Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail
Though it wasn't the first time I had to adjust my sleeping on the fly, it still was a pain to revert things back to where they used to be. Fortunately for me, my mission was completed in a day, which was quicker than I expected it to be. I freed up three days of my time just for the sake of this trip. And now that I've so much time to spare, I was at a loss at what to do. While that may be an excuse to get hooked in my workaholism again, Meredy's worrying face would spare me from actually committing, there is nothing better at getting me to stop than her and her moist eyes paired with sadness that could bring any party down.
The rumbling of a train in the early mornings painted a noisy ambient, kids were absent, most likely due to how early I am, which saves me a headache. Perhaps I should have stayed for another day like Diana suggested. However, I didn't want to get her way of reconnecting with her 'husband'. The girl waited three years, the least I could do is shorten the waiting by a day. All there for me to do recline on a train seat and wait for sleep to claim me, pushing the thought of pulling an all-nighter to a later date.
Much like the dreams I had before, this one hit me without warning.
"Camping with Ur! Camping with Ur!" Young Meredy sang as she skipped along a dirt road. This was a whole year after I took her in. She was looking much healthier. Though at the cost of the same quick development I used to have. But even back then, I think I wouldn't have it any other way. Her smile tugged at the last bit of humanity I still had.
"I told you not to called me by that name, didn't I?" At the time, I was also in a good mood, so I didn't lash out at Meredy like I normally would. I finally get a break from all the espionage and I wasn't about to ruin it because of some kid throwing an insult. "Don't forget we're here to train, I want some progress, or Master Hades will suspect me." I was carrying a backpack that had everything we needed while Meredy was holding onto the things I couldn't stuff in the pack. We were wearing boots used for hiking and clothes that were easy to move around in.
"But it's been so long since we've had a break!"
"Hurry up and get to work." I swiped a low branch out of the way. "Let's see if you've been paying attention, go find us a good camping spot, if you pick a bad one, I'm doubling your training efforts." While I swore not to push Meredy too far, that didn't mean I still wasn't unreasonable. If anything, spending a year with her made it clear to me where her limits lie, making it easier to stop right before anything got dangerous. I was balancing between her health and her progress meticulously, walking across a tightrope, albeit a thin one.
Meredy frowned at first. "I got it." She answered. As we walked around, I noted a few spots that were viable just in case Meredy failed while thinking of a proper penalty. The issues lie not in doubling Meredy's training, but that she didn't learn everything I taught her, at which point, re-education is an order. "How about here?" Meredy suggested a nice flat area, close to a water source and had plenty of shade from canopies. We were camping at an outrageous time of the year, a time when animals get more territorial than usual.
"Good to know I haven't been wasting my time." I dumped my pack on the ground. "I'll set things up, you'll first scout the area, then fetch us some water."
"Leave it to me!" Meredy threw down her things save a bucket and ran off in a random direction. I was confident at the time that Meredy was strong enough to not get killed the moment danger arises, a year into training and she's already turned from a normal girl I picked up to someone that wouldn't die from an animal attack. Turning into a fine Wizard is a different story, she's still learning the basics of magic. It's most certainly possible to have her to be using magic by this time, however, I didn't want to leave her other life skills to be half-baked. Which is why I've taken the time-consuming, well-rounded approach.
When everything was set up, Meredy returned with a bucket filled with water along with a big smile on her face. "All clear!"
"Then it's time to start training." I announced.
Meredy's face turned sour, "But I'm tired from walking around and scouting, can't we have a break?" She sat down on a rock and swung her legs around.
"I've already lessened your training load, and you're still complaining? What a pain you are."
She shot up from her seat, "I'll do it! Let's start!" I haven't threatened to throw her away for a while yet, the thought of being alone at any moment was still deep in her mind. Those scars are going to be a pain to deal with. Everything she's doing now was voluntary—not in the good way.
"We'll have a little warm up then," I grabbed my orb and had it twirl around me, "I'm going to attack you ten times, if you dodge seven of them, I'll let you rest for let's say…thirty minutes. Not only that, each extra one you dodge grants you another five minutes for a maximum of forty-five minutes." Meredy's eyes shone with determination—perfect. "However, if you dodge less than three of them, I'll have to increase the intensity of your training." I ended with a twisted smile.
