Chapter Twenty Nine - Birthday Surprises
While the trampoline was still a mystery, I made the bars pretty easily, though I had waited until I could get chalk.
So the next day, I taught the kids through using the bars (though not very well, because I'm much stronger in my legs than my arms) and made sure to remind them to put chalk on their hands first. I even put up a sign next to the pile of chalk.
While the kids were doing that, I got some rope and formed two circular rings. Tying them to the rope, I found a place to put them, and slowly began to make a different form of Venus's Reflective Shield.
These weren't reflective, and I didn't need an incantation – I was just solidifying the light magic into what I needed – a bit like maker magic, I realized. A series of steps floating around in a spiral appeared above me, and I started walking up them. It wasn't a staircase – just a number of platforms slightly higher than the previous one. It was easier to maintain, that way.
I reached the top and easily tied the ropes to a height that would be good for Gildarts.
Not that I would let him touch any of these things. No way; he'd destroy them all easily.
Making sure the ropes were secure, I traveled down the floating platforms and made a block that could be used as a stepstool for the shorter kids.
When all was said and done, we had our own nice gymnasium to use, and we all tried them every day (except for Reedus, who eventually decided he would prefer to be included in Macao and Wakaba's generation anyway).
Though no one was particularly good at the set of hanging rings.
The next day was Juvia's birthday, and a few days after that was mine.
After Freed's and Laxus's birthdays last year, we developed a new rule – everyone does what the Birthday kid wants (as long as, you know, it's not impossible, or illegal, or anything like that).
Juvia wanted to go swimming on her birthday, and some of the older members decided to join us. I led them to a nice swimming hole a few ways away from my house, and all of us kids jumped in almost immediately. Macao and Wakaba, who I swear, sometimes seem younger than the rest of us, got into a splash fight, and Enno hit both of them when they caught her up in it, when she was simply relaxing and floating in the water. Reedus sat on the edge of the swimming hole, and drew pictures of us having fun in the water. Gildarts joined us, too, but I gave him one of the magical inhibitor cuffs I now had to wear, so that way we didn't have to worry about destroying the swimming hole – especially since it's a good place for me to practice Neptune.
Even Makarov ditched his paperwork for a day, and joined us, and I suggested something a lot earlier. "Hey, Master, why don't we build a pool at the guild?"
His face lit up. "That sounds like fun. And also…"
"I know what you're thinking," I hissed. "Don't you dare make that peephole."
He sighed. "Fine."
All in all, though, it was really fun, and the more courageous of us jumped off the top of the waterfall into the swimming hole. By most courageous I mean me, Laxus, Bickslow, and Cana. Juvia just did it because she can turn into a blob.
But Levy, Evergreen, and Freed didn't want to go near the top of the waterfall. Evergreen was afraid of being pushed off, though I think the only one who actually would get pushed off would be Freed, because Bickslow would want him to loosen up.
I also think Freed knew that, which was why he was staying away.
And of course, Reedus never got in the water in the first place.
All in all, though, it was a wonderful day, and we even spent some time meditating while we floated on the waves.
Then my birthday came, and everyone was terrified on what I was going to make them do.
I just rolled my eyes and used one of Cana's newest cards – the Memory Card - and copied my memory of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and finally the Avengers.
So we had a movie marathon.
And then I was demanded to make copies of all the 'weird dreams' I could remember.
"Please tell me you can move us closer," Cana begged.
I shook my head. "Sorry, but this is as close as we can get."
Around three weeks into May, I grabbed Cana and Laxus and took them to Gemini's location.
Unfortunately, it seemed as if Gemini's key was on a mountain, and there was not really any flat land I could put us on.
So instead, the three of us were at the base of the mountain, ready for a hike.
I took out the tack, which spun forward and a bit to the right.
I put it away, and started walking. "Come on guys, just be careful. It's probably in a cave, or something."
"You don't have any climbing gear?" Laxus asked.
"Nope," I said.
Cana caught up to us as we hiked up the mountain, which was pretty steep, but also easy enough to walk on. Where we were, it was mostly grassland, so I wouldn't have been able to really use the climbing gear until we got closer anyway.
