Hello lovely readers. I did not re read this at all. Might edit tomorrow when my brain is working again. Just wanted to post for you all.
It didn't take long for the group to run into Erza, and for that Lucy was eternally grateful. Being with Erza provided her a sense of comfort. Erza was a pillar. Natsu was strong but Erza was damn near undefeatable. Though, she frowned minutely, she'd suspected similarly of Harry and now he was gone. She didn't want to know what that meant about her preconceived notions of safety. Honestly she hadn't quite started feeling safe around the man yet anyway.
"Erza!" Lucy called, running forward. They were lucky the red head was leaving the city as the were trying to walk back. It was fortunate timing. She might have missed them if they'd passed through a few minutes earlier. Curiously, in tow behind Erza was a young boy. Erza had a set frown on her face as she power walked in their direction.
"I thought I said we should meet at the gates?" Erza seemed confused and disappointed to find the team elsewhere.
"You didn't hear that big freaking monster thing!?" Natsu exclaimed, catching up with Lucy.
Erza's frown was enough of an answer. Even with all the roaring and fighting they must have stopped the thing far enough that it hadn't been a major disturbance from within the city walls.
"Why do you have that little jerk with you?" Gray asked, looking at the small blond child behind Erza with a mildly irritated set to his jaw.
"You've met?" Erza asked with confusion.
"It doesn't matter!" Kosmos piped up, pushing through Natsu and Lucy to approach Erza. Her eyes blazed with determination and barely restrained tears. "Harry's missing."
Erza's eyes went from the girl in front of her to the rest of the group. Her eyebrows raised a bit in shock. "What happened?" her tone was more serious than usual.
"That monster appeared and we went to fight it and Harry's gone now!" Kosmos relayed, a bit too distressed to really put in more detail. "We have to find him!"
"He jumped up on the thing and when it flew away he must've still been on it." Gray supplied more levelly.
"We were kicking its butt before it ran off, right Happy!?" Natsu punched into the air.
"Right!" Happy supplied.
Erza took all this in grimly before turning to the boy. "Can you show us to the cave?"
The boy hesitates, just slightly. His eyes meet Erza's though and the crying has stopped. He nods.
He's tried everything he can think of trying. Nothing seems to break whatever spell is holding the boy. He's wary to try anything on the ring even though its clearly related to all this. If he accidentally broke the thing did that mean the poor kid would be stuck this way forever? That didn't sound too great.
He wanted to ask a lot of questions, but the frustrating limitation in their communication still stands. At the very least he's thankful the kid's still in semi decent health. He's probably severely dehydrated and definitely in need of some food, but he doesn't seem to be on death's door quite yet. Harry wants to dribble some water in his mouth or something, but he's not a doctor and he's pretty sure he'll just end up causing more problems than good.
Harry heaves a sigh and turns his attention to the other half of the boy, his mind. He'd been watching Harry the whole time. It was somewhat unnerving, but he kept reminding himself this was really a child inside that... thing and children are generally very curious.
Abandoning the idea of waking the boy for the moment Harry turns back to his unconventional conversation partner. Gold eyes meet green and Harry's surprised by the amount of trust he sees there.
He gives the kid an encouraging smile as he wracks his brain for ways to ask for more information. Yes and no questions were a bit restrictive.
"So the ring you were holding, does it have something to do with how you are now."
A short pause followed by an affirmative huff. Okay. Suspicion confirmed, but that was the most likely scenario anyway.
"Did you know this would happen when you used it?"
A longer paused followed by a negative.
What he really wanted to know was who had given the kid the thing. There was a chance they might know how to reverse the spell. Or they might be in need of an ass kicking. He pushed that aside. He had to think and think logically to solve this. He was by no means an idiot, but he wasn't used to having to be the brains of the operation. He worked best as part of a group, bouncing ideas back and forth until the right solution arose. Just generating an answer based on random text book information applied to real life, that was Hermione's forte. Man he missed her.
"Alright...ummm..." he picked up the ring, flipping it in his hands. The kid had turned it on, right? Maybe he just needed help turning it off? "Do you know how to turn it off?"
An immediate negative. Unfortunate, but not unexpected.
"Do you know who might be able to turn it off?"
A slower negative and, if he was reading it right, a disheartened look.
"Hey, don't worry about it." Harry reassured. "We'll figure this out. I just don't want to do anything that might hurt you."
They sit in silence as he ponders his next question. His mind strays and he can't help but ask something slightly off topic.
"Did you intentionally save me?"
