Jade Force
Chapter Twelve: Klabautermann
Guess who's been rewatching the GMG and now really wants to hurry up and write those scenes! ^_^"
Aubrey sat awkwardly next to Shanks, accepting the food that the large man, Roux, had prepared. Just like her first day in the guild, everyone was a whirl of faces and smells and personalities and futures – only, there were a few more pirates than there had been mages. Amongst the smells of food, alcohol and unwashed bodies, she could smell excitement coming off of a majority of the crew, although some, like the Darkhaired one, the first mate Ben Beckman, smelt a little bit of distrust and suspicion.
If she squinted, it kind of reminded Aubrey of the first time Quartzerine introduced her to Metalicana's Nest. On the one hand, they had been excited to meet his daughter, but on the other hand, Aubrey was human, and even four hundred years after the war, many were still distrustful of humans. At that time, the distrustful Dragons had all sniffed at Aubrey's forehead, and behind her ears – however, as Risley and Arania had made it very clear, humans were different to Dragons, and probably wouldn't want to sniff her.
Throughout the meal, Aubrey listened to the men laugh, kanpai and tell outrageous stories, eating her food as politely as she could.
"Ne, Aubrey-chan!" Someone at the back yelled. "Tell us about yourself!"
"Yeah yeah!" Another added. "How'd you get your Devil Fruit?"
"Idiot, she spent the last two days swimming, how the hell does she have a Devil Fruit?"
Tucking a lock of white hair behind one ear, she shook her head. "It's magic," she called out over the sudden scuffle, watching curiously as the men quieted. "I practice Dragon Slayer Magjc – I'm the Jade Dragon Slayer. I was raised by a dragon, my father, the Jade King, Quartzerine. I have a little brother figure, Gajeel, who I worry about all the time, although we've been … separated. I belonged to a woman-only mage guild called Mermaid Heel, where I was one of the S-class mages, but I … something happened, and suddenly I was on Saboady. Ray-san and Shakki-san have been looking after me since then."
"No, no, no!" Somebody else called. "That's just facts! Tell us about you! What you like, what you don't like – that sort of a thing!"
"Oh, um," Aubrey tailed off, collected her thoughts, and then projected to the gathered pirates. "I hate transportation of any sort, but especially trains. I don't like thunderstorms at all, either, or liars. I like sun showers though, and bitter food, and Dragons, and my clutchmates – that is, the other Dragon Slayers, although I've only been able to meet with Natsu-kun since… since our parents all disappeared."
"EH?! Aubrey-chan's family is missing?!" The crew all shouted.
Rubbing her ears and glaring, Aubrey snipped back, "Dragons and Dragon Slayers have really sensitive ears, you know!" There were mumbled apologies.
"We'll keep an eye out for them on our travels!" Shanks called out then, standing, and holding up the statuette Aubrey had created of Quartzerine earlier that day. "This is Aubrey-chan's Dad – can't be too hard to spot, right, men?" They all roared with laughter then.
Aubrey didn't bother to tell them that she knew where her father was – she was enjoyinbg the warm feeling bubbling in her chest at the pirates' support.
"Is the reason you hate transportation so much because of your motion sickness?" The blonde doctor asked her.
Aubrey nodded back. "Some days it gets so bad that even looking at a car or a train makes me want to spew. I avoided Port Hargeon like the plague, also – just watching boats bob up and down ~ *hurgh*"
"JUST FROM TALKING ABOUT IT?!" The doctor shouted back as Aubrey turned green (and not because of her magic).
Shuddering, Aubrey shook her head. "Really, I don't know how you expect me to travel with you. I can only swim for so long before I'd use up all my magic, and the motion sickness isn't something I'd willingly put up with; the longer I'm sick for, the longer it takes to recover. The last mission I took with my guild mates, we had to travel across two country borders – we barely made it from Fiore to Bosco before I couldn't take any more. It took me almost a full day to recover from a fourteen-hour train trip, so we walked the rest of the way from Bosco to Iceberg." Smiling softly, she whispered, "It's a good thing Yeoleum gave us a lift back to Bosco… Ris-chan and Ara-chan didn't have too much further to go to get back to the guild…"
"Someone gave you a lift?" The doctor interrupted quickly
Aubrey nodded. "Yeoleum, a Fire Dragon." Using her magic, she created a statuette of him, as well.
"And you didn't get sick?"
Aubrey pulled a face at him. "Of course not – Yeoleum isn't transportation. He's family - ish."
Shanks snapped his fingers then, gaining everyone's attention. "That's it! That's how you'll be able to travel with us!"
"Oh come on, don't tell me you believe that old myth," Ben Beckman scolded around his pipe.
"My old captain believed in them too," Shanks grumbled back, blowing a raspberry at his firstmate.
"What on earth are you talking about?" Aubrey interjected.
"Klabautermann," Shanks said as though it should be obvious.
"Bless you?"
"Aubrey-chan!" Shanks moaned. "You're so mean! A Klabautermann is a sprite or fairy that is the soul of a beloved ship. Nobody ever sees them though, not unless the ship is doomed or dying." He gestured to the vessel they could just make out at the docks. "So if you like, to pirates, our ships are just as much our nakama as the people it carries."
"So don't think of our ship as transportation," The doctor added. "Think of it as being supported and looked after by your comrade!"
Aubrey's eyes were shining. "Yes! If it's my friend carrying me, I don't have to worry!" She stood abruptly. "Let's go! I want to meet my new nakama!"
Half an hour later
"*bleugh!*"
Sweatdropping, the Redhaired Pirates agreed that, you know, it was a work in progress… or something…
So, what do you all think? I'm still playing around with this idea, so I'm not sure yet if it would work… Any thoughts? My two go-to ideaboards, Kopaka777 and Shibo26, are either solely in the Fairy Tail or One Piece fandoms, respectively, so I've sort of tried to just sound the idea out between the two of them… Help?
Once again though, thank you for your support of this fic!