Ch. 5 - Glowing Green Eyes
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Recap:
The giant panther seemed to look into her eyes, before opening it's mouth. She couldn't help but notice that it was filled with razor-sharp teeth that put all her daggers to shame.
'Oh, crap,' Lucy thought.
—
'Oh, crap,' Lucy thought, squeezing her eyes shut. She braced herself for the pain.
It's roar was the loudest, most thunderous roar Lucy had ever heard compared to anything else she had ever fought in this particular jungle. And she had fought many things this past month.
It's fangs were half the size of her head. 'How was it losing to the monkey thing? It looks pretty damn strong to me,' Lucy wondered, despite the current situation.
She waited for the pain to come.
Any second now…
No?
Instead of fangs sinking in her skull, giving her an inevitable death, instead she heard a shuffling noise. She cracked an eye open. She opened her eyes just in time to see it limp into the forest. It slinked away, no doubt painfully. After that roar to the face, she didn't really feel like going after it. Lucy turned away biting her lip.
She looked up at the sky, dusted with bright stars across the dark blue sky. Was it nightfall already? Lucy gathered some twigs and created a small fire, deciding to stay in the clearing. She fell back into her daily routine, sitting crosslegged on the forest floor and meditating. She sat there focusing on the sounds of nature. A fly buzzed. A woodpecker pecked at a tree, probably a couple kilometres away. Something near her snapped. Wait… something snapped?
Snap.
Quick as a flash, Lucy had her dagger out, and jumped up gracefully into a battle stance. Her eyes swept across the vicinity, and the quickly spotted a pair of glowing green eyes. They looked slightly… familiar. A low growl emitted from the direction of the eyes.
'Oh,' Lucy realized, still standing in her battle stance. 'Um.'
She suddenly had a fabulous idea. She almost snapped her fingers, but decided better of it. It was a somewhat dangerous idea, but fabulousness was more important then safety. Sometimes. Maybe. Probably not, but whatever.
Slowly and cautiously, Lucy reached down to her canvas bag. She stuck a slim hand inside, and, keeping her eyes on the giant panther thing, felt around until she found what she was looking for.
She took the bundle out slowly and carefully unwrapped it. Turns out it was much more difficult to do this with only one hand and not looking.
She finally unwrapped the bundle to reveal a piece of a cooked leftover duck she had roasted a couple days ago, which she forgot about. She drew her hand back and gently chucked it toward the beast. 'Maybe it will just take the meat and go away now,' she thought. 'Or it could see me as a source of food and try to eat me, but I could probably take it down, given the condition it's in right now.'
The emerald eyes snapped to the meat, then, quick as ever, looked back up at her and then looked at the dagger she was holding. Lucy grimaced. 'Smart,' she thought.
Slowly she extended the dagger out to her side, letting it dangle from her fingers before dropping it and kicking it away.
Almost instantaneously, it's eyes went from narrow and 'I-am-a-predator-and-you-are-the-prey look to wide and curious. It was kind of cute, actually. Nevertheless, the kept her battle stance ready, and put her hands over her pouch of keys incase it decided to pounce on her.
The beast moved forward, slow and graceful. It was beautiful, actually. It's big green eyes and dilated pupils contrasted against it's silky fur. Even though it still had some wounds from earlier and if it was limping, it was still magnificent. It also looked very tired.
It snatched up the food and swallowed it whole. It gazed at her once again. Lucy gulped.
It, thankfully, turned away. She could probably fight it and win, but it wasn't really a fair fight, considering how beat up it was.
It started to slink away, and right when Lucy was about to sigh with relief, she heard a thump.
The giant panther had collapsed.
Forgetting any fear she had once held for the beast, she grabbed her bag and her dagger and was by it's side in a flash.
She grabbed a casket of water from her bag and hurriedly washes the wounds on it's body. She wiped them with a spare shirt she had in her bag.
She then inspected the paw that caused the cat to collapse. It was about the size of her torso. Well then. There goes the water.
She washed it gently with all the water she had left and wrapped it up hastily with a roll of bandages she had in her bag. (Compliments of Sakimo.) She almost had to use the whole roll the wrap it's paw. Also, in the process, she realized it was a male.
