Chapter Two: Travel
The day was sweltering hot. Lucky I usually wear short skirts and tops. I trudged along, sweating after the others. Erza never changed her pace and Natsu was energetic enough, Happy following suit. Gray was probably resisting the urge to strip off all his clothes and was sweating a waterfall.
"How much further?" I asked, my feet aching. It had probably been a couple of hours since we left the guild.
"Don't be such a sook, Lucy!" said Natsu, smiling happily, not even puffing.
"Yeah!" said Happy, although he wasn't as energized as Natsu.
"Be quiet!" I said, "It's easy for you, Natsu! Your power's probably double in this weather."
"Yeah!" said Natsu, "Hey… I could finally beat Gray today! Ha, ha, ha!"
"Shut up," snapped Gray. I could see the heat was making his mood sour, like mine.
"Your ice would probably melt, the second it came out," laughed Natsu.
"Don't make me turn around!" threatened Erza.
Both Natsu and Gray pretended to be best friends after that. I always admired how Erza had the ability to do that.
After a few more hours…
"Can we take a break?" I pleaded, practically dragging myself along and leaning against trees when possible. We were in a forest where we walked along a dirt path. Erza, meanwhile, was still walking without a change of pace despite her wearing armour in the hot weather. The evening was still hot and we had to slap the occasional mosquito. Of course, Natsu and Gray slapped each other until Erza threatened again.
"No," said Erza firmly, "We're nearly at the place where we can get that boat."
"That's what you said a few hours ago!" I protested, "I don't want to seem annoying or anything, but it's getting dark and why couldn't we have just taken one of those cars that absorb your magic to move?"
"Because this is an S-class mission," said Erza, pausing to turn around and looking me in the eye, allowing me a few seconds to sit down, despite the dusty ground, "I'm not sparing any magic power when some enemy could pounce on us at any moment."
"There's also the chance the princess might get shot while we're still walking here," pointed out Gray.
"You didn't read the whole message left to us by the King," said Erza, "They have to pay the ransom by three days or then the princess gets killed. We'll make it to the boat by three days."
"Are you sure about that?" asked Natsu, even he was tired, "Because, when I was little, I looked all over for Igneel," I noticed him wince slightly at the mention of his name, "and I think I've covered more ground right now than I did then."
"We'll get there," said Erza, "Come on, hurry up. No dawdling."
I pushed myself off the ground, dusting off my skirt and forced myself to follow Erza.
After a while…
"OK," said Erza, "We're here."
"THIS?" I couldn't help but exclaim, "Walking about 5000 kilometres for THIS?"
For there in the water at the coast was a little wooden, unreliable-looking boat.
"Honestly, why can't we get a ride like during the Galuna Island mission?" asked Natsu, "At least that was within walking distance."
"Think about the reward, Natsu," I said jokingly, "Honestly though, I agree with him. Why couldn't we have gotten a ride?"
"If we had taken that ride, it would have taken us a lot of time. But during this, it's an hour ride at the most."
"How is all our luggage supposed to fit on that?" Gray asked, gesturing to the colossal mountain of luggage.
"We leave it behind, of course!" said Happy.
"NO, WE ARE NOT!" yelled Erza, "You realise it's an island, so I thought I'd go relax by going out to the beach and so we are bringing that along!"
"All of it?" exclaimed Natsu, "Geez, how big is your swimsuit, anyway?"
"Why can't you just use Requip Magic for your swimsuit?" asked Gray.
"We're bringing them along," said Erza, "Case closed. We'll make a raft out of tree trunks. Chop down a few palm trees, troops."
Since we didn't have much choice, I got out my Celestial keys, "Door of the bull, I open thee! Taurus!"
"Lucy! What must I do to protect your nice body?" asked Taurus as soon as he was out.
"Um, nothing," I said, "But you can help me cut down some trees."
"If it protects your nice body!"
"Um, sure…"
Sure enough, he chopped down about four of five trees.
"OK," I said, struggling to pick up one by one of its ends, "Can you help me carry them over there, then, please, Taurus?"
"Sure!" he said eagerly and picked up the rest of the trunks.
God! I thought, trying to lift up the trunk, I don't know how Taurus does this…
Suddenly, the trunk lifted up at the other end. I looked behind me in surprise and saw Gray.
"If you needed some help, you could've just said so," said Gray, smiling slightly.
"I thought I could do it myself," I said, as we carried the trunk to the others, "All the others are working hard so I wanted to do my part as well."
He smiled, "Naturally Lucy. Always trying to help out."
"Isn't that the point of being a guild member?" I asked, placing down the trunk, "Helping each other out?"
