Author's Note (from when I wrote this): Wendy hasn't started feeling motion sickness yet, which is why she's fine on the train.
Other author's Note (from when I wrote this): I decided to make Wendy's age in the story 12, and Carla's 6. It's their ages when they first appeared in the manga/anime.
Walking Cliché 50
Adventures
Monday, Match 18th, 2:00 PM
Wendy and Claire had been sitting there, silently, for nearly 20 minutes.
As a way for the pair to bond, Wendy suggested that they do a job together. It was a simple mission, sitting on a train for several hours guarding the cargo on board, and it would give the pair ample time to talk. Their route took them through the desert, so sight seeing wasn't an option.
"So… where did you grow up?" Claire finally asked, letting her gaze drift from the dull sand to the cutely dressed girl in front of her.
"I traveled a lot with Grandeeney, but when she left, I joined Cait Shelter which is in the north."
"Did you like it there?"
"Yeah…." She muttered, and looked away, obviously saddened by the memory.
"Sorry if it's a touchy subject."
"It's alright. I just… everyone ended up being an illusion. Sometimes I doubt whether my friends at Fairy Tail…"
"Illusion magic sucks." Claire stated. "I made a small device that counters illusion spells. Do you want me to make one for you?"
"I… what do you mean?" Wendy asked, blinking up at her in surprise.
"It's-" Claire's sentence was cut off as their train car jerked and wobbled abruptly, causing Wendy to fall out of her seat. The sound of metal grating against metal seared the hot air and both mages covered their ears. Boxes started falling as the train car burst from the tracks and started running along the tracks.
Someone has severed your train car! Riley called out to her, and Claire barely knocked a large crate out of the way before it toppled on the fallen dragonslayer. Unable to keep her balance, the fire mage pulled Wendy out of the way of the falling boxes and covered her body with her own, being a human shield.
Dust and sand flew through the shattering windows.
Claire looked up at the front of the car, at the door being broken open, and suddenly the train car was immersed in darkness.
For a brief moment, everything was freefall. No sound, no noise- silence.
And then it came crashing down, all the sounds and debris, and Claire held onto Wendy tight.
1.
Monday, March 18th, 2:20 PM
"Dad! Dad! Dad!" Multiple wandering souls echoed frantically as they zoomed into the guild hall, two of them knocking into people as they went. Bickslow groaned from his spot, having hoped to have a little more time to himself before Claire got back, and didn't move from his spot.
Ally, Poppo's new name, smashed into the back of his head and made him spit up the liquid in his mouth.
"Bickslow, really." Ever said with a roll of her eyes and nose up in the air.
"Mom's gone!"
"Mom's gone!"
"What do we do?"
"What do we do?" His babies repeated over and over again as they grouped together in front of him.
"I'm not going to fall for it again." He told them decisively, and when he tried to take another drink of his water, Ally bumped his hand. Water spilled down the front of his shirt, and he glared at the trio of souls.
"Not a joke! Not a joke!"
"Super cereal!"
"Train car derailed!"
"This is the third time you've tried to trick me into thinking that something happened to Claire." Bickslow told them, and stuck his tongue out at them. "Now go back to her and stop bugging me."
"Fried! You're not a real man!" Elfman yelled nearby, and Bickslow looked up just in time to watch the takeover mage land a solid punch on his friend's face. A grin stretched across his features at the fight about to take place, excited to see the victor.
2.
It feels like I got hit by a fucking train…. Claire thought with a groan, and hesitated to move from her spot until she knew what kind of situation she was in. It was dark, sharp edges were digging into her limbs, and there was a very heavy weight on her back. Sounds of debris shifting and clanging on the ground outside the train car continued filling the otherwise quiet air.
Beneath her was Wendy, who was still breathing and coughing, and the fire mage hoped that she had blocked enough of the debris in the crash. She was using a considerable amount of magic to stay like this, and had no doubt that if anything fell on the younger mage, it could seriously injure her.
"Claire?! Are you okay?" Wendy asked.
"I'm fine, are you okay?"
"I-I think so. I can't move much, though."
"I'm worried that if I move, the stuff above us will fall on you." Claire told her.
"Maybe I can use dragon roar to get the debris out?" Wendy suggested, and after several semi- successful attempts to escape their situation, they finally got out. A thick layer of mud had coated the top of the train car, since it had fallen into a swamp, and both women emerged from the crash covered in mud.
"Are you sure that you're okay?" Claire asked for the tenth time, and yet again, the young girl answered 'yes'. As the pair trudged away from the crash, they started taking in their surroundings, and took a seat on a large boulder.
"Where are we?" Wendy wondered aloud. A shiver ran down her spine, and after she pulled her knees to her chest for warmth, Claire put an arm around her and started heating her up with magic.
"We better not be on another world." She grumbled in annoyance.
Frogs and other strange swamp creatures sang and slithered in the darkness, barely illuminated by the small crescent moon hanging in the sky. The train car they had been in had sunken almost completely into the swamp water, and continued sinking and bubbling as it descended the cold muddy waters. They were now on the edge of a small circle formed by a myriad of twisting and contorting trees, and in the center, was the sinking hung of metal.
Wendy squeaked at the sound of something growling nearby.
Being able to see souls, most of the creatures in the swamp were illuminated for Claire, and she suddenly wondered where her souls were.
Riley? Ally? Siri? She called out, with no luck. When a large creature to their left started to inch closer to them, continuing to growl, Claire held up her hand and set it on fire, startling it. As it disappeared into the woods, Wendy leaned in closer to the older woman, her eyes wide as they adjusted to their strange new environment.
"Any ideas on where we are and how we got here?" Claire asked, eyeing the darkness warily. Unable to see any human souls, she wasn't too worried about being attacked, but kept her guard up nonetheless.
"N-n-n-no."
"I'm going to explore the surrounding area. Do you want to stay here or come with me?"
"I-I'll st-stay h-here." She stammered, eyes wide as her gaze shifted around the poorly lit space. The more she stared into the darkness, the more she realized just how many eyes were on her. "N-never mind, I'll go with you."
"I'll carry you on my back. The footing looks pretty slippery, and I don't want to lose track of you." Claire told her, although judging by the steel hard grip on her arm, guessed that the dragonslayer would have no problem with it.
3.
Monday, March 18th, 2:23 PM
"Dad! Dad! Dad!" The trio of souls echoed around the distracted man's head. Their cries and pleas went unnoticed as their voices melded with the Fairy Tail mages, who cheered and hollered at the fist fight taking place between Fried and Elfman.
"Don't you dare besmirch the Thunder Legion reputation, nerd!" Bickslow yelled with his tongue hanging out.
4.
"Do you think our friends are worried about us?" Wendy asked after about a half hour of walking. Claire had circled the now completely sunken train, and the near surrounding area, searching futilely for a dry patch of land to rest. This swamp was crawling with life, and although it was useful to see where it was, Claire was getting unnerved by the eyes watching her every move. "Claire?"
"Sorry, what?"
"Do you think that our friends are worried about us?"
"Depends on if they know we're missing. I lost my wandering souls on the way here, so assuming nothing happened to them, they're probably searching for Bickslow."
"Do you think he'll find us?"
"My new souls have been pulling pranks on him ever since I became their seith mage. Chances are, it'll be at least a few more hours until people realize we're missing."
"I'm sure they'll find us. I have faith."
"I have more faith in our ability to get out of this on our own." The fire mage spoke distractedly, refraining from screaming when a snake slithered across her exposed foot.
"Do you even know where we are?"
"Sure I do. I also have a plan to get out of this and everything." Claire lied, continuing to navigate the gross and chilly swamp.
"Really?" Wendy asked in surprise, and the fire mage nodded. A small giggle pierced the air, and Claire paused, glancing at the young air mage. The small giggle morphed into a full blown laugh.
"… what are you laughing about?" She asked hesitantly, kind of creeped out by the sound. Usually she loved the young girl's laugh, but now, it felt so out of place that a shiver ran down her spine. Waiting patiently, she stayed frozen in place, eyeing the particularly large crocodile shaped creature inching towards them.
