Ta-da! Here with the next chapter and more Chibi!Gray! Also, blame Gray for the cliffhanger at the end of this chapter, I'd intended to do the end of the chapter from Wren's perspective which would have taken some of the cliffy-tension off of it, but Gray took over and ended the chapter there. So yeah.
Review Response: Dear GerbilFriend, greetings! Oh, good, glad you enjoyed the music. Yes! Mini!Gray is here to cause oodles of trouble! I suppose it is a bummer Wren missed out on vacation, but if she hadn't, you wouldn't have gotten to meet Gray yet. So ... consolation prize to Wren?
Dear Dragon Lord Draco, hey there! Maybe, we'll see if my muses feel like elaborating on the vacation or not. (snickers) that also means she's the only Fairy Tail member around for Gray's naturally occurring Fairy Tail Luck to latch onto and multiply. This is going to be so much fun for Wren (sarcasm puddles on the floor).
Dear RedWolf Lover, hello there! So glad you enjoyed the update! Wren will probably let is slide the first few times, but as soon as he looses his boxers as well as his shirt, then there's going to be discipline. Taylor Davis actually sells printable sheet music on musicnotes . com. Just go to the website and look up "Fairy Tail Theme" then choose the one by Taylor Davis. It's only 4.99 and so pretty to play! Well, there are worse people to mimic the smile of, and Bickslow is adorable. Also, hello to your cat! I hope the two of you enjoy the new chapter!
Dear Lightsbane1905, heya! True, but not as scary as when Wren feels like pranking annoying Fairy Tail members. Then she skulks about in the shadows making the shadows move in their peripheral vision while mimicking the Predator's clicking sound (which can be done without vocal cords, I've checked). Understandable. But Wren didn't have much of a choice but to hurry. Makarov loves trolling his adoptive kids sometimes. (chortles) Obviously. Because it wouldn't be Gray if he didn't do exactly that the moment he met her.
Dear L'ceil, hi there! Actually, Wren is recently turned 7. Or is about to turn 7. I'd have to double-check my notes. Her birthday is pretty early in the year, so technically she's only two years behind the main cast. Though I think Erza is actually a year older than Gray and Lucy... Again, I'd have to check my notes.
Dear Maxiforce, hello! Well, she does have her (work-in-progess) Shadow Script technique that she can use to talk to him, so maybe it won't go completely wrong?
Dear EmberFlame03, greetings! Gray ahoy! Look out for impending Main Cast Level Fairy Tail Luck!
Dear libra glitters, hello there! Aw, thank you for your lovely compliments! I'm so glad you like this story (cliffhangers aside)! I hope you enjoy the newest chapter (despite the cliffhanger)!
Dear kalmaegi, heya! Wren REALLY needs to learn to stop making wishes, they always backfire spectacularly. (snickers) Overprotective Raijinshū is overprotective.
Dear Smile4the-World, hey there! Yeah ... the Raijinshū are not going to be a fan of the shenanigans Gray gets Wren wrapped up in. (snorts) I'd think that Laxus would more be the one to worry about in that situation. Bickslow will hover protectively around Wren, LAXUS will go out and eliminate the perceived threat. Cana would help.
Dear demonicKitsune2, hi! You are correct, this arc is an adaption of the events of Ice Trail Volume 2. It's no problem, I try to answer questions whenever I can (unless it would give spoilers of course). Yes, Wren will eventually learn Telepathy and possibly a few other magics (I can see her dabbling in common magics like fire and light), but that is a ways down the line. She's technically only been in the guild for a little under a year, I didn't want to load her up with too many cool magics right off the bat and make her OP (or more OP than any Fairy Tail member usually is just after joining). Wren's eye magic ... I don't really remember what inspired it actually. Huh. Anyway, as far as I know, her black hole does not have multiple 'levels' so to speak. As she trains it she will be able to do more with it (open more than one hole at once, etc) but so far the muses haven't said anything about other 'levels' to her eye magic. No, her eye magic does not open up to anywhere other than a rip in the fabric of space-time that is in the middle of space itself. Hope that answers that question?
Dear KEZZ 1, hello! Glad to hear it! I hope you enjoy the latest chapter!
Dear thatgirl221b, greetings! I updated as soon as I could, hope you enjoy!
