I'm actually in the middle of writing chapter 33, so it might be up tomorrow or something.
"YOU!"
The loud masculine scream that resonated through out all of Fiore the moment we all entered the clearing was the first sign that this day wasn't going to end well.
I was still on Sting's back, talking with Emily and V when I heard it. An angry stampeding coming from the distance, like a herd of cattle was coming right at us and I was pretty sure everyone else heard it too. Sting had tensed up immediately upon hearing it, shifting my weight on his back so he wouldn't drop me as he moved into an offensive stance. Rogue was doing the same thing beside his partner.
I was about to reassure the two dragon slayers on how they needn't worry when I felt all the air being knocked out of me and a pair of arms that literally threw me off of Sting and onto the grassy ground.
Emily made a sound in the background as I groaned in pain and instantly thrust my knee upwards. Someone had screamed out in a hoarse voice as the person over top of me withered in pain.
"Must you always, En?" I muttered under my breath and tried to shake him off as he quickly recovered and grabbed a fistful of my hair.
"Two minutes, Lilian." The archer growled back darkly, grinding his teeth in irritation. "I take my eyes off of you for two minutes and you're already going all over the place! What's the big idea-"
"Oh my god! Don't lecture me, mom!" My free hand flew up without me realizing it and I cupped his cheeks tightly with one hand, not even caring that my nails were digging into his skin.
En leaned forward without a word, ignoring all the glares and curses I chanted under my breath and bit me. Hard. My eyes widened almost immediately as I felt him tear through skin but before I could even think of starting a fight; I felt someone tearing the both of us about, grabbing my collar and lifting me up off the ground as another person grabbed En by the hair and shoved him away.
"Catty aren't we," I heard my captor mutter under his breath and I looked up to see Sting, looking every bit as pissed and distracted, glaring at En with a strange look on his face. He broke his glare though when he realized I was looking at him and in a louder voice said, "Geez, lard ass. Control yourself."
"He bit me!" I protested loudly, lifting up the wounded arm as evidence. Sometimes I felt more like a five-year old than an adult.
Nonetheless, I tried not to think much on how he took my arm and started rubbing the blood off with his thumb lightly.
"She started it!" En complained in the background before getting slapped upside the head by Auguston. Sting didn't say anything as I stuck my tongue out at En.
"Not even a week, Zato! And you're already picking fights with her," I heard the lieutenant colonel say in disbelief as he shook the marksman by the collar like a dish wag, "a week!"
"I'm disappointed in you, Lils." My head snapped back at Sting who was shaking his own head, though it was with more force than usual. I gave him a strange look as he set me down onto the ground and crossed his arms. The look he trying to give me somewhat reminded me of a disappointed yet awkward mom's.
Lils? Is he honestly going to call me that? I couldn't help but think to myself among other things.
At this point everyone was probably thinking the same thought in their heads- what the hell just happened...
Or maybe just Rogue wondered that since I was pretty sure that Emily, V and Ken were already used to our antics back when I was still in LS.
Though I could've sworn I saw Rogue trying to hide a small smile behind his glove as Fro stared at us with that blank wide-eyed gaze of her's.
"And I here thought we were going to set a good example..." Sting's voice snapped me back to reality. I gave him a skeptical look and rolled my eyes. Obviously, he wasn't being serious. He was just trying to screw with me- or he was just trying to make it seem like he really cared.
Whatever he was trying to do, it was with such a unnatural tone that I was surprised that no one called him out on it. Being around this many people made his shoulders slump slightly, and maybe it wasn't anything but he seemed to frame his body so that it shielded me from most of my old guild mate's sights as he tried to play it off as being playful.
I really did try to take his mind off things back in the castle and for a while it worked. But the more time we spent here, the more I started to regret thinking taking them out to the picnic was a good idea.
