Weather Changes

Chapter five

The sun shines brightly through my curtains and disturbs my sleep. "Why sun?" I mumble as I get a knock on my door, "Noel! I'm going to the dojo! See you later!" I hear Blaine stomp through the hallway and sit up to get dressed. I have to wait three whole days until I can go back to practice with Clare but she gave me a task. A task I will do.

Stepping out of my room I can smell breakfast from downstairs and speed walk to the kitchen. "Ah, Noel, good morning." I hear mother say with a glance over her shoulder and she sets two plates on the table. "Dad is out today on a trip to rekindle his baker-ness again" she says with a long sigh and a smile. "What are you going to do today?" Mother asks me while I finish my mouthful of food before I answer. "I'll practice making rain." I say as I take another bite of bacon. She looks at me sceptically. "Making rain?" she pauses to contemplate, "So you made that drizzle yesterday?! And the downpour before that?!" she says basically leaning across the table almost in my face as I finish another bite. "Um, y-yes?" I say shyly wondering why it was so interesting until she grabbed my hands and looked into my eyes with her own, "That's fantastic! So weather magic?!" she asks excitedly. "Its probably an accurate name." I say with a quizzical expression. "You could help us with the drought we suffer through the summer next year. My daughter is so kind and helpful." mother states with a dreamy look like she sees the future as she backs away with her hands clasped together. She doesn't stop any time soon so I carry on eating.

"It was yummy." I say when she snaps out of her daydreaming. "Of course it was! I prepared it." She says firmly for no objection and I had none, it was really good after all. "I'm going out now. See you soon… mother." I say as she takes our plates to the kitchen. "Be safe!" she shouts from the kitchen. I put on my shoes and walk out the door, closing it behind me. I walk to just out the village so I don't disturb the nice weather with the rain. I take a seat on a rock near a small pond and look to the sky. "Hello clouds." I say as I see them gather above me. "Please rain." I mutter looking up while releasing magic power into my clouds to fuel them with energy, I feel my magic seep out but no rain drops from the sky. "That was slightly disappointing, and I'm talking to clouds now?" I look around to see if anyone heard me talking to myself. Sighing in relief, I look back up. "Please rain, a little bit?" The clouds grow bigger. "For me?" I say trying to convince them to do something while feeding a bit more magic. They just grow bigger, a bit too big. "Um..." I say. "This is so sad." I think to myself, feeling my confidence drop, if I had any before this. I try to make the clouds smaller but end up moving the whole giant cloud and in that moment a crash of lightning hit the earth next to me as I jumped ten feet into the air while shrieking. The crash left a dark patch of grass and an oddly fascinating pattern on the floor. Looking up I realised that I seem to have overfed my clouds and then a strong downpour flooded down as I held my hands up willing it to stop… it did. "I stopped it!" I exclaim internally with excitement. As I move to put my hand down, the rain starts again. So I move it back up with eyes shut tight. It stops. I look at my hand. "Aha! The mighty me has control!" I cockily think. "Oh no, my inner thoughts are getting a revamp." I say aloud with a sweat drop because I know that my new family is rubbing off on me already. "Great." I think. With my hand motion now a signal for it to rain heavily… I can't put it down. I need to make it rain but a heavy downpour isn't fun. With quick thinking I lower my hand to bring the excess water and just

stand in it. I concentrate to gather water to create a dome around me but instead a flash of lightning hit me. I jumped swinging my arm high in the air to stop the rain immediately so I could check myself for damage but as I look all I feel is an odd sensation of 'I need to move really fast right now.' so I begin to run but as I do so I notice that this isn't a normal running speed and slam right into a tree. "Owwww!" I shout holding my face from the pain of the impact and suddenly more water falls from the sky from me lowering my hand. I sit in the cold and heavy rain, holding my currently in pain face. Great.

I raise my hand once again to stop the water and with a motion to the left, the clouds spin in that direction but as a small storm. I watch it for a moment to see that the spinning has gathered more clouds and grew in size but I felt no more connection to it, yet it continued to grow. "Maybe that's what Clare meant by you can't control it completely. I just let loose a storm by letting go… I just let loose a storm by letting go!" I exclaim in my head with a big smile. "Ohhhh. Be the catalyst. I feel so dumb." I say with a depressed tone but at least I understand now. It feels good to learn. But what I need to regain control? Leave that for later. In just ten minutes I've understood quite bit about my magic. "This is going to be a long day." I think sitting down by the tree I head butted not too long ago. Rubbing my head from where that lightning struck me, I get to thinking, "That sudden boost. Definitely useful but dangerous, I should make sure to talk to Clare about it." I get back up and summon more clouds above me to restart my training from scratch. I make sure not to overload the clouds with my magic and they look significantly smaller than the mayhem I made a few moments ago. Lifting my arm to signal the clouds to drop water onto the earth below and as they let down the light drizzle that I expected, I smiled gently up towards the sky and slowly lower my arm while willing the pace of droplets to continue. I stood there in the quiet raining forest, letting the droplets cool my skin as I began to meditate on my magic.

