A Walk in the Woods

Chapter 5

Lucy cried for a long time. She couldn't be sure just how many tears she'd shed, but by the time she picked her head up from Natsu's chest, his bandages were damp with salt water and the sun was starting to rise.

Get a hold of yourself, Lucy. Crying never solved anything. Be strong and help Natsu the same way he would for you. Lucy looked up her partner blearily.

"Natsu, please wake up," Lucy tried, examining his motionless state in the soft dawn light. His features were slack and he showed no signs that he'd heard her. His skin looked gray and his eyes were shadowed with deep purple bruises. His breathing was bad and his fever raged beneath her touch like the fires of a kiln.

"He's dying," The fleeting thought floated into her awareness so easily, it shocked her.

"No! I can't think that way!" Lucy said aloud, angry with herself for succumbing to such despair. She grit her teeth. The overwhelming fatigue and worry from the past few days was clouding her wits and making her stupid. She pushed herself upright and leaned over Natsu, gripping his shoulders with a new fervency.

"Natsu, you have to wake up. You said this was just a scratch didn't you? Where's the tough and tumble dragon slayer that would never let an oversized cat take him down, huh? The Natsu I know would brush this off like it was nothing! Don't tell me you've gone soft?" Lucy said loudly, shaking his shoulders as roughly as she dared.

"Come on, Natsu, I know you can hear me," Lax muscles moved freely beneath her grasp. He was completely unconscious. Insulting him and shaking him just wasn't doing the trick like she'd hoped. A lock of pink hair had fallen over one of Natsu's eyes. She brushed it from his face and cursed under her breath.

"Wake up Natsu, you can't confess you like me and then do this. I never got a chance to tell you I like you back. You have to wake up so you can get better and finish what you started,"

Her heart skipped as a flicker of movement glanced across the fire wizard's face. His eyes closed tighter and his brows knit together.

"Natsu! Open your eyes!" Again Natsu's face rippled with some awareness. She pinched his cheeks and pulled at his eyelids until he finally moaned.

"Ngh- Lucy?" Natsu's parted lids exposed those dark irises she'd prayed for. She could hardly believe it. A flood filled her gaze as new tears welled.

"What happened?" Natsu's voice was hoarse. He held his eyes open wearily as if each lid were weighted.

Lucy had to take a long shaky breath to compose herself before answering. "You had a seizure, Natsu, it was terrible. I think your fever's too high,"

"Damn," Natsu said, showing only mild interest before letting his eyes succumbed to the apparent weight. Lucy was sent into a blind panic as his features went slack. She hastily grabbed his face with her clammy palms, startling her partner back awake. "No, no, no, stay with me Natsu!"

"Nngh..But Lucy...I'm so..tired," He mumbled, unable to hold his gaze with hers.

When he closed his eyes a second time, Lucy released him and rose to her feet, circling the fire mage to crouch by his head. He was way to heavy to carry by herself, but she had strength enough to drag him. If she could just get him to the river's edge she could cool his fever while waiting for the rescue party to arrive.

Her mind made up, she leaned forward and gathered Natsu's upper body into her arms, hoisting him beneath the armpits. Natsu came aware in a start, yelping so loudly, Lucy dropped him in surprise. She toppled back onto her bottom gracelessly as Natsu writhed and hissed.

"What happened?" Lucy asked in confusion. She hadn't gone near his chest to cause him such pain. It was then she noticed it wasn't his chest he was cradling, it was his left arm. There was an odd angle to it and a band of swelling was already forming above his elbow.

"Your arm's broken," Lucy gasped.

"When the hell'd that happen," Natsu asked through clenched teeth.

"You must have fallen on it wrong during the seizure," Either that or his muscles had contracted so forcefully they snapped the bone. She shuddered at the thought. Poor Natsu.

The dragon slayer just whined at that and let his head fall back onto the forest floor, lying spread eagle in the dirt. "I just want to sleep,"

"Soon, I promise, let's just get you to the river first. Can you walk?"

They somehow managed to limp the distance to the river together. Natsu was practically dead weight but Lucy mustered strength enough. When they finally slumped onto the river bank, both she and Natsu were huffing and puffing. They were certainly the sorry bunch.

"Can I sleep now?" Natsu asked, even though he looked already halfway there.

"You can sleep now,' Lucy said.

The clearing they'd come to was overgrown, the thick canopy shrouding them in shade and hid them from the morning sun. She reached her hand into the creek. It was cold -well suited for her needs. Natsu moaned and shivered as she cupped her hands and spilled the water through his hair. She hoped it would take some of the heat off. He was practically blistering with it.

After a few dripping handfuls of water Lucy sighed. If she had not abandoned their pack of supplies back with those bandits, she would have some extra material to use as a soaking rag. Natsu was half naked already, just wearing his ragged pants and scarf, and Lucy had nothing but her tight shorts and battered tank. She didn't have much to work with.

She sighed in defeat before pulling the shirt off her back, shivering in the crisp morning air, left in only her bra and shorts. To avoid turning back on her decision, she swiftly dunked the material into the river, soaking it through and bringing it to rest over Natsu's forehead.

