Last Edited 12/31/2019
Read this!
So, I reposted this chapter because I really needed to tell you guys some stuff. First and foremost, you should know that a couple of scenes have actually been added to the end of this during editing while I was working on the next chapter (they just seemed to fit this chapter a little better than the next), so you guys should really check that out at some point.
Furthermore, I'm going to hold off on updates for a bit, and not just because of my novel. There are going to be some flashbacks from Lori's childhood to come here and there within the next few arcs, so I'm taking some time to write those out ahead of time before I really get into updating again. I'll keep working on the chapters in the meantime, but I want the flashback scenes to flow with the rest of the story believably, and I'm kind of having trouble writing them. It's just more difficult than I thought it would be to write from the point of view of Child!Lori, but I'll get through it soon enough. I really want to have all the flashback scenes ready to go when I get to the point in-story where I'll need them, and though a lot of it is Lori's childhood with Lucy, some of it will take place when they're older (15 and 16) and after they've left home. I just feel like these scenes are important to Lori and her character, but I wanted to show it with flashbacks, rather than going about it the long way. In the meantime, of course, I am using the opportunity to get ahead with story content whenever the flashbacks give me too much trouble (like they are now), so hopefully, this can help me get into a more regular update schedule soon, even with my novel in the works.
The next thing I wanted to tell you guys is that I created a website and a twitter account to act as a companion to my account and stories here. The twitter is only for specific things I feel you guys should know, such as if something happens that will prolong an update. This site doesn't really have a feature that lets me do this reliably, and even if I put this stuff on my profile, you guys have no way of knowing it is there, unless you check it manually and frequently, which isn't really all that convenient. The other site (whose link you can find on my admittedly sparse twitter profile under the same username as this site) is more for information and tidbits that isn't really conducive to being posted here. Photos. Research for stories. Charts and timelines I created for my own use but am willing to share with you guys. Stuff that is related to my stories without being true story content. There's not a lot I can put there at the moment without allowing for story spoilers, but more and more content will appear there as my stories grow. And, for those of you who are waiting on my other stories, I do plan to continue them, even if they haven't yet been reposted here. I just didn't want to split my focus too far right now, with both my novel and Carpe Diem, because if I work on too much at once, that will seriously impede my already sparse updates. Once my novel is complete, I will repost one or two of my previous stories, though a couple of the more obscure ones might be shortened a little. I'm trying to take the smaller ideas and turn then into either oneshots or novella-length stories without taking anything away from the idea, itself.
Anyway, thanks for reading all of this.
Enjoy.
Chapter 04
"Natsu explained it to me a long time ago," Happy was saying, and I clutched Natsu's jacket tighter in my fist as another building exploded to pieces with the sheer force of his overabundant magic power. "It's called dragon slayer magic, and it was originally designed to deal with dragons. Igneel taught it to him." Another burst of fire, and a chorus of screaming ensued, more than just Bora's men running for cover.
"Isn't that weird, though, that a dragon taught a human how to fight dragons?" Lucy asked, watching the chaos with morbid fascination on her face.
"Here, I can't watch this," I stated, shoving Natsu's jacket at Lucy. "It's way too much." Lucy's fingers closed around the fabric, and as she looked over at me in confusion, I walked over toward the giant hole in the side of Bora's ship.
"Wait, what are you doing?" Lucy asked, her voice rising anxiously as she watched me. "You're not going down there, are you?"
I rolled my eyes and glanced back at her briefly. "Because I can totally just stand here and watch him scare the pants off all the locals."
Throwing myself out into the open air, I ignored the abrupt shrieking behind me and let my magic take hold of me from the inside, drawing me out and away from Lucy and Happy without a second thought. An inexplicable weightlessness filled me as wind poured along my skin and into my ears, sending up goosebumps and hair alike, and I passed quickly over the damaged areas, buildings and structures and ground ruined just for being in the way of a fight still going wild with reckless abandon.