About two hours later I emerge from the forest and note the clearer, prettier sky. "It really is a beautiful colour. Our sky." I think to myself shielding my eyes from the glaring sun, crossing to the path that leads straight down the middle of the town. I walk past the dojo and walk towards the bakery, home. I approach the bakery and notice people sitting inside. Since its lunchtime its pretty busy. "I didn't think this place was actually too popular." I admit in my head.

I walk in with a ding from the bell above the door but no one seemed to notice except mother who looked over and smiled while giving a customer their change and purchase. "Hello Noel, welcome home." Mother greeted after she thanked the customer for their purchase. I just nod in response and she signals me over, I follow. Mother took me to the kitchen "I wasn't exactly sure what you like but I made you a ham sandwich for when you came back." she said handing me the sandwich. "Thank you." I replied while taking it from her outstretched hand. "Your welcome." she says coolly but rushes off to help another customer. I look at the sandwich and unwrap the film over it to take a bite. "Yummy!" I think with a blissful expression. I like ham. I finish the food and decide to walk around the town.

As I say good bye to mother and some usual customers give me a nice sending off despite not knowing me, I step back out the door to meet the midday sunlight. Walking down a path to the centre of town I reach the fountain which situated in the middle. I decided to go over and sit on it however before I reached it a person bashed into me really hard and I toppled to the floor. "Ow. That was rude!" I raised my voice to the white haired person. They looked up from having their face slammed into the cobble with a bleeding forehead and tears in their eyes, instantly I swooped to remove the tears with my hand out of instinct and quickly pulled back. "What the heck am I doing?!" I think confused at myself. My reaction made the girl smile and wipe at her forehead. "Eheh, Sorry." She said in a small squeaky voice and pushed herself up and lent me a hand. "Um, thank you." I say feeling a bit embarrassed from my previous rudeness but don't apologise. She did slam into me. "Who the hell are you?" I hear a feminine voice snarl behind the girl and look past her as she turned to address the person. "It wasn't her fault Mira! I ran into her." the one who pushed me admitted rather frantically. "Oh yeah?" she says forcefully. Behind the girl with a pony tail was a muscular looking guy with a bowl hair cut. "Big sister, p-please calm down. Lis ran I-into her." he said shyly despite looking so big. "Whatever. Come on Lis. We need to find a place to sleep then make our way out of this stupid place." the goth looking one spat. "Okay!" the youngest said happily then she turned to me. "Wanna help us find a place? I'm Lisanna Strauss by the way. What's your name?" Lisanna said in one big cluster of words with a smile. "I'm Noel but I don't think I can help you, I've only been here a few days." I say feeling useless. "Great, a worthless brat." the eldest said turning to walk away with her brother. I pouted at the name calling but didn't back chat. "Don't worry about my sister, she's always a bit mean. She's Mirajane and my brother is Elfman, he's a bit shy." she tells me their names but makes no effort to catch up with them which they notice and stop walking to wait for her. "You should come explore with us! It'll be fun." she says with enthusiasm. Since I was going to do it anyway, the company might not seem bad. "O-okay." I stutter and she takes my hand and drags me towards her siblings. Mirajane just scowls at me. "Picking up strays Lis?" she says with a smirk. I frown "I'm not a stray." I mutter under my breath angrily. "What was that brat?" she says back with renewed anger. I say nothing more and she continues to look at the town map in her hands. "Ugh. Great, I can feel the awkward in the air." I think to myself.

Walking down a path that hopefully led to hotels Lisanna began to ask personal questions. "Do you live here Noel?" she asks curiously. "I do. I live in a bakery not far from the centre of town, its cozy and popular. The family their took me in a couple of days ago." I said not afraid to tell her about my life here. "What about you Lisanna?" I ask cautiously wondering why these siblings are wandering around together. "Oh um. Well our parents they..." Lisanna began to tear up and I react by squeezing her hand. "Its okay. You don't have to tell me but I'm here if you need me. Okay?" I say reassuringly, back at the orphanage I got used to lots of crying children and the saddening stories that went with them but I realise that despite my commonness with the subject its not easy on the ones experiencing the loss. Lisanna just squeezed back. "Okay, thanks Noel." she smiles sadly through her tears. "Ugh! This wretched-!" I hear Mirajane curse looking through her bag whuch currently had a huge gash in the bottom. "Damn this stupid town! We've been had!" she says angrily to herself while Elfman has a fearful expression written on his face. "W-w-what do w-we d-do?" Elfman says while cowering. "Where will we sleep now?" I hear Lisanna says next to me and frightened. I decide to speak up knowing that they couldn't sleep outside. "Um, I could check if you c-could stay with me for a few-" I began to stutter after being put under Mirajane's angry gaze and give up speaking since my message got across. "Really?!" Lisanna says happily. "I can check." I say easily looking at Lisanna while I hear Mirajane click her tongue and Elfman stops cowering. "What damn choice do we have?" Mirajane mutters.

