Look, this was posted so much faster than last chapter! Yay for me! Anyways, yeah. Remember, we left Happy and Natsu surrounded by tribespeople, so let's see what happens...
Dedicated to rebma726. Special thanks to WhiteWinterStar (my rockstar reviewer), gwb620 (who is equally awesome), DarkLadyRevan41 (we love pretty much all the same ships!), SnowFairyPrincess (who reviewed TWICE IN A ROW!), and KillerCupcakes (dude, how AWESOME is your name? Pretty damn awesome!). Thanks, you guys! Oh, also a quick shoutout to Kosmotius, who PMs me all sorts of ideas and stuff. :)
Remember to review, favorite, and follow!
Oh, a note to SnowFairyPrincess – I can't figure out what you said in your first review. If you could PM me with another phrasing, I'd appreciate it. I want to be able to process everyone's comments and make adjustments according to your opinions.
ANYWAYS, PLEASE ENJOY CHAPTER 14!
Happy shook his head and took a slow, hesitant step back, towards me. Immediately, half of the painted men trained their arrows on him instead. He whimpered, and I decided enough was enough. They could threaten me all they wanted, but I drew the line at aiming their weapons at my friend. "Hey," I said, scooping Happy into my arms. I could still feel the fear radiating from his body in waves. "Who the hell are you jerks, and what do you want?"
A slim figure broke formation and came forward. At first glance, I thought it was a guy, but a second look revealed feminine features. She stared at me fearlessly, and for a split second I had to admire her courage. "We are the tribe of this forest, the Ramani. And you are trespassing on our lands. I do not know how you got here, but–"
I laughed. The sound was loud in the whispery sort of silence you find in the woods. "What, is that all? Sorry 'bout that!" Depositing Happy on my shoulder and walking forward, I held out my hand with a good-natured smile. "Yeah, that was our bad. See, we were flying overhead and Happy dropped me. Didn't mean to end up on your turf or anything." The girl shook my hand warily, her narrowed brown eyes watching me with cautious intelligence. But already, my thoughts were back on my purpose. How long would this delay us? How much time could we afford to waste? How soon could we get away? "So, yeah, nice to meet you. But we really should be going–"
"Not so fast." A slender hand shot out to grasp my wrist as I slunk backwards. "My father will want to meet you, to ensure you mean no harm to our tribe or this forest. Come." With an imperious tug, she was dragging us away into the depths of the forest. She was ridiculously strong, and all I could do was be pulled along and watch Lucy's smiling face fade into the distance.
LUCY
By the time I finished spilling my guts, Erza had discovered several new expressions not formerly known to humanity, and I had managed to stop crying. Now she and I were silent, sitting in Sting's claustrophobic little office, not meeting each other's eyes. "So. That's why..." I said finally. "That's why I left. And... I don't know, Erza, but no matter what I do, it feels wrong. Staying at the guild felt wrong, so I left, and now being away feels wrong too and I want to go home but I don't know how and I don't think I can." I ended in a rush of breath and buried my face in my hands. "This is pointless. I'm going in circles and I can't get out of this damned loop."
"Lucy." I didn't look up. "Lucy, look at me." Slowly, my eyes traced their way upward to meet hers. She smiled at me. "How long have you been agonizing over this?" I frowned.
"I don't know. A long time." Erza tilted her head and gazed at me.
"And how long have you been in love with that idiot?" I let my eyes close, giving in to the faded memories of days gone by. Meeting an pink-haired weirdo who was looking for his adoptive father – a dragon. Treating that same idiot to highly embarrassing lunch as thanks. Being saved for the first time by him. Following him to Fairy Tail, and finding my new family there. All the years that came after.
"I don't know that either. Maybe since I met him. Maybe ten seconds after that. Maybe ten days later. Maybe a year after." I sighed. "A very long time ago."
I could feel the warmth of Erza's laugh through the cold crystal sphere. "And what was it like when you loved him without worrying about what came after that?"
