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Chapter 21: Enter Bosco

After that brief moment of happiness, it's back to business. We're going to Bosco, Erza and I still need to talk and I have to curb my awkwardness to survive amongst all these extroverts.

Erza's walking at the front of our fellowship, leading the way. Today Lucy walks beside her, followed by Natsu and Happy, which means Gray is keeping me company.

The relationship, or whatever it is, I have with Gray is strange and tangled. We haven't spoken properly in years, and part of me goes as far as to say we never had a real conversation because I was so closed off all the time, obviously hiding something.

But now that I've spent some more time around Gray, I know it's not just my fault. Everytime I look at him I just wonder what the hell kind of friendship he wants; he constantly fights with Natsu and Erza scolds him for it, but he still hangs out with both of them. And back when we were kids all we did was sit around.

Our friendship pretty much ended when Natsu joined the guild, but things were complicated way before that. The last job me, him and Erza went on ruined a lot. It was the job with the cursed tree. Gray got hurt, Makarov scolded all of us, but it was basically my fault.

I think back to that time as we walk next to each other in silence. There's probably never a good time to bring it up, but I feel I have to. This journey to Bosco isn't just about me getting rid of the flames; I should use it to get rid of everything that bothers me.

'Hey,' I say after a while. Gray glances over. 'Remember that job with the cursed tree?'

He lifts his chin and looks at the sky, as if that will help him think. 'Oh yeah. That sucked.' Then he frowns. 'That had to do with dark magic too, right?'

Now that he knows a little more about me, he's reevaluating every memory he has of me and adding the flames into it. He's solving the puzzle that annoyed him all these years.

'Yeah,' I answer, 'I'm sorry for what happened back then.'

He looks back at me. 'What?'

'Well, I knew something was off, but I didn't say anything. And you nearly smashed your skull.'

A smirk appears on his face. 'I get my skull nearly smashed during every job I take.'

And as he's saying that, I notice he has a new scar on his forehead. I should know by now Gray's just not that careful, or squirmish, as I am.

He bumps his fist against my shoulder. It's a friendly gesture, but it kinda hurts, because I have weak arms. 'But I get what you're saying. Thanks.'

Though Gray annoys the shit out of me still sometimes, he's a good guy. He can be a hothead and seems forever grumpy, even when he smiles, which is why I've always found him hard to read, but despite that, he's appreciative of the people around him and seems generally glad to be alive. I think he's cool.

'Thank you too,' I say to him, 'for being so chill about all this.'

With "all this" I mean flames, nightmares, anything shit that's ever happened. Gray just makes a "tch" sound and looks away. 'Forgot you were such a softy.'

For a moment I'm confused. My social skills have been screwed over by years of paranoia, but I'm pretty sure this is his attempt to "banter". I've seen Wakabe and Macao do it at the guild from time to time, but I never had a conversation like it myself. My best friend was Mystogan, and he has the sense of humor of a tomato.

I shrug and say: 'That's odd coming from the theatre kid.'

And I see Gray is genuinely taken aback. As you know, he had a weird fascination with performing arts as a kid. And on top of that: he doesn't know me as the type of person that strikes back. He grins. 'Theatre kid, huh?'

I decide to take it a step further. 'Lucy told me about the play in Onibus.'

He scoffs. 'Please don't remind me. Most awful thing I've ever done.'

'Really?'

He pretends to glare at me. 'Yes. You'd hate it too if you were there.'

'I dunno,' I say, 'I never tried. Maybe I have a secret talent. A magnificent stage presence… I think I'd make a wonderful tree.'

'Yeah, a cursed one.'

I have to look at him to make sure this is still part of the banter, and thankfully it is. So I laugh, because it's funny.

Erza looks over her shoulder and eyes me. She smiles.

The last fifteen minutes of the journey to Bosco we walk up a hill that ends with a cliff. Halfway Erza folds up the map. 'This is it.'

'Really?!' Natsu shouts, and he runs past her, Happy flying behind him. They halt at the edge and gasp loudly.