Outside the bakery, "This is it." I say shakily not knowing ifthis is taking advantage of this family's hospitality too much. "Come in and sit at a table." I say opening the door letting them come inside and smell the fresh bread. I sit them at a booth near the door. "Wait here for a moment, I'll go see mother." I say but they seem too busy looking around at the building and people watching out the window. I speed walk to the kitchen nervously. "Made some friends already Noel?" I hear mother say without looking up from the bread kneading. I begin to sweat at not knowing about the response I would get. "What's wrong?" she says looking away from her work. "Um, I-" I begin. "Its okay, Noel. You can tell me anythin." she says reassuringly while wiping off her hands. "My friends need some help." I say looking down. "I was wondering if they could… sleep in my room for a few days." I say and she looks at me without a smile. "Just a few! A-and They won't be b-bothering you." I say tearing up, wondering if I would have to let the Strauss siblings down. "Aw don't cry," she says soothingly wiping at my face. "there's no need to cry, my little Noel. Of course they can stay." she says patting my head. "You'll have to introduce me to them though. That's my condition." she states her condition with confidence and I nod. I bring her to the table to meet the Strauss siblings. "This is my Mother," I say for the siblings. "and this is Lisanna, Mirajane and Elman." I introduce them all. "Hehe, what cuties." Mother giggles to herself which makes us all feel abit worried but Lisanna speaks up, "Don't be creepy-" she says but covers her mouth. It was either instinct or normalcy for her and Mirajane just laughed while Mother giggled and Lisanna and Elfman both looked a bit embarrassed, no idea why he was though. "Well it's nice to meet you three and I hope we get along. Noel, why don't you show the girls to your room and the young man to Blaine's." she suggested but it was more like an order phrased kindly. I nod at her and motion them to follow. I take them through the kitchen with Mother continuing making her bread. "Your mums so cool, Noel!" Lisanna said with excitement. "She is." I say with a smile. "The living room is to the right and kitchen and dining room back down the way we came." I say making my way to the stairs. "Up here is the bathroom, my room, Blaine's room, parents room and a small storage room." I mention pointing to the correct rooms. Mirajane speaks up when I finish, "Who's Blaine?" she says with attitude. "He's my brother and friend, he's at the dojo right now training." I answer with a scowl to match her attitude which she returns. "Trainin' for what?" she says but doesn't quite make it seem like a question. "He's going to be a swordsman, if you must know." I say snootily which makes her click her tongue and look away. "Um, anyway, I want to see your room Noel!" Lisanna ends with excitement. "Okay." I answer simply and open my door to let them in but Elfman just stands outside shifting awkwardly. "You can come in." I say looking at him. "I-I can't go into a girls room, Mirajane won't be h-happy." he says in a small voice. "Elfman… I'm letting you in. You have my permission, don't worry." I say gently and he slowly shuffles in with a quiet response that I couldn't quite hear. "What a boring room." I hear Mirajane say with boredom lacing her voice. "That's not polite sis." I hear Lisanna scold gently. "I suppose you'll be sleeping here tonight so um, do you have spare clothes?" I ask. "Yes." I hear both Lisanna and Elfman respond holding their rucksacks up but Mirajane just crosses her arms and glares at my floor. I sigh. " You can't sigh at me brat! Its not my fault your stupid town is full of crooks!" she says angrily with a glare. "I'm not the one who robbed you! And you should look out more!" I glare back, "she insulted this wonderful town, the town which has taken me in for the time being, I'm not backing down." I think maddened by her rudeness. The wind picked up outside my window as the sky darkened from the clouds. "Well maybe I shouldn't have to if the authorities were half decent at their job!" Mirajane shouts back. Rain hits the window as my anger rises. "The police can't take care of every mugging in town and if they could help you'd probably scare them anyway!" I take a jab at her style. "I don't want some nameless orphan to judge me about being scary!" and in return she jabbed at my abandonment, she clashed her forehead with mine to gain some advantage over me but I clashed back as thunder began to roll outside and lightning flashed hard outside. Both of us not backing down growling at each other as the weather kept its pace of flashing and thundering while Lisanna and Elfman looked on in worry. "Guys, please don't fight." I heard Lisanna whimper. A loud banging on my door made me back off a little as Mother stomped inside with a scary looking face and pulled us apart. "Noel!" Mother shouts at me and I feel fear take over me and by look look on Mirajane's face she feels the same. "Its raining outside and I just put out the washing this morning!" She says angrily to me which I return with a dumbfounded look. "She's not scolding for the fight?" I think astonished. "Turn it off now!" she says huffily which makes the siblings look at us weird. I look outside and notice the storm that my magic had created without my knowing, I will it to drift off and the clouds dissipate slowly. Mother just nods like I did something she approves of and stated "Father is cooking dinner and Blaine will be back at soon. You have one hour till dinner is ready at 7." she then exits with a soft shut of my door. "Your a mage?" I hear Mirajane say with an impressed look while Elfman and Lisanna just stare at the sky watching it. "I am." I say with caution. "Me too, I misjudged you twerp." she says like I've been seen in a new light. "Thanks?" I reply not sure what to say to that. "Hey, Noel! You made it rain?!" Lisanna asks in amazement. "I-I did, it's not that cool though." I admit shyly and Lisanna shakes her head, "It is cool! Me, Mira and Elf share a magic so it awesome to see new magic, we use Takeover but I'm not as good as those two yet." she pouts at the fact. "Then lets get better together Lisanna." I say liking the sound of growing our magics. "I'm only nine so I won't be too good yet." she mumbles to herself. "That's okay because I'm only two years older so I'm not too amazing either." I admit. Lisanna gasps which makes me jump a bit. "Is she out of oxygen?!" I think frantically. "Your the same as Mira! You can train together and I'll train with Elfman!" she states like she has a solid plan. I look at Mirajane and she looks back then turns her head with a click of her tongue while Lisanna just giggles.

