Storm's First Job:
AN: Took a different approach because I realized it's been a long time since we've seen Juvia kicking some butt, so I wanted her to have a moment along with Storm. Also, updating the ages to add the new folks in.
Montie Blaire: 17
Farrah Lee-Dreyar: 16
Benedict Orlando: 16
Jennabeth Lovelace: 15
Sanjay Blaire: 15
Nashi Dragneel: 13
Storm Fullbuster: 13
Cato Dreyar: 13
Roman Fernandez: 12
Persephone and Koree Redfox: 12
Bianca Fullbuster: 11
Portia Orlando: 10
Lorelle Strauss: 10
Eva, Minette, and Von Fernandez: 9
Layla Dragneel: 9
Igneel Dragneel: 8
Meeko Fullbuster: 8
Vera Orlando: 5
Isla Conbolt: 5
July Dreyar: 3
Luna and Kyri Dragneel: 2
Juven Fullbuster: 1
Vance Strauss: 1
"Come along, darling, we're almost there!" Juvia called as she walked ahead of her son along the dirt path.
"Coming!" Storm called as he ran to catch up with his mother.
Juvia smiled softly as he reached her side. She stood just below her shoulder. Soon he'd be as tall as she was. Juvia swallowed hard to keep herself composed. It was so hard to believe she was taking her baby boy on his first job!
They soon reached a farm where a plump, middle aged woman was tending to a vegetable garden.
"Hello?" Juvia called.
"Well, hi!" the woman replied as she stood and brushed her hands off on her apron. "Y'all must be those wizards I called for."
"That's us!" Storm smiled.
"Well, come along," the woman smiled as she gestured for Storm and Juvia to follow her. "I'll show you what I need yah for."
Storm's shoulders lifted slightly in excitement as he did a quick skip before following after the woman. Juvia couldn't help but smile at his giddiness as she followed along behind him. The woman led the two through the barn before opening the back door. Outside was a giant pasture where herds of sheep, goats, donkeys, and llamas were grazing.
"Well, as you can see here are my animals," the woman smiled.
"All of them?" Storm asked, stunned.
"Yup. All of them," the woman replied.
"How do you take care of all of them at once?" Storm asked, still surprised, there had to be at least five dozen animals out there.
"Well, that's what I want you here for," the woman said sadly as she walked towards one of the stalls and opened it. Inside were six sheep dogs, all covered in bandages and whimpering.
"Oh, my!" Juvia gasped.
Storm also gasped as he slowly began shuffling towards the pin of dogs.
The woman sighed as she continued in her explanation towards Juvia. "Recently there's been a rise in wolf attacks. So far they've killed five sheep, two goats, a donkey, and a llama. Now they've injured all my herding dogs to the point that they can't go back to work for at least a month."
"That's terrible!" Juvia gasped.
"Me and some of the other locals have planned to go out today to see if we can trap them and ship them off somewhere else. But I need someone here, guarding my animals."
"Just how dangerous are these wolves?" Juvia asked. She wasn't too concerned about herself, she'd handled worse. But Storm…
...this was his first job. He may have recently turned thirteen but he was still only a child.
"Eh, they usually only come at night," the farm woman stated. "And they tend to be a bit skittish if attacked. You and the boy just make a big noise or throw something at them and they'll probably run away."
Juvia nodded slowly, thinking.
As the two women talked Storm slowly made his way into the dog's pin. They all still whimpered and licked their wounds as he knelt amongst them. One of the dogs, who looked to be little more than a puppy, with both of his front legs bandaged, limped towards Storm and plopped his head in Storm's lap. Storm carefully stroked the dogs head a few times before holding his hand out above his injured legs.
"Cleanse," he called. A glowing orb of water appeared in his hand and soaked into the injured legs.
"Hey, hey, hey!" the woman called. "What are you doing."
"Sh," Juvia said. "It's a healing spell."
"Oh…"
Storm continued working his spell over the dog for a few moments more, before conjuring the water away.
"I didn't do much," he said. "Cleanse works better on illnesses or poisonings than it does injuries. But I at least got rid of the infection and swelling."
The dog barked merrily and licked his face. Storm giggled and scratched the dog behind his ears.
Another dog, an older one with gray around his muzzle, and a bandage around his middle whined as he limped towards Storm.
"Well, look at that," the farmer woman smiled as she watched Storm go about healing the oldest of her dogs, the remaining four slowly approaching the boy, shyly wagging their tails.
Juvia smiled softly as she watched on, though she was still slightly worried. While Storm certainly could hold his own in a one-on-one fight, he wasn't a fighter by nature, per-say at least. He could spar playfully with his friends, just like any youngster in Fairy Tail. He was much better suited as a healer, though. Should a pack of a dozen or so wolves show up...still, the farmer had assured them that it would be unusual for them to show themselves during the day. Furthermore, the farmer and her friends were about to head out to trap the wolves so they could relocate them.
