the spell that would create a small explosion strong enough to take a man's head off. He was not expecting for his opponent to parry his staff with two fingers where the small explosion was somehow redirected to go off in his face.
Assuming Alastor to be not paying attention to him, thereby leaving himself wide open, the saber wielding bandit charged at the wizard's exposed back. His weapon was a Musica Blacksmiths exclusive he had 'acquired' that allowed him to launch a series of attacks at super high speeds and rend asunder his opponents even if they were aware of him.
"Prepare to be sliced and diced, brat! Octa-hack!" The bandit called out as Alastor turned to face him.
In the blink of an eye, the bandit had unleashed a combo chain of seven sword slashes. And yet, all the bandit could do was gawk at Alastor who was untouched by a single attack. Had he not been so shocked by seeing someone come out unscathed against an attack that usually had his opponents cut to ribbons, and maybe had a chance to look at his feet before Alastor knocked him flying with the same spell he used on the Earth-Maker mage, he would have seen the two grooves in the dirt his feet made when Alastor used wind magic to push him back.
"And that leaves you." Alastor remarked turning to face the last member of the quartet.
Whereas many people would normally be starting to freak out at seeing their comrades being taken out with relative ease, the final bandit to face Alastor merely cackled. While the other two had taken Alastor head on, and were taken out within seconds, he had held back and began preparing a water magic spell. Fortunately, the spell did not have a long casting time and the bandit was ready for Alastor the moment he turned his attention on him.
"You may have beaten the others, but now you're going to taste some real magic!" The bandit declared as a deep blue magic seal appeared in front of him. "Kraken Gatling!"
From the seal, multiple tentacles of water shot out and speared towards Alastor. With each tentacle as thick as an average man's arm and tipped with a lethal point, a single direct hit could skewer Alastor clean through. Of course, that was assuming Alastor allowed the attack to hit him.
"Heat Geyser!" Alastor chanted calmly with a flurry of hand gestures ending with an upward flick.
Rupturing from the ground in front of the wizard, a pillar of intense heat shot skywards in front of the incoming aqua arrows resulting in a brief cloud of steam as the water attack evaporated leaving Alastor once again unharmed.
"He...stopped my attack. All our attacks!" The bandit whispered in disbelief beginning to pale as he suddenly recognised who he was up against.
Blue hair and coat. Capable of making magic work in ways only few wizards thrice his age could.
"You're him!" The bandit croaked backing away from Alastor like he was the reincarnation of Zeref. "Thaumaturge of Fairy Tail!"
"What?! Thaumaturge?!" The bandit leader exclaimed catching what his minion had cried out.
Hearing the name the bandit had exclaimed, the little girl poked her head up over the rail of the boat in time to see wizard in question take out the last of the bandits, sans their boss, who had captured her.
Much like Laxus, Titania and the up and coming Salamander, Alastor Branford, aka Thaumaturge, was a well known wizard from the Fairy Tail guild. He was supposedly a powerful wizard, capable of making the surrounding land bend to his magic and combine it with his own magic to unleash spells never heard of before now.
According to Sorcerer's Weekly, Thaumaturge was usually seen accompanied by a girl, another up and coming wizard much like Salamander who people had begun to call Leviathan due to her affinity with water.
"No way…" The bandit muttered looking back at Will who was still hanging from his hand. "This weak little girl's that Leviathan?!"
"I'm gonna make you eat those words!" Will managed to threaten before turning green from her own choice of words.
Ignoring the moaning girl hanging from his outstretched arm, the bandit boss turned his attention back to the wizard on the bank. There was no doubt in his mind that Thaumaturge was going to be coming after him next now that he had defeated his men but, assuming this slip of a girl was his partner Leviathan, he doubted the wizard would attack in fear of harming his own partner. Right?
"Don't come any closer, Thaumaturge!" He called out to Alastor lifting Will up so that the wizard in blue could see her clearly. "You're gonna stay right there until me and the girls here are long gone- unless you want their blood on your hands, that is!"
For a moment, it looked like Thaumaturge was going to comply with his request. For a moment, that is. A few hand gestures later, Thaumaturge unleashed another wind magic spell knocking Leviathan clean out of his grasp and overboard into the watery depths below.
'He took out his own partner?!' The bandit thought in disbelief wondering if he should grab the little girl and try to use her as a shield or just give up now in case he just fired a spell that took them both out.
As he began to reach down for the girl, an explosion from behind caused him to whip round. Following the watery contrails, the bandit was shocked to see Will looking much livelier all of a sudden, not to mention angry, as she floated high in the sky it seemed for a second before falling back down towards the boat.
"I'll show you who's weak!" Will yelled as she pulled her fist back while still falling towards the bandit.
Foolishly just standing there as she came plummeting towards him, the bandit watched as magic and water began gathering around the fist swirling and shaping itself into what could only be described as a drill or cone shape.
From the bank, Alastor made to call out to Will in an attempt to stop her from unleashing her attack. If she were to land that attack-
"Water Dragon's Drilling Fang!" Will yelled as she swung her fist with enough force to knock out a man twice her size.
The blow missed the bandit, instead hitting the deck of the boat right in front of him, but the force of impact was powerful enough the entire craft folded in two like a venus fly trap snapping shut.
Alastor could only groan at his partner's stupidity. At times like this, it was hard to tell who was the greater wreckingball in Fairy Tail as she was definitely on par with Natsu in terms of destructive mayhem- of course, that was without including Erza and Mirajane whenever the two got into one of their little quarrels, although little was not exactly the word he would use to describe it.