Mother called us down for dinner and we all sat at the table, its a tight fit since only four people usually sit at it but it was all right, it felt like a family. "I don't think I should think that this feels like a family since its temporary though." I think sadly and tuck into my meal. Suddenly a large bang sounds throughout the house. "Sorry that I'm late!" we all turn towards the kitchen as Blaine runs in out of breath and shouting at the top of his lungs. "I thought I said not to be late this morning!" Mother huffed angrily. "I'm sorry, a storm chased me while I was training in the forest then I got super lost." Blaine explains as he sits down at the table. "Whoops." I think but not feeling too guilty. Everyone looks at me while Blaine just tuck into his food, I quickly do the same looking no one in the eye. Everyone then carries on eating like it normal even though it isn't although Elfman seems more uncomfortable than the rest of us. "Oh! Who are you guys?" Blaine asks like he just noticed. "I'm Lisanna Strauss." Lisanna states happily. "I'm Mirajane and this is Elfman." Mirajane mumbles through her food. Elfman just gave a small nod. "That's cool. Noel made friends all ready!" Blaine shouts across the table, Father just laughs loudly through the awkwardness of our dinner like its a joke. "Thank you for having us." Lisanna says putting her fork down and smiling at us. "Its no problem sweetie, stay here as long as you need." Mother says smiling back as Father nods firmly. "Oh dear! I'll run the bath for you, just put your dishes in the kitchen when your done." Mother says getting up to put her plate away and run the bath. "T-Theres no need really, we don't want to impose any more than this!" Lisanna says quickly but Mother ignores her. "She was like this for me too, just go with it." I state as a fact. "Hahaha! Go with the flow kids!" Father booms to add to what I said.

After the Strauss siblings finish their baths the girls come to my room while Elfman worriedly follows Blaine. "Elfy this is going to be the best sleepover of your life! We'll-" Is all I heard as Blaine took Elfman away. "I'll take the floor, you guys can have the bed." I say settling on the floor with a small blanket. "No way this is your room." Lisanna says frantically. "Its her choice Lis, let her do it." Mirajane says coldly getting in my bed. Lisanna drags the blanket off of me forcefully. "Get in the bed!" she demands cutely. I sigh and look at Mirajane who looks at me in return with a glare. "Ok." I stated simply. "If it puts her at ease." She gives me a hand up and hops in the middle while I take the side and deliberately put a gap between us. "Its too small, this is stupid." I think at the lousy idea of three in one bed. "This is stupid." I hear Mirajane voice my thoughts then huff to herself knowing she's stuck in the situation.

In the morning I found myself on the floor with a pain in my head. "What on Earthland?" I think picking myself up off the floor. I look over and see the cause. Lisanna sprawled on my bed with no sign of Mirajane. "Ughhh." I hear a groan. "Oh." I think moving to look at the scene better. I leave them to sleep to get dressed and brush my teeth in the bathroom. Outside my room I see Blaine and Elfman but Elfman is smiling happily and chatting with Blaine. Almost shocking but it seems Blaine got him out of his shell. I smile at the sight.

After I finished my teeth and asked Mother for some dark coloured clothes, I walk back to my room. I open my door and find two sleepy looking sisters, one on the bed, one on the floor, both rubbing their eyes. "Good morning." I say walking in. "Mornin'" They both grumble which makes me giggle. "You laughing at me?!" Mirajane say angrily. "Um no!" I say quickly and push the clothes in her arms. "Wha- Oh, um thanks." Mirajane thanks me which surprises me and then she looks at the floor she's sitting on but I take the thanks anyway since its probably rare. "No problem, Mirajane." I reply and she nods. I walk out of my room to go to the kitchen. "I'm hungry." I think to myself walking down the stairs. Downstairs I see Blaine talking to Elfman about the dojo. "Oh man! You should come along, we can fight together! Toku can teach all kinds of martial arts, so lets go after breakfast!" Blaine exclaims excitedly. "It seems fun." Elfman responds. I sit at the table and wait for breakfast to be ready. After everyone arrives we tuck in.

"Mum! Me and Elfman are going to the dojo!" Blaine yells leaving. "Okay! Be safe!" Mother yells back from the kitchen. "I'm deaf." I think in my head sarcastically. "Is this loud thing normal?" I hear Mirajane remark. "Yep." I say plainly and put our bowls in the kitchen. "What are you going to do today Noel?" Lisanna asks. "I think I'll go back to the forest. I found something fun in my magic the other day." I respond in detail. "Can I come?" Lisanna asks once again. "Of course, we can practice together." I say smiling. "I'm sticking with Lisanna so I'm coming too." Mirajane states. "Okay, then lets go" I reply back. "This is going to be fun" I think happily to myself grabbing an umbrella.