"Y—you're not going all-out, are you?" Meredy leaned back.
"Of course not, I said we're doing a warm up. Besides, I don't want to disable you before we do any meaningful training." She breathed a sigh.
"Are you done stalling?"
"Yes, please—" I whipped my orb out, hitting Meredy on her right leg. "That's not fair!" She cried as she narrowly ducked my orb going for her head.
"What are you talking about?" I called another orb, adding another option for me to play with. "How long have you known me?" One orb went flying to Meredy's face. While she jerked her head to the left, I slammed the second one to her back, making her stumble to the ground. "You've been hit twice already, maybe two orbs is too much for you." I toned it back to one to give her a chance.
"Then why did you did it?" Dirt flew off her clothes as she patted her body.
"You've been too lax this entire time." Now that she's up again, I aimed for her left leg—a beautiful sidestep. "Plus, you've been getting a bit too bold lately." Going for her chest this time, I sped the orb up. She couldn't dodge in time. In exchange, she managed to avoid damage by redirecting the orb with her hands. "I won't count that one." Meredy beamed.
"Thank you very—" My orb barely missed her head. "This again!?"
"Of course. Lesson four: always strike when given the opportunity." I chained two attacks this time, first, I went for Meredy's left leg by accelerating my orb, throwing her off-balance. The second wave came to take her other leg, even that was thwarted with a somersault.
"One left! I got my thirty, time for the extra!" I grinned and whizzed my orb behind Meredy; she turned to face her final attack, but it never came.
Blood dripped from her right arm; I'm sure she must have felt a chilling denial as my ice rose sliced across her forearm, it was a pretty big gash too, the kind that most definitely would leave a scar. "That's cheating!" She cried.
"I never said I would only use my orbs now did I?"
"Well that's true but…I was so close!" She stamped her foot over and over again, growling along to each beat.
"Yeah, yeah," I pushed aside her childish side and walked over, "if I was serious, you wouldn't be able to dodge one." I gripped her undamaged arm and pulled her over. "Come on."
"Wait! What about my reward!?" The pout she gave asked whether if she was cheated.
"Calm down." I pushed her to the rock that she was sitting on. I went inside the tent and came back with a first-aid kit. "Girls should keep their skin as pretty as possible, letting a scar set in would be a huge regret to you down the line." I gently cleaned the wound—ignoring cries—applying simple treatment. I stroked Meredy's hair. "You did well, be proud of it." Meredy giggled and leaned into my touch, her clear voice was shining with pride. There's nothing else I could describe this feeling but peace, all my worries was gone just like that, I wasn't worrying about my past, everything was in front of me, isolated in happiness.
"You're finally happy." Meredy commented. "Did I do a good job?"
"What do you mean?"
"No matter how much trained, you were never happy, like you were always chasing after something. I didn't know what to do, Ur seemed to be troubled all the time. I thought, if I worked hard, you wouldn't be sad but…nothing changed no matter how hard I worked."
"I'm surprised you noticed."
"I'm always by your side after all." My heart fluttered. When I was young, my body was destroying itself, always causing trouble for my mother, I stuck with the treatment because I wanted to see her smile. This is what I wanted my mother to feel. "Hey mama," Meredy clasped her hand to her mouth, "I—I'm sorry, it just slipped—"
"I'll let it slide, I'm in a good mood right now."
"Thank you." An awkward silence took over. I stared at the bandaged wound, rubbing circles around it.
"You rest here for now, let me know if anything happens outside, I got something to do in the tent, don't disturb me."
"I got it." I separated from Meredy and lifted the tent flap. Two sleeping bags were laid out side by side with my bag stopping the two from joining. I knelt beside my bag and started digging.
"Found it." My worries were gone the moment I pulled out a pocket watch still in perfect shape. It was smaller than my palm; silver in colour, a single rose stood on the cover as the sole decoration. Pushing the button on top would open to a clock face. "Why am I doing this?" I asked myself as I stared at the gift I planned for Meredy. It was strange—unlike me. My colleagues call me a cruel woman, no words were closer to the truth. And yet, I was doing something unbecoming of me.
I remember I was walking down a street and happen to catch it at the corner of my eye, Meredy's smile surfaced for a second and before I knew it, I walked away from the store with a paper bag in tow. I rarely praised her to begin with, it felt like I was skipping a few steps. Nevertheless, I bought it, not doing anything with it would waste the money I spent. I sighed; took a deep breath and came back out with my gift hidden in my hand.
