The Coming Night
"Tiger, are you okay?" Timothy asked the Exceed. "Yep," he replied in a grunt. His ears lifted up a bit, and he walked tentatively towards Timothy barefoot. He maneuvered his way through the Fairy Tail group that was bunched in a loose half circle around the boy.
When Tiger stood before him, he loosened the pouch's strings from his shoulders, took the pouch off, and lowered it to the dirt ground. Before Tiger opened the top of the pouch, he turned his head toward Natsu and said, "Thank you for the light." Lucy was still staring incredulously at Tiger from the time when he first came in. Timothy asked him, "So, what do you have?" Tiger opened the pouch wide and said, "I have some mushrooms; no meat today…" "Ah, how come we never have meat?" Timothy pouted while his hands rested on his knees, and he sat on the edge of the seat. "I can get you some meat!" Natsu declared with a large toothy smile. His fire flared up in his excitement. It lit up the inside of the cavern more. Lucy, Erza, and Wendy all caught a glimpse of what was farther back in the former darkness. Some water?! Erza exchanged glances with Lucy by chance. Then, she told Lucy in her teaching tone without breaking their eye contact, "It must be from an underground reservoir. There may be a river or rivers farther inside running off of it." Lucy though confused nodded in confirmation. "Well, at least we don't have to worry about water," Happy said when he caught on to their conversation. "Maybe, I should try fishing!" Happy was now standing on the ground near Natsu. He looked ready to run over to the pool that was shrouded in darkness again. "Maybe you should wait, Happy," said Wendy in a polite voice from close beside of him. "Natsu can make a fire for us so that we can all see." She smiled at Natsu, and Natsu smiled in return. "Sure," he said. "Come on, Lucy, let's go get some firewood!" Lucy looked at him, groaned lightly, but followed Happy and Natsu outside without complaining.
Timothy had a happier composure about him. "It's like we're all going camping!" he exclaimed. Tiger then turned his head towards Timothy. Timothy's shoulders slumped somewhat.
It was now darker in the cave, but the fading light of the setting sun made it to where the smaller group could still see each other dimly. "Timothy," Erza started. She glanced at both Carla and Wendy too. "I am going to stand guard at the entrance of this cave while Natsu, Lucy, and Happy are gathering firewood. I'll leave you with Wendy and Carla. They are both quite capable." Erza smiled her warm, comforting smile, and turned away to walk slowly up the slight incline to the entrance.