I step into Logan's side and smile at him willingly. But gods I didn't feel as convincing as I looked. Don't look back at Elfman. Don't look back. If I did it would throw off my entire act that I was about to do. Elfman would definitely not like this, he really hates Logan and I know he doesn't like the way this man openly flirts with me...
"Ah I thought you were the leader of the two of you. You look the type to put a man like him in his place" Logan laughs at his rude joke and I force a pretty laugh out too. If only you knew what he is truly like I thought and wish I was back over with Elfman. I try not to squirm as Logan's arm slides down to my waist and his finger deeply trace patterns into the fabric against my flesh. Don't react! I say to myself like it was a mantra. If this was any other situation, this man would be on the ground with a broken nose. But this was a different situation. And a much more dangerous one.
"After me and Logan chat, I'm going to talk to Gnash. Just stay here Elfman and do your own thing" . There is some loyalty I owe him and here I am, pretending to step on it and let this man touch me for the sake of keeping the villager's peace. Gods I feel like shit.
"What is that man's 'own thing' " Logan smirked arrogantly to himself and I clench my teeth. Logan saunters behind a row of houses just under the cover of the trees towards the path.
"I don't really know, he will probably go leer at some young girls" I lie, but I need to keep Logan distracted while Elfman finds where the Draugr are. If he heard what I said, I don't know how I could ever explain it to him.
"Seriously? You are friends with someone like that? I wouldn't know what to do now, knowing that..." Logan's fingers blessedly stopped drawing patterns.
"Well I don't know" I look through my lashes into Logan's eyes and they were looking straight back into mine. Looking for some weakness to exploit, though over me or Elfman I couldn't tell. "I don't know him as well as others".
"Well I wouldn't say that..." Logan drawled but there was an edge to his voice that made me wary or him at once. "After my small...Blunder, of saying that mistake that you were defenseless on your way to see Gnash. He was all too willing, to defend you. You might not know him that well, but he certainly seems to know you". My escort stopped moving and forced me to stop too. "Evergreen, I don't like the idea of this, Elfman, being in my village if all he is going to do is stare at pretty girls. And I want to know what you and Elfman were discussing back there".
"We were discussing personal issues" I lie vehemently. "This isn't your village. It is your brother's. And you can trust Elfman-" I try to say but I was cut off.
"If this was my brother's village, everything would go backwards" Logan stepped in front of me and held my elbows so tightly I could tell they would bruise. But I didn't move or say anything. I just glared at him through my glasses. To react at all would give him the satisfaction that he was worth any attention from me. "Everyone here would be eating shit for breakfast because our food would be less than shit! My brother is as stupid as an ass, and we wouldn't have an income to keep this tiny, insignificant waste pile alive. This village lives because of me!" Logan hissed at me and his face got even closer to mine.
"And this village will die because of you if you don't trust Elfman!" I retort and wrench my arms from his.
"Careful girl. You don't want to make the mistake of crossing me..." Logan warned with a calm face but a cold anger was creeping into his. An anger colder than Gray's magic. I felt my own anger though. But red hot and furious. This man was presumptuous enough to think he can threaten me, when we are here to help him!
"You think you are so powerful huh?" I thrust my face in his, my flirtatious act long in the past. "Well tell me, Logan. If you are so powerful then why do you need help from us?!" I snarl. My face snapped back a fraction of a second before I felt the pain and I staggered back in the snow. "Ah..." I falter and touch my mouth. Blood pooled in my hand and dull throbbing pain stretched beneath the skin of my mouth. I didn't even see Logan move.
"Ha, the only female of the Raijinshuu". I look up and Logan begins rolling up his sleeves. Long Celtic knots and tattoos traveled up his arms, over the major bones, they became hidden as the rolled edge of his coat and sleeve began. They glowed red and rolled and twisted with a life of their own. "You know I can see why there is only one of you" Logan's cold anger looked even darker in the gloom of the trees and I looked at the blood on my hand and felt my anger burn brighter than before. "You are so pathetic that they would be ashamed to have another. Why do they keep you around? For some sport?".
"YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" I scream at him and my glasses were in my hand before he knew it. Logan's eyes widened and before he could look away, the paralysis of my eyes had taken him. I've never been so happy to see a statue. "YOU KNOW WHY I'M A MEMBER OF THE RAIJINSHUU?!" I scream at him and took out my fan and tested the weight. Whenever I hit Elfman, I always make sure to hit him with the fabric of the fan. Never, the butt of the weapon. I flip the fan in my hand and smash the hard steel butt into the bridge of his stone nose. Parts of it crumbled and smashed off, the rest left uneven and demented. I love this fan. It was a gift from Laxus on my birthday, when he remembered it. "It's because I can crush a man into dust, without caring about what they look or feel in the end". I tapped the top of his head with my fan and looked into his stone eyes, wide in shock.
"I know you are hearing this, so listen well. You are imperfect. You are unworthy of my skill of crafting a statue from a stone. Or in this case, a statue into a pile of stones. I only let the worthy masterpieces remain untouched. You are far from worthy, and I've made you less so. And..." I lean forward and whisper in his ear. "I can do it again". I lean back and feel my mouth and jaw throb. I ran my bloody and throbbing tongue over my teeth and felt that none were broken, but my lip was split and I had badly bitten my tongue. Snarling I lean forward and spat the blood in Logan's frozen face.
"When I unfreeze you. You will need to patch up that nose, you could bleed out" I put my hand on top of his forehead and with some effort, I push the statue over and it slams to the snow with a thud. I spit the last of the blood on him and begin to walk away. Gods I am angry! Some sport for Bickslow, Freed and Laxus?! I walk around the houses and lean against one for support. I tenderly touch my lip and wince in pain. Those tattoos down his arms...I didn't see Logan move when he struck me, and the tattoos from these lands have power.
"He can move too fast to see" I mutter and remove my fingers from my mouth. "So much for cunning and decisive". Gnash's words replayed in my mind, her telling me and Elfman how devious and cautious Logan is. "If you were truly cautious, you would never have hit me" I whisper to the trees in the distance, where a statue with no true nose lay in the snow. I turn around and walk up the path towards the vast and intimidating forest at the top of the hill. I wanted too, but couldn't go back to Elfman. I didn't need comfort, but I just wanted to be near his presence and explain my actions to him. But I couldn't yet. I needed to see Gnash and see if she knows where the Draugr are. And if Elfman saw my bloody mouth...I can't tell what he would do. So I continued to trudge up the gravel path, and my thoughts cycled around and around. Logan attacking and touching me. Elfman, and our secrets shared between us, and our loyalty. And Gnash, how she is part of the main reason why we are here. Focus on Gnash, I tell myself, and yet my mind was drawn inevitably towards those two men. I lick my lips and taste the blood the is now beginning to clot in the wound. I was just reaching the top of the hill when I remembered something. It was the fight over Fairy Tail guild. The Raijinshuu had stupidly decided to pit ourselves against an entire guild, and who did I fight. Elfman Strauss. I won, and I expected too, and I can never remember the exact details of the fight. But it was what Elfman said before our fight that stuck with me. How he doesn't want to hurt me or fight me.
"Why were you so considerate?" I said to the menacing pine trees as I stepped into their gloom. In my experience with men, they were seldom so. And yet he was. He was a pure example of how a man should be. My thought's stopped when Gnash's hut began to appear between the great spikes of branches, many small candles flickering bravely against the gloom in the two yellow windows. As soon as I step out from the trees I could sense something...different. I look around and this place was no less changed than the last time we were here. Yes, that's the difference, there was no change. A pool of blood was still frozen in the snow, just outside Gnash's door. And to the right were two sets of footprints pacing all around the snow, until they halted directly in front of each other. I felt my cheeks flame the longer I looked. That's where I hugged him...I shiver and I don't know why. Wood creaked beneath me and the steps complained at my extra weight as I walked up to the door. But I quickly raised my hand, but before I even had the chance to knock the door opened eerily with a whispering creek, and the cold black hallway stretched out in front of me.
"Come in" a gravelly voice said. I shiver and reluctantly step inside Gnash's domain, as soon as I enter, the door slams behind me ominously.
"I'm down here" I heard Gnash's voice come from the room at the end of the hallway, in the room where she stitched up Elfman. I lift my head high, well aware of my bloody mouth, and I push aside the curtain and step in. Gnash was cleaning her blades, each lined up from shortest to largest. The shortest one was the length of my forearm. And in the center of the table, a largish object sat covered in pristine white linen.
