Chapter XXI
What was that feeling that spread inside me? Although it might sound awkward and stupid, but somehow this feeling scared me, even if it did not feel bad. But I was generally overwhelmed with the whole situation. Why was she crying and laughing at the same time and why was she hugging me so hard? Could not she at least warn me?
For a few seconds, I just looked surprised at the laughing girl on my chest and froze completely in my motion. Then, finally, I cleared my throat and tried to push her away from me as gently as possible. But to my chagrin, I felt myself blushing slightly. No one had ever done that yet!
"Um ... it's alright.", I mumbled slightly embarrassed and Wendy luckily took a step back and looked at me beaming with joy. Satisfied, she folded her arms behind her back and seemed to have forgotten everything that I had just told her a few minutes ago.
"And...", I muttered even quieter, "Thanks.". Even if I was not comfortable with that, she had saved me from a tough situation. And though she had done some stupid things before, I felt the need to praise her for her power.
Apparently, these words surprised not only myself, but also Wendy, because shortly her smile died away and gave way to a completely astonished expression. But then her smile became even wider and she looked like she was about to fall back around my neck. To avoid such a situation, I took a few steps toward the others, making disappear the dagger in my hand.
At the same moment a small white whirlwind rushed past me and fell around Wendy's neck, almost as stormy as she herself had just done with me. Of course it was Charle, who now cried torrents of tears of joy and talked to her friend almost in disarray. Gray also seemed to wipe a small tear out of his eye and grinned happily at Wendy.
"We're really glad you're back with us, Wendy.", he said now and Charle gradually broke away from Wendy, "What exactly happened?".
"These three, Annie, Bertolt and Reiner have offered to help me and together with them we were with Jellal and asked where Kenny's guild could be. I did not fear anything bad, because these three were really nice and easy to handle. Especially Reiner. But when we set off to travel on, they suddenl handcuffed me with these magic-inhibiting handcuffs. And since then, I've been trapped in the camp from which you've freed me.", Wendy explained, occasionally glancing in my direction with a faint smile, but I just crossed my arms and tried not to show that she had really shaken something up in my cold heart.
After a few more relieved words from Gray, Wendy and Charle we also left again. Shortly after we started walking, Wendy noticed that I had been injured. Outraged that I had not said that much earlier, she just began using her magic to heal my wounds. I was quite surprised and did not even know that she had healing powers. This girl actually surprised me again and again.
So, after having no more injuries and no more pain, we headed to a village south of Shirotsume called Dauper. There we had arranged to reunite, just before we had split our group. Since it was in the middle of the night, we did not make much progress and when the sun slowly rose and dawn came, we arrived at the agreed meeting point.
The village of Dauper had only a few inhabitants, all of whom were still in their homes at that time, and the village seemed rather deserted when we entered. Erza had suggested this meeting place, since she had been there before and had told us that in the center of the village was a small inn named "The hot potato". In my opinion that was not really an imaginative name, but it was even close to a miracle that there was a tavern in this small village. And we really could not miss this tavern, because as soon as we entered the village, we already discovered a dark wooden house with large windows, on which a sign with just that name hung.
Was the tavern open anyway? After all, people did not often come here at this time, I guessed, as we walked up a few wooden steps that led to the veranda of the inn. Wendy ran ahead and gently pushed the door open. To my astonishment, the tavern seemed to have actually opened, and together we stepped into a wooden low-ceilinged room, which smelt of food very much. Some wooden tables and chairs were scattered around the room and on the left wall side was a wide bar, behind which stood several bottles. In fact, behind the bar was a rather small, young man, polishing a glass just yawning. Despite his age, he already had gray hair, which he had shaved pretty short and let his already round head appear even more spherical. When we entered, he looked up a bit tired and yet seemed quite surprised to have guests at this time.
"Oh?", he said and tried to suppress another yawn, "Good morning. Welcome to the inn "The hot potato".". Wendy hopped happily towards him and leaned against the counter.
"Hello. Can I have something to drink? I'm really thirsty!", she chatted happily and slowly we came closer as well. At close range, the man seemed even smaller than me and with a faint smile he put a large glass of water to Wendy.
While Wendy drank greedily, I looked around the host room. No one else was here except us, but I noticed that there was a staircase leading to an upper floor. Did they have guest rooms there as well?
"Hey Sasha!", the young man suddenly shouted and my eyes darted back to him, "Come on! We have guests.". After just a few seconds we heard fast footsteps on the wooden floor and at the next moment a young woman came storming down the stairs. With a big smile she stopped in front of us and crossed her arms behind her back.