Dear Petra0suomesta, hello there! Well, this was as fast as I could update, Real Life and all that. Enjoy!
Dear Unseen element, hey there! Introducing new characters is always fun. So much potential chaos. Hmmmm, that certainly sounds like something that would happen to Wren with her Luck, doesn't it? I hope you enjoy the newest chapter!
Dear TrackHer, hello! (dies laughing) Gray would never be able to show himself around the guild hall when the Raijinshū are around without at least four layers of clothing again if that happened! Enjoy the update!
Dear WolfGirl01, hi there! Yep, she's going to get a terrifying nickname to match her reputation eventually, I already have on all picked out. It occurred to me that I never really wrote about Wren having hobbies, because her team keeps her so busy all the time, so I realized that taking the team away from her would lead to mass boredom. It was fun to write. Read on to find out what happens next!
Dear NightsOfFire, hi! Well, I personally prefer love. And I recommend that you get used to cliffhangers because ... yeah, there's another one at the end of this chapter. Sorry. Blame Gray, he's the one who took of the end of chapter POV and ran off with it. As for why I do it ... didn't you just answer your own question? I'm an evil, evil person (winks and twirls imaginary villain mustache).
Dear .2013, greetings! I'm so happy to hear you like my story despite the cliffhangers (I try not to do them, really I do, but the muses insist on ending chapters in certain places or they stop working with me). Well, I try to do monthly updates, but I don't always succeed. I have several stories that need my attention and Real Life taking precedence on top of it all so ... sometimes stuff just gets delayed.
Dear The Utterly Fabulous Z, heya! Methinks that my Gray fangirl/boy senses are tingling, yes? (laughs) Enjoy!
Dear najamuzen, hiya! Of course she does, because Wren has the weirdest of all the Fairy Tail Luck and it only gets weirder when she's on her own. Well, maybe. I'm not sure who is going to meet the rest of the Main Cast first, but it would be amusing if Wren somehow managed to stumble across them all before the rest of Fairy Tail. We'll just have to wait and see.
Dear Captain343Spark, hi! (dies of bad puns. Revives.) I would pun WRITE back at your review, but all my friends SNOW that I suck at them. (ahem), I'll just go back to my Pun Corner of Shame now, care to join me?
Dear LucilliaNovaDreyar, hello! Enjoy the update!
Dear Sweets and Tarts, hiya! Ah-ha! Someone else who had read Ice Trail! I was wondering how many people who read Ice Trail would read this story too. I hope you enjoy the adaptions that Wren's presence will cause!
Dear koseta.a, greetings! So happy to hear it! Enjoy the new chapter!
Dear Azrael de Angelo, hello there! I know I do. At least this way, if you ever decide to reread this story, the cliffhangers won't be so bad anymore. Hmm, I certainly wouldn't mind Wren and Gray becoming pals, but we'll have to see what the characters decide. They do seem like they'd have a similar sense of humor though...
Dear WelcomeToTheLoser'sClub, hey there! Welcome fellow fangirl/boy of Gray! Come and enjoy the chaos of Gray's first encounters with Fairy Tail kind!
Dear Yui0198, heya! Read on and find out! I hope you enjoy it!
Dear Some Random Dude, hello there! I actually wanted to introduce Gray earlier in the chapter, but he insisted on a dramatic entrance. The dramatic cliffy ending continue in this chapter too (again, Gray's fault), just a heads up.
Dear Tabs, hi! Aw, thank you! I love it when other people enjoy the stories and characters I work so hard on! Poor Wren, Main Cast Fairy Tail Luck is 1000% more chaotic than normal Fairy Tail Luck, especially on the first encounters...
Dear cl9763, greetings! Chaos is a blast to write, especially watching it unfold from a safe distance. Well, I kinda had to, I mean, they had to learn to read, write, and maths somewhere right? Besides, sticking poor Wren in school again was too much to resist.
Author's Note: First off, CLIFFY WARNING. There. Now, in respects to this chapter and the following one, the events in this arc are actually based on the wonderful little manga Ice Trail, specifically volume 2. The author of that deserves much love and support for making such a lovely story and characters that fit in so well with Mashima's overarching plot. Pauz and Doronbo are also not my OCs, but belong to the author of the story Ice Trail. They are fun to play with though. I think that's it? So onward to the chapter!
