Fire is catching
Chapter 34
Author's Note: Hey guys! This time, I have a really long chapter for you, but I had a lot of fun writing it and I don't think that it would've made sense to split it up into two parts, so here you go! I hope that you enjoy this chapter, have fun.
As the evening passes and it's slowly starting to get dark my body is getting tired. The pain from my wounds intensifies and breathing becomes more difficult. In fact my body has been aching all day long but the excitement and the confusion made it less noticeable, now that I've calmed down the pain is getting predominant.
An especially sharp sting in my arm makes me grit my teeth and dig my fingers into the ground.
"Are you okay?"
I look up in surprise, still not used to the fact that I'm not alone anymore, that there is somebody who could address me.
"Yeah…" I say not sounding very convinced. I don't want to trouble Natsu and make myself look like a crybaby. He looks pretty beaten up as well and isn't complaining, so I sure as hell won't either, not after everything he did for me.
"Your injuries are hurting right?"
I shake my head in determination and look away.
"Come on, let me have a look at them"
"No, it's all right!" I exclaim crossing my arms protectively.
"Don't be so stubborn, let me see" he says, walks over to me and gently tries to entangle my arms.
"No, I told you I'm fine" I shout drawing my arms away and taking a few steps back, my heartbeat thrumming in my head loudly.
He holds up his hands calmly, as if to show me he's not armed and doesn't want me any harm. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I didn't want to frighten you, I'm just worried about your wounds."
Suddenly I feel incredibly stupid and silly for overreacting so much, Natsu was just trying to help me after all.
"Yeah I know, sorry" I mumble apologetically and walk towards him with my head down. I stretch my arms out and let him roll up my sleeves so that he can investigate the cuts on my arms. It's only now that I notice that he wrapped a piece of fabric around my arm tightly as a sort of improvised bandage which he's now carefully undoing.
As I see the cuts my stomach twists and I almost have to throw up. They are long and deep, purulence coming out of them. The area around them is swollen and covered with crumples of dried blood while fresh vibrant red blood is still coming out of the wound despite the bandage.
"Oh my god Lucy they look awful! Uhm, I mean they don't look too bad right? Nothing we can't fix" he says cheerfully, but I can clearly hear the insecurity in his voice.
Then his tone gets a lot more serious: "Why didn't you say anything though? Those must hurt like hell."
I turn my head sideways to avoid his inquisitive stare.
"Lucy…?" he growls, turns my head towards him and holds it still so that I can't look away.
I grumble something incomprehensible.
"What did you say?"
"Because I'm not weak…" I repeat slightly louder.
Now it's his turn to be the one who's lecturing the other. He walks up and down in front of me, going on about how unaccountable my actions are and blah blah blah. After some time I just stop listening and instead, appreciate how funny he looks while ranting.
"Why are you grinning? This isn't funny! Are you even listening to me?" he says slightly annoyed, which yanks me out of my thoughts.
"Yeah,yeah, of course, I'm irresponsible and stuff. Gee Natsu, it's not like you're my mom or something" I state with a smirk on my face.
"What…that's not…ugh…" he seems at a loss of words and makes wild gestures. "And you say I'm the idiot" he says with pursed lips which makes me laugh a little. This sends a jolt of pain through my stomach and I double over, my arms in front of my stomach, holding it tightly because it feels as if it could just tear open at any moment, making my intestines spill all over the place.
Natsu grabs my shoulders, supporting me and looks at me worriedly: "Lucy, are you okay? What's wrong?"
"It's just…" I gasp between painful coughs "My stomach…it hurts a little"
"Right, your stomach is injured as well…let's see. Lay down."
This time, I'm too weak to protest so I do as I'm told. As I want to sit up and look at the area of my stomach that feels like it's on fire, Natsu carefully presses me down, his mouth set in a straight line.
"It's better if you don't look, trust me."
As he sees the scared expression on my face he quickly adds: "Don't worry, it'll be okay. I'll find a way to take care of them, somehow."
