It's a new day, which of course means a new job! After yesterdays 'lazy day' Mason was more pumped than usual to take on a job. Unfortunately, Mason was met with a slight problem. There wasn't a single job that grabbed his attention. After at least 20 minutes of blankly staring at the request board a voice appeared beside him.
"Struggling to find a job eh? Don't worry little guy I know that feeling, but hey! I guess that means we're partners in job searching right?"
The voice belonged to the guild procrastinator Nabe, who finished his sentence with a wink directed at Mason. Mason, terrified at the thought of becoming the next Nabe, propelled his hand into the board and blindly grabbed whatever job request he touched. Without even looking at the job description, Mason headed over to the bar for Mira to verify the job. Mira's face scrunched up into a frown as she read the job description, trading glances between the description and the young mage who was standing before her. Mira wanted to flat out reject the request, but she could tell by looking at Mason that he wouldn't back down without a good explanation.
"There are plenty of jobs available today Mason! Are you positive that it HAS to be this one?"
Mira sighed, hoping that Mason will agree with her and put the request back, but deep-down Mira knew that Mason wasn't going to give up a request before trying it. He's a Fairy Tail wizard after all. With one last sigh, Mira approved the request which delighted Mason.
"I know you have been on a monster subjugation request before, but this one is different. All we know this time is the location and that it's a Vulcan nest. We don't even know their numbers this time. It just seems better suited for someone… ummm. For someo–"Before Mira could finish her explanation, Mason cut her off somewhat annoyed.
"For what? Someone older than me? I'm not some little kid Mira. You said it yourself, I've already done monster subjugations before, granted they were a bit smaller that Vulcans but so what? Two days ago, Myrrah and I protected Hargeon's bank from armed robbers! Stop treating me like some weakling, I hate it!"
With fury in his eyes, Mason grabbed the request and made his way to the Guild's exit, whistling to Myrrah that they were leaving as he left. Mira couldn't help but smirk a little at the young boy's attitude when it came to his age. There was something about it that reminded her of what she was like at that age, when she was still known as 'Demon Mira'. Unfortunately, her smirk dissipated as she was forced to recall the tragic event that happened during said 'Demon' phase that resulted in the loss of her little sister Lisanna. Fortunately, the moment of melancholy soon disappeared when she realised that she had customers to serve, and with her signature smile back on her lips, she returned to work.
Later that afternoon, the doors to the Guildhall were thrown open with an audible crash. However, this is Fairy Tail, the Guild where doors being thrown open or destroyed is common place so nobody batted an eye when it happened this time too. The only difference this time was that instead of the doors being thrown opened by a loud/ rowdy guild member, declaring their safe arrival back home. The doors were thrown open by a local townsman, face covered in sweat and eyes filled with fear as he ran up to the bar as fast as he could. Seeing the desperation in the man's eyes, the Guildhall's atmosphere quickly shifted from excitable to vigilant. Before Mira could ask the man what was wrong, she was cut off for the second time today.
"Excuse me miss, I need to raise the bounty on the Vulcan subjugation request quickly! Do you still have the request? Can I see it? Where is it?"
The man started to make his was over to the board in order to search for his request, panic growing on his face as he noticed it is no longer there. Mira who was beginning to grow anxious herself, replied to the townsman in order to calm him down and learn what has made him so jumpy.
"One of our mages accepted the request this morning so there is no need to worry. While he is a bit younger, he is more than capable."
Hearing that the wizard that had taken the job was 'younger', the man couldn't help but raise his voice.
"GET HIM BACK, you don't understand, if he's young, then he won't be strong enough for it!"
Mira noticed that mentioning 'it' whatever 'it' was, caused the man to shake throughout his entire body. Mira, now beginning to fear for Mason's safety, got the man to explain what 'it' was. After taking a deep breath in order to calm down, the man began to explain what it is that has made him so anxious.
"I decided to take a trip into the forest in the early hours of this morning to get some more intel on the Vulcan nest, now I know that I was advised not to do such, but I just wanted to help. I managed to find the nest and climbed a nearby tree in hopes that the Vulcan's won't look up and notice me. Everything was going fine at first, I counted 13 of them so far, but something didn't feel right. They all gathered food but rather than sitting and eating the food together, they just sat down and waited. They waited for what felt like 40 minutes, until it felt like the forest itself began shaking. They weren't gathering that food for them to eat, it was tribute. Tribute to the forest's Alpha Vulcan. It's a monster. I started to fear for my life, trying to think of different ways to escape, that's when I noticed that everything was dead silent. I looked back at the nest to investigate why things were so silent, only to stare directly into the eyes of the Alpha. It just smiled back. I screamed and I just ran. I ran until my feet gave out. Fortunately, there was a young boy with his pet wolf that helped me up and even made sure I made it near enough the entrance of the forest. I was so scared though, I didn't even warn them about the Alpha and it's nest. I just pray that they finished picking berries or whatever they were doing in there and got home to their family safe."
Mira's face dropped as she listened to the man describe Mason and Myrrah. Fearing for the lives of the two, Mira was ready to run into that forest and bring them home no matter the cost. As Mira was trying to come up with a plan in her head of how to save them, Makarov approached her and the townsman deep in thought, clearly overhearing the discussion that just happened. Makarov then raised his voice so that the man at the opposite end of the bar could hear him.
"Macao, I know you've been listening as well. Go. Save my grandkids."
Macao looked down at his beer one last time then downed the rest of it as he stood up.
"Roger"