I show the sisters the place I practised yesterday that now has a small scorch mark on the floor. "Scorch" I shiver at the thought. "Well, this is where I practised yesterday. It's not impressive so if you want to leave then you can." I suggest awkwardly. Lisanna shakes her head, "I wanna see your magic, please." she says politely. I look up as I make the clouds form above me and the siblings do the same. "Um, you might want to use this." I hand the umbrella to Lisanna who puts it up and uses it to cover them both but struggling so Mirajane takes it. Looking back up, droplets fall from the sky after using a bit of my magic to enhance the clouds. The light rain twinkles in the sun. "Whoa, that's pretty." I hear Lisanna say. "Its only rain..." I think lousily. Mirajane just looks bored. "If your that bored then leave." I huff in my head but I immediately regret the thought. "I don't want to be alone after all." I sigh. I pump some more magic into the clouds which drains me some more as heavy rain pours down on me. "Whoa! Hey! Isn't this a bit much?!" Mirajane exclaims finding it hard to hold the umbrella which makes me giggle. I take this opportunity to practice water magic. I cup my hands and imagine a small ball in my hands. The water seems to gather in a ball above my hands which surprises me a little. I turn around to show Lisanna and she claps. "That's so cool Noel! I didn't know you were a water mage!" she makes her voice higher than the noise the downpour is making. "I'm not a water mage. Why would you think that?" I ask while walking over to them. "Huh? Because your moving water." she looks at me weird as does Mirajane. "I'm a weather mage, I told you before. Didn't I?" I answer with a question. "No, you didn't." Mirajane says back but then smirks. "Bet I could crush you in a fight. Nothing beats my Takeover." She states rudely. "I bet I could beat you sometime." I reply huffing. "Oh really? Some rain won't help you." she just laughs at me. "Actually, once I learn how to control it properly, I think even you would be surprised." I answer back thinking on the events with the lightning yesterday. "It seems to enhance me somehow, I'll talk to Clare tomorrow" I set the plan in my head. "I doubt it. I've beaten stronger." she snarls, I see the pain in her eyes before its replaced with a glare which shocks me. I remember that its still raining and push the clouds away from the town which leaves another beautiful clear sky. "Well, um. Maybe we should do some meditation. Since its a nice day." Lisanna suggests sensing the darkened atmosphere with a tug on her sisters arm. "Sure, whatever, lets do it." Mirajane says. "But on dry land and not some muddy mess." Mirajane suggests in favour of dry. I put my hand on her arm and she whips it back. "What are you doing?!" she says loudly in anger. "Oh. I -I can use my water magic to remove the water, since you wanted to be dry." I respond slightly worried she hates me completely. I can only gather small amounts of water so far but it can be useful. "Well don't." she snarls but drops her shoulders and Lisanna checks on her. I look to the ground in shame. "Why did I go and do that? She's all ready… on edge." I think weighing the reasoning on my actions. All of a sudden Lisanna pops up in front of me. "I'd like to be dry please Noel." she says kindly. I nod and put my hand on her arm and sense the water on her person and drag it to my hand. Then I release the water from my hand to the floor so it drops with a splat. "Thanks!" she says smiling. I nod again. We walk to go find somewhere dryer to meditate.

Eventually we came across a small clearing that was dry enough to sit on the floor. We sat in different places and just meditated for a moment. I close my eyes and relax. I move what's left of my magic in and out of my body. The downpour used quite a bit so my reserves are a little ways off empty. "At least I'm more efficient in the making of rain, and the water magic is useful." I think while meditating. "But I want to learn wind magic more, in tribute to my sister and Zack." My thought made me lose concentration and my magic slipped a bit causing me to feel tired. "Focus. Don't think… about anything." However my thoughts trail to the scar remaining on my stomach and the awful events in the past week. "I'm such a mess." I barely contain a sob and a tear drips down my face but I instantly wipe it away so the others don't notice. I then got a grip and continued to meditate with the thoughts of improvement to encourage myself.