Chapter Thirty-Four: Ice Trail - Close Encounters
(Ten months, three weeks, two days since joining the Guild)
.
It took a full twenty seconds of wide-eyed staring before Gray's expression shifted to one of discomfort and irritation and he snapped, "Well? Do ya or don't ya?"
"I think you broke her, Gray-san." The second voice —soft and amused and as young as Gray's— managed to drag Wren's gaping stare away from the ice mage to take in her surroundings at last. The second voice belonged a young boy no older than Gray, with shaggy blond hair, thick square glasses that screamed "adorable geek", and a large backpack. Following at the boy's heels was a teenager in what looked to be dull yellow footie pajamas with an enormous hood and black swirls embroidered all over the onesie.
The teenager smirked, "You might have better luck with the ladies if you introduce yourself to them first, then take off your clothes, kid." Both Wren and Gray looked back at the child ice mage, then down at the shirt, cargo pants, snow boots, and wool socks puddled pathetically on top of the coat that was still sitting on Wren's favorite boots. Gray turned bright red and sputtered an unintelligible mix of excuses, curses, and apologies as he snatched up the discarded clothes and wiggled back into them. Wren tried very hard not to laugh even as a part of her internally flailed.
Because Gray was here in Magnolia right now and the rest of Fairy Tail wasn't. How was Gray supposed to join the guild when they weren't even supposed to be back for another three days? She couldn't remember if the anime had ever covered how Gray joined the guild, but surely it hadn't been by making Gray wait around three days to even talk to anyone from Fairy Tail.
Well, she was here, but she hadn't been in the anime timeline and that left only Wakaba in town right now, which would have been a disaster in the making with his horrible sense of humor and how busy he was with his new girlfriend.
She was dragged out of her thoughts as Gray finished wiggling into his coat and the blond boy politely stepped forward and held out his hand, "I apologize for Gray-san's … unusual habits. He did not meant to startle you like that. I am Pauz, and this," he gestured to the snickering teenager, "is Doronbo-san. We just arrived in Magnolia."
Gray humphed and seemed to recover his composure, "We need to find the Fairy Tail Guild, can you tell us how to get there?"
Wren raised an eyebrow as she shook Pauz's hand and debated what to do about the question. There was no one in the guild building to talk to anyway, but she wasn't terribly confident in her ability to write out an acceptable explanation for their absence that wouldn't risk driving Gray away. In the end, she sighed and gestured for them to follow her, figuring that they had probably found the guild hall and read the note on the door themselves in the previous timeline, and Gray would decide to stick around anyway. Hopefully.
She was curious about the other two though, she didn't remember them from the anime at all. Had they just been background Fairy Tail members? But Gray seemed fairly attached to them, though with the teen it was more in an antagonistic way like his relationship with Natsu in the future.
"Thank you for showing us the way, um…" Pauz's words trailed off as he realized that Wren hadn't told them her name. That, at least, she could do with her shadows, so she twisted a few shadow tendrils into the shape of her name and spun the kanji around so that they could read it properly.
Gray's eyes lit up in an endearingly childish way, "Wren, huh? So you can use magic too! Are you a member of Fairy Tail then?"
Wren paused in surprise at the silly question, because her guild mark was very plainly visible on her shoulder … then she realized that she was still wearing the jacket she'd thrown on that morning when it was particularly chilly and the clothing article covered her mark. Wren smiled over her shoulder at Gray and nodded.
Gray walked faster so that he was at her side, Pauz quietly shifted to walk on Gray's other side and Doronbo seemed content to amble after them in his glorified footie-onesie. Gray placed his arms behind his head, "What's it like? Being in a guild, I mean. Are they super strong?"
Wren traced out her response as quickly and accurately as she could, idly noticing the puzzled looks on the boys' faces as she wrote, "It's crazy, but fun. Fairy Tail is strug-" She backed up and rewrote, "Strong. Fairy Tail is strong."
