The Legend of Fairy Tail
Chapter 5:
A Lesson in Taking Over
xxx
"Forest spirits you say?" Makarov eyed Link with a thoughtful expression. "It sounds like you've had a very interesting time in those woods my boy. I take it that's why you've been gone for so long without having taken on a job?"
"Yeah…" Link sighed heavily as he sat on a barstool and nursed a glass of milk. "I've been busy helping establish a safe haven for Lyre and her sisters from the Vulcans."
"I'll bet that's a difficult task."
"You have no idea," Link shook his head in exasperation. "I have to go out with Lyre to where each spirit's home tree is located and then persuade them to sever the ties to that tree and follow us back. Doing that not only takes a surprisingly long time but those Goddess damned apes come out in droves whenever a spirit is away from their tree. Frankly I'm surprised as many of them responded to Lyre's call as they did. I swear…If I hadn't already killed most of the Vulcan's in the area before then I doubt any of them would have shown up at all."
"From what you describe, it does indeed sound like they took quite a risk," Makarov nodded sagely. "I am glad that you have taken it upon yourself to help them. I would never have guessed that such creatures existed in those woods. Quite remarkable."
"Really?" Link quirked an eyebrow. "There wasn't even any rumors or local stories suggesting their existence?"
"Not that I know of."
"Huh. That's surprising. I would have thought that a world full of magic like this would be a lot more aware of things like that."
Makarov chuckled and took a swig from his mug of ale. "This world is a wondrous and mysterious place. There are many things that have yet to be discovered by anybody. The possibility of finding something new and exciting even in a place as settled as Magnolia always exists."
"I suppose…" Link nodded slowly.
"Don't sound so disappointed lad," the old man chided. "Discovering these new secrets of the world is part of the spirit of adventure that Fairy Tail embodies. Who knows how many other such creatures like your forest spirits exist? There are many creatures of similar nature that we know of: Demons, Dragons, Celestial Spirits to name a few. But there are also many things that we don't know exist and only speculate upon. We even name some of our guilds after them such as Fairy Tail, Blue Pegasus, and Lamia Scale."
He tilted his head to stare up at the ceiling.
"No one has confirmed the existence of any of those creatures, yet we still possess a concept of them. That knowledge had to have come from somewhere so perhaps they were once known but, like so many things, were lost to the passage of time. Who knows," He shrugged. "Perhaps you will be the one to find out."
"What makes you say that?" Link asked curiously.
"My boy, you've only been a member of this guild for about two months and you've already discovered the existence of forest spirits that no one even knew about. Not only that but one of them is now a magically bonded familiar, something that few wizards have at all these days, and have established rapport with several others. You haven't even left Magnolia's borders yet! I don't doubt that there will be many other things you come across once you actively start leaving the city and forest."
Link stared at the old man for a long moment before shrugging and downing the rest of his milk.
"Guess we'll find out."
He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and turned to track down his absent partner. He spotted her easily enough thanks to her ever present glow off to one side of the guild where she was playing with Mirajane's younger sister Lisanna. He made his way over to the pair who were giggling rather loudly.
"Oh Link!" Lisanna beamed at his approach. "Look what Spryte can do!"
"Huh?" Link blinked in surprise at the sudden exclamation and watched with interest as his partner gestured to the young girl. Lisanna immediately lifted off into the air to hover about a foot off the ground. His eyes widened at the sight and he turned a questioning look at the fairy.
"You can do that?"
"Uh-huh," Spryte grinned cheerfully. "It's really easy actually."
Link snorted and shook his head absently. "I swear, Spryte, the things you come up with…"
"What?" the little fairy huffed indignantly and stuck her tongue out at him. She made another quick wave of her hand and let Lisanna fall back to the ground. "You're just jealous that I'm picking things up faster than you."
It was true. Not the part about Link being jealous, he was learning new things all the time and at a rate that he was perfectly satisfied with given all that he had to do in the meantime. But the two of them had quickly discovered that the young fairy was uniquely suited to learning magic.
Whenever Link or any of the others used magic they had to focus on the energy they felt inside them and channel it with their will into the desired spell. Spryte had the unfair advantage of not only being acutely sensitive to the feel of magic around her, but she could actually SEE it as well. She could see the flow of Ethernano, and magical energy in general, as well as the effects of applying one's will to it. Spryte could channel and focus magical energy as easily as breathing, manipulating it like it was as much a part of her as her wings.