Two huffs. A yes. Harry's kind of glad to hear that. That must mean the kid has at least some tiny bit of control even when he's gone feral.
"Can you-"
Gold eyes leave his as the boy's massive head swings away almost apprehensively. Harry follows the line of sight to one of the tunnels far up the cave wall. There's a scuff of boots on stone.
"Ah..." a feminine voice lets out a small noise of surprise before she purrs her next statement in a low voice. "It seems one of the little ants has made its way into the beehive."
A strange bell like chiming rings through the air as Harry jumps to his feet and he immediately regrets the decision. The kid roars like he's in pain and Harry is overcome by a familiar dizziness. The monstrous body the kid is inhabiting is thrashing about like its been set on fire. Harry aims a look of disgust toward the voice he'd heard. Who would do that to a child? He doesn't get an answer before his vision fades once more to black.
"How much farther do we need to travel to reach the cave?" Erza asks surveying the land. They'd finally moved out of the flat farm land and into the forest proper. It wouldn't be too long before the area started getting rockier.
"Not too much." the boy answered sullenly. "But the caves are confusing."
"We'll manage." Kosmos reassured the kid and herself at once. If there was any plant life in the caves she would have a good idea of which direction they'd need to head once inside.
They cleared a copse of trees and entered a large clearing with a waterfall.
"There, behind the water." the boy pointed.
The group picked its way forward as Kosmos asked the nearby plant life if it'd seen Harry nearby. She had no luck. She hadn't been too hopeful. The opening was far too small for the creature to fit through.
"Why does this kid know where to go anyway?" Gray directed at Erza.
Kosmos was curious too, but she wasn't about to throw out any source of answers available. It was better to know. As far as she was concerned they could sort of the details of 'why' after they'd found Harry and made sure he was safe.
"I haven't gotten the full story yet..." Erza begins as they approach the tunnels. "But it seems like the boy's brother..."
"Koza!" the boy interjects.
Erza stops and nods as if the detail were an important omission. "His brother, Koza, is involved in this somehow. He knows approxim-"
Erza's explanation is drowned out by a ground shaking roar. Kosmos hops back from the entrance, eyes searching for the creature from before. It doesn't take long to spot the thing as it comes rounding the side of the mountain.
Erza grabs the kid and pulls him to the cave entrance hurriedly. "Stay here. This could go badly."
She moves to step away but the kid grabs her hand with a panicked look. "Please!" he begged, none of the former stubbornness from her earlier conversation with him is still there. "Don't kill him! Koza doesn't want to do it! I'm sure!"
Erza takes just a moment longer than she wants to, but she grabs both of his arms and faces him fully. "We're going to try to stop him. We don't want to kill him. It could be dangerous for you though. So please stay here."
He lets her go this time.
Soon she's facing down a monster nearly twice as large as the dragon Harry had helped her down in the capital.
"Does anyone see Harry?!" Kosmos yells frantically.
Erza's eyes rove the beast but the odd green eyed man is nowhere she can see. That's not a good sign. She'd pegged the man as strong, but surely even he could have been overwhelmed and in need of help. She looks at her team and makes a tactical decision.
"Natsu!" the boy who's just starting to get geared up for the fight falters for a second, giving her a curious glance. "Take Kosmos and find Harry!"
Kosmos would be too focused on finding Harry. The chances of her being helpful here were low just because of that. It was unfortunate that they wouldn't be able to use her plants. Since this was more of a capture mission now that snaring vines would have been very useful. That was also why it made sense to send Natsu with her though. He was a strong fighter but had issues holding back. Not to mention his sharp nose might help locate Harry faster.
Natsu looked like he wanted to argue the point, but Lucy pushed him toward Kosmos with a frown. Kosmos met the fire wizard's eyes and gave him a nod before they took off into the caves.
"Lucy! Gray! Our goal is to take that thing down and contain it!"
"Right!" came the twin shouts of reply.
She requipped to her Japanese Cloth armor for speed and rushed toward their opponent.
Kosmos took the first left she found and started into the caves at a brisque walk. She was nervous about what they might find as they wandered deeper. Would they find an unconscious Harry? A Harry too badly injured to move on his own? Or worst yet... would he be dead? She'd seen the guy do amazing things, but he was still human right? He could die.
She stopped and slapped her hands to her face, letting the pain startle her out of her more sinister thoughts. Harry wasn't dead. He couldn't be. She wouldn't let him be.
"You okay?"
Her eyes traveled over to her travel companions. Happy was eyeing her sympathetically. That was a new expression on his face. Usually the only thing she saw on his face was cluelessness or condescending smirks.