"Lady Gnash, we need your help-"
"I saw what Logan did" Gnash muttered and picked up a blade made of glass. I clench my jaw and regretted it as my jaw throbbed.
"Yes. Fine. You did" I say and roll my jaw. "So what?".
Gnash stood up and took another white rag from her pocket. She then pulled out a dusty bottle and sprinkled strange red liquid onto it. She extended the rag to me in offering. I pull a face and step away from her. "This is no bear piss" Gnash offered it forward again. I take the rag reluctantly and bring it to my nose. It smelt of clovers and pine needles.
"See. No bear piss" Gnash said again and watched me with her big black eyes as I dab my split lip. It stung badly, and I hiss in pain, but soon the wound turns numb and my aching jaw.
"Why isn't Elfman here?" she returned to examining her blades.
"The situation... Wasn't appropriate for him to be here" I answer and look away.
"If he was there you wouldn't of been hit" bared her teeth at me, Gnash's eyes twinkled evilly.
" I don't need to be protected by anyone!" I hiss and throw her rag back onto the table.
"I didn't say you need protecting. I'm just saying you wouldn't have been hit" Gnash picked up the rag and sniffed the blood on it.
"He...He moved so fast" I look intensely at the covered object and ponder. Logan is such a talented actor. From the beginning he seemed friendly and had the purest of silver tongues that even I was beginning to believe. But it took just one wrong thing to say and that well polished act broke like thin ice.
"That's because of the runes I put on him" Gnash pointed the tip of the knife at me and looked down the flat I the blade at me. With her war paint, and strangely black eyes, she looked far more frightening when holding a blade.
"You put those runes on him?!" I gasp and clench my fists.
"Who else has the skill without killing people" Gnash put the knife down and leaned back in her chair. "I have given tattoos to every single person down in that village. Even babes. I believe you and Elfman would benefit with tattoos as well".
"What?!" I felt my jaw drop and I looked at the pristine, white skin on my hands. "Why would we need tattoos?".
"Well it could make it difficult for things like a bloody mouth happen" Gnash picked out a needle and cleaned out the runes etched perfectly along the side of the glass blade. "I could thicken your and Elfman's natural body defenses. I could make you faster, stronger. I could make your pain tolerance much higher. The list goes on" Gnash, gnashed her teeth in a wicked smile. "If Logan had the gift of foresight, he would've asked me to draw the patterns to be immune to being petrified. He might still have a nose if he did that".
"Look, thank you. The offer is much appreciated. But we're not interested" I say forcefully and crops my arms so the matter is closed.
"We?" Gnash muttered and cocked her head. "Since when do you speak for Elfman?".
"I don't, but I'm pretty sure he won't want a tattoo either".
"Hmm, you never know. I trust he told you what I am?" Gnash's change of topic was so sudden it was surprising.
"Um...well yeah he did" I mutter and look pointedly away.
"Do I know frighten you child, because of what I am? Because of what we are?" The woman laced her fingers together.
I decide to answer honestly. I'm not a woman to mince around words. "He doesn't. But you are so different from what he is".
"Perhaps...By the way you should unfreeze Logan unless you want one of his less than savory friends to see you work".
I grunt and blink my eyes once. I was almost expecting to hear a scream as Logan felt the pain of having your nose crumbled off. I was disappointed.
"True I am different compared to Elfman. But the only difference is age, and how we use our souls" her long claws tapped an unknown song into the dark wood and I looked at her hands as she spoke.
"But you don't look old really". Gnash's face looks like it is carved from ice, sharp and angular. And very cold.
"Looks are deceiving". Tap, tap, tap went her nails on the wood.
"Well how old are you?" looking in her eyes, there was something unimaginably old about her.
"Older than the great mountain's roots. Older than the most of the twinkling stars in the night's sky" Gnash's eyes began to look farther away and her fingers began to tap harder into the wood. "I remember when I was but a girl, there was only a few hundred stars in the sky, and they were pale and blue and cold. Now there a millions, all burning bright and hot and dangerous". The beast soul stood up and took the covered object from the table and cradled it fondly in her hands like it was a small child. "This is the only possession I have left from that time...".