Flying low as I neared the source, I dropped myself right between Natsu and Bora just as the former unleashed a large roaring flame at his target, and I pulled on my magic, settling a good bit of it into a barrier that curved concavely between us. Natsu's attack hit full-force, pure raw power sliding along the curve of my magic and pushing it back against me, and as the flames poured out over the edges in a way that curved them away from me, my arms shook helplessly and I was forced back several feet, grunting at the effort it took to keep standing as I slid roughly along the uneven ground. The blast cleared a moment later, and I let out a heavy breath, ignoring Natsu's affronted face as I dropped my barrier and turned to face Bora just a few feet away. He was panting and sweating, his hands on his knees, and I gathered myself, stomping over with a scowl; his face twisted in wary confusion at the sight of me and he took a step back, but I slid easily into his guard and slapped his forehead roughly with a palm laced in mild sleep magic. His eyes rolled up, then, and he fell over backwards without so much as a twitch of awareness, hitting the ground with a heavy smack.
"What'd you do that for?!" Natsu shouted at me, his voice tinged with indignation, and I turned to glare at him as he stormed over. "It was just getting good! And, since when can you fly?!"
"You're a dumbass," I told him, crossing my arms, and he stopped short, blinking at me in disbelief, and then, in an instant, irritation took over.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" I huffed and rolled my eyes.
"You're using way more magic than you need to," I said, lifting first one finger, and then another two more, consecutively. "You destroyed literally everything in sight, and you're terrifying the locals. You do know what 'too much' means, right?"
"I didn't destroy everything!" Natsu scowled and thrust a finger into my face roughly, and I pulled back an inch so he wouldn't actually poke me in the eye. "Just some stuff got destroyed, and anyway, if people were scared, it wasn't 'cos of me!"
"Look, I'm not going to argue with you," I told him, brushing his hand away from my face lightly, "but we really need to get out of here before the military shows up." His face twisted into an expression of horror and he glanced around reflexively, as if to make sure it was safe. "Unless you want to get arrested for massive property damage?"
"Crap!" Abruptly, he grabbed my hand with his and took off down the ruined street, a shiver running down my spine at the sheer heat of his skin as I struggled to keep my feet underneath me in the rush. "I can already hear them coming!"
I hummed wordlessly in acknowledgment and sped up a little to match his fervent pace, letting go of his hand as he took the lead back toward Lucy and Happy, swerving over and around the damaged areas with all the ease of someone who'd done it a thousand times before. Which, honestly enough, wasn't the least bit comforting. We swung around another corner just a couple of minutes later, and as part of Bora's ship came into view over the tops of the mostly-intact buildings around us, I caught sight of Lucy down at the end of the block with Happy on her shoulder, coming up toward us from the direction of the beach. There was something green and bulky in her arms, a vaguely familiar backpack which couldn't possibly be ours, and as we neared, she began to wave and gesture at me frantically.
"Lori, the military's coming!" She exclaimed, shoving the pack at Natsu as she passed and then grabbing onto my arms to halt her momentum as Happy hopped off to the ground beside us nonchalantly.
"Hey, you got my bag!" Natsu exclaimed, grinning over at us with sudden cheerfulness as he flung the pack across his shoulders. "Thanks for that!"
"Thank Happy; he did it, not me," Lucy said without looking at him, tugging on my arm. "C'mon, we have to go!"
"Where to, though?" I asked her with a frown, following her motions reluctantly and hoping that Natsu's invitation in canon would still stand, here and now. "We weren't exactly expecting to leave town so early; we don't even know where we're going, yet."
"Don't be silly," Natsu said, interrupting Lucy before she could speak. "You're coming with us back to Magnolia." I choked for a moment, then, eyes widening at his brazenness after everything that'd happened tonight.
"And why would we want to do that?" Lucy asked rudely, her voice pitched lower with skepticism, and I realized with a huff of amusement that she hadn't bothered actually learning the guild's location, despite it being public knowledge. (This same girl once left a sugar scrub container open overnight because she didn't know that it contained actual sugar; by morning, of course, it had been overridden with ants.)
Natsu blinked once and looked between us, a kind, sure smile lighting up his face. "You want to join Fairy Tail, right?"
His eyes met mine, then, his gaze warm and open, and something in me pulsed, my heart beating loudly in my ears. It hadn't been quite so obvious before, back when I wasn't actively searching for it, but looking at Natsu now, I felt like I was really seeing him, for the first time. The anime had never done it justice, the easy way he drew people in, how effortlessly he could get complete strangers to believe in him, that bright confidence he carried like a second skin. I understood it now, if only a little.
