Homeward bound

"Speech"

It was the third day, and I'd awoken with Wendy and Carla next to me in the mess hall. The miners had broken out the good reserves along with a lot of alcohol in celebration. Luckily, they were responsible enough not to give it to children, well under threat of Sasha they were.

Wendy had fallen asleep during the party early on after I'd gotten her to feed herself, which she did without much coaxing, Carla joined her soon after. And rather than risk waking them I settled down and joined them in the land of nod, too tired to care where we were.

Wendy had latched on to my arm in the night and Carla was sprawled out across both our closest legs. Thankfully, neither were having nightmares, likely too tired.

Sacha, however, was watching the three of us, "Dobroye utro." I have no idea what that means. "Glad to see you are awake," She continued.

I grunted in the affirmative, not willing to move lest I wake the girls.

The woman smiled, "I'm radostnyy you children arrived when you did, few others could do what she did." She nodded at Wendy.

"Yeah I'm proud of them both, it's a hard position to be in," I commented. Wendy's grip tightened as Carla's claws bit into my leg, hope they aren't getting nightmares now the stress is, mostly, gone.

Sasha chuckled, "Be proud of yourself as well. Prikhodit, it's time for breakfast, best to wake them."

I shuck my arm that Wendy had a grip on while the other began on Carla, stirring her awake.

"Morning ladies," I greeted them back to wakefulness. Wendy simply groaned and burrowed her face into my arm harder, which was starting to hurt. Carla, however, gave a rather sharp-toothed yawn and sat up.

"Come on, up and at 'em, it's time for breakfast," I saw other miners rising from the floor and in some cases, tables rather hung over.

Carla stretched, "Please tell me you have some tea?"

I snorted, "Yeah, back at the room."

Carla looked at me and Wendy, then nodded at me and took off... Oh, great. "Make sure you bring some back," I called after her.

Wendy groaned again."Come on, little dragon, you're the hero right now, remember," I teased.

The girl froze for a second then eeped adorably, and now she had my arm AND waist locked in a hug.

I forced myself off the ground with my extra baggage, who refused to let go or uncurl. She was obviously still seeking comfort. I brought my free arm down and grabbed her leg, tugging her up and placing her on my lap as I sat at a table. Electing another squeak from her.

"Come on Wendy, it isn't that bad," I tried, she just shook her head in the negative.

"Haha, where's our little miracle worker," Alistair had arrived back in high spirits and sans a shirt, posing up a storm... I need to work out more.

The little healer was attempting to use me as a shield, so, of course, I had to say something, "I think he's looking for you."

Wendy mumbled something, but I was neither a dragon slayer nor a cat, so I didn't hear a word.

"My hearing isn't that good, you'll need to speak up," I informed her.

"Don't wanna," She mumbled louder.

Well, too bad, you deserve all the love and affection you can get right now. "Morning Alistair," I greeted the large man.

"Good morning, Salem. Ah, there she is," He spotted Wendy who reluctantly peeked out of my shirt cloth and gave a small timid wave.

"STUPENDOUS! I bring wonderful news-" The man was cut off via a ladle to the head, courtesy of his wife.

"Tikhiy, you're scaring the poor girl," Sasha interrupted the man, who looked admittedly apologetic.

He quickly cleared his throat, and lowered his voice, "Apologies, I bring wonderful news, there's someone here to see you." Wait, what?

From the entryway was a woman I recognized, walking in weakly. She had short red hair and brown eyes, or eye in this case. I'd know I had to pull the busted one out, so Wendy could heal her. I know, not standard practice back home, but magic.

The petite blue-haired girl gasped in recognition as the woman spoke, "You must be the little girl who saved my life."

"Indeed she is," Carla spoke, arriving back in the mess hall with two cups of tea, one of which she handed to me.

"Oh, you wonderful, wonderful woman," I praised the she-cat bringing me glorious tea/caffeine. Carla smiled at that, it feels like ages since I saw her do that.

The woman stopped for a moment, processing. "I DID tell you," Alistair chuckled.