"Water" I mumble "We can rinse them out with water…"
"Yeah…" he says not looking too convinced "Water is a little problematic, but I think I have a little bit left"
"Don't the fruit grow here?" I whisper with a cracking voice.
"Huh? What fruit? Are you hungry again? We just ate…"
"No, the water fruit. You know, the ones that are sometimes poisonous and sometimes contain water?"
He cocks his eyebrows looking at me with a questioning look: "Lucy, do you have a fever? You're talking gibberish."
I try to speak clearer and determined but the now especially intense pain makes my voice weak and croaky: "No, I'm sure. They're the only source of drinkable water I found so far, I've been drinking them ever since I came here. Where did you get your water if you didn't use the fruits?"
"Well at the beginning of the games I managed to get my hands on a water tank and I've been living on that ever since, I don't actually need a lot of water, but I'm starting to run low."
He got a filled water tank? Something as precious as this would only be located in the very heart of the Cornucopia, which means that he must've walked right into it, directly facing the careers and he still managed to survive? He must be even stronger than I thought. When Natsu is joking around and complaining about food it's very easy to forget that he's actually a skilled fighter. On the one hand, it's a very big advantage to have a strong ally like him, on the other hand it worries me a little, can I really trust him?
No, I have to. If he had wanted to kill me he would've done it by now, right? I'll just stay here for a while, it's not like I have any other place to go to and when my wounds have finally healed I'll see what I'll do then.
"So, those fruit you mentioned, how do you distinguish them? I mean how can you know if they're poisonous or not if they look exactly the same?"
All those thoughts racing through my mind make me dizzy and I feel extremely hot, beads of sweat trickling down my forehead. My body is aching all over and it feels as if the cuts have been lit on fire. Red and yellow blinking lights start to appear and disappear in front of me. The words I want to speak get stuck in my throat but I press on, take a deep breath and manage to squeeze out the sentence: "You have to switch layers"
Judging by his look of confusion, this doesn't seem to make any sense to him. The system is so difficult and weird to explain to somebody that has never experienced it and at the moment I can't even think clearly as I'm always distracted by the nasty pain. Still, I try to focus and put together an understandable explanation: "It's like you have to peel off the first layer of the arena, look beyond the finished product and see what really lies underneath. Everything will turn black and white, it'll look unreal, as if everything's been created artificially, which is actually true. It's like you'll have to see through the end product the game makers created and look at the arena at an earlier stage of development, it's really difficult to explain. When you manage to look through the glamour the poisonous fruit will send off a neon green light whereas the ones containing water give off a golden light…"
While I was talking Natsu's expression just got more and more confused. "Sorry Lucy, but I don't get it. What do you mean 'peel off the first layer'? The arena isn't a banana, you can't just peel off the layer of the world, this is not how reality works…I'm confused…"
Doesn't he know? No, that can't be…
"But Natsu, this arena isn't real..."
Now his mouth opens and closes like a fish as he is struggling to find the right words: "Huh? How is this not real? I can touch the trees and the grass and I can feel the wind and, you're kidding me, right? You can't be serious, this world is real, I am real, right?" and with a lowered voice he adds: "Or is this all just a dream?"
At that I have to smile a little, I really wish this whole thing was just one big dream and I'd wake up in my bed in district 8, but no, I know this is real: "No, that's not what I meant. Of course you are real, but this arena doesn't exist naturally. The game makers created it artificially using digital technology and they have the absolute control over it. They could create a tree and insert it into the arena with a flick of their pinky, they could start a fire wherever they wanted, they could kill us in an instant if they wanted to…"
Apparently this is news to him and his eyes widen in horror: "So you mean I don't only have to fight 22 others, but I'm also facing an enemy that is totally overpowered? How is that fair?"
"It isn't. Actually, the other tributes aren't really your enemies, they're all just victims of the one big enemy we all have in common" I don't specifically say who that enemy is, even though we all know it's the capitol, but I don't want to get my family and friends back home into trouble "And just for the record, you actually had to fight 23 tributes, even though I don't really know how many of us are even left…"
"Well you know I wouldn't fight all of them" he says smiling at me which sends a wave of heat up my face.
