Fire is catching
Chapter 33
Author's Note: Hey guys! Thanks for the huge amount of reviews I got for my last chapter :) We now arrived at the part of the story I've been looking forward to ever since I started writing this fanfiction. Lucy and Natsu have finally met in the games, so let's see how they'll continue to try to survive the hunger games. I hope that you'll enjoy it!
It doesn't take long for me to lose track of time as I'm thrown up and down while Natsu carries me through the woods. My body is still worn out and tired, so it's not surprising that I find myself drifting away rather quickly.
Waking up I realize that I'm in a completely new surrounding, once again. At least this time, I have memories of what happened before I fell asleep, although I'm still not sure whether it was a dream or reality.
I'm lying on a meadow surrounded by high rocks, a little valley, apart from the rest of the arena. The meadow and even the grey rocks are covered by flowers that look like tiny flames, the dragon flowers. Those flowers trigger something inside of me and I walk towards them, as if in trance, twirl their bright petals between my fingers, squeeze them until their mysterious, smoky scent fills my nostrils.
As I stare at them everything comes back to me, all at once, Wendy soaked with blood, her lying on a bed of flowers her eyes closed forever, me drowning in the grief, Gajeel punching me, a wicked, haunting grin on his face, cutting my flesh open, torturing me, all the pain, the desperation, everything that happened in the last days, all the torture, it's all back. I stumble backwards, press my eyes shut and cover my ears with my hands. A loud, aggressive ringing has filled my ears as the images of pain rain down upon me. I start screaming, trying to drown out the horrible ringing noise with my own voice. I try to slow my breathing but instead it just gets faster and faster and everything starts spinning and I can feel my knees getting weak and suddenly I feel a touch my arm.
This sudden and unexpected gesture sends a jolt of panic through my body, I automatically think that I'm being attacked, that the career came back for me, so I start swinging my arms around aimlessly, punching and kicking the air, panic stricken. Then I feel two arms around me, trying to hold me still but I continue to struggle as images of Gajeel's wicked face still haunt me.
Terrified, I kick around me and even though I feel my legs connect with something that feels like skin the grip doesn't loosen. From far far away I hear somebody talking to me in a steady voice: "Lucy, calm down, calm down, you're all right." But I don't trust those words for a bit, instead I scream as I try to pull my arms out of the strong grip and my screams start to mix with sobs as I realize that I'm not succeeding, that I don't stand a chance. Still I continue to try to fight against it but my attempts get weaker and weaker until they shrink down to a pathetic jerk.
I give up and let the tears roll over my face as the memories continue to flash up inside my mind. A warm, big hand starts to gently run through my hair, caressing my head without me actively noticing it. A soft voice murmurs "Shhh, it's okay now" and I just let myself be reassured as my breathing is slowly getting more steady and my body is calming down. After some more minutes my mind has finally cleared up and I realize where I am. I press my face into a piece of white fabric with a black square scale pattern on it and as I look up I see sad black onyx eyes looking back at me. I stumble back and break out of his arms, suddenly embarrassed of my sudden panic attack. "I'm sorry", I mumble as I clear my throat, "I'm fine now" and I turn around so that Natsu can't see my face that is still ghostly white. I'm annoyed that my fingers are still shaking and my body is trembling all over but I can't do anything against it.
"You just remembered, right?"
"Yeah…yeah I did" I say and bite my lip as a new wave of fear rolls over me.
"I'm sorry I didn't come earlier, I could've spared you so much pain but…"
"Don't be. You saved my life…but I just don't understand."
"What?"
Taking a deep breath I squeeze my own hands trying to keep them still and turn around to look him straight into the eyes: "Why did you save me?"
His face remains calm and unreadable as he says: "Because you're my friend, I wouldn't let my friends die, especially not at the hands of such an idiot like Gajeel"
Out of all the things I would've expected him to answer, this definitely wasn't among them.
"Your friend?" I stutter "You don't even know me!"
"Well that's even worse! You would've died without ever having the chance of becoming my friend, I couldn't let that happen!" A big goofy grin spreads on his face and I can't help but to smile a little too. Whatever his true motives were, I am so glad that he did save me, that I have the chance to take a few more breaths.
"Now, you look as if you could have some food, don't you?"
"Yes" I chuckle "I really do."
He starts trotting further into the valley and I decide to follow him. Now that I've calmed down I have a better opportunity to take in the beautiful scenery. A wall of rock so high that it looks as if it's tickling the clouds sets us apart from the arena. It looks as if somebody has sprinkled the dark rocks with dots of red, orange and yellow color to bright them up a little bit and even the entire ground is covered with the beautiful dragon flowers. This strangely reminds me of something, of another place I've been to, no, a place I've read about… And then I remember.
My hand automatically slips into the pocket of my skirt to grab the collection of Fairy tales I carried with me, but instead my fingers curl around emptiness. I must've lost the book in the troubling events.
I quicken my pace to catch up with Natsu: "What is this place? I mean, where are we?"
