Chapter 10: Stories and Bargaining

Erza poked her head out of the carriage window to get a better look at the landscape. Her destination was an old farm house. She should be coming up on it soon.

"There." She hollered out when she spotted it. "That house over there, driver."

"That one?" the driver pointed.

"Yes. Hurry."

The driver sped the pace up then came to a halt in front of the house. He then got out and moved to open the door for his passenger. Erza swung the carriage door open, hitting the man square in the nose.

"Thank you for your trouble." Erza nodded to him, not even noticing the injury she had delt him.

She fished through her wallet and handed him a more than acceptable amount of jewels for the ride. Forgetting his pain the man took the money and happily left.

Erza made a dash for the house and nearly kicked down the door before she stopped herself.

"What am I doing? This isn't an enemies hideout."

She lowered her raised foot and firmly knocked three times. Inside she could hear the creaking of boards. The door was opened by a gray-haired woman about a head shorter than her. She was wearing a long skirted dress and slippers.

"Good afternoon." Erza greeted.

The old lady smiled at her. "Well hello, there deary. I don't get much visitors here these days. What can I do for you."

"My friend is hurt and in critical condition. I was told that there was a stone here that could help heal him."

The lady cocked her head in puzzlement.

"You know, a shiny stone that can heal; a healing stone." Erza tried again.

A light suddenly went on inside the woman's head. "Oh, the healing stone."

Erza's spirits lifted. "Yes, it would mean the world if you would give it to me?"

The didn't seem to even hear her as she was lost in thought, "Yes, the healing stone, it's a long story; a very long story. It all started the day my dear husband asked me to marry him. It was the 15th of August when he brought me out to hill out by the lack and we had a picknick underneath the willow tree."

"That sounds like an interesting story, but I'm in a hurry and all I need is the stone. Can you tell me where it is." Erza interrupted, trying to keep her impatience under control.

"Where what is?" the woman looked up at her in confusion.

"The healing stone."

"Oh yes, the healing stone, it's a long story; a very long story. It started the day my dear husband, Jeffery, proposed to me-"

Erza's hand flew over the woman's mouth.

"Tell me where the healing stone is now!" she ordered.

The woman blinked at her then smiled.

"Oh, the healing stone, that's a long story, a very long story, it all started the day my Jeffery asked me to be his bride."

Erza gave up then and pushed passed the woman into the house and began looking for the stone herself. The lady continued her story, not carrying that her home was being invaded.

"We were stuck up in that tree waiting for the Volcans to leave for hours. Laxus was the one that finally came and rescued us, though he complained about it the whole time he was doing it. This was back before he learned proper social skills. Oh, who am I kidding, the guy still doesn't know how to hold a normal conversation."

Cana snickered at her own dry humor. Her brief moment of mirth quickly faded when she glanced over at the unresponsive Gray. Normally Gray would have been laughing with her, and probably replied with his own witty comment. They always did have a similar sense of humor, except for the terrible puns he'd come up with. Cana doubted that even Juvia would admit to finding them funny.

"Cana?"

"Huh?" The card mage glanced over at Happy who was looking at her worriedly.

"You spaced out there for a moment. Is everything okay?"

"I was just remembering something." She said casually.

"But you're supposed to be remembering things out loud remember, so Gray can remember them too."

"I know, I didn't forget." Cana said, letting a touch of irritation creep into her tone, "Now where were we?"

"I don't know." Happy said with a sigh, "You still haven't gotten to the part where I was born in so I can't help you remember."

Cana scrunched up her nose as she tried to remember. It was so many years ago and all the alcohol intake didn't really help the memory.

"I think were just about to when Natsu joined the guild."

"So tell him that story. You were there right?"

Cana looked from Happy over to Gray. His lifeless eyes seemed to be digging into her, passed her skin and bones. A shiver went down her spine and she grimaced. She needed to get out of this room, if even for just a few seconds. She stood to her feet and made for the door.

"Where are you going?"

