Previously
"What happened to you Gray? To our team?"
He turned to her one last time before leaving, "I promise once I'm done with this, we'll go back to the team and I also promise that I will be careful out there."
This didn't really reassure the requip mage. For some reason she really didn't think that Gray should take this job. She was filled with a sense of foreboding.
A/N: We see the first hints of GrayTear in this chapter.
...
.: Before Her Time Runs Out :.
…
.: Chapter 3:.
…
.: Encounters :.
…
Currently
The train hurtled along the narrow tracks which wound around the steep and rocky hills. The piercing whistle of steam being released from the engine reached all the way to the valley floor, startling which ever forest creatures resided there.
Gray sighed as he looked out of the carriage window upon the tranquil scenery below. Three days of travelling, and it wasn't even over yet. Nope, he still had two more days to go... that was something to think about. He audibly huffed. The boredom really was getting to him. Don't get him wrong; he really did enjoy not having to deal with Natsu's extreme motion sickness, Lucy's whining and Erza's scolding. But it was almost as if he was simultaneously... missing it?
No that can't be right. Still, being on his own was really boring and some company wouldn't go unappreciated. Deciding that he wasn't just going to sit and stare out of the window as it was so often tempting to do; he took out a novel which Lucy had recommended to him a while back. And by a while back, he meant a long while back, perhaps two or maybe three years back. Not like it mattered anyway. At least he had something to do.
He opened the hardback to read the summary on the inside of the cover. 'Stolen from her true love at the young age of 12, the princess of the Cerulean Kingdom is taken to a far away land where it is claimed that the only way in which they can rise to true power is by taking her blood. Held captive for four whole years, she desperately awaits her prince who must fight every inch of his way to save her before the blood ceremony takes place.'
Gray snorted a bit at the typical fairytale story with its damsel in distress, dashing prince and royal strife. Although it did sound interesting enough so he began reading the first chapter.
A while later, the words slowly started blurring and he found he could no longer focus on the story. His eyes gradually shuttered while he subconsciously slumped onto the table, drifting off to the rhythmic clatter of wheels on tracks.
.
.
.
SCREEEEEEECH. The harsh noise of the breaks being pulled woke Gray with a start. As his head shot up from the table, he did a double take on his surroundings. Glancing outside, he realised that the train had stopped at a remote looking village and that the sun had probably set a long time ago. The station being only one platform, he could see that the place consisted of only a few low rise buildings and a small church. Goodness knows where the hell Gray was, this trip was taking him to the complete other side of Fiore. A long way from Magnolia, from his home. He never like these middle of nowhere villages; some might say they liked life away from the busyness of cities, but to Gray they just felt so... empty.
Gray looked down the aisle of the carriage to check for any developments. He noticed that only one passenger had boarded at this stop, and he was currently checking for a seat. The train was pretty empty so... please don't sit here, please don't sit here, Gray silently pleaded.
Damn.
At least fifty empty seats and you chose to sit on the seat right across from me.
"Seat taken?" the man asked in a gravelly voice.
"Ah... no?" Gray added in a questioning tone, trying to get the guy to take the hint.
"Good." Seriously? What the hell kind of response is that?
"Erm, may I ask why you're sitting here?" the ice mage pressed. On closer inspection, the guy appeared to be somewhere in his fifties, with a weathered, tan face and greying brown hair. His sand coloured clothes were scruffy in a way that looked like he'd been travelling a very long ways.
"Is there a problem?" he practically demanded while raising an eyebrow.
"No not at all," Gray challenged. This guy was not going to get to him. He didn't know what he was playing at by sitting there, so he'd have to just occupy his time with other things. He opened his book.
Annoying.
It was far too dark to read and Gray was too well rested from his previous nap to fall asleep again. At this point he no longer cared about social conventions so he sighed loudly - and purposefully - before kicking his feet up on the table.
No visible reaction. This guy sure was stubborn.
"May I have a look at that book?" the passenger asked politely.
"Sure go ahead," Gray was a little taken aback, "but it's too dark to read anyway." Regardless, Gray slid the book to the opposite end of the table.
"Hmm, I thought so..." the man hummed and then ran his finger along the spine of the book, brushing the bumpy indented letters of the title. Gray was amazed, as when he did so, each letter progressively lit up. When the last letter was touched, the light spread rapidly across the whole of the cover.