Lucy squealed in my ear abruptly and wrapped her arms around me, interrupting the strange moment, and a sense of relief filled my heart as I returned the gesture fondly, grinning into her shoulder. An instant later, shouting and the heavy sound of multiple metal-laden footsteps filtered in from the street behind us, and I turned hastily, peering over my shoulder at the noise. A large group of soldiers all dressed in full armor, were coming up towards us from where most of the fighting had just taken place, and while I couldn't tell if they were coming for us or the nearby ship, I certainly didn't feel like finding out.
"Time to go," I said, and Lucy pulled back hastily with a noise of panic, "before they realize we were involved."
"Remind me again why we can't just stay here tonight and sneak away in the morning," Lucy said irritably, shoving her legs into the pair of shorts I'd given her, "when it's light out?"
"Because sneaking away will be more difficult then," I told her simply, straightening out the leggings I'd chosen to walk in. "Besides, Hargeon will be crawling with people within hours, and I'd rather deal with the military in the dark than the rune knights in the daylight."
"Rune knights?!" Natsu shouted, loud even through the muffling properties a closed bathroom door presented.
"Whoa, wait, you didn't say anything about rune knights before!" Lucy exclaimed beside me, shock and anxiousness fighting for dominance in her expression.
"Yeah, you could have told us that, sooner!" Happy said rudely, and there came a pounding on the door the boys were trapped behind.
"Hey, can we come out, yet?" Natsu asked, and the doorknob rattled. "It's cramped in here, and Happy just farted!"
"I did not!" Happy shouted in an affronted tone, and I shared an amused glance with Lucy, reaching out to grab the stretchy t-shirt I'd chosen to wear. "That was you!"
"Not yet!" I called, and there was a shuffling sound from inside, the door rattling fiercely.
"But it smells nasty in here!" Natsu told us, his voice almost like a whine, and the door rattled again.
"No means no!" Lucy exclaimed, scowling at the door angrily as she shoved her arms into her tank top. "Now pipe down and let us finish!"
There was a light huffing sigh from the other side of the door, sounding half exasperated and half resigned, and quickly, I tugged my shirt over my head, twisting and straightening the fabric until it sat comfortably against the sports bra underneath. Reaching over, I dug my hand into the extended space of our pack, pulling out a pair of socks and my ankle-length walking boots, and as I glanced up, a fully-clothed Lucy reached out to take the pack from me, digging into it for her own footwear.
"You can come out now," I called, rolling my eyes as I lifted a foot to tug on my sock.
"Finally!" The door slammed open, and the boys came tumbling out in a tangle of pink and blue, landing in a heap just a few short feet away. "Man, you guys are slow!"
"Excuse you!" Lucy huffed, glaring angrily as Natsu and Happy picked themselves up off the floor. "What was that?" Slipping on my shoe, I zipped it up the side, and then, I dropped my foot and moved to the other one, tugging on my sock gently.
"Yeah," Happy said, ignoring Lucy's irritation at their rudeness. "Why did we have to wait in the bathroom, anyway? That's totally backwards!"
"Knock it off," I demanded, zipping up my last shoe and then uncurling to my fully non-impressive height as I glanced between the three of them with a frown. "We don't have time for petty arguments." They all turned to look at me, Lucy and Happy pouting at the firm look on my face.
"Relax. We didn't mean anything by it," Natsu said, reaching up to ruffle his hair with a reflexive grin, and I rolled my eyes with an amused huff at his easygoing nature. "So, are we leaving now?"
"Absolutely." I told him, reaching out to grab our little backpack from Lucy. "Just lead the way."
"Hey, guys?" I began, glancing around us at the thinning tree line in thought. "What do you think about stopping? We've been walking for a while, and we're going to run out of forest soon. If we have to camp, I'd rather do it while we still have trees to use as cover."
Getting out of Hargeon after everything that had happened had been surprisingly easy, considering how busy the military was with the damaged port and the ship washed up on the beach. We'd walked right out of town and not one person we'd passed on the way had stopped to look at us twice, and honestly, it was only the possibility of the rune knights getting involved that had kept us walking for the past hour or so we'd been on the road.
"That sounds great to me; I'm s—" Lucy yawned mid-sentence, stopping for a moment to cover her mouth with her hands, "—so tired. I feel like I could fall asleep right here."