I paused. Before I started worrying... It was funny, I had almost forgotten there was such a time. But..."It was... indescribable."
I opened my eyes and stared up at the ceiling. I don't know what I expected to find there. An explanation? Justification? Comfort? But I didn't find any of those things.
"Is that what they call happiness, Erza?"
Instead, I found peace.
NATSU
"Hey, let me go! I have to get going! If I don't hurry, I'm going to miss her!" The stupid tribe woman still wouldn't let go, and we just kept going farther into the damned forest. "I'm serious! I'm not here to spy on you people or anything, so LET ME GO ALREADY!" She didn't even flinch.
"Meet my father, prove your innocence, and then you may be on your way." That was all she would say. Prove my innocence how? Put on a puppet show for them? And how long was it going to take? We had already been walking for ten minutes! No, five? Maybe fifteen? An hour? Anyway, a long time!
"Natsu," Happy whispered in my ear. He was still on my shoulder, clinging to my neck. "We might not make it if this takes too long." I nodded grimly.
"Yeah." I directed my attention back to the girl and took a deep breath. "HEY YOU! LET US GO RIGHT NOW! YOU DON'T KNOW WHO YOU'RE MESSING WITH HERE, LADY!"
I suppose I was a little too loud, especially since I was shouting right in her ear.
She let go of my wrist and sank to the ground, one hand clamped to her ear. Her eyes were shut tight and she was biting her lip. On my shoulder, I could hear Happy freaking out, screaming that I'd killed her and he hadn't meant for me to do that. I sighed and crouched next to the girl.
"Hey. You okay?" Her chin dipped a fraction of an inch and lifted again, which I took to be a yes. I stood. "Great! Then we'll just–"
"IDIOT!" I cringed and twisted my head to frown at Happy.
"What now? I made sure she was okay." He glowered at me.
"What if she gets attacked or something? You probably caused semi-permanent damage to her ear. She won't be able to defend herself if we leave her here!" I slumped. Happy jumped off my shoulder and landed lightly on the ground.
"But..." I grasped for a reason, any reason. "What about those guys who were with her before? Aren't they following us? Why can't they take her themselves?" My partner's already-large eyes widened.
"And what do you think they'll do to us when they find their leader incapacitated? Hmm?" He was glaring now. "Just hurry it up so we can leave already!" I heaved an enormous sigh and lifted the girl over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
"Wait," she whispered. "Put me down. I'll be fine. You don't have to–"
"No can do, lady. Happy's right – I can't leave you there." I smiled at her. "Consider this my apology." She huffed, but I could tell her heart wasn't in it.
"Very well. But you'll have to tell me your name as well." I shrugged, starting off into the trees in the direction we had been going before.
"I'm Natsu, and this guy here is Happy. He's a flying, talking cat from an island in the sky." I knit my brows. "Or was it a different dimension? I don't remember. Anyway, he's got some fancy name–"
"I'm an Exceed, Natsu," the feline in question interjected. "Nice to meet you, lady. I like fish." The girl slung over my shoulder laughed.
"How cute. And is there anything exceptional about you, Natsu, or are you just particularly loud?"
I grinned proudly. "Hell yeah there is! I'm a Fire Dragon-Slayer, and the two of us are members of Fairy Tail!"
"Isn't that the wizard guild that won the Grand Magic Games this year?" My grin widened.
"That's right. You get that kind of news out here?"
She never got a chance to reply, because we emerged into a huge encampment. People everywhere stopped what they were doing and stared at us with horror and fear. Happy nudged me. "Natsu, put her down now." I set the tribe girl on her feet, keeping my hands on her shoulders until I was sure she had her balance.
"Thank you–"
"LAKI!" She startled and swung around at high speed, swaying dizzily. Some guy with an elaborate red tattoo on half of his face was sprinting toward us, a decorated spear in hand. The men and women standing frozen had to scramble to get out of his way.