Putting aside Will's destructive tendencies aside for the moment, Alastor turned his gaze skyward and was relieved to see that, when the boat was wrecked, the little girl who had been on board also had been sent catapulting into the air although she probably did not think of it as being lucky as she tumbled helplessly through the air towards the ground judging by that panicked scream she was wailing.
"Hold on, kid!" Will called out as she rocketed out of the water once more using her water dragon slayer magic to leave a single, large continuous contrail of water in her wake as she began dipping, diving and spiraling towards dry land. "Water Dragon's River Slide!"
Because of her magic, the 'slide' as Will dubbed it was solid enough that, instead of passing through it when connecting with the water, the little girl was surprised to suddenly find herself following after Will and was soon screaming out with joy despite herself.
"Yeah, that's the spirit, kid!" Will encouraged as she got closer to the ground thinking about finishing off with a loop-de-loop before smirking as a better idea came to mind. "Alastor! Think fast!"
Not understanding what Will was getting at, Alastor only had a second to react as Will landed right in front of him then immediately stepped to the side allowing the younger girl to shoot off the slide and collide with him sending both to the ground. Will was almost on the ground also although this was more from nearly falling over from laughing too hard at the prank she had successfully pulled off.
"Told you to think fast!" Will chortled wiping the tears from her eyes.
"Will…" Alastor growled slowly pulling himself up into a sitting position. A sharp sting and the feeling of something warm flowing down the back of his head indicated he was cut although how bad he could not properly tell.
Bringing a hand that had reflexively wrapped round the little girl to protect her from harm during collisions both with him then the ground, thus preventing him from protecting himself, Alastor hissed as he touched the injury causing the stinging pain to flare.
"Are you okay?"
"It's nothing." Alastor replied to the little girl still sitting on his lap and staring at him with concerned eyes. "Comfy?
Finally realising what she was doing, the girl quickly scrambled off of Alastor mumbling apologies all the while. Alastor merely brushed her off, more concerned with his injury and giving Will a good telling off for being stupid as he made to stand up only to stay seated as a wave of dizziness came over him. It looked like the injury was worse than he thought.
"Um… If you like… I could heal that for you." The girl muttered becoming all quiet and nervous. It was evident that she was upset and probably feeling guilty for what had happened to Alastor.
Despite the headache building, the word heal had caught Alastor's attention. Seeing as the girl had no satchels or pouches on her containing any sort of healing salves, and with no sign of any medicinal herbs in the surrounding area, Alastor was wondering if the girl was referring to healing magic something that was as rare as his own magic and even Will's water dragon slayer magic.
"Alright then. Go ahead." Alastor told the girl.
Gulping, clearly nervous at the thought of using her magic on a famous wizard, the girl's hands shook slightly as she brought them up to the injury at the back of Alastor's head. Watching on from the sideline, Will watched as a soft glowing light covered the girl's hands and Alastor's wound feeling her jaw drop slightly as the wound disappeared in a matter of seconds.
Her surprise was nothing compared to Alastor's. While not being able to see the girl at work, he definitely felt the effects of the magic. The pain was gone, along with the dizziness it was almost as if the injury had never even happened. It usually took a lot to impress Alastor but this girl did just that like it was nothing.
Speaking of whom, the girl was looking at him nervously as if waiting for him to say whether or not she had done a good job or something.
"Nice work." He told her as he stood up without feeling any signs of dizziness or nausea.
"Really?!" The girl asked her nervousness disappearing as her face lit up in what Alastor assumed to be happiness.
"Uh...yeah, really. That magic's supposed to be hard to master yet you made it look easy." Alastor replied honestly.
"Th-thank you." The girl stammered blushing from the praise she had just recieved as she bowed to Alastor. "And thank you also for saving me, Mr 'Thaumaturge Sir."
"Just call me Alastor- and it was this carrothead here who saved you, not me." Alastor added jerking a thumb at Will. "Even if she did almost kill you at the same time."
"Hey! That guy thought I was weak so naturally I had to show him just how weak I really am!" Will defended heatedly.
"By naturally turning something into toothpicks?"
"Shut up! And that spell hurt, by the way!" Will added glaring at Alastor.
"Be glad I didn't use a lightning spell, water woman." Alastor countered easily before tuning out Will's reply as he turned his attention back to the girl who had just stood there watching them in awe. "So, you got a name or shall we just call you kid for the rest of our stay?"
Jumping slightly upon realising she was being talked to by Alastor again, the girl blushed slightly as she bowed once again.
"S-sorry about that. I really wasn't expecting all this to happen and…" The girl trailed off as she realised she was rambling and, after seeing the two wizards look patiently at her decided it was safe to try again. "I'm Wendy Marvell from Cait Shelter. I was supposed to come and meet you halfway and guide you back to my guild but…"
"Ah, don't worry about. In Fairy Tail, things rarely go according to plan." Will assured the younger girl.
"Speak for yourself." Alastor muttered with a roll of his eyes while Wendy seemed to relax at Will's words. "Now that we all know one another, shall we get going?"
"Um...actually...about that…" Wendy started somehow sounding both cheerful yet nervous at the same time. "Because not many people come to visit, the only boats we have are usually dock closer to the village and…"
She trailed off her gaze turning to face the lake shore where what was left of the boat bobbed upon the surface. Like Will said: in Fairy Tail, things rarely go according to plan.
My first foray into Fairy Tail aided by one Greywing44. Fingers crossed I'll do good but only time will tell.
Review if possible & until next time
Watch this space & peace out!