Chapter Four
Flourish wasn't far from Magnolia, only three hours travel by train. Yet, it seemed much longer, what with Natsu groaning and complaining the whole way and Gray hitting him at every chance, telling him to 'shut the hell up, slanty-eyes'. It was obvious after the first five minutes, before they even got on the train, that Natsu and Gray weren't friends. The only reason Gray agreed to go with them was because 'he didn't want Natsu to get his new Nakama turned to stone by some huge-ass snake'. On the train, when Natsu wasn't choking on his own saliva or holding back vomit, they were arguing and beating each other. Chaerin was beginning to regret denying Lucy's offer to accompany them. It was only when they got off of the train, and they were near Flourish, did Gray and Natsu stop fighting long enough to actually assess the job.
"So, what is a basilisk, anyway?" asked Natsu, kicking his bags along the path in front of him while carrying Chaerin's bag on his shoulder. "Is it a huge fire breathing monkey with wings and talons?" he asked excitedly, turning to face his companions with a large grin. Gray rolled his eyes, overtaking Chaerin to knock Natsu over the head. His hand was shoved in his hand into his pocket.
"You're an idiot. You came on this job without even knowing what it was you were fighting? A basilisk is a big snake that freezes people with its eyes and poisons with its teeth, unless it eats you." Gray said, ignoring the glare Natsu send him.
"You're the idiot! And where are your clothes, droopy-eyes!" he cried, hitting him back. Gray stared with a comically surprised expression, making Natsu half laugh, half glare at him. Chaerin rolled her eyes without even noticing she did it, snatching the job request paper from Natsu's hand and stalking off ahead of the boys with Happy. Happy was sat on Chaerin's shoulder, silent and smiling, making her think he was cutest when not speaking.
"Happy-chan? Why do Natsu and Gray fight like this?" she asked, quietly, walking a little faster and looking back the boys (they payed her no mind as they fought in their cartoonish dust cloud). Happy sprouting his wings, hitting Chaerin with one of the pearly feather ends as he did so, and flew in front of her.
"Lucy thinks it's because of their magic being polar opposites. . ." Chaerin stared at him, expecting him to continue.
"Yes?" she asked, trying to tell him to carry on.
"Yes." Chaerin sighed and stomped ahead of Happy, to be alone. It gave her time to reflect.
She remembered a time when she had wanted to join a certain guild, her brother's guild. Strictly speaking, it wasn't his. It belonged to a woman named Amber Aiko, she took over the guild after her husband perished on a job to defeat a water serpent. The guild was Crow's Lock. The only guild within a thirty-five mile radius of the town she had lived in, so it was lively and full of lots of wizards from different towns. Chaerin had always been in awe of the guild, though she wasn't allowed inside. It was under a large birch tree, enchanted to look like a white oak. The inside of the tree was carved into a staircase and the tree door only opened to the guild password. Of course, Chaerin didn't know what it was (the guild was for people thirteen and over) and her brother was very strict when it came to his guild. Her father was also part of Crow's Lock, as was her mother, once upon a time. Everyday she had waited outside of the tree, on a mossy rock under a nearby tree, with a woven picnic basket that was magically packed with sandwiches for the whole of the guild. She made the sandwiches with her sister after her brother went to the guild, and she waited outside for someone to collect them. She had to do it whether rain or snow, but she loved the look of the tree, she loved the magic of it all. She spent years practicing her magic to make it perfect so she fit in with the guild of genius' (at least that what she thought they were. Her brother, funnily enough, never corrected her). She was content until. . .
Chaerin flinched, batting her hand to the side and connecting the back of it with a face. As she turned, Chaerin saw Natsu leap back holding his faces. He, Gray and Happy were staring at her in surprise.
"W-what?" she snapped, defensively pressing her arms to her chest and cradling her hands. Gray blinked out of the shock and said:
"You were crying, almost, we kept yelling for you but you didn't stop- I don't think you heard us." The weariness in tone made Chaerin frown, but she continued to rub the tears out of her eyes. Natsu, newly recovered, walked forward a little nervously and put his hand on her shoulder, looking dead into her eyes.
"You didn't have to take this job to impress us, Chaerin. All you had to say was that you were scared of monkeys with wings." Gray and Chaerin stared at Natsu with cartoonish shocked expressions before Chaerin sweat dropped and slid out his grasp, with Gray opted with smashing his head against a nearby tree. After a second, Chaerin began to giggle which sent Gray into laughter too.
"You really are a piece of work, Natsu, I swear." she giggled, smiling broadly at the rosy haired boy, she called a companion. "I'm not scared of fire-breathing monkeys, and a basilisk is a snake anyway." Gray snickered in the background , walking up behind Chaerin and throwing his pale arm around her neck like Natsu did. Still chuckling, Gray steered Chaerin away, back to following the path and avoiding the dense rosette who had gone slightly pink, then stomped on behind them.
"So. . . The Requset says to go to the Mayor's house but, which one is that and. . . Is the Mayor even moving?" Chaerin stared at the wreck of a village in front of her. People stood in the streets, frozen solid and staring, bug-eyed, at the destruction. Buildings had been destroyed in a methodical pattern, one not unlike the movements of a humongous snake. She slipped out of Gray's grasp on her shoulders and carefully tiptoed through the damage, snapping her slender fingers in front of people's eyes as she went.