Later on as the sun began to set we decided it was pretty late and Mother would be angry if we don't get back quickly. "Last one to the bakery doesn't get any blanket tonight!" Lisanna shouted behind her as she ran away. Me and Mirajane glanced at each other starting a silent competition between us and we both sprinted off… however my body has always been clumsy and weak so I knew it was a lost cause. We chased Lisanna down the towns main road and eventually reached the bakery. Well, I was left in their dust but when I reached the bakery I had scrapes and bruises and heavy breathing which made an equally out of breath Mirajane who only arrived a few moments ago herself laugh. "Your.. so pathetic… Noel." she continued to laugh. "You- Your no better!" I manage to get out. Lisanna seems to be inside chatting with Mother and dishing up dinner but Mirajane is still outside. "She might have waited?" I think wishfully. "Lets go in. Your knees are bleeding and theres a scrape on your forehead." she snorts her laughter rudely. I hastily cover my forehead with my straight bangs to avoid further embarrassment. She just laughs again. I push past her and open the door to treat my scratches with something. "Noel! What happened?" Mother asks the moment she sees me and scurries off quickly to find something to help. She comes back just as quick with disinfectant and plasters. "This will sting." It did sting and I flinched. Fire. "Why does it still haunt me?" I whimper. Mother looks up worriedly. "Baby." I hear Mirajane mutter from wherever. Mother then plasters up my knees and 'kisses them better'. "Is that it Noel?" she asks checking me for more injuries and at this moment blood trickles from my forehead. Mother lifts my bangs and frowns. "How can one person be so clumsy?" She sighs and sticks a square bandage on and I pout while Mirajane chuckles and Lisanna finishes putting the cutlery on the table. "Sorry." I mumble and Mother just smiles at me kindly. "Lets get ready for dinner, the boys should be back soon." She states and pulls me up off the chair and Mirajane and Lisanna patiently wait at the table for food so I go and join them at the table. As I sit down I hear a bang of the door and Blaine talking excitedly. "Dad! You should have seen Elfman! He's like a one man army! He pounded the training dummies face in so hard it left tears!" Blaine shouted his praise as Elfman blushed and all three walked into the kitchen. "So I hear Elfman is dishing out beatings." Mother says as they walk through. "Good to know there's one reliable man to keep away thieves." she said snootily. Elfman continues to shy away and quickly comes to sit by his sisters at the table. "What's happened Elf?" Mirajane asks. "I was just training." Elfman replies modestly. Blaine gets in Mirajane's face "No way! He was the coolest! He-" Blaine couldn't finish before he was head butted by Mirajane and now lays limply on the floor. Mother and Father both look him over in shock of the silence, say nothing and continue with what they were doing. I sigh. He suddenly pops up with full vigour. "He beat that training bag to a pulp!" Blaine finished but at a safe distance and went to pull out his chair next to Elfman. "Wanna go tomorrow too? Noel is coming as well." Blaine looks at me to help convince his new friend. I nod in response and look at Elfman who looks to his sisters searchingly. "You can go if you want Elf." Lisanna says. "It's not like I'm the one who's weak." Mirajane says afterwards. "Hey!" Lisanna pouts. "Then, I'd like to go with you, please." Elfman says politely. "Of course you can man!" Blaine wraps an arm around his shoulders in a brotherly way and Elfman just takes it with a smile. "Well, with your plans for tomorrow ready, lets eat my special lasagne!" Mother says happily with plates in her hands. She places them in front of us then goes to retrieve more so we can eat together.

The next morning.

I wake up on the floor again, I can feel a bruise forming on my head. "Again?" I mutter to myself and look up to find Mirajane staring down at me. "What is it?" I ask getting up. "Your plaster is peeling off." She says plainly and quickly moves to the door as I check my plaster on my forehead. Mirajane leaves the room. "I must look so stupid." I think embarrassed by the event. I brush my hair to its usual straight appearance from the mess before. I look over to my door to where I put my blue scarf on it. "Why did it have to be me?" I grimace at the thought of it happening to someone else. "No one needs to go through this. It won't happen again, I promise." I think with conviction. I put on a thin green raincoat that Blaine lent me last night and walk out of my room leaving Lisanna to her sleep. I find Mirajane putting on her shoes to leave out the back door of the bakery instead of the front like all of us usually do. I stand behind her listening to her mutter incoherent mumbles to herself. She turns around suddenly. "Ah! Noel! Can you not scare me?!" She screeched. Then clears her throat. "Sorry." I mumble. "Jeez, your a ninja I swear. Look I'm just going out to train by myself for a while so don't look for me, okay?" She turns away back to her shoes. "Um, okay." I respond behind her. Her stature changes and she looks a little disappointed at my response. "But if your out to long then I will go out eventually." I fix and I see her slump her shoulders in a relaxed manner and hear her sigh. "Fine." she fails to seem angry. "So she actually wants me to go find her?" I think about her actions. "See you later, Mirajane." I say turning to go back through the front door. "Right, see ya." I hear her mutter. I walk back through the kitchen grabbing a cereal bar from the lunch box that Mother had prepared for me. I walk with my lunch out the entrance to the shop onto the main town road. It's a little cloudy today but the white clouds aren't enough to block the sun so the neighbours gave me odd glances at me with Blaine's green coat on. I ignore it and continue to head to the dojo that the boys must have already left for. "Blaine left me." I pout at the fact that I have to walk on my own.

As I approach the dojo I see something shocking. Elfman with an odd looking arm and Blaine shouting how cool it was. "I wish I could do that! Unfortunately I have no magic abilities to brag about but you guys are making me so jealous!" I hear him shout from here. "At least I can brag about my younger siblings having magic right?! So I do have bragging rights after all!" He states like he's proud of himself. Poor Elfman just stands there sinking from the stares that Blaine is attracting. " I s-supose." Elfman got out. I walk over to join the chat. "So this is Takeover magic?" I ask. "Yes. I have Beast Soul Takeover. This is my bear Takeover, its good for throwing stuff." Elfman explains. "Really?! Throw me! Throw me!" Blaine chants. "W-what?" Elfman asks bewildered by the request. "Throw me!" Blaine repeats grabbing his arm and putting himself at the paw. "Um but-" Elfman starts. "Come on Elf!" Blaine whines. Without another word Elfman picks up Blaine and throws him in any direction. We watch in silence as Blaine gets smaller and smaller. "Oh no! Blaine! I'm sorry!" Is all I heard from Elfman as he ran in the general direction of my brother. With a sigh I turn around and bang into the chest of some man. "Oh hey little Noel." I hear a familiar voice call to me. I look up. "Hello Toku. Is Clare in?" I greet. "Aha. Unfortunately I had her run a quick errand, you just missed her." Toku explains to me. "But hey! Don't be glum 'cause I can teach you a thing or two 'till she gets back." He says with a thumbs up. I look sceptical but throw caution to the wind. I nod in agreement. "Good. Come on in."