"Better?" Lucy asked. Natsu hummed in agreement.

With eyes wearily set on the fire mage, Lucy pulled her knees to her chest and hugged herself against the chill. For the next hour or so, Lucy set about keeping her makeshift cloth fresh, swatting away mosquitos, and fending off the hunger pangs that stabbed her abdomen.

The sun was now rising in earnest, brightening the green underbrush and shedding light onto the dancing flowers and dewed grass.

"Come on guys, where are you?" Lucy whispered to herself, letting her head fall wearily to rest atop her knees that she continued to hold close to her torso, becoming small in the massive forest that seemed never ending. She sighed in frustration before nearly jumping out of her skin as Natsu coughed and started awake, his eyes shifting about in a vaguely confused manor.

"Hey, you look a little better," Lucy said, finding a smile as she noted Natsu's improved color and less dazed appearance compared to his initial awakening.

"Yeah, I think I feel a little better too, waoh! Lucy-" Natsu said catching sight of her. A blush suddenly crept to her face as she noticed his eyes drifting down to her mostly exposed chest and belly.

"Uh, I hate to tell you this, but, you're naked,"

"I'm aware, Natsu," She said in exasperation, her hands coming to cross over her bulging chest to cover herself to some extent.

Natsu opened his mouth, a sly expression crossing his face, but Lucy nipped his intended comment in the bud "Say a word and I'll kill you,"

Natsu snickered but ultimately swallowed whatever had come to his mind. " So, did you get hot or somethin?" He proceeded to ask casually.

"No, you dummy, my shirt is on your face! I had to use it as a rag because I lost all of our supplies back there with the bandits!"

"Well why did you leave it with them!? psh calling me an dummy-"

"Oh my god. Where's the sweet delirious guy from a couple hours ago?" Lucy shook her head in disbelief.

"What are you talking about, Lucy? I've been asleep since we escaped from those three dirt bags,"

"Of course you don't remember...you've definitely been awake since then. Trust me," Lucy cursed inwardly. She knew she had done the right thing in not taking Natsu's previous confessions as truth. He really had been completely out of it. On the bright side, at least it had been worth it to drag Natsu all this way. It seemed the cool water had managed to take the edge off of his raging fever. He was more or less acting himself, maybe just a bit more dense than usual (if that was possible).

"I guess I don't remember..." Natsu puzzled for a moment, drawing his eyebrows together in thought, "but I can tell you've been doing a lot for me. You got us here somehow," Natsu said, looking around at the trees and unfamiliar clearing, as if seeing it with clarity for the first time. His onyx eyes stopped to rest on her, a soft expressing painting his features. "I think I owe you one big time, Luce!"

"Oh, it's nothing really," Lucy said, laughing awkwardly and eating her previous thoughts. Natsu was quirky, but he was always coming from a good place. She smiled at him for a moment but slowly found the expression slipping from her features as she noticed the way his cheeks remained flushed, the quickness of his breaths, and the way his bandages wept with foul drainage. "I wish I could re-dress your wounds, they could really use it,"

"Ah, it's not a big deal. We shouldn't have to wait much longer for Erza, Wendy, and that prissy Ice queen to show up anyway-" Lucy stretched her hands towards Natsu in protest to stop his movements but the oblivious fire mage had already moved to prop himself up. He quickly discovered his broken arm the hard way.

Lucy flinched in sympathy as Natsu yelped, falling back to the grass. He tossed his head back and grit his teeth against the pain while clutching futilely at the jostled arm he had near put all his weight against.

"Oh, Natsu, your arm! Don't move,"

"Forgot about that too!" Natsu rasped.

Lucy bustled forward to shoo his hand away from the area to make sure he hadn't made the break worse. Thankfully it remained at the same angle as before, though the swelling had only worsened since they reached the river bank. "Can you just try to relax and hold still until the others get here?"

"Can't do much else," Natsu sulked, glaring down at his arm and chest. Lucy suppressed a laugh at his childish pout, busying herself by re wetting the cloth and placing it back over Natsu's forehead.

"Everything's going to be fine," She said, clasping him tightly. "We'll be back soon and you'll be fighting in no time,"

"Heck yeah," Natsu replied, closing his eyes and letting his body fully relax into her form.

Another hour passed and Natsu was only getting worse. He had fallen in and out of a restless sleep while Lucy frantically dabbed his blistering skin with river water, all the while terrified she would have to watch him suffer through another fit.

Lucy felt tears forming behind her eyes as Natsu moaned, seemingly assaulted by a particularly torturous wave of pain. She ran her hands through his damp locks with purpose. "You just have to hang on a little longer," Natsu didn't respond to her words so she pressed a little further, not sure who she was consoling at this point, Natsu, or herself. "You're going to be okay, Natsu,"

"Yeah...I'll be fine," Natsu said, but Lucy wasn't sure he believed his own words. His inflection echoed doubt which scared her more than anything. For Natsu to harbor these feelings meant they were in dire straights.

Another tiresome hour passed. The sun was high in the sky and Lucy's stomach wouldn't stop twisting in worried knots as Natsu continued to deteriorate.

"LUCY!"