Gray tilted his head to one side and squinted at her, "How come you won't talk? As cool as your magic is, talkin' is easier than scribbling stuff in the air." Wren smiled tightly at the blunt, unintentionally callous question. If she'd been Erza, she might have slapped him for being so rudely blunt, but she decided to let it slide this time as he didn't mean to be cruel —and wasn't officially Fairy Tail yet—. Instead, she unzipped the top of her jacket and pulled down the turtleneck of her shirt so that he could fully see the ugly scar running from the left side of her chin to the right side of her collarbone.
Gray stumbled, his arms dropping from behind his head in surprise as he stared at the old wound. Pauz sucked in a quiet breath, eyes wide behind his glasses, and Doronbo hissed quietly, flinching away from the sight as if it might hurt him just to look. Wren adjusted her turtleneck so that it covered most of the scar again and zipped up her jacket. She glanced over at Gray again and was surprised by the dark look in his gaze, "Who did that to you?" There was an edge, a growl in his voice that caught her off guard. He sounded almost like he was ready to go for war on her behalf despite only knowing her for a few minutes.
Wren had always thought that instant loyalty was a trait Fairy Tail trained into its members, but now she had to wonder if Fairy Tail just happened to attract people who already had that trait in their personalities, "It was long ago. The man who did it…" was in another dimension, probably serving a very long jail sentence for accidental manslaughter, "is not around anymore." She tried to smile reassuringly, but from the look on the three boys' faces, it wasn't working.
Doronbo shuffled a bit, "Was it because you were a part of Fairy Tail? A … a mission gone wrong?"
Wren shook her head, "No. I wasn't a …" what was the word for fairy again? Oh, right, "Fairy then."
"So you were just a normal kid." That seemed to make Gray even unhappier and Pauz visibly uncomfortable, but the ice mage dropped the subject without any further commentary.
Wren was saved from having to come up with any further conversation when they rounded the corner and the guild building came into view. Gray lit up, a mix of elation and nervousness on his face as he bolted forward, running for the doors without waiting for any of his companions. Doronbo muttered something under his breath about recklessness, and Wren thought she saw something worried and melancholy flicker over Pauz's face. The expression worried her, niggled some instinct she had, and Wren made a mental not to keep an eye on the boy. She didn't want to think badly of him —he seemed like a very nice kid— but if trouble was following him, she didn't want to be caught off guard.
The three of them caught up with Gray just as the boy was taking a deep breath, visibly trying to calm his nerves, "Okay," Gray muttered, "time to-"
Pauz was the one to interrupt while Wren braced for the impending eruption, "Gray-san, there's a piece of paper on the door…"
Gray gave a startled noise and reexamined the door. He stared at the note for several long seconds, "A-away…?" The ice mage seemed to process the implications very slowly. Then, just as Wren had anticipated, "What do they MEAN 'away'?"
Pauz gave a helpless gesture, then shamelessly threw Wren to the wolves, "Wren-san? Did you know about this?"
Wren nodded reluctantly. Gray rounded on her, "Why didn't you tell me everyone else was gone? And what do they mean for 'a while'?"
"You didn't ask. They should be back in-" It took her a minute to remember the correct spelling for three —who needed over five different ways to spell the number three anyway?— "three days. I think."
Gray seemed to wilt to the pavement, "Three days? You think? But I came all this way…"
Pauz studied the guild building critically for a moment before he turned a surprisingly worried gaze on Wren, "They left you here all alone, Wren-san?"
Wren scowled, she was only two years younger than Pauz physically if she was estimating his age correctly, "I can take care of myself. Besides, there is one more member in town in case something happens." She was fairly certain she'd Yoda-spoke at least half that sentence, but she still managed to get her point across. She hoped.
Gray sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "What do I do now?"
On cue, his stomach rumbled and Doronbo slapped the ice mage on the shoulder easily, "We'll figure it out later, kid! Now, let's go get something to eat!"
Wren obligingly led them in the direction of The Secret Ingredient, though she split off from them once they were in sight of the restaurant to teleport to the lighthouse and stash her violin safely under her bed. She wasn't an idiot, if Gray was in town, the Fairy Tail Luck in the area was almost guaranteed to skyrocket and she was not risking her precious instrument in whatever craziness was about to go down. She teleported back via the shadow under their table. She ended up scaring Doronbo straight off his chair in the process and he was promptly teased by Gray for screaming higher than most little girls Wren's age could.
