Chapter 23

I woke up in a strange place, surrounded by stuff I didn't recognise. It took me several minutes to finally figure out where I was, and suddenly yesterday was thrown sharply into perspective. It hadn't been a dream, and this was my reality now. I was a ticking time bomb, hidden away in a solitary forest home with a woman who may or may not hate me. I received a letter from Lucy that morning. It read like this:

Hey, Lil. It's Lu. Just wanted to give you an update. All of us here were looking all night for a way to help you, and we may have found a way to cure you. Natsu, myself, Gray, Erza and Wendy are going out now to see if we can find it. I don't think Natsu slept a wink all night. He's been up and questioning everyone we see today about it, and asking if they have any knowledge of it. We came across a few doctors who all more or less gave us the same answers, none of which satisfied Natsu. Or any of us, really. Anyway, we're about to head out, so I've got to wrap it up. I'll send letters when I can to keep you updated. We're all trying our very hardest to help you, Natsu especially. I think he really loves you… But what do I know about any of that?

I'll see you soon. Love, Lucy.

I held the letter to my chest, and closed my eyes. Porlyusica (I learned that was her name earlier today) looked over at me as I did that. "Are you in pain?' She asked, heading over with a medicinal salve meant to take away physical pain.

"Yes… but it's not something medicine can fix." I said, and even to me, the hurt in my voice was extraordinary.

She just sighed. "I can't do much about heartache." She said, and walked back to the other side of the room, where an open book lay on a desk. I knew she too, was looking for ways to help me, but I was smart enough to know when a losing battle.

Several days passed in this manner, and I sat outside enjoying the sun when I could manage to walk outside on my own. I was so weak by this point that Porlyusica had to help me just to stand. It frustrated me to no end, but she did her best to make it as easy for me as possible without patronising me. I heard a shout in the woods off to the south, and while I wasn't sure it was even human, I was quickly ushered back inside. The rules were that I was allowed outside as long as there was no one else around. Non-negotiable. With a sigh, I had her help me up and inside, where I lay on the bed, looking out the window. For several minutes, I saw nothing. Then out of the trees shadows, I saw Natsu slowly emerge, looking world weary and beaten down. It cut me to my soul to see him so low, but he had a triumphant smile on his face.

Porlyusica was outside talking to them, when he spotted me in the window, and it looked like the sky was lifted from his shoulders. He rushed over to the window and pressed his hands and face against the glass, a smile spreading all the way to his eyes that suddenly dropped as he saw what I really looked like. I knew I didn't look good. I had been losing a lot of blood these past few days, and even in just a week, I had lost all the muscle mass I had gained back since I had woken up a couple months ago. I was thin, pale, weak, with dark rimmed eyes and bony fingers.

He looked completely shocked when he saw me, and the worry lines appeared on his forehead, and once again his expression dropped. He mouthed "I'm sorry" through the window, and there were so many things I wanted to say to him, but I knew he couldn't hear me and Porlyusica would not let him inside. Instead, I just put my hand against the glass, tears in my eyes, my palm against his, separated by an inch of glass.

Outside the window, with the sun painting patterns on the leaves, I watched the boy I had come to cherish sit on the ground stiffly, and put his head in his hands. Porlyusica stood over him, and while I could see her mouth moving, I couldn't hear anything she was saying. The pauses in her speech were what I assumed were Natsu's words, though he remained as still as a statue. I searched the foliage for a sign of the faithful blue cat that was always by his side, but couldn't see any evidence of his location. I leaned my head against the glass, forehead resting on the pane. Slowly, shadows moved within the treeline, eventually becoming the shapes of the friends I had made. Lucy was the first to emerge, and Happy sat on her shoulder, looking tired. They all looked rather beaten down, and I couldn't help but wonder what it was exactly that they had done for the past several weeks. Erza and Wendy were behind them, and Erza was carrying a strangely shaped package. I couldn't tell what it was, but she handed it to Porlyusica, who looked sort of surprised.

Both women walked towards the house, and Porlyusica stepped inside, leaving Erza outside. Porlyusica then took the package to the table on the other side of the room, and there was a large amount of rustling. Sht ossed a paper bag into a trash next to the table, and a strange dusty smell filled the room. It was cloying, and seemed to make the air excessively thick. I didn't like it one bit.

After what seemed like an hour, she reached up and grabbed a mortar and pestle from the shelf above the table, and began grinding something on the table. While doing that, she reached up again, and grabbed a bottle of blue liquid, dumping it into a bowl on the left. She then dumped the contents onto the bowl with the blue liquid in it, and stirred slowly with a white stick. After a few minutes, she went to the kitchen and grabbed a bowl and some granola from the cabinet, then dumped the contents from the first bowl into the granola. She turned to me with the mixture, and I realised the strange, dusty mixture was meant for me. I wrinkled my nose at the smell of it, and Porlyusica shot me a withering look. With a sigh, I decided to accept my fate and eat the strange mixture.

I took the bowl, and lifted the spoon to my mouth. The mixture still looked incredibly dusty, and when I took a bite, I nearly ended up coughing out the disgusting gruel. It was like eating chalk, and the chalk tasted like old fruit. I ate the whole thing, and felt sick almost immediately. "What did I just eat?"

"A mixture of sorts. The chalky part of that concoction was the seeds of the Anitastase plant, known for living hundreds of years, and to have exceptional healing qualities. Apparently your friends did a lot of research on this, and brought back a flower from the time period you mentioned you lived in previously, hoping that it would have made contact with all the diseases from your time period, and having been in contact with everything from our day and age, it could theoretically provide you with a cure, as well as setting you up to live happily within our time period." She replied, cleaning up the table.

"You mean I can go outside?" I said, sitting up quickly.

"Yes." She said, "but don't get ahead of yourself."

I stood up, and even when I wobbled from the dizziness, I made a beeline for the door, and threw it open, stumbling into the sunlight. I whipped my head around, looking for Natsu. My vision was slightly skewed, but I saw him and Lucy sitting together under a tree several feet away. She was leaning her head on his shoulder, asleep, and he looked half asleep as well. Upon noticing me, he jolted awake, startling Lucy awake next to him.

"What are you doing outside?" He said, jumping up. He ran to me, grabbing me as I stumbled again. Oddly enough, there seemed to be three of him.

"Porylusica said I could come outside. I wanted to see you, and to thank everyone for helping me." I said weakly.

"Does this mean you're alright?" He asked hopefully.

"I think." I responded.

He hugged me tightly, and I sighed in relief. "I'm so glad you're alright." He pushed me back gently, a huge smile on his face. "Now we can go on jobs!"

I laughed. "Yeah, I suppose so."