"Yes, yes you did," She confirmed weakly.

"I think you broke her," I commented, looking at Carla who simply hummed and drank her tea. I chuckled, holding Wendy who was now sitting in my lap looking at the woman meekly.

"Thank you, young Lady, because of you I can see my daughter again," The woman's voice was quiet and her eye was wet as she spoke.

Wendy willingly hopped up from my lap and ran up to the woman, hugging her. The woman in turn kissed her forehead, "Merci beaucoup I owe you my life and my daughter her mother," Wendy let out a watery smile as Alistair came back up to the woman... Wait, is she French, or well the Earthland equivalent?

"Excuse me, little Wendy, but I have to get her back. Please stop by the infirmary before you go. There are many who wish to meet you," Alistair told her as he helped the woman back... Where the hell did he get that shirt?

I'd finally started on my tea when Wendy turned back to us after energetically waving the two off. And sprinted right at me, crap. I'd just put my tea down when Wendy reached me, cut me some slack I had less than a second, that girl is fast. Annnnd I'm being hugged again.

"Thank you, for making me continue," She said softly.

I returned the hug, "Anytime, thank Carla for finding the mission to begin with, or we wouldn't be here helping."

Said feline froze mid-sip of her drink before the sky dragon slayer picked her up and hugged her. Instead of simply accepting she was being hugged like she normally would, Carla hugged her friend back.

"Seriously though, good call, we saved lives," I told the cat as their hug finally broke several minutes later.

There now if Carla had any guilt over all of this, she shouldn't anymore. I'd also caught her brew, keeping the contents in the cup. I owe it to my tea friend.

Wendy had decided to visit the medical building with Carla and myself in tow, though I had elected to stay outside, considering that I had actually hurt several of those patients so that Wendy could heal them properly. Also, if I see number 2 again, I might put them in the infirmary.

"Salem, here to see the patients?" Alistair had seen me leaning against the building and came over to see me.

"Ah, no, my teammates are, I'd rather not, I had to take that poor woman's eye out myself so Wendy could heal her. And she wasn't the only one I hurt so they could be healed properly," I winced at the memory, as did Alistair.

"Ah, yes, I heard about that. For what it's worth, thank you for doing what was necessary," The big guy was sympathetic at least. He put a hand on my shoulder in support, which covered my arm mind you.

"It's ok, I can live with it," I smiled in thanks.

"A strong lad indeed," He chuckled, then checked his pockets. "Before I forget, your payment," The man passed me a stack of notes, which I accepted with a grateful thank you.

"Well I best be off to the missus, we need to pack now this issue is sorted," He commented.

"Pack?" I asked in curiosity.

"Correct, my wife and I oversee mining operations in the local area. We came up here personally after the accident to help," Alistair stood, posing proudly in that moment. And I could see why, he looked after his people, in this case, more had survived than died. I can respect that, I just wish I knew what happened to his shirt when he posed and how it would be back seconds later.

"So you're heading home then?" I was making conversation at this point, but I was somewhat curious.

"Correct again, young Salem," The man laughed loudly. Honestly, I'm sure half the camp has heard his side of our conversation.

"But yes, our son was quite understanding that we were going to have to cancel his birthday party, he's a chip off the old block, you know. But thanks to all of you, that won't be necessary," The muscle-bound man smiled happily.

Then he continued more seriously, "The injured will be coming back to the settlement with us as well, now they are well enough to move."

I held out my hand to the man, "Well Alistair, I have to say meeting you was an experience, and I wish you, your family, and your employees the best."

The man cried happily and grabbed my hand in a crushing double-handed grip, shaking me vigorously, "And you and yours young man, don't ever lose that youthfulness of yours!"

With that, his wife, Sasha, appeared behind him and reached up, managing to get a hold of his ear, dragging him off, muttering in Russian the entire time. But not before giving me a wave goodbye... Had she been there the whole time? Also, ouch, my arm.

The door beside me opened and Wendy and Carla both exited the building, Wendy calling back several goodbyes.

"Feel better?" I questioned, rubbing my arm.