"What a surprise!", the young woman exclaimed joyfully, "Welcome to our tavern!". She had long brown hair that she tied into a braid and wore a simple, light brown fabric dress. Her round face and awkward-looking manner made her look a bit childish, but apparently she was sharing the inn with the young man.
"My name is Sasha and that's Connie.", she introduced herself and her smile did not seem to disappear anymore.
"Hello. My name is Gray.", Gray answered her immediately, "Say, are there any other guests except us?".
Somewhat puzzled by this question, Sasha cocked her head, but nodded. "Yes, there are. They arrived here last night. Two young women, one blonde and one redhead.", she explained.
"That's Erza and Lucy! They are already here!", Charle exclaimed happily and I was relieved that at least these two were already here.
"Oh, you know each other? Well, they rented a room upstairs. Should I get them for you?", Sasha asked helpfully and Gray and Wendy eagerly nodded. As a result, Sasha disappeared up the stairs again as we sat down at one of the wooden tables to wait for Erza and Lucy.
It took a while until a door was opened upstairs, because they were probably still sleeping. As soon as Erza and Lucy had entered the stairs, they already spotted Wendy and came running to us with loud shouts of joy. I frowned in annoyance. Why did they always have to be so loud?
Of course, they were extremely relieved to see Wendy well and we quickly exchanged our experiences. Erza reported that no one had come to their place and they had been just sitting around all the time, without anything conspicuous happening. Also we told about Reiner, Annie and Bertholt and my suspicion that they had to be in any connection with Kenny.
When Gray had finished describing our experiences, Erza crossed her arms thoughtfully and looked around. "Well, we could not find out that much, but that does not matter. The main thing is that we have Wendy back with us. And now we should just wait for Natsu and Happy. Maybe these two have something interesting to report.", she said and we others agreed silently.
Next to me Wendy tried in vain to suppress another wide yawn and I looked at her now a little worried. "You are still growing. You should rest and sleep. Too less sleep is detrimental to development.", I commented on her yawn and she turned her head to me.
"You're the one who hardly sleeps.", she immediately noticed, "I even think I have never seen you sleeping.". Cheeky kid! My sleeping habits were just not up for debate here. I snorted and raised an eyebrow in annoyance.
"I am an adult, you sassy brat.", I grumbled to her, "That's something different. But you should use the time to sleep.".
"You're right.", she agreed, yawning and nodding. Beside her, Charle and Gray also looked pretty exhausted and calmer. Although I noticed the efforts and the fatigue of last night, I was pretty good with it. My body was used to little sleep.
"Wake me up when Natsu and Happy arrive.", Wendy mumbled next to me before placing her arms on the table and resting her head on top of it. To doze more convenient, she moved her chair closer to me and leaned her upper body against mine. This girl really seemed to like to keep body contact, I thought grudgingly, but I just let it happen, because it did not really bother me.
It took only a few minutes, then Wendy already seemed fallen asleep and breathed very quietly and evenly. I looked at her sleeping, peaceful face and could not help but notice how cute she looked when she slept. There it was again, that feeling, which I had felt when she suddenly hugged me. That inner warmth and contentment that I suddenly felt when I just looked at her. Not so long ago, her mere sight had caused me mental anguish and now such a thing? I did not understand myself anymore, but somehow I realized more and more that Wendy's presence seemed to me to be doing well in a certain way.
"Hey, hey, Levi.", Lucy's snarling voice ripped me out of my thoughts and reluctantly I looked at the two young women seated across the table from me. They looked at me slightly smirking and childish Lucy wagged her eyebrows.
"Do we have to worry about something?", she asked, "Because the way you look at Wendy ... I did not know that you have such a taste in women.".
I felt the urge to kick her in the face so that her stupid grin disappeared from it. How immature and silly could one still behave? I snorted in response and gave her an icy look.
"Shall I deface your face?", I growled annoyed, "Keep your stupid comments to yourself, blondie.". In fact, her stupid grin died down a bit and shocked she looked to Erza. And I had chosen nice words! But I did not pay attention to the two women anymore, I only heard them talking softly while I looked again at the sleeping girl next to me.
What a stupid thought! Did that stupid cow really think I had romantic feelings for Wendy? I was at least twice her age! It was obvious that Lucy was probably not very developed mentally if she immediately thought of something like that.
Still I could not deny that there were any feelings in me for this little, blue-haired girl, but I could not really assign them yet. They felt similar to those of Isabel and Furlan, but something was different. Something felt completely different and I would have given almost anything to figure out what it all meant to me.