"Natsu? Happy?" I questioned, glancing up at where they had stopped walking a few feet ahead of us. "Are you okay with stopping for the night?"
"Yeah, sure," He responded casually, grinning back at us with his arms propped up on his hips, and though he looked awake enough, his tired eyes gave him away, so I knew he was just as worn out as the rest of us. "Food sounds awesome, right now!"
"Aye." Happy yawned hugely from his place beside Natsu, his ears drooping with fatigue. "Yummy fishies."
"How can you be hungry this late at night?" Lucy asked skeptically beside me, leaning over to prop herself up wearily against my side.
"Sorry to disappoint, but we don't have a lot of food, right now," I told the boys with a helpless shrug, lips twisting up into an amused but sympathetic smile. "I didn't have the chance to restock before we left."
The boys groaned in unison, and Natsu reached up to rub his belly dramatically. "Oh, come on; I'm hungry! You gotta have something!"
"Of course, I do," I told him nonchalantly, rolling my eyes at the way his face lit up with the news, "but there's not much, so we're saving it for tomorrow." He slumped again, and I turned to survey the nearby trees critically.
Fiore was a rather mountainous country, I'd learned, and what wasn't mountain tended, instead, to be a variation ranging from everything between valleys and the ocean. We had the forest at our side, right now, but the trees were starting to thin a little, and I was pretty sure that if we kept walking, we'd soon run into hills, cliffs, and open grassland. Probably. I'd never traveled on this road before, and it was already sort of late, so I knew our best bet to camp out safely lied in the trees just off the path. Any further down the road, and we'd be leaving ourselves more open to bandits and thieves, and I really didn't want to risk dealing with that, after everything we'd already gone through tonight.
"Why didn't you pack your own food," Lucy asked the boys with a rude scoff, shifting back away from me as I moved to step off the path, leaves and twigs crunching loudly under my feet.
"Let's go," I ordered, interrupting what promised to be an argument, if Lucy's tone and Natsu and Happy's faces were anything to go by. "We can set up camp right over here, behind these trees."
Gesturing ahead of me and not looking back to see if the others would follow, I weaved around some of the trees, going back about twenty feet from the road. With the moon to light up the darkness around me, I looked first at the ground and then at the branches above, inspecting for rocks and loose branches, anything that could be a problem. Footsteps sounded behind me, and deeming the space appropriate, I shifted, letting our pack slide off my shoulders gently. Undoing the clasp and tugging open the pack, I reached inside to pull out our camping supplies, ignoring the voices carrying on behind me. The tarp went down first, a bit of telekinesis helping it to lay flat, and another burst to shove the stakes firmly and evenly into the dirt. Our tent came next, a small magical pop-up number that'd we'd gotten on sale this past winter, and I turned to let the others know I was done. Lucy was leaning back against a tree, watching me set up tiredly, and she smiled as I looked back at her, pushing off to come stand beside me.
"Ready?" She asked, and I nodded, gesturing at the tent, and she reached out to take the bag from me with a grateful smile. "Thanks, Lori!"
Yawning, I glanced over at the boys and blinked in shock at the sight. Natsu, it seemed, had spread out a deep red blanket right there on the forest floor, and as I met his gaze, he grinned and lay back against the ground, propping his head up on his arms. Beside him, Happy was already spread out, using his cat-sized pack as a pillow, but his eyes were still open and watching me curiously.
"Are you guys going to be okay out here?" I asked, gesturing to their rather pitiful setup, and I couldn't help but wonder if they preferred camping this way or if their limited funds demanded it.
"Yeah, it's fine," Natsu told me nonchalantly, shrugging lightly. "I like it out here." Well, I guess that answered that.
"I don't think we'd all fit in there, anyway," Happy said, his voice tired but sure. "It's tiny."
"You'd be surprised." I smiled and waved at them lightly. "Goodnight, then. I'll see you guys in the morning."
"Hey, Lori?" Happy asked, shifting a little against the top of my shoulder. "How is it you can fly?"
"Hmm?" I glanced over at him as I walked and smiled a little at the curious look on his little blue face. "Oh, it's actually really easy."
"But you don't have any wings," He pointed out matter-of-factly. "You can't fly without wings."