It was really unfair.
The fact that she could play around with magic while he trained or did other work besides his own magical studies ensured that Link had to give up trying to keep pace with his partner.
"Just…be careful," Link sighed. "I'd hate for Lisanna or anyone else to suddenly explode."
"Hey! That was one time!"
"Spryte," He deadpanned. "You lit my hair on fire. What in the name of the Goddesses made you think that playing with magic under my hat was a good idea?"
"I told you…" Spryte muttered sheepishly. "I was just weaving patterns and decided to…tweak it a bit. I didn't know it would pop like that…"
One of the things that the little fairy had started doing for fun was to gather magic energy between her fingers and play with it like a children's string game. She claimed that it was interesting to see how the magic changed based on the ways she twisted the energy around. It didn't take long for people to point out that she was essentially creating her own magic circles from scratch, a feat that had left Makarov speechless for a full minute when he saw it.
"And that's why I say to be careful." Link sighed. "Accidents like that can be dangerous."
"I said I was sorry…" Spryte pouted cutely. "It's growing back and you can't even tell it happened when you where your hat."
"Not the point."
"Fiiiiine…I'll try to be more careful. Spoilsport."
Link chose to ignore that last statement and turned his attention to Lisanna.
"Try not to encourage her too much."
Lisanna giggled in response and smiled brightly at him. "You worry too much, Link. Learning magic is supposed to be fun."
"Fun until someone burns the guild hall down," Link muttered.
"Heehee if anyone is going to do that it'll be Natsu, not Spryte."
"You have a point there. Where is he anyway?"
"I think he went fishing with Happy."
"Oh?" Link raised an eyebrow. "How come you didn't go too?"
"Well sometimes the boys just need to have time to themselves while us girls," She gestured to Spryte. "need to have some time to ourselves."
At that Link laughed then reached out to ruffle the younger girl's hair. "You know sometimes you really act like the family you three pretend to be."
"Hey!" Lisanna huffed. "It's not pretend! I'm the mommy and Natsu's the daddy! We did hatch Happy together, didn't we? That makes us his parents."
"If you say so. " Link chuckled again before changing the subject. "How are you doing with your ocarina?"
"Great!" Lisanna beamed. "I've already memorized the last exercise you showed me."
"She's learning quickly," Spryte chimed in as she fluttered down to sit on Link's head.
"Really?" Link grinned. "Well then let's go work on the next one."
He led her over to one of the nearby tables and took a seat, summoning his ocarina as he did. Lisanna dutifully sat in a chair opposite him so they faced one another.
"Now, show me what you've learned so far."
Lisanna nodded and withdrew the wooden instrument Link had given her when she had shown an interest in learning to play. She brought it to her lips, closed her eyes, and blew out the simple sequence that Link had tasked her to memorize.
"Very nice," He nodded in approval. "Now try this."
He put his own Ocarina to his mouth and blew out a slightly more complex series of notes. Lisanna watched and listened carefully as he repeated it twice for her. The young girl nodded slowly to herself and tried to imitate the sequence. She played much slower than Link did, trying to get her fingers to move to the correct positions in the unfamiliar pattern. Link always made her strive for accuracy above all else, speed would come later.
Lisanna frowned when she flubbed a note and stopped playing.
"Not bad," Link smiled at her encouragingly. "Try again. Remember to control your breathing; you want to be able to maintain a steady flow of air so that you don't under or overpower your notes. You also don't want to make it obvious that you're pausing for air and that's harder to do when you play too long and need to take a deep breath."
"Ok," Lisanna nodded and tried again. She managed to go through the whole sequence this time without a problem but missed another note when she tried to repeat it.
"Good, good," Link grinned at her. "Keep practicing that until you can go through it three times without a mistake then combine it with the last sequence you learned."
"All right," Lisanna smiled cheerfully. "I'll do my best!"
"You're getting pretty good at that Lisanna," A new voice stated proudly as another guild member joined them. They both turned to see Mirajane, Lisanna's older sister standing before them with her hands on her hips and a cocky smirk on her face. She turned her gaze on Link. "Though it still surprises me that someone like you knows how to play an instrument that well."
