Sorry for the late update. I lost something very precious to me over the weekend, and I've been too emotional to finish and add this chapter, so I'm sorry if this chapter sucks.
Thank you for all the favs/follows and comments. ~Heza-chan
Thanks to the information Mavis and Precht got on Blue Skull, we were on our way to a town called Magnolia. Unfortunately, we had to walk all the way.
"We still haven't arrived in Magnolia," Yuri asked after half a day.
"It'll take three more days of walking," Precht told him.
Yuri's eyes widened, "eh?!"
"Let's camp out in this area tonight," Warrod suggested.
Zera groaned, "sleeping outside?!"
"It sounds like fun," Mavis smiled at Zera, "right, Zera?"
"This isn't Tenroujima," Zera reminded her, "we're in the middle of a muggy forest," she sealed when a big bug crossed her path, "look! There are weird bugs, too...and maybe poisonous snakes!"
I laughed, "you're so dramatic, Zera."
"But big sis..."
"It'll be fine," I told her.
"It's not fine!"
"We'll all...," Mavis threw her hands up cheering, "camp together!"
Everyone agreed that we would camp for the night. We found a nice little clearing to set our stuff down.
"All right! I'll gather stuff for a fire," Yuri told us before walking off.
Precht started walking in the opposite direction, "I'll hunt down our dinner."
Warrod nodded, "then I'll search for plants that seem edible."
Yuki and I will stand guard here," Mavis called after them before looking at Zera.
"Well then," Zera thought for a moment, "I'll catch a fish!"
She ran off. Mavis and I sat down waiting for the others to return.
"Hey Mavis," she looked at me, "why did you want me to watch over the camp with you?"
"Because we've been walking for hours, and I know your leg starts to hurt when you've been on it for a while," she explained.
She was right. My leg was bothering me, but I didn't want to be a burden so I kept my mouth shut.
I smiled, "thanks Mavis."
She smiled back. Suddenly there was a scream.
I stood up, "that sounds like..."
Mavis shot up, "Zera!"
We ran in the direction of the scream. We found a soaked Zera sulking beside a small lake. She looked up at us.
"What are you doing," Mavis asked her.
"I fell," she huffed, "the fish here are too quick to catch."
"Don't scare us like that," I told her.
She grinned, "sorry!"
After several hours of not catching any fish, we decided to walk back to camp.
"Maybe we should look for nuts and berries," Mavis suggested.
I shrugged and looked around. I gasped then stopped making Mavis and Zera stop. Everything around us was dead.
"What is this," I mumbled before turning to Mavis and Zera, "let's go get Yuri and the others."
They nodded. We ran back to camp. We told the guys what we saw, and then led them to the spot. They examined the area.
"What the hell is this," Yuri asked.
"It's as if a poisonous wind just blew through here," Precht said looking around a little concerned.
"What do you think," Mavis asked, "maybe it's better not to camp here, but to press on until we're out of these woods."
"No. It'll be dark soon," Warrod told her, "it'd be more dangerous if we kept walking around."
Yuri agreed with him, "yeah. It should be no problem as long as we sleep a ways away from here."
Mavis nodded, "I see. If that's what highly experienced treasure hunters judge as best, then let's listen to them," she looked at me and Zera, "right, Zera? Yuki?"
I nodded keeping my eyes on our surroundings. I heard Zera groan.
"I guess we don't have a choice," she said.
"It's not experience so much as that we've seen a similar sight before," Yuri told Mavis before turning to Precht and Warrod, "you guys remember?"
Warrod nodded placing his hands on his hips, "yeah. When we went to the ruins in Hell's Valley."
I looked at him, "Hell's Valley?"
"Although that place didn't offer a straight path like we have here," Precht said ignoring my question.
Warrod went into a thinking pose, "yeah, now I'm remembering the details. We went through the wringer there, and it was all Yuri's fault."
Yuri looked shocked before he clenched his fists.
"Yuri's fault," Mavis asked smiling, "what does that mean?"
Yuri glared at Warrod, "Forget about what happened back then! In the end, we got the treasure, so I don't see a problem."
"Like I can forget that," Warrod glared back getting Yuri's face, "thanks to you, we almost died several times over!"
"I'm telling you, it wasn't a failure! A guy makes a couple little mistakes, and you blow it out of proportion," Yuri yelled.