"Yeah, I wanna know something, too!" Natsu exclaimed from ahead of us, turning around to point at me abruptly. "You've got some really weird magic! How'd you stop my fire like that?!"
"What, you don't like my magic?" I asked dryly, rolling my eyes at him.
"I didn't say that!" He said loudly, crossing his arms with a frown on his face. "It's just different."
And wasn't that an understatement. There were a lot of different kinds of magic in this world, but of all the ones I knew of, my magic had always felt like one of the stranger ones, to me. Especially the barriers; this world didn't really do shields like I did. It was more common for mages to conjure a giant wall than a dome, even if it wasn't entirely unheard of, and that wasn't even taking my aura barrier into account.
"It was a shield," I told him, shifting gently back and forth on the balls of my feet and watching as curiosity filled Natsu's expression. "I'm pretty good at those."
"It must be pretty strong if it can block my dragon slayer magic like that," He commented thoughtfully, grinning over at me in a way that was almost eager.
"Is that what happened when you went to go stop the fighting?" Happy asked curiously, looking between us curiously. "I didn't get to see it because of the military."
"Yeah, you really scared me when you just jumped off the ship like that!" Lucy exclaimed abruptly, shooting me a stern look from her spot beside me.
"Did you forget that I can fly?" I asked her with a smile, reaching out to give her a consoling pat on the shoulder. "I wouldn't have been hurt."
"How does that even work?" Natsu interrupted, his nose wrinkling in confusion. "Happy flies, but he has wings, and I know you don't have those." Scratching his head a little, he glanced over at me with a clear question in his eyes. "I mean, I don't think so, at least, You don't have invisible wings, or something, do you?"
My lips twitched a fraction at his question, and I shook my head with a small smile. "No, I really don't." Hadn't they already asked about the lack of wings?
"Then, how do you do it?" Natsu asked me, placing his hands on his hips and leaning over a little as if he were trying to read the answer on my face.
Huh. He was way more curious about this than I'd thought he would be. Flying had been so prevalent throughout the series that I'd never even considered being questioned on it, myself, not by someone who flew as much as Natsu and Happy had always seemed to, in canon. But then, I supposed I shouldn't have been so surprised; we'd only just met yesterday, after all. Natsu was allowed to be curious about my magic when he was the person bringing us to Fairy Tail. I'd just assumed he'd be more interested in the more destructive side of it.
"It's not really all that difficult," I conceded with a shrug, a little unsure. How did I go about explaining this in a way that Natsu and Happy would understand? "It's kind of like how I can use telekinesis to do stuff like this," I told him after a moment, reaching out with my magic to grab hold of a few fist-sized rocks on the path just ahead of us; I directed them to float up towards us, had them perform a couple of loop-de-loops and an extra twirl, and then, I laid them gently off to the side. "I just use my magic on me, instead."
"That's kind of awesome," Natsu stated with a large, reflexive grin, turning to lock eyes with Happy, who also seemed especially pleased by what was only a very mild demonstration. "Can you show us some more?"
"Yeah! Something bigger this time!" Happy demanded, lifting a paw as if to emphasize his point.
"I'm sorry, guys," I told them lightly, shrugging helplessly and gesturing at our surroundings. "There's not really much around here that I can manipulate without destroying something." And there really wasn't; we'd mostly run out of forest some time ago, and even the grass was starting to give way to a more rocky landscape, the further we traveled.
Natsu, contrary to my thoughts, seemed especially pleased with my words, turning to lock eyes with Happy, who smiled back at him excitedly. "Don't worry; we'll find something for you!" Natsu exclaimed, turning to look at the landscape around us, and Happy followed his example enthusiastically, climbing up on Natsu's shoulder for a better view without flying.
"What about that tree?" Happy asked after a moment, jumping down to point at, literally, the only tree within fifty feet of us, a tall but sort of thin piece with plenty of green on its branches. There were a few others back the way we'd come, of course, but further up ahead, I could see the jutting rock and cliff faces we'd have to travel through on our way to Magnolia.
"Good thinking, buddy!" Natsu told him, giving him a pat on the back and then turning to look at me with a grin. "Hey, Lori, take out that tree, next!"
"What, no!" I told him with an irritated scowl. "I am not going to uproot a tree for you!"