Link merely shrugged. "One of my best friends insisted I learn because she loved to play and wanted us to be able to play together. It was fun."
"I guess that makes sense," Mira nodded. "It certainly makes you more cultured than that red-headed bimbo."
Link frowned slightly at the remark towards Erza but didn't comment. He had seen enough of their squabbles to know they were bitter rivals, just like Natsu and Gray. In either case he couldn't tell if they actually hated each other or not due to the fact that they all participated in activities together in between their constant fights.
"But that's not why I came over here, blondie," Mira crossed her arms with a huff. "While I appreciate you taking care of my sister, there's something that I've been wanting to do for a while now."
Link raised an eyebrow curiously and waited for her to continue.
"Erza seems to think you're pretty strong, even though she beats you all the time."
That statement cause him to blink, unsure how to respond. It was true that he had yet to beat Erza in a spar, a fact that irked him to no end though he was humble enough to admit she was stronger, but he wasn't the one who sought out those fights. Erza had approached him each time to request a spar, stating he was helping her improve with every fight.
Little did he know that those constant spars with Link had inadvertently cut down on the number of scraps that Erza got into with Mira. At first this hadn't bothered the gothic dressed girl much, but after a while it felt like Erza was snubbing their unfinished rivalry and that pissed Mira off. When she had confronted Erza about it the red head had simply smirked at her and replied that she learned something new each time she fought Link and was getting stronger because of it. Of course that only infuriated Mira more and made her decide right then and there to fight Link herself and see what all the fuss was about.
Hence her current conversation.
"I want you to fight me so that I can see why she bothers."
The statement brought a startled gasp from Lisanna who eyed her older sister nervously. Link merely stared at her for a long moment before shrugging and standing up.
"Lead the way."
Mira smirked again and led him outside to the area that he and Erza usually ended up sparring. Lisanna and Spryte followed close behind.
"All right," Mira turned to him and cracked her knuckles. "Don't hold back now."
Link stretched out his arms in response and settled into a loose fighting.
"What are you doing?" Mira glared at him. "Use your weapons."
"But you're unarmed," Link replied.
"Puh-leease," Mira drawled sardonically. "I'm not some featherweight like Natsu and Gray. Trust me, you're gonna need them."
Link stared at her for a moment before shrugging again and requipped a sword, though he chose to forgo a shield, and dropped into a ready stance.
"Much better," Mira smirked as she bent her knees slightly and gathered here magic power. A dark magic circle appeared at her feet and her arms began to glow. The light broke suddenly and Link was surprised to see her arms had transformed and were now covered in dark purple flesh with brighter oval scale-like protrusions throughout and clawed hands. "Try not to die."
She blasted forward, fist cocked back to strike. Link gaped in surprise and hastily threw himself to the side. Her speed was unreal! He just barely managed to roll away from her attack and get to his feet before she was in his face again throwing punches with abandon while he desperately tried to defend himself, all with a cocky smirk on her face.
Link backpedalled quickly, keeping his guard tight in an attempt to deal with her overwhelming offense, and tried to find some opening to strike back. He managed to find a split second opening between her assault and dove forward, rolling around behind her into an attack of his own. Mira easily ducked under his initial swing but Link immediately followed up with a precise thrust.
His attack stopped dead when Mira caught the blade easily in one hand. Mira's smirk widened further at his bewildered expression before she thrust a palm into his chest and sent him flying through the air with a cry of pain. Link hit the dirt hard and slid back several feet before coming to a halt. He groaned and slowly pushed himself up to a sitting position. Her simple palm strike had felt like he had been punched by a Goron!
"That all you got?" Mira eyed him disdainfully, still holding his sword. With casual ease she tightened her fist and snapped the blade apart. "How disappointing."
Link's eyes never left hers as he staggered to his feet. He rubbed his chest a few times and took several deep breaths before he requipped another sword and held it up in a guarded stance, this one tighter than his first. He narrowed his eyes and focused, signalling his readiness for round two.
Mira smirked again and launched herself forward. This time her attack was deflected by Link's angled sword. The Take Over mage followed up with another flurry of attacks but this time Link was prepared for her. While she was still way faster and stronger, by keeping his defense tight Link only had to move his sword a fraction of the distance Mira needed to move her fists and he could deflect her blows, like he did with Erza, rather than take them head on.