"I'm fine." she replied to the cat before turning to the the fire wizard. "Do you smell anything?"
"Are you kidding?" Natsu wrinkled his nose. "This whole place reeks."
She took a small sniff but couldn't notice any real difference between the air here and the air outside. Must be a dragon slayer thing. Harry had told her he'd talked briefly with Wendy about how she'd been able to smell her companions underneath Crocus. Still, it was unfortunate that the ability wasn't going to be useful right now.
She reached out to the moss on the wall but it hadn't been able to tell her anything. So they trudged along for awhile. Every few minutes one of them would make a small comment. Kosmos mostly asking if anyone had noticed anything or asking Natsu for light occasionally. Happy occasionally commented on the fish he would eat once they were done. Natsu mostly said he'd like to be kicking something's butt. Anything really. Kosmos got the feeling the kid had too much pent up energy.
They'd been walking for about an hour before their first clue that someone had been nearby cropped up. They stumbled across a chalk marking on the wall. Kosmos ran her fingers over the chalk. The walls were bone dry. This mark could've been here for a very long time, but she chose to take it as a good sign. She turned to Natsu, hopeful.
Natsu got up close to the mark and sniffed deeply. Her gave her a perplexed look. "I think that's him I smell."
Kosmos felt her heart leap at the news. The marking showed an arrow pointing off to their right. They walked about sixty paces and found a split in the path with another arrow. "Follow the bread crumbs." she muttered as they set off again.
Harry felt nauseous. The air smelled sickly sweet like honey and his head pounded. He was sure only some of that pounding was coming from whatever damage he had taken from the fight before. This felt different than the last two times he'd woken. He almost wanted to scoff at how often he was passing out.
A hand dragged gently through his hair and he stiffened. He realized his head was resting on something soft too. How had that not been the first thing he realized? He cracked his eyes open just the slightest bit. A woman, in her early twenties by the look of her, was stroking his hair haphazardly and humming lowly. She stopped and glanced down, making eye contact. She gave him a wide grin, too wide in fact. She looked a bit manic.
"Are you awake, honey bun?" she asked, voice a high trill.
He obviously was, but he couldn't find the strength to respond. Just moving his head seemed beyond him. He felt like he was in a haze and the smell certainly wasn't helping. His eyes flicked around. They were still in the same cave if his memory was serving him right. He caught a glimpse of blonde hair somewhere far behind the girl. So the kid's body was still here even though he couldn't see the creature his mind had been forced into.
"Don't panic." she stroked his hair again and a revolted shiver traveled down his spine. He wasn't a very touchy person, and he certainly didn't appreciate some odd stranger petting him like a dog. She was still grinning that manic grin, black eyes sparkling in the low light. Wait, were her eyes solid black? He willed his body to move, anything. His hand swatted at her arm, knocking weakly against the hand carding through his hair.
A momentary look of shock passed over the woman's face before the grin was back. She grabbed the hand he'd moved and examined his guild mark.
"It's been a long time since someone broke through my tranquilizers." she almost purred the words as she surveyed him through narrowed eyes. " Fairy Tail, hmmm...Yomi said we'd be taking our target soon. I kind of hope its you."
Harry didn't like how foreboding those words sounded for himself or his new guild. His hand moved just enough to grab her wrist as she withdrew her arm. He tried to work his mouth again. "Who-"
He lost her attention and she pulled her arm away swiftly and turned toward one of the many offshoot tunnels. He could hear the noise too. He didn't have the best vantage point paralyzed as he was but he could hear the reverberating foot steps of more than one person running their way.
"Harry?!"
Harry recognized Kosmos's voice. He opened his mouth to reply but the girl's hand clamped over it. She met his eyes as he panicked a bit at the sudden touch. "Sleep now." she said soothingly and Harry felt his mind stutter again in the familiar way as the smell of honey grew stronger around him. He forced his fist to clench even as he felt his head shift onto the floor as she set him down the rest of the way. He kept himself from falling into the involuntary sleep but just barely. His nails dug into his palm helping clear his mind just enough that he could grasp his surroundings.
"Quiet, please." the woman had moved in front of Harry, blocking his view of the cave beyond her, but that must be the direction Kosmos was in.
"Ugh!" Harry heard a disgusted noise come from near Kosmos. Was that Natsu's voice? "What is that smell?"
He needed to warn them. What if one of them was the target the woman had spoken of? His arm twitched.