As soon as I got inside Toku threw a punch at me. "What are you doing?!" I exclaim in shock. "Just testing your reflexes. They're pretty good. You done this kind of thing before?" He asks. "I might have." I say cryptically and he just nods in something akin to understanding? "Okay so I want to teach you how to fight, your looking pretty flimsy." he mentions pointing to all of me. "That's a bit rude." I pout. "All right, so listen. You do this training and you can easily roll punches quickly if you can't use magic. It's an obvious thing to do as a mage." he states factually. I nod since it is true. "Follow my moves." Toku gets into a fighting stance and raises his fists ready to fight next to me so I can mimic his movement, I do so. "Space out your legs and bend your knees. You need to be prepared for anything. Manoeuvrability is key." I do so and balance my weight out. Toku throws a punch at the air very swiftly, life a blade. "Light jabs and feints to trick the opponent." He demonstrates a feint. I copy but its rigid. "We'll continue this till Clare is back and don't worry so much, your lightweight so you'll be using smaller jabs so I'll teach you that." He grins and continues to show me moves.

"I've brought it!" I hear Clare shout from my place on the floor. Toku worked my muscles to the bone in this 'training'. "Torture, its torture. Blaine finds this fun? I'm burning." I think. Clare sighs. "Toku. You killed my magic student. Does she look like a brawler to you?" Clare glares as she picks me up and piggy back rides me out of the dojo and to the courtyard leading to her and Toku's shed. Clare plops me on a chair outside the shed. "I'll grab some water." I nod. I look around and still see no sign of Elfman and Blaine. "I hope they're both okay." I think worriedly despite knowing who they are. "Here." I hear Clare say passing me a glass of water. "Thank you." I respond. "Don't sweat it. But I have to ask, why'd you join Toku in his 'training'" Clare asks. "He offered a good argument." I answer. She just nods in agreement. "Well since your physically exhausted, we should probably practice here then." Clare thinks for a moment. "So how was your training?" She finally asked. "I can summon the clouds and make it rain heavily without too much of a second thought but," She interrupted before I could finish. "But..." Clare egged me on to finish as I was going to, I roll my eyes. She glares at me. "But I was struck by lightning and it made me feel weird, like too much energy was stored in me." I finish. "Interesting." Clare thinks with a hand to her chin. "Seems like your able to use electricity to your advantage as well." She states. "Wait. I thought a mage usually only had one magic." I contemplate and she looks at me like I'm super stupid. "Well obviously if you want to learn a magic you can but you'll need the capacity and expertise to use it so a mage would commonly use one to better themselves however for your Weather magic ability the control of key elements come with it. Like wind, lightning and water so if you master them then your Weather magic would increase in potential. Just like I thought from the beginning." She answers with a smug look like she's proud of herself for her long winded explanation. "Since you haven't drunk that yet show me your water manipulation. I hold my hand out and tip the glass upside down however instead of falling to the floor it pools into a floating ball above my hand. "Very good, very good." Clare nods in approval and slices her hand through the ball which keeps in its shape above my hand. "Good grip on it too. That's cool, good for you." She pats my head patronisingly. I float the ball to my face and take a gulp. "So what are we learning today?" I ask taking a few sips of the water ball, watching it decrease slowly in size. "Hmmm, well, to be honest there's actually not a lot to do except improving what your already doing." Clare says honestly. "I mean, you just need to develop a method that suits you. I'm no expert in your magic, all I know is how to set you on the right path." She finishes. "Oh. So you can't help at all?" I ask looking at her in shock at these events. "Yeah. You can use water magic, found out you can use lightning magic and can even use a bit of wind magic. Plus your already quite efficient in making a storm which is quite a feat in just a few days." Clare says acknowledging my accomplishments. "Umm, I don't know I just feel a little useless. I can barely use wind magic and what can a storm even be useful for except being "gloomy"" I say standing and feeling awful. Clare winces at the word "gloomy", which makes sense, she's the one who called it gloomy after all. Clare sighs. "Magic is only as good as you make it, Noel. So cheer up, you have a lot of potential-" I interrupt her speaking. "I don't want to just have potential! I want to use it. To make me stronger. To protect… protect my family!" I emphasise my reason for being here. Clare glares at me scarily. I shiver. "Look, meditation and practice with the sweet cherry of experience on top is the only way a mage can get better. Your efficiency has increased and it will continue to do so if you practice. Now run along and practice, I've helped with the little I can do so come back when you have a decent reason!" Clare shouts the last sentence at me and shoos me off.