Lucy sighs with relief. 'So can we take a break now?' She sits down on a rock.

'We're not even in the country yet,' says Gray, but I can tell he too is glad the first part of the journey is over. Erza made the executive decision to travel by foot, since a third of our group consists of Dragon Slayers. Any form of transportation will prove unnecessarily troublesome because of mine and Natsu's motion sickness. And aside from that; I can't move whenever I hear the breaks of a train, thanks to you.

Walking all day does take a toll. The only ones who don't seem all that bothered are Natsu and Erza. I'm not counting Happy because the cat can fly.

I, on the other hand, get nervous after realizing Bosco is just around the corner. Even with my mom beside me and with the knowledge that the flames are getting weaker, I'm a little anxious.

Gray joins Natsu at the edge of the cliff, Erza waits halfway. She turns to me. 'Come take a look.'

I take a deep breath, throw my backpack off and slowly step closer. Bosco is just below, and the first thing I get to experience from this country is the smell.

It's sweet. Sickeningly sweet. It stings and it takes me a second or two to decipher what the hell it is. By far the most general scent in the universe: flowers. I have enough experience with my Dragon Slayer nose to distinguish different kinds: roses, sunflower, orchids, magnolia's, violets, germini's, tulips. They're overwhelming and make my throat burn till I cough, which looks alarming to the others around me.

'I'm fine,' I say, still coughing, which doesn't help, 'just strong scents. Caught me off guard.'

'I know,' says Natsu, taking in a big whiff, 'it's amazing.'

I never wondered whether Natsu's sense of smell is as good as mine and right now I'm not interested in comparing. Right now I just think he's stupid.

I pull some power away from my nose and only then have time to look at what I'm smelling. At first I think what's in front of me is just a plain field of flowers, reaching for as far as I can see. There's not a single building in sight.

Since the strong smell surprised me, I'm not in complete focus. To me, it looks like the field of flowers is only about an arm's length down. I haven't travelled to other kingdoms that much, but I've seen enough of the world to know that this is a very odd border. There aren't any people around, no one's patrolling. Erza said the country consists mainly of nomads, but that doesn't necessarily mean there's no form of national security. If it truly was this easy to enter Bosco, why didn't more people go there?

I open my mouth to ask why we're all standing around staring at the place when we can just jump down and go there, but then I realize I'm not looking at a flower field.

When I narrow my eyes I see the greenery between the flowers I first thought was grass is actually all trees. There are trees around every flower and if they are normal in sizes, as in, normal trees, that means the flowers are huge. In reality, the forest is a long way down and the flowers are larger than life.

'Oh,' I say out loud, 'this is unexpected.'

Gray turns to me. 'What wereyou expecting?'

'Not sure. Swamps, cold, darkness….not this.'

Happy suddenly pops up next to my head. 'Are you disappointed?'

'Of course not,' I quickly say, 'it's actually quite beautiful.'

Lucy now gets curious as well and joins us at the cliff. For a short time no one says anything, we just watch the endless field that is Bosco. On my right I have Erza and Gray, on the left Lucy, Natsu and Happy, which means I'm basically in the middle of this companionship. All these people are here to help me and though I'm still not used to that idea, I'm glad they're here.

'What are you smiling about?' asks Gray then. My initial reaction is to turn away, hide my face, but there's no need. I shrug.

'I dunno. Perhaps this journey isn't as bad as I thought it would be.'

And I know what you might be thinking: this is all awfully light for this story. Is your pupil, is your chosen prince actually appreciating life? Is he truly that weak? The answer is yes. Whenever I experience a moment of joy, I forget how terrible things can be. I often scold myself for it, I shouldn't allow myself to get caught up in the moment, because that's when I drop my guard. But being human is about more than logic.

Having spent time around other members from Fairy Tail, I've found that it's only normal to step into the light every once in a while, because it makes the time spent in darkness worth it. In my case, as I've often said before, nothing nice ever stays nice, but I've come to care about the nice times to the point I'm willing to risk having a bad time after. Everyone needs something to fight for. Otherwise there's no point to anything.