She took a deep breath and nodded. She and Storm should be fine. What was the worst that could happen.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Storm quickly and nimbly scampered to the top of a large rock as he followed the herds in the pasture. It was huge! 100 acres of fenced in land, though most of the time the fence couldn't even be seen over the rolling hills of grass, shrubs, and rocks.
Storm stood to his full height, shielding his eyes from the sun with his hand. The herd lazily grazed. No wolves to be seen. He could see the small speck of blue that was his mother's hair all the way on the other side of the herd.
He took in a deep breath of fresh air and stretched his arms over his head. So far things were going great.
"Bah!"
Storm looked behind him to find a baby goat standing on the rock behind him.
"How'd you get up here?" he asked as he bent down to pat the goat's head.
The goat took a step back and let out what could only be described as a scream before jumping down from the rock. Storm couldn't help but laugh at both at the ridiculous noise and at how cute the little thing was.
He watched as the baby goat skipped back towards the herd, and spotted something crouching it's way through the tall grass.
It was a giant white wolf.
And it was heading right towards a pair of frolicking baby llamas.
Storm gasped and then shouted: "Hey!"
The herd, and the two baby llamas jumped at the sound.
The wolf pounced.
Both of the baby llamas took off running back towards the main herd which, by now, was in a full sprint. One of the babies tripped over his legs and collapsed to the ground.
The wolf, which had been following close behind jumped for the kill-
-only to be sideswiped by a wave of water.
Storm jumped between the baby llama and the wolf, a cyclone of water twisting within one hand. The wolf regain its footing and jumped towards Storm, who changed his body to water, letting the wolf slip right through him, crashing face first to the ground. The wolf pivoted and snapped to try and get a hold on the boy, but to no avail.
"Water, nebula!" Storm shouted, covering the wolf in a gigantic gush of water which he then ordered: "Freeze!"
The water turned to Ice, sealing the wolf in frozen water from the neck down. The wolf whined and turned its head from side-to-side, but was unable to free itself.
Storm let out a breath of relief before turning to check on the baby llama. He smiled as he caught just a glimpse of it running to catch up with the stampeding herd.
He heard it.
A series of low growls.
Storm turned and looked behind him. Stalking towards him were around seven massive wolves.
Storm's blood ran cold as he conjured up two more water cyclones. More growls came from his left, then his right. He turned and looked from side to side, finding even more wolves.
His heart began to pound hard in his chest as he came to the horrid realization that he was completely surrounded by wolves.
His cyclones of water began spinning all the faster as he frantically looked from side to side, turning his body back to water.
He'd faced stronger enemies than a wolf before, true, but he'd never faced this many foes at once! There had to be at least twenty of these beasts.
Finally three of the wolves made the first move, pouncing towards him. They went straight through his water body, leaving an opening in the circle that he quickly took. Storm raced in the opposite direction the herd had gone, hoping to both draw the pack away from the farm animals, and to somehow escape himself.
He soon quickly discovered, however, that wolves were much faster than thirteen year old wizards. It was merely second before the pack had caught up to him.
About three wolves flanked him on his left, and three on his right as the rest charged right behind him.
Or so he thought. As he looked ahead after checking to make sure the wolves on either side of him hadn't grown any closer, he looked ahead to find five particularly fast wolves forming a line to cut him off, and were charging towards him.
Not only were these things fast, they were smart! Much smarter than the vulcans he'd occasionally fought off in the forests at home.
"Water Geyser!" Storm shouted, launching himself into the air and propelling himself over the wolves ahead of him so he could continue running.
The wolves quickly recovered, though, and caught up again, trying to surround him once more.
"Water slicer!" He shouted, taking out two wolves on his left, though two more quickly replaced them. He was just about to conjure up another spell when the ground beneath him suddenly vanished and he found himself tumbling down a sharp incline…
...right into a patch of briars.
The impact caused him to lose his water body, and thus meant he felt the full impact against the thorns.
"OUCH!" he shouted, a shudder going down his spine as he realized that the wolves could now grab a hold of him.
"Water slicer!" he shouted, blindly flinging the spell behind him, which turned out to be a wise decision, as it slammed a trio of wolves that were seconds from landing atop him into the side of the pit he'd tumbled into. It did not, however, stop the rest of the pack from making their way into the pit with him.
"Water geyser!" he shouted, taking out about five more wolves, though several more remained. Storm fought back tears of frustration as he realized the wolves must have driven him here on purpose, figuring he wouldn't be able to fit them off if he was tangled in briars.
"Water nebula!" Storm was so focused on the sea of wolves in front of him that he didn't notice the one wolf sneaking up behind him. The lone wolf to his back pounced, grabbing a hold of the sleeve of his jacket and pinning him to the ground. Storm beat his fists on the beast, trying to free himself as four more wolves slinked closer, ready to go for the kill as their packmate held their prey still.
Something warm flew over Storm's head, engulfing the wolf holding him down. The wolf let out a gurgling yelp of pain as it was yanked off him and slammed into the four wolves stalking towards him, causing them to yelp in pain.