"Muranu, wait!" The girl moved unsteadily to stand between the charging dude and me. "This boy is not an enemy!" The Muranu guy was forced to stop or impale his tribe member.
"Laki, what on earth are you doing protecting this boy? He attacked you!" he shouted, rage clear in his eyes. "He is an enemy of the tribe!" The tribe girl – Laki – gritted her teeth, and I realized her ear must still be sensitive. I frowned.
"He did not attack me. I was bringing him here against his will and he shouted in my ear. It was my fault for being unprepared." The trees behind us rustled, and I knew without looking that the men who had been with her were there too.
The scowl still wasn't leaving his face. "Then what was he doing in our forest in the first place?" Laki flinched, her hand lifting to protect her ear. I stepped forward.
"We were flying over, but there was an accident and we fell down here. We didn't mean to trespass on your land. It was our bad."
"Flying over?" Muranu laughed skeptically. "On what? And where is it? Your story has too many holes, pink-haired boy." I glared at the jerk and reached to pat Happy's head.
"Happy, show him what I mean."
"Aye sir!" Happy shouted, sprouting wings and soaring high above the trees. The tribe people gasped and cheered. "How do you like this, you jerk? Nyeahhhhhhh!" He stuck out his tongue and made a face at the reddening tribe guy. Muranu's fingers clenched on the wooden spear shaft.
"The hell..." he muttered. "How dare you... MAKING A FOOL OF ME!" He shoved Laki out of the way and charged, roaring at the top of his lungs. I grabbed the spearhead and lit my hand on fire, burning it to molten stone and letting it drip out of my fist to the ground. Watching it, I listened to his labored breaths and waited for his head to clear a little.
"What do you think you're doing, pushing her like that?"
"Huh?"
I glared at him, disgusted. "What are you doing pushing your friend aside like that? She's not some object to be shoved out of the way! You're supposed to protect your friends, not hurt them." I turned, casting a last scornful look at him out of the corner of my eye. "Treat her like a person, bastard." I lifted my head to find Happy circling the clearing and called him down. "OI! We're leaving!" He came swooping down and caught me by the back of my shirt, lifting us both back into the open air.
"NATSU!" I glanced down and smiled at Laki, who was staring up at me with wide, happy eyes. "THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR HELP!" She was already shrinking and disappearing between the trees. I grinned hugely and waved.
"SEE YOU AGAIN, LAKI!"
LUCY
If there's anything I have learned in my life, it's that peace is fleeting. Sometimes you get a few days, or if you're really lucky, months or years. In this case, it lasted about five seconds.
"But, Erza, what am I supposed to do?" The beautiful and terrible Titania Erza shrugged.
"How should I know?" I gaped.
"But..." She shrugged again, this time with a wink and a thumbs-up.
"You'll figure it out!"
I sighed. That was so not helpful. In the silence, the noises from downstairs came through the floorboards, and I realized that I had to go before Sting came back and found me still in his office. "Sorry, Erza, I have to go. I promised I'd be out of here by now. Thanks for listening to me." I smiled slowly. "I miss you guys."
Erza smiled back. "Come home soon, okay? We all miss you too." The screen blinked out before I could reply. After a moment, I got up and set the ball back on the shelf.
"Right, time to go make some money!"
Next chapter should be interesting. Hope you guys enjoyed this one! (Random side note: fro some reason, I keeping accidentally hitting the caps lock button, but it never works when I actually mean to hit it. Irony sucks.)
Oh, btw, ThatGuyYouMetOnce just finished his Lucy x OC fic Bonds and Scars, so you should definitely check that out, especially if you're into action/fight fics. He also started a Rogura fic which is shaping up to be pretty good. I recommend both!
Hopefully, the next chapter will be up by this weekend. It's unlikely. But I promise it'll be finished by next weekend (the 22nd and 23rd, I think). Make sure to review by then if you want me to put you on here.
Later! ~Giselle