"That dancing cactus!" She laughed and giggled, pointing at a nearby tree. Careful to not lose track of the crocodile, Claire tried to see what she was talking about, only to see a weird looking tree with a massive centipede on it.
"… are you high?"
"Those pineapples!" Wendy laughed hysterically.
"Shit." Claire cursed quietly, feeling panic rise up in her chest. You're the healer, you're not supposed to get sick. What the hell could be making her act this way? Assuming it's a natural thing like an insect bite or smell that's affecting her, and not poison from whoever dumped us here, and considering the climate-
Something massive and sharp clamped its teeth into her leg and pulled her down, her magic protected her limbs from getting too twisted in the creature's attack.
Had the ground not collapsed beneath them she could have easily killed the beast. Keeping Wendy on her back, clamping down on her leg and arm, the trio descended back into the swampy waters. At that moment, she really missed her babies.
To Claire's relief, the pair rose after hitting ground again, coughing up the mud and water that had unfortunately entered their mouths. While gasping for breath, Claire easily punched the crocodile that tried to bite her again.
Her first priority was Wendy.
Who… was giggling next to her in the darkness.
"Wendy, you okay? Are you hurt?"
"Hee hee, bunnies."
Upon hearing voices down the hallway, Claire put her hand over the girl's mouth, silencing her. Making use of her heightened hearing, and being all too aware of all the snakes slithering across the edges of the hall, she listened. It sounded like there were three people arguing, probably in a room at the end of the hallway.
"It sounds like another gator got in. Elks, go get it." A feminine voice ordered.
"Oh come on, can't one of you guys do it? I can't see in the dark like you can."
"Do it or I'll kick your ass."
Realizing that they would be caught soon, Claire quickly hoisted herself and Wendy to their feet, searching for someplace to hide. Blindingly reaching out in front of her, she found what looked to be a space in the wall just big enough for them to fit.
Just as they squeezed inside, a door opened, and light poured into the dark space.
The crocodile growled loudly at the presence and snapped its jaws.
"Thanks for being easy to find, fucking animal." A masculine voice grumbled, and using a magic that Claire had never seen before, caused the beast to cry out as its body disintegrated. "Need anything else back here, mi'lady?" The man bellowed sarcastically down the cavernous hallway.
"Just get your ass back in here and help us. If we don't find the stupid snake, our guild master is going to kill us."
"Who the hell thought it was a good idea to bring a snake to a swamp?" Another masculine voice asked, and after the sound of retreating footsteps, the room was cast back into darkness. "I mean, what if whatever container it was in broke when that idiot crash landed this thing here?"
"Shut up. It's got to be here."
"Hey, what if there were people inside this when he derailed it?" The first man asked.
"Wouldn't be the first time." The other man snorted, and something loud clanked loudly as it hit something else of the same material.
"If there were people inside, then we'll be finding their corpses soon. If they managed to get out of the train into the swamp, then that gator you killed probably ate them."
"Crocs."
"What?"
"Crocs. Crocodiles live in this swamp, not gators."
"Since when?"
"Since who the hell gives a shit?" As the group continued bickering and passing the time by insulting each other, Claire summoned her data compression magic. Thank god I downloaded a book on poisons. Moving quickly and hoping that no one would make a surprise visit in that part of the underground tunnel again, she managed to locate three likely causes for Wendy's condition.
Claetius Mouthous: A small moth like insect that lives primarily in swamps, and causes mild delusions in humans it bites. Wears off within a few hours, depending on the person bitten.
Manta Leech: A rare leech that poisons its victims as it sucks their blood. Symptoms include delirium, light-headedness, and hysteria. No cure- results in death.
Mamba Jambo: A multi-colored insect that will bite the victim and give symptoms comparable to marijuana and occasionally LSD. Delusions, light-headedness, unusually happy disposition, and giggles may result. A person bitten by this will experience symptoms for up to two hours and fall asleep. No known long-term side effects.
Realizing that Wendy had been quiet for some time, the fire mage relinquished her grip on the girl's mouth and shook her slightly. Her breathing was regular, heartbeat slow and steady, and temperature seemed normal.
Hoping that her future adoptive daughter wasn't on the verge of death, she awkwardly pulled the young girl back onto her back and went back to the other multitude of problems they had.
"I can't believe I finally let my bro talk me into joining this stupid guild, and I get stationed in fucking nowhere swamp-land with you losers."
"You're lucky to get any work, slurk. You should be thanking your lucky stars that the Ghoul Guild will take you right now."
Shit. Of course this is a Ghoul Guild base. It couldn't be any other secret swamp base- it just had to be a fucking Ghoul Guild one.
"I was born and raised in Fiore, dude. This is my first time leaving the country, and I'm stuck in this shit."
"This is seriously your first time outside of Fiore? No wonder you're miserable. After we finish this I'll take you to a nearby town. Awesome exotic strippers."
And we're in a different country… guess that explains why it's nighttime.
"Where the fuck is it!?" One of them screamed suddenly, throwing something to the ground. "It has to be here!"
Claire squinted into the darkness to try and find an exit, hoping that there would be a hole in the ceiling for her to escape through. Unfortunately, the way she came in was already sealed off and it looked like the entire ceiling was the bottom floor of the swamp. She guessed that creatures of a certain weight would fall through on occasion and the swamp was designed to close itself back up afterwards.
Which sucked for Claire and Wendy. Chances were that the exits were patrolled by souls, since she heard the small group saying that two of them were gifted.
"Josh, send your souls out searching for the stupid snake! It should have rainbow scales and about a foot long."
"But they're supposed to be guarding the exits."
"They're going to be stuffed into animal carcasses if our guild master finds out! Elks, you stay here and keep searching while we go out and search."
Claire backed back into her small hiding spot and cast a spell to temporarily mask her and Wendy's souls. A few seconds later two wizards stormed out, stomping into the hallway and too distracted to notice them. Both of them were dressed in traditional seith mage garb, and the light bounced off of the visor for one of them as he walked by.
5.
Monday, March 18th, 8:00 PM
"Guild master?" Mira spoke as she approached the old man, interrupting his conversation with Wakaba and Macao. "May I speak to you for a moment?"
"Of course, beautiful woman!" Makarov stated with a grin, and wobbled as he moved to stand. His comrades snickered with similar grins as he walked off, Mira close behind, and the pair stopped by the edge of the bar away from their fellow Fairy Tail mages. "Now, what is it that you need to talk about, hmmm?"
"Well, Bickslow asked me to call the train station and make sure that Claire and Wendy got to their destination okay."
"Aww, that's so sweet. They're such an adorable… creepy, but adorable, couple."
"So I called the train station using our lacrima."
"And?"
"And, the train got in safely, but when I mentioned the cargo they were carrying he said that it wasn't on the roster."
"Maybe they had to switch that car to a different train?"
"I wondered that, so I called the Magnolia Station, and they said that the cargo left on that specific train on time. Just to check, I called the man that made the job request, and I haven't been able to get a hold of him."
"I'm sure there's a logical explanation."
"What do you want me to tell Bickslow?"
"Don't tell him anything yet. No use in making him worry over nothing- I'm sure that there was a mix up with paperwork and they lost track of time getting dinner or something."
"Claire does have a history of accidentally winding up with dangerous jobs." Mira reminded him, and the guild master frowned. Claire attracted almost as many near-lethal jobs as Team Natsu. If this was a job gone south and she found out that he knew something happened and did nothing, he would never hear the end of it.
"I'm sure she can handle whatever comes her way, but send Gajeel to check up on them just in case."
6.
Claire waited until the seith mages were far enough away before making her move.
Her heart was thumping painfully against her chest. Sure, she was used to situations similar to this, but usually she was fighting her way out or had some form of backup with her.
Stealth was Bickslow's thing. Not hers.
As her feet trudged through the damp and slippery cavern, she hoped and pleaded in the back of her mind that Wendy would be okay. In the back of her mind she kept track of her breathing, heart rate, and temperature, but she wasn't a doctor. She didn't know shit about poisons. She knew the basics and read textbooks on it over a year ago, but hadn't bothered brushing up on it lately. Too damn busy with the stupid Book of Zeref translation.