"Be careful, Chaerin, the monster might still be here!" She heard Gray call, as he walked in the other direction to her. Natsu was a while back, still trudging along, feeling unusually dejected. After surveying the nearly a quarter of the small village, Chaerin walked back to the spot where she and Gray had split up, to meet with Natsu who was part of the way, walking towards her.
When he saw her, he smiled and ran over, skidding to a halt in front of her.
"Find something for me to beat up yet, Chaerin?" he asked, excitedly, already engulfing his fists with orange flames. Chaerin sighed and shook her head, telling him she was going to find Gray and ask him the same thing. Natsu nodded, following by her side in silence, when. . . Chaerin shivered, something entered her fifty meter sensory range. She froze, pressing her hand onto Natsu's shoulder and stopping him too. Neither wanted to turn around, she only looked out the corner of her eye until she felt the thing enter the twenty feet radius. She slid her hand down his arm and clutched his elbow shakily.
"Natsu. . ."
"What is it, Chaerin?" Natsu looked down at her and out of the corner of his eye saw something black approaching them, and lighting up his fists, he threw a punch at the thing.
"Karyu no tekken!*" he cried, pushing Chaerin behind him with his spare hand. The creature let out a loud yell and screamed out:
"Ice-Make: Lance!" In response to Natsu. An array of white, ice, javelin-shaped swords fell from the sky, a few slicing through Natsu's skin and shirt. Then, it struck her. It wasn't the basilisk- it was Gray, with Happy flying above his head. She paled and then flushed in embarrassment, realising that she should have felt his presence differently to that a gigantic snake. Hurrying to tear Gray and Natsu apart, Chaerin rushed forward and spluttered apologies to Gray as she went. She threw her arms around Natsu's waist and pulled him close to her, but it only got her dragged into and spat out of the comical dust-cloud fight they were in. Sighing, she rolled her eyes and stamped her foot to the ground hard. The dirt tracks responded to her command and melted underneath the boys. Both cried out as the burning liquid splashed around them. They tried to climb out but all around them was liquified. Gray turned to look at Chaerin and yelled at her, struggling across the lake of dark brown mud toward her. She chuckled, snapping her fingers and turning the mud rock-hard. With half of his left hand and his neck and head being the only things able to move, Gray began to shout obscenities at Chaerin instead. Natsu was still unable to see the sliver-and-black girl, as he was facing away from her and hadn't paid attention to Gray when he left to catch her. Chaerin grinned at Gray, flicking her black locks over her shoulder and taking off her jacket, throwing it over his head. She, then, waltzed across the solid earth and ruffled Natsu's pink hair, using her foot, with a loud laugh, smiling at Happy who laughed beside her.
Not paying anymore attention to the world around her, Chaerin danced back over to Gray, revealing his head from under the leather of her jacket and kicking dirt from where it wasn't solid at him, trying to hit his eye. Soon, her boots became brown with earth, so she blew it off, turning it to gas with a wave of her hand.
"What are doing? We have to find the Mayor and stop the basilisk!" snapped Gray, glaring at the pale girl and trying to fight himself loose.
"I'm just showing you that you shouldn't fight while I'm trying to do a job- it's annoying." Chaerin sighed, "And I don't know much about Natsu, but shouldn't he be able to melt the dirt away." Gray smirked and nodded.
"Yeah. . . He is an idiot, though." And with those words, Chaerin snapped her fingers and Gray and Natsu above the ground. When he was securely back on the floor, Natsu ran at Chaerin, fists burning as he yelled at her. She easily dodged his hands, the ends of her hair burning as they didn't quite miss the fist. But instead of missing everything else and falling to the ground, Natsu hit something hard. Everyone froze for a moment, unsure of what was happening, until Gray looked up at the 'wall' Natsu had hit.
"It's the basili-" Gray was cut off, stopping in the middle of the word, frozen stiff. Chaerin cried out in alarm.
"Crap! Gray! Natsu, c'mon we gotta get outta here!" Chaerin slurred her words in panic, as she scrambled towards Gray and threw her arms around him, tugging him away with her.
"What, no! This bastard's gotta pay, you don't mess with Fairy Tail." Natsu smirked, seeming to not want vengeance- just a good fight, ran back and sucked in a large breath and- He froze solid. Chaerin felt his presence stop moving and heard Happy cry out: 'Natsu'. She stiffened, her arms turning feeble as she turned to face her new ally. At the sight of his frozen body, leaned back and still in position to take in air, she dropped Gray's body with a substantial thud. She couldn't breathe and dared not look any further than Natsu. She heard the loud hisses of the basilisk and flinched.
"Happy! Get Natsu and follow me, okay!" she snapped, trying to regain herself, bending down to gather Gray and hurrying back the way she came, ignoring the hissing of the snake and the wood cracking as it followed after her. "Faster!" she cried, shakily, as much to Happy as to herself. She doubled round a house, watching the end of the snake flick large window panes to the side and breathed a quiet sigh of relief as the monster continued on its journey.
"Well, this quite the first mission!" Chaerin felt a hand cover her mouth as she screamed, "Be quiet. Don't want that beast coming back, eh, Chaerin-chan."
*Fire Dragon's Iron Fist