Anyway, back to the cliff.

Gray smirks after I said what I said. 'Good to hear you're catching on.'

Natsu crouches down and leans dangerously far over the edge of the cliff, but no one warns him, so I won't either. He holds one hand above his eyes to shield them from the sun and looks down. 'How far do you think it is, Happy?'

Suddenly Erza's not next to me anymore. She grabs Natsu by his pink hair and drags him away from the edge. 'We're not flying. We proceed with caution.'

Natsu kicks his feet around and whines till she lets go of him. 'You didn't have to do that!'

'Maybe,' says Erza coldly, and then she changes the subject. 'Let's have a quick lunch before we continue.'

We each go back to where we dropped our bags and search for something to eat. Keep in mind: this is a nice time, which means a bad time is coming up. And this one's really, really bad.

I remember kneeling down beside my bag, opening the front pocket and feeling a sour taste in my mouth. At first I didn't think much of it, I figured it was an after effect of the intense flower smell.

I heard Gray asking what Erza was planning to do once we'd entered Bosco, and Natsu said something that ticked him off. They bickered about something, not sure what, because at that point my ears stopped functioning. I couldn't hear anything.

I looked at my hands, fiddling with the front pocket of my bag, and suddenly I wasn't able to keep my eyes open.

I wasn't too far off the ground, but I still managed to hit my head hard. And through the pain I realized my mouth was watering, and you know what that means.

I blacked out for a few seconds and the flames jumped at the opportunity, but the golden magic was quick to respond. The takeover was prevented, but I still sensed dark magic.

When I open my eyes, everyone's standing around me, like they did this morning after the nightmare. No, wait, Natsu and Happy weren't there.

I immediately sit up, my ears pop open and I take deep breaths. 'I'm alright. I'm OK.'

I'm not sure if anyone asked, but I can see it on their faces. The flames turn to smoldering ashes and I silently thank the golden magic of my mother.

'Is it the flames?' Erza asks.

'Something's off.'

I see Natsu standing at the edge of the cliff, Happy sitting on his shoulder. The sweet smell of the flowers is still very present, but I sense dark magic too. Something is nearing, but I can't tell if it's coming from the same place.

'Natsu,' I say, 'get away from there.'

He looks up, confused, and opens his mouth to ask why, but it's too late. Something dark shoots up from below, wraps itself around Natsu's ankle, and starts pulling him down.

Gray is first to respond. He dashes towards the edge, freezes his feet to the ground in the process and grabs Natsu by his arms.

'Hold on!' Gray shouts, trying his hardest to pull Natsu free from what seems to be a tentacle. Happy flies over Natsu and tries pulling him by the collar of his jacket.

I quickly jump to my feet and almost fall down again. Erza requips a sword twice her size, jumps through the air and starts slicing the tentacle that is trying to take Natsu. Lucy wraps her arms around Gray's waist and tries her hardest to help him stay grounded, even though the magical ice around his feet is already cracking. The tentacle is crazy strong.

I push myself up and grab my own sword, but before I can do anything Natsu starts to scream. He screams in a way I never thought he could. He's in extreme pain and everyone hears it and it's heartbreaking, because it's Natsu and he isn't supposed to scream like that.

And then he stops. He falls quiet and his eyes roll away. I stand there, with my sword in my hands, half in shock.

As if someone throws a glass of water onto a wet painting, all the colour is drained from Natsu's body. His hair turns gray, his skin becomes unnaturally white.

Lucy screams his name, but he doesn't respond.

All of a sudden the tentacle lets go of him. Gray and Lucy fall backwards now that the resistance disappears, and Natsu's colourless body hits the dirt. His eyes are closed.

What happens next is a bit blurry. Erza runs over to Natsu, turns his body around and shakes him, but he doesn't respond. Gray gets to his feet but then stops moving. Lucy puts a hand over her mouth and cries softly, Happy stares into nothing.