Slowly, the grassland started being replaced by rock, and it became a lot harder to walk.
And it became cold.
"Why…" Cana was shivering. "Why is it so cold?"
"It's because we're nearing the top," I said. I requipped out a jacket for her, which she put on. In addition to that, I made a basic ball of fire that let off heat for us.
"Are we close?" Laxus asked. He tried to move closer to the ball without me noticing.
I rolled my eyes and brought out the tack again.
"Yeah, pretty close," I said. "Come on, let's keep going."
We continued up the mountain, and Cana asked, "How did the keys even get on this mount-"
The ground under us broke, and we all fell.
"Fluffy Landing Card!" Cana shouted, and threw a card below us. It exploded into a ball of fluff, which the three of us landed on.
"Nice save, Cana," I said. "But…uh...how do we get out?"
It was rather hard to get out of the fluff now that we were sinking into it.
"I'm not really sure, this was a prototype card," Cana admitted.
"You mean we're stuck in a cloud?" Laxus asked.
I rolled my eyes. "I'll take care of it. Don't freak out."
I raised my hand, "Mars's Wave of Agony!"
"WAVE OF AGONY?" both Laxus and Cana shrieked.
The fire quickly burned through all of the fluff and we ended up on the floor.
"It didn't hurt," Cana said as the fire dissipated.
"Mmhmm," I said. "It's supposed to only work on enemies, going out from a wave in all directions from the caster. It's a pretty explosive spell, and honestly, I'm kind of eager to see it in battle."
"What about Gildarts?" Laxus asked.
I shook my head. "No, this thing is supposed to hurt. No way. I'll only use this against real enemies, or members of a dark guild or something."
"So why did you say 'don't freak out' instead of 'this won't hurt you, despite the name'?" Cana asked.
I shrugged. "I honestly didn't realize which spell I was going to use until I cast it. I just knew I was going to set the fluff on fire, and that it might freak you out." I turned to Cana completely. "In the future I want you to practice taking things back into your cards. That way you use less energy by reusing them, and you also have a way of escaping."
Cana nodded.
"Now, how do we get out of here?" Laxus asked.
"We…don't…" I said, looking at my hand, which held the tack. "It's in this cave."
"Really?" Cana asked.
I nodded and turned, going deeper into the mountain.
"It's getting dark, Elle, can you make another ball of fire?" Laxus asked.
"I've got something better," I said.
I requipped out a long stick and wrapped the end up and set it on fire.
"There you go," I said, handing it to Laxus.
He blinked, accepting it. "Why are you carrying around sticks?"
"NO QUESTIONS!" I shouted, turning deeper into the cave.
Laxus sighed as he followed me, Cana giggling along the way.
Eventually, we reached an opening in the cave, and we all stopped to stare at the things.
Let's just say that there were a lot of jewels this time.
"Wow, holy crap!" Cana said.
"Cana, you're six, please wait another year or two before you start cursing," I said.
Cana sulked. "Crap isn't really a curse word. It's not like I said the 'S' word or anything…"
I rolled my eyes. "Alright, here's how it's going to work. Gather things according to similar items, and I'll go around requipping. If you see something you want to keep, please tell me first. I have little reason to say no, and I want to have a full catalogue of everything I've found at the sites."
They nodded, and we split up. I went immediately for the Gemini key, which led me to, once again, the Celestial pile.
Next to Gemini's key were several others.
One, I recognized immediately; Scorpio.
Raising my eyebrows, I requipped the two Zodiac keys with the rest of the golden ones.
Next was a pile (literally, a pile) of silver keys.
Actually there were only three, but it was odd that they were in a pile.
Two of them were Legend keys, one which had a fist, and another which had lightning.
I could only assume that it was Hercules and Perseus, considering that they were both sons of Zeus and we were high up on a mountain.
I requipped it away (though I have made a separate section for the Legend keys) and looked at the last one, which had a lion.
I smirked, assuming this was Leo Minor – in other words…Loke's younger sibling.
That will be interesting to see.