The book was then handed back to Gray, who flicked the pages open, noticing that all of the words were glowing golden and flickered in the same manner as a candle. The borders of the pages were now decorated with intricate, colourful illuminations depicting scenes from the story.
"H-how did you do that?" Gray stuttered with eyes wide in disbelief. "I've never seen magic like that before..."
"Magic?" The man shook his head, "that was not magic, boy. That was merely a book responding to its author."
"I've never heard of something like that before..." Gray mused, forgetting something important. "Wait author?" he blurted out, "you're the author?"
"Indeed I am. Why is that so hard to believe?" he asked.
"It's not," Gray responded, "it's just a weird to run into the author of the book I'm reading out here in the middle of nowhere... what a coincidence..."
"Coincidence?"
"Oh, please don't say some crap like it's fate or something," Gray chortled.
"Have no fear, I do not believe in such things," he assured, "do you even like the story so far?"
"Hmm, I've only read the first two chapters but it just seems a bit... cliché."
"Is that necessarily a bad thing?"
"What do you mean?"
"Nothing." His voice was still jolly, "don't mind me, after all I am intruding."
"No, that's okay," Gray excused, he felt a little bit guilty at having acted so rudely before since the guy turned out to be somewhat entertaining. "So you're Komptos Thiemé?"
"Hahaha, no," he laughed nervously, "that is but a pen name. But you can call me that if you so desire," he added.
"Err, thanks, my name is Gray Fullbuster. I'm a Fairy Tail mage." Gray introduced himself.
"A mage of Fairy Tail? That is most interesting but if I may be of no further inconvenience I must rest," he yawned.
"That's fine," Gray assured before turning the illuminated book to the last page he was on. A few hours later he found himself really getting into the story. He turned page after page until he saw the first rays of sunlight intruded his vision. Stretching his arms and cracking his knuckles he determined that it was time for him to sleep again. Deciding to rest his head against the cool glass of the window, the last thing he saw and heard was the author across from him snoring loudly, deep in sleep. What an interesting character he was.
Gray awoke the next day at what he thought must surely be noon. This was due to his stomach growling profusely. Gray slowly rose from the moderately comfortable bench to find that he hurt. All over. He cricked his neck as he thought about how he should have just coughed up the extra money for one of the sleeper carriages. At least there were only twelve more hours of this.
Wait a minute.
Where was that author guy from before?
Gray was reminded of his current predicament once more when his stomach let out another low rumble.
Oh right, he probably went to the snack carriage like I'm planning to.
Sure enough when Gray reached the snack cart the author was there. Except the snack cart looked more like a bar, and the author was currently sitting at it with empty shot glasses sprawled across the surface. He was drunk. At noon.
"What the hell are you doing?" Gray felt weirdly responsible for him.
"Eating lunch." He was completely deadpan.
"Yeah... I don't see any food..."
Gray's concerns were wasted on the aged author. "Say do you have a special someone back at your guild?"
Gray froze up at that question. "Why are you asking?"
"No reason... well, do you?" he slurred drunkenly.
Gray thought about it for a moment. Do I have a 'special someone'? He means a lover, or a crush right? It really bugs me when Mirajane tries to set me up with various girls. Juvia mostly, although I once heard Erza and Levy fantasising about me and flame brain. Eww. But still, that woman would stop at nothing to find out who it is that I love. Why can't she just accept that I don't feel that way about anyone? For a split second Gray imagined a flash of long black-purple hair. No, stop thinking about her; that's never going to happen.
To answer the man's question Gray just thought of something Natsu might say in this situation, "Hahaha... All of my guildmates are a 'special someone' to me,'" he laughed nervously and gave a wry smile.
The author wasn't buying any of that but still he acknowledged Gray's response, "fair enough. But just remember, if you ever do find that person don't ever be hesitant to tell them how you feel. If you are, one of you'll just end up dying with out them ever knowing..." He sounded solemn, almost as if he had experienced such a thing.
Where's all this coming from? Gray wondered. Still, he took heed of the advice; not that he ever would fall in love with someone. But why was the author telling him such things? It seemed so... random.
Gray stumbled slightly and leaned against the side of the carriage when he felt the train coming to a stop.