My inner musings were cut short once again when I heard someone running towards us and a loud cry of "THEY'RE HERE" before we were all swarmed by mages I had all knew on a personal level what seemed like a millennium ago. I almost let myself be swept away with the crowd if it hadn't been for more constant reminders to myself that Sting and Rogue were all new to this bonding nakama thing. I felt myself smiling as I navigated through the crowd and found Sting and Rogue standing awkwardly by themselves. Rogue looked like he was holding Fro a bit too tightly as people buzzed by him.
"C'mon!" I said, feeling my mood turn a complete 360 as I slipped my hands into both of their arms. "I have some people I need to introduce you to."
After a fun hour of introductions, picnic mats were all spread out and food magically floated out of the wicker baskets and placed themselves onto the mats like magnetic pieces coming together.
Sting, Rogue, Frosch and I all stared in bewilderment on one of the larger mats just as a series of plastic cups placed themselves in front of us, a canteen of apple juice following soon after it. I almost squealed at the sight of the beverage. And I think Sting must've caught wind of my reaction because he turned his head slightly towards me and gave a small laugh.
He stopped teasing me however when I grabbed a floating canteen and chucked it at him, dumping the contents all over the white dragon slayer. He glowered at me as he grabbed the nearest food item and gave me a challenging look. I couldn't help but notice the small twinkle returning to his eyes, if he wouldn't talk about it, fine but that wouldn't stop me from trying to cheer him up. There was a collective laugh before we started a small food fight; ignoring all the looks and mutters we roused from all around us.
Even if I had been in LS for most of my childhood, this was the first magical picnic I attended. Apparently this was a new thing for the guild too; Emily had told me briefly as we were heading to the park that Master Apollon only ordered these picnic when he thought the guild deserved it. Personally I thought if it was like that then, everyday was a picnic for them. Honestly, everyone looked so busybody and happy that it was sort of hard not believe that they weren't doing this for a living.
I almost bit my tongue. Man for guests, we were pretty polite. A loud noise stopped Sting from shoving ketchup down my vest and we both turned our heads to see what was happening. I met the eyes of my old mentor almost immediately and felt myself shiver under his gaze.
Oh, Alexander was going to have a field day when he learns that I needed to retrain myself to get used to my original magic.
"Who's that?" I tried not to pay attention to the fact Sting had leaned closer towards me, placing a hand almost right behind my back to steady himself as he pointed at the man standing beside Alexander. Alexander was still staring at me when I turned my head away to look at Sting and then to the person he was pointing at who was now hitting my old mentor with his walking stick.
I squinted my eyes at the sight. No... that can't be...
The man stopped his abuse for a second and looked up and scanned the guild, his eyes falling on us a few seconds longer than the rest before he finally set his walking stick down and left Alexander to pick himself back up.
Oh my god. It was.
"That's Master Apollon," I whispered, "He's... um nice."
"I don't know man, he just beat that guy up with a branch." Sting muttered back at me, our eyes never leaving the old man. The small edge in his voice was so mistakable for a change in tone that I almost missed it.
I heard the white dragon slayer's breath hitch beside me when we both realized that Master Apollon was now walking. Walking towards us.
"What did you guys do?" Rogue asked, if only a little bit interested as he observed the two of us. My mind was too far away to hear Frosch giggle despite herself about how we both shivered at the same time.
"Sting, what did you do?" I repeated suspiciously as I took my cup of apple juice and took a huge gulp.
I heard him give a huge laugh as he punched me lightly on the arm, "Me? You were the one who got into a fight not five seconds upon coming here."
"You were the one who fought with Krued!"
"Yah, but he didn't see that."
"He has eyes everywhere, man. I doubt that." I heard Sting give a small laugh as we both fell deathly silent as the intimidating figure of the second L'arc Sibyl guild master loomed over us.
And he did not seem pleased.
Yah my pacing is bad, I kind of realized that when I was naming chapters yesterday. And the size of the chapters are inconsistent, which isn't really something I could fix or else it would mean more chapters and the risk of losing readers and losing interest in this story altogether...I don't know, I'll see what I could do with the pacing but if it gets worst then hah, you're fully entitled to flame me all you want.
Review?