She has lived this long?! shivers rolled over my skin vehemently. "What is that?" I point at the object in her arms. Gnash almost blanched in surprise and she blinked at me questioningly.
"Perhaps it is why you are here" Gnash stepped closer and removed the white linen from the object. I blink in surprise and the grotesqueness of what she has. A large black skull sat in her hands, with a slightly longer and narrower cranium. And a shiny white stone centered into the eye sockets. It almost felt like it was staring at me! It looked so old, and yet it also looked unbreakable.
"Um...What am I supposed to do with that?".
"Look" Gnash held up the skull so it's eyes were level with mine. "Think what you are looking for and look".
I pulled a face and reluctantly lean closer until the opal like eyes were a hand span away from mine.
Think what you are looking for... Great, okay. Let's try this. I breathe out steadily and let a thought cross my mind.
Draugr in Hryggð. Nothing happened at first, but the longer I looked the more it felt like those big pale eyes were growing closer and closer.
"Ugh" I groan and then suddenly I was falling through them and into a place cold and bright. "Shit!" I cover my face as snow froze my face, and sleet peppered it. It had clearly started to snow and hail while I was out. I rub the moisture out of my eyes and took off my glasses to see better, I then squinted outwards. I was hovering in the sky, nothing seemed to be supporting me at all however. The wind howled, but it couldn't move me, however the coldness did happily attack my warm body.
"Come on". I nearly lost my voice to the wind. "Where are they?". My eyes did adjust to the wind and brightness and slowly I could make out where I am.
"I'm above Hryggð..." that isn't good at all. If the Draugr are anywhere near here, than this village could be annihilated. "Shit where are they?" I lean down ignore the movements of the villagers that moved like ants around the village. I swoop down closer until I was level with the house's roofs and peered closer into any dark place where one could be hiding. "Come on, come on!" I hiss when movement captures my eyes. Down in an alley. I slowly recognize, and I realize that this was the alley me and Elfman went down. I move further in and I actually see Elfman was still here!
"What are you doing?" I float closer and see that next to him was sweet little Rojin sniffling into his hands. And there was a deep black bruise over his left eye. "Rojin!" I step closer until I was right next to the two of them and listen to Rojin cry and Elfman comfort him. His dad did this, that much was obvious. Wind whispered and my hand passed through Rojin's shoulder like soft butter when I tried to touch it. I've seen worse, heard worse, endured worse. But this was still terrible. The longer I looked, the more I saw little Rojin's face slowly stop crying, and his twisted mouth turned into a hopeful smile. Looking at Elfman, he was smiling down at the boy in an encouraging way, and I could tell that there was something he was going to tell me when we met up again. The wind growled like a lion while the trees creaked and groaned under its menace. I look up and peered into the trees as they rattled and shook with fury in the wind. That's when I saw them. Four pairs of green fire peered out of the tree's, roots, branches and boughs. Any heat in my face drained in a seconds and I ran back to Elfman.
"ELFMAN! ELFMAN!" I scream and grab his shoulder. As soon as it made contact, my hand fell through and my body was dragged with it. "No!-" I shout and try to grab Elfman but it was to no avail. And I fell through Elfman and into the snow, but I didn't stop there. My stomach wrenched and squeezed and I fell through the snow and into the darkness below the earth. My head pounded and my stomach wrenched to a far more painful level. Surrounded by earth, I tried to take a breath. And with a heave in my lungs, I slammed up through the darkness and staggered backwards into Gnash's table with her knives.
"They-they are here!" I gasp while stumbling to my feet. Elfman! Rojin! Please look up!
If I don't get there soon, gods know what will memory of a Draugr biting deeply into Elfman's leg replayed in my mind. And the news of the two child's corpses. And Rojin's sister dying...
I turn and run for the door, but my legs were wobbling from my out-of-body-experience and I crashed clumsily into the walls. I couldn't let anything happen to either of them. Dread filled up my heart at the thought of Elfman defending himself, and Rojin, against four un-dead, and gods know how many more were there. It's just...After everything everything that we have told each other. And the way he treats me, and the way he held me...I just can't let him get hurt. No. I wont allow it. I began to steady my legs and I was running full pelt for the door when I hear a whisper of Gnash's voice.
"Remember that secret you owe me..."