Chapter 5 - a coincidence?
Mika abruptly flew into the cave tunnel and shouted Ayaka's name, completely ignoring all the safety measurements the both of them had emplaced to keep the little exceed far away from the impact of Aya's magic. Fortunately, though, Ayaka felt her presence soon enough to completely draw back her power. She fell back on the floor with a thud just like everything around her as the room filled with air again.
"A-chan! A-chan!" Panicked, Mika flew into Ayaka's arms.
"What's happening? Are you hurt?" The mage checked her friend all over, inspecting her for any sort of injury which might have provoked the prompt interruption of her training.
"No, but A-chan", the exceed breathed in heavily, "there are people on their way here. I just saw someone pass, while controlling the area. They must've felt your energy and are now headed here."
Ayaka let out an exasperated sigh, before slowly rising from her sitting position on the floor and stretching all her limbs. Inconvenienced by the movement her little companion flew out of her arms with a pout, better deciding to just float in the air.
The mage yawned and then looked around the room. "There's not much to clean up." She met Mika's eyes. "Let's get started quickly and get out of here."
"A-chan!" The little exceed flew after her cat, obviously struggling to keep up with the fast pace while also carrying her backpack.
Ayaka hummed, showing that she was listening, but never slowed down her pace.
"Where are we going?"
"Deeper into the woods." She took a sharp left around a boulder, nearly losing her friend. "We'll stay there for a bit, train on our physical strength, before going back to the cave."
Mika huffed. "But what if they follow us?"
Dodging a low-hanging tree branch, Ayaka led them into the deep parts of the woods, leaving behind the steep and rocky mountains. "Why would they do that? Even if they felt an extraordinary magic in the area, they wouldn't actually take the time to follow it, if they didn't have reason to." Taking another swift turn to the right, she continued, "And we didn't give them any reason to."
"But what if-"
"Be still!" Ayaka stopped suddenly, completely catching the exceed off guard who in turn crashed into the mage's back.
"Wha-"
"There's someone here."
Mika's eyes became the size of saucers and her mouth fell open in surprise. Immediately she clung to Ayaka's arm, ceasing to fly in an attempt to minimize the noise she made. "How close are they?", she whispered into her friend's ear.
"Close. About five hundred meters south of here." Swiftly the young mage turned south a far away look in her eyes as she stared into the deep of the woods. "There are four, headed exactly at us." Her ear twitched. "They're getting faster. They probably know our location by now."
"What should we do?" Mika's voice was laced with dread.
"We stay, face them. They're faster than us, probably travelling without luggage, nothing to slow them down, unlike us. If we run, they'll catch up within minutes. If we face them, we have a chance to-" She halted in her speech, eyes widening in surprise.
"If we face them, then what? Ayaka?!"
"Those fucking arseholes!"
"Why did you chase us?"
The blond mage shrugged, obviously unbothered with the situation. "At least now you can give me an answer about the date." He grinned.
"That doesn't explain anything!", Ayaka complained. "Wait… so it emis/em a date?!"
Sting laughed, not minding to answer.
Before Ayaka could protest again, Sting's black haired companion joined the conversation. "What happened to that presence?" His voice was gruff, obviously not in the mood for banter (if he was ever).
Ayaka sighed, faking her best concerned look. "We have no clue ourselves, I just felt it and rushed Mika and myself back out her, so we wouldn't get caught up in whatever trouble came with it."
"We could smell you out there, though. You must've been close enough to catch a glimpse." Rogue looked completely unconvinced by her lie.
The strawberry blonde mage whistled through her teeth. "We only just met and you're already stalking me with your weird dragon slayer powers?" She grinned, when her counterpart rolled his eyes in exasperation. "But to answer your… well, accusation, we were resting up in the mountains when the presence first appeared and then immediately fled the scene." She halted. "But why did you chase it?"
Rogue averted his eyes, not willing to give the Fairy Tail mage any important information. Sting, however, had always been more loose-mouthed. "We're on a mission to catch some sort of monster in the mountains. Actually, most guests of the inn are. The bounty's immense so loads of mages are trying their luck. The magical power we felt could've been the monster's so we wanted to check it out."
What the- A monster in the mountains? What children's book did that crawl out of?
Simultaneously Ayaka and Mika bursted into laughter. In her fit, Mika forgot to fly and landed up rolling on the floor, never ceasing to giggle. Ayaka was hunched over, holding her abs in pain.
"Uhh…" Sting raised his left eyebrow.
After another couple of seconds the laughter slowed down to a light giggle. Ayaka tried to catch her breath while Mika was still rolling on the floor trying to find her footing again.
"Phew." The young mage managed to stand up straight again, looking up at the Sabertooth members in now silent amusement. "Sorry, that was just too hilarious."
"Sure…", Sting stretched the word out, giving the girl another confused look. "Uh, what was exactly?"
The two girls looked at each other again, before throwing the others an unbelievable glance. "Wait, so you were seriously looking for a monster? A real-life monster? emHere/em?", the strawberry blonde asked, earning her nods from the opposing guild members. "Are you for real?" She shook her head. "There is nothing on these mountains besides rock and stone. And maybe the occasional mage finding their way round here, looking for empeace/em." She shot the blond a meaningful look.
Sting lifted his head in surrender. "Sorry sorry, you were so close to that presence, we were sure you were in trouble."
Rouge butted in, "What do you suggest the presence was, if not a monster?"
Ayaka's gaze shifted to the black haired mage. "Not a monster, that much is for sure." She hesitated a moment, lifting her hand up to her chin. "Actually, it might have been one of those crazy bulls from the farm on the foot of the hill which were bewitched a couple years back. They radiated this insane magical energy, didn't they, Mika?" Again, her eyes found another member of the group, this time with a pleading expression.
"Yeah!", the little exceed exclaimed enthusiastically, "Those were nuts!"
A quiet giggle escaped the girl at her companions enthusiasm. "See? No monster, just boring old magic. But even so, instead of following us around, maybe you should go and chase that monster cow you're looking for?" She sent Sting another look.
"Okay, fine. I got the message. No more stalking the pretty girl then, huh?" The light mage winked at her cheekily. "The date's still on, though."
"I never agreed to that!"
"That's because you never had an option." He laughed wholeheartedly at the unnerved expression on his former teacher.
Mika cleared her throat excessively.
"Oh, damn, I almost forgot. Sorry guys, we gotta hit the road again." Ayaka adjusted the straps of her backpack. "It was… uh, nice? See each other in three months then." She turned around after Mika had landed safely on her shoulder and started to walk away.
A couple meters down the path she stopped again and looked over her shoulder to the Sabertooth members. "It will be fun kicking your asses in the Games."
Author's Note: Hi guys! Sorry the update took a while. I hope you enjoyed it anyways.
Next update the Games finally ~FINALLY~ start, lol, so stay tuned.
xoxo Franny