To her further luck, they left the door open.
It was a cellar door, that when closed, just looked like a pile of debri.
Slowly, hesitantly, she inched her head out the door, eyeing her surroundings. From her spot she could see the night stars, albeit they looked different than in her home of Mangolia, and she ducked when she saw a wandering soul in the corner of her eye.
Heart, stop beating so fucking loud. Claire took a deep breath, keeping an ear out for the seith mages, and waited a few seconds before peeking out again. Thankfully the soul was gone when she emerged, and upon seeing no human souls in the immediate area, quietly stepped out of the hole.
She really didn't have a plan.
She needed a plan.
She needed a plan right now.
A massive bat flew quickly through the sky, and Claire got an idea. Moving to a large, fairly closed off tree that provided some visible protection, she summoned her data compression magic and searched for the spell that would give her the mark. In dire situations such as this she'd kept it ready, and right then, she was damn glad she did.
Wendy moaned softly on her back. Instinctually Claire reached up and petted her head softly, hushing her quietly as she did with Mike when he stirred in his sleep from a nightmare. Without pause she found the spell and cast it.
Claire bit her lip as the magic burned the flesh on her face. Her eyes stung painfully and the accompanying headache hurt like a motherfucker.
She couldn't dwell on that.
Making her data magic disappear, she looked around once again for any souls. They were off trampling the swamp near the initial crash, which was almost half a mile from her current location.
Again, slowly and hesitantly, she emerged from the partially hollowed out tree. It felt like her heart was going to jump out of her chest, and after another look around for any souls within sight, she turned her gaze upward.
At first, she saw nothing but the night sky and a few smaller animals blurring past in the night sky. Come on. Come on, bat, show yourself again….
Wendy stirred on her back shifting to get comfortable, and Claire reached her hand back up to pet her blue hair. Please work… please work. She pleaded in her mind, suddenly remembering the fate of the crocodile several minutes earlier. The Ghoul Guild specialized in death magic, and she doubted that they would have qualms over killing a Fairy Tail mage in the middle of nowhere on 'their' territory-
There!
"Figure eyes." She whispered, keeping her stinging eyes open as she watched the large bat flying through the sky, and held her breath as she felt herself latch onto its soul. It was such a strange sensation that she couldn't really describe it, but it was similar to how she controlled her babies. Quickly, Claire shifted the sleeping girl so that she was holding her against her hip.
The large bat swooped down, flying towards them at a fast pace that Claire barely caught up with. Grabbing the fur on the creature's neck, lying flat against the back of it and Wendy securely in her arm, the creature ascended back into the air.
7.
Monday, March 18th, 10:00 PM
"They should have been back by now." Carla repeated anxiously, sulking next to Happy.
"I'm sure they're fine. Would you like half a fish, Carla?"
"What if something bad happened to them? What if something went wrong on the mission?"
"Relax, Carla." Lucy told her. "Even if something did go wrong, Wendy is with an S-Class mage. Claire would never let anything bad happen to her."
"You're right." Carla sighed. "I just wish they would get back soon."
"Hey, Carla," Bickslow greeted as he approached her, a tired and sleepy Mike by his side. "We were about to head home. Do you want to stay with us tonight? When Claire and Wendy get back, that's probably the first place they'll go."
"You're not worried about them?"
"Nah. It was a simple job and Claire knows how to handle herself. I'm sure they're laughing it up at a hotel somewhere painting their nails with pizza."
8.
Claire accidentally killed the bat.
She didn't know how she did it, likely from having 0 experience using figure eyes, but the large creature dropped dead on the outskirts of the city. After an hour or so of flying in a random direction they neared a bustling city it dropped like a rock.
She was really glad that Wendy was asleep for that part.
The large flying beast got them safely out of enemy territory without being seen, and if she'd had the time, she may have done an impromptu burial for it. As it was, her future adopted child was potentially dying on her back and they were somewhere not-in-Magnolia Town.
Music blasted from nearly every establishment, the streets practically ran with vodka, and the lights were blinding.
Her head hurt like hell.
She went into the first bar she found, slipping past the drunken men and scantily clad women on their laps, quickly finding the women's bathroom. It reeked of booze, vomit, perfume, and sex.
But it looked relatively clean, and that was enough for Claire to set the sleeping girl upright on the counter and look at her blurry self in the mirror.
It took her a second to remember that she had cast the spell. No matter how many times she'd imagined herself with Bickslow's tattoo, she didn't think she'd ever feel prepared to see herself in it. Mixing with the dried mud caked on her skin, she looked like crap, and the slowly awakening dragonslayer looked the same.
Grabbing some paper towels, Claire got to work cleaning off the mud and gunk they'd accumulated on their journey.
9.
Tuesday, March 18th, 2:30 AM
Makarov awoke to the unpleasant sound of someone banging on his door. It was hardly the first time, but in his old age, he wished that people wouldn't do it as often. One of these days he'd wake up with a heart attack.
Cursing and grumbling about how inconsiderate his brats were, he pulled a robe on and grumpily made his way to the door. When he got there, he swung it open, glaring at the person standing there.
"Gajeel? What are you doing here at this hour?"
"I just got back from checking up on Claire and Wendy."
"This couldn't wait until the morning?"
"The person that hired them is dead, the train car they were in is missing, and they were last seen at Magnolia Station but never arrived at their destination."
"Any sign that the Ghoul Guild is behind this?"
"Not that I can tell. If that's the case we know that they at least aren't dead."
"Get a rescue team and search the train route for them, on the chance that they were knocked out and dumped off of the train."
10.
Claire jumped at the sound of a shrill scream echoing through the small space, and found the source by the door of the bathroom. It was a young, pretty petite blond wearing a gold miniskirt. She was yelling in a language neither Claire or the slowly awakening dragonslayer could understand, and as she grabbed Wendy again, saw herself in the mirror again.
"SLURK!" Mixed into the flow of foreign words streaming from the blonde's mouth.
They hadn't gotten all of the mud off of them, but they got enough to be slightly more comfortable. Their escape through the crowd of drunken partiers went mostly unnoticed, and Claire was careful to hide her face.
Happening past a newspaper on a countertop outside the bar, she stealthily grabbed it and shifted the mumbling girl in her arms to make her snag less obvious- not that anyone cared. Strippers danced in the windows, prostitutes were on every corner, and Claire was tempted to grab the discarded bottle of tequila on the sidewalk.
Once they were a few miles from town, far enough that no late night hook-ups would stumble across them, they finally settled by a stream.
"Where are we?" Wendy mumbled, struggling to wake up.
"You were bitten by some kind of insect that knocked you out. Can you use your healing magic on yourself?"
"No… I have a really good immune system, though. Whatever happened should wear off." She explained.
"Alright. I'm not sure where we are, so hopefully this newspaper will be able to help us." The fire mage told her, and sat comfortably against the tree with her, using her fire magic to read the page.
"What happened?"
11.
It was still nightfall when Claire was shaken awake.
With the sky dragonslayer on lookout, the fire woman had tried to take a nap with her head on the girl's lap. They were by a small babbling brook, and with the trees parted perfectly, they'd had a wonderful view of the night sky.
Unfortunately, they also had a wonderful view of the decomposing corpses crawling towards them.
Suddenly awake, Claire rolled to her feet and kicked the two bodies closest to them. She then grabbed the young girl's arm and hoisted her onto her back once more. "I can walk on my own!" Wendy squeaked, shaking as she clung to the older woman's shoulders.
"I can't risk us getting separated and caught." She said simply, and counted 5 zombies in the immediate area slowly making their way towards them. Honestly still unsure about where they were and where they should go, Claire simply followed the stream towards its source, hoping that it would get them somewhere safer.
Despite the creepiness of the zombies, they really weren't that fast, and so long as they didn't make too much noise they wouldn't follow. Wendy hid her face in the nook of Claire's neck as she easily knocked over the stumbling corpses.