There was one last key, and I recognized the symbol on it instantly, along with the key type.
Pegasus, one of the Platinum keys.
Nice….
With the keys all away, I turned and made my way back to the others, requipping new piles into my storage as I went.
"Elle!" Laxus shouted, and I sped up, running ahead to where Laxus was holding on to Cana, who was struggling to move forward.
"Let me go, Laxus, I just want to touch it!" she said, and she was staring at an odd, box-shaped object that positively reeked of dark magic, something I was pretty good at detecting after a month with Zeref.
"Venus's Sword," I cast, and quickly swiped Cana across the chest with it.
Clarity returned to her eyes. "What…just…"
"You tried to touch that thing-" I said, pointing at the object, "and it positively reeks of dark magic. So I hit you with Venus's Sword, and used it to purify whatever control it had over you."
"That's pretty handy," Laxus said, letting go of Cana. "But what do we do now? We should probably show it to Jiji."
I shook my head. "This is Celestial Spirit business." Quietly, I requipped out Corvus's key into my hand, and he immediately appeared.
"What is it?" he asked, before he noticed what we were all staring at. "Oh…"
With a sharp intake of breath, he went back to the Spirit World before reappearing with gloves.
"I'll be taking this with me to the Spirit World, for now," he said.
"Can you please get Crux to look at it, and tell me what it is?" I asked.
"I know what it is," he said darkly. He rounded on the group of us. "You are all very, very lucky."
And after that cryptic statement, he grabbed the box, and disappeared.
We finished collecting everything at the site, and I found a pile of lacrima orbs that fit the description Papa gave me. If I was right, then one of these would work for him, and then Bickslow also had extra for his other souls.
Cana really liked a small amethyst ring, which surprisingly fit her thumb. I let her keep it, and we returned home.
"Did you guys have fun?" Gildarts asked.
"Yeah, it was pretty fun, even though we fell into a cave," Cana said.
"How do you fall into a cave, Onee-sama?" Juvia asked.
"We were standing above it and the ground broke underneath our feet. Cana saved our fall with one of her cards."
"Yeah, and then Elle gave us a heart attack when she cast one of her Mars spells," Laxus muttered.
I requipped the orbs and showed them to Makarov and Papa, who took them and traded out Papa's substitute for the real thing.
"Can you hold onto the others for me, Big Sis?" Bickslow asked.
I nodded. "There are seven more, just so you know."
"Other than falling, everything went okay?" Gildarts asked.
Cana hesitated. "Well…"
"WHAT HAPPENED!" Gildarts screeched. He rounded on me. "ELLE, YOU PROMISED YOU'D PROTECT MY BABY!"
"Calm down, Dad, she did!" Cana shouted.
Gildarts calmed down a bit, but he grabbed Cana and started hugging her.
"What happened?" he asked.
"We don't really know…" Laxus said.
"There was an unknown item," I said. "That reeked of black magic. Cana fell under its spell-"
"WHAT?"
FUCK, bad phrasing.
"Not an actual spell, but she seemed enchanted with it. Laxus managed to stop her from touching it until I hit her with my sword."
"Your sword?" Makarov asked curiously.
I nodded. "Yeah, Venus's Sword lets me control the person I hit, remember?"
"You CUT MY DAUGHTER OPEN?"
"No! Jeez, calm down. I basically purified her body of whatever made her so attached to it."
"What did you do next?" Freed asked, the kids having come over to hear the story.
"She called Corvus," Laxus said. "And he took it to the spirit world."
"Give them awhile to deal it," I said. "I'll ask about it again sometime later this year."
Though for all I know, they won't be allowed to tell us anything about it.
Somehow I found myself outside the Heartfilia Konzern, even though I could have sworn I still had a few weeks before Lucy's birthday.
The door opened and I was glomped by a tiny child. "Ellie-nee, Ellie-nee! I'm six now!"
I laughed, and swung her around in my arms. Since we were spending so much time building our strength, and because Juvia and Levy, and hell, even Cana, liked being carried by me (though usually in piggyback rides), it was pretty easy for me to hold her weight.