"Well, this is my stop. I sincerely believe that is not the last time I will see your face. Fairwell." He waved goodbye.
What?
Gray wished to question the man further but found he was no longer in sight. What an annoying guy.
Later
Gray stopped reading his novel on the second to last chapter when he sighted his destination out of the window. The prominent lights of the desert city Ammos Fontana approached his vision.
"We are now stopping at Ammos Fontana station. This is the end of the line. Please enjoy your stay," the brash tannoy voice barked.
Gray noticed many things about this city as he walked through the narrow streets after exiting the train station. The first being that this place was hot. Far too hot. For once Gray really did have a valid excuse for stripping down to his underwear, even if he did look even more out of place since the residents of the city wore colourful, flowing garbs. The second thing that Gray noticed is how lavish everything looked. For a city on the outermost edge of Fiore - and in the middle of the desert no less – it was certainly very wealthy.
Gray looked up at the vines covering the narrow market street and blocking out the clear starry sky. There were stalls selling all sorts of exotic goods such as spices and fine silks. Normally Gray would have wanted to explore a bit, and Lucy would have wanted to shop. Natsu of course would be eating every last morsel in sight. But right now all he wanted to do was get a good night's sleep at the nearest hotel. That train ride had really sapped every last ounce of his energy away. Gray wondered what it would be like to have Natsu's extreme motion sickness, not that he ever empathised though.
Nearby
"Meredy, we can't stay here any longer, Jellal's already waiting downstairs."
The pink haired girl muttered something under her breath about her mother figure who was standing on the other side of the bed.
"What was that? I can't hear you when you mumble," Ultear warned.
Meredy suddenly became fearful, and stuffed the last remaining items into her rather large suitcase. The two eventually made their way downstairs to the hotel lobby where Jellal was standing impatiently by the door. Ultear went to the reception desk to check out and after doing so she joined the others at the door.
"All ready to go?" Jellal asked. Ultear nodded. "Well then," he didn't finish his sentence, as the three left into the crowded night market.
…
Gray saw the towering white building - which must surely be the hotel - at the edge of the large market. He pushed his way through the slowly moving people to try and get closer to the entrance. As he was nearing his objective, his shoulder lightly bumped another. Not hearing any form of apology, he turned around to catch a glimpse of whoever it was to see a woman wearing a dark cloak. She looked vaguely familiar. Where had he seen that getup before?
As if sensing the eyes on her, she turned around ever so slightly but then proceeded to carry on walking with her two companions.
And Gray knew exactly who it was. It was her. The woman that Gray had been thinking about before.
"Ultear!" he called out, but his voice was lost among the many that filled the lively city.
…
Ultear stopped walking when she thought she heard her name being called out. She turned once again to see the source. It sounded like someone she knew. All she could make out was a head of messy black hair and she desperately wanted to run over and see him when she realised who it belonged to. Gray. It had been a long time since she'd last seen him and she'd been thinking some… things lately.
She attempted to make her way towards him but moving against the flow of the crowd was near impossible. Asides from that, she felt a tug on her wrist from her companion.
"Ultear what are you playing at?" Meredy urged, "did you see someone you know?" Ultear blushed in response and Meredy took note. "Don't tell me it was 'him'..." the sense mage teased.
"Keep quiet!" Ultear hissed. Only Meredy knew about her feelings for a certain ice mage and she didn't really want Jellal to know.
"Oh? But don't you want to go see him?" she continued.
Ultear sighed in defeat, "yes, but we can't right now, we've a dark guild to destroy..." She looked somewhat saddened.
"Don't worry, we can try and find him after we're done." Meredy attempted to cheer up the older woman. But despite her words, Meredy knew that things like that aren't so easy, the chances that they'd find him again were slim. Perhaps if this fails we should just try and meet up with him at the guild. Right?
…
.: End of Chapter 3 :.
…
.: To Be Continued :.
…
Thanks for sticking with the story so far, if you're reading this. I'm really enjoying writing this, and I'm glad I got to start the main part of the story. You may think that this is going quite slowly, but none of the details in this chapter are unnecessary, including the meeting with the author.
Thank you once again to my reviewers and followers. I'd like to say this, please review, even if you don't have much to say. Although I'd like to hear your opinion on every single aspect of the story. It really means a lot, and hopefully it will be my encouragement to continue writing.
Until next time...