The whole time, he was watching Lucy with interest in his emerald eyes. About an hour later she was finished, and she stepped back and admired her handiwork.
She stood there for a second, wondering, 'Oh man. What am I supposed to do now?' Lucy thought for a minute, and then settled on just leaving it there. God knows she couldn't move it.
Luckily, he was laying right below this nice tree branch Lucy could spend the night on. She backed toward the now sputtering fire still keeping her eyes on him. She killed the fire with a handful of sand.
She walked back to the animal and whisked out her whip. She hoisted herself easily onto the tree branch. 'Doing this every day does make it easier,' she thought, amused. She looked her bag and her bow off her shoulders and laid it next to her quiver of magically replenishing arrows. Her dagger always stayed in her boot and her whip on her belt, though. One can never be too careful.
She stretched out, thinking that trees were now quite comfortable to her. She glanced down at the black animal laying below her and heard it breathing evenly.
She settled back down, using her canvas bag as a pillow. She was soon immersed in her thoughts.
'Natsu…' she thought. Every night, almost as if it was part of her routine, she thought about Natsu. She missed everybody else too, of course, but she always thought about Natsu. She missed him more then anything else.
She was snapped out of her thoughts when the beast below her shifted.
Her last thought before dozing off to sleep was, 'Why the hell do I even care about this stupid cat anyway…'
—Magnolia—
—Natsu's home—
In the midst of his cluttered house, Natsu was stretched out on his hammock, trying to imagine that it was Lucy's bed in her previous apartment. Giving up, he sat up on his hammock, folding his arms behind his head. He stared out the window, watching the night sky.
"Natsu?" a tiny voice asked.
"Yeah, Happy?" Natsu replied distractedly.
Happy awkwardly shuffled his paws before asking, almost hesitantly, "Do you miss Lushee?"
Natsu turned around to face the blue Exceed.
"Yeah," he muttered. "More then anything," he added under his breath.
"Then," Happy began, "If you know she's coming back, why do you miss her so much? I mean, we all miss her, but you're the only one still showing it. Why?" he asked quietly.
Natsu sighed, turning away. "I dunno, Happy," he replied. "I just… miss her."
Happy sighed, flying up to the hammock to sit beside Natsu.
"Oi, Happy?" Natsu murmured.
"Mhm?"
"Do you miss her as much as I do?"
Happy paused for a second before responding. "I think you miss her the most because she was more then a friend to you."
Natsu sighed again. "How do you think I feel about her, Happy? Give me an honest answer."
Happy looked up at Natsu. "You hafta figure that out for yourself, Natsu," he replied softly.
Natsu gazed out the window. "I know, Happy," he closed his eyes. "I just don't know at the same time." He looked down.
Happy curled up next to Natsu. "You'll figure it out, Natsu," he repeated, before falling alseep.
"Ah." Natsu closed his eyes and tried to once again imagine he was lying in Lucy's previous apartment.
'Lucy…'
—Rimoro Village—
—Earlier that day—
"Sakimo, I think I'm going to go hunt…" Rimo said to his sister.
Sakimo raised an eyebrow. 'you went hunting yesterday. and lucy is probably really deep into the forest already, you won't be able to find her, you know. rimoro forest is practically endless." Sakimo wrote, smirking.
Rimo's fierce eyes locked with Sakimo's mischievous ones. "I'm not going to look for her," he insisted.
Sakimo grinned and shrugged, turning back to the vegetables she was chopping up. She waited, counting down the seconds with her tan fingers.
3…
2…
1…
"I think we're low on berries. Are we low on berries? I think we are. I should go get some more, hey? I'll go thi-" He was cut of by a piece of paper shoved in his face.
'rimo, only the children go berry picking. besides, they went this morning,' it said. A second note was thrusted on top. 'i am telling you, lucy is fine. she is a very determined woman!'
Rimo gave his sister a killer glare, one that anybody in the village would be frightened by. His sister, however, stood, unfazed. Intsead, yet another note is shoved in his face. There, in neat handwriting and horrible grammar, were the fateful words.
'i can see why you liiiike her.' Rimo lowered the note to see a smirking Sakimo. There was really only one thing he could think to say.