He surprised Mira when he suddenly took a step forward, into her guard, and shoulder rammed her. She stumbled back a step and had to raise her hand to block a sword strike. Now it was Link's turn to attack and he unleashed a blinding flurry of short quick thrusts at the white haired girl. Mira blocked his attacks with little effort but she was given no room to counter.
Finally Mira was able to catch his blade again but before she could capitalize on the moment, Link let go of his sword and tackled her hard. She grunted in surprise as they rolled across the ground, having not expected the attack and was further surprised when the boy managed to get behind her and wrap her in a chokehold.
"Not…bad…" She grunted from the sudden pressure on her throat and reached up to grab his arm. "But not good enough."
Despite his leverage against her, she easily pried his hold apart and threw him over her shoulder. Link easily recovered rolling across the ground and scooping up his fallen sword as he did. He immediately began charging his sword with power, fully expecting Mira to attack at once. He was not disappointed when he turned to see Mira right on his tail. With a loud cry he unleashed the energy in his blade and struck with a blindingly fast fiery spin attack. Mira's eyes widened in shock and she barely managed to cross her arms in time to block before she was blasted back by the counter.
She landed on her feet and slid back a ways before coming to a halt. She uncrossed her arms slowly, wisps of smoke wafting away, and glared at him. "Hmph…Perhaps there is more to you after all."
She channelled more of her magic power, another dark circle appearing overhead. Her features turned more feral; hair growing wilder, ears sharpening to points, eyes taking on a more demonic countenance, and her legs transformed similarly to her arms.
"Take this."
She vanished from Link's view. Link's instincts screamed at him to move but he wasn't fast enough to avoid the crushing kick that Mira slammed into his chest. He cried out in pain and flew through the air. Mira appeared behind him and brutally knocked him upwards before intercepting him in midair again and smashing Link to the ground. He hit hard. Every bone and muscle in his body screaming in pain. It was only thanks to his Eternano strengthened constitution that he wasn't shattered.
Pain and adrenaline warred within him, somehow allowing him to stay conscious and mobile enough to roll away from Mira's meteoric punch that slammed into the ground where he had just been. The demonic Take Over mage immediately lunged for him once more, vanishing with incredible speed.
Something within Link snapped.
His pupils constricted. His posture shifted. The world bled away until only the fight remained.
Inhuman reflexes and instincts honed from countless life or death battles took control of his body and he moved. He spun low and fast, flipping his sword into a reverse grip and pulling it tight to his body. His feet shifted to brace for impact and he thrust the pommel of his sword forward.
A shockwave burst out as Mira suddenly appeared before him, doubled over with his sword hilt buried in her stomach. Mira's eyes were wide with the shock and pain from the abrupt halt, her mouth agape with spittle flying through the air. Time seemed to freeze for a moment before the young girl crumpled to the ground, heaving for air. She couldn't even cry out in pain.
In that moment, Link dropped his guard and relaxed his position. Mira was certainly in no shape to continue the fight, but he underestimated her resilience and stubborn pride. Despite her pain and lack of air, Mira somehow managed to thrust one arm forward and blast him point blank with a burst of dark magic. The Hero of Time was sent flying through the air once more to land unconscious on the ground.
Still gasping for air, Mirajane stared at his body for a long moment to confirm he was out cold before she lost control of her magic and her body returned to normal. She crumpled again, clutching her stomach tightly, and curled into a tight ball as she struggled for breath. The pain was unlike anything she had ever felt before in her life and the inability to get sufficient air into her lungs was complete and utter torture.
Her mind refused to focus on anything other than the agony and her attempts to recover, but she would later be forced to admit to herself that Erza was right: there was a lot more to Link than she realized.
Mira may have beaten Link in the end, but she certainly couldn't claim she won.
Xxx
The ride back to the forest was nothing short of agonizing torment. Link groaned with each step that his beloved horse took despite her careful tread. Every muscle in his body ached from the beating Mira had given him.
"You ok?" Spryte asked from the air, fluttering down close to him with a concerned expression. She had done what she could for him after the fight but there were some injuries that magic wasn't as good at dealing with compared to others. Cuts and broken bones were relatively easy to handle since the injuries were localized to one spot and merely required the injury to be knit back together. Blunt force trauma and overstrained muscles were much harder due to the wide spread nature of the problem. The fact that Spryte admitted that she wasn't the best of healers to begin with meant that Link was forced to suffer through an agonizing trip home.