Aengus-san had remembered Wren from her first job months ago and, after Wren had discreetly signaled that her new friends were potential Fairy Tail recruits, had graciously —boisterously— given them a discount on their lunches. Once the food was served and Gray's ravenous appetite appeased, he went back to complaining about the impromptu disappearance of Fairy Tail, "Seriously, who does that? Where did they even go Wren-chan?"
Wren shrugged, she had no idea how to spell vacation and wasn't in the mood for charades. Gray continued to grumble, "And really, what kind of people are these Fairy Tail guys that they'd leave a little kid all by herself for who knows how long with no explanation?"
Wren started to bristle in automatic defense of her guild —even though Gray was completely correct from an outsider's perspective— when someone piped up from where he was drinking at another table, "What, you guys have some business with them?" Wren blinked, she hadn't even noticed Wakaba was there, drinking ale about two tables away. He was surprisingly quiet without Macao around to wind him up or to tease.
Wakaba took another draw from his tankard —how he managed that while still smoking a cigarette was beyond Wren— and sneered, "Forget about them. Nothing good comes from dealing with them." Wren blinked, why was he pretending not to be a member? Check that, why was he pretending to be a non-member who dared to badmouth Fairy Tail? Only Fairies got to talk trash about the guild, and even then they only talked trash about specific members of the guild to other members of the guild. Trash-talk was very exclusive in Fairy Tail. It was one of the sacred unspoken rules.
Gray half-bristled, though his gaze was curious as he left their table to stand near Wakaba's, "What do you know about Fairy Tail, old man?"
Wren was impressed that Wakaba managed to hide his usual, knee-jerk aggression to being called old. Instead, the pompadour enthusiast just took another long swig before he answered blithely, "I know you should keep your distance from them."
Gray glanced over his shoulder at Wren, who was still too baffled to really react. Her attention was dragged partially away from Wakaba and Gray when Pauz muttered that he had to use the bathroom and quietly slipped away from the table. Doronbo got up to follow a few seconds later, but Wren didn't really notice that as Gray and Wakaba had somehow managed to start brawling in the five seconds she'd taken her eyes off them. Yep. Definitely Fairy Tail material.
She watched them fight for about two minutes, allowing them to get it out of their system until they started to knock over tables and annoy the other customers. She then ambled over to the edge of the conflict and turned on her Look. Wren mentally congratulated herself when Wakaba froze mid-punch, eyes going wide behind his sunglasses even though he was at the wrong angle to actually see her glaring. Recently, the more trouble-prone Fairy Tail members had developed the ability to sense when her Look was being leveled at them now as long as they weren't involved in too large and distracting a brawl. She figured that at the rate she was going, with more practice —and a more intimidating physical age—, she'd eventually be able to bring entire brawls to heel with just her Look.
Gray —not being trained to respond to her Look or fear its consequences yet— didn't stop and Wakaba yelped in indignation when Gray took advantage of Wakaba's freeze to yank on the man's precious pompadour. Wakaba yowled and almost restarted the fight when Wren cranked up the intensity of her Look, using her shadows to slap Gray on the back of his head as she did so. Gray jerked in surprise and then glared at her, "What are you doing? He's talking trash about your guild!"
Wren gave Wakaba a side-long, hooded variation of her Look —the one that was basically pure sarcasm and irritation incarnate— and was gratified when it made the man wither in place, "It's fine. He's allowed to trash- talk trash. But only a little bit."
Gray blinked at her, "Huh?"
Wren temporarily ignored Gray as she softened her Look to a regular deadpan and addressed Wakaba in her sign-language, "Stop harassing the new kid. He's been through enough trying to get here without you picking a fight." Granted, she didn't know that for certain, but considering Gray's already disturbingly Fairy Tail-esque tendencies and how far away the northern continent was, she figured it was a safe bet that Gray had gone through his fair share of adventures to reach Magnolia. Plus, there was the entire Deliora debacle that made him leave his home continent in the first place, but nobody was supposed to know about that yet.
Wakaba chuckled sheepishly as he separated from Gray and stood up, "Eh-heh-heh. Sorry, Wren-chan, I just wanted to see how serious he was about meeting Fairy Tail. But if you like him, I guess he'll do fine."