"I need a drink before we can continue this." She grumbled back.

"Won't that make it harder to remember?"

"Just one drink isn't going to affect me." She replied just as she exited the room.

Happy waited in silence for a few moments then let out a heavy sigh.

"Is any of this even working?" he wondered aloud.

"Yes." came the short reply from Parsptomies.

He looked over at the stone, hope and surprise shimmering in his big eyes.

"How can you tell?" he eagerly probed.

"It is going very slowly, but I'm picking up fragments of Gray's broken memories that are still intact and piecing them together. Once I get enough I'll be able to use them to fix the rest of what Velrog has corrupted."

Happy turned his attention back to Gray. He stood to his feet and crawled along Gray's chest till he was nose to nose with the ice mage. He stared into his eyes for a long moment. Slowly, his lips curved into a smile.

"I think I can see it too. He looks more like himself now, if just a little bit."

The door swung open and Cana stepped back into the room, a bottle in both hands. She glanced over at Happy an arched an eyebrow at his odd behavior.

"Are you going to kiss him or something?" she wondered, "I don't think that's what's going to heal his memories, Happy. That only happens in Fairy Tails, and I doubt you're Gray's true love."

Happy took several quick hopes back, a look of pure disgust written on his face. Kissing Natsu was bad enough, no way was he kissing Gray too.

Cana snickered at him as she sat back down.

"Okay let's get this going again." she muttered unenthusiastically before taking a huge swig.

She dove into her vision of Natsu's first arrival at Fairy Tail and went over the basics of his personality and quirks. She explained Gray's and Natsu's relationship in detail.

"You guys fought all the time. At first, the guild tried to make you get along or to at least try get to the bottom of why you seemed to hate each other so much, but after a while we just let you two do your thing. Well... at least most of us did; Erza still insisted you two get along and you would always pretend to be best buddies whenever she was around for fear of getting your heads smashed in." she pushed her chair back and sighed, "What I wouldn't give to see you two fighting like normal now, instead of sitting here waiting for you to heal."

"Cana!" Parsptomies suddenly interrupted, raising her voice to something much less gentle.

"What?" the card mage asked, instantly on full alert.

"I'm running out of power. I need to tell you something before it's all gone. It may take a while before Erza or Natsu come back with more of me. Until they get back I need you to-"

The ancient heal's voice suddenly stopped and the soft glow from her rock faded.

"What?" Cana yelled, jumping to her feet "You need me to do what?"

But it was too late. Gray's lifeless eyes slowly closed and he fell into a light slumber.

Cana Grimaced and exchanged a worried glance with Happy.

"Natsu, please hurry." Happy whispered in a helpless plea.

"Finally!" Natsu sighed when the heard the screech of train brakes.

As soon as the train came to a complete stop he made a beeline for the door.

"Parsptomoris or whatever her name was said that the stone was at a magic shop," he muttered to himself as he began searching the streets. After running around seven blocks and interrogating a guy for directions he found the place; a tiny establishment squeezed between an all you can eat grill and a barber shop.

Natsu ignored the tempting aroma coming from the grill and stepped inside. He went straight to the checkout point and slammed his palms down on the counter, nearly startling the pants off of the cashier who had his nose stuck in an issue of Sorcerer Weekly.

"I'm in a hurry," Natsu growled, sticking his face right up next to the guy's nose. He was a middle-aged man wearing close that were two sizes too big, had an overgrown mustache and smelled of grease. "My idiot commrade has gotten himself in a mountain of trouble and I need the magical healing stone that's in your shop somewhere, so get to it."

The man's face turned from shock to glee in about a nanosecond.

"A magic healing stone you say?" he asked as a devilish grin spread across his face.

"Yes." Natsu nodded, not yet noticing the man's change in attitude.

"And I take it you really, really need one?" he asked, putting emphasis on the second 'really'

"Yes, And I'm in a hurry."

"Of course. I'll be right back."