I begrudgingly trek into the dojo still feeling the muscle aches from Toku's abuse. "Hey little sister! You already done?" Blaine asks when he sees me walk in. "No. I just need to practice a lot she says." I relay. "Yep. Sounds like Clare, giving bare minimum help but she is right so listen to her, okay Noel?" Toku says joining the conversation. I just give a small nod to acknowledge what he said. I sigh. "What a fun time I have ahead of me." I think with sarcasm. "Cheer up Noel! Lets practice your technique that Toku showed you!" Blaine grabs me and drags me deeper into the dojo while Elfman sheds pitiful looks my way and follows us. "Um, Blaine d-don't you think she's gone through enough today?" Elfman asks timidly. "She's going to be a warrior mage so I know she has a lot in her!" Blaine grins happily still dragging me to the middle to face torturous "training" technique, or so they call it. I think its an excuse to fight all the time.

After me hurriedly dodging punches for two hours with sheer luck and sustaining no damage Lisanna appears through the front doors breathing heavily with her hands on her knees. "Ha- Have you seen..." Lisanna wheezes. "Mira?" She asks. Elfman wraps an arm around me to keep me up from my own heavy breathing. "Oxygen?! Do you exist?! The small five minute breaks were useless!" I think worried for my health. I'm carried over to lisanna as Blaine just walks and wipes sweat from his forehead. "I need a bath ASAP." I think in disgust reminded by my state. "No. Was she headed here? Did she get lost?" Blaine asks. "I don't know. I woke up and no one was in the bedroom. Mama said she didn't know where Mira was but knew where you three where." Lisanna explains with much more ease while I'm still gasping like a fish out of water. Elfman lets me go and I rest my hands on my knees like Lisanna's previous stance. "I think… I know where she… is. I'll get her… in a moment." I say between breaths. Standing back up with a wipe of my chin, trying to redeem my previous manner. "I'll get her so you wait here with the boys. Okay?" I state. "Well, okay." Lisanna approves sadly. I walk slowly out the dojo still trying to calm my heart down. "She must be in the forest from yesterday, it's only logical since she doesn't know the forest too well, like me." I head out the town since the dojo was close to the forest. As I bring my first step into the forest a feeling of dread and fear crawls up my spine, making me shiver. I gulp the lump that formed in my throat after my momentary pause. I took another few steps in the direction of whatever the atmospheres centre was. "I hope Mirajane isn't in trouble." I think worriedly. The thought made something in me flip as I began to run in the direction of the threatning aura. "I will not allow your siblings to suffer loss! What an idiot to come out here alone!" I think angrily at both her and my stupidity. Mine because I knew she was acting weird earlier and hers because she's stupid anyway. As I get closer I hear a large howl… or war cry. It's pretty deep in the forest now so monsters will lurk here. "Everyone knows that." I think again. I get to a clearing and see a slightly battered Mirajane. "Miraj-" I interrupt myself as I notice the large creature she seems to be battling. I take a moment and step back in fear however I quickly correct my feelings with a new emotion of anger. "Mirajane! You cannot be serious! Your battling a monster the size of a house! Lisanna is worried." I shout slowly getting closer to Mirajane so the monster doesn't pounce at me instantly. "She knows that I'll be fine so buzz off brat!" Mirajane snarls as she dodges a swing from the monsters arm. The speed of the swing outmatched her and swiped at her slightly. Leaving a small scratch wound across her stomach. "Look this is your fault. Your mother gave me these clothes!" Mirajane shouted at me. I run to stand by her side and summon forth rain to use to hinder the creature. "Ugh, don't interfere!" Mirajane just glares at me as a small storm brews and soaks us and the monster in water."It's called helping!" I shout baack. The monster attempts a swipe at both of us but its more sluggish from the heavy water its carrying in its fur coat. Mirajane manages to dodge however I'm still exhausted from my physical training not too long ago. I get hit and swiped into a nearby bush of thorns. "Noel!" I hear Mirajane shout and as she does so a heavy aura of doom surrounds the nearby area. I was engulfed in a fear however something told me "Do not be afraid." I was slightly comforted by the feeling. That small reassurance I'm safe made me feel much better, especially since this is a pretty hopeless situation. I lay in the thorny bush as I hear a large thud. Intrigued by the noise I drag myself out. "My head." I numbly think. My head feels quite fuzzy. I pull myself out of the bush and sit on my knees in a muddy puddle in heavy rain. I look up and see the monster on the ground. Crosses in its eyes to symbolise its defeat however I see another figure. A person or monster, the argument is debatable but I recognise who it is. The person saunters towards me and looks upset. She crouches near me. "Aha, you- you got him. Mirajane." I say holding my hand up for her to pull me up. She doesn't take it and I lower my hand. "What's wrong?" I ask. "Are- are you not going to scream and run?" she answers with a question looking sternly down at me with a scowl but its obvious that she's hurt inside. "Well. You did save me, besides, I can't run any more, I'm… exhausted." I say offering my hand out again as a flash of lightning strikes down on the monster and it begins to smoke. My dizziness reaches it's peak but as I fall unconscious I feel a warm hand grab mine and tug on it slightly while I face plant the ground covered in loads of pathetic cuts from a bush. "Thanks, Noel."