CHAPTER 4
It's been a hard month. Brenna is no easy trainer, that's for sure, but she's a hardened survivor and there's no better teacher than the untamed wild. We camped out in the woods, hunted for our food, and trained under the sun and stars. It was hard, but it was perfect.
"Round three!" Brenna called from her position on the branch and I braced myself for a third round of ups and downs. Tree climbing proved to be a deadly weakness, considering the amount of lethal critters that roamed the ground. The piercing whistle sounded and I pulled myself up the rough bark, my fingers searching for anything that would help. When I reached her branch I slid down, gaining blister after blister and splinter after splinter. It hurt, but tomorrow it would hurt less. The ten minutes of the round passed in a blur and when the whistle sounded again I quickly slid down and leaned a bleeding palm against the trunk, working to catch my breath.
"How was it?" I panted as Brenna nimbly scaled down the trunk to stand beside me.
"Not bad. Seven repetitions." She showed me seven fingers and I rolled my eyes. What was I, a kindergartener? "Let's go wash off and then run."
Oh, yes. Running was pure bliss compared to the rest of my life. Just me, the thumping of my feet, and the burn spreading through my legs. We took a quick dip in a nearby lake and set off at a run, our clothes drying on our backs. After a couple miles Brenna called break and we walked for ten minutes before starting up again.
As my physical strength improved, controlling the pain had started to become easier. Unfortunately, each time I thought I had gain a step the agony would leap three more, leaving me behind again. Brenna was getting better, her episodes more or less stable as I gave her tips to hold the pain down, but mine kept getting worse. Life was unfair. I took it in stride and lived to see another day. Easy peasy.
We managed to figure out that the pain tended to really surface once or twice a week, and if our lives had been particularly rough it would sometimes pound in a good three times. There was no pattern, no way to prepare. We just had to hope that we were calm when it jumped on us, otherwise it would be a tough struggle.
We rediscovered our camp and I started the fire while Brenna got extra dry wood. A sudden thought struck me as I was setting the hare meat above the crackling flames, and I turned to my partner.
"Say, what magic do you use?" I asked. Brenna had used magic several times, but I could never pinpoint the type.
"I'm a jack of all trades, I guess. I know some illusion, transformation, and basic teleportation magic. Oh, and pict magic, but my main is illusion magic." She spoke thoughtfully and I fought a grin.
"So that ferocious dog was an illusion?"
"Yeah." She shrugged off her sweater and draped it around her shoulders before leaning back against a fallen tree. Her fingers absentmindedly pulled her hair to the front and began to braid it, perfect coils forming a russet chain.
"Cool. What's for tomorrow?" I flipped the hare meat.
"Sparring, running, and diving." She ticked off the items in the list. I groaned inwardly – diving was my greatest enemy. She could hold her breath for over ten minutes, while I could barely manage six.
"Wonderful." It came out as a mutter and Brenna grinned.
"I know you love it, Lucy." She teased. I rolled my eyes, tipping the center chunk of rabbit to check the underside. Once I was satisfied that the meat was cooked, I pulled it away from the flames and handed two pieces to Brenna while keeping the other two for myself. We ate our dinner in a comfortable silence, our conversation replaced by the crackling of the flames.
"How did you get cursed?" I asked, taking care to swallow before speaking. Brenna had no such worries and answered my question while tearing into her piece of hare meat.
"Oh, that's right, I never told you. To sum up my childhood, I had immense daddy issues. I didn't hold that pain in until he took away my dog to 'teach me a lesson' after I told him I hated him." She licked her fingers clean and set down her plate. "I began to realize that if I let him know of my pain he would make it worse."
"So the same basic principle." I clarified. She nodded.
"Yep. I ran, but he managed to curse me. Apparently, his genius plan was that I would be forced to come back to get rid of the curse. Contrary to his plan, he died before I became desperate enough to return. So, I'm stuck with the curse and no way out of it." She finished with a dramatic eye roll and a flick of her wrist. I giggled at her exaggeration – we both knew that she wasn't stuck with the curse. She just had to find someone who would listen. I was more than willing to be that person, but Brenna refused and told me that I already had enough on my plate as is.
"Do you know who?" My eyes followed a spark as it floated out of the campfire.
"Yeah, I have an idea." Her tone was slightly wistful. "What about you?"
"I…" A memory of Natsu in my old apartment, smiling while robbing my fridge, surfaced and the pain squirmed under its binds. "Give me a moment."
