Chapter Sixteen

I was sitting on the edge of the bed I had been using, faced towards the window looking outside. It was midafternoon, and the sun was at such an angle that it made the entire area glow. The look was so serene that I felt calm for the first time in a while.

It's been just about a week since the explosion I'd caused at the guild, Laxus had let me sulk about it for the first few days, then told me we'd have to start my training again. I kind of freaked out a bit, argued that I wasn't ready to use the magic again, and flat out refused. Laxus let it go the first few times, letting me attempt to get over what I had done in my own way. But, when I refused to go to the guild because I might hurt someone because I couldn't handle the magic, and still refused to train to learn to manage it, he went to the guild and came back with Master. I could see Laxus and the Master just breaking through the trees, Laxus leading the small man to the house to talk to me, both of them speaking with serious expressions upon their faces. I watched the two until they were too close to the house for me to see anymore. A few minutes later, Master was standing in the doorway of the room.

"Lucy, my child," I tensed the second I heard his voice, I refused to turn away from the window to look at him I could feel the lightning sparkling around me and on my skin because of my nervousness, "come outside with me." Then he turned and walked out of the room I'd been staying in, I let out a small sigh of relief and got up to follow.

Once outside I saw Master sitting on one of the dozens of boulders that surrounded the lake, I slowly walked up but stopped about five feet behind him.

"Come and sit, Lucy." I see him gesture to another boulder.

"No, thank you, Master, but I'll stand here." I say it in a small voice, almost equivalent to Wendy while talking to a stranger.

"Very well." Master turns to face me completely. I was surprised that the man had heard me over the loud roaring of the waterfall beating into the lake. "Tell me, why have you refused to continue your training? Why won't you come to the guild?" His voice is the kind of quiet that people use when they're trying not to scare an animal or something off. His usually happy, understanding eyes were full of a sad confusion.

"Master, you saw what I caused. I could have seriously hurt someone, I could have killed someone!" I feel my eyes begin to fill with tears as I think about the people I could have hurt because I was impatient, "My celestial magic, the magic I'm used to, can't kill unless I say so, and even then it isn't directly me doing anything to cause it. Sure, I do cause people physical pain from my whip and my kicks, but all of that I know what I'm doing. With this new Lightning magic, not even a quarter of my magic caused that huge explosion. I don't want to learn something that's so completely unpredictable, something that I can potentially kill someone with if I'm not careful." I feel the tears streaming down my face now. I want to fall to my knees and just cry, but before I can, I see Master jump off his boulder and begin walking to me. I back away from him when I see him reaching out his arm towards me, and for just a second I see pure sadness cross his kind features.

"Lucy, do you have so little faith in our members that you would think that could hurt them, even kill them." His voice was the same quiet as before, mixed with a type of understanding, like he knew what was going through my mind and what I was going through.

My eyes drop to my feet as he voiced that question, and my voice was slightly quivering, annoyed at myself that I could let someone think that. "No, I believe in everyone, it's just, some people I'm afraid that I would seriously injure."

"So what about Natsu, Erza, Gray, or even Mira?"

"They aren't normal, they don't count." I say like a stubborn child. Master lets out a loud laugh at this.

"So then what's there to worry about?"

"Well, what about Asuka when she is at the guild. Or Romeo, he's just a kid. Wendy too, sure she's strong, but she isn't like Natsu and the others. And Juvia, yes, she's strong enough to be S-class, but her body is made out of water, which everyone knows is a weakness when up against lightning or anything electric. Or even just the people who aren't inhuman. And what if that explosion had caught just some innocent bystander with no magic abilities at all." During my little freak out I hadn't noticed Master get closer to me, or even that I had sunk to the ground. What I did notice was a hug from the small man. It forced me to stop talking and calm down. It took me a few minutes, but I did hug him back. Master pulled away to look at me, but I kept my head down.

"I understand everything you're saying, child, but I want you to continue your training." I opened my mouth to argue, but he held up a hand and continued speaking, "I understand that your scared, but if this doesn't fade with the spell you're going to have to learn it anyway. You can't just avoid everyone and hide out here for the rest of your life." I reluctantly nodded to him, "And I want to see you at the guild, speaking with other people, taking a job of my choosing, going out into the world no later than a week from today."

I shot my head up to look at him, "What? No, Master, I can't-"

"You can and you will. One week, Lucy. Don't forget." He began skipping to the woods, completely taking away from the seriousness of his words.

"No, Master... Master!" He's gone, and he ignored me. I can't learn to control this enough to go to the guild in a week, let alone go out on a job.

I sigh and move to the boulder I'd chosen at the beginning of all this to continue my training.

I sit on the rock, glaring at the ground, telling myself that Master was right. I can't hide out here forever. No matter how nice Laxus is being now, there's no way he'll continue to be so if I just outright refuse to leave after the Link is gone and I still have his magic. Taking deep breaths and steeling my nerves, I begin to pull magic to my hand.

Don't concentrate the magic together too much, a quarter of my magic is too much, just imagine a stream of lightning leaving my hand. I take a deep breathe and call the magic to my hand and push it to the area in front of me. I feel my hand begin to tingle, and I hear the crackling of electricity, I need just a little more power and concentrated magic.

I short lightning bolt is created. Only a few feet in length, but still a bolt.

"Good. Now we're going to work on you keeping the lightning out for longer than just a second." I turn my head and see Laxus standing beside me, a small smile on his face as he looks to where the lightning was.

Hey there, my muses.

Well, here was chapter sixteen. My mood's been kind of foul lately, so that's why this chapter isn't exactly happy. Hope you enjoyed it anyways.

But, bye bye, I'll be back in a few weeks. Send lots of reviews and inspiration.