"Sorry you had to see these." Claire spoke after a while.
Wendy just clutched her tighter.
Claire couldn't shake the pit in her stoMarch and the anguish from worrying about the young girl on her back. No kid should ever see this much death. "So Wendy, what are you looking forward to the most when you move in with Bicks and I?" She asked, trying to take her mind off things. Hopefully the distraction would make this a little less terrible.
"Um…"
"There's no right or wrong answer. I'm genuinely just curious."
"Well… I'll be able to be with you guys more, and spend time with you. Whenever I see the three of you, it seems like you're always smiling."
"What do you want to do with us? Face painting, conversation…"
"All of it." Wendy replied, and the fire mage could feel her begin to relax.
"I've heard that you and Carla have been getting along with Bickslow."
She giggled.
"He's not so scary when you get to know him." Claire rambled, and continued chatting with her about their future together. I suppose that this was what we were supposed to be doing anyway- 'bonding'- so the trip wasn't a complete loss.
As she dodged a flying projectile aimed for her head, she rethought the last sentence, and wished that it would be daylight already so that she could see better. Avoiding the arrows aimed for her with ease, she squinted her eyes in the darkness for the source of the attack. A yellow soul, barely visible from that distance, shined brightly from the shadows.
"What's happening?!"
"Hey! Stop shooting at us, or I'll kick your ass!" Claire yelled and hid behind a tree, and kicked at a zombie that wandered too close.
Another arrow landed a foot from her spot.
"Maybe he didn't hear us?" Wendy suggested.
"Hey! Arrow head! Did you hear me!?"
"No, I can't hear you properly from behind that tree." A male voice yelled out, and the fire mage rolled her eyes. Fucking smart ass….
"Maybe if we explain to him what happened, he'll stop shooting?" Wendy suggested.
"I guess it's… wait, he's speaking our language. That's weird." Claire realized, then groaning in frustration. It was either incredibly good luck or it meant something that… something. Damn, I'm tired. "Look, did we trespass on your property or something? We got lost, and straight up have no idea where the hell we are."
"Nice try." The shooter yelled back.
"He said that he can't hear us from behind this tree. Maybe he misheard us?" Wendy asked. Claire looked over her shoulder at the serious twelve year old, and simply stared at her for several seconds until it clicked in her head. "Oh."
"I'll give you one more warning. Stop shooting at us or I'll kick your ass." Claire yelled loudly, and heard the man chuckle. Two other men seemed to find it amusing as well, chuckling quietly next to him. "All three of you."
Someone knew yelled at her in a foreign language, and the fire mage rolled her eyes.
"Hang on tight and keep your head low." Claire instructed the sky mage.
"Sh-shouldn't I wait here?" Wendy asked, but without bothering to reply, the fire mage was already running. Each shot missed as she darted back and forth, running towards the shooter perched on his high wall, and as Claire launched herself off a tree towards them she realized why they'd been shot at.
They had been walking next to, what looked like, a fort or castle. Her training with the lightning mage came in handy as she easily knocked out the three archers and two other lookouts on the wall. A bell started ringing and cries rang out into the night air, waking up the entire area. "Shit." Claire cursed, and looked around for anything helpful.
Something started moving in the forest, something larger than the zombies stalking about in the darkness, and she saw a massive form moving towards her. It didn't have a soul, so she couldn't see exactly what it was, but she guessed by the surmounting magic gathering within it that it couldn't be good.
"You're pretty good at fighting, right Wendy?"
"What are they doing?" Wendy asked, and upon hearing the panic in her voice, Claire turned to look at what she was facing. Near the wall of the fort, where they were, a small group of mages were preparing what looked to be some type of group attack.
"I don't want to find out. Let's scram." Claire decided, and jumped back down to the ground outside the fort, carefully avoiding the monster rising from the ground. As she started running in the opposite direction of it, which was their original route, they were blocked by another creature rising from the ground. The mud and dirt kept rising to form some kind of hunched over giant, its magic growing by the second.
"We're surrounded. I'm sure that if we work together, we can get out of this."
Claire kicked a nearby rock at one of the creatures, watching the object sink into the mounds of mud flesh. So much for running over it. Maybe I can use my fire magic to harden it….
"Above!" Wendy cried out, and the fire mage looked up to see something blue and sparkly hurtling towards them.
Claire blew a pillar of fire at it, setting her flames hot and burning the magic spell. Whatever the spell was, turned to ash and dissipated in the wind.
Jumping to the side, they avoided getting pummeled by a ball of mud thrown at them. "Keep an eye on the sky in case they throw something else at us."
"Okay!"
Shooting fire out of her feet, Claire ran towards one of the monsters and jumped, landing on its shoulder and pushing further into the air. To her disappointment, there were dozens of this creature forming from the earth.
"Watch out!"
"Whe-?!"
A huge ball of mud hurled at them from below, knocking them out of the sky. It was heavier than regular mud, and when they landed on the shifting ground, it kept them glued to it. They pulled and strained against the heavy material, unable to escape with the mud creatures looming closer.
"Sky dragon roar!" Wendy yelled out, and at the last second Claire added her magic. Wind and air bounced on and against the creature, cracking and destroying it along with a few others as the combined fire began spreading to the trees and other creatures.
Hardening the mud substance caused it to break and crack under their strength, and again they started running.
12.
Tuesday, March 18th, 11:30 AM
"What's going on?" Mike asked, looking up at the fairy woman holding his hand. When Bickslow, Carla, and Michael arrived at the guild hall that morning it was in a state of panic. Team Natsu was yelling at the guild master, several other wizards were arguing at the top of their lungs, and somewhere in the mix Bickslow had asked Evergreen to watch him so that he could yell at Gajeel on the other side of the room.
"How about we go get some ice cream down the street?" The brunette suggested and started guiding him away, but the boy dug his heels into the ground.
"Where's mom?"
"She's, uh, probably with Wendy somewhere."
"I want my mom."
"Don't worry, she-"
"WHERE'S MY MOM!?" He started screaming. With his sudden tantrum taking place, many of the arguing wizards quieted down to watch him, feeling guilty about his guardian's disappearance.
Natsu was the one to jog over to him. He kneeled down in front of him, placed a heavy hand on his shoulder, and looked him in the eye. Michael quieted, still sniffling and rubbed at his cheeks. "I promise, we're going to get your mom back."
Bickslow's heart sunk at the sight, realizing both how amazing Natsu could be when you needed him the most, and how Bickslow should have been the one to tell Mike that. At the moment he was so scatter-brained at the thought of losing Claire and Wendy he wasn't sure what he should be doing right then.
Multiple things had happened that morning.
An entire cruise ship off the coast went missing at 5 AM that morning, consisting of over 500 people. Along with the cruise ship Gajeel did some digging into missing train cars and discovered that several had mysteriously vanished for the past few weeks, and the morning newspaper was filled with sudden disappearances over the past two days in the hundreds.
Worst of all, it insinuated the involvement of the Ghoul Guild. Their resident 'necromancy expert' always said that it was the best magic to use in a war. In the span of a day hundreds of people were missing (probably dead) and their strongest fighter was gone; it didn't take a genius to figure out what was happening.
13.
Wendy ran off a cliff.
In their hurry to escape, using sky dragonslayer magic and fire dragon magic combinations as they ran, the sky mage ended up ahead of the other and screamed as she fell towards the horde of zombies 80 ft below. Yellow eyes stared up at them attentively, arms stretched up in hunger, and the clicking of teeth echoed in the crater of death.
Claire pushed off the edge and launched herself at the girl, grabbing her, and telling her to use her sky magic at them again.
The crater was the size of a football field, and all of it lit up in flame for all of five seconds. By the time that Claire touched down on the ground, dragonslayer in her arms, all of the zombies had been torched. There must have been hundreds of them.
Even though she was glad that the immediate threat was gone, she wondered which necromancer they pissed off.
"Look, the monsters aren't following us." Wendy pointed out, and the pair watched the edge of the crater, where the mud creatures simply stood there. Staring with their sunken eye sockets.