She nodded and I stood, walking into the darkness that made up the woods around us. My jaw clenched and my nails bit into my palms, sweat forming on my hairline as I struggled with my emotions. The world began to blur and weave in mindless patterns, forcing me to use a tree for support. More once-pleasant memories bubbled up and tears slid down my cheeks. I wanted to hurt someone, anyone. I wanted them to feel the same pain. I caught myself and squished the vengeful desire under my thumb, mashing it repeatedly until it was no more than a speck of dirt. The pain settled back down in the little black box and I let out a long sigh, barely audible over the sounds of the woods. I forced myself to relax, enjoying the rare moment of peaceful solitude that followed each hit.
"Lucy?" Brenna's voice reached me slowly, like it had to break through several walls first.
"I'm good." I whispered, more to reassure myself than anything else, before turning my back to the woods and making my way back to our campfire. Large emerald eyes caught my own.
"I think it's pretty obvious who it is." She said softly. I nodded, not knowing how else to respond.
"But how can I tell him if just thinking about him makes me want to rip people to shreds?" I muttered, sitting down next to her and leaning my head on her shoulder.
"We just have to get stronger. You know, it'll be much easier for me." Brenna finished with a tease to her words.
"Huh?"
"The dead listen better than anyone, Lucy."
"You're going to speak to his grave?"
"Maybe. Maybe not. I haven't decided yet." Brenna began braiding again. She had a very interesting habit of plaiting her hair when thinking, and most of the time she didn't notice until someone pointed it out for her.
"We should go to bed. You spent all that time planning out a nice little torture session for me, and I'd hate to miss it." I drawled, moving to unroll my sleeping bag.
"Har-de-har-har. Hilarious, lady Lucy. You should consider being a prison comedian as a profession." Brenna answered with just as much sarcasm, if not more, and pulled out her own sleeping bag. We stretched out on opposite sides of the campfire, heads facing the same way. Soap wasn't in overabundance, and sleeping with stinky feet to the face was next to impossible for both of us.
"Brenna?"
"Hm?" Her voice was muffled by her sleeping bag, and I turned to face her so she would hear my question clearly.
"How do you think it's all going to play out?" I murmured, slightly afraid of the answer. Orange danced in Brenna's eyes.
"What do you want me to say?" Her tone was dead serious. That was enough of an answer for me. It would be very, very hard.
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe you could pat my head and tell me it's going to be alright." I drawled, smirking. Brenna's lips twitched upwards in the beginning of a grin, but, as usual, they collapsed halfway there. I've never seen her smile, rather glimpsing ghosts of grins and smirks in her eyes or catching the occasional lift of her lips.
"Nah. It's way more fun to exaggerate it in the other direction." She paused for drama. "It'll be so painful, it'll feel like you're being ripped apart, rebuilt, and then rebuilt again. You'll scream forever and ever and ever and it'll never stop!"
I couldn't help but laugh. Our jokes might have taken on sour touches, but they fit our situation pretty well. Brenna helped me get through each day, and I helped her. We both knew there was someone else who understood, and that did wonders.
"Sure. And pigs will fly." I shot back.
"We can test that theory." Brenna replied, a challenge in her eyes. I blinked twice and cracked a large smile. Something bearing more resemblance to a real smirk crossed Brenna's face.
"Is the great and mighty Brenna actually smiling?" I teased, yanking the sleeping bag over my head as her stare turned a scary combination of deadly and playful.
"Luuucy! Hiding, are we?" Brenna's voice was way closer the before. I peeked out to see her directly above me and couldn't stop the involuntary jump of my shoulders.
"Brenna!" I swatted at her and she dodged my hit with lazy ease. I began to untangle myself from my sleeping bag to go and chase after her when a floodwave of very familiar heat washed over me. We both froze, eyes locked on the darkness from which the wave had come from. The pain ripped free of its restraints and tore at me, demanding vengeance.
"Lucy?" Brenna's eyes jumped from the darkness to me and back. I put a finger to my lips and mouthed, "We need to hurry." Without a moment of doubt, Brenna rolled up her sleeping bag and fastened the loose end with two straps. Five handfuls of dirt were enough to squash the remains of our fire. I stuffed our supplies into our backpacks, my hands automatically distributing the content for equal weight while Brenna took care of my sleeping bag. We were up and moving in less than two minutes, our scents covered up by several branches laden with stinky fruit and not a trace of our presence left behind.