Meredy was still sitting on the rock, staring at her bandage. She smiled and swung her feet back and forth. Once she saw me, confusion replaced everything else.
"Did you forget something?"
"You could say that, hold out your hand." She did as was told, presenting her injured one. "The other hand."
"I thought you were going to punish me."
"Why would I do that? Even if I was going to, I would do it after your break is over." I placed my hand over Meredy's and let go of the watch.
"What's this?" Is was interesting to see her rack her brain around to figure out how the watch could be used for training.
"When I picked you up, you were a complete wimp, you just kept clinging to me despite there being other people to harass. And a year later, you're still clinging to me for dear life."
"Please don't!" Meredy went pale, further proving my point, I felt like my clothes were going to be torn off.
"Relax, let me finish." I stroked her hair, and her twitching settled. "In this year alone, you surpassed all my expectations. Each time you did, I raised my standards higher and higher. You exceeded them all beautifully. You were right. Ever since I joined this organisation, I've never been happy. However, taking caring of a clingy child like you, has showed me a small part of happiness." I tapped the watch lightly. "That is to celebrate our year together." Meredy was now wearing a dumbfounded expression. "I hope you know what you got yourself into because I'm still going to be in-charge of you for years to come." Meredy threw her weight at me, wetting my clothes.
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" She repeated. "You're not going to abandon me?"
"I don't have any reason to." Her smile said it all, her fears of being thrown didn't exist anymore.
I woke up to a bright afternoon sun, still cursed by residual tiredness. Adding the fact, I slept with my head slanted forwards, my neck added another spell. I couldn't afford to sleep again either, from what the attendants are telling me, Magnolia is coming after the next stop. Which means I'll arrive in an hour later from now. I didn't gather as much information as I wanted to, I suppose the mountains was just a mining location, so nothing major was happening, I suspect that the ones snooping around in the cities will bear the most knowledgeable fruit. In any case, I can't do anything until everyone comes back.
I missed Magnolia's visage last time, nothing of the sort happening now. It was hard to miss the Fairy Tail building—it was the first thing I recognised. A magical city that shimmered with the sun compared to when I first came here, Magnolia seemed more brilliant. I can practically hear the shouting. Everything about this city seemed so right—I'm back.
Thanks for reading! Yeah, this took a while, and not with good reason this time. Well, I have a reason, not a very good one like I mentioned.
Today marks a very special day for me so I hope everyone can forgive me on delaying a chapter post (I mean, I'm most likely not affecting anyone's lives. This is just a small fic on this site) I will post another chapter soon. Today last year, is when I posted my first chapter on this site. I didn't really think I would be still writing after and entire year of it. And I wouldn't had I not gained some fans or at least interest in my stories. I guess I'll talk about why I started to write and post fanfic.
I used to be a lurker here, just reading stories because I was and still am procrastinating a lot. At some point I got really mad at some communities here. Granted, it wasn't a sudden burst of anger, it was more something I was building over a good deal of time. I was pissed that some of the works here aren't that good, while I can't say my works are anything to write home about either, this is what ultimately made me post chapters. I just had a thought that I could do much better than some of the stuff I read here.
Flash forward a year later, I still haven't managed to write anything I feel like could knock it out the park. The closest one was the first story I wrote, which I'm still trying to beat. I felt like that wasn't my best work. I've received word that some people think I'm too harsh on myself. And yes, I should tone down the self-deprecation. But hey, I feel like that's how I improve and learn.
So for now, I'm not really sure how long I'll keep writing these stories, my interests in becoming a writer is slowing shifting to something else creative. That's not to say that I don't enjoy writing, I just don't have the aggressive urge to improve anymore. While I have no idea when I'll stop, I do enjoy what I'm doing, so I'm going to keep writing.
Finally, thank you all for reading my stories and leaving down your comments. I want to especially thank FlamingSkyDragon, you've been the most engaging reader I've had. Thank you for all the support, honestly, my will was breaking at one point and you pulled me along to keep writing, and that's only a slight exaggeration, I can't thank you enough.
Of course, I hope everyone will keep on reading and enjoying my stories, most importantly, have a nice day!