Author's Note
Bleppity blep! That's all I have to say.
The three walk through the dense forests covering the mountains in silence. The tall trees create an impressive canopy of thick leaves that shroud the forest floor in darkness- an eternal night. Even some animals let themselves be confused by the excessive shade. Countless owls stare down at Jellal, their yellow eyes tired but as threatening as their gleaming talons. Bats occasionally fly above them in frantic and unorganized masses that makes Jellal wonder whether if they are running from something but every time he turns behind him he can only see the thick tree trunks that he just walked through.
Eventually, Ultear stops, obviously as tired of this forest as everyone else. Without warning, she jumps and grabs a thick tree branch hanging above her, swinging herself up. Within a few moments, she is above the tree's leaves, out of sight.
"Should we follow?" Meredy wonders aloud, looking doubtfully at the tree branch Ultear first grabbed. It's unlikely that Meredy possesses the skill to climb up the tree without coming dangerously close to falling and Jellal knows that he is the same.
"She gave us no reason to," He answers, to save both of their egos. They'd just hold her back.
Meredy nods, her eyes tearing off the tree to look at Jellal. "Have you ever considered using your magic?"
Jellal shrugs- he hasn't. It's been two weeks and his magic was coming in nicely. Strong? No. But he's getting there. "Nope, it's not like I'm in the best position to anyway."
"I really think you should," Meredy insists. "You've got to relearn your magic- it'd be less dangerous to do that when you're not strong enough to accidentally gravely injure someone."
She has a point. "You want to take time for some training camp?" He sarcastically says, rolling his eyes when Meredy's eyes brighten at the idea.
"Well, I don't think that's possible, but we could try something right now!" She suggests. "Since we're not doing anything. And your magic is literally light! You could light up this forest better!"
Jellal shrugs- why not? He has nothing better to do and, while he wouldn't admit it, Meredy has a point. Losing control of his magic had never crossed his mind.
He sits on the ground, his legs crossed and hands on his knees. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, willing himself not to hear the sounds of the forest but instead the beat of his heart. He matches his breaths with his steady heartbeat, pushing the little magic he has outside of his body. Slowly, he feels himself warm as his magic shrouds him (and he's probably glowing). He has always been good at meditation- focusing has always been easy for him and it's no different now. He knows magic, in general, now he just needs to make sure he knows his own.
His magic condenses into a small orb of white light and when he peeks open his eyes he is momentarily blinded. He blinks rapidly, forcing tears back into his eyes, and waits for his eyes to adjust. When they do, he looks to Meredy, who's staring at the orb in awe.
"How'd you do that?" She excitedly says, her hand reaching towards it before she looks at Jellal. "Can I touch it?"
"There's nothing to touch," Jellal answers. "My magic isn't exactly… tangible. It's just a light."
"Oh," Meredy says, slightly disappointed, but she touches it anyway. Her fingers wiggle within the orb for a solid ten seconds before she concedes. "You're right, it doesn't feel any different. How'd you do that?"
"Do what?"
"The magic thing!" She exclaims, waving her hands around her as if it's a helpful explanation. "Your magic just… you were able to move magic!"
"You're making no sense," Jellal huffs. What he did was perfectly normal- it's probably just because she's weird.
"Okay, okay," Meredy says, taking a deep breath to calm herself down. "You can create and manipulate light. When magic power transforms it into light, you can mess with it. But you just manipulated raw magic power!"
"It's how my magic turns into light in the first place," Jellal says, shaking his head. "Everyone can do that."
"Not externally," Meredy says. Just then, Ultear hops from the tree, looking at Meredy and Jellal with mild curiosity, her eyebrow raised.
"Looks like you guys are having fun," She notes and Jellal stands up, ready to dispel the orb of light so they can keep moving, but Ultear raises a hand, causing him to halt (to his chagrin).
"Keep it, it's better for everyone," She says, before crossing her arms. "We're a dozen or so miles from the nearest town. If we move at normal pace, we'll arrive feeling comfortable in four hours. If we push ourselves to near death, we can halve that time. Which one?"
Jellal snorts, he's in no rush. "Four hours." He declares, at the same time that Meredy says, "Two hours."
Her apologetic eyes meet his glare, and she raises her hands in surrender. "Sorry! But I want to eat something than apples and sandwiches, okay?"
Ultear smiles, nodding her head. "I, also, vote for two hours. Then? Let's get going."
"Erza!"
Natsu bounds towards the redhead and Jellal, inserting himself between the two (not before throwing a sly glare to the ex-dark mage).
Erza, oblivious to it, looks at the dragon slayer with unveiled tiredness, even though Natsu hasn't even said what he needed to.
"We gotta train!" He declares, lifting his fists as if he just scored a major victory. "So, we can win the Grand Magic Games!"
"Well of course!" Erza agrees, vigorously nodding her head, before peering around him. "This would also be a good chance for Jellal to restore his strength!"
"What?!" Jellal and Natsu exclaim at the same time.
"I don't think I should come," Jellal says, shaking his head. "Um, thanks though."
"He's right," Natsu nods, and Erza seems taken aback.
"Nonsense!" She shouts. "You will come with us, Jellal!"
She turns to Natsu. "When are we leaving?"
Natsu scratches his head, looking around the guild. When he finds who he's looking for, his eyes brighten and he steps away from the two, "accidentally" knocking into Jellal as he does so. Other than making Jellal flinch, it does nothing, and Erza doesn't notice.
"I'll ask Lucy," Natsu says, running back to where we came from. Erza turns back to Jellal, a smile on her face.
"Isn't this exciting? An adventure already!"
"Exciting? No," Jellal denies, shaking his head. "Um, it's a lot, though."
"You'll come to appreciate these random adventures soon," Erza dismisses, although her enthusiasm has dimmed. Natsu runs back towards them, dragging Lucy along.
The blonde makes no effort to escape, although her face makes it clear that she does not appreciate Natsu's firm grip on her wrist. However, when she sees Jellal looking at her, her face brightens and she smiles at him.
"Welcome to Fairy Tail!" She greets, her tone cheery and bouncy. She radiates sunshine and rainbows- something Jellal already finds a little annoying.
"Yeah," He nods, eyes sliding away from hers. "Thanks!"
"Lucy here wants to tell you how much she wants Team Natsu to go training," Natsu tells Erza.
Lucy cocks her head, putting her fingers on her chin. "Not just Team Natsu, of course! Didn't Erza want Jellal to come along?"
Natsu glares at her as subtlety as he can, and Lucy winks at Jellal as if she just did him a favor- she didn't. He pretends as if he didn't notice her and instead focuses on the bar counter as if he could sink into it.
"Yes, Jellal wants to go!" Erza says.
"Not true," Jellal mutters, but either Erza ignores him or she didn't hear.
"Then we will go now!" Lucy declares, punching a sulking Natsu on the shoulder. "To the beach!"
Author's Note
Whoop! I think I'll either update this or Enchanted next.