"Couple little mistakes, my ass," Warrod yelled back, "you don't feel any remorse for what happened then?!"
Mavis went up to the fighting pair, "what kind of mistakes? What kind?! What kind?! What kind?! What kind?!"
I mentally facepalmed as I thought, 'read the environment Mavis. Speaking of environment, this isn't the place for arguing.'
Warrod ignored Mavis and sighed, "I've told you again and again. You've gotta fix that reckless personality of yours. It's a real pain in the ass."
"Hey! You shouldn't talk to me like that," Yuri pointed at Warrod, "and what about you? You acted like a dumbass then, firing that barrage."
"I'm telling you this for your own good! Don't come crying to me if you get seriously hurt one of these days!"
"You don't have to worry about me! What are you, my big brother?!"
They growled at each other before Yuri scoffed and walked away.
"Where are you going," I called after him.
"I'm sleeping by myself tonight," he answered without looking back, "I don't wanna be around that big lug!"
"Good cause I'm done with you too," Warrod yelled before walking in the opposite direction.
Mavis frowned and called after them, "Yuri! Warrod!"
Zera sighed, "both of them left!"
I looked at Precht, "shouldn't we stop them?"
"Let's let them do as they please," he started walking back to camp.
"But at this rate..."
He cut off Mavis, "our party may break up. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
He kept walking.
"That's cold...," Zera commented.
"I'll go after Yuri," I said, "you two follow Warrod."
They nodded. I ran in the direction Yuri went, but I couldn't find him. What I found was more dead trees.
"Here, too...What in the world is this?"
Soon it became too dark to see so I had to turn back. Mavis and Zera were already there but Yuri and Warrod weren't.
"Neither of them came back," I sighed as I sat down by the fire Precht made.
Precht started to tell the story about Hell's Valley, but I tuned him out. I didn't want to hear a story. I wanted Yuri and Warrod to come back and be friends again. I didn't want our group to split up. We were all starting to become friends, and I didn't want that to end. I sighed before tuning Precht back in.
"And so, even now, we're working together," he said ending his story.
"I guess that's what comrades are about," Mavis smiled, "but this is the moral to the story, right? You're a dependable person, Precht!"
"I didn't mean for there to be a moral," he told her, "I was just telling the truth."
She laughed, "there you go being humble again."
"Oh!"
We all looked up to see Yuri and Warrod walking up to the camp with a big fish.
"You've already got the fire going," Warrod asked.
"This is perfect," Yuri grinned, "look! We caught it in a lake deep in the forest."
Mavis tilted her head, "weren't you two fighting?"
Warrod and Yuri looked at each other then back at Mavis.
"Now that you mention it, maybe we were," Yuri said.
"We were so into catching the fish that we forgot about it," Warrod explained.
"More importantly, let's cook our dinner here," Yuri turned to Precht, "Precht, I'm counting on you!"
Precht didn't say anything. He just simply started cutting up the fish, and then put the pieces on sticks so we could cook them.
Mavis smiled, "this really is what comrades are about."
Once the pieces of fish were cooked, we all dug in. The guys even told us stories about their other adventures.
"It's sounds like it's tough to be a treasure hunter," Mavis said after finishing her piece.
Yuri nodded, "sure! But the rewards are big. The Tenrou Jade is an s-class treasure. If we get our hands on that, we can sell it for enough money to live out the rest of our lives on luxury."
"We're on your side until we get it back," I quoted remembering what he told me on the ship, "you wanted to remind us, right?"
"Exactly!"
"I understand," I stood up, "let's think about that after we get the Tenrou Jade back. I'm going to bed. Goodnight everyone."
"Goodnight."
I crawled into my sleeping bag and closed my eyes. I soon fell asleep. After a few days of walking, we finally arrived at Magnolia. We started walking through the town to see if we could get any information on Blue Skull.
"I want to see Kardia Cathedral," Mavis said.
"I hear that's a huge church, right," Zera asked.
"Kardia Cathedral is one of the three great churches of Fiore," Precht explained, "and a long time ago, the angel Saint Mikardio..."
Yuri cut him off, "hey! Over there...What is that?"
I looked to see what was obviously Kardia Cathedral but on top of it was...
"The blue skull of a dragon!"
Hope you like it!
Please fav/follow and comment your thoughts. ~Heza-chan