The bluette smiled gently, giving a positive hum in reply.

"Well then we best be off, Alistair brought our pay over already, and we have a lot of ground to cover," I patted where I had the money while I brought up the fact that we would need to leave soon now our job was done.

"Indeed I require a hot bath," Carla made note of this by looking at her grimy fur.

I snorted, "You and me both, we really should have brought more clothes with us." I looked at several of the blood stains I was sporting.

Wendy wrinkled her nose at her own clothing.

At least we'd been able to wash up a bit in the restroom area, but the showers were cold, and the soap, quite frankly, wasn't meant for fur like Carla's.

As we made our way to the small town/ encampments exit, a number of miners were present to see us off. Seems we had left an impression.

Unfortunately, Wendy turned around to wave back and tripped. I grabbed her, "Ok, hand."

"Salem!" Wendy whined, mortified and red as a tomato.

"Hand," I repeated.

With a groan, the girl compiled, and Carla patted her head with a smirk on her maw, finding the whole thing humorous.

The trip back down was harder in the sense that we had to fight against a steep incline, and easier because we had an idea of where we were going.

We chatted about things to do when we got back, The chief among such things was a bath, change of clothes, and sleep in our own beds.

But something interesting did happen toward the end of the day as we leveled out heading back toward the forest.

Wendy sniffed the air and looked around, bringing us all to a stop. Though before I could ask what was wrong I found out first hand.

"Halt," Said a... Who the hell is this? Tan skin, yellow eyes, and grey-haired with fancy clothing and some black leather armor along with a far too big Rapier.

"In the name of the beautiful bandits, lay down your possessions and leave with your lives," The... I think it's a dude, flicked his hair to the side. And leveled his sword at us, though his arm was shaking.

Two others flanked us, having been behind rocks, one with purple hair and yellow eyes trying, and failing, to duel long swords. And another with red hair and blue eyes, trying and, again, failing to draw a bow properly.

They all had the same clothing and unholy amounts of makeup on.

"Oh, no," Wendy cried in shock.

Both me and Carla turned to her with flat looks. "Really?" Carla exclaimed in exasperation.

"But they're bandits, and they're trying to rob us," Wendy argued.

"Salem," Carla requested facepalming... Facepawing?

"With gusto, my Lady," I exaggerated.

"A talking cat, I bet that would sell," Said the red dumbass.

Wendy's mood immediately turned, and she let out a hostile, "No."

Right red's first, raising a single arm, I remembered what Carla had said about my magic on our first day in Pitt about detonating air, it had given me ideas. Best case it explodes how I want, worst case it explodes anyway, just not how I want.

The air between me and the dumbass began to pop, I lowered the overall output of my magic to the minimum for a true detonation much like my prior backblast attack only more precision and Accuracy as I shaped the magical charge, it took several seconds to be ready.

"Low yield, High impact," I announced, informing my teammates of the yield output should help them know how dangerous of an attack I'm performing and allow them to act accordingly.

Skreeee, Boom.

The magically saturated air made a path and the blast was more like a beam now it had a route and was the size of my 9-year-old torso, I slid an inch, but it was far more equalized. Once released, the attack took less than a second to hit the red bandit in the chest. His armor crumbled then itself exploded and charred his skin along with the blast, flinging him back into the stone wall, the man groaned bleeding from the force of the shockwave and shrapnel.

Huh, the armor detonated? That wasn't meant to happen, but I'm not complaining.

"Michael, Nooooo! I will avenge you," Purple dumbass was apparently overdramatic. He charged, yelling at the top of his lungs, "That cat is ours."...Really? Didn't you want our money?

Wendy, not happy about her friend being targeted, activated her magic, "Armor, Arms, Vernier." The man's attack was sloppy, like he would have missed if Wendy had stayed still, sloppy. As it is, she charged him and swung her tiny fist, yelling, "You won't take my friends!"

Apparently, she thought he was an actual threat, and because of the high difference, nailed him right in the manhood with her enhanced strength.