"That's either really good or really bad for us." Claire spoke, feeling a chill run up her spine when a draft came through. It still reeked of death.
"One step at a time. What matters is that we're okay!" The girl said with a cheerful grin, and the fire mage gave her a perplexed look as she set her back on her feet.
"… totally. Yeah. Let's go see what's on the other ridge over there- maybe it's a way out."
14.
Tuesday, March 18th, 12:15 PM
Bickslow was anxious as hell, along with the rest of his comrades.
To his utter and complete frustration, he wasn't allowed to go on the rescue mission for Claire and Wendy. More specifically Makarov didn't want one of their best (and only) seith mage to go so far away. Team Natsu had been assigned to recover the missing mages, considering their sheer strength and determination to find the girls.
Several other high ranking mages were gone as well on various missions. Some of them went to Crocus, some of them to authorities on the missing persons, and several other oddball jobs to keep them busy.
The seith mage tapped his fingers against the table's surface.
Claire's souls were nearby patrolling the perimeter with one of his, and three of Bickslow's souls were on the edge of town keeping an eye out for any trouble. Every once in a while Poppo- Ally- would zoom in and ask about the status of the rescue.
Every time Mike would burst into tears again.
He loved the kid, but goddamn, he was a little water fountain.
Hopefully Team Natsu was having a more exciting time.
15.
Tuesday, March 18th, 12:15 PM
"WHERE ARE CLAIRE AND WENDY!? TELL ME!"
"Natsu, that's a random pedestrian you grabbed on the side of the road." Happy pointed out with a deadpan expression.
"TELL ME!" Natsu demanded again as he roughly shook the helpless man by the shoulders.
"How do we plan to find them?" Lucy asked the S-Class mage, who had been awfully quiet since they left the guild hall. All of them were obviously determined to rescue their missing friends; however, directing their energy into being productive was another story. "Kana's magic couldn't find them and Gajeel didn't find any clues where they disappeared. Where do we even start?"
"I have a connection in the Ghoul Guild we can reach out to, but it would take a day's journey to reach it. Going there could waste valuable time and there's no guarantee that they can help us." Erza answered, looking thoughtful as she contemplated the best course of action.
"I have a connection, too." Gray spoke up. "They're not much closer, though. They live by the Pheonix Mountains, and if we hurry it could take half a day."
"How do both of you have connections with that awful guild?" Lucy asked, blinking at her friends in surprise.
"I'm not exactly close to my source, but from what I've heard, a lot of wizards have joined it out of necessity. Since Tartaros killed off so many dark guilds and then the Ghoul Guild made it impossible for gifted people to find work, they've had a lot of new members." The ice mage explained.
"Since we don't have any other leads, let's get moving." Erza announced, and walked over to Natsu to pry him off of the crying civilian.
16.
They had been walking for hours.
With the sun finally rising they were able to see their surroundings much better, and decided to climb part of a mountain. Both of them reasoned that it would help them navigate better.
This, in forethought, wasn't the best reasoning. Neither of them had ventured this far from Fiore and judging by the newspaper they took they'd landed in Minstrel, a country that was hundreds of miles from home by foot and three day journey by sea.
By noon they reached halfway up a mountain and had a wonderful view of this country for miles around. Trees stretched as far as the eye could see, and to the East, they could locate the swamp they first started from. "Can we take a break?" Wendy asked out of breath, and the fire woman nodded, plopping down next to a boulder.
"Have you ever been to Minstrel before?"
"No." She replied, and frowned when her stoMarch growled loudly. Realizing that they hadn't eaten for some time, Claire looked around their surroundings, contemplating what they could eat for food. Bickslow knew more about wilderness survival than she did. "I wonder if there's any edible plants in the area?"
"I can check my library to see if I have any books on plants in the area."
"Do you by chance have maps, too?"
"I don't think I have any of Minstrel specifically, but we can definitely look." Claire answered, and sighed heavily, closing her eyes.
"Do you still have a headache?"
"Yeah, and my eyes are sensitive to light. I'm probably just tired." She lied. Between nightfall and getting covered in mud- again- she'd managed to keep her from finding out about the mark on her face. If they ended up stuck here for a few days it would be inevitable for the positive mage to find out, but given her history of being unable to keep secrets, Claire didn't want to tell her quite yet.
"Maybe you're having an allergic reaction to something?" Wendy suggested, scooting closer to the tired mage.
"That's a pretty big leap."
"You're allergic to most medicines." She pointed out. "I am a healer. Please, let me take a look at you? I don't have a lot of magic left, but I might be able to help a little."
Just as Wendy was about to reach out and touch Claire's face, firey letters appeared between them, and her hand abruptly pulled back. "What should we look up first? Maps or food?"
"Um… I guess food is more important…" The blue-haired mage told her, slouching her shoulders slightly in disappointment. "On the other hand, it might be easier to find food if we know where we are."
"Good point."
Scratching at her mud ridden face, the sky mage sat there patiently, eyeing the woman with concern. Porlyusica warned her that mages could be particularly stubborn when it came to medical treatment, especially the stronger ones. The stronger the mage, the more likely that they would avoid treatment for something, just to get a few more minutes of productivity accomplished.
"Shit." Claire muttered. "Sorry." She apologized quickly after. Quitting cursing around kids may have been one of the most difficult things she's had to do since adopting Michael.
"What is it?"
"I'm looking at a map of Earthland… the only swampy area I can find on here is in the south, at Midi."
"Isn't Midi its own country? The newspaper said this was Minstrel."
"It could have been a foreign newspaper. They probably do a lot of trading between countries…"
"But… we're so far from home."
"Going with the assumption that the newspaper wasn't from wherever we are, we could technically be anywhere. Midi seems to make the most sense, though."
"What about Caelum? It looks like it has a swampy section to the south."
"It's possible, and it would be ideal if that were the case, since it's closer…" Claire mused, frowning as she explored the map of this world. It was so limited compared to her own, and yet so much more expansive. The idea of traveling by foot no doubt made this world feel so large. "In either case, we need to head north to get back to Fiore. Let's hope that we're in either of those places and can look up the local vegetation for food."
Wendy quietly observed as the woman searched and sorted through her library, waiting for the opportune moment to bring up her eyes again. The more she looked at those normally sparkling blue orbs, the more red she noticed in them.
"I remember seeing these trees, and it says here that they're only native to Southern Minstrel and Midi. Now we know where we are, at least." She spoke, and perused through the massive list of plants and herbs. "Edible, edible…" copy and pasting those sections and tossing them to the young girl to look at.
"Isn't this that berry over there?" Wendy asked, pointing to a bush nearby.
"Start collecting."
Hurriedly, the young girl scrambled over to the berry bush, comparing the plant life to the picture and description. After a few moments of confirming, she took one of the small blue berries and popped it into her mouth. "It's sour!"
"Collect some anyway, and when we start traveling we'll pick up more variety." Claire told her, and glanced over to the sky mage, chuckling at her sour disposition. Wendy was pouting heavily at the bush and apprehensive to taste another small berry. As she glared at the unappealing meal, her stoMarch growled loudly, reminding her of the lack of food from the past 12 hours. "Sorry girl, we don't have a lot of options. When we get back home I'll treat you to strawberry cake."
"Why won't you let me look at you?" She asked abruptly. Unsure what she was talking about, Claire paused before giving any response. "I mean… I know that wizards don't like medics treating them, but… I'm going to be living with you."
"Wendy-"
"I may not be very strong, but I'm good at healing. If we just ignore your injuries they're not going to go away."
"It's not…" The fire woman tried to argue, but found herself at a loss for words. She'd wanted to keep her from finding out about the mark as long as possible, but the headache was pretty brutal and the sun hurt her eyes…. "Fine, take a look." Maybe she won't notice the mark under all this dirt and mud.
Pushing her data magic to the side, the sky mage blinked in surprise for a moment, and then crawled over to sit in front of her.
"I better not hear any complaining about eating the food we find, though."