"Anyway I still don't get that layer peeling thingy so I guess we'll only be able to get fresh water when you're feeling better. Until then, it's best for you to rest. I'll just get the remaining water and clean up your wounds, that should help even though it'll burn a little.
"No" I shout and hold onto his arm as he turns away to get the water "I won't let you use your last water for my wounds. Who knows how long it'll take me to be able to walk around? If you don't have any water you'll die!"
"Oh come on Lucy, don't use your energy on protesting! I already told you I don't need a lot of water. In fact I haven't drunken anything since yesterday afternoon and I'm still all right"
"That only makes it worse! If you haven't drunken anything for such a long time, you'll need water very soon. Really, how stupid are you?" I say with a mix of anger, concern and amusement.
He seems to think hard and then gets his mistake: "Oh yeah my mistake, I meant that I just drank a lot like…, two hours ago so I should be fine."
"Idiot"
He sticks out his tongue and shakes off my grip as if it was just a grain of dust: "I'll still get the water"
And against my massive protest he comes back with a half empty water bottle, soaks a piece of fabric with the precious liquid and starts dotting it on my wounds. If I thought my cuts were burning before, I was mistaken. This was nothing compared to the burn I experience now. It feels as if I'm on fire and the flames are consuming my flesh, burning it away. I cry out in pain but try to keep myself from screaming by biting my lip.
Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry…
"I'm sorry but I have to do this, it'll make it better…"
As he moves on to the deep cut on my stomach I gasp for air and press my eyes closed, I can feel that I'm trembling all over and if I wasn't laying on the ground already, I bet I would've collapsed.
"I'm so sorry Lucy, I promise I'm going as gentle as I can but I have to clean those cuts otherwise it'll get worse"
I am not able to answer him so instead, I give him a slight nod and clench my fists.
The procedure seems to go on forever but then finally the exhaustion that has built itself up over the last hours is finally released and makes me fall asleep and I'm finally not feeling any pain anymore.
Author's Note: So yeah, another quiet chapter, although this one was more serious. Even though there wasn't a lot of active action, I feel like it was important for the upcoming chapters. So yeah, be prepared, the quiet before the storm won't last forever…
Lucy: And then he said that he only has to fight 22 other tributes. Like honestly, is he really that bad at Math?
Mirajane: Uhm…Lucy-chan, I think that he did that on purpose…
Lucy: Why would somebody pretend to be bad at Math?
Mirajane: I think he actually wanted to convey a message…
Lucy: Huh?
Mirajane: He wanted to say that he only needs to fight 22 others because he sees you as his ally and friend and he would never even consider you a potential enemy *heart eyes*
Lucy: Well I think you're going a bit overboard with that don't you think?
Mirajane: Absolutely not! I'm a 100% sure. IT'S SO CUTE! *squeals*
Lucy: Yeah…it actually kind of is… *blushes*
Natsu: Uhm…yeah..actually you are both absolutely… *shy* *sparkles everywhere*
Mirajane: *expectant*
Natsu: WRONG! You've got it totally wrong! *lol*
Lucy: *sigh* I knew it, he's just too stupid…
Natsu: WRONG AGAIN! I actually did that on purpose. I just wanted to make clear that you're so weak that I don't even consider you to be an opponent at all… *rofl*
Mirajane: HOW DARE YOU RUIN THIS PERFECT NALU MOMENT! *goes into satan soul mode* *death stare*
Natsu: *scared* LUUUUCY HELP ME!
Lucy: I thought I was too weak anyway *smirk*
Natsu: I take it back, I take it all back! *pleading*
Lucy: *smiles* Okay then…*dangerous grin* LUUUUUUCY KICK!
Natsu: *knocked out*
Mirajane & Lucy: *high five*
Author: Great…now we won't be able to shoot the next scene. This is why this story is taking forever….