Lucy squealed and I put her down. "Happy birthday, sweetheart. What's up?"
Lucy grabbed my hand and dragged me inside, and Layla, who had been holding the door open the whole time, laughed to herself and closed the door behind us.
"So many things, Ellie-nee! I can hold open three Zodiac gates and a silver one!"
My eyes widened. That was more than I expected.
Layla, seeing my look, began to explain. "You see, giving her Ophiuchus helped with her magical reserves. Before that, she had her four Zodiac keys, but she could only pull them out every so often, according to their contracts."
"Ophiuchus said he can come out whenever I want!" Lucy said excitedly.
"In addition to that, she summons her spirits for specific things. Virgo, for everyday needs, which is why her gate ends up open the most. Cancer, to play dress up and do her (and even my) hair," Layla continued. "Aquarius, for swimming lessons, and Taurus, for sparring with some other mages."
"I see," I muttered. "Since Ophiuchus is a golden gate, and takes a bit of power to open, summoning him so often has helped."
Lucy nodded. "Ophiuchus is really smart, too. Sometimes he'll just come spend time with me, and we'll read stories, or do homework, and he's really really smart!"
"It's nice to have a helper," I said. "But make sure there's no cheating."
Speaking of which, I was probably going to have to incorporate things like math into the usual lessons with the kids.
Or, some sort of school work.
Except mages tend to be a lot more mature (with the apparently complete exception of Natsu, and Sting), so they probably already know math.
Oh well, I'd worry about it after the Games. They were in a month, after all, and the kids we're focusing on training for now (you know, with exceptions for birthdays).
Lucy nodded. "Don't worry, he doesn't let it happen."
"Good," I said. "Now, do you remember some of the things we discussed?"
She nodded. "No Monoceros yet, I understand. And no Zodiac either."
"Well…" I said. I turned to Layla. "Do you think she'll be able to hold all four gates open before Christmas?"
"Honestly, I'd be a bit surprised if she couldn't do it by the end of July, at the latest," Layla admitted. "She's been growing vastly, and it seems to be at an accelerated rate, as well."
I turned to Lucy. "Summon Aquarius," I said. "As long as it doesn't violate your contract."
"It doesn't!" Lucy said happily, and she led the way outside to an extremely nice lake. She dipped the key in the water. "Open, Gate of the Water Barer! Aquarius!"
"Brat, I told you, I was going on my date-"
Lucy cut her off. "Aqua-nee, Aqua-nee. Ellie-nee asked me to summon you."
At that, Aquarius sighed and straightened, turning her gaze to me.
Apparently news travels very fast across the Celestial Realm – or at the very least, a large majority of people knew who I was.
"Why did you ask the brat to summon me?" Aquarius asked, but her voice was much fonder as she spoke of Lucy.
That didn't surprise me. After all, if she remembered the end of the last timeline…
"You know of the deal I have with Lucy, correct?" I asked.
She nodded. "She doesn't get the next Zodiac key until she can summon all the ones she's contracted to. I know."
"And you know that she's getting close?" I asked.
Her eyes narrowed. "What about it?"
"Even though she can only summon three of her four, I will be giving Layla the next key," I said. "And she will give it to Lucy once Lucy can summon all four."
Aquarius raised an eyebrow. "So? What does this have to do with me?"
I requipped the key into my hand and held it up to her.
"I found it," I said. "And if you ask Lucy, I'm sure that you can eventually make it part of her training."
"Make what?" Lucy asked.
"This is Scorpio's key," I told her, "Aquarius's boyfriend. So when you're eventually contracted to him, I think that while you're training, you should try summoning Aquarius and Scorpio at the same time, so they can have some dates in the human world. Time moves faster in the Celestial Realm, so they can enjoy a bit more relaxation on a date out here."
Lucy nodded. "Yeah, that will be fun! I promise to help with your dates Aqua-nee! I can't wait to meet your boyfriend!"
"And if I ask you to stay away from my dates?" Aquarius asked, voice lowering and eyes flashing.
"Then I will keep you both out here and play with Ophiuchus or Virgo," Lucy said firmly.