She nodded, although Claire doubted that she'd follow through with it, and stared into the fire woman's eyes. Having been Porlyusica's patient on more than one occasion Claire knew how to act with a healer. Follow instruction, answer questions with succinct responses, and try to not be offended by their forward or unfriendly manner.
After a few minutes of questions and observations, Wendy finally nodded.
"I think we should cover your eyes until nightfall."
"We're not doing that. It's too much of a risk."
"And what if you lose your eyesight all together? They're severely agitated and unless we clean out the mud and keep them covered, it could get worse."
"With what water?"
"I hear a stream nearby. We'll clean off your face there, put a bandage over your eyes, and I'll forage for food in the area."
"What if we're attacked? We'll be at a severe disadvantage if I can't see."
"Then I'll be your eyes." She spoke, and reached her hands out to hold Claire's. "Trust me on this."
17.
Tuesday, March 18th, 12:45 PM
Margaret Groh sat on the edge of Magnolia, patiently waiting for orders.
She resided within a small hut, about the size of a small room. In front of her was a short table with a traditional tea set, brewing her favorite cup of tea, and a fairly small communications lacrima to the side of her teapot. In the corner of the room lay a limp, crumpled young man without an organ inside his hollowed shell. He was a puppet without strings, clad in a minister's uniform, and lay forgotten like a child's discarded toy.
Slowly, gracefully, the old woman grasped the handle of the porcelain white kettle and lifted it into the air. Her years of practice were evident in the way she moved, pouring the golden liquid into her cup, and returning the object back to its place. A magic spoon stirred the sugar and tea together, and after a brief pause to let them mix, she removed the metal decorative object.
Sipping at the steaming warm liquid, she wondered when her guild master would call her back. Over the past few hours things had started heating up considerably at Fairy Tail, and after relaying so much information to him, she was curious what their next move was.
Destroy Fairy Tail, or clear up the misunderstanding and keep them as an ally?
She sat in the eye of the storm.
Her bodies were on standby, so whatever her guild master decided, she would be ready.
18.
"Don't drink the water." Claire warned when the girl bent over to take a sip from the gurgling stream. She paused, hands cupped and filled with the clear liquid, and stared up at the older woman questioningly. "This area is filled with rotting corpses moving around. There's a good chance that the water has been contaminated."
At the mention of corpses, Wendy immediately dropped the water from her hands and wiped them off on what was left of her muddy skirt.
"I have some survival books in my library, maybe we can find a spell to purify it."
"Actually, I know one. We would need a container to hold the water, though."
"You're sure that your spell will sanitize it enough?" Claire asked, and the girl nodded assuredly.
"Grandeeney taught it to me. It'll work… but, I'm low on magic, so we can only purify a small amount."
"We just need enough to hydrate you. I can go longer without food, water, and sleep than most people."
"We also need enough to clean your eyes."
"Getting you fed and hydrated takes priority. Once your magic is more replenished, you can purify more water. Since I lost my glasses I won't be much help collecting plants, so you'll need energy for that."
"But…" Just before Wendy could argue her, the darkening clouds above them rumbled ominously, and both girls looked up at the sky.
Within seconds it was pouring. "Shit, weather changes fast here. We need to find cover."
"The rain water should be clean to use. Do you have a container to hold the water?"
"No, but it's convenient to clean us off. Once we're cleaned off, we'll find cover and I'll use my fire magic to dry us off." Claire yelled over the sound of pouring rain, already working to rid her body of the caked mud on her limbs. It created a good cover for their scent so they wouldn't be tracked, but it was also weighing them down.
After a few minutes of getting drenched in the rain, they were down to their soaking clothes and searched for cover in the area. A bunch of trees huddled together seemed to create a decent space for them to hide, so once they'd gotten their fill of rainwater, they hid under the tree.
"My head feels a ton better." The fire mage stated, grabbing nearby twigs and gathering them into a small pile in front of them. "Are you still dehydrated?"
"What's that on your face?" Wendy asked, holding her upper arms and staring at the older woman in concern.
Finding herself caught, the fire woman shrugged. "… in order to escape the Ghoul Guild, I had to cast a spell on myself. I'm a seith mage like Bickslow, now."
"Is that why your eyes are so red?"
"It could be a mild reaction to the spell. Bickslow said that it could cause headaches for the following days after casting it." She explained.
Both girls fell into silence, tensing their muscles for a fight as they heard some kind of strange sound approaching them.
They could only assume that it was something floating, since they couldn't hear footsteps with the small sounds. It was difficult to distinguish just what they were through the rain, but whatever it was, they knew that it was a living creature. Straining their ears to hear better, they realized that it sounded like several tiny voices.
"Excuse me?"
One of them squeaked by Wendy's foot, and the girl screamed from the sudden appearance and grabbed Claire's arm. The fire mage, on the other hand, smiled when she realized what it was. "Hello, little one." She greeted.
"Hello, big ones." Another fairy spoke haughtily as it stepped next to the other one. They were both at most 4 inches tall with tiny wings, human like forms, and only clad in sarongs around their waist.
"It's definitely her. She looks a little different, but it's definitely her." The first one spoke, smiling broadly and nodding to her companion.
"Are you fairies?" Wendy asked, blinking at them in surprise and instantly lowering her guard.
"Yes. I was captured a long time ago by an evil wizard, and this woman saved my life, along with my friends." The fairy spoke, locking eyes with the blond. It took Claire a moment to realize what she was talking about, having blocked out most of that memory from the sheer shittiness of that situation. When her brother Bacchus had kidnapped her and either accidentally, or intentionally, handed her over to dark wizards. In her escape she also helped some 'little people' in jars get out with her.
"If I recall, we helped each other. I wouldn't have been able to find my way out without you guys. I'm glad to see that you made it home safe and sound."
"To you, too."
"What brings you to this part of the country?" The second fairy questioned, looking much more suspicious than the other.
"We were transported here by accident, and now we're lost." Wendy explained.
"Would you like food and shelter for the night? We have more than enough to spare, and we'd love to pay you back for what you did." The first fairy spoke, and both tired and hungry girls grinned.
19.
Tuesday, March 18th, 2:50 PM
Everything had gone into a sort of stand still in the Fairy Tail guild hall.
The Ghoul Guild, to their knowledge, hadn't made any more attacks nor claimed responsibility for the missing persons. Makarov had sent out as many wizards as he was willing to risk, and for the time being, all he could do is wait.
When Gajeel entered the mess hall, every person inside looked up at him, hungry for information on what was happening. "3 ships were just reported missing, carrying a total of 50 people." He announced, loudly enough for everyone to hear. Word was going to get around anyway, he figured he might as well make it an announcement.
"Guild master!" Mirajane screamed at the top of her lungs, and again, everyone's heads snapped up at the sudden sound. "It's Claire and Wendy! They're okay!"
"What a relief." Makarov sighed, and grins spread through the guild hall at the happy news. Several wizards rose and ran over to her, anxious to learn more, and soon followed her into the back room where the communications lacrima was. On the basketball sized lacrima, the familiar faces of Wendy and Claire filled up the space, although both were wearing strange partial masks and clothing.
"What the hell happened!?" The guild master yelled over the concerned and relieved comments of his wizards.
"Oi, everyone quiet down so that they can answer." Gajeel told them, and the group soon fell into anticipatory silence. Almost ten people were crammed into the small messy room.
"Sorry to worry you guys. We ran into some helpful travelers that were nice enough to lend us their communications lacrima." Claire told them, her eyes particularly resting on Bickslow and Mike in the corner.
"Where are you?" Bickslow asked.
"We're in southern Midi."
"How the hell did you get to Midi? That's a month's journey at least." Gajeel questioned.
"The Ghoul Guild accidentally teleported us here. Wendy and I were guarding some snake that they wanted, and the idiot hired to get it forgot to check if anyone was in the train car before teleporting it all the way here."
"An accident? Are you certain?" Makarov asked, his voice stern.
"The people on the receiving end of the transport weren't expecting us, and I'm pretty sure they didn't see us escape."
"You said that you're in Midi, yeah?" Bickslow asked, and both girls nodded. "Last I checked, the Soul Circus would be passing through that area at this time. If you're lucky, you might be able to head them off at the coast and meet up with them."