Gray looked increasingly confused. Doronbo returned about that time and made vague squawking noises at the clear signs of the fight that had just happened. Wakaba dusted off his jacket, fluffed his pompadour and nodded to Gray, "Sorry about that kid, pretend I didn't say any of that stuff."
Gray blinked at Wakaba about three times before he decided he wasn't getting an answer to his question and it wasn't worth trying and glanced over at Doronbo, "Hey, where's Pauz? He's taking a while."
Doronbo froze and his eyes went wide with clear guilt before he looked away, "Pauz-kun … might not be coming back…"
Wren raised an eyebrow in puzzlement, but Gray looked stricken, "Might not be coming back…? What do you mean by that?"
Doronbo shifted weight guiltily from foot to foot, "I don't know, but he walked off right in front of me."
Gray looked like he couldn't comprehend what Doronbo was saying and Wren wondered what the boys had gone through that Gray was so certain of Pauz's loyalty … and why Pauz had apparently run off without a word, "Pauz just … walked off…?"
Doronbo looked at the ground in clear shame, "Sorry. I wasn't able to stop him either…"
Gray's breath hitched and a second later he was running down the street, already screaming Pauz's name and ignoring Doronbo's frantic calls after him. Wakaba was making a comment on the situation, but Wren ignored him in favor of charging after Gray. She didn't know why Pauz was so clearly important to Gray, and she didn't know why the blond had run off when he'd seemed genuinely attached to Gray in return.
But considering she had never even heard of Pauz in the anime, she was terrified of what would happen if Gray didn't find the other boy in time.
.
.
.
.
Gray finally slowed to a stop only because the stitch in his side had finally gotten too painful to ignore. He had been running up and down the unfamiliar streets of Magnolia for hours, searching for Pauz and calling his name, but hadn't found anything. Gray dropped down onto the curb, trying to ignore both the burn in his lungs and his eyes as he gritted his teeth. Why had Pauz disappeared on him? He didn't understand. Pauz might have been a bit … weird —because bookworms were not supposed to have blind berserk rages, even ones who knew how to magically weaponize their books— but Pauz was his friend. He wouldn't run off without saying goodbye first, without saying why. Right?
Except apparently he was wrong, because Pauz was gone and no one in town had seen any sign of him.
A soft shuffle alerted him to Wren's return and he looked up hopefully. She had been helping him look for Pauz all this time —climbing up onto rooftops with freaky speed and agility to look for him from a better vantage point— but so far hadn't had any better luck. The look on her face as she silently handed him his coat, shirt, and shoes —icicles, when had he taken those off?— and sat down next to him told him that she hadn't had any better luck since splitting off from him to search the town an hour ago. Gray took the items with a nod and stubbornly swallowed back the burning in his eyes, "I don't get it … why would he just leave like that? It isn't-"
Snow biting his face and ears, a rectangle of light shining out from a cabin door at his back, "Leave and you are no longer my student!" Hatred and fear and pain-pain-pain that drove him on, drove him to snarl lies-lies-lies and make him walk away from his mo- from his mentor and his bro- his fellow student, toward the only thing that mattered-
Gray shook his head violently to banish the memories and gritted his teeth, This is different! Pauz is different! There's no demons here, Pauz doesn't have anyone to fight! And if he did, I would help him, he knows that. So why did he-? A gentle hand on his bare arm startled him out of his thoughts and he jerked away from the foreign touch. Gray couldn't stop the snarl that left his lips as he glared at Wren, "What?"
She didn't recoil from his biting tone or tear up like a little girl her age should have. She just calmly retracted her hand and used it to write the air with her magic, "Fine it will be. We find him will. Promise." Gray snorted and glared at the cobblestones, trying to ignore the guilt that now nagged at him for snapping at her. She had done nothing but be helpful ever since meeting him, despite his less than stellar first impression. She had shown them to her guild building, then showed them a cheep place with good food, had helped search for Pauz…
And now he was yelling at her just for being worried about him. Pathetic.
Gray was almost glad when he heard Doronbo dash up. Any distraction —even the coward thief— was a welcome one from the stewing pot of grief-guilt-confusion-hurt swirling in the pit of his stomach. Doronbo only sounded vaguely winded as he asked worriedly, "Did you find Pauz-kun?"