"I guess," shrugged Gray, "But also being part of a guild member is that other members are there to help you when you need it."
"I would've gotten that trunk there," I protested, "… Eventually."
He sniggered.
"Oh, come on! The weather wasn't helping either! This weather is impossible, it's too hot!"
"Really?" said Gray, "All right… Ice Make…"
His magic circle appeared above me and some little droplets of ice slowly fell down around us. The hot weather melted the ice before it reached us and little trickles of water landed on me, cooling me down. The weather would dry me quickly so I never worried about catching a cold.
"Sugei, Gray!" I praised, "I thought you could only make battle weapons and, well fighting equipment."
"I'm insulted," said Gray, "Back when I trained with IU— Lyon, she taught us the basics of producing ice. This was the first magic I used to make ice before I made more complicated things like my Ice Cage and Bazooka and stuff…"
"It's still amazing," I said.
"Lucy! We finished the raft!" called Natsu.
I looked over and saw the trunks were tied together with some vines from the forest. Erza was loading on the luggage and tied some vine to the raft and the boat, connecting them.
"Is that boat going to be able to tug along the luggage?" asked Happy.
"It better," said Erza, tying a double knot, "Otherwise; we can swim there and pull it ourselves."
"Can you please freeze the vine connecting the things?" I asked Gray, "It make it less likely to break."
"OK," said Gray, "Ice Maho…"
The vine froze instantly. Natsu's looked over at Gray and me, "Hey, looks like your ability's useful after all."
"Shut up," said Gray.
"Hey!" said Happy, flying over to me, "You llllike him!"
"Come on, Happy, not today," I sighed, "We've already walked a whole marathon and now we're taking a trip across the ocean. You better go and comfort Natsu."
"Oh yeah," said Happy, flying over to where Natsu was, half dead lying on the boat. Erza jumped on board, making the boat bob up and down and I felt some pity for Natsu.
"Come on," said Gray, walking ahead.
I went towards the boat. I walked past Taurus who was fading away back into the Celestial Spirit World.
"Arigato, Taurus," I said, waving.
"No problem!" he said, "All for your nice body!"
"Yeah, OK," I said, walking to the boat, "Wow, it's smaller than what I thought…"
Because Natsu took up most of the space since he was lying horizontally, Erza was sitting down, one suitcase took up a space too and Happy was sitting down since he didn't want to fly for an hour. There was only one little space to fit one person.
"Um…" I said, turning to Gray, "Do you want to sit down?"
"Are you kidding me?" said Gray, "Just get rid of the suitcase," he said to Erza.
"This is my personal suitcase which has its own personal spot besides me," said Erza stubbornly.
"What are all the other suitcases then?" asked Gray.
"My stuff," said Erza, "And Lucy's stuff. This is just my special, personal suitcase. What's the big deal anyway? Just let Lucy sit on you."
Gray twitched, "Are you serious?"
"What? Would you rather swim?" asked Erza, "Because, Natsu's not moving, I'm not moving because I'm rowing this boat and I'm not even sure Happy can swim or fly for an hour. And I'm not making Lucy swim either, because unlike you, she's actually able to catch a cold."
Gray sighed and sat down in the one available seat, "All right, sit down, Lucy."
I hesitantly sat down on Gray, hoping that the situation wouldn't look too awkward.
"Isn't she heavy?" asked Happy.
I glared at him, "Nani?"
"Not really," said Gray.
"Huh," said Erza, "OK, Gray, put her arms around her and hold her."
"Why?" I asked before Gray could.
"Because I need some entertainment besides watching Natsu looking as if he's about to throw up and because I'm pushing off now and I don't want Lucy to fall off. Happy, hold down Natsu so he won't fall off."
"Aye!" agreed Happy and held Natsu back.
Erza pushed off hard and everyone lurched forward at least a little bit. Then we travelled smoothly until the coast disappeared.
"OK, it's getting late," said Erza, "You guys might as well get a bit of sleep, even if only for an hour. We'll be at the island soon."
I really want to sleep but what if Gray's uncomfortable with it? I thought. Happy was asleep in ten seconds flat and Natsu was even asleep even if he was sweating a lot from being sick.
"You can go to sleep, you know," said Gray, "I don't mind."
"OK," I said, leaning forward a bit so I wasn't leaning against him. I was used to sleeping on more comfortable surfaces and leaning forward was a bit uncomfortable for me.
Gray sighed, "I'm not going to bite," he said.
I smiled and laid my head against his neck. If Happy was still awake, he'd probably snicker and laugh but I was so tired I didn't care. Before I even thought much on that, I was already asleep.
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