Both me and the bandit leader shared a moment of solidarity, hissing in phantom pain, as the downed man screeched in pain that hurt even my ears.

"Ahhh," Wendy screamed, covering her ears at the sound, then kicked him again...in the family jewels, once, twice, thrice, the poor man stopped screaming, now blissfully unconscious, foaming from the mouth and eyes rolled back.

"I got him," Wendy smiled happily, pumping her tiny fists in victory.

"Oh, Wendy," Carla sighed.

"What?" The Sky maiden cocked her head cutely in confusion.

I whimpered, "N-nothing, g-g-good j-job."

"What?" She asked again, frowning adorably.

Apparently, that was enough for the last bandit to charge me instead of Wendy, I don't blame him.

I threw a blast bolt at him to finish the fight. Only, he cut it?

"The, hell?" I was surprised, this idiot had actual skill?

"Low yield, Back Blast," I only used one arm as opposed to the two from my fight against the black cat.

Boom

It had the same draw as High Impact did magically, and I still stumbled back somewhat, but the lead dumbass couldn't dodge the wider blast and was flung backward. Did he just backflip onto his feet?

I took off the backpack I'd been wearing, he's not bad for a Saturday morning cartoon.

He was charging again with a stupid battle cry, "Beauttty!"

I brought my foot down and poured my magic into the ground, then detonated it in a straight line from me to him. A dull boom rang out.

Then the tough bastard came out of the smoke in front of me bloody and crying, "YOU RUINED MY MAKEUP!" What the actual hell?

I detonated my feet, pushing myself away from his telegraphed overhead slash. As I landed a few feet away, he brought the blade down launching an energy slash and off-balancing himself in the process.

"That's a magic weapon!" Carla warned me.

Yeah, that. So, it wasn't skill, it was his equipment and stubbornness.

"Ears!" I yelled, we'd train together enough that they immediately covered their ears.

As he tried to recover, I pulled at my detonation magic in the air, bringing it around my arms. Then set my arms and feet shoulder-length apart, the magic in the air began to sparkle, crack and pop reminiscent of firecrackers and sparklers. I gathered my internal magic, shaping it flat and called on that in the air, then forced them both forward and detonated, with a cry of, "Low yield, Full force."

It went silent for half a second, and then it roared along with hundreds of secondary explosive pops, the energy flattened everything in front of it and bulldozed through anything stupid enough not to move.

Then within a couple of seconds, it was quiet again. And I slumped in relief as the stinging in my skin subsided. Ok, that was a bit much, after everything I was at about 1/5. Damn, I need to work on that.

"That's Low Yield!" Carla cried, pointing at the smooth but rough outline of a square that widened from where the blast had originated. It was a good 10 meters wide, with tiny potholes in the rock from the secondary explosions,

"Apparently? I've never used it before, but that was the minimum magic needed to use it right now, about two fifths of my reserves." I explained, catching my breath, and began looking for the man I had hit. Then I found him embedded in the rock face where my blast had carved out some of the rock.

"WOW!" Wendy cried in astonishment. Carla was just shocked and trying to cope. Ha, wait until Wendy gets older.

I reequipped our supply bag and began moving toward the downed man, hoping I hadn't killed him. "Come on Carla, my Ground Zero is bigger," I soothed.

The she-cat pinched her nose then frowned at me, "I'm aware, I'm simply surprised you've never brought up a spell like this before, or the other."

"Yeah, it's a recent development, see I hadn't actually realized I could detonate air till you brought it up," I explained.

Carla blinked in surprise and started after me as Wendy ran ahead of her, "Truly? I thought it obvious, the air detonates around you when your magic leaks, such as when we were taken for questioning."

"Ah, see I hadn't realized that, I thought it was from my body," I waited for them for a moment.

"I was unaware, or I would have told you" Carla stated.

"I know, and you kind of did. I had time to think in the mines, so I came up with some possible spells. Looks like it worked," I was actually quite concerned with how fast I was developing as a mage, thanks to Carla I had the knowledge I needed to figure out my magic and work it as needed. Maybe it's genetic, but I have no idea who my parents are in this world. Hestias doing? Doubtful. Hmm, it IS my natural magic, perhaps that plays apart or my mentally?