My pace picked up until I was sprinting through the trees, my pack tight on my shoulders and my hands pumping freely. Brenna ran beside me, occasionally swerving away to avoid an obstacle of some sort. I had to bite my bottom lip to keep silent as the pain raged away inside. The forest began to swirl and I pushed harder, focusing on the physical exertion rather than on the pain. The outright agony subsided to a persistent throb and I knew that the moment I let myself relax it would come rushing back. To my relief, Brenna didn't ask me if I was okay. She had been teaching me to never lie about my feelings, but saying the truth might just send me over and it was more than obvious that I wasn't okay.
We kept running, trying to put as much distance between us and the source of the heat. I couldn't bring myself to even think of his name, worried that it might be too much. I stumbled once and Brenna was there to catch me, pulling me to my feet without breaking her pace. She really was my rock, more than she knew. Our mindless flight led us straight into the waiting arms of another threat – a family of Vulcans.
I skidded to a halt, Brenna nearly wrenching my arm out of its socket as her feet slid a few feet farther than mine. We began the typical staring contest, each group deciding on what they felt like doing. I locked gazes with the big guy, a massive stone ugly more than thrice my height. His arms were far too big for his body and I used that to my advantage, running up to his face while striking all the tender spots I could reach. The Vulcan bellowed in pain and my heel came into contact with his nose. The bone shattered with a hard crunch and I was thrown off as the Vulcan raised his hands up to his injury. A quick glance told me that Brenna had engaged two decently sized Vulcans while four mini Vulcans watched in confusion. I felt a twinge of sympathy for them before the big guy took up my attention again. I aimed a strong hit at the back of his knee with my left hand while my right uncoiled the whip form my waist. I managed to hit a tender spot with my follow-through kick and the Vulcan's knee buckled, allowing me to send a sharp slice to his face with my whip. It took three hits for his eyes to glaze over and the giant toppled to the ground, knocked out cold.
"Luce?" I heard him say my name and against all common sense I spun around to face him. Onyx eyes stared at me in disbelief and awe, a few spikes of pink waving in front of them. I missed my guild, I missed him, even if I couldn't admit it. I watched his look change to worry and horror as a bloodcurdling scream was torn from my mouth, the pain coming back with enough force to knock out a small army. He ran forward, but Brenna beat him to it. Her fist collided solidly with the side of his face and sent him sprawling.
"Stay away from her!" she hissed, emerald eyes deadly. She ran up to me and I immediately noticed the large blotch of purple on her shoulder.
"Brenna…" I tried to ask her about the bruise, but she yanked me to my feet. It was all I could do to stop myself from attacking him.
"Lucy, focus on me. We're going to run, okay? Think about the run." Brenna pulled me away from him and I forced my feet to move, pulling ahead of her in a dead sprint. One foot in front of the other. One in front of the other. I counted my flying steps, taking my mind away from him. The pain gurgled and drowned, having no more triggers to build on as my focus shifted elsewhere.
"Luce!" His voice shattered all of my barriers and locks. I went rolling, the pain eating me alive. The new pain was nothing compared to what was trying to devour me from the inside out. Brenna swore and grabbed my wrist.
"Hold on, Lucy." she muttered. A soft blue glow surrounded us and the next moment I was being wrenched into a pitch-black tunnel. Nothing had any feel to it, or any dimension. It was all plain darkness. As fast as I had entered the tunnel, a blinding flash of light signaled the end and I tumbled out onto a field of cropped grass, Brenna spilling out beside me. My wrist was still in her death grip, which she promptly slackened. I took the opportunity to vomit.
"Gah…" I attempted to wash away the taste with spit. Needless to say, I failed miserably. "Did you teleport us?"
"Yeah. I had to get us out of there before you lost it." Brenna leaned back on her elbows and squinted apologetically at the puddle of vomit.
"Thanks." I mumbled, at loss for what to say. I'd known it would be hard, but just how hard was it? I couldn't even look at him without withering on the spot.
"Hey." Brenna's hand slipped under my chin and forced my face up so she could look me in the eye. "Think of that little episode as a baseline. You'll have to work your way up from there."
I nodded, determination flooding through me. It was only the first month, after all. Brenna gave me a half-smile and I shot her a full grin in return. We'd work our way out together, and soon we'd be completely free of the curse. Fairy Tail would just have to wait some more.