Chapter Eight
Damn, this jacket's comfy. I think I'm going to have to keep it. But, I really hope Wendy gets here soon, I want to get home and into my own clothes before everyone else arrives. Most importantly Gray, Juvia and Natsu. Gray's brain might break if he sees me in his clothes, Juvia will flip and try to kill me, and Natsu will announce it to the world and make a big deal out of it.
I could just leave now, then Wendy will worry, get mad at Laxus for letting me out of the infirmary, possibly get master involved... Dammit, I'm too nice, but seriously what is with my language? It's steadily getting worse. Pretty soon I'll be as vulgar as Natsu and Gray when they're insulting eachother.
I was taken from my thoughts by a knocking on the door.
"Come in." My voice still sounded raspy, but no where near as bad as last night.
The door opened to reveal Laxus.
"Wendy just arrived and she asked me to tell you she'll be right up."
"Really!? Awesome!" I almost shout, then start mumbling to myself. "Once she gets here she can explain what that spell was, I can go home, beg the landlady for an extra couple days to get the money for rent. If Natsu, Erza and Gray are there we can probably go on a job together," It was then that Laxus set a bag in front of me.
"What's this?" I ask reaching for the bag and looking up at him.
"Your share of our reward." He states simply.
"Share? Reward? Mine and Wendy's job was incomplete."
"It would have been complete, and you wouldn't have been injured if it weren't for my team." He started, looking away from me, almost guiltily, "And, our jobs were kinda connected."
"Connected? How?"
Laxus opened his mouth to answer, but another voice came out. "Well, your rogue mage took whatever was in the ground that was making the land uninhabitable, which it was our job to fix that."
I turned to the door and saw that the speaker was Freid, and behind him were Wendy, Evergreen and Bixlow. Wendy stepped forward to speak now.
"Dracholt City sent the money to Fairy Tail while you were still sleeping. None of us wanted to accept it, since we technically didn't do the job. Master understood and contacted the Mayor of the city and tried to convince him to take it back." Wendy was now at my bedside with a quirked eyebrow. I looked down and blushed, forgetting I was in Gray's clothes. "The Mayor refused and said the job was taken by Fairy Tail and completed while we were in the City, no matter how it was done. So, we kept the money."
Wendy had somehow managed to work me out of Gray's jacket without me noticing, and was now testing the movement in my arms. During this I saw Evergreen step forward and start to speak as she walked to me with some scissors.
"In fact, while the Mayor was speaking with the Master, he noted that the rogue mage was gone, too, and was going to send the reward for that as well. The Master declined and said that since both jobs weren't actually completed because of us, we all could just split the S-class reward." Evergreen was behind me evening out my screwed up hair.
"We all got 150 000 jewels, except you, Lucy. Since you took all the damage we decided you should get the last bit we didn't know what to do with."
"And how much is that?" I asked, looking to everyone in the room.
"You get 250 000 jewels, cosplayer." I felt my eyebrow twitch at the nickname, then the amount Bixlow just said hit me and I felt shocked. I could only drop my jaw a little in an effort to speak.
That can keep me rent-worry free for at least three months. With a little extra spending money. Wait, no. I only need 20 000 for this month, so I still don't need to worry for the next two months and then I'd have a ton of spending money...
Wendy, by now, was done with my arms and moved to my legs.
I should be responsible and save it while I take some more laid back jobs over the next couple months and I won't be too freaked out once I have to start paying rent again.
I noticed Wendy had a frown on her face while she was examining my legs, and also noticed when she looked to Laxus and waved a hand at me. I looked from her to Laxus and back again. I was about to question her when she spoke.
"Lucy, I have to explain the magic I used on you before I can allow you to go home." Wendy looked back to me and I nodded.
"This healing spell was something I learned from the pages I got from Polyusica. I had never practiced it before, so I may have cast it a little strong upon you, but it's still too early to tell." She's avoiding actually telling me about the spell?
"What exactly was this spell, and what did it do?" She was taking far too long to get to the point. Odd. I'm not usually this impatient.
"It was called 'Link'. From its description, it is supposed to link one person's spirit, or life source, to someone else. For example, if I were to take a dying bird and link it to another birds, depending on the strength of the second bird, the first bird could live. Unfortunately, if the second bird was weak, or also injured, both birds could die. It's a risky spell." I nodded, following along with what she was saying. "If I were to link the dying bird to just any other bird, I could inadvertently end both lives, so to be sure they both would live, or at least be mostly healed before the spell wore off, I would need a strong, healthy second bird."
"So, what you're saying is that the reason I'm not dead, bleeding, dying, or even injured is because you connected my life to someone else's temporarily?" I saw Wendy nod, and I also noticed that Laxus and the Raijinshuu were still in the room. Evergreen walked back to stand with Freid and Bixlow. I felt for the ends of my hair and they were at my mid-neck.
"I'm going to take a wild guess and say it's one of the others in the room. Am I right?"
Nobody said anything. Nobody moved. Not even the quirking of an eyebrow, or the twitch of a finger.
"Does your silence mean I'm wrong?"
Still nothing. I could feel my eyebrow beginning to twitch in anger.
"Well?" Even I could hear the annoyance in my tone. At this, Wendy looked to the floor like she didn't want to be the one to say yes. Finally I lost my temper.
My arm hit the table beside the bed and I rose my voice, "Dammit! Would someone answer the stupid question?"
Everyone was looking at me in shock. I get that I'm not one to lose my temper that quick, but I just feel too impatient today. Then I realize that they are all staring at something specific. My arm. I look to it, and examine it and try to figure out what it is they're all looking at. I see nothing, I look back to them, and back to my arm. I still don't see anything and I move my arm back to its original spot in my lap. I looked back at the table as if it would tell me the answers to the world.
Well, it doesn't do that. However, it does give me a hint as to what everyone was staring at. One small singe mark right where my palm hit.
BOO! I bet you guys weren't expecting me back so soon with yet another longer than 1200 word chapter, especially since getting this one started was a major pain in the butt. I had an idea, but then I couldn't get it to go any farther. I tried for days. Finally I just said 'Screw it all!' and restarted the chapter. I deffinately like this one better. Partially 'cause it worked, but also because it got me where I needed to be.
So, my muses, keep that inspiration coming and I hope to have you all here in a few weeks. Have a happy Halloween!