"What a stupid question, in the arena of course"
I raise my eyebrows in mild offense: "Yeah duh, I know that we're in the arena but where exactly? I've never seen those rocks…not even from the high plateau…"
"You actually have seen them, just from the wrong the side. Those are the same rocks as the ones where I found you, you just have to follow them for a while and you'll come across a narrow crack in the wall. It's really well hidden and you would never notice it if you weren't looking for it. It's just big enough for a human to squeeze through, but nobody would try that I guess. It would mean that you'd have to crawl through complete darkness, trapped between cold rock walls for quite a while, nothing I can recommend."
"Well then, why did you even do it in the first place?"
He shrugs his shoulders and adds: "I had a feeling, whatever, it doesn't matter…"
We settle down around a small fireplace and Natsu starts staring at me expectantly.
After a while of awkward silence I ask: "What? Are you waiting for something?"
"I'm hungry."
"Well then eat something. I don't have any food, I lost my backpack, I even lost my keys" at this, tears start to dwell up as I think about how I'll never see my beloved spirits again.
"Oh right, I forgot about that" Natsu says and starts rummaging around in the pocket of his pants and fishes out my collection of golden keys, perfectly fine and sparkling.
"My keys!" I gasp and jump up, run towards him so hastily that I almost fall down twice and snatch them out of his hands. There they are, all of them, not a single scratch on them.
"How…?" the rest of the words get stuck in my throat. I can't believe it, I have them back. I am alive and I have my keys back, this is too good to be true right?
Natsu just grins at me and scratches his head "Was hard enough to find them, had to fish them out of a thorn bush, that damn thing nearly tore all my flesh off but oh well…"
Overwhelmed by my gratitude I throw my arms around him and hug him tight, tears of joy trickling down my cheek "Thank you" I whisper "Thank you so much."
"Whatever" he says and looks away almost looking…shy?
We break apart and I clear my throat: "So, you were talking about food…?"
"Yeah right, it's not like I don't have food, I just don't know how to prepare it properly."
"You can't cook" I deadpan.
"Yeah, you could put it that way as well."
"Well maybe you can't prepare an exquisite menu but you can surely put some meat over a fire and cook it, it's not that hard…"
He just shakes his head and I'm starting to get slightly annoyed, is he pretending to be stupid on purpose?
"Come on, anyone can do that, what's the problem?"
"It tends to get a little uhm…burnt? I always go a little overboard with the fire" he says while smiling awkwardly.
I cock my eyebrow in suspicion: "Well how did you do up to now then? You must've eaten something…"
At this he seems to visibly shrink and looks away, as if something really interesting had just appeared in the far distance.
"Natsu Dragneel, what did you eat?" I say, suddenly sounding like a scolding mother.
He murmurs something incomprehensible.
"What?" I ask, leaning in in order to understand him better.
"I ate it raw"
"You did what?" I ask, incredulous.
"I ate it raw" he exclaims with pursed lips.
"I can't believe it, you ate raw meat? What are you, an animal?" I get up and walk up and down in front of him gesturing wildly, ranting about how it's not safe to eat raw meat.
The smile on his face grows bigger and bigger until he breaks out into roaring laughter, which makes me stop my speech about hygiene.
I look at him seriously: "It's not funny, you know?" Yet, I can't help but to curl my lips a little "You idiot."
"Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm stupid blah blah blah, can we proceed to the cooking part please?" he says with pleading eyes.
I put my hands on my hips and ask suspiciously: "What, you want me to cook for you because you're too stupid to do it yourself?"
He gives me the slightest of nods. "Pft, you can forget about that princess. Learn to do it yourself." I turn around, flip my hair back and start walking away when his words make me stand still: "I saved your keys"
Oh shoot, that's his trump card, how can I possibly argue against that? Saving my keys is a debt I'll never be able to repay. I sigh deeply, turn around and say, defeated: "Fine, where's the meat."
A satisfied smile spreads over his face as he realizes that he has won. "It's over there. I have some dried roots as side dish too."
Oh he's enjoying this way too much. I stick my tongue out and walk away as Natsu starts whistling happily.
"What have I gotten myself into?" I hiss through gritted teeth as I start preparing the meat.
Author's Note: Writing the last part felt like I was writing a super extended Author's Note instead of the main story haha, I really enjoyed writing something lighthearted and funny for once, I hope that you liked it as well.
Well then, I hope that I'll see you in chapter 34 :)
Natsu: "Oh I can't wait to eat a proper meal again!"
Lucy: *walks towards him with delicious looking meal* Here you go sweetheart!
Natsu: *starts eating rapidly* "Uhm..this…this…is…"
Lucy: *vicious grin*
Natsu: "SWEET?! WHY THE HELL DID YOU PUT SO MUCH SUGAR INTO A MEAT DISH?!" *spits out food and tries to wipe it off his tongue*
Lucy: "This is what you get for forcing me to cook!" *rofl*
Natsu: "YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!"
Lucy: Catch me if you can *shrieks and runs away*
Author: Guys…I just wanted to shoot scene 33….why did you have to go so overboard?" *cries in corner*