Gray shook his head, "No. I couldn't find him anywhere."
Doronbo looked guiltily at the ground, "W-well … I'm sure he has his reasons."
Gray felt his temper rear its ugly head again, but before he could retort, another voice called out, "Yo! So you two are still wandering around town?"
Gray eyed the old man from the restaurant, the one that Wren had —for some weird reason— allowed to badmouth her guild, "You're that guy from before." He felt an eyebrow twitch as the old man lifted a tankard to his lips —didn't that belong to the restaurant?— and took a deep swig of it, "Are you still drinking?"
The old man ignored the question, just shuffled the cigarette in his mouth and eyed Gray and Doronbo through his sunglasses, "It's starting to get dark. What're you two doing for the night?"
Gray blanched as he realized that he hadn't even considered that and, come to think of it, he didn't really have any money left to afford a hotel room, "Oh…"
Any hopes he'd had that Doronbo might have some spare cash on him —he was a thief after all, even if he wasn't a very good one—, were squashed by the teen commenting feebly from behind, "We, eh, haven't decided yet…?"
The old man nodded slowly as if considering this. A light pat on the arm drew Gray's attention back to little Wren, who was already pointing down a side street with one hand while she wrote with the other, "You two stay with me can. Lighthouse plenty room for guests has."
Gray felt a wave of relief and started to smile when the old man visibly bristled, "No! Absolutely not, Wren-chan! You are far too young and little and vulnerable to-!" Her gaze snapped over to the old man and the sweet expression on her face melted to a surprisingly terrifying death glare for a seven-year-old. The old man immediately blanched and backtracked, "I-I-I- just mean- W-well you see- It's just- It isn't proper for a girl your age Wren-chan! You don't know anything about those boys!"
Wren was visibly unmoved by the stammered excuses, her fingers flashing in what looked like a bunch of nonsense gestures. The old man seemed to understand them though, as he paled further and protested weakly, "Come on, Wren-chan, be reasonable! Laxus would skin me alive if he knew I let you take two strange boys home with you, no matter how good your magic is! Let me take them to my girlfriend's place, won't yah? She has an extra guest room and loves kids and everything!"
Another round of meaningless —to Gray's eyes anyway— gestures and the old man's face when from fish pale to scarlet, "That isn't- I- How do you even-? We wouldn't do that with guests in the house!" Wren looked distinctly unimpressed by the old man's wild stammering. Instead, she rolled her eyes and pointedly signaled for Gray and Doronbo to follow her. The two boys shared a puzzled glance, but Wren had been pretty nice to them so far, so they obediently fell in step behind her.
The old man wobbled drunkenly after them, protesting and whining about the impropriety of it all the entire way and begging for Wren to reconsider. Gray idly wondered why an adult was begging for a little kid to change her mind instead of just ordering her, and why she let the old man follow them and nag at her even though it clearly irritated her.
Gray eyed the old man in annoyance as he finally aired his question to Wren, "Why are you letting him follow us around anyway? And why did you let him badmouth your guild?"
Wren shot the old man a dark look that had him stumbling —why was an old man like him terrified of a kid anyway?— before she began to answer Gray's question, "Harmless he is, means well he. Also, member is he of-" her hand dropped as she suddenly shifted into a tense, alert stance, like a wild thing that had just scented a predator. Almost before Gray could realize her change in attitude, she had dived to one side.
Just in time to avoid the strange bubbles that formed around Gray, Doronbo, and the old man.
Gray flailed as he floated in his empty bubble —balloon?—, "Wha-!"
The bubbles —Gray smelled rubber, definitely balloons— began to float into the air and Doronbo wailed, "What's happening? We're rising!"
Gray managed to right himself inside his balloon and looked down in time to see five spearlike tendrils of shadow shoot out from a darkened corner toward three really weird-looking strangers that had just shown up out of nowhere. The tendrils were swatted aside by the largest of the three, whose arms didn't seem to be attached to the rest of his bulbous body. A shrill laugh filled the air from the second one, a weirdo with his face where his stomach should be and a mass of balloons where his head belonged, "Oh~! Looks like she's a feisty one! Hold still, girlie!"
