Ch 3 Jacob Winters
Natsu burst through the guild doors with the black crystal on his back.
"What on earth is that?!" yelled Makorav.
"Something really damn heavy," grunted Natsu as he proceeded to place the crystal in the center of the guild hall. Lucy, Gray, and Erza filed in behind him.
"Allow me to explain, master," Erza said, "We found this ice crystal in one of the caves on Tenrou. It would also seem there's a man inside of it."
Everyone in the guild gawked at them for a minute, and then burst out laughing.
"A man? In that thing? Ha ha ha!"
"A man in ice? Ha ha are you insane?"
"I've never seen ice like that before! Ha ha!"
"SILENCE, BRATS!" Makorav stood up from his spot on the bar, "What do you mean there's a man inside that?"
"Take a look for yourself, Gramps. We're not lying," Natsu said as he wiped sweat from his brow.
The master grunted and jumped off the bar. He walked up to the crystal and put his eyes up against the ice. Inside of the crystal was a cloaked man curled into a ball.
The Master took a step back in shock, but quickly collected himself.
He turned towards Erza, "Have you identified the person inside?"
"No. It will be impossible to with the ice encasing him," she replied.
"Very well. We'll just have to find a way to extract him from the crystal," Makorav turned towards the group of guild members that had accumulated around the ice, "Levy, where are you?"
The small blue-haired girl stepped forward, "What do you need master?"
"Find out what this stuff is," Makorav said pointing at the crystal, "I want to know if we can safely extract this man."
"Consider it done, master," Levy said confidently.
Makorav turned towards everyone else, "The rest of you should go about everything normally. This should not affect your current activities.
"Who is this Jacob guy anyways?" Lucy asked. She, Erza, Natsu, and Gray at a table near the crystal.
"I don't know much more than what master told us before," Erza responded, "He kept to his self mostly. The only thing I remember was that his magic power was extremely weak."
"He used a form of shadow magic similar to Rogue's, but much weaker. I don't know anyone from our generation who wasn't stronger than him," Gray added.
"What about his personal life? Didn't he have an adopted father in the guild?" Lucy inquired.
"Yes, that would be Joel Winters. Joel took Jacob into his home soon after he turned up at Fairy Tail. Joel was by far our most powerful S-Class wizards at the time," Erza said.
"Joel was one of the people I looked up to. His Ice-make magic was the most powerful I'd ever seen," Gray said, "It's strange he'd choose such a weak wizard to go and live with him."
"Sound like Gray is jealous," Natsu snickered as he nudged Gray's shoulder.
"You want to start something, hot head?" Gray yelled.
Erza pushed the two away from eachother, "Enough you two! Lucy, if you want to know more about Jacob, you'll have to do as the master said and talk to Cana," Erza got up from the table, "I'm going to check on Levy's progress with the crystal."
After Erza had left, Lucy, Natsu, and Gray remained at the table.
"Should we talk to Cana?" Lucy asked the two, "If Jacob only talked to her, do you think it would be too intrusive?"
"I personally wouldn't mind finding out more about him. We're all pretty much in the dark," Gray answered.
"Do you know anything, Natsu? You said you fought him before," Lucy said turning towards the dragon slayer.
"Nope, I never took any interest in him. In all of the time I knew him, I only knew how weak his magic was," Natsu replied.
Lucy stood up, "I guess we won't know anything unless we ask Cana."
"I'll go with you. As I said, I want to know more about this guy," Gray said.
Lucy turned towards Natsu, "What about you Natsu?"
"I'm going to get some food. I'm starving," Natsu exclaimed.
Cana sat on top of the bar chugging a keg of beer. Lucy and Gray approached her.
"Hey Cana, are you busy?" Lucy asked.
Cana looked up from her keg, but continued to drink, "Depends what you need."
"We were wondering-" Lucy started to say but Gray cut her off.
"What do you know about Jacob Winters?" Gray demanded.
Cana stopped drinking, "Why? Has something happened?"
Lucy elbowed Gray in the gut, "No, nothing like that."
"Hold this," Cana put the keg in Gray's hands. "What do you want to know?"
"We just want to know who he was," Lucy answered.
Cana sighed, "Pull up a chair. This'll take a bit."
"Jacob joined the guild a couple of years after I came here to find Gildarts. Joel Winters, one of our S-class wizards, found him lying half dead on the road. He took Jacob home and nursed his wounds. About a year later, he told us that he was adopting him. Jacob was a wizard, so he joined Fairy Tail. I was too worried about my father to notice him for a while. Then one day, after I had let Gildarts walk out again, I ran out of the guild crying," Cana explained.
"Great, a sob story," Gray moaned.
Cana glared at him, and then continued, "Anyways, Jacob found me there crying my eyes out. You'd think he'd ask what was wrong, but he didn't. He just set his hand on my shoulder as if he already knew. After I'd finished crying, he took me back to the guild."
"So what happened after that?" Lucy asked.
"The day after that, he found me in the guild and asked if I was alright. I forget how, but we engaged in conversation. It was as if he was putting on an act. His manner of speaking was unnatural. I knew that he was hiding something. Somewhere along the line we made a deal. I told him about Gildarts, and he told me what he was hiding."
"What was it?" Lucy asked anxiously.
"I promised I wouldn't tell anyone. Sorry," Cana shrugged, "After that day, we became good friends. About 2 years later, he tells me that about this 'mission' that he and his father were going on this mission. I still remember the day that everyone from the guild saw them off. That day was the first time I saw Jacob so carefree. Before he left," Cana paused, "he turned back and gave me this reassuring smile. I remember feeling so empty for a while after that," Cana's eyes turned downwards.
"Sorry for bringing back a painful memory," Lucy apologized.
Cana looked up and smiled at Lucy, "Nah, it's nothing that bad," she took a long drink of beer, "Glad I could be of help."
"That's all we need to do?"
"Yeah. We should be able to break it easily."
"Excellent. I shall inform the others."
Thank you for reading this chapter of On the Shores of Evil! Be sure to leave a review and follow this thrilling story!
I've uploaded this a few days early to make up for last week's chapter. I hoped you enjoyed It! To all that submitted OCs, it'll be a little while till they are introduced, but soon enough!
-The Dark One