"Well, duh, of course not," Natsu said, rolling his eyes at me and then gesturing at the tree like it was obvious. "You're going to blow it up!"
"No I'm not! What the hell gave you that idea?!"
"What?! No way! I don't want to go through there!" Lucy exclaimed, pointing at the pass ahead of us. "It looks creepy and dangerous! Can't we just go around?"
Said pass looked to have been carved out of solid rock, with cliff edges that rose high on either side and melded into the surrounding rocky landscape, but given the time of day, I supposed I could see how she'd find it creepy. The sun was over toward the west, only a couple hours from setting, and as such, the longer shadows made its interior a little darker than the rest of our surroundings.
"It's not dangerous at all!" Happy yelled before Natsu had a chance to respond, his little face scrunching up indignantly. "You're just a scaredy cat!"
"So what if I am!" Lucy responded loudly, her fists clenching. "It's going to be dark soon, anyway; I don't want to camp in there!"
"Don't be stupid," Natsu said rudely, placing his hands on his hips as he looked back at us from just at the edge of the pass. "We won't have to camp; we'll be in Magnolia."
"We will? Really?" I asked, looking curiously over at Natsu. "How much farther is it, going that way?"
"Only about an hour," he told me casually, grinning in a good-natured manner.
"It's way better than going around," Happy piped in. "We wouldn't get there until tomorrow!"
"It's that much of a difference?" I asked, looking between the two in surprise.
"No way!" Lucy exclaimed, pointing at the rocky pass ahead. "There's no way it's more than a couple of hours difference!"
"But Lucy," I realized, looking back over at her. "At this time of day, a couple of hours more really would mean tomorrow; we'd have to camp out until morning to avoid traveling in the dark."
"Come on, Lori!" Lucy looked over at me in shock, her expression hesitant and pleading. "You can't honestly be thinking about going through there! What if there's an avalanche and it caves in on us?"
"Really?" I stared at her. "That's what you're worried about?"
"What? It could happen!" Lucy exclaimed defensively.
I held back a snort and refrained from rolling my eyes. "Lucy, we're mages; even if there were an avalanche, we could handle it."
"But Lori!" Lucy whined loudly, not at all reassured by my words.
"Don't you want to take a hot bath, Lucy?" I bribed, leaning over and wrapping an arm consolingly around her shoulders. "Eat real food? Sleep in a nice, comfy bed?"
"Yes." She pouted and looked away.
"We can't do that tonight if we go around, you know?" I told her softly, guiding her gently a few steps forward. "You'll be giving yourself a sponge bath and sleeping on the ground." Her face fell a little and she glanced back up, looking between me and the pass she was trying so desperately to avoid. "All we have left to eat are those emergency rations you hate, Sweetie," I told her, driving in the final nail, "we ate the rest of our food at lunch."
She crumbled.
The sky was pink and orange, the sun low on the horizon. There were faint wisps of blue on the edges where the sunlight didn't quite reach, extending darker almost into purple above and behind us, over the cliffs we'd passed through just a moment ago. Magnolia lay spread out below us, the rocky landscape having put us on a higher ground level than the town, itself, and the entire thing was bathed in the glow of sunset. Kardia Cathedral stood tall among the other buildings, right in the center of town, its towers climbing so high that they cut straight through the setting sun.
It was Magnolia, and I loved it instantly.
End Chapter
I have a question for you guys regarding Acnologia. Spoiler alert for those of you who haven't seen the final season.
I've been watching the new episodes, and there's a bit that was in the anime but not the manga that just really got me curious. It showed a little bit of Acnologia's history before he became who he was, but as these things usually go, they kept it rather vague and left us with a lot to wonder at. One of those things is Acnologia's human name. We know that he chose the name Acnologia because of the dragon who betrayed him, who destroyed his home and everything he ever loved (which, tragic, and yes, I would loved to have gotten more of his history than that, but it's better than nothing at all, so...). The only name he ever seemed to have before was "Doctor" because, apparently, he used healing magic before he became who he was; they never actually gave us a real name, and well, not knowing kind of bothers me. So, my question is this: if you had to choose a name that suited his character as a human before all the bad stuff, what would it be? I'm just really curious, and I'd genuinely like to know the kind of name Fairy Tail fans can really see for the person Acnologia used to be.