Aquarius smiled, legitimately smiled. "Alright, Lucy. Happy Birthday. And Elle? Thanks…" her voice faded as she went back to the Celestial Realm.
"How did you find Aqua-nee's boyfriend?" Lucy asked, as we sat down outside near the lake. One of the servants brought a picnic blanket for us to sit on.
"It was actually an accident," I said, giving Scorpio's key to Layla, who carefully tucked it away. "I was looking for Gemini's key, and I found them together."
"Cool!" Lucy said.
"Oh," I smiled, remembering. "Can you manifest your magic yet?"
Lucy nodded, but she seemed a bit downtrodden. "Yeah, but it's really hard. I can make it appear, but I can't solidify it yet."
"Hey, it will take time," I said. "The most important thing you can do with it is make a shield, so I want you to practice, just in case."
She nodded. "You said you were training too, Ellie-nee. What happened?"
"Well," I said. "What do you know of Planetary Magic?"
Layla gasped. "Elle, I didn't know you have Planetary Magic."
I frowned. "Oh. Sorry, I thought I told you." I turned to Lucy. "Well, what do you know?"
She frowned. "It's a Lost Magic, right?"
I nodded. "Yep. It has to do with the planets, and each planet corresponds with an element. Mercury is Iron, Venus is Light, Earth is Earth, Mars is Fire, Jupiter is Lightning, Saturn is Wind, Uranus is Ice, Neptune is Water, and Pluto is Shadow."
"Wow, you can do them all?" Lucy asked.
I laughed. "No, I can only do a few of them. The closest to what I want you to do with your magic is probably a lot like Venus's, which is Light Magic."
"Venus's Sword!" I said, and a large sword grew out of my arm. "This spell allows me to create a sword out of pure light. Doing this allows me whatever I wish with it. It can cut through anything, if I want it to, or it can simply go through people and affect them in different ways."
"What do you mean?" Lucy asked.
"For instance, in my guild, we sometimes fight each other, like how you spar with other mages to get stronger. I was fighting a man named Gildarts, and my sword went right through him. After that, I was able to stop him from moving, with the sword. And after that…"
My grin grew evil.
"What did you do?" Lucy asked, slightly scared.
I vanished the sword. "I tickled him!" and then started tickling her.
After a lot of laughing and rolling around, we stopped so we could breathe.
Layla giggled at the sight.
"So, did you actually tickle him with your sword, or were you just messing around with Lucy?" Layla asked.
"Oh, no I actually tickled him," I said. "But despite that he stood up and cast a spell at me, and I didn't defend myself in time. When I woke up, he was getting yelled at by the Master."
Lucy frowned. "But isn't getting hurt normal in fights? Mommy isn't happy when I get hurt, but she wouldn't tell at my trainers."
"Well, for one thing, Gildarts is an adult," I said. "He actually has a daughter about a year older than you. For another thing, Gildarts is probably the most powerful mage in the entire guild, and he probably went a bit overboard, considering who he had as his opponent."
Layla's eyes were wide. "And you were fighting him?"
I nodded. "Yeah. He uses Crash Magic, so his magic can be pretty destructive. After that fight, we realized that when he was fighting a kid he had to just stick with regular minor spells, because the more powerful ones are too much for us."
"Wow," Lucy said. "I don't know if I could do that. It sounds scary."
Hmm, I wonder if Gildarts would be affected by Urano Metria.
"It can be, a bit," I said. "But Gildarts is a part of the guild – he's family. If he was a real opponent – then I'd be terrified."
I looked at Lucy. "Which one of your spirits are like pets?"
"Well, Vulpecula can be considered a pet, though she does play a type of mind trick on people, that can makes them disoriented," Lucy said.
I nodded, and requipped specific keys into my hands. "These are the keys to Serpens and Lepus, which I also believe are considered pet-like spirits."
Lucy nodded. "That's why there are so much of them."
I took out another key. "This one is something called a Legend Key."
"Oh, I've heard of those!" Lucy said. "They're silver keys but they're still pretty strong!"