"Really?" Wendy and Claire asked in unison.
"We'll contact them and see if we can work out an arrangement to get you back. For the time being, they'll at least provide you shelter." Makarov told them.
"Fuck that, they were so grateful for our help they'll probably escort them back home. I can't imagine they'd dislike the extra fire power, too." Bickslow said with his Cheshire grin, and let his tongue roll out of his mouth.
"Where's Natsu and everyone?" Wendy asked.
"They're out searching for you, but now that we know you're safe, we'll get them back home. We're so glad that you both are safe." Makarov told them, and the group nodded enthusiastically.
"Well we're not out of the woods yet. This place is crawling with zombies and hostiles." Claire told them, and raised her head, looking off into the distance. "We've got to go. We'll head south to the coast and try to catch up with the Soul Circus." She spoke quickly, and although the group yelled out for her to stay and give them more information, the lacrima turned black.
"What happened to mom?" Mike asked, turning to look up at Bickslow with teary eyes.
"She'll be fine. You know how she over exaggerates sometimes." He said quickly and kissed his temple.
"Bickslow, we'll make the call to the Soul Circus in my office." Makarov told him, and the seith mage nodded, exiting the room hurriedly with the other mages. Not wanting to leave him alone, Bickslow tugged along the 10 year old by the hand, following his guild master down the hall and up a flight of stairs. They wasted no time lighting up the lacrima and dialing in the Soul Circus's number.
The group impatiently waited for the other end to answer.
Even though it was just a minute it felt like eternity, just sitting there, waiting.
Finally the ball lit up with the face of the Soul Circus leader, who was Bickslow's grandmother's partner. Before she could greet them hello, Bickslow cut in hastily, not wanting to waste any time getting Wendy and Claire to safety. "Where are you right now?"
"Why do you want to know?" She countered, leaning back in her captains chair.
"Claire and another Fairy Tail mage were transported to Midi yesterday, and last we heard they were being attacked."
"We don't know that part for sure, since she didn't specify what was happening." Makarov corrected him. The elderly woman sitting on the ship seemed interested, sitting upright in her chair and giving them inquisitive looks.
"In Midi? Do you know where in Midi?" She asked.
"They said that they were in southern Midi." Bickslow answered.
"That country and southern Minstrel is a dead zone right now. We tried to make a stop along the coast, but every town we visited had been slaughtered. Our sources say it's a necromancer hotspot right now."
"Does that mean you're not going to help them?" Bickslow asked, his heart sinking. He'd known that parts of Icebreg and Bellium had been overrun by necromancers, but he hadn't heard anything about Midi.
"We're about a days journey from it, so we'll swing back and try to help them. We'll do the best we can to find her, Bickslow." She told them, and the trio grinned at that knowledge. "We'll talk about arrangements to get your comrades back to Fiore after we pick them up."
"Thank you, Celest." Makarov said with a respectful nod, and Bickslow did the same.
"If your girlfriend makes it to the coast, we'll find her."
20.
"What's going on?" Claire asked as she stood, Wendy following close behind. They could hear explosions nearby and the unmistakable sound of dead teeth clacking together. Worried high-pitched voices echoed around them as the small fairies flew past in panic.
"Someone is attacking our wall! If it falls, we'll be vulnerable!" One of the fairies told the fire woman.
"Wendy, stay here while I check it out."
"No, I'm going with you." She said determinedly and stepping forward. "I'm a wizard too, and I can take care of myself in a fight. These are my friends too and I want to help."
"If something happens to me, you're going to have to fight. I need you here to help them." A bigger explosion echoed through the forest, and the ground shook beneath them.
"But-"
"I don't have time to argue. If anyone gets past me and through the wall, you'll be the fairies last line of defense. Got it?" Claire told the young mage, gripping her shoulder and making her lock eyes with her. Despite the sky mage wanting to argue her, to go with her and fight side by side, she nodded complacently and watched the older woman run off into the trees.
It's probably the necromancer, pissed off at us for destroying his zombie field. Claire surmised as she ran past the fleeing fairies. Hopefully they wouldn't hold a grudge against the fire and sky mage for their unwelcome visitors.
Her bare feet skid to a halt when she found the wall in question, which was a magic barrier. Zombies were pressed against it, gnawing the air, and trying to get inside. Behind them Claire could make out the souls of three other wizards hiding in the trees. Sunset was ten minutes ago, and although there was a little light left in the sky, the shadows cast by the torches nearby made the scene much more ominous.
"Hey ass holes! What's the big idea with the zombies?" Claire yelled out, and sent a fan of fire at the corpses. Within seconds the dead bodies were dust.
"Are you the one that destroyed my crop?" One of the mages yelled out from a tree.
"By 'crop' do you mean pit full of dead people?"
"… yes."
"I wouldn't have had to burn them if a bunch of mud people hadn't chased me into it. Self-defense, pure and simple."
"I don't care why you did it. I just want your head."
"Wait, are you guys by chance from the Ghoul Guild? Because if so, you're not allowed to kill Fairy Tail mages."
"Sweetie, you're in our country. We can do whatever the hell we want to you." He told her, and as he spoke, several soul possessed dolls emerged from the trees.
"You're trying to kill The Dragon, Destroyer of Souls? How cute." Claire spoke with a smirk, and heard the trio's breaths catch. She loved the reactions of people when they knew who she was.
And right now, it was the perfect opportunity to kick their asses while their guard was lowered.
Taking out the enemies wasn't as difficult as she thought it would be. The necromancer was a novice, one of them she never even saw his magic, and the last was a seith mage who could only control 2 wandering souls.
When she made it back to Wendy, the wall had been disabled and the fairies were gone. Torches were still lit, small high-pitched voices gone, and otherwise it was like no one had been there at all. All that was left was a medium sized pile of supplies and a smiling 12 year old tugging at her flower necklace.
In their short couple hours with the fairies they had been able to wash up in a hot spring, get clean clothes, and filled up with strange food. Even though their time with their new friends was brief, it was an experience that neither girl would forget.
"They told me to tell you sorry for not saying goodbye." Wendy informed her, and the fire mage nodded. "They also said that it'll be a 3 day walk to the coast, and gave us this."
Holding up a small metal object in her hand, the sky mage continued grinning, watching the small decorative ball light up and start floating. "What is it?"
"It'll help us get to our destination. They also gave us a map, a days worth of food, a blanket each…" She listed off excitedly, and fire mage took a seat next to her, calmly listening to her explanation of their supplies. They sure as hell made this an easier journey for us. Hell, they probably saved our lives.
20.
Tuesday, March 18th, 3:00 PM
"WHAT!?" Natsu screamed at the communications lacrima, and the guild master glared at him. "WE CAME ALL THIS WAY FOR NOTHING!?"
"Not for nothing." Gray corrected nearby, and stepped closer to the lacrima.
Nearby laying on the grass was Lucy, Carla, and Happy, who were exhausted from their journey. In their haste to find the missing girls all of them had moved as quickly as possible to find Gray's source, and even though they had been there for 10 minutes now, the poor trio was still recovering.
"I talked to a source I have in the Ghoul Guild. He says that Claire's brother, Carl, has gone rogue and is behind the disappearances."
"Carl escaped?" Makarov gasped. "How reliable is your source?"
"I trust him well enough. He said that a lot of people in his guild were killed trying to contain the situation, and they've been running ragged trying to get control over the situation."
"If that's the case, it could explain why they've been so hard to get a hold of." Makarov spoke thoughtfully, and leaned back in his chair as he continued pondering the situation. Letting the Ghoul Guild take Carl had been a difficult arrangement to make, considering how public and how dangerous the creature was, and it wouldn't surprise him in the slightest that the guild master would let members of his own guild die before asking for help.
"Where did you say that Wendy and Claire are?" Erza asked, stepping up to the lacrima.
"They're both in Midi and will be meeting up with the Soul Circus tomorrow. For now, I want your team to return to Magnolia."
21.
