Fairy Tail owned by Hiro Mashima

Fanfiction and Characters with * by: Emerald Sonata

FAIRY TAIL:
The Small Adventures of Wendy Marvell

~16~
'Checkmate'

What should have been a bloody battle to the bitter death between a reckless Mage and a cursed Creature, ended up being a battle between wits.

"Checkmate, little girl!"

"Uwa-uwa-uwaaa!"

Avalon Railburn grinned like a fool as Wendy Marvell shriveled up like seaweed under the sun. Despite Wendy's sudden transformation due to her curse that is triggered at night fall, the atmosphere was somehow laid back.

Although, seeing the girl's wings of living oil moving around the chess pieces would definitely scare the pants off normal human. It seems Avalon wasn't human to begin with if he could smile like a lottery winning idiot.

"Let's change color."

"I-I can't. I have to use the white pieces, or else the curse in my body can't tell between the dark pieces and its fingers."

"Tch. So stingy."

Since the two had been playing chess for quite some time, Avalon ended up switching their little game to good old fashion Chinese Checkers that used colorful marbles.

"Who'd ever thought the goop that's clinging to your body feels calm while playing board games."

"I-I was surprised myself. It would either go on a rampage everywhere I go, or just makes me sit in a corner and play various board games by myself. It even tried playing a dungeon crawling campaign with several character sheets by itself. It's really frightening."

Avalon nodded as he watched the threads of living oil stretch from the wings that came from Wendy's green back. Like fingers of an old man, they moved its colored marbles across the star-like grid with gamemaster like accuracy. Already the first move, the black oil took away five of Avalon's red marbles.

"You said this was a curse."

"Y-yes. I contracted it by accident when my friends and I were fighting against a Dark Guild as a request."

"Dark Guild?"

"U-uhm. I-it's like a Guild that the Mage Council doesn't recognize. I guess in your culture, it would be those clubs that rich girls go to after school, but are illegal."

"Aaaaaah. Hey! Q-quit eating up my red marble soldiers! They have parents too you know!"

"I-I'm sorry! B-but I can't control this curse. I-it hates to lose to you again!"

Though Wendy Marvell was on her hands and knees the entire time, never moving them even by an inch, the marbles on her side were being moved. The threads of black oil moved those marbles automatically. It was like Wendy was a spectator and the oily curse was the player of this match. Frankly, Wendy didn't even knew how to play Chinese Checkers using marbles.

"It seems the Dark Guild my friends and I destroyed specialized in Hexes and Curses. When I was chasing after their leader who fled the scene, I accidentally contracted one of their Curses they've been developing."

"…"

"I went to check several doctors, including the one who helps my guild, Fairy Tail, but no one knew what this curse was. So…"

"…"

"… I lied to my Guild that I was going on a solo mission, when really I want to find a way to get rid of this frightening curse. I've been struggling to find a possible cure, even seek out alternatives like Herbal Therapy, Mixing and Neutralization with Poisons, and even travelled to Purification Springs. In the end, none of them worked."

"…"

"That was until I heard about a possible cure could be found in Moonbay… So I ended up here… Losing my living and travelling expenses, getting separated with Carla… and… meeting you, Mr. Avalon."

"…"

"… M-Mr. Avalon?"

"Checkmate."

"… Heeeeeeh!?"

Wendy Marvell snapped awake, but the curse that was thriving on her body had an even better reaction. The tentacles that acted as her hair wriggled madly, the black wings of living oil shriveled like dying seaweed, and the scales on her body were flapping like angry clams.

It's because Avalon leapt his red marble over one blue marble after another, like a trail of lit gunpowder. In one turn, he captured all of Wendy's blue marbles. To add salt to injury, the boy in the poncho did it with the only red marble he had in his army.

"Hah! My 30th Win. Pay up!... Uwooooooooooooh!"

"Ah! M-my curse is throwing a fit again! I-I can't control it! I-I'm sorry, Mr. Avaloooooooooooon!"

To conclude their board game, Avalon Railburn was thrashed around by Wendy Marvell's black wings that turned into a pair of skeleton hands to strangle the boy.

"W-w-wait! Wh-why is it gripping its fingers one by one as if it's going to do an Ora-Ora style pu—Bugyaaaaah!"

"Gaaaaaah! C-Curse! Curse! Stop hitting Mr. Avalon! With that many punches, he'll die!"