Storm lifted his head to realize the warm object that had freed him was a pillar of boiling water. The five wolves that had just been attacked whimpered as they scurried away, but the rest of the pack growled all the louder and stalked closer towards Storm, though he got the sneaky suspicion they were no longer focused on him.
A shadow appeared over him, and he glanced up. "Mom?"
Juvia stood over her son, brow furrowed, jaw clamped, a massive wall of hissing, bubbling, boiling water behind her. Storm let out a small gasp. He'd never seen his mother like this before.
Seven of the wolves pounced.
"Water slicer!" This attack was at least ten times the size of her son's. And it was made of boiling water, rather than the lukewarm variety Storm used. The wolves were instantly thrown to the ground with such force that they bounced, whimpering loudly.
"Water nebula!" Juvia shouted, knocking the remaining wolves on their back.
Two attacks.
Two attacks and all of the wolves had been knocked to the ground whimpering as they tried to get back on their feet. Juvia was not done with the beast quite yet though.
"Water jigsaw!" Juvia's body disappeared into a slicing tornado of water that she then drove over the entire pack, sending them flying against the wall of the pite, whimpering and howling from fear as she landed back in front of Storm. She was about to conjure up another attack when she heard a loud:
"Freeze!"
The remaining water covering the wolves turned to ice, holding them in place. Seeing the beasts trapped and incapacitated seemed to quench Juvia's anger, or at the very least turn her attention back to the boy who was now standing behind her, panting. Juvia clasped both hands to her face as she ran back to Storm.
"Are you alright, darling?" she asked.
Storm didn't answer, but instead yanked a rather large briar out of his arm.
"Ow," he grumbled.
"Oh, my poor boy!" Juvia whimpered as she gently pulled Storm towards her. "Let Mommy see!"
"It's not that bad," Storm muttered, a bit embarrassed to be stuck in this predicament. Still he flinched as his mother pulled yet another thorn out of his arm.
"Oh, my poor baby boy, you're absolutely covered!" Juvia exclaimed.
"Mom! I'm not a baby!" Storm whined.
The sound of the approaching footsteps drew both of their attention to the top of the pit.
"Well, lookee here!" the farmer woman said as she peaked down at them, a group of locals peaking in after her. "Who'd have guessed. Y'all just saved us another chase!"
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
"Ow! That hurts!" Storm complained as his mother tried to clean his wounds back at the barn.
"It wouldn't hurt as much if you'd hold still," Juvia sighed.
Storm groaned, but held still as his mother cleaned a scrape across his face.
"Can't you use that fancy spell you used on my hounds earlier?" the farmer asked. "Oh, that's right. Does Not work on injuries, just infections and illnesses and stuff like that, right?"
"And he has a bit of trouble using it on himself," Juvia said as she placed a bandage against Storm's face.
"Well, that stinks! You can patch up everyone else but yourself!"
"Hmph," Storm sniffed.
"Once again, I'm sorry about all that trouble. The mutts must be desperate for food. Oh, well, they're heading to a place with a lot of open space and a chow for them."
Juvia didn't answer as she cleaned off a series of puncture wounds on Storm's arm and bandaged it up. She could really care less if those wolves were headed to a better place after they tried to kill her son.
"Anyhow, here's your payment. I added in two tips. One for catching the wolves for us, and one for all the trouble you were caused."
The farmer left the bag of jewel next to Juvia and left the two to go check on her animals.
"Guess I really screwed this up, huh?" Storm finally spoke once the farmer had left.
"What are you talking about?" Juvia asked.
"I nearly got myself eaten, and you had to come and bail me out, so I-"
"Oh, sweet heart, you haven't ruined anything. That could have happened to anyone," Juvia assured him, cupping his face in her hands.
Storm didn't look at her, but kept staring at his feet.
"Do you know how many times a friend has rescued me from a terrible tragedy while on a job?" Juvia asked. "Even the most experienced wizards need someone to help them every now and then."
"Really?" Storm asked, looking just slightly more hopeful.
"Absolutely. Besides, you were the one who trapped them so they could be shipped somewhere else," Juvia reminded him. "Had you not done that they'd still be hunting those beasts down."
Storm shrugged. "I guess."
"Well, I know," Juvia smiled as she kissed his forehead.
"Aw, c'mon, Mom!" Storm whined, covering his blushing face with his hands. "Do you have to do that here!?"
Juvia giggled at her son's embarrassment. "Come on, let's head home and tell your father how your first job went." She picked up the bag of jewel and stood to her feet.
Storm smiled softly as he stood to his feet. Juvia dropped the bag of jewels in his hands. Storm looked at it and finally gave a full smile.
Juvia set her arm around his shoulders as they walked off, back towards the train station.
"So, what do you think you'll buy first?" Juvia asked.
"I dunno, probably a snack," Storm answered.
"Oh, you silly!" Juvia giggled.
"What, I'm hungry!"