Wren sprinted across the cobblestones instead of holding still, a wave of shadows rising after her like a wake in clear preparation to attack. Just as she twisted around to charge the three men, there was a loud noise of something inflating and Wren was suddenly trapped in her own balloon same as the rest of them. Her teeth bared in a silent snarl, a shadow curling down her hand to form claws as she raised it in preparation to strike the balloon. The man with a face for a middle gave another peal of obnoxious laughter, "I wouldn't do that, girlie! Not if you don't want to explode~!"
Wren's hand stopped short, her expression shifting to something far darker than a kid her age should be capable of. The old man snarled as he flailed in the air inside his balloon, "Circus Night! What do you think you're doing in our town?"
The annoying middle-face man clapped his hands together and chortled, "Can't you figure it out? Hah! Shoulda figured such a dumb guild would only attract dumb members~!"
The old man's face shifted to one of rage that almost matched the ferocity on Wren's, "Say that one more time, I dare you!"
The third figure huffed in quiet amusement and Gray felt his blood freeze as a soft, familiar voice that filtered from under the black hood, "At least you can act tough … Fairy Tail mage Wakaba Mine." It can't be. He wouldn't. But that voice-!
The old man- Wakaba's fists were clenched tight, "You guys really think you can stand against us and get away with it? In our own town?"
The hooded figure —who couldn't be who Gray thought it was, he just couldn't— turned to Middle-face, "Do it."
Middle-face gave a whoop of shrill laughter as the odd white paper-thing in the center of his balloon cluster opened, "Your turn~! Your turn~!" Something shot out from the white orb and Wakaba's balloon exploded with enough force to send the other three bobbing crazily in the air. Gray watched in horror as Wakaba hit the cobblestones with a lifeless thud, foul-smelling smoke curling off of his limp form —like the buildings in his hometown and the sweet stench of rot from the bodies split open in the streets- no don't think about that—. Middle-face and the huge round one laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world. Gray felt oddly sick.
Middle-face clapped his hands together again, "One down~! One more to go!" One more- he means-!
Gray pounded the confines of his balloon wildly with his fists, not caring if he punctured it and blew up, "Don't touch her! She's just a kid! Leave her alone!"
The hooded figure held up a hand in the signal to halt, "Don't. We'll take her with us in the balloon. She's too small. She might not survive the explosion and we need them alive. For now." The sound of the figure's voice sickened him because he knew who that sounded like but he didn't want to believe that someone as kind and polite as his friend would be doing —leading— this kind of attack. Middle-face protested the hooded figure's orders, his voice shrill and childishly indignant. Out of the corner of his eye, Gray thought he saw Wren's face twist to something grim and determined, but then his spinning thoughts jolted to a stop as a second explosion rang out through empty streets.
Wren's balloon had just exploded.
"No!" Gray felt his stomach twist as he screamed. Then felt it outright heave when he realized there was no body amid the curling smoke and falling balloon fragments. She- she couldn't have-, she can't be…
"I said not to blow up that balloon!" The hooded figure's voice had risen to a near-shout as he rounded on Middle-face.
Middle-face just shrugged unapologetically and cackled, "Wasn't me~! She did that to herself! Keh, didn't think I'd made the balloon that volatile but weak little wizards are so flammable~."
She's really… Rage boiled over, sweeping away the disbelief that had kept Gray's tongue pinned in his mouth and he screamed, "What are you doing? You just murdered her!" The hooded figure didn't react and Gray slammed his fist against the balloon wall again, "Don't ignore me! I can tell by your voice who you are! Answer me! Pauz, answer me! PAUZ!"
Pauz didn't move, didn't react, didn't answer. He tilted his head toward Middle-face, "They saw us. Do it." Gray didn't even have time to scream before the balloons holding him and Doronbo exploded.
Gray hit the cobblestones with an agonizing jolt, his body one mass of throbbing pain as darkness filled the edges of his vision in an all-to-familiar way that meant impending unconsciousness. Through the ringing in his ears, Gray heard Pauz order the other two to take Wakaba and go. Gray struggled to move, to speak, anything to get an explanation for why someone as kind as Pauz —who got angry over imprisoned baby animals of all things, let alone people— would be doing this. All he got before unconsciousness claimed him was Pauz's mournful murmur of, "I'm so sorry, Gray-kun."