For Day 10~ A bit late whoops, gonna have to play catch up!
"What are you doing?" The question from an unfamiliar voice was sudden and a certain blonde haired little girl nearly fell into the small stream, clearly taken by surprise.
When she saved herself from getting wet and breaking her streak, she sent a glare towards the person who had nearly ruined everything.
"I don't need to tell you," she said stubbornly before she bent her knees and threw herself over the water, her bare feet touched the ground on the other side with only a bit of a stumble upon landing. "You should go home."
The boy with pink hair only stared at her with a frown on his lips as she repeated the action once more.
"Aren't you getting tired?"
"No," Lucy lied, "This is easy." Though it wasn't, not really. She'd already jumped across the stream forty-three times, her muscles were aching and her lungs were practically begging her to stop. Though she couldn't. Not until she reached one-hundred and twenty-four.
"You look tired to me."
The little girls patience was wearing thin and she spun on her heel to glare at the boy who was sitting a few feet away from her. He smiled at her despite the annoyance in her face. "Who are you anyway? I've never seen you around."
"I'm Natsu," the boy said simply, "I'm a dragon!"
That declaration seemed to take the girl by surprise and she stumbled backwards a step and nearly fell into the stream behind her.
When she realized that the boy wasn't just messing around, she scoffed and turned her attention back to the task that she'd set out to complete. She jumped again.
"Well, Natsu-the-dragon, you should still leave. I'm gonna be here for a long time so I can't walk you home or anything."
The boy was quiet for a long few moments, so Lucy was able to get in a couple more jumps in peace. Her legs were beginning to protest and she wasn't sure she would actually be able to do it as many times as she needed to. But she had to keep going.
Out of the corner of her eye, Lucy watched as the boy stood up and walked away. Part of her felt relieved, while another part felt a bit sad. Which was strange, why should she feel sad when she had told him to leave? Besides, she didn't even know that boy.
Lucy kept jumping. Over and over again, she would throw herself over that stream. With each jump, she felt weaker and weaker.
The sky was darkening and the sunset beamed down on her, reminding the young girl as to just how long she'd been going at it.
Finally, on her one hundred and twenty-fourth jump, Lucy felt her legs give way beneath her as she dropped to her knees in the grass.
Her mind went back to the lesson that she'd been paying very close attention to that day during class.
"If you jump across this stream one hundred and twenty-four times in a row, your wish will be granted."
The words had immediately caught the girl's attention and her gaze landed on the teacher who continued, "If your wish is powerful enough, it will be heard by the fairies that live within and near the waters. If your wish is pure enough… they will grant it."
At this point, Lucy was frantically writing down all that she was hearing. She needed to remember everything that her teacher was saying. She couldn't forget a single thing, she had to do it right.
"If, however, your wish is powerful yet impure or selfish… the fairies will ignore your wish."
Lucy swallowed the lump in her throat that had begun to form as her hand trembled while she wrote, was her wish impure? Was her wish selfish?
There was really only one way to find out, though would she be able to handle it if her wish wasn't granted?
Lucy could feel tears welling up in her brown eyes as she watched the calmly moving water expectantly. Her lips trembled as she leaned forward and clenched her tiny hands into fists when she touched the grass.
"Please…" she whispered, "Please… I don't want to be alone anymore…"
Lucy thought of her mother who had died a few months prior, her father hardly even looked at her anymore. He didn't even as her how school went.
Her little heart felt so full of sadness and loneliness that she felt as though it might burst.
"Please…"
She expected bright and shining lights to appear along with her wish, she expected music to play and for the whole thing to be extremely extravagant.
That wasn't how it happened at all.
All of a sudden she felt weight on her shoulders and her eyes widened in surprise as she looked to her right and saw that the boy from earlier had returned. Now that she was looking at him, she could take in his appearance. He wore a white scarf that looked… checkered? It was a little bit difficult to see considering her tears and the darkening sky.
"I figured you'd be cold and hungry, so I went home, grabbed a blanket and brought some food." The boy plopped down beside her and opened up a basket that he'd brought along, he pulled out a small sheet that he laid out carefully in front of them before setting the basket down on that sheet. "My brother always cooks too much, so he said I could bring whatever I wanted."
Lucy peered down and her eyes widened in surprise at all of the different foods that were stuffed carelessly into the basket.
"Why are you crying? Did you get hurt while you were doing all that jumping? You're pretty weird…" The little boy frowned at her and Lucy quickly wiped away her tears before she shook her head in reply to his second question.
"I didn't get hurt, but… why did you come back? You didn't need to do any of this." Lucy couldn't understand why this boy that she had never met would go to such lengths for her.
"Why?" He echoed, "Well, you looked lonely. So I figured that I'd help take away your loneliness of course!"
Lucy stared at the grinning boy and tears were falling again within moments.
"Hey! Stop that! Why are you crying?! Geez…" Despite his exclamations, the boy gently placed his arm around the little girl and pulled her closer to him. An action that only made her cry harder. He felt so warm in contrast to the cool autumn air.
The two sat like that for a long time, watching as the colors of the sunset danced upon the waters of the stream and Lucy could have sworn she saw a fairy playing in that light.