"Rolling your tongue doesn't work when you write it," he snapped, before storming out of the house. Seconds later she heard him yelling at the children of the village to not play in front of the huts.
Sakimo turned back to her vegetables, smiling. She greatly enjoyed tormenting her brother.
—Rimoro Forest—
—The next day—
Lucy woke with a start, sweating and panting hard. She could never remember the dreams she had, but she always knew they were vivid and chilling. They were more like nightmares, actually. Shaking her head, she put her bow and quiver on her shoulders and grabbed her bag. Before she jumped down, she craned her neck to see if the beast was still there.
All she saw was the flattened vegetation.
She shrugged, 'Eh. I don't care anyway.' Deep down, however, she wondered where it was off to so early. It couldn't have healed that fast, right?
"Meh," she murmured, before jumping down lightly from the high tree branch and heading to the river.
As usual, she stripped down and dived into the river, receiving an ice-cold wake up call. Deciding wearing the same thing for a month was a little gross, she summoned Virgo.
"Is it time for punishment, Princess?" Virgo said, as she appeared out of the settling dust.
Lucy groaned. "Don't say that, Virgo!"
"I am terribly sorry, Princess. Please punish me," she requested.
"No!" Lucy yelled. "I actually just need more clothes. I've been wearing the same ones for the whole month and it's a bit disgusting, considering I never wash them."
"Hai Princess, I will return shortly," Virgo replied, disappearing. Lucy swam around while she waited. Virgo popped back on the riverbank again. Holding a pile of neatly folded clothes. "Clothes, Princess. It is going to be fall soon, so I am giving you warmer clothes. Black, as usual."
"Thank you, Virgo," Lucy said happily, getting out of the water and sending her back with the old clothes. She kept the boots and belt, though. She dried herself off and slipped into the clothes.
She was now wearing a tight-fitting black top and black jeans, a different style from the previous one. Virgo had also given her a big black flowy cloak. It had a high collar and was thick and warm. However, it wasn't too cold yet, so she folded it up and shoved it in her bag, in which it magically fit. She had also gotten a thin black sweater with a large hood, big enough to hide her face with. It was loose too, and very comfortable. Lucy smiled with satisfaction and gathered her things. She began her morning run.
Lucy was dodging trees and hopping over roots that stuck out from the ground when a big black thing jumped in her path, about 5 meters in front of her. She instinctively got out her whip and stood in her battle stance.
"You again?" she remarked. It healed surprisingly quickly, despite her hastily applied bandages. Was that a… a fox in it's mouth?
They stood there for a while, just staring at each other. "I can do this all day," she murmured to him. The beast seemed to sigh impatiently and it's eyes flicked toward the whip she held in her hand.
Lucy, deciding he was safe enough, clipped it back onto her belt and held bother her hands up, showing him that there was nothing to be afraid of. It's eyes seemed to soften and he slowly walked toward her, not even making a sound. He kept walking until he was a little less then a foot away from her. The fox dropped from his colossal jaws. It fell at her feet. She looked down at the offering. She looked back up at the beast, his large eyes staring at her expectantly.
'I wonder what would happen if I just…' Lucy extended a hand. Steadily, she reached out until her hand made contact with it's velvet fur. She stroked it for a second, in awe at how silky and soft it felt.
Suddenly, it backed up, and gazed expectantly at the meal lying at her feet. It looked at her. Lucy grinned, picking up the fox.
"Let's name you Emerald."
A/N:
I'm not kidding to say that this chapter took a while for me to put into words and such. I didn't want to put this off any longer too.
Also, I'm sorry about the cliché. Like, you know, she saves an animal from a horrible death and they become companions. I wanted her to have a non-spiritual friend. ;A; Hahahah.
Anyway, thank you so much for reading!
Do you think we can get to 25 reviews in total before I upload the next chapter?
EVERY BODY SAY, 'YEAAAH'
*cricket noises* Ohwell ;-;
Anyway, thank you for being here for me! Adnd I don't own Fairy Tail.
Review! (please.) Lol. I need the feedback! Feedback is good. Yas.
-Jo
Also if anyone is wondering how big Emerald is compared to Lucy, it's about as big as the wolf in Princess Mononoke. If you haven't seen it I suggest watching it. :D