A fact that made Spryte silently resolve to improve her healing, something she had thus far neglected in her various experiments with her new power.
"I'll live," Link moaned. "Thanks Spryte. You don't have to worry about me, I've had worse."
His partner gave him a sceptical look but didn't reply. Despite the overwhelming force Mira had doled out against him their fight had still technically been a spar. Being the Hero of Time meant that Link had most definitely been in far more life threatening situations than that and thus probably received appropriate injuries as well.
"It was a good fight though," She giggled. "You definitely gave her something to think about."
"Maybe," Link grunted. "Still have a long way to go."
"Why do you say that? You could have killed her with that last move if you had used the pointy end instead of the pommel."
Link sighed. "Technically true, but that's not the point. If I really had to I could probably kill just about everyone I've met in the guild so far except for the Master. None of them know what it means to fight to the death; to attack with killing intent." He groaned again and leaned back in his saddle. "But that actually makes them stronger. It is an easy thing to kill an enemy, Spryte. It is much easier to kill something than it is to beat it into submission, especially given the right tools and knowledge. But unless it's a monster or something these people don't even consider killing their opponent an option even if the reverse isn't true." He sighed again. "I may be able to kill most of them now, but if I try to face them on their own terms I'll probably lose. I just don't have the power to measure up yet."
"But you're already a lot stronger than you were when you first got here and you gave Erza a run for her rupees even back then."
"I'm not dissatisfied with my progress, Spryte," Link chuckled lightly. "I'm simply stating that I have a long way to go before I can match up with them. I plan on being the best."
"Well as long as you're not gonna get all depressed on me…"
Link laughed again but stopped abruptly when his laughter caused the pain in his chest to flare up.
"Trust me, you don't have to worry about that," Link forced a tight smile as the pain ebbed away. "I had no hope of matching Ganondorf when I first met him but I eventually got there. This is no different."
"I sometimes forget how mature you can be," Spryte giggled and floated down to rest on the brim of his hat.
Link snorted. "That's the last thing I wanna hear from you! I may be in a kid body but I've been jumping through time for a while now. I'm older than I look and I had to grow up fast."
"I know, I know," Spryte laughed. "But you still act like such a kid sometimes."
"Just because I had to grow up fast doesn't mean I don't like having fun. I literally went from being a kid to a young adult in an instant and now I'm back to being a kid again. That's not exactly a normal development cycle."
"True, true," Spryte agreed, still giggling. "But that's part of your charm."
"Humph…I can't decide if I should be insulted or not…"
The little fairy simply grinned and leaned back to enjoy the rest of the ride in silence.
Link was content to let Epona pick her own way back to the area of forest they had been living in. She knew the way as well as he did so he wasn't worried about getting lost. It wasn't long before he could see the densely packed line of foliage that marked the border their home. As they approached the vegetation slowly parted to create an opening just large enough for them to pass through before immediately closing behind them. Link let out a sigh of relief as he took a breath of the rich air that that permeated the area.
The glade was large and beautiful, with lush grass, flowers, shrubs, bushes, and trees all throughout. A surprisingly large stream ran through it and bent in one spot to form a decent sized pool before flowing back out into the rest of the forest. There were quite a few woodland creatures of various shapes and sizes wandering around, having found shelter in the area.
But the thing that made the glade truly special were the forest spirits that frolicked about.
They were spread all around the glade; some basking in the rays of the sun that shone through the canopy, several splashed in the pool made by the stream, a few chased each other around, and others danced amidst the flowers and butterflies. Every one of them had a bright smile on their beautiful faces.
After Lyre had become his familiar, the two of them had gathered as many of Lyre's fellow spirits as they could and brought them to this glade. It wasn't as deep into the forest as they would have liked since Link needed to be within a reasonable distance of the Guild Hall, but the glade was large and deep enough that they were still comfortably hidden from the rest of the world. The spirits had immediately begun spreading their magic into the glade to nourish the area and reconnect with the forest. Having been in isolation for so long, most of the forest felt strange and wild to them and the spirits were quite a bit weaker than they apparently used to be. Even so, there numbers in such a small area soon had but their new haven flourishing with a life and vibrancy that the East Forest hadn't known in a very, very long time. To Link and Spryte it felt a lot like the Kokiri Forest within the Lost Woods of Hyrule.