The man disappeared into the back of the store. Natsu waited for a minute and forty-seven seconds before he followed the man.

"What are you doing!" He screamed at him, "Employees only back here."

"Well, the hurry it up!" Natsu yelled as he retreated back behind the counter.

The man emerged a minute later holding the stone. He placed it on the counter then grinned up at Natsu, showing two full rows of perfectly white teeth.

"That will be seven 1,000,000 jewel."

Natsu reached for his wallet and opened it to see how much he had on him. He only had about 10,000 jewel on him. He started to panic a little, thinking that he was going to have to run all the way back home for more. Then it dawned on him how much the man was actually asking for. That was more than enough to pay Lucy's rent for a whole year if his math was right. He wasn't even sure if he had that much saved up. He looked back at the man and could see him trying to hide a smirk.

"I see what your game is now. Ha ha, very funny. Now tell me what the real price is." Natsu's voice dripped with sarcasm and impatience.

"What game?" the man feigned confused innocence. "That's the real price. Do you know how rare healing magic is? If you don't want it then leave. I hope you find some other way to save your friend."

Natsu reached out, reading to take the man by the throat, but stopped himself. He drew his hand away and settle with baring his teeth and letting smoke pour from his mouth.

"I'm not leaving here without that stone. You better drop the price down buddy if you don't want to know the terror of facing a dragon slayer."

The man crossed his arms and gave Natsu a blank look, completely unfazed by the threat.

"Go ahead and try. The second you do I'll be reporting this to the magic council."

"Like those guys scare me." Natsu chuckled.

"Fine, go ahead. You don't scare me."

A few years ago Natsu would have jumped on the guy by now and snatched the stone right out of his hands. But the Natsu of today had learned a thing or two about bargaining since then. And it was now that that knowledge finally came back to him.

He let his threatening demeanor fall back to his natural expression then turned and began to slowly walk away. He took about two steps before the man spoke up.

"Hey, I'm not a heartless man; I wouldn't want my high prices to cause someone's death. I'll drop it down to 800,000."

Natsu kept walking.

"700,000."

One more step.

"500,000."

Two.

"400,000."

Three.

"300,000."

His hand was on the door.

"200,000 and I won't go any lower than that." the man insisted.

Natsu stopped and turned his head slightly.

"I only have 10,000 on me."

The man said nothing to this.

"I can bring the rest back later."

"And how do I know you'll actually come back."

Natsu turned fully around now and strode back up to the counter, his jaw set and eyes narrowed.

"I'm a member of Fairy Tail and we always keep our promises."

The man shook his head, "Not good enough. I need some kind of collateral. Your word counts for nothing to me."

Natsu glanced down at himself, trying to think of anything valuable he might have on him. The most valuable thing he had on hand was his wallet, at least momentarily. The thing he most valued was his scarf but he knew the shop owner cared for squat about that. But maybe... He stared at the white fabric around his neck for a long moment before gently taking it off and offering it to the man.

"A crummy old muffler?" He asked in disgust, "You've got to be joking."

"This is a present my Father gave to me before he disappeared, I've always warned it since then and it's the most valuable thing to me that I own. There's nothing on this planet that would stop me from coming back for it."

The man looked Natsu in the eye and studied him for a long moment before shrugging and taking the dragon slayers most prized possession.

He wordlessly handed him the stone and Natsu took it with a nod of thanks.

"Don't let anything happen to it." he growled out one last warning before running out the door.

He had only taken a few steps down the sidewalk before Parsptomies' voice began ringing in his head.

"Natsu, thank goodness you found me. You need to get back as soon as possible."

"I was already doing that," Natsu assured her. "Is there really a need to remind me?"

"The stone that was left at the Guild has run out of power. You or Erza need to get back before Gray wakes up. If Gray wakes up before you get there then him and the rest of his friends back there will be in danger."

"Give me the details on the way," Natsu ordered before breaking into a run. That was all he needed to her. Determination now doubled, he spread through the city like wide fire.