Tuesday, March 18th, 9:00 PM
Bickslow felt miserable and helpless.
To ease the pain in his chest a little, he took another swig of his beer.
Sitting next to him on the couch was Evergreen, who undoubtedly felt awkward and uncomfortable, and using his lap as a pillow was Mike, who had fallen asleep watching his favorite dinosaur movie. Even though the young boy had fallen asleep close to 20 minutes ago, both adults let the movie keep playing. It's not like either of them had much to talk about, so it filled in the silence perfectly.
At the moment, they were in one of the safest places in Magnolia. Claire had put a lot of time and energy into perfecting the security, and even though she claimed it was 'just the basics', Bickslow knew better than that. Fried kept her from getting big-headed about how smart she was, but in reality, she knew her shit. She could take complex information, dumb it down, and manipulate it perfectly for her needs.
Now she was stuck in a 'dead zone' without their babies and their only backup over a day away.
Bickslow reached over to take another drink of his beverage, but stopped, suddenly feeling guilty. I'm sitting here having a beer while my fiancé might be dying. Retreating his hand to petting his nephew's hair again, he stared blankly at the screen, not really paying attention to it. More than anything he wanted to run to Midi to save her, to get her back home, but he knew doing so would accomplish little to nothing. It would take at least a month to reach her and he had no way to track her, so he would be searching for a needle in a haystack.
If she met up with the Soul Circus and they didn't want to bring her back, he could take the Thunder Legion with him to get her. The tricky part would be finding someone to take care of Michael in his absence.
"They're going to be okay, Bicks." Ever spoke, interrupting his thoughts. "She's an S-Class mage and she's survived worse. She'll be fine."
"If we don't hear back from them in two days, I'm going after her. Will you watch Mike while I'm gone?" He asked her. The brunette simply sat there a moment, unsure what to say, and eventually nodded.
22.
"Maybe we should stop to set up camp?" Wendy asked, and yawned tiredly into her hand. They'd been walking for a good 5 hours now, and although the fairies had been nice enough to give them sarongs and warm ponchos, they didn't provide shoes.
"I can carry you if you're tired. We can't afford to stop until we get there."
"You haven't gotten any sleep over the past 30 or so hours, though." She started to say, and yawned mid-sentence into her hand. The young girl had tried her hardest to not complain or give away how exhausted she was, but it was beginning to show. "We should rest."
"I'll be fine. Like I said, I have better endurance than you do, so if you need rest you should tell me. I really don't mind carrying you."
"N-no, I-I'll be fine." She stuttered.
Claire sighed, silently wishing that Wendy wasn't with her. Or, at the very least, the girl would be a little more cooperative. At least she's not as bad as Mike… well, if he were here, he would be crying like a baby and clinging to me like a koala. Are there koala's on this world? Shaking her head, she stopped in the middle of the worn path. "Give me your pack."
"Uh… o-o-okay." Wendy stuttered, hesitantly handing the pack over to her. Securing the bag to her own, and then tugging at it to make sure it was secure, she looked back to the dragonslayer.
"If I carry you, you can get some sleep. Without your footsteps, we'll be able to be more stealthily and attract fewer zombies."
"I'm not a kid, Claire."
"I once carried Lucy through an entire maze because we had a time restraint and limited resources. It has nothing to do with your age." Claire explained. "Once we get to the coast we can relax. Until then, we need to hurry and use as little of our resources as we can."
"Okay, okay." The blue-haired mage stated, and chewed the inside of her cheek. Now having her consent, the older woman swooped down and pulled her sideways to her chest bridal style. She couldn't help but smirk a tiny bit at the embarrassed blush on the girl's cheeks.
"Sweet dreams." Claire whispered, focusing back on their path and walking again.
Even though Wendy felt embarrassed by the current situation, she was really tired, and the fire mage felt extra comfortable with the soft poncho. This place they'd been teleported to was scary, but she trusted the older mage with her life. This was an adventure, and she was glad that they'd taken the job together.
23.
Man, she missed her babies.
Not only were they ridiculously helpful for almost every situation, but they were excellent company, too. It was particularly lonely in her head without the constant presence of her souls, and she missed them terribly. Her chest hurt at the memory of them, wondering if they were panicked and scared when she first went missing, and if they were still worried for her safety.
She missed her babies.
And then there was her living babies, Michael and Carla. Mike popped into her head first, since she had a closer bond to him, but she missed both of them. They were probably worried sick about them. Carla was likely repeatedly saying how much she worried about Wendy, how she should have been with her on this job or they shouldn't have gone at all, and driving the rest of her team nuts with her worry. Mike was probably crying his eyes out and making it difficult for Bickslow to handle.
Bickslow.
Even though she missed all of her babies, there was a special place for Bickslow, and he held the biggest piece of her heart. He made her feel safe in this crazy, messed up world of magic, fairies, zombies, and wandering souls. Him and his crazy hair, face tattoos, and wild tongue. His occasional stupid joke, his big heart, and wonderful everything.
Deciding that thinking about how far away from her loved ones she was, how there were lethal zombies and necromancers waiting in the shadows to kill her, thinking about all of that was not the best way to pass the time, she thought about resources.
She had no idea how long she would be able to carry both of the packs and Wendy, but she guessed that she'd be able to make it to the coast. Under normal circumstances this would be no problem to travel so far, but these weren't normal circumstances. She'd already been awake for 30+ hours with only a brief nap, constantly vigilant for attackers, traveled several miles already, had no shoes, and she was sore from the fighting and escaping.
It had been a long day.
And it's going to be an even longer night if you don't find some way to entertain yourself. Maybe… find out how many ways you can disable zombies with just your feet and not waking Wendy?
Challenge accepted.
Seeing a corpse wander just within excellent kicking condition, she eyed the dragging leg and one working limb. With ease she kicked down on the working knee, effectively breaking it and causing it to tumble to the ground. Realizing that this 'challenge' involved using her bare feet to carry out, she instead went back to walking down the path, letting the creature crawl on the ground helplessly searching for food.
She heard a rustle in the bushes on the other side of her, but paid no mind, thinking it was just another zombies. They were common in these parts and particularly active at night- so long as she stayed quiet, they ignored her.
This one didn't.
Then again, it wasn't a zombie.
She didn't realize it had a soul until it was already in front of her, and by the time she reacted she'd already been hit. Fire blew from her mouth and encompassed the human-shaped creature, burning it to ash, and the fire woman grit her teeth as she searched the area for any others. Suddenly sensing several eyes on her, and seeing their glowing souls in the darkness, Claire broke out into a sprint.
Thankfully none of them followed pursuit, but she didn't stop running for nearly an hour just in case. Once she was satisfied with a fairly cleared out space, and what seemed to be safe location, she set Wendy on the ground and set up a barrier around them.
Her magic burned briefly around them to signify that it was set.
She dropped the backpacks next to the sky mage, waking her up in the process, and took her poncho off.
Whatever the hell attacked her got a good hit in.
Her left abdomen had been punctured straight through to her back and was bleeding profusely. When Wendy started taking over to help diagnose and clean her wound, Claire didn't protest in the slightest. Between the two of them it was much better for the fire mage to get injured.
"You'll be able to fix this up with your magic, right?" She asked the sky mage, and lay down on her poncho as the girl gently pushed her back. Wendy was silent as she worked, cleaning the wound and using her healing magic on it.
"It's not working."
Of course it's not working. Claire scoffed in her mind. When she was running she could distract herself from the pain by focusing on her path, but now, she couldn't do that. Despite her injuries over the years, it still hurt like a motherfucker.
"I don't know why it's not working. It should be working. You're losing a lot of blood."
"It's probably anti-healing magic, then. Check our bags to see if we have needle and thread." She instructed, and the sky mage nodded, shaking slightly. Claire reached up and grabbed the young girl's arm, briefly stopping her. "I'm going to be okay. I trust you."
"I don't think you realize how bad this wound is."
"Then lie and say that I'll be okay." The fire mage said with a wink, and the sky mage visibly relaxed a little. Claire tried her best to not show just how painful the wound was, scowling at the girl's back.