The tentacle disappears back into the forest of Bosco. Everyone slowly realizes what just happened. As you know, mages learn to recognize magical signatures and presences of other mages. In this moment, no one could sense anything coming off Natsu's body.

And it gets worse, because when I enhance my ears I don't hear a single heartbeat. My sword slips through my fingers.

Without saying a word I push Erza aside and place both my hands on Natsu's chest. Though I'm quiet on the outside, I'm screaming inside, begging the golden magic to do something. I did it before, with Jellal. I should be able to do it again.

My palms start warming up, but other than that nothing happens.

'C'mon,' I say through my teeth, but I'm too weak. I already fought off two takeovers today and spoke with my mother. It's not an endless stream of magic, I too run out every once in a while.

But I won't accept it. The stupid tentacle only took Natsu because he was closest to the edge, but the thing was looking for me.

It's not a stretch to think this situation is awfully similar to what happened with Simon. And in some ways it is that exact situation, though I'm not as guilty. And I've learned from that time. I've reconnected with my mother.

'C'mon!' I say again, louder, encouraging the golden magic in my hands. And finally, finally, a spark manages to cut through whatever it is that is killing Natsu. Two small streaks of light enter his chest, travel to his heart and surround it.

I remove my hands and stare at his face. The colour is still gone, his heart isn't beating, and it feels like I've done nothing.

'Riku,' says Happy, 'what did you do?'

I could be honest and say I have no idea, but right now the cat is looking at me for reassurance. 'I gave him something to protect his heart. But without his own magic, I'm not sure-'

'We'll get it back,' says Erza, in a tone of voice that warns not to argue with her, 'Gray, you're with me.'

Gray is still half in shock, but blinks himself back to reality. His rival is laying at his feet, barely alive. 'Right.'

Though I know what Erza will say, I still open my mouth: 'I'm coming too.'

She's already on her feet, and sighs. Then, to my surprise, she says: 'Fine.'

I glance at Natsu one last time before I grab my sword off the ground. I feel the golden magic buzzing in his chest and it's almost as if I'm leaving a part of myself behind. As if I've asked my mother to look after him while I'm gone.

Erza and Gray are already at the cliff. Lucy sits beside Natsu, Happy has found his way into her arms. I hate seeing them like this.

In just a matter of minutes, this adventure has turned to shit. There's nothing I can say to them to make it better.

So I turn my back on them, and decide to push any memory, any mental image of the crying blue cat and the sobbing blonde girl away. I decide not to feel bad for them anymore. I shut off all emotion.

Erza has requipped into an armour that controls the air around her, giving her the ability to somewhat fly (or to, depending on how you look at it, graciously fall). Bosco is a long way down from here, as we've established, ascending by just climbing down will take forever.

Erza turns to me. Her face is cold. She's in battle mode, as I am. 'Use your wings.'

At this point, Gray doesn't know a whole lot about my abilities. In a different context he might go into shock upon hearing this, or resort to endless questioning. We don't have time for that, so he ends up saying: 'Just do it.'

Erza has already started falling/flying. I take a deep breath, take a bit of dark flame and golden light and mix them together. From my shoulder blades erupt two wings about an arm's length long, smaller than usual, because it's been an exhausting day already.

I'm not used to carrying someone else while I fly, so both Gray and I awkwardly move our limbs around before deciding we'll just hold hands, meaning Gray will dangle below me like the crate of an air balloon. Looking back, this wasn't the smartest decision, because of my weak arm strength, but I didn't complain. My sore muscles served as motivation to get down faster.

Erza's already far below us. I can see her cutting into the roof of the forest beneath a sunflower. I'm not sure if that's where the tentacle monster disappeared, but I'm in no position to question anything. We just have to hurry.

The scent that comes off the forest is still very intense. I don't know if that caused me to black out before, but just to be sure I decide to not use my nose for a while. Like I did at the Tower of Heaven, I close off my sense of smell completely.