I nodded. "Yep, and this one is Orion. Like Asterion and Chara, he uses tracking magic. But both their magic works several times better when they're all summoned together, so I suggest you start doing that as well."
She nodded. "I'm gonna try to keep them all out all day, and also Ophiuchus!"
I sweatdropped. "That's, what…Vulpecula, Canes Venatici, Orion, Lepus, Serpens, and Ophiuchus?"
She nodded determinedly. "I'm going to keep them out all day, and we'll all play together!"
"Maybe you should hold off on bringing out Orion with the others," I said. "He might not want to play."
She frowned. "Oh."
I ruffled her hair. "Don't worry. Besides, Ophiuchus is a golden gate, and even without Orion there's four more silver spirits. That's quite a bit."
She nodded. "I know. But it will be fun!"
I smiled, and then remembered. "Oh, how is your requipping going?"
"It's pretty good," Lucy said. "It's not very big, probably only about the size of a chest…"
"She's been practicing more on summoning them faster than making her space bigger," Layla commented.
"Nothing wrong with that," I said. "Do you still need the book?"
Lucy shook her head, and I smiled.
"Good," I said. "Because I want another girl at the guild to learn it."
Lucy seemed a bit sad at that.
"What's wrong, Lucy?" I asked.
"It's just…I want to join the guild, too!" Lucy said, starting to cry. "But Daddy won't even let me visit!"
I sighed. If Jude didn't get his head out of his ass, I was going to rip him a new one. At least he was actually able to spend time with Lucy on her birthday this year, which is why I came on June 2nd, instead of the 1st.
"Don't worry, Lucy," I said to her, ruffling her hair. "Even if it takes a while, you'll get to join Fairy Tail."
"I know," she said quietly. "But I don't want to wait."
"Well," I said. "I'll see about taking you to the guild. And if we still can't do that…" I smirked. "We'll just have to take the guild here."
Layla looked like she was trying not to laugh.
"Really, thank you Ellie-nee!" Lucy said, jumping into my arms again.
"Yeah," I said. "And it isn't a problem, Lucy. Besides, have you heard of the Grand Magic Games?"
She nodded. "Yeah. It sounds cool…"
"Well, Fairy Tail is competing this year, so you can at least come and see us fight," I said. "The kids have our own team. I'll be participating, too."
"Really? That's so cool, Ellie-nee!"
Layla nodded. "Oh, yes, we'll definitely come see."
I spent the rest of the day with Lucy, and her spirits, and we ate dinner out by the lake. Layla gave me the extra food, and I read a bit of a story to Lucy before she fell asleep.
"I didn't know she was still read to sleep," I told Layla after leaving the room.
"She isn't," Layla said. "She just loves you, and wants to spend time with you."
"I love her too," I said. I turned and gave Layla a hug. "Thank you, Layla, for giving me a chance and believing in me."
She hugged me back, and I wondered if this is what it felt like to have a mother.
"If you're her sister, that makes you my daughter, too, Elle," she said.
I squeezed her tighter, and tried to hold back tears. "Thank you, Layla."
For giving me something I always wanted.
"One more thing," I said, pulling out of the hug. "Grammi still works here, right?"
Layla nodded.
"I want Brandish to start meditating with Lucy, and work on training. They'll be great friends."
Layla nodded. "I have no problem with it, and I've been wanting to introduce them for a while. Goodnight, Elle, and good luck at the Grand Magic Games."
"Goodnight Layla." I smiled and went home.
Alright guys, next chapter is the start of the Grand Magic Games! I might be a few days (like until the weekend) because I want to make sure I haven't messed up any of the organizing. Once I'm all set, I'll be able to post them.
And for those of you who don't know Brandish, she is in the Alvarez arc, and her mother was Grammi, one of the Heartfilias' servants. Because of a huge misunderstanding, she tried to kill Lucy, but eventually Lucy... You know, was Lucy and they ended up as friends. You can look her up and find colored pages from the manga that fans have filled out, but she has green hair, just so you're not confused.
Brandish is the reason that the warning is up in the summary, and she will be the only real character from the Alvarez arc (as of currently). No August, Irene or Larcade. Just saying.