She started at the sound of her name being called in the distance. She eased Natsu off of her legs and onto the grassy earth, ears perked for the sound of people. After a few moments of silence, she was starting to think the call had been a figment of her imagination until she heard it again, louder this time. It was Gray. Lucy nearly fell over, jumping up so fast that she tripped on her own feet.

"Over here!" She yelled, using every ounce of air in her lungs to shriek into the wind. "We're here!" She yelled again, jumping up and down, trying to get a higher vantage of her surroundings. It was not long before she heard running foot steps.

"There you are," Gray said, bursting into view. He wore a pair of jeans and a ragged looking T-shirt. In all honesty, it looked like he had just rolled out of bed.

"We've finally found you! We left as soon as we got word from Loke," Erza said, striding quickly into view behind Gray. She seemed to be in a similarly disheveled state. Though garbed in her normal daytime armor, her hair was unkempt and she appeared to be lacking in the sleep department.

"Lucy, what happened to your clothes?" Gray asked, giving her a surprised scan. "You get hot or something?"

"No I did not! It's a long story...besides I could ask you the same question!"

"What! When did that happen!" Gray looked down to find his hastily chosen T-shirt and pants gone, leaving him in nothing but his boxers. "Ah heck," He muttered, glancing about to find where he had subconsciously lost his outfit. Lucy rolled her eyes, and turned back to her injured teammate.

"Loke said it was serious, but I wasn't expecting this," Erza's expression hardened as she strode to Natsu's side, crouching beside him and placing a hand on his reddened cheek to gauge his condition for herself.

"He looks awful," Gray also had moved forward, having managed to find at least his trousers.

"Natsu, can you hear me?" Erza asked sternly, gaining no real response from the fire wizard.

"He's been pretty out of it for a while now. I haven't been able to get anything from him for the last half hour or so," Lucy admitted, biting her lip in worry. "He really needs medical attention. Where's Wendy? Is she on her way? Please tell me she's coming!" Lucy twisted her hands together with trembling fingers.

"She still hadn't returned form her mission with Carla and Happy, so it's just us for now," Erza said with regret.

"Oh no," Lucy focused back to Natsu who looked so fragile and weak.

"His fever is really bad," Gray said, his tone nothing but serious. He had joined Erza beside the ill fire mage, coming to his own conclusion by observing first hand the heat pouring from Natsu.

Lucy watched Gray's steely eyes meet Erza's before leaning forward to place a pale hand behind Natsu's neck and the other across his forehead, removing the battered tank top which had undoubtably already warmed since she last wet it. "I'll try and cool him down," A gentle stream of ice magic formed beneath his hands to coat Natsu's skin momentarily before melting down to droplets.

"Lucy, how old are these wounds?" Erza asked, eying the soiled bandages and dislodging a pack from her shoulders which Lucy had failed to notice when the two had first arrived. Erza had had the foresight to pack supplies. She was already removing ample packages of fresh gauze and tape.

"It happened about 3 days ago now," Lucy moved forward to sit by her teammates, they formed a semi circle around Natsu who was oblivious to their presence.

"That's a fast infection, but he has blood poisoning, no doubt about it," The red haired woman had begun to peel back the sopping gauze to see the tattered flesh beneath. Lucy noticed the way Gray averted his eyes and became deathly pale at the site of Natsu's wounds.

"It's worse than before," Lucy said when she caught site of the wounds herself. She brought shaking hands to cover her mouth in disbelief. There were black gangrenous patches of skin laced with her own sutures which were near impossible to discern in the way Natsu's flesh had swelled and stretched. The snaking dark vines of infection had branched even further, like the roots of a tree.

"This is no normal infection," Erza said, finally showing emotion with a deep frown and worried forehead. "These wounds look like they are weeks old, not days," She said hesitantly beginning the cleaning process. Strips of dead flesh sloughed away at her gentlest touch, eliciting a few whispered curse words.

"Maybe we can get Polyursica to help?" Lucy said, taking hold of Natsu's limp hand and observing his pinched face with concern.

"She is certainly the person to consult. We need to hurry," Erza had given up trying to clean the area, realizing that there was no end to the seeping discharge. She skillfully adhered the new bandages in place and gave Gray a nod.

"I'll carry him and keep his fever down. Erza, you should go ahead to let Polyursica know that we need her,"

Erza nodded curtly.

Heeding Natsu's injuries, the three carefully positioned the dragon slayer into Gray's arms and set out immediately. Lucy kept close at her teammates heals but was reminded of her gnawing hunger and growing weakness as they covered distance. They traveled together for a long while until finally stumbling across a trail, no doubt part of the footpath network weaving the outlaying woods of Magnolia. It delineated their proximity to town to Lucy's relief.

"This is where we part ways," Erza said, recognizing the area. "I'll have Polyusica meet you at the guild hall infirmary. You can get him set up there,"

Gray and Lucy nodded with determination.

"May speed and luck be at your side," Erza said. She placed a loving hand on Natsu's forehead and closed her eyes momentarily, as if in silent prayer. " Stay with us Natsu," She finally said before swiftly departing into the forest. Gray and Lucy watched her retreating back before setting out in the other direction towards the guild.