Keep this in mind, it's important for later.

I land not far from Erza and then we're officially in Bosco. Hurray.

The forest itself isn't anything to write home about. The trees stand close to one another and are of the most basic sorts and sizes. Every few metres there's a giant flower. One thing that is notable is the absence of birds and other animals. I don't hear any rustling, no singing, no squealing. But you already knew this, right? You've been to that place before.

'Riku,' says Erza, who has requipped into a more mundane armour, 'do you sense anything?'

We came here without a plan and now we depend on me. Which is fine. 'Nothing out of the ordinary.'

'Come take a look at this,' says Gray, who has walked off on his own. He points at something a few trees further. 'There.'

I look, and should notice it instantly because I can still enhance my vision, but I have no clue what he wants me to see. 'What?'

Erza glances only once. 'Broken branches. Something came through here.'

Both of them start running into the direction Gray was just pointing at, and I have no choice but to follow. I feel like a rookie, even though I've done tons of S-class quests with Mystogan. On the other hand I wonder why both Erza and Gray get so worked up over broken branches. The tentacle that took Natsu's magic was huge, and the monster that was attached to it had to be even bigger. If it really walked through the forest, it would cause more damage than just a few broken branches. Trees should be unrooted, but I see nothing of the sort.

'Through here!' says Erza, and we turn right.

And after a little while, Gray says 'Here!' and we turn right again.

They both seem so confident in their tracking skills that I keep my mouth shut. Questioning it now might take up time we can't afford to lose.

But when we turn right again, I know something's off. Gray and Erza aren't in the least confused, and keep on running. They want to save their friend at all costs and put all their power into it. They're sweating and breathing fast, and considering these are people that do this kind of stuff for a living (adventuring, not necessarily saving friends), it's very strange they get tired so easily.

I am, on the other hand, just fine. I'm a bit drained of magical power, but I can continue running without any problems.

We turn right again.

'Guys!' I say, because now it's getting ridiculous, 'we're going in circles. You know that, right?'

Instead of turning their heads in shock, both of them, in unison, scream: 'Shut up!'

So yeah, they were cursed. They were very much put under a spell.

I keep on running with them while I think about this. I didn't sense any magic, nothing of note. The only thing that bothered me about this forest was the smell.

'Erza,' I try again, and I even fasten my pace so I can run next to her, 'listen. This forest is screwing with us.'

'I don't care!'

I open my mouth again, but I know there's no reasoning now. I'm the only sane person left and I continue running with the crazy ones. The scent of the forest is doing this, I'm almost certain. It didn't have much effect on them when we were on the cliff. I got a big chunk of it, but I managed to fight it off. And while I did that, the tentacle monster appeared.

I wonder if the two are connected. They must be.

Before I can fully figure this all out, I have to make sure Erza and Gray don't end up like Natsu. They get more exhausted with every step they take. It's clear they won't listen to me.

I look at Erza. Her natural determination makes the effects of whatever curse this is even more intense. Nothing can shake her. It's admirable almost, but in this instance it's her weakness.

'Erza,' I say, tightening the grip around my sword, 'I'll fix it. I promise.'

She doesn't look up, I don't think she even heard me. And I have to admit: that kinda hurt. It reminded me of the brief period at the Tower when she didn't know who I was. Just like then, I'm someone who's in her way, instead of a helping hand.

But this isn't the time to be hurt. I suppress whatever sadness I'm feeling, and hit Erza on the back of her head with the bland side of my sword. I hit her hard enough she immediately loses consciousness.

Gray's only a few paces behind me and stops dead in his tracks. 'What the hell do you think you're doing?'

I thought knocking Erza out first was for the better, but I hadn't considered how that would look like to Gray. I thought he wouldn't notice, I thought the spell wouldn't allow him to get distracted, but I thought very wrong.

I put my sword back in the holster on my back and catch Erza in my arms. When I'm about to carefully place her on the ground, Gray jumps at me. He fires a few ice arrows at me, which I manage to dodge only in the last second.