Even though the glade was large, it was a tiny insignificant drop compared to the rest of the East Forest. The spirits had encouraged the vegetation surrounding the area to grow thick and wind together into a barrier that separated it from the rest of the woods. The barrier wouldn't keep out a determined Vulcan but it would give the spirits plenty of warning to hide before they could be captured. Benign woodland creatures could still find their way through in certain areas but other than that only Link was allowed to pass through at will.
In a way the Hylian was saddened that Lyre and her sisters were confined to such a small area but compared to the fear induced isolation they had silently endured for so long this little haven was an absolute paradise. The pure joy they radiated at being able leave their trees without fear never failed to bring a smile to Link's face; doubly so since the spirit's main form of communication was emotion based. They were certainly not glass-half-empty kind of creatures.
Unfortunately for him, Link had only an instant to take in this site before a certain spirit appeared right in his face and began bombarding his mind with sensations of concern and worry so fast that his familiar bond could barely keep up with the translation.
"Lyre! Lyre, I'm all right! Stop!" Link shook his head and frantically waved a hand to try and calm the distraught spirit. Regrettably these actions only served to remind him of how much pain he was in which caused Lyre's panic to increase which soon caught the attention of the rest of the spirits in the glade. Gritting his teeth against the physical and new mental anguish Link shot a hand out to seize Lyre's wrist, an action which shocked her just enough for Link to stare directly into her eyes and send her a message.
"It's all right. Calm down."
He gave her a reassuring smile and released her wrist. He should have known that the bond they shared would cause her to sense his injuries. If he would have thought about it he could have sent Spryte ahead to reassure her that he wasn't in any danger. Not that he blamed her for the concern. Link was literally her saviour and the guardian of her sisters. Without him they would be forced back into hiding, forsaking their newly found freedom and hope. Losing him would be absolutely devastating to them.
'You are hurt! What happened?' Lyre's thoughts were sharp and still very concerned though the panic seemed to be ebbing away.
"It's ok, just a little banged up from a spar with a friend."
'A…spar?' The spirit's concern was replaced with confusion from the unfamiliar concept.
"It's a practice fight between two people in order to measure their strength," Link tried to explain. "Injuries happen but we aren't really trying to hurt each other."
'Why would you do this?'
"It helps us grow stronger so we can better protect what's important to us."
'You fight your friends to become…stronger? Like the "training" we see you do every morning?'
"Yeah," Link grinned at her. "Exactly like that."
'I…see…' Lyre tilted her head to the side, one of the quirks that indicated she was thinking. By this point the other spirits had gathered around them and were expressing their own confusion and concern. Since Link still couldn't communicate with them well, though he was getting better, Lyre had become the go-between for them and she turned to explain things to them in a silent but expressive discussion. Link was able to pick up flashes of the emotions and imagery that the others were sending around though he was unable to piece together what exactly they were talking about.
After a moment Lyre turned back to him with a gentle smile. 'We are glad that you are safe but we do not like seeing you hurt. Please let us help you.'
"Help me?" Link blinked in surprise. "How?"
Lyre simply continued to smile and helped him down from Epona. 'Come.'
Together Lyre and her sister spirits escorted Link towards the far side of the glade where the largest tree grew. This was the tree that Lyre herself had bonded with and the one that she had declared would be Link's new home soon. Spryte had shown her images of what Kokiri homes had been like as well as some of the homes that people in Magnolia lived in and the spirit was determined to create a place for Link to live that he would like. To that end she and the other spirits had been pouring their magic into this tree to make it grow until it would be large enough to suit their needs. At this rate it wouldn't be long before it was.
Once they were at its base Lyre guided Link down to the grass around the tree until he was laying on his back with his head resting on the spirit's lap. As he did the other spirits settled around them too. Link raised a questioning eyebrow at Lyre who simply giggled lightly and placed her hands alongside his head. After that she leaned back and began to sing, the other spirit's joining her, and sway gently.
It was not singing like one would normally expect. There were no words and the sounds they made couldn't be compared to the melodies that human voices could make. Their voices were those of the forest. The wind in the leaves, the songs of the birds, the flow of a stream…they sung the song of life and it was the most beautiful thing that Link had ever heard.