"The sweet scent of the nectar does not appeal to those with unrefined senses." the woman said in answer. "How tragic that the youth of today cannot appreciate its beauty, more delicate than a flower."
"There is nothing more beautiful than a flower!" Was it just his imagination or did Kosmos sound ridiculously mad about someone insinuating flowers weren't pretty? Maybe he was going loopy from the sedative. "What did you do to Harry?"
"Yeah!" Happy added vehemently.
"Fear not little ants, your friend lives."
He gripped his hand harder. He had to force himself up or his guild mates might be taken by surprise by the same chemical warfare that had gotten him. He saw the woman step to the side and suddenly he could see his friends. He made eye contact with Kosmos and he could see the fear and worry there. His face still felt pretty bad. It probably looked worse.
The woman cackled and Harry almost flinched. He'd heard very few legitimate cackles in his day. "Do you want him back little ants?" she asked in a mockingly sweet voice.
Harry twitched a leg.
"We'll take him back!" Natsu yelled, charging.
The woman leaped back, giving herself room to hurl spikes at the boy. Harry wasn't focused on their fight though. Kosmos rushed forward and knelt in front of him. She started checking him for injuries, but he grabbed her hand weakly, startling her a bit. "Natsu..." he ground out with difficulty. "The smell... she... can para... lyze."
Kosmos nodded. "Natsu!" Kosmos called, and relayed his message. Harry wasn't sure what Natsu did about the warning. He was having a hard enough time keeping himself grounded right then. "Are you okay?" Kosmos asked, gently touching what he assumed was one the injuries on his face.
"Peachy." he managed with what he hoped was an encouraging grin. He managed to move his legs a bit. "Help?" he asked, indicating he wanted to sit up. His vision swam just a bit but otherwise he felt fine as Kosmos got him seated. From here he could see the cavern better. Natsu was holding his own with the woman, but she didn't seem to be taking him too seriously at the moment if the grin was any indicator.
"Can you move?" Happy asked. Harry hadn't seen him before.
"Not well." Harry admitted. At least it was getting easier to speak. "One second."
Harry reached internally for his magic now that his head was a tiny bit clearer and he cast a bubble head charm on himself. Almost instantly the smell of honey vanished. He took a deep breath.
"What is this?" Kosmos prodded the bubble with curiosity.
"It gives me clean air." he felt a million times better, his magic coursing through him like it was upset he'd been sedated. Without much thought he cast the spell on Kosmos and Happy as well. He forced his legs to move and they responded better with the clean air flow. He stood, a bit wobbly but otherwise fine.
"Wow, that weird smell's gone." Happy commented.
Kosmos took Harry's arm when he nearly toppled over while trying to take a step. Harry shook her off. "Help Natsu." he said wobbling over to the kid. His fingers went to the kid's neck where a faint pulse remained. He could see Kosmos hesitate. Harry looked up. "I can't do the bubble head charm for him because of the fire breathing." he reasoned. "If he falls he'll need help."
"On it!" Happy called, running for his friend.
"Be careful." Kosmos chided reluctantly before moving to help Natsu.
"Hang in there kid." Harry said before he realized something was missing. The ring isn't beside the kid where he left it. He looks around the area and spots it several feet away. Unfortunately, in the midst of battle, Natsu doesn't see it. The fire mage lands solidly on the ring and Harry can hear the crunch even from where he is.
The woman who had been firing what looked like spikes at one of Kosmos' plant walls pauses when the crunch rings out too. Natsu lifts his foot with confusion. The woman zips over to the broken disk and pretty easily bats Natsu away from it. "Ah," she lifts the broken thing with a frown. "How disappointing."
"What is that thing?" Harry asked steeling himself to fight, even if it's not well, now that he'd drawn her attention. He sees her eyes trail over the bubble head charm.
"It's. A. Secret." she said with a grin, dropping it back to the ground. Natsu was charging back toward the fight. Her eyes flick up to something only she seemed to see.
"I guess this is goodbye then, little ants."
Without warning a flare of light filled the space she was standing. When it vanished, she too was gone.
Harry feels himself almost slump with relief. He wasn't sure he really wanted to try fighting someone while he was as tired as he felt at that moment.
"Is everyone alright?" Kosmos calls, heading their direction.
"Fine." Harry responds even though he feels like he could take a three day nap at this point. He's thankful the strange woman is gone, but he's pretty sure it won't be the last they'll see of her.
I was so tired finishing the last bit of this chapter that I started using wrong tenses. I'm going to bed. Enjoy!
~Kanathia