'What is wrong with you?!' he screams at me. He slams his right fist into his left palm and an ice lance appears out of nothing.

There's no way to make him understand. Right now it just looks like I plan to kill Erza while we're supposed to save Natsu.

The first thing I do is move away from Erza, because I'm not sure Gray has the clarity of mind to keep her out of his attack range. I hide between the trees to escape the ice lances he fires at me. He growles in frustration. 'Come out, you coward!'

I have to get close enough to knock him out, or throw something with the right velocity and in the right angle to hit him on the temple. Gray has powerful spells for both attack and defense, but it's been years since we've sparred. I have no clue how strong he has become.

While I'm hiding behind a tree I think back to just a few hours ago, when we did our banter thing.

'Gray!' I shout without showing my face. Immediately an ice hammer hits the tree, breaking it in half. I flee to another one and crouch down. 'Remember the job with the cursed tree?'

I don't know why I try, but I can't help it. He uses the ice hammer again, and I dodge it just in time.

Then I feel my mouth watering.

The golden magic stirs up, forcing down the flames, but I'm so surprised I fall to my knees. I blink, trying not to pass out like before.

In the chaos I enhance my ears. Before I hear anything, the ground shudders. Then loud thumps follow, irregular and accompanied by what I can only describe as a slimy, wet sound. Something is nearing and it's coming fast.

'Gray!' I shout again, 'you have to hide!'

He stops attacking, and I when I sneak a peek I see he's panting, leaning against a tree. Erza lies not far away from him.

The thing is almost here. I have no time to be subtle anymore. I cross the few paces that are between me and Gray and put him in a headlock, like Natsu always does to me. I grab one arm of Erza, bite my teeth down hard and use all the arm strength I have (so, not much) to throw her unconscious body over my other shoulder. Then I run.

Gray kicks and tries freezing himself off me, but the flames are quick to burn it off. They don't like ice.

The thing, which I'm pretty sure is the tentacle monster, is behind us. I don't know where to go. I keep on running, passing giant flowers and regular trees left and right. When I get to a clearing I feel panic rising. I shove it down. No time.

I send dark flames to my feet to enhance my speed and cross the clearing in a matter of seconds. When I'm among the trees again, I dare to glance over my shoulder. The tentacle monster is standing in the clearing. It's not so much an octopus or anything like that. It has more in common with a pile of mud that just happened to have a few tentacles.

And as I'm looking at it, I hear its voice in my head: 'Prince Riku.'

Aside from Jellal, no one has ever called me "prince". Jellal knew about you, so when this mud monster in Bosco addresses me in the same way I know you're somehow involved with whatever is going on here. I don't know how and I don't know when, but you told someone about me.

Sure, I'm surprised, a bit shocked, but other than that I just run even faster. I'm carrying two people who are dear to me and I have to get them to safety.

I don't think Gray heard what the mud monster said. He has stopped struggling, and then says: 'I know that job. The one with the tree.'

I'm not sure if this is a sign that the spell he was under is wearing off, but I'm still a bit relieved. 'Good. I was thinking we should make a play about it.'

He doesn't respond.

The mud creature has stopped in the clearing, and part of me wonders if he's waiting for something. I take this opportunity to slow down my pace and free Gray from the headlock.

He's in no condition to run, but he doesn't say it. If there's no other option, I could try to fly carrying both him and Erza. But I'd need time to focus, meaning we have to keep running anyway, because there's no focusing while you're getting chased.

I take Erza into my arms, her head falls against my chest.

'Prince Riku,' the creature calls again, 'please halt. In the name of the Emperor.'

Gray doesn't seem to hear it.

'C'mon,' I say to him, and start running again. And that is one of the biggest mistakes I've ever made.

Gray doesn't follow me. He can't.

I hear a thud behind me, then screams. Gray screams in a way he shouldn't scream. When I turn around the mud creature has wrapped a tentacle around one of Gray's ankles, and colour is slowly drained from him.