The young hero sighed deeply, closing his eyes as his body and mind were lulled into the deepest sense of relaxation he had ever felt. He didn't even register the magic that began to seep out of the ground and into his body, easing his pain and healing his bruises. It was different from the healing magic of fairies that Link was used to. That kind of magic involved a fairy using its power to directly heal the damage that had been done, restoring the body as if it hadn't been hurt at all. Of course the amount of healing was dependent upon the fairy's own power and so if the damage was too great then the fairy couldn't fix everything. The other downside was that fairy magic also prevented the body from growing stronger from the injury, which was why Spryte hadn't done anything for Link besides check to see how bad his injuries were.
This was different. This healing process involved the energy of the earth charging his body to renew itself at an accelerated rate, a procedure that Porlyusica would probably classify as natural regeneration if she had been there to witness it. Not that it really mattered to Link at this point. He was perfectly content to lie where he was and listen. When he finally opened his eyes it was dark, the sun having long set. Apparently this type of healing also took a lot longer than fairy magic as well. His eyes met Lyre's who was staring back at him with a benign smile.
'How do you feel?'
Link sat up slowly and stretched his arms out. "I feel…great!" He grinned. "Better than ever! Thank you."
'It was our pleasure,' Lyre continued to smile as she stood up, her sister spirits following suit. 'You have given us so much, we are happy to be able to return some of your kindness.'
"Well I really appreciate it, I feel like I could take on the world right now," He jumped to his feet with a light spring to emphasise his words and bounced on his toes a few times. "Which reminds me," he turned to face his familiar. "I'm going to be going away for a few days. I need to take a few jobs at the Guild Hall so I won't be back for a little while."
'I understand,' Lyre nodded once. 'We will be all right. We can hide if we sense danger.'
"I'm sorry you have to live like this…" Link huffed bitterly. "But I can't kill every Vulcan in this forest."
'Nor would we want you to. They have lived here long enough that they have become part of the balance. We could no more ask you to rid the forest of them than the wolves for the deer. But they are unchecked and the balance of the forest has tipped because of it. Thanks to you we can now work to restore it to what it should be.' She shifted to gaze fondly at her fellow spirits who were spreading back out into the glade. Some returning to their trees for the night while others found places to look at the stars. 'We do not relish the idea of being prey…but we will adapt. That is what nature does. It adapts to change in order to survive.' She turned back to him. 'We didn't have the time to do so before we were forced into hiding but thanks to you we now can. We have the chance to survive and for that we can never repay you.'
"Lyre," Link smiled gently. "I'm just happy to help. I couldn't save the guardian of my forest but I will do all I can to protect you and your sisters."
'Thank you,' Lyre bowed her head to him. 'But that doesn't mean you must stay here all the time. Go and do the things you must outside of this forest. Do not lament our situation, we are happy and we are free. We will be here when you return.'
Link nodded. "Perhaps when things have calmed down a bit more I could take you with me sometime. To see things outside of this forest."
'I would like that,' Lyre clasped her hands together happily. 'But not now. Perhaps when the Vulcans have learned to respect our territory enough for my sisters to roam this part of the forest freely, but until then I will stay here with them.'
"I look forward to that day."
'As do I.'
The light of the moon shone through the canopy and helped to illuminate the spirit's radiant features which Link couldn't help notice lacked a bit of its usual lustre.
He frowned slightly. "Are you all right?"
'Ah,' Lyre's face turned a bit sheepish, an expression that looked absolutely adorable on her. 'I am a bit tired.' She admitted. 'We are not as strong as we once were and healing you was more draining than I expected even with the help of my sisters.' Seeing his frown deepen Lyre quickly continued. 'Do not worry; it will be easier in the future. Like you our power grows a bit more each day, but for now we are limited to this.'
"I see," Link nodded. "You should get some rest then."
'I believe I shall,' Lyre nodded and strode gracefully to her tree. 'What is it that you say? "Goodnight"?'
"Yeah," Link nodded. "That's right."
'Ah, then goodnight Link.'
"Goodnight, Lyre." Link chuckled as he watched her sink into the trunk and disappear. After a moment he turned away and went to go find Epona and Spryte. After his rejuvenating healing session he wasn't really ready to call it a night yet. Maybe he would do some casual night fishing and catch some dinner.
Yeah, that sounded like a good idea.