"It did, are you alright? It WAS a large explosion," She asked me with some concern, as we stopped.

"I'm good, but thanks," I replied with a grin. Wendy had been looking at the man embedded in the rock as we approached, frowning but not doing much else, hmm.

The dumbass was hurt badly but alive, from what I've learned even none mages had resistance to magic in this world. It is sort of necessary if you wanted to live here, sort of like the Dire Wolves, but not to the same extent. Otherwise, people I'd fought like the black cat and him would both be nothing but bits.

The Bandit groaned, oh, good he's alive, so glad I stayed at low yield. I was quick to take his oversized Rapier away from him along with a deep black sheath, I turned to the girls, "Come on then, without this they're hardly a threat."

"So we're just going to leave them here?" Wendy asked, looking concerned.

"Do YOU want to carry them back to the guild?" I questioned, cocking my brow in amusement as the girl instantly shook her head in the negative.

"We'll inform the guild when we return," Carla informed the girl, which soothed her somewhat as we continued on our way.

Please, no more Saturday morning cartoon villains.

Finally, we were back at the guild, and bonus no more silly villains. We had given our report to Master Roubaul which had been... Interesting.

"Nabura I'm proud of you children, it was a difficult mission for you, but you overcame it and succeeded," The spirit praised us after hearing our mission report. And while myself and Carla were mostly indifferent to it, Wendy beamed.

"Yes well, thank you," Carla accepted the praise in a good manner. "However, we were also attacked by several bandits on the way back," The white-furred girl pointed to the oversized rapier I was still carrying.

I held the blade aloft to emphasize its existence, "This is a magic sword their leader had apparently gotten a hold of, though I don't think he was a mage. He had difficulty using it and on closer inspection it has several charged Lacrima slots in the knuckle guard, the scabbard has one at the throat as well, it must have cost a small fortune." I checked the weapon over again, seeing if I had missed anything, "Not sure how they got it."

"I see," The man frowned, "And the fact you have this sword means you defeated them, yes?

"Yep," Wendy chirped happily, while I shuddered at the remainder of her brutal assault.

"We weren't able to bring them with us, we were hoping you could send someone to collect them Guild Master, they were operating close to the guild," Carla explained.

The spirit gave a nod, "Of course, Nabura, we can't leave thieves like that unpunished."

"Oh, they've been punished alright," I commented, shooting a look at Wendy.

"What?" She asked innocently. Carla let out a forced chuckle.

"Nothing," I continued, "Still I doubt they'll be much of a threat without this blade."

"Even so, it's best to bring them in, do you have a description?" The small spirit insisted. I shared a look with Carla.

"Umm, yeah, they were males wearing rather high-end clothes and black leather armor, one of them with red hair and blue eyes, the other two had yellow eyes with purple and gray hair respectively. And, umm," I paused at the ridiculousness of it all, bandits are meant to be filthy and crass.

Carla sighed, and rattled off the rest, "And large amounts of makeup, black lipstick, black eyeliner, dark blush and several colors of nail varnish."

The small spirit visibly paused, "I see, Nabura, well, we will send someone immediately. In the meantime may I see that sword?"

I shrugged and handed it out to him, which he held flat in his palms for a moment then held back out to me, "Yes the weapon has many enchantments on it, sharpening, piecing and size changing enchantments, along with energy projecting and shield enchantments. The one on the scabbard simply links it to the blade. "

I am not sure how he did that, but I whistled as I retrieved the blade, "That's got to be worth millions of jewels. How did he get it?"

"We will figure that out later, for now, go and get some rest," The Master stated.

A quick bath later, then dinner in the guild hall, along with some questions for the master, and I was asleep.

A/N: Definitely lighter-hearted this time, fairy tail often has some strange foes at times, so here's mine.

And bonus Salem finally has a win under his belt, too bad they were barely a threat in the grand scheme of things.

And thank you @runeIt99, for letting me know about the mistake.